of a mans self to acts incongruous with the dignity of his place and calling this were to be the Tom of a Parish nor is it a denial of those gifs and graces that God hath bestowed upon us this is a modest lie it is not lowliness nor is it passive humiliation wherein the spirit may be crackt as low as Hell and yet be still as proud as Hell nor is it a rejecting of Gods promises because we can bring no worth unto them But Humbleness which accompanies Repentance It is a Grace of Gods Spirit whereby the penitential person from right knowledge becomes low in his own eyes Humbleness described and judgeth himself most unworthy in his addresses unto God 1. It is a Grace of Gods Spirit It is one of the Pearls in the It is a Grace of Gods Spirit Chain which the Apostle would have us to put on Col. 3. 12. an humble spirit is a spiritual ornament Some Graces are more visible and stirring as Faith and Charity others are more reserved and hidden like Soul among the stuff as Patience and Humility But a Grace it is being a supernatural Quality not born with us but added unto us In our first Birth we come out with very high and stout Spirits in our second Births with very lowly and humble Spirits in our low Birth with high Spirits in our high and excellent Birth with lowly Spirits 2. Making us low in our own eyes Behold saith Job 40. 4. Making us low in our own eyes I am vile .i. nothing worth base What shall I answer thee I am as a weaned child said David Psa 131. 2. I have not the Understanding of a man said Agur Pro. 30. 2. Not as if I had yet attained saith the Apostle Phil. 3. Hence is it that in Scripture humble persons are called Little one of these little ones saith Christ little not only in the proud contempt of the World but little in their own humble estimation of themselves As David is said to be little in his own eyes one who set a very low rate and value on himself And they are said to be poor poor in spirit they have indeed very rich Graces but very poor opinions and conceits of themselves I who am but dust and ashes saith Abraham a worm and no man said David Excellencies they have but they are not puffed up by them God doth raise them but they raise not themselves they are precous and honorable in his sight but vile and nothing in their own they have an high Calling and high Graces and high Priviledges but still low hearts when they look on their Natural frame that 's as low as Earth when they look on their sinful frame that 's as low as Hell when they look on their Spiritual frame then how little it is but some saith Oh that God would help my Unbelief that sorrow is but a drop that love but a spark that knowledge but a dawning light their strength but weakness others have more they have but little still they complain of defects infirmities failings what they have is nothing to the much they want No Vines so unfruitful no servants so unprofitable as they Judging themselves unworthy in their addresses to God Thy Saints said Moses humble themselves at thy feet unworthy to Judging themselves unworthy in their addresses to God come before God unworthy to obtain any thing from God the Publican dares not lift up his eyes to heaven Ezra is ashamed and confounded to look up the very Majesty and Purity of God do dazle and sometimes silence their thoughts and when they do worship towards his holy place then mark how their Petitions run Not for my sake O Lord not in my own name not for my righteousness shame and confusion belong to me but do it for thine Own sake for thy Mercies sake for thy Truths sake for thy Christs sake O Lord If thou shewest me no Mercy I deserve none if thou givest me any Mercy it is only of thy abundant Mercy Arising from a right knowledg As Pride is rooted in Ignorance Arising from a Right knowledge and Error it is but the corrupting of our Text a foolish blast and mistake so Humbleness is grounded in right Knowledg and true Judgment 1. Of God Humble persons do more exactly apprehend Of God him what He is what his Will is in his perfections of Holiness and Mercy and Justice and thereupon are abased in their own sense To compare our selves with our selves may be dangerous and to compare our selves with others inferior to us in gifts and graces and services it may be a speedy way to puff us up But a comparison of our selves with God O how short are we how nothing are we in comparison of that infinite fulness of excellency in him The Stars make a twinkling in the night but when the Sun appears they hide their faces and Veile themselves Our Graces may seem to cast their Rayes their Beams and to have some Lustre in our eyes whilst we compare them with others or our selves in darkness but when we look on God that Sun that fulness of all Holiness then we are ashamed may hang down our heads and with the Angels cover our Faces Our Features are but as Deformities and our Fulness but Poverty in comparison of him And therefore when Job had a while conferred with God he then confesseth his folly and ignorance and abhors himself and will speak no more 2. Of our selves both in Evil and in Good For Evil It is discerned in the proper nature forms colours deserts of it Oh Of our Selves how much hath God already been dishonoured by me How For Evil. often how highly Any one Transgression rightly apprehended may serve to abase us all our dayes But then I still feel a corrupt nature apt to rebel to step aside to break out Oh how wonderfully do unbelief hardness security dulness distraction hypocrisie vain-glory unthankfulness folly indispositions evil thoughts corrupt affections cleave unto me though under many mercies opportunities helps assistances what am I worthy of It is pure mercy that I am not almost every hour thrown into Hell by reason of continual sinnings For Good look on it in all respects and know it aright you may see cause of humbleness 1. Look on it in the Qualities or Habits at the best very weak things rather of desire then of possession we know but in part believe with fear trust with doubtings see but as in a glass we rather imitate then apprehend As Prosper spake of the joyes of Grace Ipsa virtutum gaudia vulnus habent that is true of the very Graces even our wine is mixt with water and like Jacobs speckled Sheep so is it with our souls some of all graces yet but alittle and accompanied with the reliques of all and too much sinfulness 2. Look on it in the Acts and Fruits We cannot go without a Staff and too like Jacob
often an eye-salve than an heart-salve they may be a qualm to bring sin to sence when yet they are not a potion to bring off the sinner from wandring 3. Again twixt impediment to sin and twixt amendment of sin Impediment to sin and amendment of sin Miseries and straits may be a Dam to stop the Current when yet they are not like the Prophets salt effectual to heal the waters A Lock may stop a Thief but not alter him When the the Prophet Eliah met Ahab with a sharp message about Naboth's bloâ—d and Vineyard it made him go softly it cooled his spirit but did not change it Miseries more ordinarily for the present make men less forward and bold in sin as Jupiter's Log did quash the noise of the Frogs when yet they make them not so good as to turn them from sin They do like a shower of rain and hail make the Traveller to stand a while under the Tree who yet intends to hold on his journey again 4. Again twixt Declamation and Declination A sinner under misery may play the Oratour and yet never prove the Penitentiary Declamation ' and Declination he may both indite and accuse the sin which yet by no means he intends to condemn and execute It is one thing to confess that my sins do now hold me in bonds of affliction and thereupon to profess a discharge of such inmates and it is another thing really to repent and to forsake those sins yea the very those which a man more then suspects as patrons of his misery So that straits may bring sin to sight and the sinner to a stand and to a confession yet not always to repentance and to conversion which is true This is true 1. Of inward straits those manacling and severe fetters of conscience to which no distresses are comparable The boylings of Of Inward straits conscience may be but like the boylings of the Sea a person may have many guilts fretting there like a Leprosie and gnawing there like death and flaming there like hell it self and yet not be brought off from sin As Judas who betrayed his Master O think of that sin and fell into quick horrours of conscience and these cured him not but he proceeded to despair and then to self-murther 2. Of outward straits which do never come without cause but many times go off without remedy they may in all the sorts of Of Outwardâ— straits them say oft times as they did of Babylon We would have healed Babylon and she would not be healed They find us evil and they leave us worse as we do our friends upon their dying-beds Ye revolt more and more why should ye be smitten any more Isa 1. 5. This is evident in Pharaoh whose hardnings increased like the iron with the stroaks Or like the Snake which Salvian spake did multiply by occision It was no better with Saul and Ahab nor with that King Ahaz who is blackt and fingred out amongst all the Kings of Judah because he sought not to the Lord in his distress but trespassed yet more against the Lord This is that King Ahaz 2 Chron. 28. 22. Thus it was with the Israelites many a time who felt the scourage but mended not their work but with bleeding shoulders oft times went away to sin and no sooner were the Assizes past but they adventured the way to the prison again If you now demand the Reasons why straits or miseries do not Reasons of it always bring men off from sins I answer 1. Because that onely true Grace is it which brings men off from sins Afflictions may be considered two ways either immediately Onely true grace brings men off from sin and solitarily so they are not forcible to bring any man oâ—f from his sinfull course no punishment whatsoever is an immediate Agent and sufficient to turn a sinner Mediately and concomitantly as they are sanctified i. either as they light upon an heart sanctified or as sanctifying Grace with them or by them is wrought in the soul and so they may bring off the heart from sin not the naked afflictions but grace in the heart afflicted turns the heart for nothing turns the heart from sin buâ— that which is contrary unto sin now though miseries are contrary to the sinner yet not to the sin they are contrary to the sinners ease and way but not to the affection and delight of sin which may and oft times doth live and remain even under extreme miseries Now then many men are in miseries by reason of sin yet they turn not from sin because they want true grace by the strength of which alone men come off from sin for that it is which changeth the sinfull heart You know that Physick ordinarily works as the body is into which it is received there must be some strength of nature to help it else it will not work the Philosophers rule being true Quicquid recipitur recipitur ad modum recipientis The heat which melts the wax hardens the clay and the juice which goes into the Rose makes it sweet but that which goes into the Nettle makes it stink so it is with miseries they work as he is on whom they fall if true grace be not in the heart what good use can an evil heart make of them 2. Secondly Because straits and miseries are sometimes meerly judicial onely the strokes of revenging Justice You know that Straits are somtimes meerly judicial there is a great deal of difference 'twixt a whip which causeth smart and a plaister which causeth healing All miseries which befall us are not healing plaisters sometimes they are judicial lashes they are not the wounds of a friend but of an enemy God is said in Job to distribute sorrows in wrath and then they are not remedial effects but exitial they come not then with their teaching and recovering assistance but are the beginnings of a greater judgment yet to come You know that God plagued Pharaoh in a judicial way the miseries which befel him were as sharp and great and many and came as thick as most that ever befel any man of whom we ever read nevertheless they were so far from reclaiming of him from his sins that still he hardned his heart and exalted himself If you should demand why it should be thus with him that no not quick nor great nor many plagues did him any good I answer One cause amongst many is this Because they came onely in a judicial way they did not come out of the hand of a mercifull Father but of a provoked and revenging Judge If there be not grace in the heart to joyn with and to improve the affliction and if there be not mercy to send out and bless the affliction it will then never do us good it will not turn us from our Sins 3. Thirdly The Heart of a Sinner may be above his miseries There is not such a power in miseries alone as to
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
strikes us in one kiâ—d yet we sin though in many kinds yet we sin though losses though crosses though death be in our doors though it riseth on our bodies though we lose earth life heaven all yet we still sin and return not but stand it out 2. Of the admirable patience and goodness of God Not without reason is he stiled a God Of the admirable patience and goodness of God of long-suffering and to endure with much long-suffering the vessels of wrath and his Goodness the riches of Goodness Rom. 9. 22. Rom. 2. 4. That he should look after a sinner nay speak nay strike nay wound nay almost take away his life to save his life that he should run after a proud and resisting sinner though a sinner doth contrive the ways of opposing and cunningly strives against all the methods of mercy yet that God should not desert him and give him over but try again and again and be actively ready to give grace to an unwilling to a resisting to an obstinate foolish sinner who but a vile sinner would obstinately abuse such great mercy who but a God would endure the same with so much patience It is not that the Lord seeth not the ways of a sinner for he is Omniscient It is not that he approves or likes the ways of a sinner for he is most Holy It is not that he will not recompence the ways of a sinner for he is most Just It is not that he wants power to execute his wrath Habet in potestate vindictam mavult tamen diu toâ—ere patientiam c. Cyprian and displeasure for he is Almighty No no that he all this while spares and holds up ariseth onely from his nature which is delighted rather to shew mercy and which is slow to wrath and of much long-suffering 3. Of the freeness of Gods grace It is not of him that willeth nor of him that runneth but of God that sheweth mercy Rom. 9. 16. Alas what is Of the freeness of Gods grace it that the Pelagians scribled of Merits and Papists of Deserts and Congruities Lo here naturally we run from God and naturally we are fighters against God we resist the motions of his Spirit the counsels of his Word the lessons of many Afflictions and could we any how subsist we would never lay down our weapons Did not the Lord shew more compassion to us then we do unto our selves did he not enquire after us and follow us and as it were beset us on every side and in a sort surprize us by the goodness and strength of his own Grace we should perish in our bloud die in our folly and be lost for ever but this commends the exceeding graciousness of his Grace towards us that though we be not onely enemies by nature but rebellious also by practice yet the Lord shews pity to our wandring souls will forgive our proud rebellions and will heal our foolish and gainsaying hearts It is great mercy for him to spare us who might for our manifold sinnings so often have condâ—mned us and it is the greatest mercy that he doth not onely not leave and damn us but pities converts and saves us 3. For Caution And this is the main Use which I desire to For Caution Take heed of shufflâ—ng with God insist on To take heed of shuffling with God and digging after pits which will hold no water when God calls upon us by his Word or by his Corrections to return from our sins unto him and not to hold them fast or to withstand the Lord and hold him off Here I shall propound two things 1. Some Motives or Arguments to hearken unto this 2. Some Rules and Directions to guide us The Motives may respect us either Motives 1. in the evil of thus shuffling with and delaying of God 2. in the good on the contrary I will mingle them together Consider therefore 1. It is a most precious thing which the Lord offers unto us It is a most precious thing the Lord offers to us when at first he calls upon us to return when at first he calls upon us to leave our sins and to return unto him A thing may be reputed precious partly in respect of the necessity of it when it doth so nearly concern us that we are undone without it Now what shall become of us unless we come off from our sins What is it that we so shuffle for and will not let it go What! is it a good in it self or a cause of good to us and what is it that we so hold off from is it not Grace and Salvation I shall perish with hunger saith the Prodigal So mayest thou truly say Unless I do accept of this offer of Grace if I do thus hold on in my sinfull ways if I shuffle never so long yet if I continue thus I shall at length perish for ever Exod. 10. 7. Knowest thou not that Egypt is destroyed so c. to go on thus is the way of death to return and submit is the onely way of life I cannot be saved unless I repent It is not a vain thing for which the Lord strives with me it is to give grace and life to my poor soul In respect of the excellency of it Excellent things are truly precious Now every grace is excellent it hath a native beauty in it and makes us a choice and estimable people Do throughly weigh a penitent and converted condition how in it we are partakers of the Divine nature what a communion we have thereby with God what a fellowship with Jesus Christ how we pass from death to life are made the sons of God and become the heirs of glory and will we then thus devise and flie from our best good Why when the Lord offers grace to a sinner what doth he therein but offer himself to be his God offer Christ to be his Saviour offer the pardon of all his sins offer all the comforts of his Spirit the blessings of his promises and the hopes of eternal life and if this be not an excellent thing what is can a better or greater matter be tendred to you 2. The Lord will not alwaies be calling upon us nor tendring repentance unto life and which brings forth salvation as the Apostle The Lord will not alwaies be calling upon us speaks My Spirit shall not alwaies strive saith God Gen. 6. God strives when he comes close in any means 2. When hee continueth and multiplieth means And to day if ye will hear his voice harden not your hearts as in the provocation Heb. 3. God did deal often with the Israelites by wonders by words by corrections but you know that though he bore long with them yet he did not bear for ever at length he consumed and made an end of them he would not continue to seek after them for ever I will ease me of mine adversaries Cut it down why cumbers it the ground If we
received unless the apprehension of their kindness and goodness descends to the affections they never stir up thankfulness and as it is with the promises unless their excellency and sutableness come down from the mind to the will they never excite faith so is it with sin unless besides the consideration of it there be not an operation and influence upon the heart to grieve and mourn it will never prove right and penitential Thou sayest thou knowest thy sins as well as any man can tell thee Be it so but if thy heart remain hard not humbled abased broken grieved for these sins alas as their unworking faith Jam. 2. so thy unaffected speculation of sin is vain but findest thou this that upon the serious consideration of thy sins thy heart is humbled and abased in thee that thou art cast down in the sense of thy exceeding vileness O wretched man that I am O Lord to me belongs nothing but shame and confusion and that thy heart is grieved within thee and afflicted that bitter mournings arise because of bitter sinnings my soul hath them in remembrance and is humbled within me Lam. 3. Thy heart melts before the Lord I assure thee this is a right and blessed consideration of sin 3. If it work in him Detestation of sin Griefe seemes to be more If it work Detestation of sin passionate but hatred is a more fixed quality as I may so phrase it Ezek. 36. 31. Ye shall remember your own evil wayes and your doings that were not good here is the consideration we speak of and ye shall loath your selves in your own sight for your Iniquities and your abominations here is detestation the proper effect of true consideration for in a right consideration the singular causes or reasons of hatred do arise v. g. Excess of evil absolute repugnancy to our best good effectual prejudice and greatest injury Repugnans Offendens the Schoolmen make the two chief grounds of hatred Vide Summistas in 1. 2dae q. 29. But I will not prosecute that Now then peruse thy self Hast thou considered of thy sinnes aright if thou doest not hate them thou hast not Seest thou sinne and art thou brought to hate it Let me but propound a few things unto thee that thou mayest see whether thou loathest and hatest sin or no. Is it peace or is it war If sin lies quietly in the soul it is peace it is not hatred hatred breeds variance enmity opposition conflict Paul hated sin Rom. 7. 15. and wars with it v. 23. Is it a deadly war is it for life will this suffice thee that sin doth not terrifie thy conscience or wilt thou not be satisfied till sin be mortified and crucified in the lusts and affections thereof Is it like Davids war wherein he left not one Amalekite to escape and carry tidings and not like Sauls to kill some and spare the rest Canst thou say Lord I hate the thing that is evil Psal 97. 10. and I hate every false way Oh if there be raised in thee upon the consideration of sin a deadly enmity and defiance with it an implacable general dislike abomination resistance and desire to root it out happy art thou thy consideration of sin is rightly and effectually penitential 4. If it work in him Reformation of sin Do you not read in If it work in thee Reformation Psal 119. 59. that David considered and thought on his wayes I thought on my ways saith David so do many many indeed do so but not as David did for after he had said I thought on my ways he addeth and turned my feet unto thy testimonies He so thought of his ill ways that he left them and betook himself unto good ways If thinking on sin doth not produce leaving of sin it is nothing if thinking of sin doth not breed leaving of sin then going on in sin will make you leave thinking of sin And though we think of an ill way yet if we do not enter into and walk in a good way it is nothing There is a two-fold leaving of sin one which is proper to the condition of Glory another which is proper to the condition of Grace I speak not of the former which is the absolute dissolution of sin but of the latter which is an imperfect though true separation from sin consisting in Affection wherein the Will is alienated from sin the evil which I would not do saith the Apostle In Mourning O wretched man who shall deliver me from this body of death In Endeavour willing or endeavouring to live honestly Heb. 13. 18. There is a purpose to walk in new obedience and an hearty desire so to do and not to serve sin any longer and also an active endeavour to put off the former conversation and to crucifie the flesh with the affections and lusts thereof To consider of sin and yet still to love it and still to live in it to study to fulfil the lusts of it to give up our selves to the service of it to walk in darkness to be the same in our affections to it and in our obedience unto it this is not onely a vain but a fearfull consideration But if when we have throughly considered of sin in the vileness of it we are effectually wrought upon to arise from our sinfull course O Lord I have sinned exceedingly and done very foolishly I am resolved to leave this sinfull way Lord help thou me give me thy grace turn thou me and I shall be turned turn away my heart and eyes cause me to put off my old conversation enable me to walk and live in newness of life This is an happy Fruit especially if it hath two other Effects accompanying it viz. 1. Fervent Supplication if it carries the soul to God in Christ for mercy for grace for strength The resolution to reform if it goes no further than the strength of the soul it will easily cool and quickly fail us if ever it prove right it must carry us to Christ for as much as it is by his strength and by his grace that we get our hearts turned from sin or that we are able to forsake our sins Hast thou considered of thy sins why and doest thou not discern such infinite guilt in them as makes thee for ever accursed if thou hast not mercy in Christ and doest thou hereupon apply thy self in all humbleness of heart to the Throne of mercy O Lord be mercifull to me a sinner according the multitude of thy tender mercies blot out my transgressions Behold me through the bloud of Christ yea O Lord heal my sinfull soul O Lord change my heart O Lord dissolve the powers of sin in me by thy mighty power subdue my iniquities turn me from all sin make me a servant of righteousness 2. Diligent application of our selves to the Means private and publick ordinary and extraordinary through the right use of which we may expect sufficient grace from God to work
halting to our dying day either we want minds to good or wills or power not able of our selves to haâ—ch one good thought and when the will is present yet we find not power to perform and though sometimes we do good yet evil is present with us like Beer which runs low with the liquor there runs out much muddy grounds or like Abrahams Sacrifice many Birds lighting on it or like Solomons Ointment in which is some dead Flie or like a Candle which burns with a Snuff or like the fire which ascends with much smoke Our actions are like the Arrows which are shot one is too far another is too short another is too wide not one of an hundred that hits the mark so is it with us many Duties and Services are performed by us but which amongst them all is performed with that reverence of Spirit faith on Christ integrity of Affection unitedness of Soul and sole fidelity of intention to Divine Glory Our excellencies are weak and the Lord be merciful unto us how often do we weaken them our work is but little that we do very little take aside the aversness the indispositions the formalities the coldness the distractions the unbelief the weariness the inconstancy the infinite infirmities which accompany them what poor things will they then appear may we not fall down and say having done our best We are but unprofitable servants Nay and that which being known may likewise abase us is this we may justly say of all our poor excellencies as the Widow of her Vessels They are but borrowed ware What have we which we have not received Every Gift and Grace which we have is but a Beam born of the Sun a drop coming from another Fountain then our Natures all our good is but free Gift take the borrowed feathers from the Crow it is then a most black creature alone So that consider our good aright either in the initial cause of it viz. Divine and free Grace or in the upholding cause of it Divine assistance or in the qualities of it how weak and imperfect or in the acts of it how rare and uneven all these are the springs as it were which feed humbleness of heart in the true Penitent Quest 2. Now I proceed to the next inquiry Why true Penitents Why true penitents are humble persons are such humble and lowly persons I am not worthy to be called thy Son Sol. The reasons are most of them insinuated already I will either express them again or add more to them thus then 1. Conversion necessarily infers an alteration in the whole man Though it doth not destroy Substances yet it changeth Qualities of unholy Conversion infers an Alteration in the whole man it makes us holy of ignorant knowing of filthy clean of obstinate flexible of unquiet meek of proud and lofty humble and lowly therefore penitent persons who are converted persons must needs be lowly ex natura rei this is forcible 2. They never did experimentally know themselves till they began to repent Sin was but a delight or a mock or a meer discourse They now experimentally know themselves unto them before the vileness of it the contagious pollution of it the stinging guilt of it the terrible effects of it both in respect of God and themselves they never savv it till novv they see that of sin vvhich they savv not before both for the filth and the guilt of it and they see it with other eyes then they savv it before no marvel then that they become low in their own eyes Should they not be very vile in their own eyes who perceive themselves guilty of that vvhich is most and only vile in Gods I have sinned what shall I say unto thee O thou preserver of men 3. They never saw till now how short they came in that good of duty Job 7. 20. which they owe to God and how unanswerable they are to the many bonds of obedience I have done nothing for They now see how short they come in duty God all my dayes nor to him in any Service and Honour They never knew till now how injurious they have been unto God to the kindness of his Love to the counsel of his Spirit And how injurious they have been to God to the righteousness of his Will how unworthily and stubbornly they have resisted despised him abused all his mercies Thus for the Explication of the point Now for the Application of it to our selves Doth true Repentance produce humble lowliness of Spirit then let us reflect on our own hearts and judge what solidity Vse Let us judge of our Repentance by our lowliness of Repentance is wrought in us by that lowliness and sense of unworthiness which is to be found in true penitents Consider Pride and loftiness and self-worthiness are very natural to us though we be born wholly naked not any external ornament is upon us no inward excellency yet our natures are puft with Pride and self-worthiness are very natural to us wind and a haughtiness and could we be rifled and stript of every sin we should find this of pride so opposite to lowliness most intimately cleaving to us Paradise was not free of it What do I speak of it nay Heaven it self was troubled with it the Divels who are cast into the lowest darkness fell thither by reason of their proud loftinesâ— Look over all sorts of persons it 's a wonder almost to find one truly humble-hearted sinner If a man hath parts the Apostle tells us that knowledge puffeth up the the wind gets into the bladder as it was with Diotrephes c. Who is the Lord said Pharaoh if a man have dignities how rare is it to see greatness stooping and lowliness of heart with highness of honor If a man have riches he needs an Apostles charge Not to be high-minded If a man be poor he is like Diogenes trampling upon the Philosophers chair with greater pride Generally the scum is most light and vuâ—gar spirits most censorious and insolent If a man be ignorant yet Laodicea thinks her self rich and increased and to have need of nothing though indeed she be poor and blind and miserable and naked 2. If habitually and predominantly proud thou art as yet impenitent 't is true that Conversion doth not give an absolute cessation If Habitually Proud thou art impenitent to sin yet it doâ—h take off dominion and causeth diminution It cannot be that a man should have an heart rightly sensible of sin and set against it and yet be high in the opinion of his own excellencies and worth The mountains are cast down into a valley and the high imaginations brought into captivity the swellings of our corrupt spirits are in great measure abated and let out when once Grace enters our hearts and Repentance hath opened our eies Though you may be free from many other actual and gross exorbitancies if yet the spirit of pride
great unworthiness v. g. 1. Study our selves more And use the means to become humble Study our selves more Alas what are we but dust and ashes nay but sin and corruption We cannot say of our sins as the Prophet spake of the fore-running calamities Gray hairs are here and there upon him No no but as David Who can tell how oft he offends if we knew our selves we would abhor our selves 2. Study the Law more the perfection and excellency of it and bring thy many blots to that purity thy many crookednesses to that plainness Study the Law more Paul was alive before the Law came but when the Commandement came sin revived and he died 3. Study your own performances better 'T is true something is done but there is more undone Study your own performances better then done thy best services have more in them to humble then to puff thee thou canst not do at all unless God aids thee but art like a Mill without water or a Dial without the Sun and when thou dost go it is like Mephibosheth lame on both feet When thou hast made the best praier thou maiest well bow the knee and pray again that God would forgive thee the much dullness the many distractions the infinire unbelief in thy prayer 4. Study the creatures better which are the bellowes to blow up your self-conceits and high thoughts What is thy beauty but a Study the creatures better fading dye a changeable tincture which one blow or one disease may dash if it escape both yet time will unvarnish the house newly painted What are riches but a labour an heap of vanity and a vexation of spirit they are a Tree long in growing and quick in fading Solomon compares them to a Bird ready to flye Paul reputes them uncertain and David wonders who shall enjoy them What are cloathes but a few Garments of Trees of Beasts somewhat trimmed up And our Honours buâ— the breath of the People a vain aire and wind at the best quickly stirred easily turned about and allayed And our bodies but a piece of clay a wall of earth Our heads are but earthly Globes and our eyes but wasting Candles and our feet but decaying Pillars c. 5. Study God more in his excellencies of holiness Study God more of justice of mercy and then you will abhor your selves in dust and ashes Now I proceed to the second Proposition viz. That personal unworthiness is not prejudicial to spiritual supplication Doct. 2. Personal unworthiness is not prejudicial to spiritual supplication I am not worthy yet make me as Of this Proposition I will give you 1. The sense 2. Arguments to confirm it 3. Some useful Applications Touching the sense or Explication of it premise these particulars 1. There is a twofold unworthiness Privative when there is no quality or act which the person can shew to God as a There is a twofold unworthiness meritorious cause why he should accept of him or his services Negative when there is no meetness or fitness of capacity in the subject enabling of him to receive any thing from God for as there is a double dignity or worthiness One of Causality to deserve good another of Receptivity to obtain good so answerably there is a double unworthiness one which consists in the defect of merit another which consists in the defect of meetness I speak only of the former not of the latter for a person may not be unworthy .i. unfit or uncapable to receive good who yet is unworthy .i. unable to deserve and merit it 2. There is an absolute and plenary unworthiness wherein as there is no cause of good so there is effectual cause to hinder Thâ—re is an absoâ—ute and plenary uâ—worthiness it this may be called a moral unworthiness And this a natural a restrictive and partial unworthiness when there are qualities in or actions by a person against which strict justice might make exceptions yet through a gracious indulgence they avail not to the preâ—udice of the person David saith in Psal 66. 18. If I regard iniquity in my heart the Lord will not hear me and the blind man cured said well Joh. 9. 31. We know that God heareth not sinners When people have not onely sin living in them but themselvs living in sin when they know and affect their sins have means to leave them but will not have hearts to forsake them this now imprints an absolute unworthiness i such an unworthiness as doth effectually prejudice their access and confidence to God in praier Nevertheless there may be the presence of many corruptions for quality and fact which the sinner knows and bewails and judges and though in strict justice they are a sufficient prejudice yet through a divine graciousness they prove not effectual hinderances to the presenting 〈◊〉 accepting of Praier 3. The privative and natural or restrictive unworthiness may be The privative unworthiness may be considered two wayes In respect of the matter of it Or of the sence of it considered again two waies Either in respect of the matter of it which is some kind or kinds of sinfulness either in nature 〈◊〉 fact for nothing makes us unworthy but sin this abaseth us and keeps us at a distance Or of the sense and apprehension of it when the sinfulness which doth make us so unworthy is discerned by us and so discerned that by reason thereof we do judge out selves not worthy of the least of mercies In neither respect is it prejudicial to spiritual supplication i though there be sinfulness in us and upon us and we know it and that by reason of it wee are neither worthy to speak with God nor to prevail with God yet we may present our supplications unto him 4 Praier may be considered in a threefold respect Either As a Prayer may be considered in a threefold respect Duty to be acted As a Duty acting As a Duty acted The sense of our unworthiness should not be any prejudice to praier in any of those respects 1. Not to take us off from performing the duty of praier We may offer up our sacrifice though we cannot offer Unworthiness sâ—ould not take us â—ff from Prayer up our worthiness we may bring our gift though we cannot bring our merit though vve cannot buy heaven yet vve may beg it Poverty doth not hinder but a man may be a fit beggar and sin doth not hinder but a person may be a fit petitioner to God David was sensible of his sins Psal 40. 12. Innumerable evils have compassed me about mine iniquities have taken hold upon me so that I am not able to look up they are more then the hairs of my head therefore my heart saileth me Yet he makes his Supplication presently in the next verse v. 13. Be pleased O Lord to deliver me O Lord make haste to help me So did Ezra c. 9. 6. and Daniel c. 9. 2. Nor take off Considence
demand what are become of the many sick-bed resolutions of those that you made when the hand of God was upon you you vowed much unto God as he did in a storm c. but as the King said of Mordecai What hath been done to Mordecai for this so what have you done to make good your resolutions I believe your hearts are speechless your consciences do condemn you that health hath been the time of more sinning though sickness was the time of more resolving The same may be said for others whose consciences have been more actively and fiercely stirring Oh! if the Lord would abate that wrath and cool that inflamed spirit c. yet what are the fruits of many such resolutions As the Divel said of Job But now stretch forth thy hand and he will curse thee of thy face so here on the contrary as soon as the Lord takes off his hand these are as ready to continue and proceed on in their sins as the Israelites were when they were delivered out of the Land of Egypt from the fiery furnace Yea and of others is it not manifest that they are fare enough from present executions when they voluntarily defer the acting part of Repentance to old age Hereafter is time enough c. 2. Others perhaps do act and execute presently yet they are exceedingly out For 1. Though it be presently yet it is partially they act resolutions as Saul did his Sword upon the meanest and poorest not upon the greatest they do not answer their resolutions to the full Deal kindly with the young man for my sake said David So when many persons come to execute their Resolutions against sin they fail they falter they do not execute Agag some pleasant corruption which will mar all finds favour 2. Though it be presently yet it is but presently the present execution of the purpose is but a present a transient execution an hanging down the head for a day or for a week a busie and earnest reformation for a while but this Assize like ours here is but for a few dayes it breathes away the heart turns again to sin and the next convenient occasion is too prevalent it carries away the Soul 2. But to draw nearer to our selves however we have been defective Vse 2. Let us set upon a present execution to answer our manifold resolutions by present executions and practices yet now let us for the time to come as he said of words so I of purposes vertere proposita in Opera Not be like Clouds seeming to be full of Water but to pour down Let us act the parts of Penitents as the Prophet said to the hovering Israelites if God be God serve him so here if Repentance be a necessary duty to be performed let us then act it act it presently For this I will only propound two things 1. The Motives 2. The Means for a present Execution 1. The Motives 1. A present Execution is the truest part of Repentance At the Motives A present execution is the truest part of Repentance best you are but in a preparation in a meer disposition towards Repentance until you act it it is not so much what you would be as what you are what you intend as what you practise that will give the most real testimony of your Repentance 2. A present execution it is the safest part of repentance Of the two he is in the more sure condition who resolves to leave a wicked And the safest part of Repentance life and doth indeed forsake it and resolves to lead a holy life and doth indeed enterprize it than he who resolves on both but practiseth neither The doer of good is a thousand times more sure then the resolver something in some cases may be said to stay a person from his resolutions yet if nothing comes of the resolutions I assure you the scales will hang trembling but action doth more fully determine the estate and the Scripture is more clear for the spiritual estate as it lies in practise then as it lies in purpose 3. A present execution it is the comfortablest part While repentance lies only in resolution it is but as a Tree in And the comfortablest part of Repentance the Winter perhaps well rooted but it lives dry but when repentance breaks out into action it is as a Tree in the Spring well rooted well flowered and well smelling too There is more comfort to do then to intend to do indeed to cease a sinful course and indeed to walk an holy life this opens all the comforts of of the promises draws down the favour of God assures us more of interest in Christ excuseth more in the conscience reviveth more in all occurrences 4. A present execution it is the wisest part we cannot say what we shall do to morrow when we cannot assure And the wisest part our selves what and where we shall be to morrow He is wisest for Divine Glory and for his own happiness who acts an immediate duty of salvation upon present terms There are four things which declare wisdome One to sow in season Another to sail in season A third to accept and receive the Word of Grace in season A fourth to act repentance in season even now while it is called to day 2. The means If we would execute our penâ—tential resolutions then we must 1. Take heed of the impediments of this Meanes present Execution 2. Make use of the helps and furtherances of it 1. The impediments of a present execution are many Take heed of the Impediments Imbâ—cillity of Resolution 1. Imbecility of resolution Debile fundamentum fallit opus if the foundation be weak how can the building be strong the house which was built on a Rock did stand but that which was erected on the Sands fell down Where resolutions are either weakly raised on strong grounds or suddenly raised on weak and mutable occasions there is either no execution or uncertain for no effect doth exceed the virtue of his cause Thou hast almost perswaded me to be a Christian this left King Agrippa still in Heathenisme You will never go through with the work if you attain not to a thorow resolution when you have an heart that goes and comes you will have only fits of repentance which will come and go Of two things be sure if ever you would penitentially act to purpose One that you see strong and prevalent reasons to change your course of life such as may not be over topped by any arguments that sin may suggest hereafter they are the spirits in the brain which confer to motion in the Hands and Legs Another that you resolve not on deceitful and fallible grounds If your resolutions be upon Motives either mutable or conditional you may be troubled with much temptation but you will never advance in much penitential actions 2. Servile fear When we so exalt the opinions of men and their Tongues and their Power what will they