A Sermon in the Canongate Meeting House , Feb. 10, 1691
James Dodson
A SERMON
Preached by
Mr. Alexander Shields,
In the Cannongate Meeting-House, Feb. 10 1691:
BEING
His last Publick Sermon before he went to Flanders.
II Samuel, Chap. 15, Verse 26. But if he say I have no delight in Thee, let him do to Me as seemeth good to him.
Printed in the Year 1702.
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If there be any Sentence or Word in the following Pages, that Runs Harshly, or may seem Imperfect, let it not be Attributed to the Author, for this Sermon is Printed as it was taken in short Hand Writing by one of the Auditors from his Mouth in the Pulpit.
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A SERMON
Preached by
Mr. ALEXANDER SHIELDS
In the Cannongate Meeting House, February 10th. 1691.
II Sam. 15. 26. But if he say I have no delight in thee, let him do to me as seemeth good to him.
TIME will not allow me to insist on the Introduction to this Passage, and I will not be so Impertinent as to take up your time in Explaining the Words, since on the last LORD’s Day, I had occasion to speak to some Preliminaries to this Passage, and to Enlarge on the Preceding Verse; They are the Words of David, in great Fear and Danger, and in great Distress, when his Son Absolom, whom he did Indulge Inordinately, who he should have Punished for his former Crimes, and whom he by his Lenity did Encourage to farther Extravagancies; I say, this Son Absolom did Conspire against his Father David, and had the Concurrence of the Universality of the People with him in it, and they prevailed so far, as to oblige David to flee Jerusalem, his Throne and Palace, And in this Distress he thought to have taken the Ark of GOD along with him, and as they were going up the Hill, David considered that the People might be Tempted to Idolize the Ark, and then they would not Confide so much in GOD, as in the External Symbol of the Lord’s Presence; the Children of Israel had done so before, as may be seen, 1 Sam. 4 Chap. They said, the Ark of GOD will deliver them from the Philistines, yet they, the Ark and all was delivered up to the Hand of the Enemy. And David thought also, that he might be well enough without it, and that if he took it with him, it would be Exposed to great Hazards, and therefore he would rather take his Hazard to be in Danger his alone, and so he Commands to take it back;
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And he Encourageth himself in the Lord, Resigning himself and all his Concerns to the Lord’s Disposal, and he makes two Suppositions, and in these he Encourageth himself; The first Supposition that he makes, is, That if the Lord will show him Favour, Then he Encourages himself in these 3 Favours, first, That the Lord would bring him back. 2. That the Lord would show him the Ark. 3. That the Lord would show him his Habitation; And then the 2d Supposition he makes is, That if I do not find Favour in the Eyes of the Lord, namely in that particular, so as to be brought back to the Ark, so as to Enjoy Gospel Privileges, to be present at his Ordinances, for he did not doubt but that he had found Favour in the Eyes of the Lord before this time, now in that case, and in that supposed case; supposing the Worst of it, he Quiets his Mind in a Submission to the Will of God; If it be so, Then let the LORD do to me, as seemeth good to him. This was the Speech of a Quiet Mind, the Expression of a Composed Soul and Heart, Established in the Faith of GOD; but now there are two things in this Verse to be Considered, 1st, A supposed Misery, if the Lord shall say, I have no Pleasure or Delight in thee; a Miserable case. 2d. There is an Expressed Submission to GOD, Then let the Lord do to me what seemeth him good. As for the first of these, we may here speak to one Doctrine, which is, that as the Lord’s People sometimes falls into Doubts of the LORD’s Delighting in them, so they must submit to the want of the Sensible Manifestations and pleasant Effects of GOD’s delighting in them, and Love towards them; but if he say, I have no Delight in thee, I’ll submit to his Will; And it Implies both a sort of Doubting, that it might be so, and it clearly Imports a Submission tho it were so: But now in speaking to this, in the first place we are to Explain this Truth a little, And 2dly, we are to Confirm and Strengthen it from Scripture, And 3dly, to make some Improvement of it, and then Proceed to a 2d thing; First, for Explication, it will be needful to put by two Doubts that may arise from this, and the first Difficulty is, Whither a Man that is once fully persuaded of the Love of God, and the LORD’s Delighting in him may fall again to Doubt, and be at an Uncertainty, as to the LORD’s Delighting in him, and if it be so, then it seems to Favour the Popish Doctrine against Assurance. 2d. There is another Difficulty, and that is, Whither or not a Saint of GOD is obliged to submit
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submit to the Privation of the Love of God: Must a Saint submit to this, That God shall not Delight in him. For the Resolution of these Difficulty’s, we must Consider, whither a Saint of GOD that is once fully Persuaded of the Love of GOD, may doubt of the Change of it; Truly David was fully Persuaded of the Love of GOD, as much as a Man could be; He was Persuaded as having a true Justifying Faith, and the Testimony of the Spirit of GOD, he had Extraordinary Testimony, and had said to the LORD, he was his Portion, and the LORD had said to him, he would be his Sanctuary, he was truly called David, beloved of GOD, he was truly GOD’s Delight, how then could he fall again into a Doubting of it; If the LORD should say, I have no Delight in thee, how could he say this, If the LORD have no Delight in me. Why, we must hold the Doctrine of Assurance against the Papists or other Adversaries, ’tis evident there’s such a thing as Assurance, for we are bid in Scripture to make our Calling and Election sure, and ’tis promised that the LORD’s People shall be assured of his Love, they shall call themselves his People, and call him their GOD; We have many of the Saints Glorying in this particular, that nothing shall separate them from the Love of GOD, how can they doubt then for Answer, tho that the Love of GOD cannot Change, and in whom he once Delights he always Delights, yet as to the Sensible Manifestations of the Love of GOD, they may be brought under a Cloud, and may have Jealousies of the Love of GOD, and that he hath Deserted them, and under Security, Faith may lose its Grips; and tho it doth not altogether lose its Grips, yet as to its lively acting, it doth lose its Grips. But now for Resolution of this first, we must understand, that tho a Saint may keep his Confidence, as to the Love of GOD, that its Unchangeable, and that he is in Covenant Relation to him, and in a state of Grace, yet ’tis very Ordinary for the LORD’s People, even those that have the greatest Attainments to Doubt of some of the Effects of the LORD’s Favour and Love; And David here Principally intends this, if the LORD say, I have no Delight in thee, so as to bring thee back to be King any more, or so as to bring thee back to the Ark again, or to my Habitation.
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Thus the Saints may Provoke GOD by their Miscarriages to withdraw the Sensible Manifestation of his Love and Favour for a time, and they may be brought to Question, whither the LORD will again Honour them in the Work of their Generation, as he hath done; They may Doubt whither the LORD will dandle them on his Knee any more; They may Doubt whither the LORD will bring them to such a Degree of the Manifestation of his Love and Comfortable Presence again, yet they are to keep a Grip of GOD’s Unchangeable Sure and well ordered Covenant. 2d. It may be Questioned, if a Saint must submit to the want of the Love of GOD. David seems here to submit to it, for tho the LORD should say, I have no delight in thee, yet I must say I will submit to it; This is indeed Difficult, but we must distinguish between the want of the Love of God considered merely as a Punishment, as the Effects of GOD’s Justice and Sovereignty. This the LORD’s People are to submit to it, and so they are to submit to every Punishment they meet with; Again it may be Considered, not only as a Punishment of Sin, but as a Complication of GOD’s Wrath Considered with its Causes, having Sin in it, and not only as a Privation of the Love of GOD, but to be the Object of GOD’s Hatred, and truly so ’tis hard to be submitted too, for to be the Object of GOD’s Hatred, for that always supposes some Evil thing in them that’s Hateful to GOD, for there is great Difference in the Negation of Love and Delight in the Creature to be Worthy of it, and to be the Object of GOD’s Hatred; They cannot submit to that to be Hated of GOD. 2dly, We would Distinguish between Submission of Consent, Sole, Acquiescing to Things, but a Saint cannot submit to be hated of GOD again: But there is a Submission of Humility, a Submission of Subjection; Indeed we must thus submit, as not to Rise up and Quarrel against the free actings of the Sovereign Love of GOD; Then thirdly we would Distinguish this Delight of GOD, there’s a Fourfold Delight of GOD towards Sinners spoken of in Scripture, first, there’s a Delight and Love of Benevolence, and that is Eternal Everlasting and Unchangeable Peremptory and Particular Love, such as that the LORD speaks of to David; Is. Only that the LORD had a Delight in thy Fathers to Choose them; His Choosing of Israel to be his Church, beyond
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the rest of the World, was the LORD’s Sovereign Delight and Love of Benevolence; Now we must not submit to the want of that, we cannot, we are not Required to do so, but we must peremptorily seek it, we must Peremptorily seek after a share of that Love, that we may be among the number of them that the LORD Loves with that Everlasting Love. But 2dly, there’s a Love and Delight of Pity, when the LORD finds his People in Sin and Misery, and sees them standing in need of a Saviour; Than he pities and Pardons them, and he makes this the Song of his People, Micah 7. 18. Who is a GOD Like unto thee, that Pardoneth Iniquity, and passeth by the Transgression of the Remnant of his Heritage; He retaineth not his Anger for ever, because he Delighted in Mercy. Indeed we must seek this, and not submit to the want of it, We are undone, if we get not this Effect of the LORD’s Delights, that he should Pardon our Iniquities. 3dly, There’s in GOD towards his People a Love and Delight of Complacency, now when he has Pardoned them, and then they are Justified and Reconciled to GOD, Now he rests in his Love, and takes pleasure in them. Thus the Scripture say, that the Lord takes not Pleasure in the Strength of Horses nor in the Legs of a Man, those that the Lord takes Pleasure and Delight in, you may see who they are, Psal: 147. The Lord has a Complacency in the Righteous; in Prov. 11. 20. Such as are upright in Heart and Way are Gods Delight, those that are Upright and Sincere in their Way not Hypocrites, but Sincere Hearted Christians they are Gods Delight, as you have in Prov. 15. 8. The Sacrifice of the Wicked is an Abomination to the Lord, but the Prayer of the Upright is his Delight. As for his Complacency we cannot well want that; we can’t submit to the want of this Love and Delight that God has in his own People, for we are Wretched and Miserable if that the Lord Delight not in us, altho we be Unworthy and may Blush to think of our Unworthiness, and Admire that God should take Pleasure in such as we are, yet we must seek it and that Peremptorily. 4ly, There’s a delight that God doth manifest in Particular Effects of his Love and Favour towards his People, and the want of that must be submitted to. As for Example, when Moses was slaying the Tumultuous Murmuring of
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of the Israelites, Numb. 14. Says he, If the Lord Delights in us, he will go along with us and give us the Land of Canaan, the Promised Land: Now these Temporal Benefits we must Submit to the want of. Now faith David here, if the Lord say I have no Delight in thee, so as to bring thee back to the Ark again, nor to my Habitation, yea if he shall cast me out of the Generation Service, and if the Lord shall say I will Employ thee no more to serve me in the station thou art in, thou must submit to that. 3ly. To Confirm this we would not stand on the Reasons of it, for its Highly Reasonable that the want of these Effects of the Lords Love must be Submitted to, we must not always expect to be Dandled on the Lords Knee, we must not expect that the Lord will always Dispense his Delight in all, as he doth in Some, and as we would desire, he should in and to us, we must leave a Latitude to his Sovereignty, and this would be Considered. 1st. If we Consider the Justice of God, altho he may Love us with a Love of Benevolence, and with a Love of Pity, yet when we Grieve his Spirit and Provoke Him to Anger; then its just with God to withdraw the Manifestations of his Delight and the sweet Comforts of it, and its just and Righteous that we should submit to it, as it is the Punishment of Iniquity if we Consider the Lords Sovereignty, that he may Favour who He Pleaseth with the Extraordinary Manifestations of Himself, And that he will Honour one with greater Pieces of Honour in their Generation than others, here we must Submit; And truly we have cause to wonder that he bestows any Favour on us, that he should so far honour us, as to Employ us in any piece of his Service at all, we must submit to his Sovereignty, who can Quarrel there, for there may be much Mercy in it; There may be Mercy even in the LORD’s Abstracting of the Sense of his Delights, and the Sensible Manifestations thereof from our Souls, and therefore we should submit; There may be Mercy in the LORD’s seeing fit not to intimate his favour to his People sometimes, but to withhold the Manifestations of his Love, and he may leave them in the Dark about it; This may be to try the Sincerity of his People’s Graces, and to Teach and
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oblige them to Live by Faith, and not by Sense, and then when they are thus in Darkness, and have not Light of Comfort, they must Learn to Trust in the Name of the LORD, and stay themselves upon their GOD, as in Isa: 50. 10. Now for Application of this, it may inform us in the first place, That we are Unworthy that the LORD should Delight in us, and it will be a Wonder of Mercy, if the Lord will ever Delight in us any more, And it was a Wonder of Mercy, That ever he took notice of us that ever he took notice of this Nation, in passing by many other Kingdoms of the World. Its Wonderful that he did so far Delight in us, as to set up his Ark among us, and to set up his Standard and Banner of the Preached Gospel among us, and brought us to a Church State: But Oh! Consider how we have slighted and too much Despised our Privileges, and Undervalued his Mercies; so that it is a Wonder if ever the LORD Delight in us any more. Indeed in as far as, we shall get our Souls for a Prey, and we are called to submit. Indeed its very hard to submit, because our Consciences must say, and this Confession must be Extorted from them, that for our Sins we deserve to be Unchurched. We Deserve, that the Ark of GOD should be taken from us, because its not kindly Entertained by us, that the Kingdom of GOD should be taken from us, the Gospel taken from us, having such bad Entertainment among us. 2dly, We may Fear, That the LORD will not so Delight in us, as to make use of us as Instruments, or to be Instruments for the Promoting and Advancing the Kingdom of GOD any more, For truly we have filthy Hands, Unclean and Polluted, not Worthy, yea very Unworthy and Unfit to Promote his Kingdom or Interest; The LORD may see fit to Employ Papists or Malignants, even the worst of Enemies to do something for his Gospel and Kingdom, Rather than to Employ Backsliding Professors; If any Man draw back my Soul, shall have no Pleasure in him; The LORD may in his Sovereignty imploy any of his Creatures as Backsliders or Apostates in his Service, but it is not Ordinary for him to do it, and it is more Common for him to lay such Backsliders aside; For as I
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said before, If any Man draw back, my Soul shall have no Pleasure in him; O what Backdrawing, O what Complying, O what Backsliding, O what pieces of Defection have been among us from the Principles of the Church of Scotland, From the Profession that have been sometime among us; O what Backsliding from the Purity of Religion that did sometime shine in this Land, but especially from the Zeal and Practice of Religion, O what Backsliding have been amongst us, and therefore GOD may Indeed lose Conceit of us, and Employ the Philistines Kine to bring back the Ark, rather than the Backsliding Israelites. Again we may Reflect on ourselves for this, That we are not Worthy that the LORD should Delight in us so far as to make us Witnesses to what he will do for the Advance and Comfort of his Church; When we are gone, the LORD may deny us that Favour, as to be so much as Witnesses to the putting on the Capstone of his Work; Indeed we have been Extraordinary Privileged to see and be Witnesses to the beginning of the LORD’s Return to his Church; But O there will be News e’re we shall get the Accomplishment and Establishment of the Work of GOD, and the putting on the Capstone of it; And truly we have Cause to Fear, that many of our Carcasses may lie in the Wilderness, and that the LORD may Defer the Accomplishment of his purpose, till this Unworthy Generation be wafted off the Stage, and when we are gone, then yet it may be that the LORD may Delight in the Posterity and Remnant that shall be left; And now however it shall be with us, it should be our Care to be Faithfull in our day, For it may be that the LORD may see fit to employ us in some Piece of Service for himself; Let us therefore be Working out our own Salvation with Fear and Trembling, and be doing the Work of our Generation Faithfully, that so it may be well with us, and that we may get our Souls for a Prey; and now it should be our Care to be doing that which GOD will Approve, and to be standing at a distance from the Pollutions and Snares of the Times. But then again in the second place, it is a sad Reproach to us that the LORD delights not in us, Oh! This is a Lamentable State of many, that they are such in whom the LORD hath no
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Delight, and truly these that are in a state of Sin, GOD hath no Delight in them; yea even the Prayer of the Wicked is an Abomination to the LORD; these that are following a course of Profanity, GOD hath no Delight in them: Ye know we use to hiss at Serpents, Dogs, Swine, and when we see them they are an offence to us, and the wicked that make a Trade of Sin, are compared to the Dog that Returns to his Vomit; O what a Loathsome hateful thing it is, to GOD and Gracious Souls, to see Men making Relapses in Sin, And returning with the Dog to his Vomit; Prophane Swearers, Drunkards, &c. while they live in their Sin without Repentance and Reformation, are as hateful to GOD as Devils are, and all those Persons that are indifferent in the Matters of GOD like warm Laodicean like, neither hot nor cold, are to Loathsome and offensive to GOD, that he will Spue them out of his Mouth, and for those that are his open Profane and avow’d Enemies he hath a Rod of Iron to Lash them with, and he will lay on such Strokes, as shall break them to pieces, like a Potters Vessel, they shall feel the Effects of his Wrath to the Eternal vexing of their Souls: But the [Bane] of this Church at this time, and what hinders the Reformation of it is, the indifferency that is in very many People that should Endeavour the carrying of it on, but too many that would have a Name in the Church of Christ, do not, nor never did think the matters of GOD worth the contending for, they do not think His Cause worth the suffering for, they think not his Truth worthy to be ventured for, if called to Dangerous occasions; Alas! this is the Bane and Reproach of this Church and the Reason that GOD can’t Delight in us, is because we are neither Cold nor Hot, he Wishes that we were either Cold or Hot. Rev: 3. 17. But O how little Zeal is to be found amongst us for to get the Church of GOD Established and set up, and his Ordinances purely Administered amongst us, and to get the Church and Land purged of its Defilements, and to get the Wicked Enemies of Christ’s Truth brought down; in this we are too luke warm and too indifferent, and therefore the Lord hath no Delight in us. To as to make us Instruments for promoting his Kingdom and Interest; and then again he hath no Delight in Hypocrites of which there is too many in this Generation.
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Isaiah 1. 11. Do I Delight in the Blood of Bullocks, do I Delight in External Ordinances, do I Delight in a Form of Godliness without the Power of it, of all the People in the World, Formalists and Hypocrites are most hateful to GOD. A Fourth sort that the LORD hath no Delight in, and a great many of them are in this Generation, and the LORD hath no Delight to bestow his Favours on such, and they are those that have too warm a side for the Enemies of GOD and his Truth; Know ye what Samuel said to Saul when he was sent to Destroy the Amalekites, he spared Agog and the best of the Cattle, pretending to Sacrifice them to the LORD. But says Samuel, Doth the LORD Delight in Burnt Sacrifices, as he doth in Obedience, Rebellion is as the Sin of Witchcraft, thou hast Rejected GOD, and he hath Rejected thee from being King over Israel. Surely there are too many that have too Warm a side to the Malignant Enemies of GOD and his Interest, they are too Favourable to them, at least the LORD hath given his People a Capacity in this Generation to suppress them, and to take a Course with Evil Doers; But instead of this, Judgement is not Executed on Murderers, the Law is not Executed against them, and by this means they are Farther Encouraged to go on in their Evil Ways; David was brought to great Distress by his too much Lenity to Absalom, against whom he should have Executed Judgment: Oh! that the LORD would make those that are Concerned in the present Government to Consider this; Its our Duty to cry to GOD, that he will stir-up Magistrates to their Duty, that He will make them to lay out the Power he hath Entrusted them with to Suppress Wickedness and Wicked Men, all Vice and Prophaneness, and to Encourage Truth and Holiness, if it be not so, the LORD will not Delight in us, and what can we do then. The next thing is, if the LORD say, I have no Delight in thee, then let him do to me as seemeth him good. I Will Readily submit to the will of GOD, this is the Duty of all the Lord’s People in all Cases and Conditions. I need not Confirm this, its confirmed from all the Commands that the LORD lays on his People, as that, Be still and know
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that I am GOD; and again be silent and humble your selves under his mighty hand; all this Enjoins Submission to the will of God: Besides, the LORD hath promised that if we come and submit to him, that he will bring forth our Righteousness as the Light, and our Judgment as the noon day; And further ’tis confirmed by the Practice of the Saints, for we find, that when Ely was under the Threatenings of GOD against his House, faith he, it is the LORD, let him do what seemeth him good, and Hezekiah faith when Isaiah comes to him with that sad Message, Isaiah 39 last Verse: Good is the Word of the LORD; and here David saith Let him do to me what seemeth him good. The Grounds and Reasons of this are those: 1ly, Sovereignty of GOD because he is the Potter, and may do with us what he will, what pleaseth him. Jerem: 18. 4. The Vessel was marr’d in the hand of the Potter, so he made it again in another Vessel as pleased the Potter to make it; he may make of his own Clay what he pleaseth, all Creatures in this sense are Subject to the Great GOD, not only his own People, but as you may see in Job 38. 35. Even all his Creatures are Subject to him, even the very Thunders and Meteors are brought in, saying here am I, the Sun, Moon and Stars, the very Lightnings and Thunders are Ready to fulfil the Will of GOD. 2d. Reason or Ground, why we should Submit to GOD, to his Will, is, because it is always good; he does always well, ’tis Good, Holy and Just, and therefore we should Submit to it, altho it be cross to our Natural Inclinations, and Difficult and hard for us to bear, and that which we can’t understand to be good for us; but whither it be so or not, we must conclude that is for our good if we be in Favour with him, and it is his Will, and therefore we must Submit to it. 3dly, I shall Speake to the Extensiveness of it, and to the Qualifications of it, We must Submit to the Will of GOD, and say, Let him do what seemeth him good. 1st. We must submit to the Decreeing Will of God, which is his Absolute purpose, and we must know that his Council shall stand, and he will do all his Pleasure; Indeed when ’tis unknown to us, we may pray for Mercy, that is, according to his Will
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And yet may be, we may pray for some Mercys decreed never to be granted, and we may so far submit to the Decree as we understand it. 2d, but those Decrees that we can’t understand, we must submit to, we must submit to the Whole will of God. 2dly, We must submit to the Providential will of God; though we meet with cross Dispensations and Afflictions, we must say with Job, The Lord hath given, and the Lord hath taken, blessed be the Name of the Lord, we should aye see the hand of the Lord in every Providence, and whatever be the Instrument in any providence, we should still acknowledge the Justice of GOD in the Providence, and we must submit to the Revealed will of GOD, yea to every part of the Revealed Will of God, to that part which is in his Commands. We must take his Yoke upon us ’tis easy, and his Burthen of Commanded Duty ’tis light, we must not dispute his Commands, nor control the same, but cheerfully obey. We must take his Commands on us, as Pleasant and Acceptable, as Abraham when he got a Command that seem’d to contradict the Promise and seem’d to Rob him of that which was so pleasant to him, so pleasant in his Eyes, Says he here I am. And likewise saith Isaiah, when he was sent with that unpleasant Message to make the People’s Heart Fat, and their Ears heavy, and to Contribute nothing to the People but the Curse and Plague of a Despised Gospel; O that was Unpleasant! and indeed sometimes a Minister gets no other Commission from the LORD but that, to Plague a Gospel Despising People with a Curse. But when the Prophet gets this Commission, here am I, send me. Whatever be the LORD’s Call and Command, when he clears it up to us, we must submit to it, though it be never so Cross and contrary to our Inclination; And then again we must submit to the Threatenings of GOD, and we must also submit to the Temporal Strokes of GOD in his Providences. We find the Godly in 1 Samuel 3. When Samuel told Eli of what Judgments was coming on his House, ’tis the LORD saith he, let him do what seemeth him good; And in so far as, we must submit to the Threatenings of the Law, as to acknowledge them Just; We must submit to the Law as a School-Master to bring us to Christ, we
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must not Spurn against him, we must pull our selves from under the Dint of the Threatenings of the Law, being Awakened by it, so as to come to Christ. We must submit to the Law of GOD, and we must especially submit to the offers of GOD in the Gospel of his Son Jesus Christ, and his Righteousness; And indeed that is the greatest and most Difficult Submission. Rom. [10.]3. They were about to Establish their own Righteousness, ’Tis the most Difficult thing in Nature for our Proud Hearts to submit to a borrowed Righteousness, and to Disclaim a Conceit of our own Righteousness, for the Children of Adam to Remove all Claim to the old Covenant of Works, to Renounce their own Righteousness, and to cast themselves down at the Feet of Christ as Poor Naked Needy Beggars, and submit wholly to him, taking him alone for Life and Salvation; This is a great Submission, and Proud Hypocrites and Legalists will not do this as long as they have any thing like Righteousness of their own; They will not submit to Christ for Righteousness, No, they will be Damned in Hell e’re they will submit to Christ and his Righteousness, e’re they will Receive him as their Prophet, Priest and King, for Wisdom, Righteousness, Sanctification and Redemption, as their Compleat Saviour. And then we should Patiently submit to Crosses and Tribulations for the Name of Christ; and ’tis our Duty to be Enquiring after the Mind and Will of GOD in them, and we should be saying with Paul, when he met with Christ by the way, and when he fell down to the Earth, and heard a Voice saying, Saul, Saul, Why Persecutest thou me? Then faith he, LORD what wilt thou have me to do? as if he had said, I’ll do any thing that thou wilt have me to do. I will submit to any thing that thou will have me submit to, I’ll do it without any Reserve, and so should we; We should take up that Resolution, and Resign our selves and all to GOD’s Disposal. And this is a special Submission to the Will of GOD, when our selves and ours, and all that we are any ways Concerned with, is freely Resigned and given up by us to the LORD’s Disposal, let him do with us what he pleaseth; This is implied here, let him Employ us in what Work or Service he pleaseth; We should be ready
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ready to take up that Resolution with David, Readily to submit; Let him do with us what seemeth him good. The LORD Bless his Word, and make it Effectual to the good of our Souls; Now to him who is able to do it, be all Praise and Glory.
FINIS.