Of Mercies and Promises,
Mercies and Promises.
Direct. 7. Take heed of running on ina course off in, (especially superstition and idolatry); in which cases, and as a punishment of which evils,God often gives upmen to these vile affections, Rom. i. 25, 26. "Who changed the truth of "God into a lie ; (worshipped] and served the creature more
" than the Creator,who is blessed for ever, Amen.
[For this " cause] God gave themuptovileaffections," &c. They that defile their foulsby idolatrous practices,God suffers, as a just recompence, their bodies also to be defiled with uncleanness, that so their ruin maybe hastened. Let the admirers of traditions beware of such a judicial tradition as this is.
Woe to him that is thus delivered by the hand of an angry God! No punishment in the world like this, whenGodpunithes fin with fin: when he shall suffer those χεινας έννοιας, those common notices of conscience to be quenched, and all retraints to be moved out of the way off in, it will not be long e'erthat sinner come to his own place.
IN CAUTION IV.
N the next place, I shall make bold to expoftulatealittle. with your conscience concerning the preciousmereies you have received, and the solemn promises you have bound yourfelves withal for the obtaining of those mercies. IfearGod hath many bankrupt debtors among you, that have dealt flip pery and unfaithfully with him; that have not rendered to the
Lord according to thegreatthingshe hath done for them, nor according to those good things they havevowed to the mighty
God ofJacob.
But, truly, if thou be adespiser of mercy, thou shalt be a pattern of wrath. God will remember them in fury, who forget him in his favours.
I will tell you what a grave and eminent minister once told his people (dealing with them about this fin of unthankfulness for mercy); and IprayGod it may affect you duly.
† Let us all mourn (faith he) and take on; we are all behind hand with God.
The Christian •world is become bankrupt, quite broke, makes no return to <God for his love. He is issuing out process to seize upon body,goods,and life, andwillbeputoffno longer. Bloody bailiffs are abroad for bad debtors all the world over. stians are broke,and make no return, and God is breaking all.
•He cannot have what he would have, what he should have, 'he will takewhathe can get: for money he will take goods,
Chrilimbs, arms, legs ; he will have his own out of your skin, • out of your blood, out of your bodies and fouls. He is ferMr. Lockyer onCol, i p. 113.
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ting the Christian world as light and as low as they have set his love. Ah, Lord, what a time do we live in! long-suffering is at an end, mercy willberighted injustice, justice will have all behind, it will be paid to the utmost farthing; it will set abroach your blood, but it will have all behind," c.
Do you hear, fouls? Is not this sad news to some of you, who have received vast sums of mercy, and given God your bond for the repayment of him in praise and answerable fruit, and yet forfeited all, and lost your credit with God ? O how can you lookGodinthe face,withwhomyouhave dealt so perfidiously! I'am now come in the name of God to demand his due of you ; to call to remembrance the former receipts of mercywhichyoumind not, but God doth,and there is a witness in your bosom that doth, and willonedaywitness to your faces, that you have dealt perfidioufly with your God.
Your souls havebeenthegraves of mercy, which should have been as so many gardens where they should have lived and flourished.
I am come now to open those graves,and view those mercies that your unthankfulness hath killed and buried, to lay them before your eyes, and see whether your ungrateful hearts will bleeduponthem.
Buried mercies are not loft for ever.; they shall as certainly have a day of* resurrection as thyself.: it were better fortheethey should have a resurrection now inthyheart, thantorise as witnesses against thee,when thou shalt rise out of the dust : that will be a terrible resurrection indeed, when they shall come to plead against thy soul. Nothing pleads more dreadfully against a soul than abused mercy doth.
But I shall come to the particulars upon which I interrogate your consciences ; and I pray deal truly and ingenuously in answering these queries.
Quer. 1. And, first, I shall demand of you, whether you never had experience of the power and goodness of God, in restoring you to health from dangerous sickness and diseases ?
Have you not sometimes had the sentence of death inyourselves ? And that possiblywhenyouhavebeen in remote parts, far from your friends and relations, and destitute of all means and accommodations. Did you not fayinthat condition, as Hezekiah did ina like case ? Ifa. xxxviii. 10, 11, 12. "I said,
Zz2 *There is a double resurrection of mercy : a resurrection ofmer cy in mercy, and a resurrection of mercy in wrath.
It is the first f now labour for, and that to prevent the second.
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" in the cuttingoffof my days, I shall go to the gates of the " grave: I am deprived of the residue of my years.
I said, I " shall not see the Lord, eventheLord in the land of the liv- " ing : I shallbeholdman no more with the inhabitants of the
" world:" Remember thyself, Man; canst not thou call to mind the daywhenthe arrows of death came whisking by thee, and it maybe hit those next thee; took away those that were as lively and lusty as thyself, when you began your voyage, and yet they were cast for death,thou for life, and that when there was but an hair's breadth betwixt thee and the grave ?
Tell me, foul, what friend was that who stood by thee then, when thou wast forsakenofallfriends ? When it may be thy companions stood ready to throw thee over-board,who was it that pitied and remembered thee inthylow estate ? Who was it that rebuked thy disease ? or, (as * one very aptly expresses it) 'restrainedthehumours ofthybody, from overflowing and • drowning thy life ? For,whentheyare let out ina sickness, theywouldoverflow and drown it, as the waters would the earth, ifGodshouldnotfaytothem, stay, you proud waves.'
Who was it, man, that when thy body was brought low and weak, and like a crazy rotten ship in a storm,took in water on all fides, so that all the physicians in the world could not have stopped those leaks ? Confider,what hand was that which qui etedand calmed the tempestuous sea, careened and mended thy crazybody, and launched thee into the world again, as whole, as found, as trong, as ever ? Was it not the Lord, that hath done all this for thee? Did not he keep back thy soul from the pit, and thy life from perishing ? Yea,when thou wast chastenedwith pain,upon thy bed,(as Elihu speaks) Job xxxiii. 19, 20,21. and the multitudeofthyboneswith strong pains, so that thy life abhorred bread,and thy fouldaintymeat; thy flesh consumed away, that it could not be seen, and thy bonesthatwere not seen, stuck out: Yet then,as it is verse28. hedeliveredthy foul from goingdownintothepit,and caused thy life to fee the light. Had the lamp of life been then extinguished, thou hadst gone down into endless darkness ; hell had shut her mouth upon thee. Nowtellme, foul, what haft thou done with this precious mercy ? Haftthou walked before the Lord in a deep sense thereof, and answered his end therein, which was, to lead thee to repentance ? Or hath thy stupid or disingenuous heart forgotten it, and loft all sense of it, so that God's end is frustrated, and thy salvation notajot furthered
† Mr. Thomas Goodwin.
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thereby? Oh! if it be fo, woe to thee! for the blood of this mercy, which thyingratitudehath murdered,like the blood of
Abel, cries to God against thee. What a wretch art thou thus to requitethe Lord for such a mercy! He saw thy tears, and heard thy groans, and said within himself,he shall not die, but live.
Alas, poor creature! ifI cut him off now, he is eternallyloft: I will fend him back a few years more into the world.
I will try him once more, it may be he will bear some fruits to me from this deliverance; and if fo, well ; if not, I will cut him down hereafter : He shall be fetat liberty upon his good behaviour a little longer. And is all this nothing in thine eyes ? Wretch that thou art, dost thou forget and flight such a favour as this ? Is it worth no more in thine eyes ? Well, it would be worth something in the eyes of the poor damned fouls, if they might have so many years cut out of their eternity, for a mere intermission of their torments, much more as a time of patience and mercy. O confider, what pity and goodness thou haft abused!
Quer. 2. Waft thou never cast upon miserable straits and extremities, wherein the good providence of God relieved and supplied thee ? How many of you have been beaten so long as sea,by reason ofcontrarywinds and other accidents, until your provisions have been exhausted and spent : To how short allowancehaveyou been kept : And what a mercywouldyou have esteemed it, if you could but have satisfied nature with a full draught of water.
Certainly, this hathbeenthe case of many of you. O what a price and value did you then set upon those common mercies, which at other times have been slightly overlooked! And when you have seen no hopes of relief, bave you not looked fadlyone upon another ? and, it may be, said, as that widow of Sarepta did to the prophet, 1 Kings xvii.
12. "And the said, as the Lord thy God liveth, I have not a " cake, but an handful of meal in a barrel,and a little oil in a " cruse ; and, behold, I am gathering two sticks, that I may
" go in and dress it for me and my son, that we may eat it, " and die."
Even such hath been your case; yet hath that God,whose mercies are over all his works, heard your sorrows, and provided relief for you, either by some ship,which providence sent to relieve you in that distress, or by altering the winds, and sending you safe to the land, before all your proviGonshavebeen spent. And haftthoukeptnorecords of these gracious providences ? Yea,doftthou abuse the creature,when thou are brought again to the full enjoyment of it ; and possibly, receivest the creatures (whose worth thou hast so lately
Mercies and Promises. feenin thewantofthem) without thanksgiving, or a sensible acknowledgment of the goodness of God in them ? I say, dost thou thus answer the expectations of God? Well, beware left
God teach such an unworthy creature, by woeful experience, that the opening of his hand togivetheea mercy, is worth the opening thy lips to bless him for it.
Beware leftthatunthankful mouth that will not bless the Lord for bread and water, have neither the one nor the other to bless him for.
I can give you a fad instance in the case, and I have found it in the writing of an eminent divine,who said he had it from an eye and ear-witness of the truth of it. Ayoungman lying upon his sick-bed, was always calling for meat; but when the meat he called for was brought unto him, he shook, and trembled dreadfully at the fight of it, and that in every part of his body, and so continued,until his food was carried away. And thus he did, as often as any food was brought into his presence; and not being able to eatone bit, pinedaway; but before his death, he freely acknowledgedthejusticeofGodin his punishment: For, said he, in the time of my health, I ordinarilyreceivedmy meat without thanksgiving. Olettheabusers and despisers of such mercies fear and tremble !
Quer. 3. Have you not been eminently protected and favedby the Lord, in the greatest dangers and hazards of life; in fights at sea,when men have droptdown at your right hand, and at your left, and yet the Lord hath coveredyourheads in the day of battle ? And though you have been equally obnoxious to death and danger with others, yet your name was not found among theirs in the list of the dead.
Or in shipwrecks, ah, how narrowly have some of you escaped! aplankhathbeen cast in, you know not how, to save you, when your companions, for want of it, have gonedownto the bottom ; or you have been enabled to swim to the shore, when others have fainted in the way, and perished? In what a variety of strange and astonishing providences hath Godwalkedtowards some of you, and what returns have you made to God for it? Oh, firs !
Ibeseechyou, confiderbut these two or three things that I shall now lay before you to confiderof.
Confid. 1. An heathen will do more for a dung-hill-deity, than thou, that callest thyself a Christian, wilt do for the true
God, that made heaven and earth, Dan. v. 4. They praised the gods of silver, and of gold, and of brass, of iron, wood, and stone.
When the Philistines were delivered from the handofSamson, the text faith, Judg. xvi. 24. " They praised
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their god," &c.
Then Dagon must be extolled. O let hame cover thy face!
Confid. 2. That the abuse of mercy and love is a finthat goes near to the heart of God. Oh! he cannot bear it.
It is not the giving out of mercy that troubles him,for that he doth with delight; but the recoiling of his mercies upon him by the creatures ingratitude, this wounds. " Be astonished,O ye heavens, at this, and be ye horribly afraid." And again,
Hear, O heavens, and give ear, O earth," Ifa. i. 2. q. d.O youinnocentcreatures,which inviolably observe the law of your creation, be you all astonished, and clothed in black, to fee naturecaft, by fin, fo far below itself, and that in a creature fo much superior to you as man, who, in the very womb, was crowned a king, and admitted into the highest order of creatures,and set as lord and master over you ; yet doth he act not only below himself, but below the very beasts . "The ox
" knoweth his owner;" (i. e.) there is a kind of gratitude in the beasts, by which they acknowledge their benefactors that feed and preserve them. Oh ! what a pathetical exclamation is that, Deut. xxxii. 6. " Do you thus requite the Lord, O
" foolish people, and unwise."
Confid. 3. It is a fin thatkindles the wrath of God, and will make it burn dreadfully against thee, unthankful sinner: It stirs up the anger of God, inwhomsoever it be found, though in the person of a faint, 2 Chron. xxxii. 25. " But Hezekiah
" rendered not again according to the benefit done unto him :
" for his heart was lifted up, therefore there was wrath upon " him, and upon Jerusalem." And so you read, Rom. i. that the Heathens,because they were not thankful,were given up to vile affections ; the forest plague in the world. It is a fin thattheGodof mercyscarceknows how to pardon, Jer. v. 7.
" How shall I pardon thee for this?" This forgetting of the God that faves us in our extremities, is a fin that brings desolation and ruin, the effects of God's high displeasure upon all our temporal enjoyments. See that remarkable scripture, Ifa. xvii. 10, 11. " Because thou hast [forgotten]the God of [thy
" salvation,] and haft not been [mindful] of the rock of[thy " strength:] Therefore shalt thou plant pleasant plants, and " shalt set it with strange flips : Inthedayshaltthou make thy
" plant to grow, and in the morning shalt thou make thy feed " to flourish ;but the harvest shall bean heapinthedayofgrief,
" and desperate sorrow."
The meaning is, that God will blast and curse allthineemployments, and thou shalt be under desperate sorrow,byreasonofthedisappointmentsofthyhopes.
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Confid. 4. It is a fin that cuts of mercy from you in future straits : If you thus requite the Lord for former mercies,never expect the like in future distresses. God is not weary of his bleflings, to cast them away upon such foulsthat are but graves to them. Mark what a replyGodmade to the Ifraelites, whentheycrieduntohim for help,being invadedbytheAmorites, Judg. x. 11, 12, 13. "Did not I deliver you from the " Egyptians, and from the Amorites,from the children of " Ammon, and from the Philistines ? The Zidonians also,
" and the Amalekites, an dye crieduntome, and I delivered " you out of their hand.
Yet ye have forsaken me, and served " other gods ; wherefore I willdeliveryou no more." Ofad world ! it is, as if the Lord hadfaid, I have triedwhatmercy and deliverance will do with you, and I see you are never the better for it: Deliverance is but feedfown upon the rocks.
I will cast away no more favours upon you; now look to yourselves, shift for yourselves for time to come; wadethroughyour troubles as well as you can. Obrethren ! there is nothing more quickly works the ruin ofa people, than the abuse of mercy. O, methinks, this text should strike terror into your hearts. How often hath God delivered you ? Remember thy eminent deliverance at such a time,in suchacountry, out of such adeepdistress: God was gracious to thy cry then, thou haftforgotten andabufedhis mercy, what now, ifGodshould fay, as in the text,therefore I will deliver thee no more ? Ah, poor soul! what wouldst thou do then, or to whom wilt thou turn? It may be thou wilt cry to the creatures for help and pity; but,alas ! to what purpose ? Theywillgive as cold and as comfortless an answer as Samuel gave unto Saul, 1 Sam. xxviii. 15, 16. " And Samuel said unto Saul, Wherefore
" haft thou disquieted me, to bring me up ? And Saul an " fwered, I am fore distressed; for the Philistines make war
" against n.e, and God is departed from me, and answereth " me no more, neither by prophets, nor by dreams : there- " forehave I called thee, &c. Then said Samuel, wherefore
" then dost thou ask of me, seeing the Lord is departed from "thee, and is become thine enemy?" Oh ! thou wilt be a poor shiftless creature, if once by abusing mercy thou make it thine enemy!
Confid. 5. It is breach of vows made in distress to obtain these mercies ; they have beeneasilyforgottenand violated by thee when thou hast obtained thy desire : A.word or two to convince you what a further evil lies in this, and how by this consideration thy fins come to be buoyed up to a greater
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height, and aggravation offinfulness; and then I have done with this head.
Avow is a promise made to God, in the things of God.
The obligation of it is,by cafuifts,judged to be as great as that of an eath.
It is a sacred and folemnbond,wherein afoul kinds to God in lawful things; and being once bound by it, it is a most heinous evil to violate it. It is an high piece ofdifhonef ty tofailinwhatwe have promised to men, faith * Dr. Hall; but to difappointGod in our vows, is no less than sacrilege.
The act is free and voluntary ; but if once a just and lawful vow or promise hath past your lips, faith he, you may not be falfetoGod in keeping it.
It is with us for our vows, as it waswithAnanias and Sapphira, for theirfubftance : " Whilst
" it remained (faith Peter)was it not thine own?" He needed not to fell and give it; but if he will give,he may notreferve :
It is death to fave some;he lies totheholyGhost, that defalks from that which he engaged himself to bestow.
If thou haft vowedtothe mighty GodofJacob,look to itthatthoube faithful in thy performance; for he is a great and jealous God, and will not be mocked.
Now, I am confident there be many among you, that, in your former distresses, have solemnly engaged your fouls thus to God; that if he would deliver you out of those dangers, and spare your lives, you would walk more strictly, and live live more holy lives thanever you did.
You have, it maybe, engaged yourfouls to the Lord against those fins,as drunkenness, lying, swearing, uncleanness,or whatsoever evil it was that your confciencethensmote you for; the vows of God (I fay) are upon many of you.
But have you performed those vows that your lips have uttered ? Have you dealt truly with God; or have you mocked him, and lied unto him with your lips, and / omitted those very duties you promised to perform, and returned to the selfsame evils you have promised to forsake?
I only put the question, let your consciences answer it.
But if it be fo, indeed, that thou art a person that makest light of thy engagements to God, as indeed seamen's vows, and sick men's promises are, for the most part, deceitful and slippery things, being extorted from them by fear of death, and not from any deep resentment of the necessity, and weightofthofe duties to whichtheybind their souls: I fay, if this fin lieuponanyofyour fouls, I advise you to go to God speedily, and *Cases of conscience.
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VOL . VI.
Mercies and Promises. bewail it; humble yourself greatly before him,admire híspa tiencein forbearing you, and pay unto him what your lips have promised. And to move youthereunto, let these considerations, among many others,be laid to heart.
Confid. 1. Think seriously upon the greatness of that majesty whom thou hastwrongedby lying to him,and falsifying thy engagements. Othinkfadly on this! itisnotmanwhomthou haft abused,but God; eventhatGod inwhosehand thy life and breath is. For although (as one truly observes) there be not in every vow a formal invocation of God,(God being the proper correlate, and, as it were, a party to every vow, and therefore not formally to be invoked for thecontestation of it) ; yet, there is in every vow an amplicit callingGodtowitness ; fothat certainly the obligation of a vow is not onejot beneath that of an oath. NowifGodbe as a party to whom thou hast past thy promise, and that obligation on that ground be so great; Ohwhathastthoudone! for a poor worm to mock themostgloriousmajestyofheaven, andbreakfaithwithGod; what a dreadful thing is that ! if it were but to thy fellow-creature, though the fin would be great; yet not like unto this.
Let me fay to thee as the prophet Maiah, chap. vii. 13. " Is it a " smallthing for you, towearymen,but will you weary my
" God also ?" If you dare to deceive and abuse men,dare you do so by God also ? Oh ! if the exceeding vileness of the fin do not affect thee,yet methinks the danger of provoking fo dreadful aMajestyagainstthee should ! And therefore confider,
Confid. 2. That the Lord will most certainly be avenged upontheefor these things, except thou repent. Oread, and trembleatthewordofGod! Ecclef. v.4, 5,6. "Whenthouvowest
" avow unto God, defer not to pay it: for he hath no pleasure " in fools; pay that which thou hast vowed.
Better is it that " thou shouldest not vow, than that thou shouldst vow, and not 66 pay.
Suffer notthymouth to cause thy fleth to fin, neither " say thou,before the angel, that it was an error ; wherefore
" [should God be angry] at thy voice, and [destroy] the works " ofthyhands ?" Mark, God will be angry, and in that anger he will destroy the work of thy hands, (i. e.) faithDiodate,
'bring thee and all thy actions to nought,by reason of thy < perjury.' Now,the anger of God, which thy breach of promise kindles, as appears by this text, is a dreadful fire. O, what creature can stand before it! asAfaph speaks, Psalm
Ixxvi . 7. " Thou, even thou art to be feared; and who may " stand in thy fight, when once thou art angry ?"
Confid..3. Confider, that all this while thou finnestagainft
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knowledge and conviction ; for,didnotthyconscienceplainly convince thee, wheneminentdanger opened its mouth, that the matter of thy neglected vow was a most necessary duty ? If not, why didst thou bind thy soul to forsake such practices, and to perform such duties ? Thou didst so look upon them then; by which it appears, thy conscience is convincedofthy duty, but lust doch master and over-tule: and if so, poor sinner, what a case art thou in, to goonfromday today sinning against light and knowledge ? Is not this a fearful wayoffinning ? and, will not such sinners be plunged deeper into hell thanthepoorIndians, that never saw the evil of their ways, as thou dost ? Ponder but two or three scripturesinthy thoughts, and fee what a dreadful way off inning this is: Rom. ii. 9.
" Tribulation, anguish, and wrath, to every soul of man that " doth evil, to the[Jew first], and also to the Gentile." To the Jew first, (i. e.) to the Jew especially, and principally; he had a precedency in means and light, and so lethimhave in punishment. So Jam. iv. 17. " To himthatknowethtodogood, and " doth it not, to him itisfin;" (i. r.) Sin with a witness, horrid fin, that surpasses the deeds of the wicked. So Luke xii.
47. "And that servant that knew his Lord's will, and pre- " pared not himself, neither did according to his will, shall
" be beaten with many stripes." Which is a plain allusion to the custom oftheJewsin punishing an offender, who being convicted, the judge was to seehimbound fast to a pillar, his cloaths ftript off, and an executioner with a scourge to beat him with so many stripes: but now, those stripes came but from the arm ofa creature ; these, that the text speaks of, are set on by the omnipotent arm of God. Of the former,there wasadeterminate number set down in their law, as forty stripes ; and sometimes theywouldremitoneof that number too, inmercytothe offender, as you fee in the example of Paul, 2Cor. xi . 24. " Of the Jews I received forty stripes
" save one;" butinhellno mitigation at all,nor allayofmercy.
The arm of his power supports the creature in its being, while the arm of his justicelayson eternally.
Soul, confider these things ; do thou not persist any longer then in such a desperate way of sinning against the clear conviction of thine own conscience, which in this case must needs give testimony against thee.
Well then, go to God with the words of David, Psal. Ixvi.
13, 14. andsayuntohim, " Iwillpaythee, my vows which my " lips have uttered, and my tongue hath spoken when I was
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