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3. They have an Appetite to this spirituall food. As they feel a need of it, so they have an earnest & eager desire after it. Their Soul longs after good things, after Christ, his righteousnes, grace & benefits out of that extream need they feel of the same. Hence they are described to be longing Souls. Ps. 107. 9. Hungering & thirsting after righteousnes. Mat. 5. 6. Whose Souls thirst, pant & long after God & for comunions with him. Ps. 63. 1. 2. & 42. 1, 2. & 84. 2. This is the thing their hearts are upon Ps. 27. 4. 44 are seeking. Isai. 41. 17.
4. They are not satisfyed till they are filled with this spiritual food, with these good things. Hunger will not be allayed or wear off till there be something to satisfy it. Hence these hungry souls are restles till they can meet with something of God to satisfy them. Lam. 3. 49, 50. till the Lord look down etc. until the Lord be pleased by some relief & delivery afforded me to make it appear that he doth regard, take notice of & take to heart my present dejected & distressed condition. Engl. Annot.
5. These hungry souls are such as have not wherewith to supply their wants in or of themselves. They are altogether destitute as to themselves, 44 have nothing now can they any way come by any thing whereby their souls may be filled. They are plain beggars. Refuge fails them. Ps. 142. 4, 5. They have no where to go, now nothing to take to, 44 are nothing but want & necessity.
6. They are sensible they deserve no good whereby their souls should be refreshed & delighted. They have no worthiness in them for which God should bestow any thing upon them. They can plead for nothing from God upon the account of any thing in them selves, they can challenge nothing at his hands. Luk. 15. 21. They acknowledge that if God ever shew them mercy it will be exceeding rich mercy & altogether free & undeserved.
7. Being hungry & empty they look to Christ & his fulnes for all they want to be satisfyed & filled. There is in Christ a fulnes. Col. 1. 19. which is for the good of his people. John. 1. 14, 15, 16. Now to this full Christ do these empty souls look, they hunger after him & his benefits. The earnest eager pursuit of their souls is after him as who only can satisfy & fill & content them. Phil. 3. 7-14. The evangelically hungry soul hath an appetite to & a longing after Jesus Christ & cannot be satisfyed without or till the enjoyment of (him.
6. [illegible] in Isai. 41.17.
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2 Q. What are those good things that God fills the hungry with? An. They are spiritual good things. It is out of his heavenly treasure & spiritual store that God supplyes them. They are the good things of communion with God in Christ wherewith he fills them. The good things which God bestowes upon hungry souls that are truely longing after real durable good are such as these. C
1. Pardon of sin & the sense of it. This God gives to poor hungry, empty, needy souls that are seeking for it. Psal. 32. 5. Forgivenes of sin is a great benefit that sinful Man enjoyes through the Redemption that is in Christ. Ephes. 1. 7.
2. Justification & acceptance in the blood of Christ & the sense of it.
3. Washing & cleansing from Sin. Deliverance from the stain, pollution & power of Sin.
4. Spiritual refreshment & enlargements. Isai. 41. 17, 18. & 44. 3.
5. Sense of the love of God. Isai. 57. 15.
6. Peace & quietnes of Soul.
7. Consolation & joy. Ps. 126. 5, 6.
8. Grace & holines. Prov. 3. 34.
9. Strength to do the will of God. Isai. 40. 29.
3. Q. How or after what manner doth God fill the hungry souls with his good things?
An. 1. Negatively. (1) He does not give a perfect & compleat fulnes of all good things to ye souls of his servants in this life. Fulnes of joy is reserved to another place, to the more immediate fruition of Gods prudence in heaven. Ps. 16. 11.
(2) God doth not so fill the souls of his servants, but that there still remains a desire of more in them. Yea the more they are filled, the more earnest is this desire after more. And if at any time they are so filled with the incomes of God to them, as that they are fain to cry to God to hold, yet even then there is something which they want & desire from God, as [illegible] & ability to bear more of his presence, or the like. 1. Pet. 2. 2, 3.
(3) God doth not fill ye hungry alwayes equally or alike with his good things. He gives sometimes more sometimes less as he sees meet, in various measures & degrees.
(4) God does not alwasy fill ye hungry at All, when they come before him. Sometimes & it may be many times
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2. Affirmatively, Gods filling the hungry with good things implyes (1) That God bestows or imparts largely to such, he gives them a great & rich portion or measure of his good things. Isai. 35. 1, 2. Ps. 132. 15. 'I will abundantly bless her provision. Thus David speaks of Gods dealing bountifully with his soul, when he was in a low & needy condition. Ps. 116. 7. And from that abundance which God gives forth his church & people, his friends are invited to take in abundantly at his Ordinances. Cant. 5 .1.
(2) That God gives to the satisfaction & content of the hungry soul. Ps. 132. 15 'I will satisfy her poor with bread. Psal. 22. 26. Tho by what they enjoy their desires after more are not worn out, yet they have soul-satisfaction, delight & contentment in what they enjoy when God fills their hungry souls with good things. As Prov. 13. 25. Those good things they recieve from God they are sweet, refreshing, satiating & replenishing to their weary & sorrowful souls. Jer. 31. 25.
(3) it implyes that it is Gods wonted manner to bestow largely of his good things to the satisfaction of hungry souls. It is Gods way to deal with men to relieve & give forth to the needy, that in the sense of the want are hungring after supply. God does not alwayes do it that he may maintain his soveraignty but he does for the most part do it because he delights to show mercy to those in necessity. Psal. 146. 7, 8, 9. {sequ. 28. 5. 1678.
R 1. Because God loves to make Mans extremity his Opportunity of shewing mercy. To help when there is none to help, to be seen in the mount. Gen. 22. 14. to help his servants when their power is gone Deut. 32. 36. to show himself a powerful & gracious Savior in hopeles cases. When the poor & needy seek water & their tongue fails for thirst, then to open rivers. When the dry bones ly scattered upon the ground then to bring flesh & skin upon them & breath life into them & make them stand on their feet. When Isaac is bound upon ye Altar then will
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the Lord call from heaven. When Israel is in cruel bondage in Egypt then will God send to visit them. When they are encamped by the Red Sea hem'd in on every side, the sea before them the Egyptians marching after them, now must they stand still & see the salvation of the Lord & the fatal overthrow of their enemyes. When Jehoshaphat & all Judah were in a great strait & know not what to do, because of the great multitude that came against them, then God will set ambushments against their enemyes & set them one against another to Destroy one another. God loves to take such opportunityes to step in for the help of his people. And so when they are hungry & craving for food & languishing for want of it then to fill them.
2. R. Because God will have persons know they are beholding to him for mercy. And therefore he will let them see themselves destitute of all means to help themselves before he will shew them mercy He will bring them to acknowledge all is of God. And therefore they shall be empty & hungry before he will give them supply.
3. R. Because hungry needy souls are in the fittest posture to receive mercy. They will prize it most, they will be exceeding thankfull for it, the will improve it best. They will make much of it, who are sensible what it is to be without it, who are earnestly desirous of it & have been eagerly seeking after it. They will walk most humbly under it & be like to bring forth most fruit of it.
4. R. Because the Lord Jesus was appointed a Mediator & Redeemer for this end to procure relief & good things for the needy, hungry, oppressed, & destitute. Isai. 61. 1, 2, 3. The worthiness is Christs upon account of which these hungry souls are satisfyed & filled with good things.
Use. 1. It may be for encouragement to those who are in a poor, hungry, needy condition. You have a gracious God in Christ Jesus to go to who is wont to fill such with his good things. Therefore take courage. Ps. 31. 24. If you have any sincere desire to be filled with the good things of Gods grace & favour, let not your present empty needy state & frame dishearten you. God hath a gracious respect to such. Psal. 102. 17. & 9. 18.
1. Obj. But my poverty & misery is caused by my sinful neglects & miscarriages.
An. 1. Let this deeply humble you. Bemoan your selfe that
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8 you are naturally a sinful polluted creature & that you have carried it so sinfully & unworthingly toward so gracious a God. There is all reason we shant remember our sinful wayes & miscarriages toward God with selfe loathing & abhorrency. Ezek. 36. 31. It becomes us to acknowledge & judge our selves not worthy of ye least good thing from God. The spirit of the returning prodigal should be in us. Luk. 15. 21 2. You have the more need of great grace from God. The more your sin hath been & the more misery you have brought your selves into by it. By how much more prevalent corruption hath been or is & the more abundant & gross miscarriages have been so much ye more need you have of the pardoning cleansing & healing grace of God. If you have so utterly undone your selves who hath more need of the riches of Gods grace to recover & set you up again? If God dont fill your hungry starved souls with good things whence can you have supply? When the Psalmist confesses that they had sinned with great aggravation Psal. 106. 6. then he earnestly begs Gods special favour, v. 4, 5. 3. It is not sin impenitency in sin that will hinder you from receiving mercy & being filled with good things. Sin is so far from hindering your receiving of mercy that they are only sinners that God will shew mercy to. Christ came to save sinners, to call them & not the righteous to Repentance. Mat. 9.13. Let your sins be or have been what they will, & so your case never so bad, you have destroyed your selfe grievously transgressed, slighted mercyes, neglected means indulged sloth & security: This makes your case bad, yet not hopeless. There is sufficiency encough in the merit of Christs death to save the worst of sinners. But Impenitency in Sin that will hinder mercy and good being received. If Sin be retained, loved, liked that will indeed put a bar to our being filled with good things. If we like our sins & will keep them we shall have them & the fruits and conseque[nces] of them. God won't make make the obstinate soul of the sinner the subject of his special mercyes, till it be changes. But if notwithstanding all your sin & miscarriage you will be now penitent, & willing to comply with God's will in putting away sin & returning to God, God is ready to show you mercy & seasonably to fill you with his good things. Isaiah 1.18, 19. tho your sins be as scarlet