haughty some hasty and the like or as in every mans body there is a seed and principle of death yet some are more prone to die of a Fever than of a Dropsie and others are more prone to die of a Dropsie than of a Fever c. So though original sin hath spread it self over all our noble and ignoble parts yet every man hath his particular inclinations to one kind of sin rather than another and this may properly be called a mans own sin his own evil way Now mark a gracious heart makes most head most opposition against his darling sin against his complexion sin against those sins that were once as dear to him as his right hand or as his right eye or as Dalilah was to Sampson Herodias to Herod Isaac to Abraham and Joseph to Jacob Psal 18.23 I was also upright before him and I kept my self from mine iniquâ—ty That is from my darling sin whereunto I was most inclined and addicted what this bosom sin was that he kept himself from In that 1 Sam. 21.2 8. he tells three or four round lyes and the like he did in that 1 Sam. 27.8 10. is hard to say Some suppose his darling sin was lying dissembling for it is certain he often fell into this sin Psal 119.29 Remove from me the way of lying others suppose it to be some secret iniquity which was only known to God and his own conscience others say it was uncleanness and that therefore he prayed that God would turn away his eyes from beholding vanity Psal 119.37 Others juge it to be that sin of disloyalty which Saul and his Courtiers falsly charged upon him Well be it this or that it is enough for our purpose that his heart did rise against that very sin that either by custom or complexion or some strong inclination he was most naturally apt ready and prone to fall into This is the laying of the ax to the root of the Tree and by this practise David gives a clear proof of the integrity of his heart Jer. 17.1 2. Hos 2. â— Isa 31.6 7. 44.9 c. Idolatry was the darling sin of the people of Israel they called their Idols delectable or desirable things they did dearly affect and greatly delight in their Idols But when the Lord in the day of his power wrought savingly and gloriously upon their hearts Oh! how did their hatred and indignation against their Idols rise as you may see Isa 30.22 Ye shall defile also the covering of thy graven images of silver and the ornament of thy moiten images of gold thou shalt cast them away as a menstrous cloth thou shaâ—t say unto it get thee hence They were so delighted and enamouâ—ed with their Idols that they would lavish gold out of the bag or they waste or spend riotously as the Hebrew runs that they might richly deck them up Isa 46.6 After the return of the Jews out of Babylon they so hated and abhorted Idols that in the times of the Romans they chose rather to die than to suffâ—r the Eagle which was the imperial arms to be set up in their Temple and set them forth in the greatest glory and bravery O but when the Lord should make a glorious turn upon their spirits then they should readily and roundly deface defile and disgrace their Idols then they should hate and abhor them then they should so detest and loath them that in a holy indignation they should cast them away as a menstrous cloth and say unto them get ye hence pack be gone I will never have any more to do with you And so in that Isa 2.20 In that day that is in the day of his people vers 17. A man shall cast his idols of silver and hâ—s idols of gold which they made each one for himself to worship to the Moles and to the Bats In the day when God should exalt himself in the souls of his people and before the eyes of his people they should express such disdain and indignation against their Idols that they should not take only those made of Trees and Stones but even their most precious and costly Idols those that were made of silver and gold and cast them to the Moles and to the Bats that is they should cast them into such blind holes and into such dark filthy nasty and dusty corners as Moles make under ground and as Bats roust in So when Christ and grace and holiness comes to be set up in mens hearts and lives then all their darling sins their bosom lusts which are their Idols of silver and their Idols of gold these are with a holy indignation cast to the Moles and to the Bats they are so loathed abhorred abandoned and cashiered that they desire they may be for ever buried in oblivion and never see the light more Idols were Ephraim's bosom sin Hos 4.17 Ephraim is joyned or glewed as the word signifies to Idols let him alone But when the dew of grace fell upon Ephraim as it did in Chap. 14.5 6 7. Then saith Ephraim What have I any more to do with Idols ver 8. Now Ephraim loaths his Idols as much or more than before he loved them he now abandons and abominates them though before he was as closly glewed to them as the wanton is glewed to his Dalilah or as the enchanter is glewed to the Devil from whom by no means he is able to stir as the words in the fountain imports When it was the day of the Lords power upon Ephraim then Ephraim cryes out What have I any more to do with Idols O I have had to do with them too long and too much already O how doth my foul now rise against them how do I detest and abhor them Deut. 13.6 7 8 9. Surely I will never have more to do with them The Scripture tells us That if father or mother or brother or sister or kinsman or friend should go about to draw a man from God his hand should be first upon him to put him to death Now bosom sins complexion sins they seek to draw a mans heart from God and therefore a gracious soul can't but rise up against them Gen. 27.41 and do his best to stone them and to be the death of them The dayes of mourning for my father are at hand saith bloudy Esau then will I slay my brother Jacob 't is a bloudy speech of a vindictive spirit whom nothing would satisfie but innocent bloud So saith the gracious soul The dayes of mourning for the death of my dear Saviour are now at hand and therefore I will slay my bosom lusts my constitution sins now will I be revenged on them for all the dishonours that they have done to God and for all the wounds that they have made in my conscience and for all the mercies that they have imbittered and for all the favours that they have prevented and for all the afflictions that they have procured and
turning from sin shall find no more sweetness in that grand promise of pardon Prov. 28.13 than devils or damned spirits do Look as one sin unforgiven will as certainly undo and damn a man as a thousand so one sin unforsaken will as certainly undo and damn a man as a thousand The true penitent is as willing to turn from all his sins as he is willing that God should pardon all his sins But Eighthly and lastly There is in every penitent a sincere hatred of sin a universal hatred of sin Psal 97.10 Ye that love the Lord hate evil Prov. 8.13 The fear of the Lord is to hate evil True hatred is to the whole kind Arist Amos 5.15 Hate the evil and love the good Psal 119.104 Through thy precepts I get understanding therefore I hate every false way Ver. 128. Therefore I esteem all thy precepts concerning all things to be right and I hate every false way Ver. 113. I hate vain thoughts but thy Law do I love Ver. 163. I hate and abhor lying but thy Law do I love True hatred is universal 't is of the whole kind he who hates a toad because it is a toad hates every toad he that hates a serpent because it is a serpent hates every serpent he that hates a wolf because 't is a wolf hates every wolf he that hates a man because he is holy hates every man that is holy and so he that hates sin because it is sin hates every sin and therefore he can't but turn from it and labour to be the death and ruin of it Holy hatred is an implacable and an irreconcilable affection you shall as soon reconcile God and Satan together Christ and Antichrist together heaven and hell together as you shall be able to reconcile a penitent soul and his sin together A true penitent looks upon every sin as contrary to the Law of God the nature of God the being of God the glory of God and accordingly his heart rises against it he looks upon every sin as poyson as the vomit of a dog as the mire of the street as the * Pliny saith that the very trees with touching of it would become barren menstrous cloth which of all things in the Law was most unclean defiling and polluting and this turns his heart against every sin he looks upon every sin as having a hand in apprehending betraying binding scourging condemning and murdering of his Lord and Master Jesus Christ and this works him not only to refrain from sin but to forsake it and not only to forsake it but also to abhor it and to loath it more than hell it self The penitent soul will do all he can to be the death of every sin that has had a hand in the death of his Lord and Master he looks upon the sins of his body to be the tormentors of Christ's body and the sins of his soul to be the tormentors of Christ's soul to be those that made his soul heavy to the death and that caused the withdrawings of his father's love from him and that forced him in the anguish of his soul to cry out Mat. 27.46 My God my God why hast thou forsaken me And this raises up in him a universal hatred of sin and a universal hatred of sin alwayes issues in a universal turning from sin Now these eight arguments do sufficiently prove that a true penitential turning is a universal turning a turning not from some sins but from all sins But some may be ready to object Object and say Sir this is a hard saying who can hear it who can bear it John 6.60 who shall then be saved for if a man repents not unless he turns from every sin then there is not a man to be found in all the world that repents for there is not a man in all the world that turns from every sin that forsakes every sin c. 1 King 8.46 For there is no man that sinneth not Prov. 20.9 Who can say Job 9.30 31. Psal 130.3 2 Chron. 6.36 Job 14.4 Psal 51.5 Ponder upon these Scriptures c. I have made my heart clean I am pure from my sin It is a question that implyes a strong denial Who can say it and say it truly that he is pure from his sin surely none He that shall say that he has made his heart clean and that he is pure from his sin sins in so saying and commonly there are none more unclean than those that say they have made their hearts clean nor none more impure than they that say they are pure from their sin Eccl. 7.20 For there is not a just man upon the earth that doth good and sinneth not These words in their absolute sense are a full testimony of the imperfection of our inherent righteousness in this life and that even justified persons come very short of that exact and perfect obedience which the Law requireth James 3.2 For in many things we offend all or as the Greek has it we stumble all 'T is a metaphor taken from Travellers walking on stony or slippery ground who are very apt to stumble or slide This Apostle was worthily called James the just and yet he numbers himself among the rest of the sanctified ones that in many things offended all The Apostle does not say in many things they offend all but in many things we offend all We that have more gifts than others we that have more grace than others we that have more assurance than others we that have more experiences than others we that have more preservatives to keep us from sin than others even we in many things offend all nor the Apostle doth not say in some things we offend all but in many things we offend all the Apostle speaking not of the singular individual acts of sin but of the divers sorts of sin nor the Apostle does not say in many things we may offend all but in many things we do offend all 1 John 1.8 If we say that we have no sin we deceive our selves and the truth is not in us The Apostle does not say if thou sayest thou hast no sin thou deceivest thy self as if he spake to some particular person only but if we say we have no sin we deceive our selves nor the Apostle does not say if ye say ye have no sin ye deceive your selves as if he intended weak or ordinary Christians alone but if we say we have no sin we deceive our selves we Apostles we that in all grace and in all holiness and in all spiritual enjoyments exceed and excel all others even we sin as well as others He that is so ignorant and so impudent so saucy and so silly as to say he has no sin sins in saying so and has no sincerity no integrity nor no ingenuity in him Ver. 10. If we say we have not sinned we make him a lyar and his word is not in us As much as in us lyes we make
A CABINET OF CHOICE JEVVELS OR A Box of precious Ointment Being a plain Discovery of or what men are worth for Eternity and how 't is like to go with them in another World Here is also a clear and large Discovery of the several rounds in Jacob's Ladder that no Hypocrite under Heaven can climb up to Here are also such closs piercing distinguishing and discovering evidences as will reach and suit those Christians who are highest in Grace and spiritual Enjoyments and here are many Evidences which are suited to the Capacities and Experiences of the weakest Christians in Christ's School And here Christians may see as in a Glass what a sober Use and Improvement they ought to make of their evidences for Heaven and how in the use of their gracious evidences they ought to live First upon the free grace of God Secondly upon the Mediatory righteousness of Christ Thirdly upon the Covenant of Grace With several other Points of grand Importance c. By Thomas Brooks formerly Preacher of the Gospel at St. Margarets New-Fishstreet Brethren give diligence to make your calling and election sure 2 Pet. 1.10 Examine your selves whether ye be in the faith prove your own selves know ye not your own selves how that Jesus Christ is in you except ye be reprobates Or 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 unapproved or rejected Omnis anima est aut sponsa Christi aut adultera Diaboli Austin London Printed and are to be sold by John Hancock at the first Shop in Popes-Head-Alley in Cornhil at the sign of the three Bibles or at his Shop in Bishops-Gate-Street near great St. Hellins 1669. To the Right Worshipful Sir John Frederick Knight and the Lady Mary Frederick his pious Consort To Mr. Nathaniel Herne and Mrs. Judith his vertuous Wife All confluence of blessings both for this Life and for that which is to come from the Father of Mercies and God of all Consolations Honoured and Beloved in our Lord Jesus THough I croud your Names together yet I owe more than an Epistle to each of your Names but the Loâ—d having made you near and dear one to another more wayes than one I take the boldness to present this Treatise to you jointly Here is nothing in this Book that relates to the Government of Church or State The design of this Treatise is to shew what men are worth for Eternity and how it is like to go with them in another World Granctensis tells of a woman that was so affected with souls miscarryings that she besought God to stop up the passage into hell with her soul and body that none might have entrance O anima Dei insignita imagine desponsata fide donata spiritu c. Bern. O divine soul invested with the image of God espoused to him by faith c. There are none of the sons of men but bear about with them precious and immortal souls that are more worth than ten thousand thousand worlds if the soul be safe all is safe if that be well all is well if that be lost all is lost The first great work that men are to attend in this World is the eternal safety and security of their souls the next great work is to know to be assured that it shall go well with their souls for ever And these are the main things that are aimed at in this Discourse The soul is the better and more noble part of man upon the soul the Image of God is most fairly stampt the soul is first converted and the soul shall be first and most glorified the soul is that spiritual and immortal substance that is capable of union with God and of communion with God and of an eternal fruition of God Plato though a Heathen could say That he thought the soul to be made all of eternity and that the putting the soul into the body was a sign of great wrath from God Each living corps must yield at last to death Pindarus And every life must leese his vital breath The soul of man that only lives on high And is an image of Eternity The Romans when their Emperors and great Ones died and their bodies were buried they caused an Eagle to mount on high thereby to signifie the souls immortality and ascent He gave good counsel who said Play not the Courtier with your soul the Courtier doth all things late he rises late and dines late and sups late and repents late A Scythian Captain having for a draught of water delivered up his City cryed out Quid perdidi quid prodidi What have I lost what have I betrayed So many at last will cry out What have I lost what have I betrayed I have lost God and Christ and Heaven and have betrayed my precious and immortal soul into the hands of divine Justice and into the hands of Satan Who these men are that will at last thus cry out this Treatise does discover I have read that there was a time when the Romans did wear jewels on their shoes Most men in this day do worse for they trample that matchless jewel of their souls under feet and who these are this Treatise does discover One well observes Chrysost That whereas God hath given many other things double two eyes to see with two ears to hear with two hands to work with and two feet to walk with to the intent that the failing of the one might be supplied by the other but he hath given us but one soul and if that be lost hast thou saith he another soul to give in recompence for it Now who those are whose souls are in a safe estate and who those are whose souls are in danger of being lost for ever this Treatise does plainly and fully discover Psal 15. Psal 144.15 To describe to the life who that man is that is truly happy in this world and that shall be blest for ever in the other world is the work of this ensuing Treatise The grace of the Covâ—nant in us is a sure evidence of Gods entring into the Covenant of grace with us To be in a gracious state is true happiness but to know our selves to be in such a state is the top of our happiness in this world A man may have grace and yet for a time not know it 1. Joh. 5.13 The child lives in the womb but does not know it A man may be in a gracious state and yet not see it Psal 77. Psal 88. he may have a saving work of God upon his soul and yet not discern it he may have the root of the matter in him and yet not be able to evidence it Now to help such poor hearts to a right understanding of their spiritual condition and that they may see and know what they are worth for another world and so go to their graves in joy and peace I have sent this Treatise abroad into the world Will you give me leave to say First Some men of name
for all the duties that they have hindered Judg. 16.28 Sampson pleads hard with God that he might be avenged on the Philistines for his two eyes and so doth the gracious soul plead hard with God that he may be avenged on his bosom lusts on his complexion sins which have put out his two eyes which have so blinded him that he has not for a long time been able to see God or Christ or the things that belong to his external internal or eternal peace The next of kin in the Law was alwayes the avenger of bloud and to him it appertained to hunt after the murderer to bring upon his head the innocent bloud that he had shed if therefore we will shew our selves brethren or sisters of Christ or any thing of kin unto him we must even be the avengers of his bloud upon bosom sins upon complexion sins for for them as well as others was his bloud shed O Sirs what bosom sin is there so sweet or profitable that is worth a burning in hell for or worth a shutting out of heaven for surely none This a gracious soul seriously weighs and accordingly he sets himself against the Toad in his bosom against his darling sins against his complexion sins But now unsound hearts are very favourable to bosom sins to complexion sins they say of them as Lot of Zoar Gen. 19.20 Is it not a little one and my soul shall live And as David once said concerning Absalom 2 Sam. 18.5 Deal gently for my sake with the young man even with Absalom beware that none touch the young man Absalom Ver. 12. And the King said is the young man Absalom safe Ver. 29. An unsound heart is as fond of his bosom sins 2 King 5.18 of his complexion sins as Jacob was of his Benjamin or as Jeha was of his calves or as Naaman was of his Idol Rimmon or as Judas was of bearing the bag or as Herod was of his Herodias Acts 19. or as Demetrius was of his Diana or as the Pharisees were of devouring widows houses Mat. 23. and of having the uppermost seats in the Synagogues and of being saluted in the market places with those glorious titles Rabbi Rabbi The besotted sinner is most engaged to his bosom sins his complexion sins and therefore 't is as bitter a thing as death for him to part with them Mich. 6.6 7. he had rather part with burnt-offerings and calves of a year old he had rather part with thousands of Rams and with ten thousand Rivers of oyl yea he had rather part with his first-born than with his bosom sin Job 20.12 13. he is ready to give the fruit of his body for the sin of his soul Let God frown or smile stroke or strike lift up or cast down promise or threaten yet he will hide and hold fast his bosom sin let God set life and death heaven and hell glory and misery before him yet will he not part with his bosom sins let God wound his conscience blow upon his estate leave a blot upon his name crack his credit afflict his body Jer. 20.3 4. write death upon his relations and be a Magor-missabib a terror to his soul yet will he not let go his darling sins An unsound heart will rather let God go and Christ go and heaven go and all go than he will let his darling lusts go But now a sound Christian a throuhgout Christian he sets himself most against the Dalilah in his bosom against the Benjamin the son the sin of his right hand A sincere Christian looks upon bosom sins upon complexion sins as the most God-provoking sins there are no sins so provoking to Gods jealousies and justice as bosom sins he looks upon bosom sins complexion sins a the most dangerous sins he looks upon bosom sins complexion sins as the worst thing in all the world he looks upon bosom sins complexion sins as more ugly and horrid than the devil himself or than hell it self he looks upon bosom sins as the great make-bates between God and his soul and between his conscience and his comfort Isa 59.1 2. Lamen 3.8 44. he looks upon bosom sins as those enemies that have provoked God often to turn a deaf ear to all his prayers he looks upon his bosom sins as so many Judas's that have often betrayed him into the hands of the devil he looks upon his bosom sins as the waters of Marah that has imbittered all his mercies he looks upon his bosom sins as the only things that have often clouded the face of God he looks upon his bosom sins as dead flies in the box of precious ointment that spoyls all and accordingly with all his might he sets himself against them 1. He fights most against these 2. He weeps most over these 3. He watches and aâ—ms most against these 4. He prayes most against these 5. He resolves most against these And 6. He layes the axe of repentance most to these c. But pray Sir before you close up this Chapter lay down some sure and infallible evidences of the goodness graciousness and happiness of their estates and conditions who are but weak in grace who are but babes of grace that so they may have their portion satisfaction support and consolation as well as others Ans I shall endeavour to do it and therefore thus Sixthly True desires of grace is grace true desires after Christ and grace and holiness is grace he who does sincerely desire to believe he does really believe and he that does sincerely desire to repent he does really repent and he that does sincerely desire to obey the Lord 1 Pet. 2.3 4. 2 Chron. 30.18 19 Mat. 7.8 Psal 42.1 2. Psal 63.1 c. and to fear the Lord and to serve the Lord he does really obey the Lord and fear the Lord and serve the Lord. It is the first step to grace for a man to see his heart void of grace and it is the first degree of grace for a man to desire grace Mark all true desires of grace have the very nature and truth of grace in them As there is true fire in a spark as well as in a flame and true water in a drop as well as in a stream and true light in a beam as well as in the Sun and true gold in the very filings of gold as well as in the whole wedge of gold the least of any thing partakes of the nature of the whole Isa 55.1 2. 65. 1. John 7.37 True desires of grace argues a state of grace and salvation Psal 38.9 Lord thou knowest all my desire my groanings is not hid from thee Mat. 5.6 Blessed are they which do hunger and thirst after righteousness for they shall be filled or as the Greek runs after the participle of the present tense they that are hungering and thirsting intimating that where ever this is the present disposition of mens souls they are blessed
his pride his hardness his obdurateness his envy his malice his hatred c. but he cryes out take away the judgment take away the judgment take away the frogs take away the lice take away the caterpillars c. But under all these dreadful and amazing judgments that he was under such a word as this never fell from his lips take away my sin O Lord take away my sins thy judgments do terrifie me but my sins will damn me and therefore what ever becomes of my life kingdom and crown take away my sins and save my soul David saw sin to be a greater evil than flying before his enemies or than famine or pestilence was and therefore he desires rather to be rid of his sins than to be rid of the punishment that was due to his sin but Pharaoh saw no such evil in sin and therefore he cryes out take away the plague take away the plague And Job upon the dunghil cryes out I have sinned what shall I do unto thee O thou preserver of men Job Job 7.20 does not cry out O I have lost all my substance I am bereaved of all my children I am set as naked upon the dunghil as ever I was born my friends reproach me my wife tempts me to curse my God which is ten thousand times worse than to curse my self Satan persecutes me and God has not only forsaken me but is also become a severe enemy to me c. Job cryes out of his sin and not of his sufferings a deep sense of his sins swallows up as it were all sense of his sufferings And so that great Apostle Paul does not cry out O wretched man that I am that bonds attend me in every place and that I have neither house nor home to go to and that I am despised scorned reproached and persecuted and that I am accounted factious seditious rebellious erronious and that I am lookt upon as the off-scouring of the world c. O no but he cryes out of his sin O wretched man that I am who shall deliver me from this body of death Rom. 7.23 24. So the Prophet Micah I will bear the indignation of the Lord because I have sinned Micah 7.9 Though of all burdens the indignation of the Lord be the greatest burden yet divine indignation is but a light burden in comparison of sin A gracious soul can better stand under the burden of God's indignation for sin than it can stand under the burden of sin it self which hath kindled that indignation c. Thirdly Godly sorrow is a great sorrow 't is a superlative sorrow 't is a sad and serious sorrow a sincere mourning is a deep mourning it springs from serious and deep apprehensions of the great anger and deep displeasure of God and of the woful nature demerit burden bitterness vileness and filthiness of sin c. The blessed Scripture seems to make godly sorrow a superlative sorrow calling it a great mourning like the mourning of Hadadrimmon in the valley of Megiddo and a bitterness as one is in for his first-born Zech. 12.10 11. And so the Church My bowels are troubled within me mine heart is turned within me for I have grievously reâ—elled Lamen 1.20 And David watered his couch with his tears Psal 6.6 And Mary Magdalen wept much as Well as she loved much Luke 7. And Peter went out and wept bitterly Mat. 26. ult Clement observes that all the time that Peter lived after this great fall he would every night when he heard the cock crow fall upon his knees and weep bitterly Hosea 7.14 Look as shallow brooks make the greatest noise so hypocrites and formalists may howl and roar and cry and make more noise than the true penitent but yet the sorrow of a true penitent is more inward secret solid still and deep As you know the deepest Rivers run most silently and make least noise so the deepest sorrow makes least noise The mourning of repenting souls Ezek. 7.16 Isa 51.20 Isa 59.11 under the apprehensions of their sins is like the mourning of Doves but the mourning of wicked men under the apprehension of their sins is like the bellowing of Bulls and roaring of Bears Fourthly A sincere mourning is an extensive mourning 't is an universal mourning Godly sorrow and grief extends it self not only to some sins but to all sins great and small Look as a holy heart hates all sin so a holy heart mourns over all sin that it sees and knows to be sin God hates one sin as well as another and he has forbid one sin as well as another and he has revealed his wrath from heaven against one sin as well as another and he is provoked by one sin as well as another and Christ is crucified by one sin as well as another and the Spirit is grieved as well by one sin as by another and the Gospel is reproached by one sin as well as another and the conscience is wounded by one sin as well as another and Satan is gratified by one sin as well as another and wicked mens mouths are opened by one sin as well as another and young comers on in Religion are stumbled grieved and offended by one sin as well as another and the soul is endangered by one sin as well as another An unsound heart may mourn for great sins that make great wounds in his conscience and credit and that leave a great blot upon his name or that waste or rot his body or destroy his estate or that expose him to publick scorn and shame c. Prov. 5 8-14 but for sins of omission for wandring thoughts idle words deadness coldness slightness in religious duties and services unbelief secret pride self-confidence and a thousand more such gnats as these he can swallow without any remorse But now godly sorrow is of a general extent it mourns as well for small sins as for great Davids heart smote him as well for cutting off the lap of Saul's garment as it did for killing of Uriah with the sword A gracious soul weeps over many sins that none can charge upon him but God and his own conscience Psal 19.12 O cleanse thou me from secret faults Yea let me say that godly sorrow and grief extends not only to a man 's own sins but also to the sins of others as well as his own Ezek. 9.4 5. And this you may see also in David Psal 119.53 136 158. And in Jeremiah Jer. 9.1 2 3. And in Paul Phil. 3.18 And in Lot 2 Pet. 2.7 8. And if you please to turn to my Treatise on Holiness you may see seven special arguments for this their practise Page 139 to pag. 145. and therefore a touch in this place may suffice Fifthly Godly sorrow is a lasting sorrow 't is a durable sorrow as long as a Christian continues sinning he can't but continue mourning David's sins were alwayes before him Psal 51.3 though his Absalom nor his Bathsheba were not
in a way of sin but the gracious soul sayes with Job Job 34.32 If I have done iniquity I will do it no more He laments over sin and leaves it he confesses it and forsakes it and he is as willing to forgo it as he is willing that God should forgive it Seventhly All and if you please I shall give you many things in one godly sorrow is the fruit and effect of Evangelical faith it flows from faith as the stream from the fountain the branch from the root and the effect from the cause Zech. 12.10 They shall look upon him whom they have pierced and shall mourn for him as one mourneth for his only son and shall be in bitterness for him as one that is in bitterness for his first-born Look as all legal sorrow flows from a legal faith as you may see in Ahab's and the Ninevites so all Evangelical sorrow flows from an Evangelical faith They shall look upon him whom they have pierced and mourn All gracious mourning flows from looking from believing nothing breaks the heart of a sinner like a look of faith all tears of godly sorrow drop from the eye of faith godly sorrow rises and falls as faith rises and falls faith and godly sorrow are like the fountain and the floud which rise and fall together The more a man is able by faith to look upon a pierced Christ the more his heart will mourn over all the dishonours that he has done to Christ the more deep and wide the wounds are that faith shews me in the heart and sides of Christ the more my heart will be wounded for sining against Christ Again godly sorrow is not an enemy but a friend to holy joy I have read of a holy man who lying upon his sick bed and being askt which were his joyfullest dayes that ever he had cryed out O give me my mourning dayes give me my mourning dayes again for they were the joyfullest dayes that ever I had The higher the springs of godly sorrow rise the higher the tydes of holy joy rise his graces will flourish most who Evangelically mourns most Grace alwayes thrives best in that garden that heart that is watered most with the tears of godly sorrow He that grieves most for sin will rejoyce most in God and he that rejoyces most in God will grieve most for sin Again the more a man apprehends of the love of God and of the love of Christ and the more a man tastes and is assured of the love of the Father and of the love of the Son the more that person will grieve and mourn that he has offended provoked and grieved such a Father and such a Son Remember this as a man's assurance of peace and reconciliation with God rises so his grief for sin rises the more clear and certain evidences a man has of the love and favour of God to his soul the more that man will grieve and mourn for sinning against such a God There is nothing that thaws and melts the heart that softens and breaks the heart like the warm beams of divine love as you may see in the case of Mary Magdalen Luk. 7. she loved much and she wept much for much was forgiven her a sight of the free grace and love of Christ towards her in an act of forgiveness broke her heart all in pieces A man can't stand under the shinings of divine love with a frozen heart nor yet with dry eyes the more a man sees of the love of Christ and the more a man tastes and enjoys of the love of Christ the more that man will grieve and mourn for all the dishonours that he has done to Christ The more an ingenious child sees and tastes and enjoys of his fathers love the more he grieves and mourns that ever he should offend such a father or provoke such a father who has been so loving and indulgent towards him Injuries done to a friend cut deep and the more near and dear and beloved a man's friend is to him the more a man is afflicted and troubled for any wrongs or injuries that are done to him and just so 't is between God and a gracious soul The free love and favour of God and his unspeakable goodness and mercy manifested in Jesus Christ to poor sinners is the very spring and fountain of all Evangelical sorrow nothing breaks the heart of a poor sinner like the sight of God's free love in a Redeemer A man can't seriously look upon the firstness the freeness the greatness the unchangeableness the everlastingness and the matchlessness of God's free favour and love in Christ with a hard heart or with dry eyes Ezek. 36.31 compared with vers 25 26. O! who is there that has but one spark of ingenuity that can read over that heart-breaking Scripture with dry eyes Isa 43.22 23 24. See Isa 57.17 18 19. But thou hast not called upon me O Jacob but thou hast been weary of me O Israel thou hast not brought me the small cattel of thy burnt offerings neither hast thou honoured me with thy sacrifices I have not caused thee to serve with an offering nor wearied thee with incense thou hast bought me no sweet cane with money neither hast thou filled me with the fat of thy sacrifices but thou hast made me to serve with thy sins thou hast wearied me with thine iniquities Now a man would think after all this horrid abuse put upon God this would certainly follow Therefore I will plague and punish thee therefore my wrath shall smoak against thee therefore my soul shall abhor thee therefore I will shut up my loving kindness in displeasure against thee therefore I will shew no more mercy towards thee therefore I will hide my face for ever from thee therefore I will take vengeance on thee therefore I will rain hell out of heaven upon thee c. O! but read and wonder read and admire read and stand amazed and astonished read and refrain from tears if thou canst ver 25. I even I am he that blotteth out thy transgressions for mine own sake and will not remember thy sins The Prophets expression in that Zech. 12.10 is very observable They shall look upon him whom they have pierced and they shall mourn for him as one that mourneth for his only son Now 't is observable in a fathers mourning for an only son there is nothing but pure love sincere love hearty love but in a sons mourning for his father there may be and often is a great deal of self-love self-respect because the child may run and read in his father's death his own loss his own ruin his own undoing but in the father's mourning for an only son a man may run and read the integrity purity and ingenuity of the father's love and 't is only such a love as this as sets the soul a mourning and a lamenting over a crucified Christ The thoughts and fears of wrath of hell and of
in their day have laid down such things for evidences or characters of grace which being weighed in the ballance of the Sanctuary will be found too light But here a mantle of love may be of more use than a lamp and therefore Secondly Many yea very many there are whose graces are very weak and much buried under the earth and ashes of many fears doubts scruples strong passions prevailing corruptions and diabolical suggestions who would give as many worlds as there be men in the world had they so many in their hands to give to know that they have grace and that their spiritual estate is good and that they shall be happy for ever Now this Treatise is fitted up for the service of these poor hearts for the weakest Christians may turn to many clear and well-bottomed evidences in this Treatise and throw the Gantlet to Satan and bid him prove if he can that ever any prophane person or cunning hypocrite under heaven had such evidences or such fair certificates to shew for heaven which he has to shew The generality of Christians are weak they are rather Dwarfs than Gyants 1 Pet. 2.2 3. 1 John 2.12 13 14. Isa 40.11 they are rather bruised Reeds than tall Cedars they are rather Babes than men Lambs than sheep c. Now for the service of their souls I have been willing to send this Treatise into the world for this Treatise may speak to them when I may not yea when I cannot yea which is more when I am not Famous Mr. Dod would frequently say He cared not where he was if he could but answer these two Questions 1. Who am I And 2. What do I hear am I a child of God and am I in my way But Thirdly Some there are who are so excessively and immoderately taken up with their Signs Marks and Evidences of grace and of their gracious state c. that Christ is too much neglected Where Christ was born they were all so taken up with their guests that he was not minded nor regarded when others lay in stately rooms he must be laid in a manger Luke 2.7 and more rarely minded by them their hearts don't run out so freely so fully so strongly so frequently so delightfully towards Christ as they should do nor as they would do if they were not too inordinately taken up with their Marks and Signs Now for the rectifying of these mistakes and the cure of these spiritual maladies this Treatise is sent into the world we may and ought to make a sober use of characters and evidences of our gracious estates to support comfort and encourage us in our way to heaven but still in subordination to Christ and to the fresh and frequent exercises of faith upon the person blood and righteousness of Jesus But O! how few Christians are there that are skil'd in this Work of Works this Art of Arts this Mystery of Mysteries But Fourthly Some there are who in these dayes are given up to Enthusiastical Fancies strange Raptures Revelations and to the sad delusions of their own hearts crying down with all their might all discoveries of Believers spiritual estates by Scripture Characters 2 Thes 2.9 10 11. Marks and Signs of Sanctification as carnal and low and all this under fair pretences of exalting Christ and maintaining the honour of his Righteousness and Free-grace and of denying our selves and our own righteousness Though sanctification be a branch of the Covenant of grace as well as Justification Jer. 33.8 Ezek. 36.25 26 27. yet there are a sort of men in the world that would not have Christians to rejoyce in their sanctification under a pretence of reflecting dishonour upon their free justification by Christ. There are many who place all their Religion in opinions in brain-sick notions in airy speculations in quaint disputations in immediate Revelations and in their warm zeal for this or that form of worship Now that these may be recovered and healed and prevented from doing further mischief in the world I have at this time put to a helping hand But Fifthly No man can tell what is in the breasts in the womb of divine Providence The Brathmanni had their graves before their doors The Sybarites at Banquets had a deaths head delivered from hand to hand by every guest at the Table The Egyptians in the midst of their Feasts used to have the Anatomy of a dead man set before them as a memorandum to the guests of their mortality The poor Heathen could say that the whole life of man should be meditatio mortis a meditation of death Dwell upon that Deut. 32.29 Prov. 27 1. no man can tell what a a day a night an hour may bring forth Who can sum up the many possible deaths that are still lurking in his own bowels or the innumerable hosts of external dangers which beleaguer him on every side or how many invisible arrows flie about his ears continually and how soon he may have his mortal wound given him by one of them who can tell Now how sad would it be for a man to have a summons to appear before God in that other world before his heart and life is changed and his evidences for heaven cleared up to him The life of man is but a shadow a post a span a vapour a flower c. Though there is but one way to come into the world yet there are many thousand wayes to be sent out of the world and this should bespeak every Christian to have his evidences for heaven alwayes ready and at hand yea in his hand as well as in his heart and then he will find it an easie thing to die The King of terrors will then be the King of desires to him and he will then travel to glory under a spirit of joy and triumph We carry about in our bodies the matter of a thousand deaths and may die a thousand several wayes several hours As many senses as many members nay as many pores as there are in the body so many windows there are for death to enter in at Death needs not spend all his arrows upon us a Worm a Gnat a Fly a Hair a stone of a Raisin a kernel of a Grape the fall of a Horse the stumble of a Foot the prick of a Pin the pairing of a Nail the cutting one of a Corn all these have been to others and any of them may be to us the means of our death within the space of a few dayes nay of a few hours Don't it therefore highly concern us to have our evidences for heaven cleared sealed shining and at hand Naturalists tell us That if a man sees a Cockatrice first the Cockatrice dieth but if the Cockatrice sees a man first the man dies Certainly if we so see death first as to prepare for it as to get our evidences for heaven ready we shall kill it but if death sees us first and arrests us first before we are prepared
earth Rom. 7.22 23. do carry about with them a body of sin and death they have in them a fountain of original corruption and from this fountain sin will still be arising bubling and a boyling up as the scum in a pot over the fire but mark as in wine or honey or water though scum and filth may arise yet the wine the honey the water will be still a purging and purifying it self and a working and casting it out so though sin though corruption though spiritual filth may and too often doth arise in a gracious heart yet there is a spring of grace a spring of living water in him John 4.14 All resistance of sin in a Scripture phrase is called conquest for in the resistance of it there is as much love shew'd to God as in the conquest of it though there be not so much power seen there is a holy cleansing and purifying disposition in a regenerate person that will still be a working and casting it out But now mark in men of impure hearts and lives the scum doth not only arise but it seeths and boyls in Ezek. 24.12 She wearied her self with lyes and her great scum went nâ—t f râ—h out of her notwithstanding all the threatnings of God and all the judgments of God upon her yet her scum and filthiness boyled in though God boyled Jerusâ—lem in the pot of his judgments yet her scum and filth stuck to every side of her wicked mens scum and filth doth not only arise but it also seeths and boyls in and mingles together with their spirits but so doth not the scum and filth that rises in a gracious heart a Sheep may fall into the mire but a Swine delights to wallow in the mire But Fourteenthly A godly man may argue thus Such as sin hath not a dominion over are not under the Law but under Grace Rom. 6.14 But sin hath not a domiâ—ion over me therefore I am not under the Law but under grace Sin may rebel in a Saint but it shall never reign in a Saint Look as those beasts in that Dan. 7.12 had their dominion taken away though their lives were spared and prolonged for a season and a time so when Christ and grace enters into the soul they take away the dominion of sin though they do for a time spare the life of sin To prevent mistakes premise with me briefly these few things First Rom. 7. that in every regenerate man there are two men an old man and a new man or if you please flesh and spirit Secondly The old man the fleshly part will incline the soul and byass the soul as well to sins against the Gospel as to sins against the Law and to great sins as well as to small sins witness Noah's drunkenness Lot's incest Assur's oppression David's murder and adultery Solomon's idolatry and Peters blasphemy Thirdly The old man the fleshly part is as much in the will as in any other part of the regenerate man and therefore when he falls into hainous sins he may fall into them with consent delight and willingness so far as his will is unrenewed 1 Thes 5 22. Though a real Christian be chang'd in every part yet 't is but in part and imperfect Fourthly The old man the fleshly part is in a regenerate mans members as well as in his will and therefore they may be exercised and imployed in and about those sins they have consented unto Fifthly High sinnings do waste and wound the conscience of a regenerate man and lay him open to the sore rebukes of God and call for great repentance and fresh and frequent applications of the bloud of Christ These things being premised a Question may be propounded viz. Quest What does the dominion of sin import and wherein does it consist Now to this considerable question I shall give these eight following Answers First Sin is in dominion when it hath the absolute and soveraign commaâ—â— of the soul when it hath an uncontradicted power when it hath such an authority in the soul to command it as a King doth his subjects or as the Centurion did his servants Mat. 8.9 For I am a man under authority having soldiers under me and I say to this man go and he goeth and to another come and he cometh and to my servant do this and he doth it Now when sin has such a universal and easie authority and command over the whole man body and soul as that it can use them in the service of sin when and where and how it pleaseth then sin is in dominion where there is a peaceable Eph. 2.2 3. uncontrouled willing universal subjection of the whole man unto the commands of sin there sin reigns But Secondly Sin is in dominion when in a course when ordinarily there is a quiet free willing and total yielding of subjection to the authority Law and command of sin Mark 't is a full possession a plenary delight and a constant content in sin Rom. 6.13 14 15 16. that speaks out the reign and dominion of sin Dominion of sin imports a compleat and universal resignation of the whole will and man to the obedience of it That man that is wholly addicted and devoted to the wayes of sin that man is under the reign of sin that man whose whole heart is universally married to his lusts that man is under the dominion of his lusts when a man does as freely cheerfully universally and readily obey his lusts Eph. 2.3 1 King 21.25 Micah 7.3 A man may be subjects as a captive in this or that particular tyranny of sin who is not obedient as a servant to all the government of sin for that takes iâ— the whole will and an adequate submission thereof to the peaceable and uncontrouled power of sin Rom. 7.15 19 23 as a child does his father or a wife her husband or a servant his Master or a subject his Prince then sin is in dominion when a man sins with greediness when with Ahab he sells himself to work wickedness when he commits wickedness with both hands when he gives himself up or over to all uncleanness and filthiness when he freely and voluntarily resigns and surrenders up his body and soul to the obedience of sin then sin reigns then it keeps the throne where the dominion of sin is erected there it sits in the heart as a King in his Throne and gives forth its Laws and commands to the soul and body and those commands are listned and consented to approved and delighted in c. A subject can't in a course more freely willingly universally and cheerfully obey the commands of his Prince than a sinner doth in a course freely willingly universally and cheerfully obey the commands of his lasts and where ever this sad temper of spirit is there is sin in dominion But now mark The Apostle as Chrysostom and Theodoret observe on Rom. 6.12 doth not say Let not sin tyrannize for
that is sins own work and not ours but he sayes Let it not reign in you for when a King reigns the Subjects do â—s it were actively obey and embrace his command whereas they are rather patients than agents in a tyranny a regenerate mans will riseth against his sin even then when he is worsted by sin and led captive by sin A Tyrant is obeyed unwillingly the wills of his subjects rise up against his commands and if his power were not superior to their wills they would never obey him Sin is no King but a Tyrant in the souls of the Saints and therefore their wills so far as they are renewed can't but rise against it O Sirs remember this for ever that the molesting vexing and tempting power of sin does not speak out its dominion for sin may molest and vex and tempt as an enemy where it doth not rule and reign as a King as you see this day in many Nations of the earth there are many enemies that do molest vex and tempt the subjects of those Nations who yet are far enough off from having any rule or dominion over them but then sin is in dominion when it commands in the heart as a King in his Throne or as a Lord in his house or as a General in his Army freely boldly universally cheerfully and when the soul doth as freely boldly universally and cheerfully subject it self to sins commands where men commonly yield up their wills and affections to the commands of sin there sin reigns and this is the case of every unregenerate man but where the will does commonly make a stout opposition to sin there it reigns not now this is the case of every regenerate man That Prince cannot truly be said to reign in that Kingdom where commonly he meets with stout opposition So 't is here A sincere Christian makes it the great business and work of his life above all other things in this world to make all the opposition he can against his lusts and is throughly resolved to die fighting against his sins as Pietro Candiano one of the Dukes of Venice died fighting against the Nauritines It is a harder thing to fight with a mans lusts than to fight with the cross Augustine with the weapons in his hand Aâ— Caesar said in a battel he fought against one of Pompey's sons at other times I fought for honour but now I fight for my life so a sincere Christian fights against his sins as for his life Castellio's opinion was vain viz. That men are of three sorts some unregenerate some regenerating and others regenerated and that these last have no combat betwixt flesh and spirit which is quite cross to Scripture Rom. 7 14-24 Gal. 5.17 c. and contrary to the experience of all Saints in all the ages of the world But Thirdly When a man is usually peremptory in his sinnings in the face of all reprehensions and arguments that tend to disswade him from sin Prov. 29.1 Jer. 5.3 4. 44.15 16 17. then sin is in dominion when the constant bent of the heart is inflamed towards sin and when the desires of the soul are insatiably carried after sin and when the resolutions of the soul are strongly and habitually set upon sin Hos 2.6 7. then sin is in the Throne and then it reigns as a King when God hedges up the sinners way with thorns yet the sinner will break through all to his sin when life and death heaven and hell glory and misery are set before the sinner Deut. 30.15 19. 11.26 27 28.29 yet the sinner will be peremptory in his sinnings though he lose his life his soul and all the glory of another world then sin reigns But Fourthly When men ordinarily habitually commonly are very careful studious and laborious to make provision for sin then sin reigns Rom. 13. ult Make no provision for the flesh to fulfil the lusts thereof or as the Greek has it David in an hour of temptation once made provision for his lusts 2 Sam. 11.14 15. but this was not his course his trade c. Make no projects for the flesh or cater not for the flesh when a mans head and heart is full of projects how to gratifie this lust and how to satisfie that lust and how to fulfil t'other lust then sin reigns then 't is in its throne Jam. 4.3 Ye ask and receive not because you ask amiss that ye may consume it upon your lusts Both the Law of God and nature requires me to make provision of raiment food and physick for my body and for theirs that are under my charge but it may cost me my life my estate yea my very soul to make provision for my lusts Such as ask amiss shall be sure to ask and miss he that would make God a Baud to his lusts may ask long enough before God will answer of all affronts there is none to this of making God a servant to our lusts Hos 2.8 and where this frame of spirit is there sin is in dominion He that abuses mercies to serve his lusts fights against God with his own weapons as David did against Goliah and as Benhadad did against Ahab with that very life that he had newly given him such a soul like the waters of Jordan will at last certainly drop into the dead lake But Fifthly When sin is commonly habitually sweet and the soul takes a daily pleasure and delight in it then it reigns as you may see by comparing the Scriptures in the margenâ— together Joh 20.12 13. Prov. 2.14 Amos 6.13 Zeph. 3.11 2 Thes 2.12 when a man daily takes as joyful contentation and satisfaction in his lusts and in walking after the wayes of his own heart as he does in his highest outward enjoyments oâ— in his nearest and dearest relations then certainly sin is in dominion Such men as can go constantly on in a way of wickedness meerly to delight and content the flesh such men are certainly under the power and reign of sin Many of the Heathens who knew what rational delights were scorned sensual delights as inferior to them These will one day rise in judgment against many of the Professors in our dayes I know there is no real pleasure or delight in sin if intemperance could afford more pleasure than temperance then Hiliogabalus should have been more happy than Adam in Paradise yea if there were the least real delight in sin there could be no perfect hell where men shall most perfectly sin and most perfectly be tormented with their sins Heark Scholar said the Harlot to Apulciuâ— 't is but a bitter sweet that you are so fond of Pâ—â—â—rh When an Asp stings a man it doth at first tickle him and make him laugh till the poyson by little and little gets to his heart and then it pains him more than before it delighted him 'T is so with sin it may tickle the soul at first but it will pain
and harder than before So many men when they are a little Sermon-sick or under some smart pangs of Conscience or under some startling or amazing Judgments O then they will be willing to let Israel go then they will be willing to let drunkenness go and pride go and uncleanness go and worldliness go c. but when their sickness is over and the pangs of Conscience abated and Judgments removed O then they return with the Dog to his vomit 2 Pet. 2.20 21 22. and with the Sow to the wallowing in the Mire again There was a man well known to a Minister in this City who in the time of his sickness was so terrified in his Conscience for his sins that he made the very bed to shake upon which he lay and cryed out all night long I am damn'd I am damn'd I am damn'd and this man in the dayes of his outward and inward distresses made many and great protestations of amendment of life if God would be pleased to recover him in a little while he did recover and being recovered he was as bad and as wicked if not worse than he was before So in the time of the great sweat in King Edwards dayes as long as the heat of the Plague lasted all sorts and ranks of people were still a crying out Peccavi Mercy good Lord Mercy Mercy Mercy Then Lords and Ladies and other persons of quality cryed out to the Ministers For Gods sake tell us what we shall do to avoid the Wrath of God take these bags pay so much to such a one whom I have deceived and so much restore unto another whom in bargaining I over-reached O give so much to the Poor and give so much to such and such Pious uses But after the sickness was over they were just the same men that they were before Men in time of trouble are very ready to cry out Arise and save us Jer. 2.27 And with them Deliver us this time Judges 10.15 And with the Samaritans who when God had sent Lyons among them enquired after the manner of his Worship 2 King 's 17.25 26. And yet after all this to remain as vile and wicked as they did Jer. 2.20 For of old time I have broken thy yoke and burst thy bands and thou saidest I will not transgress when upon every high hill and under every green tree thou wandredst playing the Harlot A wicked mans willingness to be rid of his sins is transient not constant 't is like the morning Cloud and the early dew that passeth away Hos 6.4 Hos 11.7 Psal 78.34 37 57. Hosea 7.16 The Jews were a very unstable people a people bent to backsliding a people that would often start aside like a deceitful Bow Sometimes when the Judgments of God were heavy upon them or when they were under the reign of some good Kings then down went their Groves their Altars their Idols and their High places but soon after you shall have them as much set upon Idolatry as before sometimes they were willing to be rid of their Idols and at other times they were mad to go a whoring after their Idols But now a godly man when he is himself he is never unwilling to be rid of his sins yea to be rid of all his sins the fixed standing and abiding disposition and bent of a godly mans Soul of a godly mans will is to be rid of every sin and thrice happy is that man that is habitually under such a choice and blessed frame Thirdly A transcendent willingness a superlative willingness an overtopping willingness to be rid of sin is an infallible evidence of the truth of Grace in the Soul When a mans willingness to be rid of his sins overtops his unwillingness when a man is more willing to be rid of his sins than he is to continue in sin then his spiritual state is certainly good A gracious heart had much rather if it were put to his choice live without all sin than to have allowance to wallow in any sin he had rather live without the least sin than to have liberty to live in the greatest or the most flesh-pleasing sin 'T is certain that sin is more afflictive to a gracious Soul than all the losses crosses troubles and tryals that he meets with in the World 2 Sam. 24.10 David cryes not perii but peccavi not I am undone but I have done foolishly He does not cry Take away the pestilence but take away the iniquity of thy servant Dan. 9.5 Nor Daniel cries not out O we are sadly reproached we are greatly distressed we are wofully oppressed Hos 14.2 but We have rebelled And the Church cryes not out Take away our Captivity but take away all iniquity 't is not take away our chains but take away our sins 't is not take away our afflictions but take away our pollutions 't is not take away all our enemies lives but take away the lives of all our lusts 2 Cor. 11.16 ult And so Paul cryes not out of his reproaches or persecutors or bonds or chains or stripes or perils Rom. 7.23 or prisons he rather glories in these But he cryes out of a Law in his Members rebelling against the Law of his mind and bringing of him into Captivity to the Law of sin which is in his Members Paul does not cry out O wretched man that I am who shall deliver me from all my sorrows and sufferings Verse 24. But O wretched man that I am who shall deliver me from this body of death A sincere heart when he is himself had much rather be rid of his sins than of his sufferings yea of the least sins than of the greatest sufferings 'T was a sweet saying of Bernard I had rather saith he that God should better my heart than remove his hand I had rather that God should continue my strokes than my sins And the same noble spirit was working bravely in Job when he was under the heavy hand of God See Job 7.20 21. Job 34.31 32. Surely it is meet to be said unto God I have born chastisement I will not offend any more That which I see not teach thou me if I have done iniquity I will do no more But now graceless men are much more willing to be rid of their afflâ—ctions See Exod. 10.17 than to be rid of their sins witness Pharaoh who cries out take away the Frogs Exod. 8.8 Then Pharaoh called for Moses and Aaron and said Intreat the Lord that he may take away the Frogs from me and from my people and I will let the people go that they may do Sacrifice unto the Lord. 'T is not intreat the Lord that he would take away this proud heart or this hard heart or this besotted heart or this blind mind or this perverse will or this benummed Conscience that is in me and my people but intreat the Lord that he may take away the Frogs from me and my people
A graceless heart is more abundantly willing to be freed from punishment the effect of sin than 't is willing to be freed from sin the cause of punishment A gracious heart sees more filthiness in sin than in Frogs and had rather be rid of his sins than of all the Frogs or Toads that be in the World See what a sad spirit was upon the children of Israel in that Numb 21.6 7. Heb. Burning Serpents thus they are called from the effect of their biting which caused a mortal burning and consequently such an excessive thirst as killed them And the Lord sent Fiery Serpents among the people and they bite the people and much people of Israel dyed Therefore the people came to Moses and said We have sinned for we have spoken against the Lord and against thee pray unto the Lord that he take away the Serpents from us Now mark in the fifth verse you have them murmuring against God and Moses and divine dispensations and nauseating of the Wheat of Heaven as light meat because they came lightly by it they distrust the Providence of God they let fly at God their spirit swels against the holy one of Israel and they scorn deride revile and contumeliously and despitefully speak against Moses and though they had often smarted for these sins yet they are at them again upon this God sends an Army of Fiery Serpents among them and they bite and devour many of them And now they run to Moses who but a little before they had despised and are very importunate with him to pray to the Lord to take away the Serpents from them They do not desire Moses to improve his interest in Heaven that God would take away their proud hearts their distrustful hearts their murmuring hearts c. but that God would take away the Serpents they were much more desirous to be rid of their Serpents than they were to be rid of their sins So those in Jer. 30.15 Why cryest thou for thine affliction thy sorrow is incurable for the multitude of thine iniquity because thy sins were encreased I have done these things unto thee They do not cry out of their sins but they cry out of their afflictions Why cryest thou for thine affliction unsound hearts are more ready and willing to be rid of their afflictions than they are willing to have their Souls bettered or their lives mended or their lusts subdued by them Pilate was unwilling to condemn Jesus witness his seeking to release him and his washing his hands and his pleading his innocency c. Matth. 27.17 18 22 23 24. but yet the prevailing part of his will carryed him forth to deliver up Jesus to be scourged and Crucified v. 26. So Herod was unwilling to behead John Baptist witness that word The King was exceeding sorry Mark 6.26 But yet the prevailing part of his will carried him forth to cut off John's head v. 27. whose head was more worth than Herods Kingdom So Darius was very unwilling to cast Daniel into the Lyons Den witness his being sore displeased with himself and witness his setting his heart on Daniel to deliver him and witness his great unquietness of spirit for he could neither eat nor drink nor sleep the night after he was cast into the Lyons Den and witness his great joy at Daniels safety Dan. 6.14 18 19 20. All which did clearly argue a very great unwillingness that Daniel should suffer and yet the prevailing part of Darius his will carried him forth to sacrifice Daniel to the Lyons yea to that which was worse viz. the lusts of his enemies v. 16 17. By all these instances 't is most evident that the prevalent part of a wicked mans will stands most strongly byafs'd towards sin But now the prevalent part of a Christians will is to be rid of sin If the Lord should say to a gracious Christian Ask what thou wilt O Christian and it shall be granted to thee the Answer would be Lord rid me of my sins Lord take away mine iniquities Lord mortify my corruptions Lord whoever lives let these lust dye Lord drown these Egyptians in the Sea of thy Sons blood who have so violently and unweariedly pursued after the Blood of my precious Soul Lord kill and crucify all these sinful evils that have killed and Crucified the Lord of life and glory Psal 5.2 7. Lord wash me throughly from mine iniquity and cleanse me from my sin Lord purge me with Hysop and I shall be clean wash me and I shall be whiter than Snow Lord carnal reason and flesh and bloud would fain have such and such pleasurable sins and such and such profitable sins indulged and spared but Lord the earnest the ardent desires of my soul are that I may be rid of them and that Justice to the heighth may be done upon them Lord be but the death of my sins and my soul shall say My lot is fallen in a pleasant place and verily I have a goodly heritage Lord cleanse me but from all filthiness both of flesh and spirit and I shall cry Hâ—sanna to thee Matth. 21.9 Psal 16.6 2 Cor. 7.1 Lord let me but out live my lusts and follow them to the Grave before others follow me to my Grave and I shall say it is enough And thus every gracious Soul is more willing to be rid of his sins than he is to keep his sins A Porter cannot be more willing to be rid of his burden nor a sick man to be rid of his disease nor a Beggar of his nasty louzy rags nor a Prisoner of his chains than a gracious Soul is willing to be rid of his lusts c. Fourthly That Soul that does not nor through Grace assisting will not allow himself or indulge himself in a course of sin or in the common practise of any known sin that Soul is certainly a gracious soul The evil that I do Rom. 7.15 I allow not So Psal 119.1 3. Blessed are the undefiled in the way that walk in the Law of the Lord they also do no iniquity that is they allow not themselves in the practice of any iniquity Blessed souls live not in the service of sin they live not in an ordinary practice of any iniquity 1 John 3.9 Whosoever is born of God doth not commit sin for his seed remaineth in him and he cannot sin because he is born of God He that has the seed of God the seed of Grace and Regeneration in him he cannot allow himself in away of sin he cannot give himself over to a voluntary serving of sin he cannot make a Trade of sin So Prov. 16.17 The highway of the upripht is to depart from evil that is it is the ordinary usual constant course of an upright man to depart from evâ—l An honest Traveller may step out of the Kings Highway into a house a Wood a Close but his work his business is to go on in the Kings Highway So the business the work
and a murtherous or adulterous heart is worse than a murtherous or adulterous act c. And therefore true grace makes head against heart-sins against spiritual sins against the most inward secret sins against those very sins that lye not within the reach of reason or the Sword of the Magistrate or the piercing eye of the most knowing or observing man in the World but are only obvious to an omniscient eye But now carnal men as they make little of outward sins so they make nothing of heart-sins of spiritual sins If they are not drunkards nor swearers Matt. 19 16-27 nor extortioners nor whoremasters nor cursers nor cheaters nor oppressors nor lyars nor persecutors if they are good negative Christians then they think themselves very good Saints and in a very fair way for heaven and that no man can say Black is their eye when their hearts are as full of evil thoughts and secret lusts as Ignorance Atheism unbelief pride envy discontent anger formality hypocrisy indifferency lukewarmness deadness and hardness c. as the Sun is full of light or as Hell is full of darkness Restraining grace common grace only makes head against gross enormities against palpable vanities as you may see in the Scribes and Pharises but saving grace makes head against heart-sins against spiritual sins Common grace is all for washing the outside but Saving grace is for washing the inside as well as the outside Common grace is only for washing the feet and the head but Saving grace is for washing both feet head and heart Look as in a dark night we can only see those stars that are of the greatest magnitude Matth. 23. John 13.9 10. so by the star-light of natural Conscience the natural man can only see those sins that are more great and gross Natural convictions can reach no further than natural light but spiritual convictions reach to the most inward secret spiritual and undiscernable sins Certainly that is a sincere heart a heart more worth than gold that smites a man for inward sins as well as for outward sins for sins done in a corner as well as for sins acted upon the house top for spiritual sins as well as for fleshly sins for sins against the Soul as well as for sins against the body for sins committed in a Closet as well as for sins committed on the most publick Stage Certainly that trouble and grief that springs from heart-sins from spiritual sins from secret sins bears a more immediate relation to the holiness of God who only observes them and is offended by them and so is a most sure and infallible evidence of saving Grace and of the work of the spirit in power upon the Soul When open commissions do humble and abase the heart and secret inclinations to sin do even break and burst the heart asunder then the heart is certainly sincere with God A Christian will readily grant that his God is a good God and that Jesus Christ is the chiefest of ten thousand and that the Gospel is a glorious Gospel and that the Promises are precious Promises and that the Ordinances are blessed Ordinances and that the lively communion of Saints is the Sweetest communion in all the world But yet he will say I have such a proud heart such a hard heart such a flight heart such a carnal heart c. and I am so vexed and molested with sinful motions and with sinful imaginations and with sinful inclinations and with Atheistical risings and with private murmurings and with secret unbelievings and that in despite of all my conflictings and strivings and prayings and mournings and sighings and groanings and complainings that I am oftentimes even weary of my life And if this does not speak out Christ within and grace within and the Spirit within such a Soul I know nothing O friends remember this once for all viz. That the main Battle the main warfare of a Christian lyes not in the open field it lyes not in visible skirmishes but his main quarrels and conflicts are most within and his worst and greatest enemies are them of his own house they are them of his own heart A little grace at first conversion may reform an ill life but it must be a great deal of grace that must reform an ill heart A little grace may make a man victorious over outward gross sins but it must be a great deal of grace that must make a man victorious over inward sins secret sins spiritual sins heart-sins yea a through conquest of these sins will hold a man play all his dayes But Sixthly He that abstains from sin he whose heart rises against sin he that sets himself against sin because of the evil nature of sin 2 Cor. 7.1 I have read of the Ermin that she will rather dye than be got into the dirt to defile her beautiful skin And rather than Joseph will defile his beautiful soul by defiling his Masters bed he will to a dirty Dungeon He had rather that the Irons should enter into his Soul Psal 105.18 than that sin should enter into his Conscience He had rather that his chains should eat into his flesh than that sin should pollute his soul Isa 59.1 2. Amos 3.6 Acts 5.39 because of that vileness and filthiness that is in sin he certainly has a principle of Grace a seed of God in him He who refrains from sin and whose heart rises more against sin because of the purity of the Law which forbids sin then because of the severity of the Law which condemns sin is certainly under the power of renewing Grace of saving Grace Psal 119.140 Thy word is very pure therefore thy servant loveth it 't is only pure Grace that can inable a man to love the Word for its purity The Apostle to set forth the formidable evil that is in sin expresses it thus Rom. 7.13 That sin might appear to be sin He could find nothing more evil and odious to express it by than it self Sin is so great an evil that it cannot have a worse Epithet given it Paul can call it no worse than by its own name sinful sin Had the Apostle said that sin might appear to be a snare a Serpent a Viper a Toad a Plague a Devil a Hell c. he had said much but yet not enough to set forth the transcendent evil that is in sin and therefore he calls it sinful sin All other evils are but outward they only reach the name the body the estate the life but sin is an inward evil a spiritual evil an evil that reaches the precious and immortal Soul and therefore is the greatest evil Death puts an end to all other troubles viz. poverty sickness disgrace scorn contempt crosses losses c. but sin is so great an evil that death it self cannot put an end to it Eternity it self shall never put a stop a period to this evil of evils All outward evils can never make a man the subject of Gods
O what sweet communion what delightful communion what high communion what commodious communion what Soul-satisfying Soul-ravishing Soul-filling Soul-contenting communion with God does he then enjoy When the Child walks wisely and obedientially before his Father what sweet and delightful converses and communion is there between the Father and the Child but if the child walk foolishly stubbornly rebelliously disobediently the prudent Father will carry it severely strangely frowningly and at a distance though his heart be still full of love to his child and though he won't disinherit him yet he wont be familiar with him The application is easie c. Seventhly To keep down the body and to bring it into subjection to the soul 1 Cor. 9.27 But I keep under my body and bring it into subjection By spiritual exercises the Apostle d d subdue his flesh to the obedience and discipline of the spirit in former times they had several exercises as wrestling and running for the prize Now such as were slow pursie unweildy and lazy were cashiered they would not admit such to be of their society or company who wrestled and run for the prize Them that were admitted to those exercises kept their bodies at an under and did not pamper their bodies with dainties and delicates To these the Apostle alludes of idleness there comes no goodness when the spirit is not acting in that which is good that the flesh may be kept under the flesh will take an advantage to be very active in those things that are evil that the spirit may be kept under the flesh is like an unruly beast which through rest idleness and high feeding grows wild and masterless Now the only way to tame this beast is to work him hard so the way of wayes to keep the body under is to keep up the soul as much as may be in the full exercise of holiness and obedience such as have most pampered their bodies Deut. 32.13 14 15 16 17. Jer. 5.7 8 c. Rev. 3 16 17 18. have been the greatest enemies to their own souls and how many are there this day that pamper their bodies but starve their souls that adorn their bodies but defiles their soul that trick and trim up their bodies with gold and silver and silks whilst their souls are naked of all grace holiness and goodness like the Laodiceans of old The body it self if you set too high a price upon it will make a cheap soul a man may be as happy in Russet as in Tissue and he is certainly an unhappy man whose outside is his best side our bodies are but dirt handsomly tempered and artificially formed we derive our pedigree from the dust and are a kin to clay and therefore we need not scruple the keeping of it under by holy exercises and by all wayes of Gospel-obedience c. Eighthly To the profit and advantage both of sinners and Saints 1. To convince sinners to silence sinners and to stop the mouths of sinners let but one man that walks wisely humbly circumspectly convincingly exemplarily blamelesly come into a Town a Parish a Family made up of drunkards swearers Sabbath-breakers whore-masters c. and his holy walking will convince them and condemn them 1 Pet. 2.12 15. Chap. 3.13 16. 2. To the profit advantage and encouragement of the Saints The strict exact walking Christian provokes the slight loose Christian to mend his manners and to order his steps and conversation aright and the lively active Christian puts the dull heavy sluggish Christian to a blush and spurs and quickens him up to a more lively walking with God and the warm flaming zealous burning Christian puts heat and warmth into the cold formal frozen Christian and the free liberal bountiful Christian provokes others to be free noble and liberal for the supply of the necessities of the Saints 2 Cor. 9.1 2. Chap. 8.1 2 3 4 19 20 c. The ninth and last though not the least end is the honour and glory of the great God God's grace is the spring and God's glory is the end of all a Christians obedience God's glory is the ultimate end Rom. 14.7 8. Phil. 1.20 21. the primary end the universal end the Sea to which all a Christians actions like so many Rivers move and bend 'T is true many poor low mean base ends may creep into a Christians performances but here mark 1. They are disallowed 2. They are loathed and abhorred 3. They are resisted and striven against 4. They are lamented and mourned over 5. The gracious soul would willingly be rid of them if a Christian might have his choice he would never be troubled with any base end any more Beloved you must alwayes distinguish between a mans setled and his suggested ends a mans setled end may be one things and his suggested end another thing Now for ever remember this That the great God alwayes makes a judgement of men according to their setled ends according to the universal frame of their spirits and not according to those ends that may be suggested to them by the world the flesh or the devil It is in this case as it may be with a man that shoots at a mark he aims aright at the mark but his elbow may meet with a jog which may carry the arrow quite another way than what he intended or as it is with a man that is sailing to such a Haven or to such a Harbour he steers a right course by his Compass but the winds blowing contrary and the Sea running high he is forced into such a creek or such a Harbour which he never intended c. Is it requisite for the clearing of the sincerity of our hearts Qu. that we have a continual eye to the glory of God in every action we do First Ans You must distinguish between an actual aim and intention and an habitual aim and intention For the first an actual aim and intention of the Spirit in every particular action that a man doth to the glory of God is utterly impossible whilst we carry about us with a body of sin and death The Angels and spirits of just men made perfect do thus actually aim at the glory of God in all they do but 't is a work that will be too high and too hard for us whilst we are here in a polluted estate This was so high a mark that Adam mist it in his innocency no wonder then if we often miss it in our sinful state and condition But Secondly There is an habitual inclination in us in every action we do to aim at the honour and glory of God though there be not the actual intention of the spirit in every action we do it is with us as with a man travelling towards a Town or City he thinks in the morning to go to such a Town such a place where he purposes to lye the first night and therefore sets forth towards it and though he doth not think of this every step
1.1 3 4 2.6 Mat. 11.29 30. No man can truly desire grace that he may enjoy communion and fellowship with the Father the Son and the Spirit and that he may be made comformable to Christ and that he may be serviceable and useful to the interest of Christ and that he may walk even as Christ walked Psal 119.32 1 Joh. 5.4 5. Rom. 14.7 8. Phil. 1.20 in the exercise of every grace and that he may be rid of his sins yea all his sins especially his special sins and that he may run the ways of God's commands more easily more readily more delightfully more resolutely more patiently more unweariedly and more zealously and that he may be made victorious over the world the flesh and the devil and that he may so live as to be a praise a name an honour and a glory to Christ and that after all and by all he may be prepared and fitted for an eternal fruition and enjoyment of Christ but he that has true grace in his soul Now every weak believer is able to appeal to God that he desires grace for gracious ends and purposes as for the ends last cited and others of the like nature with them Wicked men may in a fit desire grace Act. 8.18 19 20. as Simon Magus did desire the holy Ghost to get money by it or when they are under some pangs of conscience they may desire grace to be rid of their horrors and terrors or when they are upon a dying bed they may desire so much grace as may keep them out of hell and bring them to heaven but in all this they look no further than self they are far from desiring of grace for gracious ends and purposes There is nothing in all the world that the great God so much regards as man All these things have my hands made but to this man will I look Isa 66.2 Nothing in man so much as the heart My son give me thy heart That is the Mount Sion which God loveth above all the dwellings of Jacob and nothing in the heart so much as the aim and end of it Let a mans profession be never so glorious let him be never so abundant in the performance of duties let his desires after this and that good thing be never so strong yet if his ends be wrong all his pretentions and performances are but beautiful abominations Did David pray three times aday Mark 12.40 Luke 18.12 Mat. 6.2 Luke 11.42 Mat. 23. so did the Pharisees Did David and Daniel fast so did the Pharisees and that twice in the week Did Cornelius give alms so did the Pharisees Did Abraham pay tythes so did the Pharisees they tythed their very Mint and Rue but their ends being wrong their time was lost and their pains was lost and their duties was lost and their alms was lost and their souls was lost and that for ever God writes a nothing upon all those services wherein mens ends are not right Jer. 32.23 But Tenthly No man can sincerely desire earnestly endeavour after the highest pitches of grace but he that has true grace though the weak Christian has but a little grace in his heart Phil. 3.12 13 14 15 16 c. yet he has the top of grace the perfection of grace in his sincere aims in his sincere desires and in his earnest and constant endeavours and if the weakest Saint might have his desires his mind his wish his will his choice he would never sin more he would never dishonour Jesus Christ more he would never grieve the spirit of grace more he would yield unsinning obedience he would obey in this lower world as the Angels and as the spirits of just men made perfect do obey in that upper world Heb. 12.22 23. Luke 17.5 the weakest Christian has his eye to the highest round in Jacob's ladder and fain he would be at the top of it and Oh how sweet is every Providence and every Ordinance and every duty and every mercy and every opportunity that helps his soul more Christ-wards and heaven-wards and holiness-wards sincere desires and serious endeavours to grow in grace 2 Pet. 3.18 1 Pet. 2.2 1 Joh. 5.13 1 Joh. 3.9 is an infallible evidence of the truth of grace Look as a man may have grace and not know it so a man may grow in grace and yet not discern it As in the lopping of a Tree there seems to be a kind of diminution and destruction yet the end and issue of it is better growth and as the weakning of the body by Physick seems to tend to death yet it produceth better health and more strength and as the Ball by falling downward riseth upward and water in pipes descends that it may ascend so the Christians spiritual growth when seemingly dead and declining and to stand at a stay is still carried on by the hidden method of God to encrease for every true Christian is a member of a thriving body in which there is no Atrophy but a continual issuing of spirits from the head The righteous shall flourish like the Palm tree Psal 92.12 13 14. The Palm tree never loseth his leaf or fruit Pliny Grace grows not alike in all Saints in the parable some brought forth thirty some sixty and some a hundred fold so that life being wrought by the spirit of life never dyeth but is alwayes upon the growing hand except in the dark winter night of desertion and temptations ripening and encreasing even in the midst of all ordinary troubles and trials The Apostle tells us that the whole body of Christ whereof every true Christian is a limb is so compact together in it self and so firmly fastned with certain spiritual nerves and ligaments to the head that from it there is by them conveyed to each part a continual supply of spiritual grace both sufficient to furnish it and to further the growth of it Let me give a little further light into this particular by this similitude A man is bound for the East-Indies and shapeth his course thitherward but by the way is put often off by cross winds to the Westward he is by contrary winds compelled to put into divers Harbours and to make some stay by the way there either to shift off stormy weather or to take in fresh water or to stop a leak or to get some fresh provisions and yet all this while we truly say he is going on in his way in his voyage because his setled purpose and constant resolution is to make to his Port his Haven whither he is bound and all these seeming lets shall help forward his voyage It is so in spiritual things for our very growth in grace consists much in sincere desires in fixed resolutions and in faithful endeavours to grow in grace Aristot Rhet. l. 1. c. 11. Seneca l. 2. c. 27. Phil. 3.13 Aristotle makes it the mark of a good man that he studieth how he may grow better
then his desire Luke 17.5 are most for faith you shall then find him with the Disciples crying out Lord increase our faith But now though a wicked mans heart rise against every grace yet it rises most strongly against those particular graces which are most opposite and contrary to those particular lusts which are a wicked mans bosom lusts Mat. 26.8 9. his darling sins c. Hence the covetous heart rises and swells most against liberality as you see in Judas Rev. 3.15 16 17. Luke 19. What need this waste Flesh and bloud looks upon all as lost that is laid out upon Christ his servants and services And the luke-warm Christians heart rises and swells most against zeal and fervency and the griping Userers heart rises and swells most against restitution Job 21.14 15. and the adulterers heart rises and swells most against purity chastity continency and the ignorant mans heart rises and swells most against light and knowledge Eccles 7.10 the ignorant man is willing to go to hell in the dark and ready and bold enough to conclude that we never had such sad and bad times as we have had since there hath been so much preaching and so much hearing and so much fasting and so much praying and so much light and knowledge in the world But now it is quite otherwise with a true child of God Rom. 7.22 23. for his heart rises and swells most against the Toad or Toads that are in his own bosom and the daily and earnest desires of his soul are that God would make him eminent in every grace yea that God would make him most eminent in those particular graces which are most opposite and contrary to those particular lusts and corruptions which more peculiarly more especially he hath cause to call his iniquity Psal 49.5 or the iniquities of his heart and of his heels Look as we have some dirt more or less that will still cleave to our heels whilst we are in a dirty world so there is some defilements and pollutions that will still be cleaving to all our duties services wayes and walkings in this world which we may well call the iniquity of our heels Now a gracious heart rises most against these c. Thirteenthly No man can truly love grace in another but he that has true grace in his own soul 1 John 3.10 No man can love a Saint as a Saint but he that is a real Saint no man can love holiness in another but he that has holiness in his own soul no man can love a good man for goodness sake but he that is really good We know that we have passed from death to life 1 John 3.14 This Text you have opened in the first Maxim of this Book because we love the brethren Sincere love to the brethren is a most evident sign of a Christians being already passed or translated from death to life that is from a state of nature into a state of grace such a poor soul that dares not say that he has grace in his own heart yet dares say before the Lord that he loves delights and takes pleasure to see the holy graces of the Spirit sparkling and shining in the hearts lives and lips of other Saints secretly wishing in himself that his soul were but in their case and that dares say before the Lord Psal 15.1 4. Psal 16.3 He that loves his brother saith Augustine better knows his love wherewith he loves than his brother whom he loves that there are no men in all the world that are so precious so lovely so comely so excellent and so honourable in his account in his eye as those that have the Image of God of Christ of grace of holiness most clearly most fairly and most fully stampt upon them When a poor Christian can rejoyce in every light in every Sun that out-shines his own when he sees wisdom and knowledge shining in one Saint and faith and love shining in another Saint and humility and lowliness shining in another Saint and meekness and uprightness shining in another Saint and zeal and courage shining in another Saint and patience and constancy shining in another and then can make his retreat to his closet admiring blessing of the Lord for the various graces of his Spirit shining in his children and be frequent and earnest with God that those very graces might shine as so many Suns in his soul doubtless such a poor soul has true grace and is happy and will be happy to all eternity In Tertullian's time the Heathen would point out the Christians by this mark See how they love one another Now to prevent mistakes I shall shew you the several properties of sincere love to the Saints First True love to the Saints is spiritual it is a love for the Image of God that is stampt upon the soul 1 John 5.1 Every one that loveth him that begat 1 John 4.7 loveth him also that is begotten of him A soul that truly loves loves the father for his own sake and the children for the fathers sake If the Image of God be the load-stone that drawes out our love to the Saints then our love is real to them he that does not love the Saints as Saints he that does not love them under a spiritual notion he hath no true affection to them Naturally we hate God Gen. 3.15 1 John 3.12 because he is a holy God and his Law because it is an holy Law and his people because they are a holy people 'T is only the Spirit of God that can inable a man to love a Saint for the image of God that is in him many there are which love Christians for their goods not for their good they love them for the money that is in their purses but not for the grace that is in their hearts many like the Bohemian Cur fawn upon a good suit Love to the Saints for the Image of God stampt upon them is a flower that does not grow in natures garden No man can love grace in another mans heart but he that hath grace in his own men do not more naturally love their parents Prov. 29.10 Ezek. 25.15 and love their children and love themselves than they do naturally hate the image of God upon his people and wayes I have read of one who was so lusty and quarrelsom that he was ready to fight with his own image so often as he saw it in a glass O! how many are there in these dayes that are still a quarrelling and fighting with the image of God wherever they see it True love is for what of the divine nature for what of Christ and grace shines in a man it is one thing to love a godly man and anther thing to love him for godliness Many love godly men as they are Politicians or Potent or Learned or of a sweet nature or affable or related or as they have been kind to them
magnificent ones noble ones glorious ones wonderful ones O Sirs there are some Saints that are magnificent in grace noble in grace glorious in grace wonderful in grace Now this is certain if grace be the true reason why we love any then the more excellent the more magnificent any are in grace Psal 15.4 the more highly we shall prize them and the more dearly we shall love them and the more abundantly in our hearts we shall honour them Look as grace rises higher and higher in the same person so we shall rise higher and higher in our love to the same person Dan. 9.23 John 21.20 Daniel was greatly beloved and Iohn was singularly beloved and why but because they were more eminently gracious than others were Where there is most grace there God is most honoured and there Christ is most exalted and there the Spirit is best pleased and there Religion is most adorned and there Satan is most dethroned and there the world is most conquered and there sin is most subdued and there duties are most exactly performed and therefore there the gracious soul can't but love best and most There are some that seem to love such and such godly men whose judgments are weak and light little and parts low and grace small who yet look with a squint eye an envious eye upon every Sun that outshines their own upon every ones graces and excellencies that are more sparkling than their own Though pride and envy have received their deaths-wound at the souls first conversion yet they are not quite slain in a believer there is an aptness even in real Saints Luk. 7.16 17 18 19 20 21 22 23. to grudge and repine at those gifts graces and excellencies in others that outshine their own John's disciples muttered and murmured because Christ had more followers and admirers than John and that spirit that lived in John's disciples is still alive to this very day This is and this must be for a lamentation Well Sirs look as the fairest day hath its clouds the finest linnen its spots the richest jewels their flaws the sweetest fruits their worms so when many precious Christians are not themselves when they are in an hour of temptation when their corruptions are up and their graces down they may and too often do Num. 11.29 envy and repine at those graces excellencies and abilities that do over-cast cloud Heb. 12.15 darken and outshine their own The best of men are but men at the best and there is still those bitter roots of pride vain-glory self-love envy c. remaining in them that occasions their hearts to rise and swell yea sometimes to cast disgrace upon those excellencies in others that themselves want As that great man that could not write his own name Eusebius speaks of him in his Ecclesiastical Histâ—ry c. and yet called the liberal Arts A publick Poyson and Pestilence This spiritual disease is mostly to be found among Christians that are got into some of the highest forms in Christianity take your ordinary common Christians and they commonly rejoyce most where they see most grace And so do your Christians in a higher form too when they come to themselves and to make up their accounts and have wept over those cursed roots of bitterness that are so apt to be sprouting out Now there is no greater argument that our grace is true and that we do love others for grace sake than our loving them best that have most grace though they have but little of the world A pearl is rich if found on a dunghil though it may glister more when set in a ring of gold so many a poor believer is rich in grace and precious and glorious in the eye of Christ and should be so in ours though like Job he sits upon a dunghil though in the eyes of the world he may seem to glister most when adorned with riches honour and outward pomp If grace be the true reason why we love any person then the more grace that person hath the more we shall love him A godly man loves all that are godly but he loves them most that excel most in the power purity and practise of godliness c. But Sixthly and lastly True love to the Saints is constant 't is permanent John 13.1 15.12 c. 1 Cor. 13.8 Love never faileth Heb. 13.1 Let brotherly love continue 'T is a love like that of Christ's who loved his to the end 1 Joh. 4.16 He that dwelleth in love dwelleth in God and God in him Our love to our brother must not only lodge with us a night and away but we must dwell in brotherly love Look as our love must be sincere without hypocrisie so it must be constant without deficiency that love was never true that is not constant true love like the pulse will still be beating it will still be working and running out to the person beloved true love will not fawn upon a Christian when high and frown upon him when low it will not kiss him upon the throne and kick him upon the dunghil The grounds and causes of their love are constant viz. God's commands their spiritual relations and the truth of grace in their souls and therefore their love can't but be constant Prov. 17.17 Christian friendship makes such a knot that great Alexander cannot cut c. A friend saith Solomon loves at all times and a brother is born for adversity Euripides hit it when he said That a faithful friend in adversity is better than a calm Sea to a weather-beaten Mariner He that truly loves will love in adversity as well as in prosperity in storms as well as in calms in winter nights as well as in Summer dayes he that sincerely loves the Saints he will love them as well when men frown upon them as when they smile upon them as well when men strike them as when they stroke them as well when men cast them down as when they lift them up as well when men cry Crucifie them crucifie them as when they cry Hosanna Hosanna to them Consalvus a Spanish Bishop and Inquisitor wondred how the Christians had that Commandement Thou shalt love thy neighbour as thy self so indelibly printed in their hearts that no torture could blot it out and make them confess and betray one another or cease from loving one another Hieron I have read of one Ursinus a Christian Physician who being to suffer Martyrdom for the Gospel of Christ began to waver and faint which when Vitalis a holy man saw he stept to him and though he knew it would cost him his life yet he thus comforted and encouraged him saying What have ye been heretofore so industrious to preserve mens bodies and will you now shrink at the saving of your own soul Be couragious fear not c. For which faithful counsel he also was condemned to death and suffered accordingly Ruth 1. A true friend is neither
Hebrew runs Any way of pain or of grief or of provocation that is any course of sin that is grievous or provoking to the eyes of divine glory A real Saint can neither allow of sin nor wallow in sin nor be transformed into the image of sin nor mix it self with sin 'T is possible for a sincere Christian to step into a sinful path or to touch upon sinful facts Gal. 6.1 Prov. 16.17 and now and then in an hour of temptation to slide to trip and to be overtaken unawares but his main way his principle work is to depart from iniquity As a true traveller may now and then step a few steps out of his way who yet for the main keeps his way keeps the road or as a Bee may now and then light upon a thistle but her main work is to be gathering at the flowers or as a Sheep may now and then slip into the dirt or into a slow but its main work is to be grazing upon the mountains Certainly O soul if sin be now thy greatest burden it shall never hereafter prove thy eternal bane God never yet sent any man to hell for sin to whom sin has commonly been the greatest hell in this world God has but one hell and that is for those to whom sin has been commonly a heaven in this world That man that hates sin and that daily enters his protest against sin that man shall never be made miserable by sin Sin in a wicked man is like poyson in a serpent it is in its natural place it is delightful to a sinner but sin in a Saint is like poyson in a man's body it is offensive and the heart rises against it and is carried forth to the use of all divine Antidotes whereby it may be expelled and destroyed nothing will satisfie a gracious soul but the heart bloud of his lusts Now he shall never be damned for his sins whose heart is set upon killing his sins Seventeenthly Such a poor soul that dares not say that God is his God or that Christ is his Redeemer or that he has a work of grace upon his heart yet can say with some integrity of heart before the Lord that if God and Christ grace and glory holiness and happiness were offered to him on the one hand and all the honours pleasures profits delights and carnal contents of the world were offered him on the other hand he had infinitely rather ten thousand thousand times chuse God and Christ grace and glory holiness and happiness than the contrary Certainly such a soul has true grace in him and a saving work past upon him for none can freely seriously habitually resolutely chuse God and Christ grace and glory holiness and happiness as their summum bonum chiefest good but such who are really good 1 John 4.19 Deut. 7.6 7 8 9. 26.17 18 19. Look as our love to God is but an effect of his love to us We love him because he first loved us so our chusing of God for our God is but an effect of God's chusing us for his people we chuse him because he first chose us Such who in their serious choice set up God and Christ above all other persons and things such God will certainly make happy and blessed for ever God never did nor never will reject those or damn those who really chuse him for their God and for their great all The greatest part of the world chuse their lusts rather than God and the creatures rather than Christ Luke 12.21 they chuse rather to be great than gracious to be rich in this world than to be rich towards God to be outwardly happy than to be inwardly holy Mat. 10.42 to have a heaven on earth than to have a heaven after death and so they miscarry for ever That soul that with Mary has chosen the better part that soul with Mary shall be happy for ever every man must stand or fall for ever as his choice has been But Eighteeenthly Canst thou truly say in the presence of the great and glorious God that is the searcher of all hearts Psal 139.23 24. that thou hast given up thy heart and life to the rule authority and government of Jesus Christ and that thou hast chosen him to be thy Soveraign Lord and King and art truly willing to submit to his dominion as the only precious and righteous government and as the only holy and heavenly sweeâ— and pleasant profitable and comfortable safe and best dominion in all the world and to resign up thy heart thy will thy affections thy life thy all really to Christ wholly to Christ Isa 26.13 and only to Christ Canst thou O poor soul look up to heaven and truly say O dear Lord Jesus other Lords viz. the world the flesh and the devil have had dominion too long over me but now these Lords I do heartily renounce Isa 33.22 I do utterly renounce I do for ever renounce and do give up my self to thee as my only Lord beseeching thee to rule and reign over me for ever and ever O Lord though sin rages and Satan roars and the world sometimes frowns and sometimes fawns yet I am resolved to own thee as my only Lord and to serve thee as my only Lord and my greatest fear by divine assistance shall be of offending thee and my chiefest care shall be to please thee and my only joy shall be to be a praise a name and an honour to thee O Lord I can appeal to thee in the sincerity of my heart Psal 65.3 Rom. 7.23 that though I have many invincible sins weaknesses and infirmities that hang upon me and though I am often worsted by my sins and overcome in an hour of temptation yet thou that knowest all thoughts and hearts thou dost know that I have given up my heart and life to the obedience of Jesus Christ and do daily give them up to his rule and government and 't is the earnest desire of my soul above all things in this world that Jesus Christ may still set up his Laws in my heart and exercise his dominion over me Now certainly there is not the weakest Christian in all the world but can venture himself upon such an appeal to God as this is and without all peradventure where such a frame and temper of spirit is there the dominion of Jesus Christ is set up and where the dominion of Christ is set up there sin has no dominion for the dominion of sin and the dominion of Christ are inconsistent and therefore such a soul is happy and will be happy to all eternity But Cant. 8.5 Acts 11.21 22 23 Psal 71.16 Isa 61.10 Nineteenthly That man that will venture his soul upon Christ and that will lean upon Christ and cleave to Christ with full purpose of heart and that will cleave to his bloud and cleave to his righteousness and cleave to his merits and satisfaction in
ever before him Godly sorrow will every day follow sin hard at hells Look as a wicked man in respect of his desire and will to sin would sin for ever if he should live for ever so I may say if a godly man should live for ever he would sorrow for ever After Paul had been converted many years some think fourteen you shall find him a mourning and lamenting over his sins Rom. 7. An ingenious child will never cease mourning till he ceases from offending an indulgent father Though sin and godly sorrow were never born together yet whilst a believer lives in this world they must live together And indeed holy joy and godly sorrow are no wayes inconsistent Psal 2.11 yea a godly man's eyes are alwayes fullest of tears when his heart is fullest of holy joy c. A man may go joying and mourning to his grave yea to heaven at the same time But now the sorrow the grief of wicked men for sin 't is like a morning cloud or the early dew or the crackling of thorns under a pot or a Post that quickly passeth by or a dream that soon vanisheth or like a tale that is told c. their sorrowful hearts and mournful eyes soon dry up together As you may see in Esau Ahab Pharaoh and Judas but the streams of godly sorrow will last and run as long as sin hangs upon us and dwells in us 1 Cor. 15.9 I am the least of the Apostles that am not meet to be called an Apostle because I persecuted the Church of God Psal 25.7 Remember not the sins of my youth nor my transgressions David prayeth to the Lord not only to forgive but also to forget both the sins of his youth and the sins of his age David remembred all his faults both of former and of later times David was well in years when he defiled himself with Bathsheba and this he remembers and mourns over Psal 51. And 't is very observable that God charged his people for to remember old sins Deut. 9.7 Remember and forget not how thou provokedst the Lord thy God to wrath in the wilderness Repentance is a grace and must have its daily operation as well as other graces witness the very covenant of grace it self Ezek. 16.62 63. I will establish my covenant with thee and thou shalt know that I am the Lord that thou mayest remember and be confounded and never open thy mouth any more because of thy shame when I am pacified towards thee for all that thou hast done Certainly a true penitent can no more satisfie himself with one act of repentance than he can satisfie himself with one act of faith or or with one act of hope or with one act of love or with one act of humility or with one act of patience or with one act of self-denial Godly sorrow is a Gospel-grace that will live and last as well and as long as other graces 't is a spring that in this life can never be drawn dry Sixthly Godly sorrow is a divorcing sorrow it divorces the heart from sin it breaks that ancient league that has been between the heart and sin It is an excellent saying of Austin He doth truly bewail the sins he hath committed who never commits the sins he hath bewailed there is a strong firm league between every sinner and his sin Isa 28.15 18. but when godly sorrow enters it dissolves that league it separates between a sinner and his sin it sets the soul at an everlasting distance from sin The union between the root and the branches the foundation and the building the head and the members the father and the child the husband and the wife the body and the soul are all neer very neer unions yet that between a sinner and his sin seems to be a neerer union Observable is the story of Phaltiel 2 Sam. 3.14 15 16. You know when David had married Michol Saul injuriously gave her to another but when David came to the crown and sent forth his Royal commands that his wife should be brought to him her husband dares not but obey brings her on her journey and then not without great reluctancy of spirit takes his leave of her But what was Phaltiel weary of his wife that he now forsakes her O no he was enforced and though she was gone yet he had many a sad thought about parting with her and he never leaves looking till he sees her as far as Baharim weeping and bemoaning her absence Just thus stands the heart of every unregenerate man towards his sins as Phaltiel's heart stood towards his wife But when the springs of godly sorrow rise in the soul the league the friendship the union that was between the sinner and his sins comes to be dissolved and broken in pieces Hosea 14.8 All godly sorrow sets the heart against sin he that divinely mourns over sin can't live in a course of sin when of all bitters God makes sin to be the greatest bitter to the soul then the soul bids an everlasting farewel to sin now the soul in good earnest bids adieu to sin for ever O Sirs ☜ this is a most certain Maxim to live and die with that either a mans sins will make an end of his mourning or else his mourning will make an end of his sin for he that holds on sinning will certainly leave off mourning no man can make a trade of sin and yet keep his heart in a mourning frame but he that holds on mourning for sin will certainly leave off the trade of sin holy grief for sin will sooner or later break off all leagues and friendships with sin Isa 59.1 2. As sin makes a separation between God and a man's soul so godly sorrow makes a separation between a man's soul and his sin All holy mournings over sin will by degrees issue in the wasting and weakning of the strength and power of sin nothing below the death and destruction of sin will satisfie that soul that truly mourns over sin But now though you may find an unsound heart sometimes a lamenting over his sins yet you shall never find him a leaving off his sins Pharaoh lamented over his sin crying out I have sinned Exod. 9.27 10.16 the Lord is righteous and I and my people are wicked And again Then Pharaoh called for Moses and for Aaron in haste and he said I have sinned against the Lord your God and against you But though you find him here lamenting and complaining over his sin yet you never find him leaving or forsaking of his sin So Saul could cry out he had sinned but yet he still continued in his sin he acknowledged that he did evil in persecuting of David and yet he still held on persecuting of him An unsound heart mourns over sin and yet he holds on in a course of sin he sins and mourns and mourns and sins and commonly all his mourning for sin does but the more imbolden him
delivered from sin 6. Concomitant of godly sorrow Sixthly Yea what zeal Zeal is an extream heat of all the affections set against sin and working strongly towards God David's zeal did eat up his sin as well as himself And Paul was as zealous in propagating the Gospel as he had been furious in persecuting of it Many mens zeal is hot and burning when scorns and reproaches are cast upon them but the penitent man's zeal is most hot and burning when Religion is scorned Saints persecuted truth endangered and the great and dreadful name of God blasphemed c. The zeal of a true penitent will carry him on in a course of godliness and in a course of mortification in spight of all the diversions and oppositions that the world the flesh and the devil can make Holy zeal is a fire that will make its way through all things that stands between God and the soul The true penitent is unchangably resolved to be hid of his sins what ever it cost him who ever escapes who ever lives he is fully determined his lusts shall die for it only remember this though zeal should eat up our sins yet it must not eat up our wisdom no more than policy should eat up our zeal Seventhly Yea what revenge The true penitent revenges himself upon himself for his sins 7. Concomitant of godly sorrow not by whips and scourges as the Papists do 1 Cor. 9.27 A penitent sinner loaths the very scars of his sins after they are healed Nazian but by buffetting the flesh and bringing it into subjection by fasting and prayer and by crossing of his lusts and loading of them with chains and by diâ—â—ding the sword of mortification against them and by with-holding from them that fuel that might feed them and by the use of all other holy exercises whereby the old man the body of sin and death may be subdued to the obedience and discipline of the Spirit of God Holy revenge will shew it self by contradicting of corrupt self and by a severe chastising and punishing of all those instruments that have been servants to the flesh as you may see by the daughters of Israel in dedicating their looking-glasses by which they had offended Exod. 38.8 to the service of the Sanctuary Acts 19.19 and as you may see by the Ephesians burning of their costly and curious books before all men Luke 7. and by Mâ—ry Magdalens wiping of Christ's feet with her hair wherewith formerly her fond and foolish lovers were inticed and intangled And the same spirit you may see working in Zacheus Luke 19.8 9. and in the Jailor Acts 16.23 24 29 30 31 33 34. And so blessed Cranmer thrust his right hand first into the fire that being the hand by which he subscribed the Popish Articles revengfully crying out This unworthy right hand this unworthy right hand as long as he could speak The common language of holy revenge is this Lord pour out all thy wrath and all thy fierce anger and all thy fiery indignation upon this lust and that lust Lord bend thy bow and shoot all the arrows of thy displeasure into the very heart of my strong corruptions Lord when wilt thou rain hell out of heaven upon this proud heart this unbelieving heart this unclean heart this worldly heart this froward heart this treacherous heart of mine c. I have read of Hannibal that when he saw a pit full of the bloud of his enemies he cryed out with much content and delight O beautiful sight So when a penitent Christian sees his spiritual enemies his strong corruptions all in a goar bloud O! how delightfully and rejoycingly does he cry out O beautiful sight O blessed sight that ever I have seen Exod. 15. When the children of Israel saw the Egyptians dead upon the Sea-shore then they sang a song of praise the Application is easie O Sirs let no man deceive his own immortal soul for 't is most certain that repentance to life hath all these lively companions attending of it Sound repentance and the companions of it are born together and will live and continue together till the penitent soul changes earth for heaven grace for glory And let thus much suffice for the first part of true repentance c. The second part of true repentance lyes in confession of sin which flows out of a contrite heart I mean not a bare formal empty confession such as is common amongst the worst of sinners as that we are all sinners and stand in need of a Saviour God help us God be merciful unto us c. but of such a confession of sin as ariseth from a true sight and full sense of sin and from the due apprehensions of a righteous Law that is transgressed and a holy God that is provoked c. When tongue and heart goes together when the tongue speaks out of the abundance of the heart when the tongue is the faithful interpreter of the heart freely ingenuously and humbly acknowledging iniquity transgression and sin and the penitent judging himself worthy of death of wrath of hell and unworthy of the least mercy and favour from God c. Now such a confession as this is you shall find in repenting sinners and if you look again you shall find those persons so confessing to be under the capacity of the promise of the forgiveness of their sins c. First You shall find repenting sinners confessing their sins Ezra 9.6 O my God I am ashamed and blush to lift up my face unto thee my God for our iniquities are increased over our head and our trespass is grown up unto the heavens Repenting sinners confess their sins c. Ver. 10. And now O our God what shall we say after this for we have forsaken thy commandements c. Psal 51.3 I acknowledge my transgressions and my sin is ever before me Ver. 4. Against thee thee only have I sinned and done this evil in thy sight Dan. 9.4 5. I prayed unto the Lord my God and made my confession and said O Lord the great and dreadful God c. We have sinned and committed iniquity and have done wickedly and have rebelled even by departing from thy precepts and from thy judgments c. Ver. 8. O Lord righteousness belongeth unto thee but unto us confusion of face as at this day Luke 15.18 I will arise and go to my father and will say unto him father I have sinned against heaven and before thee Ver. 19. And am no more worthy to be called thy son c. 1 Cor. 15.9 For I am the least of all the Apostles that am not meet to be called an Apostle because I persecuted the Church of God 1 Tim. 1.13 Who was before a blasphemer and a persecuter and injurious c. Isa 53.6 All we like sheep have gone astray we have turned every one to his own way and the Lord hath laid on him the iniquity of us all I might easily
but with Benhadad to recover of one disease and die of another it is but to take pains to go to hell If a Ship spring three leaks and only two be stopped the third will sink the Ship or if a man have two grievous wounds in his body and take order only to cure one that which is neglected will certainly kill him 'T is so here if a man that has divers lusts fighting against the life of his precious soul shall only mortifie and slay some of them the rest will certainly destroy him and all his pains in subduing some of them will be lost I have read of a devout man who had amongst many other vertues the gift of healing unto whom divers made resort for cure among the rest one Chromatius being sick sent for him being come he told him of his sickness and desired that he might have the benefit of cure as others had before him I cannot do it said the devout person till thou hast beaten all the Idols and Images in thy house to pieces O that shall be done said Chromatius here take my keys and where you find any Images let them be defaced which was done accordingly to prayer went the holy man but no cure was wrought O saith Chromatius I am as sick as ever O I am very weak and sick It cannot be otherwise replyed the holy man nor can I help it for certainly there is one Idol more in your house undiscovered and that must be defaced too True sayes Chromatius there is so indeed there is one all of beaten gold it cost 200 l. I would fain have saved it but here take my keys again you shall find it locked up fast in my chest take it and break it in pieces which done the holy man prayed and Chromatius was healed The moral of this story is this We are all spiritually sick full of wounds and putrified sores Christ our spiritual Physician tells us that if we will be cured we must break off our sins by repentance Now this we are willing to do in part but not in whole we would fain keep one Dalilah one darling beloved sin but it must not be there must not be one sin unrepented of we must repent as well for our Achans as our Absaloms our Rimmons as our Mammons our Davids as our Goliahs our covert as well as our open sins our loved as well as our loathed lusts our heart abominations as well as our gross transgressions our Babe iniquities as well as our Giant-like provocations our repentance must be universal or 't will be to no purpose Herod turned from many evils but would not turn from his Herodias Mark 6.18 19 20 and that was his ruin Judas his life was as fair and as free from spots and blots as the lives of any of the Apostles no scandalous sin was to be found upon him only that golden Devil covetousness was his sin and his everlasting ruin his Apostleship Preaching working of Miracles hearing of Christ and conversing with him c. was to no purpose because of that Serpent he kept in his bosom which at last stung him to death If a man lives in the practise of any known sin the union between sin and his soul is not dissolved and if that union be not dissolved Christ and his soul was never united and therefore such a person can never be saved Saul spared Agag and the Witch of Endor whom he should have destroyed and so lost his Crown his Kingdom and his Soul which was saddest of all Gideon had seventy sons Judg. 8.13 and but one bastard and yet that one bastard destroyed all the rest The Jewish Rabbins report that the same night that Israel departed out of Egypt towards Canaan all the Idols and idolatrous Temples in Egypt by lightning and earthquakes were broken down So when a man truly repents all the Idols that were set up in his soul are cast down But Secondly God has so connexed the duties of his Law one to another that if there be not a conscientious care to walk according to all that the Law requires a man becomes a transgressor of the whole Law according to that of Saint James Chap. 2.10 Whosoever shall keep the whole Law He who prevaricates with God as to any one particular commandement of his his heart is naught stark naught and he is guilty of all he hath no real regard to any of the commandements of God that hath not a regard to all the commandements of God c. and yet offend in one point is guilty of all the bond of all is broken the authority of all is slighted and that evil disposition that sinful frame of heart that works a man to venture upon the breach of one command would make him venture upon the breach of any command were it not for some infirmity of nature or because his purse will not hold out to maintain it or for shame or loss or because of the eye of friends or the sword of the Magistrate or for some sinister respects and might the breach of any other of the commands of God serve his turn and advance his ends he stands as strongly prest in spirit to transgress them all as to transgress any one of them He that gives himself liberty to live in the breach of any one command of God is qualified with a disposition of heart to break them all every single sin contains virtually all sin in it He that allows himself a liberty to live in the breach of any one particular Law of God he casts contempt and scorn upon the authority that made the whole Law and upon this account breaks it all And the Apostle gives the reason of it in Verse 11. For he that said do not commit adultery said also do not kill now if thou commit no adultery yet if thou kill thou art become a transgressor of the Law Not that he is guilty of all distributively but collectively for the Law is copulative there is a chain of duties and these are all so linked one to another that you cannot break one link of the chain but you break the whole chain All the precepts of the Law are as it were a string of pearls strung by the authority of God now break this string in any place and all the pearls fall to the ground No man can live in the breach of any known command of God but he wrongs every command of God and this at last he shall find to his cost without sound repentance on his side and pardoning grace on God's But Thirdly One sin never goes alone Cain's anger is seconded with murder Gen. 4.6 8. Ahab's covetousness is attended with bloudy cruelty and Jeroboam's rebellion with idolatry and Judas his thievery with treason I might give instances of this in Adam and Eve and in Lot Abraham Noah Jacob Joseph 1 King 12. Job David Solâ—mon and Peter c. but a touch on this string is enough one
shall surely live he shall not die Negative righteousness and holiness is no righteousness no holiness in the account of God Luke 18.5 Mat. 20.13 14. It was not the Pharisees negative righteousness nor his comparative goodness that could prevent his being rejected of God or his being shut out of heaven or his being turned into hell It is not enough that the Tree bears no ill fruit but it must bring forth good fruit else it must be cut down and cast into the fire that Tree that is not for fruit is for the fire Mat. 7.19 Every tree that brings not forth good fruit sayes Christ is hewn down and cast into the fire Heaven at last will be found too holy and too hot to hold such as please themselves as satisfie themselves with a negative righteousness All that negative righteousness and holiness can do is only to help a man to one of the coolest chambers and easiest beds in hell True repentance brings the heart and life not only off from sin but on to God too it takes a man not only off from the wayes of death but it engages him to walk in the paths of life Psal 119.3 They do no iniquity Nazianzene speaking of true repentance very aptly compares the soul to a pair of writing tables out of which must be washed whatsoever was written with sin and instead thereof the writing of grace must be writupon the soul both being necessary to true repentance Jer. 31.19 Job 40.4 5. Jer. 4.1 they walk in his wayes Prov. 13.14 The Law of the wise is a fountain of life to depart from the snares of death Prov. 15.24 The way of life is above to the wise that he may depart from hell beneath Psal 34.14 Depart from evil and do good We read in Scripture of God's returning to us as well as of our returning to God in both there is repentance When God returns to us he repents of the evil of punishment that he hath brought upon us and when we return to God we repent of the evil of sin which we have committed against him The true penitent does not only sadly smite upon his thigh and say what have I done but he also speedily faces about and cryes out I will do so no more When God calls for true repentance it is with an if thou wilt return O Israel return unto me And when the people of God do provoke and encourage one another to repentance Hosea 6.1 it is with a come let us return unto the Lord. Repentance unto life is not a turning from sin to sin nor 't is not a turning from prophaness to civility nor 't is not a turning from civility to formality but 't is a turning from darkness to light Acts 26.18 't is a turning from the wayes of iniquity into the wayes of piety 't is a turning from sin to God In this respect Israel's repentance was very defective witness that sad complaint of the Prophet Hosea 7.16 They return that is they make a shew of repentance but not to the most High So they in that Joel 2.12 have the half turn but returned not to the Lord with all their hearts So Jehu went far and gave many a half turn but never turned to the most High and that was his ruin at last Such a repentance as brings the soul never the neerer to God is a repentance never the neer but that repentance that brings the soul neerer to God is a repentance never to be repented of And let thus much suffice to have spoken concerning that Evangelical Repentance that hath the precious promises of remission of sin and salvation running out unto it c. CHAP. IV. Several have observed to my hand 'T is better that a hundred hypocrites should perish than that one poor Christian should want his portion Cotton on the Covenant page 78. how far an Hypocrite may go but my design in this Chapter is to shew how far an Hypocrite cannot go Many have discovered at large what an Hypocrite can do but my scope in this Chapter is to shew what an Hypocrite cannot do Some have shewed what an Hypocrite is and I shall now shew what he is not Some have shewed the several rounds in Jacob's Ladder that an Hypocrite may climb up to but my business and work in this Chapter is to shew you the several rounds in Jacob's Ladder that no Hypocrite under heaven can climb up to FIrst An Hypocrites inside is never answerable to his outside an Hypocrites inside is one thing Mat. 23.25 26 27 Luke 11.39 and his outside another thing an Hypocrite is outwardly clean but inwardly unclean he is outwardly glorious but inwardly inglorious Hypocrites are like Apothecaries gally pots having without the title of some excellent Preservative but within they are full of some deadly poyson they are like the Egyptian Temples that were beautifull without but within there was nothing to be found but Serpents and Crocodiles and other venemous creatures Hypocrites trade more for a good name than for a good heart for a good report than for a good conscience they are like Fidlers more careful in tuning their Instruments than in watching their spirits Erasmi â—â—milia Hypocrites are like white silver but they draw black lines they have a seeming sanctified outside but stuff'd within with malice worldliness pride envy c. Like window cushions made up of velvet and richly embroydered but stuff'd within with hay An Hypocrite may offer sacrifice with Cain and fast with Jezabel and humble himself with Ahab and lament with the tears of Esau and kiss Christ with Judas and follow Christ with Demas and offer fair for the holy Ghost with Simon Magus Acts 8.23 and yet for all this his inside as bad as any of theirs An Hypocrite is a Cato without and a Nero within a Jacob without and an Esau within a David without and a Saul within a Peter without and a Judas within a Saint without and a Satan within an Angel without and a Devil within Rom. 2.28 29. An Hypocrit is a Jew outwardly but an Atheist a Pagan Lucian a Turk inwardly I have read of certain Images which on the outside were covered with gold and pearl resembling Jupiter and Neptune but within were nothing but spiders and cobwebs a fit resemblance of Hypocrites Hypocrisie is but an outside like cloth of Arras fair and beautiful without but if you look to the inside you shall find nothing but rags and ends That Monk hit it that said To be a Monk in outward shew was easie but to be a Monk in inward reality was hard To be a Christian in outward shew is easie but to be a Christian inwardly and really is very hard An Hypocrites inside never ecco's or answers to his outside his inside is vicious and his outside is Religious But let all such hypocrites know that dissembled sanctity is double iniquity and accordingly at last they
shall be dealt with Mat. 24.5 But Secondly No hypocrite under heaven is totally divorced from the love and liking of every known sin there is still some secret lust or other Job 20.12 13 14 which as a sweet morsel he rowls under his tongue and will not spit it out every Hypocrite tollerates some evil or other in himself and takes liberty to transgress An Hypocrite will make hard shift to daub up his conscience and to secure himself from the checks thereof After once the bag was committed to Judas his custody after once he was chosen into that sweet office he quickly put conscience out of office It was a strange conceit of the Cerinthians and those Caini or Cainiani as they are called by some that honoured Judas the Traitor as some divine and super-humane power and called his treason a blessed piece of service that he knowing how much the death of Christ would profit mankind did therefore betray him to death to save the race of men and to do a thing pleasing to God Irenaeus Aug. de haeresi and never left stealing and licking his fingers whilst there was any money in his bag to finger Herod knew much and heard John Baptist and had some temporary affections and did many good things Mark 6.20 But yet 1. He kept Herodias his brother's wife Mark 6.17 2. He took away the life of John the Baptist Mark 6.27 3. He sets Jesus Christ at naught and rejected him Luke 23.11 As fair as Herod seemed to carry it yet he lived in a known notorious sin and unjustly murdered the messenger of God and mocked and rejected Jesus Christ as a vile person Some sin or other alwayes reigns without controul in an hypocritical heart As they say of Witches that they have one familiar or another that still sucks them An Hypocrite alwayes reserves one nest-egg or another in his heart or life for Satan to sit and brood on Jehu did many brave things but yet he kept up the worship of his golden calves Naaman promises high but yet he is for bowing in the house of Rimmon The Pharisees were very devout but yet they loved the praises of men and the uppermost seats in the Synagogues There is never an hypocrite in the world but will do what he can to save the life of his sin though it be with the loss of his soul O Sirs Satan can be contented that Hypocrites should yield to God in many things provided they will be but true to him in some one thing for he very well knows that one sin lived in and allowed gives him as much advantage against the soul as more Satan can hold a man fast enough by one sin as the Fowler can hold the bird fast enough by one claw Satan knows that one sin lived in and allowed will marr all a mans sweetest duties and services as one dead fly will marr the whole box of precious ointment and as one jarring string will bring the sweetest musick out of tune 'T is said of Naaman the Syrian Eccl. 10.1 that he was a valiant man and a victorious man and an honourable man 2 King 5.1 and a great favourite with his Prince but a Leper So it may be said of many Hypocrites they have such and such excellencies and they perform such and such glorious duties but they live and allow themselves in this or that sin Mat. 7.21 22 23. and that marrs the beauty of all their services Satan knows that one sin lived in and allowed will as certainly damn a man as many as one disease one ulcerous part may as certainly kill a man as many Satan knows that one sin lived in and allowed Lev. 31. will render a man as unclean in the eye of God as many If the Leper in the Law had the spot of leprosie in any one part of his body he was accounted a Leper although all the rest of his body were sound and whole So he who hath the spot of the leprosie of sin allowed in any one part of his soul he is a spiritual Leper in the eye of God he is unclean though in other parts he may not be unclean The Schoolmen say that if a sow do but wallow in one miry or dirty hole she is filthy and certainly that soul that doth but wallow in any one sin he is filthy in the eye of God Satan knows Heb. 13.4 It is most true that the Heathen man saith Qui habet unium vitium shabet omnia he that hath any one vice viz. reigning hath all others with it Seneca de benef l. 5. c. 15. that one sin lived in and allowed will as effectually keep Christ and the soul asunder as many as one stone in the pipe will as effectually keep out the water as many Satan knows that one sin lived in and allowed will make way for many as one thief can open the door to let in many more Satan knows that one sin lived in and allowed will as certainly shut the soul out of heaven as many one enemy may shut the door upon a man as well as many and what difference is there between that man that is shut out of heaven for living in many sins and he that is shut out of heaven for lâ—ving but in one sin One sin lived in and allowed will arm conscience against a man as well as many If there be but one crack in the honey glass there the wasp will be buzzing One sin allowed and countenanced will spoyl the musick of conscience one sin lived in and allowed will make death as terrible and as formidable to the soul as many one hand-writing upon the wall made King Nebuchadnezzar's countenance to change Dan. 5.5 6. and his thoughts to be troubled and the joynts of his loyns to be loosed and his knees to be dashed one against another Now all this Satan knows and therefore he labours mightily to engage Hypocrites to live in the allowance of some one sin O Sirs remember that as one hole in a Ship will sink it and as one stab at the heart will kill a man and as one glass of poyson will poyson a man and as one act of Treason will make a man a Traitor so one sin lived in and allowed will damn a man for ever one wound strikes Goliah dead as well as three and twenty did Caesar one Dalilah will do Sampson as much mischief Suetonius as all the Philistines one wheel broken spoyls all the whole clock one vein's bleeding will let out all the vitals as well as more one bitter herb will spoyl all the pottage Gen. 3. 1 Sam. 14.33 Josh 7. Jonah 1. by eating one apple Adam lost Paradise one lick of honey endangered Jonathan's life one Achan was a trouble to all Israel one Jonah was lading too heavy for a whole Ship So one sin lived in and allowed is enough to make a man miserable for ever One milstone will sink a man
say I hate every false way but a sincere Christian he hates all sinful wayes but his own first and most 1 Kings 5.18 an upright heart leaves no nest-egg for Satan to sit on but the hypocrite alwayes does Mark in true hatred there are six things observable First True hatred includes an extream detestation every dislike is not hatred but true hatred is an extream loathing Thou shalt cast them away as a menstrous cloth Isa 30.22 thou shalt say unto it Get thee hence Chap. 2.20 In that day a man shall cast his idols of silver and his idols of gold which they made each one for himself to worship to the Moles and to the Bats Their detestation should be so great that they should cast their most costly idols of silver and gold into the most dark nasty dusty corners to testifie the sincerity of their conversion to God they should hate and abhor abandon and abolish their gold and silver idols which they valued above all others Secondly True hatred includes an earnest separation He that hates his sin would fain be separated from his sin 2 Cor. 5.4 For we that are in this tabernacle do groan being burdened A sincere Christian finds no burden to lay so heavy and weighty upon his spirit as sin and therefore he groans to be delivered from it In the Law Deut. 24.3 he that hated his Wife did sue out a bill of divorce from her He that truly hates sin puts in many a bill into the Court of Heaven that he may be for ever divorced from his sin Thirdly True hatred includes an irreconcilable alienation He that hates sin has his heart for ever alienated from sin he who hates sin can never be one with sin Two angry men may be made friends Lawyers often fall out at the Bar but are very well agreed when they meet at the Tavern but if two men hate each other all friendship is everlastingly broken betwixt them A man may be angry with sin and yet made friends with sin again but if once he comes to hate his sin then all friendship with sin is everlastingly broken When Christ and the soul comes to be really one then sin and the soul comes to be everlastingly two c. Fourthly True hatred includes a constant and perpetual conflict the flesh will be still lusting against the spirit and the spirit against the flesh Gal. 5.17 Rom. 7.22 23. Though sin and grace were not born together and though sin and grace shall never die together yet whilst a believer lives in this world they must live together and whilst sin and grace do cohabit together they will still be opposing and conflicting one with another That man that truly hates sin will everlastingly conflict with sin he will die fighting against his sins as one of the Dukes of Venice died fighting against his enemies with his weapons in his hand Well Christians remember this Though to be kept from sin brings most peace and comfort to us yet for us to oppose sin and for God to pardon sin that brings most glory to God 2 Cor. 12.7 8 9. Fifthly True hatred includes a deadly intention and destruction for nothing satisfies hatred but death and ruin Saul hated David 1 Sam. 26.19 20. 1 Sam. 23.23 Est 5.14 and sought his life he hunted him up and down as a Partridge in the mountains he left no stone unturn'd nor no means unattempted whereby he might revenge himself upon David Haman hated Mordecai and nothing would satisfie him but to bring him to a shameful death to see him hang'd on a gallows fifty cubits high which was design'd saith Lyra to put Mordecai to the greater shame for he hanging hâ—gh every one might see him and point to him Now when there was but one night betwixt Mordecai and a shameful death divine providence opportunely strook in and saved hâ—m from Haman's malice and caused the mischief which he had plotted against Mordecai suddenly to fall upon his own pate for he who was highly feasted with the King one day 2 Sam. 13.22 28 29 30 31 32 33. was made a feast for crows the next day Absalom hated Amnon and killed him Julian the Apostate hated the Christians with a deadly hatred he put many thousands of them to death and threatned and vowed that at his return from fighting against the Persians he would put all the Christians in his Empire to the sword but God prevented him by cutting him off in that expedition A Christian that hates sin can't be satisfied but in the death and destruction of it in all his duties the language of his soul is Lord let my sins be destroyed whoever escapes let not my sins escape the hand of thy revenging justice And in all Ordinances the language of his soul is O Lord when shall my sins be subdued and mortified when shall my cursed corruptions be brought to an under yea when shall they all be drowned in the Red-Sea of my Saviours bloud c. Sixthly True hatred includes an impartial aversation true hatred is of the whole kind but of this before To wind up all ask thy heart what is it that thou abhorrest as the superlative evil what is that which thou wouldst have separated as far from thee as heaven is from hell what is that thy heart will never renew league or friendship with any more what is that against which thy soul doth rise and with which as Israel with Amalek thou wilt have war for ever Exod. 17.16 what is that which thou wilt be avenged of and daily dost endeavour the mortifying and crucifying of what is that which thou settest thy heart against in the comprehensive latitude thereof whether great or little open or secret if it be sin if it be thy sins if it be all thy sins then assuredly here is a true hatred of sin and assuredly here is a most distinguishing character of a child of God of a sound conversion and of a saving change It was not wont to be thus with thee nor is this findable in any hypocrite Judg. 14.3 7. or in any unconverted person upon the face of the earth 2 Sam. 13.15 sin was once to thee as Dalilah to Sampson but now it is to thee as Tamar to Amnon Job 20.12 13. once it was a sweet morsel which thou heldst fast and wouldst not let it go Isa 30.22 but now it is the menstruous cloth which thou castest away Hos 14.8 saying Get thee hence Now with Ephraim thou cryest out What have I to do any more with Idols O if it be indeed thus with thee then thou hast cause for ever to be much in blessing and in admiring of the Lord for his distinguishing grace and favour towards thee O Sirs the world is full of baits snares and temptations but whilst the hatred of sin burns in your breasts you may cast up your caps and throw the Gantlet to the
heart Ver. 23. Nevertheless I am continually with thee thou hast holden me by my right hand Ver. 24. Thou shalt guide me with thy counsel and afterward receive me to glory Ver. 25. Whom have I in heaven but thee and there is none upon earth that I desire besides thee Ver. 26. God is the strength or rock of my heart and my portion for ever Ver. 28. It is good for me to draw near to God So the Church in that Micah 7. When God had hid his face from her Ver. 7. When she sate in darkness Ver. 8. When she was under the indignation of the Lord. Ver. 9. When the righteous man was perished and there was none upright among men Ver. 2. And when her enemies rejoyced insulted and triumphed over her Ver. 8. ver 10. Yet now even now she keeps up in her soul very high precious and honourable thoughts of the Lord. Ver. 7. My God will hear me Ver. 8. When I fall I shall arise when I sit in darkness the Lord shall be a light unto me Ver. 9. He will bring me forth to the light and I shall behold his righteousness I might give you twenty more instances but enough is as good as a feast Dear Christians when your graces are not transparent when your evidences for heaven are blotted and when the face of God is clouded O then keep up in your hearts high precious and honourable thoughts of God and Christ and of his Word and wayes Acts 27.20 c. When your Sun of righteousness is set in a cloud when great darkness is upon your spirits when all Moon-light and Star-light of your graces and gracious evidences fails you Psal 22.3 yet then say with David Thou art holy O thou that inhabitest the praises of Israel and with Ezra Thou hast punished me less than mine iniquities deserve Ezra 9.13 Neh. 9.33 and with Nehemiah Howbeit thou art just in all that is brought upon us for thou hast done right but we have done wickedly and with the Church The Lord is righteous Lam. 1.18 In the darkest night and under your deepest soul-distresses say Well if I perish if I should miscarry for ever yet I will maintain and keep up in my heart high and precious and honourable thoughts of God and Christ Say well though my graces are obscured and my evidences for heaven are blurred and soyled yet I shall to my last breath say the Lord is good and his Word is good and his wayes are good yea though he should slay me yet I will trust in him Job 13.15 and entertain noble and glorious thoughts of him This is the way of wayes to have your graces cleared and strengthned your evidences brightned your comforts restored and your assurance confirmed But The twelfth Proposition is this viz. That it is the great duty and concernment of Christians to keep the evidences of their gracious and happy condition alwayes bright and shining Christians should make conscience of blurring and disfiguring the golden characters of grace in their souls The least character of grace in the soul is more worth than all the gold of Ophir yea more worth than ten thousand thousand worlds Eph. 4.30 Psal 51.11 12 and therefore every gracious Christian should be marvellous careful that he does not by wilful omissions or sinful commissions cloud dim or darken the least character of grace such as blot or lose their evidences for heaven they lose the comfort of their lives in this world Satans master-piece is first to work Christians to blot and blur their evidences for glory by committing this or that hainous sin and then his next work is to rob them of their evidences for glory that so though at the long run they may get safe to heaven that yet Jacob like they may go halting and mourning to their graves Satan knows that whilst a Christians evidences are bright and shining a Christian is temptation-proof Satan may tempt him but he can't conquer him he may assault him but he can't vanquish him Satan knows that whilst a Christians evidences for heaven are bright and shining no afflictions can sink him nor no opposition shake him nor no persecution discourage him nor no outward wants perplex him and therefore he will use all his power and policy all his arts crafts and parts to draw poor Christians to blot and blur their evidences for glory Satan knows that a man may lose one friend and easily get another lose his Trade in one place and soon get a Trade in another place lose health and get it lose an estate and get an estate c. But if he loses his evidences for heaven he knows it will cost him many a prayer and many a sigh and many a groan and many a tear and many a sad complaint before he recovers his lost evidences and therefore his grand design is to plunder a Christian of his evidences for heaven O Sirs keep but your evidences for heaven alwayes bright and shining and then heavy afflictions will be light and long afflictions will be short 2 Cor. 4.16 17 18. and bitter afflictions will be sweet and then every evidence fainly written in your hearts will be a living comfort to you in a dying hour When the tokens of death are upon your bodies and you shall see the lively characters of grace shining in your souls Luke 2.29 you will then cry out with old Simeon Lord now let thy servant depart in peace and with the Spouse Make hast my beloved Cant. 8. ult and be like to a Roe or to a young Hart upon the mountains of spices Rev. 22.20 Phil. 1.23 and with the Bride Come Lord Jesus come quickly and with Paul I desire to be dissolved and to be with Christ When a man's evidences for heaven are either lost or blotted and blur'd then he will be ready to cry out wiâ—h David O spare me yet a little that I may recover strength before I go hence and be seen no more Isa 38.3 and with Hezekiah to turn his face to the wall and weep There are four things that above all others a Christian should labour to keep 1. Christ 2. His own heart 3. The Word 4. His evidences for heaven bright and shining But The thirteenth Proposition is this viz. It is the high concernment of every Christian either when he is in the dark or when his graces shine brightest and when his evidences for heaven are clearest and his springs of comfort rise highest then to have his heart and the eye of his faith most firmly fixt upon these three royal Forts or these five Cities or refuge It must be granted that though our graces are our best jewels yet they are imperfect and do not give out their full lustre they are like the Moon which when it shines brightest hath her dark spots and therefore a Christian had need have his eye his heart fixt upon the five following royal Forts