only he can swear a thing safely, that sees all circumstances, and foresees all occurrences; only God can swear safely, because nothing can be hid from him. God therefore that knew upon what conditions he had taken the first oath, and knew again how contemptuously those conditions were broken, he takes knowledge that he had sworn, he denies not that, but he swears again, and in his anger, I sware in my wrath, that they should not enter into my rest. Those men (says he) which have seen my glory and my miracles, and have tempted me ten times, and not obeyed my voice, certainly they shall not see the land whereof I swear unto their fathers"; neither shall any that provoke me see it; he pleads not non est factum, but he pleads conditions performed; he denies not that he swore, but he justifies himself, that he had done as much as he promised; for his promise was conditional. The apostle seems to assign but one reason of their exclusion, from this land, and from this rest, and yet he expresses that one reason so, as that it hath two branches; he says, We see that they could not enter, because of unbelief; and yet he asks the question; To whom sware he, that they should not enter into his rest, but unto them, that obeyed not? Unbelief is assigned for the cause, and yet they were shut out for disobedience; now, if the apostle make it all one, whether want of faith, or want of works, exclude us from the land of rest, let not us be too curious inquirers, whether faith or works bring us thither; for neither faith, nor works bring us thither, as a full cause; but if we consider mediate causes, so they may be both causes; faith, instrumental; works, declaratory; faith may be as evidence, works as the seal of it; but the cause is only, the free election of God. Nor ever shall we come thither, if we leave out either; we shall meet as many men in heaven, that have lived without faith, as without works. This then was the case; God had sworn to them an inheritance permanently there, but upon condition of their obedience; if they had not had a privity in the condition, if they had not had a possibility to perform the condition, their exclusion might have seemed unjust and it had been so; for though God might justly have forborne the promise, yet he could not justly break the pro mise, if they had kept the conditions; therefore he expressed the condition without any disguise, at first, If thy heart turn away, I pronounce unto you this day that you shall surely perish": you shall not prolong your days in the land. And then, when those conditions were made, and made known, and made easy, and accepted, when they so rebelliously broke all conditions, his first oath lay not in his way, to stop him from the second, As I live, saith the Lord, I will surely bring mine oath that they have broken, and my covenant that they have despised upon their head; shall they break my covenant, and be delivered? says God there 1. God confesses the oath and the covenant, to be his covenant and his oath, but the breach of the oath, and covenant, was theirs, and not his. He expresses his promise to them, and his departing from them together, in another prophet; God says to the prophet, Buy thee a girdle, bury it in the ground, and fetch it again"; and then it was rotten, and good for nothing: for says he, As the girdle cleareth to the loins, so have I tied to me the house of Israel, and Judah, that they might be my people, that they might have a name and a praise, and a glory, but they would not hear; therefore, say unto them, Every bottle shall be filled with wine; (here was a promise of plenty :) and they shall say unto thee, Do not we know, that every bottle shall be filled with wine? (that God is bound to give us this plenty?) because he hath tied himself by oath, and covenant, and promise.) But behold, I fill all the inhabitants with drunkenness; (since they trust in their plenty, that shall be an occasion of sin to them) and I will dash them against one another, even the father and sons together; I will not spare, I will not pity, I will not have compassion, but destroy them. God could not promise more, than he did in this place at first; he could not depart farther from that promise, than, by their occasion, he came to at last. God's promise goes no farther with Moses himself; My presence shall go with thee, and I will give thee rest20; if we will steal out of God's presence, into dark and sinful corners, there is no rest promised. Receive my words, says Solomon, and the years of thy life shall be many"; Trust in the 17 Deut. xxx. 17, 18. 19 Jer. xiii. 1—7. 21 Prov. iv. 10. Lord, and do good22, (perform both, stand upon those two legs, faith, and works; not that they are alike; there is a right, and a left leg but stand upon both; upon one in the sight of God; upon the other in the sight of man :) Trust in the Lord, and do good, and thou shalt dwell in the land, and be fed assuredly. That paradise, that peace of conscience, which God establishes in thee, by faith, hath a condition of growth, and increase, from faith to faith; heaven itself, in which the angels were, had a condition; they might, they did fall from thence; the land of Canaan was their own land, and the rest of that land their rest, by God's oath, and covenant; and yet here was not their rest: not here; nor, for anything expressed or intimated in the word, anywhere else. Here was a nunc dimittis, but not in peace; the Lord lets them depart, and makes them depart, but not in peace, for their eyes saw no salvation; they were sent away to a heavy captivity. Beloved, we may have had a Canaan, an inheritance, a comfortable assurance in our bosoms, in our consciences, and yet hear that voice after, that here is not our rest, except, as God's goodness at first moved him to make one oath unto us, of a conditional rest, as our sins have put God to his second oath, that he sware we should not have his rest, so our repentance bring him to a third oath, As I live I would not the death of a sinner, that so he do not only make a new contract with us, but give us withal an ability to perform the conditions, which he requires. SERMON XC. PREACHED at the cHURCHING of the COUNTESS OF MICAH ii. 10. [Second Sermon.] THUS far we have proceeded in the first acceptation of these words, according to their principal, and literal sense, as they appertained to the Jews, and their state; so they were a commination; as they appertain to all succeeding ages, and to us, so 22 Psalm xxxvii. 3. they are a commonition, an alarm, to raise us from the sleep, and death of sin; and then in a third acceptation, they are a consolation, that at last we shall have a rising, and a departing into such a state, in the resurrection, as we shall no more need this voice, Arise, and depart, because we shall be no more in danger of falling, no more in danger of departing from the presence, and contemplation, and service, and fruition of God; and in both these latter senses, the words admit a just accommodation to this present occasion, God having raised his honourable servant, and handmaid here present, to a sense of the curse, that lies upon women, for the transgression of the first woman, which is painful, and dangerous child-birth; and given her also a sense of the last glorious resurrection, in having raised her from that bed of weakness, to the ability of coming into his presence, here in his house. First then to consider them, in the first of these two latter senses, as a commonition to them, that are in the state of sin, first there is an increpation implied in this word arise; when we are bid arise, we are told, that we are fallen: sin is an unworthy descent, and an ignoble fall; secondly, we are bid to do something, and therefore we are able to do something; God commands nothing impossible so, as that that degree of performance, which he will accept, should be impossible, to the man whom his grace hath affected; that which God will accept, is possible to the godly; and thirdly, that which he commands here, is derived into two branches; we are bidden to rise, that is, to leave our bed, our habit of sin; and then not to be idle, when we are up, but to depart; not only to depart from the custom, but from temptations of recidivation; and not only that, but to depart into another way, a habit of actions, contrary to our former sins. And then, all this is pressed, and urged upon us, by a reason; the Holy Ghost appears not like a ghost in one sudden glance, or glimmering, but he testifies his presence, and he presses the business, that he comes for; and the reason that he uses here, is, quia non requies, because otherwise we lose the pondus animæ, the weight, the ballast of our soul, rest, and peace of conscience: for howsoever there may be some rest, some such show of rest as may serve a carnal man a little while, yet, says our text, it is not your rest, it conduces not to that rest, which God hath ordained for you, whom he would direct to a better rest. That rest, (your rest) is not here; not in that, which is spoken of here; not in your lying still, you must rise from it; not in your standing still, you must depart from it; your rest is not here: but yet, since God sends us away, because our rest is not here, he does tacitly direct us thereby, where there is rest; and that will be the third acceptation of these words; to which we shall come anon. For that then which rises first, the increpation of our fall implied in the word, arise, there is nothing in which that which is the mother of all virtues, discretion, is more tried, than in the conveying, and imprinting profitably a rebuke, an increpation, a knowledge, and sense of sin, in the conscience of another. The rebuke of sin, is like the fishing of whales; the mark is great enough; one can scarce miss hitting; but if there be not sea-room and line enough, and a dexterity in letting out that line, he that hath fixed his harping-iron, in the whale, endangers himself and his boat; God hath made us fishers of men; and when we have struck a whale, touched the conscience of any person, which thought himself above rebuke, and increpation, it struggles, and strives, and as much as it can, endeavours to draw fishers and boat, the man and his fortune, into contempt, and danger. But if God tye a sickness, or any other calamity, to the end of the line, that will wind up this whale again to the boat, bring back this rebellious sinner better advised, to the mouth of the minister, for more counsel, and to a better suppleness, and inclinableness, to conform himself to that which he shall after receive from him; only calamity makes way for a rebuke to enter. There was such a tenderness, amongst the orators, which were used to speak in the presence of the people, to the Roman emperors, (which was a way of civil preaching) that they durst not tell them then their duties, nor instruct them, what they should do, any other way than by saying, that they had done so before; they had no way to make the prince wise, and just and temperate, but by a false praising him, for his former acts of wisdom, and justice, and temperance, which he had never done; and that served to make the people believe that the princes were so; and it served to teach the prince that he ought to be so. And so, though this were an express, and a direct flattery, yet it was a collateral increpation too; and on the other |