come without his Wedding Garment it is said he was speechless having no excuse to pretend he was Self-condemned Thirdly They may be brought to a conditional Application so as to conclude a possibility of safety that they might be freed from Sin and Sentence of the Law if they should believe and lay hold on Christ So far is conceived that Herod went by hearing of the Baptist Yea more they may also have a fiducial Application and Appropriation of God unto themselves in particular and herein may have a great resemblance of Justifying Faith As Paul said Who loved me and gave himself for me So these may apply Christ to their particular I thank my Christ my Redeemer my Saviour though in presumption notwithstanding Fourthly They may go one step further even to some apprehension of the Beauty of Grace and that happiness following a Spiritual Union with Christ Especially if they live where the Law and Gospel are distinctly handled skilfully intermixed fully applied so as not only to wish well but to resolve and promise a better course As appears from that known and famous Instance Mat. 13.20 where the third kind of hearers are said to receive the Word with joy As good News affecteth the hearers about the State and Kingdom wherein they are much concern'd so may Men be affected in hearing the glad tidings the gracious Counsels of God to save Sinners discovered and yet not regenerated To which may be added that difficult place in the Epistle to the Hebrews Chap. 6. ver 4 5. Many Apostates have had great meltings and much sudden and strong joy But the Issue of all is they ever dash on one of these two Rocks Either they Presume and so are careless to go on actually to receive and give themselves to Christ Or else they Despair and so are hopeless of ever having what they see and admire In all these flashings the Truths of God pass by them as Water through a Conduit and leave a Dew but soak not as Water into the Earth Quest Secondly It is demanded Wherein those which are called according to purpose go beyond all others in this Wilderness of Trouble Answ That it should be simply and in all things a common work to those which are outwardly called only with those which are inwardly called also that good and bad are brought alike into this Wilderness that those which attain Grace and those which attain none should be brought to lie under one degree of Legal Preparation is strange to assert seeing it is the same Spirit under divers names that first prepareth by bringing into the Wilderness as the Spirit of Bondage and then infuseth Grace by speaking unto the Heart as the Spirit of Adoption As also considering it is a promise made here in favour of the Church and to her appropriated Yet it will be granted here to be difficult to satisfie any or to shew demonstratively wherein they differ Only for the present take what may be offered that way till some other by searching the Matter shall give more and clearer Light for plainer discovery Those then that are specially beloved of God and whose safety the Lord doth absolutely aim at and intend go beyond all others in this Work in these following particulars First In the intent and purpose of God which is not to Civilize or only to Formalize them as he deals with many bringing them into trouble to tame and keep them in order for the good of humane Society but indeed to go through with them for their sound Humiliation and through Sanctification Secondly In the success and event for some are only terrified and restrained for a time when others are heartily grieved even drencht in Sorrow to be savingly renewed after So that the Spirit of Sanctification doth immediately after manifest both Presence and Power Victory and Sovereignty But who doubteth of this Is there no other way wherein they differ Yes and it may be thus viz. 1. Modo operationis in the manner of Working Some are brought in by outward means only the Law Sickness Crosses as the Marble is said to sweat in foul Weather but still remains Marble assisted and followed with the common light and power of Natural Conscience others are brought in not without the Holy Ghost ordering the outward means and their inward sight to continue closed till this Supernatural Work be perfected As the Father by his Love in Electing before they had a Being except in the Divine Understanding so the blessed Spirit taketh hold upon them by his Power so soon as they have any Being which hold of his is diversly manifested both in respect of time means and manner of Working Towards some at one time by one means and after this manner towards others at another time by some other Ordinance and after another manner By degrees drawing them into this Wilderness where he discovereth their natural Bondage stirreth them to desire and directeth them how to attain true Liberty 2. In duratione disparitate dispositionis In their continuance and dissimilitude of Disposition while they are there Those that are ordained to Life do continue there commonly longer Not for intermitted Hours to be now in and then out but for Days Weeks Months Years never wholly off till they pass Jordan and arrive to their heavenly Canaan Some have been sensibly kept there the most time of their Life and yet come off well in the end Besides they are more kindled and deeply affected with an hatred and loathing of all Sin their affection is more lively and feelingly bent upon Purity hungring and thirsting after Righteousness and their hope is stronger that it may be that it will be better with them For this is that secret Staff which supporteth such Travellers They desire pardon and they hope they shall have it they hunger and thirst after Righteousness which others in this case never do and have some hope to be satisfied They long to hear the Voice and see the loving Countenance of Christ and are inwardly upheld with hope of both Who can tell say they in their Hearts but that the Lord may be intreated to turn away his fierce Anger that we perish not here according to our desert It is our self-harming league with Sin that the Lord goeth about to break were that done he would not contend nor be angry for ever When we submit unto him he will speak unto us as he did unto Hagar however we must trust in him although he should kill us with Hunger and Thirst in this vast and desolate Wilderness of legal Terror and Conviction where no refreshing Streams do flow Use 2. Secondly The Vse may be Instructive both to Ministers and People First To Ministers that they wisely endeavour it to bring their People into and through this Wilderness by presenting and pressing the Law which is God's Instrument to charge Sin upon the Soul in the true Nature Root and Fruit thereof God having imparted some of his own Brightness
and Power unto it for this end To know how the Law doth this may give some Light to Ministers in the use thereof And that may be 1. By way of Illumination of the Understanding to see Sin as it is sin which no word nor means in the World can do beside because God hath imparted to it the brightness of his own Purity so much as he pleased and thought to be needful for this end with a searching faculty undeniably to charge Conscience with all and every Sin this supernatural splendor closing with the innate light of Conscience proceeding in this manner viz. First to discover Actual Sins beginning often with some of the most hainous and going on by degrees to the rest for number and nature how many how foul and to that end the Law presenteth to the Soul First With her Soveraignty for Constitution and Commission being made and ordained by him who is infinite in every Attribute and hath an absolute dominion over our Bodies and Spirits and sent abroad with a large Commission to show all Sins unto all sorts impartially whether they be high or low rich or poor prophane or holy the Law hath a soveraign power and exerciseth it after a regal manner sparing none Secondly With her Integrity and Extent In this Wilderness the Law sheweth Conscience her Spiritual Authority her Aggravating Faculties her exact Purity and that mutual Dependency one Law and one Member of the Law hath upon another Her Spiritual Authority to go into the inward Rooms yea into every corner of those Rooms and every crevice of those Corners where Sin lieth hid and to search and bring out all Sins great and small of Omission and Commission Like a two-edged Sword it pierceth to the very Marrow to the very intents of the Hearts Her Aggravating Faculty to set forth particular Sins to the Eye as the Glass doth the spots of the Face in the most odious Colours that so Sin may appear exceeding sinful Her Exact Purity to discover such practices of our Life to be sinful which we never dreamt of nor before took notice of so much as to suspect I had not known Sin i. e. some Sins to be Sins but by the Law this discovers that to be a Mountain which before the Sinner judged to be a Mote and that to be Sin which before he esteemed Righteousness and like a Light exposed to view those Corruptions which lay hid and unseen in their due proportion Her Mutual Dependency one Branch doth so hang upon another that whosoever breaketh one is guilty of all James 2.10 The whole Law is but one Copulative and this dependance of one Precept with another and all upon the Law-Maker whose Authority is violated and contemned in the breach of one as well as of all occasioneth even one Sin to be so infinitly weighty Secondly The Law proceeds to discover Original Sin in the Root and Branches how we participate in the first sinful Act of Adam how that Guilt is imputed and how Habitual Corruption is propagated from immediate Parents to all their Posterity proceeding from them by an ordinary way of Generation as Poyson is carried from the Fountain to the Cistern all herent in the Nature or redounding on the Person by virtue of the Covenant and this the Law doth either by way of Comparison or else by way of positive Description comparing and preferring it for the evil thereof to Actual Sin as the Root or Cause thereof Et quod efficit tale est magis tale is said in Philosophy and is true in Divinity Then describing it either by Names or Properties By Names first calling it the Old Man the Body of Death as if Death were nothing without this Sin a Weight that presseth down c. By Properties next and they are especially four viz. Eminency Predominancy Insensibility and Perpetuity For Eminency the Law saith it is a Transcendent Evil and the worst of all Evils Predominancy strangely to rule and oversway like a second Nature which Men often confess while they say It is their Nature to do this or that is to be furious to swear and curse a little now and then they cannot help it 't is their Nature when indeed it is the corruption of Nature reigning Insensibility to keep all the parts in a sleepy peace that Men are not aware of their danger till they be awakened and brought into this Wilderness Perpetuity to cleave fast unto our Nature even to the end of our Life While Blood is in our Veins Sin is in our Nature like the Jebusites this remains as a Thorn in the side in the Flesh even when Victory is obtained by Grace over all Actual Sin in a competent measure that is still living and stirring gathering new Forces and breaking into Rebellion ever and anon Thus the Law bringeth Men into the Wilderness by the work of Illumination 2. By the work of Conviction whereby the Conscience is brought to this Spiritual assent that the former Testimony of the Law is true both for Crime Object and Curse denounced and the Person to a particular application both of the Sins to be personal and of the sentence against such Sins and Sinners to be Legal The sum of which Work may be comprised in this practical Syllogism viz. Whosoever is thus Sinful and Cursed according to the Law is fully miserable but I saith the assuming Conscience am thus sinful and cursed therefore I am fully miserable What shall I do miserable Man that I am who shall deliver me in this vast Wilderness O help help me for the Lord's sake I am ready to faint to sink to die with fear and grief The Spirit by the Ministry of the Law worketh this distinct and sound Conviction divers ways 1. By removing all Impediments which are usually observed to hinder this Conviction One is natural Deadness and penal Hardness caused by Love and Custom in some one or many Sins which while it is interposed between the Law and Conscience will not suffer them to close and so nothing is done till that be in part removed Another is Spiritual Sloth which is a prevailing Backwardness and a precipitating Carelesness to consider what the Law discovereth and concludeth against Sin Men naturally love their ease and quiet they would not be disturbed A third is carnal Craft to pretend Religion and to perform all outward Duties and yet all the while to keep Sin in the Heart untouch'd to remain as habitually and delightfully unclean as ever This Soul-destroying Subtilty appears 1. In a readiness to shift off Sin and Reproofs from our selves to others The Minister met with such an one to day there was a Lesson for him indeed c. 2. In loathing a sound plain-searching Ministry as sore Eyes do the Sun which goes about to answer all the Objections of a natural Heart against the Goodness of Divine Truth Thus the Law removes Impediments 2. It worketh Conviction by applying unto the Soul and Conscience 1.
Gentle Expostulations frequently and movingly here and there as unto Adam and Gehazi Gen. 3.9 2 Kin. 5.26 Tell me poor Soul was it not â—ven so hast not thou done thus and thus went not my Spirit with thee and was not mine Eye over thee Confess thy Sin ease thy self and give glory to God O how loving is the Lord even in his Terrors and Enditements In the midst of Judgment he remembreth Mercy Tho his Robes be red they are not without some streamings of white and if he be compelled to pronounce Judgment as it was said of Augustus he doth it even with Tears in his Eyes 2. Instances very pertinent and those either direct as Psal 50.18 c. or Parabolical As Nathan dealt with David so the Lord deals with those whom he intends to restrain and renew You are the Men saith he that have been so much addicted to and delighted with Idleness Wantonness Luxury Pride Covetousness Slandring Drunkenness Swearing Lying and the like 3. Threatnings are added where the former avail not Cursed is every one that doth not all which is written in the Law He shall be pursued with Judgments of divers Natures to one end sometimes with prosperity on the right and anon with adversity on the left hand and last of all which is the worst of all dying impenitently he must needs be damned Thus the Lord thundereth in his Law against some whom nevertheless he intends to sanctify and save as a Father may threaten and terrify that Child whom he intends to make his Heir But withal you must know that he doth inwardly and secretly support them that they dash not upon Presumption nor sink under final Despair So that at length being driven from all their hiding Places they are brought into this Wilderness and forced freely to take upon themselves all those Sins discovered by the Law to fall down before God and to acknowledg their Guilt and Desert before the Throne of his Majesty resolving there to lie prostrate till he raise them in Mercy Now say they we see we feel we know how true the Word of God is how faithfully such Ministers dealt with us while we slighted and laughed them to scorn and how deceitful Sin is that appears at first small sweet and clean when as it is weighty bitter and filthy They cry who will take this Dagger out of my Heart this Mill-stone off my Back this Fire out of my Loins this Sting out of my Conscience Now the seeming sweetnesâ— of Sin is turned to Gall. O Sin how grievous is thy remembrance Away ye wicked we will henceforth endeavour to keep thâ— Commandments of our God No morâ— Swearing much less Perjury no Drunkenness no more Uncleanness When thesâ— knock at the door the answer is O thesâ— are they that cost us dear at such a time wâ— yet feel the sad Impressions of our former Afflictions for them we find a Pardon no easy Enterprize nor Repentance so pleasing a Potion we would not for all the World bâ— under that Anger of God nor feel one drop of his scalding Indignation which we have perceived for those Offences Thus the biâ—â—â—â— Child dreads the Fire And this with submission is the Course that Ministers musâ— take in opening and pressing the Law firsâ— which is God's Instrument effectually to charge the Conscience with Sin and to bring a Person into this Wilderness 2dly The People may learn to join with the Lord in his Ambassadors so to furtheâ— this Work of the Law when and where iâ— is once begun and to follow the Lord undeâ— his Cloud and after this Fire into this Wiâ—derness And that 1. By a serious Meditation of these many Impediments which keep Men out of it oâ— hinder them much in the way towards it when the Lord is about to bring them into it Eye them that you may avoid them For instance to esteem of the Law as a strange thing as not appertaining to them or wherein they are little or nothing concerned to interpose some beloved Sin between these two Lights of the Law and Conscience that they cannot join This alone hindered Herod's Conversion under John's piercing Ministry the interposition of his Herodias caused a fearful and final Eclipse So likewise to go away unthankfully and carelesly from a good Discourse doth hinder the Work and quench the Sparks which might have bred a Flame 2. By frequent Meditation on divers good Subjects moving this way as 1. Upon the Mercies of God bestowed upon you in particular from time to time This Course the Lord took to humble David 2 Sam. 12.7 8 9. And whosoever hath tried will say It is a very piercing way to bring the Heart into a through and kindly grief I have read of one who reading a Pardon sent him from the King fell a weeping and burst out into these Words A Pardon hath done that which Death could not do it hath made my Heart to relent As the Sugar-Loaf is dissolved and weeps it self away when it is dipp'd in Wine so will Penitents dissolve and melt themselves away in the sweet sence of Divine Love and their neglect or abuse of it Without doubt the very Behaviour of the Prodigal's Father brake his Heart with more thawings and kindly mourning than ever his former Hardship and Misery did O this that ever he should run to meet him that he should fall upon his Neck and kiss him This kindness of his Lips wounded his Heart with the deeper sence and judging of his own unkindness When the Surface of the Water is glazed with Ice the Sun-beams dissolve it such operation hath the Grace of Christ upon frozen Hearts which are never truly melted into Contrition but by Evangelical Beams Surely when a Sinner shall consider the great Love the sweetest Kindness the freest Pardons offered the choicest Mercies bestowed his Heart cannot but melt into a River What all these to and for me Lord yea for thee What after such deep Rebellions and Refusals yea after all and that most freely and willingly Good Lord how can the Soul but weep and mourn now 2. Meditate for that purpose upon the Justice and Power of God able to revenge the Quarrel of his Covenant and to bruise all his proud and stout Enemies with a Rod of Iron He is not only a Rock of Refuge to the Godly but also a Rock of Destruction to dash the Impenitent in pieces The strength of the Rock is seen as in upholding the House that is built upon it so in breaking the Ships that dash against it The force of Fire is manifested as in refining the Gold so in consuming the Dross There is none like unto thee O Lord thou art great and thy Name is great who would not fear thee thou King of Nations Jer. 10.6 And It is a fearful thing to fall into the Hands of the Living God Heb. 10.31 As a Lion he tears in pieces the Adversaries Psal 50.22 There is no standing before him if his Wrath
it hasteneth when you shall see them all presented at once and shall no way avoid that sight when you will think you see nothing but Fire that you hear nothing but a sudden noise passing the greatest clap of horrid Thunder and shall choose Death rather if it were possible to annihilation than Life with such an object before you As it fell out to that usurping Richard after the horrible Murther committed upon his innocent Nephews he could rest no where he could be no where free a tumultuous army of Thoughts struck an Alarm to his Repose at Bed and Board Day and Night alone and in company he thought he saw and heard them when as in truth it was his Sin that was ever legally before him and his own guilty Conscience that did pursue him And to that Judg Morgan who gave Sentence upon that vertuous and innocent Lady Jane in so much that he grew Mad shortly after and still cried out Take away the Lady Jane from me and in that Horror ended his Days and wretched Life As Mr. Speed relates in the Life of Q. Mary and Mr. Clark in his Life of the Lady Jane And so it will be with you here or hereafter Tell me then is it not better to see them apart now when you may repent and be freed than to put them off unto another Day when you must see them altogether and sink under them without any hope of recovery O consider this all ye that forget God lest he tear you iâ— pieces and there be none to deliver Thirdly The use of this Point may be to instruct the Person in matter of Duty and so like a well drawn Picture looks upon all that look upon it If this be so that Sin once committed will be often presented it prompts all 1. To think thus of Sin When you are tempted remember this Text set before you here or else you will think of it after to your pain It is momentany and frothy that delighteth you in Sin but it is eternal that will vex and torment you To repent is to take a bitter though wholesome Potion and Impenitency is followed with Damnation Say you purpose and do repent yet your Sin will ever be before you either to grieve and terrifie you as it did David or to allure you to the same again as it did Augustin often Especially the sins of Blood corporal Vncleanness Apostacy after knowledg and profession of the Truth These sink Men either under sensless Sottishness or unsupportable Horror Witness Cain for the first David for the second and Francis Spira for the third because they are not only Sins but Scandals David thought he might have cover'd one Sin with another Adultery with Murther but hereby they were both augmented and seen further Not only he himself but all Posterity must know it David did that which was right in the Eyes of the Lord save only in the matter of Uriah That stuck in Memory and shall in History Not because he had never committed other Sins but because none of the rest were so scandalous none so accented none so burdensome to the Conscience as these being against so much Light of Nature of Scripture and of Humane Laws few Repenting none without difficulty and many falling into presumption or despair by them Under the guilt of any of these for the most part Men feel either too much or too little either they keep themselves out of sight always when the Conscience is seared the Heart hardened and Men are past feeling or else they are still present and staring in the face of Conscience as it were with the eyes of many Devils Think of this aforehand and beware 1. Of Apostacy in whole or in part because it is better never to know the way of Righteousness than to sin against Knowledg 2. Of Murther because Men are made after God's Image and such Blood crieth from the Earth till it have hearing So many drops of Blood so many Tongues and every drop a Voice to cry for Vengeance Give them Blood to drink for they are worthy Rev. 16.6 And it is threatned He that sheddeth Man's Blood by Man his Blood shall be shed Gen. 9.6 3. Of Adultery because it brings with it much guilt and great stain upon the Soul Hoc grande flagitium est saith Job 31.11 This is an hainous Crime a Wickedness with a witness a Fire that consumeth to destruction God will judg it who ever be slack to punish it Hear what the Scripture saith of this Sin the hainousness and danger thereof as a motive to avoid it Prov. 22.14 A Whore is a deep Ditch and he that is abhorred of the Lord shall fall therein David moiled himself in this deep Pit and there might have stuck in the Mire had not God drawn him out by a merciful Violence and purged him with Hysop from that abhorred filth Prov. 6.32 33. Who so committeth Adultery with a Woman lacketh understanding he that doth it destroyeth his own Soul A Wound and Dishonour shall he get and his Reproach shall not be wiped away It is not therefore leve peccatum a small Sin as the Pope's Canonists call it Divine Justice doth not use to kill Flies with Beetles Briefly it is a Sin that hurts both Body and Soul it hurts Men in Goods in Name Posterity and will be ever before them to make them mourn and say How have we hated Instruction and our Hearts despised Reproof And have not obeyed the Voice of our Teachers O what length and depth of Comfort doth a Man lose for a little Folly not worth the name of Pleasure because it is brutish and brings many and heavy burdens indeed a stain upon the Soul rottenness into the Bones and a blemish indelible on the Name Who would purchase that at so dear a rate which he may have for nothing Or use Violence where he may have leave and a blessing too Run the way of Hell for that Pleasure which they may enjoy more fully in the right Path and Way of Heaven This Men consider not Had David thought of the end he would never have adventured on the beginning had he thought of ever seeing Sin he would have wished he had never seen Bathsheba or that his Eyes had gone alone and left his Heart at home then they could never have brought their Lord into such a straight Remember David and all his troubles His sweet never countervailed his bitter Sawce Bathsheba was a pleasing Object for a time but Sin is fearful and grievous for ever Lust wrestleth till it bring forth Sin but Sin groweth and laboureth till it bring forth Death And although the Combat be healed and the Wound healed yet some Scars remain A great deal of preventing Sorrow and wholsome Suffering must be undergone reade it in David The Child that was born unto him must die Thamar was defiled Ammon murdred and he himself turned out of House and Kingdom by his own Son It is a bitter
their Joy and Happiness encreased thereby were this remembred it would prove a comfort to those whose Religious Friends do often end their Days in such distress For by coming so immediately from the sight of such an ugly Objâ—ct to the Intuition and Fruition of such Beauty as is in Christ the Vision is more beatifical To pass from the presence of Sin into the presence of God doth more ravish the Soul with Coelestial Joy God in Christ will excel in Beauty and Glory to that Man's Eye and Apprehension who hath lately seen the sinfulness of Sin As the Sin is never more glorious than when it breaks out of a black Cloud so the Glory of Heaven will certainly be more admirable and lovely to those unto whom Sin hath appeared exceeding sinful Now if it pass unseen these two Days and if it be not presented to be seen and loathed in one of those Hours then it will be presented at the Great-Day which is emphatically called the Day of Discovery 1 Cor. 3.13 in fulness of Horror and inevitable Fury When the Curtain shall be drawn aside and all the secrets of the World discovered and every Man see the actions of his Life as upon a piece of Tapestry spread before his Eyes appearing as so many Thorns and Venemous Beasts and no Mercy to be shewed no Grace to be offer'd when no Petitions will be received nor any Voice heard but Go ye Cursed into everlasting Fire As may be gather'd from divers passages of sacred Scripture viz. Psal 50.21 Matth. 7.22 23 25 41. Hodie hodie poenitentiae locus saith St. Augustin To day there is room for Repentance you must repent now or perish then If the Tap be not now thaw'd it may be frozen for ever Hell vomiteth up our highest desires and will afford no felicities Happy is he whose Sins are ever before him here in a grieved memory they shall never be set before him there if they vex thee now as a loathed burden they shall not torment thee then The Sins which ye have seen to Day ye shall see them again no more for ever Secondly The Grounds whereupon this truth resteth are such as follow viz. 1. That inviolable dependency which all effects and conclusions have upon their own Causes and Principles whence they flow Acts Powers and Habits are unseparable from the Person as they are one from another Every Agent is and shall be attended with its own Works the Dead in the Lord are blessed and their Works follow them The Ox knoweth his Owner and the Ass his Master's Crib Sin lieth at the Sinner's door and will acknowledg no other Master What is once done cannot be undone No Power can recal it from being Only a penitent sight of Sin may hide it from the sight of Justice and Mercy can recal it from being imputed An act contracting Guilt may pass from a Person and yet not redound upon the Person by a supernatural interposition of satisfying Merit Christ must come between and stay his Course or else Sin would not only be set before us but even upon us in full Guilt and Weight and that for ever 2. The nature of the Soul in her retaining Faculties is another Ground whereby she is necessarily enabled by reflexion to recal to see and judg all her own past Actions This is essential and therefore it is that such Power and Impressions do remain inseparated either to punish or chear them by the remembrance of things past To which you may adjoyn the office of Conscience which is to bear witness and accuse or excuse according to Demerit A guilty Conscience we use to say and more say than some are aware of what they say is as a thousand Witnesses It will tell us all that we have done for many Years ago and present us with all the Follies of our Youth This is the Book wherein Men may read their own History and Doom both what they have done and what they have deserved There are two Rules the one is God's Word which pointeth out both Estates and the other is every Man's Conscience which is privy to the frame and standing of his Heart and which of these Estates is his As long then as there is such a Soul with us endowed with such admirable Faculties viz. Understanding Memory and Conscience so long will Sin be before us if we once do evil we shall hear of it ever after till Sanctification be perfect and Grace be crowned with Glory 3. The Order of Divine Justice requiring some proportion between the pleasure taken in Sin and the vexation for it after Beautiful it appeared in coming but ugly and deformed in going sweet it was in the offer and act but bitter in the close like Hony which is very sweet but begets most bitter Choller Or as Claudius his Mushrom which was pleasant but poysonful How much she hath glorified her self and lived deliciously so much torment and sorrow give her Rev. 18.7 As it shall appear hereafter with the Impenitents in Hell suffering by way of Satisfaction so it is here on Earth with Penitents suffering by way of Correction Intention of delight in the act of sinning is justly recompensed with extension of continued Grief It will vex you long because it did affect you much Sin was before you when it should not and now it must be before you when you would not Justice being refused in the first will be heard in the latter Thirdly The Ends of all this wherefore a single Commission is followed with frequent Presentations we may conceive to be such as these 1. To keep the Heart of God's People in a spiritual frame of Self-denial and Humility and that the habitual grace of Repentance may be upheld and more lively in exercise Hereupon I am apt to think that Mr. Fox that industrious preserver of the Honour of many of God's Servants was observed to say That nothing did him more hurt than his Graces nothing more good than his Sins being ever before him His Graces through the prevailing power of Corruption remaining were ready to puff him up and to set him in God's room by self-seeking whilst his Sins kept him down and kept him humble and meek Few know the benefit of this Combat It is one of the best remedies against spiritual Pride and Security to keep the Mind upon Sin and Sin in the Mind Hence that confident speech of renowned Austin I dare be bold to say that it is good for proud Persons to fall into some Sin Vnde sibi displiceant qui jam sibi placendo ceciderunt Salubrius enim Petrus displicuit quando flevit quà m sibi placuit quando presumpsit Aug. de Civit. Dei lib. 14. That they may be humbled as Peter was and so saved 2. To terrifie his Adversaries and so to leave them inexcusable when the full weight of Sin falls upon them If the memory of Sin do so follow them which have repented and are pardoned how will it be
with the Impenitent And what shall be the end of those who obey not the Gospel Cain had his Sin presented in the Morning and Judas in the evening of his Day to assure all Men that they are sure to hear of Sin again either sooner or later 3. It is to admonish all sorts to be Wise and Watchful lest Sin deceive them It cometh masked and goeth away smoothly as if it would never return and say it were so minded indeed yet Justice will recal it and cause it to be unvail'd at such a time when you shall have best leisure to attend it and look upon it As it is with a Serjeant who hath a Warrant to Arrest a Debtor but seeing him in the company of many of his Friends who are to stand up for him passeth by as if he saw him not or meant no such matter against him till after winding about he meets him alone and carrieth him away So it is here Sin hath authority the strength of Sin is the Law to attach every Son of Adam but seeing them in the height of Carnal Content and Jollity Eating Drinking Playing and fearing nothing while they are in such delightful and Sin-pleasing Company nothing is done Sin is not seen Conscience is not discharged all is at rest and quiet till after some time they are found alone withdrawn from their wild Companions into a Sick-bed or before the Judgment-seat of Christ then Sin comes suddenly and irresistably like the Philistines upon Sampson then account must be given of old Scores and every one must bear his own burden there is no way to escape no Bail to be taken 4. We may conceive it is to perfect Mortification and to prevent the dangerous violence of Enemies from without Satan tempteth the World allureth Company entice and bad examples would draw us powerfully after them did not this Image past terrifie and withhold us by continual Alarms Take heed and yield not for your lives remember my Wormwood and my Gall and like the burnt Child dread the fire c. This Sin doth not directly and by it self but accidentally and as it is over-ruled and ordered by an higher Hand occasionally to humble and drive us out of our selves that we may fetch daily more mortifying Virtue from Christ Thus Light is brought out of Darkness and Good extracted out of Evil. The Vse of this Point may be three-fold First To inform the Judgment of two things 1. About the deceitfulness of Sin It cometh at first pleasantly as Judeth to Holophernes dazling his Eyes with the splendor of Visage and charming his Ear with the sweetness of Discourse clad with smiling circumstances of Pleasure Profit and much Content and after it seems to go away presently as if it would never return And may be resembled not unfitly to a certain Serpent that hath a shining Skin and a pleasant smell but is a Serpent still and makes use of both only to ensnare and kill Or to the Indian Beast which hath the Face of a Man and the body of a Lion who counterfeits the sound of Flutes to charm Passengers and then entraps and kills them with a tail of the Scorpion Thus under the smiling brows of Sin may be discovered an hundred snares who strangle while they seem to embrace The cup of Hony will end in Gall even the gall of Asps Job 20.12 13. Of which Pliny writeth that it is their Poison and to this Poison is Sin there compared for when an Asp stingeth a Man it hath a provoking faculty first to make him laugh but then casteth him into a sleep till the Poison by little and little gets to the Heart after which it paineth him more than ever it delighted him so doth Sin It is a bitter sweet Bernard compareth it to the Itch which first yieldeth pleasure and afterwards smart And St. Austin saith Many devour that on Earrh which they must digest in Hell where they shall have Punishment without Pity Misery without Mercy Sorrow without Succour Torments without End Thus as the Ancients that have delighted to make Medals caused the Faces of them to be quite different and contrary on the one side they graved an Achilles on the other they figured a Thersites if on one side an Absolon on the other an Aesop if on one side a Rose on the other an Onion The same may be observed in the Medal of Sin if you look on the one side you shall see a Figure infinitly charming on the other an hideous Fury When therefore thou art making a covenant with Sin say O Man to thy Soul as Boaz said to his Kinsman Ruth 4.4 What time thou buyest it thou must have Ruth with it So if thou wilt have the sweet of Sin thou must have the Curse with it and let thy Soul answer as he doth No I may not do it I shall spoil a better Inheritance Follow Aristotle's advice to look upon Pleasure going and not coming Principium dulce est sed finis amoris amarus Laeta venire Venus tristis abire solet They leave Horror and Terror behind them As the Head of the Polypus which is sweet to the Palat but after causeth troublesome Sleep and frightful Dreams as Plutarch reporteth At present you only see the pleasure not the torment of Sin Look upon Cain and Judas and they will tell thee what a Scorpion it will be in thy side one time or other That with Orphean Ayrs and dextrous Warbles it will lead thee to the flames of Hell 2. About the folly of Man to think otherwise of Sin either that God will forget it or that they shall never see it again Hence it is that there are so many flie and hypocritical Persons in the World that labour to carry all things in the Clouds and dark Contrivances that think to dance in a Net as we say and not be seen and are still very desperate Wretches close Drunkards Cheaters despisers of that which is Good Well let them look to it and remember the words of Moses to the Tribes of Israel Reuben and Gad Numb 32.23 Be sure your Sin will find you out God is Justice and Memory it self he cannot forget nor things as they now stand forgive without satisfaction made and applied Man is the unhappy Parent of Sin and must acknowledg his own issue As sure then as there is an ever-living God above and an everlasting Light within a Man a Soul with retaining Faculties and reflecting Power enobled with that branch of Eternity Immortality so sure will Sin return and the Soul shall see and acknowledg her own Actions either here to begin and continue Evangelical sorrow or hereafter to beget and increase Infernal Horrors and Terrors inexpressible It is great weakness to think otherwise Believe those that have had and given experience of this Truth who have felt the burden of Sin and have been hunted with it from place to place and could find no peace nor rest a long time and all because
tell him what he should do And those of whom mention is made Acts 2.37.16.30 with many other such of our own observation were brought into great distress through fear and desire fear of Sin desire of God's Love and Favour not able to resist any where Men and Brethren what shall we do Comforts they refuse Threatnings they apply with hand and heart witty and ready they are to hurt themselves as if their vital and animal Spirits were stopp'd in their Passage by some Disease they are often near sinking such affinity and agreement there is between the Mind and the Body Observe such troubled Spirits you may to look heavily sigh deeply as if the Heart would break and at last to cry out Wo and alas if this and that be so as I fear it is and do believe how can I be saved If the spots of a Leopard can be wiped out if the hue of an Indian can be changed if a Camel can go through the eye of a Needle then may I be cleansed renewed and saved But Lord how can that be is there any Balm any Blood any Mercy for such an one as I Tell me O my Friends speak thou Man of God was there ever such an one read or heard of a presumptuous Sinner a beastly Wretch a close Lover of Wickedness an Hater of Holiness To look upon I am afraid of my self what shall I do whither shall I fly say do not you loath me and blush to behold and hear me was there ever such an one as I accepted This is that narrow Way that leads many to Life that great Strait whereinto the right dearly beloved of the Lord are often brought to learn how that is possible to God which is impossible with Men. As the Woman by God's appointment is to bring forth in pangs and travail so must the Heart of Man ordinarily labour till Christ be formed in it 2. How and after what manner doth the Lord effect this It is either by removing Impediments or by presenting to the Eye of the Conscience 1. The many deceitful Grounds there are whereon Men naturally rest and boast of as if their Estate at worst were well enough And till these deceitful Props be removed they will not in earnest seek after Christ much less accept him to rest upon him These the Lord removes by shewing unto Men their weakness and insufficiency to yeeld them any comfort And they are either inward or outward Inward as Knowledg without Love Invention without Judgment and a Memory without any practical delight in the Notions retained all which a Man may have and yet be no better than a Devil the sufficiency of Baptismal Regeneration without any care or thought to perform Conditions These being without the power of Godliness are only as a dead Corps strewed and adorned with Flowers as a gouty Foot covered with a Crimson Shoo or a Statue of Earth and Dirt with some glorious colouring and old Sepulchers with new painting over them The Lord convinceth them that this Ark is not sure enough to keep them in the deluge of many Waters yea that all things without Grace will prove an Aggravation of their Condemnation As in some Countries when their Malefactorâ— were to be burn'd in the Fire they poured Oil and Pitch to encrease their Torments so will every Privilege make Hell the hotter for such as these In the day when the fiery Trial shall be all their painting will melt away Outward as Riches Honour Health Learning meer Civility and Formality all commendable in their kind but not sufficient These Men may have and yet come short of Grace and Life in Glory Few rich Men shall be saved 1 Cor. 1.26 Corpulent Birds seldom fly high These many things cumber them And If your Righteousness exceed not the Righteousness of the Scribes and Pharisees you cannot enter into the Kingdom of God The best of these are but Weeds in God's Garden Tares in his Wheat Chaff in his Floor Therefore the Lord doth wisely and timely remove these Impediments 2. He presenteth Sin and the Consequents thereof in their true Colours pulleth off the Skin of that Viper washes off the paint and shews its Face in full deformity And this he doth ordinarily four ways viz. 1. By corporal Calamities and temporal Rods occasionally opening that Eye which Prosperity and Security had fast closed As in Joseph's Brethren and the Prodigal Son we have an Instance The former Gen. 42.21 declare the force of Conscience and fruit of Affliction Old Sins are brought to a new reckoning We are very guilty concerning our Brother in that we saw the Anguish of his Soul when he besought us and we would not hear therefore is this Evil come upon us The latter came to himself when he was under want his Affliction like Eye-bright Water had a strange and great Influence on his bedulled Sight now he resolves to go to his Father Yea many now living can say I doubt not It is good for them that they have been afflicted They had been undone had they not been undone that they might go weeping towards Heaven while others go laughing towards Hell Poverty may be so ordered as to prove a Preparative to Spiritual Riches Imprisonment antecedent to Evangelical Liberty Sickness and weakness of Body often tendeth to the strength and health of the Inner Man This brings to mind that Story in Bromiardus concerning an Apprentice that had served an hard Master by whom he had been sore beaten These Blows the Lord had made a means of the Man's Conversion Whereupon lying on his Death-bed and his Master standing by he catched hold fast on his hands and kissed them saying Hae manus perduxerunt me ad Paradisum These hands have helped to bring me to Paradise And Beza tells us of himself that God was pleased to lay the Foundation of his Spiritual Health in a violent Sickness which befell him at Paris Morbus iste verae Sanitatis principium Ep. praefix Confess What is it that God cannot make the Channel to bring in the Ship the Cistern-pipes to convey the Water whose Spring is in Heaven Ezekiel's Wheels shall move if the Spirit drive them and the Pool of Bethesda communicate Health if the Angel descend and stir the Waters Blessed is the Man whom thou correctest and teachest 2. By Spiritual Combats raised by the Spirit of Bondage between Fear and Desire Hope and Distrust continued and encreased by the unregenerate Will going one way and the Light of natural Conscience going another way so that their very Constitution is in discord there is no more agreement than between Fire and Water by reason of which the Soul is brought into great Anguish much Fear because of Sin and the great Danger it apprehends as the Consequents of both these Conflicts being like the Opposition of Planets in the Superiour Orb fore-runners of great Evils 3. Usually it is by the Ministry of the Law that School-master whose Lash makes Sinners Backs
to smart whereby the Lord awakeneth Conscience indeed and striketh terror into the Hearts of his Chosen casting them down very low to Self-denial he breaks their stony Hearts in pieces convincing Men as Transgressors telling them that they are the Men even Men of Death this they have done and that they deserve discovering millions of Sins more than they ever dreamed of quickning Sin in the Conscience and putting a Weapon into its hand to kill the Sinner under his Guilt For this is properly the Office of the Law to detect and convince Men of such and such Sins to pass sentence against them for those Sins and to follow them so convicted with a thundring noise from place to place hedging and hemming them in on every side that they can neither get out nor be quiet any where till they humble themselves and fall down before the Lord's Mercy-Seat Fourthly We may not exclude from this Preparative Work a branch of the Gospel which the Lord makes use of for the completing this Preparation by it as by beams and heat from a Fire far off to soften and melt those broken pieces that so the Heart being ready to fall asunder and grieving more kindly than it can do under mere Legal Terrors may readily and delightfully admit of Spiritual Infusions and be the more speedily brought into a new Mould And this the Gospel doth First By unvailing unto such distressed Minds the holy and pure Nature of God himself which the Law discovereth only as he is a Creature the Gospel further as he is a Father his patience and loving kindness in Christ his rich Mercy great Love Free-Grace those Spiritual Beams by which the Divine Nature shines forth upon us Saul Saul why persecutest thou me One that is so holy and harmless one that hath done so much for thee one that doth so entirely love thee and desire thy good Hast thou none to sin against but thy Saviour None to abuse but thy Friend None to kick against but the Bowels of Love Did not I suffer enough upon the Cross Must I needs suffer more This struck the Nail on the Head this made his Eyes to water his Heart to melt with this kind salutation Saul's hard Heart was softned and made pliable to a further work Secondly By discovering the sinfulness of Sin that it is not only fearful as the Law saith but filthy also not only evil but the greatest evil whence once disrobed of that pleasing and deceitful shining Skin patcht up of the shreds of Pleasure Profit and Carnal Content it is apprehended as opposit to the greatest Good and consequently more to be hated and avoided than Hell There is no Hell without Sin nor any Heaven with Sin Hell is Penal but Sin is a Criminal evil The evil of pain is contrary to the good of a finite being only while the evil of fault is opposite to an infinite purity Both these namely the Law and the Gospel being thus amplified prest and applied to the sinners Soul so that he can find no starting hole to evade no corner to run into no gap open to get out of this Wilderness by this time it comes to pass that he finds a combustion in his Brest a fire kindled in his Bones such new trouble as he never felt now Hope appears anon Despair at one time Fear another time Love cometh into the Soul like flashes of Lightning both followed with Tears and Complaints he may be often heard to sigh and sometime to beat the Brest and say O Lord that I could repent O that I could believe O that I had a soft tender Heart That my Head were Waters and mine Eyes a fountain of Tears that I might weep Day and Night Help me O my Friends for the terrours of the Almighty oppress me he makes me inherit the sins of my youth so that I am ready to sink Help me O my God to do what thou commandest command what thou wilt and thou shalt not command in vain Make me a Man after thy own Heart give me O give if not a Fountain yet a Stream if not a Stream yet some few drops of penitent Tears to ease a burdned Heart and to prepare a loathsom Soul for the more precious streams of Christ's Blood And yet as if all this were not enough behold and see there steppeth up another Witness more against this terrified Creature And that is a reflecting power of the Soul called Conscience which joyneth with the Law and Gospel in their Sentence and meeting him alone as flying from both the former and hoping somewhere to escape assaults the poor Soul and concludes to this effect Nay whither now Think not to shift off all hope not to carry all away as Sampson did the Gates go not about to hide it do not deny or extenuate it for all this is true which thou hast heard from the Law and Gospel O wretched Creature thus and thus hath God walked towards thee in Justice in Mercy in Power in Patience and Bounty he sent Christ with healing in his Wings to heal and do thee good and yet thus and thus rebelliously and ungratefully hast thou walked towards him thou hast put away Salvation bolted out thy Physician What wilt thou say Whither wilt thou go Nay nay think not of pleading dream not of flying much less of any hiding except thou wilt contract farther guilt and a greater burden on thy self which is heavy enough already Down proud Heart down with it lower than thy Knees cloath thy self in Sack-cloth and Ashes put a Rope about thy Neck as Benhadads Servants did confess thy faults humbly aggravate thy folly ingenuously and then thou mayst hope to hear the voice of Mercy there is no way to flie from him but by falling down before him Blood-letting is a cure of Bleeding To close and get in is the only way to avoid the blow Thirdly Why the Lord thus brings his Children into the Wilderness Answ All God's Actions are ordered by infinite Wisdom therefore some reason may always be rendred of his Will In case we apprehend it not we must acknowledg the weakness of our own Capacities and subscribe it without enquiring after any Reason because we know it is his Will Yet in this business something may be said as probable and with due reverence He doth it First To divorce the Heart from Sin and to break that Love-knot between the Heart and Sin in every Natural Man which ordinarily is not done without some throws of this Spiritual Trouble While Men run up and down in the seeming pleasant fields of Liberty sin is sweet and fair unto them so far from fear that they are in love with it Who ever saw a covetous Vsurer troubled in mind when he is telling his Money and reckoning up his Bonds and Bills An Adulterer mourning with his Mistress in his Arms Belshazzar indeed was taken and troubled among his Cups and so are some Drunkards but that was an extraordinary