And is this excuse to pass for currant hath not God dealt Answered with thee often didst not thou more often harden thine own heart willingly withdraw thy self and all out of a love to sin 2. Though thou couldst not convert thine own heart yet this thou mightest have done in the times of afflictions c. considered what might move the Lord thus to deal with thee all or some of the causes which thy own conscience did freely suggest and the ends which God pointed thee to to reform them And then to have gone to him by vehement prayer to convert thy heart from thy sins to teach it righteousness to submit to his instructions Thou mightst thus have gone to him who can convert and have waited on him in the means of conversion but thou didst nor desire after him nor delightedst to seek him c. 2. But What may we do to prevent this shuffling and assaying of means to support us in sinning when the Lord deals with us and Means to prevent this shuffling calls upon us for the leaving of sin Sol. I would commend these five Directions 1. Strive to be convinced of this That as long as the Course is a sinfull Course it Be convinced of this That a sinfull course cannot be a 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 safe course can never be a safe Course We may weary our selves in the multitude of our imaginations and ways but run what course you please and pursue your own devices yet this ye shall reap of the Lord you shall lie down in your shame and sorrow you may run to new experiments but misery will follow your sins the next time as well as this and in every way as well as one way Your sins will find you out and as long as you carry your sins with you you cannot keep off calamities from you 2. Of necessity you must return or perish Your sinfull course is You must return or perish a by-path and leads to death It is sinfull and you know it and being sinfull it must be miserable To what end doth the Patient excuse the taking of the Receipt the wholsome Balm he must die if he doth not receive it So consider To what end do I thus vary my paths and shuffle and seek supports there is nothing strong enough to secure a sinner and let me sadly consider that I must one time or other leave these sinnings or else farewel my Soul and Salvation 3. It cannot but be best the sooner it is I must return or perish too soon I cannot return and the sooner the better A Our Return is best the sooner it is Best For Safety Souldier of a middle age a Counsellor of a grave age and a Penitent of a young age are still the best The work which must be done is best done when soonest Best for Safety for thy life is very uncertain and if thou doest not leave thy sins to day thou mayest be in Hell for ought thou knowest for thy sins to morrow For Acceptance the Lord likes it best when For Acceptance one word of Mercy can cause us to trust and one shaking of the Rod can cause us to tremble and when one command sufficeth to turn us when upon the first Arrest we give up our Weapons it pleaseth Soveraignty best For Quietness for we do hereby deliver not onely our Souls but Bodies also from many troubles For Quietness the sooner we do repent and plainly yield why Conscience speaks peace the sooner and God commands mercies the faster strong Sins breed long afflictions but give up the Sins and God gives up the Quarrel throw over Bichri's head to Joab and he will presently remove the siege If a man had health he might take sleep the better but as long as the body is diseased it is unquiet 4. Strive against those diverting Principles which do draw thee from the right and onely way and put thee on by-thoughts and Strive against diverting Principles as Presumption of Mercy Or of thy own Power by-paths and a vain assayment of means to support us As 1. Presumption either of Mercy though thou doest add drunkenness to thirst and still findest out thine own inventions or thine own Power Thou mayest be hindred of the time which thou doest project and mayest want strength to execute thy purposes For sinfull practises do altogether weaken our power whilest they delude us with a conceit of strength hereafter 2. Stoutness and pride of spirit Do not in a bravery of villany dispute with the Almighty Stoutness and pride of spirir God it may prove a sad Victory to thee that thou art able to reject good counsel and to quench all good motions 3. Delight Delight in sin in sin which drowns the errand of all afflictions c. 5. Beseech the Lord at the very first to circumcise the stubbornness Beseech the Lord to câ—rcumcise the stubbornness of your hearts of your hearts and to give you the understanding ear and the obedient spirit that when in the Word he calls upon you to turn from your sins your hearts may fall down and cry out O Lord turn me and when by afflictions he calls upon you to turn you may presently humble your hearts and cry out O Lord pardon me O Lord heal me O Lord turn and save me Let us all think of this You know that the Lord is displeased with us and we have hitherto hardened our hearts against the Lord God hath dealt with us once twice often in publick in private ways and still we seek our own ways delude the work of Repentance set nothing to heart nor repent of our evil doings I I. Now I proceed to the Second thing which is The final The final disappointment of all the Prodigals designs Doct. 2. Nothing shall avail the shuffling sinner till he return but God will disappoint all his pâ—ojects Some things premised This is meantâ— of a sinner whom God intends to convert disappointment of the Prodigals assays and designs in these words And no man gave unto him Whence I observe That nothing shall avail the shuffling sinner until he doth turn from his sins but God will disappoint all his projects batter down all his confidences frustrate all his expectations drive him out of all his harbours and overthrow all the means and ways which he flies unto Before I confirm this Assertion let me premise a few particulars that so you may rightly conceive the scope of it Thus then 1. I intend the Assertion of a sinner whom God doth intend to convert others he may leave to prosper in their imaginations For you see it raised from the disappointment of a Prodigal one whose conversion at length attended his manifold afflictions and as manifold contrivances to keep up his sinfull conversation though such a person knows not it nor thinks on it yet God is secretly against him and thrusts him off from all the Cities of Refuge
and having thus abased him he wrought upon him to acknowledg and praise the true God Dan. 4. 33 34. Quest How may it appear that c. Sol. There are four How this may appear Afflictions sanctifyed are the souls Looking Glasses things attending upon sanctifyed afflictions and all of them contribute to Conversion 1. Afflictions sanctifyed are the souls Looking-Glass wherein a man may see his sins which are the causes of afflictions there are divers Glasses in which we may see the face of our sins 1. The Glass of the Word 2. The Glass of Reproof 3. The Glass of Conscience 4. The Glass of Afflictions Affliction is a Glass wherein a person first sees his own sins Ocules quam culpa claudit pena aperit We were verily guilty of the blood of our brother said Joseph's Brethren and as I have served others so the Lord hath served me said Adonibezeck 2. Sees them as sinners In prosperity we see the pleasures of sin but in adversity the bitterness of sin in the one we see them as our friends in the other as our enemies An evil and bitter thing that we have forsaken the Lord so Jeremiah speaketh 3. Sees them with a serious look sees them and thinks of them sees them and layes them to heart Thy wickedness hath procured these things unto thee Now when a person is brought to a right sight of sin to see his own sins and as sins and seriously considers of them this is a way tending to his Conversion I considered my wayes said David and turned my feet unto thy testimonies 2. Afflictions sanctifyed work much upon the Conscience they are the rods of God upon the Soul they are the Waters of They work much upon the conscience Marah bitter Waters and they stir up conscience to speak bitter words unto us These were thy wayes and these were thy doings thou wouldst not be warned thou wouldst not hearken and now see whither thy sins do tend now see into what straits they have brought thee now thou wilt believe that God is displeased with thee When conscience is stirred when the burden of afflictions turn into the burden of conscience two things ordinarily ensue thereupon 1. A mans carnal security is broken The man thought himself safe and secure before but now he sees his condition to be very sad unsound unsafe and miserable not only my goods are gone but my God also is gone 2. The heart comes to be humbled O A working conscience a smiting conscience is the Hammer of God by which he breaks and bows the soul Afflictions now stir up the Gall and the Wormwood and the soul is humbled by them and when the soul is brought to see sin and to consider of sin and to be humbled for sin it is now in a fair way of Conversion 3. Afflictions if sanctifyed are gales to Prayer Lord in trouble have they visited thee they powred out a Prayer when They are gales to Prayer thy chastening was upon them Isai 26. 10. In their afflictions they will seek me early Hosea 5. It is almost natural for an afflicted man to pray and afflictions put an edge of zeal on Prayer we are seldome more frequent and more fervent in that duty then in the times of our distress But then observe that as afflictions are apt to quicken prayer so if they have occasioned a sense and trouble in the heart for sin Then 1. Vsually they stir up Prayer for pardon of sin and for conversion from sin Blot out my transgressions praies afflicted David Turn thou me and I shall be turned praies distressed Ephraim Jer. 31. 18 These are the two great desires of a distressed soul 2. Usually God hears these Prayers The sacrifices of God are a broken spirit a broken and a contrite heart O God thou wilt not despise Ps 51. 17. A poor sinner cannot put up a more acceptable request unto God then this Lord I beseech thee change and turn my heart subdue mine iniquities let not sin have dominion over me I beseech thee suffer me not to dishonour thee any more So that now you see that afflictions have brought the Soul and God together the afflicted Person sees a need of Mercy and Grace and unto God he applies himself who is the only Author of a sinners Conversion the only Physician of a sinful soul 4. Afflictions if sanctifyed incline us unto converting Ordinances They incline us to conveâ—ting ordinances You shall observe that men under their afflictions are 1. More willing to hear 2. More attentive in hearing 3. More tractable and pliable .i. more easie to be wrought upon in hearing When a man is chastned with pain and his flesh consumed away and his soul draws near to the Grave then he will make use of a Messenger of an Interpreter of one among a thousand to shew unto him his uprightness Job 33. 19. to 23. Oh what a Divine influence and authority hath the Word over such a man he can be content to have his sins ript open and he can hear and weep Oh a sinner and he longs to hear of some word of hope and when he hears it Oh how good is God! and he catcheth greedily at the word of direction and when he hears it Oh when shall I be this when shall I do this Lord give grace give strength unto thy poor servant the man in his prosperity would not know the Lord nor hearken to him he was above counsel and instruction but now his ear is opened to discipline and instruction is sealed unto him Job 33. 16. Now it is Lord that which I see not teach thou me and if I have done iniquity I will do no more Job 34. 32. The first Use shall be for Trial of our selves what the fruit of Vse Trial what the fruit of our affliction is all our afflictions is I think there is no man almost in all the Kingdome but God hath of late some way or other afflicted him Many have lost all their estates not an House is left to them nor Land nor a Rag to their backs many have lost their Husbands or their Children in the War many have lost some of their Family with the Plague lately who hath not been some way or other afflicted Now consider 1. It is the saddest affliction It is the saddest afflâ—ction not to be bittered by affliction to be no way bettered by afflictions No misery like that to love the sins and continue still in the sins which brought our misery Oh to be as far from our friends as before and as far from our God as before to be thrust out of an earthly possession and not yet to get an heavenly inheritance to lose our Lands and not yet to get Christ to have no home to go to here nor any home to go unto hereafter to lose our estates and keep our sins to lose the world and to lose the soul too to lose all our comforts and yet
or last they shall know that it shall not be well with the wicked and that between a former punishment and a greater there may step in many mercies as twixt the fits of a Fever some real slumbers and pauses Now I proceed to the Application of this Point which shall be for Conviction 1. Of the vanity and deluding presumption Vse Conviction of The vanity and deluding presumption of the sinner in the heart of sinners who imagine that worse they cannot be and as much misery is befallen them as can be and therefore they will on to their sins again Let us not deceive our selves that God with whom we are to deal is of infinite power and wrath and the conscience of a guilty sinner is capable of infinitely many miserable impressions The Bee may leave her sting in the flesh and so be disabled c. Therefore let no man say as Agag Surely the bitterness of death is past you know Samuel presently hewed him in pieces before the Lord in Giâ—gal Alas thou knowest not the wrath which is yet behind God doth never fully manifest his wrath upon any sinner in this life nor doth he punish him so in any kind but that a greater judgement a worse thing as Christ spake to him in the Gospel may yet befal him Consider that as greater judgments are yet behind all the punishments which we have felt so it is Gods method to begin low but to end his work of Judgement heavily he doth by some lighter afflictions skirmish with a person or a Nation and if they yield not then he will bring the great Army of his Plagues and Judgements And again know that multiplication of sins is a just cause for the addition of Judgements Renewed sinnings are alwayes the more hainous and strong in deserts but renewed sinnings after punishment for sin are yet of a deeper dye because They relish much of Presumption though God hath already testified his displeasure yet the sinner will adventure on his wrath and provoke him again They receive universal condemnation the sinner now sins against all the waies of recovery the Word of God which called upon him to be wise and to receive instruction and to return unto him that smote The punishment or rod which did tender him the sins which brought this upon his back The mercy of God which drew off the wrath and though it might have been a destroying sword at once that destruction should not have risen up the second time yet it so wrought with the master that he would try the sinner yet a little longer thou mightst have been among the dead yea among the damned for thy former sinnings yet mercy hath so tempered justice that time is left thee to repent and this space thou abusest to sin again yea though justice met with thee for them already yea though mercy released thee yet a little longer yea though thou didst confess these sins yea though thou wert greatly troubled for these sins yea though thou didst resolve against these sins and if thou thus sinnest more will not thy punishment be greater Doth not God hate sins now as well as then Or if thou be greater in transgressions will he be less in justice Canst thou expect mercy should come more easily when sin is raised more deeply He that being often reproved hardneth his neck saith Solomon Prov. 29. 1. shall suddenly be destroied and that without remedy The same may be affirmed of being punished usually perseverance in sin after punishment brings a sudden and a sore destruction God hath many arrows which flie over the heads and after that hee hath arrows to wound the hearts of his enemies You know that there be not onely warning-pieces but murdering-pieces in the roial artillery The punishment which a man hath already felt for his sins are but so many warning-pieces to repent to return from sin but if men will harden their hearts there are murdering-pieces God can so deeply strike that destruction shall not rise up the second time 2. The second conviction shall be of Duty If the further Conviction of duty men go on in sin the worse rhey shall speed then let us learn a double duty 1. To avoid such things as will occasion a further progress in sin after punishment 2. To apply our selves to such Avoid waies as may take us off from sinning being punished 1. Vitanda The things which we must avoid as occasioning a further progress in sin are these 1. Ignorant Misconstruction as if Gods Ignorant misconstruction arrows did flye out as his who shot at an adventure and lighted on Ahab so that our punishments are but meer casual things naked acts but no lessons Nay brethren if we had but an ear to hear every affliction and punishment hath a voice to speak this may be said of every punishment what Ehud said to â—glon I have a message unto thee from God 2. Atheistical pride as Pharaoh who is the Lord that I should let Israel go When a Atheistical pride person will exalt himself in the times of wrath and will not tremble nor fear before the Lord but slights the operation of his hands and for all this will not lay to heart the hand of God alas this makes way for sinning 3. Froward Impatience when persons are sensible of punishment but vex against God who strikes so close yea and like that Froward impatience King in the strait This evil is of the Lord why should I wait on the Lord any longer When men will forsake God because hee doth punish them this is a further sin and makes way for more sinning The soul which is most apt through a murmuring impatience to question God will be apt through a presumptuous confidence to sin against God in the dead sea there is least sailing and in the raging sea there is most ship-wracking 4. Empty confessions when persons satisfie themselvs with words and a meer form of Repentance putting on for the time a grave Empty confessions countenance and fetching a sigh and dropping a tear and acknowledging that all is not well but all this while they search not to the root they do not strive to examine their hearts to humble them to cleanse and reform them and what then can be expected but upon some convenient occasion the old heart should return to its old waies and courses Pharaoh confessed that he and his people had sinned but still he hardned his heart and would not let Israel go Hypocritical humiliation or repentance because rising from mutable causes lasts not long nor changes the disposition of the soul The sore which is but covered and not cured will break out again 5. Negligent remissions An heart which likes not to change its course may ye for the obtaining some special good give out Negligent remissions unto the doing of much good and for the removal of some evil make a stop of much sin You may observe that
sometimes in the heat of a punishment how our hearts perhaps fall down before the Lord and we are very urgent on him and very diligent spend much time in his service and a kind of watchful tenderness is come upon us against sin but then we let fall our hands and our candle quickly burns more dimly our task abates our affections grow slack our purposes our services wear away and we begin to grow as forward to our sins as before the liking of God and of his waies and services cool and sinful occasions grow as pleasing and acceptable Remember it that man will be quickly bad who grows negligently good and the soul which is weary of Gods service is ready for sins work 6. Partial reservations when men in or after punishment will Partial Reservations profess against the great bulks of sin and as Pharaoh at length was willing to let the people go but to stay the little children so we wil bid defiance and seem to take resolution against our former great iniquities in the greatness of them but yet we will keep back and not part with such and such things which perhaps formally are not sinful but occasionally they may to our corrupt affections prove so Why how can it be but such a soul should make yet a progress in sin who reservs still an incendiary motive a quick and captivating incentive unto sin The river will quickly over-spread and fill the channel if you give it way spare but your self in occasions and they will bring on first the lesser trials of sin and the lesser trials will quickly ingage you to greater adventurings and some adventurings will easily bring you to your old courses In the second place let us apply our selvs to such waies as may Directions take us off from sinning yet more after punishment which you have heard doth make the condition yet worse The directions which I would commend unto you are these 1. In all punishment for sinning follow the writ open it and see In all punishment for sin search out thâ— Cause whose name is in it my meaning is enquire into thy self search diligently for whose sake this evil befals thee as the Mariners in Jonah concerning the tempest they did cast lots that they might know for whose cause that evil was upon them so should we in the presence of our punishment when Gods hand is in any kind upon us search and lift up our hands unto God to shew us the special reasons of his wrath and indignation for though earthly parents do many times inconsiderately in passion chastize their children after their own pleasure yet God doth it wisely and never without cause we may say of all our punishment what the Prophet saith to the Israelites Jer. 4. 18. Thy way and thy doings have procured these things unto thee this is thy wickedness c. Punishments never prove reformations until first they be informations they never cure the heart unless first they clear the eye We must first spell the Lesson before we can take it forth therefore this do if thou canst not find the specialty of thy provocations 1. Look thy afflictions and punishments well in the face perhaps thou mayest in them see the very feature of thy sin which hath caused God to punish thee very usually that punishment which is a Rod is also a Glass it shews us the fault for which we are lashed 2. Observe thy self in the estate when thy punishment doth come do but recal thy bent of heart course ways imagination devices sometimes a man is taken by the punishment when he is dealing in a way which doth more especially provoke God 3. Peruse the Word and well consider what sins have brought down such kind of punishment Pares culpae Pares poenae God doth many times keep his course of the same punishments with the same sins else the Apostles dehortation of the Corinthians from Idolatry and Uncleanness which was the Israelites sins for fear of the like punishments were somwhat vain 4. Lastly Regard the first and more frequent verdicts of thy own conscience There are two times when Conscience deals more home and faithfully with us One is when we are to die Another is when we are to suffer in a time of judgment and affliction we find as Josephs brethren did the remembrance of former evils Surely this is befallen us because of our brother c. said they So our hearts tell us Well assuredly this comes upon me for my Swearing for my Drunkenness for my Uncleanness for my Covetousness c. 2. When your sins are brought to light that you can say Here is my punishment and there are my sins then go to God When the sin is discovered go to God in an humbâ—e confession of iâ— with them to him that smote thee By most humble and broken Confession that thou hast done wickedly but the Lord hath dealt most righteously acquit him but condemn thy self Accuse and indite thy sinning soul O Lord thus and thus have I sinned and provoked thee c. Deal ingenuously with the Lord and freely confess unto him and never leave until thy soul be afflicted for sinning as well as thy body until thou canst grieve a thousand times more for thy sins than for thy punishment for the dishonour which God hath felt by thy sinnings than for the smart which thou feelest under thy punishments By most vehement and constant Petition and that for two things especially Go to God by earnest petition for viz. 1. Reconciliation with that God whom thou hast so much provoked by thy sinnings As Moses said to Aaron Take a Censer Reconciliation Numb 16. 46. and put fire therein from off the Altar and go quickly to the Congregation and make an attonement So let us speedily strive to reconcile our selves unto the Lord beseeching him to love us freely to receive us graciously to pardon us for his own sake to remember our sins no more not to contend with us for ever but to cast our sins into the depths of the Sea and mercifully to be our God And in this business of reconciling our selves with God take notice 1. Of the meritorious cause of it which is the bloud of Christ called therefore our attonement Rom. 5. and our Propitiation 1 Joh. 2. 1. Now beseech the Lord to look on thee in Christ and to remember the bloud of the everlasting Covenant which was shed for the remission of sins and to make peace Beseech him to be reconciled unto thee in and through Christ and do thou stedfastly trust unto him by faith for it 2. Of the means of it To the Word to Prayer O be earnest for such dispositions upon which the Lord will â—eal mercy and forgiveness He will be gracious to the cry of the mournfull soul Isa 30. 19. and to the penitent 2 Chron. 7. 14. 2. Sanctification Alas if the Lord should lay upon thee Sanctification as many and
repentance and not be made the causes of despair or more sinning If thy sinnings had not been so high it had been better but being so thy remedy is not an addition of a worse sin or a continuance in the same sins but to pray unto the Lord to turn thee and to forgive thee Object Why I have prayed and yet I can get no mercy not I have prayed and yet can get no mercy see any hopes or appearance of mercy therefore surely God will not be so ready to shew me mercy Sol. This is a sore Objection and usually troubled Consciences are enthralled with it Answered and many times receive great discouragement because of the silence of mercy to their tears and prayers But let us see how we may instruct and support persons in this case 1. God is ready God is ready to hear prayer to hear prayer Psal 65. 2. O thou that hearest prayer Before they call I will answer and while they are speaking I will hear Isa 65. 2. Of all mens prayers he is most ready to hear the prayer of afflicted Most ready to hear the prayer of the afflâ—cted persons Psal 18. 27. Thou wilt save the afflicted Psal 22. 24. He hath not despised nor abhorred the afflictions of the afflicted neither hath he hid his face from them but when he cried unto him he heard him Of all the Prayers which he is ready to hear there are none which he doth more feelingly and compassionately tender than the Prayers of afflicted people especially such as are inwardly afflicted in their souls and consciences for their sins No people are more apt to fear that the Lord doth not hear their Prayers and yet no Prayers doth God sooner hear than theirs for as much as the Lord doth exceedingly delight in the sacrifices of a broken spirit and he is full of pitifulness and bowels towards them I have surely heard Ephraim bemoaning himself Jer. 31. 18. When Ephraim smote upon the thigh and was confounded and ashamed why you know the Lord could not contain his affections Is Ephraim my dear son is he a pleasant child for since I spake against him I do earnestly remember him still therefore my bowels are troubled for him I will surely have mercy upon him saith the Lord. David you find him much afflicted and distressed in his soul Psal 32. 3 4. he did no sooner acknowledge his sin but God did express his mercy v. 5. The like you may see of him in Psal 6. 1 2. compared with v. 8 9. The Lord hath heard the voice of my weeping the Lord hath heard my suplication the Lord hath received my Prayer So true is that of the Prophet Isa 30. 19. He will be very graâ—ious unto thee at the voice of thy cry when he shall hear it he will answer thee But then know we that there may be sometimes God doth not presently make known his Mercy Reasons of it on our parts some special Reasons why the Lord doth not presently make known his mercy to the troubled and seeking soul The Reasons may be either on their part or on Gods part 1. Quick mercy must first see quickned fervency Though God be ready to hear their Prayers yet there may be some reasons Quickned fervency may be wanting why he doth not presently give them sensible tokens that they are heard If you pray for pardoning mercy as Austin did for repentance if you pray with a careless dull flat formal neglecting sprit not esteeming of Gods mercy and favour as your lives nay above your lives if you seek not the Lord in this with all your hearts Pardoning mercy is the greatest mercy for the soul and must be desired with the greatest affections of the soul with cries with importunities If you do not mightily wrestle with him as David in Psal 6. and as Daniel in c. 9. No marvel that cold Suits have slow Answers though you be afflicted in your consciences yet if those inward afflictions cannot raise the price of mercy and set a stronger edge upon your affections if the burnings of your consciences do not kindle flames of affections for mercy you may wait for your answer 2. As it must be a quickned affection which must find quick mercy so it must be a pure affection I will that men pray every Or a pure affecction where lifting up pure hands 1 Tim. 2. 8. Art thou sure that no iniquity cleaves unto thee and is an impedit to thy suit for mercy Thou art troubled with the grossness of some one of thy sins but doest not thou connive at the shreds of the same sin the limbs of it afflict thee but do not the leaves and the twigs hang on still If we do not purely and entirely put off our sins why should we complain that God doth not let down his mercy If I regard iniquity in my heart the Lord will not hear me Psal 66. 18. If you favour your known sin in any part or the least degree of it where now hath God promised to shew thee favour or mercy Or suppose thou shakest off one crying sin and yet retain some other sin put off one servant and take another be troubled for one transgression and yet live in another is this repentance Thou doest not change thy course but thy sin and how then canst thou expect mercy But if thou prepare thine heart and stretch out thine hands towards God and â—utst iniquity far from thee then shalt thou lift up thy face without spot said Zophar Job 11. 13 14. If thou thus return to the Almighty and putst away iniquity Job 22. 23. thou shalt make thy prayer unto him and he shall hear thee v. 27. As your prayers must be servent so they must be the fervent prayers of a righteous man which do prevail much Not that he who prays must have no sin but that he must love and connive at none 3. Thy heart is troubled with the guilt of sin but doth it morn Doest thou mourn for the vileness and fithiness of thy sin for the viteness and filth of thy sin Thou seekest for a Cordial but doest thou pray for Salve too Vehement thou art for Mercy but what for Grace Where guilt onely troubles it may make me earnest for mercy to ease me that is involuntary would not be troubled but is troubled because he is troubled But where the filthiness of sin troubles me now I do not onely importune in prayer but mourn also and amas desirous of healing as I am of pardoning this is voluntary he would mourn and mourns because he can mourn no more If thou seekest the Lord with a mourning heart as well as with a troubled heart the fountain is set upon for transgressions and sins Zach. 13. 1. and if the fountain be opened for thee it cannot be long ere mercies will swim unto thee 4. And with what faith hast thou prayed Thy troubled Conscience With what faith
father saw him and had compassion on him When Ephraim repented and returned and lamented why the Lord saith My bowels are troubled for him I will surely have mercy on him So here the father not only sees but compassionates q. d. Look the poor child is at length come back he hath smarted enough he shall be welcom I will forgive him all 3. His gracious Acceptation expressed in three particulars One of speedy readiness The father ran Mercy must speed to embrace a penitent Swift are the feet of mercy to a returning sinner A second of wonderful tenderness The father fell on his neck How open are the arms of mercy to take a penitent sinner into the bosom Mercy hath not onely feet to meet us but arms also to clasp and receive us if we be penitent A third of strong affectionateness His Father kissed him God hath not onely arms but lips he hath not naked mercies for a penitent opening themselves in manifold promises onely but also sugred mercies mercie sealed with the kisses of his lips with a sweet testimony that he doth accept of and is reconciled to a penitent and returning soul 2. Some things on the Childs part which is the real acting of his former resolution in an actual confession vers 21. And here observe a strange interruption on his fathers part 1. He staies not to hear all the confession and petition intended though he have purposed to have said more and make me as one of thy hired servants Why the father stops him prevents him we propose a method many times but God suddenly comes in with his mercies 2. He cannot confess so much but the father though not in words yet really doth much more Fetch forth saith he 1. The best roâ—e 2. The pretious ring and 3. The comely shoo 's We can bring nothing to God but yet he can find enough for the whole soul And 4. The fatted Calf Ah! how infinitely different is the penitent condition from the impenitent Now the child hath garments hath ornaments hath necessaries hath comfortables when we once truly turn to God we shall find no lack there is a complete happiness now come to this returning son who adventured on the gracious disposition of his father and there is a great gladness now in the father for the penitential returning of his son Our condition is best and God is most pleased when we turn penitents vers 21 22. Let us eat and be merry for this my son was dead and is alive again he was lost and is found Thus briefly have you the sense of the Parable with a division of the chief heads thereof I will nov proceed to pick out the moral observations which are couched in it they may be reduced to three general head 1. A Sinners digression or aversion from God 2. A Penitents regression or conversion unto God 3. A Penitents acceptation and favorable entertainment with God In the first you see the sinners going from God to misery In the second you see him returning unto himself by true penitency In the third you see God returning to him in mercy In the first you see him losing himself in the second you see him finding himself in the third you see God finding of him Sin loses us repentance finds us and then God owns us I begin with the Sinners dâ—gression or aversion from God which is set forth unto us in v. 12 13 14 15 16. under the similitude of a young man who would have all in his own hands and so he left his Father took his pleasure in Travels soon consumed all and shortly brought himself to extreme necessity and misery This is the literal part of the Parable But the Moral part comprehends if I mistake not these Propositions That Sin is a departing from God The young Prodigal he must leave his Father he must be D. 1. Sin is a departing from God gone what doth it imply but the sinner is a departer Sinning is a departing we leave God when we betake our selves to a course of sinning Thus is it stiled in Scripture Esai 1. 4. Ah sinfull Nation a people laden with iniquity a seed of evil doers children that are corrupters they have forsaken the Lord they have gone away backward Here sin is called a forsaking the Lord and a going away and a revolting ye will revolt more and more which is a falling off untrustily from God Jer. 2. 14. They have forsaken me the fountain of living waters Heb. 3. 12. An evil he art of unbelief in departing from the living God There is a two-fold Departing One is real when he turns away from the place or presence of another as Jonathan arose A two-fold departing Real and departed from his father Saul Thus no man can depart from God for he being omnipresent is with us in every place Another is moral which is when the heart or soul departs and thus the sinner departs from God when his soul and affections leave him Moral and cleave to sin And it cannot be but that sinning should be such a departing for as much as God and sin are most contrary so that the soul cannot enjoy them both if you will love and follow your sins you must leave God and if you will love and follow the Lord you must leave your sins for what communion can there be betwixt light and darkness God and sin The Use of this may inform us of the madness and folly of a sinner He will live in such or such a sin and with greediness he Vse See the folly of the sinner follows the inticements thereof Well! thou enjoyest thy sin but consider that thou losest thy God and what doest thou get in all thy delights which are but lying vanities whilest thou forsakest the God of thy mercies Thy exchange is miserable to leave a God and embrace a sin to depart from the chiefest good and happiness and to make choice of the basest objects of sin which is worse then hell it self A second moral observation is this that A sinner doth voluntarily of his own accord depart from God Here the Prodigal D. 2. A sinner doth voluntarily depart from God makes choice of his own way and course and desires to be left to himself and to take his own course God compels no man to a sinfull course nor is he the cause thereof nor can Satan compel the heart A man in this regard is said to tempt and entice himself and with Ahab to sell himself to work wickedness And therefore The sinner is utterly inexcusable before God Vse Therefore the sinner is inexcusable his mouth is for ever stopped his sin and perdition is of himself God is cleared in Judgment who punishes the wicked who is the actor contriver and sole cause of his own sinnings Take any sinner who delights himself in a way of wickedness why he is voluntary in it 'T is true in dispute he pretends an insufficiency or inability
but the real cause of his sinning is his own will for he loves Darkness rather then Light and had rather serve his Lusts then God he makes choice of them before God as the multitude did of Barrabas before Christ and when Life and Death God and Sin are propounded yea and that with the true rewards from the one and severe wrath from the other yet he like Issachar bowes down under the burthen and loves rest he had rather go on in his sins and will not leave them And therefore we alone are guilty of our own bloud God is innocent as well as just our condemnation is but a due guerdon or paiment for our own voluntary departings from God A third moral Observation is this that The pleasures of sinning will quickly end and the end of them is extreme misery The Prodigal Doct. 3. The pleasures of sin will quickly end in misery here will be gone he must have pleasure his Fathers house was too strict well he begins his â—iotous living but then you read that he quickly consumed and wasted all his substance and brought himself into such extreme necessities that he became a servant to the swine and fain would have fed his belly with the husks which they left but none gave unto him This point I intend more fully to press which contains in it two branches 1. That the pleasures of sinning are but short 2. That though delights and pleasures begin a sinfull course yet extreme necessity and misery or streights do end it 1. The pleasures and delights of sinning are but short The riotous life of the Prodigal was a present consumption of his estate The pleasures of sin are but short The pleasure of sin is like a Candle which in the very burning and lighting burns and consumes away It is in Scripture compared to the crackling of thorns which is but a speedy blaze and to the Lightning which is but a glance and a flash and away and to a season the pleasures of sin for a season Heb. 11. which is a very inch of time a 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 a little article of time for though time be long yet a season is but a short space In Job the pleasure of sin is compared to a sweet morsel a morsel is no great quantity and though it be sweet yet it slips quickly away from the tongue and palate And the Apostle compares it to a bait wherewith a fish is taken the fish looks on and nibbles a little and takes it down and then away goes the bait Cain pleased himself a while but not long for the sin of murther presently pursued and cried against him And Adam before him had but one taste of the forbidden tree it quickly set his teeth on edge Gehazi's gold and garments and Achan's wedge as they were stoln waters and though sweet yet short So was it with Ahab he got Naboths vineyard sinfully but he scarce ever enjoyed it he met with a mighty curse from God presently upon him But here observe that the pleasures of sin may be said to be In respect of estimation short 1. In respect of estimation when the hearts of men judge of them as false unlawfull and short Thus Moses esteemed of them and therefore refused the pleasures of sin which were but for a season 2. In respect of duration For if Life itself be not long In respect of duration the pleasures of sin must needs be short It is true that as long as the impenitent soul hath a being the guilt of his sin shall have a being and consistence in the soul but at the utmost sinful pleasures extend not beyond our life their date then of necessity must be expired though usually they are extinguished or interrupted before and life is a very short tale hour moment 3. In comparison In comparison with eternity with eternity though a man should live in the pleasures of sin 20 40 60 years yet what is that space of time to an eternity of sorrows and bitterness Compare the longest time with eternity it is scarce a considerable moment But you may demand Why should the pleasures of sin be so short Sol. Nay Reasons of it you might rather demand Why they should be at all for indeed real pleasure cannot arise out of sinful acts yet a carnal and sensual pleasure there is which is nevertheless short Because 1. Sin is never so pleasant but it breeds that which is Sin is never so pleasant but it breeds that which is unpleasant unpleasant nay the more pleasure we find in it the more displeasure it works like a draught of beer which the more fully and pleasantly drops down the more danger is added to the patient So is it with sin it seems a delightful thing to you to follow your lusts your evil waies but the more you sin the more you increase your guilt and guilt is but a sword to cut the throat of your sinful pleasures It is like sweet poison which goes down easily and delightfully but it will suddenly disturb and crack the body 2. God hath cursed the waies of sin and therefore though they God hath cursed the ways of sin seem pleasant for a while yet that shall not be long he hath hedged it with thorns threatned all evil miserable and judicial evil against it And look as when a good man earnestly presses God upon his promises his sorrowes shall not stay long but sighs and tears shall flie away So when a wicked man provoketh God by his sinnings his pleasures shall be short for the Lord will perform his threatnings against him 3. The pleasures of sin must necessarily be short because conscience Conscience cannot be long quiet cannot be long quiet If you should wound and wound a man he will begin to feel and to complain even your pleasant sinnings are the most grievous woundings of conscience and conscience will not bear it will awake with blood trickling and will be revenged of you with most bitter expostulations severe accusations unsufferable gnawings and then where are the pleasures of your sins Who can stand before envy said Solomon so against conscience the wounds thereof yea and her woundings by it who can bear thy delights will sink and flie off yea thy heart will fail thee utterly when conscience ariseth to accuse and condemn thy sinful pleasures 4. They raise up manifold afflictions and calamities which shorten our pleasures and delights They raise up manifold afflictions But I proceed to the opening of the second branch viz. the endings of sin That though a sinful course may begin in many Sin will end in many miseries pleasures yet it shall end in many miseries extremities and straits There are diverse sorts of ending of things some end by way of annihilation as the souls of the beasts they shall cease to be they are resolved into nothing some end by way of perfection as the souls and waies of
a greater curse from God Therefore you read of such who are entangled again That their latter end is worse then their beginning 2 Pet. 2. 20. Men are entangled again when either by the vigour of conscience or sharpness of affliction c. they have made a pause or stop but like the restrained River which climbs over the Dam so they get over these unto their course of sinning again Now saith the Apostle these men shall never better their estates nay they make them the worse the latter end of them or with them is worse then the beginning Thirdly know That by progress in sin after punishment Progress in sin makes the estaâ—e worse Formally the estate is worse Formally Judicially Eventually 1. Formally worse For if sin be it which makes the estate bad then more sinning must needs be that which makes the estate worse as on the contrary the additionals and incrementals of Grace i. when a man doth add one degree of grace to another and riseth in a better and a stronger and fuller acting of grace hereby the moral perfection of his soul is much more bettered and perfected so when the habits of sin admit of more love of sin more exercise of sin that a man doth go on from one sin to another by way of addition or in the frequent practise of the same sins by way of iteration he cannot but make his sinfull nature much more sinfull more filthy and more vile as when a man doth twine one thread upon another or one cord upon another he adds a greater strength unto it so when a man shall rowl and file one sin upon another c. by further progress in sin the very pollutions are more spread and more established and more enlarged by it a man is always more under the pollution of sin and more under the dominion of sin as the Proselytes were made ten times more the children of the Devil 2. Judicially worse which appears in two particulars viz. Judicially In a Dereliction on Gods part 1. In a Dereliction on Gods part he doth more sadly leave such a soul give it up to its own lusts and its own vile affections and unto Satan to rule mightily and efficaciously in such a child of disobedience who loves to adventure in a known way of curse and misery so that the Lord may withdraw himself and desert that progressively sinning soul and not aid and assist it in case of most horrible lusts or of most hideous temptations 2. In Condemnation In Condemnation on Consciences part on Consciences part For the progress in sinnings as at any time so after the time of punishment for sin will make and raise a louder cry and a fiercer sentence from the conscience A man who will not repent for the lashes on his back shall by his continuance in sin quickly feel the lashes of Scorpions in his soul as more guilt doth arise from sinfull practices so more horrour doth ensue upon more guilt more guilt is but like a great storm at Sea or like a great raging of a disease 3. Eventually worse My meaning is that by his continued sinnings he shall not onely continue but much more enlarge his Eventually outward miseries and straits and punishments I will punish you yet seven times more Levit. 26. Pharaoh still hardned his heart but God still followed him with sorer Judgments destruction of Verba Verberâ— Vulnerâ— his fields and then of his cattel and then of his children and at length of his own life As it is with a Bird in a Net the more she flutters and stirs the more is she hamper'd and involved so it is with the sinner the more he stirs on in a sinfull way the more doth he enwrap and intrap too himself with greater mischief The Israelites did begin to murmur against God and God then as it were did privately correct and chastize them afterwards they did revolt from God and then he did let loose some of the Canaanites and Midianites upon them who did greatly distress them at length they grew common in Idolatry and very audacious in their Rebellions against God and then they were carried away captive by the Babylonian Armies So that if you read the History of them you shall evidently discern that every further sinning of theirs was nothing else but a further engaging of themselves unto greater calamities and as it were an adding to more cords wherewith they were more held and beaten If you now demand the Reasons or causes why that the further men go on in their sinning after punishment the worse work Reasons they shall find it to prove I answer the Reasons thereof may be these 1. Sin is a most barren and unprosperous thing Who hath Sin is a barren and unprosperous thing hardned himself against God and prospered said Job 9. 4. his meaning is this that sinning is no prosperous and thriving way It cannot be that a man should go on in sin and yet meet with prosperity and good success and therefore Solomon saith expresly He that hardneth his heart shall fall into mischief Pro. 28. 14. So that sinning is not onely not prosperous but it is also mischievous it will do a man a mischief somtime or other Can a man gather grapes of thistles said our Saviour It cannot be for thistles produce blossomes according to their kind of a filthy and sharp quality But as for Grapes which are of a sweet and refreshing and delighting nature and virtue they come not from such a root as a Thistle Comfort and blessing and peace and prosperity and good success these cannot grow from a sinfull course the land of sin is always a land of famine and barrenness and watered onely with clouds of wrath and set with thorns of vengeance a land wherein a person must not look to see good So that what the Lord said of Coniah Write that man childless the same may be affirmed of every sinfull way It is a barren an accursed an unprofitable an unsuccessfull way No way to better but the onely way to increase wrath and punishment to the sinner 2. Nay sin is not onely a barren thing unable to produce Sin is a very provoking thing any good or blessing but sin is also a very wicked thing and provoking The sinnings of men are the provocations of God to wrath and punishment and the more sinnings are still the greater provocations How long saith God to Moses of the Israelites Will they provoke me Look as the froward and perverse walking of a child provokes the parent i. stirs up his displeasure and anger So the sinnings of men they do provoke the Lord by them unto jealousie and wrath and stir up his displeasure against them therefore it cannot be but that if men go on further in sinning they should find a worse thing of it for every sinning is but as it were a further kindling of the fire and a new incensing and
moved to endure much in his body for the preservation and defence of it for sin is an evil thing and therefore worthless Or 2. Because any sin is less evil then misery and therefore this shall be endured rather Noâ— because any sin is less evil then misery But because The sinner doth exceedingly love his sin then that shall be forsaken But 1. The sinner doth exceedingly love his sin The heart of a sinner is set on his sin he hath made a Covenant with death and an agreement with hell He loves darkness and is held fast with the bonds and cords of his sinful affections A person doth many times suffer pains sharper then death because he doth exceedingly love life Why a sinner loves his sin as he loves his life nay more then his life the which he doth often hazard for ever to preserve his sin 2. The sinner is a Fool Put a fool never so oft in the Stocks it doth The sinner is a Fool. him no good he understands not the cause nor end of it Evil men are chastized and punished by God but they know not nor understand they know not that their sins are the cause thereof and that Conversion from sin is the end thereof 3. There is a marvellous stout Spirit of pride in the sinner who is therefore said to There is a stout spirit of pride in a sinner fight against God and to resist him and though he be smitten yet to refuse to return and wilfully to transgress and that they will not hearken Stifnecked are they called and foreheads have they which cannot be ashamed and faces that cannot blush 4. A vain presumption From a vaine presumption that yet their sinful wayes shall be well at last From the Contrariety betwixt the wayes of God and the Sinners heart that yet their sinful wayes shall be well at last It is but bearing a while and at length their calamities will off He who goes on in a sinful way is never without some sinful project and chimeraes silly fancies of some good and some support and wearing out of his troubles c. 5. There is a bitter contrariety twixt the wayes of God and the sinners heart Light and darkness are not more opposite hence is it that in Job they say unto God Depart from us we desire not the knowledg of the Almighty And in Psal 2. They break the cords in sunder And Heb. 10. They are said to offer despight unto the Spirit of Grace Holiness and holy walking ah it is that which their hearts hate more then hell they will adventure their damnation before they will affect and practice holiness no greater burden and torment to them then it 6. And sometimes Unbelief may be a special cause why a sinner doth thus shift and From unbeliefe try The guilt of his sins under his afflictions may lie heavy upon his conscience and he may be so wholly taken up with the apprehension of wrath and judgment and an implacability in God towards him that God will never shew him mercy who hath been so much and so long provoked that it is in vain to return now there is no hope 7. The Vanity of a corrupt Judgment which deludes From the Vanity of a Corrupt Judgment the sinner as if he could be sinful and safe or that he could subsist well enough without returning to God Now I proceed to the Application of this point the Uses are many 1. For Conviction of Error in Judgment Use 1. Conviction It is no easie work to Repent 1. That it is an easie work to Repent and to leave sin When I am sick or come to dy then I will think of that work No brethren if the heart of man be of so subtil a temper and so perverse a frame can afflictions do it of themselves if the love of sin be so strongly in grain that many waters of afflictions cannot wash it out nor many beams of mercy melt and turn it you must then imagine it not to be an easie work to turn the heart from sin if it will adventure the loss of heaven and the endurance of hell and the actual presence of many sore calamities confess then That the descents into sin are easie but the returns from it are not ordinary or facile Faciles aditus Dificiles oxitus saith St. Austin More is required to Convert then External and Congruous Grace Where all the means tending to the Conversion of a sinner are opposed and as it were wholly defeated and frustrated there the heart is not so easily wrought upon to retâ—rn 2. That no more is required to Convert a sinner but External and Congruous Grace as if the heart were like a Fish upon the hook which might be drawn at pleasure to the shore or like Wax prepared and it were no more but to put on the Seal or as if to Convert a sinne were no more then to report a History or to offer a man a Purchase Nay but there must be likewise Impressions as well as Invitations not only Means but Grace it self not only the Rod and Word but likewise the Spirit of God and his mighty Operation not only a Voice saying This is the way but also the Spirit of God which must cause us to walk in that way there must be healing Medicines put within the Soul by the hand of God himself or else all the means in the world the Word the Sacraments the afflictions and miseries and examples may say and complain with the Prophet Isa 49. 4. I have laboured in vain I have spent my strength for nought 2. For Information 1. Of that excessive stubbornness and madness in the hearts of us sinners Good Lord what an hand hath sin Information Of the excessive stubbornness of the hearts of sinners over us That terrors should arise like an horrible tempest within the conscience for sinning and drive a man to his feet yea to the dust yea almost as low as hell That his sinning should pull down one calamity after another take away the dayes of peace of plenty of safety of health and darken them with war and tumults with scarcity and indigence with danger and trouble with losses and diseases cloath a mans body with rags fill a mans body with rottenness obscure a mans name with infamy and yet yet after all and under all that a person should hold fast his wickedness which is the cause of all and will not let it go he will not be weaned from it nor charmed No Mercy nor Justice nothing can dissolve the Covenant twixt his heart and sin but llke that Athenian Commander if I forget not the story who when he was threatned to let go the Ship held it when one hand was cut off he held it with the other when both were cut off he held it with his teeth The Lord be merciful to us thus is it with us though God threatens yet we sin though he
2. 7. Then shall she say I will go and return to my first husband for then was it better with me then now The condition in which the Church then was was a condition of much misery and affliction her way of sin was hedged up with thorns vers 6. and the way of obedience she considered of to be a path of mercy and much prosperity and comparing the one condition with the other hereupon resolves to return to her first husband i. to turn unto God by true Repentance 3. It may be cleared by Argument and Reason that these two viz. Solid Consideration and Right Comparison are steps unto By Argument Repentance 1. For Solid Consideration thus If inconsideration be the cause of impenitency or of going on in a sinful course then Consideration For solid Consideration is a proper means and way for Repentance for as much as these two are contraries and contrary causes produce contrary effects but inconsideration is a cause of impenitency so the Prophet If inconsideration be the cause of impenitency then consideration is a proper means for Repentance Jer. 8. 6. No man repented him of his Wickedness saying What have I done every one turned to his course as the horse rusheth into the battel They minded not what they did whether lawful or unlawful or what would be the issue of these things but like the horse which without fear or wit rusheth into the battel among swords and pikes 2. Consideration of sin removes many qualities which keep the Consideration of sin removes many qualities of sin which keep the heaâ—t â—n impenitency as heart in impenitency therefore it is a good step and way unto Repentance There are three qualities which hold fast the soul from returning 1. Ignorance therefore darkned understandings and hearts alienated from the life of God are conjoined Eph. 4. 18. a blind mind and a wicked life are inseparable yea greediness to sin and ignorance are there also coupled vers 18 19. no man so forward Ignorance to sin as he who knows it not Now solid Consideration removes ignorance it opens the eies of our understanding and makes us to see and behold that evil in sin which we never saw before in a right consideration there is 1. Lumen scientiae 2. Conscientiae 3. Experientiae 2. Security for presumptuous men will never leave sin if they may be safe He who fears not miserable evil will not be Security perswaded to forsake his sinful evil He who thinks that he may be wicked and safe will be wicked still nay he adds drunkenness to thirst who presumes of peace No evill shall befall us said they who despised all warnings to Repentance but solid consideration removes this security and presumption it makes the soul to see that as sin is an evil thing so it will prove a bitter thing and that the way which is sinful of all wayes is the most fearful it makes the sinner to behold the Angel with the sword drawn in the way of sin my meaning is to behold God exceedingly displeased the Wrath of God revealed against all Unrighteousness severely threatning and one who will assuredly execute his wrath to the utmost if sinners will not hearken and return by no means acquitâ—ing the guilty Except ye repent ye shall perish 3. Hardness of heart That brawny Rockiness which is ever accompanyed with Hardness of Heart an impudent resolution casting off and slighting all means and which is gainsaying or frustrating all the Lessons of Mercies Afflictions Ordinances c. they made their hearts as an Adamant stone least they should hear the Law c. Zach. 7. 12. But solid consideration helps much against this unsensible temper it is of great force towards the melting of the heart working strongly upon the affections as Peter thought thereon and wept bitterly Then shall ye remember your wayes and shall loath your selves For now a man sees indeed that he is in a very evil condition and lost for ever if the Lord be not the more merciful to him and this will startle him somewhat pierce him make him with them in Acts 2. cry out Men and brethren what shall I do 3. Solid Consideration of sin makes sin appear to the soul in Solid Consideration makes Sin appear in in its own proper Nature its own proper nature colours and effects As we are drawn to â—ommit sin so likewise to continue in it through falshood and error we are deceived and err in our hearts and therefore we continue in sinful wayes but as Truth doth rise in the mind so Reformation will appear in our hearts and wayes know therefore that sin appears unto us two wayes either Erroneously as invested and clothed with pleasures profits much serviceableness to our ends and as satisfactions of our desires as Judas lookt on his sin in the money and went on and thus they tend to impenitency they keep us fast in an evil way because of sensible sweetness Or Properly and nakedly as sin as the Violation of a most holy Will dishonour of a great God and separation from a good God and as exposing us to the wrath of God curse of the Law and pains of Hell and all outward Calamities And thus apprehended new Arguments and Reasons of hatred and Detestation arise within the Soul Should I love that or live in that which is Gods dishonour and will prove mine own damnation My troubles losses fears come all from my sins these are my sins and my doings they are the cause of all this trouble inward and outward But solid consideration makes sin to appear as sin in its own nature and true effects therefore it occasioneth hatred of sin and consequently Repentance 2. For Comparison of the misery of a sinful with the happiness Comparison of the misery of a sinful with the happiness of a penitent condition a step to Repentance For This breeds sound Judgment of things that differ of a penitent and converted condition that this likewise is a stept and way to Repentance may be thus proved 1. This Comparison breeds sound Judgment in us of things that differ All corrupt works are rooted in a corrupted mind like ill rhumes in the Head which come from ill qualities in the Stomack or rather like some ill diseases and irregularities in the Lambs Arms and Feet which come from unsound humours in the Brain So it is in this case men go on confidently in sin and are taken excessively with those poor baits of sensual pleasure and profit as if there were no other pleasure delight gain acquirable or to be found but in the wayes and service of sin as they in hell think there is no other heaven Or as foolish children who conceive no other sport or delight like a rattle or dirting their hands c. But now when by a comparison and true survey of either estate it shall appear unto the soul that all these sinful pleasures and profits
are but stolen waters and at the best but for a season they will end bitterly and on the contrary That Repentance from sin makes way for the most precious fountains of the most living comforts that it enables a man for a nearer conjunction with the truest happiness and fulness of most infinite goodness and lets in to such pleasures and joyes which pass all understanding c. Now the soul is reduced to a right judgment and begins to contemn those false vain deluding temptations by sin and is carried off to another course or way which will afford the real solid superlative advantages in happiness and comfort c. 2. This Comparison will win our love and affection to a Converted and penitent condition It is true that as long as the heart loves This wins our love to a converted condition sin it will never leave it for love is an iron clasp a strengthning quality a strong and tenacious quality but if a mans love be changed then his sinfull wayes will quickly be changed for that way doth the heart and life go that love doâ—h go they are not out who say that Amor is Radix actionum as well as Passionum Now by a right comparison of estates there will appear in a converted and penitent condition the sole and sufficient causes of Love viz. Good and the best good and only good and most proper and sutable good all which is apt to draw love and consequently Repentance for as much as Conversion from sin begins in love to God 3. This comparing of estates in the wofulness of the one and This occasionally stirs up the beat to fly to God by Prayer and in the use of meanes in the happiness of the other that the one is death and the other is life as Moses propounds it to the Israelites occasionally stirs up the heart to fly unto God by prayer and in the use of other means for grace and ability to leave the paths of death and to walk in the wayes of life for naturally men do affect life and happiness and are afraid of death and misery The first Use which I would make of this shall be for Information Use For information Of the cause why many are yet in their sins You here see the Cause why many are yet in their sins that they repent not though we preach though God punisheth though man counsels Surely they never yet did search their hearts and wayes they never did consider of what they have done they are like the Laodiceans who thought themselves to be rich and increased and to stand in need of nothing but they never yet saw their blindness nakedness and extreme poverty and misery There are many duties unto which men will be perswaded as to hear the Word receive the Sacrament give some Almes say some Prayers and now and then to confer of some good but of all the duties which do so nearly concern them they are hardly perswaded to this viz. to consider of their sins 't is true they will confess That all men are sinners and themselves too but as some do with their debts they care not to see and view them so many with their spiritual estates they have no mind to search into them to look them over to meditate of the Vileness of them Consider these things 1. That this inconsideration leaves many a sin already committed upon a sad account God doth consider Considerations to such as doe not Consider their wayes them though we will not they are in his book and before his eye though we will not think and look on them 2. That it ripens sin exceedingly The heart which will not consider of past will break out into sin future it will be high in sinning if negligent in considering he will venture deeply who knows not the nature nor the merit of sinning 3. All the work of Repentance will lye flat and dead Why where can be that brokenness of heart that filial lamentation for sinning that remorse of spirit that indignation that detestation of it that resolution against it that watchfulness and fear until by a sound consideration we come to see the vileness and miserableness of sinning c. He who thinks his way right will not turn aside and that man who knows no better will never leave or change a bad course 4. You advantage Temptations exceedingly You are under the edge and power of them all for you see nothing to hinder you the motions to sin will pass without any contradiction for you know not the evil nor misery of being impenitent Great sins will seem but little little will seem none how easie is he to sin who considers not the great evil in sin 5. All the edge of the Ordinances is blunted and dulled by inconsideration they are but water on the Tiles which passe away For what are Threatnings against sin what operation have they on us to make us tremble and humble our hearts whiles we hear them as Pieces discharged at others not at our selves And so what force have the Precepts for new Obedience or the Promises for much mercy to the Penitent until we see that we are the men as Nathan said to David whom all this concerns 6. You will never prize Christ aright nor the love of God in giving of Christ nor will you ever seek him to purpose with hungrings and thirstings until you do seriously consider of your sinful estates A man if whole will not seek to the Physician and if he hath but a scratch will not send to the Chyrurgion No sense or slight sense of sin hath no influence on ouâ— affections but let a man sadly view and find out that he is bad indeed out with God ready for Hell must perish for sin this man will cry out Is there no Balm in Gilead is there no hope for us sinners He will enquire for a Saviour and when he knows him he will with tears beseech him O the hope of Israel and the Saviour thereof in the time of Trouble Master have mercy on me or else I perish if thou canst do any thing save me 7. You will never come to any true setledness nor grounded assurance of peace with God nor in your own Consciences until you do throughly consider of your sinful conditions and estates For how know you whether you be good or bad in Covenant or out of Covenant with God that he will save you or condemn you what shall become of you when you die Untill you by solid Consideration find out the vileness and miserableness of your sinful condition out of which you must indeed be translated if ever you would be saved or know assuredly that you shall be saved 8. You will not know how to make special requests unto God For you know not the nature nor danger of that pride of that hypocrisie of that uncleanness of that envy and malice c. which are in you When we do not know what our selves
are what our estates are we can never make special requests for the supply of special wants either we make no prayers at all or only general and faint and flat Petitions 9. Lastly If you will not think on your wayes with a Penitential Consideration you must one day think on them with a Judicial Consideration T is better to consider of them now and Repent then to feel them and find them in Hell and be Damned Object But you 'l say We are Ignorant and it belongs to This belongs to such as have learning such as have Learning to consider throughly of their sinful estates Sol. 1. It doth indeed belong to the Learned but not only to them A learned conscience is necessary for every sinner though not a Answered learned head the Subject who should consider is not the learned man but the lamed sinner art not thou one 2. God hath given thee a Reflexive Faculty a conscience a memory inabling thee to review what hath been done thou hast these still in thee and thou canst make use of them for other businesses why not in this 3. But then study the Word more that thou mayest thence be inlightned to conceive of sin aright c. get knowledg get understanding c. Obj. But we are not at Leisure we have so much business to do c. We are not at leisure Sol. 1. This is a most necessary work it deserves thy pains and time What not at leisure to save thy soul at leisure Answered to eate to drink to play to be idle to sin and not at leisure to consider of sin to repent of sin to save thy self from sin Have you leisure to go to Hell and none to goe to Heaven 2. It is a most Beneficial work it will deliver thee from Hell and make way for Heaven 3. It is the mâ—st excellent work that thou canst spend time upon the change of thee from Sin to Grace from a sinful to an holy condition it is a glorious change even into the Image of God in Christ Object But it will make me nothing but mourn and sigh and Object It will make me morne despair and fear Answered despair and fear Sol. 1. So Satan tells thee so doth not God nor his Word tell thee 2. If consideration of Sin breeds godly sorrow for Sin and Godly sorrow Repentance unto Salvation thou hast little cause to grieve to be thus grieved 3. Nay the neglect of timely consideration that is the cause indeed of such fear and despair O say men had we thought of this course known this heretofore we had never run on so we had never come into this extremity of horror c. It is with sin as it is with diseases if taken or not taken in time Another Use which I would make of this Point shall be of Use 2. To Settle and Relieve Troubled Souls Satisfaction to settle and relieve troubled Souls who fear much whether they have ever throughly and rightly considered thus of sin or no and consequently fear the truth of their Repentance For the fuller satisfying of them I will propound some Cases the Resolution of which may afford more clear Some Cases Resolved for Satisfaction Case 1. How a man may know his Consideration is Right If it work in him a Condemnation of Sin light 1. How a Christian may know that his consideration of sin is right and penitential I conjecture thus 1. If it work in him a Condemnation of sin Before a man consider aright of sin he is ready to call the proud happy he knows how to commit sin and to approve it and defend it and plead for it Sin seems his daintiest bit and choicest bait as if nothing else bore delight and contentment but sin but when the heart is brought rightly to ponder and to consider of sin he is enabled not only to condemn sin in the general thus sin is an evil thing but also in particular these my sins are vile and evil things I have done exceeding foolishly said David O that I should ever open my mouth for them that ever I should love them follow them as I have done I now behold them as the only dishonour of God grief of his Spirit Violations of his Righteousness Injuries of his patience abuses of his goodness and mercies the speares in the heart of Christ the spots in my soul the wounds in my conscience c. It is one thing to look upon sin as a meer Object and it is another thing to look upon sin as a vile Object to look on sin as a meer Object this is but the natural act of the understanding which like the eye is ready to see all colours but to look on sin as a vile Object this is the work of a penitential understanding wherein a person sees so much intolerable and excessive foulness in his sinful wayes that he now condemns and judgeth those wickednesses and abominations and himself too for highest folly and madness for love service and obedience to them 2. If it work in him humiliation for sin we read of Peter If it work in him Humiliation for sin that he considered or thought on the words of Jesus and through them of his great sin in the denial of master but how did he consider of them What only by his simple reflection that Christ had forewarned him and that he had done evil in denying him Surely thus he thought but the matter went further then his thoughts he considered it in an affecting or rather in an afflicting way for the Text saith That when he had thought thereon he went out and wept bitterly There is a fourfold consideration of sin One is only a consideration of sin when a man thinks of sin as he hears a Sermon hear it only so think of it only and that 's all this is an empty consideration Another is a sinful consideration only when a man considers of sin in a sinful way either to boast of it or to excite his heart to more delight and propension to sin this is a guilty consideration A third is a Judicial consideration which ariseth from the promptings and suggestions of a conscience awakened now accusing and condemning and pursuing the sinner both with the remembrance of former sins and with the evidence of Gods present and future indignation A fourth is a Penitential consideration wherein upon the evidence of sinning the soul is sensible not to despair which breeds hopeless terror yet to repentance wherein it is exceedingly grieved and troubled and displeased for the sins committed If the consideration of sin be a dry act such an act as sets where it riseth only in the mind and hath no influence upon the affections if it be not a sympathizing act .i. such an act as works grief in the soul as well as discovery of evil in the mind it is but a vain thing and never conduceth to repentance for as it is with mercies
and last Use shall be for Exhortation to set upon Vse 3. Exhortation to consideration and comparison What is required to enable us thereto Knowledge these two works of Consideration and Comparison Here let me propound two things unto you respecting the practical exercise of them Qu. 1. What is required to enable a person rightly to consider and to compare c. I conceive thus 1. There must be knowledge Right Consideration and Comparison are works of an illightened mind to understand the proper nature and distinction of things necessarily requires knwoledge For Ignorance can neither consider nor distinguish therefore study the Word and other Books to understand what objects are of which you are to consider 2. There must be some Wisdome For every Understanding cannot find out things Wisdome nor is able to make their differences of vileness or excellency as David said of the Works of God that a brutish man understands them not c. Psal 92. 5 6. that we say of persons onely enlightened That if they have not spiritual Wisdome to compare things or to consider of them they will never by the evidence of the vileness of Sin or excellency of Grace be drawn to Repentance 3. There must be Retiredness or Sequestration You must separate your selves as Solomon Retiredness speaks Tumults of business or violence of noise distract the thoughts and alienate them utterly disabling to consider 4. You must gather your selves together You must strive against division in mind be carefull to unite and to center your thoughts Gathering our thoughts together not suffering your selves to be scattered or blown away from your self 5. You must pray unto God to open your eyes Prayer to see and to give a judgment to discern and to unite your hearts and enable them to go through the work for verily you shall find much reluctancy and opposition of spirit to such a work Quest 2. In what manner we are to consider and to compare c. I Answer 1. The Rules for a right consideration so In what manner we must consider and compare The Rules for right consideration Do it in a free time Do it with a full time as to occasion Repentance are these 1. Do it in a free time there are times wherein a man is most unapt for such a work as this as when very sick in body or under some passion of grief or fear or loss Now the soul is in a Tumult it cannot see things aright nor judge aright Take a calm time for all works of moment either to know or to judge thy Estate 2. Do it with a full time The matter is weighty not the work of a day as they spake concerning the separation in Ezra it was not a work to be done in one day Nor is this of sound Consideration a business which can be hastily done and well done you must do it deliberately and seriously for there are many sins and many circumstances to be considered of and to be weighed and judged c. 3. Do it throughly Do not begin a little and then give over leave not till you come to the bottome see the worst Do it throughly of it and the utmost of it if ever you will see the good of it You are never a jot the worse by seeing how bad you are but you may be the better all the dayes of your life for it You must be faithfull to your own soul not to pass over any sin that you can well conceive your self guilty of 4. You must do it orderly Consider not of all sins in a Lump but break your Do it orderly thoughts And as they in Judgment consider of one Cause and then of another so do you of your sins what are your chief sins in affection or practice or inclination and so go to other c. in their order time place c. 5. You must do it so long Do it till your heart begin to Relent until your heart begin to relent and grows tender and soft Ah! how vile and abominable and wretched c. and then strike in with God by Prayer and Confession c. And this is a way to bring you to Repentance Secondly the Rules for Comparison If you would so compare Rules for comparison of the sinful and converted state Compare them in their proper nature and effects the miserableness of the sinfull with the happiness of a converted condition so as to be brought to Repentance then 1. You must compare them in their proper natures and effects not by that which is accidental but by that which is natural there may be some trouble to a converted estate and some delight upon an unconverted estate these then are preternatural they arise not from the things themselves but are contingent accidents But compare the real natures and fruits of the one with the other and then you shall see reason to leave the one and to choose the other 2. You must compare them by a proper Compare them by a proper Rule Rule not standing in point of definitive sentence what your own heart or what the World approves but onely what God in his Word doth sentence to be most vile and miserable and what he pronounceth to be most good and comfortable The Rule of Comparison must ever be pure impartial and perfect 3. You must have so much faith also as to believe what God saith Believe what God saith of either state of either estate For though you should refer the decision unto him yet if upon his resolving you are resolved to quarrel against it and dispute the truth and validity and say yet It is otherwise we will not believe that our sinfull course is so bad and so dangerous alas you will never repent while you live But you must resolve of this that the Word shall captivate your thoughts and shall discover and set the differences of estates and so you may be occasioned to repent 4. You must take an humble and firm resolution to take and follow that way which God discovers Resolve to follow that way Gâ—d discovers to be best unto you for the best and to decline that way which God discovers to be bad and damnable i. You will betake your selves industriously and stedfastly unto all the ways and means by which you may be strengthened to leave your sins and to walk with God in newness of obedience LUKE 15. 18. I will arise and go to my Father These words contain in them the other fundamental part of Repentance appearing in the Prodigal viz. The Resolution of his Will To apprehend evil is somthing but to leave it is the The Resolution of the Prodigal safest thing to see a better condition shews that the eye is opened but to go to our Father this shews that the heart is changed This Resolution of the Prodigal is set forth partly by the 1. Matter of it which is very compleat it contains
occulta even your secret sins que sunt contra duo ultima decalogi praecepta Nay those which are committed against the two last commandments circumstancias yea and all the circumstances of your sins this is the confession which the Church of Rome in the Trent Council doth injoin upon pain of Anathema to be made unto the Priest Sess 14. Can. 7. but without any warrant from the Scripture or averment from true Antiquity for Scripture assures us that confession of sin made to God alone obtained remission of sins and favour Psal 32. 5. I said I will confess my sins unto the Lord and thou forgavest the iniquity of my sin Lo here confession to God alone not to a Priest and upon it remission of sins by God himself dares any Popish Priest reverse this absolution or confession because not made to man which yet is accepted with God Saint Chrysostome speaks strange words Let Tom. 5. Hom. de paenit confess Lat. â—d Bas an 1 558. God onely see thee confessing And again upon Hob. 12. Hom. 31. 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Reveal thy way unto the Lord 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Confess them before God and again 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Confess thy sins before thy Judge and Saint Austins tongue needs to be clipped Quid mihi cum hominibus ut audiant confessiones nostras Conf. lib 10. cap. 13. quasi ipsi sanaturi sint omnes languores meas What have I to do with men that they should hear my confessions as though they could heal all my diseases Saint Basil saith that the groans of his In Psal 37. heart did suffice for a Confession Surely here was no absolute necessity to confess all to the Priest but yet again observe there is a use of Confession in case of 1. Injury 2. Anxiety 3. Scandal to the Church as in the next particular 2. Christian and prudential Confession and this is the acknowledging Christian and prudential of sins to men either in case of notorious scandal which the primitive Churches much urged and used or else in case of trouble and thus we deny not but any person may lawfully and warrantably go unto a faithful godly skilful compassionate Minister and confess his sins either to obtain counsel out of the Word of God for the remedy of sins to recover or prevent them or to be imformed aright concerning his present estate or to have his conscience quieted and settled 3. Penitential which is made onely to God this the Scripture Penitential to God doth command and this wee hold as absolutely necessary when wee do repent then to make confession of our sins to God Penitential confession considered In respect of the material part onely or Secondly This penitential confession may be considered either in respect of the material part onely and so it consists of words whereby we acknowledge wherein we have transgressed Hos 4. ver 1 2. Or of the formal part also and thus it conteins these Of the formal also ingredients which specifie and distâ—nguish it from all superstitious or hypocritical or false confessions 1. It is an hearty acknowledgment noâ— nuda confessio feigned And so it is or meerly verbal confession It is affectionate the lips do uâ—ter An hearty acknowledgment the mind of the heart in it cum sensu peccati miseriae as a sick man opens his disease here I feel it c. The publican smote upon his breast and confessed True confession is the language of the very soul being very sensible of sin 2. It is voluntary not coacta confessio the Thief may confess upon the rack though And voluntary there were no wrath in God no rack in conscience no flames in hell yet the true penitent will confess When there is no other cause of confession of sin but that which is penal it is not then truly penitential Pharaoh confessed under the plagues and Judas under the stings of conscience it was an extorted confession but penitential confession is voluntary it is an act that ariseth from an inward displicence with and detestation of sin though there be no apprehension of hell no sense of wrath yet the penitent confesseth even to a Father I have sinned Many of the Saints did I shut up in prison and when they were put to death I gave my voice against them I punished them oft in every Synagogue Acts 26. 10 11. 3. It is distinct and not confused the penitent hath special bills of inditement he knows his sins and And distinct wherein he hath exceeded and failed such sins as he hath most delighted in such as he hath most walked in such as he hath most dishonoured God by such as cleave most unto his nature such as conscience may be most clogged with these he doth more especially confess unto God and indite and condemn himself for small sins as well as great Sauls lap as well as Vriahs murther antient sins as well as present secret sins as well as open But must our confession of sins be particular Sol. Either explicitly so or virtually so the heart hath a particular intention or affection the more particular the better to humble our hearts to obtein mercies to make us fervent As David though hee did give a touch at all his sins in the beginning of the 51 Psalm yet at length brancheth his confession into particulars into that of Adultery and the other of Blood So doth Paul often uncover his special sins of Persecuting the Church and Blaspheming and of Injuriousness Judas cryed out of Blood but not of Covetousâ—ess and Hypocrisie 4. It is Humble and not And Humble proud as Benhadads servants with ropes c. done with Contrition of Heart not with Ostentation of Spirit Like a flash of Lightning breaks out of a cloud rented and Josephs garment was shewed to his father rent and dipt in blood Anciently when they did confess their sins to God they did it with Sackâ—loth and Ashes and the opening of their sins is termed The pouring out of water before the Lord I am vile Job 40. 4. Not worthy c. Luke 15. because when they pâ—ured out their sins in confession of Tongue they likewise poured out contrition of Heart their tears of Grief spake as much as the words of their Lips I will declare mine Iniquities and be sorry for my sin Psal 38. The Papists indeed have as course a Garment and as severe a Garb in penitential confession as any but underneath they have dainty Linnen there lies great pride under all this pretended Humiliation as if all this did merit at the hands of God the Voice is humble Jacob's but the pride upon the act is proud Esau's If they saw the wrong which they did by sinning how could they so proudly challenge God upon their confessing what doth the murtherer deserve because he confesseth But truly Penitential Confession is accompanied with grief in the heart and with
thus have I sinned and whatsoever punishment thou hast inflicted or mayest inflict I must quit thy Justice in all thy proceedings thou canst not but be Righteous for I confess my self to be sinful Nay his Justice only is not glorified but his Wisdom that he knows all our sins and wayes and his Power that he is able to Judge and condemn us yea and his Mercy too that we hope yet he will pardon and forgive the sins which we confess unto him If true Repentance brings forth true Confession then by this it will appear That there are very few true penitents because Use 1. Then there are very few true Penitents very few who do truly and aright confess their sins 1. Some may say of sin what Pilate did of truth What 's Truth So they What 's Sin They are so ignorant that they know not what is evil or when they do evil Now how can any confess or acknowledg that sin to God which is not known at all to himself 2. Others are so far from confessing themselves to be sinful that they like the proud Pharisee justifie themselves to be righteous talk of their good meanings purposes â—ust dealings c. Sana membra ostendebat saith S. Austin of that Pharisee vulnera tegebat I am no Extortioner no Adulterer c. Ask some persons Do you acknowledg One only God who is most Merciful Just Holy Omnipotent Faithful Long-suffering 〈◊〉 of Goodness and Truth c. Yes that do they God forbid else c. Ask them again Are you Idolaters make you no Idols or did you ever worship them Who they nay they defie them and all such trumpery But do you not use to swear and take the Name of God in vain Nay for swearing of all sins they cannot away with that a man gets no good by swearing But do you remember to keep holy the Sabbath Yea all their neighbours can bear witness that they keep to the Church constantly Ask them again Did you never injure your Parents O they were always dutifull Children But did you never play the whore or the adulterer or the thief Nay now they will talk no longer with you if you be so uncharitable as to imagine such guilt Why O thou ignorant sinner why doest thou deceive thy soul if thou art thus righteous thou needest not to repent and if thou art free from all sin how canst thou confess thy sins as a true penitent ought to do to God 3. But some others there are who do both know and acknowledge their sin but how onely in a formal cold indifferent manner True we are all sinners God help us and there is no man but he sins yea the best of them all Never considering That great Justice of God which is provoked by their sins nor that vile and abominable nature in their sins nor that infinite wrath unto which their guilt doth oblige them nor the excellency and necessity of pardoning mercy which we should earnestly sue out when we confess our sins 4. There is another sort who do more distinctly and perhaps somewhat feelingly and freely confess their sins but then they keep Benjamin back And as Rachel hid the images under her so they reserve some one special lust they do not bring all the Prisoners forth unto the Bar There is a sin which they hide close because it is sweet as Zophar speaks Job 20. 12. Now this argues 1. Hypocrisie and guile of heart a secret love to sin it is made in Job 20. 12. the guise of an Hypocrite to hide his sin 2. Extreme folly and vanity of spirit for canst thou conceal any sin from that God who is acquainted with all thy paths and knows thy thoughts afar off and to whose eyes all things are naked will not the Lord discover the sin which thou doest cover before Men and Angels to thy eternal infamy and condemnation assuredly though thou wilt not set thy sins in order before him yet he will set thy sins in order before thee and will reprove thee for them Psal 50. i. he will publish them and he will everlastingly punish thee for them 5. Others do confess all their sins but this onely in times of wrath and judgment and death not like Penitents but as Malefactors as men make their Wills upon a death-bed not out of an hatred of sin but out of meer sense or fear of punishment it is not filial ingenuous free but onely extorted involuntary and servile and therefore not truly penitential They do not go and confess their sins as they to John the Baptist but cry out and confess their sins it is that not which they would do but which they cannot avoid Conscience like an over-charged stomack doth so over-press and pain them that they cannot hold but out it comes what oppression injustice usurious injurious beastly filthy swinish sins they have lived in 6. Others seem to be more ingenuous and voluntary or ready to confess their sins but then this is with such pretences colours shiftings shuffling as if they were like Lawyers to mitigate and colour a bad cause S. Austin complains of some who would impute their sins to Fate to Fortune to the Devil nay to God himself The complaint may well suit with us generally we have some device or other either to deny or to extenuate our sinfull facts rather to plead for our selves than to plead against our iniquities It was company and we are but flesh and bloud and it is not usual or which is contrary it is my nature and the Devil was strong with me others do worse c. 7. But of all men they are most contrary to penitential Confession who â—all evil good and darkness light and that make a a mock and a sport of sin whereas they should with grief of heart and shame of face mournfully penitently humble themselves before the Lord and acknowledge their iniquities instead thereof They boast themselves of their iniquites and make but a jest of that which cost the bloud of Christ It is but a trick of Youth and good Fellowship and Handsomness and Complement and discreet Thrift thus do they phrase their Uncleanness their Drunkenness their Pride their Lying their Covetousness 8. Lastly to mention no more They are defective too about the true penitential confession who are assiduous to confess but desiduous to forsake frequent to acknowledge and declare their sins but negligent in forsaking and leaving of them Discovery sufficeth but Recovery they mind not This is most ordinary with us that we make our confession of sins to God rather an act of our Memory than a work of our Conscience it sufficeth us to deliver in the tale to number our transgressions but then we wrestle not with the Lord in prayer for his Spirit of Grace to heal our hearts and to turn us from the sinfull ways unto which we find our hearts so apt and forward But I will no longer insist upon the Convicting part I proceed
should never be damned for sin and sin is his daily grief as it is his daily temptation 2. He hates sin though he cannot be rid of it His soul loaths not onely the actions but nature also of sin 3. He conflicts with sin though he cannot conquer it is an Enemy to it though not a Conquerour over it though much assaulted by it fears Sin more than Hell 4. He will not be a Servant though sometimes he is forced to be a Captive His Will and Love are unconquerable 5. He cries out for help though he be not yet delivered O Lord help Laments his condition because so pestered with sinfull motions 6. He must have God reconciled though he much questions it He must have Christ and Mercy c. 7. He would obey God in all things though he falls very short of it 8. He prizes more Grace and strives after it though he enjoyes very little of it 9. He holds up his purpose to walk with God though he be not able in every thing and at all times to make it good 10. What he wants in the heights of Repentance is made up in the depths of Humbleness and Mournfulness A fourth Use of this Point shall be for Comfort and Support to such as have though but the initials of Repentance in them The fountain of Godly sorrow drops though but a little and the journey of an holy life is but begun they have newly within these few dayes set the first foot in the paths of God What shall I say to such persons Surely 1. Let them not be discouraged at all Though it be but a little A little Grace if true grace Repentance newly planted and begun yet if it be true Grace 1. It is worth a whoâ—e world One mans Soul is worth Is worth a whole world the World much more is Grace Grace even in the least degree of it is of an invaluable allay The Lord hath shewn thee mercy indeed if he has bestowed any grace on thee it is more worth than if he had given thee all the Kingdomes of the World more in respect of Excellency and in respect of Consequence 2. As little as it is it is as much as ever any Penitent It is as much as any Penitent had at first had at the first 'T is true our improvements of Grace are very different in the course of our lives but the habitual implantations of grace are alike and equal Thou hast as much now as ever any had at first who are now gone to heaven 3. As little as it is it shall pull down and work out the strongest sin that ever did cleave unto thee though not at once yet by degrees a This little will be victorious beam of Light which appears in the morning seems no great matter to deal with all the darkness in the ayr yet depending upon such a strong principle and fountain as the Sun it doth by degrees chase away c. 4. As little and as weak as it is it It shall not cease till it bring thee to heaven shall never cease till it hath brought thee to heaven The Ark and many tossings and thy weak Grace shall have many assaults but thy weak Grace is in the sure hands of a strong God who by it will make thee more than Conquerour through him that loved thee 5. As weak as it is now it shall be stronger and It shall grow stronger and stronger stronger God hath but begun his work in thee the which he will finish the Foundation is laid but the Covering is to come The seed is but sown which will arise and spread the fire kindled which will be blown and flaming God doth not leave any gracious work until he hath made it glorious and having given truth will also enlarge it to a just measure sufficient for thy soul and place and salvation 2. Nay let them be encouraged and rejoice Even a little They have matter of rejoycing Grace may be just cause of great joy The Mother rejoyceth much if the Child be born Though your Repentance wants much in respect of gradual perfection yet being real and true 1. All the sins that you have committed are pardoned The promise of pardon or remission of sins presently and assuredly opens Their sins are pardoned to every true Penitent as soon as the wicked forsakes his ways and the unrighteous man his thoughts and turns to the Lord he will have mercy and abundantly pardon He who doth more perfect and polish his repentance it is confessed that he hath the more assurance and comfort of his pardon but the right unto and grant of pardon immediately appertains to a person upon the very entrance of his repentance Now pardon of sins is a testimony of Gods highest Love and therefore a cause of most exceeding joy 2. If you should now die you should If he should now die he should be saved be saved The first fruits you know were a pledge of the full harvest though you have but as it were the first fruits of Repentance yet these are sure pawns of fullest glory Godly sorrow worketh repentance of salvation Christ saith Blessed are the poor in spirit for theirs is the Kingdome of Heaven Matth. 5. 3. Though you have but some lower weaker stock of Graces so that you are in your own opinion poor scarce worth any thing or enjoying of any thing yet the weakest Christian shall have an Heavenly Kingdome 3. Your persons are dear unto God Jer. 31. 18. I have surely heard Ephraim bemoaning himself Is Their persons are dear to God Ephraim my dear son is he my pleasant child c. So Isa 66. To this man will I look even to him that is poor and of a contrite spirit 4. Your weak services are accepted God hears your Their weak services are accepted God will pass by many infirmities groans considers your sighs puts your tears into his bottel 5. By reason of that reality in your repentance the Lord will pass by many infirmities and imperfections Infirmities shall not hinder where a reality of Grace and Repentance is begun They in the time of Hezekiah did truly repent and prepare before the Passover and though they were very defective yet the defects did not prevail to hinder the effects and acceptance of their service I will spare them as a man spareth his own son that serveth him Mal. 3. 17. How indulgent is the tender father to the obedient child though he can do but very little and very weakly Where the Lord seeth that the heart is rightly set O Lord I would not offend thee O Lord I would obey thee then he is very mercifull to pass by our failings and to accept of our weak beginnings and very weak endeavours Now I come to a second Proposition which is That God is Doct. 5. God is very ready to shew all kinds of mercy to the truly penitent very ready and quick
himself in dust and ashes So the penitent upon the manifestation of divine favour doth more acknowledg his vileness judg his follies and abhor his iniquities it is ever true that the greatest mercies set the heart at greatest distance with sin But now it is demanded Why should the expressions of mercy elicite confession of sin if it be pardoned why any more confession Reasons though hereof be many 1. Piety in man is Reasons of it Piety in man is not opposite but subordinâ—te to pity in God not opposite but only subordinate to Pity in God Divine love doth not destroy but increase duty Assurance followes the habits and alwayes advances the acts of grace As it is our duty to seek our pardon by confession so also to carry away the same with continued confessions confession of sin is not a transient but a constant duty As the Mathematicians speak of a Line That it is not punctum but fluxus punctorum so I say of any duty It is not one indivisible act only but an act repeated to believe is a duty in which one act only is not enough for I must still keep my eye upon Christ So to confess sin is a duty not done altogether because once done but still to be done because a duty to be done though God be pleased to forget yet it is our duty to remember But secondly By confession of sin after remission and testimony Mercy is now acknowledged to be mercy mercy is now acknowledged to be mercy What a man may speak in straights is one thing what in free circumstances when extra aleam is another Many a man cryes out for mercy who perhaps scarce will give mercy all the glory afterward But when we are pardoned and yet confess sin we do really profess That it was not Worthiness in us but only Goodness in God that pardoned No man can more fully give the glory of his pardon to sole mercy then he who doth confess his sins after mercy What is this confession of sin but as if the person should say O Lord to me indeed nothing did belong but shame and confusion for I for my part have thus and thus sinned against thee and deserved thy wrath but it was meer mercy that saved and pardoned me 3. The more pardoning mercy God shews The more humility is thereby wrought in the heart The more pardoning mercy the more Humility for who can behold much pardon but withal must know it was much sin that hath that much pardon He hath greater cause of shame because all this while a God of such mercy hath been offended So that here is more cause for the heart to abase it self and to confess its own vileness 4. Upon New and more grounds of confession do arise gracious remission more and new grounds of Confession do arise Before I am pardoned I confess my sins because God requires confession and also because he doth upon a right confession promise Remission When I am pardoned more reasons of Confession are upon mercy namely mercy granted and mercy sealed O then have I not more cause to confess my sinful vileness having tasted of most unspeakable goodness in the pardon of it Doth the penitent person humbly confess his sins after the Vse Upon sense of pardon let us do so pardon of them Why let us if any of us think that we are pardoned do so too T is a truth that of all things we are most willing to forget our sins we have much adoe to keep our thoughts on them in a penitential way its death almost to some men to think on their sins thus and in case if by a little duty we have got the least hope of pardon we ordinarily put those sins off from any future solemn Confessions This I conceive ariseth from two causes the one is the sensible influence which sin often to be thought on imprints on the conscience After considerations of sin we have usually most bitterness and trouble which we willingly would not feel Another is an ignorance of the power and use of pardoning mercy which as it brings Rest Peace so most hearty grief and confession I will say to Such as faâ—l in after confession It is suspicious whether ever they had any Pardon at all Or whether they ever truly repanted or no. men presuming on pardon and yet failing in an after confession of their sins 1. It is suspicious whether ever they had any pardon at all or real assurance thereof forasmuch as they fail in this after effect of confession which is alwayes the more increased by the greater evidence of divine mercy 2. It is suspicious whether they ever truly repented or no for as much as true repentance doth incline us to go over and perfect all the acts and branches of Repentance whereof confession in a right manner performed is not the least But for our parts if any of us upon a penitential course have been so far blessed as to see the face of God with peace and have found any testimony of his pardoning mercy let us never cease to bless that mercy and with mournful and self-judging hearts to iterate and continue our confession of the sins for which we have found mercy Motives hereunto are these 1. We shall hereby the better prolong Moâ—ives to it We shall hereby the better increase our assurance of mercy and increase our assurance of divine mercy I conjecture that you shall in your experience find this truth viz. That assurance lives longest in a believing Eye an humble Spirit and in a Soul accustomed to the strict exercise of Repentance the way to get assurance of pardon is ever the best way to preserve and inlarge Our Conscience will hereby acquit us for the sincerity of our Confession it 2. Hereby our Consciences shall most acquit us for the sincerity of our confession Antecedent acts do not alwayes yield unto us that solid ground as subsequent acts As about our outward mercies after prayers do more denominate the celestial frame then former prayers because those may be depending on self-love and necessity but the other springs out of spiritual love and piety and respects to divine glory So is it in the business of confession of sin to confess under the beams of mercy is a better temper then to confess under the strokes of Justice it argues a more holy Ingenuity to acknowledg and bewail our vileness being discharged of wrath and punishment then only to exclaim either upon the Rack or upon hopes to be taken off 3. Hereby the frame of the heart is kept more tender against sin The frame of the heart is hereby kept more tender against sin as Ezra 9. 14. Should we again break thy Commandments Continued sense of sin produceth four singular effects and with much addition too Most cordial Thankfulness Most tender Fearfulness Most diligent Fruitfulness Most careful Tenderness The daily judger of his former sins by a penitential
causes in Christ to accept of him and to resign up to him rather than to sin or world or any thing else and when the Will is wrought upon so as to accept of Christ in his Person and Offices and Estates the soul is now matched or married to Christ by Faith It bestows it self and gives Christ all the right and cleaves unto him in an indissoluble bond of affection and service Quest 3. The third resolveable is concerning the Subject of this The subject of this faith faith who hath it The Text resolves that by telling us that the Ring was put on the returning Prodigals finger so that the penitent person is he who wears the Ring i. who is an espoused The penitent person is onely married unto Christ or married person by Faith unto Christ You may be married to your Lusts and to the World though you be impenitent yet none but Penitents are married unto Christ by Faith Not that Repentance goes before Faith in Christ for no Grace habitually considered is in time before another though in operation it be Nor that Repentance is the cause of Faith for it is a most improper Assertion to make one Grace to be the cause of another Grace when as every Grace doth come onely from the Spirit of Reasons Christ as the cause But because 1. The penitent person is only the The penitent person onely hath faith subject of Faith which doth marry us to Christ no person is a believer who is not a penitent person The Prodigal while onely a Prodigal he hath neither Garment nor Ring but when he is a returning Prodigal then he hath both and not till then 2. Onely penitent persons can evidence their faith and espousal unto Onely penitent persons can evidence their faith Christ Another who is impenitent can no more evidence his interest or title to Christ then an Alien that never heard of this Land can evidence or conclude his title and right to any Goods or Chattels of yours The title to Christ is proper onely to the Penitent for them he lived and for them onely he died Now if any should yet further demand Why the Lord should Why will the Lord give this to penitent persons To convince the world there is no loâ—s in leaving sin To support the soul of the heavy laden give unto penitent persons a precious faith to espouse them to Christ I conjecture briefly that these may be the Grounds or Reasons 1. To convince all the world that there is no loss in leaving of sin Abjice tectum tolle coelum said one The repentant person forsakes his sins but presently finds a Saviour he is divorced from that which would damn him and by faith is espoused unto one that will save him 2. To support the soul of the penitent which of all other is most sick and heavy laden It is most sensible of sin and guilt and Gods displeasure on all which it cannot long look alone If the penitent person had not faith to see a Mediatour he would not long have an eye to look upon his transgressions It is a truth that Repentance could never act it self unless the penitent person had faith to act it self too The sorrow in Repentance would infinitely sink into despair and the forsaking of sin would turn into a forsaking of God if Faith saw not a Mediatour for Transgressions and a mercifull God through him 3. Lastly The Lord intends singular mercy to the penitent God intends singular mercies to the Penitent persons to perform many precious promises of pardon and grace and comfort unto them and therefore gives them Faith unto which all the Promises are made The promises may be considered two ways either in respect 1. of Intention so they look unto the Penitent of Application so onely Faith is the Hand in the Penitent which actively applies the Promises Again you know that the Promises of God are Yea and Amen in Christ i. they are all sealed by him and made good unto us by him so that first we must have Christ before the Promises made good unto us by Christ And therefore God gives unto the penitent person the Grace of Faith to espouse him unto Christ that so he may settle upon him all the Dowry upon the Marriage of the rich mercy and good in his precious Promises The main Use which I will make of this assertion is To try our selves whether we have this precious Ring of Faith a Ring Vse Try our selves whether we have this precious faith A necessary trial if we consider The paucity of true believers more precious than that of Gold put on our fingers yea or no. It is as necessary a demur as ever you were put unto all your dayes whether you consider 1. The paucity of true believers All men have not faith saith the Apostle All men nay very few Who hath believed our report said the Prophet We preach we offer Christ unto you we beseech you to accept of the Lord of Life to give up your hearts and lives unto him but who believes our report We tell you that Christ is better than all the world his bloud is better than sin it 's better to love and serve him than world or sin but who believes our report Men care not to know the excellencies of Christ they prize him not they care not to hear him speak in his Ordinances they will in no wise consent and yield to his terms and conditions 2. The Vtility The utility of it of it To the Sacrament of the Lords Supper if we come without our Wedding-Ring it will be as sad a day to us as to him who came without his Wedding Garment We do not onely receive no good at the Sacrament for we have neither hand nor mouth to take and eat if we have not Faith not title at all to the intrinsecal benefits by Christ if we have not faith in him Nay we occasion much evil and Judgment upon our selves we adventure to eat and drink our own damnation not discerning the 1 Cor. 11. Lords body And righteously may the Lord judge us for coming to his Sacrament without Faith for as much as in so doing we do not onely presume against an express prohibition that we should hold off but also we do at the least interpretatively assay to make God a Liar and a favourer of all villany as if he would put his Seal of Pardon and mercy and for all the good of his Covenant in Christ to a wicked impenitent and unbelieving sinner 3. The Hypocrisie of our hearts so apt to deceive themselves with shadows in stead of substances not The hypocrifie of our hearts considering that Satan can delude a man with the shew of any grace Every Ring is not a Ring of Gold nor is every Faith a precious and unfeigned Faith There is a thing called Presumption which is bold enough but it is not Faith and there
Without saith it is impossible to please God Hebr. 11. 6. 2. But let us proceed further and search what Reasons may be produced to demonstrate the Assertion That the natural or Reasons of it unconverted man is spiritually dead and as to spirituals altogether dead Thus then 1. He who hath no Communion at all with Hâ—â—ath no communion with the principles of spiritual life the principles of spiritual life is in a spiritual sense altogether dead for where there is no principle of life there cannot be any thing but death Tolle animam tolle vitam but the impenitent and unconverted sinner hath no communion with any one principle of spiritual life Therefore c. There is a twofold principle of this life 1. A primitive conjunction with God in the estate of Innocency but this is lost 2. Arenewed Conjunction with God by Christ but yet this is not attained to by an unconverted sinner It is a confessed truth that Jesus Christ is the Author of spiritual life to the sinner He that hath the Son hath life and he that hath not the Son hath not life Joh. 5. 17. And the sinner hath it partly by Faith which taking Christ takes life from him by the Spirit of Regeneration which renews and makes him alive but the unconverted sinner hath neither the one nor the other had he either he were then converted 2. Original sin whilst reigning is a compleat cause of spiritual Original sin is a compleat cause of spiritual death death But original sin reigns in the impenitent and unconverted sinner therefore he is dead The Fathers have diversly Phrased Original sin some call it Venenum Syerpentis so Cprian others Plagam serpentis so Ireneus others Vitium parentum so Pauâ—inius in Austin the Apostle Paul calls it sometimes the body of sin sometimes the body of death sometimes the Law of sin and death sometimes the Vncircumcision of the heart Our Divines generally conceive two things in it viz. In Original sin there is 1. A total deprivation of original righteousness The Faculties remain but the Rectitude is gone It is reported of an excellent Philosopher that he fell into a Disease which dashed out all the Learning that ever he acquired so that he forgat even his own Name Original sin is like the extinguishing of a Candle the Candle remains still but the Light is gone Or like the quenching of red Iron the Iron remains but the fiery redness is all gone Or like a Tree the Limbs remain but the Life is gone It is an Universal spoil it hath robbed us of all our supernaturals worse to us than the Devil to Job who took away all that he had yet spared his Life But Original Sin not onely took away Paradise and Righteousness but all self-power so much as to desire to be good 2. A total depravation of all the man Seges ubi Troia The Soul of Man was once like a Garden fully set with the sweetest Flowers of Righteousness but now it is become like a Wilderness run over and filled with Briars and Thorns Or it is like a Face which once was the most curious of features every part expressing most amiable sweetness now it is like the same Face most deformed with the clusters of the Pox and the very shame and reproach of it self There is not a Faculty in the Soul but it is like the Bough of a fruitfull Tree thickly laden with Iniquity It is a Spring bubling out nothing but aversation enmity resistance to spiritual good and readiness inclination eagerness unsatiableness to all that is evil God saw that every imagination of the thoughts of the heart of man was onely evil continually Gen. 6. 5. The best of men complain of blindness of dulness of deadness Alas then what or how is it with the worst of men Paul could not do good a wicked man would not do good Paul complains for want of power what then may an unconverted man do By all this I think it manifectly appears That the unconverted man is spiritually dead because Original Sin reigns in him if in any then in him and where Original Sin reigns there is a total privation or absence of all spiritual Life and total corruption or presence of spiritual Death in the Soul The terms used in Scripture to express conversion 3. The Terms used in Scripture to express a sinners conversion do seem sufficiently weighty to prove That before his conversion he was spiritually dead For it is set forth sometimes By the Resurrection of the dead Ephes 5. 14. Awake thou that sleepest and arise from the dead By the Generation of a person Of his own good will begat he us with the word of truth Jam. 1. 18. By Creation 2 Cor. 5. 17. If any man be in Christ he is a new creature Now observe if Conversion be a Resurrection a spiritual Resurrection then the soul before Conversion was spiritually dead if Conversion be a Regeneration then a new life is brought into the soul which it totally wanted before If Conversion be a Creation and the converted man qua talis be a new creature then he had no spiritual being before If spiritual Life be a creature onely of Christ's making then c. 4. To me those spiritual Promises which God makes of giving The promises of giving a spiritual being and life a spiritual being and life do abundantly clear that man is dead As of pouring forth the Spirit of Grace giving his Spirit taking away the heart of Stone and giving the heart of Flesh of giving Knowledge Love Fear c. Such kinds of Promises imply three things 1. Our total want and need 2. Gods undertaking to bestow them 3. A free and total donation of them to us on Gods part 5. S. Austin useth the Duty of Prayer to prove this Assertion The duty of Prayer against the Pelagians Petenda à Deo bona omnia ergo nihil boni ex nobis possumus And in an Epistle to Vitalis he saith Prorsus non oramus Deum sed orare nos singimus si nos ipsos non illum credimus facere quod oramus 6. I will add but one Argument more viz. That man is totally dead quantum ad spiritualia who cannot so much as Man cannot prepare himself to life prepare himself no not remotely no not in any degree unto the life of Grace But the Unconverted man cannot virtute propria and without supernatural aid in the least degree prepare himself c. for without that aid he cannot desire deliverance out of his sinfull estate nor mourn over it nay not feel it nay not spiritually know it The Use which I desire to make of this Point I shall reduce unto 1. Information 2. Trial 3. Instruction 1. For Information Is every natural and unconverted man a Information spiritually dead man Hence we may be informed of several The unconverted man is in the saddest condition Truths 1. That the
upon the spirit of a man which There may be many changes not inconsistent with the saving change yet are not inconsistent with the saving change of his Spirit Sometimes he may be lively and quick sometimes he may be flat and dull sometimes he may be confident and cheerful and at some other times he may be afraid and mournful sometimes he may be full and enlarged and at some other time he may be aukard and streightned sometimes he may have more sense of Gods Love and sometimes more sense of his own sins None of these things are essential to the converted estate a mans heart may be truly changed by converting grace notwithstanding many crosses and afflictions on his outward estate many eclipses in his comforts many varieties in his spiritual actings many contrarieties twixt his sence and his faith many temptations upon his spirit to many doubts and fears in his heart 4. Sinful corruptions never work with a more sensible strength Sinful corruptions work with more sensible strength when the heart is truely changed then when the heart is truly converted and changed Before Conversion our sins do work more mightily but we do not then perceive the workings because your delight was then in sinning and nothing is burthensome to delight and nothing was in us contrary to our sinnings the strong man kept all the house and every faculty was a friend and servant to sin the river ran all one way But when the heart is converted there is now laid into it 1. The quickest principle of feeling 2. The contrariest principle of resisting 3. The properest principle of destruction to sin and therefore no marvel that we feel our sinful natures more than formerly for all qualities are most active and most felt in cases of resistance and destruction nevertheless none of these must conclude against our Conversion but rather for it because 1. The greatest work of grace is inward 2. The sense of sinful workings joyned with an hatred of them and humbling of the heart under them and with addresses to God for subduing power is certainly a sign of converting grace Therefore hearken unto me thou distressed soul 1. Though the Glory of Grace consists in Victory yet the Truth of Grace appears in Combats the fighting Souldier is as right to the cause as the conquering Souldier there is fire in the smoking flax as well as in the flaming furnace 2. That great corruptions still remaining in temptation are the burdens of a weak Christian but are not the Characters of a false Christian 3. Jesus Christ can by a little grace weaken strongest corruptions The least true grace will help thy soul to Christ through whose strength thou who art now in conflict shalt ere long be made more than a Conqueror 4. True grace begins in weakness goes on with combat but ends in victory There is but little light at the first and more darkness for quantity but the light of the Sun is rising and dissipating and at length remains alone Conquering grace hath comfort conflicting grace hath strength and even mourning grace hath truth Peter's tears shewed truth of Grace as well as Paul's Triumph But how may I descern my change to arise from the power of converting How it may be discerned that this change is from converting grace and â—ot from the power of a troubling coâ—science Answered grace and not from the power only of a troubling conscience Sol. I conceive thus in four particulars 1. When the change is made only from the sting of conscience that change goes off and vanisheth when the trouble of conscience goes off and continues only while that doth continue whiles the trouble of conscience is on the man the man will hear and the man will pray and the man will consult and profess and resolve yea and now too to become a new man yea and he will cry out against his sins and will not come near his sins But when that trouble is off all is off again the Water which was heated grows cold again Saul is pursuing David again and Foelix is covetous again But if the change be from grace though trouble be off yet the heart is against sin and is for good for grace sets us against sin as it makes us unholy and evil and not only or principally as it makes us uncomfortable and miserable 2. When the change ariseth only from a troubling conscience not from a contrariety to God but to us It doth not arise from a hatred of sin and a love of good but only from a hatred of torment a self-love and a love of ease the man loves that sin that he dares not now commit and hates the good which now he doth he doth the good only as a means to take off his trouble he doth it not as a work in which he delights nor doth he flie sin as an evil which he hates he flies sin as it is malum sensibile not as it is malum spirituale But in a gracious change trouble doth not cause hatred but hatred causeth trouble of sin 3. When the change is only from a troubling conscience then when the trouble is gone the mans heart is more hardned and he growes more wicked then ever before and in after sinnings less sensible and less troubled as Iron growes more hardned after it hath been in the fire or water that is stopped more violent If they be again intangled and overcome the latter end is worse with them then the beginning 2 Pet. 2. 20. But where the heart is changed by grace the more grace still the more sense of sin and still the more fear to sin and still the more love of God 4. When the change comes only from the trouble of conscience the change extends no further then to that or those particular sins for which the conscience doth trouble the man if the other sins trouble not they are not left But when the change is wrought by grace this change extends to all sins I hate every evil way saith David they do no iniquity Psal 119. Let us â—leanse our selves from all filthiness of flesh and spirit 2 Cor. 7. 1. Quest How may a man know that his change is not the fruit of Hypocrisie but of Converting grace Sol. This may be discerned How it appears this change is not the fruit of Hypocrisie thus 1 The change by Hypocrisie 1. Is not Cordial no Hypocrites heart is changed In heart ye work wickedness The Hypocrite dares to give way to heart sins Judah turned Answered not with her heart but feignedly 2. Is not Vniversal The Prophet tells the hypocritical Israelites that they were as a Cake half baked and not turned an hypocrite though he forsake many sins yet he loves some sin Jehu cannot part with the golden Calves though he did destroy Baal 3. Is not lasting but changeable sutable occasions are too strong for an heart felsely changed 4. Is not able to abide three Trials of
Faith doth doth act for relief and will hold some communion with God 6. They are abated by the Ordinances 7. They are but for a time 8. They end in fullest setling and glorious comforts and likewise with advantage to their gracious condition And truly it is impossible that wicked and ungodly men should ever enjoy that serenity and peace as the godly do for as much as all the principles and causes of uncomfortableness abide on the wicked 1. Sin is in them in all its strength They have a thousand hells and arrows of guilt sticking in their hearts they have souls full of plague sores the deadly strokes of death the restless motions of evil spirits 2. They carry a roaring Lion in their brests I mean an evil accusing smiting wounding racking condemning Conscience which if it once awake it will tear the caul of their hearts and crush them with the flames of unavoidable unsupportable and continual wrath 3. They have no City of Refuge open to their succour no land or shore no place to cast anchor no portion in Christ and therefore the Law of God stands in full force against their souls and under its curse they lie and at that Bar of Justice must they be tried 4. They end in an éternal and perfect Hell 5. Take them at their best God is their Enemy they never yet made peace with him and all their outward blessings are steeped in gall and drenched in Wormwood as their sorrows so their blessings are distributed in wrath 2. Many converted persons are not really sad and uncomfortable Many converted persons are not really sad they onely seem so but onely seem so to the mean and childish opinions of vain men 2 Cor. 6. 10. As sorrowfull yet always rejoycing The joy of Christians is an hidden joy Hidden Manna Revel 2. 20. it is a spiritual joy to which thou art a stranger meat to eat which thou knowest not of Suppose that thou rejoycest not in a fine Baby and a Toy which is a Childs great delight art thou therefore sad All objects yield not contentment to an high mind nor joy to a good man he cannot take pleasure in an Alehouse and Tavern in swaggering and masking in dicing and carding and swearing and whoring but yet he can take delight in a reconciled God in a Christ in the Word of God in praying to God in gracious returnes from God in expectation of the Glory of God A swine delights in mire but a man doth not The Moon is oft times dark to the world when yet that part which faceth to the Sun is beautiful and lightsome The countenance and carriage of a Christian as to the world seems dull and uncomfortable but if you could look into the heart of him which faceth towards heaven O there is Righteousness there is Peace there is Joy in the Holy Ghost 3. If any converted persons be sad and want actual joy and comfort If they be sad Conversion is not the cause of it yet their Conversion is not the cause thereof Can the Sun be any cause of darkness But amongst others these are the Causes of it Either 1. Thy unconversion It is the unconverted husband child master which makes sadness in the heart of the converted wife father c. It is thy drunkenness thy cursing and swearing thy scorning and scoâ—â—ing thy resisting and shifting the offers of Grace thy lying and slandering thy pride and loosness which makes the hearts of Ministers ready to break and the hearts of thy godly friends ready to sink in them O they tremble at thy condition and they grieve to see God so extremely dishonoured Psal 119. 136. Rivers of tears run down mine eyes because they keep not thy Law ver 158. I beheld the transgressors and was grieved because they kept not thy Word 2 Pet. 2. 7 8. The wicked deeds of the ungodly Sodomites vexed the soul of righteous Lot Luke 19. 41. It was Jerusalems proud obstinacy that would not know in her day the things which concerned her peace that made Jesus Christ to weep 2. Their Captivities to sin Pauls conversion did never trouble him but this did trouble him that he did the evil which he would not his Corruption not Conversion That the Law of his members led him captive against the Law of his mind It was not Peters Conversion but Peters transgression that made him go forth and weep bitterly It was not Davids Conversion but Davids great sinning which made him go so heavily and roâ—r so greatly Psal 32. 3. The Fears and Suspitions that they are not yet truly converted O wretched man that I am who shall deliver me from this body of death O they feel so many working Corruptions still and so little of the strength of Christ still and so much unbelief still and so many indispositions still and so many failings still and so many doubts about these This â—race is not right the saving Work is not begun and these things make them â—o sigh and weep and go heavily all the day long 4. They are but newly crept out of the shell The Spirit of Bondage is yet hardly worn off some legal Dints stick on them they are either still in travel or but newly delivered Or if they be got out of the state of Bondage yet they are for the present under spiritual conflicts and as spiritual Bondage before Conversion so spiritual conflicts after conversion suspends the taste of a present and actual joy Or if that be not the damp then perhaps it is some ignorance or unexperience they are not yet come to read their Fathers Will and Christs Testament what portion is left and laid out for the Children of God Or if that be not it then perhaps it is a present fit of unbelief they cannot yet be perswaded that God means so much mercy and so much love and so many great things for them Is it so That â—onversion brings the person into a very joyful Vse 1. condition Hence then 1. We may be Informed of four Information things 1. That they are enemies to their joy and comfort who are adversaries They are enemies to their joy who are enemies to Conversion to their Conversion Prov. 1. 22. How long ye simple ones will ye love simplicity and ye Scorners delight in scorning and fools hate knowledg Six things shew one to be in an unconverted condition Unsensibleness Love of sin Path of evil hatred of Reformation despising the Means of Conversion loathing of Converted-Persons There are some persons who hate to be reformed who hold fast their â—â—ns and will not let them go they are like those stiff-necked Jewes who alwayes resisted the Holy Ghost a disobedient people to the Call of God they refuse to put their necks into the yoak of Jesus Christ and will not be bound with his cords They love their sinful wayes and will not return to the Almighty Why Write that man childless said God of Coniah So I