Section 4
(3.) Let us keep up an humble sense of our own undeservings and ill-deservings. We shall see a. great deal of reason not to be confident of the continuance of our creature-comforts, when we consider that we are not worthy of the leasts of them, no, not of the crumbs that fall from the table of common providence; and if we were not worthy to have them, much less are we worthy to have them long, and to have them secured to us. Nay, we have forfeited them all a thousand times by our abuse of them; and God might justly take the forfeiture. He who is in debt is continually in fear, lest all he has be suddenly seized on : it is our case; we are in debt to the justice of God, and what can we expect, but to be stript of all ?
We had been so long ago, if God had dealt with q Job i. 21. r Prov. xxili. ft. ■ Col. ii.22. t Qen. xxxii. 10.
HOPE AND FEAR BALANCED.
us according to our sins; so that we have lived all oar days upon forfeited favours, which therefore we can have no assurance of the continuance of.
Though we have the testimony of our consciences for us, that what we have we have got honestly, and not by fraud and oppression; and that we have used it charitably, and in some measure honoured God with it, which is the likeliest way both to secure it and to increase it; yet even then we must not be secure, for God has seen that amiss in us, which we have not seen in ourselves ; and there is none who can say, / have mada my heart clean lam pure from «tn. We have all contracted guilt enough, to justify God in depriving us of all our comforts in this world; and, therefore, have no reason to be confident of the continuance of them, but a great deal of reason, whatever we lose, to say, The Lord is righteous,
(4.) Let us keep up a lively expectation of troubles and changes in this changeable, troublesome world. It is what we are bid to count upon, and can look for no other in a wilderness. Time and chance happen to all; why then should they not happen to us ? The race is not sure to the swift, nor the battle to the strongy no, nor so much as bread to the wiscj much less riches to men of understanding, or favour to men of shilL Why then should we think them sure to us ? Can you and I imagine that the world should be more kind and more constant to us, than it has been to those who went before us ? You have read the story of Job, whom the rising sun saw the richest of all the men of the East, but the setting sun left poor, to a proverb. You have in your own time seen those who were once worth thousands, so reduced that they and theirs have wanted necessary food : and what exemption can we pretend to from the common calamities of human life ? We are not better than our fathers, nor better than our predecessors. Shall we think our prosperity more firm than that of others has been ? We might as well think that the earth should be forsaken for us, and the rock removed out of its place.
Nay, troubles and changes are good for us, they are necessary for us; the temper, or rather the distemper, of our minds make them so, lest we grow proud and secure, and in love with this world. We read of those who have no changes, and therefore they fear not God ; who are not in trouble as other men,^ and therefore pride compasses them about as a chain.^ Moab has been at ease from his youth,*" and has not by changes and troubles been emptied from vessel to vessel; and therefore he is settled on his lees, is grown secure and sensual, he is nnhum-bled and unreformed, his taste remains in him and his scent is not changed. We have therefore reason to expect that God will in love to us exercise us with crosses and afflictions, that he may remind us a Eccl. ix. II. Ps. Ixxiii. 5,6.
» Ps. Iv. 19. K Jer. xlviii. ii.
what we are, and what we have done amiss, may wean us from this world, and draw out our thoughts and affections toward that world, the comforts of which know no changes.
(5.) Let us keep up serious thoughts of death approaching, and of our speedy removal to another world. Though the comforts we enjoy should not be taken from us, though we were ever so sore they should not, yet we know not how soon we may be taken from them, and then, how long soever they may last, they are ours no longer. Do we not perceive how frail our nature is ? Are we not in deaths often, in deaths always, in death even in the midst of life ? Do we not see ourselves, wherever we are, standing upon the brink of eternity, and our souls continaally in our hands ? And what good have we then to look for in this world, who are hastening apace ont of it, and can carry nothing away with us ? What is our strength that we should hopef If we wait for a larger and finer house than what we now live in upon earth, before it falls to us perhaps the grave may be our house, and we may make our bed in the darkness. And when our days are past, with them our purposes are broken off, even the thoughts of oar heart; we and our hope go down together to the bars of the pit, when our rest is in the dust.*
Death will put a period to all our hopes in this world, and to all our enjoyments: how loose therefore should we sit to them, when life itself hans so loose! He who said, Soui, take thine ease, thou hast goods laid up for many years, eat, drinh, and he fmerry, was by this proved a fool, that that very night his soul was by death required of him ;* and then uhose shall all these things be which he has provided and promised himself so much from ? None of his we may be sure. Let us therefore be so wise as to (insider our latter end, and be daily mindful of it, and then we shall not be such fools as to rely upon any thing in this world for a portion and happiness : we see we have here no continuing city, let us therefore seek and look for one that is to come.**
Let me now press this caution upon those whose hopes are most apt to rise high from this world, that in order to the keeping of the balance even, they may maintain a holy fear, and not grow secnre :
[1.] You who are young, and setting out in the world, must be reminded not to expect great things in it. You hope you shall do as well as the best; but it may prove otherwise, that you may fare in it as ill as the worst. You are apt to look at the things of the world through that end of the perspective glass that magnifies them, and to count upon having every thing to your mind, as if there were nothing bnt prizes in the world's lottery ; and so lay a foundation for the greater grief in the disappointment, when whatever prizes others may have, you, perhaps, may have
J Job vi. II. a Luke xii. 19, ao.
sJobxvii. II, 13»16.
b Heb. xiii.
HOPE AND FEAR BALANCED.
619 nothing bat blanks to your share: and then it will be fotty " to curse yoar stars," (as some profanely speak,) hviX justice to reproach yourselves for baild-ing so high on a sandy foundation, and promising yoursehes satisfaction of spirit, in that which yon were many a time told had nothing in it bat vanity and vexation of spirit Think not too well of yourselves, for then you are apt to prognosticate nothing but good to yourselves; bat lay yourselves low, and then you will lay your expectations low.
[2.] You who are rich, and have abundance of Ibe world, do not make that abundance your strong eity, and a high wallf for it is not so really, but only in your own conceit, and you may soon find it as a bowing waliy and a tottering fence; a broken reed, which will not only fail under you, bat will ran into your hand and pierce it. Keep up such a fear of God and his providence, as may forbid you ever to say unto the gold. Thou art my Itope ^ and to the fine gold. Thou art my confidence; for if the Lord do not help you much more if he turn to be your enemy, and ligbt against you, whence can the world help you, out of the ham-fioory or out of the winepress,'^ oat of the farms, or out of the merchandise ?
[3.] You who are cheerful and gay, and cast away care, who walk in the way of your heart, and in the sight of your eyes, and withhold' not yourselves from any joy, let the fear of God be a check to your mirth, and restrain it from growing into an excess. You may perhaps take care that in laughter your hearts shall not be sad/ but the end of this mirth may be heaviness before you are aware. When you rejoice in hope of the glory of God, that hope will not make you ashamed; but when you rejoice in hope of the wealth, and pomp, and pleasures of this world, you have turar reason to be ashamed that you place your happiness in such things, and will at kngth be ashamed that you looked for so much from them. You are but girding on the harness, and therefore boast not, as though you had put it ojf ^ not high-minded, but fear; and look for that, every day, which may come any day.
2. When the world frowns upon us, and we are crossed, and disappointed, and perplexed in our affairs, then we must keep up a good hope, and not be inordinately cast down, no, not in our melancholy prospects, about our health, our safety, our name, oar relations, and our effects in the world. We most not at any time burthen ourselves with distracting care, vrhat we shall eat, and what wc shall drink, and wherewithal we shall be clothed ;** but cajt this care upon God, and depend upon him to care for us.* We must not in the worst of times torment ourselves with amazing fear, as if every thing that threatens us must needs ruin us, and every fresh ge would be a storm presently; and as eProT. Tviil. II. f Prov. adv. 13.
4 Job xzxi. S4. f 1 Kings XX. II. do 2
• 2 Kings vi. 27. h Matt. vi. 26.
if every mole-hill of difficulty in our way were an insuperable mountain. How black soever things look, and how low soever we are brought, we must not allow ourselves in fearing more than there is cause, nor more than is meet; we must not frighten ourselves with the creatures of our own imagination, nor suffer our fears to disquiet our minds, and deprive us of the government and enjoyment of ourselves, to damp our joy in God, to disturb our communion with him, and discourage our dependence on him.
But when fear weighs down the balance on that side, let us endeavour to keep it even, to keep it from sinking into despair, by maintaining a holy confidence in God, even as to our outward affairs: and when we are warned to get ready for the worsts we must still hope the best; hope that things are not so bad as they seem to be, that they will not be so bad as they are feared to be; and that in due time they will be better than they are. And let this hope keep our head above water, when we are ready to sink into despair; let it enable us to check ourselves for being cast down and disquieted ;^ for as bad as things are, if we hope in God, we shall yet praise him,
(1.) Hope in God's power: be fully assured of this, that how imminent soever the danger is, he can prevent it; how great soever the straits are, he can extricate us out of them, can find out a way for us in an untracked wilderness, and open springs of water to us in a dry and barren land: for with him nothing is impossible, nor is his arm ever shortened, nor his wisdom nonplused. Let us honour God, by a firm belief of his omnipotence; Lord, if thou wilt thou canst mahe me whole, thou canst mahe me clean, thou canst raise me up from a low estate, and raise up friends for me when I am most forlorn; by trusting in him as a God all-sufficient when creatures fail, and whom we may rejoice in as the God of our salvation, though the fig-tree do not blossom, and there be no fruit in the vine. The murmuring Israelites did not in any thing affront God so much as in saying. Can God furnish a table in the wilderness?^ Can he give bread also f As if any thing was too hard for the Lord.
(2.) Hope in his providence; and believe not only that he can do any thing, but that he does do every thing; and whatever the event is, God does therein pel form the thing that is appointed for vs,"* and takes cognizance of us and our affairs, how mean and despicable soever we are. The great God has all hearts in his hand, their hearts particularly that you have dealings with and dependence on. The ships on board of which your effects are, though they are afar off upon the sea, are under God's eye; and he is the confidence of all the ends of the earth,^ the remotest plantations where your concerns lie. And
11 Pet. V. 7. k Ps. xliL 5.
m Job XXV. 14.
1 Ps. Ixxviii. 19. n Ps. Ixv. 5
HOPE AND FEAR BALANCED.
shall not that God who governs the world, be intrusted with the disposal of your concerns ?
Hope in the usual method of Providence, which sets prosperity and adversity one over againtt the other; and when the ebb is at the lowest makes the tide to turn, and the day to dawn when the night is at the darkest. It is the glory of Providence to help the helpless, to raise the poor out of the dust, and bring back even from the gates of death ; to breathe upon dry bones, and say unto them. Live. Let this encourage us to hope, that when things are at the worst they will mend; and therefore, as in the heights of prosperity we must rejoice as though we rejoiced not, so in the depths of adversity we must weep as though we wept not; non si male, nunc et olim, sic erit — not as though, because circumstances have been and are adverse, they are ever to remain so. God generally comforts his people, according to the time that be has afflicted them.®
(3.) Hope in his pity and tender compassions; which in the day of your grief and fear, you are to look upon yourselves as the proper objects of. The text directs us particularly to hope in his mercy; we must depend upon the goodness of his nature for that which we have not an express promise for. Let this silence our fear, that the God in whose hand our times are, is gracious and merciful, does not afflict willingly, nor grieve the children of men, much less his own children, but when there is cause, and when there is need, and therefore will not always chide, will not contend for ever; but though he cause grief, be will have coropassion.P We may with a good assurance/a// into the hands of the Lord, (and whose hands soever we fall into, they are his hands,) for we know that his mercies are great, and those who hope in them shall find them so.
(4.) Hope in his promise; that word of his upon which he hath caused us to hope, and which we have all the reason in the world to build npon,<i for not one iota or tittle of it shall fall to the ground. Though he has not promised to deliver us from that particular evil we have a dread of, or to give us that particular comfort and success we are desirous of, yet he has promised that nothing shall harm them who are followers of him: nay, that all things shall work together for good to them;' and (which is enough to silence all our fears) that though our calamities may separate us from the dearest comfort and comforters we have in this world, yet they shall never be able to separate us from the love of God, which is in Christ Jesus our Lord,' from divine comforts, and the divine Comforter.
And now, who is there here that stands in need of this caution against despondency of spirit under discouraging events, and to whom it is seasonable to recommend a believing hope for the balancing and
• P8.XC. 1& p Lam. iii. 31, 32. s Ps. cxix. 49.
r 1 Pet iii. 13. • Rom. viii. 39.
silencing of their distnistful fears ? Let them apply this to themselves, and make use of the hope recommended to them as an anchor of the soul,^ to keep them steady in a storm.
[1.] You who are beginning the world with fear and trembling, who are humble, and honest, and diligent, but have little to begpn with, have many difficulties to break through, and arc very diffident of your own understanding; be not discouraged, but hope in God's mercy. Your friends are few, unable to help you, or unkind and regardless of you ; father and mother have perhaps forsaken you." Know then that you are the particular care of Providence, which gathers the outcasts, and provides even for young ravens, when they are deserted. Trust in the Lord, therefore, and do good, so shalt thou dwell in the land; and though thou be not feasted, yet verily thou shalt be fed." Though the beginning be small, the latter end may by the blessing of God greatly increase,* and a little one may become a thousand.
[2.] You who have concerns that lie at hazard, in danger at sea, or of being a prey to the enemy; who have debts in bad hands, or dear relations that you have dependence upon, or delight in, in peril; give not way to amazing fear, that fear which has torment, but hope in God's mercy. Give not up any thing for gone, till it is gone : and when it is gone, yet give not up all for gone, as long as you have the good providence of God to trust to. Say not, as David in his haste, I am cast out of thy sight, or, / shall one day perish by the hand of Saul; but wait on the Lord, and be of good courage, resolved to welcome his holy will, whatever it be. We are sometimes told that the merchants are in pain for such a ship, such a fleet; you think at such a time, it is only the news of their safe arrival that will pat you out of your pain. And what if that news never come ? then you condemn yourselves to a lasting uneasiness. But let me recommend that to you, which will make you easy, whatever the event be ; commit your way to God, by a believing prayer, and submit your will to God by a penitent resignation; and then let your thoughts be established.
[3.] You who, by the providence of God, are from fulness reduced to straits, have met with losses which you think can never be repaired, and conclude yoa shall never see a good day again, but are undone to all intents and purposes ; do not give way to these desponding thoughts, but hope in the mercy of God, that mercy which brings low, and raises up. As Job's troubles arc a warning to those in prosperity not to be secure, so his return to his former splendour, is a warning to those in adversity not to despair. You know not what better times you may yet be reserved for, as Job was, whose latter end God blessed more than his beginnings* t Heb. v\. 19. It Pa. zxvii. fo. ▼ Ps. xxsii. a
« Job Tiii. 7. X Job xlti. IS.
HOPE AND FEAR BALANCED.
821
III. I come now briefly to show how the balance must be kept even between hope and fear as to public co Dcems, both those of the church abroad, and of our own nation. Are not the concerns of the charch abroad our concerns ? They ought to be so. I hope we all lay them near our hearts, as members of the great body, and hearty well-wishers to its interests, and to the honour and kingdom of its great Head. Are we not in care that the Christian religion may get ground among men, and not lose the ground it has; that it may prevail and rule in its power and parity ; that the bounds of the church may be enlarged by the accession both of Jews and Gentiles to it; that the breaches of It may be healed, by the pouring out of a spirit of love and charity upon all who belong to it; that the ordinances of Christ, administered according to the institution of (hem, may ever be its glory, and upon that glory there may ever be a defence; a cloud created by day, and the shining of a flaming fire by night, both upon every dwelling place of Mount Zion, and upon her assemblies P
The land of our nativity ought in a particular manner to be dear to us, for in the peace or trouble of that, we have peace' or trouble. Is it not our concern, that our liberty and property be secured ; that the government flourish ; that the public peace and tranquillity be continued; that justice be duly administered ; that the power and influence of the nation abroad be advanced; that the trade be protected and increased; but, above all, that the pro-testant religion be transmitted pure to those who shall come after us; that the bulwarks erected against popery may be strengthened ; that atheism, infidelity, and all iniquity, may be made to stop their mouth; that the form of godliness may ever be the beauty of the nation, and the power of it may ever mle in men's hearts and lives ? Is it not our concern, that our eyes should still see our teachers, and that they should not again be removed into comers, nor our religions assemblies broken up and scattered ? If it be, we cannot but look forward with concern, and while we enjoy peace and liberty at present, be in care about the continuance of them; and in our prospects there cannot but be a mixture of hope and fear, and we must endeavour so to fear the worst, as not to grow secure, and so to hope the best, as not to despond, or be dispirited.
The truth is, we are very apt at some times, when second clauses smile a little, to be very sanguine, above what there is reason for, and to conclude, that we shall without fail be in Canaan presently; at other times, when things go not just to our mind, we are apt to be very chagrined, more than there is cause, and to conclude that we shall without remedy be hurried back into Egypt again. This hour we soar, and if the wind turn, next hour we sink; as if
J laa. iv. A.
■ Jer. xxix. 7.
when the sun shines we should think it would never rain, and when it rains we shouldthinkthe sun would never shine out again. And have we not lived long enough in this world to be ashamed both of those hopes and those fears ? having often seen ourselves disappointed both in the one and the other; and in the issue things have proved neither so well as we hoped, nor so ill as we feared; so that we have surely at leng learned by experience, that it is our wisdom and interest, as well as our duty, to keep the balance even between hope and fear.
1. We have always reason to keep up a holy fear as to public affairs, and to be apprehensive of trouble before us, even when things look most promising. We have no reason, even when we dwell peaceably, as the men of Israel in Solomon's time, to dwell carelessly, as the men of Laish.* It is true, and we have a great deal of reason to be thankful for it, that we are a happy people; we have long been blessed with peace and plenty at home, and with victory and success abroad; we live under a very good government, which seeks the welfare of our people, speaking peace to all their seed; we have long sitten every one under his own vine, and under his own fig-tree; we have long enjoyed the free exercise of our religion, and great plenty of the means of grace, and there has been none to make us afraid. Our fleece has been wet with the dews of heaven, when that of other nations has been dry: while theirs also has been wet with showers of blood, ours has been dry.
Shall England then say, / sit as a queen ^ and shall see no sorrow? By no means. Happy is the man that still fcareth, as David, whose flesh trembled for fear of God ;'* and notwithstanding the many mercies he had received from him, was afraid of his judgments. And we have reason to be so ; for,
(1.) We are a provoking people. Atheism and profanencss abound among us, notwithstanding the testimonies borne against them, and the endeavours used to suppress them. Vice is become fashionable and epidemical; all flesh have corrupted their way; the whole head sich, the whole heart faint. How is God's name dishonoured, his day profaned, his good creatures abused to luxury and excess; and how does the unclean spirit range through the land! Liberty to sin has been pleaded for as Christian liberty, and the societies for reformation branded as illegal inquisitionif and their pious endeavours opposed, insulted, and ridiculed. And shall not God visit for these things ? Shall not his soul be avenged on such a nation as this ?^ How can a people who hate to be reformed, hope to be saved ?
The great decay of serious godliness among those who run not with others to an excess of riot, is likewise a very threatening symptom. If those
• Judges xTiii. 7. i Ps. cxix. 120.
e Jer. ix. 9.
HOPE AND FEAR BALANCED.
grow more insolent who are filling the measure of the nation's guilt by their wickedness, and at the same time those grow more cold and remiss, who should empty it by their prayers and tears, things look very ill indeed. How wofully do the professors of this age degenerate from the zeal and strictness of their predecessors! And such is the corruption of the rising generation in many families, that there is reason to fear a further degeneracy. And,if thus we grow worse and worse, what will become of us at last? If thus, as Ezra speaks, the holy seed mingle themselves with, and conform themselves to, the people of these abominations, what may we expect, but that God should be angry with us till he hath consumed us?' For our religion sensibly consumes, and a consumption may be as fatal as a stab. Those may be of any religion, who are of no religion.
(2.) We are a divided people, and our divisions give just cause to fear the worst; for what can be expected, but that a kingdom divided against itself should be brought to desolation ? It is our enemies' policy to divide us, and our sin and folly to serve their design by our misunderstandings one of another, and disafi*ection one to another, when we might countermine and defeat it by our mutual love and charity. For the divisions of our Reuben, there cannot but be great thoughts and searchings of heart among all who are concerned for the public welfare. We are in danger of being burnt up by the heats in our own bosoms, and broken to pieces by the blows we give one another; and who can we think will be our deliverers, if we be thus oar own destroyers ?
It is not so much the difference of sentiment that is threatening, nor the difference of practice according to that sentiment; I never expect to see all wise men of a mind, and good men will not act against their judgment; but that which does us the mischief, is the mismanagement of our differences, our uncharitable censures one of another, and reflections one upon another, our heats and animosities, and party-making, to the destruction, not only of Christian charity, but of common friendship and good neighbourhood. The breach seems wide as the sea, which cannot be healed; and what will be in the end hereof? If we thus bite and devour one another, what can be expected, but that we should be consumed one of another ?* While our enemies triumph in our divisions, it becomes us to tremble because of them.
(3.) God has told us, that in the world we shall have tribulation; all the disciples of Christ must count upon it, and not flatter themselves with hopes of an uninterrupted tranquillity any where on this side heaven. The church is here militant, its state i Ezra ix. 2,14.
ff AcU vii. 38.
e Gal. V. 15. f Judges iii. 30.
h Exod. XV. 37.
in this world is a warfare: if it retire sometimes into quarters of refreshment, yet it must expect to be drawn out into the field again next campaign: if it have its intervals of peace, those are intended as breatliing times, that it may recruit and gather strength for an encounter with another trouble. Once we read that the land of Israel had rest fourscore years;' but we never read afterwards that it had so long a respite. We are in a wilderness, and we must expect to fare no better than the church in the wilderness did,' which though sometimes it pitched where there were twelve wells of water,*' yet presently was where there was no water* to drink; and when it removed from the wilderness of Sin, the cloud that was their guide led them to the wilderness of Paran ;^ but still they were in a desert land, where God, though he led them about, yet instructed them. Let the people of God never expect, till they come to heaven, to be out of the reach of evil, and therefore never expect to be perfectly quiet from the fear of it.
Far be it from me to suggest any thing that may create disquieting jealousies; all that I aim at in mentioning these grounds of fear, is, that hereby we may all be awakened to our duty.
[1.] Let us, in consideration hereof, stir up ourselves to pray, and to wrestle with God in prayer, for the turning away of the judgments, which our own sins, and the malice of those who are the ene-mies of our public peace, threaten us with. Jacob feared Esau his brother, and then prayed, Deiiver me, / pray thee, from him.' Jehoshaphat feared, and then set himself to seek the Lord, and proclaim a fast™ Whatever are the grounds of our fear, we know God can remove them; he can turn away ungodliness from Jacob," and then he comes as a Redeemer to Zion.
Let not our prayers for the church of God, and for our own nation, degenerate into a formality; nor let us grow customary in them, as if it were only for fashion' sake, that we prayed for the queen and the government, the preservation of the protestant succession, and the prosperity of the nation and its allies, and (as some vainly drink healths to these) only for a compliment. I fear lest some who join with us in prayer, however in other parts of the service they think themselves somewhat concerned, when we come to that, grow remiss and indifferent, as if that were nothing to them; whereas our Lord Jesus has taught us, before we pray for our daily bread and the pardon of our sins, to pray for the prosperity of his church, that his name may be sanctified, his kingdom may come, and his will be done. Let us therefore not only join heartily with our ministers in prayer for the church of God, and for the nation, but let each of us in our families and i Exod. XTll. 3.
w s Chron.
k Numb. X. IS. 3.
I Qen. xxxii ■ Rom. xl. S6.
II.
HOPE AND FEAlR BALANCED.
823 closets be intercessors with God for pablic mercies; let as j$tand in the gap to tarn away bis wratb, and give bim no rest till he establish, till he maice Jerusalem a praise in the earth.»
[2.] Let us, in consideration hereof, do what we can to prevent the judgments that threaten ns, by a personal reformation of heart and life, and by contributing what we can in our places to the reformation of others. When God speaks concerning a aation, to pluck up, and to pull down, and to destroy ,p its taming from sin is the only way to save it from ruin, and that is a sore way. It is the island of the innocent that is delivered by the purenesi of their handsJ Let this charity to the public begin at home. Let every Israelite, as once every Ninevite, turn from his evil way; and then who can tell but God will yet return and repent/ and leave a blessing behind him ? But let not this charity end there; let us appear on the Lord's side; let us act in defence of injured virtue and despised godlincss, and do our utmost in bamility and sincerity to put vice and profaneness ont of countenance. And if we thus return to God in a way of duty, no doubt he will return to us in a way of mercy, and be better to us than our fears.
[3.] Being warned of a deluge coming, let us pro-Tide accordingly: let not the warning make us despond and despair. Noah did not; he knew the deluge should not be a final destruction of mankind, bat that there would be another world after that which was to be drowned ; he knew also that it should go well with him, and his family. With this hope he encouraged himself; but being warned of God concerning it, he was moved with fear, and made provision for it; he walked with God, and thcj who do so are sure to be hid in the day of the Lord's anger,* to be hid either in heaven or under heaven. He prepared an ark, and then was himself saved in it. Christ is our ark, God has prepared in him a refuge for all those who flee to him, and take shelter in him when a deluge comes. Preserve the evidences of yoar interest in Christ clear and unclouded, and your hopes of eternal life firm and unshaken ; lay up a treasure of comforts and experiences ; make the name of the Lord your strong tower; his attributes, his promises, your sanctuary, into which you may run and be safe, in which you may rest and be easy, and, then, welcome the will of God, nothing can come amiss.
2. Whatever cause we may see to fear, yet still we most keep up a good hope, as to public affairs. We bear of the threatening powers and policies of onr enemies, the heads and horns of the dragon,* that makes war with the Lamb. We see the church in many places afflicted, tossed with tempests, and not comforted ; her adversaries many and mighty,
lat Ixii. e, 7. F Jcr xTili. 7,8. q Job xxii. 30. r Jonah iii. 10. • Zeph. ii. 3. t Rer. xll. 3. « Zecb. xlv. 7.
her helpers few and feeble ; yet let not our faith and hope fail; it is day, though it be cloudy and dark, and at evening time it shall be light." Let Israel hope in God, and wait for him, as those who wait for the morning; and when the night is long and gloomy, do as Paul's mariners did, cast anchor, and wish for the day.* Let us learn to make the best of that which is, and hope the best concerning that which shall be.
Let our hopes always be such a check upon our fears, that they may not prevail to disturb our communion with God, to stop the mouth of prayer, and weaken the hands of honest endeavour. Hearken not to the foolish surmises of danger, nor be put into a fright by evil tidings: Say notf A confederacy, to whom this people shall May 9 A confederacy; neither fear ye their fear nor be afraid, but mahe God your fear and your dread.' The more we are governed by the fear of God, the less we shall be disturbed by the fear of man. Nehemiah encouraged the builders of the wall with this, when they were surrounded with enemies, who designed to come in the midst among them, and slay them, and cause the work to cease. Be not afraid of them, remember the Lord which is yreat and terriblef"" greater and more terrible to them than they can be to us, and who will show himself above them in that thing wherein they deal proudly. When you fear continually every day, as if the oppressor in his fury ' were ready to destroy, you forget the Lord your Maker, and his dominion over all, and the dependence of every creature upon him; which, if you had a due regard to, you would look with contempt upon Sennacherib himself, and would say, Where is the fury of the oppressor ?
Let me prevail with you at this day to encourage yourselves in the Lord your God as to public affairs. While we fear our own sins, let us hope in God's mercy ; for though our iniquities prevail against us, and threaten to stop the current of God's favours, yet as for our transgressions he shall purge them away,* and that great obstacle being removed, his favours shall have a free course again. Though the designs of our enemies be laid ever so deep, and their hopes ever so high, yet God can make even their wrath to praise him, and restrain the remainder of it ;• and therefore take heed and be quiet, fear not, neither be faint-hearted,^ but hope that things will end well at last.
There are three things which may encourage our hope, and keep the balance even against all our fears, as to the concerns both of the protestant churches abroad, and our own nation.
(1.) The word which God has spoken to us; which (whatever other props our hopes may be supported with) is the great foundation on which they must be built, and then they are fixed. If our hopes be
T Acts xxvU. 80. w Isa. viil. 11. IS. * Neb. iv. II. 14. r Isa. li. 13. < Ps. Ixv. 3. • Pb. Ixxvi. 10. b Im. vii. 4.
HOPE AND FEAR BALANCED.
groanded on the promise, and our expectations guided by it, they are as the house built on the rock; and the heart that is supported by them is established and cannot be moved.« Sifractut illabatur arbis, impavidum ferient ruince — Though the earth be re-moved, yet will we notfearA But if our hopes be founded on the ability and agency of creatures, they rise or fall as second causes smile or frown; as the ship upon the water, which is higher or lower, as the tide ebbs or flows. The stocks are as the news is, and then every turn of the wheel otherwise than we would have it, shakes our hopes, and robs us of the comfort of them. Be persuaded therefore to hope for what God had promised, according to the true intent and full extent of the promise, and because he has promised it, and that hope shall be an anchor of the soul sure and stedfast.
Is not this the word which God has spoken, and on which he hath caused us to hope? That the kingdoms of the world shall become his kingdoms: That Christ shall have the heathen given him for his inheritance, and the ends of the earth shall see his salvation. Has he not said that the man of sin shall be consumed, the mystery of iniquity unravelled, and that the New-Testament Babylon shall sink like a millstone into the mighty waters ? Has he not said, that the day will come when swords shall be beaten into ploughshares, and spears intopruning-hooks, when the wolf and the lamb shall lie down together, and there shall be none to hurt or destroy in all the holy mountain ? Has he not said, that for the oppression of the poor, and the sighing of the needy, he will arise, and set them in safety from those that puff at them? That the rod of the wicked shall not always rest on the lot of the righteous, but the year of the redeemed will come, and the year of recompencesfor the controversy of Zion ? Has he not said, that a seed shall serve Christ, which shall be accounted to him for a generation : that/A« name of Christ shall endure for ever; and that the church is built upon a rock, and tke gates of hell shall never prevail against it ?
This, and a geat deal more to this purpose, he has said ; and he is not a man that he should lie, nor the son of man that he should repent Has he made the promise, and shall he not make it good? In this therefore let us trust, in this let us triumph,—God has spoken in his holiness; he has given me his word for it, and then I will rejoice; I will divide Sechem, Gilead is mine, Manasseh mine:« it is all my own as far as the promise goes, which we must not so much as stagger at.
(2.) The work which God has begun among us. We have reason to hope in God's mercy; for the interest that lies so much upon our hearts, even the interest of religion among us, is the interest of God's own kingdom, which he has set up among us, and c Ps. cxii. 7, 8. f P8. cii. 35.
d Ps. xlvi. S.
e Pb. Ix. 6, 7. V Ezra x. 2.
will therefore keep up: it is the work of his own hands,^ which he will never forsake.
Things are not so bad, but, blessed be God, there are some hopeful, favourable symptoms in our case; and none more so, than the national testimonies that are borne against atheism and infidelity, and the threatening growth of deism, Socinianism, and scepticism among us; the complaints that are justly made of the profanation of the Lord's day, and the contempt cast upon the Scripture and divine institutions ; of the wretched corruption of manners, and the influence which the profaneness of the stage has upon it When these things are represented as the real grievances of the nation, and lamented accordingly, surely now there is hope in Israel, concerning this thing,8 and we may rejoice in that hope.
I trust God has among us a remnant of praying people, a remnant that hold fast their integrity; and with an eye to them God will continue to save us, and will perfect what he has wrought. We may safely argue, as Haman's wife does, for the perfecting of the ruin of our enemies; If Mordecai be of the seed of the Jews, if the cause be God's, as certainly it is, before whom, before which, thou hast begun to fall, thou shalt not, thou canst not, prevail, though thou struggle ever so hard, but shalt surely, shalt irrecoverably, fall before him^* and it And we may also argue, as Manoah's wife does, for the preventing of our own ruin ; //* the Lord had been pleased to kill us, ke would not as at tkis time have showed us such things as these.* As for God, his work is perfect; if he bring to the birth, he will cause to bring forth.^
(3.) The wonders which he has wrought for us. When we are encouraging ourselves with hopes that God will ordain peace for us, because be has wrought our work in us ;i yet this is discouraging, that there are such difficulties in the way, which we think can never be got over. But let us then consider the former times, remember the works of the Lord, and his wonders of old ;"* not only those which our fathers have told us of, but which we have seen in our own days, whereby God's work has been begun, carried on in a surprising way, and by events which we looked not for.
When God had begun to deliver Israel out of Egypt, and conduct them to Canaan by miracles, he expected that in their straits they should depend upon him still to work miracles for their relief, and was displeased at their unbelief if they did not. God has begun to save us, though not by miracles, yet by marvels; and thereby has encouraged us to depend upon him that he will still do wonders for us, rather than the work he has done should be undone again. If a mean and worthless people may be saved by a divine prerogative, why may not a weak and helpless people be saved by a divine omnipotence ?
b Esth. vi. 13. 1 Judges xiU. 33. k Lsa. lx?i. sT"
1 lsa. xxTi. 12. n Ps. Izzvii. 11.
HOPE AND FEAR BALANCED.
825
Be of good coarage therefore, and hope in God, that we shall yet praise him; stay yourselves npon him, strengthen yonrse Wes in him, look upwards with cheerfalness, and then look forward with satisfaction. Let yoor hopes qaicken yoar prayers, let them keep yoa in the way of daty, and enlarge yoar hearts to run in that way; let them quicken your endeavoars in yoor places, to senre the interests of God's kingdom among us to the utmost of your power; and then let them silence your fears, and make you always easy to yourselves and those about you. Comfort yourselves and one another with this, that the same almighty hand that has laid the foundations of his church among us, will build upon those foundations, will in his own way and time, in his own method, and according to the plan of bin own eternal counsels, carry on the building, till at length the top-stone be brought forth with shouting, and we shall cry, Gracef grace to it,^ n Zech. iv. 7.
A SERMON
CONCERNING
THE CATECHISING OF YOUTH
PREACHED TO MR. HARRIS'S CATECHUMENS, APRIL 7, 1713.
2 Timothy i. 13.
Holdfast the form of sound wordt which thou hast heard of me, in faith and love which is in Christ Jesus,
Blessed Paul in this, as in the former epistle, giving wholesome advice and instruction to Timothy; for the enforcing of it, among other things, pats him in mind of his education, and the advantages of it; the good principles which by it had been instilled into him, and the good practices he had been trained up in: and upon trial, now he came to years of understanding, he could not but see that they were good. Let him therefore adhere to them, and abide by them, and now build upon the foundation then laid.
He particularly mentions the two great advantages which be was blessed with, in his childhood and youth ; that he was bred up, both under the tuition of godly parents, and under the direction and instruction of an able faithful ministry: and both these are requisite to complete the blessings of a religious education.
I. He had been well taught by his godly parents, his grandmother Lois, and his mother Eunice,* whose unfeigned faith the apostle would have him frequently to think of, and thereby be minded to stir up the gift of God that was in him.** His father was a Greek, one who had little religion in him, but left it to his mother to bring him up as she thought fit; and she and his grandmother were not wanting to season the vessel betimes with a good savour; so that from a child he knew the Holy Scriptures, and was made wise to salvation by them.' It is a great opportunity, which mothers have, and which prudent, pious mothers will improve, to fill the minds of their children, when they are young, with good b Acts xvi. I.
knowledge, and to form them to a good disposition. If the tree must be bent, it must be done when it is young and tender, and with a very gentle, easy hand, for the spirit is not to be broken but bowed.
2. He had been well taught by St Paul too. His mother and grandmother had taught him the Scriptures, and made him ready in them, as a child of God; then Paul expounded the Scriptures more fully to him, and by the grace of God made him mighty in them, so that he became a man of God, thoroughly furnished to all good works. The text speaks of the form of sound words, which he had heard of Paul, either in private lectures read to bim as his pupil, or in his public teaching and catechising, on which Timothy was constantly and diligently attending.
Now those two methods of instruction, both by parents in their families, and by ministers in more public assemblies, are necessary, and do mutually assist each other, and neither will excuse the want of the other. Let not parents think to leave it wholly to ministers; as if because their children are well taught in public, they need not take any pains with them at home; no, there the foundation must be laid, and there the improvement by public catechising must be examined, and there a more particular application must be made according to the children's capacities and dispositions, than it is possible for ministers to make in public. The people of Israel had the Levites dispersed among them, whose office it was to teach them the good knowledge of the Lord; and yet it is required of parents that they not only receive God's words into their own hearts, but that they teach them diligently to their children, and talk of them in their families, and tell those under their charge the meaning of the testimonies and judgments which he had commanded thera.*^ If father, or
a Deut vL 6.7. 90.
A SERMON, &c.
827 mother, or both, do not teach their children first, and teach them last too, they will not be fit for, nor mnch the better by, public catechising.
And on the other hand, let not ministers think to leave it wholly to parents, as if because the children were well taught at home, they needed not to contribute any help of theirs to their instruction. The great Shepherd of the sheep has charged them to feed his lambs* with food proper for them. Besides the natural authority and affection of parents, it is fit that the spiritual authority and affection of ministers likewise, should be improved for the advantage of the rising generation. And it may be presumed, that according to the gift given to them, they have pieater abilities for instruction than the parents have. In teaching your children other arts and sciences, though you may have some insight into them your-se Wes, yet you make use of those who particularly profess those arts and sciences, and make it their business to teach them; and will you not do so in that which is the one thing needful for them to learn well. You are to feed your kids, but you must do it beside the shepherds' tents,' under the conduct of a gospel ministry.
Now Timothy having had this doubll advantage, Paul urges him still to proceed in that good way wherein he had so well set out; to hold fast that fonn of sound words, which he had received.
(1.) This implies that he had a form of sound words delivered to him by Paul; a brief summary of the Christian doctrine, and of all those things which are most surely believed > among Christians, aj St Luke expresses it; vxarvirutmv —a delineation, a scheme, or rough draught of the gospel institutes. It is a metaphor taken from painters ; in drawing a face, they first draw the shape and lines of it, and then fill it up with proper colours. Such a model or plan of the truths and law of Christ Timothy had, as he might afterwards, in his meditation and preaching, enlarge upon. Whether this form of sound words was a creed, or confession of faith, I cannot say ; I rather think it was in the way of a catechism, because that method of instruction was Qsed in the early ages of the church : for we find it alluded to in St. Peter's tirtptt Tfifta — the answer of a good conscience or rather the interrogation ; so that I thiok if we apply it, especially to our catechisms, to the forms of sound words so formed, we shall offer DO violence at all in the text
(2.) Here is a charge to him to hold it fast, txi — Hne it. Have it by thee, have it with thee, have it in thee, have it always ready for use; do not part with it, nor in any instance depart from it. Have it, ^at is, make it to appear that thou hast it; as to have grace is to have it in action and exercise, and to him who so has, has and uses what he has, shall
• John xxt 15. h I Pet iii 21.
f Cant i. a tPB.zii 3.
f Luk«i. I. k Matt. ▼. 18.
be given. Or, as we read it, Hold it fast; it was delivered to us, to have and to hold; and we have it in vain, if we do not hold it Accordingly we may hence learn two doctrines.
I. That good catechisms, containing the grounds and principles of the Christian religion, are useful forms of sound words; and it is a great mercy to have heard and learned those forms.
II. Those who have heard- and learned the good forms of sound words, must hold them fast in faith and love.
I. It is a very great advantage to young people, to hear and learn the Christian forms of sound words in the days of their youth ; to have been well taught some good catechism, or confession of faith. Observe here,
1. The words of the gospel are vyiaivovrmv^^iound words, or as some render it, healthful, wholesome healing words. Put both together, and it intimates,
(1.) That there is valve and validity in the words of the gospel; as there is in that which is sound and firm, and in good condition. They are what they seem, and there is no cheat in them. Try them; and you will find you may trust them, as yon may that which is sound, and will never be made ashamed of your confidence in them. Men speak with flattering lips and with a double heart; but the words of the Lord are pure words,* and have no mixture of falsehood in them. The law was written in stone, to intimate its stability and perpetuity; and the gospel is no less firm ; every iota and tittle of both shall survive heaven and earth.^
Assure yourselves, brethren, the words of the gospel which we preach to you, and which you are trained up in the knowledge of, are unchangeable and inviolable. Holy Job's creed concerning his Redeemer, was gven with an iron pen and lead in the rock for ever;' much more is ours so; it is what you may venture your souls and your everlasting welfare upon. That is a sound word. That Jesus Christ came into the world to save sinners ; even the chief,'^ And that is a sound word. That God has given to %u eternal life and this life is in his Son,^ It is sound speech that cannot be condemned ; for it has been more than a thousand times tried, and it stands firm as the everlasting mountains. These are the true sayings of God i and if we compare the traditions of the elders, or the speculations of the philosophers, with them, we shall say, with the prophet. What is the chaff to the wheat ?^
(2.) That there is virtue to be drawn from them for healing and health to us. They are not only clear from every thing that is hurtful and unwholesome, but there is that, in them, which is medicinal and restorative, not only of health and strength, but of iJobzix94,aaL e Rev. xix. 9.
m 1 Tim. i. 16. nl Petf. 11. p Jer. xxiil. S8.
A SERMON CONCERNING THE
]ife itself. These waters of the sanctuary,*^ these leaves of the tree of life, are healing to the nations.' These words, if daly applied and mixed with faith, restore the sonl, and put it in frame, heal its maladies, and reduce to a just temper its distempered and disordered powers. It was said of old concerning those who werp sick, that God sent his word and healed them.* And when Christ was here upon earth, it was hy the power of his word that he healed all who had need of healing, and in a sense of their need applied themselves to him for it And this was a figure of the efficacy of the word of the gospel for the healing of diseased souls, a divine power going along with it; and in it the Sun of Righteousness arises in the soul, as it did in the world, with healing under his wings.'
Let this therefore recommend to you the words we teach you, that they are not only of inestimable value in themselves, but will be of unspeakable advantage to you. They are healing words indeed ; for they are regenerating and recreating words, whereby yon may be saved." Mix faith with them, and you will experience the power of them, setting you to rights, and giving you a new life and vigour. They are therefore not only faithful sayings, but well worthy of all acceptation, of your acceptation. Accept them therefore, and receive the benefit of them, that you receive not God*s grace in vain: and if they b in vain, and you be not healed by them, the fault is in yourselves.
2. It is good to have forms of these sound words drawn up for the use of those who are to learn the first principles of the oracles of God; " not to be imposed as of equal authority with the Scriptures, but to be proposed in order to the further study of the Scriptures.
Bear us witness, we set up no other rule of faith and practice, no other oracle, no other touchstone or test of orthodoxy, but the Holy Scriptures of the Old and New Testament: these only are the fountains whence we fetch our knowledge; these only the foundations on which we build our faith and hope; these the dernier resort of all our inquiries and appeals in the things of God, for they only are given by divine inspiration. This is the principle we abide by. To the law and to the teitimony ;* that is the reffula regulan* — the paramount rule, and far be it from as that we should set up any form of words in competition with it, much less in contradiction to it; or admit any rival with it in the conduct and guardianship of our souls, as some do the traditions of the church, and others, I know not what light within. Every other help we have for our souls we make use of as regula regulata — a rule controlled, in subordination and subserviency to the Scripture; and among the rest our catechisms and confessions of faith.
q Euk. xlvii. 8, 9. r Rev. xsil. 3. • Pi. cvii. SO. t Mai. iv. a.
Give me leave to illustrate tliis by an appeal to the gentlemen of the long robe. They know very well that the common law of England lies in the Year Book, and hooke of reports, in the records of immemorial customs, and in cases occasionally ad-judged: which are not an artificial system drawn up by the rules of method, but rather historical collections of what was solemnly discussed, and judiciously delivered, in several reigns, pro ne nat«i — as occasions have arisen, and always taken for law; and according to which the practice has always been ; (with which, if I may be allowed to compare that which, infinitely more sacred and inviolable, cannot be altered or amended by any wisdom or power on earth ;) such'are the books of the Scripture, histories of the several ages of the church, (as those of the several reigns of the kings,) and of the discoveries of God's mind and will in every age, as there was occasion; and these, too, built upon ancient principles, received and submitted to before these divine annals began to be written.
But though those are the fountains and founda tionS of the law, those gentlemen know that institutes and abridgments, collections of and references to, the cases adjudgid in the hooks, are of great use to them, to prepare them for the study of the originals, and to assist them in the application of them, but are . not thought to derogate from the authority and honour of them. Such we reckon our forms of sound words to be ; if in any thing they mistake the sense of the text, or misapply it, they must be corrected by it; but as far as they agree with it, they are of great use to make it more easy and ready to us.
That which is intended in these forms of sound words, is, not like the council of Trent, to make a new creed, and add it to what we have in the Scripture ; but to collect and arrange the truths and laws of God, and to make them familiar.
(1.) By these forms of sound words, the main principles of Christianity, which lie scattered in the Scripture, are collected and brought together. We know that all Scripture is given by inspiration of God, and is profitable, and that there is no idle word in God's book, nothing that is unnecessary; but we know that all is not alike profitable, or alike necessary. Every line in a well drawn picture is of use, and answers some end; but every line is not alike serviceable to the main design of the picture, which is to represent the face of the person whose picture it is, yet we must not say therefore, that it might as well have been spared. The Scripture gives us the things of God in their native purity and plainness, yet not without their proper illustrations. It is naked truth, that is, without disguise, and the ambiguity which Apollo's oracles were noted for, but not NAKED truth, without dress and ornament. Now our catechisms and confessions of faith pick u Acts xi. 14. r Heb. v. la. Heb. vi l. » isa. viil, 20.
CATECHISING OF YOUTH.
629 op from the several parts of holy writ, those passages, which though, perhaps, occasionally delivered, contain the essentials of religion, the foundations and main pillars upon which Christianity is huilt; which we are concerned rightly to understand, and finnly to believe, in the first place, and, then, to go OD to perfection. We cannot contain all the Scripture ; hut there are some more weighty and comprehensive sayings, which (like those which the Jews wrote in their phylacteries) we should bind, for a sign, upon our hand, and which should be as frontlets between our eyes.'' And our forms of sound words furnish us with these.
(2.) By these, the truths of God are arranged and pot in order. The several books of Scripture are written in an excellent method, according as the particular nature and intention of them is, and they are put together in an admirable good order: bat when out of them the main principles of religion are to be gathered, it is necessary that they be put into some method proper to serve the design of representing them at one view, that we may understand them the more distinctly, by observing their mutual references to each other, their connexion with, and dependence upon, each other; and thereby they appear in their truer light, and fuller lustre.
These forms of sound words show us the order that is in God's words, as well as in his works ; the harmony of divine troths, how one thing tends to another, and all centre in Christ, and the gtory of God in Christ: and thus, like the stones in an arch, they mutually support, and strengthen, and fix one another. They are as a map of the land of promise, by the help of which we may travel it over with our eye in a little time, and know the true situation of every tribe, though we cannot give a particular de-scnption of every part of its inheritance.
(3.) By these, the truths of God are brought down to the capacity of young ones, and those who are as yet but weak in understanding. Not that God has tpokein secret, in a dark place of the earth ;f no, the V9rds of wisdom's nufuth are all plain to him that un-derstandeth.* But to those who are yet babes they seed to be explained; to them we must give tlie iense, and cause them to understand the reading ;* and this is in part done by those forms of sound words, which lead us by the hand as it were into the knowledge of the truth as it is in Jesus. Not that we need to seek other words than those which the Holy Ghost teaches ; they are the most proper vehicle of the things which are given us of God to know^^ and it is unsafe to depart from them. Many, under pretence of refining upon the Scripture, and expressing the things contained in it more philosophically, have but darkened counsel by words without knowledge *S the faithful servant will deliver his message as near
Dent. vi. a 7 Isa ziv. 19. « Prov. viii. 9.
• Neb. viii. 8. b i Cor. ii. 13.
as he can in his master's own words ; Go (says God to Ezekiel) get thee to the house of Israel; and do not only speak my words, hut speak idth my words to them,^
But spiritual things must be compared with spiritual, and by the plainer parts of Scripture, those must be explained that are more dark and hard to be understood ; and this is done by our forms of sound words, which make the principles of religion to be as milk for babes, who as yet cannot bear strong meat.' The ten commandments are a divine form of sound words to direct our practice but they are short and exceeding comprehensive ; it is therefore necessary that we be taught from other Scriptures, what each commandment requires and forbids. The Lord's prayer is another divine form of sound words to direct our petitions; but that also is short and comprehensive, and it is requisite we should be taught from other Scriptures, what we pray for in each petition. The form of baptism is another divine form of sound words, peculiar to the Christian dispensation; but that also needs to be explained by other Scriptures, as it is excellently well in the ancient creeds; which we receive and embrace, and greatly rejoice in, as standing, lasting testimonies to the faith once delivered to the saints,' which, by the grace of God, we will not only adhere to, but earnestly contend for, and live and die by. And all these divine forms of sound words you have fully and faithfully set before you, and opened to you, in the Assembly's Larger and Shorter Catechism; as, blessed be God, they are in many other, both in our own and other reformed churches.
3. Those are happy who are well taught, and have well learned, those forms of sound words when they are young. It is a great privilege, and % very improving one, to be betimes instructed in the principles of religion, and to have the truths of Christ instilled into us in the days of our youth, and to be trained up in an acquaintance and converse with them from the first; by the care of godly parents especially, who have many advantages in dealing with children which ministers cannot have, to be put betimes upon reading the Scriptures, and getting portions of it by heart; remembering and repeating sermons ; to be taught the catechism, and examined in it, and not only made to say it, but made, as we are capable, to understand it, and taught to prove it by Scripture, and give a reason for it; to be directed to pray, and obliged to do it; and to a strict observation of the Lord's day, in order to all this. And if to all this be added ministerial catechising, the more copious and accurate explication of the mysteries of God by the appointed stewards of those mysteries, it consummates the happiness of a religious education, from which abundant advantages may be reaped, if it be wisely and faithfully improved.
e Job xxi?iil. S. • Heb. V. 12.
d Ezek. iii. 4. f Jude a
A SERMON CONCERNING THE
I know I speak to those wbo enjoy this privilege, on whom the doctrine of Christ not only comes down in showert, in the preaching of the word, but on whom it distils more slowly and softly, as tfie dew and as the small rain upon the tender herb^^ in catechising. And I commend your pious zeal in coveting and seeking instruction this way. Go on, and prosper, the Lord is with you while you be with him: and I hope it is a token fur good, and will prove so, that God has mercy in store for the next generation,—that there are so many young people among us who are asking tlieir way to Zion, and desire to be told it, letA their faces thitherward. Who hath be-gotten us these ?
I know also there are many, and many there have been, who were blest with a religious education when they were young, and were then trained up in the way in which they should go, who have afterwards turned aside trom the holy commandment; who though they were not born of fornication but were the seed of the faithful, yet have proved an unfaithful seed, and have themselves gone a whoring from their God, This should not discourage parents and ministers from doing their duty, in catechising youth, but should direct them to look up to God for his grace, without which all our care and pains is fruitless, and we do but beat the air; and should engage gou who are catechised to be jealous over yourselves, with a godly jealousy, that you may not be conceited of yourselves, or confident in yourselves, may not be high-minded, but may always/ear lest you seem to come short of that which is expected from you, or seem to fall off to any evil work or way, and though now you think you stand, may always take heed lest you fall.
But I know that your being thus catechised, if you improve it aright, and be not wanting to yourselves, will be of unspeakable advantage to you; and I hope to be of use, both to direct you and to encourage you, if I tell you how and which way it may be made so.
(1.) Hereby gou are, for some time, well employed now you are young. Childhood and youth, upon this account, (among others,) are vanity,^ that so much of the time is then spent to so little purpose, and yet better than, as it is afterwards spent by many, to evil purposes. But your being catechised obliges you to spend at least some part of your time well, and so as you may afterwards reflect upon it with comfort and satisfaction above many other, perhaps above any other, of your precious moments. If the time which children and young people would, other-wise, spend in sport and recreation, (they call it PA8[s]-TiME, when we have more need of sta Y-times than pastimes, for It passes away fast enough of itself,) is thus happily retrieved, and is spent in ff Deut. zxxii. 2.
h Jer. 1. 5.
i Eccl. xi. 10.
good exercises; in conversing with the word of God ; (which we should be meditating in day and night,) in reviewing and repeating to ourselves the things of God; we cannot but say that it is a kindness to us, and much greater than it would be, to keep a man from spending an estate wastefully, and put him into a way of getting an estate easily and honourably. Whatever goes with the rest of yoor time, here is a portion of it spent so as to turn to a good account, and so as you may meet it again with comfort on the other side death and the grave.
Those who are catechised either by their parents or ministers on the evening of the Lord's day, haTe a particular advantage therein: that those precious minutes, (and one minute of sabbath time is worth three of any other day,) which so many young people idle away in foreign, foolish talk, either in the fields, or at the doors of their houses, (which corrupts the mind and manners, and dispels what they had gn-ed, if they had gained any thing, in and by the duties of the day,) they spend in that which serves such good purposes, and will help to clench the nail that has been driven, that it may be a nail in a rure place. I know not how young people can be trained up to a better piece of good husbandry, than to a good husbandry of time, especially sabbath time.
(2.) Hereby you will become better abU to understand the word preached, and more capable of profiting by it, and so it will be a great advantage to you. I am sure it is the duty of ministers to preach the word, and therein to be constant, to be instant in season and out of season, they have [2 Tim. ir. 1, 2.] received a solemn charge to do so; and if so, either you must hear, or they must preach to the walls. And I am sure you are concerned to hear, so that your souls may live ; and therefore to take heed how you hear, and, in order to your profiting, to hear witli understanding. The highway ground in our Saviour's parable, represents those who hear the words of the kingdom, and understand it not ;^ for it is not ploughed up and prepared to receive it; they are not instructed in the things that are spoken of, and therefore such as speak to them of those things are barbarians. They who are not catechised, not taught the forms of sound words, apprehend not what we mean when we speak of their misery by nature, the sinfulness of sin, the mediation of Christ, the operations of the Spirit, and the great things of the other world; we had as good talk Greek to them: they are ready to say of us, as the people did of Eze« kiel's preaching, Doth he not speak parables?'-
But you who are catechised understand our dialect, are acquainted with Scripture language; for you are accustomed to it, and can say, " This good word is the confirmation, and that the illustration, and the other the application, of what we have many k Matt. xifi. 19.
1 Czek. XX 49.
CATECHISING OF YOUTH.
831 a time heard, and knew before, but thus are made to Loow better. And therefore though those who ha?e not been catechized do most need instruction, by the preaching of the word; (and for their sakes we must many a time stay to explain things which are most plain, wherein they who are strong ought to bear with us, in compassion to the infirmities of the weak;) yet those who have been well catechised do most desire it, and delight in it, and edify by it, because they understand it Catechising does to the preaching of the word the same good ofiice that John Baptist did to oar Saviour; it prepares its way, and makes its paths straight, and yet like him does but say the same things: " Repent with an eye to the kiny-dom of heaven."
(3.) Hereby you vUl have a foundation laid for a good work of grace in your souls. It is true, that God in his favours to us, and his operations on us, acts as a God, with an incontestable sovereignty, and an irresistible power; but it is as true that he deals with men as men, as reasonable creatures, in a way suited to their nature, he draws with the cords of a man;" he gains possession of the will and affections by opening the understanding, informing the judgment, and rectifying its mistakes. And this is entering into the soul, as the good Shepherd, whose own the sheep are, enters into the sheepfold by the door;" whereas Satan debauches the aifections, and so perverts the will, and bribes and blinds the understanding, which is climbing up another way, for he is a thief and a robber. Christ opens the understanding, and so makes the heart to bum ; opens men's eyes, and canaes the scales to fall from them; and so tarns men from Satan to God.
Now though Christ can give an understanding immediately, as to Paul; yet ordinarily he enlightens it, in the use of means, and gives a knowledge of divine things, by the instructions of parents and ministers; and afterwards by his Spirit and grace brings them home to the mind and conscience, de-lirers the soal into the mould of them, and by them works a saving change in it. It was the prerogative of an apostle to come to the knowledge of the gospel, not by man, nor to be taught ft, but by the revelation of Jesus Christ;° we must come to the knowledge of it, in the way of instituted ordinances; and none more likely to prepare for the particular applications of divine grace, than this particular application of good instruction by catechizing.
(4.) Hereby you will be a}'med against the assaults nd insinuaiioHs of seducers, ^d such as lie in wait t3 deceive, and draw you aside into the paths of error. Satan is a roaring lion, who seeks in this way to devour souls; and none are such an easy prey to him as those who are ignorant and unskilful in the word of righteousness. But those who
Hos. xi. 4. ■ John z. 1, & o Gftl. i. 18. p 2 Pet. iii. 17.
are well instructed in the forms of sound words, and understand the evidence of divine truths, are aware of the fallacies with which others are beguiled, and know how to detect and escape them, for surely in vain is the net spread m the sight of any bird. They who grow in the knowledge of Christ, will not be visibly led away bj' the error of the wicked, so as to fall from their own stedfastness ;p those who are thus established when they are children, will not be always children tossed about with every wind of doe-trine,*^
Those who are well catechised, are well fortified against temptations to atheism and infidelity, which, under pretence of FREE-thinking, invite men to FALSE and FOOLiSH-thinking; and by debauching their principles, corrupt their morals: and which, under pretence of a free conversation, allure to vice and IMMORALITY, enslave the soul to the most brutish lusts, and by corrupting the morals, debauch the principles. It will likewise be an excellent antidote against the poison of popery; a national zeal against which is, then, likely to be an effectual defence of the protestant religion, when it is a zeal according to knowledge. A right understanding of the offices and ordinances of Christ, the former of which are daringly usurped, and the latter wickedly corrupted and profaned, in the church of Rome, will, by the blessing of God, preserve us from going in with those strong delusions, though the temptation should be ever so strong, and prepare us to suffer, rather than to sin, if we should be called out to it.
(5.) Hereby you will be furnished for doing good to others, in the places where God has set you. Your being well instructed in the forms of sound words, will qualify you to be useful in your generation, for the glory of God, and the edification of many; which will be your honour and comfort now, and will add to your crown hereafter. Out of a good treasure of Christian knowledge well laid up when you are young, you will be able, like the good householder, to bring forth things new and old,^ as there is occasion, for the entertainment and benefit of others. Out of the abtmdance of the heart the mouth will speak. Hereby you will be able to resist and oppose that evil communication which corrupts good manners, and to put to silence the ignorance of foolish men ; and not only so, but to advance and keep up that communication which is good, and to the use of edifying/ which may manifest grace in your hearts, and minister grace to the hearers. These forms of sound words will teach you that sound spirit which cannot be condemned.' And thus your lips will feed many.
It will be likewise of great use to you in prayer; both in secret, and with your families, when God calls you to the charge of families. With what
MSI
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solid judgment, exact method, aptness, and gpreat variety of expression, have I heard private Christians, who have been well instructed in the things of God, and conversant with the Scripture, offer up their prayers and supplications to God, without the help of any other forms, but those forms of sound words; and this with such undissembled indications of pious affection, as has been very proper to kindle and excite, to raise and carry on, the devotions of those who joined with them. I believe some who are pleased to be severe, in their reflections upon all extemporary prayer, as we call it, would not be so, if they knew thu so well as I have done.
(6.) Hereby, those who have a good worh of grace begun in them, will be greatly assisted in the progress of it. Timothy, by the help of these forms of sound words, is nourished up in faith and good doctrine, whereunto he has attained." They who have pure hearts and clean hands, hereby shall become stronger and stronger in judgment, in affection, and in resolution. The more firmly the foundation is laid, the broader and the higher the building may be carried. And the better we understand tlie road we are to travel, the better we shall get forward in our journey. Affectionate Christians who are weak in knowledge, have but the wings of a dove that flies low; but knowing Christians are carried on as upon eagles' wings, with which they mount up for the prize of the high calling,—^they run and are not weary.
And those who have themselves some good measures of knowledge and grace, may be greatly improved in both, by attending upon public catechising; and if young, by bearing a part in it. Apollos was an eloquent man, and mighty in the Scriptures; and he was instructed in the way of the Lord,* KaTfixvfuvoc — he was catechised, so the word is: and he was fervent in spirit, yet he was still willing to learn, and found advantage by it; for there were those who took him, and expounded to him the way of God more perfectly. Those who think they understand the way of God pretty well, yet should still be increasing with the increase of God, should not think they have already attained, or are already perfect, but should be pressing forward, and covet to understand the way of God more perfectly.
(7.) Hereby you will have your memories well stored for your own use, and will have always good matter ready at hand for pious thoughts and meditations. It is certainly as much the benefit, as it is the duty, of Christians, to converse much in their hearts with the things of God. It is the character of the blessed man, and an evidence of his delighting in the law of God after the inner man, that in that law he meditates day and night,^ O how do I love it! says David, it is my meditation all the day;' it is the subject.
n 1 Tim. Iv. «.
r Job xvii. 9.
Acts xTiii. 34-26.
not only of my frequent, but of my fixed, thoughts: not now and then, upon an occasion, but constantly. And if David could find such employment and entertainment for his thoughts from morning till night in the law of God, much more may we find satisfaction in it, and the gospel of Christ too, which so far excels it.
Now one reason why this duty of meditation is so much neglected, is, because people want matter for their thoughts to enlarge and expatiate upon; and the reason of that is, because they were never enriched, as they should have been, in all knowledge;' their stock is soon exhausted, and they know not what to think of next But if yon get an abundance of good knowledge, you will never have to seek for something proper and useful to entertain yourselves with. You soon forget the sermons you hear; but if your catechism was well learned, and the proofs of it, you can never forget them; so that you may at any time take an answer of your catechism, and dwell upon that in your thoughts, till your hearts burn within you.
(8.) Hereby you will be enabled to transmit, pure and entire, to those who come after you, that good thing which is committed to you. The truths and ordinances of Christ are a sacred deposit, a trust handed down to us by our believing predecessors, and lodged in our hands, to be carefully kept in our day, and faithfully transferred to the generations to come: but how can we do that, if we be not ourselves both rightly and fully apprized of it We are false to this trust, not only if we betray it, by the admission of heresy and idolatry ; but if we lose it, and let it drop, by ignorance and carelessness, and unacquaintedness with, and indifference to, the interests of Christianity.
We of this age cannot otherwise repay what we received from those who went before us, than by consigning the value received to those who come after us; nor make any other requital to our parents, for giving us a good education, but by giving the like to our children ; which, therefore, with the utmost care and pains we should qualify ourselves to do, and then make conscience of doing. A.nd those who have not children of their own, ought to do it for the children of their relations, and the children of the poor, and to promote public catechisings and charity schools; and thus contribute what they can to the raising up of a seed to serve Christ, which shall be accounted to him for a generatioo, that thus the name of Chst may endure for ever, and his throne as the days of heaven. What has been told to us of the wondrous works of God, we mnst tell to our children, that they may tell them to their children, that those who shall be created may praise the Lord.*
X Ps. i. 2. 7 Ps- cxix. 17. «I Cor. i. 5. a PSw IxxTlii. 5 a
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833
II. Those who have the primlege to hear and learn the forms of soand words, with it have a charge, — To hold them fast in faith and love, which is in Christ Jesus.
This implies that yoa are in dangler of losing them, and beings robbed of them, through your own negligence of having them snatched oat of your hands by your spiritual enemies, or drop through jour fingers if you do not hold them fast. Satan is that wicked one who steals the word of God out of the hearts of the careless hearers and learners; as the fowls' of the air do the seed from the highway gTound,i> that it could not have any root in. Many have had the form of sound words, and with it a foim of godliness, and a name to live; but have let them go, and lost them; have made shipwreck of the faith, and of their own souls. Let their falls be warnings to as, and let us therefore fear lesi we also eeme shorty or so much as seem to come short.
I know I speak to those who have the form of sonnd words, who have hold of it. In God's name therefore I charge you to hold it fast, to keep your bold of it, in faith and love which is in Christ Jesus.
1. You must hold it fast, that is, you must retain the remembrance of it; keep it in mind and memory ; yoa have it, see that you always have it, that jOQ have it ready for your use upon all occasions. Great stress is laid upon this: the gospel is that by which we are saved, if we keep in memory what has been preached onto us.^ Not as if the bare remembering and being able to recite these sound words, and the forms of them, were sufficient to save us; they do not heal as charms and spells pretend to do, merely by the repeating or writing of them ; a man may be able to say all the Bible over by heart, and jet come short of grace and glory; but the remembering of these things is necessary to our due improvement of them, and to the other duties required of Ds: if we so remember the covenant as to be ever ffliodful of it; if we remember his commandments to do them,^ we remember them aright
(1.) It will be of good use to 3*ou, to retain the words yoa now learn and hear; and in order to that, frequently to review them, to catechise yourselves, aod repeat them over to yourselves. What you said to your parents perhaps by rote, when you were children, and not yet capable of knowing the intent and extent of, you should now say to yourselves, with understanding, and judgment, and affection. Let not the wisest and best be ashamed to repeat the words of their catechism, as they have occasion to qaote them; but let them rather be ashamed who cannot do it; who can remember, all their days, the idle foolish stories and songs they learned when they were yoang, but forget the forms of those words whereby they must be saved, and must be judged.
kUatt. xlii. ta c 1 Cor. XV. 1.2. 4 1 Cbron. xvi. 16. t Heb. ii. I. 3 H
(2.) It is of absolute necessity that you retain the remembrance of the things, so as to have them ready for nse, though it be in your own words. It is necessary that you should be well acquainted with the mystery of the gospel; with your need of a Saviour; with the method in which the salvation was wrought out by the Son of God, and is applied by the Spirit of God; with the breadth of the commandment, and with the strictness and spiritual nature of it; with the tenor of the new covenant, and the precious privileges of it; and with the great truths concerning the upper and future world: in these things you have been instructed; and are concerned to give the more earnest heed to the things you have heard, lest at any time you let them slip." Consider,
[1.] They are things worth remembering; of inestimable value in themselves, and of vast importance and concern to us; in comparison with which, abundance of other things which we fill our memories with, are but toys and trash. How many things do we retain the remembrance of, which tend to defile our minds, or to disquiet them, which we would willingly forget if we could ; and how many more are we industrious to heep in memory, which serve only to the carrying on of our business in the world: whilst THAT is seldom or never seriously thought of, and so comes by degrees to be in a manner forgotten, WHICH BELONGS TO OUR PEACE, our cvcrlasting peace; and justly may that be hid from our eyes/ which we thus hide our eyes from. The reason Moses gives to Israel, why they should set their hearts to all the words he testified to them, will hold more strongly, why we should treasure up Chrisfs word in* our heart, and let it dwell in us richly, that It is not a vain thing for us, but it is our life,^ and the lives of our souls depend upon it.
[2.] The remembrance of them will be of very great and good use to us daily; both to fortify us against every evil word and worh, by suggesting to us the most powerful arguments against sin, and the most pertinent answers to the temptations of Satan; and to furnish us for every good word and work, by suggesting to us the wisest directions, and the sweetest encouragements, in doing oar duty. If we hold fast these forms of sound words as w.e. ought, our mouth, like that of the righteous, shall speak wisdom, and our tongue shall be able to talk of judgment. And if thus the law of our God be in our heart, none of our steps shall slide. Solomon for this reason writes to us excellent things in counsel and knowledge, that we may answer the words of truth to those that send to us f or, as the margin reads it, to those that send us, to God, who sent us into the world to do all the good we can in it.
[3.] It was for this end that we have heard and learned them, that we might lay them up in our hearts,
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in order to their being of use to us hereafter ; so that we receive the grace of God therein in vain, if we do not retain them. They are not intended merely for your present exercise and entertainment, as a task upon you to keep you employed, much less as an amusement to keep up in you a reverence for your parents and teachers; but they were intended to fit you for the service of God in this world, and the vision and fruition of him in a better world. You learn your catechism, not as you who were designed for tradesmen learned Latin and Greek, when you went to school, it may be, with design to forget it, because you had a notion you should never have occasion for it in your business; but as you learned to write and cast accounts with design to retain it, because you were told yon would have use for it daily in carrying on your trade. You are taught now, that you may, as long as yon live, live according to what you are taught
[4.] You will be called to an account shortly for these, as well as other your advantages ; and therefore are concerned to improve them, so that you may give up your account with joy, such joy as shall be an earnest of that joy of our Lord, into which ffood and faithful servants, who have diligently and faithfully improved their talents, shall enter, and in which they shall be for ever happy. For your having heard and learned these things, will but aggravate your condemnation if you do not hold them fast. You know what was Chorazin's doom, 'and Beth-saida's, and Capernaum's; tremble lest it should be yours. It is an awful thought which I have somewhere met with, " That the professors of this a{;e, in which there is such plenty of the means of knowledge and grace, whether they go to heaven, or hell, will be the greatest debtors in either of these places: if to heaven, the greatest debtors to divine mercy and grace for those improved means that helped to bring them thither; if to hell, the greatest debtors to divine justice for those abused means that would have helped to keep them thence.''
Let not what I have said of the necessity of remembering the sound words we hear, be a discouragement to any serious, conscientious Christians, who have honest and good hearts, but weak and treacherous jnemories; nor make the righteous sad, who ought not to be made sad. You who tremble at God's word, do really get good by it, though you cannot recollect the method and language in which it is delivered you. If you live in the fear of God, and in a course of holy watchfulness against sin, and diligence in duty, you retain the impressions of the word, though yon cannot retain the expressions of it I have been told of a good, man, who was much affected with a sermon he heard concerning, as it would appear, the vanity of the world; and i Pa. exix. n.
commending it afterwards to a friend, was desired to give some account of the sermon: '* Truly," says he, ** I cannot remember any thing of it, but I am resolved, by the grace of God, I will never set my heart so much upon this world as I have done. '* '' Why then," (says his friend) " thou rememberest all." David will never forget God's precepts, for (says he) By them thou hast quiehened me.* If we find oar hearts quiehened by the word, we do not forget it; and it is to be hoped we wiU not, we shall not, forget it. Put a sieve that is dirty into the water, and though when you take it out it carries away little or nothing of. the water with it, yet it is washed and made clean. Though we cannot repeat the good sermons we have heard ; yet if, through grace, oar hearts and ways are purified by them, they are not lost.
But let what I have said engage you who hear and learn the forms of sound words, to hold them fast, to imprint them in your minds and memories, that you may have them ready to you at all times, as occasion requires. In order to this, labour to understand them; and let your knowledge be clear and distinct, and then you will be likely to retain it; set every truth in its proper place, and then you will know where to find it; set it in its true light, and then you will know what use to make of it. Get your hearts duly affected with divine things, and abide and act under the power and influence of them; and then you will remember them. Be often repeating them to yourselves : the Virgin Mary kept the sayings of Christ, by p<mdering them m ker heart.^
2. You must hold it fast in faith. It is not enough to remember the good truths that are taught you; but you must mix them with faith,^ or they will not profit you. You let them go, though you remember them ever so well, if you let go the belief of them, and the profession of your faith concerning them: it is by a hand of faith that you tahe hold of them, and heep hold.
You must hold them fast in faith, that is,
(L) You must give a firm assent to them as faithful sayings; must set to your seal that God is tnie. And every word of his is so, even that which you cannot comprehend the mystery ef, as the eternity of God, the immensity of all his perfections, the Trinity, the incarnation of the Son of God, the operations of the Spirit upon the soul of man, and the like; yet because they are things which God has revealed, you must subscribe to the truth of: if you do not you make God a liar; and do in effect make yourselves wiser than God, when you say. Haw can this be * Whereas you should say, Lord, I believe, help thou mine unbelief.
(2.) Yon must grow up to a full assurance of the k Luke it. 19.
t Heb. iv. 2.
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835 andeniable tnith, and incontestable evidence, of these wand words. Pass on toward perfection; acqaaint yonrse Wes with the Confirming Cateehum; know not only what it is we believe, bat why wc believe it; and be ready always to give a reason of the hope that is in yoa." Solomon had this view in in-9trocting his son ; 'not I miffht make thee know the certamiy of the words of truth ;" that thou mayst be convinced that they are words of truth, and receive them accordingly. And Lake the evangelist had the same design in writing his gospel, and inscribing it to his friend Tbeophilas, who, probably, had been his popil; Tlkat thou mightest know the certainty of those thinys wherein thou hast been instructed;^ this is holding it fast in faith.
(3.) You must make a faithful application of these soand and healing words to yourselves; else they will not answer the end, or be healing to you, any more than food not eaten, physic not taken, or a plaster not applied. Of the word of Christ you most say, not only, " This is true," but, " This is true concerning me:" He loved me, and gave himself for me; to save mc, not in my sins, hut from them; and to purify me to himself, and make me zealous of ^ood works. Hear it, and know it, for thy good,? says Eliphaz to Job,/or thyself, so it is in the margin. Then only we know it for our good, when wc know it for ourselves,
3. You must hold it fast in love; that is the other arm with which these forms of sound words must be embraced, and held, that we may not let them go.
(1.) You most take delight in them, and in the knowledge of them: that which we love we will hold fast, and not easily part with. It is not enough for as to know the truth, but we must love it; not enoogh that we receive it as a faithful saying, but also as well worthy of all acceptation ; we must not only give it credit as true news, but bid it welcome as good news* and rejoice in it; and when Christ says, Surelyf I come quickly, we must not only say, **Ee€n so, so IT IS, he will come/' but Amen so BE IT; COME, Lord Jesus."* This wisdom, this knowledge, must so enter into thy heart, as to become pleasant to thy soul.' They say it was a ceremony used of old by the Jews, when they sent their children to school, they gave them a piece of a honeycomb to eat, repeating those words of Solomon, My son, fit tkou honey because it is good, and the honeycomb, rkieh is sweet to thy taste ; so shall the knowledge of risdom be unto thy soul, when thou hast found it* And that which is not thus delighted in, will not be long held fast.
(2.) Yon mast be affected with them, and lay them to heart, as things that concern you to the last degree. Love is the leading affection, and rules the rest; as that goes, all the rest move. Be affected
I Pet iiL I&.
y Job V. S7.
B Prov. xxii. SI. o Luke i. 4.
q Rev. xxii. 20. 3 B 2 with love to the good word of God; and then you will conceive a high value and veneration for Christ, and a rooted antipathy to sin; a holy contempt of the world, a deep concern for your own souls, and a care about your everlasting state; and all other good affections, that will be the principles of a steady and regular motion of the soul heaven-wards. And then you will hold fast this form of sound words, when it makes such impressions as those upon you and (as Christ's sayings ought to do) sinks down into your hearts,' and impresses a weight and stamp upon them.
3. You must be influenced by them, and act under the commanding power of them. That love in which the sound words must be held fast, is here put for all that evangelical obedience which holy love is the principle of; for, as faith works by love, so love works by keeping the commandments of God ;" for TAu t> the love of God, that we keep his commandments, and his commandments are not grievous. We then hold fast the sayings of Christ, when we hold to them, in the constant temper of our minds, and tenor of our lives, and govern ourselves by them in all we say or do, that we may thus adorn the doctrine of God our Saviour.
4. There is one word more in the text to be touched upon, and it is the centre and crown of all: This faith and love must be in Christ Jpsus. Blessed Paul, full of blessed Jesus, breathes nothing so much as Christ; he is his Alpha and Omega, and must be ours; it is the token in every epistle. We must hold fast the sound words of the gospel, in that faith and love which has Christ for its author, its object, and its end.
(1.) Which has Christ for its author; that faith and love which is wrought in us, not by the strength of any natural reasonings or resolutions of our own, but by the Spirit and grace of Christ, darting rays of divine light into the understanding, and striking sparks of divine lire into the affections, for these are not of ourselves, they are the gift of God. Thou therefore, my son, be strong in the grace that is in Christ Jesus ;* for on him is our help laid, and in him only is our help found. Depend not upon any ability of your own, lean not to your own understanding, but go forth and go on, take hold and keep hold, in Christ's strength.
(2.) Which has Christ for its object; that faith and love in which the truths of the gospel must be held fast, as it must flow from Christ, so it must fasten on him. It is Christ in the gospel that we must embrace, and hold fast; who is the true treasure hid in that field, which we must think it worth while to part with all we have for the purchase of. It is by faith in Christ, and love to Christ, that we must hold fast what we have received. For this r Prov. ii. 10. tt 1 John ▼. a
• Prov. xxiv. 13,14.
t Luke ix. 44. ▼ 2Tim. ij. 1.
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reason wc must embrace these sound words, because we find so much of Christ in them. He is tliat golden thread that runs through the web of the whole gospel. St. Austin somewhere says of himself, that before his conversion he took great delight in reading the writings of Tully, the Roman orator, but now (says he) I cannot relish them at all, as I used to do, because I find nothing of Christ in them.
(3.) Which has Christ for its end It mu.st be that faith and love which has an eye to Christ; which has .this always in view, to glorify Christ, and to be glo-rifiedwith Christ: that/at'M which presses toward its own perfection, in the immediate sight of Christ; and that love which presses toward its own perfection, in the everlasting enjoyment of him.
Application.
Let me now close with a few words of exhortation, in reference to the form of sound words.
1. Let us bless God, tliat our lot is cast in a land of light; that he who determines the times before appointed, and the bounds of men's habitations, has determined ours so well, and so much to our advantage ; that those statutes and judgments, which the heathen have not known, are revealed to us. We can never be f nough thankful to God for this distinguishing favour, his manifesting himself to us, so as not unto the world. Blessed are our eyes, for they see the joyful light, and our ears, for they hear the joyful sound, which many prophets and kings desired to see, desired to hear, and might not.* We can never be enough thankful to God for it, that living in a Christian nation we have Bibles; in a protestaut nation, we have them in a language we understand; that to us are committed the oracles of God,' the lively oracles,yiih more advantage than to the Jews of old; that with us are the priests, the Lord's ministers, sounding with his trumpets.' So many and so great are our privileges, above most other nations, that it may justly be expected, I wish it could be as justly said, Surely this great nation is a wise and understanding people*
2. Let us particularly be thankful to God, for the forms of sound words, both ancient and modem, which we have among us; for our catechisms and confessions of faith ; that we have plenty of them, and variety of them, not clashing and contradicting each other, but rather confirming and illustrating each other; for to Christ they all with one consent bear witness, and to the law and to the testimony they all appeal: though the methods be different, they meet in the same centre; and tend to direct those of diiferent tastes and capacities to it likewise.
3. Let parents and governors of families make conscience of instructing their children, and servants, in the forms of sound words. Here this work must begin, for it must begin betimes ; Whom shall he teach knowledge ? Whom shall ^e make to understand doctrine ? The prophet there answers. Them that are weaned from the milk, and drawn from the breasts:^ when they are very young, under the immediate care of their mothers or grandmotliers, as Timothy was : they arc the teachers of babes.** When Solomoa was tender, and only-beloved in the sight of his mother,^ she taught him.^ The history of the Scripture is most proper to acquaint your children with in the first place; we see how soon they apprehend, and are affected, with other stories, and why may not impressions be made upon them as soon by the Scripture stories. Pleasant and profitable instructions may also be gven to children by the psalms for singing, and by divine poems and verses suited to their capacity.
It will be of great use likewise to your children, to be told betimes, what it is supposed natural for them toask, What we mean by this and the other religious sei'vice,* Tell them why you read the Bible with so much veneration: because it is the book of God, and holy men wrote the several parts of it, as they were moved by the Holy Ghost. Tell them why you make conscience of praying to God so solemnly every day: because you have a necessary and constant dependence upon God, and npon his providence and grace, that you are daily receiving mercy from him, and daily need his favour. Tell them why you observe the Lord's day, and make such a difference between that and other days; that it is in remembrance of the creation of the world, the resurrection of Christ, and the pouring out cf the Spirit. Especially tell them of their baptism ; take all opportunities to let them see children baptized, (in order to which it is very gpod to have it done publicly,) and tell them, thus they were baptized in their infancy, and by that solemnity dedicated and devoted to God the Father, Son, and Holy Ghost; and what was done for them then, they mast now do for themselves. Tell them of the corruption of their nature, which needed cleansing; and of the grace of God in Christ, in which there is a cleansing virtue.
Set them to learn their catechism ; let them commit some portions of Scripture to memory, as you find they are able to do it; and examine them, what they can remember of the sermons they hear. You will meet with some difficulty herein from the corruption of their nature, which you must endeavour to get over as much as may be by a gentle hand; give them instruction with all possible freedom and familiarity, with compassion and condescension to their capacity. Those teach these things most dlli-
Matt. xiii. le. 17. I Deut. iv. 0.
i Rom. iii. 3. 7 2 Chron. xUi. 18. • Isa. xxviii. 9.
b Rom. li. 90. d Prov. xxxX. 1.
e Prov. W. 3. • Ezod. xli. &S.
CATECHISING OF YOUTH.
837 gently to their children, not who are the most dicta-toiial in doing it, and make the fpvatest noise, hot who talk of them/refif«fi//jf; when they sit in the boose, and walk by the way, when they lie down, and when they rise op,' frequently dropping good instrnctions among their children: and if bat one in ten insensibly slip into their minds, and fasten there, what good proficients may we hope they will be in time. Contrive how to make this work, as much as may be, a pleasare and delight to yonr children and servants, and not a task, or a terror, or a drudgery. Teach them as Christ teaches, who is meek and lowly in heart
4. Let the ministers of Christ look upon themselves as under a charge to feed the lambs of Christ's flock. All the reformed churches make this a part of their work ; to be done either pnbliclyor privately ; either in their solemn religious assemblies, or in meetings on purpose for this work; or in visiting their families, either by themselves, or, as in some churches abroad, by some other proper persons qualified for, and deputed to, this service particularly. Private catechising has the advantage of a more particular application to the persons catechised: public catechising has the advantage of a more general edification; and therefore both should be used in their season, or |hat which, all circumstances considered, may turn to the best account
0 that we who are ministers, were filled with a zeal for the spiritual welfare and eternal salvation of young people, and a concern for the rising generation ; and were to do our utmost as our ability and opportunity is, to fill the minds of young ones, in their early days, with the knowledge of Christ, and to fix them for Christ, that the next generation may be better than this. And O that those who are employed in public catechising, may see of the tra-Tail of their souls to their satisfaction, and not labour in vain!
& Let us look with pity upon the great numbers of children, even in our own land, who are not taught these forms of sound words, but are bred up In ignorance and profaneness; strangers and enemies to Christ and true Christianity. They are poor, they are foo Uth, they know not the way of the Lord, nor the judyment of their God,t They sit in darkness in a land of light, and walk on in darkness, and if infinite mercy do not interpose to prevent, they are hastening into utter darkness. If you can do any thing, sirs, have compassion upon them and help them; pick up some of those neglected, abandoned young ones, you who have ability, and rescue them from ruin, by putting them into a way of receiving instructioB. We have charity schools set up in the city and country ; which, if managed by the rules of catholic Christianity, have a direct tendency to f Dent vL 7. r Jer. v. C k i Gor. IIL IS. i Horn. ziv. 17.
the bettering of the world, and the reforming of the next age, if the reforming of this should be despaired of. What is given to the support and encouragement of them, is charity, both to soul and body, and will be fruit abounding to your account.
6. Let those who have heard and learned the forms of sound words long ago, retain them still, and improve more and more. I have reason to think I speak to many who were blessed with a good education, were trained up in the way wherein they should go: I beseech* yon examine yourselves, not only whether you have not departed from it, I hope you have not quite deserted it, but what progress have you made in it ? What have you built upon that foundation ? Has it been wood, hay, and stubble;'' airy notions, nice speculations, perverse disputings, and strifes of words ? or has it been gold, silver, and precious stones; advances in serious godliness, in holiness, and heavenly mindedness, and the power of that kingdom of God, which is not meat or drink, but righteousness, and peace, and joy in the Holy Ghost .^ Go on and prosper, for the Lord is with you. But if you have in any degree let go that good thing which was committed to your trust, I beseech you bethink jrourselves whence you have fallen, and remember again what you have received and heard, and hold fast, and repent. Be watchful, and strengthen the things which remain, that are ready to die»^
7. I must not part without a word to you, whose request brought me to this service here to-day, you * who are catechised in the principles of religion, that you may grow yet more and more in the knowledge of Christ and Christianity.
(1.) Carefully attend to the instructions that are given you; and treasure them up, vrith sincerity, and all the marks of reverence and seriousness. Give attendance on, and attention to, what is taught you, and set your heart to it. You must take pains, else you cannot expect to reap advantage; for it is in labour that there is profit Be careful to mark what is said, not critical to make remarks upon it; and give account of it with afiection, but without affectation; and attend here not for ostentation, because you think yourselves better than others, but for your edification, because you would be better than you are.
(2.) Pray over what is taught you, and beg of God to bless it to you. Man can but teach the outward ear, it is God only that can bring it to the heart, and in that respect none teach like him. It is he who teaches with a strong hand,^ and then the teaching is eflfectual; who seals the instruction,"* and then it is abiding; who gives the understanding, and opens the heart. Look up to him therefore by faithful and fervent prayer, for that grace of his which is necessary to your profiting by the means of grace. You k Rev. la 3, a
I IfluvULII.
Job xxxiii. le.
crave his blessing upon the food for yoar body, that it may be noarishing to yoa; and can yon expect your spiritual food should nourish yon without that blessing, or that you should have that blessing, if you do not pray for it? That good thing which is by the word committed to you to keep for God, do you by prayer commit to God to keep for you, and bring it to your minds when yon should use it
(3.) Live as those who by attendance on such an exercise as this, make a profession of religion above many others. Hereby you seem to be more solicitous about your souls, and more inquisitive concerning the way to heaven, than your neighbours; but what will it avail you that you seem to be so, unless yon be really so ? The tree will be known by its fruits. Evidence that you receive not so much instruction in vain, by the exemplary purity and piety, seriousness and strictness, of your whole conversation. By your justioe and charity, and unshaken veracity and fidelity; your sobriety and temperance; your humility and meekness; your conscientious obedience to your parents and masters, and a steady course of godliness and honesty; you ought to adorn the doctrine of God our Saviour. I remember Epictetuspressing his pupil to show by his practice of virtue, his profiting by the instructions given him—illustrates it by this similitude: ** The sheep,'' says he, ** do not come to their shepherd, and show him how much meat they have eaten, but they make it to appear by their growing fatter and fitter for use." Thus, therefore, do you make it appear, that you improve in Christian knowledge, fty the agree-iihlenese and evenness of yonr Christian practice and your perseverance in it to the end, that you and we may rejoice, in the day of the Lord, that we have not run in vain, nor laboured in vain.
A MEMORIAL OF THE FIRE OF THE LORD:
IN
A SERMON,
PREACHED SEPTEMBER 2nd, 1713, BEING THE DAY OF THE COMMEMORATION
OF THE BURNING OF LONDON, IN 1666.
AT MR. REYNOLDS'S MEETING-HOUSE, NEAR THE MONUMENT.
Numbers xi. 3.
And he called the name of the pUtee Taberah, becauee the fire of the Lord burnt among them.
We haye here an account of the pnideot and pions care which Moses took, to preserve the memorial of a fire which happened in the camp of Israel, by giving a new name of suitable signification to the place where it happened; which being left upon record here, in the book of God, is a monument of the fire, further visible and more durable than this pillar of stone, the monument hard by, and will outlast even the pillar of salt; for wherever, in any age, the books of Moses are read, and they shall be read in every age to the end of time, there shall this be told for a memorial; that the fire of the Lord burnt among the Israelites, and in remembrance of it, Moses called the pla<^ Taberah,
And thus it suits the occasion of our meeting here to-day, in communion with many religious assemblies in this city, to put ourselves and one another in mind of that fire of the Lord, which, in the memory of many of you, burnt among you to that degree, as to make of this city a heap, this flourishing city a ruin ; a judgment which it was then thought fit, by the annual observation of this day, to transmit the remembrance of to posterity.
Now observe in the text,
1. What the judgment of God upon the camp of Israel was. The fire of the Lord burnt among them. It is called the fire of the Lord, because it fell from heaven, it came immediately from the hand of God : as that fire did, which sometimes consumed the sa-
• I Sam. ill. 14.
b Lev. X. 1,2.
0 Job i. 16.
orifices, in token of God's acceptance of them, when justly it might have consumed the sinners, and taken vengeance on them. Here it did consume the sinners, to signify, that their iniquity was such, as should not be purged with sacrifice or ofiering for ever;» as another time it consumed the sacrificers, when they oflfered strange fires.b
Lightning is the fire of the Lord, as thunder is the voice of the Lord. With that fire Job's sheep, and the servants that attended them, were burnt up.^ It is heaven's fire-arms, with which sometimes dreadful execution has been done. ** Fire and water, ''we say, " are good servants, but bad masters:" the old world was mastered and destroyed by water, and this is reserved unto fire.** God has treasures of both in his magazines, which he has laid up against the time of trouble, the dag of battle and war.*
This fire of the Lord burnt among them, among that people whom God peculiarly favoured, when by sin they displeased him, and his anger was kindled against them.' Though the pillar of cloud and fire was over them to protect them, while they kept themselves in the love of God, that should be no security to them, when they rebelled against him. It burnt the bodies of many of them to death, they were killed with lightning; or, perhaps, it burnt their tents and goods; It consumed, (so the original is, r. I.) in the uttermost parts of the camp, not saying whether persons or dwellings. Our translation determines it to persons, them that dwell there; but the quenching of the fire, (v. 2.) seems rather to in* timate that it was the tents that were burnt. It kindled in the utmost parts of the camp, where the inferior sort were, the mixt multitude, who were d 2 Pet. iii. 6,7. • Job xxxvuL 33.
f Numb. xi. 1.
COMMEMORATION OF THE
generally the ri Dgleaders in every mntiny; the jadg-ment began where the sin began. Or, it intimates that God came npon them by degrees, seizing those first who were of lower rank, that others might take warning. Or, this fire began in the utmost parts of the camp, as if it would take all before it
Now this, among other things, happened to them for example,' and was intended to be a warning to us, that we sin not after the similitude of their transgression. The people complained; that was it that provoked God to kindle this fire among them. Let those who are of a fretful, discontented spirit, who are always complaining of their lot, complaining of every event, quarrelling vrith God and his providence, diminishing every mercy, and doubling every cross, see in this instance, what an exceeding sinful sin this is, and how provoking to God. Those who ate always complaining for trifles, must expect to have something given them to complain of. As on the one hand nothing is more acceptable to God, than our humble acceptance of all he says>ind does. CQuii Deo plaeuit ? Cui Deus plaeuerit — Who pleases God I The man whom God pleases, Aug.) so on the other hand, nothing is more displeasing to God, than our being displeased at his disposals.
2. The memorial of this judgment, to transmit a traditional knowledge of it to posterity, Moses called that place, Taherah, Ineendium Combustio — a Bum" inffn The Seventy translate the Hebrew name E/i-nvpiofioQ, Moses knew too well how apt the people were, soon to forget the works of God, both his mercies and his judgments, and therefore was very industrious to fix in their minds the remembrance of them; and contrived means to revive the remembrance of them, when it should begin to dwindle and die. This fire of the Lord, though it burned but in the uttermost part of the camp, and was soon quenched, yet must not be forgotten; he therefore calls the place Ta6eraA—Here the burning was. And if posterity ask. What burning? It will be answered, the burning of a part of the camp of the Israelites, with the fire of the Lord, for their discontent and murmuring. And we find Moses himself, near forty years after, putting the next generation in mind of this very thing, purely by the mention of this name, as he did of other the like sins and judgments, by the names he had given to other places for the same purpose: And at Taherah, and at Massah, and at Kihroth-Hattaavahy ye provoked the Lord to wrath."
But by recording those things in his sacred writings, he has more effectually preserved the memorial of them, and transmitted it even to us, whose lot is cast in the ends of the earth, and upon whom the ends of the world are come.* And this is one of those passages of story, which the Psalmist would r 1 Cor. X. 6. k Pi. Izxvlii. 6,21.
h Deut. iz. 2S. 1 Jer. vii. 12.
i 1 Cor. X. 11. n Bccl. vii. 13.
have the fathers to make known to their children, that they may tell them to theirs; That God heard their murmuring and was wroth, so a fire was kindled against Jacob}-
So that hence we may gather this lesson:
That a lasting memorial ought to he kept of the fire of the Lord, when it has at any time burned among a people.
As the mercies of God ought to have their memo-rials, and used to have in the church of God names of remembrance, stones of remembrance, songs of remembrance, days of remembrance, of which it were easy to give numerous instances in Scripture ; so the judgments of God too should be remembered, for they are improvable as well as his mercies, improvable not only by the sufferers themsel Tes, and by their neighbours at the same time, but by their successors afterwards, as Shiloh's ruins were Jerusalem's instructions,' many ages afterwards. Care must therefore be taken, not only to preserve the remembrance of them in our own bosoms, but to transmit it to the generations to come, for their benefit.
For it is not enough to remember these works of God, but we must consider them,'" must wisely consider ° them, so as to understand them, and make a good use of our remembrance of them. As we must remember God's commandments to do them,** else we remember them to no purpose; so we must remember God's providences, not merely as matter of discourse among ourselves, or information to our children, but with suitable affections working in oar spirits, and suitable impressions made upon thera. Lo, this, we have searched it, (says Eliphas,) so it is, hear it, and know thou it for thy good,^
(1.) We must often call to mind the personal and private rebukes of Providence, which we ourselves and our families have been under. The history of a man*s own life is as useful a piece of history as any he can study; and here a man must be his own historian, and his own reader; and therefore under both characters it is to be hoped he will be careful, and faithful to himself. God's counsel to Israel is good counsel to every Israelite, Thou shah remember all the way in which the Lord thy God has led thee in this wilderness, how he humbled thee, and suffered thee to hunger, and chastened thecy as a man chasteneth his son.**
We should remember what God has spoken to us, not only by his word, giving earnest heed, lest at any time we let it slip,^ but by his rod, for that also has a voice, an articulate, intelligible voice, and is sent to us on an errand, and waits for an answer; and the voice of both we should now both hear for the time to come, and hear from the time past; and the repeating of the lessons we have been taught by
B Ps. Ixiv. 0. e pg. ciii. IS.
q Deut vHi. 2, 3, 5.
P Job V. & T Heb. ii. I.
FIRE OF LONDON.
841 both, is confessedly necessary to our learning of tbem perfectiy.
Apt enongh we are to complain of our former ai Bictions, too apt to remember them, with peevish reflections upon the divine Providence, and the in-straments of it, and vain boasting of what hardships weha?e gone through. But we should remember tbem, to renew our repentance for the sins that pro-cared them, our thankfulness for the mercy that supported us under them, oar patient submissions to tbe will of God in them, our improvements in knowledge and grace by them, and the good resolutions of better obedience we made under them; it is for tbis end that we are to preserve memorials of our troobles: as the lamenting church remembered the af Biction and the misery, the wormwood and the gall. My 8<nd (says she) huth them still in remem-kranee, and it humbled within $ne,* And as David penned many of his psalms, to keep in remembrance, and to bring to remembrance, the distresses he was io, that at the same time he might recollect, for his present bene6t, the frame of his spirit, and the workings of his heart under them.
Ton have all found your days upon earth to be full of trooble, though not all alike so; review the troubles of your life, that what was ill done by you in tbe day of your affliction, may be undone by repentance ; and what was well done, may be done again, may be better done, and kept always in the imagination of the thought of your heart Let not your ncknesses and pains be forgotten; Hezekiah took care that his should not, but should be kept in remembrance by his vmting, when he bad been sick and was recovered.* Let not your losses in your estate, your crosses and disappointments in your affairs, be forgotten; Let not the death of yonr dear relations, and tbe breaches thereby made upon your comforts, be forgotten. Naomi took care that her complicated griefs of both those kinds should not be, when she changed her own name, Call me not Naomi, etU me Mmra.^ David took care that his should not, when he penned the 39th Psalm (it should seem) Qpon occasion of the death of some friend who was dear to him, and left upon record his prayer under tbe affliction, Lord mahe me to know my end, and his promise, 1 wiH tmke heed to my wayi.^
By remembering your afflictions in this good man • ser, and for these good purposes, you may not only regain the benefit you formerly got by them, but may gain more; as having now your thoughts more cool and sedate, and under command, than they were in tbe horry of the affliction. The chastening for the present is grievous, and perhaps we are under it, as Job was,/ic// ofean/usion ; but it is afterwards, when it eomes to be reflected upon and reviewed, that it
Lam. IH. 19, SO. > ba. xzzviii. 9. « Rath i. 90.
yields ihe peaeeMe fndt of riyhteouenes*;' fruit that remains.
By a due remembrance of former convictions, if we received them aright, like the tender and tractable child, we shall be kept from returning to folly, and so prevent another correction; and, like the burnt child, dread the fire.
(2.) We must often call to mind public judgments, judgments upon the communities we are members of; upon the land and nation, God's controversies with them; upon the city, his voice that has cried to it; for as in the peace thereof we have peace, so in the trouble thereof we have trouble, and must feel it. Those are unworthy the honour of Zion's sons, who think not themselves concerned in Zion's sorrows, her past as well as present sorrows.
Though God by subsequent providences In favour of a returning people, may have superseded the fast of the fourth month, the fast oftheffihj the fast of the seventh, the fast of the tenth, so as to turn them into joy and gladness, and cheerful feasts ;* and by the abundance of our comforts, may make us to foryet our miseries, and to remember them as waters that pass away ;' to forget all our tail,* as Joseph did; yet we must still remember to make a pious improvement of it; must still be sowing, sowing in the spirit, though the tears in which we sowed be in some measure wiped away: and to assist you herein, as God enables me, is my desire and endeavour at this time, that our coming together may not be in vain.
God has many ways contended with us of this nation, with you of this city; as we have been, like Israel of old, favoured with many privileges and advantages above our neighbours, both for life and godliness, whence it might justly, and with good reason, have been inferred, as it was concerning them. Surely this great nation is a wise and understanding people;^ so, being found like them, notwithstanding this, a foolish people and unwise, nay, a rebellious and gainsaying people, we have like them fallen under severe judgments: for the more rich a people's privileges are, the more provoking their sins are, and consequently the heavier are their punishments; for even in this life, especially in dealing with communities, (which as soch can be dealt with in this life only,) God sometimes observes a proportion between the sins and the plagues.
Some have observed, that God's judgments upon us in this last age, have been the sorest in their kind of any other; like that concerning which the prophet appeals to the old men, and to all the inhabitants of the land, whether there had ever been the like in their days, or in the days of their fathers. *» Never was there such a plague in this nation, as that s Zecb. Till. 19. r Job zi. 10. • Deut. !▼. 6.
• Qen. xlj. 61. b Joel i. 9.
COMMEMORATION OF THE
in London in 1666. never such a fire as that the year after, never sach a dreadful storm as that about ten years ago, as if God were heating the furnace $even time* hatter; for he will bring greater judgments on those who are not wrought upon by lesser; and when he judgeth he will overcome.
That which I am now to confine myself to, is the fire of the Lord which was kindled in this city, this day 47 years, which in four days' time laid in ashes the richest, the oldest, and the most considerable part of this city, I mean within the walls; and I observe upon the calculation then made, that there was almost as much consumed without the walls, as was left standing within. For thus the survey stood; " 373 acres burnt within the walls, and 75 left standing; but there were 63 acres burnt without the walls." You had 89 parish churches burnt, besides chapels; you had your Exchange, your Guildhall, and the halls of your companies, laid in ashes; and aboye thirteen thousand dwellings lerel-led with the ground.
Some of you can remember it, perhaps by a good token, a sad token, you were burnt out of your houses it may be, and forced to lodge in the fields. It may be some of you were great losers by it, when you were young, and setting out in the world, and it was a great while before you recovered it; it broke the measures you had laid, ruffled your affairs, and put you upon new counsels; or perhaps brought you so much to a loss, that you were at your wits' ends, and at that time knew not what to do; but have since found to your comfort, that God knew what to do for you, and has graciously helped you.
Or though you were not then so far grown up, or so far engaged in the world, as to be sufferers by it, yet you were eye-witnesses of it You saw it rage, you saw what desolations it made; and now you are old, will say it was the most dreadful sight you ever saw. The piteous case of so many ruined families, and their doleful lamentations, could not but be yet more affecting, yet more afflicting; and made you ready to cry with the prophet in a like case, my bowelsy my bowels, I am pained at my very heart, because thou hast heard, O my soul, the alarm of fire! Fire! no less terrible than the alarm of war; Destruction upon destruction is cried,*' The destruction of the fire, u pon that of the pestilence the year before. Many a melancholy story perhaps some of you have told, upon the occurrences of that time, and the impressions they made upon you.— Quaque ipse miserrima vidi — Disastrous things have I seen.
But there is another thing which you must give me leave to inquire. What you remember of it? The faithful ministers of Christ at that time, no doubt, laid out themselves in their preaching, to improve that providence, in dealing with you about e Jer. iv. 19,30. d Fa. xdv. 18. • Eva iii. 11. f Isa. xxviii. 23.
your souls. Something came from the press upon that occasion, by Mr. Vincent, Mr. Doolittle, and others; and much more we may well conclude by word of mouth. Now what do you remember of that ? What account can you give of the sermons yon heard upon that occasion, and of the good impressions they made upon you when you were young-, and your hearts tender ? Can you say, through grace, that your consciences were then con Tinced and awakened, and that when you were chastened, you were taught out of the law, and the gospel.^ Happy the day, and happy you, if what you then lost by the rod of God, was made up, and more than made up to you, in what yon gained by the word of God.
But the most of you were not then bom, or were so young as to remember nothing of it; yet you have been told of it, perhaps you have read of it, and cannot be altogether ignorant of that event. Blessed be God, there is no occasion for such different sentiments and resentments between the old people and the young, as there were when the foundations of the second temple were laid, when the young people rejoiced to see a temple begun, but the aged wept, because it was so far inferior to the old one. No, if the young will join with you who are old, in bewailing the fall of the former city, you will join with them in celebrating the beauty of the latter;" and let both join in endeavouring to improve the remembrance of that fire of the Loid.
Nine lessons I shall recommend to you, to be learned from that fire which we are this day observing the memorial of.
I. See how terrible God is in his judgments, and fear before him. It was the fire of the Lord that burnt among you; whatever hand of man might be in it, it is certain this evil in the city was the Lord's doing; it was a consumption determined by the Lord of hosts,' and the breath of the Almighty that kindled the fire, and directed all the motions of it It was the Light of Israel, who is and will be a rejoicing Light to his people, that was then as a fire, a consuming fire ;> for so our God is and will be, to those who rebel against him; and the Holy One of Israel, who was then as a flame, that devoured so many churches and houses, as if they had been briers and thorns, in one day.
See how terrible God's majesty is; when he came down upon an errand of mercy, to deliver Israel out of Egypt, he appeared in a flame of fire in the bush;^ and at Mount Sinai, the sight of the glory of the God of Israel, was like devouring fire in the eyes of the children of Israel '} but much more terrible is his justice to them that provoke- him. If the glory of his greatness be like fire, to a people who are entering into covenant with him, much more will the
V ISB. X. 16, 17.
h £zod. iii. 2.
I Eiod. xzIy. 17,
FIRE OF LONDON.
843 terror of his wrath be so, to a people who have broken co Tenant with him.
Come, behold what desolations God has made, and say with Moses the man of God, upon the reew of the judgments of God inflicted on Israel in the wilderness, and this at Taherah, among the rest. Who kncms the power of thine anger ?^ Say as the men of Bethshemesh said, when there was sach a slaughter made among them who looked into the ark. Who ii able to stand before this holy Lord God?* Say as the sinners in Sion are forced at length to say, and the hypocrites when fearfulness surpriseth them. Who among us shall dwell with the devouring fiames (by which some understand God himself,) with the everlasting burning f Say as David, Mg ^sh tremblethfor fear of thee, and I 4sm afraid of thy judgments :^ and conclude with the apostle. It ie a fearful thing to fall into the hands of the living God."
God has all creatures at his command, and all the powers they haye are deriyed from him, and by them he designs to keep the world in awe. The power which the firo has to consume and destroy is from him; when he pleases he can countermand it, as in the case of the three children; and when be pleases he can commission it, and enforoe its operations, and direct its motions. The voice of the Lord divides the/lames of fire sends one flame one way, and another flame another way, and each on its respectiye errand.
Let the thoughts of the flre of London fill us with a holy awe of God, and a filial fear of his wrath; that fire of the Lord, which when it is kindled but a little, much more when it is kindled to such a degree, we shall see cause to say, Blessed are all they that jmt their trust in Atfii.<i Fear ye not me, saith the Lardy' that with a touch, with a frown, with a look, can make the iiuwsitatfu smohe ? that with one spark of fire can lay heaps upon heaps ? Let the earth tremble at his presence, much more at his absence, and his departure in anger.
See what fools they are, who make this God their enemy by sin, and engage his power against them, and yet when they haye done so, bid defiance to his justice, challenge him to do his worst, saying, Let kim make speed, and hasten hie worh, that we may see it* Is this a God to be jested with? Be not de-ceived, he isnotmoehed. Presumptuous sinners, who play with this fire, who stretch out their hands against God, and strengthen themsehes against the Almighty, who run upon Aim, even upon his neeh, upon the thich bosses of his huekUr} will find to their cost, that none ever hardened his heart against God and prospered. God has access with his flames to mens hearts, as well as to their houses, can kindle a fire in their bones, a fire in their consciences, that shall secretly waste k Ptal. xc. 11. 11 Sam. y\. so. m Isa. xzxiii.
and exhaust their spirits, a ^r not blown, not seen, that shall consume them, a fire that shall bum to the lowest hell, and never be quenched.
Give all diligence, therefore, to make your peace with this terrible God: it may be done, it shall be done, if it be not your own fault. Fury is not in him, and yet it is to no purpose to think of contending with him; to make opposition, is but like putting briers and thorns before a consuming fire, which, instead of stopping its progress, does but make it bum the more furiously. Let him therefore take hold on his strength, that he may make peace, atid he shall makepeace*^
And haying made your-peace with God, keep yourselves always in his love, and take heed of turning yourselves out of it; and while you do so, solace yourselves in his love, and believe that this God of power vriil be your protector, and a wall of fire round about you.
II. See what a mischievous thing sin is, which provokes God thus to be our enemy, and to fight against us. If it was God's justice that burnt London, Jt was man's injustice that brought fuel to the fire; for a fraitful land is never turned into barrenness, nor a flourishing city into rains, but it is for the iniquity of them that dwell therein.* God never contends with a people, but it is sin, it is sin tliat is the cause of the controversy. National sins briug national judgments. The sins of a city bring misery upon it; Jerusalem hath grievously sinned, therefore she is removed,^ When the men of Sodom were wicked, and sinners before the Lord exceedingly, it was not long ere he rained hell from heaven upon them; and when all flesh had corrupted their way, presently they were cut down out of time, and their foundation overthrown with a flood. It was the wickedness of the city, that made it combustible matter for the Are of God's wrath to fasten upon, Iliacos intra muros peccatur et extra-—'Sin reigned within and without the walls. When sin abounds both within the walls and without, no wonder if the fire prevails in both.
London was then told by the watchmen upon her walls, what the sins were that provoked God to lay it waste; they had then a loud call to show this Jerasalem her abominations, which might be read in her desolations. It was then justly observed, that for some time before the fire, the power of vice and profaneness was grown more exorbitant than ever, more daring, more threatening, that it insulted and triumphed over the restraints and checks which for some years before it had lain under, and now set.them at defiance. It was observed, remember, not long since, by a venerable body, '* That at that time, to avoid hypocrisy, men ran into open impiety:" and I have heard it complained of, by those who lived at r Jer. V. as. • laa. ▼. i9. % Job xv. ss»a6.
n laa. xxvii.
COMMEMORATION OF THE
that time, ** that debaachery was made by many a test of loyalty; and a man was saspected to be disaffected to his prince, if he did not profane the name of his God/' Was this the character of the times immediately preceding that desolation ? And oonld any other be expected, but that God should visit for these things, and that his sonl should be avenged on such a city, such a nntion as this f
Sabbath-breaking is a sin for which God has particularly threatened to contend by fire: If ye will not hearken to me, to hallow the sabbath day, I will kindle afire in the gates of JerusaUmJ How sabbaths had been profaned in those times of licentiousness, is easy to conjecture; and if we may make remarks upon the circumstances of a judgment, in order to the improving of it, it must be taken notice of, that the fire began between one and two of the clock on a Lord's-day morning, as if God would thereby intimate, that it was kindled to avenge the quarrel of his sabbath.
How should this increase our hatred of sin, that evil and bitter thing, by which we have procured such things as these to ourselves, which has been the destruction of souls, bodies, families, cities, churches, nations, worlds; which is not only the reproach, but the ruin, of any people. What a dread should we conceive of the fatal consequences of national sins, which would fix us among those holy mourners, who sigh and cry for the abominations that are committed amongst us.' Methinks this should put life into the despised and almost deserted cause, of the refonnation of manners among us, that in the prosecution of it, we not only consult the glory of God, the honour of our holy religion, and the good of precious souls, but the peace, safety, and prosperity of the communities we are members of. -The surest way to prevent another fire, is, to discountenance and suppress that immorality and profaneness, for which the fire of the Lord has burnt among you.
Not that this was the only ground of God's controversy with the city. Even the professors of religion, who run not with others to an excess of riot, contributed to the guilt which kindled those flames, by their lukewarmness and indifference in religion, their pride, and vanity, and worldliness, and neglect of family worship, as they were often then told by their faithful reprovers. Under such public calamities, our business is not to judge and censure others, but each of us to take blame and shame to ourselves, and seriously to ask. What haee I done f
And yet we must be very regardless of the work of the Lord, and the operation of his hand, if we do not observe, that London's plague and fire came but three or four years after the casting out and silencing of a great number of able, faithful ministers of Christ there, and all the nation over, because they
X Jer. V. 0. 7 Jet. zvii.
would not sin against their consciences. Jerusalem was burnt the first time, for misusing the messengers of the Lord ;* and the second time, for laying hands on the disciples of Christ, and persecuting them ;^ for Christ resented what was done against them, as done against himself.
At least we must be allowed to observe, that the fire happened not six months after the commc Dcing of the Five-mile Act, by which they who, but a little before, were turned out of their churches, were bar-barously turned out of their houses, and not suffered to live within five miles of any corporation, or of the places where they had been ministers. It was the observation of a wise and good man at that time, *' that as it was in mercy to many of the ministers, that they were removed out of the city, before that desolating judgment came; so it spoke aloud to the government. Let my people yo, that they may serve me; and if ye will not, behold, thus and thus will I do unto you." This he thought was the Lord's voice, then crying in the city.
III. See what an uncertain thing this world is, an4 all our possessions and employments in it. If men would but believe the preacher's text and doctrine, which is delivered to us, not only as the word of the Eternal God, which therefore we may venture to believe, nay, are bound to believe, but, in compassion to our infirmity, is confirmed to us by the observation and experience of the wisest of men, A U it vanity — vanity of vanities, and vexation of spirit, and would live up to their belief of it, it would save them a great deal of trouble \ for how many sore crosses and affiictions does the worldliness of our hearts need and call for, to give us a sensible demonstration, that we may come under the needfol conviction of the vanity of this world, and its insufii-ciency to make us happy.
How plainly may we read this, by the light of London's flames! How many well-furnished houses and shops were then consumed in a little time! It is part of the lamentation of the ruin of Babylon, that in one hour so great riches is come to nought,'*^ How many who were worth thousands over-night, were so impoverished by the fire, that they were worth nothing, or next to nothing, by the next morning! Like Job, whom the rising sun saw the richest of all the men of the east, and the setting sun left poor to a proverb. Our Saviour speaks of the danger we are in, of losing our treasures upon earth, by the moth that corrupts, or thieves that break through and steal ;^ but this loss of it by fire, is worse than either. What the moth has been in, may yet be good for something, and what the thief has stolen, may perhaps be recovered; but what the fire has consumed, is quite lost, and past retrieve. How sudden and surprising was this desolation, bLukexsl. IS.
c Rev. xviil. 17.
dlfattvi. 10.
FIRE OF LONDON.
645 bow little thought of and expected by the sufferers, who hoped tlicy had goods laid up for many years, and houses that should endure to many generations, when the fire comes with a warrant to seize them this night, and to strip them of all; and thereby to teach you and me not to bo&st ourselves of to-morrow, since we know not what a day, what a night, what an hour, may bring forth.* And in how little time was the desolation accomplished! Three or four days reduced to ashes buildings that had been long in rearing, and treasures that had been long in gathering.
This is a good reason why the rich man should not glory in his riches, for as the flower of the grass, which is scorched by the sun, they pass away ' and are gone, and their place knows them no more; a good reason why we should not be secure in the enjoyment of our worldly possessions, nor flatter ourselves with the thought, that to-morrow must needs be as this day, and much more abundant; that we shall die in our nest, and that our mountain stands so strong, that it cannot be moved, when we know not what agnat change a very little time may prod ace.
It is a good reason why we should not make these perishing things our portion, nor lay up our treasure in them; and why we should sit loose to them, and take our aflfections off from them: for shall we set our eyes and hearts upon these things that are not, that make themselves wings and flee away ;v that are liable to a thousand destructive casualties, and are therefore unworthy of our esteem and regard, esspecially, when they stand in competition with the trae and everlasting riches ? It is therefore our wisdom to be dead to these things, because if we be, we shall the better bear the disappointment, if they should be thas taken from us, and we shall easily say, it was what we looked for. Your houses, and shops, and goods are combustible things: call them so, and put a value upon them accordingly, as you do upon paper-buildings, and give all diligence to make that snre, which will be made sure. When Jerusalem's desolation was hastening on, the inhabitants had this needful admonition given them. Arise jfe, and depart this is not your rest, for it is pol Uted,^ it is true of all things here below, they are pollated with sin, and are hastening towards their rain, and therefore cannot be the repose of our souls. What then should we do, but arise and depart from them ?
Neighbourhood, which is the pleasure of cities, where houses join so close, may prove of ill conse-qoence, and serve but to spread and propagate the flames: of that therefore, no more than of other present comforts, let us not be over-fond.
rv. See how malicious the enemies of our peace and our holy religion are, and what need we have
• ProT. jocvii. I.
f James i. lo.
ff Prov. sxili. A, to stand upon our guard against them. There is a day that will bring to light the hidden works of darkness, and bring into judgment every secret thing, and to that day must be referred the full discovery of the cause of the fire of London. There was as full a demonstration given as could be, by the master of the house where the fire began, that it could not possibly be by accident, which gave abundant cause to think that it was designedly set on fire by Romish incendiaries, for the weakening of the protestant interest, which they have all along been, and still are, aiming at the destruction of.
The parliament met soon after tfie fire, and pre-sently, even that House of Commons appointed a committee to inquire into the causes of the late fire; before whom abundance of informations were given in and proved, which were afterwards printed ; but the parliament was prorogued before any judgment was given upon them. But it seems very evident, upon the concurring testimonies then given in, to which I refer you, that it was the execution of a popish design. One Robert Hubert, a French papist, being taken up upon suspicion, confessed that he was one of those who fired the baker's house, that was first set on fire, with a fire-ball; and he was executed for it. Many others were taken throwing fire-balls, but by some means or other made their escape, as appears by the report of that committee.
I would not be found insinuating any causeless, groundless jealousies, nor incensing men with enmities against the persons of any; our religion teaches us to forgive our enemies, and to pray to God to forgive them ; we may not call for fire from heaven upon those who are set on fire of hell against us.*
But if this be true, as we have reason to think it is, surely it cannot but confirm and increase our detestation of popery, and fill us with a holy, heavenly zeal against that strong delusion. Can that be the religion of the meek and humble Jesus, which needs, and prescribes, and uses such methods for its own propagation, as not only Christianity abhors, but even humanity startles at, and is shocked by ? Our Lord Jesus would not force his way, no not to Jerusalem, by destroying a poor village, and that of Samaritans too, that opposed him, and gave this reason for it, that the Son of man eame not to destroy men's lives and dwellings, but to save them T How far then are they from, nay, how contrary to, the spirit of Christ and his holy religion, who make no difficulty of destroying a great city, and that of Christians too, for the compassing of their design to reduce a people under the heavy yoke of their tyranny, that had happily escaped from under it. But no wonder they stumble not at heaps of ruins, when they startle not at seas of blood ; but to gain their point, can wade through them without horror.
h HIc. il. 10.
1 James ili. 6.
k Luke ix. A&
COMMEMORATION OF THE
How many treasons, marders, and massacres, have not only been justified but consecrated, wben they have been for the adyancement of the pretended catholic cause! Instruments of cruelty are in their habitation, as in that of Simeon and Levi: O my souly come not thou into their secretJ
And as it should increase our hatred of the Romish religion, so it should increase our dread of the Romish designs against us, and all that is dear to us. The extirpating of that which they call the Northern Heresy, is what they have been aiming at ever since the reformation ; and we have no reason to think they have dropped the design, when not many years ago, it was carried so far, that it was next door to an accomplishment, and no less than a miracle of mercy saved our darling Isaac from being sacrificed to popish tyranny, when it lay bound upon the altar. Or, have we any reason to think that popery has altered its character ? I wish we had: but the methods lately taken to root out the protestant religion in France, besides the persecution we hear of in Poland, at this time, and other instances, are sufficient to convince us, that popery is the same bloody, barbarous, inhuman thing, that ever it was, and therefore its advances towards us are to be as much dreaded as ever; that we may be quickened in our prayers to God, to fortify our bulwarks against that complication of sins and judgments, and to lift up a standard against that enemy, even when he comes in like a flood. Cry earnestly to God day and night, that he would turn all the counsels of popish Achi-tophels into foolishness; and I trust he will, as he has done many a time.
v. See how graciously God often remembers mercy m the midst of wrath, and in compassion takes up his controversy, when he might in justice proceed in it. You have a monument of the judgment, here where the fire began, but in every place where it stopt, the houses that escaped are so many monuments of sparing mercy. Yon can easily perceive, by the different materials and structure of the houses, just how far the fire proceeded: when you observe this, say, It is of the Lord's mercies that we are not consumed/^ that all was not consumed, that God did not make a full end, but that, when he overthrew some of you, as he overthrew Sodom and Gomorrah, yet others of you were as brands plucked out of the burning." The quenching of the fire at Taberah* is here recorded with the kindling of it, that we might learn to sing of mercy and judgment, and sing unto God of both, for in both his hand is to be seen.