admire that patience could bear so long and justice suffer him to live Sure he will admire at this alteration when he shall finde by experience that unworthinesse could not hindâ—r his salvation which he thought would have bereaved him of every mercy Ah Christian There 's no talk of our worthiness nor unwornesse If worthiness were our condition for admittance we might sit down with S. John and weep because none in heaven or earth is found worthy But the Lion of the tribe of Judah is worthy and hath prevailed by that title must we hold the inheritance We shal offer there the offering that David refused even praise for that which cost us nothing Here our Commission runs Freely ye have received Freely give But Christ hath dearly received yet Freely gives The master heals us of our leprosie freely but Gehazi who had no finger in the cure will surely run after us and take somthing of us and falsly pretend it is his masters pleasure The Pope and his servants will be paid for their Pardons and Indulgencies But Christ will take nothing for his The fees of the Prelats Courts were large and our CoÌ„mutation of Penance must cost our purses dear or else we must be cast out of the Synagogue and soul and body delivered up to the Devil But none are shut out of that Church for want of money nor is poverty any eye-sore to Christ An empty heart may bar them out but an empty purse cannot His Kingdom of Grace hath ever been more consistent with despised poverty then wealth and honour and riches occasion the difficulty of entrance far more then want can do For that which is highly esteemed among men is despised with God And so is it also The poor of the world rich in faith whom God hath chosen to be heires of that Kingdom which he hath prepared for them that love him I know the true labourer is worthy of his hire And they that serve at the Altar should live upon the Altar And it is not fit to muzzle the Ox that treadeth out the corne And I know it is either hellish malice or penurious baseness or ignorance of the weight of their work and burthen that makes their maintenance so generally Incompetent and their very livelihood and subsistance so envied and grudged at and that it 's a meer plot of the Prince of darkness for the diversion of their thoughts that they must be studying how to get bread for their own and childrens mouths when they should be preparing the bread of life for their peoples souls But yet let me desire the right aiming Ministers of Christ to consider what is expedient as well as what is lawfull and that the saving of one soul is better then a thousand pound a year and our gain though due is a cursed gain which is a stumbling block to our peoples souls Let us make the Free-Gospell as little burthensome and chargeable as is possible I had rather never take their Tythes while I live then by them to destroy the souls for whom Christ dyed and though God hath ordained that they which preach the Gospell should live of the Gospell yet I had rather suffer all things then hinder the Gospell and it were better for me to dye then that any man should make this my glorying voyd Though the well-leading Elders be worthy of double honour especially the laborious in the word and doctrine yet if the necessity of Souls and the promoting of the Gospel should require it I had rather preach the Gospell in hunger and ragges then rigidly contend for what 's my due And if I should do so yet have I not whereof to Glory for necessity is laid upon me yea wo be to me if I preach not the Gospell though I never received any thing from men How unbeseeming the messengers of this Free-Grace and Kingdom is it rather to lose the hearts and souls of their people then to lose a groat of their due And rather to exasperate them against the message of God then to forbear somewhat of their right And to contend with them at law for the wages of the Gospell And to make the glad-tidings to their yet carnall hearts seem to be sad tidings because of this burthen This is not the way of Christ and his Apostles nor according to the self denying yeelding suffering Doctrine which they taught Away with all those actions that are against the main end of our studies and calling which is to win souls and fie upon that gain which hinders the gaining of men to Christ. I know flesh will here object necessities and distrust will not want arguments but we who have enough to answer to the diffidence of our people let us take home some of our answers to our selves and teach our selves first before we teach them How many have you known that God suffered to starve in his Vineyard But this is our exceeding consolation That though we may pay for our Bibles and Books and Sermons and it may be pay for our freeâ—dom to enjoy and use them yet as we paid nothing for Gods eternal Love and nothing for the Son of his Love and nothing for his Spirit and our grace and faith and nothing for our pardon so we shal pay nothing for our eternal Rest. We may pay for the bread and wine but we shal not pay for the body and blood nor for the great things of the Covenant which it seals unto us And indeed we have a valuable price to give for those but for these we have none at all Yet this is not all If it were only for nothing and without our merit the wonder were great but it is moreover against our merit and against our long endeavoring of our own ruine Oh the broken heart that hath known the desert of sin doth both understand and feel what I say What an astonishing thought it will be to think of the unmeasurable difference between our deservings and our receivings between the state we should have been in and the state we are in To look down upon Hell and see the vast difference that free-grace hath made betwixt us and them to see the inheritance there which we were born to so different from that which we are adopted to Oh what pangs of love will it cause within us to think yonder was my native right my deserved portion those should have been my hideous cries my doleful groans my easless pains my endless torment Those unquenchable flames I should have layen in that never dying worm should have fed upon me yonder was the place that sin would have brought me to but this is it that Christ hath bought me to Yonder death was the wages of my sin but this Eternal life is the Gift of God through Jesus Christ my Lord. Did not I neglect Grace and make light of the offers of Life and sleight my Redeemers Blood a long time as well as yonder suffering
the sinner now enter into a cordial Covenant with Christ. As the preceptive part is called the Covenant â—o he might be under the Covenant before as also under the offers of a Covenant on Gods part But he was never strictly nor comfortably in Covenant with Christ till now He is sure by the free offers that Christ doth consent and now doth he cordially consent himself and so the Agreement is fully made and it was never a match indeed till now 6. With this Covenant concurs a mutual delivery Christ delivereth himself in all comfortable Relations to the sinner and the sinner delivereth up himself to be saved and ruled by Christ. This which I call the delivering of Christ is His act in and by the Gospel without any change in himself The change is onely in the sinner to whom the conditional promises become equivalent to Absolute when they perform the conditions Now doth the soul resolvedly conclude I have been blindly led by flesh and lust and the world and devil too long already almost to my utter destruction I will now be wholly at the dispose of my Lord who hath bought me with his blood and will bring me to his glory 7. And lastly I adde That the believer doth herein persevere to the end Though he may commit sins yet he never disclaimeth his Lord renounceth his Allegiance nor recalleth nor repenteth of his Covenant nor can he properly be said to break that Covenant while that Faith continues which is the condition of it Indeed those that have verbally Covenanted and not cordially may yet tread under foot the blood of the Covenant as an unholy thing wherewith they were sanctified by separation from those without the Church But the elect cannot be so deceived Though this perseverance be certain to true believers yet is it made a condition of their Salvation yea of their continued life and fruitfulness and of the continuance of their Justification though not of their first Justification it self But eternally blessed be that hand of Love which hath drawn the free promise and subscribed and sealed to that which ascertains us both of the Grace which is the condition and the Kingdom on that condition offered SECT VI. ANd thus you have a naked enumeration of the Essentials of this People of God Not a full pourtraiture of them in all their excellencies nor all the notes whereby they may be discerned which were both beyond my present purpose And though it will be part of the following Application to put you upon tryal yet because the Description is now before your eyes and these evidencing works are fresh in your memory it will not be unseasonable nor unprofitable for you to take an account of your own estates and to view your selves exactly in this glass before you pass on any further And I beseech thee Reader as thou hast the hope of a Christian yea or the reason of a man to deal throughly and search carefully and judg thy self as one that must shortly be judged by the righteous God and faithfully answer to these few Questions which I shall here propound I will not enquire whether thou remember the time or the order of these workings of the spirit There may be much uncertainly and mistake in that But I desire thee to look into thy Soul and see whether thou finde such works wrought within thee and then if thou be sure they are there the matter is not so great though thou know not when or how thou camest by them And first hast thou been throughly convinced of an universal depravation through thy whole soul and an universal wickedness through thy whole life and how vile a thing this sin is and that by the tenor of that Covenant which thou hast transgressed the least sin deserves eternal death dost thou consent to this Law that it is true and righteous Hast thou perceived thy self sentenced to this death by it and been convinced of thy natural undone condition Hast thou further seen the utter insufficiency of every Creature either to be it self thy happiness or the means of curing this thy misery and thee happy again in God Hast thou been convinced that thy happiness is only in God as the end And only in Christ as the way to him and the end also as he is one with the Father and perceived that thou must be brought to God by Christ or perish eternally Hast thou seen hereupon an absolute necessity of thy enjoying Christ And the full sufficiency that is in him to do for thee whatsoever thy case requireth by reason of the fulness of his satisfaction the greatness of his power and dignity of his person and the freeness and indefiniteness of his promises Hast thou discovered the excellency of this pearl to be worth thy selling all to buy it Hath all this been joyned with some sensibility As the convictions of a man that thirsteth of the worth of drink and not been only a change in opinion produced by reading or education as a bare notion in the understanding Hath it proceeded to an abhorring that sin I mean in the bent and prevailing inclination of thy will though the flesh do attempt to reconcile thee to it Have both thy sin and misery been a burden to thy soul and if thou couldest not weep yet couldest thou heartily groan under the insupportable weight of both Hast thou renounced all thine own Righteousness Hast thou turned thy Idols out of thy heart So that the Creature hath no more the soveraignty but is now a servant to God and to Christ Dost thou accept of Christ as thy only Saviour and expect thy Justification Recovery and glory from him alone Dost thou take him also for Lord and King and are his Laws the most powerful commanders of thy life and soul Do they ordinarily prevail against the commands of the flesh of Satan of the greatest on earth that shall countermand and against the greatest interest of thy credit profit pleasure or life So that thy conscience is directly subject to Christ alone Hath he the highest room in thy heart and affections So that though thou canst not love him as thou wouldest yet nothing else is loved so much Hast thou made a hearty Covenant to this end with him And delivered up thy self accordingly to him and takest thy self for His and not thine own Is it thy utmost care and watchful endeavor that thou maist be found faithful in this Covenant and though thou fall into sin yet wouldst not renounce thy bargain nor change thy Lord nor give up thy self to any other government for all the world If this be truly thy case thou art one of these People of God which my Text speaks of And as sure as the Promise of God is true this Blessed Rest remaines for thee Only see thou abide in Christ and continue to the end For if any draw back his soul will have no pleasure in them But if all this be
the goats on the left and so on as you may read in the Text. But why tremblest thou Oh humble gracious Soul Cannot the enemies and slighters of Christ be foretold their doom but Thou must quake Do I make sad the Soul that God would not have sad Doth not thy Lord know his own sheep who have heard his voyce and followed him He that would not lose the family of one Noah in a common deluge when him onely he had found faithful in all the earth He that would not over-look one Lot in Sodom nay that could do nothing till he were forth Will he forget thee at that day Thy Lord knoweth now to deliver the godly out of temptations and to reserve the unjust to the day of Judgment to be punished He knoweth how to make the same day the greatest for terror to his foes and yet the greatest for joy to his people He ever intended it for the great distinguishing and separating day wherein both Love and Fury should be manifested to the highest Oh then let the Heavens rejoyce the Sea the Earth the Floods the Hills for the Lord cometh to judg the Earth With Righteousness shall he judg the World and the People with Equity But especially let Sion hear and be glad and her children rejoyce For when God ariseth to judgment it is to save the meek of the Earth They have judged and condemned themselves many a day in heart-breaking confession and therefore shall not be judged to condemnation by the Lord For there is no condemnation to them that are in Christ Jesus who walk not after the flesh but after the Spirit And who shall lay any thing to the charge of Gods Elect Shall the Law Why whatsoever the Law saith it saith to them that are under the Law but we are not under the Law but under Grace For the Law of the Spirit of life which is in Christ Jesus hath made us free from the Law of sin and death Or shall Conscience Why we were long ago justified by faith and so have peace with God and have our hearts sprinkled from an evil conscience and the Spirit bearing witness with our spirits that we are the children of God It is God that justifieth who shall condemn If our Judg condemn us not who shall He that said to the Adulterous woman Hath no man condemned thee neither do I condemn thee He will say to us more faithfully then Peter to him Though all men deny thee or condemn thee I will not Thou hast confessed me before men and I will confess thee before my Father and the Angels of Heaven He whose first coming was not to condemn the world but that the world through him might be saved I am sure intends not his second coming to condemn his people but that they through him might be saved He hath given us Eternal Life in Charter and Title already yea and partly in possession and will he after that condemn us When he gave us the knowledg of his Father and himself he gave us Eternal Life And he hath verily told us That he that heareth his word and beleeveth on him that sent him hath everlasting life and shall not come into condemnation but is passed from death to life Indeed if our Judg were our enemy as he is to the world then we might well fear If the Devil were our Judg or the Ungodly were our Judg then we should be condemned as Hypocrites as Heretiques as Schisinatiques as proud or covetous or what not But our Judg is Christ who dyed yea rather who is risen again and maketh request for us For all power is given him in Heaven and in Earth and all things delivered into his hands and the Father hath given him authority to execute judgment also because he is the Son of man For though God judg the world yet the Father immediately without his Vicegerent Christ judgeth no man but hath committed all judgment to the Son that all men should honor the Son even as they honor the Father Oh what inexpressible joy may this afford to a Beleever That our Dear Lord who loveth our Souls and whom our Souls love shall be our Judg Will a man fear to be judged by his dearest friend By a Brother By a Father Or a Wife by her own Husband Christian Did he come down and suffer and weep and bleed and dye for thee and will he now condemn thee Was he judged and condemned and executed in thy stead and now will he condemn thee himself Did he make a Bath of his blood for thy sins and a garment of his own Righteousness for thy nakedness and will he now open them to thy shame Is he the undertaker for thy Salvation and will he be against thee Hath it cost him so dear to save thee and will he now himself destroy thee Hath he done the most of the work already in Redeeming Regenerating and Sanctifying Justifying preserving and perfecting thee and will he now undo all again Nay hath he begun and will he not finish Hath he interceded so long for thee to the Father and will he cast thee away himself If all these be likely then fear and then rejoyce not Oh what an unreasonable sin is unbelief that will charge our Lord with such unmercifulness and absurdities Well then fellow Christians let the terror of that day be never so great surely our Lord can mean no ill to us in all Let it make the Devils tremble and the wicked tremble but it shall make us to leap for Joy Let Satan accuse us we have our answer at hand our surety hath discharged the debt If he have not fulfilled the Law then let us be charged as breakers of it If he have not suffered then let us suffer but if he have we are free Nay our Lord will make answer for us himself These are mine and shall be made up with my Jewels for their transgressions was I stricken and cut off from the earth for them was I bruised and put to grief my Soul was made an offering for their sin and I bore their transgressions They are my seed and the travel of my Soul I have healed them by my stripes I have justified them by my knowledg They are my sheep who shall take them out of my hands Yea though the humble Soul be ready to speak against it self Lord when did we see thee hungry and feed thee c. yet will not Christ do so This is the day of the Beleevers full Justification They were before made just and esteemed Just and by Faith justified in Law and this evidenced to their consciences But now they shall both by Apology be maintained Just and by Sentence pronounced Just actually by the lively voyce of the Judg himself which is the most perfect Justification Their Justification by Faith is a giving them Title in Law to that Apology and Absolving
of it for to add or diminish the least title that they thought it deserved eternall damnation And I refer it to any man of reason whether so many thousands of men through the world could possibly venture upon eternal torment as well as upon temporal death and all this to deceive others by depraving the Laws which they look to be judged by or the History of those Miracles which were the grounds of their Faith Is not the contrary somewhat more then probable 15. Furthermore The Histories of the Enemies do frequently mention that these Scriptures have been still maintained to the flames Though they revile the Christians yet they report this their attestation which proves the constant succession thereof and the faithful delivery of Christianity and its Records to us It would be but labour in vain to heap up here the several reports of Pagan Historians of the numbers of Christians their obstinacy in their Religion their Calamities and Torments 16. These Records and their Attestations are yet visible over the world and that in such a form as cannot possibly be counterfeit Is it not enough to put me out of doubt whether Homer ever wrote his Iliads or Demosthenes his Orations or Virgil and Oviâ— their several Works or Aristotle his Volums of so many the Sciences when I see and read these Books yet extant and when I finde them such that I think can hardly now be counterfeited no nor imitated but if they could who would have been at that excessive pains as to have spent his life in compiling such Books that he might deceive the world and make men believe they were the Works of Aristotle Ovid c. would not any man rather have taken the honor to himself so here the case is alike Yea these Scriptures though they have less of Arts and Sciences yet are incomparably more difficult to have been counterfeited then the other I mean before the first Copies were drawn I would here stand to shew the utter impossibility of any mans forging these VVritings but that I intend to make up in a peculiar Argument 17. VVhether any Enemy hath with weight of Argument confuted the Christian Cause VVhether when they have undertaken it it hath not been onely an arguing the improbability or assigning the Miracles to other causes or an opposing the Doctrine delivered by the Christians rather then these miraculous actions in question I leave those to judg who have read their VVritings Yea whether their common Arguments have not been Fire and Sword 18. It is an easie matter yet to prove that the enemies of Scripture have been incompetent VVitnesses First Being men that were not present or had not the opportunity to be so well acquainted with the Actions of Christ of the Prophets and Apostles as themselves and others that do attest them Secondly Being men of apparent malice and possessed with much prejudice against the persons and things which they oppose This I might easily and fully prove if I could stand upon it Thirdly They had all worldly advantages attending their Cause which they were all to lose with life it self if they had appeared for Christ. Fourthly They were generally men of no great Conscience nor Moral Honesty and most of them of most sensual and vitious conversation This appears by their own Writings both Doctrinal and Historical What sensual Interpretations of the Law did the very strict Sect of the Pharisees make What fleshly Laws have the followers of Mahomet VVhat Vices did the Laws of the Heathens tolerate Yea what foul errors are in the Ethicks of their most rigid Moralists And you may be sure that their lives were far worse then their Laws And indeed their own Histories do acknowledg as much To save me the labor of mentioning them Read Dr. Hackwels Apology on that Subject Sure such men are incompetent Witnesses in any cause between man and man and would so be judged at any impartial Judicature And indeed how is it possible that they should be much better when they have no Laws that teach them either what true Happiness is or what is the way and means to attain it Fifthly Besides all this their Testimony was onely of the Negative and that in such cases as it could not be valid 19. Consider also that all the Adversaries of these Miracles and Relations could not with all their Arguments or violence hinder thousands from believing them in the very time and Countrey where they were done but that they who did behold them did generally assent at least to the matter of Fact So that we may say with Austin Either they were Miracles or not If they were why do you not believe If they were not behold the greatest Miracle of all that so many thousands even of the beholders should be so blinde as to believe things that never were especially in those very times when it was the easiest matter in the world to have disproved such falshoods If there should go a Report now of a man at London That should raise the Dead cure the Blinde the Deaf the Sick the Possessed feed thousands with five Loaves c. And that a multitude of his Followers should do the like and that a great many times over and over and that in the several parts of the Land in the presence of Crouds and thousands of people I pray you judg whether it were not the easiest matter in the world to disprove this if it were false And whether if were possible that whole Countries and Cities should believe it Nay whether the easiness and certainty of disproving it would not bring them all into extreamest contempt Two things will be here objected First That then the Adversaries not believing will be as strong against it as the Disciples believing is for it Answer Read what is said before of the Adversaries incompetency and it may satisfie to this Secondly And consider also that the generality of the Adversaries did believe the matter of Fact which is all that we are now enquiring after The recitall here of those multitudes of Testimonies that might be produced from Antiquity is a work that my streight time doth prohibit but is done by others far more able Onely that well known passage in Josephus I will here set down In the time of Tiberias there was one Jesus a wife man at least if he was to be called a man who was a worker of great Miracles and a teacher of such who love the truth and had many as well Jews as Gentiles who clave unto him This was Christ. And when Pilate upon his being accused by the chief men of our Nation had sentenced him to be crucified yet did not they who had first loved him forsake him For he appeared to them the third day alive again according to what the Prophets Divinely inspired had foretold concerning him as they had done an innumerable number of very strange things besides And even to this day both the name and sort of persons
possessions that thou art willing to have them tryed and fearfull of being deceived that they stir up they desires of enjoying what thou hopest for and the deferring thereof is the trouble of thy heart Prov. 13.12 If thou be sure that thy hopes be such as these God forbid that I should speak a word against them or discourage thee from proceeding to hope thus to the end No I rather perswade thee to go on in the strength of the Lord and what ever men or devils or thy own unbelieving heart shall say against it go on and hold fast thy hope and be sure it shall never make thee ashamed But if thy hope be not of this spiritual nature and if thou art able to give no better reason why thou hopest then the worst in the world may give That God is mercifull and thou must speed as well as thou canst or the like and hast not one sound evidence of a saving work of grace upon thy soul to shew for thy hopes but only hopest that thou shalt be saved because thou wouldest have it so and because it is a terrible thing to despaire If this be thy case delay not an hour but presently cast away those hopes that thou mayest get into a capacity of having better in their stead But it may be thou wilt think this strange doctrine and say VVhat would you perswade me directly to despaire Answ. Sinner I would be loath to have thy soul destroyed by wilful self-delusion The truth is There is a hope such as I have before shewed thee of which is a singular grace and duty and there is a hope which is a notorious dangerous sin So consequentely there is a despaire which is a grievous sin and there is a despaire which is absolutely necessary to thy salvation I would not have thee despaire of the suffiâ—ciency of the blood of Christ to save thee if thou believe and heartily obey him Nor of the willingness of God to pardon and save thee if thou be such a one Nor yet absolutely of thy own salvation because while there is life and time there is some hope of thy conversion and so of thy salvation Nor would I draw thee to despaire of finding Christ if thou do but heartily seek him Or of Gods acceptance of any sincere endeavors nor of thy successe against Satan or any corruption which thou shalt heartily oppose nor of any thing whatsoever God hath promised to do either to all men in generall or to such as thou art I would not have thee doubt of any of these in the least measure much less despaire But this is the despaire that I would perswade thee to as thou lovest thy soul That thou despaire of ever being saved except thou be born again or of seeing God without Holiness or of escaping perishing except thou soundly Repent Or of ever having part in Christ or salvation by him or ever being one of his true Disciples except thou love him above Father mother or thy own life Or of ever having a Treasure in Heaven except thy very heart be there Or of ever scaping eternal death if thou walk after the flesh and dost not by the spirit mortify the deeds of the flesh or of ever truly loving God or being his servant while thou lovest the world and servest it These things I would have thee despair of and what ever else God hath told thee shall never come to passe And when thou hast sadly searched into thy own heart and findest thy self in any of these cases I would have thee despair thy self of ever being saved in that state thou art in Never stick at the sadness of the conclusion man but acknowledg plainly If I die before I get out of this estate I am lost for ever It is as good deal truly with thy self as not God will not flatter thee he will deal plainly whether thou do or not The very truth is This kinde of despair is one of the first steps to Heaven Consider if a man be quite out of his way what must be the first means to bring him in again Why a despair of ever coming to his journies end in the way that he is in If his home be Eastward and he be going Westward as long as he hopes he is the right he will go on and as long as he so goes on hoping he goes further amiss Therefore when he meets with some body who assures him that he is clean out of his way and brings him to despair of coming home except he turn back again then he will return and then he may hope and spare not Why sinner Just so it is with thy soul Thou art born out of the way to Heaven and in that way thou hast proceeded many a yeer Yet thou goest on quietly and hopest to be saved because thou art not so bad as many others Why I tell thee except thou be brought to throw away those hopes and see that thou hast all this while been quite out of the way to Heaven and hast been a childe of wrath and a servant of Satan unpardoned unsanctified and if thou hadst dyed in this state hadst been certainly damned I say till thou be brought to this thou wilt never return and be saved Who will turn out of his way while he hopes he is right And let me once again tell thee that if ever God mean good to thy soul and intend to save thee this is one of the first things he will work upon thee Remember what I say till thou feel God convincing thee that the way which thou hast lived in will not serve the turn and so breaking down thy former hopes there is yet no saving work wrought upon thee how well soever thou mayest hope of thy self Yea this much more If any thing keep thy soul out of Heaven which God forbid there is nothing in the world liker to do it then thy false hopes of being saved while thou art out of the way to salvation Why else is it that God cryes down such hopes in his word Why is it that every faithful skilful Minister doth bend all his strength against the false faith and hope of sinners as if he were to fight against neither small nor great but this prince of iniquity Why alas they know that these are the main pillars of Satans Kingdom Bring down but them two and the house will fall They know also the deceit and vanity of such hopes that they are directly contrary to the Truth of God and what a sad case that soul is in who hath no other hope but that Gods word will prove false when the truth of God is the only ground of true hope Alas it is no pleasure to a Minister to speak to people on such an unwelcome subject no more then it is to a pitifull Physitian to tell his patient I do despair of your life except you let blood or there is no hope of the cure except the gangren'd
and drinking marrying and giving in marriage till the day that Noah entered into the Ark and knew not till the Flood came and took them all away So will the coming of Christ be and so will the coming of their particular judgment be For saith the Apostle when they say peace and safety then sudden destruction cometh upon them as travel upon a woman with childe and they shall not escape 1 Thes. 5.3 O cruel Peace which ends in such a War Reader If this be thy own case if thou hast no other peace in thy Conscience then this ungrounded self-created peace I could heartily wish for thy own sake that thou wouldst cast it off As I would not have any humble gratious soul to vex their own consciences needlesly nor to disquiet and discompose their spirits by troubles of their own making nor to unfit themselves for duty nor interrupt their comfortable communion with God nor to weaken their bodies or cast themselves into Melancholy distempers to the scandal of Religion so would I not have a miserable wretch who lives in daily and hourly danger of dropping into Hell to be as merry and as quiet as if all were well with him It is both unseemly and unsafe more unseemly then to see a man go laughing to the Gallows and more unsafe then to favor the Gangren'd member which must be cut off or to be making merry when the enemy is entring our Habitations Mens first peace is usually a false peace it is a second peace which is brought into the soul upon the casting out of the first which will stand good and yet not alway that neither for where the change is by the halves the second or third peace may be unsound as well as the first as many a man that casteth away the peace of his Prophaness doth take up the peace of meer Civility and morality or if he yet discover the unsoundness of that and is cast into trouble then he healeth all with outward Religiousness or with a half Christianity and there he taketh up with peace This is but driving Satan out of one room into another but till he be cast out of possession the peace is unsound Hear what Christ saith Luke 11.21.22 When a strong man armed keepeth his palace his goods are in peace but when a stronger then he shall come upon him and overcome him he taketh from him all his Armour wherein he trusted and devideth his spoils The soul of every man by nature is Satans Garrison all is at peace in such a man till Christ comes when Christ storms this heart he breaks the peace he giveth it most terrible Alarms of Judgment and Hell he battereth it with the Ordnance of his Threatnings and Terrors he sets all in a combustion of Fear and Sorrow till he have forced it to yield to his meer mercy and take him for the Governor and Satan is cast out and then doth he establish a firm and lasting Peace If therefore thou art yet but in that first peace and thy heart was never yet either taken by storm or delivered up freely to Jesus Christ never think that thy peace will indure Can the soul have peace which is at enmity with Christ or stands out against him or thinks his Government too severe and his Conditions hard Can he have peace against whom God proclaimeth war I may say to thee as Jehu to Joram when he asked Is it peace What peace while the whordoms of thy mother Jezabel remain So thou art desirous to hear nothing from the mouth of a Minister but peace but what peace can there be till thou hast cast away thy wickedness and thy first peace and made thy peace with God through Christ Wilt thou believe God himself in this Case Why read then what he saith twice over Isai. 48.22 and 57.21 There is no peace saith my God to the wicked And hath he said it and shall it not stand Sinner Though thou maist now harden and fortifie thy heart against Fear and Grief and Trouble yet as true as God is true they will batter down thy proud and fortified spirit and seize upon it and drive thee to amazement This will be done either here or hereafter My counsel therefore to thee is that thou presently examine the grounds of thy peace and say I am now at ease and quiet in my minde but is it grounded and will it be lasting Is the danger of eternal Judgment over Am I sure my sins are pardoned and my soul shall be saved If not alas what cause of peace I may be in hell before the next day for ought I know Certainly a man that stands upon the Pinacle of a Steeple or that sleeps on the top of the main Mast or that is in the heat of the most bloody fight hath more cause of peace and carelesness then thou Why thou livest under the wrath of God continually thou art already sentenced to eternal death and maist every hour expect the execution till thou have sued out a pardon through Christ. I can shew thee a hundred threatnings in Scripture which are yet in force against thee but canst thou shew me one Promise for thy safety an hour What assurance hast thou when thou goest forth of thy doors that thou shalt ever come in again I should wonder but that I know the desperate hardness of the heart of man how a man that is not sure of his peace with God could eat or drink or sleep or live in peace That thou art not afraid when thou liest down lest thou shouldst awake in hell or when thou risest up lest thou shouldest be in hell before night or when thou sittest in thy house that thou still fearest not the approach of death or some fearful Judgment seizing upon thee and that the threats and sentence are not alwayes sounding in thy ears Well if thou were the nearest friend that I have in the world in this case that thou art in I could wish thee no greater good then that God would break in upon thy careless heart and shake thee out of thy false peace and cast thee into trouble that when thou feelest thy heart at ease thou wouldest remember thy misery that when thou art pleasing thy self with thy estate or business or labours thou wouldest still remember the approaching wo that thou wouldest cry out in the midst of thy pleasant discourse and merry company O how neer is the great and dreadful change that what ever thou art doing God would make thee read thy sentence as if it were still written before thine eyes and which way soever thou goest he would still meet thee full in the face with the sense of his wrath as the Angel did Balaam with a drawn sword till he had made thee cast away thy groundless peace and lye down at the feet of Christ whom thou hast resisted and say Lord what wouldest thou have me to do and so receive from him a surer and better peace
and we play with our clothes and look upon them when we should put them on and wear them we hang upon Ordinances from day to day but we stir not up our selves to seek the Lord I see a great many very constant in hearing and Praying and give us some hopes that their hearts are honest but they do not hear and prâ—y as iâ— it were for their lives O what a frozen stupidity hath benummed us The judgment of Pharaoh is among us we are turned into Stones and Rocks that can neither feel nor stir The plague of Lots wife is upon us as if we were changed into liveless unmoveable Pillars we are dying and we know it and yet we stir not we are at the door of eternal Happiness or Misery and yet we perceive it not Death knocks and we hear not Christ calls and knocks and we hear not God cries to us To day if you will hear my voyce harden not your hearts work while it is day for the night cometh when none shall work Now ply your business now labour for your lives now lay out all your strength and time now do it now or never and yet we stir no more then if we were half asleep What haste doth Death and Judgment make how fast do they come on they are almost at us and yet what little haste make we what haste makes the Sword to devour from one part of the Land to another what haste doth Plague and Famine make and all because we will not make haste The Spur of God is in our sides we bleed we groan and yet we do not mend our pace The Rod is on our backs it speaks to the quick our lashes are heard through the Christian world and yet we stir no faster then before Lord what a sensless sottish earthly hellish thing is a hard heart that we will not go roundly and cheerfully toward heaven without all this ado no nor with it neither where is the man that is serious in his Christianity Methinks men do every where make but a trifle of their eternal state they look after it but a little upon the by they do not make it the taske and business of their lives To be plain with you I think nothing undoes men so much as complementing and jesting in Religion O if I were not sick my self of the same disease with what teares should I mixt this Ink and with what groans should I express these sad complaints and with what hearts-grief should I mourn over this universal deadness Do the Magistrates among us seriously perform their portion of the work Are they zealous for God Do they build up his House and are they tender of his Honor Do they second the Word and encourage the Godly and relieve the Oppressed and compassionate the Distressed and let fly at the face of sin and sinners as being the disturbers of our peace and the onely cause of all our miseries Do they study how to do the utmost that they can for God to improve their power and parts and wealth and honor and all their interests for the greatest advantage to the Kingdom of Christ as men that must shortly give account of their Stewardship or do they build their own houses and seek their advancements and stand upon and contest for their own honors and do no more for Christ then needs they must or then lyes in their way or then is put by others into their hands or then stands with the pleasing of their friends or with their worldy interests which of these two courses do they take and how thin are those Ministers that are serious in their work Nay how mightily do the very best fail in this above all things Do we cry out of mens disobedience to the Gospel in the evidence and power of the Spirit and deal with sin as that which is the fire in our Towns and houses and by force pull men out of this fire Do we perswade our people as those that know the terrors of the Lord should do Do we press Christ and Regeneration and Faith and Holiness as men that believe indeed that without these they shall never have Life Do our bowels yearn over the Ignorant and the Careless and the obstinate Multitude as men that believe their own Doctrine that our dear people must be eternally damned if they be not timely recovered When we look them in the faces do our hearts melt over them lest we should never see their faces in Rest Do we as Paul tell them weeping of their fleshly and earthly disposition and teach them publikely and from house to house night and day with tears And do vve intreate them as if it were indeed for their lives and salvation that vvhen vve speak of the Joys and Miseries of another world our people may see us affected accordingly and perceive that we do indeed mean as we speak Or rather do vve not study vvords and neat Expressions that vve may approve our selves able men in the judgment of critical Hearers and speak so formally and heartlesly of Eternity that our people can scarcely think that vve believe our selves or put our tongues into some affected pace and our language into some forced Oratorical strain as if a Ministers business were of no more weight but to tell them a smooth tale of an hour long and so look no more after them till the next Sermon Seldom do vve fit our Sermons either for Matter or Manner to the great end our peoples salvation but we sacrifice our studies to our own credit or our peoples content or some such base inferiour end Carnal discretion doth controll our fervency It maketh our Sermons like beautiful Pictures which have much pains and cost bestowed upon them to make them comely and desirable to the eye but life or heat or motion there is none Surely as such a conversation is an Hypocritical conversation so such a Sermon is as truly an hypocritical Sermon O the formal frozen lifeless Sermons which we daily hear preached upon the most weighty piercing Subjects in the world How gently do we handle those sins which will handle so cruelly our poor peoples souls And how tenderly do we deal with their careless hearts not speaking to them as to men that must be wakened or damned We tell them of heaven and hell in such a sleepy tone and sleighty way as if we were but acting a part in a Play so that we usually preach our people asleep with those subjects which one would think should rather endanger the driving of some besides themselves if they were faithfully delivered Not that I commend or excuse that reall indiscretion and unseemly language and nauseous repetitions and ridiculous gestures whereby many do disgrace the work of God and bring his ordinances in contempt with the people nor think it fit that he should be an Embassador from God on so weighty a business that is not able to
If the Law of the Land did punish every breach of the Sabbath or every omission of family duties or secret duties or every cold and heartless prayer with Death If it were Felony or Treason to be ungodly and negligent in Worship and loose in your lives What manner of persons would you then be and what lives would you lead And is not Eternal death more terrible then temporal 3 Quest. If it were Gods ordinary course to punish every sin with some present Judgment so that every time a man swears or is drunk or speaks a lye or back-biteth his neighbor he should be struck dead or blind or lame in the place If God did punish every cold prayer or neglect of duty with some remarkable plague what manner of persons would you then be If you should suddenly fall down dead like Ananias and Saphira with the sin in your hands or the plague of God should seize upon you as upon the Israelites while their sweet morsels were yet in their mouths If but a Mark should be set in the forehead of every one that neglected a duty or committed a sin What kind of lives would you then lead And is not Eternal Wrath more terrible then all this Give but Reason leave to speak 4 Quest. If one of your old acquaintance and companions in sin should come from the dead and tell you that he suffereth the Torments of Hell for those sins that you are guilty of and for neglecting those duties which you neglect and for living such a careless worldly ungodly life as you now live should therfore advise you to take another course If you should meet such a one in your Chamber when you are going to bed and he should say to you Oh take heed of this carnal unholy life Set your self to seek the Lord with all your might neglect not your Soul Prepare for Eternity that you come not to the place of Torment that I am in How would this take with you and what manner of persons would you afterwards be It is written in the life of Bruno that a Doctor of great note for learning and godliness being dead and being brought to the Church to be buried while they were in their Popish Devotions and came to the words Responde mihi the Corps arose in the Beir and with a terrible voyce cryed out Justo Dei Judicio accusatus sum I am accused at the Just Judgment of God At which voyce the people run all out of Church affrighted On the morrow when they came again to perform the Obsequies at the same words as before the Corps arose again and cryed with a hideous voyce Justo Dei Judicio Judicatus sum I am Judged at the righteous Judgment of God Whereupon the people run away again amazed The third day almost all the City came together and when they came to the same words as before the Corps rose again and cryed with a more doleful voyce then before Justo Dei Judicio Condemnatus sum I am Condemned at the Just Judgment of God The consideration whereof that a man reputed so upright should yet by his own confession be damned caused Bruno and the rest of his companions to enter into that strict order of the Carthusians If the voyce of the dead man could affright them into Superstition should not the warnings of God affright thee into true Devotion 5 Quest. If you knew that this were the last day you had to live in the world how would you spend this day If you were sure when you go to bed that you should never rise again would not your thoughts of another life be more serious that night If you knew when you are praying that you should never pray more would you not be more earnest and importunate in that prayer Or if you knew when you are preaching or hearing or exhorting your sinful acquaintance that this were the last opportunity you should have would you not ply it more closely then usually you do Why you do not know but it may be the last and you are sure your last is near at hand 6 Quest. If you had seen the general dissolution of the world and all the pomp and glory of it consumed to ashes If you saw all on a fire about you sumptuous buildings Cities Kingdoms Land Water Earth Heaven all flaming about your ears If you had seen all that men labored for and sold their Souls for gone friends gone the place of your former abode gone the history ended and all come down what would such a sight as this perswade you to do Why such a sight thou shalt certainly see I put my Question to thee in the words of the Apostle 2 Pet. 3.11 Seeing all these things shall be dissolved what manner of persons ought ye to be in all holy conversation and godliness looking for and hasting unto the coming of the day of God wherein the heavens being on fire shall be dissolved and the elements shall melt with fervent heat As if he should say We cannot possibly conceive or express what manner of persons we should be in all holiness and godliness when we do but think of the sudden and certain and terrible dissolution of all things below 7 Quest. What if you had seen the process of the Judgment of the great day If you had seen the Judgment set and the Books opened and the most stand trembling on the left hand of the Judg and Christ himself accusing them of their rebellions and neglects and remembring them of all their former slightings of his grace and at last condemning them to perpetual perdition If you had seen the godly standing on the right hand and Jesus Christ acknowledging their faithful obedience and adjudging them to the possession of the Joy of their Lord What manner of persons would you have been after such a sight as this Why this sight thou shalt one day see as sure as thou livest And why then should not the fore-knowledg of such a day awake thee to thy duty 8 Quest. What if you had once seen Hell open and all the damned there in their easeless Torments and had heard them crying out of their sloathfulness in the day of their visitation and wishing that they had but another life to live and that God would but try them once again One crying out of his neglect of duty and another of his loitering and trifling when he should have been labouring for his life What manner of persons would you have been after such a sight as this What if you had seen Heaven opened as Stephen did and all the Saints there triumphing in Glory and enjoying the End of their labours and sufferings What a life would you lead after such a sight as this Why you will see this with your eyes before it be long 9 Quest. What if you had lien in Hell but one year or one day or hour and there felt all those Torments that now you do but hear of
the dolors of a greivous wilderness Believe it Reader if thou knewest but what a cordial in thy griefs and care the serious views of glory are thou wouldst less fear these harmles troubles and more use that preserving reviving Remedy I would not have thee as Mountebanks take poyson first and then their Antidote to shew its power so to create thy affliction to try this remedy But if God reach thee forth the bitterest cup drop in but a little of the Tastes of Heaven and I warrant thee it will sufficiently sweeten it to thy spirit If the case thou art in seem never so dangerous take but a little of this Antidote of Rest and never fear the pain or danger I will give thee to confirm this but the Example of David and the Opinion of Paul and desire thee throughly to consider of both In the multitude of my thoughts within me saith David thy comforts delight my soul Psal. 94.19 As if he should say I have multitudes of sadding thoughts that crowd upon me thoughts of my sins and thoughts of my foes thoughts of my dangers and thoughts of my pains yet in the midst of all this crowd one serious thought of the comforts of thy Love and especially of the comfortable life in Glory doth so dispel the throng and scatter my cares and disperse the clouds that my troubles had raised that they do even revive and delight my soul. And Paul when he had cast up his full accounts gives thee the sum in Rom. 8 18. For I reckon that the sufferings of this present time are not worthy to compared with the glory which shall be revealed in us Study these words well for every one of them is full of life If these true sayings of God were truly and deeply fixt in thy heart and if thou couldst in thy sober Mediditation but draw out the comfort of this one Scripture I dare them it would sweeten the bitterest cross and in a sort make thee forget thy trouble as Christ saith A woman forgets her travail for joy that a man is born into the world yea and make thee rejoyce in thy tribulation I will add but one Text more 2 Cor 4.16.17 For which cause we faint not but though our outward man perish yet the inward is renewed day by day For our light affliction which is but for a moment worketh for us a far more exceeding eternal weight of glory While we look not at the things which are seen but the things which are not seen For the things which are seen are temporal but the things which are not seen are eternal SECT VII 3. ANother fit Season for this heavenly duty is When the Messengers of God do summon us to die when either our gray hairs or our languishing bodies or some such like forerunners of death do tell us that our change cannot be far off when should we most frequently sweeten our souls with the believing thoughts of another life then when we finde that this is almost ended and when Flesh is raising fears and terrors Surely no men have greater need of supporting joyes then dying men and those joyes must be fetcht from our eternal joy Men that have earthly pleasures in their hands may think they are well though they taste no more but when a man is dying and parting with all other pleasures he must then fetch his pleasure from Heaven or have none when health is gone and friends lye weeping about our beds when houses and lands and goods and wealth cannot afford us the least relief but we are taking our leave of earth for ever except a hole for our bodies to rot in when we are daily expecting our final day it s now time to look to heaven and to fetch in comfort and support from thence and as heavenly delights are sweetest when they are unmixed and pure and have no earthly delights conjoyned with them so therefore the delights of dying Christians are oft-times the sweetest that ever they had Therefore have the Saints been generally observed to be then most Heavenly when they were neerest dying what a Prophetical blessing hath Jacob for his sons when he lay a dying And so Isaac what a heavenly Song what a Divine Benediction doth Moses conclude his life withal Deut. 32. 33. Nay as our Saviour increased in Wisdome and Knowledg so did he also in their blessed expressions and still the last the sweetest what a heavenly prayer what heavenly advice doth he leave his Disciples when he is about to leave them when he saw he must leave the world and go to the Father how doth he weane them from worldly expectations How doth he minde them of the Mansions in his Fathers House and remember them of his coming again to fetch them thither and open the union they shall have with him and with each other and promise them to be with him to behold his Glory There 's more worth in those four Chapters John 14.15.16.17 then in all the Books in the world beside When Blessed Paul was ready to be offered up what heavenly Exhortation doth he give the Philippians what advice to Timothy what counsel to the Elders of the Ephesian Church Acts 20. How neer was S. John to heaven in his banishment in Patmos a little before his translation to Heaven what heavenly discourse hath Luther in his last sickness How close was Calvin to his Divine studies in his very sickness that when they would have disswaded him from it He answers Vultisne me otiosum a domino apprehendi What would you have God finde me idle I have not lived idly and shall I dye idly The like may be said of our famous Reignolds When excellent Bucholcer was neer his end he wrote his Book De Consolâ—tiâ—ne Decumbentium Then it was that Tossianus wrote his Vade mecum Then Doctor Preston was upon the Attributâ—s of God And then Mr Bolton was on the Joyes of Heaven It were end less to enumerate the eminent examples of this kinde It is the general temper of the spirits of the Saints to be then most Heavenly when they are neerest to Heaven As we use to say of the old and the weak that they have one foot in the grave already so may we say of the godly when they are neer their Rest they have one foot as it were in Heaven already When should a Traveller look homewards with joy but when he is come within the sight of his home It s true the pains of our bodies and the fainting of our spirits may somewhat abate the liveliness of our joy but the measure we have will be the more pure and spiritual by how much the less it is kindled from the Flesh. O that we who are daily languishing could learn this daily heavenly conversing and could say as the Apostle in the forecited place 2 Cor. 4.16 17 18 O that every gripe that our bodies feel might make us more sensible of future ease and that every