slender sigh I must bee assured that the Spirit of God is present and worketh His good worke Faith saith 〈◊〉 sin in the most holy men in this life is imperfect and weake yet neverthelesse whosoever feeles in his heart an earnest desire and a striving against his naturall doubtings both can and must assure Himselfe that Hee is indued with true Faith If thou shalt feele thy selfe saith Rolloc to beleeve in Christ and that for Christ or at lâ—ast if thou canst not forthwith attaine that If thou feele thy selfe willing to beleeve in Christ for Christ and willing to doe al things for Gods sake and syncerely Thou hast certainely a very excellent argument both of perseverance in Faith and of that faith which shall last for ever Our faith may bee so small and weake saith Tassin as it doth not yet bring forth fruits that may bee lively felt in us but if they which feele themselves in such estate desire to have these feelings namely of Gods favour and love if they aske them at Gods hands by prayer this desire and prayer are testimonies that the spirit of God is in them and that they have Faith already For is such a desire a fruit of the flesh or of the spirit It is of the holy Spirit who bringeth it forth onely in such as He dwells in c. Is it possible saith Hooker speaking of Valentinian the Emperour out of Ambrose that He which had purposely the Spirit given Him to desire grace should not receive the grace which that spirit did desire Where wee cannot doe what is inioyned us God accepteth our Will to doe in stead of the Deede it selfe I am troubled with feare that my sinnes are not pardoned saith Careles They are answered Bradford For God hath given thee a penitent and beleeving Heart that is an heart which desireth to repent and beleeve For such an One is taken of Him Hee accepting the Will for the Deede for a penitent and beleeving heart Before I come to the vse of this comfortable Point lest any coozen themselves by any mis-conceites about it As the notorious Sinner the meere Civill Man and the formall Professour may all doe very easily take notice of some Markes of this saving Desire It is 1. Supernaturall For it followes an effectuall conviction of sinne and co-operation of the spirit of bondage with the preaching and power of the Law for a thorow casting a Man downe in the sight of the Lord shewing and convincing Him to bee a Sinke of sinne abomination and curse to bee quite undone lost and damned in Himselfe Which preparative worke precedent to the desire I speake of is it selfe above nature Whereupon the Soule thus illightened convinced and terrified being happily lead unto and looking upon the glorious mystery of the Gospell the excellency and offer of Iesus Christ the sweetnesse and freenesse of the Promises the heavenly splendour and riches of the Pearle of great price c. doth conceive by the helpe of the holy Ghost this desire and vehement longing Which you may then know to bee saving when it is joyned with an hearty willingnesse and unfained resolution to sell all to part with all sinne to bid adiew for ever to our darling-delight c. It is not then an effect onely of selfe-love not an ordinary wish of naturall appetite like Baalams Numb 23.10 Of those who desire to bee happy but are unwilling to bee holy who would gladly bee saved but are loth to bee sanctified 2. It ever springs from an humble meeke and bruised spirit very sensible both of the horrour of sin and happinesse of pardon both of it 's owne emptinesse and of the fulnesse in Christ Never to bee found in the affections of a Self-ignorant Selfe-confident unhumbled Pharisie 3. It must be constant importunately greedy after supply and satisfaction Not out of a Pang or passion onely or begot by the tempest of some present extremity like a flash of lightning and then quite vanishing away when the storme of terrour and temptation is over For if a syncere thirst after Christ be once on foote and takes roote in an heart truly humbled it never determines or expires in this life or the life to come 4. It is ever enlinckt and enlived with a continued and conscionable use and exercise of the meanes and drawes from them by little and little spirituall strength and vigour much vitall efficacy and increase Not idle ignorant un-exercised It were very vaine and absurd to heare a Man talke of His desire to live and yet would neither eate nor drinke nor sleepe nor exercise nor take Physicke nor use those meanes which are ordinary and necessary for the maintenance of life It is as fruitlesse and foolish for any one to pretend a desire of grace after Christ and to bee saved and yet will not prize and ply the faithfull Ministry the Word preached and read prayer meditation conference vowes dayes of humiliation the use of good company and good bookes and all divine Ordinances and blessed meanes appointed and sanctified by God for the procuring and preserving a good spirituall state 5. It is not a lazy cold heartlesse indifferent desire but earnest eager vehement extremely thirsting as the parched earth for refreshing shewers or the hunted Hart for the Water-brookes Never was Ahab more sicke for a Vine-yard Rachel more ready to die for children Sisera or Samson for thirst then a truly humbled Soule after Iesus Christ after bathing in His blood and hiding it selfe in His blessed righteousnesse This desire deads the heart to all other desires after earthly things gold good-fellow-ship pleasures fashions even the delights of the bosome-sinne c. All other things are but drosse and dung vanity and vile in respect of that object it hath now found out and affects As Aarons Rod managed miraculously by the hand of divine power swallowed up all the other Rods of Pharaohs Sorcerers So this spirituall desire planted in the heart by the holy Ghost eates up and devoures as it were all other desires and over-eager affections after worldly contentments as worthlesse vaine transitory as empty Clouds Welles without water Comforters of no valew Wee that deale with afflicted consciences heare many times some expressions of this impatient violent desire in troubled minds I have borne nine children said One with as great paine I thinke as other women I would with all my heart beare them all over againe and passe againe thorow the same intolerable pangs every day as long as I live to bee assured of my part in Iesus Christ. Complaining another time that shee had no hold of Christ it was said unto Her But doth not your heart desire and long after Him Oh! sayes she I have an Husband and Children and many other comforts I would give them all and all the good I shall ever see in this World or in the World to come to have my poore thirsty Soule
upright Soule wil be graciously accepted of our mercifull God in the Name of Iesus Christ As tho first Thy repentance had been to the full Secondly Thy obedience to the height Thirdly Thy present promises vowes and resolutions for future forwardnesse and fruitfulnesse performed to the vtmost For when all is done Iesus Christ is All in All Hee alone is the onely Sanctuary and Tower of everlasting safty for every truly humbled Soule to fly unto both in life and death Hee is made unto us wisedome righteousnesse sanctification and redemption I come now as I promised to some speciall Cures and particular application of comfortable Antidotes to divers spirituall Maladies of which Christians specially complaine to those terrours and temptations which are woont most to afflict sin-troubled and truly-humbled Soules 1. I will suppose Thou art effectually and savingly wrought-upon by the Preaching and power of the Word illightned and convinced to acknowledge and feele thy selfe to bee a most sinnefull and cursed wretch by nature lost and forlorne damned and utterly undone in thy selfe c. And upon the opening of the glorious Mysterie of the Gospell and offer therein of the Person and pretious merits of Iesus Christ for the present binding-up of thy broken heart and endlesse blessednesse Thou art ravisht with extraordinary admiration and affection after that hidden Treasure and Pearle of great price holding thy selfe happy that ever thou wast borne and made for ever if thou canst get possession of it but a gone-man if thou canst not get it and an everlasting Cast-away Most willing therefore art Thou to sell all that thou hast prizing it infinitely before the riches glory and pleasures of the whole earth c. In which state thou hast a strong direct and speciall Calling to fill thine hungry Soule with Iesus Christ to lay hold upon his Person Sufferings promises and all the rich purchases of his dearest blood as thine owne for ever To take Him as thy wisedome and righteousnesse and sanctification and redemption that so unspeakeable ioy and full of glory peace which passeth all understanding Evangelicall pleasures which neither eye hath seene nor eare heard neither have entred into the heart of Man might abundantly flow into thine heart from the Fountaine of all comfort But yet so it is alledging that thou art the unworthiest upon earth the vilest of Men No heart so hard as thine thy sinnes farre above ordinary of an abominable and most abhorred streine of a scarlet and crimson die for thou hast done so and so sinned many and many a time against that Divine nay and even naturall light which stood in thy Conscience like an armed Man persecuted the Saints liued in Sodom c. And that which troubles thee most of all for all these sinnes thy sorrow is very poore and scant in no proportion to thy former hainous provocations I say upon these and the like mistaken grounds Thou very unadvisedly professes but against thine own Soule That as yet Thou canst not thou dares not Thou wilt not meddle with any mercy apply any promise or bee perswaded that Iesus Christ belongs unto Thee What Such a vile unworthy abominable wretch at thou to expect such glorious things to come neare so pure a God to lay violent hands upon the Lord of life and looke for everlasting blisse Alas Say what you will saist thou as yet I cannot I dare not I will not Whereupon Thou willfully as it were lies still upon the Racke of much spirituall terrour and trouble of minde And which is a miserable addition and mischiefe for which Thou maist thanke thy selfe art all the while farre more liable and lies much more open to Satans most horrible injections and cruellest temptations to selfe destruction despaire plunging againe into former pleasures of Good-fellowship and the like It grieves mee to consider how fearefully and falsly thou deceives thine own heart in a point of so great importance to thy much spiritual hurt and further horror Why therefore art thou most welcome to Iesus Christ because thou art so sensible of thy spirituall misery and beggery because thou art so vile so abominable so unworthy and wretched in thine own conceit Those that bee whole need not a Physician but they that are sicke Christ came not to call the righteous but sinners And in this respect He is said to iustifie the ungodly and to die for the uniust And to seeke those that finde themselves lost And therefore that which thou makes thy greatest discouragement to come unto Christ should bee and in truth is the greatest encouragement to cast thy selfe with confidence into the bosome of His love But before I come to speake more fully to the Point Let mee premise this Principle When a Man is once syncerely humbled under Gods mighty hand with sight of sinne and sense of divine wrath so that now all his former wicked wayes pollutions and provocations of Gods pure eye lie so heavy upon His heart that Hee is truly weary willing to bee rid of them all unfainedly thirsting after the blood and holinesse of Christ And therefore as well content to take upon him His sweet and easy yoke for to please Him in New-obedience for the time to come as to partake of the merit of His Passion for the present pardon of His sinnes I say then Hee must conceive that Hee hath a sound seasonable and comfortable Calling to lay fast hold upon Iesus Christ and to bee undoubtedly perswaded that Hee hath his part and portion in Him And besides that Gods blessed Word determines it Hee may the rather assent unto the season and the more boldly believe Because Hee hath now found and feeles by his owne experience the practise of that double policy of the Divell so often discovered unto Him heretofore by Gods faithfull Messengers to wit That whereas Hee was a long time most industrious to â—eepe His heart resolutely stubborne and unstird against the might and piercing of the most powerfull Ministry and when at any time Hee once perceived it to begin to worke upon Him raised all possible oppotion against His yeelding So now when Hee is truly toucht indeed and resolute to abandon His Hellish slavery for ever Hee labours might and maine with all restlesse cruelty and malice to keepe His conscience continually upon the Racke To this purpose He objects and urgeth to the utmost the hainousnesse of his former sinnes the fiercenesse of Gods wrath which Hee cunningly concealed before the littlenesse of His sorrow His unworthinesse to meddle with any promise and the like And what 's the reason thinke you that Hee who was so dawbing before is now so downe-right Hee that was so indulgent before is now so desperately bloody and for nothing but despaire and damnation It is easie to tell For that foule Fiend knowes full well if a poore Soule in the supposed case and such a truly-humbled state shall but come now when
an heavenly hoard of grace good conscience Gods favour c. happily treasured up while it is called Today hath the sole and sacred property and priviledge to hold up our hearts In times of horrour inabling us in the meane time patiently and profitably to master all miseries passe thorow all persecutions conquer all Commers and at length by the helpe of God to pull the very heart as it were out of Hell with confidence and triumph to looke even death and the Divell in the face and to stand with boldnesse before the terrour of the last Day like an unmooveable Rock when the Sonnes and daughters of confusion who have slept in harvest and mispent the gratious Day of their visitation shall intreate the mountaines and Rockes to fall upon them I say it being thus let every one of us like Sonnes and daughters of wisedome in this short Sommers Day of our abode upon earth and in this glorious Sun-shine of the Gospell and pretious seasons of grace imploy all meanes improove all oportunities to gather in with all holy greedinesse and treasure up abundantly much spirituall strength and lasting comfort against the evill Day To which let us be quickned by such considerations as these 1. This wise and happy treasuring up of heavenly hoards and comforts of holinesse afore hand will sweetely mollisie and allay the bitternesse and smart of that heavinesse and sorrow of those fearefull amazements and oppressions of spirit naturally incident to times of trouble and feare which ordinarily doe very grievously sting and strike thorow the hearts of carnall and secure Worldlings with full rage and the very slashes and fore-tastes of Hell Of all other passions of the Soule sadnesse and griefe grates most upon the vitall spirits dries up soonest the freshest marrow in the bones and most sensibly suckes out the purest and refinedst bloud in the heart All the Obiects of lightsomnesse and ioy are drowned in an heauy heart even as the beauty of a Pearle is dissolved in vineger Now the onely Cordiall and Counter-poyson against this dampe of light-heartednesse and Cut-throate of life is the secret sweetenesse and shining pleasure of that One pearls of great price three orient raies whereof are righteousnesse and peace and ioy in the holy Ghost treasur'd up in the Cabinet of a good conscience The glory pretiousnesse and power of which hidden treasure purchased with the sale of all sinne doth many times shine faireliest upon the Soule in the saddest times inspires for the most part into the hearts of the owners the greatest courage and constancy of spirit even in the dayes of adversity and vexation inables them to digest and beare without any great wound or passion those crosses and cruelties which would breake the backe and crush the heart of the stoutest Temporizer Was there not a great deale of difference thinke you betwixt the heart of Hezekiah who had walked before God in truth and with a perfect heart when He heard the newes of death from the mouth of the Prophet and the heart of Belshazzar when he saw the hand-writing upon the wall Giue me a great man who carries a way the credit and current of the times with all bravery and triumph wallowes and tumbles himselfe in the glory and pleasures of the present Throw Him from the transitory top of His heaven upon earth upon His last bed present unto His eye at once the terrible paÌ„gs of approaching death the ragefull malice of the powers of Hell the crying wounds of His bleding conscience the griesely fourmes of His innumerable sinnes His finall farewell with all worldly delights the pit of fire and brimstone into which He is ready to fall And I tell you true I would not endure an houres horrour of His wofull heart for His present Paradise to the worlds end But on the other side let me be the man whom the corruptions of the time confine to obscuritie who mournes in secret for the horrible abominations and crying sinnes that raigne amongst us who thinkes that day best spent wherein Hee hath gathered most spirituall strength against that last and sorest combate and by the mercies of God and humble dependance upon His omnipotent arme I will looke in the face the cruellest concurrence of all those former terrors with â—â—â—fidence and peace 2. Secondly By this spirituall hoarding of comfortable provision against the Evill day we may prevent a great deale of impatiency dependance upon the Arme of flesh base feares sinkings of heart un-manly deiections of spirit desperate resolutions and many passionate distempers of such raging and distracted nature which are woont to seize upon and surprise unholy and unprepared hearts when the Hand of God is heavy upon them How bravely and Heroically did patient Iob beare and breake thorow a matchlesse variety and extremity of calamities and conflicts The softest of whose sufferings would have strucke full cold to the heart of many a Carnalist and made it to dye within Him like a stone as Nabals did One of the least the losse of His goods I am perswaded would have caused many covetous worldlings to have laid violent and bloudy hands upon themselues For instance Ahitophel onely because the glory of his state-wisedome was obscur'd and overtopt at the counsell-Bord sadled His Asse gate Him Home put His houshold in order and hanged Himselfe The onely cause of His fainting in the day of disgrace and dis-acceptation was His false and rotten heart in matters of religion While the Crowne sate with security and safety upon Davids head He walked with Him as a companion unto the House of God But when the winde begun to blow a little another way and upon Absoloms side like a true Temporizer He followes the blast and turnes his sailes according to the weather And therefore His hollow heart having made the Arme of flesh His Anchor and a vanishing Blase of honour His chiefest blessednesse shrinkes at the very first sight and suspition of a tempest and sinkes this miserable Man into a Sea of horrour But now on the contrary what was the cause that Iobs heart was not crusht into pieces under the bitter concurrence of such a world of crosses of which any one severally was sufficient to have made a Man extreamely miserable The true reason of His patient resolution amid so many pressures was the spirituall riches He had hoarded up in the time of His happines Amongst which the divinest and dearest Iewel lay nearest unto His heart as a counterpoyson to the venome and sting of the Divels deadliest malice I meane a sound and strong faith in Iesus Christ the Lambe slaine from the beginning of the world which now began to shine the fairest in the darkest Midnight of His miseries and sweetly to dart out many heavenly sparkles of comfort and such glorious eiaculations as these Though he slay me yet will I trust in Him Cap. 13.15 And that cap. 19 23 c. Oh that my words were
enjoyed can procure or minister one jote of ease to a Soule afflicted in this kinde and thus trembling under the terrours of God In such an Agony and extremity haddest thou the utmost aide and an universall attendance from Angels and men couldest thou reach the top of the most aspiring humane ambition after the excellency and variety of all worldly felicities were thy possessions as large as East and West were thy meate continually Manna from Heaven every day like the day of Christs resurrection Were thy apparell as costly and orient as Aarons Ephod nay thy Body cloth'd with the beauty of the Sunne and crownde with Starres yet for all this and a thousand more thy heart within Thee would bee as cold as a stone and tremble infinitely above the heart of a woman entring into travell of Her first Childe For alas who can stand before the mighty Lord God Who dare pleade with Him when Hee is angry What spirit of man hath might to wrastle with His Maker Who is able to make an agreement with the Hells of Conscience or to put to silence the voyce of desperation Oh! in this conflict alone and wofull wound of conscience no Electuary of Pearle or pretious Baulme no Bezoars stone or Vnicornes horne Paracelsian quintessence or Potable Gold No new devise of the Knights of the Rosie-Crosse nor the most exquisite extraction which Alchymy or Art it selfe can create is able any whit or at all to revive ease or asswage It is onely the hand of the holy Ghost by the blood of that blessed Lambe Iesus Christ the holy and the righteous which can binde up such a bruise Vses 1. Counsell to the unconverted That they would take the stings out of their sinnes and prevent the desperatenesse and incurablenesse of this horrible wound by an humble sincere universall turning unto the Lord while it is called To Day For assuredly in the meane time all the sinnes they have heretofore committed in thought word or deede at any time in any place with any company or to which they have bin any wayes accessary are already upon record before the pure Eye of that high and everlasting Iudge written exactly by the hand of divine Iustice in the Book of their consciences with a pen of iron with the claw of an Adamant with the point of a Diamond or if you can name any thing which makes a stronger deeper and more lasting impression there they lye like so many Lions asleepe and Giants refreshing with wine gathering much desperate poyson and sâ—inging points that whensoever hereafter they shall bee effectually and finally awaked by Gods angry hand they may torment most ragingly and teare their wofull Soules in pieces everlastingly when there is none to helpe Now wee may see and observe many times one little sin at least in the worlds account and conceite of carnall men to plunge a guilty conscience into the depth of extremest horrour and a very Hell upon Earth As I have heard of and knowne in many One for a sudden unadvised imprecation against Her owne Soule in case She did so or so Another for a thought conceived of God unworthy so great a Majesty Another for covetously keeping a thing found and not restoring it or not inquiring after the Owner Another for an adulterous project without any actuall pollution Another by concurring with a company of scoffing Ishmaels onely once and ere Hee was aware by lifting up the hands and casting up the eyes in scorne of Gods people c. Yet afterwards they sadly revising these miscarriages in cold blood some of them some five or sixe yeeres after God beeing then pleased to represent them with terrour and their native stings were cast into that affliction of conscience and confusion of spirit that their very bones were broken their faces fill'd with ghastlinesse and feare their bodies possessed with strange tremblings and languishing distempers their very vitall moysture turned into the drought of Summer In which dreadfull perplexity they were in great danger of destroying themselves and of being swallowed up of despaire If the guilty sense then of one Sin when God sets it on and sayes unto it Torment drawes so many fiery points of stinging Scorpions after it charges upon the excellency of the understanding with such hideous darkenesse rents the heart in pieces with such desperate rage grindes into powder the arme and sinewes of all earthly succour melts like Dew before the Sunne all those delights and pleasures which the whole world offers or affords to comfort in such a Case In a word makes a man so extreamely miserable That Hee would make Himselfe away wishes with unspeakeable griefe that Hee had never been that Hee might returne into the abhorred state of annihilation that Hee were any other Creature that Hee might lye hid world without End under some everlasting Rocke from the face of God Nay that Hee were rather in Hell then in His present horrour I say it being thus what unquenchable wrath what streames of brimstone what restlesse anguish what gnashing of teeth what knawing of conscience what despairefull roarings what horrible torments what fiery Hells feeding upon His Soule and flesh for ever may every impenitent wretch expect when the whole blacke and bloudy Catalogue of all His sinnes shall bee marshold and mustered up together at once against Him every one beeing keened with as much torturing fury as the infinite anger of Almighty God can put into it after that Hee hath accursedly with much incorrigible stubbornnesse out-stood the day of His gracious visitation under this glorious Sun-shine of the Gospell wherein Hee either hath or if Hee had been as provident for His immortall Soule as carking for His rotten Carkasse might have enioyed very powerfull meanes all His life long And yet all the while neglected so great salvation forsooke his owne mercy and so iudged Himselfe unworthy of everlasting life If a lighter Sinne many times lite so heavy when the Conscience is illightened How will thy poore Soule tremble under the terrible and untolerable weight of all thy sinnes together When all thy lyes all thy oathes all thy rotten speeches and railings All thy bedlam passions and filthy thoughts All thy Good-fellow-meetings Ale-house-hauntings and scoffings of Gods people All the wrongs thou hast done all the goods thou hast got ill all the time thou hast mispent Thy prophanation of every Sabbath thy killing of Christ at every Sacrament thy Non-proficiency at every Sermon Thy ignorance thy unbeliefe thy worldlinesse thy covetousnesse thy pride thy malice thy lust thy luke-warmenesse impatiency discontentment vaine-glory Selfe-love The innumerable swarmes of vaine idle wandring and wicked imaginations In a word all the pollutions distempers and estrangednesse from God in thine heart all the villanies vanities and rebellions of thy whole life I say when all these shall bee charged upon thy gracelesse Soule by the implacable indignation of that highest Majesty whose mercy Ministry and long suffering thou
Debitors while they have any doings as they say and are in trading in policy let them alone and say nothing but if once downe the winde in sicknesse poverty disgrace c. Then comes Sergeant after Sergeant Arrest upon Arrest Action upon Action All their sinnes are set in order before them and fall full foule upon the now distressed Soule as Ravens upon the fallen Sheepe to picke out the very eyes and heart of it and to keepe it downe in the Dungeon of despaire for ever 5. Nor others because they cousen themselves with a formall false conceite of a comfortable spirituall state as did the Phariâ—ie Luk. 15.11 with a groundlesse presumption that they are in Gods favour as did those Matth. 7.22 And the five foolish Virgins Matth. 25. When as God knowes they are meere strangers to the Mysterie of Christ and farre enough from any sound Humiliation Thus the blindnesse security searednesse slumber Selfe-deceite or some other such distemper of the Conscience conceales and keepes in the stings of those sins in sensuall men which without turning unto the Lord in truth while it is called To Day will hereafter torment with intolerable and restlesse terrour thorow all eternity 3. A third reason why thy unlamented and unpardoned sinnes tho every one of them bee armed with a severall bloody and fiery sting and of their owne nature so heavy with horrour that they are able to sinke Thee into the bottome of Hell doe not as yet stirre nor presse upon thy Soule with the insupportable weight of divine vengeance is this They are in their native soyle where they were borne bred and brought up in their owne Element as they say I meane in a carnall heart soaking in sensualitie and not resolved to bee reformed Wee say in Philosophy An Element is not heavy in it's owne Place One Bucket full of water upon the Earth would bee burdensome to the Backe of that Man who were Hee in the bottome of the Sea would feele no weight at all from all the water there tho it were three miles high over His head A sensuall heart settled upon it's lees can beare without sense or complaint a world of wickednesse which out of it's Element and humour would bee crusht into Powder and tremble with horrour upon the sad apprehension of the least sinne especially set out by Gods just indignation While Belshazzar was in His Element revelling and rioting amongst His Lords His Wives and His Concubines drinking wine swaggeringly and contemptuously in the golden and silver Vessels of the Temple Hee felt no touch in point of conscience or terrour at all But put out of His humour by the hand-writing upon the plaister of the Wall His countenance was presently changed and his thoughts troubled him so that the joynts of His loynes were loosed and His knees smote one against another 4. Fourthly The never-dying worme that naturally breeds and growes bigge in every unregenerate conscience which beates backe still the searching power of the Word and secret warnings of the Spirit is like a Wolfe in the foot Feede it continually with fresh supply of raw flesh and it will let the Body alone but with-draw that and it devoures upward While the Sonnes and daughters of pleasure and all those who have their portion and Paradise in this life stoppe the mouth of this hellish worme with variety of carnall delights they doe well enough and finde pretty ease and exemption for a time from the rage and bitings thereof But they may assure themselves in evill times when the dayes are come upon them wherein there is no pleasure when the Play is done when all worldly comforts and comforters like run-away servants and drunken Serving-men are to seeke when they have most use and need of them I say that then the time and turne is come that the worme of conscience destitute now â—or ever of any further satisfaction from sensuall sweetnes will ragingly turne upon the Soule devoure like a Lion knaw like a Vulture vex eternally 5. Fifthly If the weight of the whole world were now laid upon any of these Bodies here lately buried it would not stirre or groane And why Because it is naturally dead Proportionably Tho the burthen of sinne farre heavier then a mountaine of Lead then this mighty and massie earth under our feete lyes upon every impenitent Soule ready every houre to presse and plunge it into the lowest Pit yet wretched and bewitched Thing it neither feeles any smart nor feares any hurt it is neither sensible of the present weight nor troubled for the future wrath And what is the reason It is spiritually dead It is starke dead in trespasses and sinnes The strong man is gone away with all And there is no stirring nor sense of this cursed Burden untill Either a stronger then Hee lay hands upon this Hellish Tyrant disarme Him and throw downe His Holds and a mightier voyce of the Sonne of God then that which made Lazarus come out of the Grave put life into it Or else that the dreadfull thunder of Gods fierce and finall wrath the Day of visitation beeing expired awake it to everlasting woe 6. Tho in the meane time thou bee extreamely miserable and if thou dyest in thine impenitent state this day thou must most certainely lodge this night in the Lake of fire and brimstone amongst the damned yet thy sinnes for the present doe not represent to the eye of thy conscience those formes of foulenesse and terrour of which they are naturally full and which without timely repentance thou wilt hereafter find and feele in them to thine endlesse griefe because thou lookest upon them in the false Glasse of vaine-glory ignorance selfe-love selfe-conceitednesse painted over by the Divels dawbing with whorish intising colours of pleasure profit preferment worldly applause and other such goodly and golden out-sides Whereas a true and effectuall beholding them in the cleare Christall of Gods pure Law hunted continually at the heeles with divine vengeance all the curses in this Booke and plagues innumerable internall externall eternall and in the bitter Passion of Iesus Christ without whose hearts-blood not the least sinne that ever was committed could ever have been remitted were able to â—right and fire a very Blackamore out of His blacke skinne and a Leopard from His spots And thou something easest thine heart also against the terrour of the Lord for thy sinnes by looking upon Gods mercy with false spectacles and so enlarging it beyond the limits of His Truth But heare what that excellent discoverer of the Depths of our Selfe-cousoning hearts tells thee in such a case As a man passing over a bridge saith Hee which his false spectacles make to seeme broader then in deed it is being thereby deceived goes besides the bridge and so is drowned so is it with those whose deceitfull hearts make the bridge of Gods mercy larger then it is they are in danger of falling beside it into
the clouds are the dust of His feete c. The Lord of hostes is his name whose power and punishments are so infinitely vnresistable that Hee is able with one word to turne all the creatures in the world into Hell nay even with the breath of His mouth to turne Heaven and Hell and Earth and all things into nothing How darest thou then so base and vile a wretch prouoke so great a God 8. Let the consideration and compassion upon the immortality and dearenesse of that pretious Soule that lies in thy bosome curbe thy corruptions at the very first sight of sinne and make thee step backe as though thou wert ready to treade upon a Serpent Not all the bloudy men upon earth or desperate Devils in Hell can possibly kill and extingvish the Soule of any man it must needs live as long as God Himself and run parallell with the longest line of eternity Onely sinne wounds mortally that immortal spirit brings it into that cursed case that it had infinitely better never have bin then be for ever For by this meanes going on impenitently to that last Tribunall it becomes immortally mortall and mortally immortall as one of the Ancients speakes It lives to death and dies to life never in state of life or death yet ever in the paines of death the perpetuity of life It 's death is ever-living it's end is ever in beginning Death without death End without end Ever in the pangs of death never dead not able to dye nor endure the paine Paine exceeding not only all patience but all resistance No strength to sustaine nor ability to beare that which heareafter whilst God is God for ever must bee borne What a prodigious Bedlam cruelty is it then for a maÌ„ by listning to the Syren-songs of this false world the lewd motions of His own treacherous heart or the Divels desperate counsel to embrew His hands in the bloud of His own everlasting soule to make it die eternally For a little paltry pleasure of some base rotten lust sleeting vanity which passeth away in the act as the tast of pleasant drink dieth in the draught to bring upon it in the other world torments whithout end and beyond all compasse of conceit And his madnesse is the more because besides it's immortality His Soule is incoÌ„parably more worth then the whole world The very sensitive Soule of a little slie saith Austin truly is more excellent then the Sun How ought wee then to prize and preserve from sinne our vnderstanding reasonable Soules which make us in that respect like unto the Angels of God 9. Ninthly What an horrible thing is sinne whose waight an Omnipotent strength which doth sustaine the whole Frame of the world is not able to beare Almighty God complaines Isa. 1.14 even of the Sacrifices and other services of his owne people when they were performed with polluted hearts and professes that He was weary to beare them And how vile is it that stirs up in the dearest and most compassionate bowells of the All-mercifull God such implacable anger that threw downe so many glorious Angelicall spirits who might have done Him so high honour for ever in the highest Heauens into the bottome of Hell there most iustly to continue Devils and in extremest torment everlastingly Cast all mankinde out of His fauour and from all felicity for Adams sin caused Him who delighteth in mercy to create all the afflicting miseries in Hell eternal flames streames of brimstone chaines of darknesse gnashing of teeth a Lake of fire the bottomlesse Pit and all those horrible torments there And that which doth argue and yet further amplifie the implacablenes and depth of divine indignation the infinitenesse of sinnes prouocation and desert Tophet is said to bee ordeined of old Everlasting fire to be prepared for the Devill and His Angells As if the All-powerfull wisedome did deliberate and as it were sit downe and devise all stâ—â—ging terrible ingredients a temper of greatest torture to make that dreadfull fiâ—e hellish paines most fierce and raging and a fit instrument for the iustice of so great and mighty a God to torment eternally all impenitent reprobate Rebels God is the Father of Spirits our Soules are the immediate Creation of His Almighty Hand and yet to every one that goeth on impenitently in his trespasses Hee hath appointed as it were a threefold Hell There are three things considerable in sinne 1. Aversion from an infinite soveraigne unchangeable good 2. Conversion to a finite mutable momentany good 3. Continuance in the same To these three severall things in sinne there are answering three singular stings of extremest punishment To aversion from the chiefest Good which is objectively infinite there answereth Paine of losse as they call it Privation of Gods glorious presence and separation from those endlesse joyes above which is an infinite losse To the inordinate conversion to transitory things there answereth Paine of sense which is intensively finite as is the pleasure of sinne And yet so extreme that none can conceive the bitternesse thereof but the Soule that suffers it nor that neither except it could comprehend the Almighty wisedome of Him that did create it To the eternity of sinne remaining for ever in staine and guilt answereth the eternity of punishment For wee must know that every impenitent sinner would sinne ever if he might live ever and casteth himselfe by sinning into an impossibility of ever ceasing to sinne of Himselfe as a Man that casteth himselfe into a deepe Pit can never of Himselâ—e rise out of it againe And therefore naturally eternity of punishment is due to sinne How prodigious a thing then is sinne and how infinitely to bee abhorred and avoided that by a malignant meritorious poyson and provocation doth violently wrest out of the hands of the Father of mercies and God of all comfort the full vials of that unquenchable wrath which brings caselesse endlesse and remedilesse torments upon His owne creatures and those originally most excellent 10. Tenthly The height and inestimablenesse of the price that was paid for the expiation of it doth clearely manifest nay infinitely aggravate the execrable misery of sinne and extreame madnesse of all that meddle with it I meane the hearts-blood of Iesus Christ blessed for ever which was of such pretiousnesse and power that beeing let out by a Speare it amazed the whole Frame of Nature darkened the Sunne miraculously for at that time it stood in direct opposition to the Moone shooke the Earth which shrunke and trembled under it opened the Graves clave the Stones rent the Vaile of the Temple from the bottome to the top c. Now it was this alone and nothing but this could possibly cleanse the filth of sinne Had all the dust of the earth been turned into silver and the stones into pearles Should the maine and boundlesse Ocean have streamed nothing but purest gold would the
whole world and all the creatures in Heaven and Earth have offered themselves to bee annihilated before His angry face Had all the blessed Angels prostrated themselves at the foote of their Creator yet in the Point of redemption of Mankind and purgation of sin not any nor all of these could have done any good at all Nay if the Sonne of God Himselfe which lay in His bosome should have supplicated and solicited I meane without suffering and shedding His blood the Father of all mercies Hee could not have been heard in this case Either the Sonne of God must die or all Mankind be eternally damned Even then when thou art provoked to sinne thinke seriously and sensibly of the price that upon necessity must bee paied for it before it bee pardoned 11. Sinfull pleasures are attended with a threefold bitter sting Whereof see my Directions for walking with God pa. 171. Which though the Divell hides from them in the heate of temptation yet in His seasons to serve his owne turne Hee sets them on with a vengeance 12. Compare the vast and unvalu-able difference betweene yeelding to the entisement and conquering the temptation to sinne For which purpose looke upon Ioseph and David two of Gods dearest servants And consider the consequents what a deale of honour and comfort did afterward crowne the head and the heart of the one And what horrible mischiefes and miseries fell upon the family and grisly horrours upon the conscience of the other Survay also the distinct Stories of Galeacius Caracciolus and Franciscus Spira then which in their severall kinds there is nothing left to the memory of the latter times more remarkeable And you shall find in them as great a difference as betweene an Heaven and Hell upon earth The one withstanding unconquerably variety of mighty entisements to renounce the Gospell of Iesus Christ and returne to Popery besides the sweet peace of His Soule attained that honour in the Church of God that Hee is in some measure paralleld even with Moses and recommended to the admiration of Posterity by the Pen of that great and incomparable glory of the Christian World blessed Calvin The other conquered by an unhappy temptation to turne from the Truth of God and our true Religion to the Synagogue of Satan and abominations of the scarlet Whore besides the raging and desperate confusion hee brought upon His owne spirit became such a spectacle to the eye of Christendome as hath been hardly heard of 13. Compare the poore short vanishing delight of the choisest sensuall worldly contentment if thou wilt of thy sweetest sinne with the exquisitnesse and eternity of Hellish torments Out of which might an impenitent reprobate wretch bee assured of enlargement after Hee had endured them so many thousand thousand yeeres as there are sands on the Sea-shore haires upon His head starres in the firmament grasse piles upon the ground Creatures both in Heaven and Earth Hee would thinke Himselfe happy and as it were in Heaven already See before pag. 39. But when all that time is past and infinite millions of yeeres besides they are no neerer end then when they begun nor Hee neerer out then when Hee came in The torments of Hell are most horrible yet I know not whether this incessant desperate cry in the conscience of a damned Soule I must never come out doth not outgoe them all in horrour What an height of madnesse is it then to purchase a moment of fugitive follies and fading pleasures with extremity of never ending paines 14. When thou art stepping ouer the threshold towards any vile act lewd House dissolute company or to do the Divel service in any kinde which God forbid suppose thou seest Iesus Christ comming towards Thee as Hee lay in the armes of Ioseph of Arimathea newly taken downe from the Crosse wofully wounded wanne and pale His Body all gore-blood the beauty of His blessed and heavenly face darkned and disfigured by the stroke of death speaking thus unto Thee Oh! Goe not forward upon any termes Commit not this sinne by any meanes It was this and the like that drew mee downe out of the armes of my Father from the fulnesse of joy and Fountaine of all blisse to put on this corruptible and miserable flesh to hunger and thirst to watch and pray to groane and sigh to offer up strong cries and teares to the Father in the dayes of my flesh To drinke off the dregs of the bitter cup of His feirce wrath to wrastle with all the forces of infernall powers to lay downe my life in the gates of Hell with intolerable and saue by my selfe vnconquerable paine and thus now to lie in the armes of this mortall Man all torne and rent in peices with cruelty and spite as thou seest What an heart hast thou that darest goe on against this deare entreaty of Iesus Christ 15. When thou art unhappily mooued to breake any branch of Gods blessed Law let the excellency and variety of His incomparable mercies come presently into thy minde a most ingenuous sweet and mighty motive to hinder and hold off all gracious hearts from sin How is it possible but a serious survay of the riches of Gods goodnes forbearance long-suffering leading thee to repentance to more forwardnes and fruitfulnes in the good Way The publike miracles of mercy which God hath done in our daies for the preservatioÌ„ of the Gospel this kingdome ourselves and our posterity especially drowning the Spanish invincible Armado discouering and defeating the Powder-plot sheilding Q. Elizabeth the most glorious Princesse of the world from a world of Anti-christian cruelties saving us from the Papists bloudy expectations at Her death c. The particular and private Catalogve of thine owne personall favours from Gods bountifull hand which thine owne conscience can easily leade Thee unto and readily run over from thine infancy to the present wonderfull protections in thine unregenerate time that miracle of mercies thy conversion if thou be already in that happy state all the motions of Gods holy Spirit in thine heart many checks of conscience fatherly corrections excellent meanes of sanctification as worthy a ministry in many Places as ever the world enjoyde Sermon upon sermon Sabbath after Sabbath bearing with thee after so many times breaking thy covenants Oportunities to atâ—aine the highest degree of godlinesse that ever was c. I say how can it bee but that the reuise of these and innumerable mercies moe should so mollify thy heart that thou shouldest haue no heart at all nay infinitely abhorre to displease or any way dishonour that High and dreadfull Majesty whose free grace was the well-Head and first Fountaine of them all Let this meditation of Gods mercies to keepe from sinne bee quickned by considering 1. That thou art farre worthier to bee now burning with the most abominable Sodomite in the bottome of Hell then to bee crowned with any of these loving kindnesses That if
there must bee a third thing To take them to our selves to beleeve they are ours and there needes a worke of the Spirit for this For tho the promises bee never so cleare yet having nothing but the promises you shall never bee able to apply them to your selves But when the holy Ghost shall say Christ is thine All these things belong to Thee and God is thy Father when that shall witnesse to our spirit by a worke of His owne Then shall wee beleeve c This is the order observed in our iustification 1. First There is a sight of our misery to which wee are brought by the Law 2. Secondly There is by the Gospell an holding forth of Christ as our redemption from sin and death 3. Thirdly there is a working of Faith in the heart to rest on Christ as the ransome from sinne and death Now when a man is come hither Hee is truly and really iust Wee teach that in trve conversion a man must bee wounded in his conscience by the sense of his sinnes His contrition must bee compungent and vehement bruising breaking renting the heart and feeling shee throwes as a woman labouring of Childe before the new-Creature bee brought forth or Christ truly formed in Him It is not done without bitternesse of the Soule without care indignation revenge 2. Cor. 7.11 But as some Infants are borne with lesse paine to the mother and some with more so may the new-man be regenerated in some with more in some with lesse anxiety of travell But surely grace is not infused into the heart of any sinner except there bee at least so great affliction of Spirit for sinne foregoing that He cannot but â—eele it c. This bruising is required before conversion 1. That so the Spirit may make way for it selfe into the heart by levelling all proud high thoughts c 2. To make vs set an high price upon Christs death This is the cause of relapses and Apostasies because men never smarted for sin at the first They were not long enough under the lash of the Law Hence this inferiour worke of the Spirit in bringing downe high thoughts is necessary before conversion By this time it doth most clearly and plentifully appeare what a foule and fearefull fault it is for men either in the managing of their Publike ministery or more private Passages of conference visitations of the sicke consultations about a good estate to Godward and other occasions of like nature to apply Iesus Christ and the promises to promise life and safety in the evill Day to Soules as yet not soundly illightned and afflicted with sight of sinne and sense of Gods wrath to consciences never truly wounded and awaked I insisted the longer upon this Point because I know it full well to bee a most universall and prevailing Policy of the Devill whereby hee keepes many thousands in His cursed slavery and from salvation To confirme as many Pastours as Hee can possibly willing enough to drive their Flocks before them to damnation in an ignorant or affected Preiudice and forbearance of that saving method of bringing Soules out of Hell mentioned before and made good with much variety of evidence And to nourish also in the hearts of naturall men a strong and sturdy disconceite opposition raging against downe-right dealing and those men of God able as they say but falsely and furiously against their owne Soules by their terrible teaching to drive their hearers to distraction Selfe-destruction or despaire who take the only right course to convert them and to bring them to Iesus Christ as Hee Himselfe invites them to wit labouring and heauy laden with their sinnes Matth. 11.28 Dawbers then who serue Satans craft in this kinde and all those who dispence their ministery without all spirituall discretion and good conscience of whom there are too many as great strangers to the right way of working grace in others as to the worke of grace in themselves I say they are a generation of dangerous men Old excellent as they say in an accursed Art of conducting poore blinded Soules merrily towards everlasting miserie and setting them downe in the very midst of Hell before they bee sensible of any danger or discovery of their damnable state Great men they are with the men of this world with al those wise fooles and sensuall great ones who are not willing to bee tormented before their time or rather who desire impossibly to live the life of pleasures in the meane time and yet at last to die the death of the righteous They have still ready at hand hand over head mercy and pardon Heaven and salvation for all commers and all they come neere without so much as a desire to put any difference or divide the pretious from the vile Which is a prodigâ—â—usly-arrogant folly pernicious in the highest degree both to their own soules and those they delude Heâ—â—e 〈◊〉 they are branded in the Booke of God calling them 〈◊〉 Sâ—wers under mens elboes Ezek. 1â— 1â— That 〈◊〉 laid soft and lockt fast in the Cradle of security thâ—â— may sinke suddenly into the Pit of destruction before they be aware Criers of peace peace when no peace is towards Ier. 6.14 but horrible stirs tumbling of garments in bloud burning and devouring of fire A â—â—n-pleasers â—alat 1.10 who chuse rather to tickle the itching eares of their carnall hearers with some fâ—othy Frier-like conceits out of Dung-hill 〈◊〉 And so smooth Great Ones in their humours by their cowardly flatteries especially if they any waies depend upon them for countenance rising and preferment rather then conscionably to discharge that trust 〈◊〉 upon them by their great Lord and Master in Heaven upon answerablenes for the bloud of those Soules which shal perish by their temporizing silence and flattering vnfaithfulnesse Healers of the hurt of their Hearers with 〈◊〉 words Ier. 6.14 while their Soules are 〈◊〉 by the wounds of sinne unto eternall death Preachers of smooth things Isa. 30.10 which kinde of Men the greatest part and all worldlings wonderfully affect and applaud tho to their owne everlasting vndoing They swell under such Teachers with a Pharisaicall conceite that they are as safe for salvation as the precisest of them all but alas their hope is but like a hollow wall which beeing put to any stresse when the tempest of Gods searching wrath begins to shake it in the time of a finall triall of it's truth and soundnesse it shatters into pieces and comes to naught Heare the Prophet Now go write it before them in a table and note it in a booke that it may bee for the time to come for ever and ever That this is a rebellious people lying children children that wil not heare the Law of the Lord which say to the Seers see not and to the Prophets prophesie not unto us right things speake unto us smooth things prophesie deceits Get you out of the way turne aside out
of the path cause the Holy One of Israel to cease from before us Wherefore thus saith the Holy One of Israel Because ye despise this word and trust in oppression and perversenesse and stay thereon Therefore this iniquity shal bee to you as a breach ready to fall swelling out in a high wall whose breaking commeth suddenly at an instant And Hee shall breake it as the breaking of the potters vessell that is broken in pieces hee shall not spare so that there shal not be found in the bursting of it a sheard to take fire from the harth or to take water with all out of the Pit Dawbers with untempered morter Ezech. 13.11 Who erect in the conceits of those who are willing to bee deluded by them Pharises at the best a rotten Building of false hope like a mudde-wall without straw or morter made onely of sand without lime to binde it which in faire weather makes a faire shew for a while but when abundance of raine falls and winter comes it moulders away and turnes to myre in the streetes Their vaine confidence in prosperous times before it come to the Touchstone of the fiery triall by Gods searching Truth may seeme currant But in the tempest of Gods wrath when the stormy winters night of death approacheth or at furthest at the iudgement Seate of the iust and Highest God it prooves to bee counterfeite when at last they shall cry Lord Lord like the foolish Virgins And those Mat. 7. in steade of imaginary comfort they shal bee crusht with horrible and everlasting confusion Heare the Prophet Say unto them which daube it with untempered morter that it shall fall there shall bee an overflowing showre and yee O great haile stones shall fall and a stormy winde shall rent it Loe when the wall is fallen shall it not bee said unto you where is the daubing wherewith yee have daubed it Therfore thus saith the Lord God I will rent it with a stormy winde in my fury and there shall be an overflowing showre in mine anger and great hailestones in my fury to consume it So wil I breake downe the wall that yee have daubed with untempered morter and bring it downe to the ground so that the foundation thereof shal bee discovered and it shall fall and yee shall bee consumed in the midst thereof and yee shall know that I am the Lord. Thus will I accomplish my wrath upon the wall and upon them that have it dawbed with untempered morter and will say unto you The wall is no more neither they that daubed it To wit the Prophets of Israel which prophesie concerning Ierusalem and which see visions of peace for Her and there is no peace saith the Lord God Such as with lies make the heart of the righteous sad whom God hath not made sad and strengthen the hands of the wicked that Hee should not returne from His wicked way by promising Him life Ezech. 13.22 These fellowes hold and beare meere civill men in hand that their estate is sound enough to Godward whatsoever the purer and preciser Brethren prate to the contrary and yet the holy Ghost tells us that without holinesse no man shall see the Lord. Hebr. 12.14 That formall Professours are very forward men whereas Iesus Christ professeth that Hee will spew the luke-warme out of His mouth Nay and if there bee talke even of a good fellow especially of some more commendable naturall parts and plausible carriage if Hee be so but moderately that I may so speake and not iust every day drunke well well will they say wee have all our faults and that is His. But as concerning the faithfull servant of God they are woont to entertaine the same conceite of Him which Ahab did of Elijah to wit that Hee was a troubler of Israel Which one of the captaines had of the Prophet sent to annoint Iehu that Hee was a mad fellow which the false Prophets had of Micaiah that Hee was a fellow of a singular and od humour by Himselfe and guided by a private spirit of His owne which Tertullus had of Paul that he was a pestilent fellow which the Pharises had of Christs Followers that they were a contemptible and cursed generation a company of base rude illiterate underlings Nay sometimes when the bedlam fit is upon them they will not sticke to charge Gods people in some proportion most wickedly and falsely as the ancient Heathens did the primitive Christians with conventicles and meetings of hatefull impurities faction disaffection to Caesar and many other horrible things whereas poore Soules they were most innocent and infinitely abhorred all such villanies And they met in the morning even before Day not to doe God knowes any such ill but for the service of God even their more ingenuous adversaries being witnesses to sing prayses to Christ. God to confirme their discipline forbidding all manner of sinne c. with all the miscarriages miseries and calamities that fell vpon the State as tho they were the causes Whereas those few neglected Ones which truly serve God are the onely men in all Places where they live to make up the hedge and to stand in the gappe against the threatned inundations of Gods dreadfull wrath and all the Opposites to their holy Profession are the true Cut-throats of Kingdomes able by their dissolutenesse and disgracing godlinesse to dissolve the sinewes of the strongest state upon Earth Looke upon Amos 4.1.2 And there you shall finde who they are which cause God to enter a controversie with the Inhabitants of a Land Heare how Austin describes some of these Selfe-seeking and Soule-murthering Dawbers in His Daies Farre be it from us saith Hee that we should say unto you live as you list doe not trouble your selves God will cast away none onely hold the Christian Faith Hee will not destroy that which He hath redeemed He will not destroy those for whom He hath shed His blood And if you please to recreate your selves at Plaies you may go what hurt is there in it And you may go to those Feasts which are kept in all Townes by joviall companions making themselues merry as they suppose at these publike meetings comessations but indeed rather making themselves most miserable I say you may go and be jovial Gods mercy is great and may pardon all Crowne your selves with Roses before they wither You may fill your selves with good cheere and wine amongst your good-fellow companions For the creature is giuen unto us for that purpose that wee may enjoy it If wee say these things peradventure wee shall hâ—ve greater multitudes applaude and adhere unto our Doctrine And if there bee some which thinke that speaking these things wee are not well advisde wee offend but a few and those precise Ones But wee winnâ— thereby a world of people But if wee shall thus doe speaking not the words of God not the words of Christ but
of death Then because wee take our farewell of Repentance we should take our fill of it because it is the last time wee shall looke upon our sinnes for that purpose we should dismisse them with utmost and extremest loathing At such times and upon such occasions as these and the like when thou art called to a more solemne strict and severe search and review of thy old sinnes and former life Thou must renue this present repentance of thy New-birth make thine heart breake againe and bleed afresh with the sight of thy heretofore much doted-upon but now most abhorred abominable courses And so often also as thou lookes backe upon them Thou must labour to abominate and abandon them with more resolute aversion and new degrees of detestation Thoâ—e may bee by the mercies of God they shall never bee able to â—â—ng thee againe with the same slavishnesse of guilty horrour yet thou mâ—st still endeavour in thy cold blood to strangle utterly thy former delight in them with more hearty additions of deadly hatred and to bee more and more humbled for them untill thy ending houre It is a very high happinesse and blessing above ordinary to bee able to looke backe upon thy choisest youthfull pleasures and pollutions without either sensuall delight or slavish horrour with syncere hatred holy indignation and hearty mourning Now for the time to come and those sinnes which hereafter the rebelliousnesse of thy naughty nature and violence of the Divels temptations may force upon thee if thy heart bee now truly toucht and conscience savingly illightned Thou shalt find much matter necessity and use of continuing thy Repentance so long as thy life lasts In a leaking ship there must bee continuall pumping A ruinous house must be still in repairing These bodies of death wee beare about us are naturally liable to so many batteries and breaches by the assaults of originall sinne and other implacable enemies to our soules that there is extreme need of perpetuall watch and ward repenting and repairing lest the Newman bee too much opprest and too often surprized by the many and cunning encounters of the old Adam When thou art in company solitary busied about thy particular Calling there may suddenly arise in thine heart some greedy wish some grosse conceite some vaine uncleane ambitious revengefull thought ejaculate presently a penitent â—igh and â—ervent prayer for pardon of it in the Passion of Christ. In thy family perhaps amongst thy children and servants by reason of some crosse-accident thou mayst breake out into some unadvised passionate speech and disgrace thy selfe and Profession by over hasty intemperate heate not without some danger of hurting and hardening those about thee thereby Get thee presently upon it into thy Closer or some place for that purpose Throw thy selfe downe with a truly-grieved and humbled Soule before the Trone of grace and rise not untill thou bee reconciled unto thy God If at any time which God forbid Thou bee over-taken with some more publike scandalous sinne or dangerously haunted with some enormous secret lust appoint for thy selfe a solemne Day of humiliation and then cry unto the Lord like a woman in travaile and give him no rest untill Hee returne unto Thee with the wonted favour and calmnesse of His pleased countenance If Christians would constantly take to heart and ply this blessed businesse of immediately rising by repentance after every relapse and fall into sinne they should find a further Paradise and pleasure in the wayes of God then they ever yet tasted This course continued with present feeling and after-watchfulnesse would helpe excellently by the blessing of God and excercise of Faith the onely Conduit of all spirituall comfort to keepe in their bosomes that which they much desire and often bewaile the want of a chearefull bold and heavenly spirit Neither let any here bee troubled because I presse the exercise and use both of renewed and continued Repentance all our life long as tho thereupon the Christians life might seeme more uncomfortable For wee are to know that sorrow according to God Evangelicall mourning is mingled with abundance of spirituall joy which doth infinitely surpasse in sweetnesse and worth all worldly pleasures and delights of sense Nay whereas all the Ioviall good-fellow-mirth of carnall men is but a flash of Hellish folly This is a very glimpse of heavenly glory Let mee tell you againe how sweetly and truly that excellent Divine of Scotland speakes of it There is saith He more lightnesse of heart and true delight in the sorrow of the Saints then in the Worlds loudest laughter For unspeakeable ioy is mingled with un-utterable groanes The ancient Fathers are of the same minde with this Man of God Godly sorrow saith Chrysostome is better then the ioy of the World Even as The ioy of the World is ever accompanied with sorrow so teares according to God beget continuall and certaine delight Againe Such a man as this now meaning Him whose heart is inflamed with an heavenly heate despising all things here below doth presevere in continuall compunction pouring out abundance of teares every day and taking thence a great deale of pleasure Let the Repentant saith Austin be alwaies sorrowfull for sinne and alwaies reioyce for that sorrow 3. Beware of two dangerous errours 1. Either to conceive that thou mayst not admit of any comfort or apply the promises comfortably because Thou still finds in thy selfe more matter of mourning and further humiliation 2. Or to thinke When Thou hast onâ—â— laid hold upon Christs Person and pretious sufferings for the pardon of thy sinnes and quieting of thy Soule that then Thou must mourne no more 1. For the first know That were our heads Seaes and our eyes Fountaines of teares and poured out abundantly every moment of our life Should our hearts fall asunder into drops of blood in our breast for anguish and indignation against our selves for our transgressions yet should wee come infinitely short of the sorrow and hearts-griefe which our many and hainous lusts and pollutions justly merit and exact at our hands Therefore wee cannot expect from our selves any such sufficiency of sorrow or worthinesse of weeping for our sinnes as by the perfection and power thereof to win Gods favour and draw his mercy upon us Such a conceit were most absurd senselesse and sinfull and would rather discover and taste of naturall pride then true humility as they perhaps mistake tend unhappily to the disgrace of Gods mercies and gracing our owne merits True it is Had wee a thousand eyes it were too little to weep them all out for the very vanity of that one sinfull sense Had we a thousand hearts and they should all burst with penitent griefe and bleed to death for the sinnes of our soules it were more then immeasurably unconceiveably insufficient For were al this so yet were it not this but the hearte-blood of Iesus Christ could make the Fathers heart to yerne
by their holy Duties good workes and gracious behaviour make his Name more illustrious in the world But what is this to that essentiall infinite everlasting glory which was as great and full in all that former eternity before the world was When God blessed for ever enjoyed onely His glorious Selfe Angels Men and this great Vniverse lying all hid as yet in the darke abhorred Dungeon of Nothing as now it is or ere shall bee 2. A second reason may bee taken from Gods proportionable proceeding in his courses of justice and mercy In his executions of Iustice and inflictions of punishment He interprets and censures desires for the deeds affections for Actions Thoughts for the things done Whosoever saith Christ looketh on a woman to lust after her hath committed adultery with her already in his heart In Gods interpretation in the search and censure of divine justice Hee that lusts after a Woman in his heart is an adulterer and without true and timely repentance in the meane time shall bee so taken and proceeded against at that great and last Day Whosoever hateth his Brother saith Iohn is a man-slayer An hateful thought of our Brother murthers Him and spils his blood by the verdict of the blessed Spirit And a malicious man at the Barre of God goes for a Man-slaier If this then bee Gods property and proceeding in justice wee may much more confidently expect Nay with reverent humility challenge way beeing made by the mediation of Christ the same proportionable measure in those His most sweet and lovely inclinations and expressions of mercy Shall a lewde desire after a woman fall under the Axe of Gods justice as if it were the grosse Actâ— of lust And shall not a longing desire after grace bee graciously embraced in the armes of mercy as the grace it selfe Shall an angry thought invisible immaterial hurtfull only to the heart which harbours it be charged with actuall bloodshed And shall not a panting thirst of a broken and bleeding Soule after Christs saving and sanctifying blood bee bath'd and refresht in his pretious blood Yes certainely and much rather For Gods tender mercies are over all his workes Psal. 145.9 And mercy with an holy exultation triumpheth and reioyceth against iudgement Iam. 2.13 His mercy is great unto the Heavens Psal. 57.10 Hee doth with much sweet contentment and as it were naturall propension encline to the gracious effusions of mercy Hee delighteth in mercy saith Micah Cap. 7.18 Hee is passingly pleaâ—ed and exalted most gloriously when Hee is pardoning of sinnes purging of Soules pulling out of the Divels Paw pouring in of grace shining into sad and uncomfortable hearts saving from Hell c. This makes Him so passionate in an holy sense when Hee hath no Passage for his love Deus 5.29 Psal. 81.13 Isa. 48.18 Mat. 23.37 Luk. 19.41.42 But now on the other side Hee is hardly drawne not without much reluctancy delaies forbearance and as it were some kinde of violence offered by excesse of multiplyed rebellious provocations to exercise His justice and to punish for sinne See 2. Chron. 36.16 Hos. 6.4 c. It appeares Zeph. 2.2 by the emphasis of the Original that in this respect in a right and sober sense God is like a woman with Childe When the cry of our sinnes comes first to Heaven Hee doth not presently poure upon our heads fire and Brimstone according to our desert But as loth to enter into judgement with us Hee then but begins to conceive as it were wrath which Hee beares or rather forbeares full many and many a moneth still waiting when upon our repentance Hee might bee gracious unto us untill it come to that ripenesse by the fullnesse and intolerable waight of our sinnes that Hee can possibly beare no longer And then also when Hee is about to bee delivered of his justly conceived and long-forborne vengeance Marke how Hee goes about it Ah! saies Hee c. Isa. 1.24 This aspiration argues a compassionate Pang of griefe speaking after the manner of men to proceede against His owne people tho they had provoked Him as enemies How shall I give thee up Ephrâ—im How shall I deliver thee Israel How shall I make thee as Admah How shall I set thee as Zebâ—im Mine heart is turned within mee my repentings are kindled together Hos. 11.9 When Hee came against Sodome and Gomorrah the most prodigiously wicked people that ever the Earth bore What a miracle of mercy was it that He should be brought so low as to say I will not destroy it for tennes sake Gen. 18.32 So it is then that mercy flowes naturally and easily from God and he is most forward and free-hearted in granting Pardons and receiving into grace and favour But justice is ever as it were violently with cart-ropes of iniquity pul'd from Him He is pressed with our sinnes as a cart is pressed that is full of sheaues before wee wring from Him the vials of just wrath and wrest out of His hands the Arrowes of deserved indignation That you erre not in this Point conceive that both Gods mercy and iustice are originally and fundamentally as God Himselfe infinite Both of the same length height bredth and depth that is equally endlesse boundlesse botomlesse unsearchable Yet if wee consider the exercise and execution of them amongst the creatures and abroad in the world Mercy that sweetest Attribute and most pretious baulme to all bruised hearts doth farre surpasse and out-shine the other tho incomparable excellencies of His divine nature and all the perfections which accompany the greatnesse of God As appeares Exod. 20.5.6 Gen. 18.32 Ioel. 2.43 Ionah 4.2 Psal. 36. and 103. 2. Chron. 21.13 His influences and beames of mercy are fairely and plentifully shed into the bosome of every Creature and shine gloriously over all the earth even from one end of Heaven to the other The whole world is thicke set and richly embroidered as it were with wonderfull variety of impressions and Passages of his goodnesse and bounty In this great Volume of Nature round about us wee may runne and reade the deepe Prints and large Characters of kindnesse and love which His mercifull and munificent hand hath left in all Places in every leafe and Page and line of it If mercy then bee so graciously magnified over all his workes we may more strongly build upon it That if the hand of Iustice seize upon an hatefull thought as a murtherer and stained with blood and arraigne a lustfull conceite as guilty of adultery and actuall pollution His armes of mercy will most certainely embrace and accept of a syncere desire for the deed done of hearty affections for the Actions and of a grieved spirit for the grace it groanes for Yea but may some say If mercy bee so faire a flower in the garland of Gods incomprehensible greatnesse if it so farre excell his other Attributes in amiablenesse amongst His creatures How comes it to passe That the
salvation and loathnesse to believe adds in an other Place to ordinary invitation a stirring compassionate and quickning compellation or rather exclamation Ho saith Hee Isa. 55.1 Every one that thirsteth come yee to the waters c. And lest any thinke Hee shall come to His cost or should bring any thing in His hand Hee calls upon Him that hath no money and thus doubles His cry Come yee buy and eate yea come buy wine and milke without money and without price O most blessed and sweetest lines So full of love and longing to draw us to the Well of life that besides that holy pang of compassion and excitation Ho Hee cries thrice Come Come Come Yea but mayst thou say Alas I am so farre from bringing any thing in my hand that I bring a world of wickednesse upon my heart and that above ordinary both in notoriousnesse and number and therfore I am afraid the hainousnesse of my sinnes will hinder my acceptation tho the invitation bee most sweet and pretious Be it so yet the Spirit of God in the same Chapter doth purposely meet with and remoove that very scruple Let the wicked saith He forsake His way and the unrighteous man His thoughts And this is thy Case Thou art unfainedly set against all sinne both inward and outward and let him returne unto the Lord and Hee will have mercy upon Him and to our God for He will abundantly pardon verse 7. Hee will not onely have mercy upon thee but Hee will also abundantly pardon Hee will multiply His pardons according to thy provocations and that with super-abundance Rom. 5.20 4. If all this will not yet doe Hee descends out of the infinite riches of his grace to a miracle of further mercy For the mighty Lord of Heaven and earth sends Ambassadours unto us dust and ashes wormes and no men to beseech us to bee reconciled unto Him Now then we are Ambassadors for Christ as though God did beseech you by us wee pray you in Christs stâ—ad be ye reconciled unto God 2. Cor. 5 20. What man can possibly ponder seriously upon this Place but must bee transported with extraordinary admiration nay adoration of the bottomlesse depth and infinite height of Gods incomprehensible everlasting and free love We most abhorred vile wretches are the Offenders Traitors Rebels enimies and ought to seek and sue unto Him first upon the knees of our soules trembling in the dust and if it were possible with teares of blood and yet He begins unto us intreating us by His owne Son and His servants the Ministers to come in accept His favour and grace enter into the wise and good way which is pretious profitable honorable and pleasant that He may hereafter set upon our heads everlasting Crownes of glory and blisse An earthly Prince would disdaine and hold it in foule scorne to send unto His inferiour for reconcilement especially who had behaved Himself basely unworthily towards Him and justly provoked His royall indignation Would not the King of Spaine thinke you so great a Monarch hold it an inexpiable dishonour and indignity to send Embassadours now and sue unto the Hollanders so farre below Him for reconcilement and peace promising and assuring them of an entire restitution and exercise of all their ancient rights priviledges liberties and fundamentall Lawes that they should not need to feare that greatest tyranny and severest kind of persecution under heaven the Spanish Inquisition that He would resume His former Oath the Popes dispensation for which begun all the trouble c. Rather then He would do it He hath paid already a good while since above an hundred millions and the lives of above foure hundred thousand men And is still spending abundance of gold and blood It is thus indeede with wormes of the earth in whom there is no helpe and whose breath is in their nostrills But it is otherwise with the King of Kings who sitteth upon the Circle of the Earth and the inhabitants thereof are as Grashoppers and the Nations as the drop of a Bucket who bringeth the Princes to Nothing and maketh the Iudges of the Earth as vanitie Hee is content to put up at our hands this indignity and affront if I may so speake He is glad to sue unto us first and send His Ambassadours day after day beseeching us to bee reconciled unto Him O incomprehensible Depth of unspeakeable mercy and Encouragement to come in and trust in his mercy in case of spirituall misery able to trample under foot triumphantly all Oppositions of the most raging Hell or distrustfull heart 5. Nay Hee commands us And this is his Commandement that wee should beleeve on the Name of his Sonne Iesus Christ 1. Ioh. 3.23 This command alone of rhe All-powerfull God should infinitely out-weigh and prevaile against all other counter-maunds of Heaven or Earth flesh and blood Satan nature reason sense the whole Creation all the World It should swallow up all scruples doubts feares despaires Comming to Iesus Christ with broken hearts according to this Commandement It will beare us out against all oppositions accusations weaknesses of faith in the evill times in the houre of temptation upon our beds of death at that last and greatest day It will be a plea at such times utterly above all exception against all allegations terrours and temptations to the contrary to say I was humbled under the burden of sinne and sense of my spirituall misery God in mercy offered mee His Sonne Iesus Christ freely in the Mysterie of the Gospell by the Ministry of the Word I thereupon thirsted infinitely for His Person and pretious blood that I might thereby obtaine pardon and power against my sinnes Hee called upon mee and commanded mee to drinke my fill of the Water of life freely I accepted His gracious Offer and according to His Commandement cast my selfe upon the Lord Christ against all the contradictions of carnall reason and Sophistry of Satan and since that time Hee hath given mee power to serve Him in syncerity of heart This is my ground and warrant even the Commandement of my blessed God Thus to drinke when I was thirsty Against which the gates of Hell can never possibly prevaile In thy Case then who thirsts extremely and upon free Offer yet refusest to drink consider how unworthily thou dishonours God and wrongs thine owne Soule by suffering the Divels cavils and the groundlesse exceptions of thine owne distrustfull heart to prevaile with thee against the direct Command of Al-mighty God which thou oughtest to obey against all reason sense feares doubts despaires and Hellish suggestions Abraham the Father of the Faithfull did readily and willingly submit to Gods Commandement even to kill His owne onely deare Sonne with His owne hand naturally matter of as great griefe as could possibly pierce the heart of a mortall man And wilt thou beeing broken-hearted stand off from believing and refuse when Hee commands Thee
hee was upon the earth called thy blessed Lord and Saviour Divell See Matth. 10.25 Ioh. 7.20 which passeth all I am perswaded that any drunken Belial ever yet fastned upon thee Contemne thou therefore for ever and trample upon with an humble and triumphant patience all their contumelies and contempts Passe-by nobly without touch or trouble without wound or passion the utmost malice of the most scurrill tongue the basest gibe of the impurest Drunkard Doth the World carnall men thine owne friends ormall Teachers suppose and censure thee to be a dissembler in thy Profession and will needes concurrently and confidently yet falsely fasten upon thee the imputation of hypocrisie An heavy charge Yet for all this Let thy truly-humble heart conscious to it selfe of it's owne syncerity in holy services like a strong pillar of brasse beate backe all their impoysoned arrowes of malice and mistake this way without any dejection or discouragement Onely take occasion hereby to search more thorowly and walke more warily Iob may bee a right noble patterne to thee in this point also He had against him not onely the Divell his enemy pushing at him with his poysoned weapons but even his owne friends scourging him with their tongues His owne wife a thorne pricking him in the eye yea his owne God running upon him like a Gyaâ—â— and his terrours setting themselves in aray against himâ— Powerfull motives to make him suspect himselfe of former halting and hollow-heartednesse in the wayes of God yet notwithstanding his good and honest heart having been long before acquainted with and knit unto his God â—â— truth makes him breake out boldly and resolutely protest Till I die I will not remove my integrity from mee My righteousnesse I hold fast and will not let it goe Chap. 27.5.6 Behold my Witnesse is in Heaven and my record is on high Cap. 16.19 Art thou a loving and tender-hearted mother unto thy children and hast thou lost the dearest The greatest outward crosse I confesse that ever the sonnes and daughters of Adam tasted and goeth nearest to the heart Yet thy sorrow is not singular but out-gone in this also For the blessed Mother of Christ stood by and saw her owne onely deare innocent sonne the Lord of life most cruelly and villanously murdred upon the Crosse before her eyes Ioh. 19.25 Hast thou lost thy goods or children Doth thy wife that lies in thy bosome set her selfe against thee Doe thy nearest friends charge thee falsely Art thou pained extremely from top to toe Doe the Arrowes of the Almighty sticke fast in thy soule Thy affliction is grievous enough if thou taste any of these severally But doe they all in greatest extremity concurre upon thee at once Hast thou lost all thy children and all thy goods Doth thy wife afflict thy afflictions c. If this bee not thy Case and rufull condition thou commest yet short of Iob a most just man and one of Gods dearest Iewels 4. The exceeding greatnesse and pretiousnesse of the promises In every one of which it is incredible to consider what abundant matter of unspeake-able and glorious joy lies wâ—rpâ— up Oh how sweet are they to a thirsty soule in the â—â—me of angvish and trouble They are like a cloud of raine that commeth in the time of a drought They are very glimpses of Heaven shed into a heart many times as darke as hell They are even rockes of eternity upon which every bruised reed may sweetly repose with impregnable safety A truly humbled spirit relishing spirituall things would not exchange any one of them for all the riches and sweetnesse of both the Indies Tell me deare heart thou that in thy unregenerate time though now happily changed lay soaking in sinnes of cruelty and blood whether that mercifull promise Isai. 1.18 Come now and let us reason together saith the Lord Though your sinnes bee as skâ—rlet they shall bee as white as snow though they bee red like crimson they shall bee as wooll bee not farre dearer unto thee then thousands of gold and silver Or thou who formerly pollutedst thy selfe villanously with such secret execrable lusts which now thou canst not remember without horrour tell mee if it were utterable by the Tongue of man with what dearest sweetnesse and blessed peace thy broken heart was bound up and revived when thou cast thine eye considerately and beleevingly upon that pretious place Ezech. 36.25 I will sprinkle water upon you and you shall bee cleane and from all your filthinesse and from all your Idols will I cleanse you c. There was beyond the Seas as my Author reports Christian Matrone of excellent parts and piety who langvishing long under the horrible pressure of most furious and fiery temptations wofully at length yeelded to despaire and attempted the destruction of her selfe After often and curious seeking occasion for that bloody fact at last having first put off her apparrell threw her self head-long from an high Promontory into the Sea But having received no hurt by her fall shee was there by a Miracle and extraordinary mercy strangely preserved for the space of two houres at the least though all the while shee laboured industriously to destroy her selfe Afterward drawne out with much adoe and recovered shee yet still did conflict with that extremest desperate horrour almost a whole yeere But by Gods good providence which sweetly and wisely ordereth all things listening on a time though very unwillingly at first to her husband reading amongst other places that Isa. 57.15 Thus saith the high and lofty One that inhabiteth eternity whose name is holy I dwell in the high and holy place with him also that is of a contrite and humble spirit to revive the spirit of the humble and to revive the heart of the contrite ones For I will not contend for ever neither will I bee alwaies wroth for the spirit should faile before mee and the soules which I have made I say listening to these words the Holy Ghost drawing her heart shee begun to reason thus within her selfe God doth here promise to revive and comfort the heart of the contrite and spirit of the humble and that hee will not contend for ever neither bâ— alwayes wroth But I have a very contrite heart and a spirit humbled 〈◊〉 to the dust one of the acknowledgement and sense of my sinnes and divine vengeance against them Therefore peradventure God will vouchsafe to revive and comfort my heart and spirit and not contend with 〈◊〉 for ever nor bee wroth against mee still c. Hereupon by little and little there flowed by Gods blessing into her darke and heavy heart abundance of life lightsomnesse spirituall strength and assurance In which she continued with constancy and comfort many a yeere after crowned those happy dayes and a blessed old age with a glorious and triumphant death and went to Heaven in the yeere 1595. What heart now but Hers that felt it can possibly conceive the depth of that extraordinary un-utterable
refreshing which sprung out of that promise upon her forlorne and fearefull soule or the excesse of that love which shee bore ever after to those blessed lines to the mercy that made them and to the blood that sealed them An other terrified in conscience for sinne resolves to turne on Gods side but the crie of his good-fellow companions strength of corruption and cunning of Satan carrie him backe to his former courses A good number of yeares after hee was so throughly wounded that whatsoever came of him he would never returne againe unto folly Then comes into his minde the first of the Proverbes whence hee thus reasoned against himselfe So many yeares agoe God called and stretched out his hand in mercy but I refused and therefore now thâ— I call upon him hee will not answer though I seeke him early I shall not finde him Whereupon was his heart filled with much griefe terrour and slavish feare But the Spirit of God leading him at length to that place Luke 17.4 If thy brother trespasse against thee seven times in a day and seven times in a day turne againe to thee saying I repent thou shalt forgiue him He thence happily argued thus for himselfe Must I a silly sinnefull man forgive my brother as often as hee repents and will not then the Father of mercies and the God of all comfort entertaine mee seeking againe in truth his face and â—avour God forbid From which hee blessedly drew such a deale of divine sweetnesse and secret sense of Gods love that his trembling heart at first received some good satisfaction and afterward was setled in a sure and glorious peace An other godly man passing through his lâ—st sicknesse with such extraordinary calmâ—nesse of conscience and absolute freedome from temptation that some of his Christian friends observing and admiring the singularity of his soules quiet at that time especially questioned him aboue it He answered that he had stedfastly fixed his heart upon that sweetest promise Isa. 26.3 Thou wilt keepe him in perfect peace whose mind is stayed on thee because hee trusteth in thee And his God had graciously made it fully good unto his soule And so must every Saint doe who would sound the sweetnesse of a promise to the bottome make it the arme of God unto him for sound thorow-comfort Even settle his heart fixedly upon it and set his Faith on worke to broode it as it were with it's spirituall heate that quickenesse and life may thence come into the soule indeed For God is woont to make good his promises unto his children proportionably to their trust in them and dependance upon his truth and goodnesse for a seasonable performance of them Now all these promises in Gods blessed Booke which addes infinitely to their sweetnesse and certainty are sealed with the blood of Iesus Christ Heb. 9.16 and confirmed with the Oath of Almighty God Heb. 6.17.18 God willing more abundantly to shew unto the heires of promise the immutability of his counsell confirmed it by an oath That by two immutable things in which it was impossible for God to lie wee might have a strong consolation who have fled for refuge to lay hold upon the hope set before us Oh what a mighty and pretious invitation is this to beleeve perfectly The speciall Aime of Gods oath whereas his promise had been more then infinitely sufficient was to strengthen our consolation And therefore every heart true unto Christ ought hence to hold fast not a faint wavering inconstant but a strong stedfast and unconquerable comfort Otherwise it sacrilegiously as it were robs God of the glorious end for which hee swore 5. The free love of God Which how rich and glorious how bottomlesse and boundlesse a treasure it is of all gracious sweetnesse abundant comfort and endlesse bounty appeares in this that Iesus Christ blessed for ever that unvalew-able incomparable Iewell came out of it For God so loved the World that hee gave his onely begotten Sonne that whosoever beleeveth in him should not perish but have everlasting life Ioh. 3.16 And therefore every syncere servant of Christ when upon a serious and sad survay of his Christian waies finds himself to come so far short of that which God requires and himselfe desires That his prayers are very faint his sorrow for sinne very scant his love unto the brethren too cold His spending the Sabbaths very unfruitfull His spirituall growth since he gave his name to Christ very poore His profiting by the meanes hee enjoyes most unanswerable to the power and excellency thereof His New-obedience almost nothing c. For so hee is wont to vilifie himselfe Whereupon hee is much cast downe and out of this apprehension of his manifold unworthinesse concludes against himselfe that hee hath little cause to bee confident in the promises of life or to presume of any part and interest in Iesus Christ and so begins to retire the trembling hand of his already very-weake Faith from any more laying-hold of comfort I say in such a Case being true-hearted he may safely and upon sure ground have recourse to this ever-springing Fountaine of immeasurable mercy and raise up his drooping soule against all contrary oppositions with unspeake-able and glorious refreshing from such places as these Hos. 14.4 I will love thee freely Isai. 55. Ho every one that thirsteth come yee to the waters and hee that hath no money come yâ—e buy and eate yea come buy wine and milke without money and without price And Chap. 43.25 I even I am hee that blotteth one thy transgressions for my owne sake and will not remember thy sinnes Revel 21.6 I will give unto him that is athirst of the Fountaine of the water of life freely c. God never set the Promises on sale or will ever sell his Sonne to any Hee never said Iust so much sorrow so much sanctitie so much service or no Christ But Hee ever gives Him freely Every truly humbled heart which will take him at the hands of Gods free love as an Husband to bee saved by him and to serve him in truth may have him for nothing Yet I must adde this there was never any who received the Lord Iesus savingly but hee laboured syncerely to sorrow as much for sinne to bee as holy to doe him as much service as hee could possibly And when hee reflected upon his best hee ever desired it had been infinitely better 6. The sweete Name of the Lord. Which hee proclaimes Exod. 34.6.7 wherein he first expresseth his essence in one word The Lord The Lord. Which doubled is effectuall to stirre up Moses attention Secondly three Attributes first His power in one word Strong Secondly His justice in two formes of speech not making the wicked innocent visiting the iniquity of the fathers upon the children and upon childrens children unto the third and fourth generation Thirdly but his speciall goodnesse and good affection towards repentant and beleeving sinners in seven