that many times the Sin that mostly takes up the thoughts of such a Soul at first is some sin that has less of malignity against God in it than many other which the Party has been guilty of as Lying Sabbath-breaking Disobedience to Parents or some external act of Sin in which he has been more carried by his sensual inclination than maliciously wicked 2. He considers the severe Judgment of God denounced against Sinners and his own concernment in it The Word says The soul that sins shall dye and makes Eternal death the wages of every sin Rom. 6. Yea the Word declares all men by Nature dead in trespasses and sins and children of wrath and hereupon the Sinner reasons thus with himself Is there not a reality in these Threatning words And do they not take effect upon Sinners according to the plain sense and import of them What may I think then of my self Am I liable to all this danger or have I any fence against it If I should now dye as I know not how soon I may what were like to come of me If I be under the force of these Threatnings wo unto me And what have I to plead against them If I was by Nature a Child of wrath how got I out of that condition or am I yet in the gall of bitterness and bands of iniquity Thus the Soul studies and examines his own estate And this is the First step towards Conversion Consideration The Second step or degree of this work is a strong Conviction of a miserable and perishing Estate But before we come directly to consider that work we must take notice of some hindrances or diversions by reason of which many men are taken off even at the first step and never come to a sound Conviction at all and others are long e're they come at it 1. Some grow weary of the unpleasant work of Self-Consideration and let it fall before ever they have brought it to any Convincing issue This is very ordinary with Persons a little shaken under a Sermon or griped by Conscience under an Affliction or scared with the thoughts of Death to ask the Question What estate they are in But the Subject being very ungrateful to Nature they never stay their Studies upon it to bring it to any determinate conclusion As Pilate asked What is truth But would not stay to hear the Answer They translate their thoughts to other matters as being loath to endure the pains of a thorough Examination of themselves 2. From the Consideration of themselves some turn aside to the survey of others whom they think to be as great or greater Sinners and so content themselves in hope to speed as well as they They observe many as bad as they or worse who yet are confident of a safe estate yea they are knowing Persons and likely to understand their own condition as well as any they are Learned men it may be Ministers that of all others should see if there be any danger in their way and besides they are well thought of generally by their Neighbours and few or none seem to question their estate Why then says the a-little-startled Sinner should I further disquiet my self with sad and doubtful apprehensions of my condition I see no probability but I may speed as well as thousands that are round about me I 'll even take up and run the common hazard of my Neighbours and of Mankind in general Thus Consideration is many times obstructed and falls short of a sound Conviction But where God goes on with the design of Saving a Soul he holds the Mind close and keeps it from the vain study of other things and Persons till he has made the Sinner plainly see himself Wretched Miserable and Perishing and that is the second degree of this work which comes now to be considered This Conviction is the proper effect of a well prosecuted Self-consideration and the conclusion naturally issuing from these two premises well attended 1. The demands of the Law from every man 2. The Judgment of God against every Offender of which before He that well considers these and duly applies to himself as his own concernment must needs understand himself to be in a perishing estate without the use of some proper and sufficient Remedy Thus the Prodigal was kept pondering his condition till he perceived himself perishing for hunger Luke 15.17 When he came to himself he had been ranging abroad from himself as well as from his Father's house and unmindful of his greatest concernments where he was which way he was going and what was like to come of him was none of his study all this while But now at length he returned home to himself and took his own estate into a sober consideration upon which he found plainly that he was like to dye for want of Bread I perish for hunger So the Jews Acts 2. were held under the sad thoughts of what they had done and deserved till they were pierced at the heart that is they found themselves dead men as a man that is stabb d to the heart for whom there is as we use to say but one way This account also the Apostle gives of himself Rom. 7.4 That when the commandment came sin revived and he died he perceived that vigor and Soul-destroying power of sin in himself which he was not aware of before and plainly saw himself a dying man Spiritually undone and perishing The like work we also see in the Jailor Acts 16. What must I do to be saved That word to be Saved plainly implies a sense and deep Conviction of a lost estate that he was at present an undone man Thus the poor Sinner hangs as it were over the mouth of Hell in his own apprehension and sees nothing more likely than that he should presently fall into it he plainly hears the Law threatning him with Death Eternal sees God frowning upon him and destruction ready to swallow him up he that a few days ago thought himself as safe and as much in favour with God as any in the world and it may be was secure of Soul-concernments never troubled himself with thoughts of Eternity and took it for a point of folly and a beginning of madness in other men to disturb their minds with fear of Hell and Condemnation is now become a miserable and perishing man in his own Judgment and of all men alive the most likely to be Damned Eternally The Third step or degree of this work is a Soul-Afflicting Humiliation a work made up of terror and sorrow under the apprehension of the wrath of God and the sense of a perishing estate A deep sorrow and anguish of Spirit seizing upon the Sinner under the Conviction before spoken of This work is commonly called Legal Repentance because it is a deep sorrow and trouble about sin depending upon that sense which a man has of his condemnation under the Law But though it be not that sorrow which is called Godly
to the means is called Faith As we are saved by faith Eph. 2.8 or as Rom. 8.24 We are saved by hope I shall therefore for plainness treat of fiducial Faith and Hope as one Act not as affecting to follow the Schoolmen or others who go that way but as intending the best advantage of the Understanding which is usually disturbed by an unnecessary multiplication of things And if Scripture commonly speaks of both as one Act which is confessed why may they not be so handled Obj. If any object that in 1 Cor. 13.13 Where Faith Hope and Charity are enumerated as three distinct Graces Ans I answer If we take Faith for Assenting Faith which is primarily and most properly Faith the number is made good and indeed it is most probable that the Apostle intends that Faith whereby we believe those thing now which we shall hereafter see as by Hope he means the confident expectation of that Good which we shall hereafter enjoy These things premised I proceed to the Description of fiducial Faith Viz. A Resting or trusting in the mercy of God in Christ in hope of his Salvation tendered to Sinners in the Gospel Here we are distinctly to consider 1. The end of Faith the Salvation of God 2. The tendency of Faith to that end and that is in Hope 3. The foundation of that Hope the mercy of God in Christ First The End of Faith i. e. that which it looks to attain is the Salvation of Christ propounded in the Gospel 1 Pet. 1.9 What this Salvation is was shewed before Viz. Pardon of Sin and an holy union and conjunction with God John 3.16 not to perish i. e. to be condemned for Sin but to have everlasting life i. e. he united to God and enjoy him which is the Soul's life Sin separates from God meritoriously and legally by virtue of the Curse binding the Sinner over to an everlasting Separation from his glorious presence and to everlasting Destruction And it separates from him naturally and formally though there were no punishment by Law assigned to the Sinner for what fellowship has light with darkness Now separation from God is man's spiritual Death even as the separation of the Body and Soul is his natural Death So men are by nature dead in Trespasses and Sins as well as liable to death for them Death is the work of Sin as well as its wages And the Salvation of Christ consists as well in delivering men from Sin it self as from the punishment of it Matth. 1.21 And if he did not this as well as the other he could never make them happy Sin would keep them miserable still though they were redeemed from the pain of sense Then a man is saved when he is brought to God 1 Pet. 3.18 i. e. into an union and conjunction with him And indeed pardon of Sin is but in order to this part as the principle of mans Salvation The Law subjecting the Sinner to his Sin and giving him up to Satan as the most signal part of his punishment it is impossible that he should be delivered from Sin unless the bond of the Law the Curse I mean which holds him under Sin be loosed 1 Cor. 15.56 This then is the End of Faith Salvation from Hell and Sin Pardon and an holy Conjunction with God Secondly The tendency or motion of fiducial Faith to this end i. e. toward Salvation is in a way of Hope Faith rests on Christ in hope of everlasting Life All fiducial Reliance or trusting in any thing or person in reference to any good to be attained is in hope of that good When a Man trusts in a Physician for his Health 't is in hope of obtaining it When a rich Man trusts in his Riches 't is in hope of safety and favour among Men c. When the Jews trusted or were said to trust on the broken Reed Egypt it was in hope of aid from thence So to trust in Christ for Salvation is to hope for his Salvation Tit. 1.2 The faith of God's elect is in hope of everlasting life Now Hope as was said before is the Intention or Desire of the Soul to some good thing which is looked upon as attainable Some put in difficulty but that is not always competent to the object of hope Hope therefore implies First 1. An earnest desire of the thing hoped for Secondly 2. A Perswasion in the mind that it may be attained Where-ever these two meet there is Hope and no where else No man hopes but as the word is sometimes used Catachrestically for that which he desires not A Man may desire that which he has no hope of As Men totally despairing under sense of God's Wrath have a desire of Pardon else they could not be grieved as they are for want of it but they have no hope of Pardon A Man may wish himself an Eagle or a Swallow as David but can have no hope to be so For besides desire Hope always implies a Perswasion that the good desired may be attained or which is more that it shall be attained Devils may have a desire to be out of Torment and 't is certain they have so but no hope of it because they cannot believe it attainable The lame man Acts 5. hoped to receive Money of the Apostles as desiring it and thinking they had it to give him But as for a Cure he desired that also but hoped not for it because he did not believe at first that they had such an healing-power about them He that hopes for any thing looks on it as attainable and the more likely he apprehends it to be attained the more confident he is in his hope And if he looks upon it not only as probable but as certain then 't is full Assurance of hope as Heb. 6.11 Now to apply this to the case in hand When God has brought the humble Soul to an hearty believing of the Gospel he thereby works him up to an hearty desire of the Salvation therein propounded and withal perswades him that he may for his own part attain it and so the Soul begins to hope for everlasting Life The Soul understanding already and believing the Gospel sees such an excellency in the Salvation of God as makes him vehemently desire it he now accounts it the greatest happiness in the World to be delivered from Sin and Hell and joined unto God though he made never so light of it before and earnestly crys out Oh that I might have peace with God Union with God and God to be my God for ever Oh that I might eat Bread in my Father's house Luke 15. Thus the Merchant having seen the Pearl like Achan presently fell in love with it and so importunately desired it that he stuck not at selling all he had to buy it This is that Hunger and Thirst to which the promise is made Matth. 5.6 Isaiah 55.1 and elsewhere This is that willingness which makes a Soul capable of the Water of
and for all that ever they can do you may be strengthning your selves in your love to God lowering your selves in humility bowing your souls to patience and perswading your hearts to love them that use you most unkindly and injuriously while men are acting their enmity against you you may be confirming your love to them which will be no small advantage to you Against these there is no law Gal. 5.22 2d Use The second Use shews the unsoundness of their Religion who rest in external Reformation Christians indeed begin there but they cannot rest there nor suffice themselves with it It 's that which our Saviour charges on the Scribes and Pharisees that they made clean the outside only You are temperate and abstain from Excesses just and honest in your dealings you worship God in publick and in Families as others But what do you within doors Thirdly 3d Use It shews how far they are from true Christianity that are not careful so much as to rectify the course of their Lives who make not clean the outside that are not ashamed to appear outwardly Ungodly Atheistical Voluptuous Intemperate Fourthly 4th Use The Fourth Use is to perswade Christians to the mortification of Sin 1. Resolvedly deny the motions of Sin when first you observe them As Asaph when he found his heart about to speak bad language against God Psal 73.15 presently recollects his thoughts and says If I speak so I shall offend against the generation of thy children 2dly When you are overtaken in any signal act of Sin take an early opportunity to humble your selves for it So what Sin gains by your Fall it will lose and somewhat more by your Humiliation 3dly In all your resistances to Sin look up to Heaven for help As the Apostle says 1 Pet. 5.3 Whom resist stedfast in the faith 4thly Interest all your Crosses and Afflictions into Rebukes for Sin that you may set your hearts against it 5thly Aim still at perfection of Holiness As in the Text Perfecting holiness in the fear of God Keep up an awful fear of God And thus much for the fourth Period of a Christian's motion towards Perfection A laborious endeavour to mortify indwelling Sin ROM VII 24. O wretched man that I am THE Fifth Step or Period of a Convert's motion toward Perfection that I shall treat of is the Sou's Conflict with Discouraging-troubles arising from the sense of indwelling Sin which as 't is the main Subject of the latter part of this Chapter so is most emphatically exprest in these words O wretched man that I am who shall deliver me from the body of this death or as 't is in the Margin from this body of death I confess I cannot well say how long Paul had been converted when he wrote this Epistle the time of his writing it being uncertain but 't is certainly evident first 1. That he speaks of himself as a converted Person and in the state of Grace renewed and sanctified in some good degree his Will being habitually determined against the evil which he did and to the good which he did not as verses 15 16. and verses 18 19. He speaks of himself of his inner man delighting in the law of God verse 22. which is the very practice of a godly man as David speaks in Psal 40.8 I delight to do thy will O my God yea thy law is within my heart The Law is always grievous to a wicked man though he may like well of some Duties required by it yet the Law it self is a burden to him which he is not willing to bear c. All this that he professes of himself to wit that he had such a will to good against evil and delighting in the Law was highly good and that for which he is thankful verse 25. I thank God through Jesus Christ our Lord. But he utterly denies any good to dwell in him as carnal verse 18. For I know that in me that is in my flesh dwelleth no good thing So that if he had now been altogether fleshly and carnal thus much good could not have been in him nor any at all 2dly That he speaks of himself as labouring to do the Will of God in a course of Obedience He did some good and intended and was desirous to do all the rest even that he did not and though he did many evil actions yet his intention and endeavour was against them all which is manifestly the case of a man applying himself to holiness of life 3dly That in his endeavouring thus to obey God in all his Actions he found a strong and vigorous Inclination in his heart to Sin and against Holiness As appears verse 21. I find then a law that when I would do good evil is present with me And ver 23. I see another law in my members warring against the law of my mind 4thly That upon this discovery of so much wickedness within him he turned his hearty endeavours against it As appears by these words verse 23. Rebelling Warring leading Captive In his mind he had as before entertained the Law of God and in obedience thereto he made resolute Decrees against his contrary Inclinations But they rebelled he fought against them and they against him for a War cannot be without fighting on both sides And when he sinned at any time he was carried Captive by his indwelling Sin which plainly argues he made resistance against it for they are Adversaries one to another that carry one another Captive 5thly That in this War against his evil Inclinations he found himself too weak of himself to obtain the Victory and therefore cries out as a distressed man in these words O wretched man that I am No man will so bewail his case that finds it in the power of his hand to keep himself O wretched man that I am it's the same word that 's translated Misery Rom. 3.16 Destruction and misery are in their ways And Jam. 5.1 Go to now ye rich men weep and howl for your miseries that shall come upon you O miserable man I It 's made of two Greek words which signify Suffering and Lamentation that is to say I am a lamentable Sufferer Hence we observe this Doctrine Doctr. That Christians heartily endeavouring and labouring against Indwelling Sin are subject to much discouraging and afflicting trouble about it O wretched man that I am The very Phrases of mortifying the members of the body of Sin Coloss 3.5 Mortify therefore your members which are upon the earth fornication c. Crucifying the Flesh imply much pain and anguish killing and crucifying are painful things Object Yea you will say to them that are killed now that is Sin not the man that kills it I answer Answ Sin in a man is so near to him and has such an union with him that it is not unfitly called himself And so the man that mortifies Sin as he is spiritually renewed mortifies himself as he is sinful and unsanctified therefore the Apostle
all through Christ implies him not otherwise sufficient for any thing according to the words of our Saviour John 15.5 Without me ye can do nothing 4thly The strength on which he professes his reliance is the power of Christ working in him Christ strengthening me within A strength not only given by Jesus Christ but acted and exerted by him not a strength received from Christ but the strength of Christ imployed in him Christ in me strengthening me 5thly He attained to this dependance on the Power of Christ by the benefit of Experience He had learned it verse 12. As men learn matters of Practice by many Experiments So States-men learn their Policy and Trades-men their Arts So David learned to keep the Commands of God by experience of the Evil of Affliction that attends the neglect of them and the comfort that follows a diligent observance of them even in affliction as Psal 119.21 Thou hast rebuked the proud that are cursed which do err from thy commandments Thus Paul having had experience of his own weakness and the power of Christ in him was now come to this That he could confidently undertake the whole Duty belonging to him as a Christian and an Apostle too depending on the Power of Christ And hence we may observe Doct. 1. That Experience brings Christians to a stedfast reliance on the gracious power of Christ for the performance of their whole Christian Duty 1. I shall give you Scripture-Arguments to prove that Christians do depend on Jesus Christ for his gracious Power in the performance of their Christian Duty First The promise of perseverance is made peculiarly to them that depend upon the gracious Power of God for it Isa 40.31 They that wait on the Lord shall renew their strength 't is promised to them that wait on God for strength Now see the former Verse and you find the rest excluded the Youths that trust to their own strength shall fail Hence it 's manifestly consequent That all persevering Christians that make a constant progress in Godliness and grow up to maturity do thus depend on the Grace of God for it Joh. 15.4 5. In the 4th Verse our Saviour commands his Disciples to abide in him as the branch doth in the vine Now men are in Christ by Faith and so their continuing in him is in a continual exercise of Faith and particularly Faith for a Fruit-bearing Virtue as the Branch cleaves to the Vine to derive nourishment from it and be made fruitful by it And to such as abide so in him he promises that they shall bring forth much Fruit Verse 5. So all fruitful and thriving Christians do certainly depend on Jesus Christ for strength and spirit requisite to Christian duty The Conditions of Promises are the qualities of those to whom they are performed If a man be justified 't is certain he is a Believer because 't is promised to such and so if a man makes a good proficiency in Christian practice 't is evident he depends on the strength of Christ because 't is promised only to such 2dly It 's their earnest prayer that they may be enabled for their duty in the strength of God That they may be strong in the power of his might As David prays in the 119th Psalm 35. Make me to go in the path of thy commandments for therein do I delight Though he had not only been exercised to obedience but had found pleasure in it yet he knew himself unable to go on without the Power of God and therefore begs that he may be made to go Matter of Precept is matter of Prayer to a Godly man what God requires of him that he requests of God what God bids him do that he begs God to do in him The Apostles Acts 4.22 was mightily confirmed with strength and courage for their work of Preaching the Gospel and yet they pray for further supplies as acknowledging themselves unable to go one step further without the strength of God though they had gone with much boldness so far already Prayer is the Language of Faith what a serious Petitioner asks of God that he depends and relies upon him for According to that of the Psalmist in the 62d Psalm 8. Trust in the Lord at all times pour out your hearts to him 3dly They humbly acknowledge all that they do in the way of duty to the grace of God working in them Phil. 1. last So in 1 Cor. 15.10 I laboured more abundantly than they all according to this working Yet not I but the grace of God which was with me So in 2. Gal. 20. I live yet not I but Christ liveth in me So the Church confesses all her work to be the work of God Isa 26.12 Thou hast wrought all our works for us or in us All which plainly demonstrates that experienced godly men do constantly and in a setled way depend and rely on the power of Christ for the performance of their duty Now I shall shew you in the 2. Second place How Experience brings them to it First Upon trial and experience they find themselves utterly unable to maintain the practice of godliness in their own strength At first setting out Christians usually betake themselves to reformation and holiness of Life as if they were now able enough for it of themselves in the use of that which they have attained thinking that the hatred which they have to Sin which has cost them so much humiliation and their high esteem of Godliness will carry them through all they have to do in obedience to God They know indeed that all that belongs to their Salvation is of Grace and therefore do in some measure trust in Christ for it But yet at first there is but little of this Faith in them and much of Self-confidence remaining till Grace has wrought it out and therefore they are much persuaded at first that they shall discharge all Christian Offices in the strength of those Resolutions and Purposes of Holiness which are raised in them and scarce apprehend any danger of being at any time drawn away from their known duty to the Sin which they have heartily forsaken But after a-while the sense they have of indwelling Sin makes them ready to despair of any progress at all in Christianity because they are so strongly diverted by the body of Death from the good they would do and carried to the evil which they would not This makes them cry out O wretched man and raises in them that woful Soul-trouble of which I have been lately speaking and so brings them to that sorrowful acknowledgment of the Apostle Rom. 7.18 To will is present with me but how to perform that which is good I find not Moses Example is a fit Emblem of a Christian in this Case At first he went out among his Brethren in Egypt and smites an Egyptian and reproves an injurious Israelite As if he would presently deliver the Nation and reduce them to a free Estate even of
rests it self in the Act of Saving Faith may thus appear 1. Man being an Offender and guilty of Death Eternal cannot be saved but in a way of Pardon which is an act of Mercy And thereforefore he can have no hope of Salvation from God but as he is a merciful God He that 's bound over to the punishment of Eternal Death must either suffer it or be forgiven it Now nothing forgives but Mercy Look upon God as Almighty and it speaks terror to the guilty Soul Power makes him able to destroy both Soul and Body in Hell Look upon him as Just and Justice speaks terror as that which makes him hate Sin and punish Sinners But consider him as he is merciful and pitiful to poor Creatures in their misery and there you have some ground of hope Hope can never find whereon to rest the sole of its foot till you come to a sight of God as merciful God be merciful to me a sinner Luke 18.13 He could light on nothing in all the World to stay his Hope upon but Mercy The poor Leper Matth. 8. urged our Saviour with his power to make him clean but if he had not had some hopeful conceit of his willingness to relieve poor Supplicants in such a case he would never have asked him for the cure He that expects a Debt may trust in the Justice of him that owes it But he that expects an Act of Grace must rest on the mercy of him from whom he expects it or he has nothing to trust to Obj. You will say a Believer hopes in the Faithfulness of God and the infallible Truth of his Word as well as in his Mercy Ans I grant it A believer hopes in the Truth of God but 't is only as his Truth and Faithfulness doth assure the Soul of his Mercifulness God professes and declares himself merciful the Soul believes that he is so and will approve himself so because it judges him faithful and therefore hopes in Mercy so declared So the Soul relying on Mercy relies upon the Power of God but only as Mercy turns and uses it to the saving of Sinners otherwise he is true to punish according to his Threatnings as well as he is true to save according to his Promise So he is mighty to destroy as well as to save Yea the Soul relying on Mercy relies also on the Justice of God as he is just in shewing mercy But all this while Mercy lies at the bottom as the foundation of a Believer's Hope Let God be never so mighty never so wise never so faithful never so righteous all this speaks no encouragement to the poor humbled Sinner but all against him till Mercy be discovered and then some ground appears for him to build his hopes upon And now the other Attributes of God give their assistance and bear up Expectation 2. But yet no man can safely hope in the absolute Mercy of God for Salvation but only in the Mercy of God consider'd as he is merciful in Jesus Christ i. e. as he is merciful so as to provide and accept a satisfaction to Justice in the Death of his Son and so to offer Salvation freely to Sinners or in the words of Scripture As loving the world so as to give his only begotten Son that whosoever believes on him should not perish but have everlasting life For 1. If the humbled Sinner considers Mercy absolutely Justice presently comes in and damps his hopes of Salvation For as it is not to be expected that God though he be Almighty should do any thing which his Wisdom doth not allow of because he is infinitely Wise as well as Almighty so neither can it be hoped though he be infinite in mercy that he should do any thing in a way of pity to a Sinner which his Justice will not bear because he is just as he is merciful Now Justice requires that the Law should proceed and that the Soul that has sinned should die Gal. 3.10 Deut. 27.26 But God in giving his Son to die for Sinners has so satisfied the Law that Justice has nothing at all to plead against the Salvation of any one Sinner whom God will please to save Rom. 3.25 26. By this means God has so ordered it that he is highly just in shewing mercy to the Sinner as having laid the punishment which belonged to him upon his own Son And therefore Mercy thus considered is a sufficient ground of hope but not otherwise as Heb. 9.21 Without shedding of blood there is no remission no hope of Pardon and Salvation but through the Death of Christ though God be never so merciful Secondly If the humbled Soul considers Mercy absolutely he can have no Assurance of the Terms on which he will save Sinners supposing that he will save any of them and so the Soul may object against his own hopes of Salvation Obj. 1. It may be God will be so merciful as to save Sinners that have not broken out into gross wickedness but have restrained themselves to some bounds of fairness and morality And 't is great mercy if he will save such But I have exceeded in Sin and done evil with an high hand Obj. 2. It may be he will be so merciful as to save Sinners that have sinned out of ignorance as being uninformed and unconvinced of the evil of the things wherein they have offended and 't is great mercy if he will save such But I have rebelled against the light and sinned against knowledge and the express dictates of my own Conscience Obj. 3. It may be God will be so merciful as to save Sinners that accept the first or second call that he gives them to Repentance and close with offered Grace betimes and 't is great mercy if he will save such Sinners But alas I have withstood many gracious Invitations and neglected Salvation when it has been offered to me God knows how many times and so my day may be expired It may be God will be so merciful as to save Sinners that have not signally contradicted their Professions in the course of their lives who as they have not practised Godliness so have never much pretended to it and 't is great mercy if he will save such or some of them But I have dissembled with him and lived the life of the Ungodly under the profession of Godliness yea I have given up my Name to Christ and yet have given my hand to Satan and my own Lusts Object 4. It may be God will be so merciful as to save Sinners that have not sinned against the Holy Ghost and 't is great Mercy if he will vouchsafe to save some of them But I fear I have sinned the Sin that 's never to be pardoned Object 5. It may be God will save some great and eminent Sinners but they are such only as are within the eternal purpose of Election and he shews great mercy in saving them but I fear I am under the decree of Reprobation
't is rather than to go out of it and that is not heartily afraid of death Answ 1. I answer Among sincere Christians many are weak and of little growth Though a man have not attained such a willingness to entertain death as some have he may be sincerely godly and growing to it Answ 2. You must take these conjunctly A desire to depart and be with Christ. So Christians can ordinarily subscribe and say I desire to depart and be with Christ. Looking on the one as enough to sweeten the other and make it desirable else it were better for a Christian to be with Christ as he is than die and not be with him This Paul intimates in the next words which is far better As a dinner of herbs where love is Prov. 15.17 is better than a stalled ox with hatred A Wilderness with Manna is better than the Flesh-pots in Egypt So to be gone out of this world and be with Christ is far better than to be in this world Answ 3. The one part must be understood as absolutely desired the other but relatively to that in its relation to the other To be with Christ a Christian desires absolutely he aims at it in all his faith and holiness but die he desires not at all save only as it serves to bring him to Christ as Christ laid down his life to take it up Joh. 10.17 Therefore doth my Father love me because I lay down my life that I might take it again So earnest willingness excludes not real unwillingness as a man desires to have his Leg or Arm cut off to preserve his Body yet is really unwilling to have the one or the other cut off 4thly The best of Christians are not always actually assured of this conjunction and relation of death and being with Christ and then they cannot desire death at all Death cannot be desired but as it 's a passage to Jesus Christ tâ—ke away that order which it has to a Christians being with Christ and 't is undesirable and a Christian is not always sure that when he dies he shall be with Christ 5thly Though a Christian do heartily desire to depart and be with Christ yet he cannot fix his desire upon any particular point of time for them as to say Now I desire to depart and be with Christ. For 1. Christians usually desire somewhat between them and death which they apprehend conducing to their better dying as David requests of the Lord Spare me a little that I may recover my strength before I go hence and as Moses Lord let me go over Jordan c. But now it 's not the case of every Christian that he can fix upon the time and say as Simeon Lord now lettest thou thy servant depart in peace Every Christian cannot say so though he has a desire to depart and be with Christ. 2. They must be determined by the Will of God however for the time and not by their own assignment as Simeon Now dismissest thou thy servant in peace Luke 2.29 So Paul I know not which to chuse Philip. 1.22 And so much for the proof of this Point That well-setled and established Christians do live in an earnest desire to leave this world and be with Christ in Heaven I come now to the Uses And first 1 Use By this we may judge of our Attainments in Christianity If our hearts stick fast to the world and we have no mind to leave it If our desires after Heaven be loose and cool 't is a sign we have made little progress in Christianity If we be Christians at all natural motion is stronger toward the end as a Stone falling to the earth the nearer it comes to the ground the swifter 't is in motion So the further we grow in Christianity the more heavenly-natur'd we grow and so the more desirous to be there every thing tends to its natural place The more we grow in Grace the more sight we have of the excellency of Heaven and so are more willing to leave the world Heaven is the Christian's Centre and the nearer he comes to it the faster he moves toward it Time and experience of the world may make us less esteem earthly things but Grace only makes us willing to leave them because it only raises our desires to Heaven for till we know and hope for better we are never content to leave what we have though it be never so sorry and undesirable Secondly Use 2. This serves to humble us for our unwillingness to leave the world and weak desire to be with Christ. 'T is an evidence of our little proficiency or improficiency under means of Grace when 't is little in our minds and unpleasing we hardly leave the world and join with Christ a little while a Sabbath an hour when it 's grievous to us to part with any thing in the world for Christ when we take little care to get and keep that communion with him which we might have in this world Thirdly Use 3. This serves to perswade Christians to set their affections on things above Coloss 3.1 That they may be loose from these earthly things and live in a desire to depart and be with Christ. For 1. This will assure you of your attainment of your desire Earnest desire to depart and be with Christ is a certain evidence that when you depart you shall be with Christ in Heaven as the Apostle speaks in 2 Tim. 4.8 Henceforth is laid up for me a crown of righteousness which the Lord the righteous Judge shall give me at that day and not to me only but unto all them also that love his appearing that is his coming to receive them to himself c. that long to see the very first glimpse that is to be had of him as when a man looks for a Friend coming by Sea he longs to see the top of the Sails of the Ship that brings him so the Soul that loves the appearance of Jesus Christ if there be any sign of his coming to receive them to himself they rejoice to see the very tops of the Sails of that Ship that brings Jesus Christ to them The Lord will never frustrate such a desire open thy mouth thus wide and it shall be filled if Heaven be enough to fill it 2. It will make all easy that is to be suffered by the way If once you attain to this that you can desire to die and be with Christ you will not stick at sufferings on this side death that being the King of Terrors all other Fears are but its Subjects and terrible only as they serve under its Banner to subdue men to it and bring them under its power as Paul argued Acts 21.13 I am ready not only to be bound but also to die at Jerusalem for the name of the Lord Jesus If to die no doubt to be bound ACTS XX. 24. That I may finish my course with joy and the ministry which I have received of
the Lord Jesus to testify the gospel of the grace of God THE last and greatest step to or into a Christian's perfection is the Soul's resignation in death Death as 't is alike certain and inevitable to all men so 't is equally profitable and advantagious to all Believers But it must be noted it 's easy and comfortable to some more to others less in a great variety as Job said concerning men so we may say of Christians One dies in his full strength another in the bitterness of his soul Job 21.23 that is one dies mourning and dejected another joyous and triumphant which was Paul's ambition in these words That I may finish my course with joy The Life of man is a Race and so is his Work First His Life is a Race Every man runs from the womb to the grave a Stage far shorter to some indeed than 't is to others but it 's a Race to all 2dly His Work in his Life-time is a Race Man is a busy Creature and doth much Work such as it is in a little time and therefore his action in this World is not only called in Scripture his walking as Job 9.25 My days are swifter than a post they flee away they see no good But it 's called his running and running his course as in the Text and in Jer. 8.6 Every man turned to his course as the horse rusheth into the battel that is to his own way and actions John's work in the Ministry is called his course Acts 13.25 As John fulfilled his course he said c. And so Paul speaking of Christian practice tells the Galatians Ye did run well Gal. 5.7 And thus the Apostle's own work was his course in which he proceeded with an extraordinary swiftness I laboured more abundantly than they all 1 Cor. 15.10 But the course which he here speaks of finishing is that of his life the other of his Ministerial work being presently subjoined And the ministry which I have received Both these Races had the same period in Paul's intention at least and probably in performance though not the same speech it was the Apostle's intention not to leave off the work of his Ministry during the term of his life and his great desire was that when he should finish the one and so be taken off from the other he might finish both with joy the course of his life and the course of his work That I may finish my course with joy and the ministry which I have received Of the former I may finish There is nothing wherein according to nature a man is more passive than his death and yet even death it self is sometimes attributed to men as their own act All men are active to their own death in sinning which is the meritorious and procuring cause of it the wages of sin is death Godly men are active in their own death in a willing resignation of themselves and delivering up of their Souls into the hand of God as 't is said of Jacob Gen. 49. ult He yielded up the spirit So for a man to finish his course is to die and depart this life which Paul earnestly desires to do with joy And hence we may observe Doctr. That it is a Christian 's great concernment that he may depart this life with spiritual joy and comfort or while he lives to consult and provide for a comfortable dying Because first Reas 1. A Christian is subject to many Troubles in his life-time In the world says St. John ye shall have tribulation John 16. It 's a sad thing after a wearisom day to lie down in sorrow A servant says Job waits earnestly for the shadow of the evening Job 7.2 that is of his going to his rest after his days-work whether you live regularly or loosely if you stick to rule men will be upon you if you sin God will rebuke you 2dly Reas 2. A Christian has great need of spiritual joy to support him against the sorrows with which death is naturally accompanied Death is so sorrowful a thing that it would be too much misery to a godly man to endure it without spiritual comfort and therefore as God in kindness to him will not leave him altogether destitute of it in so needful a time so he himself is highly concerned to make the best and most effectual provision for it There are three sorts of sorrows of death that make spiritual comfort highly needful to a dying Christian First The sorrow of the parting between Soul and Body This is the most proper and immediate sorrow of death the union between Soul and Body is such as makes division grievous to the person Death of it self is an enemy to Nature and therefore it must needs be a very sorrowful thing to come under its hands even Christ himself that had no sin in him was afraid of it and prayed against it Hebr. 5.7 When he had offered up prayers and supplications with strong crying and tears unto him that was able to save him from death and was heard in that he feared The Scripture sets forth this by many significant expressions as the pains of death Acts 2.24 Whom God hath raised up having loosed the pains of death And again the terrors of death and the king of terrors as Job 18.14 His confidence shall be rooted out of his tabernacle and it shall bring him to the king of terrors Again it 's called the bitterness of death 1 Sam. 15.32 And Agag said Surely the bitterness of death is past And then it 's called the sorrows of death as David says in Psal 18.4 The sorrows of death compassed me Now seeing death is unavoidable and has in it self so much grievousness men have great need of comfort to make it easier and more tolerable Secondly The sorrow of parting with present mercies and comforts that we have had the use of if a man has not hopes of better this also is very grievous though he gets better yet 't is hard to leave the comforts which we have been used to and in which God has been kind to us It 's said of Hezekiah that when the message of death came to him he wept sore 2 Kings 20.3 though he knew his passage from hence was into a far better place therefore God is usually pleased to mortify men to the World by Age and Sickness before Death comes to make it easier parting with present comforts Thirdly The sorrow of God's Rebukes and Reproofs for Sin Death commonly brings Sin to remembrance and awakens Conscience to inveigh against the Soul for it So Conscience will tell us at such a time when Death's approaching it will mind us of our Sins of Omission the undue expence of precious time the loss of opportunities for spiritual benefit It will mind us of the careless use of the means of Grace Sins of Commission in which a man has dishonoured God or been injurious to man These things usually come to remembrance at such a time and
with a strong hand shall he let them go and with a strong hand shall he drive them out of his land And thus ordinarily when Christians set themselves in an humble way to treat with God about their Troubles he casts such Thoughts into their Minds and brings such Words and Works of his to their remembrance as shall serve to content and quiet them as if he were as in a good sense we well say he is unwilling that there should be a misunderstanding between him and them As the Father answers his eldest Son Luke 15.25 when he was dissatisfied with his dealing and was angry and would not go in he saith unto him Son thou art ever with me 8thly They give him all that they have in the World as he has occasion to use it and he requites it to them in gracious Providences and Spiritual Comforts Mark 10.28 29 30. Peter began to say unto him Lo we have left all and have followed thee Jesus answered and said Verily I say unto you There is no man that hath left house or brethren or sister or father or mother or wife or children or lands for my sake and the gospels but he shall receive an hundred fold now in this time and in the world to come eternal life So Heb. 10.34 He made them to know in themselves that they had in heaven a better and an enduring substance And so gave them as much joy in losing as they had before in possessing and 't is likely much more 9thly They always press after more intimate knowledge of him and he reveals himself still more to them Psalm 63.8 My soul followeth hard after thee And Hosea 6.3 Then shall we know if we follow on to know the Lord So graciously does God uphold and support his People when they follow hard after him Christians they desire alway to behold his beauty and enquire in his temple Psalm 27.4 And he leads them from Room to Room and brings them to his Presence-Chamber John 14.21 23. He that loveth me shall be loved of my Father and I will love him and will manifest my self to him Jesus answered and said unto him If a man love me he will keep my words and my Father will love him and we will come unto him and make our abode with him I come now to the Use which is of Exhortation Use To exhort Christians to an earnest Prosecution of Communion with God Job 22.21 Acquaint now thy self with him and be at peace It 's that to which all Christians are appointed and by degrees growing up into it The happiness of heaven will be your Joy on Earth Earnestly seek peace with God by Faith in Jesus Christ that you may have the assurance of an agreement with him else you cannot walk with him Amos 3.3 Can two walk together except they be agreed 2. Walk in the light Verse 7. that is 1st Regularly in the Law Psalm 119.1 Blessed are the undefiled in the way who walk in the law of the Lord. 2dly Uprightly and sincerely not pretending Godliness and hiding Sin but in plainness and integrity John 3.21 He that doeth truth cometh to the light likeness fits for Conversation God is upright as in Psalm 92.15 To shew that the Lord is upright he is my rock and there is no unrighteousness in him So Psalm 15.1 2. Lord who shall abide in thy tabernacle who shall dwell in thy holy hill He that walketh uprightly and worketh righteousness and speaketh the truth in his heart And again Psalm 11.7 The righteous Lord loveth righteousness his countenance doth behold the upright Thus now by our earnest seeking peace with God and walking in the light we shall come to have sincerity and by sincerity we shall have communion with God and fellowship with the Father and his Son Jesus Christ PHILIP I. 23. For I am in a strait betwixt two having a desire to depart and be with Christ which is far better THE Ninth Degree or Period of a Christian's motion toward his appointed and intended Perfection which I shall speak of is An earnest desire to be removed out of this World unto the glorious presence of Christ in Heaven which is here intimated in these words Having a desire to depart and to be with Christ. A Christian has two great matters to consider and attend in this world His Work and his Wages Duty and Reward And as he loves to be employed in the former so he longs to enjoy the latter Between these two Paul was in a strait not knowing which to make a present choice of in case it should have been in his own power to take which he would I wot not which I shall chuse that is which I should rather chuse as the words do signify being an Hebrew form of Speech I know not I wot not which I shall chuse He thought it long ere he was at rest and yet he thought it hardly time to leave work He knew indeed to be with Christ was better for him but yet he thought it needful for the Philippians and other Christians that he should abide in the flesh and consequently that Christ had yet further need or use of his labour and this made him doubtful which he should chuse not absolutely but with respect to the present time Not whether he should chuse to be in Heaven with Christ or abide alway on earth for he must needs chuse Heaven rather It is not whether he should be with Christ or abide in the flesh but whether he should now presently go hence to Christ or for some time continue in his service among his People and in this respect he was in a strait betwixt two having a desire to depart Phil. 1.23 24. The Apostle Paul was now a Believer highly confirmed and established in Christ A man of great attainment in Grace and so what he here speaks of himself is especially applicable to well-grown and experienced Christians though there is some beginning of the same desire even in the lowest Christian a desire to be with Christ Having a desire The word desire is sufficiently understood by all but to have a desire is more in signification than to desire it notes a setled and habitual desire To desire is but an Act which may be sudden and transient but to have a desire of any thing is to be so affected to it as when a man is always reaching after it in the intention of his heart when he remembers it Having a desire to depart This word to depart is a plain word though Interpreters make many Glosses upon it and observe some one some another Metaphor in it It signifies sometimes to return as a man returns home from whence he has been abroad as Luke 12.36 Be ye like servants that wait for their Lord when he shall return from the wedding Sometimes it signifies to depart and go away and both ways it agrees to death which is a return of the Soul as Solomon says to God Eccles
12.7 And so is that word used to which this in the Text answers Psal 90.3 Return ye children of men that is you that have been abroad in the world come home again and return ye children of men So it signifies a going away of a man out of this world 2 Tim. 4.6 I am now ready to be offered and the time of my departure is at hand Thus the Apostle expresses his desire to go out of this world Having a desire to depart the next is to be with Christ. Though Christians have now communion with Christ in Faith and Holiness as was aforesaid yet comparing their present with their future nearness to him the Apostle might well say as he does in 2 Cor. 5.7 For in this we groan earnestly desiring to be clothed upon with our house which is from heaven And ver 6. While we are at home in the body we are absent from the Lord. To be with Christ as the Apostle here speaks is to be in the state of Glory 1 Thess 4.17 18. Then we which are alive and remain shall be caught up together with them in the clouds to meet the Lord in the air and so shall we ever be with the Lord. Wherefore comfort one another with these words And so in John 14.3 That where I am there ye may be also Now says the Apostle I have a desire to depart and be with Christ that is much rather than to be on the earth And hence we may observe Doctr. That a well-setled and established Christian lives in an earnest desire to leave this world and be with Christ in heaven He has a desire to depart and be with Christ In 2 Cor. 5.2 For in this we groan earnestly desiring to be clothed upon with our house which is from heaven that is ill at ease here but desire to go hence and be with Christ So we find that excellent person Simeon addressing himself to God and saying Lord now lettest thou thy servant depart in peace Luke 2.29 So in 1 Cor. 1.7 The Apostle commends the attainments of the Corinthians in this respect that they had a desire to the coming of Jesus Christ So that ye come behind in no gift waiting for the coming of our Lord Jesus Christ. So in Rom. 8.23 Christians are said to wait for the adoption that is that inheritance whereunto they are adopted and that is the redemption of the body from the hand of the grave In all which places it's evident that well setled and established Christians live in an earnest desire to leave this world and be with Christ in Heaven For First He earnestly desires to leave the world behind him to depart as being much out of conceit with the things that usually invite men to live here and weary of them His heart falls off from that which to other men seems desirable in the world and he is well content to take his final leave of it as Asaph says in Psal 73.25 Whom have I in heaven but thee and there is none upon earth that I desire besides thee But to speak more particularly there are four things especially that take off the heart of an experienced Christian from the desirable things of the world 1st His many disappointments in them He has been so often deceived in his opinion of them and expectation from them that he is now weary of his converse with them How oft said he have I found trouble where I looked for comfort and dissatisfaction where I thought to have had some kind of contentment why should I lose any more hopes 2dly The hindrance which they give him in the way of duty He finds that his Estate more or less Credit and Esteem among Men his Relations and all earthly Comforts do many times hang upon him as Weights and Burdens and make him go slowly and heavily toward Heaven they suggest fear to him when he should be resolved for God they fill him with cares when he should be only minding things heavenly give him many Arguments of diversion from the strait way c. make him go sorrowful as the young man If he went to sell all c. Mat. 19.22 3dly The many occasions of Sin which they minister to him They do not only hinder his progress but give him many Falls he often stumbles at them and hurts himself c. 'T is true 't is not the world's fault but his own but finding himself so disposed and tempted that the world has always much advantage against him he is very willing to be gone out of the danger of being seduced by it 4thly The Avocation which it is always offering to his heart from better and more worthy things He cannot love God and delight in him and please himself with him as he would do for the world though the world be in some degree crucified to him and he to it yet 't is always tampering with his heart and suing for his affections c. and so he is weary of it But Secondly He earnestly desires to be with Christ in heaven Psal 73.25 Whom have I in heaven but thee And he desires to be with Christ in heaven 1st For the full freedom from Sin and compleat Holiness which he foresees there to be had and enjoyed When he shall appear we shall be like him 1 Joh. 3.2 And this was Paul's desire after the Resurrection Phil. 3.11 If by any means I might attain to the resurrection that is the state in which the dead in Christ shall rise that is in glory 1 Cor. 15.43 Perfection of grace is glory and in that state the godly man arises 2dly For that full contentment and satisfaction which he propounds to himself in the enjoyment of Christ He finds a sweetness in the presence of Christ here in that communion which he has with him in Heaven By the taste of Joshua's Grapes in the Wilderness he judges what 't is to sit under the Vine in Canaan In thy presence says the Psalmist is fulness of joy and pleasures for evermore Psal 16.11 3dly For the great Advantages which Saints have in heaven to glorify God The great ambition of a godly man is not his own honour but the glory of God Now he finds that in this life he cannot praise him as he should nor exalt him as he would Nay he finds that God is very often a Sufferer in his Honour by reason of his weakness inconstancy and uneven walking therefore he would fain be in that estate wherein he shall eternally glorify God and never more dishonour him So here he joys in hope of the glory of God that is not only of his being made glorious by the gift of God but God being glorified by himself in hope of glorifying God But some may object and say Object This desire of death seems to be above the ordinary experience of Christians There is rarely a man to be found among the best of Saints that is not desirous to abide in the world as bad as