Flesh ought with Job to make a Covenant with their Eyes that they will not look upon Objects that may minister Fuel to their Lusts Yea and with their Ears too that they will not hear any Discourses of that Tendency The Melancholick Person being naturally inclined to an excess of Fear and Sorrow ought to make a Covenant with his or her Exteriour Senses that they will not fetch in or receive any Objects that have an aptitude or fitness in them to increase Fears and Excessive Sorrow and Sadness c. 2. Take heed of Solitude and delighting too much to be alone It is usually said that every one who is alone much alone proves either a God or a Devil to himself There is nothing of more advantage to a Man or Woman if they be in health and under no disturbances of Mind and Spirit than to be alone It was wont to be said by a great Roman That he was never less alone then when he was alone A Good Christian in clear Circumstances is never more with God then when he is alone nor doth ordinarily ever enjoy more of God But the case is quite contrary if one be under the prevailings of this Distemper He is never more exposed to Temptations he is never mote baited by the Devil then when he is alone Solitude is by no means advisable in an hour of Temptation I observe Matth. 4. 1. That when Christ was to be tempted by the Devil he was by the Spirit carried into the Wilderness 3. Divert thy self by Imployment what thou canst The great Evils which hazard the Soul under this Distemper arise from the too much fixation of the thoughts upon some particular terrible Objects Hence whatsoever is proper to divert the thoughts that they pore not too much upon such terrible things which are most obvious to them is a very rational mean to be used in order if not to the rooting out of the Cause yet to the preventing the sad Effects of this Distemper Hence you shall observe in that Story of Elijah 1 Kings 19. That God would neither suffer him to be Alone nor to be out of Imployment both which he seemed to seek v. 4. He goeth a days Journey into the Wilderness and sitteth under a Juniper Tree there he beggs of God to take away his Life and lyes down and sleepeth v. 5. God sends an Angel which cometh and toucheth him and bids him Arise and Eat v. 7. He sends an Angel the second time and bids him Arise and Eat and sends him to Horeb. Still he was in his Melancholick Fit and goeth into a Cave God v. 9. comes to him a third time and saith to him What doest thou here Elijah v. 13. he lingers still and standeth in the Mouth of the Cave There cometh a Voice to him again saying What doest thou here Elijah Methinks God himself in that Chapter prescribes unto persons under these Distempers what to do and to their friends and relations what they should do as to them and for them by all means to avoid Solitude and to drive them out from their pleasing Solititudes and to imploy them and divert them God sends Elijah a Journey v. 15. to Damascus to anoint Hazael King of Syria and to anoint Jehu King of Israel Other directions of this Nature I leave to Physicians 3. Lastly Religious Means is by no means to be neglected for as the blessing of all Means by which Remedy is given us for any Diseases even those which are most obvious in their Causes Effects and Cures depend upon him whose name is The Lord that healeth us So more especially as to this the Causes of which are so various the Effects so uncertain and the Cure so difficult that I doubt whether any yet have wrote satisfactorily to more considerate persons in the Case There seems to be much hidden even from the Wisest Naturalists and to be 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 something Divine beyond what the Accutest Wits and Reasons have discovered I would therefore have such persons by no means omit Reading and Hearing the Word of God Sorrow maketh an heart to stoop saith Solomon but a good word makes it better I have heard a Story of a Good Woman under a great Temptation to destroy her self and going about to drown her self first taking her Bible and casually opening it and casting her Eye on a Text declaring the great Mercy of God to Sinners she presently saith to her self Nay if it be so I will not drown my self yet And if there were nothing as certainly there is very much by persons to be expected upon the Promise of God to persons performing their Duty in Reading and Waiting upon God in his Ordinances yet I know no Reason but the thoughts of persons may be diverted by what they Read and Hear in Sacred and Holy things as well as other things which have not such a Stamp and Impress of God upon them Prayer is the general way of Application and Address unto God in all Cases if we know no due Means Prayer obtains Wisdom and Direction from God if we use due Means Prayer obtaineth a Blessing from God upon the use of them If something must be done for us beyond the Natural Force and Vertue of Means Prayer obtaineth that from God But I shall add no more to this first Direction upon which I had not inlarged so far but that I find it so hard to perswade persons under this Temptation that it is advantaged by this Natural Distemper than which there is nothing more evident upon all Experience that both this and another Sore Temptation as to which I shall speak something in my following Discourse are all highly advantaged and promoved by it and therefore a taking heed to our selves in this Case is also very necessary to prevent them and I intend when I speak to them to add little more upon this Argument but onely refer to what I have said in this Chapter which hath made me willing once for all to discourse it more largely Now I proceed CHAP. V. A Second Direction to prevent Temptations of this Nature The Mortification of Pride The Influence which Pride hath upon the Soul in order to the raising or promoving such thoughts in us as it is the great Mother of Discontent upon Gods altering our External Circumstances Considerations to be digested in order to the keeping of our Souls in a mean opinion of our Selves 2. IN the Second place Take heed of Pride live in the Mortification of that Lust Solomon hath three Wise Sentences in his Book of Proverbs which we should have at all times ingraven in our hearts Prov. 11. 2. When Pride cometh then cometh Shame Prov. 16. 18. Pride goeth before destruction and an haughty spirit before a fall The last is Prov. 29. 23. A mans pride shall bring him low I do not think that there are three other pieces of the revealed Will of God that are more verified in daily experience than these are
hearts Or else they are such as in heart thinketh so though in words they profess otherwise Such as the Apostle speaketh of Tit. 1. 16. Who profess that they know God but do in works deny him being abominable disobedient and to every good work reprobate I shall very little concern my self as to either of these only consider what may be said as to those who have such impressions but they are their intollerable burthen and affliction Indeed they are rather to be called impressions than thoughts and let us first inquire into this bitter stream from what source and fountain it floweth CHAP. II. From whence Atheistical and Blasphemous Thoughts may proceed sometimes from Lust sometimes from the World but these are usually imbraced and nursed up in the Soul Those that are the Subject of the present Discourse ordinarily proceed from the Devil as a Tempter and a Blasphemous Spirit THE Adversaries of a Christian with whom the good fight is to be managed are usually reckoned to be The Flesh the World and the Devil their Opposition to us is by moving inticing and perswading us to sin to the ruin of our Souls Hence Divines distinguishing Temptations from their Efficient Cause or Causes say There is Tentatio a Carne a Temptation from the Flesh which agreeth with St. James Every man is tempted when he is drawn away by his own LUST and inticed but that must be understood of such Temptations by which a man is conquered 2. There is Tentatio ab hoste a Temptation from the Enemy without and this is either from the World that is the Things or Men of the World Or from the Devil Any of these may be Tempters in this Case 1. Lust may be a Tempter to Atheistical and Blasphemous Thoughts though I must confess I cannot understand how that should be a tempter to such Thoughts as these not by us chosen studied or delighted in by them Debaucht Wretches that give up themselves to Drunkenness Whoredom Lying Cursing Swearing Neglect of all Duty to God and Man are concern'd if they can to perswade themselves That there is no God that seeth them or dâ—â—approveth them or that hath a superiour power to them or will judge or condemn them for did they believe this their Consciences would never let them be quiet Now that lust that Sinful desire which is in them to keep their lusts without regrets of Conscience or any sowre Reflections after their Debaucheries may be a Tempter to them to say in their hearts yea and to imbrace a perswasion in their hearts That there is no God but this doth not properly concern our present Case 2. The World also the men of the world may be Tempters to such thoughts as these The discourses of others you know offer matter for our thoughts to run upon and as in other causes so in this there may be some who may argue Atheism and Blasphemy with us and who may endeavour to perswade us to such Sentiments Atheistical and Blasphemous Books may set our thoughts on work but these can have no great causation in such thoughts as are permanent afflictive and troublesome to us It is in the power of Christians to avoid Atheistical and Blasphemous company and to abstain from reading of such Books Though therefore men of the world may be Tempters to Atheism yet they can hardly be charged as Tempters in this Case 3. The Devil whom you know the Scriptures call the Tempter the Enemy the Envious one is doubtless the principal Efficient cause He goeth about like a roaring Lion seeking whom he may devour and he hath many Arts and Wiles and Depths and Methods which he useth to destroy Souls with amongst which this is one to make impressions of Atheism and Blasphemy upon persons by some they are imbraced as Notions that are suited to their Sensual Appetite and which will very well fit their Carnal Desires By others they are disgusted as contrary to those Impressions which the Holy Spirit of God hath made upon their Souls and their former Notions Apprehensions and Belief in God Yea so far disgusted that their Souls are frighted at the sight of these Strangers comming to their House and are amazed which way they should ever come in having to their knowledg never opened the least Window or Door to them nor any way invited them so much as for an hour or a moment their Souls loath and abhorthem and yet they revive upon them Temptations of this nature thus circumstanced can be from no other Tempter than the Devil CHAP. III. No seeming good propounded to such Souls as are thus Tempted to whom the Temptations are Afflictive Nor doth the Tempter always use Arguments not so much hoping to prevail with such souls as to trouble them to that degree as to put them upon destroying themselves To others he useth Arguments From the No Evidence of the Divine Being to our Sense The Incomprehensibleness of it and the Perfections of it by our Reason The many Disorders which the Divine Wisdom thinketh fit to permit in the World These are the usual Topicks of Tempters that tempt souls unto Atheisme EVery Man when he is tempted is drawn away by his own Lust and enticed saith St. James 1 Jam. He is enticed by some glimmerings of good and so he is drawn away but it is vain for us to enquire what seeming good enticeth a Soul who looketh upon his motions and solicitations and the things to which the Soul is so solicited as the greatest Evils in the world St. James therefore is there speaking not of Temptations in the general but of such Temptations as flow and proceed from our innate Lust There must in all Temptations of that nature be a Bait upon which the Lust in our hearts may feed and tho it be not necessary that that Bait be a real Good yet it must have some appearance of good in it for the principles of Humane Nature will not allow it to move into the Embraceâ— of any thing which it apprehendeth Evil but this is not necessary in Temptations which flow solely from the Devil the eternal ruin of the Soul is the Design of that Envious One and it is all one whether he can affright or intice the Soul into Hell whether he can destroy it by Poison or by a more certain Stabb It may be more worthy our Enquiry what Arguments the Devil can possibly use with a Soul so far prejudiced against imprâ—ssions of this nature that he can hope should prevail with it to receive any such impressions For the Soul of Man being a rational being is not like without something of Reason or a shew of it to be brought over to agree to any such impression 1. What if we should say that possibly the Tempter promiseth himself no such success what if his design be not to proselyte a Religious Soul to the Proposition which is contrived in his Suggestion but meerly to weary the Christian out of his life by
ut sic nudos aggrediatur ac vincat To draw us off from the Word that so he may set upon us disarmed and make a Conquest of us The Word of God is the Sword of the Spirit if the Devil can get us off from that he hath taken our Sword from us the Preaching of the Word I mean when it is Preached plainly and faithfully that Christians do not meerly hear 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 the Words of Men puffed up with the Idle Conceits of their own Rhethorick or Logick is Gods great Ordinance with which he concurreth and where he is present And this I have observed in Experience when any Christians under these violences have been perswaded to go out and to hear the Word they have ordinarily found those their freest Hours tho it may be the Temptation hath afterwards returned I know Christians under these Circumstances find a great strife with themselves and go out with some difficulty to hear Sermons but I never but knew a good effect of their going either for a shorter or a more lasting Relief 4. Fourthly Let Christians under these Circumstances and not then onely but at all times avoid any communion or converse with Atheistical and Blasphemous Persons or Reading or looking upon any Atheistical and Blasphemous Books Thoughts you know engender in us by Reflexion upon what we see or hear or else they are bred by the workings of our own Minds without such Aids and Assistances Oh beware of these things as the Bane and Poyson of thy Soul do what thou canst thy Mind will be revolving thy Thoughts will be roling upon what thou hast seen read or heard Avoid therefore Atheistical Persons Blasphemous Company What knowest thou how farr God will leave thee when thou hast run thy self into a Temptation 5. Fifthly If any such Thoughts arise in thy Heart give them no entertainment Chide them down turn thy mind to some other Objects do not give them place for an hour no if it be possible not for a moment these Cockatrices are best crush'd in the Egg. Allow no parly with no study or deliberation upon or with a Thought derogatory to the Majesty on high to the Honour and Glory of the great God 6. Sixthly If thou beest already under the pressure of these Thoughts give thy self all lawful Diversion thou canst There is a Religious Diversion by Reading Hearing Prayer which besides the Diversion that is in them are thy Duties Ordinances of God but there are also Civil Diversions of Worldly Business Moderate Recreations Some of the former I have already advised and shall by and by speak something to the other But allow thy self also these other Diversions better it is for thee to be doing any thing that is lawful than sitting still and doing nothing but afflicting and tormenting thy self and yielding up thy self entirely to the Conduct and Governance and Suggestions of thy grand Adversary 7. Seventhly Be much in the company of Faithful Ministers and Good Christians such especially as are knowing and experienced as the Lips of Wicked Men talk of Mischief Pro. 24. 2. and as the Preacher saith Swallow up themselves and others also so the Lips of Knowledge are a precious Jewel Pro. 20. 15. they disperse Knowledge Prov. 15. 7. They feed many Prov. 10. 21. Yea and they Heal many It is a Saying of Luther in the aforementioned place Ingens est pondus in verbo fratris quod tempore periculi ex Scripturâ pronuntiatur There is a great Weight even in a private Christians Words pronounced from Scripture The healing is in the Divine Word let it come to thee through what Vehicle it will sometimes it pleaseth God that it should come out of the Word as running through the Ministers Lips He is Gods Ordinance Sometimes as running out of the private Christians Lips Private Christians are also a more private Ordinance of God for the Admonition of those that are running into danger the restoring of such as are fallen the comforting of those that are sad and the strengthening of those that are weak 8. Lastly Let all such as are under this Temptation be much in Fasting and Prayer Prayer is an Universal Remedy for all Evils Our Saviour hath told us there is a kind of Divils that goeth not out but by Fasting and Prayer and because for the most part Christians under these Circumstances are not so fit for Solemn Prayers as others are let them here call in the help of Ministers and good Christians whom they may reasonably think have an Interest in and a Power with God and shall prevail who can take hold of the Lords Strength and ask him with Success concerning the Works of his Hands and will not let the Lord go until he blesseth them The hand of Joab the hand of the Devil is in this thing and the strong man keepeth the house until a stronger than he cometh and the Devil hath no Superiour but the Almighty In this Case therefore all Friends of such Persons are highly concerned to get Prayers for them Solemn Prayers for the Affliction is exceeding heavy none more inaccountable none more intollerable My self have known it as to two issues in the destroying of themselves not able to stand under the burthen of it tho as to several I have known it have a better Issue I onely tell you this to mind you to be more careful more concerned and to neglect no Natural Moral or Spiritual Means I must Confess the Regular Method of Curing Spiritual as well as Natural Distempers is by removing the Cause but as in some Natural Distempers it is not easie to find out the true Cause which makes the Cure difficult so neither is it easie to find out the true cause here Melancholy is one Cause of several Distempers of the Soul disposing a person to more Thoughtfulness and Seriousness to more Fears and Jealousies c. and Direful and Black Thoughts concerning our selves whence it is not hard to conceive how Persons in whom that prevaileth to a great Excess if before they have ever minded their Souls and their Eternal Interest should by it be disposed to Excessive Fears and Desperate Thoughts as to their Eternal State but it is hard to understand how the prevalence of that or any other peccant Bodily Humour should dispose Persons to Atheistical or Blasphemous Thoughts of or against God further then that it may run Persons into a Deliration so as beeing broke loose from the Conduct and Government of Reason they shall think and talk any thing Nor were it difficult to give some account of this Temptation if we could find that such alone fell under it as formerly were Persons of Atheistical Principles or Lives God as to such might be reasonably thought to give them up to a Reprobate Mind and Understanding but we upon Experience find that they are very often the grievences of Pious and Devout Souls who have lived a life in a daily Dread and Holy Reverence of
Self-Murther However the Text saith No Murtherer hath Eternal Life We have heard the Subject let me open the Praedicate and shew in what Sense the Proposition is true That no Murtherer hath Eternal Life 2. Eternal Life is to be considered either In the First Fruits of it or the fuller Harvest 1. In the First Fruits and so it must be considered here or else we must admit an Enallage of the Present Tense for the Future 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 for 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 and not onely so but also limit the Sense of it to the Future for which I see no reason at all For take Eternal Life as it signifieth the happy State of Souls after the Resurrection in the Beatifical Vision of God so no one alive hath Eternal Life Eternal Life therefore in the first place signifieth That special Effectual Grace of God which will certainly bring the Soul to Eternal Life That which he before called the Seed of God abiding in the Soul And that will bring in a Question to which I may possibly speak something by and by Whether an Elect Soul that is called and sanctified may not fall into this Sin 2. But 2dly Eternal Life is also considerable in the full Harvest as it signifieth the Blessed Estate of the Soul in the Beatifical Vision of God and so it is true no Murtherer none that dieth under the Actual Guilt of Murther not repented of not removed from him shall see God and to this purpose is that Rev. 21. 8. where Murtherers are reckoned amongst those who shall have their part in the Lake that burneth with Fire and Brimstone which is the Second Death and that brings in a Second Question Whether a Murtherer cannot be saved But before I can speak any thing to these it is reasonable I should speak something to a more Origiinal Question with reference to this Sin Case Whether it be not lawful for a Person in any Case to Kill him or her self It is plain from the reading of Prophaner History that diverse of the Heathens yea some of their Philosophers did not think it unlawful for Men and Women to kill themselves but thought it in some Cases their Duty In Case of their Countrey or Friends under great Disturbances of Mind or Pressures of Bodily Afflictions c. but even amongst them there were a wiser and so understanding part who from their Light of Reason saw better things for even they would sometimes dispute That it was no Indication of Valour or Fortitude but of a base and impotent and cowardly Mind that durst not encounte with a little pain or trouble and that we were set in this World by our great Commander the Lord of all as Souldiers in a Rank and File which we must not break out of but by order and direction from him and that it was an injury to the Kingdom or Common-wealth wherein we lived and such like But we have surer Rule to guid us by to wit the holy Scriptures And the Unlawfulness of it upon any pretence whatsoever is determined by all Divines both Ancient and Modern that are of any value and that for these Reasons 1. Because the Law of God is express Thou shalt do no Murther and that Precept is not to be limited to the Murthering of others for the Law of God doth not say Thou shalt not kill thy Neighhour but Thou shalt not kill it must indeed be restrained to Men and Women for God hath given us a Liberty as to Beasts to Kill and Eat nor is the Law concerning Brute and Irrational Creatures but such as are Rational and that without distinction Now he that killeth himself doth kill Again the Law in the General Scope of it commandeth Charity now we ought in the first place to be Charitable to our selves Murther say Casuists is the Killing of a Man without Authority Now this he doth who killeth himself for none is superior to himself none hath Authority over himself 2. Again saith Jiliucius one of the Popish Casuists who yet though many of them give strange liberty to Men to kill others yet few or none give Men liberty to kill themselves To kill a Person can be lawful but in two Causes 1. For our own Defence so a Person may kill one assaulting him breaking into his House c. Or 2. For Execution of Righteous Sentence of Justice But none can kill himself in his own Defence nor be a Magistrate to himself to Judge Sentence or Condemn himself so that say they it can be lawful in no Case for Men to put an end to their own Lives 3. Again They argue truly from a particular Enumeration of the supposed Justificant Causes that should justifie such a Fact shewing the Invalidity of them We read of one of the Heathens who having got a dark Notion of an Eternal State would put an end to his Life that he might the sooner be in possession of it But this is not the way to Eternal Life St. John saith No Murtherer hath Eternal Life Eternal Life is the gift of God and he gives it according to his Revealed Will and his Revealed Will is Rev. 21. 8. That Murtherers should have their Portion in the Lake which burneth with Fire and Brimstone and this is the Second Death A Second Cause which the Heathen assigned as justificant of Self-Murther was To avoid the Violence of others suppose Persecutors or Mutherers But this cannot justifie For what harm can the injuries or violence of others do us Saith Augustine A Third Cause some assign or pretend is To avoid Sin for the time to come To prevent their further dishonouring of God But this were to do evil that good might come of it and to prejudge our selves and deny Gods Mercy to Back-sliders A Fourth Cause assigned is To take revenge upon our selves for past Sins But who made us Judges and Revengers in the Case And surely past Sins are better washed by the Blood of Christ and the Water of true Repentance The last and indeed most general and true Cause is To avoid Shame and Ignominy to deliver our selves from horrors and terrors of Conscience or other miseries But the very Heathen condemned this as the Indication of an Impotent Cowardly Spirit of an hasty and impatient Spirit Where is the Faith and Patience of Christians if this were lawful But I shall have occasion in the sequel of this Discourse further to shew the exceeding vanity of these Pretences for the justification of so horrid a Fact 4. Again It is a Sin against the Light and Law of Nature No man yet ever hated his own Flesh Nature it self not debaucht nor disordered saith to every one Spare thy Self There cannot be a greater Violence offered to our Nature surely than to destroy it To shut up this Discourse there being few that stand in need of this Conviction who are in an ordinary way capable of it Dr. Ames a Learned Casuist of our own concludes it a Sin
may be forgiven This Pareus thinks the most proper Reading That which favoureth our Translation is what followeth in the next Words Behold thou hast driven me this day from the Face of the Earth c. where he complaineth onely of his Punishment Either Reading is what the Original will bear either of them makes the words the Complaint of Cain after he had kill'd his Brother Abel and God had come down and doomed him for it telling him He was Cursed from the Earth which had epened her Mouth to receive his Brothers Blood When he tilled the ground it should not yield unto him her strength A Fugitive and a Vagabond shalt thou be in the Earth To which Cain replyeth either thus My Punishment is greater then I can bear Or Mine Iniquity is greater then that it can be forgiven Whether he complaineth of his Sin or of his Punishment That 's the onely Question nor needs it any Decision Both Readings express the Genius of a Reprobate who either complaineth of his Punishment but not of his Sin or if at any time he complains of Sin it is despairing and without hope of Mercy Onely I cannot agree with Chrysostome and others who Interpret these Words into a full Confession of Sin onely they say it was too late but true Repentance is never too late I shall in my Discourse consider the Words as you have them in the Margents of your Bibles designing onely to make use of them to discourse as to the great Temptation to Despair In my Discourse upon which I shall first Consider 1. The Nature of the Temptation in it self 2. The Tempters inforcing it 3. The means ordinarily made use of in the inforcing of it 4. The most probable means to be used for getting a victory over it As to the first I have already told you That every Evil Temptation is a Motion or Solicitation of the Soul to Sin which when it is more Importune and Impetuous we usually call a Temptation but let us more particularly inquire into the Nature of this Sin of Desperation Despair in the general Notion of it signifieth a casting away of all hope as to the obtaining of some good which we desire and so the Object of it may be any good thing of which we are not possest but may be the Object of our Desires or Hope Thus we may Despair of Life as St. Paul did 2. Cor. 1. 8. of Health of Success in Business c. but in the Notion I am now speaking to it must he limited to the greatest Spiritual Good such as Pardon of Sin Living with God in Glory another day c. And here again we must distinguish betwixt Fear and Despair for although there be no Despair without high degrees of Fear yet there may be Fears great degrees of Fear which may produce some Phrases of Despair or Fits or Passions of it where yet there is no fixed Despair Despair in the Notion of it to which I am now speaking Is a Souls total fixed permanent Want and Rejection of all Hope as to the Pardon of Sins in this Life or any happy Estate in the Life to come When as the Apostle speaks there remaineth nothing in the Soul but a certain dreadful locking for of Judgment and fiery Indignation to devour them as the Adversaries of God Heb. 10. 27. It is an Hell began in the Soul in this Life It is often attended with Dâ—sperate Impressions Blasphemy against God always with intollerable Horrour and Terrour of Conscience But we are not at present so much Considering it in the Effects and Issue of it as in the Nature and first Rise and Beginning of it The next thing we have to consider is the Efficient Causes in this great Temptation I have shewed you that every Temptation to Sin is from our own Lust the Devil or the World The Men of the World have rarely any considerable Efficiciency in this Temptation it is not often we hear them telling us That we have sinned beyond hope of Mercy They rather err on the other hand The two ordinary Efficient Causes in this Temptation are our own Lust and our grand Adversary the Devil 1. Our own Lust Our depraved hearts are enough under some circumstances which we may be under to suggest to us very unworthy thoughts of God and highly derogatory to his Honour and Glory For though in a quiet calm state our Lust suggests ordinarily other things to us yet all the Lust that is in our Hearts doth not discover it self at the same hour We shall find Lusts stirring in us in an hour of Prosperity of which we shall hear nothing in an hour of great Tribulation and Adversity And so on the other side we shall find those Lusts stirring in us in a time of great Affliction and Adversity which we diseerned little of in the halcyon days of our Prosperity When Men come to be under great pressures of Afflictions then those who in Health could think of nothing but their Sensual Satisfactions or Worldly Business begin to be at leisure to think of Dying and of the Eternal State of Souls and tho ordinarily our Lust enclineth us rather to presume and groundlesly to prophecy Good rather than Evil to our selves yet I do not know but under some circumstances our Hearts that of themselves are no better disposed to give God the Glory of his Mercy then of his Justice may though the Devil stand by suggest to us black and hard thoughts of God which may produce Desperation 2. But where the Impressions are fixed strong and abiding and the Soul though out-reasoned refuseth to be comforted or to entertain any better thoughts of God but rather is more stubborn and pertinacious and blasphemeth God I should suspect a great praedominance of a Praeternatural Cause and the Soul under the Violence of Satan for we are naturally inclined to hope well for our selves and to lay hold of every good word that looketh that way 3. Possibly The Devil may also in this Temptation joyn with our own Lusts and the Temptation may be mixt from one or both these Causes are these Temptations and this sinful Habit is begun and perfected in our Souls CHAP. II. What seeming Good is the bait in this Temptation To speak the truth of it self Possibly the serving our Malice upon God An Examination Whether the Doctrines of Election of Persons particularly Redemption and Special Grace conduce to Despair The contrary evinced THe greatest difficulty is to resolve with what Bait it is possible such an Hook as this is should be baited for whereas the Apostle telleth us as I have formerly opened to you That every one is tempted when he is drawn away by his own Lust and inticed it might justly pose an ordinary Reason to imagine what seeming Good should entice a Soul to cast away all hopes of Happiness from the Mercy of God all hopes of Eternal Life and Salvation To conclude it shall go to Hell and there
I before said gives us Comfort as to Children dying in their Infancy others maintain The Regeneration of Elect Infants by Baptism I shall freely tell you what I judge is all in this Cause The most of those Baptized in the time of the Apostles were Persons grown up who had first made a visible Profession of their Repentance and Faith in Christ to these Baptism was a Seal of the Forgiveness of Sins and an Engagement to an Holy Conversation as you read Rom. 6. 4 c. To Infants it is a Seal of the Covenant of Grace as exhibited to Mankind That in case they do Repent and Believe their Sins shall be washed away with the Blood of Christ To these it is an Ordinance of Admission into the Church To these it is an Engagement to be the Lords an Avouchment of God for their God and Christ for their Saviour To these if when they grow up they shall Repent and Believe it shall be as a Fountain of Living Water springing up in the Soul to Eternal Life they shall as the Apostle instructeth the Romans Rom. 6. 4 5 6. fetch Arguments obliging them to die unto Sin and to live unto God Whether it hath any such immediate Effect as to all to justifie them from the guilt of Original Sin or to Regenerate them that is to make a change in their Heart I shall not dispute but cannot prove it nor do understand how possibly it should have any further effect of this Nature than Circumcision had to the Jews I am sure the Holy Scripture makes Pardon of Sin and Justification not the necessary or ordinary Effect of Baptism but of Confession of Sin True Repentance and forsaking of Sin and True Believing in the Lord Jesus Christ Flatter not your selves therefore if there be any Soul that liveth in any known course of Sin that never confessed his Sins and forsook them nor knew what godly Sorrow for Sin meant nor what it was to receive the Lord Jesus Christ and to believe in him onely knoweth he was Baptized and he liveth in the Church and is called a Christian and here he resteth not doubting but being confident that he shall be saved Let me tell him or her he presumeth and trusts his Soul upon a Lie and that which no weighed Divine of any Perswasion would ever say was a sufficient bottom to rest his Soul upon None ever said that Baptism washed away Sins past and to come and those that do ascribe Justification to Baptism make it such a state as may be lost and is lost by a course of Actual Sinning CHAP. V. The Notion of a Power in Man to Repent and Believe agreed by few if true no ground of hopes for Eternal Life Why Mistakes about the Nature of Regeneration Conversion Saving Repentance Faith Holiness great Occasions of Presumption The Truth as to those Notions enquired and proved What Regeneration Repentance Conversion Faith Holiness is necessary to Salvation and to the raising any Hopes in us with Relation to it 4. A Fourth Notion which I instanced in as a cause of Presumption was this That every Man and Woman hath his Life in his hands I mean a power in and of himself supposing the Common Grace of God denied to none to do all that God requireth of him in order to Salvation is a power to Repent to Believe to Love God c. Hence many think that there is no haste for Men to deny themselves or to take up the Cross or to follow Christ they may stay till they are old and their Eyes can be no longer pleased with Seeing nor their Ears with Hearing if then they do but Repent and Believe all is well enough As to which give me leave to speak two or three things 1. As brisk as this Opinion seemeth to be in the World I could never yet meet with any so hardy as to affirm That these things were within the Power of Man without the Assistance of Special Grace I have met with many that have talked high for the Power of Mans Will but when they have been brought to a close Discourse they would assert it no farther than either as to Moral Actions or Acts of Moral Discipline They would affirm indeed that a Man hath a power to go to Church instead of going to the Tavern to turn away his Foot from the House of an Harlot to do Justly and an hundred such things to read to hear the Word to pray to consider his Sins Now these are things which none denieth onely we say his power as to these is much weakened by the fall So as we doubt whether by Common Grace and all the Natural Power Man hath he can do these materially good Actions when he is pressed with a vehement Temptation But I say I could never yet meet with any that would say It is in the power of Man to Believe to Repent savingly to Love God c. 2. If any doth say so He saith what is contradicted by a multitude of Scriptures But it is not my work to enlarge here on that Discourse 3. In the next place Those Divines that do hold the greatest Natural Power in the Will of Man yet do say Time may be past that a Man may have sinned away this Natural Power and have his Heart so hardened in a Course of Sinning that he may have lost this Power and so be concluded to an Eternal Misery which alone to considerate Souls is enough to spoil its Presumption from this Head For how shall I who go on in a Course of Sin knowingly presume because I have a power in my self to turn when I will if it be possible that I may by a Course of Sinning have so provoked God as he may have given me up to a judicial blindness of Mind and hardness of Heart 4. Admitting thou hast such a Power if it still remaineth established that this Power must be produced into Act and that before thou canst enter into Heaven thou must actually Repent and Believe how dost thou know thou shalt have time for it May not God take away thy Soul with a stroke May he not come upon thee on the sudden and say This Night thy Soul shall be taken from thee and then what doth thy Power signifie Doest thou not see Men and Women die suddenly So that a pretence of such a Power in thee signifies nothing but that thou art more inexcusable by it if indeed thou hadst such a Power that thou didst not use it for the end for which thou hadst it 5. I proceed now to the great grounds of Mens Presumption viz. Mistakes as to the Nature of Regeneration Faith and Holiness The Scripture makes all these so necessary to Salvation that altho some ignorant Persons may build up to themselves idle and presumptuous Hopes because God made them and Christ died for all Men and they are Christians and Baptized c. yet considerate Persons plainly must see That unless a Man be
upon which account they all have their Confessors depends upon this Doctrine of the Priests Absolution all the pretended necessity of it is in order to the receiving that benefit Then they further say That God doth onely Pardon the Eternal guilt of Sin and Christ hath onely satisfied for that So that for the removal of Temporary Punishments there must be also Satisfaction Hence their Priests have power to appoint People Pilgrimages Building of Churches Paying sums of Money for Satisfaction This Penance being undergone they do declare that any Priest being appointed thereto by the Church may in ordinary Causes not onely Declaratively but Judicially Pardon and Absolve the Sinner but if an higher Priest a Bishop or the Pope hath reserved some Cases in which he or they alone will have power to Absolve and to appoint to Penances and Satisfactions in those they onely can do it the more private Priests cannot This is their Doctrine Protestants now say that God alone can forgive Sins but by his Ministers in the Preaching of the Gospel he doth declare a Mans Sins are forgiven who have a true Contrition who truly repent and believe in the Lord Jesus Christ fully forgive them so that he expecteth no further Satisfaction for the Sinner than that which was long since given by the Blood of Christ who hath Trod the Wine-press of his Fathers Wrath alone and finished all that Work They say indeed that Confession of Sins in most causes is sufficient to God alone It is he alone that can forgive them In some Causes indeed a more open Confession is necessary 1. When the Church hath been publikely Scandilized not that this is necessary in order to Gods Pardon but as an Act of Obedience to Gods Will and for a more Comfortable Brotherly Communion and the Churches Satisfaction that the Person ought not to be longer kept out of its Communion 2. They say further That in the case of great Horrors of Conscience and Terrors upon Peoples Spirits it may be of great advantage to particular Christians under such Terrors to confess some particular Sins unto their Judicious Brethren or unto their Faithful Ministers but not in order to their Pardon of them but in order to their Prayer to God for them and offering words in season unto them that are weary and being more knowing and mighty in the Scriptures than they are from the Scriptures declaring the Will of God in their case comforting them if their case will bear comfort from the Word of God or otherwise advising them what to do according to the Will of God that they may receive true and solid comfort and Peace They do also further say that Satisfaction where any hath wronged another is necessary if in our Power as in Cases of Theft c. but for any necessity of any other Confession or Satissaction in order to Gods Forgiveness of the Sin they do not understand it nor believe it And for Judicial Absolution they say it is Gods alone Act and that all that the Minister can do is to declare the Will of God to People in case they do truly Repent and Believe that God hath doth and will forgive them freely for Christs sake In the mean time they do not deny but God may concurr with the Minister as his Ordinance giving a sense of the Remission of Sins which Remission was before given them upon their Repentance and believing in Truth to them while the Minister faithfully declareth the Will of God for the pardoning such as truly Repent and Believe but if any person be Absolved by a Minister hath cheated him and pretended Repentance and true Faith having no such thing his heart Or if any Minister hath either through Ignorance or Passion declared a Persons Sins forgiven whose Sins while he is in those Circumstances God hath said he will not forgive he may have cheated his own Soul or the Minister may have cheated him but God is not mockt his sins remain notwithstanding his pretended Absolution God dispenseth out the Grace of forgiveness not according to the Ignorance and Passions of Men but according to the Rules of Holy Scripture which is the Revelation of his Divine Will 2. Trust not therefore to any such vain Imaginations no nor to the Receiving of the Sacrament either in thy life time or at thy death That the Lords Supper is an Ordinance of God by which God doth signify and seal the Remission of Sins and Eternal Life by the commemoration of Christs death to such as truly repent and believe is out of question but that God in that Ordinance doth give Remission of Sins or hath appointed it so signifie seal or convey the pardon of Sin to any unbelieving Impenitent Soul is a very great Errour Such Persons may Eat and Drink there but it can be nothing but Judgment and Condemnation This hath made me frequently admire at some persons fondness of that Holy Ordinance when they apprehend themselves in danger of Death who never made Conscience of it in the time of their Health and Life especially considering that it cannot be administred in a right order viz. In the Communion of the Church where many who are joyned in one body eat of that one bread Upon which all Protestant Churches reject private Administrations of that Institution and upon just grounds Christ first gave it to the 12 at least to 11 of them we never read the Apostles Examples or Directions to or of any such Administrations upon this Account unless some particular Persons that have had long and lingring Sicknesses and of that nature as have not influenced their head nor so indisposed them but their minds could attend to the Action some of which I have known desiring a competent number of the Church with them privately to partake in the Ordinance from the publick Participation of which they have been long hindred I do not know that I ever knew any judicious Christian so much as desire such an Administration but many others I have which makes me think some more Ignorant People rest upon it and trust to it We know the Popish Notion of it and what a stir they make with the Host carrying it about in great state to dying Persons And I fear a tang of their Doctrine yet sticks in the minds of many who are professed Protestants We know what a trade the Papist make of their Doctrines of Auricular Confession Satisfactions and Private Masses Celebrated for the living and the dead and were it not for the gain came into their Purses by them they could not be so fond of such absurd Opinions and Practices But Christians take heed of these Notions which tend to nothing but to nourish Presumptions in your Souls and that you may take heed of them let me mind you of 2 Passages of our Saviours Mark 4. 24. Take heed what you hear and Luk. 8. 18. Take heed how you hear Take heed how you hear hear as those noble Bereans Acts 17.