Conversion When they were in this dismal Condition they were not troubled with Cares for Wife or Children Houses or Lands how can we think but that these men died in Peace that were in so good a Humour yet see what follows verse 36. Nevertheless they did flatter him with their mouths and lied unto him with their tongues Besides consider the Vnworthiness of it I le Forsake Sin when Sin Forsakes me We leave it when we can keep it no longer Thank you for nothing may God say if you could you would sin longer this is that Folly which deferring our Repentance brings us to But to draw to a conclusion God hath set us a Certain Day and if we pass the time wo be to us For though he is full of Mercy and Patience yet Patience hurt oftentimes harms and provokes the Almighty to Fury God will not alwaies strive with man but his daies shall be an hundred and twenty years if he convert in that space and return well if not he shall be swept away And to this purpose is that parable Luke 13.6 A certain man had a fig-tree planted in his Vineyard and he came and sought Fruit thereon and found none Then said he unto the dresser of his Vineyard behold these three years I came seeking fruit on this fig-tree and find none Cut it down why combreth it the ground There is an appointed time then fore ordained by God wherein he offers us Grace Let it alone saith the dresser one year more It may be seven years or ten it may be but two hours for ought thou knowest that God may offer thee longer this space No man knows the time and its continuance but he that hath appointed it to this purpose Which is a point I thought not to speak of but not I will You hear much talk of Gods eternal and everlasting election and we are to apt to rest on this that if we are elected to salvation we shall be saved and if not we shall be damned troubling our selves with Gods work of Praedestination whereas this works no Change in the party elected until it come unto him in his own Person What is God's election to me It s nothing to my comfort unless I my self am effectually called We are to look to this effectual calling The other is but Gods love to sever me from the Corrupt mass of Adams posterity But what is my effectual calling It s that when God touches my heart and translates me from the Death of sin to the life of Grace Before this effectual calling even the elect Ephesians were without Christ Aliens from the Commoa-Wealth of Israel Strangers from the Covenant of promise having no hope and without God in the World Ephes. 2.12 Now there are certain times which God appoints for this effectual calling wherein he uses the means to work on us and of which he can say what could I do more then I have done And mayst thou not fear an actual rejection since thou hast lived thus long under the means of Grace That God hath waited these not only three but mâ—ny years the dew of Heaven continually falling on thee and that yet thou shouldst remain unfruitful Doest thou not fear I say that dismal sentence cut it down why combereth it the ground Gods grace is not to be dallied with as wanton Children do with their meats if we do thus slight him he may justly deprive us of all See a terrible place to this purpose Heb. 6.7 8. The earth which drinketh in the rain that cometh oft upon it and bringeth Herbs meet for them by whom it is dressed receiveth blessing from God but that which beareth Thorns and Briers is rejected and is nigh unto cursing whose end is to be burned Consider these places God calls us where the droppings of his Grace are distilled consider then do we bring forth that fruit which is meet for the dresser answerable to those continual distillings and droppings on us If our consciences witness for us happy are we but when there have been these showers of grace out of Gods word flowing down upon us and yet we have received so much Grace in vain O what can we expect but a curse in this life and eternal death in the World to come What can we look for but the fig-trees curse which was barren The Tree was not cut down but withered We are near the same curse if we answer not Gods grace When we have had so long a time the Ministry of the Word and yet suffer it to be lost through our barrenness our condition is sad and woful we can look for nothing but withering Heb. 6.9 But beloved I must hope better things of you and such as accompany salvation Labour therefore to prevent and arm your selves against this suggestion and fallacy of Satan and resolve to hear God in this acceptable time now to set to the work which if we do all will be well God will be gracious to us If otherwise we are undone for ever Till you have learned this lesson you can no further Wherefore let not Satan possess you with that madness to cause you to pass and let slip this golden opportunity through a false conceipt that you may have a more seasonable day of your own for repentance hereafter I will not say that a death-bed repentance is alwaies fruitless the Ancient Fathers though they give no encouragement to defer it till then yet in case it be so long put off they injoyn it even then 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 c. Chrysost. in Psal. 51. pag. 675 and 705. Edit Savi-lian As long as thou breathest even in the last day of thy life upon thy bed when thou art expiring and about to depart from the Theatre of this life then repent the straitness of the time doth not exclude the Philanthropy of God that love which he beareth to Mankind Onely remember what I have said of the danger of this procrastination and how unfitting a season it is for so great a work and what reasons we have to judge it seldome serious GAL. 6.3 4. For if a man think himself to be something when he is nothing he deceiveth himself But let every man prove his own work and then shall he have rejoycing in himself alone and not in another HAving entred on the Doctrine of the conversion of a sinner in that Text Heb. 4.7 upon which depends our everlasting salvation I laboured to perswade you of the necessity of taking the accepted time of embracing the proffers of Gods grace and of the necessity of doing it speedily I shewed you that there is a certain time in which God will be found and that this time was the present time I declared unto you the great danger that would follow if we took not God at his word but refused his day for a day of our own as if we were wiser than he If when God calls and holds out the Golden Scepter we refuse to
2. But there are another sort as greatly befool'd as these yea more if more may be and those are they who put it off till the Hour of their Death till the last gasp as if they desired to give God as little of their service as possibly they might who think if they can but cry Peccavi and Lord have mercy on me when their breath departs their bodies they shew a good Disposition and perform such Acceptable service as that God cannot chuse but grant them a pardon But think not all will be surely well because thou hastest to shake hanâ—s with God at thy Journeys end when thou hast not walked with him aâ—l the way Obj. But did not the Thief repent at the last on the Cross and why not I on my Death bed Sol. This is no good Warrant for thy delay for Christ might work This miraculously for the Glory of his Passion Dost thou think when in thy Health and Strength thou hast for several Years despised the Riches of Gods goodness and Forbearance and Long-suffering that leads thee to Repentance that assoon as thou art cast on thy Death-bed and ready to breath out thy Soul the Rocks shall be Rent again and the Graves opened to quicken thy Repentance and beget in thee a Saving Faith Trust not therefore on this nor content thy self with good Intentions but set about the business in good earnest and presently Our Death-beds will bring so many disadvantages as will make that time very Vnseasonable Whether we respect 1. External hinderances such as are pangs and pains in thy body which must be undergone and thou shalt find it will be as much as thou well canst do to support thy self under them Every noise will then offend thee yea thou will not be able to endure the speech of thy best friends When Moses came to the Children of Israel and told them God had sent him to deliver them what acceptation found this comfortable message The Text saith Exod. 9.6 They hearkned not through anguish of their spirits See here the effects of Anguish and Grief Moses spake comfortably but by reason of their pains they hearkned not unto him they were indisposed to give attendance So shall it be with us on our death-beds through the Anguish of our Spirits we shall be unfit to meddle with ought else especially when the the Pains of Death are upon us the Dread whereof is terrible How will it make us tremble when death shall come with that Errand to divide our Souls from our Bodies and put them into possession of Hell unless we repent the sooner Now thou art in thy best strength consider what a Terror it will be what a sad Message it will bring when it comes not to cut off an Arm or Leg but Soul from Body Now then make thy Peace with God but that these men are Fools they would through fear of death be all their life-time in bondage It 's the Apostles expression Heb. 2.15 The consideration hereof should never let us be at rest till we had made our Peace with God it should make us break our Recreations and Sports The considerations of what will become of us should put us in an Extasie Nor are these all our Troubles for besides these outward Troubles will then even overwhelm us when a man is to dispose of his Wife and Children House and Lands he must needs be very unfit at this time for the Work of Repentance These things will cast so great a damp on his heart as that he shall be even cold in his seeking after Peace with God 2. But suppose these outward hinderances are removed that neither Pain of Body nor Fear of Death seize on thee neither Care of Wife nor Children Houses nor Lands distract thee but that thou mightst then set about it withal thy might though thou wert in the most penitent condition that might be to mans seeming yet where 's the Change or new nature should follow thy Contrition unless we see this in Truth we can have but little Comfort Shall I see a sinner run on in his ill courses till the day of Death and then set on this work I could not conclude therefore the safety of his soul because it 's the Change of the Affections not of the Actions that God looks after for the Fear of Death may Extort this Repentance where the Nature is not Changed Take an example of a Covetous Man which dotes on his Wealth more then any thing else in the World suppose him in a ship with all his riâ—hes about him a tempest comes and puts him in danger of losing all both Life and Goods in this strait he sticks not to cast out all his Wealth so he may preserve his Life and shall we therefore say he is not covetous No we will account him nevertheless Covetous for all this nor that he loved his Goods the less but his Life the more It 's so in this case when an impenitent person is brought upon his Death-bed he 's apt to cry out in the Bitterness of his Soul If God will but grant me Life and spare me now I le never be a Drunkard Swearer or Covetous Person more Whence comes this Not from any change of his Nature and loathing of what he formerly loved but because he cannot keep these and Life together Fear alters his disposition the Terrors of the Almighty lying upon him I have my self seen many at such a time as this that have been so exceeding full of Sorrow and penitent Expressions that the standers by have even wished their Souls to have been in the other Souls cases and yet when God hath restored them they have fallen into their former Courses again And why is this But because when Repentance comes this way it alters only the outward actions for the Present not the sinful dispositions things that are extracted from a man alter the outward appearance not the Nature Therefore saith the Lord I le go and return to my place till they acknowledge their offence and seek my face In their affliction they will seek me early Hos. 5. last Mark when Gods hand is on them they will seek him And as in the 6. Chap. 1. v. say one to another Come let us return unto the Lord for he hath torn and he will heal us he hath smitten and he will bind us up How penitent were they when Gods hand was on them but let it once be removed and hear how God presently complains of them O Ephraim what shall I do unto thee O Judah what shall I'do unto thee For your goodness is as a Morning Cloud and as the early dew it goeth away Mark thy goodness is as a Morning Cloud such a Goodness as is Extorted that is as Temporary as Earthly Dew Another considerable place we have in the Psal. 78.34 When he slew them then they sought him and they returned and enquired early after God Was not this a great
mans soul There is blood shed and by it pardon of sin and life convey'd unto thee on Christs part Now if there be faith and repentance on thy part and thou accept of Christ as he is offered then thou mayst say I have the Son and as certainly as I have the bread in my hand I shall have life by him This I speak but by the way that the Sun might not set in a cloud that I might not end only in death but that I might shew that there is a way to recover out of that death into which we have all naturally praecipitated our selves by our apostacy from God ROM 6.23 The wages of Sin is death THe last day I entred on the Declaration of the cursed effects and consequents of sin and in general shewed that it is the wrath of God that where sin is there wrath must follow As the Apostle in the Epistle to the Galathians As many as are under the works of the Law are under the curse Now all that may be expected from a God highly offended is comprehended in Scripture by this term Death Wheresoever sin enters death must follow Rom. 5.12 Death passed over all men forasmuch as all had sinned If we are children of sin we must be children of wrath Eph. 1.3 We are then children of wrath even as others Now concerning death in general I shewed you the last time that the state of an unconverted man is a dead and desperate estate He is a slave it would affright him if he did but know his own slavery and what it is that hangs over his head that there 's but a Span betwixt him and death he could never breath any free air he could never be at any rest he could never be free from fear Heb. 2.15 the Apostle saith that Christ came to deliver them that through fear of death were all their life time subject to bondage This bondage is a deadly bondage that when we have done all that we can do what 's the payment of the service Death And the fear of this deadly bondage if we were once sensible if God did open our eyes and shew us as he did Belshazar our doom written did we but see it it would make our joynts loose and our knees knock one against another Every day thou livest thou approachest nearer to this death to the accomplishment and consummation of it Death without and Death within Death in this World and in the World to come Not only death thus in gross and in general but in particular also Now to unfold the particulars of death and to shew you the ingredients of this bitter Cup that we may be weary of our estates that we may be drawn out of this death and be made to fly to the Son that we may be free indeed observe that Death is not here to be understood of a separation of the Soul from the Body only but a greater death than that the death of the Soul and Body We have mention made of a first Resurrection Rev. 20.6 Blessed and happy is he that hath his part in the first Resurrection for on such the second death hath no power What is the first resurrection It is a rising from sin And what is the second death It is everlasting damnation The first Death is a Death in sin and the first Resurrection is a rising from sin And so again for all things the judgments or troubles that appertain to this death all a man suffers before It is not as fools think the last blow that fells the Tree but every blow helps forward 'T is not the last blow that kills the man but every blow that goes before makes way unto it Every trouble of mind every anguish every sickness all these are as so many strokes that shorten our life and hasten our end and are as it were so many deaths Therefore however it is said by the Apostle It is appointed for all men once to dye yet we see the Apostle to the Corinthians of the great conflicts that he had in 2 Cor. 11.23 saith that he was in labours abundant in stripes above measure in prisons frequent in deaths oft In deaths often what 's that That is however he could dâ—e but once yet these harbingers of death these stripes bonds imprisonments sicknesses c. all of them were as so many deaths all these were comprehended under this curse and are parts of death in as much as he underwent that which was a furtherance to death he is said to die So we read Exod. 10.17 Pharaoh could say Pray unto your God that he would forgive my sins this once and intreat the Lord that he will take away from me but this death only Not that the Locusts were death but are said to be so because they prepared and made way for a natural death Therefore the great judgments of God are usually in Scripture comprised under this name Death All things that may be expressions of a wrath of an highly provoked God are comprehended under this name All the judgments of God that come upon us in this life or that to come whether they be spiritual and ghostly or temporal are under the Name of Death Now to come to particulars look particularly on Death and you shall see death begun in this world and seconded by a death following the separation of body and soul from God in the world to come 1. First in this life he is always a dying man Man that is born of a woman what is he He is ever spending upon the stock he is ever wasting like a Candle burning still and spending it self as soon as lighted till it come to its utter consumption So he is born to be a dying man death seizeth upon him as soon as ever it findeth sin in him Gen. 2.1 In the day that thou eatest thereof thou shalt dye saith God to Adam though he lived many years after How then could this threatning hold true Yes it did in regard that presently he fell into a languishing estate subject and obnoxious to miseries and calamities the hastners of it If a man be condemn'd to dye suppose he be reprieved and kept prisoner three or four years after yet we account him but a dead man And if this mans mind shall be taken up with worldly matters earthly contentments purchases or the like would we not account him a Fool or a stupid man seeing he lightly esteems his condemnation because the same hour he is not executed Such is our case we are while in our natural condition in this life dead men ever tending toward the Grave towards corruption as the gourd of Jonah so soon as ever it begins to sprout forth there is a worm within that bites it and causes it to wither The day that we are born there is within us the seed of corruption and that wasts us away with a secret and incurable consumption that certainly brings death in the end So that in our very
to her Husband Have thou nothing to do with that just man And Pilate himself washed his hands and would be free from the blood of that innocent person The Thief crucified with him acquits him his whole life was a perfect obedience to the Law of God Rom. 10.4 Christ is the end of the Law Rom. 8.4 That the righteousness of the Law might be fulfilled in us not by us we are not able to fulfil the Law but in us Christ did it for us And the Father is better pleased with the thirty three years hearty obedience of his Son than if Adam and all his posterity had been obedient throughout the whole course of the world So acceptable was this obedience to God And thus much of his active Obedience 2. Now for his passive obedience his suffering If our Saviour will be a sacrifice he must be used like one he must be slain if he will make satisfaction to his Father for us He must for our eating sower grapes have his own teeth set on edge Consider his humiliation both in life and death if we look on the service of Jacob under his Uncle Laban his service was an hard service twice seven years did he serve The drought consumed him by day and the Frost by night and the sleep departed from his eyes Twenty Years hard service Fourteen Years for his two Wives and six Years for his Cattle Gen. 31.41 Our Saviour spent thirty three years in his hard service and oft did the sleep depart from his eyes When Israel came to appear before Pharoah My dayes saith he have been 130 years few and evil have the dayes of thy servant been Gen. 47.9 The true Israelite might say more Jacobs days were few but as few as they were they were 130 years but if we look upon our Saviours dayes they were scarce a quarter so many And that is our Saviours humiliation that he was cut off in the midst of his dayes If we look into the Psalm we shall find it a curse on the bloody and deceitful man that he shall not live out half his dayes The livelie part of a mans age from Moses his time to this day in that Psalm of Moses Psalm 90. is threescore years and ten Half this is thirty five years and our Saviour is taken off before this thirty five is expired He was to take on him all the curses due to sinners to the bloody and deceitful man He is cut off and cropt off in the midst of his vigour He that is that Melchisedeck that hath neither beginning nor end of days was cut off as a branch lopt off as a twig from the land of the living Isa. 53. ver 8. He 's pul'd out so his dayes were few far fewer then Jacobs He was not suffered to live out half his dayes Yet if we look upon his days they were evil too evil enough as few as they were Full of trouble and full of misery From his first coming into the World to his last going out 1. When he did descend into the lowermost part of the earth He was nine months in the womb of his Mother And if we take the opinion of thâ— Schoolmen he had his full Vnderstanding and Judgment all that time thâ— free use of sense and reason though I do not aver it to be a truth only say if it be so it makes his humiliation insupportable What an extreaâ— burthen would it be to us to be so long in the womb and in ripe understanding therefore there was somewhat in that But now 2. Look at his coming forth into the World Though his mother were in her own City yet he was so despicable that there was nor room for them in the Inn. Luk. 2.7 Our Saviour that should one would think have been brought into a stately Palace was fain to have his lodging among the beasts and a Cratch for his Cradle The wise men when they came to worship him found him in no better case and what a disgrace was it instead of a Palace the King of the East should find our Saviour in a Cratch 3. And now when eight dayes are over he must have his skin cut off he must be circumcised and give the first payment or earnest of his blood How painful and irksom a thing Circumcision was appears by that story in Gen. 34 Where the sons of Jacob offering the Shechemites the condition of Circumcision and they accepting it it was so troublesome a thing that by reason of their soreness and weakness by it two of the Sons of Jacob Simeon and Levi slew a whole City The pain was so great that they could not manage there weapons therefore two men slew thousands of them Our blessed Saviour was thus served when the eight dayes were over he was thus made sore and this was the first effusion of his blood 4. After the eight dayes are over then come the forty dayes and then he must be carried a long journey to be offered up to the Lord and his Mother as if she had brought an unclean and impure thing into the World must be cleansed and purified And then she came to offer a sacrifice according to the Law of the Lord. Luke 2.24 A pair of Turtle Doves or two young Pigeons But was this the Law It were good if the Law were looked into See Levit. 12.8 The Law is this She shall bring a Lamb or if she be not able to bring a Lamb then two Turtles or two young Pigeons If she be not able but the margin hath it If her hand cannot reach to a Lamb if she be so poor that she cannot offer a Lamb. As if the Text should have said Alas poor woman poor Lady all she had was not able to reach to a Lamb so poor was she Doubtless her heart was as large as anothers but she was not able to offer a Lamb and is therefore content with two Turtles 5. Hence we may conceive in what state our Saviour lived till he came into the Ministry questionless in a poor house and he made many a hungry meal when his Mother was not worth a Lamb. All that they had must be by hard labor 9. Now our Saviour notwithstanding after he had travelled that weary journey to Jerusalem must return again and be subject to his Parents but how Even as a servant in his Trade They had not bread to spare but what was gotten by hard laborious work At his Fathers Trade I say for so it s said of him Is not this the Carpenter It s put in the nominative case The Carpenter Mâ—rk 6. ver 3. And whereas this is cast as a curse on our first parents and their seed Gen. 3.49 That in the sweat of their brows they should eat their bread Our Saviour must undergo this curse too He must work hard for his living With his own hands he must get a living for himself and his poor Mother by a laborious Trade No wonder if he went
taste and relish of the joy of the world to come and yet are carried all this while in a fool's Paradise and think there is no fear of their safety never knowing that they are cast-aways till they come to the gates of hell and find themselves by woful experience shut out of Heaven And their case is woful that are thus deceived Know then that it is not every faith that justifies a man a man may have faith and yet not be justified The Faith that justifies is the Faith of Gods Elect. Tit. 1.1 There is a faith that may belong to them that are not Gods elect but that faith does not justifie In the Epistle of Timothy that faith which justifies must be a faith unfegn'd 1 Tim. 1.5 2 Tim. 1.5 Now here 's the skill of a Christian to try what that faith is which justifies him Now this justifying faith is not every work of Gods Spirit in a mans heart For there are supernatural operations of the Spirit in a mans heart that are but temporary that carry him not thorow and therefore are ineffectual but the end of this faith is the salvation of our souls 1 Pet. 1.9 We read in the Scripture of Apostacy and falling back Now they cannot be Apostates that were never in the way of truth This being an accident we must have a subject for it Now there is a certain kind of people that have supernatural workings some that are drawn up and down with every wind of Doctrine these are they that have this cold and temporary faith temporary because in the end it discovers it self to be a thing not constant and permanent We read in John 11.26 That they that are born of God that is that live and believe in Christ never see death shall never perish eternally but yet we must know withal that there may be conceptions that will never come to the birth to a right and perfect delivery And thus it may be in the soul of a man there may be conceptions that will never come to a ripe birth but let a man be born of God and come to perfection of birth and the case is clear he shall never see death He that liveth and believeth in me shall not see death And this is made a point of faith Believest thou this There is another thing called conception and that is certain dispositions to a birth that come not to full perfection True a child that is born and liveth is a perfectly alive as he that liveth an hundred years yet I say there are conceptions that come not to a birth Now the faith that justifies is a living faith there is a certain kind of dead faith this is a feigned that an unfegned faith The life that I now live I live by the faith of the Son of God Dost thou think a dead faith can make a living soul It s against reason A man cannot live by a dead thing not by a dead faith Now a dead faith there is A faith that doth not work is a dead faith Jam. 2.22 Seest thou how faith wrought with his works and by his works was faith made perfect for verse 26. As the body without the spirit is dead or without breath is dead so faith without works is dead also See how the Apostle compares it as the body without the spirit is dead so faith without works is dead also The Apostle makes not works the form of faith as the soul is the form of the man But as the body without the spirit is dead so that faith that worketh not that hath no tokens of life is dead but then doth not the other word strike home Faith wrought with his works It seems here is as the Papists say fides informis and works make it up as the 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 of it But compare this with the other places of the Scripture and the difficulty will be cleared for instance weigh that place 2 Cor. 12.9 Where the Apostle pray'd to God that the messenger of Satan might be removed from him and he said unto him My grace is sufficient for thee for my strength is made perfect in weakness What Does our weakness make Gods strength more perfect to which nothing can be added No it is My strength and the perfection of it is made known in the weakness of the means that I made use of for the delivery of mans soul from death So here the excellency and perfection of our faith is made known by works when I see that it is not an idle but a working faith then I say it is made perfect by the work When it is a dead faith that puts not a man on work never believe that will make a liâ—ing soul. In St. Judes Epistle ver 20. it hath another Epithete viz. The most holy faith not holy only but most holy That faith which must bring a man to God the holy of holies must be most holy It 's said that God dwells in our hearts by faith Ephes. 3.17 Now God and faith dwelling in a heart together that heart must needs be pure and clean Faith makes the heart pure It were a most dishonourable thing to entertain God in a sty a filthy and unclean heart but if faith dwell there it makes a fit house for the habitation of the King of Saints therefore it purifieth the heart Well then dost thou think thy sins are forgiven thee and that thou hast a strong faith and yet art as prophane and as filthy as ever How can it be It is a most holy faith that justifieth it is not a faith that will suffer a man to lie on a dunghil or in the gutter with the hog There may be a faith which is somewhat like this but it is but temporary and cometh short of it But now there is another thing which distinguishes it it is the peculiar work of faith In Jesus Christ neither circumcision availeth any thing nor uncircumcision but the new creature Gal. 6.15 and again Gal. 5.6 Neither circumcision nor uncircumcision availeth any thing but faith which worketh by love It 's twice set down Now what is a new creature Why he that hath such a faith as works by love not a dead faith but a faith that works but how does it work it not only abstains from evil and does some good acts which a temporary may do but it s such a faith as works by love The love of God constrains him 2 Cor. 5.14 and he so loveth God as that he hates evil for Gods sake the other does it not out of love to God all the love he hath is self-love he serves his own turn on God rather than hath any true love to serve him Now that we may the better distinguish between these two I shall endeavour to shew you how far one may go farther than the other I know not a more difficult point then this nor a case more to be cut by a thread then this it being a