and therefore though I may be spared for a while yet there is a time wherein Christ himselfe will come out against me in flaming fire To this purpose doth the Spirit worke for beloved the great meanes whereby Satan overthrew Man at first in his innocencie was this principle although thou dost eate and so sin against God yet thou shalt not dye Gen. 3.4 Ye shall not surely die the Serpent doth not say Ye shall not die for that is too grosse an out-facing of the Word Gen. 2.17 but he saith Ye shall not surely die that is there is not such absolute certainty oâ— it it may be you shall live God loves you better then so and is a more merciful Father then to be at a word and a blow Now look as Satan deceived and brought our first parents to ruine by suggesting this principle so at this day he doth sow this accursed seed and plant this very principle in the soyl of every mans heart by nature they do not think they cannot beleeve that they are dead men condemned to dye and that they shall dye eternally for the least sinne committed by them Men nor Angels cannot perswade them of it they cannot see the equity of it that God so mercifull will be so severe for so small a matter nor yet the truth of it for then they think no flesh should be saved And thus when the old Serpent hath spit this poyson before them they sup it up and drink it in and so thousands nay millions of men and women are utterly undone The Lord Christ therefore when he comes to save a poore sinner and raise him up out of his fall convinceth the soule by his Spirit and that with full and mighty evidence that it shall dye for the least sin and tels him as the Lord told Abimelech in another case Gen. 20.3 Thou art but a dead man for this and if the Spirit set on this let who can claw it off I tell you beloved never did poore condemned Malefactor more certainly know and hear the sentence of condemnation past upon him by a mortall man then the guilty sinner doth his by an immortall and displeased God therefore those three thousand cry out Act. 2.37 Men and brethren what shall we doe to be saued We are condemned to dye what shall we doe now to be saved from death Now the soule is glad to enquire of the Minister Oh tell me what shall I do I once thought my selfe in a safe and good condition as any in the Town or Countrey I lived in but now the Lord hath let me heare of other newes dye I must in this estate and t is a wonder of mercies I am spared alive to this day There is not onely some blind feaâ—es and suspitions that it may possibly be so but full perswasions of heart dye I must dye I shall in this estate for if the Spirit reveale sin and conviâ—ce not of death for sin the soule under this work of conviction being as yet rather sâ—nsuall then spirituall wil make a light matter of it when it sees no sensible danger in it but when it sees the bottomlesse pit before it everlasting fire before it for the least sin now it sees the hainous evill of sin the way of sinne though never so peaceable before is full of dâ—nger now wherein it sees there are endlesse woes and everlasting deaths that lye in wait for it Rom. 6.21 And now saith the Spirit you may goe on in these sinfull courses as others doe if you see meet but oh consider what will be the end of them what it is to enjoy the pleasures of sinne for a season and to be tormented for ever for them in the conclusion for be assured that will be the end and hence the soule seeing it selfe thus set apart for death looks upon it selfe in a farre worse estate then the bruit beasts or vilâ—st worme upon the earth for it thinks when they dye there is an end of their misery but oh then is the beginning of mine for ever hence also arise those feares of death of being suddenly cut off that when it lyes downe it trembles to think I may never rise againe because it 's convinced not only that it deserves to dye but that it is already sentenced for to dye hence also the soule justifies God if he had cut him off in his sin and wonders what kept him from it there being nothing else due from God unto it hence lastly the soule is stopt and stands still goes not on in sin as before or if it doth the Lord gives it no peace Ier. 8.6 Why doth the horse goe on in the battell because it sees not death before it but now the soule sees death and therefore stops oh remember this all you that never could beleeve that you are dead condemned men and therefore are never troubled with any such thoughts in your mind I tell you that you are far from conviction and therefore far from salvation if God should send some from the dead to beare witnesse against this secure world concerning this truth yet you will not beleeve it for his messengers sent from heaven are not beleeved herein woe be to you if you remaine unconvinced of this point But you will say how doth the Lord thus convince sin and wherein is it exprest which is the third particular All knowledge of sin is not conviction of sin all confession of sin is not conviction there is a conviction meerely rationall which is not spirituall there are three things in spirituall conviction There is a cleare certaine and manifest light so that the soule sees its sin and death due to it clearely and certainly for so the word Ioh. 16.9 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 signifies to evidence a thing by way of argumentation nay demonstration the Spirit so demonstrates these things as that it hath nothing to object a mans mouth is stopped hee hath nothing to say but this behold I am vile I am a dead man for if a man have many strong arguments given him to confirme a truth yet if he have but one objection or doubtfull scruple not answered he is not fully as yet convinced because full conviction by a cleare sun-light scatters all dark objections and hence our Saviour Iude 15. will one day convince the wicked of all their hard speeches against him which will chiefly be done by manifesting the evill of such wayes and taking a way all those colours and defences men have made for such language before the Spirit of Christ comes man cannot see will not see his sin nor punishment nay he hath many things to say for himselfe as excuses and extenuations of his sin One saith I was drawne unto it the woman that thou gavest me and so layes the blame on others Aâ—other saith It is my nature Others say All are sinners the godly sinne as well as others and yet are saved at last and so I hope shall
I Others professe they cannot part with sin they would be better but they cannot and God requires no more then they are able to performe Another saith I will continue in sin but a little while and purpose hereafter to leave it Others say We are sinners but yet God is mercifull and will forgive it Another saith Though I have sinned yet I have some good and am not so bad as other men endlesse are these excuses for sin In one word I know no man though never so bad though his sin be never so grievous but he hath something to say for himselfe and something in his mind to lessen and extenuate sin but beloved when the Spirit comes to convince he so convinceth as that he answers all these pulls down all these fences teares off all these fig-leaves scatters all these mists and pulls off all these sâ—ales from the eyes stops a mans mouth that the soule stands before God crying oh Lord guilty guilty as the Prophet Ieremy told them Ier. 2.23 Why dost thou say I am innocent looke upon thy way c. so the Spirit saith why dost thou say thy sin is small it is disobedience as Samuel said to Saul 1 Sam. 15. 23. which is rebellion and as the sinne of witchcraft and is that a small matter the Spirit of conviction by the cleare evidence of the truth binds the understanding that it cannot struggle against God any more and hence let all the world plead to the contrary nay let the godly come to comfort them in this estate and think and speak well of them yet they cannot beleeve them because they are certaine their estates are wofull hence also we shall observe the soule under conviction instead of excusing sin it aggravates sinne and studies to aggravate sinne did ever any deale thus wickedly walke thus sinfully so long against so many checks and chidings light and love meanes and mercies as I have done And it is wonderfull to observe that those things which made it once account sin light make it therefore to think sin great ex gr my sin is little the more unkind thou saith the Spirit that wilt not doe a small matter for the Lord my sin is common the more sinfull thou that in those things wherein all the world rise up in arms against God thou joynest with them God spares me after sin the greater is thy sin therefore that thou hast continued so long in against a God so pitifull to thee the dearest sins are now the vilest sins because though they were most sweet to him yet the Spirit convinceth him they were therefore the more grievous unto the soule of God you poore creatures may now hide and colour and excuse your sins before men but when the Lord comes to convince you cannot lye hid then your consciences when Jesus Christ the Lord comes to convince shall not be like the Steward in the Gospell that set down 50. for a 100 l. no the Lord will force it to bring in a true and cleare account at that day There is a reall light in spirituall conviction rationall conviction makes things appear notionally but spirituall conviction really the Spirit indeed useth argumentation in conviction but it goes farther and causeth the soule not only to see sin and death discursively but also intuitively and really reason can see and discourse about words and Propositions and behold things by report and so deduct one thing from another but the Spirit makes a man see the things themselves really wrapt up in those words the Spirit brings spirituall things as well as notions before a mans eye the light of the Spirit is like the light of the Sun it makes all things appeare as they are Iohn 3.20 21. It was Ierusalems misery she heard the words of Christ and they were not hid from them but the things of her peace shut up in those words were hid from her eyes Discourse with many a man about his sin and misery he will grant all that you say and he is convinced that his estate is most wretched and yet still lives in all manner of sin what is the reason of it truly he sees his sin only by discourse but he doth not nay cannot see the thing sin death wrath of God untill the Spirit come which only convinceth or sheweth that really A man will not bee afraid of a Lyon when it is painted only upon the wall why because therein he doth not see the living Lyon when he sees that he trembles So men heare of sin and talke of sin and death and say they are most miserable in regard of both yet their hearts tremble not are not amazed at these evills because sinne is not seen alive death is not presented alive before them which is done by the Spirit of conviction only revealing these really to the soule and hence it is that many men in seeing see not How can that bee thus in seeing things notionally they see them not really And hence many that know most of sin know least of sin because in seeing it notionally they see it not really And therefore happy were it for some men Schollers and others that they had no notionall knowledge â—f sin for this light is their darknesse and makes them more uncapable of spirituall conviction the first act of spirituall conviction is to let a man see clearly that he is sinfull and most miserable the second act is to let the soule see really what this sin and death is Oh consider of this many of you know that you are sinfull and that you shall dye but dost thou know what sin is and what it is to dye If thou didst I dare say thy heart would sinke if thou dost not thou art a condemned man because not yet a convinced man If you here aske how the Lord makes sin reall I answer By making God reall the reall greatnesse of sin is seen by beholding really the greatnesse of God who is smitten by sin sin is not seene because God is not seen Iohn 3. ep v. 11. He â—hat doth evill hath not seen God No knowledge of God is the cause why blood toucheth blood the Spirit casts out all other company of vain and foolish thoughts and then God comes in and appeares immediately to the soul in his greatnesse and glory and then the Spirit saith Lo this is that God thy sins have provoked And now sin appeares as it is and together with this reall sight of sin the soule doth not see painted fire but sees the fire of Gods wrath really whither now it is leading that never can be quencht but by Christs blood and when the Spirit hath thus convinced now a man begins to see his madnesse and folly in times past saying I know not what I did And hence questions Can the Lord pardon such a wretch as I whose sinnes are so great Hence also the heart beginnes to bee affected with sinne and death because it sees them
now as they are indeed and not by report only A man accounts it a matter of nothing to tread upon a worme wherein there is nothing seen worthy either to bee loved or feared and hence a mans heart is not affected with it before the Spirit of conviction comes God is more vile in mans eye then any worme as Christ said in another case of himselfe Psal. 22. I am a worme and no man so may the Lord complaine I am viler in such a ones eyes then any worme and no God and hence a man makes it a matter of nothing to tread upon the glorious Majesty of God and hence is not affected with it but when God is seen by the Spirit of conviction in his great glory then as he is great sin is seene great as his glory affects and astonisheth the soule so sin affects the heart There is a constant light the soule sees sinne and death continually before it Gods arrowes stick fast in the soule and cannot be pluckt out My sinne is ever before me said David in his renewing of the work of conversion For in effectuall conviction the mind is not onely bound to see the misery lying upon it but it is held bound it is such a Sun light as never can be quenched though it may be clouded When the Spirit of Christ darts in any light to see sin the soule would turne away from looking upon it would not heare on that eare Felix-like But the Spirit of Conviction sent to make thorow work on the hearts of all the Elect followes them meets them at every turne forceth them to see and remember what they have done the least sinne now is like a moath in the eye it s ever troubling Those gastly dreadfull objects of sinne death wrath being presented by the Spirit neare unto the soule fixe the eye to fasten here they that can cast off at their pleasure the remembrance and thoughts of sinne and death never prove sound untill the Lord doth make them stay their thoughts and muse deeply on what they have done and whither they are going And hence the soule in lying downe rising up lyes downe and rises up with perplexed thoughts What will become of me The Lord somtimes keeps it waking in the night season when others are asleep and then t is haunted with those thoughts it cannot sleep it looks back upon every day and week Sabboth Sermon Prayer speeches and thinks all this day this week c. the goodnesse of the Lord and his patience to a wretch hath been continued but my sins also are continued I sin in all I doe in all my prayers in all I think the same heart remaines still not humbled not yet changed And hence you shall observe that word which discovered sin at first to it it never goes out of the mind I think saith the soule I shall never forget such a man nor such a truth Hence also if the soule grow light and carelesse at some time and casts off the thoughts of these things the Spirit returnes againe and falls a reasoning with the soule Why hast thou done this what hurt hath the Lord done thee will there never be an end hast not thou gone on long enough in thy leâ—d courses against God but that thou shouldst still adde unto the heap hast thou not wrath enough upon thee already how soone may the Lord stop thy breath and then thou knowest thou hadst better never to have beene borne was there ever any that thus resisted grace that thus adventured upon the swords point hast thou but one friend a patient long-suffering God that hath left thy conscience without excuse long agoe and therefore could have cut thee off and dost thou thus forsake him thus abuse him Thus the Spirit followes and hence the soule comes to some measure of confession of sinne Oh Lord I have done exceeding wickedly I have been worse then the horse that rusheth into the battle because it sees not death before it but I have seen death before me in these wayes and yet goe on and still â—inne and cannot but sinne Behold mee Lord for I am very vile When thus the Spirit hath let into the soule a cleare reall constant light to see sinne and death now there is a thorow conviction But you will say In what measure doth the Spirit communicate this light I shall therefore open the fourth particular viz. The measure of spirituall conviction in all the elect viz. So much conviction of sin as may bring in and work compunction for sinne so much sight of sinne as may bring in sense of sinne so much is necessary and no more Every one hath not the same measure of conviction yet all the elect have must have so much for so much conviction is necessary as may attaine the end of conviction Now the finis proximus or next end of conviction in the elect is compunction or sense of sinne for what good can it doe unto them to see sin and not to be affected with it What greater mercy doth the Lord shew to the elect herein then unto the Devils and Reprobates who stand convinced and know they are wicked and condemned but yet their hearts altogether unaffected with any true remorse for sin Mine eye saith Ieremy affecteth my heart The Lord opens the eares of his to instruction that he might humble Some think that there is no thorow conviction without some affection I dare not say so nor will I now dispute whether there is not something in the nature and essence of that conviction the elect have different from that conviction in reprobates and devils t is sufficient now and that which reacheth the end of this question to know what in asure of conviction is necessary I conceive the cleere discerning of it is by the immediate and sensible effect of it viz. So much as affects the heart truly with sin But if you aske What is that sense of sin and what measure of this is necessary that I shall answer in the doctrine of companction Let not therefore any soule be discouraged and say I was never yet convinced because I have not felt such a cleare reall constant light to see sin and death as others have done consider thou if the end of conviction be attained which is a true sense and feeling of sin thou hast then that measure which is most meet for thee more then which the Lord regards not in any of his but you that walke up and downe with convinced consciences and know your states are miserable and sinfull and that you perish if you dye in that condition and yet have no sense nor feeling no sorrow nor affliction of spirit for those evills I tell you the very devills are in some respect nearer the Kingdome of God then you be who see and feele and tremble woe woe to thousands that live under convicting Ministeries whom the word often hits and the Lord by the Spirit often meets
and they heare and know their sins are many their estates bad and that iniquity will be there ruine if thus they continue yet all Gods light is without heat and it is but the shining of it upon rocks and cold stones they are frozen in their dregs be it knowne to you you have not one drop of that conviction which begins salvation Before I passe from this to the second work of compunction let me make a word of application If the Spirit begins thus with conviction of sin then let all the Ministers of Christ co-work with Christ and begin with their people here bee faithfull witnesses unto Gods truth and give warning to this secure world that the sentence of death is past and the curse of God lyes upon every man for the least sin Lift up thy voyce like a Trumpet was the Lords words to Isaiah Isay 58.1 and tell them of their sin Those Bees wee call drones that have lost their sting When the salt of the earth the Ministers of Christ Matth. 5. have lost their acrimony and sharpnesse or saltnesse What is it good for but to be cast out your hearers will putrify and corrupt by hearing such doctrines only as never search When the Lord inflicted a grievous curse upon the people Ezek. 3.26 the Lord made Ezekiel dumbe that hee should not be a reprover to them What was the lamentation of Ieremy thy Prophets have seen vaine and foolish things for thee and have not discovered thine iniquity how would you have the Lord Jesus by his Spirit to convince men must it not bee by his word verily you keep the Spirit of Christ from falling down upon the people if you refuse to indeavour to convince the people by your word Other doctrines are sweet and necessary but this is in the first place most necessary Beware of personating beware of bitternesse and passion but oh convince with a spirit of power and compassion and hee that shall bee instrumentall unto Christ in this or any other work for Christs sake unto him the Lord will be the principall agent and by him will attaine his own ends finish his great work gather in his scattered sheep who are in great multitudes throughout the Kingdome scattered from him if once they be throughly convinced that they are utterly lost and gone out of the way May not this also be sad reproofe and terrour to them that stand it out against all means of conviction and will not see their sin nor beleeve the fearfull wrath of God due to them for sin not a man scarce can be found that will come to this conclusion I am a sinfull man and therefore I am a dead I am a condemned man but like wild beasts fly from their pursuers into their holes and thickets and dens their sinfull extenuations excuses and apologies for sin and for themselves and if they bee hunted thither and found out there then they resist and article against that truth which troubles them They flatter themselves in their owne eyes untill their iniquities be found most hatefull Many a man dislikes the text the use especially the long use wherein his sinne is toucht and his conscience tost especially if it be his darling sin his Herodias his Rimmon especially if withall he thinks that the Minister meanes him he will not see it nor confeste it especially if hee apprehends he shall lose his honour or his silver shrines and profit by it he will not see his â—in that he may not be troubled in conscience for his sin that so he may not be forced to confesse and forsake his sinne and condemne himselfe for it before God and men Oh Lord I mourne that I can scarce meet with a man that either cares to be or will be convinced but hath something alway to say for himselfe their sins are not so great they are not so bad but have some good and therefore have some hope and if God be mercifull it is no great matter though they be exceeding sinfull or some such thing their mouths are not stopped to say nothing for themselves but guilty There is lesse conviction in the world in this age then many are aware of For I believe that all the powers of hell conspire together to blind mens eyes and darken mens minds in this great work of Christ Principiis obsta it is policy to stop Christ in his entrance in this first streake upon the soule but oh little doe you think what you doe herein and what woe you work to your selves hereby dost thou stifle and resist the first breathings of Christs Spirit when he comes to save thee what hurt will it be to know the worst of thy condition now when there is hope hereby of comming out of it who must else one day see all thy sins in order before thee to thy eternall anguish and terrour Ps. 50.21 When the Lord shall say to thee as unto Dives Remember in thy life time thou hadst thy good things remember such a time such a place such a sin which then you would not see But now thou shalt see what it is to strike an infinite God Remember thou wast forewarned of wrath to come but thou wouldest not beleeve thy selfe accursed that so thou mightest have felt thy need of him that was made a curse to blesse thee and therefore feele it now oh you will wish then that you had knowne this evill in that your day What dost thou talke of grace thou thinkest thou hast grace when as thou hast not the first beginning nay not the most remote preparation for it in this work of conviction what should wee doe for such as these but with Ieremy Ier. 13.17 if you will not heare my soule shall weep in secret for your pride Oh be perswaded therefore to remember your sins past and to consider of your wayes now All the prophanenesse of thy heart and life all the vanity of thy youth Eccles. 11.9 all your secret sins all your sinnes against light and love checks and vowes all that time wherein thou didst nothing else but live in sin thus Gods people have done Ezek 6.9 thus all the elect shall doe oh consider the Lord remembers them all and that with griefe of heart against thee because thou forgettest them Hos. 2.7 Hee that numbers thy haires and tels the sparrowes that fall numbers much more thy sins that fall from thee they are written down in his black book They are not trifles for hee minds not toyes the bookes must bee opened oh reckon now you have yet time to cal them to minde which it may be shall not continue long it is the Lords complaint Ier. 8.6 of a wicked generation that hee could heare no man say What have I done Winnow your selves as the word is Eph. 2.1 Oh people not worthy to be beloved I pronounce unto you from the eternall God that ere long the Lord will search our Ierusalem with candles he will
Christ and yet opened not her heart to lament her sinne and misery in her estate without Christ suppose she were without Christ is more then can be proved from the Text for t is said Her heart was opened to attend unto the things that were spoken by Paul and can any think that Paul or any Apostle ever preached Christ without preaching the need men had of him and could any preach their need of Christ without preaching mens undone and sinfull estate without Christ and doe you think that Lydiae was not made to attend unto this doe you think that when Philip came to open the 53. of Esay to the Eunuch that Christ was bruised for our iniquities that he did not let him understand the infinite evill of sinne and misery of all sinners and of him in speciall unlesse the Lord Jesus was bruised for him In examples recorded in the Scripture of Gods converting grace doe not think they had no sorrow for sinne because it is not distinctly and expresly set downe in all places for the Scripture usually sets downe matters very briefly it oftentimes supposeth many things and refers us to judge of some by other places as Acts 6.7 it is said Many of the Priests were obedient to the faith doth it therefore follow that they did immediately beleeve without any sense of sinne Look to a fuller example Acts 2. and then we may see as the one were converted to the faith so were the other having a hand in the same sin 1 Tim. 1.13 14. Paul he was a persecuter but the Lord received him to mercy and that Gods grace was abundant in faith and love doth it hence follow that Paul had no castings down because not mentioned here If we look upon Acts 9. we shall see it otherwise Doe not judge of generall and common workings of the Spirit upon the souls of any to be the beginnings of effectuall and special conversion for a man may have some inward and yet common knowledge of the Gospel and of Christ in it before there be any sorrow for sinne yet it doth not hence follow that the Lord begins not with compunction and sorrow because common work is not speciall and effectuall work when the Spirit thus comes he first begins here as we shall prove The terrours and feares and sense of sinne and death be in themselves afflictions of soule and of themselves drive from Christ yet in the hand of Christ by the power of the Spirit they are made to lead or rather drive unto Christ which is able to turn mourning into joy as well as after mourning to give joy and therefore t is a vaine thing to think there is no need of such sorrows which drive from Christ and that Christ can work well enough therefore without them when as by the mighty power and riches of mercy in Christ the Lord by wounding nay killing his of all their carnall security and self-confidence saves all his alive and drives them to seek for life in his Son These things thus premised let us now hear of the necessity of this work to succeed conviction Else a sinner will never part with his sin a bare conviction of sin doth but light the candle to see sin compunction burnes his fingers and that onely makes him dread the fire Cleanse your hearts ye sinners and purifie your hearts ye double minded men saith the Apostle Iames Chap. 4.8 But how should this be done He answers verse 9. Be afflicted and mourne and weep turn your laughter into mourning So Ioel 2.12 the Prophet calls upon his hearers to turne from their sin unto the Lord but how Rend your hearts and not your garments Not that they were able to do this but by what sorrow he requires of all in generall he thereby effectually works in the hearts of all the elect in particular for every man naturally takes pleasure nay all his delight and pleasure is in nothing else but sinne for God he hath none but that Now so long as he takes pleasure in sinne and finds contentment by sinne he cannot but cleave inseparably to it Oh t is sweet and it onely is sweet for so long the soule is dead in sinne Pleasure in sinne is death in sinne 1 Tim. 5.6 So long as t is dead in sinne it is impossible it should part with sinne no more then a dead man can break the bonds of death And therefore it undenyably followes that the Lord must first put gall and wormwood to these dugs before the soule will cease sucking or be weaned from them the Lord must first make sinne bitter before it will part with it load it with sinne before it will sit downe and desire ease And look as the pleasure in sinne is exceeding sweet to a sinner so the sorrow for it must be exceeding bitter before the soule will part from it T is true I confesse a man sometime may part with sin without sorrow the uncleane spirit may goe out for a time before he is taken bound and slain by the power of Christ. But such a kind of parting is but the washing of the cup t is unsafe and unsound and the end of such a Christian wil be miserable for a man to heare of his sinne and then to say I le doe no more so without any sense or sorrow for it would not have been approved by Paul if he had seen no more in the carelesse Corinthians in tolerating the incestuous person but their sorrow wrought this repentance No the Lord abhors such whorish wiping the lips and therefore the same Apostle when he reproves them for not separating the sinner and so the sin from them he summes it up in one word You have not mourned that such a one might be taken from you because then sin is severed truly from the soule when sorrow or shame some sense and feeling of the evill of it begins it Not onely sinne is opposite to God but when the Lord Jesus first comes neare his elect in their sinfull estate they are then enemies themselves by sin unto God And hence it is they will never part with their weapons untill themselves be throughly wounded and therefore the Lord must wound their consciences minds and hearts before they will cast them by Now if there be no parting with no separation from sin but sin is as strong and the sinners as vile as ever before hath Christ who now comes to save his elect from sinne the end of his work what is the man the better for conviction affection to Christ name what you can that remains still in his sins When the Apostle would summe up all the misery of men he doth it in those words Ye are yet in your sinne So I say thou art convicted but art yet in thy sinne art affected with Christ and takest hold of Christ but art yet in thy sin He that confesseth and forsaketh his sin shall find mercy You
is the greatest hinderance of salvation Iohn 3.19 Iohn 5.40 Oh Ierusalem wilt thou not be made cleane Ier. 13.27 that was their great evill they were not only polluted but they would not be made cleane the Lord Jesus therefore rolls away this stone from the Sepulchre beats down this mountaine and because it must first beleeve in Christ before it can receive Grace from Christ it must come to Christ to take away sinne before the Lord will doe it Hence so much loosening from sinne as makes the soule thus to come is necessary So much feare and sorrow as loosens from sinne and so much loosening from sinne as makes the soule willing or at least not unwilling that the Lord JESUS should take it away is necessary For who ever comes to Christ or is not unwilling Christ should come to him to take away all his sinne hath what ever he thinks some antecedent loosning and separation from sin Oh saith a poore sinner when the Lord hath struck his heart and he feeles guilt and terrour and mighty strength of corruption If the Lord Jesus would take away these evils from me though I cannot means cannot that will be exceeding rich mercy The Lord doth not wound the heart to this end that the soule should first heale it selfe before it come to the Physitian but that it might seek out or feeling its need be willing and desirous of a Physitian the Lord Jesus to come and heale it It is the great fault of many Christians either their wounds and sorrowes are so little they desire not to be healed or if they doe they labour to heal themselves first before they come to the Physitian for it they will first make themselves holy and put on their jewels and then beleeve in Christ. And hence are those many complaints What have I to do with Christ Why should he have to doe with me that have such an unholy vile hard blind and most wicked heart If I were more humbled and more holy then I would goe to him and think he would come to me Oh for the Lords sake dishonour not the grace of Christ. It is true thou canst not come to Christ till thou art loaden and humbled and separated from thy sinne Thou canst not be ingrafted into this Olive unlesse thou beest cut and cut off too from thy old root Yet remember for ever that no more sorrow for sinne no more separation from sinne is necessary to thy closing with Christ then so much as makes thee willing or rather not unwilling that the Lord should take it away And know it if thou seekest for a greater measure of humiliation antecedent to thy closing with Christ then this thou shewest the more pride therein who wilt rather goe in to thy selfe to make thy selfe holy and humble that then mightest be worthy of Christ then goe out of thy selfe unto the Lord Jesus to take thy sin away In a word who thinkest Christ cannot love thee untill thou makest thy selfe faire and when thou thinkest thy selfe so which is pride wilt then think otherwise of Christ. The Lord therefore when he teacheth his people how to returne unto him after grievous sinnes directs them to this course not to goe about the bush to remove their iniquities themselves or to stay and live securely in their sins untill the Lord did it himselfe but bids them come to him and say Take away Lord all iniquities Hos. 14.1 2 3. You shall see Ephraim bemoaning himselfe Ier. 31.18 But how Doth he say he feeles his sinnes now all removed No but he desires the Lord to turne him and then saith he I shall be turned As if he should say Lord I shall never turne from this stubborne vile heart nor so much as turne to thee to take it away unlesse thou dost turne me and then I shall be turned to purpose What saith the penitent Church Come say they let us goe unto the Lord. They might object and say Alas the Lord is our enemy and wounds us and hath broken us to pieces we are not yet healed but lye dead as well as wounded shall such dead spirits live Mark what followes True indeed He hath wounded us let us therefore goe to him that he may heale us and after two dayes he will revive us The Lord requires no more of us then thus to come to him Indeed after a Christian is in Christ labour for more and more sense of sinne that may drive you nearer and nearer unto Christ. Yet know before you come to him the Lord requires no more then this and as he requires no more then this so t is his owne Spirit not our abilities that must also work this and thus much he will work and doth require of all whom he purposeth to save If thou wilt not come to Christ to take away thy sinnes thou shalt undoubtedly perish in them If the Lord work that sorrow so as to be willing the Lord should take them away thou shalt be undoubtedly saved from them If you would know what measure of willingnesse to have Christ take away sinne is required You shall heare when we come to open the fourth particular in the doctrine of Faith If you further aske How the Spirit works this loosening from sinne in the work of compunction I answer the Spirit of Christ works this by a double act 1. Morall 2. Physicall As in the conversion of the soule by faith unto God the Spirit is not onely a morall agent pâ—â—swading but also a supernaturall agent physically working the heart to beleeve by a divine and immediate act so in the aversion of the soule from sinne the Spirit doth affect the heart with feare and sorrow morally but this can never take away sinne as we see in Iudas and Cain deeply affected and afflicted in spirit and yet in their sinne And therefore the Spirit puts forth it s owne hand physically or immediately and his owne arme brings salvation to us by a further secret immediate stroke turning the iron neck cutting the iron sinews of sin and so makes this disunion or separation You think it easie to be willing that Christ should come and take away all your sinnes I tell you the omnipotent arme of the Lord that instructed Ieremy in a smaller matter can onely instruct you here both these acts ever goe together according to the measure mentioned the latter cannot be without the first the first is in vaine without the latter But what evill in sinne doth the Spirit morally affect the heart with and so physically turne it from sinne He affects the soule with it as the greatest evill by sinne I meane not as considered without death for at this time the soule is not so spirituall as that sin without consideration of death and wrath due to it should affect it but sinne and death sinne armed with wrath sinne working death pricks the heart as the greatest evill and so lets out that core at
the bottome as may fit the soule for healing For 1. If the Spirit make a man feele sin truly the soule feeles it as it is it is not the name and talk of the danger of sin that troubles it but the Spirit ever making things reall loads the soule with it indeed and as it is now it is the greatest evill and therefore so it feeles sin Beleeve it you never felt sin indeed as it is if you have not felt it thus 2. Else no man will prize Christ as the greatest good without which no man shall have him 3. Else a man will live and continue in sinne If sinne had been a greater evill to Pilate then the losse of Caesars friendship hee would never have crucified Christ. If sinne had been a greater evill to Iehu then the losse of his Kingdome he had never kept up the two calves If sinne were a greater evill then poverty shame griefe in this world many a Professor would never lose Christ and a good conscience too for a little gaine profit or honour Beloved the great curse and wrath of the Lord upon all men in the world almost is this that the greatest evils should be least of all felt and the smallest evils most of all complained of What is death that onely separates thy soule from thy body to sin that separates God blessed for ever from thy soule and therefore the Lord Jesus will remove this curse from those he saves But you will say What is that evill the soule sees at this time in sinne that thus affects the heart with it as the greatest evill This is the last difficulty here There is a three-fold evill especially seen in sinne 1. The evill of torment and anguish 2. The evill of wrong and injury to God 3. The evill of separation of the soule from God The first may affect Reprobates as Saul and Iudas who were sore distressed when they felt the anguish of conscience by sin The second is onely in those that are actually justified called and sanctified who lament sinne as it is against God and a God reconciled to them and as it is against the life of God begun in them and hence they cry out of it as a body of death The third the elect feele at this first stroke and wound which the Spirit gives them the anguish of sinne indeed lyes sore upon them but this much more Christ is come to seek that which is lost The sheep is lost when First it is separated and gone from the owner Secondly when it knowes not how to returne againe unlesse the Shepherd find it and carry it home so that soule is properly and truly lost that feeles it selfe separated and gone from God knowing not how to returne to him again unlesse the Lord come and take it upon his shoulders and carry it in his armes this lyes heavy upon it viz. that it is gone from God and wholly separated from all union to him and communion with him You may observe Iohn 16.9 that the Spirit convinces of sinne how because they beleeve not in me i. Because they shall see and feele themselves quite separated from me they shall heare of my glory and riches of mercy and that happinesse which all that have me shall and doe enjoy but they shal mourne that they have no part nor portion in these things they shall mourne that they live without me and that they have lived so long without me I confesse many other considerations of the evill of sin come now in but this is the maine channell where all the other rivelets empty themselves And hence it is that the soule under this stroke is in a state of seeking onely yet finds nothing it seeks God and Christ and therefore feeles a want a losse of both by sinne for the end of all the feares terrours sorrowes c. upon the elect is to bring them back againe to God and into fellowship with God the onely blessednesse of man Now if the soule ordained and made for this end should not feele its present separation from God by sinne and the bitternes of the evil of it it would never seek to return again to him as to his greatest good nor desire ever to come into his bosome againe for look as sinne wounds the soule so the soule seeks for healing of it if onely the torment of sinne wound ease of conscience from that anguish will heale it So if separation from God wound the heart onely union and communion with God will heale it and comfort it againe The Lord Christ therefore having laid his hand upon the soule to bring it back to himselfe first and so to the Father being designed to gather in all the out-casts of Israel those he ever makes to feele themselves out-casts as cast away out of Gods blessed sight and presence that so they may desire at last to come home againe Reprobates not made for this end have not this sense of sin the means of their return And hence it is that the soules of those God saves are never quiet untill they come to God and communion with him but they mourn for their distance from him and the hiding of his face untill the Lord shine forth againe Whereas every one else though much troubled yet sit down contented with any little odde thing that serves to quiet them for the time before the Lord return to them or they enter into their rest in that ineffable communion with him Let me now make Application of this before I proceed to open the next particular of Humiliation This may shew us the great mistake of two sorts 1. Such as think there is no necessity of any sense of misery before the application of the remedy or their closing with Christ because say they where there is sense there is life all sense and feeling arising from life and where there is life there is Christ already And hence it is that they would not have the Law first preached in these dayes but the Gospell the other is to goe round about the bush I answer that for my owne part this doctrine of seeing and feeling our misery before the remedy is so universally received by all solid Divines both at home and abroad that I meet with and the contrary opinion so crosse to the holy Scriptures and generall experience of the Saints and the preaching of the other so abundantly sealed to be Gods owne way by his rich blessings on the labours of his servants faithfull to him herein that were it not for the sake of some weak and mis-led I should not dare to question it the Lord himselfe so expresly speaking that he came not to call the righteous but on the contrary onely to heale the sick who know and feele their sicknesse chiefly by the Law Rom. 3.20 Dost thou think therefore that there is spirituall life where ever there is any sense Then I say the devils and damned in
be in bitternesse for them before the Lord will passe them by it is not every trouble that will serve the turne look that it be such as separates thy soule from thy sin or else it will separate betweene thy soule and God I know it is not in your power to breake your owne hearts no more then to make the rocks to bleed yet remember he that bids thee cast up and prepare the way of the Lord he hath promised that every mountaine shall be brought low and the crooked wayes made plaine and the rough smooth and the valleys filled He only can doe it for thee and will doe it for some it may be for thee he that broke the heart of Manasseh and Paul after their blood and blasphemies when they never desired any such thing he can break thine much more when thou art desiring him to doe it for thee here are many of you that feare you were never humbled nor burthened enough I say feare it still feare lest there be a stone in the bottome not so as to discourage and drive thy heart from Christ but so as to feele a greater need of his grace to soften thy heart and to take thy senslesnesse away the Lord doth purposely command thee to plough up thy fallow ground that thou mightest feel thy impotency so to do and come to him to take it away every thing will harden thee more and more untill the Lord come and take thy stony heart away by his owne hand all Gods kindnesses will make thee more bold to sin and all Gods judgements more fierce and obstinate in sinne unlesse the Lord put to his hand if Pharaohs heart be softned for a time it will grow hard againe if the Lord take it not away The means therefore for thee to get this compunction is 1. To feele the evill of thy hard heart no surer token of Reprobation then hardnesse if continued in especially for thy heart to grow hard under or after softning meanes as it was in Pharaoh 2. To look up to the Lord in all ordinances that he would take it away Have not you great cause of abundant thankfulnesse into whose hearts the Lord hath let in feares and sorrowes concerning your estates the blind world lookes upon all troubles of conscience as temptations of the devill to despaire and the very way to run mad but consider what the Lord hath done for you that have such what if the Lord had left you without all feeling as those in Eph. 4.19 what if the Lord had smitten you with a spirit of slumber as those Rom. 11.8 would not your estate have beene then lamentable and have you no hearts to acknowledge his unspeakable goodnesse in awakening of you in shaking thy very foundations dost thou think that any ever had such a hard heart as thou hast dost not say so in secret before the Lord sometimes oh then what rich grace is this to give thee any sence and feeling of thy sin and danger by it though it bee never so little in thine eyes some think these terrors are a judgement it is true if they were meerly imaginary or worldly and desperate but saith the Apostle 2 Cor. 7.7 I thanke God I made you sorry Suppose thy sorrow should be only in regard of the punishment of sin yet this is the Lords goodnesse to make thy heart so far sensible that once didst goe like a beast to the slaughter fearing no danger at all the very meanes to prize favour from God is to feel wrath as well as sin and the very reason why the Lord hath let thee feele thy punishment heavy is that thy soule might feel the evill of sin by considering that if the fruits be so bitter what is then the cause be not therefore weary of thy burthen so as to think the Lord powres out his vengeance on thee while thy trouble remaines oh consider that this is the hand of the Lord Jesus and that he is now about to save thee when he comes to work any compunction in thee especially such as whereby he doth not onely cut thy heart with feares and sorrowes but cut thee off from thy sin so far only as humbles thee and drives thee to the Lord Christ to take them away And so I come to the third particular of Humiliation SECT IV. The third Act of Christs power which is Humiliation THe Lord Jesus having thus broken the heart by compunction is not like a foolish builder that leaves off his work before he hath fully finished it and therefore having thus wounded a poore sinner hee goes on to humble him also for though in a large sense a wounded contrite sinner is an humble sinner yet strictly taken there is a great difference between them and therefore he is said to dwell with the contrite and humble i. e. not onely with those that bee wounded with sin but humbled for sinne although it is certaine the soule is seldome or never effectually wounded but it is also humbled at the same time A man may bee wounded sore even unto death and yet the pride of the man is such that he will not fall downe before him that smites him so it is with many a poore sinner the Lord hath sorely wounded him that hee will resist no more yet he will rather fly to his duties to heale him or dye alone and sinke under his discouragements then stoop Oh beloved man must downe before the Lord Christ will take him up and therefore in Isay 40.5 6 7. the glory of the Lord is promised to be revealed but what meanes must bee used for this end Cry saith the Lord what should I cry saith he the Lord answers that all flesh is grasse and that the glory of it fades and that the people are this grasse i. e. not only that mens sinnes are vile but that themselves also are grasse nay their glory and excellency is withering and fading and therefore not only mountains must be pull'd downe but all flesh and the glory of it wither before the Lord shal be revealed I shall briefly open these foure things 1. What is this humiliation 2. What need there is of it 3. What meanes the Lord useth to work it 4. What measure of it is here required What is this humiliation Look as pride is that sinne whereby a man conceited of some good in himselfe and seeking some excellency to himselfe exalts himselfe above God so Humiliation in this place is that work of the Spirit whereby the soule being broken off from self-conceit and selfe-confidence in any good it hath or doth submitteth unto or lyeth under God to be disposed of as he pleaseth 1 Pet. 5.6 Levit. 26.41 That look as compunction cuts the sinner off from that evill that is in him so humiliation cuts it off from all high conceits and self-confidence of that good which is in him or which he seeks might be in him and so the soule is abased
eternall righteousnesse that never can be lost if the Lord should make thee as perfectly righteous as once Adam was or Angells in heaven are and put on thy royall apparell againe thou wast in danger of losing this and of being stript naked againe but now the Lord hath put your righteousnesse into a safer hand which never shall be lost Heb. 9.12 Dan. 9.24 By this you please God and are more amiable before him then if you had it in your selfe doe not say this is a poore righteousnesse which is thus out of my selfe in another why doe you think righteousnesse in your selfe would be best is it not because hereby you think you shall please God Suppose thou hadst it yet thy righteousnesse should be at the best but mans righteousnes but this is called the righteousnesse of God which cannot but be more pleasing to him then that in thy selfe 2 Cor. 5.20 what is Angelicall righteousnesse to the righteous-of God t is but a glow-worm before the Sunne the smell of Esaus garments the robes of this righteousnesse of the Sonne of God are of sweeter odour then thine can be or ever shall be Eph. 5.1 2. tis said By faith Abel Enoch c. pleased God their persons were sinfull their owne duties were weak yet by faith in this they pleased God thou thinkest when thou goest to Prayer if I had no sinne but perfect holinesse in me surely God would heare me I tell you when you bring this offering of Christs righteousnesse the Lord had rather have that then all you can doe you bring that which pleaseth him more then if you brought your owne For aske thy owne conscience if it be possible for the righteousnesse which is done by thy self to be more pleasing to God then the righteousnesse of the Sonne of God the Lord of Glory himselfe done and perfected for thee 7. By this you glorifie God exceedingly as Abraham beleeved Rom. 4. and gave glory unto God In the Lord shall all the seed of Israel be justified and shall glory Esay 45.25 For 1. By this you glorifie him perfectly in an instant for you continue to doe all that the Law requires that instant you beleeve The Apostle propounds the Question Rom. 3.21 whether a Christian by faith doth make void the Law No saith the Apostle but we establish the Law How is that Paraeus shews three wayes One is this because that perfect righteousnesse which the Law requires of us we performe it in Christ by faith So that in one instant thou continuest to doe all that the Law requires and hence ariseth the impossibility of a true Beleevers apostacie as from one principall cause They that deny satisfaction by Christs doing of the Law because by our own works and doings we cannot be justified before God may as well deny satisfaction by Christs sufferings because by our owne sufferings we cannot be justified our obedience to the Law in way of suffering is as truly the works of the Law as our obedience in way of doing 2. By this you glorifie Gods justice what ever Justice requires to be done or suffered you give it unto God by faith in Christ. 3. By this you glorifie grace and mercy Ephes. 1.7 for by this meanes mercy may over-abound toward you and you may triumph in it as sure and certaine to you What a blessed mysterie is this Doth it not grieve you that you cannot glorifie God in your times and places Behold the way if thou canst not doe it by obedience thou maist by faith and thereby make restitution of all Gods glory lost and stolne from him by thy disobedience to him By this you have peace in your consciences by this Christs blood is sprinkled upon them and that cooles the burning torments of them Rom. 5.1 The commers unto the Leviticall sacrifices and washings types of this offering of Christ could not thereby be perfected and bee without the guilty conscience of sinne none of your duties can pacifie conscience but as they carry you hither to this righteousnesse but the commers to this have no more terrours of conscience for sinne I meane they have no just cause to have any this Rain-bow appearing over your heads is a certaine signe of fair weather and that there shall be no more deluge of wrath to overwhelme thee By this all miseries are removed when thy sinnes are pardoned there is something like death and shame and sicknesse but they are not it 's said Isay 33. ult There shall be none sicke among them why so because they shall be forgiven their iniquities T is no sicknessse in a manner no sorrow no affliction if the venome sting and curse be taken away by pardon of sinne thy sicknesse sorrow losses death it selfe is better now then health joy abundance life you may here see death hell grave swallowed up in victory and now tread upon the necks of them 1 Cor. 15. You may see life in death heaven in the deepest hell glory in shame when thou seest all thy sinnes done away in the blood of Christ Jesus This is the blessednesse of all you poore beleevers and commers to the Lord Jesus what should you doe but beleeve it and rejoyce in it If the wicked that apply this righteousnesse presumptuously say Let us sinne that grace may abound and make no other use of forgivenesse but to run in debt and sinne with a license Why should not you say on the other side Let me beleeve and owne my portion in this righteousnesse that as my sinnes have abounded so my love may abound as my sinnes have been exceeding great so the Lord may be exceeding sweet as my sinnes continue and increase so my thankfulnesse glory in God triumph over death grave sinne through Christ may also increase as you see righteousnesse in Christ for ever yours so you may from thence expect from him such a righteousnesse as may make you righteous also as hee is righteous Tremble thou hard-hearted impenitent wretch that didst never yet come to Christ nor feele thy need of him or prize his blood this is none of thy portion all thy sinnes are yet upon thee and shall one day meet thee in the day of the Lords fierce wrath when he shall appeare as an everlasting burning before thine eyes and thou stand guilty before him as chaffe and stubble SECT 2. Secondly Reconciliation This is the second benefit which in order of nature followes our Justification although sometime in a large sense it is taken for the whole work of Justification strictly taken it followes it Rom. 5.1 Being justified by faith we have peace with God i. e. not onely peace from God in our consciences but peace with God in our reconcilement to him and his favour toward us Being justified we shall be saved from wrath i. e. not onely the outward fruits of wrath but wrath from whence those come Christ is first King of Righteousnesse then King of Peace Heb. 7.2 for is not finne the cause of
their owne duties 4. Presumption or resting upon the mercy of God by a Faith of their owne forging so on the contrary there is a fourefold act of Christs power whereby he rescues and delivers all his out of their miserable estate The first act or stroake is Conviction of sin The second is Compunction for sin The third is Humiliation or self-abasement The fourth is Faith all which are distinctly put forth when he ceaseth extraordinarily to work in the day of Christs power and who ever looke for actuall salvation and redemption from Christ let them seek for mercy and deliverance in this way out of which they shal never find it let them begin at conviction and desire the Lord to let them see their sins that so being affected with them and humbled under them they may by faith be enabled to receive Jesus Christ and so be blessed in him It is true Christ is applyed to us nextly by Faith but Faith is wrought in us in that way of conviction and sorrow for sin no man can or will come by faith to Christ to take away his sins unlesse he first see be convicted of and loaden with them I confesse the manner of the Spirits work in the conversion of a sinner unto God is exceeding secret and in many things very various and therefore it is too great boldnesse to mark out all Gods footsteps herein yet so farre forth as the Lord himselfe tels us his work and the manner of it in all his wee may safely resolve our selves and so farre and no farther shall we proceed in the explication of these things It is great prophanesse not to search into the works of common providence though secret and hidden Psal. 28.5 and 92.6 much greater it is not to doe thus into Gods works of speciall favour and grace upon his chosen I shall therefore beginne with the first stroake of Christs power which is conviction of sin SECT II. First Act of Christs power which is Conviction of sinne NOw for the more distinct explication of this I shall open to you these 4 things 1. I shall prove that the Lord Christ by his Spirit begins the actuall deliverance of his elect here 2. What is that sin the Lord convinceth the soule thus first of 3. How the Lord doth it 4. What measure and degree of conviction he works thus in all his 1. For the first it is said Iohn 16.8 9. that the first thing that the Spirit doth when he comes to make the Apostles Ministery effectuall is this it shall reprove or convince the world of sinne it doth not first work faith but convinceth them that they have no faith as in verse 9. and consequently under the guilt and dominion of their sin and after this he convinceth of righteousnesse which faith apprehends verse 10. It is true that the word conviction here is of a large extent and includes compunction and humiliation for sin yet our Saviour wraps them up in this word because conviction is the first and therefore the chiefe in order here the Lord not speaking now of ineffectuall but effectuall and thorow conviction exprest in deep sorrow and humiliation Now the Text saith the Lord begins thus not with some one or two but with the world of Gods elect who are to be called home by the Ministery of the word which our Saviour speaks as any may see who consider the scope purposely to comfort the hearts of his Disciples that their Ministery shall be thus effectuall to the world of Jews and Gentiles and therefore cannot speak of such conviction as serves onely for to leave men without excuse for greater condemnation as some understand the place for that is a poore ground of consolation to their sad hearts Secondly I shall hereafter prove that there can be no faith without sense of sinne and misery and now there can be no sense of sinne without a precedent sight or conviction of sin no man can feel sin unlesse he doth first see it what the ey sees not the heart rues not Let the greatest evill befall a man suppose the burning of his house the death of his children if he doth not first know see and hear of it he will never take it to heart it will never trouble him so let a poor sinner lye under the greatest guilt the sorest wrath of God it will never trouble him untill hâ— sees it and be convinced of it Act. 2.37 When they heard this they were pricked but first they heard it and saw their sin before their hearts were wounded for it Gen. 3.7 they first saw saw their nakednesse before they were ashamed of it Thirdly the maine end of the law is to drive us to Christ Rom. 10.4 if Christ be the end of the law then the law is the means subservient to that end and that not to some but to all that beleeve now the law though it drive to Christ by condemnation yet in order it begins with accusation It first accuseth and so convinceth of sin Ro. 3.20 and then condemneth it 's folly and injustice for a Judg to condemn bring a sinner out to his execution before accusation conviction and is it wisdom or justice in the Lord or his law to doe otherwise and therefore the Spirit in making use of the law for this end first convinceth as it first accuseth and layes our sins to our charge Lastly look as Satan when he binds up a sinner in his sin he first keeps him if possible from the very sight and knowledge of it because so long as they see it not this ignorance is the cause of all their woe why they feele it not why they desire not to come out of it the Lord Jesus who came to unty the knots of â—atan 1 Iohn 3.8 begins here and first convinceth his and makes them see their sin that so they may feele it and come to him for deliverance out of it Oh consider this all you that dreame out your time in minding only things before your feet never thinking on the evills of your owne hearts you that heed not you that will not see your sins nor so much as ask this question What have I done what doe I doe how doe I live what will become of me what will be the end of these my foolish courses I tell you if ever the Lord save you he will make you see what now you cannot what now you will not he will not only make you to confesse you are sinners but he will convince you of sinne this shall be the first thing the Lord will doe with thee But you will say what is that sin which the Lord first convinceth of which is the second thing to be opened I answer in these three Conclusions 1 The Lord Jesus by his Spirit doth not only convince the soule in generall that it is a sinner and sinfull but the Lord brings in a convicting evidence of the particulars the first is learnt
more by tradition in these dayes by the report and acknowledgement of every man rather then by any speciall act of conviction of the spirit of Christ for what man is there almost but lies under this confession that he is a sinner the best say they are sinners if we say we have no sin we deceive our selves and I know I am a sinner but that which the Spirit principally convinceth of is some sinne or sins in particular the Spirit doth not arrest men for offences in generall but opens the writ and shewes the particular cause the particular sins Rom. 3.9 we have proved saith the Apostle that Iewes and Gentiles are under sinne but how doth the Apostle being now the instrument of the Spirit in this worke of conviction convince them of this marke his method verse 10 11 12 13 14 15 16 17 18. wherein you you shall see it is done by enumeration of particulars sins of their natures there is none righteous sins of their minds none understandeth sins in their wills and affections none seek after God sins in their lives all gone out of the way sins of omission of good duties there is none that doth good their throats tongues lips are Sepulchres deceitfull poysonfull their mouthes full of cursing their feet swift to shed blood c. And this is the state of you Jewes verse 19. as well as of the Gentiles that all flesh may stand convinced as guilty before God If it be here demanded What are those particular sins which the Lord convinceth men of I answer in variety of men there is much vaâ—iety of speciall sins as there is of dispositions tempers and temptations and therefore the Lord doth not convince one man at first of the same sins of which he doth another man yet this we may safely say usually though not alway the Lord begins with the remembrance and consideration of some one great if not a mans speciall and most beloved sin and thereby the spirit discovers gradually all the rest that arrow which woundeth the heart of Christ most the Lord makes it fall first upon the head of the sinner that did shoot it against heaven and convinceth and as it were hits him first with that How did the Spirit convince those 3000 those patterns of Gods converting grace Acts 2.37 did not the Lord begin with them for one principall sinne viz. their murder and contempt of Christ by embruing their hands in his blood there is no question but now they remembred other sinfull practises but this was the Imprimis which is ever accompanied with many other Items which are then read in Gods bill of reckonings where the first is set downe Israel would have a King 1 Sam. 8.19 Samuel for a time could not convince them of their sin herein what doth the Lord doe surely he will convince them of sin before he leaves them and this he doth by such a terrible thunder as made all their hearts ake and how is it now what sin doe they now see they first see the greatnesse of that particular sin but this came not to mind alone but they cryed out 1 Sam. 12.19 We have added unto all our evills this in asking to our selves a King Look upon the woman of Samaria Iohn 4. the Lord Christ indeed spake first unto her about himselfe the substance of the Gospell about the worth of this water of life but what good did shee get untill the Lord began to convince her of sin and how doth he that he tels her of her secret whoredome she lived in the man that now shee had was not her husband and upon the discovery of this shee saw many more sins and hence verse 29. she cries out Come see the man that hath told me all that ever I did in my life And thus the Lord deales at this day the Minister preacheth against one sin it may be whoredome ignorance contempt of the Gospell neglect of secret duties lying Sabbath-breaking c. This is thy case saith the Spirit unto the soule remember the time the place the persons with whom you lived in this sinfull condition and now a man begins to goe alone and to think of all his former courses how exceeding evill they have been it may be the Lord brings upon a man a sore affliction and when he is in chaines crying out of that the Lord saith to him as to those Ier. 30.15 Why criest thou for thy affliction for the multitude of thine iniquities I have done this it may be the Lord sometimes strikes a mans companion in sinne dead by some fearfull judgement and then that particular sinne comes to mind and the Lord reveales it arm'd with multitudes of many other sins the causes of it the fruits and effects of it as a father whips his child upon occasion of one speciall fault but then tells him of many more which he winked at before this and saith Now sirrah remember such a time such a froward fit such undutifull behaviour such a reviling word you spake such a time I called and you ran away and would not heare me and you thought I liked well enough of these wayes but now know that I will not passe them by c. Thus the Lord deales with his and hence it is many times that the elect of God civilly brought up doe hereupon think well of themselves and so remaine long unconvinced of their wofull estates the Lord suffers them to fall into some foule secret or open sin and by this the Lord takes speciall occasion of working conviction and sorrow for sinne the Lord hereby makes them hang down the head and cry uncleane uncleane Paul was civilly educated he turned at last a hot persecutor oppressor blasphemer the Lord first convinced him of his persecution and cryed out from heaven to him Paul Paul why persecutest thou me this struck him to the heart and then sin revived Rom. 7.9 many secret sins of his heart were discovered which I take to begin and continue in speciall in those three dayes Acts 9.9 wherein he was blind and did through sight of sin and sorrow of heart neither eat nor drink As a man that hath the plague not knowing the disease he hopes to live but when he sees the spots and tokens of death upon his wrist now he cryes out because convinced that the plague of the Lord is upon him so when men see some one or more speciall sins break out now they are convinced of their lamentable condition yet it is not alway though usually thus for some men the Lord may first convince of sinne by shewing them the sinfulnesse of their owne hearts and wayes the Lord may let a man see his blindnesse his extreame hardnesse of heart his weaknesse his wilfulnesse his heartlesnesse he cannot pray or look up to God and this may first convince him or that all that he doth is sinfull being out of Christ the Lord may suddenly let him see the deceipts of
come with a sword in his hand to search for all secure sinners in city and country unlesse you awaken hee will make inquisition for blood for oaths for whoredomes which grow common for all secret sins we are frozen up in oh be willing be but willing that the Lord should search you and convince you now in this evening time of the day before the night come wherein it wil be too late to say I wish I had considered of my waies in time of all sins none can so hardly stand with uprightnesse as a secret unwillingnesse to see and be convinced of sin Iohn 3.20.21 The helps and meanes for attaining hereunto are these Bring thy soule to the light desire the Lord in prayer as Iob did What I see not oh Lord shew me Iob. 34.32 Set the glasse of Gods law before thee look up in the ministery of the word unto the Lord and say Oh Lord search me the Sunne of this holy word discovers motes on the Sabbath day attend to all that which is spoken as spoken unto thee then examine thy selfe when thou hast leisure When David saw Psal. 19. how pure the law was he cryes out Who knowes his errors Look upon every conviction of thy conscience for sin as an arrest and warning given from the Lord himselfe for sometimes the word hits and conscience startles and saith This is my sinne my condition yet how usuall is it then for a man to put a merry face upon a foule conscience how oft doe men think this is but the word of a man who hath a latitude given him of reproving sin in the Pulpit and wee must give way to them therein or else their hearts rise and swell against the man and word also and why is it thus because hee thinks it is man only that speaks whereas did he see and believe that this was a stroke a warning an arrest a check from the omnipotent God would he then grapple think you with him would it passe lightly by him then When Eli heard Samuel denounce sad things against his house It is the Lord said Eli 1 Sam. 3.18 when Paul saw Jesus speaking Why persâ—cutest thou me Acts 9. he falls downe astonished and dares not kicke against the pricks any longer An arrest in the Kings name comes with authority and awes the heart of the man in debt Doe not judge of sinne by any other rule but as God judgeth of it according to the rule of the word by which all mens wayes shall be judged at the last day what made Saul 1 Sam. 15. extenuate his sin to Samuel he judged not of it as the Lord in his word did For had hee done so hee would have seen disobedience to a command as bad as witchcraft as Samuel told him which also made his proud heart sink and say I have sinned remember for this end these Scriptures Rom. 1.18 Rom. 2.9 Rom. 6.23 Gal. 3.10 by which thou maist see either I must dye in the state I am or God himselfe must lye Remember that an angry look or word is murder in Gods account a wanton eye an unchast thought is Adultery before a holy God before whose Tribunall thou must give an account of every vaine thought and word And therefore doe not judge of sinne by the present pleasure gaine honour or ease in it for this is a false rule Moses forsook the pleasures of sin for a season Heb. 11.25 Nor yet by not feeling any punishment for it for God reserves wrath Nahum 1.2 till the day of reckoning Nor yet by the esteem that others generally have of it who make no more of wounding the Sonne of God by sin then they doe of crushing vermine under their feet Nor yet by the practise of others Every man sins and therefore I hope I shall doe as well as others Nor yet by seeing thy selfe better and thanking God thou art not as other men it may be so thou didst never steale nor whore nor murder as yet that is not the question but hast thou had any one vaine thought in prayer hast thou heard one Sermon unprofitably hast thou sinned then know God spared not the Angels that sinned and how wilt thou escape unlesse the Lord dye for thee Nor yet lastly judge of it by thy own opinion of God in thinking God is like unto thee that as thou makest light of it so hee maketh lesse Psal. 50.21 Oh take heed of judging the evill of sin by any of these rules oh remember all men are apt to thinke of themselves better then they are Are we also blind say the Pharisees take heed that by judging of sin by these false rules you deceive not your selves Let this lastly be a use of thankfulnesse to all those whose eyes the Lord hath opened to see and so convinced you of your sinnes When David was going in the heat of his Spirit to kill Nabal and Abigail met him and stopt him what said he Oh blessed bee the Lord for thy counsell so when thou wert going on in the heate and pursuit of thy sin toward eternall death that the Lord should now meet thee in thy way and convince thee of thy folly and so stop thee what a world of sin else wouldst thou have committed how vile wouldst thou have bin oh say therefore Blessed be that Minister of the Lord and blessed for ever be the name of the Lord that gave me that counsell It is said Christ will send the Comforter to convince of sinne is it a comfortable thing to see sin yes it shall one day bee matter of unspeakable comfort to you that ever you saw sin that ever he shewed thee that mystery of iniquity in thy heart and life those arcana imperii those secrets of the power and dominion of sinne over thee Thou shalt not hate but reprove thy brother If the Lord should secretly keep thy sinne glowing in his owne bosome against thee and never reprove thee for it nor convince thee of it no greater signe of Gods everlasting hatred against thee Oh it is infinite love that he hath called thee aside and dealt plainly and secretly with thee and will you not be thankfull for this The Lord might have left thee in thy brutish estate and never made known thy latter end never have told thee of thy sinne or stood before it comes It may be you will say If I felt my sinne and were deeply humbled for it I could then be thankfull that ever I saw it what is it to see sin This is a favour the Lord shewes not to all mankind many have no meanes to bring them to the knowledge of it and those that have yet are smitten with a deep sleep under those meanes that they know not when death is at their doores nor what sin meanes and this it may be is the condition of some of thy poore friends and aquaintance that think it strange that thou runnest not
with them in the same way as they doe Suppose some Reprobates doe see sin yet the Lord puts a secret vertue in that work of conviction upon thee which makes thee cry to heaven for a Spirit of brokennesse for sin which without this sight of sinne thou wouldst never so much as have desired and this they have not However conviction is a work of the Spirit though it should be but common and wilt not be thankfull for common mercy suppose it be but outward how much more for this that is spirituall though it should be common especially considering that it is the first fundamentall work of the Spirit and is seminally all Sense of sin begins here and ariseth hence as ignorance of sin is seminally all sin Remember that the discovery of Faux in the Vault was the preservation of England we use to remember the day and houre of the beginning of some great and notable deliverance oh remember this time wherein the love of Christ first brake out in convincing thee of thy sin who els hadst certainly perished in it And thus much of this first work of Conviction now the second followes Compunction SECT III. The second Act of Christs power in working Compunction or sense of sin COmpunction pricking at the heart or sense and feeling of sin is different from conviction of sin the latter is the work of the understanding and seated in that principally the other is in the affections and will and seated therein principally a man may have sight of sin without sorrow and sense of it Dan 5.22 with 20.21 Iames 1.24 Rom. 2.20 21. Yet that conviction which the Spirit workes in the Elect is ever accompanied with compunction first or last For the better unfolding of this point let me open these foure things to you 1. That compunction or sense of sin immediately follows conviction of sin in the day of Christs power 2. The necessity of this work to succeed the other 3. Wherein it consists 4. The measure of it in all the Elect. That compunction followes conviction is evident from Scripture and Reason Acts 2.37 When they heard this that is when they saw and were convinced of their sinne in crucifying the Lord of life which they did not imagine to be a sinne before what followes next it is said They were pricked at the heart Loe here is compunction Ephraim also in turning unto God Ier. 31.19 hath these words After that I was instructed I smote upon my thigh as men in great calamity befallen 〈◊〉 use to doe I was ashamed even confounded because I did beare the reproach of my youth The men of Nineveh hearing by the Prophet they were all to dye within forty daies it is said they beleeved God in the work of conviction and then fell to sack-cloth and ashes in the work of compunction which did immediately follow Iosiah 2 Chron. 34.27 in his renewed returne unto God after hee heard the words of the law his heart melted and he wept before the Lord. For what is the end of conviction is it not compunction for if the Lord should let a man see his sin and death for sinne and yet suffer the heart to remaine hard and unaffected the Lord did but leave him without excuse nay the Lord should but leave him under greater misery under a more fearfull judgement viz. for a man to see and know his sin and yet unaffected with it and hardned under it hardnesse of heart is one of the greatest judgements to see sinne and not to be affected with it argues greater hardnesse For it is no wonder if they that see not and know not sin remain senselesse of sin alas they know not what they doe but for a man to be enlightned and see his sinne and yet unaffected Lord how great is this hardnesse and how unexcusable will such a man be left before God when the Lord shall reckon with him for his hardnesse of heart â— What is the end of that light the Lord lets into the understanding in other things is it not that thereby the heart might be affected throughly with it Why doth the Lord let in the light of the knowledge of Christ and of his will Is it that this knowledge should like froth float in the understanding and be imprisoned there No verily but that the heart might be throughly and deeply affected therewith And doe you think the Lord will in the light of conviction imprison it up in the mind is there not a farther end that by this light the heart might be deeply affected with sinne if any say that the end of conviction is to drive the soule to Christ I grant that is the remote and last end of it but the next end is compunction For if the understanding be convinced of misery and the heart remain hard the mind may see indeed that righteousnesse and life only is to be had in Christ yet the heart remaining hard the wil and affections will never stir toward Christ its impossible a hard heart remaining such wholly unaffeâ—ted with sin or misery should be truly affected with Jesus Christ but of this more hereafter What necessity is there of this compunction to succeed conviction I speak now of necessity in way of ordinary dispensation not of Gods unusuall and extraordinary way of working where hee useth neither Law nor Gospell as ordinaâ—rily he doth to work by Many have been nibling lately at this doctrine and demand What need is there of sorrow and compunction of heart A man may be converted only by the Gospell and God may let in sweetnesse and joy without any sense of sinne or misery and in my experience I have found it so others godly and gracious also feele it so why therefore doe any presse such a necessity of comming in by this back-doore unto Christ This point I conceive is very weighty and much danger in denying the truth of it yet withall there needs much tendernesse in handling of it lest any stumble and therefore before I lay downe the reasons to shew the necessity of it give me leave to propound these rules both for the clearing of the point and answering sundry objections usually made about this point In this work of compunction doe not think that the Lord hath not wrought any true sense of sinne because you find it not in such a measure as you imagine you should desire to have and that others feele sense of sin admits degrees I doubt not but Iosephs brethren were humbled yet Ioseph must be more he must be cast into the ditch and into the prison and the iron must enter not onely into his legs but into his soule Psal. 105.18 He must be more afflicted in spirit because he was to doe greater work for God and was to be raised up higher then the rest and therefore did need the more ballast some are educated more civilly then others and thereby have contracted lesse guilt and stoutnesse of heart
and death for sin that this end might be attained Gal. 3.22 And therefore feeling of sin and death and misery being the meanes must precede the other as the end and therefore as grace may be seen by conviction of misery so the sweetnesse of it only can be felt by feeling misery in this worke of compunction But you will say What is this compunction and wherein doth it consist This is the third particular to be opened in generall it is whereby the soule is affected with sin and made sensible of sin but more particularly compunction is nothing else but the pricking of the heart or the wounding of the soule with such feare and sorrow for sin and misery as severs the soule from sin and from going on toward its eternall misery so that it consists in three things 1. Feare 2. Sorrow 3. Separation from sin The Lord Jesus when hee comes to rescue his elect look as Satan held them in their misery First by blinding their eyes from seeing of it Secondly by hardening their hearts from feeling of it So the Lord Jesus having cut asunder the first cord of Satan by conviction breakes asunder the second by compunction and causing the soule to feele and be affâ—cted with its misery and as the whole soule is unaffected before he comes so he makes the whole soule sensible when hee comes and therefore hee sils the conscience with feare and the heart with sorrow and mourning so as now the will of sinne is broken which was hardened before these feares and sorrowes seised upon it Let me open these particularly that you may tast and try the truth of what now I deliver I sâ—y the Lord Christ in this work of compunction lets into the heart of a secure sinner a marvellous fear and terrour of the diâ—efull displeasure of God of death and hell the punishment of sin Oh beloved look upon most men at this day this is the great misery lying upon them they doe not feare the wrath to come they feare not death nor damning even then when they heare and know it is their portion but their hearts are set to sin Eccles. 8.11 The Lord Christ therefore lets in this feare that look as the Lord when hee came to conquer the Canaanites Exod. 23.27 28. He sent his hornets before him which were certaine feares which made their hearts faint in the day of battell and by this subdued them so the Lord Christ when hee comes to conquer a poore sinner that hath long resisted him and would goe on to his owne perdition le ts in these feares that the soule shrinkes in with the thoughts of its woefull estate and cryes out secretly Lord what will become of me if I dye in this condition Paul trembles astonished at his misery and wickednesse and now he begins to cry out the Jayâ—â—ur was very cruell against Paul but when the Lord Jesus comes to rescue him from this condition you shall see him trembling The Lord had let in that feare that now he is content to doe any thing to be saved from the danger he saw he was now in when a man sees danger and great danger neare and imminent now man naturally feares it before Christ come the soule may see its misery but it apprehends it farre off and hoping to escape it and hence doth not feare it but when the Lord Jesus comes hee presents a mans danger death wrath and eternity neare unto him and hence hath no hope to escape it as now he is and therefore doth feare and seeing the misery exceeding great he hath an exceeding great though oft times deep feare of it as men neare death and apprehending it so begin then to be troubled and cry out when it is too late The Lord Jesus deales more mercifully with the elect and brings death and eternity neare them before they draw neare to it whiles it is callâ—d to day the poore Jaylor began to think of killing himselfe when feares were upon him and so many under this stroke of Christ have the same thoughts because they see no hope but this measure is not in all this work is in all Put them in feare oh Lord that they may know they be but men before this feare comes men are above God and think they can stand it out against him the Lord therefore le ts in this feare to make them know they bee but men and that as proud and stout great as they are yet thaâ— they are not above God and that it is in vain to kick against the pricks and goâ— on as they have done for if they doe he will not endure it long The spirit of Bondage makes makes men feare before the spirit of Adoption comes these feares therefore are such as the regenerate after they have received the spirit of Adoption never have and therefore they are such as pursue the soule with some threatning of the word pronouncing death and perdition to him in that estate Ex. gr He that beleeves not is condemned already thus the word speakes to conscience Iohn 3.17 Thou beleevest not saith a mans owne conscience the Spirit witnessing with it therefore thou art condemned saith conscience now the spirit of Bondage is the testimony of Gods Spirit witnessing to both the premisses and conclusion now this Spirit no regenerate man indeed ever hath after this time but the feares he hath arise from another principle of corruption of conscience and malice of Satan through the present desertion of the Spirit leaving him not from any positive witnesse of the Spirit of any such untruth which yet is truth while the soule is under this strâ—ake and not regenâ—â—ate marke therefore diligently that this â—eare is the worke of the Spirit of the Lord Jesus and hence it followes 1. That these Fears are not meerly naturall as those Rom. 2.15 arising from naturall conscience only which only accuse of sinne but never affect but they are supernaturall they are arrowes shot into the conscience by the arme of the Spirit so dreadfull that no word nor meditation of death and eternity can beget such feares but creates them 2. Hence it followes that they are cleare feares for the Spirits work is ever cleare before he leaves it Eph. 5.13 they are not blind confused feares and suspitious and sad conjectures whereby many a man is afraid and much afraid and affrighted like men in a dreame that thinke they are in hell yet cannot tell what that evill is which they feare but they are cleare feares whereby they distinctly know and see that they are miserable and what that misery is 3. Hence it followes that they are strong feares because the almighty hand of the Spirit sets them on and shakes the soule they are not weak feares which a man can shake off or cure by weake hopes sleep or businesse c. like some winds that shake the tree but never blow it downe but these feares cast down
shall smart and bleed too before God will heale Secondly It is a great mourning because it is called a spirit of mourning As a spirit of slumber is a deep slumber When the poore Jewes shall be converted their great sin shall then be presented before them of cursing and crucifying the Lord of life as it was to those Acts 2.36 And by reason of this there shall be a great mourning that they shall desire to goe alone in secret every one apart and take their fill of mourning before the Lord open the fountaine of grace It is not a summer cloud or an April showre that is soone spent but a great mourning For 1. Before this spirit of sorrow come a mans heart takes great delight in his sinne t is his God his life and sweeter then Christ and all the joyes of heaven and therefore there must be great sorrow sin must be made exceeding bitter A man that is very hungry and thirsty after his lust must finde such meat and drink exceeding bitter else he will feed on it Solomon took great content in women but what saith he when the Lord humbled him I find a woman more bitter then death Heare this you harlots and you that live in your wanton lusts the Lord will make your sweet morsels more bitter then death to you if the Lord saves you 2. Because the greatest evils are the objects of this sorrow viz. Sin and death It is true a man may mourne for smaller evils sooner but when the Spirit sets on the greatest evils then they sad much more Mine iniquities are too heavy to beare Why so Many a man can bear them without sinking True but in the Elect the Spirit sets on loads the soule herewith A wounded spirit who can beare Because the greatest evils lye upon the most tender part of a tender soule pressed down by the omnipotent hand of Christs Spirit For now the multitude of sins more then the haires on the head come now to mind as also the long continuance in them cradle sins No sooner saith the soule did I begin to live but I began to sin Obstinacy also in them lyes very heavy I have had warnings checks resolutions against them and yet have gone on The power of sinne also sads it that as it is said Prov. 21.9 When the wicked reigne the people mourne so doth the soule when it feeles sin reigne I cannot subdue it nay the Lord will not that I feare the Lord hath left me over to it The increase of sin it feeles makes it mourne also I grow worse and worse saith the soul the leake comes in faster then he can cast it out the greatnesse of sinne makes it mourn Was there ever such a sinner as I And lastly the sense of condemnation for sin lyes upon him this is the fruit of your evill wayes saith the Spirit The soule doth not let sinne passe by it now as water downe the mill but being stopt by conviction and feare of the evill of it it swells very high and fills the heart full of griefe and sorrow that many times it is overwhelmed therewith 3. Because Christ wil not be very sweet unlesse this mourning under misery be very great the healing of a cut finger is sweet but of a mortall wound is exceeding sweet a little sorrow will make Christ sweet but great sorrow under sense of deadly wounds is exceeding sweet and without this Christ hath not his honour due to him if he be not onely sweet but also exceeding sweet and precious 4. Because it is such a sorrow as nothing but that that hath wounded the soule can heale it Let men have the greatest outward troubles outward things can cure them or else they will weare away As if a man be sick or in debt physick and money can cure these but this wound neither can or over shall be healed but by the hand that wounded it And hence a man can take no comfort in meat drink sleep friends mirth nor pastime while this wound this sorrow lasts for if any thing else can heal it it is not the right wound or sorrow the Lord breeds in his elect An adulterous heart indeed may be quieted with other lovers Cain can build away his sorrow Nay I le say more this wounded soule cannot comfort it selfe by any promises till the Lord come David had a promise of pardon from Nathan yet he cryes out to the Lord to make him heare the voyce of joy and gladnesse that his broken bones might rejoyce Did not the Lord make him heare the voyce of joy by Nathan Yes outwardly but the Lord that had broke his bones must make him heare inwardly Nay when the Lord comes himselfe to comfort much adoe the Lord hath to make him heare it as the Israelites that hearkned not to Moses voice because of their hard bondage that unlesse the Lord did invincibly comfort it would lye bleeding to death and never live It must needs therefore be great sorrow which all the world men nor Angels can remove 5. You may be confirmed in this if lastly you consider the many wayes the Lord takes to beget great mourning if the soule will not be sorrowfull as sometimes great afflictions Manasseh must be taken in the bushes and cast into chaines Sometimes strange temptations hellish blasphemies Is there a God Are the Scriptures his Word Why should the Lord be so cruell as to reprobate any of his creatures to torment it so long c. Sometimes long eclipsing of the light of Gods countenance no prayers answered but daily bills of indictment And sometimes it thinks it heares and feeles a secret testimony from God that he never had thought of peace toward it and that his purpose is immutable Sometimes it questions Can God forgive sinnes so great Can it stand with his honour to put up so much wrong Sometimes it feels its heart so extreamly hard and dedolent that it thinks the Lord hath sealed it up under this plague till the judgement of the great day And sometimes the Lord makes melancholy a good servant to him to further this work of sorrow But thus the Lord rebukes many a hard hearted sinner that will not beare the yoke nor feele the load and now the Lord turnes the beauty of the proudest into ashes and withers the glory of all flesh Nay sometimes you shall observe the Lord though he comes not out as a Lyon to rend yet as a moth he frets out by secret pinings and languishings the senselesse security of man that he shall mourne to purpose before he leave him I doe not meane by this as if all men had the like measure of sorrow but a great sorrow it is in all Every child is delivered by some throwes those that stick long in the birth may feele them longer and very many Nor yet doe I presse a necessity of teares or violent and
tumultuous complaints the deepest sorrowes run with least noyse If a man can have teares for outward losses and none for sins t is very suspitious whether he was ever truly sorrowfull for sinne Otherwise as the greatest joyes are not alway exprest in laughter so the greatest sorrowes are not alway exprest in shedding of teares what the measure of this great sorrow is we shall heare hereafter Thirdly it is a constant mourning for so it is here called a spirit of heavinesse as that woman that had a spirit of infirmity and was bowed downe many yeares Hannah constantly troubled is called a woman of a sorrowfull spirit 1 Sam. 1.12.15 As the spirit of pride and whoredome Hos. 4.12 â—is a constant frame where though the acts be sometime suspended yet the spirit remains so a spirit of mourning is such sorrow as though the acts of mourning be sometime hindred yet the spirit and spring remaines Hypocrites wil mourn under sin and misery but what is it it is the hanging down the head like a bull-rush in bad weather for a day Oh how many have pangs and gripes of sorrow and can quickly ease themselves again these mourners come to nothing in the conclusion I grant the sorrow and sadnesse of spirit may be interrupted but it returnes againe and never leaves the soule untill the Lord looke downe from heaven Lam. 3.48 49 50. The cause continues guilt and strength of sinne and therefore this effect continues Fourthly it is such a sorrow as makes way for gladnesse for so it is here said the Lord gives beauty for these ashes and hence it is no desperate hellish sorrow but usually mixt with sense of some mercy at least common and some hope not that which apprehends the object of hope particulary which is done in vocation but that the Lord may find out some way of saving it Ionah 3.9 Acts 2.37 which hope with sense of mercy waiting so long preserving from hell and death so oft c. doth not harden the heart as in reprobates but serve to break the more and to load it with greater sorrow thus the Lord works this sorrow in all his elect I know it is in a greater measure and from some other grounds after the soule is in Christ but this sorrow there is for substance mentioned for the reasons given if Christ hate you you shall mourne but never till it be too late if he love you you must mourne now how great and many are many of your sinnes how neare is your doome the Lord only knows how fearful your condemnation will be you have oft heard but yet how few of your hearts are sad and very heavie for these things sin is your pleasure not your sorrow you fly from sorrow as from a temptation of Satan who comes to trouble you and to lead you to despaire Davids eyes ran down with rivers of waters because others brake Gods law and Ieremy wisht he had a cottage in the wildernesse to mourne in and yet you doe not you cannot powre out one drop nor yet wish you had hearts to lament your owne sinnes but oh know it that when the Lord Christ comes hee will sad thy soule when hee comes to search thy old sores by the spirit of conviction he will make them smart and bleed abundantly by the spirit of compunction 3. Separation from sin is the third thing wherein compunction consists such a feare and sorrow for sin under a sinfull estate as separates the soule from sin is true compunction without which the Lord Christ cannot be had the soule is cut and wounded with sin by feare and sorrow but it is cut off by this stroake of the Spirit not from the being but from the growing power of sin from the wil to sin not from al sin in the wil which is mortified by a Spirit of holines after the soule is implanted into Christ for compunction contrition brokennesse of heart for sin call it what you will is opposite to hardnesse of heart which is in every sinner whiles Christ leaves him now in hardnesse as in a stone there is First insensiblenesse Secondly a close cleaving of all the parts together whereby it comes to passe that hard things make resistance of what is cast against them So in compunction there is nor only sensiblenesse of the evill of sin and death by feare and sorrow but such as makes a separation of that close union between sin and the soule and hence it is that the Lord abhorres all fastings humiliations prayers teares unlesse they be of this stamp and are accompanied with this effect The Lord flings the dung of their fastings and sorrowes in their faces because they did not breake the bonds of wickednesse to mourno for sin and misery and yet to be in thy sinne is the work of justice on the damned in hell and all the Devills at this day that are pincht with their black chains not loosened from them and not the work of the grace of Christ in the day of his power Hee that confesseth his sins shall have mercy that is true but remember the meaning of that confession in the next words and forsaketh he shall find mercy What is the end of the mother in laying worme-wood and gall upon her brest but that the child by tasting the bitternesse of it might be weaned and have his stomack and will turned from it what is the end of fear sorrow but by this to turn away the soule from sin This point is weighty and full of difficulty of great use and worthy of deep meditation For as the first wound and stroake of the Spirit is so it is in all other after-works of it both of faith and holinesse in the soule if this be right faith is right holinesse is right if this be imperfect or naught all is according to it afterward the greatest difficulty lies hâ—re to know what measure of separation from sin the Spirit makes here for after wee are in Christ then sinne is mortified how then is there any separation of the heart from it before it doth fully beleeve or what measure is there necessary here therefore I shall answer to the fourth and last particular viz. Fourthly what is that measure of compunction the Lord workes in all the elect So much compunction or sense of sinne is necessary as attaines the end of it now what is the end of it no other but that the soule being humbled might goe to Christ by faith to take away his sin the finis proximus or next end of compunction is humiliation that the soul may be so severed from sin as to renounce it selfe for it the finis remotus or last end is that being thus humbled it might goe unto Christ to take away sinne for beloved the condemnation of the world lies not so much in being sinfull under guilt and power of sin as in being unwilling the Lord Jesus should take it away this I say
a subject like a white paper fitted immediately to take the impression of Gods image but since by his fall Sinne is falne like a mighty blot upon the soule whereby a man not onely wants grace as the darke ayre doth light but also resists grace Iohn 14.17 Hence this resistance must be first taken away before the Lord introduce his image againe To say that a man can of himselfe dispose himselfe unto grace was Pelagianisme in Aquinas his time yet some disposition is necessary saith Ferrius not unto actuall grace or that which is wrought upon a man per modum actus as he saith but unto the reception of habituall or sanctifying grace it being in the soule per modum formae no forme being introduced but into materiam dispositam i. matter fitted or prepared or into such a vessell which is immediately capable of it There is in man a double resistance against grace 1. Of a holy frame of grace by originall corruption which is opposite to originall and renewed holinesse or to this holy frame 2. Of the God of grace himselfe when he comes to work it Iob 21.14 Ezek. 24.13 The first is taken away in that which we call the spirit of sanctification after faith the second is taken away not onely in the act of it as by terrours it may be in reprobates Psal. 66.2 but in some measure in the inward â—oot and disposition of it onely in the elect there being as hath been said no more separation from sinne at this time required then so much as may make the soule come to the Lord to take it away or at least not unwilling nor resisting the Lord when he comes to doe it himselfe Whether doth not the work of union unto Christ goe before our communion with Christ I suppose t is undenyable that union must be before communion and that union to Christ is a work of grace as peculiar to the elect as communion with him Now justification and sanctification are two parts of our communion with him and follow our union Rom. 8.1 Our union therefore must be before these of which there are two parts or rather two things on our part necessarily required to it 1. Cutting off from the wild olive tree the old Adam 2. Implanting into the good olive tree the second Adam The first must goe before the second for where there is perfect resistance there can be no perfect union But take a man growing upon his old root of nature there is nothing but perfect resistance Rom. 8.7 and therefore that resistance must first be taken away before the Lord draw the soule to Christ and by faith implant it into Christ. In a word I see not how a man can wholly resist God and Christ and yet be united unto him at the same instant and therefore the one in order of nature at least goes before the other and therefore let any man living prove his union to Christ and to his lust also if he can You will beleeve in Christ many of you and yet you will have your whores and cups and lusts and pride and world too and oppose all the meanes that would have you from these also I tell you you shall find one day how miserably deceived you have been herein You cannot serve God and Mammon How can ye beleeve saith Christ Iohn 5.44 that seek honour one of another If you can have Christ and be ambitious too take him but how can you beleeve till the Lord hath broken you off from thence Whether vocation as peculiar to the elect as sanctification doth not goe before justification and glorification Rom. 8.30 Whether also there are not two things in effectuall vocation 1. Is not Christ that good the tearme to which the soule is firstly called 2. Is not sin and world that evill the tâ— arme from which the soule is called I suppose t is evident that the soule is effectually called and therefore actually and firstly turned from darknesse to light from the power of Satan unto God First from darknesse then unto light first from the power of Satan then unto God as is evident by the Apostles owne words Act. 26.18 where he methodically sets down the wonderfull works of Christs grace by his ministery the first is to turne them from darknes to light and from Satans power unto God which are the two parts of vocation that they may receive forgivenesse of sinnes in justification vocation being a meanes to this end that they may receive an inheritance in glorification among such as being justified are sanctified also by faith in his name The Apostle doth not say that he was to returne men to light and unto God and so turn them from darknes from the power 〈◊〉 Satan though this is true in some sense but he was first to turne from darknesse and Satan and so to returne them unto light and God in Christ. For how is it possible to be turned unto Christ and yet then also to be turned to sinne and Satan Doth it not imply a contradiction to be turned toward sinne which is ever from Christ and yet to be turned toward Christ together All Divines affirme generally that in the working of â—aith the Lord makes the soule willing to have Christ Psal. 110.2 3. but withall they affirme that of unwilling he makes willing and therefore it followes that the Lord must first remove that unwillingnesse before it can be willing it being impossible to be both willing and unwilling together Whether the cause of all that counterfeit coyne and hypocrisie in this professing age doth not arise from this root viz. not having this wound at first but onely some trouble for sinne without separation from it sore throwes without deliverance from sinne is not this the death of most if not all wicked men living how many are there that claspe about Christ and yet prove enemies to the crosse of Christ fall from Christ scandalously or secretly afterward what is the reason of it Certainly if the Lord had cut them off from their sin they had never falne to everlasting bondage in sinne againe but there the Spirit of God forsook them the Lord not owing so much love to them Consider seriously why the stony and thorny-ground-hearers Mat. 13. came to nothing in their growth of seeming faith and sanctification was the fault in the seed No verily but onely in the ground the one was broken but not deep enough the other was broken deep but not through enough the roots of thorns choked them the lusts and cares of the world were not destroyed first therefore they destroyed that ground I conclude therefore with that of Ieremy Break up your fallow grounds seek to the Lord to break them for you and sow not among thornes take heed of such brokennesse which removes not the thornes of sinfull secret stubbornnesse lest the wrath of the Lord break out against you and burne that none can quench it Doe not cut
off Iohn Baptists head you that can be content to heare him gladly and doe many things but he must not touch your Herodias and make a divorce there but suffer him to come in the spirit and power of Eliah nay of Christ Iesus to beat downe your mountaines fill up your vallies make your crooked rough waies smooth that you may see the glory of the Lord Jesus without which he shall be ever hid from you Cry you faithfull servants of the Lord that All flesh is grasse and all the glory of man of sin of world is a withering flower that the Lord Jesus may be revealed ever fresh and sweet and precious in the eyes of the Saints The evidence of this truth in the generall put blessed and learned Pemble upon another way for when he perceived as himselfe confesseth that it is the generall doctrine of all Orthodox Divines viz. that actuall faith is never wrought in the soule till beside the supernaturall illumination of the mind the will be also first freed in part from its naturall perversenesse God making all men of unwilling willing hereupon he concludes that this is done by the spirit of Sanctification and one supernaturall quality of holines universally infused in all the powers of the soul at once so that the Spirit instantly first sanctifies us puts life in us then it acts in sorrow for and detestation of sin and so we come actually to beleeve And because he fore-saw the blow viz. that in this way Christians are sanctified before they be justified he answers Yes we are justified declaratively after this Others who follow him answer more roundly viz. that we are sanctified before we are really and actually justified herein differ from him Now when it is objected against this viz. that our vocation is that which goes before our justification sanctification being part of glorification following after Rom. 8.30 Hereupon some others treading in his steps affirme that vocation is the same with sanctification and not comprehended under glorification Others perceiving the evill of this errour viz. to place sanctification before justification good fruits before a good tree they doe therefore deny any saving worke whether of vocation or sanctification before justification And hence on the other extream they doe place a Christians justification before his faith in vocation or holinesse in his sanctification so that by this last opinion a Christian is not justified by faith which was Pauls phrase but rather as he said wittily and wisely faithed by his justification Before I come to cleare the truth in these spirituall mysteries let this onely be remembred viz. That Sanctification which Pemble calls out spirituall life may be taken two wayes 1. Largely 2. Strictly 1. Largely for any awakenings of conscience or acts of the Spirit of life and so t is true we are quickned by these acts and so in a large sense sanctified first 2. Strictly for those habits of the life of holinesse which are opposite to the body of death in us and that we are not first sanctified before we are justified in this sense we shall manifest by and by Onely let me begin to shew the errour of the last opinion first viz. 1. That a Christian is not first justified before faith or vocation may appeare thus 1. It is professedly crosse to the whole current of Scripture which saith We are justified by faith and therefore not before faith and to say that the meaning of such phrases is that we are justifyed declaratively by faith or to our sense and feeling in foro conscientiae is a meere device for our justification is opposed to the state of unrighteousnesse condemnation going before which condemnation is not onely declarative and in the court of Conscience but reall and in the court of Heaven For so saith the Scripture expresly Iohn 3.18 He that beleeveth not is condemned already and verse 36. The wrath of God abideth on him and Gal. 3.22 The Scripture which is the sentence in Gods Court hath concluded all under sinne Hence a second Argument ariseth 2. If a man be justified before faith then an actuall unbeleever is subject to no condemnation but this is expresly crosse to the letter of the Text He that beleeves not is condemned already Iohn 3.18 and the wrath of God doth lye upon him The subjects of non-condemnation are those that be in Christ by faith Rom. 8.1 not out of Christ by unbelief Rom. 11.20 There is indeed a merited justification by Christs death and a virtuall or exemplary justification in Christs resurrection as in our Head and Surety and both these were before not onely our faith but our very being but to say that we are therefore actually justified before faith because our justification was merited before we had faith gives as just a ground of affirming that wee are actually sanctified whiles we are in the state of nature unsanctified Eph. 2.1 because our sanctification was merited by Christ before we had any being in him We must indeed be first made good trees by faith in Christs righteousnesse before we can bring forth any good fruits of holinesse God makes us not good trees without being in Christ by faith no more then we are bad trees in contracting Adams guilt without our being first in him God gives us first his Sonne offered in the Gospel and received by faith and then gives us all other things with him he doth not justifie us without giving us his Son but having first given him gives us this also 2. That sanctification doth not goe before justification may appeare thus 1. If guilt of Adams sinne goe before originall pollution Rom. 5.12 then imputation of Christs righteousnesse before renewed sanctification 2. To place sanctification before justification is quite crosse to the Apostles practise which is our patterne who first sought to be found in Christ Phil. 3.9 in the work of union not having his owne righteousnesse in the work of justification which in order followes that that he may then know him in the power of his death and resurrection in sanctification here comes in sanctification if by any meanes he might attain to the resurrection of the dead in glorification the last of all 3. This is quite crosse to the Apostles doctrine which makes justification the cause of sanctification and therefore must needs goe before it Rom. 5. as sin goes before spirituall and eternall death so righteousnesse goes before spirituall life in sanctification and eternall life in glory the Lord holds forth Christ in the Gospel first as our propitiation Rom. 3.24 and then it comes dying to sinne and living to God in sanctification chap. 6.1 Holinesse is the end of our actuall reconciliation Col. 1.21 22. 4. If sanctification goe before justification by faith then a Christians communion with Christ goes before his union to him by faith but our union is the foundation of communion and it is impossible there should be communion without some precedent
me no more therefore in asking Whether a Christian is in a state of happinesse or misery in this condition I answer he is preparatively happy he is now passing from death to life though not as yet wholly passed Nor yet whether there is any saving work before union I answer No for what is said is one necessary ingredient to the working up of our union as cutting off the branch from the old stock is necessary to the ingrafting it into the new indeed without faith it is impossible to please God nor doe I say that this work doth please i. e. it doth not pacify God for that is proper to Christs perfect righteousnesse received by Faith yet as it is a work of his owne Spirit upon us it is pleasing to him as the after-worke of Sanctification is though it neither doth pacify him nor doe I see how this doctrine is any way opposite to the free offer of grace and Christ because it requires no more separation from sin then that which drives them unto Christ nay which is lesse that makes them by the power of the Spirit not resist but yeeld to Christ that he may come unto them and draw them you cannot repent nor convert your selves Be converted therefore saith Peter Acts 3.19 that you may receive remission of sins and in this offer the Spirit works and verily hee that can truly receive Christ without that sense of misery as separates him from his sin as explained to you let him beleeve notwithstanding all that which is said and the God of heaven speakes peace to him his Faith shall not trouble me if hee bee sure it shall not one day deceive himselfe Of lamentation for the hardnesse of mens hearts in these times as it is said the Lord Jesus mourned when he saw the hardnesse of the peoples hearts Mark 3.5 are there not some so farre from this as that they take pleasure in their sins they are sugar under their tongues as sweet as sleep nay as their lives and you come to pul away their limbs when you come to pluck away their sinnes though they have broke Sabbaths neglected prayer despised the word hated and mocked at the Saints been stubborne to their parents curst and swore which made Peter goe out and weep bitterly though lustfull and wanton which broke Davids bones though guilty of more sinnes then there bee moates in the Sunne or Starres in heaven though their sins be crimson and fill heaven with their cry and all the earth with their burthen yet they mourne not never did it one houre together nay they cannot doe it because they will not if you are weary and loaden where are your unutterable groanes if wounded and bruised where are your dolorous complaints if sick where is your enquiry for a Physitian if sad where are your teares in the day in the night morning and evening alone by your selves and in company with others Oh how great is the wrath of God hardning so many thousands at this day whence comes it that Christ is not prized but from this senselesnesse name any reason why the blessed Gospell of peace and all the sweet promises of life are undervalued but from hence and what doe you hereby poore creatures but onely aggravate your sins and make those that are little exceeding great in the eyes of God whence it is that you treasure up wrath against the day of wrath Rom. 2.2 3 4 5. This hardnesse is that which blunts the edge of all Gods ordinances whence Gods poore Ministers sit sorrowfull in their closets seeing all Gods seed lost upon bare rocks oh this is the condition of many a man and which is most fearfull the meanes which should make the heart sensible make it more proud and unsensible Tyre and Sydon and Sodom are more fit to mourne then Chorasin and Capernaum that have enjoyed humbling means long Nay how many be there that mourne out their mournings confesse out their confessions and by their owne humiliations grow more senselesse afterward did wee ever live in a more impenitent secure age wee shall seldome meet with one broken with sin but how few are broken from sinne also and hence it is many a tall Cedar that were set downe in the Table-Book for converted men once much humbled and now comforted stay but a few yeares you shall see more dangerous sins of a second growth one turnes drunkard another covetous another proud another a Sectary another a very dry leafe a very formalist another full of humerous opinions another laden with scandalous lusts woe to you that lament not now for you shall mourne Dost thou think that Christ should ever wipe off thy teares that sheddest none at all dost thou think to reap in joy that sowest not with these showers verily God will make his word good Prov. 29.1 Hee that hardens his owne heart shall perish suddenly heare this you secure sorrowlesse sinners if ever Gods hand bee stretcht out suddenly against thee in blasting thy estate snatching away thy children the wife of thy bosome the husband of thy delight in staining thy name vexing thee with debts and crosses short and sore or lingring sicknesses know that all this comes upon thee for a hard heart but oh mourne for it now you parents children servants the tokens of death are upon you desire the Lord to breake your hearts for you lye under Gods hammer be not above the word and suffer the Lord to take away that which grieves him most even thy stony heart because it grieves thee least meditate much of thy wofull condition chew that bitter pill remember death and rotting in the grave that many are now in hell for thy sins that Christ must dye or thou dye for the least sin remember how patient and long suffering the Lord hath bin to thee and how long he hath groaned under thy burthen that it may be though hee would yet hee cannot beare thy load long let these things be mused on that thy heart may bee at last sorrowfull before it bee too late But oh the sad estate of many with us that can mourne for any evill except it bee for the greatest sinne and death and wrath that lye upon them Of exhortation Labour for this sense of misery this spirit of compunction how can you beleeve in Christ that feel not your misery without him a broken Christ cannot doe thee good without a broken heart bee afflicted and mourne yee sinners turne your laughter into mourning tremble to think of that wrath which burnes downe to the bottome of hell and under which the eternall Sonne of God sweat drops of blood great sins which thou knowest thou art guilty of cause great guilt and great hardnesse of heart and therefore are seldome forgiven or subdued without great affliction of spirit they have loaded the Lord long they must load thee Little sinnes are usually slighted and extenuated and therefore the Lord accounts them great and therefore thy soule must
did not know that lust or the secret concupiscences and first risings of the soule to sinne were sinne he saw not these secret evils in all that which he did and â—ence he rested in his duties as one alive without Christ but the Lord by discovering this let him see what little cause he had to lift up his hand for any good he did So it is here when the soule sees that all its righteousnesse is a menstruous cloth polluted with sin now those duties which like reeds it trusted to before run into the hand nay heart of a poor sinner and therefore now it sees little cause of resting on them any longer now it sees the infinite holinesse of God by the exceeding spiritualnesse of the law it begins to cry out How can I stand or appeare before him with such continuall pollutions 2. By irritating or stirring up of originall corruption in making more of that to appeare then ever before that if the soule thinks all I doe is defiled with sin yet my heart is good and so it rests there the Lord therefore stirres that dunghill and lets it see a more hellish nature then ever before in that the holy blessed command of God to its feeling makes it worse more rebellious more averse from God When the commandement came sinne revived saith Paul and that which was for life was death to him sin taking occasion by the law and hence Paul came to be slaine and dye to all his selfe-confidence It was one of Luthers first positions in opposing the Popes indulgences that Lex voluntas sunt duo adversarii sine gratiae irreconciliabiles for the law and mans will meeting together the one holy the other corrupt make fierce opposition when the soule is under any lively worke of the law and by this irritation of the law the Lord hath this end in his elect to make them feel what wretched hearts they have because that which is in it selfe a meanes of good makes them through mans corruption more vile to their feeling then ever before and hence come those sad complaints on a soul under the humbling hand of Christ I am now worse then ever I was I grow every day worse and worse I have lost what once I had I could once pray and seek God with delight and never well but when one duty was done to be in another but now I am worse all that joy and sweetnesse in seeking of him and in holy walking is gone I could once mourne for sin but now a hard heart takes hold of me that I have not so much as a heart to any thing that is good nor to shed a teare for the greatest evill It is true I confesse you may grow to your feeling worse and worâ— and it is fit you should feel it that the Lord hereby might pull downe your proud heart and make you lye low it is the Lords glorious wisdom to wither all your flowers which refreshed you without Christ that you might feele a need of him and therefore I say the Lord pulls away all those broken planks the soule once floated and rested upon that the soule may sinke in a holy despaire of any help from any good it hath the Lord shakes down all building on a sandy foundation and then the soule cryes out It is ill resting here 3. By loading tyring and wearying the soule by its own indeavours untill it can stir no more for this is in every man by nature when he sees that all he doth is sinfull and all he hath his heart and nature to be most sinfull yet he will not yet come out of himselfe because he hopes though he be for the present thus vile yet he hopes for future time his heart may grow better and himself doe better then now and hence it is that hee strives and seeks indeavours to his utmost to set up himself again and to gain cure to all his troubles by his duties now the law whose office is to command but not to give strength and the Spirit that should give strength withdrawing it selfe because it knowes the soule would rest therein without Christ hence it comes to passe that the soule feeling it selfe to labour onely in the fire and smoake and to be still as miserable and sinfull as ever before hereupon it is quite tyred out and sits down weary not only of its sin but of its work and now cryes out I see now what a vile undone wretch I am I can doe nothing for God or for my selfe only I can sinne and destroy my selfe all that I am is vile and all that I doe is vile I now see that I am indeed poore and blind and miserable and naked the truth is beloved here comes in the greatest dejections of spirit for when the Lord smites the soule for sin it hopes that by leaving of sinne and doing better it may doe well but when it sees that there is no hope here of healing the breach between God and it selfe now it falls low indeed and I take this to be the true meaning of Mat. 11.28 Ye that labour i. e. You that are wearied in your own way in seeking rest to your soules by your own hard labour or works as the word 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 signifies and are tyred out therein and so are now laden indeed with sinne and the heavie pressure of that finding no ease by all that which you doe come to me saith Christ and you shall then find rest unto your soules the Jewes seeking to establish their own righteousnesse seeking I say if by any meanes they might establish it lost Christ the Lord therefore will make his elect know they shall seek here for ease in vaine and therefore tyres them out 4. By clearing up the equity and justice of God in the law if the Lord should never pity nor pardon it nor shew any respect or favour to it for this is the frame of every mans heart if he cannot find rest in his duties and endeavours as he once expected he should but sees sin and weaknesse death and condemnation wrapping him about like Ionahs weeds in all he doth then his heart sinkes and quarrells and falls off farther from Christ by discouragement and growes secretly impatient that there should be no mercy left for him because it thinkes now the Lords eternall purpose is to exclude him for if there were any thoughts of peace toward him he should have found peace before now having so earnestly and frequently sought the Lord and having done so much and forsaken his sinfull wayes according to his owne commandement from him and hence it is you shall find it a certaine truth that the soule is turned back as far from God by sinking discouraging sorrowes for sin as ever it was in a state of security by the pleasures of sin and hence sometime it thinks it is in vaine to seek any more and hence leaves off duties and if conscience force
soone as he was made but wee need Vocation unto Christ before we can be sanctified by Christ we need this call to make us come to Christ to put us into Christ and therefore much more before we can receive any holinesse from Christ the ground of our coming by faith is Gods call 2 Thes. 2.13 14. chosen to salvation through sanctification the remote end of Vocation and beleefe of the truth the next end of it whereunto he hath called you there is the ground of it The explication of this call is a point full of many spirituall difficulties but of singular use and comfort to them that are faithfull and called I shall omit many things and explicate only those things which serve our purpose here in these three particulars 1. I shall shew you what this call is or the nature of it 2. The necessity of it 3. How it is a ground of coming and what kind of ground for Faith 1. The nature of this Call I shall open for your more distinct understanding in severall Propositions or Theses Our Vocation or Calling is ever by some word or voyce either outward or inward or both either ordinary or extraordinary by the ministery of men or by immediate visions and inspirations of God I speak not now of extraordinary call by dreames and visions and immediate inspirations as in Abraham and others before the Scriptures were penned and published nor of extraordinary call by the immediate voyce of Christ as in Paul and some other of the Apostles for these are ceased now Heb. 1.1 unlesse it be among people that want ordinary meanes and elect infants c. whose call must be more then by ordinary meanes because they want such means we speak now of ordinary call by the ministery of men 2. This voyce in ordinary calling home of the elect to Christ is not by the voyce of the Law for the proper end of that is to reveale sinne and death and to cast down a sinner but by the voyce of the Gospell bringing glad tidings written by the Apostles and preached to the world He hath called you by our Gospell These things are written that you might beleeve By the foolishnesse of preaching the Lord saves them that beleeve I meane preaching at the first or second rebound by lively voyce or printed Sermons at the time of hearing or in the time of deep meditation concerning things heard the Spirit indeed inwardly accompanies the voyce of the Gospell but no mans call is by the immediate voyce of the Spirit without the Gospell or the immediate testimony of the Spirit breathed out of free grace without the word Eph. 1.12 13. And therefore that a Christian should be immediately called without the Scripture and the Scripture only given to confirme Gods immediate promise as a Prince gives his letter to confirme his promise made to a man before as Valdesso would have it is both a false and dangerous assertion This voyce of the Gospell is the voyce of God in Christ or the voyce of Jesus Christ although dispensed by men who are but weak instruments for this mighty work sent set in Christs stead but the call the voice is Christs it s the Lords call Rom. 1.6 it is certaine some of the messengers of Christ called the Romans by the Gospell yet Paul saith they were called of Christ Iesus the dead heare his voyce and arise and live and when the time of calling comes they listen to it as his call and hence it is styled Heb. 3.1 because the Lord Christ from heaven speakes takes the written word into his owne lips as it were Cant. 1.1 2. and thereby piâ—rcâ—th through the eares to the heart through all the noyse of feares sorrowes objections against beleeving and makes it to be heard as his voyce the bowels of Christ now yerne toward an humbled lost sinner bleeding at his feet therefore can contain no longer but speaks and calls and makes the soule understand his voyce so that this call is not a mean businesse because the Lord Jesus himselfe now speaks whose voyce is glorious The substance of this call or the thing the Lord calls unto is to come unto him for there is a more common calling or as some tearme it a particular calling of men as some to be Masters or Servants 1 Cor. 7.24.20 21. or to office in Church or Common-wealth as Aaron Heb 5.4 and the voyce there is to attend unto their work to which they are called There is also a remote end of vocation which is to holinesse 1 Thes. 4.7 and unto glory also 2 Thess. 2.14 Phil. 3.14 but we now speak of more speciall calling the next end of which is to come unto Christ the soule hath lived many yeares without him the Lord Jesus will now have the lost prodigall to come home to come to him the soule is weary and heavy laden and the Lord Jesus could easily ease it without its comming to him but this is his will he must come to him for it Mat. 11.27 Ier. 3.7.22 I said after shee had done these things turne unto me come unto me ye backsliding children I le heale your back-slidings Jer. 4.1 If thou returnest returne unto me This voice Come unto me is one of the sweetest words that Christ can speak or man can heare full of Majesty mercy grace and peace a poor sinner thinks Will the Lord ever put up such wrongs I have offered him heale such a nature take such a viper into his bosome doe any thing for me if there be but one in the world to be forsaken is it not I the Lord therefore comes and calls Come unto mee and I will pardon all thy sins I will heale all thy back-slidings I will be angry no more Jer. 3.12.13 Though thou hast committed whoredome with many lovers yet returne unto me saith the Lord. Ier. 3.1 Though thou hast resisted my Spirit refused my grace wearied me with thine iniquities yet come unto me and this will make me amends I require nothing of thee else but to come for Gods call is out of free grace Gal. 1.6 and therefore calls for no more but only to come up and possesse the Lords fulnesse Luke 14.17 1 Cor. 1.9 This call to come is for substance all one with the offer of Christ which consists in three things 1. Commandement to receive Christ as present and ready to be given to it as when we offer any thing to another it is by commanding them to take it 1 Iohn 4.23 and this binds conscience to beleeve as you will answer for the contempt of this rich grace at the great day of account 2. Perswasion and intreaty to come and receive what we offer for in such an offer wherein the person is unwilling to receive and we are exceedingly desirous to give we then perswade so doth Christ with us 3. Promise to offer a thing without a promise of having it if we receive it is but a
that despise this peace 6. That being thus pacified you may come into Gods presence with boldnesse at any time and aske what you will I wonder what he can deny you if he loves you Rom. 5.2 and which is yet more that now all creatures are at peace with you Iob 5.23 as when the Captaine of the Army is pacified none of his souldiers must hurt or strike that man nay that hereby all your enemies should be forced to doe good to you Oh death where is now thy sting I have oft wondred if Christ hath borne all our miseries and suffered death for us why then should we feel any miseries or see death any more and I could never satisfie my owne heart by many answers given better then by this viz. that if the Lord should abolish the very being of our miseries they should indeed then doe us no hurt but neither could they then doe us any good for if they were not at all how could they doe us good now the Lord Jesus hath made such a peace for us as that our enemies shall not only not hurt us but they shall be forced himselfe ordering of them to doe much good unto us all your wants shall but make you pray the more all you sorrowes shall but humble you the more all your temptations shall but exercise your graces the more all your spirituall desertions shall but make you long for heaven and to bee with Christ the more it is now part of your portion not only to have Paul and Apollos and world but death it selfâ— to doe you good Oh Lord what a blessed estate is this which though thousands living under the Gospel of peace heare of yet they regard not they can strain their consciences in a restlesse pursuit of the favour of men and in seeking worldly yet peace to this day though born enemies to God never spent one day it may be not one houre in mourning after the Lord for favour from him nor care not for it unlesse it be upon their owne tearmes viz. that God would be at peace with them but they may still remain quietly in their sins and war against God and thence it is that the Lord will shortly take away peace from the whole earth and plague the world with war and blood-shed and as it is in Zach. 11.6 deliver every man into the hand of his neighbour and into the hand of his King and they shall smite the Land even for this very cause for despising the peace and reconciliation with God you might and should have accepted in the Gospell of peace SECT III. Thirdly Adoption This is the third benefit which in order of nature followes our reconciliation whereby the Lord accounts us Sons and gives us the Spirit and priviledges of Sons for in order we must be first beloved before we can be loved so as to be accounted Sons 1 Iohn 3.1 2. for the Lord of unjust to account us just in our justification is much but for the Lord to account us hereby as friends this is more but to account us Sons also this is a higher degree and a farther priviledge and hence our Adoption followes our Faith Iohn 1.12 Gal. 3.26 and if Adoption then the Spirit of Adoption much lesse doth not precede Faith By Christs active obedience our Divines say we have right unto life by Adoption wee have a farther right the one destroyes not the other for a man may have right unto the same thing upon sundry grounds we know there are 2 sorts of Sons 1. Some by nature borne of our own bodies and thus wee are not Sonnes of God but children of wrath 2. Some by Adoption which are taken out of another family and accounted freely of us as our Sons and thus Moses was for a time the sonne of Pharaoâ—s daughter and of this Son-ship by Adoption I now speak the Lord taking us out of the family of hell to be his adopted Sons Christ is Gods Son by eternall generation Adam by creation all believers are Sons by Adoption Now Adoption is two-fold 1. Externall whereby the Lord takes a people by outward covenant and dispensation to be his Sons and thus all the Jewes were Gods first-borne Exod. 4.22 and unto them did belong the Adoption Rom. 9.4 5. And hence their children were accounted Sons as well as Saints and holy 1 Cor. 7.14 Ezech. 16.20 21. but many fall from this Adoption as the Jewes did 2. Internall whereby the Lord out of everlasting love to particular persons in speciall he takes them out of the family of Satan and by internall love and speciall account reckons them in the number of Sons makes them indeed Sonnes as well as calls them so Isaac by speciall promise was accounted for the seed Rom. 9.8 and of this we now speak Now this is double 1. Adoption begun 1 Iohn 3.1 2. â—OW we are the Sons of God To some of which though Sons indeed yet the Lord behaves himselfe toward them for some time and for speciall reasons as unto servants exercising them with many feares Gal. 4.1 2. some spirits will not bee the better for the love of their father but worse and therefore the Lord keeps a hard hand over them to others the Lord behaves himself with more speciall respect in making them cry with more boldnesse Abba Father Rom. 8.15 16 who will be more easily overcome and bent to his will by love 2. Adoption perfected when we shall receive all the priviledges of sons not one excepted Rom. 8.23 where we are said to wait for our Adoption the Redemption of our bodies By the first we are sons but not seen nor known such 1 Iohn 3.1 2. By the second we shall be knowne before all the world to be such we now speak principally of Adoption begun whereby we are sons in Gods account and by reall reception of the Spirit of Sons the manner of this Adoption is thus 1. God loves Jesus Christ with an unspeakable love as his only Son and as our elder brother 2. Hence when we are in Christ his Son he loves us with the same love as he doth his own Son 3. Hence the Lord accounts us sonnes Eph. 1.5 6. Gods love is not now toward us as to Adam his son by creation viz. immediately diffused upon us but in loving his owne Son immediately hence he loves us and hence adopts us and accounts us children Oh that the Lord would open our eyes to see this priviledge Behold it saith Iohn 1 Iohn 3.1 stand amazed at it that children of wrath should become the Sonnes of the most high God for a begger on the dunghill a vagabond runnagate from God a prodigall a stranger to God whom the Lord had no cause to think on to be made a Son of God Almighty If Sons then the Lord doth prize and esteem you as Sonnes if a man hath twenty sonnes he esteems the poorâ—st least sick child he hath more then all his goods and servants
a blotted evidence you may have it to day and lose it to morrow and then where is your peace and I doe beleeve the LORD deprives many of his precious SAINTS from the comfort of this evidence either because they looke onely to this and not unto Christ and their Justification by faith Rom. 5.1 or else because there is some secret lust or guile of spirit Psal. 32.1 2. which the Lord by sore and long shakings about their calling and sanctification would first winnow out or because there is a perverse frowardnesse of spirit whereby because they feele not that measure of sanctification which they would do therefore vilifie and so come to deny what indeed they have because they feele a law of sinne in their members leading them away captive will not with Paul take notice of the Law of their mindes whereby that inner man delights in the Law of God and mournes bitterly under the body of death by which they might see with Paul that there is no condemnation to such Rom. 8.1 To conclude what ever is the cause of this crookednesse of judgement I doe beleeve that the generall cause is want of attendance and standing unto the judgement of the Scriptures in this controversie for if this was stood unto men would not produce their own experience viz. that they could never finde any evidence from sanctification but they have met with it in another way by the immediate witnesse of the spirit onely nor would men cry it down because grace being mixt with so much corruption it can hardly be discerned and so will be alway lest in doubts and that the heart is deceitfull and many that have evidenced their estates hereby have been deceived I confesse thus the Popish Doctors argue against assurance of faith from the Scriptures without speciall and extraordinary revâ—lation but what is all this to the purpose if the Scriptures make it an evidence away then with thy corrupt experience shall this be judge or the Scriptures rather what though many judging of themselves by markes and signes have been deceived yet if the Scripture make it an evidence as we have proved then though men thorow their owne weaknesse or wickednesse have been deceived in misapplying promises yet the Scriptures cannot deceive you What though it be difficult to discerne Christs grace in us yet if the Scriptures will have us try our estates by that rule which in it selfe in easie but to our blindnesse and weaknesse difficult many times to see who shall who dares condemn the holy Scriptures which as they shall judge us at last day should judge us now Suppose that divers bookes and many Ministers sometimes give false signes of grace and Gods favour yet doth the Scriptures give any I shall propose one thing to conscience as the conclusion of this discourse Suppose thou wert now lying on thy death-bed comforting thy self in thy elected and justified estate suppose the Spirit of God should now grapple with thy conscience and tell thee if thou art justified then thou art called sanctified 2 Thes. 2.13 14. Is it thus with thee what wilt thou answer if thou sayst thou art not sanctified the word and spirit will beare witnesse then against thee and say then thou art not elected nor justified if thou saist thou knowest not thou lookest not to sanctification or fruits of the spirit they will then reply how then canst thou say that thou art elected or justified for it is a truth as cleare as the Sun and as immovable as heaven and earth None are elected and justified but they are also sanctified and they that are not sanctified are not justified Rom. 8.1 13. And now tell me how can you have peace unlesse you make your faces like slint before the face of Gods eternall truth or heale your consciences by such a plaister as will not stick If therefore the Lord ever made sinne bitter to thee let holinesse be sweet if continuance in sinne hath been an evidence unto thee of thy condemnation Oh let the riches of the grace of Christ in redeeming thee from the lamentable bondage and power of sinne be an evidence to thee of thy salvation Oh blesse God for any little measure of sanctification doe not scorne or secretly despise this spirit of grace as many in this degenerate age begin to doe saying You looke to graces and fruits and marks and signes and a holy frame of heart and sanctification what is your sanctification Oh let it be the more precious to thee mourning that thou hast so little and blessing the God and Father of all grace for what little thou hast wearing it as a bracelet of gold about thy necke knowing hereby that thou art borne of God and that the whole world lyeth in wickednesse and shall perish without this 1 Ioh. 5.18 19. 2. This is your glory beauty this is glorification begun what greater glory then to be like unto God to be like unto God is to be next to God and therefore this is called glory 2 Cor. 3.18 we are changed into the same image from glory to glory Every degree of grace is glory and the perfection of glory in heaven consists chiefly in the perfection of grace what is the worke of some men at this day but to cast reproach upon sanctification our glory 3. This will give you abundance of sweet peace and therefore Heb. 12.11 it is called the quiet fruit of righteousnesse for from whence comes the sore troubles and continuall doubts of Gods favour in many mens consciences Is it not some decay or guile here Psal. 32.1 2. Is it not some boldnesse to sinne that they walke not in feare and therefore not in the consolation of the Holy Ghost Is it not their secret dalliance with some known sinne continued in with secret impenitencie Is it not because they labouâ— with some strong unmortified corruption pride or passions that they are in daily pangs and throwes of conscience for Psal. 32.1 2 3 4. what was the rejoycing of Paul was it not that in all sincerity and simplicity he had his conversation among men 2 Cor. 1.12 What was Hezekiahs peace when dying as he thought was it not this Lord remember I have walked before thee uprightly Isa. 38.2 3. not that this was the ground of their peace for that onely is free grace in Christ but this is the meanes of your peace Ioh. 14.22 23. its a cursed peace which is kept by looking to Christ yet loving thy lust 4. This is that which will make you sit for Gods use 2 Tim. 2.20 21. a filthy uncleane cleane vessell is good for nothing till cleansed God will not delight to glorifie himselfe much by an unsanctified person what is thy wife children friends family the better for thee if thy heart remaine unsanctified 5. A little holinesse is eminently all springing up to eternall life this little spring shall never cease running but it shall fill Heaven it selfe and thy soule in
serve him without fear in holines in all the rules of the first Table and righteousnesse in all duties of the second Table all the dayes of our life that all this should not be out of a spirit of bondage and slavish feare but without feare i. e. Feare of our enemies sin death wrath and so consequently out of love to him that hath delivered us that one would wonder it should ever enter into the heart of any Christian man that hath tasted the love of Christ as to think that there is no use of the Law to one in Christ and that because they are to live the life of love to Christ that therefore they are not to looke to the Law as the rule of their love expresly crosse to the letter of the Text Ioh. 14.15 If yee love me keep my Commandements which Commandements are not onely faith and love to the Saints but love to enemies and spirituall obedience unto the morall Law in a farre different manner and measure then as the Pharisees instructed the people in those dayes as you may see Matth. 5.17 T is true indeed obedience to the Law is not required of us now as it was of Adam it was required of him as a condition antecedent to life but of those that be in Christ it is required onely as a duty consequent to life or as a rule of life that seeing hee hath purchased our lives in redemption and actually given us life in vocation and sanctification we should now live unto him in all thankfull and fruitfull obedience according to his will revealed in the morall Law T is a vaine thing to imagine that our obedience is to have no other rule but the Spirit without any attendance to the Law the Spirit indeed is the efficient cause of our obedience and hence we are said to be led by the Spirit Rom. 8.14 but it is not properly the rule of our obedience but the will of God revealed in his word especially in the Law is the rule the Spirit is the wind that drives us in our obedience the Law is our compasse according to which it steares our course for us the Spirit and the Law the wind and the compasse can stand well together Psal. 143.10 Teach me to doe thy will O God there is Davids rule viz. Gods will revealed thy spirit is good there is Davids minde that enabled him to steare his course according to it the Spirit of life doth free us from the law of sin and of death but not from the holy and pure and good and righteous Law of God Rom. 8.1 2 3. The blood of Christ by the Spirit cleanseth us from dead workes to serve the living God Heb. 9.14 not to serve our owne selves or lusts or wills to doe what wee please the law indeed is not a rule of that by which we are to obey viz. of our faith yet it is the onely rule of what we are to obey we are not to performe acts of obedience now as Adam was to doe viz. by the sole power of inherent grace but we are to live by faith and act by faith for without me you can doe nothing Ioh. 15.5 we are not united to Christ our life by obedience as Adam was to God by it but by faith and therefore as all action in living things comes from union so all our acts of obedience are to come from faith from the Spirit on Christs part and from faith on our part which make our union Noah built by faith Enoch walked with God by faith Iosuah and his Souldiers fought by faith Abraham travelled dwelt in his tents lived and dyed by faith they acted according to the rule but all by the power of faith It is a weak reasoning to imagin a man is not bound to pay his debts because he is to goe unto another for the money Obedience is our debt wee owe to Christ Luk. 17.10 though wee are to goe to Christ poore and weake and feeble to enable us to pay T is true Christ hath kept the law for us and are we therefore free from it as our rule No verily Christ kept the law for satisfaction to justice and so we are not bound to keepe the Law he kept the Law also for imitation to give us a copy and an example of all holinesse and glorifying God in our obedience and thus Christs obedience is so farre from exempting us from the Law as that it ingageth us the more having both rule and example before us 1 Ioh. 2.6 He that saith he abideth in him ought to walke as he walked 1 Pet. 1.14 15 16. T is true the Law is writ in a beleevers heart and if he hath a Law within what need he say some look to the Law without when as our Saviour and David argued quite contrary Psal. 40.7 8. I come I delight to doe thy will it being written of me that I should doe it because thy Law is within my heart this argues that you are not to attend the Law unwillingly as bond-men and slaves but willingly and gladly because the Law even the Law of love is in your hearts 1 Ioh. 5.3 The place alledged by some for this liberty from the Law viz. the Law is not made for a righteous man 1 Tim. 1.9 if well considered fully dasheth this dreame in pieces for there were divers Jewish Preachers of Moses Law and they had a world of scruples and questions about it verse 4. and Paul and others were accounted of as men lesse zealous because they did not sound upon that string so much away saith Paul with those contentions questions for the end of the commandement is not scruples and questions but charity and love i. e. both to God and men out of a pure heart and faith unfained vers 5. and saith he The Law is very good when used lawfully that is for this end and out of these principles vers 8. t is not talking but doing and that out of love which is the end and scope of the Law so that note by the way you may as well abolish love as abolish the Law love being the end and scope of the Law But to proceed The Law is not made saith he for the righteous i. e. for the condemnation of the righteous i. e. of such as out of a pure heart and faith unfeined love God in the first Table love to shew all duties of respect to man in the second Table and therefore they of all other men have no cause to abolish the Law as if it was a bug-beare or a thing that could hurt them but it s made for the comdemnation of the Lawlesse Anomians as the originall word is or if you will Antinomians transgressors of the first command and disobedient transgressours of the second command for ungodly and sinners transgressours of the third command for unholy and prophane transgressours of the fourth command for murderers of fathers and mothers of the fift command for
will say May not the sweetnesse of Christ in the Gospell and sense of mercy separate from sinne without any compunction I answer 1. Sense of mercy and Christs sweetnesse I conceive serve principally to draw the soule unto Christ. Ier. 31.3 With loving kindnesse have I drawn thee But compunction or sense of â—inne principally serves in the hand of Christ to turn the soule from sin Aversion from sin is distinct from and in order goes before our conversion unto God 2. Sense of the sweetnesse of Gods grace in Christ keeps out sin but it doth not thrust out sin at first 3. Christ cannot be effectually sweet unlesse sinne be first made bitter there may be some generall notice of Christs excellency and some thirty pieces given for him some esteeme of his grace and hope of his mercy which may occasion sorrow but I dare not say that this is any sound or thorow work till after sorrow Esay 50.4 Christ hath the tongue of the learned given him to speak a word in season Unto whom It is added unto the weary They are the men that will prize mercy and they onely to purpose they that have felt the bitternesse of sinne and wrath find it exceeding hard to prize Christ and to taste his sweetnesse how shall they doe it indeed that find none at all Sweetnesse before sense of sinne is like Cordials before purging of a foule stomach which usually strengthen the humour but recover not the man Because without this no man will either care for Christ or feele a need of Christ a man may see a want of Christ by the power of conviction but he will never feele a need of Christ but by the spirit of compunction The whole need not the Physitian but they that are sick A whole man may see his want of a Physitian but a sick man onely feels his need of him will prize him send for him By the whole you are not to understand such as have no need indeed of Christ for what sinner but hath need of him but such as feel no need of him as by sick cannot be meant such as are sinfull and miserable for then Christ should come actually to save all men but those that did feele themselves so as a sick man that feeles his sicknesse these onely are the men that feele a need and necessity of Christ these onely will come to Christ and be glad of Christ and be truly thankfull for their recovery of Christ. And hence ariseth the great sin of the world in despising the Gospel not at all affected with the glad tidings of it because they are not affected with their sinne and misery or if they be affected but in part with the Gospel it is because they are not throughly affected with their misery before And hence it is that when the Lord called his people to him yet they would not come to him because they were Lords and well enough without him Why did not they come to the Supper being invited it was because they had farms and oxen and wives to attend unto they felt no need of comming as the poore lame blind and halt did The Prodigall cares not for father nor fathers house untill hee come to see Here I dye It is true the grace of the Gospel drawes men unto Christ but it is very observable that the Gospel reveales no grace but with respect and in reference unto sinners and men in extreame misery the Gospel saith not that Christ is come to save but to save sinners and to save his people from their sins It reveales not this that God justifies men but he justifies the ungodly it reveales not this that Christ dyed for us but that he dyed for them that were weak for sinners for enemies And if so can any man imagine that this newes will be sweet unlesse men see and feele the infinite misery of sin and the fruits of it will not men say or think What great matter is there in that Suppose we be sinners and enemies yet we are well enough before Christ come a mans life lies in his sinne Now suppose any should proclaime to a company of men the great favour of their Prince toward them that he is such a gracious Prince as will take away all their lives will this be glad tidings Gospel Grace cannot be set out much lesse felt but in reference to sin and misery which must be first felt before it can be sweet Because Christ will never come but onely unto such as feele their misery for you will say A man may come to Christ without it I say againe if he doth as hee hath many followers yet Christ will not come to him nor commit himselfe to him I came not to call the righteous but sinners to repentance in which place note that as by the righteous is not meant such as are sincerely so but such as think and find themselves so so by sinners is not meant all manner of impenitent and hard hearted sinners but such as think and feele themselves such and lament under it now God the Father sent him only unto such he is sent not to heale the hard hearted but the broken hearted indeed he is sent to make men broken hearted who have hard hearts but he is not sent to heale them untill then the Lord leaves the ninety nine that need no repentance to wilder for ever the one lost sheep who feeles it selfe so and â—eeles a need of a Saviour to come and find it out who cannot come and find out him the Lord Jesus will come unto and unto him only leaving all the ninety nine This may lastly appeare by considering the end of mans fall into sin and the publishing of the Law to reveale sin and of the Gospell also in reference unto sin and misery why did the Lord suffer the fall of man what was his great plot in it it is apparent this that thereby way might be made for the greater manifestation of Gods grace in Christ. The Serpent poysons all mankind that the seed of the woman might have the glory of recovering some This was Gods last end The perdition of some of themselves being but subordinate unto this Rom. 9.22 23. Surely Adam might have glorified grace if he had stood and God had revealed his grace in preserving him made mutable from falling But the Lord saw grace should not be sufficiently advanced to its highest dignity by this and therefore suffers him actually to fall and that into an extreame depth of misery Now consider mans fall in it selfe cannot be a meane of glorifying grace but rather obscures all the glory of God how shall the Lord attaine his end then hereby truly if the Lord let men see and feele their fall and misery by it now grace offered will â—e accepted and glorified And therefore the Lord sends the law to reveale sin and make it exceeding sinfull
union 1 Cor. 1.30 Christ is made righteousnesse and sanctification unto whom read the beginning of the verse and you shall see it is onely to those that be in Christ which is by faith Let none say here as some doe that we have union to Christ first by the Spirit without faith in order going before faith For understanding of which let us a little consider of our union unto Christ Our union to Christ is not by the essentiall presence of the Spirit for that is in every man as the God-head is every where in whom we live and move This is common to the most wicked man nay to the vilest creature in the world Hence it followes that our union is by some act of the Spirit peculiar to the elect who onely shall have communion with Christ working some reall change in the soul for of reall not relative union I now speak this act cannot be those first acts of the spirit of bondage for they are common unto reprobates they are therefore such acts as are essentiall unto the nature of union Now look as disunion is the disjunction or separation of divers things one from another so union is the conjunction or joyning of them together that were before severed Hence that act of the Spirit in uniting us to Christ can be nothing else but the bringing back the soule unto Christ or the conjunction of the soule unto Christ and into Christ by bringing it back to him that before this lay like a dry bone in the valley separated from him Thus 1 Cor. 6.17 He that is joyned or as the word signifies glewed to the Lord is one spirit with him The Spirit therefore brings us to the Lord Christ and so we are in him Now the comming of the soule to Christ what is it but faith Iohn 6.35 Our union therefore is by faith not without it for by it onely we that were once separated from him by sinne and especially by unbeliefe Heb. 3.12 are now come not onely unto him as iron unto the load-stone Iohn 6.37 out which is most neare into him as branches into the vine so grow one with him and hence those phrases in Scripture to beleeve in Christ or into Christ. I speak not this as if we were united to Christ without the Spirit on his part for the conjunction of things severed must be mutuall if it be firme I onely shew that we are not united before faith by the Spirit unto Christ but that we are by faith wrought by the Spirit whereby on our part we are first conjoyned unto him and then on his part he by the person of the Spirit is most wonderfully united unto us The Spirit puts forth variety of acts in the soule as it acts us to good works t is the spirit of obedience as it infuseth habits of grace so t is the spirit of sanctification as it assists us continually and guides us to our end and witnesseth favour t is the spirit of adoption as it works feares of death and hell t is the spirit of bondage but as it drawes us from sinne to Christ so t is the spirit of union and therefore to imagine union before and without faith by the Spirit is but a spirit indeed which when you come to feele it you shall finde it a nothing without flesh or bones or sinewes As our marriage union to Christ must have consent of faith on our part wrought by the Spirit or else the Lord Jesus is a vaine sutor to us so now the Spirit on Christs part must apprehend our faith and dwell in us who otherwise shall suddenly goe a whoring from him 1 Pet. 1.5 Eph. 3.17 3. That Vocation is not all one with Sanctification may appeare thus 1. Vocation is before Justification Rom. 8.30 But Sanctification is not before Justification as we have proved and therefore they are not the same 2. Sanctification is the end of Vocation 1 Thess. 4.7 therefore it is not the same with it 3. Faith is the principall thing in Vocation The first part of it being Gods call the second part being our answer to that call or in comming at that call Ier. 3.22 Now faith is no part of Sanctification strictly taken because it is the meanes and instrument of our Justification and Sanctification Acts 26.18 Our hearts are said to be purified by faith Acts 15.9 not our lives onely in the acts of holinesse and purity but our hearts in the habituall frame of them I live by the faith of the Sonne of God saith Paul We passe from death to life by faith Iohn 5.24 therefore it is no part of our spirituall life You will not come to me which is faith that you may have life Iohn 5.40 Iohn 6.50.51 therefore faith is the instrumentall means of life and therefore no part of our life as faith comes by hearing and therefore hearing is no part of faith so Justification comes by faith and therefore is no part of Sanctification all our life both of Justification and Sanctification is laid up in Christ our head this life according to Gods great plot shall never be had but by coming to Christ for it Heb. 7.25 else grace and Christ should not bee so much honoured Rom. 4.16 it is of Faith that it might be of Grace Sanctification therefore is the grace applyed by faith faith the grace applying by coming to Christ for it we have it and therefore have it not when first we come I am sorry to be thus large in lesse practicall matters yet I have thought it not unusefull but very comfortable to a poore passenger not only to know his journies end and the way in generall to it but also the severall Stadia or Townes he is orderly to passe through there is much wisdome of God to be seen not only in his work but in his manner and order of working for want of which I see many Christians in these dayes fall very foulely into erroneous apprehensions in their judgments the immediate ground of many errours in practise the objections made against what hath been delivered are for the principall of them answered the maine end my beloved of propounding these things is that you would look narrowly to your union oh take heed you misse not there if you close with Christ beleeve in Christ and yet not cut off from your sin viz. that spirit of resistance of Christ you are utterly and eternally undone this is the condemnation of the world not that men love darknesse wholly and hate light but that they love darkenesse more then light not that the uncleane spirit is not gone out but that he is not so cast out as never to returne againe the wound of all men yea the best of men that professe Christ and yet indeed out of Christ lyes in this they were never severed from their sinne by all their prayers teares feares sorrowes and hence they never truly come to Christ and hence perish in their sin Trouble