in like manner lay open my Original Defilement which is the Fountain whence all the former whether sins of commission or sins of omission do flow But touching it be pleased to peruse that small Tract intituled A short and sure way to Grace and Salvation Or Three Fundamental Principles of Christian Religion by R. Y from p. 4 to p. 10. Sect. 17. Loose Libertine if this hath been your case no wonder it hath startled you for to deal plainly with you as you have done with me what I have heard from you makes me tremble For if such honest moral men that live so unreproveably as you have done go not to Heaven what will become of me that have been so openly prophane and notoriously wicked all my time Yea it contented me not to doe wickedly my self and to damn my own soul but I have been the occasion of drawing hundreds to hell with me by seducing some and giving ill example to others the infection of sin being much worse than the act As how many have I drawn to be drunkards and swearers and whoremongers and prophane persons Insomuch that the blood of so many souls as I have drawn away will be required at my hands Yea my life hath been so debauch'd and licentious that I have brought a scandal upon the Gospel and made it odious to the very Turks and Infidels Rom. 2.24 Convert Alas I what I did that was morally good or what evil I refrained was more for self-ends or for fear of mens Laws than for love of Christs Gospel True I went under the notion of an honest man and a good Christian I was baptized into the Faith and made a member of Christs visible Church but I was so far from endeavouring to perform what I then promised that in effect I even renounced both Christ and my Baptism in persecuting him all that sincerely professed his Name thinking I did God good service therein John 16.2 Gal. 1.13 14. Phil. 3.6 Nor was it for want of ignorance that you thought so of me for by nature be we never so mild and gentle we are all the seed of the serpent Gen. 3.15 and children of the Devil John 8.44 Yea the very best moral man is but a tame Devil as Athanasius well notes But it is a true Proverb The blind eat many a Fly and all Colours are alike to him that is in the dark Loose Libertine So much the worse is my condition for my conscience tells me there is not a word you have spoken of your self but I can justly apply the same unto my own soul a great deal more for whereas you have been a moral honest man so that none except your self could tax you for breaking either Gods Law or mans I have been so wicked and prophane that I could most presumptuously and of set purpose take a pride in my wickedness commit it with greediness speak of it defend it joy in it boast of it tempt and inforce to it yea mock them that disliked it As if I would send challenges into Heaven and make love to destruction and yet did applaud my self and prefer my own condition before other mens saying I was no dissembler yea I hated the hypocrisie of Professors I do not justifie my self and despise others like the Puritans I am not factious schismatical singular censorious c. I am not rebellious nor contentious like the Brownists and Anabaptists I am a good fellow and love an honest man with my heart c. and as touching a good conscience I was never troubled in mind as many scrupulous fools are I have a good heart and mean as well as the precisest But now I see the Devil and my own deceitful heart deluded me so that my whole life hitherto hath been but a dream and that like a blind man I was running headlong to Hell when yet I thought my self in the way to Heaven Just as if a Beggar should dream that he were a King or as if a Traytor should dream of his being Crowned when indeed he was to be beheaded the case of Laodicea Rev. 3.17 the young man in the Gospel Luke 18.20 21. and that Pharisee spoken of Luke 18.11 12. Sect. 18. Convert It was not your case alone but so it fares with the worst of sinners Onely it much rejoyces me that it hath pleased God to open your eyes to see all this in your self For flesh and blood hath not revealed it unto you Yea we are naturally so blind and deaf and dead in sin and in soul that we can no more discern our spiritual filthiness nor feel sin to be a burden than a blind Ethiopian can see his own blackness or then a dead man can feel the weight of a burden when it is laid upon him Acts 28.27 Isa. 6 9 10. And this common experience shews for if you observe it who more jocund confident and secure than the worst of sinners They can strut it under an unsupportable mass of Oaths Blasphemies Thefts Murders Adulteries Drunkenness and other the like sins yea can easily swallow these spiders with Mithridates and digest them too when one that is regenerate shrinks under the burden of wandring thoughts and want of proficiency But why is it They are dead in sin Ephes. 2.1 Revel 3.1 Now lay a mountain upon a dead man he feels not once the weight To a Christian that hath the life of grace the least sin lies heavy upon the conscience but to him that is dead let his sins be as heavy as a mountain of lead he feels in them no weight at all Again they are insensible of their sin and danger because ignorant for for what the eye seeth not the heart rueth not Security makes worldlings merry and therefore are they secure because they are ignorant A dunce we know seldom makes doubts Yea a fool says Solomon boasteth and is confident Prov. 14.16 neither do blind men ever blush And the truth is were it not for pride and ignorance a world of men would be ashamed to have their faces seen abroad For take away from mens minds vain opinions flattering hopes false valuations imaginations and the like you will leave the minds of most men and women but poor shrunken things full of melancholy indisposition and unpleasing to themselves Ignorance is a vail or curtain to hide away their sins wherupon they are never troubled in conscience nor macerated with cares about eternity but think that all will be well The Devil and the Flesh prophesie prosperity to sin yea life and salvation as the Pope promised the Powder Traytors but Death and Damnation which Gods Spirit threatens will prove the crop they will reap For God is true the Devil and all Flesh are liars When we become regenerate and forsake sin then the devil strongly and strangely assaults us as he did Christ when he was newly baptized and Pharaoh the children of Israel when they would forsake Egypt and Herod the children when Christ was
the Sacrament of the Lords Supper is recieved by one to salvation by another to his greater damnation 1 Cor. 11.29 The cloudy pillar which gave light and was a defence to Israel became darkness and offence to the Egyptians Exod. 14 20. And the like of Manna Exod. 16 20. The Ark the Red Sea and sundry the like which I might weary you with Yea Christ himself who is a Rock to save all that believe in him shivers his enemies in pieces Mat. 21.44 And immortality the greatest blessedness of the Saints is the greatest misery to the damned No wonder then if these Spiders those Bees the wicked and the godly suck the one honey the other poyson from the self fame flower of holy Writ Sect. 6 Thirdly Another reason why they so swell against their reprehender is their guiltiness And it is a sure sign the horse is gauled that stirs too much when he is touched In the Law of jealousies if the suspected wife were guilty that drank of the bitter waters of tryal she would presently swell if otherwise she was well enough Numb 5.27 Nor did you ever hear of any that were offended with wholsome truth for being untoothsom that disliked the Minister for being too sharp and searching but evil minds But as good meats are unwelcome to sick persons so is good counsel to obstinate and resolved sinners Vnfound flesh loves to be stroaked the least roughness puts it into a rage Bad wares would have dark shops Thieves will put out all the lights that in the dark they may more securely rifle the house John 3.19.20 21. So the conscience that is guilty of flagitious crimes could wish the Heavens blind Fourthly No wicked man can indure to hear the downright truth For then they must also hear the sentence of their own condemnation What the Minister delivers is the very Word by which they are judged and condemned therefore they loath as much to hear it as the Prisoner at the Bar does abhor to hear his sentence from the just judg And indeed if many as we well know by experience love not to hear the worst of their temporal causes and cases nor yet of their bodily distempers with which their lives or estates be endangered how much more will wicked men decline from seeing their hainous abominations and themselves guilty of Hell and eternal damnation though thereof there be an absolute necessity if ever they be saved Sect. 7. And so much of the Reasons From all which we may learn not to impute the cause of wicked mens raging to any miscarriage in the messenger for he may vindicate himself as Paul did 1 Cor. 7.10 I have not spoken but the Lord. And therefore as the Lord said unto Saul Acts 9.4 that he persecuted him So they which reject any truth delivered out of the word do resist God himself and not his messenger And this for certain were Christ himself their Minister they would much more oppose and persecute him as the Priests and Pharisees did when they heard him Yea consider it rightly and you will grant that there cannot be a greater honour done to a poor minister than this For what sayes one of the Fathers It may well be doubted that ministers open not the Word aright when wicked men kick not against it Yea sayes Luther To preach the Gospel as we ought is to stir up all the furies of Hell against us And what saith our Saviour himself to his Apostles in their pupil-age The World cannot hate you but me it hateth because I testifie of it that the works thereof are evil John 7.7 And so touching Paul who had never become their enemy but for telling them the truth and dealing so plainly and so roundly with them Nor can there be such an argument that a Minister studies more to profit than to please men with his wholsome counsel as when he will not let them sleep and snort in their sins but cry aloud against their abominations Secondly We may learn from the premises that if any receive the Word with readiness and become new creatures by hearing the same not to attribute or ascribe the praise thereof to the parties converted or to the means or to the instrument but to God who is the Author and gives the blessing For Paul may plant and Apollo may water but it is God onely that gives the increase It is God alone that giveth words unto the wise and virtue unto their words 1 Cor. 3.5 6 7. And he will give success to whom when and as he pleaseth Even twelve mean Fishermen when he pleaseth shall without force or weapon armour bands of men or stroke stricken subdue the whole world to their King Hillary found not seventeen believers and left not so many unbelievers in the whole City Indeed in these dayes Ministers may tear their throats spend their lungs and force their sides in suing to ' a deaf world and say when they have done all they can Who hath believed our report And to whom is the arm of the Lord revealed Yea how many painful Peters have complained to fish all night and catch nothing Many professors and few converts hath been the lot of the Gospel in these last times and since our means hath exceeded Gods house as the streets of Jericho may be thronged and yet but one Zacheus gained to the faith And why so but for this cause if some few like the Bee do gather from the Word whatsoever addeth to their knowledg and vertue the greatest number use the same as some do artificial teeth more for shew than service more for ability of discourse than activity of practise to talk of it than to walk by it Whence it is that God utters his saving truths as it were in Parables so hiding them from the wise and prudent namely the proud that are wise in their own Eyes and reveales them to babes and sucklings that is the humble and lowly as Austin speaks Sect. 8. Which being so let not him that hath five Talents despise him that hath but two Even those great lights of Heaven the Sun and Moon take not away the necessity of lamp light To the making of the Tabernacle fine linnen and Goats hair had their use as well as gold silver and precious stones And the same God that gave proportion to the Cedar gave also being to the Mushroom Nor is the strength or weakness of means either spur or bridle to the determinate choises of God who not seldom does greatest acts by weakest agents He chose Davids sling rather than Sauls sword to conquer Goliah Frogs Grashoppers Lice rather than Bears and Lions to fight against Pharaoh Yea he that with Rams horns overthrew the Walls of Jericho hath sometimes chosen vile and weak means to serve himself by in great matters Peter hath a Cock to tell him of his cowardise And Balaam an Ass to reprove his avarice Yea that God who will bless where he pleaseth now and then gives the
a man hates it also and does the contrary good is to be evil still because honesty without piety is but a body without a soul. All my Religion was either superstition or formality or hypocrisie I had a form of Godliness but denied the power thereof I often drew near unto God with my mouth and honoured him with my lips but my heart was far from him Isa. 25.13 Mark 7.2 to 14. Mat. 15.7 to 10. All which considered viz the means which God had afforded me and the little use I had made thereof left me in a far worse condition then the very Heathen that never heard of Christ. So that it was Gods unspeakable mercy that I am not at this present frying in Hell flames never to be freed God hath sent unto us all his servants the Prophets rising up early and they have been instant in preaching the Gospel both in season and out of season but my carnal heart hath ever been flint unto God wax unto Satan You shall die if you continue in the practise of sin I heard but you shall not die as saith the Devil I believed Sect. 15. Besides all this Suppose I had none of these to answer for neither sins of Commission nor sins of Omission yet Original sin were enough to damn me no need of any more and yet my actual transgressions have been such and so many and my ingratitude therein so great that it might have sunk me down with shame and left me hopeless of ever obtaining pardon for them As see but some small part of my monstrous and devilish ingratitude to so good a God so loving and merciful a Saviour and Redeemer that hath done and suffered so much for me even more than can either be expressed or conceived by any heart were it as deep as the Sea Touching what God and Christ hath done for me in the first place he gave me my self and all the creatures to serve for my use yea he created me after his own image in righteousness and holiness and in perfect knowledg of the truth with a power to stand and for ever to continue in a most blessed and happy condition But this was nothing in comparison for when I was in a sad-condition when I had forfeited all this and my self when by sin I had turned that image of God into the image of Satan and wilfully plunged my soul and body into Eternal torments when I was become his enemy mortally hating him and to my utmost fighting against him and taking part with his onely enemies Sin and Satan not having the least thought or desire of reconcilement but a perverse and obstinate will to resist all means tending thereunto he did redeem me not onely without asking but even against my will so making of me his cursed enemy a servant of a servant a son of a son an heir and coheir with Christ Gal. 4.7 But how have I required this so great so superlative a mercy All my recompence of Gods love unto me hath been to do that which he hates and to hate those whom he loves Christ the fountain of all good is my Lord by a manifold right and I his servant by all manner of obligations First he is my Lord by the right of creation as being his workmanship made by him Secondly by the right of Redemption being his purchase bought by him Thirdly of preservation being kept upheld and maintained by him Fourthly his by Vocation even of his Family having admitted me a member of his visible Church Fifthly his also had it not been my own fault by sanctification whereby to possess me Lastly he would have me of his Court by glorification that he might crown me so that I was every way his God had raised me from a beggar to a great estate But how did I requite him I would not if possible suffer a godly and conscientious minister to be chosen or to abide where I had to do but to bring in one that would flatter sin and flout holiness discourage the godly and incourage the wicked I used both my own and all my friends utmost ability Much more might be mentioned but I fear to be tedious Now argue with all the world and they will conclude that there is no vice like ingratitude But I have been more ungrateful to God than can be exprest by the best Oratour alive It was horrid ingratitude in the Jews to scourge and crucifie Christ who did them good every way for he healed their diseases fed their bodies enlightned their minds of God became man and lived miserably amongst them many years that he might save their souls but they fell short of my ingratitude to God in that most of them were not in the least convinced that he was the Messias sent from God and promised from the beginning But I have not onely denied this Lord that bought me but I hated him yea most spitefully and maliciously fought on Satans and Sins side against him and persecuted his children and the truth with all my might and all this against knowledg and conscience after some measure of illumination which cannot be affirmed of the Jews Yet miserable wretch that I was if I could have given him my body and soul they should have been saved by it but he were never the better for them Sect. 16. Lastly to tell you that which is more strange Notwithstanding all this that hath been mention'd and much more Yet I thought my self a good Christian forsooth yea with that young man in the Gospel I thought I had kept all the commandments Nor was I a whit troubled for sin either original or actual but my conscience was at quiet and I was at peace neither did any sin trouble me Yea I would applaud my self with that Pharisee Luke 18.9 to 15. and say I was not like other men not once doubting of my salvation I ever refused to do what my Maker commanded and yet confidently hoped to escape what he threatned Nor did I doubt of having Christ my Redeemer and Advocate in the next life when I had been a bitter enemy to him and his members in this life Here was blindness with a witness as it is not to be believed how blind blockish men are that have onely the flesh for their guide especially if they have hardned their hearts and feared their consciences with a customary sinning As I could give you for instance a large catalogue of rare Examples how sin hath besotted men and what stark fools carnal men are in spiritual things be they never so wise for mundane knowledg But least it should be taken for a digression or excursion you shall have a list of them by themselves the which I will add as an Appendix to this Discourse or Dialogue In the mean time I have given you a brief of my manifold provocations and great ingratitude to my Maker and Redeemer for otherwise I might be endless in the prosecution thereof It remains that I should
sufficiently to express what impotent wretches we are when we are not sustained So that we have no merit but the mercy of God to save us nothing but the blood of Christ and his mediation to cleanse and Redeem us nothing but his obedience to inrich us As for our good works we are altogether beholding to God for them not God to us nor we to our selves because they are only his works in us Whatsoever thou art thou owest to him that made thee whatever thou hast thou owest to him that Redeemed thee Therefore if we do any thing amiss let us accuse our selves if any thing well let us give all the praise to God And indeed this is the test of a true or false Religion that which teacheth us to exalt God most and most to depress our selves is the true that which doth most prank up our selves and detract from God is the false as Bonaventure well notes Sect. 23. Now to wind up with a Word of Exhortation If thou beest convinced and resolvest upon a new course let thy resolution be peremptory and constant and take heed you harden not again as Pharaoh the Philistines the Young man in the Gospel Pilate and Judas did resemble not the Iron which is no longer soft than it is in the Fire for that good saith Gregory will do us no good which is not made good by perseverance If with these premonitions the Spirit hath vouchsafed to stir up in thine heart any good motions and holy purposes to obey God in letting thy sins go Quench not grieve not the spirit 1 Thes. 5.19 Return not with the Dog to thy vomit least thy latter end prove seven-fold worse than thy beginning Mat. 12.43 45. Oh it is a fearful thing to receive tho grace of God in vain and a desperate thing being warned of a Rock wilfully to cast our selves upon it Neither let Satan perswade you to defer your repentance no not an hour lest your Resolution proves as a false conception which never comes to bearing Besides death may be sudden even the least of a thousand things can kill you and give you no leisure to be sick Thirdly If thou wilt be safe from evil works avoid the occasions have no fellowship with the workers of iniquity neither fear their scoffes for this be sure of If your person and wayes please God the world will be displeased with both If God be your friend men will be your enemies if they exercise their malice it is where he shews mercy But take heed of losing Gods favour to keep theirs Beda tells of a Great man that was admonished by his friends in his sickness to repent who answered He would not yet for that if he should recover his friends and companions would laugh at him but growing sicker and sicker they again prest him but then his answer was That it was now too late for I am judged and condemned already A man cannot be a Nathanael in whose heart there is no guile but the World counts him a fool But Christ sayes Verily except ye be converted and become as little Children ye shall not enter into the Kingdome of Heaven Matth. 18.3 Again Satan and your deceitful heart will suggest unto you that a Religious life is a dampish and melancholy life but holy David will tell you That light is sown to the Righteous and joy to the upright Psal. 97.11 Isa. 65.14 And experience tells us that Earthly and Bodily joyes are but the body or rather the dregs of that joy which Gods people feel and are ravished with As Oh the calm and quietness of a good Conscience the assurance of the pardon of sin and joy in the Holy Ghost the honesty of a virtuous and holy life how sweet they are Yea even Plato an Heathen could say That if Wisdome and Virtue could but represent it self to the Eyes it would set the heart on fire with the love of it And the like of a sinners sadness as hear what Seneca sayes If there were no God to punish him no Devil to torment him no Hell to burn him no man to see him yet would he not sin for the ugliness and filthiness of sin and the guilt and sadness of his Conscience But Experience is the best informer wherefore take the counsel of holy David Psalm 34.8 O taste and see that the Lord is good blessed is the man that trusteth in him To which accordeth that of holy Bernard Good art thou O Lord to the soul that seeks thee what art thou then to the soul that findes thee As I may appeal to any mans Conscience that hath been softned with the Unction of Grace and truly tasted of the powers of the World to come to him that hath the love of God shed abroad in his heart by the Holy Ghost whether his whole life be not a perpetual Hallelujah in comparison of his natural condition Whence they are able to slight all such objections as he did You tell me that scrupling of small matters is but stumbling at straws that they be but trifles when I know your tongue can tell nothing but truth I will believe you Fifthly Beg of God that he will give you a new heart and when the heart is changed all the members will follow after it as the rest of the creatures after the Sun when it ariseth But without a work upon the heart wrought by the spirit of God it will follow its own inclination to that which it affecteth whatsoever the judgment shall say to the contrary That must be first reformed which was first deformed It is idle and to no purpose to purge the chaanel when the fountain is corrupt Whence the Apostle orderly bids us first Be renewed in the Spirit of our mindes and then Let him that stole steal no more Ephes. 4.23 24. Yea it is Gods own counsel to the men of Jerusalem Jer. 4. Wash thy heart from wickedness that thou mayest be saved verse 14. It is most ridiculous to apply Remedies to the outward parts when the distemper lies in the stomack To what purpose is it to crop off the top of weeds or top off the boughes of the Tree when the Root and Stalk remain in the Earth As cut off the sprig of a Tree it growes still a Bough an Arm still it growes lop off the top yea saw it in the midst yet it will grow again stock it up by the roots then and not till then it will grow no more Whence it is that God saith Give me thine heart Prov. 23.26 Great Cities once expunged the dorps and villages will soon come in of themselves the heart is the treasury and storehouse of wickedness Mat. 12.34 such as the heart is such are the actions of the body which proceed from it Mat. 12.35 Therefore as Christ saith Make clean within and all will be clean otherwise not Mat. 23.26 therefore Davids prayer is Create in me a new heart O Lord and renew a right spirit within me Ps. 51.10 Do thou the like importune him for grace that you may firmly resolve speedily begin and continually persevere in doing and suffering his holy will desire him to inform and reform you so that you may neither mis-believe nor mis-live to change and purifie your nature subdue your reason rectifie your judgment reform and strengthen your will renew your affections and beat down in you whatsoever stands in opposition to the Scepter of Jesus Christ. Sixthly and lastly If you receive any power against your former corruptions forget not to be thankeful yea study all possible thankfulness for that you and I are not at this present frying in Hell flames never to be freed that we have the offer of Grace here and Glory hereafter it is his unspeakable goodness And there is nothing more pleasing to God nor profitatable to us both for the procuring of the good we want or continuing the good we have than thankfulness He will sow there and there onely plenty of his blessings where he is sure to reap plenty of thanks and service But who will sow those barren sands where they are sure not onely to be without all hope of a good harvest but are sure to lose both their seed and labour Consider what hath been said and the Lord give you understanding in all things And so much for the Second Part. An Appendix follows wherein you may have instances of all sorts how sin besots Men. FINIS London Printed by J. Hayes and are to be sold by Mrs. Crips in Popes-head-Alley with nine and Thirty other Pieces composed by the same Authour 1663.