Christ and yet opened not her heart to lament her sinne and misery in her estate without Christ suppose she were without Christ is more then can be proved from the Text for t is said Her heart was opened to attend unto the things that were spoken by Paul and can any think that Paul or any Apostle ever preached Christ without preaching the need men had of him and could any preach their need of Christ without preaching mens undone and sinfull estate without Christ and doe you think that Lydiae was not made to attend unto this doe you think that when Philip came to open the 53. of Esay to the Eunuch that Christ was bruised for our iniquities that he did not let him understand the infinite evill of sinne and misery of all sinners and of him in speciall unlesse the Lord Jesus was bruised for him In examples recorded in the Scripture of Gods converting grace doe not think they had no sorrow for sinne because it is not distinctly and expresly set downe in all places for the Scripture usually sets downe matters very briefly it oftentimes supposeth many things and refers us to judge of some by other places as Acts 6.7 it is said Many of the Priests were obedient to the faith doth it therefore follow that they did immediately beleeve without any sense of sinne Look to a fuller example Acts 2. and then we may see as the one were converted to the faith so were the other having a hand in the same sin 1 Tim. 1.13 14. Paul he was a persecuter but the Lord received him to mercy and that Gods grace was abundant in faith and love doth it hence follow that Paul had no castings down because not mentioned here If we look upon Acts 9. we shall see it otherwise Doe not judge of generall and common workings of the Spirit upon the souls of any to be the beginnings of effectuall and special conversion for a man may have some inward and yet common knowledge of the Gospel and of Christ in it before there be any sorrow for sinne yet it doth not hence follow that the Lord begins not with compunction and sorrow because common work is not speciall and effectuall work when the Spirit thus comes he first begins here as we shall prove The terrours and feares and sense of sinne and death be in themselves afflictions of soule and of themselves drive from Christ yet in the hand of Christ by the power of the Spirit they are made to lead or rather drive unto Christ which is able to turn mourning into joy as well as after mourning to give joy and therefore t is a vaine thing to think there is no need of such sorrows which drive from Christ and that Christ can work well enough therefore without them when as by the mighty power and riches of mercy in Christ the Lord by wounding nay killing his of all their carnall security and self-confidence saves all his alive and drives them to seek for life in his Son These things thus premised let us now hear of the necessity of this work to succeed conviction Else a sinner will never part with his sin a bare conviction of sin doth but light the candle to see sin compunction burnes his fingers and that onely makes him dread the fire Cleanse your hearts ye sinners and purifie your hearts ye double minded men saith the Apostle Iames Chap. 4.8 But how should this be done He answers verse 9. Be afflicted and mourne and weep turn your laughter into mourning So Ioel 2.12 the Prophet calls upon his hearers to turne from their sin unto the Lord but how Rend your hearts and not your garments Not that they were able to do this but by what sorrow he requires of all in generall he thereby effectually works in the hearts of all the elect in particular for every man naturally takes pleasure nay all his delight and pleasure is in nothing else but sinne for God he hath none but that Now so long as he takes pleasure in sinne and finds contentment by sinne he cannot but cleave inseparably to it Oh t is sweet and it onely is sweet for so long the soule is dead in sinne Pleasure in sinne is death in sinne 1 Tim. 5.6 So long as t is dead in sinne it is impossible it should part with sinne no more then a dead man can break the bonds of death And therefore it undenyably followes that the Lord must first put gall and wormwood to these dugs before the soule will cease sucking or be weaned from them the Lord must first make sinne bitter before it will part with it load it with sinne before it will sit downe and desire ease And look as the pleasure in sinne is exceeding sweet to a sinner so the sorrow for it must be exceeding bitter before the soule will part from it T is true I confesse a man sometime may part with sin without sorrow the uncleane spirit may goe out for a time before he is taken bound and slain by the power of Christ. But such a kind of parting is but the washing of the cup t is unsafe and unsound and the end of such a Christian wil be miserable for a man to heare of his sinne and then to say I le doe no more so without any sense or sorrow for it would not have been approved by Paul if he had seen no more in the carelesse Corinthians in tolerating the incestuous person but their sorrow wrought this repentance No the Lord abhors such whorish wiping the lips and therefore the same Apostle when he reproves them for not separating the sinner and so the sin from them he summes it up in one word You have not mourned that such a one might be taken from you because then sin is severed truly from the soule when sorrow or shame some sense and feeling of the evill of it begins it Not onely sinne is opposite to God but when the Lord Jesus first comes neare his elect in their sinfull estate they are then enemies themselves by sin unto God And hence it is they will never part with their weapons untill themselves be throughly wounded and therefore the Lord must wound their consciences minds and hearts before they will cast them by Now if there be no parting with no separation from sin but sin is as strong and the sinners as vile as ever before hath Christ who now comes to save his elect from sinne the end of his work what is the man the better for conviction affection to Christ name what you can that remains still in his sins When the Apostle would summe up all the misery of men he doth it in those words Ye are yet in your sinne So I say thou art convicted but art yet in thy sinne art affected with Christ and takest hold of Christ but art yet in thy sin He that confesseth and forsaketh his sin shall find mercy You
the bottome as may fit the soule for healing For 1. If the Spirit make a man feele sin truly the soule feeles it as it is it is not the name and talk of the danger of sin that troubles it but the Spirit ever making things reall loads the soule with it indeed and as it is now it is the greatest evill and therefore so it feeles sin Beleeve it you never felt sin indeed as it is if you have not felt it thus 2. Else no man will prize Christ as the greatest good without which no man shall have him 3. Else a man will live and continue in sinne If sinne had been a greater evill to Pilate then the losse of Caesars friendship hee would never have crucified Christ. If sinne had been a greater evill to Iehu then the losse of his Kingdome he had never kept up the two calves If sinne were a greater evill then poverty shame griefe in this world many a Professor would never lose Christ and a good conscience too for a little gaine profit or honour Beloved the great curse and wrath of the Lord upon all men in the world almost is this that the greatest evils should be least of all felt and the smallest evils most of all complained of What is death that onely separates thy soule from thy body to sin that separates God blessed for ever from thy soule and therefore the Lord Jesus will remove this curse from those he saves But you will say What is that evill the soule sees at this time in sinne that thus affects the heart with it as the greatest evill This is the last difficulty here There is a three-fold evill especially seen in sinne 1. The evill of torment and anguish 2. The evill of wrong and injury to God 3. The evill of separation of the soule from God The first may affect Reprobates as Saul and Iudas who were sore distressed when they felt the anguish of conscience by sin The second is onely in those that are actually justified called and sanctified who lament sinne as it is against God and a God reconciled to them and as it is against the life of God begun in them and hence they cry out of it as a body of death The third the elect feele at this first stroke and wound which the Spirit gives them the anguish of sinne indeed lyes sore upon them but this much more Christ is come to seek that which is lost The sheep is lost when First it is separated and gone from the owner Secondly when it knowes not how to returne againe unlesse the Shepherd find it and carry it home so that soule is properly and truly lost that feeles it selfe separated and gone from God knowing not how to returne to him again unlesse the Lord come and take it upon his shoulders and carry it in his armes this lyes heavy upon it viz. that it is gone from God and wholly separated from all union to him and communion with him You may observe Iohn 16.9 that the Spirit convinces of sinne how because they beleeve not in me i. Because they shall see and feele themselves quite separated from me they shall heare of my glory and riches of mercy and that happinesse which all that have me shall and doe enjoy but they shal mourne that they have no part nor portion in these things they shall mourne that they live without me and that they have lived so long without me I confesse many other considerations of the evill of sin come now in but this is the maine channell where all the other rivelets empty themselves And hence it is that the soule under this stroke is in a state of seeking onely yet finds nothing it seeks God and Christ and therefore feeles a want a losse of both by sinne for the end of all the feares terrours sorrowes c. upon the elect is to bring them back againe to God and into fellowship with God the onely blessednesse of man Now if the soule ordained and made for this end should not feele its present separation from God by sinne and the bitternes of the evil of it it would never seek to return again to him as to his greatest good nor desire ever to come into his bosome againe for look as sinne wounds the soule so the soule seeks for healing of it if onely the torment of sinne wound ease of conscience from that anguish will heale it So if separation from God wound the heart onely union and communion with God will heale it and comfort it againe The Lord Christ therefore having laid his hand upon the soule to bring it back to himselfe first and so to the Father being designed to gather in all the out-casts of Israel those he ever makes to feele themselves out-casts as cast away out of Gods blessed sight and presence that so they may desire at last to come home againe Reprobates not made for this end have not this sense of sin the means of their return And hence it is that the soules of those God saves are never quiet untill they come to God and communion with him but they mourn for their distance from him and the hiding of his face untill the Lord shine forth againe Whereas every one else though much troubled yet sit down contented with any little odde thing that serves to quiet them for the time before the Lord return to them or they enter into their rest in that ineffable communion with him Let me now make Application of this before I proceed to open the next particular of Humiliation This may shew us the great mistake of two sorts 1. Such as think there is no necessity of any sense of misery before the application of the remedy or their closing with Christ because say they where there is sense there is life all sense and feeling arising from life and where there is life there is Christ already And hence it is that they would not have the Law first preached in these dayes but the Gospell the other is to goe round about the bush I answer that for my owne part this doctrine of seeing and feeling our misery before the remedy is so universally received by all solid Divines both at home and abroad that I meet with and the contrary opinion so crosse to the holy Scriptures and generall experience of the Saints and the preaching of the other so abundantly sealed to be Gods owne way by his rich blessings on the labours of his servants faithfull to him herein that were it not for the sake of some weak and mis-led I should not dare to question it the Lord himselfe so expresly speaking that he came not to call the righteous but on the contrary onely to heale the sick who know and feele their sicknesse chiefly by the Law Rom. 3.20 Dost thou think therefore that there is spirituall life where ever there is any sense Then I say the devils and damned in
eternall righteousnesse that never can be lost if the Lord should make thee as perfectly righteous as once Adam was or Angells in heaven are and put on thy royall apparell againe thou wast in danger of losing this and of being stript naked againe but now the Lord hath put your righteousnesse into a safer hand which never shall be lost Heb. 9.12 Dan. 9.24 By this you please God and are more amiable before him then if you had it in your selfe doe not say this is a poore righteousnesse which is thus out of my selfe in another why doe you think righteousnesse in your selfe would be best is it not because hereby you think you shall please God Suppose thou hadst it yet thy righteousnesse should be at the best but mans righteousnes but this is called the righteousnesse of God which cannot but be more pleasing to him then that in thy selfe 2 Cor. 5.20 what is Angelicall righteousnesse to the righteous-of God t is but a glow-worm before the Sunne the smell of Esaus garments the robes of this righteousnesse of the Sonne of God are of sweeter odour then thine can be or ever shall be Eph. 5.1 2. tis said By faith Abel Enoch c. pleased God their persons were sinfull their owne duties were weak yet by faith in this they pleased God thou thinkest when thou goest to Prayer if I had no sinne but perfect holinesse in me surely God would heare me I tell you when you bring this offering of Christs righteousnesse the Lord had rather have that then all you can doe you bring that which pleaseth him more then if you brought your owne For aske thy owne conscience if it be possible for the righteousnesse which is done by thy self to be more pleasing to God then the righteousnesse of the Sonne of God the Lord of Glory himselfe done and perfected for thee 7. By this you glorifie God exceedingly as Abraham beleeved Rom. 4. and gave glory unto God In the Lord shall all the seed of Israel be justified and shall glory Esay 45.25 For 1. By this you glorifie him perfectly in an instant for you continue to doe all that the Law requires that instant you beleeve The Apostle propounds the Question Rom. 3.21 whether a Christian by faith doth make void the Law No saith the Apostle but we establish the Law How is that Paraeus shews three wayes One is this because that perfect righteousnesse which the Law requires of us we performe it in Christ by faith So that in one instant thou continuest to doe all that the Law requires and hence ariseth the impossibility of a true Beleevers apostacie as from one principall cause They that deny satisfaction by Christs doing of the Law because by our own works and doings we cannot be justified before God may as well deny satisfaction by Christs sufferings because by our owne sufferings we cannot be justified our obedience to the Law in way of suffering is as truly the works of the Law as our obedience in way of doing 2. By this you glorifie Gods justice what ever Justice requires to be done or suffered you give it unto God by faith in Christ. 3. By this you glorifie grace and mercy Ephes. 1.7 for by this meanes mercy may over-abound toward you and you may triumph in it as sure and certaine to you What a blessed mysterie is this Doth it not grieve you that you cannot glorifie God in your times and places Behold the way if thou canst not doe it by obedience thou maist by faith and thereby make restitution of all Gods glory lost and stolne from him by thy disobedience to him By this you have peace in your consciences by this Christs blood is sprinkled upon them and that cooles the burning torments of them Rom. 5.1 The commers unto the Leviticall sacrifices and washings types of this offering of Christ could not thereby be perfected and bee without the guilty conscience of sinne none of your duties can pacifie conscience but as they carry you hither to this righteousnesse but the commers to this have no more terrours of conscience for sinne I meane they have no just cause to have any this Rain-bow appearing over your heads is a certaine signe of fair weather and that there shall be no more deluge of wrath to overwhelme thee By this all miseries are removed when thy sinnes are pardoned there is something like death and shame and sicknesse but they are not it 's said Isay 33. ult There shall be none sicke among them why so because they shall be forgiven their iniquities T is no sicknessse in a manner no sorrow no affliction if the venome sting and curse be taken away by pardon of sinne thy sicknesse sorrow losses death it selfe is better now then health joy abundance life you may here see death hell grave swallowed up in victory and now tread upon the necks of them 1 Cor. 15. You may see life in death heaven in the deepest hell glory in shame when thou seest all thy sinnes done away in the blood of Christ Jesus This is the blessednesse of all you poore beleevers and commers to the Lord Jesus what should you doe but beleeve it and rejoyce in it If the wicked that apply this righteousnesse presumptuously say Let us sinne that grace may abound and make no other use of forgivenesse but to run in debt and sinne with a license Why should not you say on the other side Let me beleeve and owne my portion in this righteousnesse that as my sinnes have abounded so my love may abound as my sinnes have been exceeding great so the Lord may be exceeding sweet as my sinnes continue and increase so my thankfulnesse glory in God triumph over death grave sinne through Christ may also increase as you see righteousnesse in Christ for ever yours so you may from thence expect from him such a righteousnesse as may make you righteous also as hee is righteous Tremble thou hard-hearted impenitent wretch that didst never yet come to Christ nor feele thy need of him or prize his blood this is none of thy portion all thy sinnes are yet upon thee and shall one day meet thee in the day of the Lords fierce wrath when he shall appeare as an everlasting burning before thine eyes and thou stand guilty before him as chaffe and stubble SECT 2. Secondly Reconciliation This is the second benefit which in order of nature followes our Justification although sometime in a large sense it is taken for the whole work of Justification strictly taken it followes it Rom. 5.1 Being justified by faith we have peace with God i. e. not onely peace from God in our consciences but peace with God in our reconcilement to him and his favour toward us Being justified we shall be saved from wrath i. e. not onely the outward fruits of wrath but wrath from whence those come Christ is first King of Righteousnesse then King of Peace Heb. 7.2 for is not finne the cause of
world But you will say Wherein should I expresse this humiliation and subjection Bee highly thankfull for any little the Lord gives Lam. 3.22 23. Be humble and judge thy selfe worthy of nothing when the Lord denies and verily you shall find the Lord Jesus ere long speaking peace unto you and giving you rest in his bosome that now art quietly contented to lye still at his feet For some helps thereunto 1. Remember whose thou art viz. the Lords clay and he thy Potter and therefore may doe with thee what he will Rom. 9.20 2. Remember what thou art viz. a polluted vessell a kind of infinite endlesse evill as I have oft said see the picture of thy own vilenesse in the damned in hell who are full and shall through all eternity powre out all manner of evill Iob 40.3 4. 3. Remember what thou hast been and how long thou hast made warre against Christ with all thy might and heart and strength why should the Lord theâ—efore choose thee before others Ier. 3.5 when as aske thy conscience was there ever such a wretch since the world began as thou hast been 4. Remember what thou wilt be fit for no use to Jesus Christ good for nothing but to pollute his holy name when thou medlest with it and why should the Lord take up such a dry leafe Isay 64.6 and breath upon such a dry bone 5. Remember how good the Lords will is even when it crosseth thine he shall have infinite glory by all his denials to thee of what thou wouldst he shall gaine that though thou losest thy peace and quietnesse that good which thy foolish sinfull will desires at his hand Iohn 12.27 28. and if so blessed be his name let God live but let man dye and perish that he may be exalted of vile man 6. Remember the sweet rest thou shalt have by this subjection to the Lord nothing is mans crosse but mans will a stubborn will like a stubborne heifer in the yoake galls and frets the soule Learn meeknesse saith our Saviour of me in taking my yoake on you and then you shall find rest Hell would not bee hell to a heart truly humbled Sometimes you find inlargements then you are glad sometime none then you sinke sometimes you have hope of mercy then you are calme sometimes you lose your hopes then the Sea workes when the Lord pleaseth you then you are well but if a little crosse befall you then your spring is muddy and a little thing troubles Oh be humble vile in thine owne eyes and verily such uncertaine fits of peace and trouble are done and the dayes of all your mourning are now ended Of thankfulnesse to all those whom the Lord hath truly humbled Time was when the Lord first convinced you that so long as you could make any shift find rest in any duties you would never lye down at Christs feet now the Lord might have left you to have stumbled at that stumbling-stone and to have stuck in those bushes but you may see that the Lord will save you even then when you would not be saved by him and especially take notice of two passages of Gods dealings with you wherein usually you find matter of discouragement rather then of acknowledgment of Gods goodnesse to you therein 1. That the Lord hath withdrawn all feeling of any good which it may be once you felt and that the Lord hath let out more of the evill of your hearts then ever you imagined was in them nay so much evill that you think there is none like unto you who hast now no heart nor power to stirre think defire will or doe any thing that is good oh blesse the Lord for this for this is Gods way to humble and empty and make thee poor the Lord saw though it may be you did not that you rested in that good you felt and was or would be lifted up by these and therefore the Lord hath broke those crazy crâ—tches famisht now brought you downe to nothing made you like dry desarts all the hurt the Lord aimeth at in this being only to humble you and though these desertions be bitter for the present yet that by these he might doe you good in your latter end Oh brethren the Apostle stands at a stay and desires the Corinthians to consider You see your calling saith he 1 Cor. 1. Not many mighty not many wise but things that are not doth he call that no flesh might glory The Lord saith Moses Deut. 8.2 3. suffered thee to want that was the first and then fed thee that he might prove thee and humble thee remember this saith he So say I to you remember this mercy that when the Lord makes you worst of all not really but in your own eyes that then the Lord is about this glorious work 2. That the Lord hath kept you it may be a long time too from sight and sense of his peculiar love one would wonder why the Lord should hide his love so much so long from those to whom he doth intend it the great reason is because there is in many a one a heart desirous of his love and this would quiet them if they were sure of it but they never came to bee quieted with Gods will in case they think they shall never partake of his love but are above that oppose and resist and quarrell with that unhumbled under that the Lord therefore intending to bestow his favour onely upon a humbled sinner he will therefore hide his face untill they lye low and acknowledge themselves worthy of nothing but extremity of misery unworthy of the least mercy The people of God Lam. 1.16 cry out that the comforter which should refresh their soule was farre from them what was Gods end in this you shall see the end of it verse 18. the Lord is righteous here the Church is humbled for I have rebelled or as Sanctius reads it I have made his mouth bitter that the Lord speaks no peace to me but bitter things The cause is in my owne selfe and therefore if he never comfort me nor speak good word unto me yet he is righteous but I am vile and you will find this certain that as the Lord therefore humbles that he may exalt so the Lord never refuseth to exalt in hiding his face but it is to humble And is this the worst the Lord aimes at and will you not be thankfull why are you then discouraged when you find it thus with you doe not say the Lord never dealt thus with any as with me suppose that the reason then is because the Lord sees never had any such a high heart as thou hast but oh be thankfull that notwithstanding this he will take the pains to take it downe Thus much for humiliation I come now to the fourth and last which is Faith SECT 5. The fourth and last act of Christs power is the worke of Faith THe Lord having wounded