confession be of the right make not counterfeit but currant he shal not only have mercy 〈◊〉 for him in the Deck but he shal have the use of it find the sweet of it he shal find mercy pardoning pitying pacifying comforting and saving mercy As when we have sought the thing that we have in our house we say we have found it when we have it in our hand and for our use Yea God is marvelous ready to meet the sinner half way in his mercy and compassions when he perceives that with a serious purpose of heart he sets himself 〈◊〉 this work Psal. 32. 5. I said saith the Prophet I wil confess my sin and thou forgavest 〈◊〉 iniquity The unfeigned purpose of Spirit this way God takes in good part and is so marvelously pleased therewith that he gives him pardon and forgives his sins before he can mention by his words what he purposed in his mind 1 Kings 8. 38. 〈◊〉 prayer shall be made by any man that shall know the plague of his heart he will hear in Heaven and forgive c. And in this Case we need not nay we should not make confession of our secret sins for we have no Command to carry us unto this no Example to warrant such a practice nor yet have we the Institution of any Ordinance which may challenge our attendance to it And this you must carefully heed and maintain against that cunning forgery of the Popish consession which they have imposed upon al their followers and drudges Their 〈◊〉 and Opinion is this That every man is bound once at the least before the Sacrament to confess in particular all and every one of his mortal sins whereof he stands guilty into the Ear of the Priests the memory whereof by due and diligent premeditation may be had even such as are hidden and are against the two last Commands of the Decalogue together with the Circumstances which may alter the kind of the sin If not say they let him be accursed This Canonical Institution is the erecting of an Engine of Cruelty to rack mens Consciences and pick mens Purses to satisfie their own greedy covetous desires and to set up their Lawless Soveraignty in the hearts of such who have captivated themselves to their Directions and Counsels for thus they have a noose upon mens Consciences and hold men between hopes and fears leaving them between Heaven and Hell as they suit their minds If they please their Humors then they pardon them and pull them out of Hell If they satisfie not their expectations in giving so much for good use or paying so much yeerly to further the Catholick Cause then their sins are such to Hell they must go they cannot be acquitted This made their Drudges even weary of their lives as never seeing an end of their misery nor knowing what would become of their souls And it 's that which is called by John in the 〈◊〉 The torment of a Scorpion when he stings a man Rev. 9 6. That men shall seek death and 〈◊〉 not find it and shal desire to die and death shal fly from them And holy and judicious Brightman expounds it of this sting That the Jesuites keep men upon the rack of this Confession never knowing what wil be come of their souls nor an end of their misery further than it suits their conceits And the Popish School who were more ingenuous have delivered in their Judgments from these unnecessary burdens which the Jesuits as hard Task-Misters have laid upon other mens 〈◊〉 and which they wil neither 〈◊〉 nor move the least finger to 〈◊〉 any ease That which the soul hath obtained from Heaven at the hands of God that is needless we should desire from the hands of men whose only help is to evidence Gods mind But by humble confession in secret to God the soul hath received pardon srom Heaven sealed up in his bosom by Gods Spirit and the testimony of his own 〈◊〉 therefore it 's needless to desire it from the hands of men when we have what we desire and that in a better manner than they can give it Again To be wise above that which is written is unlawful and to do more than we have warrant for is ever unacceptable to God but the Lord in his Word requires no more before the Sacrament but that a man should 〈◊〉 himself and by the exercise of Faith and Repentance gain assurance of the pardon of his sin not go to confess his secret sin to another therefore to do that is more than Christ and the Gospel 〈◊〉 or God wil accept When the soul lies under the guilt of secret sins if the Lord in the use of all other means denies either POWER or PEACE Power to oppose and master the Corruption so that stil the soul is overborn by the violence and malignity of it Or denies Peace so that the old guilt returns afresh after all prayers and confessions we make cries and 〈◊〉 we put up in fervency and importunity unto the Lord After the improvement of al means of Reformation and Repentance yet the Lord for Reasons best known to himself denies to seal up the assurance of Love and the forgiveness of sin unto the Conscience then the Lord cals to this Duty of Confession to such who are fitted and enabled to lend help and relief under God in such a case That which the Lord hath promised to bestow and we are bound to obtain we are bound consequently to use al 〈◊〉 means appointed by God for this purpose that we may be made 〈◊〉 thereof But the pardon of our 〈◊〉 the acceptation of our 〈◊〉 and the peace of our 〈◊〉 God hath promised to bestow and we 〈◊〉 bound to obtain therefore we must improve al means to this end If then we find by experience that God is not pleased to dispense power or peace by our own 〈◊〉 on improvements of al means by our selves he then cals us to use the help of the prayers and counsels of others who are called the 〈◊〉 of our Faith and Joy who are appointed to build us up in our holy Faith whose duty it is to comfort the feeble minded and to instruct the ignorant and whose prayers are effectual means to obtain the removal of sicknesses and the forgiveness of sins James 5. 15. And some sins there be as secret Adultery and murder which God never usually pardoneth to the heart of the Offender but he compels him to lay open those Hellish corruptions by open confession unto some other Nay as he never usually pardons them to his commonly he never suffers them to go away 〈◊〉 even in the wicked but when men are not willing to take shame by private confession he forceth them by horror of Conscience to vomit out their 〈◊〉 in the face of the world and to bear their 〈◊〉 and leave 〈◊〉 names an everlasting reproach when they 〈◊〉 out their 〈◊〉 upon the 〈◊〉 or upon the 〈◊〉 of their sicknesses
O Israel who is like unto the O People Saved by the Lord. That was in the Type Resemblance only but here is the Truth and Substance of Shadowes those Shadowes Accomplished in the Purchase of Christ or his faithful ones who are Saved not from the Oppression of a Pharaoh but from the Power of Darkness and Dominion of the Divel not delivered from the house of Bondage but from the bottome of Hell Blessed are ye O ye beleeving Souls your Excellencie is incomparble your Privilidges are inconceivable Who is like unto you O People thus blessed and saved by the Lord. The Wicked are not the World is not it is not so with them they have the Gleanings you have the Harvest they may have Rivers of Oyl but you the Rivers of Pleasures at the right hand of the Lord Nay now while you are in this World Al is yours All that the Obedience of Christ could procure Al that the Blood the precious Blood of Christ could Purchase precious Grace and Peace precious Comfort and Assurance precious Holiness and Glory Excellent things are not only spoken of you but done for you you blessed Beleeving Soules Hence it is when Moses would plead the Priviledges of the Saints he stands upon terms of comparison 〈◊〉 challengeth al the World to shew the like Eminency of Gods love upon Earth again Deut. 4 33 34 35 36 37. Did ever People partake of such Good as 〈◊〉 Purchased for you hath God essayed to go and take 〈◊〉 himself a Nation from among the Nations shal I say by Tempations Signs and Wonders to bring 〈◊〉 out of Egipt No no it was not from the house of Bondage from the tyranny of Pharaoh nor from Death and Miseries outward but from the bottom of Hel the tyranny of Sin the power of the Devil from everlasting Death and Condemnation 〈◊〉 this not by making Water become Blood but by making Happiness to become Misery God to become Man and Life it self Christ Jesus the 〈◊〉 of Life to die that he might restore thee to Life and Glory Go therefore ye blessed Beleeving Servants of the Lord go on comfortably and the blessing of Heaven go with you know your Priviledges and be for ever quieted and contented 〈◊〉 Fret not you at the prosperity of the Wicked be 〈◊〉 troubled at their Pomp since your portion is far 〈◊〉 and of incomparable Excellencie When the Father had entertained his prodigal Son after 〈◊〉 return with a Gold Ring change of 〈◊〉 and 〈◊〉 fatted Calfe the elder Son began to mutter 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 shew his 〈◊〉 the answer was reasonable 〈◊〉 exceeding satisfactory Son thou art ever with 〈◊〉 and all that I have is thine Luke 15. 31. So here Suffer the Dogs to gnaw the bones and 〈◊〉 to have their scraps let 〈◊〉 have the Gold Ring to adorne them and the fatted Calfe to feed and 〈◊〉 upon but know al you Beleevers al that is 〈◊〉 Earth al that is in Heaven al that the Father 〈◊〉 that 〈◊〉 hath al the Mercy of a Father the edemption of a Jesus the Consolations of the 〈◊〉 al these are yours you cannot have more you 〈◊〉 be better me thinks you should not be I 〈◊〉 almost said you cannot but be for ever 〈◊〉 and Contented And now al you that sit by and here of al this 〈◊〉 thinks your hearts should sink within you 〈◊〉 that never knew what it was to be Humbled 〈◊〉 to be Called and to Beleeve in Christ 〈◊〉 al is gone before you Beleevers have al 〈◊〉 therefore and arise to follow hard after 〈◊〉 Lord that you also may be Humbled that you 〈◊〉 may be Called and Comforted and for ever 〈◊〉 by Jesus Christ. This wil be the plague of 〈◊〉 damned in Hell They shal see Abraham and 〈◊〉 and Jacob and all the Saints of God in Heaven 〈◊〉 themselves cast out You shal see al those poor 〈◊〉 whom you have known in the Townes and 〈◊〉 where you have lived you wil see them go to Heaven and your selves cast out O therefore 〈◊〉 you would give God no rest nor your owne 〈◊〉 no quiet til you have got a beleeving heart Why have Beleevers al this have they Christ and 〈◊〉 and Pardon and Peace and Glory and 〈◊〉 and all say Lord why not I a Beleever too 〈◊〉 I see no reason but you may God affords you 〈◊〉 and you may be wrought upon by the Means 〈◊〉 ought I know therefore seek earnestly to the 〈◊〉 that you also may be brought in amongst the 〈◊〉 of Beleevers for whom al this good is Purchased by Jesus Christ. The Doctrine delivered dasheth that dream and 〈◊〉 that false opinion wherewith many carnal hearted men are easily and willingly taken 〈◊〉 who fondly perswade themselves that Christ died for al and Purchased both Grace and Glory mankind indifferently for Cain as wel as Abell Esau as wel as Jacob for Judas as wel as Peter that al that spiritual good that any of the Saints ver share in it was al intended to them al 〈◊〉 sed for them al provided for their good but the out of the perversness of their own wills 〈◊〉 that Physick that would have cured them 〈◊〉 upon the blood of the Covenant that was shed 〈◊〉 their Redemption A conceit cross to the 〈◊〉 formerly delivered and thereby confuted and 〈◊〉 demned but an opinion it is which 〈◊〉 derogates from the Justice of God the 〈◊〉 of the Lord Jesus the glory of his Free 〈◊〉 which is Childrens bread and appoynted ouly 〈◊〉 peculiar kindness for his own People yet by 〈◊〉 erroneous imagination is prostituted under the 〈◊〉 of a company of prophane beasts This universalitie of Redemption makes way 〈◊〉 universalitie of Corruption and these sensual 〈◊〉 deceiving men make the gate of Mercy and 〈◊〉 so wide that so they find room not only 〈◊〉 themselves but to carry their sins to Heaven 〈◊〉 them also But such shal one day find by 〈◊〉 experience they befooled themselves and fel 〈◊〉 of their hopes and expectations when they 〈◊〉 know to their terrour that the Lord Jesus was 〈◊〉 so lavish of his blood as to spil it in vain 〈◊〉 he should miss of his end or they of their good 〈◊〉 whom it was shed though they ery never so 〈◊〉 knock never so hard Lord Lord open 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 they 〈◊〉 have no other answer but that 〈◊〉 from 〈◊〉 know you not 〈◊〉 workers of iniquitie Math. 7. 23. I never prayed for you I never dyed for you 〈◊〉 is that which will sink the hearts and dash the 〈◊〉 of al unbeleeving self deceiving Creatures Is there 〈◊〉 rich Grace plentiful Redemption abundant 〈◊〉 Merits unvaluable in the Lord Jesus True 〈◊〉 that 's thy misery thou shalt see it but never be 〈◊〉 partaker thereof Thou shalt not tast of those 〈◊〉 dainties the Lord hath provided for his 〈◊〉 as long as thou remainest in that unbeleeving 〈◊〉 thy doom is set thy sentence is
Sin and Satan when Justice is satisfied the Lord Jesus saies I have satisfied for that soul therefore Satan and Sin let him go they say we wil not let him go and they try al conclusions to hold him fast Now the Resurrection of Christ steps in and the Lord Jesus being raised from the dead by a strong hand he breaks the Prison which is Sin and 〈◊〉 the soul from the power of Satan who is the 〈◊〉 and in 〈◊〉 of them both he takes the soul 〈◊〉 them and then puts it into the 〈◊〉 of al 〈◊〉 good So that now the Authority of Sin and Satan is 〈◊〉 away which hindred the 〈◊〉 of 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 good things and 〈◊〉 is done by the 〈◊〉 of Jesus Christ. Hence it is that al special works of Grace 〈◊〉 in the communication of saving good to the soul 〈◊〉 are all given to the 〈◊〉 of Christ. 1 Our Effectual Calling Eph. 1. 19. the work 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 is there expressed on this manner That ye 〈◊〉 know what is the exceeding greatness of his 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 to us-ward who 〈◊〉 according to 〈◊〉 working of his mighty power 〈◊〉 whence 〈◊〉 all this it is shewed in the next verse ver 20. 〈◊〉 he wrought in Christ when he raised him 〈◊〉 the dead and set him at his own right hand c. 〈◊〉 the same Power whereby God the Father raised Christ and whereby Christ raised himself by he 〈◊〉 same Power the Lord Jesus works the heart to 〈◊〉 2 Justification is attributed to the Resurrection 〈◊〉 Christ besides that place 〈◊〉 4. last 〈◊〉 and opened before the Apostle in 1 Pet. 3. 21. 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Baptism saves us not the putting away 〈◊〉 the filth of the flesh but the answer of a good 〈◊〉 towards God by the Resurrection of Jesus Christ That is not the outward act of Baptism 〈◊〉 Christ fignified by it the answer or demand of 〈◊〉 good conscience is an effect of the Application 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Blood of Christ to the soul for when the soul is 〈◊〉 a good conscience saies I 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 sins are 〈◊〉 my person accepted Conscience owns 〈◊〉 challengeth this but whence comes this the Apostle here tels us by the Resurrection of Jesus Christ That is the Resurrection of Christ is the special means whereby way is made 〈◊〉 the 〈◊〉 of the dea h and obedience 〈◊〉 Jesus Christ to the soul and by 〈◊〉 whereof the 〈◊〉 comes to be justified 3 Hence again we are said to 〈◊〉 adopted by the Resurrection of Christ 1 Pet. 1. 3. He hath 〈◊〉 us again to a lively hope by the Resurrection of Christ from the dead 4. Hence also Sanctification is commonly constantly attributed to the Resurrection of Christ Rom. 6. 4 5 6 7 8. The reason of all these expressions is because the Resurrection of Christ is the chief cause to make 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Application of all Spiritual Good to the soul and therefore we are called justified adopted 〈◊〉 by 〈◊〉 of his Resurrection And there is a 〈◊〉 of 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Explication from this 〈◊〉 ground Matt. 28. 18. when 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 from the dead he said All 〈◊〉 Heaven and Earth is given unto me he received 〈◊〉 power at his Resurrection by his death and obedience he had purchased all the binding and condemning Power of Divine Justice and all the power of Mercy nay power over all Blessings and Mercies and Creatures they all became his But when he rose again he then received all power over Hell and Sin and Death whereby he is able to vanquish these Enemies of our Salvation and to rescue the Soul for which he hath died from the hands of all these because he hath 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 power over al things in Heaven and Earth 〈◊〉 dispose of them for his own glorious ends 〈◊〉 again Revel 1. 18. Christ being 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 the dead is said to have the Keys of Hell and Death that is he hath a Sovereign Authority 〈◊〉 dispose of Hell and Death to deliver his Servants 〈◊〉 Hell and Death and therefore also he hath 〈◊〉 to dispense Grace as he will and how he will 〈◊〉 hence it is also that the communication of Grace 〈◊〉 been from the beginning and shall be to the end 〈◊〉 the World and 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 there was a larger 〈◊〉 of the Spirit after the Resurrection of Christ than 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 7. 39. The holy Ghost was not yet 〈◊〉 because fesus was not yet glorified the Spirit 〈◊〉 given 〈◊〉 but the 〈◊〉 and abundance and 〈◊〉 of the Spirit was not given till after Christs 〈◊〉 for all that was given to all Churches 〈◊〉 all 〈◊〉 from the beginning of the World was 〈◊〉 vertue 〈◊〉 Christs Resurrection but now the 〈◊〉 it 〈◊〉 there was a greater measure of the Spirit 〈◊〉 and when Christ 〈◊〉 to Heaven then was 〈◊〉 larger measure than before and when the Jews shall 〈◊〉 called there shall be a greater measure still Hence also Christ having 〈◊〉 Hell and Sin 〈◊〉 Death by his 〈◊〉 he is armed with all Authority to send out 〈◊〉 to his Churches and 〈◊〉 Presence and 〈◊〉 to go along with them Eph. 48. 11 12. When he ascended up on high he led Captivity captive and gave gifts unto men he gave Apostles Pastors and Teachers c. Christs 〈◊〉 is one degree of his Exaltation and the fullest 〈◊〉 largest expression of his Kingly Authority to provide 〈◊〉 and to come along with them is from 〈◊〉 so that here you have as it were a Key to open several Scriptures The Frame of this Truth may be discerned in these Particulars The Lord Jesus as the second Adam the Head of the Covenant of Grace hath all Spiritual Good in himself and from him it must be communicated to al the Faithful as his 〈◊〉 That he may communicate al Spiritual Good to his he must be able to crush all that power that shall 〈◊〉 the communication of this Good for if 〈◊〉 were any power more able to oppose than he to communicate the work might be hindred If he must crush all that oppose then he must have a conquering Sovereign Power over all the Power of Hell and Sin and Death for unless he had a Sovereign prevailing Power over all opposing Power he might be conquered and hindred as well as they delivered Therefore he must have that Power that must raise 〈◊〉 from 〈◊〉 hour and power of darkness Luk. 22. 53. Christ when he was to die said this is your hour and the power of darkness God the Father gave leave unto and left him in the hands of Sin and Satan and they did what they could do to hinder the Work of Redemption by Jesus Christ and Christ felt it and professed it that all the Power of Hell and Sin and 〈◊〉 was let loose upon him and they brought him down to his grave and there they would have kept him But the Lord Jesus by the Power of his 〈◊〉 raised up himself from the power of darkness under which in some sort he then was and
you your sins have hid his face that he wil not hear for he professeth Psal. 5. 4. that he is a God that wills not wickedness neither shal iniquity dwell with him Into the new Jerusalem shal no unclean thing enter but without shal be doggs Rev. 21. 27. The Dogs to their Kennel and Hogs to their Sty and Mire but if an impenitent wretch should come into Heaven the Lord would go out of Heaven Iniquity shall not dwell with sin That then that deprives me of my greatest good for which I came into the world and for which I live and labor in the world and without which I had better never to have been born nay that which deprives me of an universal good a good that hath all good in it that must needs be an evil but have all evil in it but so doth sin deprive me of God as the Object of my will and that wills all good and therefore it must bring in Truth all evil with it Shame takes away my Honor Poverty my Wealth Persecution my Peace Prison my Liberty Death my Life yet a man may still be a happy man lose his Life and live eternally But sin takes away my God and with him all good goes Prosperity without God will be my poyson Honor without him my bane nay the word without God hardens me my endeavor without him profits nothing at all for my good A Natural man hath no God in any thing and therefore hath no good It brings an incapability in regard of my self to receive good and an impossibility in regard of God himself to work my spiritual good while my sin Continues and I Continue impenitent in it An incapability of a spiritual blessing Why trangress ye the Commandement of the Lord that ye cannot prosper do what ye can 2 Chron. 24. 20. And He that being often reproved hardens his heart shal be consumed suddenly and there is no remedy He that spils the Physick that should cure him the meat that should nourish him there is no remedy but he must needs dye so that the Commission of sin makes not only a separation from God but obstinate resistance and continuance in it maintains an infinit and everlasting distance between God and the soul So that so long as the sinful resistance of thy soul continues God cannot vouchsafe the Comforting and guiding presence of his grace because it 's cross to the Covenant of Grace he hath made which he will not deny and his Oath which he will not alter So that should the Lord save thee and thy Corruption carry thee and thy proud vnbeleeving heart to heaven he must nullify the Gospel Heb. 5. 9. He 's the Author of Salvation to them that 〈◊〉 him and forswear himself Heb. 3. 18. He hath sworn unbeleevers shall not enter into his rest he must cease to be just and holy and so to be God As Saul said to Jonathan concerning David 1 Sam. 20. 30 31. So long as the Son of Jesse lives thou shalt not be established nor thy Kingdom So do thou plead against thy self and with thy own soul So long as these rebellious distempers continue Grace and Peace and the Kingdom of Christ can never be established in thy heart For this obstinate resistance differs nothing from the plagues of the state of the damned when they come to the highest measure but that it is not yet total and final there being some kind of abatement of the measure of it and stoppage of the power of it Imagine thou sawest the Lord Jesus coming in the clouds and heardest the last trump blow Arise ye dead and come to judgment Imagine thou sawest the Judg of all the World sitting upon the Throne thousands of Angels before him and ten thousands ministring unto him the Sheep standing on his right hand and the Goats at the left Suppose thou heardest that dreadful Sentence and final Doom pass from the Lord of Life whose Word made Heaven and Earth and will shake both Depart from me ye cursed How would thy heart shake and sink and die within thee in the thought thereof wert thou really perswaded it was thy portion Know that by thy dayly continuance in sin thou dost to the utmost of thy power execute that Sentence upon thy soul It 's thy life thy labor the desire of thy heart and thy dayly practice to depart away from the God of all Grace and Peace and turn the Tomb-stone of everlasting destruction upon thine own soul. It 's the Cause which brings all other evils of punishment into the World and without this they are not evil but so far as sin is in them The sting of a trouble the poyson and malignity of a punishment and affliction the evil of the evil of any judgment it is the sin that brings it or attends it Jer. 2. 19. Thine own wickedness shall correct thee and thy back slidings shall réprove thee know therefore that it is an evil and bitter thing that 〈◊〉 hast forsaken the Lord. Jer. 4. 18. Thy waies and doings have procured these things unto thee 〈◊〉 it is bitter and reacheth unto the heart Take miseries and crosses without sin they are like to be without a sting the Serpent without poyson ye may take them and make Medicines of them So Paul 1 Cor. 15. 55. he plaies with death it self sports with the 〈◊〉 Oh death where is thy sting Oh Grave where is thy Victory the sting of death is sin All the harmful annoyance in sorrows and punishments further than either they come from sin or else tend to it they are rather improvements of what we have than parting with any thing we do enjoy we rather lay out our conveniences than seem to lose them yea they encrease our Crown and do not diminish our Comfort Blessed 〈◊〉 ye when men revile you and persecute you and speak all manner of evil of you for my sake for great is your reward in Heaven Matth. 5. 11. There is a blessing in persecutions and reproaches when they be not mingled with the deserts of our sins yea our momentary short affliction for a good cause and a good Conscience works an excessive exceeding weight of Glory If then sin brings all evils and makes all evils indeed to us then is it worse than all those evils It brings a Curse upon all our Comforts blasts all our blessings the best of all our endeavors the use of all the choycest of all Gods Ordinances it 's so evil and vile that it makes the use of all good things and all the most glorious both Ordinances and Improvements evil to us Hag. 2. 13. 14. When the Question was made to the Priest If one that is unclean by a dead Body touch any of the holy things shall it be unclean And he answered Yea. So is this People and so is this Nation before me saith the Lord and so is every work of their hands and that which they offer is unclean If any good
concluded my corrupt heart hath had a ful hearing All the Cavils and devices that ever the policy of Hel could coyn or the falsness and deceitfulness of my own heart could 〈◊〉 or frame have been alleadged followed and pressed to the utmost they have been answered and confuted and the definitive sentence is past against mine own soul by the ful consent of my own apprehension I yield the day I confess the case I hold up my hand and plead guilty These are my sins they are so hainous so dangerous I could never have conceived I could never beleeve it before but now I yield and confess it freely these are the abominations that I have committed it 's Hel that I have deserved I am an undone man a poor forlorn damned creature this is my 〈◊〉 I cannot prevent it nor can I bear it I do not now question it Awake with this in the morning sit down with this at the Table walk with this al the day long and let this Truth rest with thee when thou betakest thy self to rest and it wil over-power and affect thy heart So Job when his heart came off kindly in a godly remorse for his transgressions he suffers the 〈◊〉 of his condition to lodg and stay with him he lies under it and looks at nothing else Job 7. 20. What shall I do unto thee O thou preserver of men I have sinned q. d. I have no Arguments to alleadge no excuses to make I can say nothing nor do nothing in mine own defence only I must say I have sinned thou art the preserver of men and unless thou succor me I must perish I cannot preserve my self If the Corrosive be never so keen the Salve never so searching and operative yea though it were applied to the rawness of the Sore the very proper place for it's work if ye stirr it continually now take it off then lay it on it wil never work effectually 〈◊〉 throughly or kindly heal the wound but you must bind it on let it stay upon the place by the space of so many hours then you shal find the proper and powerful operation thereof So it is with the Soveraign and convicting Truths of Christ when all Cavils have been answered and all the pleas which a mans self-deceiving heart hath put in have been removed so that the Truth finds passage to the Conscience and is applied aright unto the soul unless it settle there by a silent subjection unto the strength of it and admit no further questioning nor debating when the cause is determined by undeniable evidence it never works kindly nor prevails 〈◊〉 effectually as otherwise it would It 's 〈◊〉 policy and practice he dayly attends When Scriptures are so pregnant and Arguments come in with such strength that no carnal pretences can stand before them though he retires for the present and seems to leave the cause yet upon the next occasion when any advantage is presented he brings about the business again and follows the temptation afresh and puts in some pretence while he questions the Truth he hinders the operation of it for the while while we are parlying and disputing what we should do we omit so long to do what we ought and unfit our selves to do what we intend and are resolved of formerly Therefore when al cavils have been silenced let not these brablers appear again nor suffer them to renew their suits and 〈◊〉 any more but cast them out of consideration as we do use to cast bils and barreters out of the Court when the causes have been heard settle the heart under the sentence of the Truth and let it sit down there Hear nothing against the determination of the Word but out of the Word and then it 's certain that determination wil never alter before thy condition alter Give thy soul for gone really according to the righteous Judgment of the Truth and stop al passages that no carnal reason may come to the speech of thy soul or pretend any way of rescue and you wil presently perceive it wil break kindly under the blow or else look out for relief elswhere Go aside then and parley with thy Spirit and say The Word upon serious search and examination hath determined it my Conscience confesseth it and I now see the loathsomness of my sin and wretchedness of my self and condition I go up and down the world as a condemned creature whose doom is past and look dayly for the day and hour of execution that death consume my daies my body drop down to the dust and my sinful proud polluted soul be dragged down into Hel amongst the Devils to avoid it is impossible to bear it is intollerable wo to my soul that thus I have sinned and who shal who can deliver from this sin and this death Talk not trouble not me with dispute what my sin and my condition is but Oh help me out of it if it may be And it 's certain if thy soul abide here it wil sink under unsupportable sorrow and soak it self in it for this wil take away the sight and sweetness of any thing that may refresh and support the wounded soul because he wil see his sins in the bitterness and venom of them where ever he is and what ever he doth and as that which poysons al the best of the comforts of this life He sees his sin in his prosperity which is but the fatting of him for the slaughter He sees his sin in his honor he is advanced the higher that his downfall may be the more miserable God fils his belly with his hid Treasures of this world that he may treasure up wrath against the day of wrath As it is with 〈◊〉 if it pass through the fire only it hardly warms it but if it lie under the blowing of the sire it wil melt it When we take away carnal shifts and bring the soul to the sight of sin we put it into the fire but that only warms it a little but when it sits down under the Sentence it 's then under the Furnace and that wil melt it Thus our iniquities are said to lay hold of a man Psal. 40. 12. When we are under the Sentence which the Word passeth upon our sin we are then under the reach of our sins and they then lay hold of us and that wil cau e that we shal not be able to lookup All those Truths that we shal hear publickly dispensed out of the word or we shal privately read in it which concerns our corruption of which we stand guilty or that condition into which we are brought by reason of our sin We must take them home to our selves as the special portion the Lord hath appointed unto us in particular and we must make particular application of them in a peculiar manner unto our selves for by this means there is more light without whereby our sins and estates are more fully discovered more Eye-salve and Spiritual sight conveyed to
honor of his justice and to save thy soul thou sinful rebel Nay he can tel how best to provide most for his own glory when he pardons most sins I beseech thee pardon my sins for they are many Psal. 25. 11. He lets the power of darkness proceed to its ful strength that the power of his exceeding mercy might shew it self in delivering from the nethermost hell He gives sin advantage that it might do its worst and raign unto death that so his grace might raign over sin death unto eternal life According to the soveraignty of his wil whereby he subdues al things to himself Eph. 3. last and here thou mayest yet feel firm bottom to bear up thy fainting heart from sinking down into everlasting discouragement Thus you see the compass of this encouragement which issues from Gods free grace But least some proud flesh should arise by this healing preservative if it should heal too fast to keep thee under this encouragement and yet to keep thee from presumption take these Cautions It 's possible God may do thee good notwithstanding all indispositions and oppositions But know 〈◊〉 for certain he never will do it but in his own way If he save thee he wil humble thee if he pardon that guilty soul and Conscience of thine he wil pierce both to the quick there is not a possibility he should save thy soul 〈◊〉 thy sin also set it down for an undenyable conclusion I cannot have my stubborn and rebellious heart and have any hope that ever I shal have either Grace or Mercy If thou wilt sin that mercy may abound as the Apostle brings in the sons of Belial speaking Rom. 6. 1. thou mayest have thy sin but upon these terms thou shalt never have mercy Either expect that God should take away thy sin or else never expect he should prevent thy ruin When the Lord lets in some light to discover the loathsomness of thy corrupt Nature and begins to grapple with thy Conscience so that thou stand'st convinced of the vileness of thine own waies the worth and excellency of his Grace when God hath thee upon the Anvil and under the Hammer to break thee in the fire to melt thee 〈◊〉 fear fear lest thou should'st make an escape from under the hand of the Lord and fall back again to the old base course it 's a dreadful suspicion of Gods direful displeasure lest either the Lord wil cease to do thee any further good or give thee up to those hellish departures that thou shouldest make thy self everlastingly uncapable of mercy 1. It 's a sore suspicion that the Lord purposeth to leave striving and to meddle with thee no more when the Lord suffers thee to wind away from under the power of the means which formerly thou wert subject to It 's Gods usual manner to make such unexcusable and never make them good that they might go self-condemned and so go to Hell It 's that of the Prophet 〈◊〉 which he makes a Symptom of the out-cast condition of the Jews that they were dross Jer. 〈◊〉 30. Reprobate Silver shall men call them because the Lord hath rejected them How proves he that Verse 29. The Bellows are burnt the Lead is consumed in the fire the Founder melteth in vain for the wicked are not plucked away To this purpose is that of our Savior when he had long striven with the rebellious Jews clocked to them as a Hen to her Chickens and would have gathered them under the wing of his saving Providence by the preaching of the Gospel and ye nothing would prevayl they would drive Christ out of their sight and he smites them with a plague answerable Math 23. 2 last ver ye shal see me no more until ye shal say blessed is he that comes in the name of the Lord. And this his word hath taken hold upon them unto 〈◊〉 day the poor forlorn Jewes have not had a sight of Christ this sixteen hundred yeers scriptures they have prophecyes promises yea they have the Gospel while they 〈◊〉 the Gospel for so the Apostle Gal. 3. The Gospel was preached to Abriaham saying in thy seed shal al the Nations of the earth be blessed they see al this but the vayl is over their eyes they see no Christ in promises ordinances and therefore no salvation leaving secret things to God So it befals many falshearted Apostates when God hath had them in the fire and they come out too hastily from horror and humiliations before half melted It s a great adventure they never come to Christ but wanse away in a powerless kinde of formality and content 〈◊〉 with the enjoyment of some outward priviledges and ordinances and names of profession they have the scriptures and ordinances but never see a Christ in any of them nor wil the Lord look upon them nor once speak to them when he passeth by but let them live and perish as heartless Christless men Thus our savior dealt with his people in former times when he had sent the spyes into the Land of Canaan Heb. 3. 18. Numb 14. 23. and they returned convinced by their own experience of the goodness of the land as flowing with milk and honey and out of a slothful cowardice because there were iron Charrets and walled cities and mighty Giants they withdrew the duty and Gods charge and disheartened also the people the text sayes the Lord sware in his wrath they should not enter into his rest When God swears it shewes his purpose is unchangable and his execution wil not be altered Canaan is a type of the Kingdom of grace and so of Glory when the Lord let in some evidence of the excellency thereof and the heart cannot but acknowledg it 〈◊〉 leaves off rather than it wil take the paynes to grapple with those Giant-like corruptions that iron and 〈◊〉 hardness of heart why shouldest not thou fear least God should swear thou shalt never enter into his rest thou shouldest never find the power of the death of Jesus in killing the body of death so that thou shouldest cease from thine own works and from the sinful distempers of thy corrupt heart Fear again lest the Lord give thee up to thy old distempers that thou should'st make thy self everlastingly uncapable of any good and sin that unpardonable sin against the holy Ghost When thou goest against those Convictions of thy Conscience those tasts of approbation which somtimes thy heart took in the good Word and waies of God for by this back-sliding thou art in the ready way to run upon that rock This was that which helped Paul the possibility of mercy 1 Tim. 1. 14. But I obtained mercy because I did it ignorantly it was his zeal that he persecuted the Church i. e. his blind zeal but should he have done so against the Dictates of his Conscience and the evidence of Truth in his own heart he could hardly have seen a way for mercy So the Apostle to the
affect it with the greatest grief and burden for sorrow in al the proportions of it issues from these two grounds A crossness of an evil truly apprehended by the judgment the venome acting really upon us where these are in a greater or lesser measure there sorrow is greater or less upon this ground the Apostle evidenceth the grief and burden of the creature Rom. 8. 22. For we know that the whol creation groaneth and travaileth in pain together until now and that because it was made subject to vanity and this is their vanity because their end is crossed and so their good is hindred for wheras it is their desire to serve such as may serve God when they serve the humors and corruptions of carnal men they become vain and miss their end and so their good and this is as it were a grief to them Were the venome of sin but discovered and acted upon the nature of the soul it could not but groan under the evil and vanity thereof as that which wholy deprives it of its end and good While the soul stands fully under the power of corruptions possessed with it and acted by it it 's not possible it should apprebend the evil of sin nor the nature of the soul tast the venome thereof Sin carryes no crossness of opposition of evil to it self and therefore 〈◊〉 disquiet to it self 〈◊〉 so no separation from it self But sin wholly possessing and wholly acting the soul it makes the mind and heart apprehend not according to the nature of the soul and impression left upon it when created but according to the distemper by which it is possessed and carried So did they to Samuel 1 Sam. 8. 19. they said nay but we wil have a King Jer. 18. 12. So they to Jeremiah we wil walk every one in the imagination of his own heart Give the sick man the most pleasant potion though the Physitian profess it and give reasons and others by experience find it so he no sooner tasts it but he puts it away as that which is exceeding bitter because his tast is corrupted and tongue furred with the foulness of his stomack he rellisheth the drink not according to what they say and what it is or what the natural constitution of the palate would perswade but what his distemper which now possesseth and disordreth his tast tel him So it was with Judas though he was told before that it were better he had never been born that would not do the deed his covetous heart found another rellish nay when he flung away his money out of vexation yet he rellished hismurther stil and therefore hanged himself And this is the reason why they who sin against the holy Ghost even against the evidence of reason the corruption of their heart rellisheth other than reason tells Hence the Lord Christ by the irresistible power of his spirit doth countermand the authority of sin makes it appear that its commission is come to an end the date of it is expired Namely sin after Adam withdrawing himself received a commission from divine justice that 〈◊〉 the soul would not be ruled by him and his law It should be possessed and acted by corruption the date of the commission lasts until the Lord Jesus the second Adam who 〈◊〉 for the sinner comes by covenant to take the soul to himself and then he appearing in this behalf sin is forced back and not to exercise her power and then the evil of sin is brought home to the soul and set on with the ful venome of it and the nature of the soul is made sensible of it I say made sensible and deeply affected therewith This me thinks is the binding of the strong man Math. 12. 29. Wherby the Devills armour that is his comission by vertue of which 〈◊〉 holds the soul is taken away from him stopp the sluice and stream that drives the mil and then you turn the wheel another way which otherwise while under the sourse of the stream cannot be stirred Thus God commands the soul to return from iniquity Job 36. 10. And if he do but stop the commission for a sudden turn then there may follow a tast which such as sin against the holy Ghost may have of whom the Apostle speaks Hebr. 6. 4 5 6. The Lord Jesus by the virtu of his death puts an end to the commission that divine justice gave disanuls the right and power that sin challenged and by which it acted the soul of a sinner wherby it kept the soul under its command that no means could work upon it or be made effectual to it 1. Pet. 3. 18. Christ dyed for us that he might bring us to God For when Adam and so we in him wilfully departed from God would not be guided by his rightous law and just wil divine justice gave a commission to sin to take vengeance of the soul and keep it under that no good may come to it or it receive any now Christ by his death having satisfyed justice the commission is cancelled there is nothing on Gods part which hinders And there is nothing on our parts can hinder the authority of sin is disannulled his claym made voyd that soul is mine saies Christ hands off 〈◊〉 hands off sin the claym answered authority disannulled power stopped now there is way for light to come to the mind and for the nature of sin as discovered to be set on upon the soul and it made to seel the venom thereof as upon those termes it may utsupra So our Saviour 〈◊〉 1. 18. I was dead but am alive and I have the keyes of hell and death i. e. hath supream authority to shoot back al boults to open al dores As the first Adam by natural generation 〈◊〉 power and commission from divine justice to turn the souls of his children from God to sin so the second Adam having satisfyed and answered divine justice hath power to turn the soul from satan and sin to God satan and sin are at his devotion the soul at his command The third particular to be opened How far the soul is or may be truly said to be active in this work of Contrition or this spiritual sorrow when it comes to receive the right impression of it for sin as such The Answer may be conceived in the following particulars There is no power in man to remove that resistance that is in his heart against God the work of his grace that which out of its own corrupt principles doth wholly resist and cannot but resist the operation and dispensation of al spiritual means that would prevayl with it for good that cannot take away the resistance for resistance cannot take away resistance it implyes a palpable contradiction as that which is professedly cross to common sence but the corrupt heart of a natural man while he is in the state of nature and corruption doth and cannot but wholly resist the work of
mourning and then thou shalt be delivered with success and attain the 〈◊〉 that wil stand by 〈◊〉 How may we get help against the stubbornness of but hearts against that resistance and 〈◊〉 that we find in our selves to this contrition of 〈◊〉 The Directions are Three Do not tug with this resistance in thine own power or any ability that is in thee do not in thine own strength contest with that rebellion for it 's certain this wil make it excessive rebellious when thou seemest to 〈◊〉 violence to thy self thou wilt be more 〈◊〉 nay thou wilt grow to a kind of felness and 〈◊〉 of opposition against the Work of Gods Grace Sin becomes out of measure sinful by the Commandement Rom. 7. 13. and instead of quarrelling with thy sins thou wilt quarrel with the Almighty and if I do what I can why should not God help me Mark now you are quarrelling with God and because you cannot do what you should you wil do nothing this is ordinary and usual you wil find a Hellish fierceness of Spirit upon this turn You wil say What shall I do Come and bring thy soul into Gods Presence lay thy self down in his sight and tell the Lord that thou art a Traitor and which is worse thou canst not but be so that 's thy misery make known al the base abominations of thy heart and life before the Lord and al that 〈◊〉 and opposition that thou findest in thy soul to Christ and his Grace beseech him to take away the treachery and falsness of thy heart beseech him that he would do that for thee that thou canst not do for thy self tel him that thou would'st chuse not to be rather than to be thus treacherous tel him that he hath said he will take away the heart of stone Ezek. 36. 26. and that it is not in thy power to put it away and therefore leave thy soul there beseeching him to make known himself as a God hearing prayers pardoning sins and subduing iniquities plead the Covenant of Grace and the Promises of it that al is freely and firstly and wholly from himself that he must make us his People he must make us humble and broken-hearted Look to Jesus Christ and beseech him that 〈◊〉 the Keyes of Hell and Death that he would unlock those brazen gates and doors of thy heart Rev. 1. 18. Do not fear the terror of the Truth so 〈◊〉 to step aside from under it and withdraw thy self from the 〈◊〉 of it but think of the goodness of it as a man though he fear the bitterness of the Pill yet knowing it 's a means of his health he is willing to take it So here When God moves move thou when he stirs stir thou many a man neglects 〈◊〉 stirrings of the Spirit of God and never hath the like again and then on his death bed cries for his old terrors Oh therefore when the Truth meets you and stirs you keep 〈◊〉 heart under it and follow the blow in secret and bless God that hath opened thine eye and 〈◊〉 thine heart in any measure and let thy heart lie stil under the stroak of the Truth the want of this is the reason why many a soul is so long under the workings of Contrition and never grows to any settlement because 〈◊〉 keep not their hearts under the power of the Truth which would throughly break the heart for sin 2 Kings 13. 19. The Prophet bids the King smite and he smote thrice and ceased whereupon the man of God was wroth saying thou should'st have smitten five or six times then bad'st thou smitten the Syrians till thou had'st consumed them So when God hath been grapling with thy heart and would have plucked thee out of the paw of the Lyon thou hast prayed once or twice or thrice it may be and then after a while thy care and diligence and endeavors are over thou should'st have prayed six times thou should'st give God no rest nor thy own soul any rest thou should'st never cease striking until thou hast destroyed those corruptions of thine Possess thy soul with the ticklishness and danger of that condition thou art in In regard of the secrecy and difficulty of the work how easily may I be deceived and how dangerous is it if I be a failing here can never be repaired afterward if never broken for sin then never broken from sin then never united to Christ and then thou shalt never see the face of God in Glory think how many have miscarried in this place as when a Marriner sees the Mast of a Ship he fathoms the Water and tacks 〈◊〉 and looks about him lest 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 we split upon the rocks also So do thou look to thy self here thousands have sunk and split themselves here and thou art in danger and know that if thou doest 〈◊〉 here thou art 〈◊〉 for ever They said to Peter and the rest of the Apostles men and brethren what shall we do Here we have the carriage of these Converts as a fruit of that piercing and brokenness of Spirit which was wrought in them by the power of the 〈◊〉 the inward disposition of the heart discovers it self by the outward expression of their speeches and 〈◊〉 here laid forth before us as 〈◊〉 special effect which followed presently and 〈◊〉 therefrom The breaking of the clouds by 〈◊〉 and 〈◊〉 beings a storm with it usually the 〈◊〉 in their speeches argued thunder and lightning in their spirits look how the temper and constitution of the body goes so the pulse beats in his proportions answerable the Spirits few and heart faint and actions feeble it moves marvelous weakly if the 〈◊〉 be marvelous quick and speedy the Physitian wil tel you there is a Feaver stirring and it may be hazardful that hath now seized upon the Nature of the party Look as our hearts and consciences are affected within so wil be the 〈◊〉 of our words and actions without 〈◊〉 their 〈◊〉 was deep and their 〈◊〉 are bitter which here they make In it observe Two things 1. The parties to whom they tender their complaint Peter and the Apostles 2. The 〈◊〉 it self The part 〈◊〉 are described and set forth two wayes 1. In regard of the office unto which they were now called Peter and the Apostles 2. In regard of that esteem and respect they 〈◊〉 them they lovingly and tenderly here greet them men and bretheren a stile and compellation that holds forth endeared affection with it so far are these men altered from what they were from what they said from what they did ere while they scorned them now honored them not long since they reproached them are not these men ful of new wine and now behold they reverence and fear before them they rejected their counsel before and are now forced to crave it yea right glad to hear and receive it In a word they repair to them as messengers of Christ they 〈◊〉 them as bretheren the
necessity of this consequence 〈◊〉 appears For whom the Lord Christ is not 〈◊〉 for them there is no salvation to be expected for 〈◊〉 it be conceived that our Savior should willingly endure such torments though never required of God which is false for he had a command to lay down his life or that he should have done it meerly of his own pleasure not undertaking for any not tendering of it in any mans name or stead he could require nothing at the hands of God the Father and God the Father might in Justice deny him or any other any recompence For if a man will freely give so much money out of his own liberal 〈◊〉 though it countervail a debt due unto me yet being tendered in no mans name I am not bound to cancel any mans bond or remit his debt the Answer is It was not paid for 〈◊〉 It 's then cleer if Christ died for all the wicked 〈◊〉 he suffered and died as a Surety in their room and 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 that he did not For if he paid all as their 〈◊〉 then God in Justice cannot exact the payment 〈◊〉 r hands nor inflict the plagues upon their 〈◊〉 require two payments for one debt to punish the 〈◊〉 and Surety for the same offence that Justice Christ should be satisfied in the behalf of all this 〈◊〉 beloved Son in whom I am 〈◊〉 and 〈◊〉 that satisfaction should again be required Justice 〈◊〉 yea common sence abhors The damned and 〈◊〉 are now paying the debt in Hell 〈◊〉 God in Justice requires it therefore his Justice 〈◊〉 not satisfied therefore Christ did not satisfie for 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 God the Father intended the benefit and 〈◊〉 of all by the death and blood-shed of Christ and 〈◊〉 also undertook and discharged it for that end 〈◊〉 that seriously and throughly then the Lord Jesus 〈◊〉 use those means which might be most useful and 〈◊〉 to attain it then he would pray for them 〈◊〉 his sufferings which he did intend for their good 〈◊〉 be made available thereunto for that is an 〈◊〉 and ever speeding means But Christ professeth 〈◊〉 nor would not pray for the world John 17. 9. 〈◊〉 for them I pray not for the world and the 〈◊〉 proves it for what Christ praies for that he 〈◊〉 John 11. 22. 42. I know that thou hearest me 〈◊〉 but this is not obtained therefore was 〈◊〉 desired therefore not intended by Christ 〈◊〉 for this end our Savior did not lay down his life undertake his sufferings For what he suffered that he intended his own end was most serious in own intention that he intended he desired that he 〈◊〉 he obtained that he obtained not he desired not and that he intended not therefore for that 〈◊〉 he did not suffer If it be said He did pray for those that 〈◊〉 him and yet many of those were not saved nor 〈◊〉 prayers heard Luke 23. 34. Father forgive 〈◊〉 they know not what they do His Crucifiérs were of two sorts 1 〈◊〉 Scribes and Pharisees most of these knew what 〈◊〉 did for they sinned the fin against the Holy 〈◊〉 Mat. 12. 24. to 33. 2 Other poor ignorant 〈◊〉 who were swayed by the sinful example of 〈◊〉 Governors and like the blind followed the blind 〈◊〉 they fell into the ditch shed that blood that 〈◊〉 them they were the cause of his death that was 〈◊〉 means to bring them to life and happiness 1 Cor. 〈◊〉 8. Had they known it they would not have 〈◊〉 the Lord of Glory Now many of those shared in 〈◊〉 blessing of our Saviors prayer Acts 2. 37. 〈◊〉 assuredly that you have crucified the Lord of 〈◊〉 they heard and were pricked in their hearts 〈◊〉 the word and the remission of their sins 〈◊〉 were added to the Church They pierced the 〈◊〉 of Christ to take away his blood Christ pierced 〈◊〉 hearts to take away their sins Christs prayers 〈◊〉 much more than Peters preaching they 〈◊〉 his destruction and death and he then wrought 〈◊〉 salvation He sent his prayers to Heaven 〈◊〉 forgive them the Lord sent down his grace and 〈◊〉 obtained the remission of Their sins If Christ died and by his death merited 〈◊〉 for all why then are not all saved for the 〈◊〉 God is satisfied that will not hinder their 〈◊〉 sin and Satan are subdued and vanquished by his 〈◊〉 and they cannot hinder it Heb. 2. 15. By 〈◊〉 destroyed him that had the power of death that 〈◊〉 the Devil and delivered them who through the 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 death were all their lives long subject unto 〈◊〉 Those for whom Christ died their salvation 〈◊〉 be frustrate nor they deprived of it God will 〈◊〉 sin and Satan cannot hinder it but all are not 〈◊〉 therefore for all salvation is not merited by the 〈◊〉 of Christ. The old shift and pretended plea of the Papists and 〈◊〉 to put by the dint of this Argument is this 〈◊〉 is say they a broad and wide difference to be 〈◊〉 between the merits of Christ and the application 〈◊〉 the death of Christ is sufficient quoad 〈◊〉 non quoad applicationem it 's available 〈◊〉 obtain salvation for all men but that the good and 〈◊〉 which is obtained is not applied the 〈◊〉 of that is in mens unbeleef As in a Medicine 〈◊〉 and prepared and appointed to cure but some 〈◊〉 not take it As a ransom to deliver but some will 〈◊〉 receive it The Reply is this That this pretence is in truth a 〈◊〉 of words but reacheth not the main strength 〈◊〉 force of the Argument alleaged which stands still 〈◊〉 as it shall thus appear for I demand If 〈◊〉 hath fully purchased salvation what hinders 〈◊〉 it is not applied They will say and they must 〈◊〉 for they can say no other their infidelity is that 〈◊〉 hinders they will not trust in a Christ or come 〈◊〉 him that they may be saved But the sting and 〈◊〉 of the Argument prevented this cavil before it 〈◊〉 to be pleaded so that this comes too late for it 〈◊〉 said 〈◊〉 Christ be a perfect Savior and hath 〈◊〉 salvation for his at the hand of Divine Justice 〈◊〉 God in Justice will not hinder Sin and Satan 〈◊〉 hinder When the Law is satisfied the prisoner 〈◊〉 be released Christ came for this end and he 〈◊〉 the end he came for He saves his people from 〈◊〉 sins Then from all sin original actual then from infidelity they are saved from that and 〈◊〉 that cannot hinder Besides if Christ be no otherwise a Savior than only to merit so much for them and to offer so much 〈◊〉 unto them that they may receive it if they w ll and refuse it if they list then the execution of Gods 〈◊〉 our Saviors Purpose in Dying and the Fruit and Success of his Death is lastly resolved into the 〈◊〉 man and meerly depends thereupon so that if 〈◊〉 men would our Savior might have died in vain 〈◊〉
〈◊〉 of 〈◊〉 Men after them good is the Loadstone of a Mans 〈◊〉 and labour and where most of that appears our 〈◊〉 go thither with most earnestness and 〈◊〉 So you know how the Chief Captain spake 〈◊〉 Paul concerning the Roman Liberties with a 〈◊〉 sum obtained 〈◊〉 this freedome that deliverance 〈◊〉 this fredome they were little not the dust of the 〈◊〉 if they be compared with freedome from Hell 〈◊〉 Death Sin and Guilt and with those 〈◊〉 unconceivable benefits of Grace and Glory hast 〈◊〉 but Faith thou hast interest in all these 〈◊〉 give no sleep to thy eyes nor flumber to thy 〈◊〉 give God no rest nor thy own Soul no quiet get 〈◊〉 though it be with a great sum great diligence 〈◊〉 endeavours vehement desires leave not before 〈◊〉 hast it and then be sure to keep it thine 〈◊〉 welfare lies upon it Each Man hath his aime and there he is eager but 〈◊〉 others look at what they like labour thou for this 〈◊〉 the coverous Man have the World the loose Man 〈◊〉 Pleasures and the ambitious Man his Honours 〈◊〉 do thou say Lord give me Faith If thy 〈◊〉 heart conceive it wil cost the setting on the loss of 〈◊〉 eye or a hand some darling content that must be 〈◊〉 and cast away before thou canst come to it 〈◊〉 thy self and help thy soul over all these 〈◊〉 difficulties with the dayly eying of that 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 that is to be had in Christ whom thou shalt have 〈◊〉 Faith As Hamor and Shechom his son 〈◊〉 and prevailed with the Shechemites to cut off the 〈◊〉 of their flesh though it carryed an 〈◊〉 of harshness and difficulty upon this plea 〈◊〉 nor their Cattle their Substance and every Beast of theirs be ours only let us consent to them in this and they hearkened to him though it was hard Gen. 34 23. So deal thou with thy own soul shall not the blood and Merits of Jesus shall not that Pardon and acceptance he hath procured that great Redemption he hath wrought the Glory he hath 〈◊〉 be ours shall not every grace of Christ be ours to sanctifie and adorne us every Comfort and those Joyes unspeakable and glorious be ours torefresh our hearts only consent O my soul to Beleeve 〈◊〉 be thou wilt say this work is 〈◊〉 passing thy power and beyond thy strength true be it never 〈◊〉 hard to thee and not possible yet it is not hard to him who hath hardness at command he hath done it for others who can tel but he may do it for thee only let others experience provoke thee and their success encourage thee to seek for it As 〈◊〉 did for the blessing when he knew it was in his Fathers hand to give and that Jacob had received it see how he presseth on with earnestness and tears that he might not go away empty O my Father saies he blesse me also So lay thou Lord I know thou hast done it for others I know thou canst do it for me such proud ones have been humbled such unbeleeving ones have been converted setled comforted and for ever saved O bless me also convert me also call me effectually and cause me also to Beleeve That which was the command of Christ to that man in Mark 5. 36. Is the exhortation to thee only beleeve let this be the pearle in thy eye and pursuit thou seest how comfortable it would be to have those scores of thine quit thy sins pardoned thy heart setled in peace only Beleeve and it 's done thou surveyest the great Redemption that Christ hath Purchased the Kingdome immortall undefiled and that fadeth 〈◊〉 away 〈◊〉 the Lord hath prepared for His only Beleeve and it 's thine thou findest the power the plague of those noysom distempers and hellish temprations which unfit thee for any work make thee wearish in it nay weary of thy life only Beleeve in Christ and they are conquered and for ever subdued 〈◊〉 thus Were there an engine of that use and strength that were it but skilfully handled it would performe al things which otherwise were impossible to be accomplished there need no reasons to press no arguments to perswade men to get it I can do nothing without it I can do every thing if I have it So it is with Faith Mark 9. 23. All things are possible 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 that beleeves thou thinkest that the wrath of God is so fierce his justice so strict they can 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 suffered it is not possible they should be undergone corruption is so strong discouragements so great It 's 〈◊〉 possible to overcome but Faith saith nay to that All things are possible to him that can beleeve because he hath Christ to whom all things are possible 〈◊〉 therefore as blind Bartimaeus said touching his sight Mark 10. 48 51. say thou touching thy Faith 〈◊〉 the Lord should put that question to thee What 〈◊〉 thou have say O Lord that I may beleeve that I may receive the grace of Faith whereby I may 〈◊〉 able to receive Christ and all Spirituall good in 〈◊〉 The second part of the Exhortation Is to provoke 〈◊〉 how we should carry our selves towards Christ when we have Faith Christ hath Purchased all for His how should they be to him what should they 〈◊〉 for him then why truly they should lay out 〈◊〉 and all they have received for him who hath 〈◊〉 so much for them and our Saviour seems to 〈◊〉 a prerogative royall and that in a kind of peculiar 〈◊〉 in our services as touching the order in which 〈◊〉 should be tendered 1 Cor. 2. 18. All are yours 〈◊〉 you are 〈◊〉 and Christ is Gods all 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 through Christ to us all from us by Christ 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 returned again to God And the duty is double 1. Have all at his command 2. Lay out all to his prayse 1. First have al at his command all the graces all the abilities we have received all the blessings of this 〈◊〉 we do possess they should all be laid up and reserved for the Lords use that they may 〈◊〉 hand in 〈◊〉 to 〈◊〉 his good pleasure when ever he 〈◊〉 call for them As the spowse Cant. 7. last At our gates are all manner of pleasant fruits new and 〈◊〉 which I have laid up for thee O my beloved 〈◊〉 the Lords propriety upon them and 〈◊〉 his Image and superscription upon them as they in 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 44. 5. One shall say I am the Lords c. So 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 the Lords and these graces these abilities 〈◊〉 liberties these conveniences they are all the Lords So Christ he assumed our nature took upon him the 〈◊〉 of a servant he did all and suffered all and 〈◊〉 gives the reason and shews the aime at which he looked in all that he did John 17. 19. For their 〈◊〉 I sanctifie my self So do thou say I have all I do all I get these I keep these good things 〈◊〉 Christs sake that I may more
raising up himself with himself he raised up us 〈◊〉 for as he suffered as our 〈◊〉 so he rose again as our Surety and so we were raised with him Therefore when Christ will come and make Application of all Spiritual Good to any soul he doth it by the Vertue and Power of his Resurrection When the hard heart resists the Power of the Word and saies all Threatnings all Promises all Commandements shal not prevail with me and when Sin and Satan 〈◊〉 themselves to the uttermost to keep the soul still in the Gall of bitterness in the bonds of iniquity the Lord Christ comes from Heaven and shews 〈◊〉 Power 〈◊〉 his Resurrection give way Sin give 〈◊〉 Satan that soul is mine and they all give way 〈◊〉 thence comes the prevailing vertue of the Word 〈◊〉 the soul for its effectual 〈◊〉 home to God 〈◊〉 you 〈◊〉 the Frame of this Truth The Lord Jesus by the Power of his God-head did 〈◊〉 up himself from under the Power of Sin and 〈◊〉 and Death 〈◊〉 he had a Sovereign 〈◊〉 Power over Sin and Satan therefore he is able 〈◊〉 conquer and to 〈◊〉 Sin and Satan where ever 〈◊〉 meets them The Spirit of God also hath a hand in this great Work of Application and indeed it is in a special 〈◊〉 attributed to him not because all the three 〈◊〉 do not joyntly work throughout in all the works of Application for according to the received 〈◊〉 of Divines all the Works of God upon the Creature are common to all the three Persons of the Trinity but because the manner of the Spirits work 〈◊〉 principally appear here There are but three 〈◊〉 Works in the World Creation Redemption and Application which are given to the three Persons of the srinity according to the special manner of their working Creation is given to the Father that 's the first Work and therefore given to the first Person Redemption is given to the Son that 's the second Work and therefore given to the second Person Application of that Redemption is the third and last Work and therefore is in a peculiar manner attributed to the third Person the Holy Ghost Conceive it thus A Malefactor that hath committed high Treason against his Prince and being taken he is imprisoned in the strongest Hold the deepest Dungeon without hope of release imagine a man comes and satisfies the wrath of the King and answers the Law so that the King saies upon satisfaction given the Law is fully answered no wrong is done If he shall so do the King is bound not only to be 〈◊〉 in 〈◊〉 of himself and the wrong done to 〈◊〉 and his Law but he is also bound to give his 〈◊〉 Hand Authority and Commission to him that paid for the Prisoner that he may go and fetch the Prisoner from the Dungeon and 〈◊〉 him away with him Imagine that the Jaylor grows sturdy and stiff he 〈◊〉 the Prisoner is prositable to him therfore he 〈◊〉 and saies the Prisoner shall not depart now he that hath Authority from the King must be able to break the Prison doors and then to slay the Jaylor and by force to deliver the Prisoner from the bondage he was in Thus it is here every sinner is a Prisoner to Divine Justice Sin is the Prison and the Devil is the Jaylor that holds him in bondage by reason of the power of Sin and by vertue of Commission from Divine Justice Christ Jesus hath come and payed our debts satisfied Divine Justice and answered the Law that God the Father hath professed This is my beloved Son in whom I am well pleased the Law is performed my anger fully appeased and my mercy procured therefore all those sinners for whom thou hast died and obeyed shall be redeemed from the power of Sin and authority of Satan and now God the Father gives him a full Commission to 〈◊〉 those sinners from the hands of sin and Satan But now when Christ comes for the soul Satan and sin refuse they will not let the sinner go therfore Christ by the vertue of his Resurrection and by the power of his Spirit he doth rescue the soul whether sin and Satan and a mans heart will or no he will have the soul and humble him and call him and justisie him and 〈◊〉 him and glorifie him and then deliver him up to his Father at the great day Direction How to help the souls of poor Sinners that are under the work of Application either 〈◊〉 in it or in Preparation to it here is Direction to you al in the greatest streights whatsoever When the Lord gives intimation to sinners that they are not in the right way and he begins to be 〈◊〉 with them and our Savior Christ comes as the High Sheriff when he would put a man into Possession of his Land that is Possessed by those that have no right to it The High Sheriff comes with his Company and knocks at the door now al that are within come and make resistance and labor to keep him out as much as they can So when our Savior Christ comes and saies to a desperate rebellious sinner that soul of thine was never made for Sin or Satan but thou must come and shouldest come out of thy sins and come to me saies Christ when the Word is thus 〈◊〉 with Life and power now the soul is in an uproar now the soul resists this Work he makes al the doors and bolts fast and he that comes in he dies upon it But the Lord presses in stil upon the soul he must he wil conquer and subdue it to himself now the sinner sees nothing but Hel and Death and Damnation before it die he must and that for ever if he stand out and now he sees he should yeild and submit he sees now the body of death that hangs upon him the power of his lusts that prevails with him and he finds his heart shut up under unbeleef under the chaines of pride and vainglory and earthlimindedness and the Devil presents impossibilities to his view canst thou think that ever those sins of thine should be pardoned or that ever that soul of thine should be delivered from under the power of them Now Brethren here the soul 's at a stand above al the stifness and stubborness of a mans own wil no Threatnings no Mercies no Afflictions no offers of Grace can prevail but a man wil have his sins though the Devil have his soul he finds his heart so 〈◊〉 he must have his sin and his wil though he 〈◊〉 for it Ay now what wil you do The Cause 〈◊〉 this work of Application is 〈◊〉 of your self in Christ Therefore send your thoughts and keep your 〈◊〉 upon the Resurrection of Christ set your eye keep your eye there for ever see a passage or two from Scripture here Rev. 1. 18. I was dead but 〈◊〉 am alive and I live for evermore and I have the Keyes Hell 〈◊〉 Death saies Christ Thou
art 〈◊〉 Prisoner of Hell 〈◊〉 up in the chains of pride and infidelitie and the Devil keeps thee under Lock 〈◊〉 Key as it were and thou doest shut out the means 〈◊〉 Grace Why behold Jesus Christ who dyed and hath 〈◊〉 againe he hath the Keys of Hell and Death 〈◊〉 when thou doest say good Lord is it 〈◊〉 that 〈◊〉 this proud heart of mine should have any good that ever these sins of mine should be pardoned or subdued O look now to the Resurrection of the Lord Jesus beseech him that only can do it that hath a commanding power over Hel and Sin and the Devil beseech him that lives for ever that opens and no man shuts that he would open thy heart and 〈◊〉 thy soul from Sin and Satan cry Lord here 's a proud heart a dead heart and an unbeleeving heart O let that power of thine unlock my heart and 〈◊〉 me of al the evils of my Sins and possess me of al the good things of Jesus Christ therefore have an eye stil to the Resurrection of Christ. But you wil 〈◊〉 It is not possible it is that Jesus that I have sinned against resisted despised and the hour and power of darkness is upon my soul Legions of Devils dwels here prevailing over me and drawing me to sin Ay Brethren yet Christ by the power of his 〈◊〉 can do it for you Acts 2. 24. It was not possible that he should be held by the bonds of death when our Savior Christ was dying upon the Cross having the guilt of the sins of al the Elect upon him al the Devils in Hel came about him then but it was not possible that he should be overcome by them therefore look thou up to him and say Blessed Lord 〈◊〉 thou that wast once under the power of darkness but it was not possible thou couldest be held by it O behold and see and have mercy I am under the power of darkness under the power of sin and Satan and I cannot get loose yet if thou wilt please to open the Prison doors and to bring me forth if thou wilt open my heart nothing can shut it Thus you must have recourse to Jesus Christ as risen from the dead having al power in his own hands if indeed you would 〈◊〉 the work of Application to be a saving and a 〈◊〉 work You that are brought to Christ look hither stil when you find Satan too subtile for you and 〈◊〉 too strong for you be sure to keep your eye here and keep your faith here look to Christ and to his death and to his obedience But look to his Resurrection also Col. 2. 12. You are buried with Christ in Baptism wherin also you are risen with him through the faith of the operation of God who raised him from the dead That is our Faith should be 〈◊〉 upon the Resurrection of Christ as that by vertue of which we shal rise with Christ get power against our sins You that have mighty distempers strong corruptions you must look to 〈◊〉 power that raised Christ from the dead this is the skil of faith like the Apothecary when he knows the Disease he goes to the right Box and applies the right Remedy So here thou hast a dead heart a vain mind a heart that canst not apply any saving good to thy self look not now to the Justice of God that wil condem thee but look to the operation of a God that 〈◊〉 quicken and raise up thy dead heart as he did 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Jesus Christ be 〈◊〉 you set your faith upon 〈◊〉 operation of God which raised Christ from the dead without this al our Preaching and your Hearing were in vain as the Apostle 〈◊〉 1 Cor. 15. 14. 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Ministers on Earth had 〈◊〉 and Preached and 〈◊〉 and done what they could if 〈◊〉 had not 〈◊〉 again al had been in vain we might have flung 〈◊〉 against the wind the Devils would have laughed 〈◊〉 us al you Preach and you Pray as when 〈◊〉 shoot 〈◊〉 shot against a Castle they do but laugh at them for it So here If Christ be not risen our Preaching is in vain and your Faith in vain You 〈◊〉 for 〈◊〉 and we Preach to commuicate Grace we would have you quickned and you come for that 〈◊〉 now that that must give success to al is the 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Christ or else al is in vain So likewise 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 one to thee as if Christ had not risen at al if thou 〈◊〉 not the power of it in thy own soul O therefore when you come to the Ordinances of God look up to the Resurrection of 〈◊〉 that the Minister may speak and pray and that you may hear and attend by the power of the Resurrection of Jesus that 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 dead heart of thine may find a raising quickning 〈◊〉 from Sin and Death to Grace and 〈◊〉 by the 〈◊〉 of 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 The Second Proposition Having dispatched the First we come to the Second Proposition 〈◊〉 in the foregoing 〈◊〉 concerning the 〈◊〉 of Application 〈◊〉 That that power by which the Lord 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Application is an Almighty power This work of Application looks to God as the Author 〈◊〉 it not in regard of any common 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 providence whereby he leadeth out the act of every Creatues abilitity to it's end in al the several kinds 〈◊〉 Acts 17. 28. In him we live and move The strong man faints if God withdraw the weak is strong if God assist Nor yet in regard of that 〈◊〉 which the Lord vouchsafēth to the work of grace 〈◊〉 wrought But 〈◊〉 puts forth an Almighty power upon the soul when he is pleased to bring it home 〈◊〉 himself the Cause is ordinary but the Work it 〈◊〉 is extraordinary there is a mass of Miracles met 〈◊〉 when a sinner is Converted It was a Miracle when the Blind was made to See the Dumb to Speak the Deaf to Hear and the Dead to Live but in 〈◊〉 al these are met together the Blind mind is Enlightned the Dumb mouth is Opened the Heart 〈◊〉 was shut up under hardness is Opened and 〈◊〉 and the Dead soul is restored to Life again Mat. 〈◊〉 5. That power whereby Christ was raised from 〈◊〉 dead is an Almighty power but that he puts 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 the woking of faith in al that belong to him Eph. 〈◊〉 18. His exceeding great power according to the 〈◊〉 of his mighty power in you that beleeve as 〈◊〉 wrought in Christ in raising him up from the dead Hence the working of grace is called a Resurrection Rev. 20 6. John 5. 20. The dead shall hear 〈◊〉 voice of the Son of God and they that hear shall 〈◊〉 So again Eph. 2. 1. 2. You that were dead 〈◊〉 sins and trespasses hath he quickned Look we not only at the Weakness but the hellish Opposition that a man hath naturally against al good 〈◊〉 wil appear it must be more than an ordinary power 〈◊〉 gives a being to grace in
wanted the 〈◊〉 knowledge of himself and of the Law of God 〈◊〉 then imagined his condition was such as those who had and led the life of Grace But when the Law came that the Lord by the Law discovered 〈◊〉 to himself then indeed he did discern where he was that sin was yet alive in him that he was in a deadly and damnable condition See the Point 〈◊〉 good in Five Particulars wherein this security is expressed in the several degrees thereof A Natural 〈◊〉 before the Lord come to seize upon him he sees no danger in his estate and therefore will not suffer himself to be perswaded to any such 〈◊〉 what can be said to evict it by the most 〈◊〉 Arguments to win his assent thereunto so it was with them in the old world Mat. 24. 38. they 〈◊〉 and gave in marriage they did eat and drink and took up themselves in the eager pursuit 〈◊〉 these present pleasing contentments which 〈◊〉 with our Natural hearts but knew nothing either of the 〈◊〉 of their own sins or the heaviness of the plagues decreed and threatned Hence this Security is in Scripture compared to a dead sleep Awake thou that sleepest and stand up from the dead and Christ shall give thee life Eph. 5. 14. In a sleep we know if it fall heavy upon any he sees no dangers nor enemies though he was in the midst of them if any evil be plotted or practised against him he perceives it not and therefore it is said They that sleep they sleep in the night So it is here though the sinner be compassed about with his own sins and the judgments of God ready to be inflicted on him and the Devils of Hell ready to devour him yet being in a dead sleep he discerns not the danger he is in As they see none so while the Lord is pleased to abate them the expressions of his heavy displeasure nor yet proceeds to take them to task for their great and grievous offences they feel no evil they see other men as vile as themselves fare like themselves and therefore they conclude there is no danger Psal. 73. 7. Their eyes stand out with fatness they have more than heart can wish they are not in bonds like other men and therefore pride compasseth them about as a chain c. Upon this ground it is the fals-hearted resolve to joyn sides with the proud because they saw their proceedings prosperous We count the proud happy say they Mal. 3. 15. For Naturally further than the Lord is pleased to grapple with the sinner there is a benummed kind of stupidness of spirit takes possession of them they become senceless wholly or their sins and so of the plagues that are threatned and treasured up for them against the day of wrath When the disease hath mastered Nature so that it hath lost its lively strength when it 's now dying it feels not death because sence was gone before The Soul that is slain by sin it becomes senceless of it As it 〈◊〉 the drunkard Prov. 23. 35. They have stricken me and I was not sick they have beaten me and I felt it not They fear no evil for the time to come senseless before fearless now they feel no evil for the present and they fear none for the future they reason from sense and experience it hath not been therefore it will not be Thus those made a League with Hell and Death Isa. 28. 15. They intrenched and fortified themselves in this fearless presumption against the approach of any future evil And therfore in all the threatnings they reade and hear though such as express the direful displeasure of the Lord yet they take off the edge of all they imagine it s nothing but a kind of policy in men who Preach these threatnings that so they might aw others by a prudent way of proceeding and partly its folly in those who beleive them and entertain them as real when there is no such thing to be feared This was the Conclusion of those who sate upon the Lees and Dregs of this Security Zeph. 1. 12. They profess the Lord will neither do good nor evil Hence the sinner in a blind kind of deluded Confidence puts the safety of his Condition beyond all question and dispute to doubt of Gods love or the work of Gods Grace in his heart or his own everlasting happiness he cannot talk of it but with detestation looks at that as a thing that is past That Dale is mowen and the danger over and gone give any good proof or sound evidence of his spiritual Welfare he cannot yet dispute it he will not takes it for granted and therefore will not trouble himself with it any more Whatever searching truths are expressed for the narrowest search and saving tryal of the soundness of the work of Gods Grace and so a sure title for eternal life he catcheth at those and takes them for his own without any enquiry or consideration Whether they do belong to him or no Whether his heart be right and sound in Gods statutes he will not dispute but that he shall be happy he will certainly conclude and that conclusion he will hold He doubts not but to dye 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 go to Heaven as well as the most precise Professor of them all Thus they in Deut. 29. 19 20. When they heard all the Curses of the Law yet they blessed themselves saying I shall have peace Let men speak what they will Preach as they please he promiseth himself comfort and success in his way men saies he must have their 〈◊〉 and will vent their passions and humors but concludes what he conceives is the right all the world shall not perswade if there were a hundred and a hundred Ministers to that they shall never make him believe but his Condition is safe 〈◊〉 his way and person such as God will accept So they to Jeremy Jer. 43. 2 Thou speakest falsly the Lord 〈◊〉 not sent thee to say Go not into 〈◊〉 The things of Christ and waies of his Grace which he hath revealed in his Gospel and enjoyns all to follow because they put them beyond their pace and exceed either their cannal and formal course and the frame of happiness which they have fancied in their own minds and thoughts they look at them with disdain and casts the name of giddiness and folly upon them and follows them with all the reproaches and contempt that may be 1 Cor. 2. 14. 〈◊〉 he natural man perceives not the things of God for they are foolishness unto him Thus the Gospel the glad tydings of salvation and the only way of life in Christ It was foolishness to the Greeks and to the Jews a stumbling block 1 Cor. 1. 23. To become fools that we may be wise to cast away the robes of our own conceaved Righteousness worth and sufficiency and to go a begging to Christ to 〈◊〉 our nakedness it is a thing 〈◊〉 cross to carnal reason as
more miserable thou findest thy condition 〈◊〉 more comfortable it is It seems a riddle carries the appearance of contrariety and impossibility and yet upon proof and tryal wil prove an infallible Truth The heavier the blows be which come from Gods hand for those gross evils of thine there is more probability of 〈◊〉 serious intendment of good unto thy soul The greater thy strokes are at present the greater thy hopes are of some spiritual relief and refreshing in future times And there is no greater plague upon earth hardly such another in hell 〈◊〉 a wretch should prosper in his wickedness and go suddenly down to the bottomless pit before he see where he is It was the carriage of a great Commander in his time yet mervailous sharp in the execution of military discipline when a Souldier had deserved death by martial law if he seemed to smile upon him it was a messenger of death and therefore his old Soldiers that saw 〈◊〉 manner of his proceeding when ever he appeared to laugh they looked then for a doom insomuch that an antient follower of his coming before him for some miscarriage his General carrying himself in a silent manner he breaks forth in this manner Good my Lord do not smile on me for he then knew the 〈◊〉 execution would be the next he should hear of It is here most certain and so judg of it If thy carriage and thy Conscience likewise give in testimony of the loathsomness and vileness of thy corrupt conversation that thy behaviour is detestable to any who have any spiritual discerning yea to moral persons if the Lord seem to smile upon thee not so much as check thee in thy scandalous way know that the sentence of destruction is the next that is like to ensue Math 23. 34. 35. I wil send you Prophets and Apostles and some ye shall kill and stone c. that the blood of al the Prophets may come upon you fulfil the measure of your fins and so receive the fulness of the measure of plagues 〈◊〉 can yee escape the damnation of bell ver 32. 33. I Thes. 2. 15. The Jewes both killed the Lord Jesus and their own Prophets and have persecuted us they please not God and are contrary to al men to fill up their fins alwayes for the wrath is come upon them to the uttermost When 〈◊〉 have elbow room in their wretched wayes and are not crossed in their hellish corruptions the wrath is come upon them to the utmost This is the dregs of God vengeance the utmost of Gods indignation thou canst hardly be worse if not in hell Whereas great heart-breakings for sin give in more than a little hope and probability of good intended see this in the several degrees of it and al follow from the doctrine delivered It shewes poor forlorn wretch that thou art in the way of mercy God deals so with thee as he usually doth with those with whom he wil deal welin the issue he hath 〈◊〉 left thee to thy self and sins and ceased striving with thee to stop thee and recal thee from thy sinful course as commonly he doth when he delivers up a soul to the power of his corruption with whom he intends no more to meddle Isai. 1. 5. So he proceeds with the perverse and obstinate Jewes why should yee be smitten any more yee fal away more and more As the Father with the prodigal my counsels cannot move thee my blessings allure thee al my corrections I have layed upon thee do not reclame thee take thy course therefore and so casts him out of his family and takes no 〈◊〉 care of him But he whom he corrects most sharply for his faults it 's yet a pregnant evidence for the while that he purposeth to keep him This is the day of Gods visitation may be the last time of asking yet it is the time of 〈◊〉 and grace and the date of mercy God is yet wrastling with thee as loath to leave thee to the malice of Satan and the power of thy distempers as he doth with them that he purposeth to do good unto Isai. 6. 9. when God would 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 people for 〈◊〉 and devote and set them apart to destruction this is the way he takes Go make the hearts of this people fat fatness implys 〈◊〉 brawny kind of stupidity and sencelesness of spirit Then such persons are ripe and ready for destruction when God plucks up the stake and gives a forlorn wretch the round rope let him have his wil Ephraim is joyned to-Idols let him alone Hos. 4. 17. He that is unjust let him be unjust stil he that is filthy let him be silthy stil. Yea this is that which casts a 〈◊〉 beyond the compass of the compassions of the Almighty when the Lord 〈◊〉 he wil not meddle nor make he wil have nothing to do with such vile creatures Hos. 4. 14. I wil not punish your daughters when they commit whordome nor your spouses when they 〈◊〉 adultery therefore the people that doth not understand shal fal But when God wil take pains and trouble himself with such a Rebel hath thee upon the anvil bestows so much fire and so much melting yet 〈◊〉 is hope that he may make thee a vessel of grace and for the Lords use There is some expectation that the work may prove more speedy and successful as it is in the body in old festred sores he that ripples the skin and layes easy salves he wil be long in doing a little and yet fail at last when he hath done al he that lanceth to the bottom in reason is like to bring out the core and to hasten the cure both with speed and success the stronger the physick stirs and works upon the humor the sooner the patient recovers and health returns with some stability and continuance It is so in the soul those old cankered lusts which have been of long continuance in a corrupt heart some slight terrors or sudden flashes of Gods displeasure which may a little trouble the Conscience and ripple the skin as it were they pass away presently and leave the root of the distemper untouched at the least not removed so that the corruptions grow more fierce and violent and so break out in a more loathsome manner than ever formerly Whereas those direful overbearing horrors in a way of rational providence are of a more prevayling nature to astonish the heart shake the Conscience of the wicked and ransack the very core of those hideous corruptions which have been long harboured and lodged within Thus the Lord dealt with the revolting Apostatizing Israelites Hos. 2. 6. 7. He bedged their wayes with Thorns and built a wal before them and they shal seek their lovers and shal not find them and then shal she say I wil 〈◊〉 to my first husband c. Had the hedg been so 〈◊〉 and easy and the wal so low that they might have broken through the one or leaped over
Water of Life John 4. 10. Thou knowest not that thou art poor and wretched and 〈◊〉 and 〈◊〉 Rev. 3. 17. Those that are ignorant of the way wil 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 any man ask of any child So a soul under 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 and ignorances wil enquire of any Christian ask of any Minister that may direct him in the way he should take This Doctrine is a Bill of Inditement against a world of ungodly men who live in the Church who may here read their doom and the dreadfulness of their own condition discovered beyond all denial namely to be such who as yet were never troubled never so much as touched with a through sight and sence of their own baseness and cursed corruptions of their Natures and lives they are so far from being broken by the Truth and batterred al to pouder by the power of an Ordinance that indeed the day is yet to come that they 〈◊〉 any 〈◊〉 blow from the 〈◊〉 Word of the Lord 〈◊〉 on upon their Consciences by the hand and good Spirit of the Almighty and that is evidenced out of the 〈◊〉 had they received the like impression with these Converts they would have been 〈◊〉 upon the like practice with them had their spirits been broken as theirs they would have been as 〈◊〉 to seek out for succor and relief as 〈◊〉 do but alas this duty appears not scant in the lives of men therefore this 〈◊〉 is far enough 〈◊〉 their hearts If thou had'st been sick as they thou would'st have enquired of the Physitian as they but where is the man almost that hath put the Quare to his own Conscience propounded the Question seriously to others out of the sence of his own want for to make narrow search of his own estate ' Men and Brethren what shall I do He never saw need to do any thing nor had heart to do any thing men therefore had never desire nor endeavor to seek direction when he hath been loth that men should put him to pains and press him to diligence and doing in this behalf They make it a matter superfluous and needless trouble thus to be taken up what needs all this ado say they and therefore they are willing to sit down with ease but do nothing they are setled upon their dregs and endure not stirring it 's a kind of Hell and like the appearance of Death to be pressed to diligent inquiry to make their Calling sure 2 Pet. 1. 11. The state of the World is somwhat like that which the Angels express upon the proof they had when they went to survey the frame of things Zach. 〈◊〉 11. We have walked to and fro through the Earth and behold all the Earth sits still and in at rest Walk we from one Plantation to another from one Society to another nay which is yet a further misery from one Assembly to another all the Earth sits still and is at rest there is no stirring no trading in Christianity men cheapen not enquire not after the purchase of the precious things of the Gospel what shall I do to be quit of my self what shall I do to be severed from my sins which have pestered me so long prejudiced my peace so much and if it continue wil be my ruin As though Christ were taking the Charter of the Gospel from the present Generation and were removing the Markes there is no stirring Trade is dead men come dead and sit so and return so unto their Habitations there is deep silence 〈◊〉 shal not hear a word What spiritual good they get what they need or what they desire men are willing to do nothing and therefore they wil not enquire what they should do certain it is the Word never wrought kindly upon thee nor prevailed with that carnal and hard heart of thine to this day in any saving 〈◊〉 for thy spiritual good thou never knewest what it was to be loft 〈◊〉 thou never had'st a stir of heart to enquire the way to Sion it 's made an Argument of a man in the bonds of 〈◊〉 in the depth of his 〈◊〉 distemper 〈◊〉 3. 11. They have no 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 do they seek after God and it 's made an evidence of Satans Rule Luke 11. 21. When 〈◊〉 strong 〈◊〉 keeps the Pallace all his goods are at peace but when a stronger comes and 〈◊〉 him he takes from him all his Armor wherein be trusts and divides the spoil The House and Pallace is the Heart and Spirit of a sinner his 〈◊〉 and Furniture are all those noysom lusts by which he 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 and exerciseth 〈◊〉 power in the sinner and as the Apostle saith fighteth against the soul as despair is the Head-piece unrighteous and careless and unconscionable walking is the 〈◊〉 carnal Reason the Sword Unbelief the Shield and an indisposition of heart to yield to the terms 〈◊〉 the 〈◊〉 is that whereby the sinner is prepared to walk in the way of 〈◊〉 his feet shod sit for every evil work While Satan is 〈◊〉 furnished with the Armor of Darkness all his goods are at peace he doth without any trouble act the soul and wrong the Comfort and happiness of the soul and so the Honor of the Lord 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 his goods it 's all he desires endeavors takes as the gain of his Labor and Diligence in his Temptations Doth Satan act thee by his Temptations and so encrease both thy guilt and ruin thereby 〈◊〉 are 〈◊〉 his goods in peace 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 thy wo thy 〈◊〉 is Satans wealth and substance he hath what he 〈◊〉 and doth what he will and thou art not troubled with any thing nor wilt trouble him by seeking out for relief and deliverance enquirest 〈◊〉 what thou mayest do to be rescued and 〈◊〉 know Satan hath his Armor on and he seeks thy heart as his Pallace under his Soveraign Power and Command to this day nor is there any preparation nor the 〈◊〉 inkling or intimation of 〈◊〉 of that wretched 〈◊〉 of thine thou 〈◊〉 in this secure condition as one that meddles not hast nothing to do with the things of Grace and Life As it was said Judges 17. 7. of the men of 〈◊〉 who dwelt careless quiet and secure far from the Zidonians and had no business with man It 's a Picture of this 〈◊〉 temper and secure condition of thine thou 〈◊〉 far from the state and grace of Glory thou hast no business with Christians with Ordinances Officers thou hast nothing to say or to demand touching eternal Life thou knowest nothing yet enquirest not what thou should'st do hast nothing yet 〈◊〉 not for help and succor thou hast no business that appertains to Heaven with any man living thy business lies not with the Word and the Lord and his Word have as little to do with thee that shews thy heart is not there nor thy portion there As each mans affection and expression of himself is where his imployment lies as 〈◊〉 as a Bee they carry their businesses in
the lusts of men and the will of the Gentiles yea fulfil the desires of the flesh and walk after the Prince of the Air. Eph. 2. 2. As a man cannot turn himself so this first Aversion from sin and the Creature is not wrought by any gracious habit that is put into the soul by the Lord i. e. That is not the way and means by which this first Aversion and turning from sin is wrought And the Reasons are First All gracious qualities and habits as all other accidents and attendants upon things never have any being but in a subject and therefore must first be there before they can put forth any operation Wisdom must first be in the mind before a man can act wisely Skil must be in the Head and Understanding of the Artificer before he can work build and plant skilfully Holiness Righteousness Patience in our Hearts before we can work holily patiently and that 's the Reason though we have the same faculties of mind and wil before our Conversion as we have after yet we neither do nor can put forth any gracious action before but after Grace Hence it follows That if the first Aversion from sin were wrought by a habit of Grace we should first have this i. e. The Habit of Grace should be in the soul before it should work this Aversion of the soul from sin but that implies a contradiction that a man should have Grace and yet be wholly averted from God for the least moment Secondly If the soul be uncapable in that condition and under that consideration to receive the Habit of Grace then there cannot be a gracious habit in the soul to work any thing but while the soul is wholly possessed and acted by sin it is not capable of a gracious habit no more than it 's possible to be in light and darkness together The wisdom of the Flesh is enmity against God it is not subject nay it cannot be subject to the Law if not subject then it cannot receive the gracious impressions of it Rom. 8. 7. and John 14. 17. it 's said of the Comforter that the world cannot receive him the issue is if a gracious Habit neither is nor can be there in the soul wholly possessed and averted from God by sin then this Aversion from sin cannot be wrought by it Though the Lord doth not put a gracious habit INTO the Soul by which this may be done yet the Spirit of Contrition puts forth an irresistible power by which it works UPON the Soul thus turned from God to sin to return it from sin to God For the Spirit in the Work of Application sustains a double Office and so a double Respect As a Spirit Assisting As a Spirit Inhabiting And yet the same Spirit of Regeneration in such as shall be saved taking Regeneration in the breadth thereof including the whol Work though the operation be double or divers according to the diversity of the subject as the soul of a sinner upon which the work of Application must be made according to the degrees thereof The Spirit works upon the Soul in Preparation to make way for gracious habits but never inhabits the heart makes the soul a Temple without some gracious qualisication 1 Cor. 6. 18 19. Ye are the Temples of the holy Ghost Christ dwels in our hearts by Faith Eph. 3. 17. there is the Spirit inhabiting yet it is said The world cannot receive the Spirit because they do not see him nor know him but you know him for he dwels in you and abides with you John 14. 17. yet those who are nothing for the while but the world the Spirit doth work upon such to cal them out of the world by turning of them from darkness to light The Lord Christ as the Second Adam and the Head of those whom he shal bring back and beget unto God the Father in the vertue of his death he brings a Release from under the hand of Divine Justice to reverse that Commission which sin and Satan had to fasten the soul to the Creature and so to sin and by sin and the Creature to rule in it For when Adam jarred and justled against the Law the Law was strong and hard i. e. just the Law and the Lord in Justice pushed Adam away from him sin takes occasion to fall in and by that advantage when Divine Justice by reason of his provocation pushed him away it carries him to the Creature and the Devil by sin and the Creature challengeth Soveraignty over him The Lord Jesus by and in the vertue of his death suffering and satisfying Divine Justice delivers both himself and his from the Authority of sin God raised him from the Grave because it was impossible be should be held by the sorrows and power of the grave and therefore not by the power of sin and darkness Acts 2. 24. for they had no power but by vertue of Divine Justice which being now appeased their Commission is reversed and repealed By Death Christ destroyed him that had the power of Death that is the Devil Heb. 2. 14. So our Savior gives the ground of comfort and release to his I was dead and 〈◊〉 alive and behold I have the keyes of Hell and Death Rev. 1. 18. The Lord saies to sin hands off that soul is mine and doth therefore by the power of his Spirit not only stop the work-of sin but over-bears and abolisheth and takes off the right of Rule which Satan by sin challenged he brings the soul off from the Soveraignty of sin into another Jurisdiction The Lord having forced the sinner whereof I formerly disputed to feel sin as it is sin to be cross to the end of his being though not to the corruption of the soul yet to the Nature of the soul and therefore as it 's possible that the soul may be forced to 〈◊〉 so now upon feeling the soul finds it to be a most bitter thing and that unto the being of the soul as an immortal Creature made next for God as its last end And therefore Observe though it want Spiritual and Supernatural ability to enter into combate or vanquish a corruption by any Grace received yet being sensible by the Spirit of Contrition of the evil of it and so loosened from it it becomes subject stands readily prepared to 〈◊〉 any impression of the power of the Spirit whereby the exercise and power of sin may be stopped the challenge of any right of Rule and Soveraignty may be shaken off and for ever destroyed and the soul be carried to God in Christ to be owned ruled and blessed for ever So that when Christ as the Second Adam and Head of the Covenant comes to take a soul and to 〈◊〉 him from sin to God the Father look by what irresistable power he acts in opposition and 〈◊〉 against it as cross to his Glory the soul wanting power of its own it takes advantage to fall in