entertainment to such loose companions as evil thoughts are Well then if we had this heavenly affection strong in us it would not suffer unwholesom weeds to grow up so near it either our Love would consume those weeds or those weeds will choak our Love 5. Exercise faith As the habit of faith is attended with habitual sanctification so the acts of faith are accompanied with a progress in the degrees of it That faith which brings Christ to dwell in our souls will make us often think of our inmate Faith doth realize divine things and make absent objects as present and so furnisheth fancy with richer streams to bath it self in than any other principle in the world As there is a necessity of the use of fancy while the soul is linked to the body so there is also a necessity of a corrective for it Reason doth in part regulate it but 't is too weak to do it perfectly because fancy in most men is stronger than reason Mirand de Imaginat cap. 11 12. man being the highest of imaginative beings and the lowest of intelligent fancy is in its exaltation more than in creatures beneath him and reason in its detriment more than in creatures above him and therefore the imagination needs a more skilful guide than reason Fancy is like fire a good Servant but a bad Master if it march under the conduct of faith it may be highly serviceable and by putting lively colours upon divine truth may steal away our affections to it Faith is the evidence of things not seen viz. not by a corporeal but intellectual eye and so it will supply the office of sense 'T is the substance of things hoped for and if hope be an attendant on faith Psal 42.5 Why art thou cast down Oh my soul and why art thou disquieted within me Hope thou in God our thoughts will surely follow our expectations The remedy David used when he was almost stifled with disquieting thoughts was to excite his soul to a hope and confidence in God Psal 42.5 and when they return'd upon him he useth the same diversion v. 11. The peace of God i. e. the reconciliation made by a Mediator between God and us believingly apprehended will keep or garrison our hearts and minds or thoughts against all anxious assaults both from within and without †Phil 4.6 7. 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 When any vain conceit creeps up in you act faith on the intercession of Christ and consider Is Christ thinking of me now in Heaven and pleading for me and shall I squander away my thoughts on trifles which will cost me both tears and blushes Believingly meditate on the promises they are a means to cleanse us from the filthiness of the spirit as well as that of the flesh * 2 Cor 7.1 Having therefore these promises let us cleanse our selves c. If the having them be a motive the using them will be a means to attain this end Looking at the things that are not seen preserves us from fainting and renews the inward man day by day †2 Cor. 4.16 18. These invisible things could not well keep our hearts from fainting if faith did not first keep the thoughts from wandring from them 6. Accustom your self to a serious meditation every morning Fresh airing our souls in Heaven will engender in us purer spirits and nobler thoughts A morning seasoning would secure us for all the day Intus existens prohibet alienum Though other necessary thoughts about our callings will and must come in yet when we have dispatch'd them let us attend our morning Theme as our chief companion As a man that is going with another about some considerable business suppose to Westminster though he meets with several friends in the way and salutes some and others with whom he hath some affairs he spends a little time yet he quickly returns to his companion and both together go their intended stage Do thus in the present case Our minds are active and will be doing something though to little purpose and if they be not fixed upon some noble object they will like mad men and fools be mightily pleased in playing with straws The thoughts of God were the first Visiters David had in the morning Psal 139 17 18 God and his heart met together as soon as he was awake and kept company all the day after In this meditation look both to the matter and manner 1. Look to the matter of your meditation Let it be some truth which will assist you in reviving some languishing grace or fortifie you against some triumphing corruption for 't is our darling sin which doth most envenom our thoughts †Prov. 23.7 As a man thinks in his heart so is he As if you have a thirst for honour let your fancy represent the honour of being a child of God and heir of Heaven If you are inclined to covetousness think of the riches stored up in a Saviour and dispensed by him If to voluptuousness fancy the pleasures in the ways of wisdom here and at God's right hand hereafter This is to deal with our hearts as Paul with his hearers to catch them with guile Stake your soul down to some serious and profitable mystery of Religion as the Majesty of God some particular Attribute The heads of the Catechism might be taken in order which would both encrease and actuate our knowledg Psal 40.5 his condescension in Christ the love of our Redeemer the value of his sufferings the vertue of his bloud the end of his ascension the work of the Spirit the excellency of the soul beauty of holiness certainty of death terror of judgment torments of Hell and joys of Heaven Why may not that which was the subject of God's innumerable thoughts be the subject of ours God's thoughts and counsels were concerning Christ the end of his coming his death his precepts of holiness and promises of life and that not only speculatively but with an infinite pleasure in his own glory and the creatures good to be accomplished by him Would it not be work enough for our thoughts all the day to travel over the length breadth heighth and depth of the love of Christ Would the greatness of the journey give us leisure to make any starts out of the way Having settled the Theme for all the day we shall find occasional assistances even from worldly businesses as Scholars who have some Exercise to make find helps in their own course of reading though the Book hath no design'd respect to their proper Theme Thus by imploying our minds about one thing chiefly we shall not only hinder them from vain excursions but make even common objects to be oyl to our good thoughts which otherwise would have been fuel for our bad Such generous liquor would scent our minds and conversations all the day that whatsoever motion came into our hearts would be tinctured with this spirit and savour of our morning
preparation and introduction to it a valley never to be fill'd up the Gospel doth by no means allow of Self-Exaltation no flesh must glory in his presence 1 Cor. 1.29 we must still seem vile in our own eyes 2. Of God and of his mercy which is two-fold 1. Privative which is a total privation of the habit root or principle of true saving hope as in all unbelievers 2. Negative a cessation of the acts of hope which is twofold A total cessation at least as to our sense and discerning of the actings of Hope for a time this is temporary Despair Gradual arising from a weakness in the actings of Hope which is Despair in opinion counted so by weak doubting Christians both these last mentioned are incident to true Believers and occasion much sorrow and sadness to them But this Privation or negation of hope doth not fully set forth the nature of despair in which there seems to be somewhat positive recessus a re desiderata as the Schools speak an actual with-drawing from Christ the heart falls off from the Promises doth act against them puts them from us despair argues and reasons the soul out of its hope puts in a caveat against it self cannot think that a person under such circumstances can be within the meaning of the promise and so sinks and faints away Job 17.15 This is more than meer privation or negation there is an evil disposition wrought in the heart by unbelief which fills the soul with many prejudices against the truth makes it pertinaciously to adhere unto its own erroneous judgment so that it can do nothing now but quarrel dispute and except against all that may be said on t'other side These things premis'd I now come to shew the difference between Despair and Hope 1. Despair is the result of strong legal convictions urging the sentence of the Law against us without any consideration of Gospel-Grace for our relief and succour This works great consternation fills the soul with amazing fears shuts it up in a dark dungeon claps it in irons binds it hand and foot and so leaves it under a fearful expectation of fiery indignation to devour it But Hope deals in the promises is begotten by them and bears up the soul under the condemnation of the Law 2. Despair indisposes the soul from hearkning to the free grace of the Gospel when 't is offered because it still retains those strong impressions and dreadful apprehensions which the Law hath wrought and will not be comforted But Hope allayes these fears makes the soul willing to debate the matter to hear what the Gospel sayes to see what may be done in so dangerous a cause 3. Despair sees more in sin than in Christ and supposes the wound incurable my sin is greater than can be forgiven But Hope sees Grace superabounding large enough to cover all our sins 4. Despair is very peremptory and positive in concluding against it self 't is resolv'd upon nothing but death greater than can be forgiven a lost undone creature to all eternity it cannot be otherwise As in the highest decree of faith and hope there is assurance of salvation so here there is a dismal uncomfortable assurance of damnation But Hope though it may be accompanied with many fears and doubts yet there is some expectation of good a patient looking for and sollicitous waiting though sometimes with trembling for salvation the soul doth not give over its pursuit after life and pardon but when 't is at the lowest ebb doth apprehend some possibility of escape through Christ it may be for all this we shall be hid in the day of the Lords anger Zeph. 2.3 it may be we shall be delivered from the wrath to come Thus Hope draws on the soul to Christ encouraging it to come forward Directions how to avoid both extreams 1. Against Presumption whether of our selves or of God 1. Against that Presumption that is of our selves take these following Directions 1. Take up so much of a sense of sin into the mount of Hope as may keep thy hope from swelling into presumption or from feeding upon any thing in thy self 2. Be much in proving thy hope in giving thy self and others a reason of it 1 Pet. 3.15 this is the way to keep it right consider what that reason is whether it be a true Gospel-ground of hope as natural affections in a man must be guided by reason so spiritual affections in a Christian must be regulated and influenced by Faith I believed and therefore have I spoken 2 Cor. 4.13 so it holds here I believe and therefore do I hope 3. Suspect those acts of Hope that have their rise from any thing else but Christ and the promises the heart of man is deep and very deceitful 't is no easie matter to understand our hope at all times and to manage it aright we are apt to forget our selves flesh will be putting in and contributing something from its self towards the support of our hope it will be casting in something into the scale with Christ to make better weight This we must carefully watch against keeping our eye only upon Christ as David Psal 62.5 6. When we find our hearts pleasing themselves with any self-reflections upon our own personal worth in any kind we should fear lest those thoughts should gather too fast and puff us up in a vain conceit of our selves we should see nothing but meanness vileness and unworthyness in our selves under the highest actings of our hope in Christ Though I were perfect yet would I not know my soul Job 8.21 4. Begin thy Hope with an act of humble holy despair of thy self that thy hope may be discharged on that hand forc't to quit all expectations from thence and not be tempted to any sinister aspect that way upon so poor empty insufficient a thing as thou knowest thy self to be We know not what to do but our eyes are upon thee 2 Chron. 20.12 Our hope though it look never so directly upon Christ yet it is too too apt to take in some collateral encouragements from self which do cause a further dilation in the heart and make some secret and if we observe our own spirit some sensible additions to the joy and complacency we have in our hope we bless our selves the more and though we are pleased with Christ yet we are pleased with something besides Christ and this spoils all it poysons our hope is like a Canker eats like a Gangrene and is a great blemish to our hope 5. If all this will not do but still thy proud heart is big with expectation of something from God upon its own account and thou canst not separate self from Christ in the out-goings of thy hope then my advice is Answer thy foolish heart for once in its folly and take its supposed worth into thy serious consideration weigh it well prove it examine all its pretences that the truth may appear and that you may do this
my spirit rejoyceth in God my Saviour Luke 2. I will rejoyce in the God of my salvation Hab. 3. your Father Abraham saw my day and did rejoyce to see it the plain English is this Abraham saw Jesus Christ in the promises sc his obedience and sufferings and the glory that came by Christ's righteousness and did apply it to himself by Faith and was assured of his interest in it which made him to rejoyce in that sight Though a Prince may have a legal right to a treasure hid in the field yet till it be discovered to him there is no joy the love of God is shed abroad in our hearts by the Holy Ghost and so we rejoyce in the hope of the glory of God Rom. 5.2 5. I will not dispute whether assurance be of the nature of Faith our Reformers were of renown and other learned men since at home and abroad that are for assurance do not at any hand exclude adherence some think that Faith is a mixed habit adherence and assurance are two acts of the same Faith two flowers from the same root 'T is true there may be adherence without assurance but it is as true that there cannot be assurance without adherence If I know and believe that Christ died for me I should stick to it in negotio justificationis without taking notice of any inherent holiness either in men or Angels how do the stars disappear at the rising brightness of the Sun yet no disparagement to the stars at all But I say I will not dispute and if I could it were both unseasonable and needless for whether assurance be of the nature of Faith or whether it be an effect of Faith is all one in this case before us for there must be something of assurance that must bring in joy and comfort The believers here in my Text they loved Christ and in whom after they believed they did rejoyce with joy unspeakable their first acts of Faith might be recumbency afterwards evidence then joy so the Ephesians after they believed in Christ they were sealed with the holy Spirit of promise as an earnest Ephes 1.13 14 15. The note of the old learned and pious Piscator is unusquisque fidelis verus est not esse potest or esse debet but est certus suae salutis I will name but one Scripture more 't is Cant. 2.6 my beloved is mine and I am his he feeds among the lillies my beloved is mine there is the Gospel with its marrow in the heart of a believer there is assurance and I am his there is the law in the same heart there is obedience he feedeth among the lillies there is joy and comfort he died for me and I am his soul and body for his service Hence comes joy and sometimes such that even overwhelms This for the entrance now to the directions First If you would get Faith comforting in life as well as saving at death you must not sit down satisfied with a bare recumbence on Jesus Christ Mistake me not I do not discourage and I dare not disparage it If it be right as I take that for granted it is a grace more precious incomparably than all treasures and happy is the bosom that wears so inestimable a Jewel But when Christians sensible of their sin and hell do attain to this they rest satisfied here They are told and that is truth that their state is safe there they acquiesce set up their staff behind the door and go no further they do not press on for assurance they will rather argue against it thus Object That assurance is not so necessary Answ So necessary what do you mean is it not commanded is it not promised is it not purchased is it not attained by the people of God sure it is necessary to the vigor of grace and to the being of joy and comfort be of good comfort thy sins are pardoned Object 2. Yea but many do live and die and do well without it Answ Who told you so the Scripture saith the Spirit himself doth bear witness with our spirits that we are the children of God Rom. 8.16 and we know and believe the love that God hath given us 1 John 4.16 with many very many more Texts to that purpose A tempted believer may bear false witness against himself sure such a position as this with mercy upon uncertainties is not the way to comfort him the sure way were to advise him to see his sins more and humble his soul more for them and to study Jesus Christ and to come to him more with the like and God will return and speak peace they that sow in tears shall reap in joy Object 3. But this joy is not so necessary Resp What do you mean again so necessary why 1. It is frequently commanded take one Text Phil. 4.4 Rejoyce in the Lord i. e. Christ always and again I say rejoyce 2. It is frequently promised I will make them joyful in my house of prayer Isa 56.7 I will see you again and your heart shall rejoyce and your joy no man taketh from you 3. It is practised frequently we rejoyce in Christ Jesus Phil. 3.3 4. It is often prayed for the God of hope fill you with all joy and peace in believing Rom. 15.13 5. It is Christ's office to give the oyl of gladness for the spirit of heaviness Isa 61.3 6. It is the special work of the blessed Spirit who is therefore the Comforter Take the word 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 in what notion you will his work is either comforting or tending to comfort Lastly It is the priviledge of the Gospel-Ordinances to feast the soul with marrow and fatness and with wine well refined i. e. God hath not given us the spirit of bondage to fear again as formerly but the Spirit of adoption whereby or rather by whom i. e. cujus ope we cry abba Father Surely joy and comfort is necessary for the measures of grace If you had a child infirm sickly hard-favoured and a friend should say this strength quickness and comeliness is not so necessary your child is alive is it not you would think this were hardly sutable much less comfortable Object 4. A Christian that doth come to and rely on Christ for righteousness may have comfort Answ yes but then it must be by the way of a practical syllogism He that cometh to Christ shall never perish Joh. 6. but I do so therefore Here his coming together with repentance and obedience which are concomitants beget evidence and from thence comfort Object 5. but many good people want this joy and comfort Answ confessed but then it is our own fault did we use the means especially secret duties meditation prayer which we neglect it would be otherwise Object Last But those that do these yet are in great darkness Answ Yea for sometime The holy spirit teacheth many lessons excellent ones in this School chiefly these three 1. They learn what dismal creatures
time of day it is with your Soul Pray therefore and strive for renewed sights of Grace and for anointing with fresh Oyl for the Saints do often lose their Impressions through carelesness and inadvertency whilest they have here and there to do or indulgence to some Carnality and through the malignancy of some over beating temper or temptation in an hour and power of Darkness And this makes the Soul to drive heavily which sometimes ran as pleasantly as the Chariots of Aminadib but now the Wheels begin to skreek through want of fresh anointings It being so look to your Vessels and your Oil and see how they are stored with it and how the Spirit shineth at any time upon his own Lines and Figures This also I premise to the answer of the Question because the soul never acteth Grace so vigorously as vvhen ones state is cleared First therefore for resolution Maintain your Faith in frequent exercise and make no less conscience of acting daily Faith than you do of daily Prayer For we are apt to rest in a quondam Call to Christ and in the original work of Faith and not to be coming still to Christ and that as earnestly and studiously as if we had never come before He that is coming unto me saith Christ John 6.35 1 Pet. 2.4 The word in the Original is a Participle of the Present Tense And through the neglect of this daily coming the soul is often in the dark and seemeth to have lost the Promise in which it was formerly drawn to Christ by means whereof it is sometimes midnight with the wisest Virgins as well as so at other times by means of their security For instance By Faith Abraham when he was called not only unto Canaan but unto Christ obeyed for he looked more to the Promised Seed than to the Promised Land else what had his Faith been But now in tract of time viz. about ten years after he begins to call the Promise into question Gen. 15.2 and to make the Steward of his house his Heir till God renewed the Promise to revive thereby the actings of his sleeping Faith Look now towards Heaven saith God and tell the Stars if thou be able to number them and he said unto him so shall thy Seed be Upon this Abraham believed in the Lord and it was accounted to him for righteousness Why Did he not believe before Yes The Apostle dateth his Faith from his coming out of Vr of the Caldees Heb. 11.8 And yet here we meet with a second Date i. e. as to an eminent reviving act of his Faith as if he had omitted to believe as indeed he did and now began again which was only an interruption not an intercision Now thus it may be with you who believed many years ago but the Promise and Impression of it is perhaps almost worn out and your Faith begins to languish but the Promise is still the same and the word of the Lord endureth for ever and that is the word of the Gospel which is preached to you wherefore take hold of it again and again and of Christ therein and not only of that particular promise wherein Christ at first was held out unto you but of any other that occurreth and in the frequent renewings of your Faith your drooping hearts will be revived and long at last for the coming of him in whom your Soul believeth You know that your Faith will determine with your Life and therefore improve it daily for your Death which draweth on by gradual steps in which you are still making forwards towards the Bridegroom's coming who keeps equal paces with you so that he and you will meet together at the point of dissolution Your Faith cannot conquer Death for there is no discharge in that war between Death and Nature only Faith will vanquish the dread and horror of it For Death in which the Bridegroom first cometh to us is in it self the King of Terrors other Afflictions as Poverty Reproach Imprisonment Debt Exile Sickness c. are inferiour fears which possibly may be escaped and out of which there is oftentimes deliverance but Death is the Soveraign Lord and King of all of them from whence there is no return He that goeth down to the Grave shall come up no more but passeth presently unto the highest Tribunal there to receive the eternal judgment whether of Absolution or of Condemnation And upon this account the fear of the King of Terrors is the King of Fears and a sore and painful bondage in which many are held all their Life-time till Faith in Christ release them yea and afterwards also if their Faith be not the stronger What shall I say then but Awake Faith and flee to him for refuge who through death hath destroyed him that hath the power of Death that is the Devil and delivered them who through fear of Death were all their life-time subject unto bondage For without this Refuge of Faith Christ's coming by Death is terrible and astonishing which the bare habit of Faith cannot cure and conquer Believe therefore that you are Christ's and believe it daily by frequent closings with him and resignations of your selves unto him and then you are not so much Death's as Death is yours 1 Cor. 3.22 23. Make good your interest in the Bridegroom and then you will rejoice at his coming Make haste my Beloved saith the Bride Cant. 8. ult Why so Because he is Beloved and my Beloved And the Spirit and the Bride say Come Rev. 22.17 i. e. The Spirit in the Bride or the Spirit of the Bride for a Bride hath a Bride-like Spirit which longeth for the coming of the Bridegroom But perhaps the weak Believer cannot reach to say thus and therefore saith the Bridegroom to him Let him that is athirst come If thou canst not say Come to me I say Come to thee For we must first come to Christ before we can say Come to him yea we must have some sense of our coming unto him before we can heartily say Come to h m. And this Faith that I have spoken of is the principal Grace preparing the Believer for the coming of Christ provided that it be maintained in frequent exercise for hereby the Person is justified the Heart purified the Conscience pacified a sweet Correspondence continued between Christ and the believing Soul Death conquered and Heaven opened Secondly This Faith doth necessarily work by Love and as they always do co-operate so are they commensurate and carry a just proportion each to other though peradventure you may be more sensible of your Love than of your Faith But now the more you abound in both the more you will long for the coming of Christ and be the more prepared for it No marvel therefore that the Apostle loved the appearance of Christ 2 Tim. 4.8 with Acts 21.13 who had so great a love to his person that he was not only ready to be bound but to dye at Jerusalem for the
imperfect state have some warping on their parts and some withdrawing on God's yet their love to God in the lowest ebbe tremblingly hankers after him the soul cannot forget its alone resting-place l Psal 116.7 2. Our Love to God is like the love of the Flower of the Sun to the Sun It springs of a very little seed it is not only our Faith but our Love that is at first like a grain of mustard-seed it growes the fastest of any Flower whatsoever It is not only Faith but Love that grows exceedingly m 2 Thes 1.3 It alwayes turns and bows it self towards the Sun our Love to God is alwayes bowing and admiring alwayes turning to and following after God It opens and shuts with the Suns rising and setting our Love when it is what it should be opens it self to God and closes it self against all other Objects It brings forth seed enough for abundance of other Flowers love to God is the most fruitful Grace that when it blossoms and buds it fills the face of the World with fruit n Isa 27.6 3. Our Love to God is like the love of the Turtle to her Mate God's People are his Turtle o Psal 74.19 I grant they most properly resemble Brotherly Love but why not our Love to God they never associate with other Birds the loving soul keeps fellowship with God and out of choice with him only and those that bear his Image The Turtle never sings and flyes abroad for recreation as other birds but they have a peculiar note for each other the soul that loves God flutters not about for worldly vanities no recreation so sweet as Communion with God the Soul's converse with God is peculiar When one dies the other droops till it dies so that they do as it were live and dye in the Embraces of each other so the soul that loves God his loving kindness is better than life p Psal 63.3 and there 's nothing makes a Saint more impatient of living than that he cannot while he lives have a full Enjoyment of God 4. Our Love to God should be like though exceed Jacobs love to Benjamin q Gen. 42.38 He 'l starve rather than part with Benjamin and when hunger forc'd him from him and he was like to be by a wile kept from him Judah offers to purchase his liberty with his own because his Fathers life was bound up in the Lads life r Gen. 44.30 so the Soul that loves God is not able to bear the thoughts of parting with him his life is bound up in enjoying the presence of God I have been too long but oh that I could affect your Hearts as well as inform your Judgments What it is to love God with the heart what it is to love God Now then let 's reassume the Enquiry what it is to love the Lord our God with all our Heart some referr this to the thoughts s Aâ—g some to the vegetative Soul t Creg Nys some to the Understanding that it may be free from errour u Anselm others q.d. Lay up all these things in your hearts w Origen but the other words will take in most of these and therefore according to Scripture we must understand the Will and Affections and so the word is taken Josh 22.5 Moses the servant of the Lord charged you to love the Lord your God with all your heart As out of the heart proceeds life so from the Will proceeds all Operations the Will ought to be carryed towards God with it's whole force all the Affections of a pure and holy heart are directed to the onely Love of God x Gerhard Harm c. 156. Love riseth from the Will now there 's a two-fold Act of the y Elici us in peratus Will that which is immediately drawn forth of the Will it self the Will own Act and such an Act the Will exerts in loving God and then there is the commanded Act of the Will which is the Act of some other power moved to that Act by the Will where the will is filled with the love of God it moves the understanding to meditate of God whom we love and to enquire after the excellency of the Object loved We must not love God onely with the heart but with the whole heart What it is to love God with the whole heart pray mark this perfect Hatred and perfect Love knows no such thing as the world calls z Judicium rerum non câ—gnoscit Aut. imper operis Prudence if you perfectly hate any one all things about him displease you whatever he says or does though it be never so good it seems to you to be evil so if you perfectly love any one all things about him please you Some expound this totality by this distinction we are to love God with the whole heart Positively and Negatively Positively where all Powers of the will are set to love God and this we cannot perfectly doe while we are travellers till we come to our heavenly Country but Negatively thou shalt so love God that nothing contrary to the love of God shall be entertained in thy heart and this we may attain to a pretty tolerable perfection of in this life a Cajetan The whole heart is opposed either to a divided and dispers'd heart or to a remiss and a sluggish heart God doth as much abominate a partnership in our love as a husband or wife abhor any such thing in their Conjugal Relation we must love nothing but God or that which may please God He that loves God with his heart and not with his whole heart loves something else and not God As the whole heart is opposed to a remiss and sluggish heart the meaning is this the care of our heart should be set upon nothing so much as upon the loving and pleasing of God we must preferr God alone before all other Objects of our love and there must be an ardency of affection whatever we doe it must be for his sake and according to his will b Chemnit Harm c. 105. c. 2. Thou shalt love the Lord thy God with all thy Soul I forbear to mention the different conjectures of those that try the acuteness of their parts to produce some peculiar Interpretation which others have not By comparing Scripture with Scripture the sensitive life or the sensitive Appetite is here meant Thus c Gen. 34.3 Deut. 12.20 his soul clave unto Dinah and he loved the Damsell again thy d thy sensual a fections soul longeth to eat flesh And because the Soul is in many places taken for Life as Exod. 4.19 all the men are dead that sought thy life Heb. thy soul so Exod. 21.23 Thou shalt give life for life Heb. soul for soul and so we may take it here intensively for the sensitive Appetite and extensively for the Life The soul is here taken for the Animal life which
irregular and inordinate love to the world for it self in competition with or opposition to the love of the Father as v. 16. Hence it follows neither the things that are in the World 1 Here we are again to take notice of another peculiar Idiom frequent with John both in his Gospel and Epistles namely to reiterate the same thing under different expressions partly by way of Exegesis and partly to give an Emphatick plenitude It might have sufficed that he had said love not the world But the more fully to explicate his mind as also to give an Emphase and Accent to what he had said he adds neither the things that are in the world He contents not himself with Generals but descends to Particulars which he more fully specifies v. 16. 2 By things that are in the world we may in a more strict and confined notion understand those things which worldly men do most magnifie and Idolize Mundane Grandeur Pomp Glory Riches Pleasures Honours Friends whatever else may Captivate the hearts of degenerate men In sum by the world and the things that are in the world must be understood all sensible natural civil yea mental Goods or whatever is inferior to God so far as it may stand in Opposition to or Competition with him and so prove matter of abuse and fuel for Lust as ver 16. It follows If any man love the world 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 If here is causal and rational signifying as much as For or Because if and so it points out and ushers in the main Cause or Reason why we are not to love the world namely because he that Loves the world hath not the love of the Father in him As if he had said Alas are not the World and the Father perfectly opposite Do they not both require the whole Heart yea the whole man as Mat. 6.24 Is it possible then that he who loves the world at such a rate can love the Father Or we may take the words thus If any man Love the world c. i. e. so far as any man loves the world the love of the Father is not in him And in this sense it will reach all both Saints and Sinners Though I take the words chiefly to be understood of predominant love to the world which is altogether inconsistent with love to God Lastly there lies something peculiar in that phrase The Love of the Father is not in him 1 Here we find another Idiom or manner of speech proper to John who frequently makes use of Antitheses and that both of Things Words and Sentences for Illustration and Confirmation whereof many Instances might be given as John 1.5 13 17 20 c. So here he opposeth the Father to the World And then the Love of the Father to the Love of the world which gives great Illustration and Demonstration to his discourse For opposites illustrate and demonstrate each other 2 Another thing to be considered herein is the object 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 of the Father Where the Article THE deserves a peculiar regard and so in deed do the various Articles in this text The world the Things c. For albeit these Articles sometimes in other parts of Scripture are not significative or emphatick yet here they seem to give some emphase So that The Father is here mentioned to specifie both the proper Object and Formal Reason of Evangelick Love as distinct from that Natural Love which Adam in Paradise had towards God as Creator First by the Father here is specified the proper object of Evangelick love namely that it must terminate on God as a gracious Father in and through Christ whereas Adam's natural love in Innocence terminated on God only as Creator Secondly by the Father also the formal Reason of Evangelick Love is specified namely that God's love towards us in Christ ought to be the formal reason or proper motive of our love to him 3 As for the Act the love it may be taken either passively and Octjectively for the Father's Love shed abroad in the heart as Rom. 5.5 or else subjectively and actively for our Love to the Father This latter I take to be primarily intended The words thus explicated admit this Logick Division We find in them first a prohibition and then the reason thereof annext In the prohibition we have 1 The Act Love not 2 The Object and this 1 In the General the World 2 In its Particularities neither the things that are in the world The chief whereof are specified v. 16. As for the reason of the prohibition it is wrapped up in an Hypothetick proposition which is easily reduced to a Catagorick Syllogism thus two loves perfectly opposite cannot consist together in one and the same heart but love to the world and love to the Father are perfectly opposite therefore he that loves the world hath not the love of the Father in him What love in its general Idea imports Sect. 2. A general Character of Love The words thus explicated contain in them this great Truth That a prevalent predominant Love to the World is altogether inconsistent with the Love of God Hence also there is offered to us this practick case of Conscience wherein the love of the World is inconsisent with the love of God The resolution of this so weighty a case depends much on the explication of its parts which we shall endeavour to examine and open under these three Questions 1. What Love in its general Idea or nature doth import 2. What it is to Love the world 3. What it is to love God these questions being explicated the resolution of our case will be facile and obvious 1. Quest What Love in its general Idea or Nature doth import this question being more Philosophick than Theologick we shall not much insist thereon But to clear up our way to the following questions we may take up this concise Character or Idea of Love as abstracted from this or that subject Love is the most vigorous potent imperious and soveraign affection of the humane soul which has its Royal seat in the Will or rather in the soul as willing what is Good For albeit I cannot conceive how the Will and Understanding may be really distinguished more than by their formal Objects and Acts yet I can easily grant the soul as willing what is good to be the proper Subject and seat of Love Not but that there is also passion of Love or something analogous to Love in the sensitive soul or Animal part But this is more Passionate that in the humane soul more Rational this more rash that more deliberate this more superficial and transient that more rooted and fixed this more confused and difform that more uniform and equal this more carnal that more spiritual in its objects and motions this more brutish and servile that more humane and voluntary specially if regular Now love thus seated in the will or soul as willing governs the whole soul with all
the faculties or rather Acts thereof As the will governs all inferior faculties so is she governed by her love which renders her what she is as to good or evil What the Love is that the man is and where the love is there the man is If thy love be in Heaven there thou art and if thy love be in Hell thou art there For where the Treasure is there the love heart and man is Math. 6.21 And as Love governs the whole soul in general so has she a more particular influence or the Affections both rational and passionate Love indeed is not only the prime but also the original source and spring of all humane affections which owe their Being Life and Motion thereto What are all Affections but the several forms and shape of Love whence have they their tincture and colour but from it for look a-the object beloved is affected with this or that circumstance so is Love proportionably invested with this or that form If the object beloved be absent love goes forth to meet it by Desire if present love solaceth it self therein by Fruition and Delight if it be under hazards love waxeth pale with Fear if the enjoyment thereof be impeded or obstructed by others Love grows angry if it be lost Love clotheth her self with black sorrow if there be a probability or but possibility sometimes of enjoying it love moves towards it by Hope Thus love puts on sundry forms and Aspects which we call affections according to the sundry postures of its beloved In short look as the wife changeth her condition into that of her husband and becomes noble or ignoble according to his condition so love changeth her condition according to that of the object she doth espouse if love espouse God for her husband then doth she become spiritual Noble and Divine according to the quality of God but if she Elect and adhere to the world then doth she become carnal base and worldly So much for the general Idea of Love of which more in what follows Sect. 3. What it is to love the World 2. Quest What it is to love the World Love to the world may be considered as Predominant and so altogether inconsistent with the very being and existence of love to God or else as infirm and in part subdued We shall here treat of it in the former respect only which seems chiefly intended by John And so love to the world may be described A certain habitual pondus or weight of concupiscence and Lust whereby the soul is strongly impelled and inclined towards the fruition of and satisfaction in the world as its last end and chiefest Good In this description of love to the world we find its Object subject end principle Act and measure which will all fall under a more particular consideration in the following propositions The Object of predominant love to the world 1. Prop. To love the world is to affect some private particular inferiour Good for it self as the chiefest Good and last end This proposition states and specifies the proper formal Object of worldly love which is some private particular inferiour good loved for it self as the chiefest supreme good and last end Now the world may be constituted the chiefest good and last end two ways 1 Positively when it is loved for it self as a total supreme good unto which all things are referred 2 Negatively when though it be loved only as a partial good yet it is loved for it self and not referred to God either actually or habitually as the supreme good Such is the cursed love of many worldly professors who love the world only as a partial good yet so as they refer it not to God the supreme good and therefore may be said to love it for it self as their last end and chiefest good negatively though not positively This love to the world for it self as the last end and chiefest good is fully described by John in the verse following our text 1 John 2.16 For all that is in the world the lust of the flesh the lust of the eyes and the pride of life is not of the Father but it is of the world These words give much light and evidence to our text and present subject wherefore we shall a little insist on the explication of them And 1 We are to consider their rational connexion with the words precedent included in the particle For which gives us the genuine reason and cause why the love of the world is inconsistent with the Love of God namely because all that is in the world whether sensible Civil or Mental Goods so far as they are the fuel of Lusts are not of the Father but of the world 2 We are to observe here that John discoursing of worldly goods as the fuel of our Lust expresseth the things themselves by the lust in us He saith not Pleasures Riches Honours though these be the things he means but the Lust of these things because the poison and evil of these things comes not from the things themselves but from our lusts that run into and live upon them as our last end and choicest good And in this sense saith John they are not of the Father but of the World i. e. God never made or appointed these inferiour goods to be our last end chiefest Good or matter of fruition and satisfaction no it is the Lusts of worldly men that have put this Crown upon the Heads of Pleasures profits preferments c. Hence it naturally follows that all love to these lower goods for themselves as our Last end and chiefest Good is but Concupiscence or inordinate Lust For indeed what is Lust but desire to or fruition of the Creature for it self 3 We are to consider likewise the Distribution which John here makes of all that is in the world into the Lust of the Flesh the Lust of the eyes and the pride of Life This as they say is the worldly man's Trinity which he doth so much Idolize and Adore (a) 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Philo in Decalog Philo the Jew who was greatly versed as well in the Grecian as Judaick learning makes all evil to consist in rhe Lust of Pleasures Riches or Glory which seems to answer to John's Distribution here For by the Lust of the flesh is usually understood Pleasures By the Lust of the Eyes Riches and by the Pride of Life Vain Glory or Honours We shall treat concisely of each as the Fuel of Worldly Love 1 To love the world is to Lust after the pleasures of the flesh as our last end or soveraign Good and so amiable for themselves And O! whâ—t a brutish piece of Lust is this And yet Lo how common even among those who would be accounted generous and noble Yea how many great Professors come under this condemnation For by the Lusts of the flesh we must understand all inordinate love to and delight in sensual pleasures of any kind be it in eating
to the Sheeps passing out of the Fold when they were to be Tithed for God Levit. 27.32 they were to be told with a Rod one two three c. and the Tenth was the Lords God will not covenant with us in the lump and body but every one was to be particularly minded of his Duty 't is not enough that our Parents did engage for us in Baptism as the Israelites in the Name of their little ones did avouch God to be their God Dent. 29.10 11 12. No man can savingly transact this Work for another we must ratifie the Covenant in our own Persons and make our own professed subjection to the Gospel of Christ 2 Cor. 9.13 This Work cannot be done by a Proxy or Assigns our Parents Dedication will not profit us without some personal Act of our own if we live to years of discretion Once more this must be done not only in words or visible external Rites which may signifie so much as personal Covenanting with God but a Man must ingage his heart to God Jer. 30.21 yea this is a business that must be done between God and our own Souls where no outward witnesses are conscious to it God speaketh to the Soul in this transaction Psal 35.3 Say unto my Soul I am thy Salvation and the Soul speaketh to God Lam. 3.24 thou art my Portion saith my soul and Psal 16.2 O my soul thou hast said unto the Lord thou art my God thus the Covenant is carried on in Soul-Language Now upon this Personal inward Covenanting with God our right to all the priviledges doth depend 2. Renew often the sense of your Obligation to God and keep a constant reckoning how you lay out your selves for him Acts 27.23 His I am and him I serve Phil. 1.21 To me to Live is Christ Some few Renegado's renounce their Baptism but most Christians forget their Baptism 2 Pet. 1.9 He is blind and cannot see afar off and has forgotten that he was washed from his old sins therefore we should be continually exciting our selves both to obedience and dependence that the sincerity of our first Vow and Consent may be verified by a real and constant performance of it 3. You should use frequent self-reflection that you may come to know whether you are indeed washed from the guilt and silth of sin 1 Cor. 6.11 Such were some of you but now ye are sanctified but now ye are justified in the name of the Lord Jesus and by the spirit of our God You should observe what further sense you have of the pardon of sin how you get ground upon your bondage of Spirit and grow up into some rejoycing of Faith for by these signs God intended our strong consolation Heb. 6.18 And the Eunuch when he was Baptized went his way rejoicing Acts 8.39 Hath God applyed his Covenant to me Taken me into the Family Planted me into the Mystical Body of Christ and shall not I be glad and rejoyce in his Salvation So for Sanctification see whether God's Interest doth prevail in you or the Interest of the Flesh what Power and strength of Will you get against Corruption easily Gal. 5.16 17. whether sin be more subdued and you can govern your Passions and Appetites better Gal. 5.24 They that are Christ's should find something of this in themselves otherwise their Baptism is but an empty formality Fourthly and Lastly You must use it as a great help in all Temptations as when you are tempted to sin either by the delights of Sense a Christian hath his Answer ready I am no Debtor to the Flesh or I am Baptized and dedicated to God in the way of Mortification and Holiness to obtain pardon and Life 1 Cor. 6.15 Shall I take the Members of Christ c. this Soul this Body this Time this Strength is Christs not to please the Flesh but the Lord Or by the terrors of Sense Dionysia comforted her Son Majoricus an African Martyr when he was going to suffer for owning the God-head of Christ with this Speech Memento Fili Baptizatum esse in nomine Patris Filii Spiritus Sancti Remember my Son that thou art Baptized in the name of the Father Son and Holy Ghost and be constant So when you are tempted by the Devil taking advantage of your Melancholy and grievous afflictions to question God's Love and Mercy to Penitent Believers Remember the Covenant Sealed in Baptism that you may keep up your Faith in God through Christ which pardoneth all your sins and hath begotten us to a lively hope We must expect to be Tempted the Devil tempted Christ after his Baptism to question his filiation so solemnly attested Compare Mat. 3.17 with Mat. 4.16 Luther saith of himself that when the Devil tempted him to despair or to any doubts and fears about the Love of God or his Mercy to Sinners he would always Answer Ecce ego Baptizatus sum credo in Christum Crucifixum Behold I am Baptized and Believe in Christ Crucified And he telleth us of an Holy Virgin who gave this reply when the Devil abused her Solitudes and injected any despairing thoughts into her mind Baptizata sum I am Baptized and entred into God's Covenant and will expect the pardon of my sins by Jesus Christ Thus should we all the daies of our Life improve our Baptism till we have the full of that Holy and Happy estate for which we were first purified and washed in God's Laver. By what Scriptural Rules may Catechizing be be so managed as that it may become most Vniversally Profitable Serm. XI Proverbs 22.6 Train up or Catechize a Child in the way he should go or in his way and when he is old he will not depart from it THIS most Excellent Book of Sacred Aphorisins or Divine Proverbs is by some not unfitly compared to a costly Chain of Orient Pearls among which though there be a fair Connexion yet there is little or no Coherence I shall therefore immediately enter on the words themselves and in them I observe a Precept and a Promise an important Duty and a perswasive Motive 1. A grand important necessary Duty enjoyned Train up or Catechize a Child in the way he should go In which words we have 1. The Act or Duty prescribed Train up or Catechize Piously and prudently instruct and educate 2. The Object or Person that is to be trained up a Child By a Synechdoche all such Younger ones and Inferiours as are committed to the care and conduct of their Superiours 3. The Subject-matter wherein these Inferiours are thus to be trained up In the way he should go In that way or manner of life which most suits and becomes him that makes most for God's Glory and his own temporal spiritual and eternal good 2. Quo semel est in buta recens servabit odrem testa diu Aâ— plurimum So. Observation 2. A Cogent Argument or prevalent Motive to excite and quicken to the faithful discharge of this important Duty And
wish that God were angry with him for he is angry with him though for the present he do prosper but when it comes it will be the heavier The Poet gives a full answer to this Objection 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 The sense I give thus Though wicked men feel not th'Almightie's blow Forthwith his wrath is sure when it is slow At length his plagues in greater loads shall lie On them their Wives and all their Progenie Question The last thing only now remains wherein I must be short What excuses are often brought for the non-performance of Family Prayer How answered Obj. All this while you do not give us any one express Scripture in so many words shew that and we will do it Answ This is objected either by openly profane or more sober men To the first I answer 1. Wilt thou do nothing but what thou hast an express command for in so many syllables Why then art thou so often drunk and dost thou so often swear and lye and take Gods Name in vain Where is thy command Nay is not all this against express command 2. Why dost thou not do that for which thou hast express commands Wilt thou repent be holy and believe in Christ and forsake thy sin if I can shew express commands from God for these Then read Ezek. 18.30 31. Acts 2.38 and 17.30 1 Joh. 3.23 Go thy way now and do these things sincerely and I shall not doubt but thou wilt see reason from what hath been said to set up Prayer in thy Family nor question but thou wilt do it But if thou wilt not repent and leave thy manifest and apparent sins when thou art expresly commanded to do so why should any man think thou wouldest do this if this were shewed to thee Yet know there is enough said to render thee inexcusable if thou wilt not do it Secondly to the more sober I answer Dum scripturam dicimus perf ctam non intelligimus ac si ad literam omnia quae ad salutem sunt necessaria continerentur sed quod quaedam per certam consequentiam ex illis quae clarè dicta sunt deduci debeant Maccov distin p. 9. Quicquid per bonam consequentiam ex scriptura deducitur illud ipsum est scriptura Quod elicitur ex Mose Davide dicuntur Moses David dixisse idem p 21. Scripturae â—im consistere non in verbis sed in sensu communiter dicitur sunt autem conclusiones in scriptura vel totidem verbis 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 vel habent praemissas suas in scriptura expressas ex quibus evidenter deducuntur vel una tantùm posita praemissa in scriptura addita alia ex rationis principiis aut ex evidentia sensus conclusio etiam eruitur necessaria quae vim eandem habet cum propositionibus quae totidem verbis leguntur juxta regulam Quaedam in Scripturis sunt dicuntur quaedam in iisdem sunt etsi non dicuntur nempe totidem verbis Rivet Isag ad Scrip. cap. 17. That what is drawn from the word of God by just necessary and immediate consequence is the mind of God The sense of the Scripture is God's revealed Will. And you your selves allow some things to be a duty that are not expresly commanded in the Word of God I could give you instances in many particulars but because I am straitned for room and for plainness of the case I will instance but in this one which is a Woman's receiving of the Lord's Supper Is it the duty of some Women so to do No doubt But where is your express command or any express example that ever they did Look for it and produce it Will you say the word 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 used 1 Cor. 11.28 signifying both man and woman shews the command for Womens eating at the Lord's Table but what if it be sometimes in Scripture used for the man only and the woman excluded as it is Joh. 7.22 ye circumcise 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 a man being taken in one place for the man only how will you prove it is not so in the other but by Consequence True but where then is your express command Consequence must be allowed in this case and is abundantly sufficient For validity of Scripture-consequence much may be said but my length already commands me to forbear seeing there is as much Scripture and firm immediate consequence for your praying in your Family as a woman's receiving the Lord's Supper which is an acknowledged duty Object 2. But I pray alone in secret and that is sufficient Answ But it is not 1. One duty done doth not excuse you from the performance of another It hath been proved before to be your duty you ought then to do the one and not to leave the other undone 2. But do all in thy Family pray in secret every day dost thou watch them daily so narrowly as thou art sure they do every one So they should but yet notwithstanding conjunct Prayer is a duty also as hath before been shewn 3. Dost thou pray in secret So thou mightest have done if God had struck all thy Family dead in the night besides thy self Take heed thou dost not hereby cause God to strip thee of thy Relations and thy comfort in them with whom thou wilt not pray and send thee with a witness into a corner to pray by thy self alone 4. Dost thou pray alone So thou mightest have done if thou hadst lost thy tongue Hast thou a tongue only to buy and sell and talk of the world or of religion only and not to imploy it in conjunct praying to and praising of God in thy Family Read before 5. Dost thou pray alone I doubt thou dost It may be thou speakest more in that word alone than thou thinkest of Infaelix Iniqua lex amoris rerum nolle ut ament alii nolle ut ament alios non ità miserum pressum eligas amorem superest Deo amor dilatatus superest bonitas ut amot ametur cum abest à felle ut rivales optet Zelotypia gaudet Hoc interest inter Zelum humani amoris divini Zelus amantis Deum optat ut alii ament Zelus a mantis hominem ne alius amet ille socios quaerit iste fugit pro qualitate nimirum amatorum Socios ille quaerit quia superest bonitas amato cui amorem suum aequalem non putat coadjutores exoptat ut suppleat votis alienis proprium defectum iste non admittit collegas exiguum bonum timet ne desit sibi distributum etiam aliis perinde ac qui splendidum epulum paravit cui ipse non est satis convivas quaerit invitat plures gavisus consortio epulantium At misellus famelicus rusticus frustulum Hordeacei panis quia sibi non sufficit non distribuit aliis non palam comest ne alius qui appetat petat O
contract a pollution by the bare apprehension than the eye doth by the reception of the species of a loathsom object Thoughts are morally evil when they have a bad principle want a due end and converse with the object in a wrong manner Angels cannot but understand the offence which displaced the Apostate Stars from heaven but they know not sin cognitione practicâ Glorified Saints may consider their former sins to enhance their admirations of pardoning mercy Christ himself must needs understand the matter of the Devils temptation yet Satan's suggestions to his thoughts were as the vapors of a jakes mixed with the Sun-beams without a defilement of them Yea God himself who is infinite purity knows the Object of his own acts which are conversant about sin as his holiness in forbidding it wisdom in permitting mercy in pardoning and justice in punishing But thoughts of sin in Christ Angels and glorified Saints are accompanied with an abhorrency of it without any combustible matter in them to be kindled by it As our thoughts of a divine object are not gracious unless we love and delight in it so a bare apprehension of sin is not positively criminal unless we delight in the object apprehended As a sinful Object doth not render our thoughts evil so a divine object doth not render them good because we may think of it with undue circumstances as unseasonably coldly c. And thus there is an imperfection in the best thought a regenerate man hath for though I will suppose he may have a sudden ejaculation without the mixture of any positive impurity and a simple apprehension of sin with a detestation of it yet there is a defect in each of them because 't is not with that raised affection to God or intense abhorrency of sin as is due from us to such objects and whereof we were capable in our primitive state 2. Positively Our thoughts may be branched into first motions or such that are more voluntary 1. First motions Those unfleched thoughts and single threads before a multitude of them come to be twisted and woven into a discourse such as skip up from our natural corruption and sink down again as fish in a river These are sins though we consent not to them because though they are without our will they are not against our nature but spring from an inordinate frame of a different hue from what God implanted in us How can the first sprouts be good if the root be evil Not only the thought formed but the very formation or first imagination is evil Voluntariness is not necessary to the essence of a sin though it be to the aggravation of it 'T is not my Will or Knowledg Gen. 19.33 35 which doth make an act sinful but God's prohibition Lot's incest was not ushered by any deliberate consent of his Will yet who will deny it to be a sin since he should have exercised a severer command over himself than to be overtaken with drunkenness which was the occasion of it Original sin is not effectivè voluntary in infants because no act of the will is exerted in an infant about it Yet it is voluntary subjectivè because it doth inhaerere voluntati These motions may be said to be voluntary negatively because the Will doth not set bounds to them and exercise that soveraign dominion over the operations of the soul which it ought to do and wherewith it was at it's first creation invested Besides though the Will doth not immediately consent to them yet it consents to the occasions which administer such motions and therefore according to the rule that causa causae est causa causati may be justly charged upon our score 2. Voluntary thoughts which are the blossoms of these motions Such that have no lawful object no right end not governed by reason eccentrick disorderly in their motions and like the jarring strings of an untun'd Instrument The meanest of these floating phancies are sins because we act not in the production of them as rational creatures and what we do without reason we do against the law of our creation which appointed reason for our guide and the understanding to be 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 the governing power in our souls These may be reduced to three heads 1. In regard of God 2. Of our selves 3. Of others I. In regard of God 1. Cold thoughts of God When no affection is raised in us by them When we delight not in God the object of those thoughts but in the thought it self and operation of our mind about Him consisting of some quaint notion of God of our own conceiving This is to delight in the act or manner of thinking not in the object thought of And thus these thoughts have a folly and vanity in them They are also sinful in a regenerate man in respect of the faintness of the understanding not acting with that vigor and spriteliness nor with those raised and spiritual affections which the worth of such an object doth require 2. Debasing Conceptions unworthy of God Such are called in the Heathen Vain Imaginations * Rom. 1.21 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 their reasonings about God who as they glorified not God as God so they did not think of God as God according to the dignity of a Deity Such a mental Idolatry may be found in us when we dress up a God according to our own humors humanize Him and ascribe to Him what is grateful to us though never so base †Psal 50.21 Thou thoughtest that I was altogether sach an one as thy sel◠Exod. 15.11 Isai 6.3 Psal 89.35 Which is a grosser degrading of the Deity than any representation of him by material Images because it is directly against his Holiness which is His glory applauded chiefly by the Angels and an attribute which He swears by as having the greatest regard to the honour of it Such an imagination Adam seemed to have conceiting God to be so mean a being that he a creature not of a daies standing could mount to an equality of knowledg with Him 3. Accusing thoughts of God Either of his mercy as in despair or of his Justice as too severe as in Cain ‖ Gen. 4 13. Of His providence Adam conceited yea and charged God's providence to be an occasion of his crime * Gen. 3 12. The woman whom thou gavest to be with me His posterity are no juster to God when they accuse Him as a negligent Governour of the world Psal 94.11 The Lord knoweth the thoughts of man that they are vanity What thoughts Injurious thoughts of His providence v. 7. as though God were ignorant of men's actions or at best but an idle Spectator of all the unrighteousness done in the world not to regard it though He did see it And they in the Prophet were of the same stamp That said in their hearts the Lord will not do good neither will He do evil From such kind of thoughts most of the Injuries from
oppressors and murmurings in the oppressed do arise 4. Curious thoughts about things too high for us 'T is the frequent business of mens minds to flutter about things without the bounds of God's revelation Not to be content with what God hath published is to accuse Him Gen. 3.5 God knows that your eyes shall be opened in the same manner as the Serpent did to our first parents of envying us an intellectual happiness Yet how do all Adam's posterity long after this forbidden fruit II. In regard of our selves Our thoughts are proud self-confident self-applauding foolish covetous anxious unclean And what not 1. Ambitious The aspiring thought of the first man runs in the veins of his posterity God took notice of such Strains in the King of Babylon when he said in his heart I will exalt my throne above the Stars of God I will ascend above the heights of the Clouds I will be like the most High * Isa 14.13 14. No less a charge will they stand under that settle themselves upon their own bottom establish their own righteousness and will not submit to the righteousness of God's appointment †Rom. 10.3 The most forlorn beggar hath sometimes thoughts vast enough to grasp an Empire 2. Self-confident Edom's thoughts swell'd him into a vain confidence of a perpetual prosperity Obad. 3. That saith in his heart who shall bring me down to the ground And David sometimes said in the like state that he should never be moved 3. Self-applauding Either in the vain remembrances of our former prosperity or ascribing our present happiness to the dexterity of our own wit Such flaunting thoughts had Nebuchadnezzar at the consideration of his setling Babylon the head and Metropolis of so great an Empire Nothing more ordinary among men Dan. 4.30 Is not this great Babylon that I have built for the house of the Kingdom c. than overweening reflexions upon their own parts and * Rom. 12.3 thinking of themselves above what they ought to think 4. Vngrounded Imaginations of the events of things either present or future Such wild conceits like Meteors bred of a few vapors do often frisk in our minds 1. Of things present 'T is likely Eve foolishly imagin'd she had brought forth the Messiah when she brought forth a murderer Gen. 4.1 I have gotten a man the Lord as in the Hebrew believing as some interpret that she had brought forth the promised seed 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 And such a brisk conceit Lamech seems to have had of Noah †Gen. 5.29 2. Of things to come either in bespeaking false hopes or antedating improbable griefs Such are the jolly thoughts we have of a happy Estate in reversion which yet we may fall short of Haman's heart leap'd at the King's question Est 6.6 What shall be done to the man whom the King delighteth to honour phancying himself the mark of his Princes favour without thinking that a halter should soon choak his ambition Or perplexing thoughts at the fear of some trouble which is not yet fallen upon us and perhaps never may How did David torture his Soul by his unbelieving fears 1 Sam. 27.1 And David said in his heart c. that he should one day perish by the hand of Saul These forestalling thoughts do really affect us we often feel caprings in our Spirits upon imaginary hopes and shiverings upon conceited fears These pleasing impostures and self-afflicting suppositions are signs either of an idle or indigent mind that hath no will to work or only rotten materials to work upon 5. Immoderate thoughts about lawful things When we exercise our minds too thick and with a fierceness of affection above their merit not in subserviency to God or mixing our cares with dependencies on Him Worldly concerns may quarter in our thoughts but they must not possess all the room and thrust Christ into a manger Neither must they be of that value with us as the law was with David sweeter than the honey or the honey comb III. In regard of others All thoughts of our neighbour against the rule of charity Such that imagine evil in their hearts God hates * Zach. 8.17 These principally are 1. Envious when we torment our selves with others fortunes Such a thought in Cain upon God's acceptance of his brother's sacrifice Gen. 4.5 1 Tim. 6.4 2 Cor. 13.5 was the Prologue to and foundation of that cursed murder 2. Censorious stigmatizing every freckle in our brother's conversation 3. Jealous and evil surmises contrary to charity which thinks no evil 4. Revengeful Est 5.13 Such made Haman take little content in his preferments as long as Mordecai refused to court him And Esau thought of the daies of mourning for his father Gen. 27 41. Esau said in his heart c. that he might be revenged for his brother's deceits There is no sin committed in the world but is hatched in one or other of these thoughts But beside these there are a multitude of other volatile conceits like swarms of gnats buzzing about us and preying upon us and as frequent in their successions as the curlings of the water upon a small breath of wind one following another close at the heels The mind is no more satisfied with thoughts than the first matter is with forms continually shifting one for another and many times the nobler for the baser as when upon the putrefaction of a human body part of the Matter is endued with the form of Vermin Such changeable things are our minds in leaving that which is good for that which is worse when they are enveigled by an active phancy and Bedlam affections This madness is in the hearts of men while they live Eccles 9.3 and starts a thousand frenzies in a day At the best our phancy is like a Carrier's bag stuffed with a world of Letters having no dependence upon one another some containing business and others nothing but froth In all these thoughts there is a further guilt in three respects viz. 1. Delight 2. Contrivance 3. Reacting 1. Delight in them The very tickling of our phancy by a sinful motion though without a formal consent is a sin because it is a degree of complacency in an unlawful object When the mind is pleased with the subject of the thought as it hath a tendency to some sensual pleasure and not simply in the thought it self as it may enrich the understanding with some degree of knowledg The thought indeed of an evil thing may be without any delight in the evil of it as Philosophers delight in making experiments of poisonous Creatures without delighting in the poison as it is a noxious quality We may delightfully think of sin without guilt not delighting in it as sin but as God by his wise providential ordering extracts Glory to himself and good to his Creature In this case though a sinful act be the material object of this pleasure yet 't is not the
formal object because the delight is not terminated in the sin but in God's ordering the event of it to his own glory But an Inclination to a sinful motion as it gratifies a corrupt affection is sin because every inclination is a malignant tincture upon the affections including in its own nature an aversion from God and testifying sin to be an agreeable object And without question there can be no inclination to any thing without some degree of pleasure in it because it is impossible we can encline to that which we have a perfect abhorrency of Hence it follows that every inclination to a sinful motion is Consensus inchoatus or a Consent in Embryo though the act may prove abortive If we think of any unlawful thing with pleasure and imagine it either in fieri or facto esse it brings a guilt upon us as if it were really acted As when upon the consideration of such a man's being my enemy I phancy robbers rifling his goods and cutting his throat and rejoyce in this revengeful thought as if it were really done 't is a great sin because it testifies an approbation of such a butchery if any man had will and opportunity to commit it And though it be a supposition yet the act of the mind is really the same it would be if the sinful act I think of were performed Or when a man conditionally thinks with himself I would steal such a man's goods or kill such a person if I could escape escape the punishment attending it it is as if he did rob and murder him because there is no impediment in his will to the commission of it but only in the outward circumstances Nay though it be a mere Ens intentionale or rationis which is the object of the thought yet the act of the mind is real and as significant of the inclination of the Soul as if the object were real too As if a man hath an unclean motion at the sight of a picture which is only a composition of well mixed and well ordered colours or at the appearance of the Idea of a beauty fram'd in his own phancy 't is as much uncleanness as if it were terminated in some suitable object the hinderance being not in the will but in the insufficiency of the object to concur in such an act Now as the more delight there is in any holy service the more precious it is in it self and more grateful to God so the more pleasure there is in any sinful motion the more malignity there is in it 2. Contrivance When the delight in the thought grows up to the contrivance of the act which is still the work of the thinking faculty When the mind doth brood upon a sinful motion to hatch it up and invents methods for performance which the wise man calls artificial Inventions So a learned man interprets 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Mat. 15.19 Eccles 7.29 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Dr. Hammond on Mat. 15.9 of contrivances of murder adultery c. And the word signifies properly reasonings When mens wits play the Devils in their souls in inventing sophistical reasons for the commission and justification of their crimes with a mighty jollity at their own craft Such plots are the trade of a wicked man's heart A covetous man will be working in his inward shop from morning till night to study new methods for gain * 2 Pet. 2.14 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 a heart exercis'd in covetous practices and voluptuous and ambitious persons will draw schemes and models in their fancy of what they would outwardly accomplish They conceive mischief and bring forth vanity and their belly prepares deceit Job 15.35 Hence the thoughts are called the counsels †1 Cor. 4.5 and devices * Isa 32.7 8. of the heart when the heart summons the head and all the thoughts of it to sit in debate as a private Junto about a sinful motion 3. Re-acting sin after 't is outwardly committed Though the individual action be transient and cannot be committed again yet the Idea and Image of it remaining in the memory may by the help of an apish fancy be repeated a thousand times over with a rarified pleasure As both the features of our friends and the agreeable Conversations we have had with them may with a fresh relish be represented in our fancies though the persons were rotten many years ago Having thus declared the nature of our thoughts and the degrees of their guilt the next thing is to prove that they are sins The Jews did not acknowledg them to be sins Kimchi in 66 Psal as quoted by Grotius in Mat 5.20 Vt jam servaris bene corpus adultera mens est Nec custodiri ni velit illa p test Nec mentem servare potes licet omnia claudas Omnibus occlusis intus adulter erit Ovid. Anor l. 3. Eleg. 3. v. 5. c. unless they were blasphemous and immediately against God himself Some Heathens were more Orthodox and among the rest Ovid whose amorous pleasures one would think should have smothered such sentiments in him They Lord whose knowledg is infallible knows the thoughts of men that they are vanity Psal 94.11 yea and of the wisest men too according to the Apostle's Interpretation 1 Cor. 3.20 And who were they that became vain in their Imaginations but the wisest men the carnal world yielded The Graecians the greatest Philosophers the Aegyptians their Tutors and the Romans their Apes The elaborate operations of an unregenerate mind are fleshly Rom. 8.5 7. If the whole web be so needs must every thread The thought of foolishness is sin * Prov. 24.9 i. e. a foolish thought not objectively a thought of folly but one formally so yea an abomination to God †Prov. 15.26 As good thoughts and purposes are acts in God's account so are bad ones Abraham's intention to offer Isaac is accounted as an actual Sacrifice ‖ Heb. 11.17 Jam. 2.21 that the stroke was not given was not from any reluctance of Abraham's will but the gracious indulgence of God Sarab had a deriding thought and God chargeth it as if it were an outward laughter and a scornful word * Gen. 18.12 15. Therefore Sarah laughed within h r self saying 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 in visceribus suis Targum Rom 7.7 I had not known lust except the Law had said Thou shalt not covet Thoughts are the words of the mind and as real in God's account as if they were expressed with the Tongue There are three Reasons for the proof of this that they are Sins 1. They are contrary to the Law which doth forbid the first foamings and belchings of the heart because they arise from an habitual corruption and testifie a defect of something which the Law requires to be in us to correct the excursions of our minds Doth not the Law oblige man as a rational creature Shall it then leave that part which doth constitute him
mean while i. e. in this life while conscience bears witness accusing or excusing one another in the day when God shall judge the secrets of men i. e. and also at the day of judgment when conscience shall give in it's final Testimony upon God's examination of the secret counsels This place is properly meant of those reasonings concerning good and evil in men's Consciences agreeable to the Law of nature imprinted on them which shall excuse them if they practice accordingly or accuse them if they behave themselves contrary thereunto But it will hold in this Case for if those inward approbations of the the notions of good and evil will accuse us for our contrary practices they will also accuse us for our contrary thoughts Non solum opus sed mali operis cogitatio paenas luet Hieron in 1 Hos 7. Acts 8.22 Our good thoughts will be our accusers for not observing them and our bad thoughts will be indictments against us for complying with them 'T is probable the Soul may be bound over to answer chiefly for these at the last day for the Apostle chargeth Simon 's guilt upon his thought not his word and tells him pardon must be principally granted for that The tongue was only an Instrument to express what his heart did think and would have been wholly innocent had not his thoughts been first criminal What therefore is the principal subject of pardon would be so of punishment as the first incendiaries in a rebellion are most severely dealt with And if as some think the fallen Angels were stript of their primitive Glory only for a conceiv'd thought how heinous must that be which hath inrolled them in a remediless misery Having proved that there is a sinfulness in our thoughts let us now see what provocation there is in them Which in some respects is greater than that of our actions But we must take actions here in sensu diviso as distinguished from the inward preparations to them In the one there is more of scandal in the other more of odiousness to God God indeed doth not punish thoughts so visibly because as He is Governour of the world His Judgments are shot against those sins that disturb humane society but He hath secret and spiritual Judgments for these suitable to the nature of the sins Now thoughts are greater in respect 1. Of fruitfulness The wickedness that God saw great in the earth was the fruit of imaginations They are the immediate causes of all sin No Cockatrice but was first an egg It was a thought to be as God * Gen. 3.5 2 Cor. 11.3 that was the first breeder of all that sin under which the world groans at this day For Eve's mind was first beguiled in the alteration of her thought Since that the lake of inward malignity acts all it's evil by these smoaking steams Evil thoughts lead the van in our Saviour's Catalogue Matth. 15.19 as that which spirits all the black regiment which march behind As good motions cherish'd will spring up in good actions so loose thoughts favoured will break out in visible plague-sores and put fire unto all that wickedness which lyes habitually in the heart 2 Tim. 2.16 as a spark may to a whole stock of Gun-powder The vain babblings of the soul as well as those of the Tongue will encrease to more ungodliness Being thus the cause they include virtually in them all that is in the effect as a seed contains in its little body the leaves fruit colour scent which afterward appear in the plant The seed includes all but the colour doth not virtually include the scent or the scent the colour or the leaves the fruit So 't is here One act doth not include the formal obliquity of another but the thought which caused it doth seminally include both the formal and final obliquity of every action both that which is in the nature of it and in the end to which it tends As when a Trades-man cherisheth immoderate thoughts of gain and in the attaining it runs into many foolish and hurtful Lusts 1 Tim. 6 9. there is cheating lying swearing to put off the commodity all these several acts have a particular sinfulness in the nature of the acts themselves besides the tendency they have to the satisfying an inordinate affection all which are the spawn of those first immoderate thoughts stirring up greedy desires 2. In respect of Quantity Imaginations are said to be continually evil There is an infinite variety of conceptions as the Psalmist speaks of the Sea wherein are all things creeping innumerable both small and great and a constant generation of whole shoals of them that you may as well number the Fish in the Sea or the Atomes in the Sun-beams as recount them There is a greater number in regard of the acts and in regard of the objects 1. In regard of the acts of the mind 1. Antecedent acts How many preparatory motions of the mind are there to one wicked external act Yea 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 c. Plutarch Moral p. mihi 500. how many sinful thoughts are twisted together to produce one deliberate sinful word All which have a distinct guilt and if weigh'd together would outweigh the guilt of the action abstractedly considered How many repeated complacencies in the first motion degrees of consent resolved broodings secret plottings proposals of various methods smothering contrary checks vehement longings delightful hopes and forestalled pleasures in the design All which are but thoughts assenting or dissenting in order to the act intended Upon a dissection of all these secret motions by the critical power of the word we should find a more monstrous guilt than would be apparent in the single action for whose sake all these spirits were raised There may be no sin in a material act considered in it self when there is a provoking guilt in the mental motion A hypocrite's religious services are materially good but poysoned by the Imagination skulking in the heart that gave birth unto them Prov. 21.27 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 with a wicked thought Ezek. 23.3.19 Yet she multiplied he◠whoredoms in calling to remembrance the days of her youth c. v. 21. the lewdness of her youth 'T is the wicked mind or thought makes the sacrifice a commanded duty much more an abomination to the Lord. 2. Consequent acts When a man's phancy is pregnant with the delightful remembrance of the sin that is past he draws down a fresh guilt upon himself as they did in the Prophet in reviving the concurrence of the will to the act committed making the sensual pleasure to commence spiritual and if ever there were an aking heart for it revoking his former grief by a renewed approbation of his darling lust Thus the sin of thoughts is greater in regard of duration A man hath neither strength nor opportunity always to act but he may always think and imagination can supply the place of action Or if the
mind be tired with sucking one object it can with the bee presently fasten upon another Senses are weary till they have a new recruit of spirits as the poor horse may sink under his burden when the rider is as violent as ever Thus old men may change their outward profaneness into mental wickedness and as the Psalmist remembred his old songs * Psal 77.5 6. so they their calcin'd sins in the night with an equal pleasure So that you see there may be a thousand thoughts as ushers and lacqueys to one act as numerous as the sparks of a new lighted fire 2. In regard of the Objects the mind is conversant about Such thoughts there are and attended with a heavy guilt which cannot probably no nor possibly descend into outward acts A man may in a complacent thought commit fornication with a woman in Spain in a covetous thought rob another in the Indies and in a revengeful thought stab a third in America and that while he is in this Congregation An unclean person may commit a mental folly with every beauty he meets A covetous man cannot plunder a whole Kingdom but in one twinkling of a thought he may wish himself the possessor of all the estates in it A Timon a 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 cannot cut the throats of all the world but like Nero with one glance of his heart he may chop off the heads of all mankind at a blow Ambitious men's practices are confined to a small spot of land but with a cast of his mind he may grasp an Empire as large as the four Monarchies A beggar cannot ascend a throne but in his thoughts he may pass the Guards murder his Prince and usurp the Government Nay further an Atheist may think there is no God Psal 14.1 i. e. as some interpret it wish there were no God and thus in thought undeifie God himself though he may sooner dash heaven and earth in pieces than accomplish it The body is confined to one object and that narrow and proportionable to its nature but the mind can wing it self to various objects in all parts of the earth Where it finds none it can make one for phancy can compact several objects together coyn an image colour a picture and commit folly with it when it hath done It can nestle it self in cobwebs spun out of its own bowels 3. In respect of Strength Imaginations of the heart are only i. e. purely evil The nearer any thing is in union with the root the more radical strength it hath The first ebullitions of light and heat from the Sun are more vigorous than the remoter beams and the steams of a dunghil more noysom next that putrified body than when they are dilated in the air Grace is stronger in the heart-operations than in the outward streams and sin more soul in the imagination of the thoughts of the heart than in the act In the Text the outward wickedness of the world is passed over with a short expression but the Holy Ghost dwells upon the description of the wicked imagination because there lay the mass Mans * Psal 5 9. 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 inward part is very wickednesses a whole nest of vipers Thoughts are the immediate spawn of the original corruption and therefote partake more of the strength and nature of it Acts are more distant being the children of our thoughts but the Grand-children of our natural pravity Besides they lye nearest to that wickedness in the inward part sucking the breast of that poysonous dam that bred them The strength of our thoughts is also reinforced by being kept in for want of opportunity to act them as liquors in close glasses ferment and encrease their spriteliness Musing either carnal or spiritual makes the †Psal 39.3 fire burn the hotter as the fury of fire is doubled by being pent in a furnace Outward acts are but the sprouts the sap and juice lies in the wicked imagination or contrivance which hath a strength in it to produce a thousand fruits as poysonous as the former The members are the instruments or * Rom. 6.13 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 weapons of unrighteousness now the whole strength which doth manage the weapon lyes in the arm that wields it the weapon of it self could do no hurt without a force imprest Let me add this too that sin in thoughts is more simply sin In acts there may be some occasional good to others for a good man will make use of the sight of sin committed by others to encrease his hatred of it but in our sinful thoughts there it no occasion of good to others they lying lock'd up from the view of man 4. In respect of Alliance In these we have the nearest communion with the Devil The understanding of man is so tainted that his †Jam. 3.15 wisdom the chiefest flower in it is not only earthly and sensual it were well if it were no worse but devillish too If the flower be so rank what are the weeds 1 Cor. 2.11 2 Cor. 10.5 Satan's devices and our thoughts are of the same nature and sometimes in Scripture exprest by the same word 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 As he hath his devices so have we against the authority of God's law the power of the Gospel and the Kingdom of Christ The Devils are call'd spiritual wickednesses because they are not capable of carnal sins Ephes 6.12 Prophaneness is an Uniformity with the world and intellectual sins are an Uniformity with the God of it 1 Ephes 2.2.3 v. 3. There is a double walking answerable to a double pattern in v. 2. Fulfilling the desires of the flesh is a walking according to the course of this world or making the world our copy and fulfilling the desires of the mind is a walking according to the Prince of the power of the air or a making the Devil our pattern In carnal sins Satan is a tempter in mental an actor Therefore in the one we are conformed to his will in the other we are transformed into his likeness In outward we evidence more of obedience to his laws in inward more of affection to his person as all imitations of others are Therefore there is more of enmity to God because more of similitude and love to the Devil a nearer approach to the Diabolical nature implying a greater distance from the Divine Christ never gave so black a character as that of the Devil's children to the prophane world but to the Pharisees who had left the sins of men to take up those of Devils and were most guilty of those high imaginations which ought to be brought into captivity to the obedience of Christ 5. In respect of contrariety and odiousness to God Imaginations were only evil and so most directly contrary to God who is only good Rom. 8.7 Our natural enmity against God is seated in the mind The sensitive part aims at its own gratification and in mens serving their
preserved and maintained and who though he could so easily destroy you and glorifie his justice hereby yet is both patient with you and willing also to be reconciled unto you and sends his Embassadors in his name to tell you that he entreats you that you would be reconciled and let these considerations affect you with ingenuous grief for sin Lastly Get conviction of the defilement of sin how your Souls are stained by it and hereby degenerated and debased into a lower degree of vileness than is in the beast that perisheth yea that hereby you are become without regeneration and until your Souls are washed more loathsom in the eyes of God than the most nasty thing in the World is in your eyes 2. Make confession of sin In some cases it is requisite you should confess some sins unto man but it is absolutely universally necessary in order to forgiveness that you should confess your sins unto God the promise of pardoning mercy is made to confession Prov. 28.13 He that covereth his sins shall not prosper but he that confesseth and forsaketh them shall have mercy David found by experience the evil of covering and keeping close his sins and the benefit of acknowledgment and confession Psal 32.3 4 5. When I kept silence my bones waxed old through my roaring all the day long for day and night thine hand was heavy upon me my moisture is turned into the drought of Summer Selah I acknowledged my sin unto thee and my iniquity have I not hid I said I will confess my transgressions unto the Lord and thou forgavest the iniquity of my sin Selah Sinners make a full confession of your sins that you may have a full pardon and discharge do not hide any sin as a sweet morsel under your tongue it is a vain thing to seek and endeavour the hiding of any sin from him who is omniscient God hath knowledg of all your Iniquities do you therefore acknowledg all unto him Make free confession of your sins Stay not till God force you by his Scourges and even drag you unto it by his cords of affliction but let it be your voluntary act and be ingenuous herein mingle not your confession with excuses and extenuations Say not though you are bad yet you are not so bad as others that your hearts are good though your lives have been naught that such and such gross sins were your slips and failings that you were overtaken overperswaded and drawn unto such wicked practices by your companions and so by transferring your guilt endeavour to make your selves as Innocent as you can this is abominable in the sight of God and a certain sign of sin's dominion which is inconsistent with the remission of it and will shut you out from pardoning Mercy but in confession of your sins acknowledg your selves to have been the chief of sinners Sinners take all the blame to your selves and set your sins out in the deepest Crimson and Scarlet colours and with all their hainous circumstances and aggravations tell God that your heart is the worst part and if there have been some abominations found in your lives there are a thousand-fold more abominations in your hearts Confess your sins with humility and self-loathing say with Agur Prov. 30.2 Surely I am more brutish than any man and have not the understanding of a man with David Psal 73.22 So foolish was I and ignorant I was as a Beast before thee with Job Chap. 42.6 I abhor my self and repent in dust and ashes Confess your sins with shame like Ezra Chap. 9.6 O my God I am ashamed and blush to lift my face unto thee for our iniquities are increased over our head and our trespass is grown up unto the Heavens Confess your sins with grief and godly sorrow like David Psal 39.18 I will declare mine iniquity I will be sorry for sin 3. Make Application of Christ by Faith that you may attain forgiveness There is no other Name given under Heaven amongst men whereby you can be pardoned and saved Acts 4.12 And he is able to save you and procure a pardon for you in the uttermost extent of your most hainous guilt Heb. 7.25 And the reason is given in the same Verse because he ever liveth to make Intercession for sinners it is his Office as High-Priest wherein he is most merciful and faithful to make Reconciliation for the sins of the People Heb. 2.17 Christ is near to the Father being at his right hand in Heaven and hath great interest in him being his dearly beloved Son and his Intercession for pardon is always accepted it being for no more than what himself hath purchased and what his Father hath promised and therefore you that are the worst of Sinners have great encouragement to come unto Christ and to make Application of him you have his promise that whosoever cometh unto him he will in no wise cast out Joh. 6.37 and if you apply your selves unto him and apply unto your selves his merits and Righteousness by believing you shall certainly attain the forgiveness of all your sins however numerous and hainous they have been Acts 10.43 To him give all the Prophets witness that through his Name whosoever believeth in him shall receive remission of sins And our Saviour himself telleth us Joh. 3.16 God so loved the World that he gave his only begotten Son that whosoever believeth in him should not perish but have everlasting life And the Apostle doth discourse at large in the former part of his Epistle to the Romans concerning Justification which he proveth by manifold Arguments that it cannot be works that it must be by Faith therefore by Faith make Application of Christ and his imputed Righteousness and rest therein only that you may be justified that you may be pardoned and saved 4. Forsake every sin that you may attain the forgiveness of it Prov. 28.13 He that confesseth and forsaketh his sins shall find mercy Isa 55.7 Let the wicked forsake his way and the unrighteous man his thoughts and return to the Lord for he will have mercy upon him and to our God for he will abundantly pardon him Isa 1.16 17 18. Wash ye make ye clean put away the evil of your doing from before mine eyes cease to do evil learn to do well seek judgment relieve the oppressed judg the fatherless plead for the widow Come now and let us reason together saith the Lord though your sins be as Scarlet they shall be as white as Snow though they be red like Crimson they shall be as Wool You must loath your sins that you may be pardoned and withal you must leave them you must cease from doing evil if you would have God cease from his displeasure and unless you do forsake your sins never expect that God should forgive them there must be a returning to God that you may be received unto favour and this cannot be without a turning from sin It would be a dishonour unto God to pardon you