a swell as pray So did the Scribes and Pharisees even twice a week which could not be publike but private fasts And yet this righteousnesse could never save them But I heare the word of God and like the best Preachers This thou mayest doe too and yet never be saved Nay thou mayest so heare as to receive much joy and comfort in hearing nay to beleeve and catch hold on Christ and so say and thinke he is thine and yet not be saved as the stony ground did Mat. 13. who heard the word with joy and for a season beleeved I reade the Scriptures often This you may doe too and yet never be saved as the Pharisees who were so perfect in reading the Bible that Christ needed but onely say It hath been said of old time for they knew the text and place well enough without intimation But I am grieved and am sorrowfull and repent for my sinnes past Iudas did thus Matth. 27. 3. he repents himselfe with a legall repentance for feare of hell and with a naturall sorrow for dealing so unkindly with Christ in betraying not onely of bloud but innocent bloud True humiliation is ever accompanied with hearty reformation Oh! but I love good men and their company So did the five foolish Virgins love the company and at the time of extremitie the very oyle and grace of the wise yet they were locked out of the gates of mercy But God hath given me more knowledge then others or then I my selfe had once This thou mayest have and be able to teach others and thinke so of thy selfe too and yet never be saved But I keepe the Lords day strictly So did the Jewes whom yet Christ condemned and were never saved I have very many good desires and endeavours to get Heaven These thou thousands may have and yet misse of Heaven Many shall seeke to enter in at that narrow gate and not be able True thou wilt say many men doe many duties but without any life or zeale I am zealous So thou mayest be and yet never saved as Iehu Paul was zealous when he was a Pharisee and if he was so for a false Religion and a bad cause why much more mayest thou be for a good cause so zealous as not onely to cry out against prophanenesse in the wicked but civill honesty of others and hypocrisie of others yea even of the coldnesse of the best of Gods people thou mayest be the fore-horse in the teame and the ringleader of good exercises amongst the best men as Ioash a wicked King was the first that complained of the negligence of his best Officers in not repairing the Temple and so stirre them up unto it Nay thou mayest be so forward as to bee persecuted and not yeeld an inch nor shrinke in the wetting but mayest manfully and couragiously stand it out in time of persecution as the thorny ground did so zealous thou mayst be as to like best of and to flock most unto the most zealous preachers that search mens cōsciences best as the whole Countrey of Iudea came flocking to Iohns ministry and delighted to heare him for a season nay thou mayst be zealous as to take sweet delight in doing of all these things Isa. 58 2 3. they delight in approaching neare unto God yet come short of heaven But thou wilt say True many a man rides post that breaks his neck at last many a man is zealous but his fire is soone quench'd his zeale is soone spent they hold not out Whereas I am constant and persevere in godly courses So did that young man yet he was a gracelesse man Matth. 19. 20. All these things have I done from my youth what lack I yet It is true Hypocrites may persevere but they know themselves to be naught all the while and so deceive others but I am perswaded that I am in Gods favour and in a safe and happy estate since I doe all with a good heart for God This thou mayst verily think of thy selfe and yet be deceived and damned and goe to the Devill at last There is a way saith Salomon that seemeth right to a man but the end thereof is the way of death For he is an hypocrite not onely that makes a seeming outward shew of what he hath not but also that hath a true shew of what indeed there is not The first sort of Hypocrites deceive others onely the latter having some inward yet common worke deceive themselves too I am 1. 26. If any man seeme to be religious so many are and so deceive the world but it is added deceiving his owne soule Nay thou mayst goe so fairely and live so honestly that all the best Christians about thee may thinke well of thee never suspect thee and so mayst passe through the world and dye with a deluded comfort that thou shalt goe to heaven and be canonized for a Saint in thy funerall sermon and never know thou art counterfeit till the L O R D brings thee to thy strict and last examination and so thou receivest that dreadfull sentence Goe yee cursed so it was with the Five foolish Virgins that were never discovered by the wise nor by themselves untill the gate of grace was shut upon them If thou hast therefore no better evidences to shew for thy selfe that thine estate is good then these I le not give a pinnes point for all thy flattering false hopes of being saved but it may be thou hast never yet come so farre as to this pitch and if not Lord what will become of thee Suspect thy selfe much and when in this Ship-wracke of soules thou seest so many thousands sinke cry out and conclude It 's a wonder of wonders and a thousand and a thousand to one if ever thou commest safe to shoare Oh! strive then to be one of them that shall be saved though it cost thee thy bloud and the losse of all that thou hast labour to goe beyond all those that goe so farre and yet perish at the last Doe not say that seeing so few shall be saved therefore this discourageth me from seeking because all my labour may be in vaine Consider that Christ here makes another and a better use of it Luk. 13. 24. Seeing that many shall seeke and not enter therefore saith he strive to enter in at the straight gate venture at least and try what the Lord will doe for thee Wherein doth a childe of GOD and so how may I goe beyond these Hypocrites that goe so farre In three things principally First no unregenerate man though he goe never so farre let him doe never so much but he lives in some one sinne or other secret or open little or great Iudas went farre but he was covetous Herod went farre but hee loved his Herodias Every dogge hath his kennell
suffer or fly God hath made good that promise in Jeremie he hath revealed to us abundance of peace and truth and we through ingratitude have ferfeited both Our peace is shaken and who can promise himself with Hezekiah there shall be peace and truth in my dayes Peace may faile thee but let not Truth Every good Christian may and should say with the good King there shall be Truth in my daies if not peace and truth I will so far honor truth as to receive the love of it I will hold it fast by faith hold it forth by practise praise God daily for it and venture all in defence of it So did the Martyrs whose memory is sweete and whose reward is great It is better suffering for truth then with truth yet if Truth must suffer or can die better it is to dye with Truth then out-live it But that Truth may live and we live by truth let us magniâ—ie God much for truth for his word and good bookes that spring thence Some pâ—obably may say it s enâ—ugh to praisâ— God for his word other books are not â—â—nti Wilt thou praise God â—or the Seâ— and â—e unthankfull for the rivers and springs Wilt thou lift up thy voyce for the great Waters and be silent for the silver drops and showers If the former raiâ—e affect thee be not ingratefull for the latter God would have men to value his servants and praise him for their labours But they have errors in them Be it so shall we refuse to praise God for the Flowers and the corne because there be some weeds in the garden and thistles in the field Prejudice not thy selfe buy reade take thy delight here is a garden without weeds a corne field without Cockle or darnell thorne or thistle Art thou a Sincere Convert here are truths sutable solid and wholsome thou maiest feed and feast without feare The Authour is one of singular piety inward acquaintance with God skild in the deceits of mens hearts able to enlighten the darke corners of the little world and to give satisfaction to staggering spirits His worke needs not the purple of anothers commendation to adorne it But because custome not necessity for it's truths prorogative to travaile without a pasport I say because Customo causeth Truth to crave and to carry Epistles Commendatory know that the worke is weighty quick and spirituall and if thine eye be single in perusing it thou shalt find many precious soule-searching soule-quickning and soule-enriching truths in it yea be so warned and awakned is that thou canst not but blesse God for the man and matter unlesse thou be possest with a dumbe devill To conclude Christian Reader take heed of unthankfulnesse spirituall mercies should have the quickest and fullest praises Such is this worke thou foresawâ—est it not thou contributedst nothing to the birth of it It 's a preventing mercy By it and other of the same nature od hath made knowledge to abound the waters of the Sanctuary are daily increased and growne deepe Let not the waters of the Sanctnary put out the fire of the Sanctuary If there be no praise there is no fire If thy head be like a winters Sunne full of light and heart like a winters earth without fruit feare Iest thy light end in utter darkenesse and the tree of knowledge deprive thee of the tree of life The Lord grant thou mayest finde such benefit by this worke as that thy heart may be ravished with truth and raised to praise God to purpose and made to pray Lord still send forth thy light and truth that they may leade us So prayes Thine in Christ W. Greenhill An Introduction to the Worke. THe knowledge of Divinity is necessary for all sorts of men both to settle and establish the good and to convert and fetch in the bad Gods principles pull downe Satans false Principles set up in mens heads loved and beleeved with mens hearts and defended by their Tongues whilest strong holds remaine unshaken the Lord JESVS is kept off from conquering of the soule Now Spirituall Truths are either such as tend to enlarge the understanding or such as may worke chiefly upon the affections I passe by in this knowing age the first of these and being among a people whose hearts are hard enough I being with the latter sort For the Vnderstanding although it may literally yet it never savingly entertaines any truth untill the Affections be therewith smitten and wrought upon I shall therefore here prosecute the unfolding of these Divine Principles First that there is one most glorious God Secondly that this God made all mankind at first in Adam in a most glorious estate Thirdly that all mankind is now fallen from that estate into a bottomlesse gulfe of sinne and misery Fourthly that the Lord Jesus Christ is the onely means of Redemption out of this estate Fifthly that those that are saved out of this wofull estate by Christ are very few and these few are saved with much difficulty Sixthly that the greatest cause why so many dye and perish in this estate is from themselves either 1. By Reason of their bloudy Ignorance they know not their misery or 2. By reason of their Carnall security they feele not they groane not under their sinne and misery 3. By reason of their Carnall confidence they seeke to helpe themselves out of their misery by their own duties when they see or feele it or 4. By reason of their false faith whereby they catch hold upon and trust unto the merits of Christ too soone when they see and feele they cannot helpe themselves The Contents of this Treatise THat there is a God Page 3 4. That this God is most Glorious p. 16. The happinesse of them that forsake all for this God p. 15. A Discovery of Atheisme p. 10. Whence terrors of Conscience arise p. 8. An Explanation of Gods Attributes p. 17. We should make God to be Our God p. 14. God made all Mankind at first in a glorious and happy estate p. 25. Wherein this glory or blessednesse of man did appeare p. 26. How Adams estate was Ours p. 29. Wee are more perfectly righteous in Christ then we could ever have beene in Adam p. 32. How to get the Image of God renewed in us p. 40. A Discovery of such as content themselves with a certaine measure of holinesse p. 34. How justly God may require perfect obedience to all the Law of every man and curse him if he cannot performe it p. 30. Mans misery in respect of Sin p. 42. Every naturall man is dead while hee lives p. 48. The haynousnesse of Adams sin p. 96. Sinnes of the Heart are worse then sins of the Life p. 55. Every Action of wicked men is sinfull p. 57. Whether good duties ought to be performed by naturall men seeing their best Actions are siâ—nes p. 61. Mans misery in respect of the Consequents of sinne p. 63. Mans fearefull flavery under Sathan p. 67. How to
to sackloth and run up and down with amazement and palenes in thy face and horrour in thy conscience and teares in thine eyes What though thy life bee smooth what though thy outside thy sepulcher be painted oh thou art full of rottennes of sin within Guilty not before men as the sinnes of thy life make thee but before God of all the sinnes that swarme and roar in the whole world at this day for God lookes to the heart guilty thou art therfore of heart-whordom heart-sodomy heart-blasphemy heart-drunkennes heart-buggery heart oppression heart-idolatry and these are the sinnes that terribly provoke the wrath of almighty God against thee Isay 57. 16. for the iniquitie of his covetousnesse saith our Translation I smote him but the Hebrew renders it better the iniquitie of his conscience which is the sin of the heart and nature I smote him As a King is angry and musters up his army against rebels not only which brings his souldiers out to fight but who keepes souldiers in their trenches ready for to fight These sins of thine heart are al ready arm'd to fight against God at the watchword or alarum of any temptation Nay I dare affirme and will prove it that these sinnes provoke God to anger and are as bad if not worse than the sinnes of thy life for 1. The sin of thine heart or nature it s the cause the wombe that conteines breeds brings forth suckles all the bitter all the troope of sins that are in the life and therefore giving life and being to all other it s the greatest sin 2. Sinne is more abundantly in the heart than in the life An actuall sinne is but a little breach made by the sea of sinne in thine heart where all sinne all poison is met and mingled together Every actuall sinne is but as a shred broken off from the great botrome of sinne in the heart and hence Christ saith out of the aboundance of the heart the mouth speaketh and out of the evill treasure of the heart wee bring forth evill things A mans spending mony I meane sinne in the life is nothing to his treasure of sin in the heart 3 Sinne is continually in the heart Actuall sinnes of the life flie out like sparkes and vanish but this brand is alwaies glowing within the toade spits poison sometimes but it retaines and keepes a poysonfull nature alwayes Hence the Apostle calls it sinne that dwells in mee that is which alwaies lies and remaines in mee So that in regard of the sins of thy heart thou doest rend in peeces and breake 1 All the lawes of God 2 At one clap 3. Every moment of thy life Oh! mee thinkes the thought of this might rend an heart of Rocke in peeces to thinke I am alwayes grieving God at all times whatsoever I do 4. Actuall sinnes are onely in the life and outward porch sinnes of the heart are within the inward house One enemy within the City is worse than many without A traytor on the throne is worse than a traitor in the open field The heart is Christs Throne A swine in the best roome is worse than in the outward house More I might say but thus you see sinnes of the life are not so bad nor provoke Gods wrath so siercely against thee as the sinnes of thine heart Mourne therefore not so much that thou hast not beene so bad as others are but look upon thy blacke feete looke within thine owne heart and lament that in regard of the sins there thou art as bad as any mourn not so much meerly that thou hast sinned as that thou hast a nature so sinfull that it is thy nature to be proud and thy nature to be vain and deceitfull and loath not only thy sins but thy selfe for sin being brimfull of unrighteousnesse But here is not all consider fourthly 4. That what ever a naturall man doth is sinne as the inside is full so the outside is nothing else but sinne at least in the sight of an holy God though not in the sight of blind sinfull men Indeed hee may doe many things which for the matter of them are good as he may give Almes pray fast come to Church but as they come from him they are sinne as a man may speak good words but we cannot endure to heare him speake because of his stinking breath which deâ—iles them some actions indeed from their generall nature are indifferent for all indifferences lye in generals but every deliberate action considered in Individuo with all its circumstances as time place motive end is either morally good or morally evill as may be proved easily morally good in good men morally evill in unregenerate and bad men For let us see particular actions of wicked men 1. All their thoughts are only evill and that continually Gen. 6. 5. 2. All their words are sinnes Psal 50. 16. their mouthes are open Sâ—pulchers which smell filthy when they bee opened 3. All their civill actions are sin as their eating drinking buying selling sleeping and ploughing Prov. 21. 4. 4. All their religious actions are sins as comming to Church Praying Prâ— 15. 8 9 28. 9. Fasting and mourning roare and cry out of thy self till dooms day they are sins Isa. 58. 5. All their most Zealous Actions are sinnes as Iehu who killed all Baals Priests because his action was outwardly and materially good therefore God rewarded him with temporall favours but because hee had a Hawkes eye to get and settle a Kingdome to himselfe by this meanes and so was Theologically evill therefore God threatens to bee revenged upon him 2. King 10. 6. Their wisedome is sinne Oh men are often commended for their wisedome wit and parts yet those wits and that wisedome of theirs is sinne Rom. 8. The wisedome of the flesh is enmity against God Thus all they have or doe are sins For how can hee doe any good action whose person is filthy A corrupt Tree cannot bring forth good fruit thou art out of Christ therefore all thy good things all thy kindnesses done unto the Lord for the Lord as thou thinkest are most odious to him Let a woman seeke to give all the content to her Husband that may be not out of any love to him but only out of love to another man he abhorres all that shee doth Every wicked man wants an inward principle of love to God and Christ and therefore though hee â—eekes to honour God never so much all that hee doth being done out of love to himselfe God abhorres all that hee performes All the good things a wicked man doth are for himselfe either for selfe-credit or selfe-ease or selfe-contentment or selfe-safety Hee sleepes prayes heares speakes professeth for himselfe alone hence acting alwayes for himselfe hee committeth the highest degree of idolatry hee pluckes God out of his throne and makes himselfe a God because hee makes himselfe his last end in every Action for a man puts himselfe in
through some of them but not all and what they cannot get now they feed themselves with a false hope they shall hereafter they are content to be called Precisians and fooles and crazie braines but they want brokennesse of heart and they will pray it may be for it and passe by that difficultie but to keep the wound alwayes open this they will not doe to be alwayes sighing for helpe and never to give themselves rest till their hearts are humbled that they will not these have a name to live yet are dead Eighthly The way of moderation or honest discretion Rev. 3. 16. which indeed is nothing but luke-warmenesse of the soule and that is when a man contrives and cuts out such a way to Heaven as he may be hated of none but please all and so doe any thing for a quiet life and so sleepe in a whole skin The Lord saith He that will live godly must suffer persecution No not so Lord. Surely thinke they if men were discreet and wise it would prevent a great deale of trouble and opposition in good courses this man will commend those that are most zealous if they were but wise if he meet with a black-mouth'd swearer he will not reprove him lest hee be displeased with him if he meet with an honest man heâ—l yeeld to all he saith that so he may commend him and when he meets them both together they shall be both alike welcome what ever he thiâ—kes to his house and Table because he would faine be at peace with all men Ninthly and lastly The way of selfe-love whereby a man fearing terribly he shall be damned useth diligently all meanes whereby he shall be saved Here is the strongest difficultie of all to row against the streame and to hate a mans selfe and then to follow Christ fully I now come to the sixth Generall Head proposed in order to be considered CHAP. VI. THat the grand cause of mans eternall ruine or why so many are damned and so few saved by Christ it is from themselves Ezek. 33. 11. Why will you dye The great cause why so many people dye and perish everlastingly is because they will every man that perisheth is his owne Butcher or murtherer Matth. 23. 27. Hos. 13. 9. this is the Point we purpose to prosecute at the present The question here will be how men plot and perfect their owne ruine By these foure principall meanes which are the foure great Rocks that most men are split upon and great necessity lyeth upon every man to know them for when a powder-plot is discovered the danger is almost past I say there are these foure causes of mans eternall overthrow which I shall handle largely and make use of every particular reason when it is opened and finished First by reason of that bloudy black ignorance of men whereby thousands remaine wofully ignorant of their spirituall estate not knowing how the case stands betweene God and their soules but thinking themselves to be well enough already they never seeke to come out of their misery till they perish in it Secondly by reason of mens carnall securitie putting the evill day farre from them whereby they feele not their fearefull thraldome and so never groane to come out of the flvish bondage of sinne and Sathan Thirdly By reason of mans carnall confidence whereby they shift to save themselves by their owne duties and performances when they feele it Fourthly By reason of mans bold presumption whereby men scramble to save themselves by their own seeming faith when they see an insufficiency in duties and an unworthinesse in themselves for God to save them I will begin with the first Reason and discover the first traine whereby men blow up themselves which is this They know not their misery nor that fearefull accursed forlornâ— estate wherein they lye but thinke and say they shall doe as well as others and therefore when any friend perswadeth them to come out of it and shewes them the danger of remaining in such a condition what 's their answer I pray yon save your breath to coole your broth Every Fat shall stand on his owne bottome let me alone I hope I have a soule to save as well as you and shall be as carefull of it as you shall or can be you shall not answer for my soule I hope I shall doe as well as the precisest of you all Hence likewise if the Minister come home to them they goe home with hearts full of out-cryes against the man and their tongue dipt in gall against the Sermon God be mercifull unto us if all this be true here 's harsh doctrine enough to make a man run out of his wits and to drive me to despaire Thus they know not their misery and not knowing they are lost and condemned Creatures under the ever lasting vvrath of God They never seeke pray strive or follow the meanes whereby they may come out of it and so perish in it and never know it till they awake with the â—lames of Hell about their eares They will acknovvledge indeed many of them that all men are borne in a most miserable estate but they never apply particularly that generall truth to themselves saying I am the man I am now under Gods wrath and may be snatcht away by death every houre and then I am undone and lost for ever Now there are two sorts of people that are ignorant of this their miserie First the common sort of prophane blockish ignorant people Secondly the finer sort of unsound hollow professors that have a Peacocks pride that thinke themselves faire and in a very good estate though they have but one feather on their crest to boast of I will begin with the first sort and shevv you the reasons why they are ignorant of their misery that is for these 4. Reasons First Sometimes because they want the saving means of knowledge Ther 's no faithfull Minister no compassionate Lot to tell them of fire and brim-stone from heaven for their crying sinnes there 's no Noah to forwarne them of a floud there 's no messenger to bring them tipings of those Armies of Gods devouring plagues and wrath that are approaching neare unto them they have no pilots poore forsaken creatures to shevv them their rockes they have either no Minister at all to teach them either because the Parish is too poore or the Church-living too great to maintaine a faithfull man the strongest Asses carrying the greatest burdens commonly O woefull Physitians sometimes they be prophane and cannot heale themselves and sometimes they be ignorant and know noâ— what to preach unlesse they should follow the steps of Master Latimers Fryer or at the best they shoot off a few pot-gunnes against grosse sinnes or if they doe shew men their misery they licke them whole againe with some comfortable ill applyed sentences but I hope better things of you my brethren the mans Patron may happily storme else
I will be a God of thee and of thy seed But here is a difference betweene a child of Gods application of them a wicked mans the first applieth them so to him as that he liveth upon them and nothing but them and to whom doth the dugge belong but to the childe that liveth upon it The other lives upon his lusts and creatures and yet catcheth hold on the promise By these foure meanes is begot a bastard false peace Thus much of the second cause of mans deceiving himselfe False peace in the Conscience Now followeth the third III. The corruptions and distempers of the Will which is the third cause why men deceive themselves Which are many I will onely name three First When the Will is resolved to goe on in a sinfull course and then sets the understanding a worke to defend it Whence it fareth with the soule as with a man that commeth to search for stollen goods who having received a bribe afore-hand searcheth every where but where it is and so the man is never found out to be what he is So a man having tasted the sweetnesse of a sinfull course which pleasure bribes him he is contented to search into every corner of his heart and to try himselfe as many doe except there where his daâ—ling lust lyes he sits upon that and covers it willingly from his owne eyes as Rachel did upon stolne gods and so never findes out himselfe 10. 3. 20. a man that hath a mind to sleepe quietly will cause the curtaines to be drawne and will let some light come in but shuts out all that or so much as may hinder him from sleeping So a man having a mind to sleepe in some particular sinfull course at his ease will search himselfe and let some light come into his minde And hence many prophane persons that know much their opinions are orthodox their discourse Savoury yet doe they know little of themselves and of those sinnes and lusts that haunt them which they must part with because this light troubleth them if hinders them from sleeping in their secure estate and therefore they draw the curtaine here Hence many men that live in those sinnes of the grossest usury finding the gaine and tasting the sweet of that sinne will reade all bookes goe to all those Ministers they suppose that hold it lawfull and so pick up and gather reason to defend the lawfulnesse of the sinne and so because they would not have it to be a sinne finde out reasons whereby they thinke it no sinne but the bottome is this their will hath got the bribe and now the understanding playes the lawyer and hence men live in the most crying sinnes and are sure to perish because they will not know they are in an errour Secondly when the will sets the understanding a worke to extenuate and lessen sinne for many when they see their sinne yet make it small by looking at the false end of their opticke glasse they thinke such small matters never make any breach betweene the Lord and their soules Hence they say the best man sinnes seven times a day and who can say my heart is cleane What is the reason that a child of God hath little peace many times after commission of small sinnes Oh! it is because they see the horrible nature of the least sinne small wrongs against so deare so great a friend as the Lord is it cuts their hearts yet a carnall heart is never troubled for great sinnes because they make a light matter of them Thirdly Wilfull ignorance of the horrible wrath of God Hence men rush on in sinne as the horse into the battell Hence men never feare their estates because they know not Gods wrath hanging over them Coldest Snakes when they are frozen with cold never sting nor hurt one may carry a neast of them in his bosome but bring them to the fire then they hisse and sting so sinne when it is brought neare Gods wrath that devouring fire it makes men cry out of themselves then I am undone oh I am a lost creature but being not thus heated sinne never makes a man cry out of himselfe These are the causes why men are ignorant of their wofull miserarable estate which Ignorance is the first Rocke or the first powder-plot that spoyles thousands Yet there are three more dangerous because more secret Now followeth the second reson of mens ruine By reason of mans carnall securitie whereby men cannot be affected with nor so much as have hearts to desire to come out of their misery when they know it for if a mans minde understand his misery yet if the heart be hard or sleepy and not affected loaden wounded humbled and made to groane under it he will never greatly care to come out of it Isa. 29. 9 10. Now this is the estate of many a soule he doth know his misery but by reason of the sleepy secure senseles spirit of slumber he never feeles it nor mournes under it and so comes out of it Now the Reasons of this security are these Because God powres not out the full measure of his wrath upon men because hee kindles not the pile of wrath that lyes upon men it s reserved and concealed not revealed from heaven and so long let God frowne Ministers threaten and smaller Judgements drop yet they will never seeke shelter in Jesus Christ but sleepe in their sinnes untill God raine downe flouds of horrour bloud fire untill Gods arrowes sticke in mens hearts they will never seeke out of themselves unto Jesus Christ Eccle. 8. 11. so long as Gods plagues were upon Pharaâ—h he giveth faire words and Moses must be sent to pray for him but when Gods hand is taken away now Pharaohs heart is hardened So long as Gods sword is in his scabberd men have such stout hearts that they will never yeeld God must wound and cut deep and stab and thrust to the very heart else men will never yeeld never awaken till Gods fists be about mens eares and he is dragging them to the stake men will never awake and cry for a pardon and deliverance of their woefull estate Secondly because if they doe in part feele and so feare Gods wrath they put away the evill day farre from them they hope they shall doe better hereafter and repent some other time and therefore they say soule eate drinke follow thy sports cups queanes thou hast a treasure of time which shall not be spent in many yeares Isay 22. 12 13. that looke as it is with the waxe let it be of never so pliable a disposition and the fire never so hot yet if it be not brought neare the fire and be held in the fire it never mâ—lts but still remaines hard so it is here Let a man or woman have never so gentle or pliable a nature and let Gods wrath be never so hot and dreadfull in their Judgements yet if they make not the day of