not aware of So though their Brethren justify them they condemn themselves and have it usuall in a readiness to answer Oh if these men that seem to have such hopeful thoughts of me did but know the vile workings of my wicked heart they would never endure me They judge of me as they think but little think what I know by my self The heart as Solomon says knows its own grief The Soul that 's burthened with sinful Lusts and labouring against them cannot believe the Case of any others to be so bad as his As no man thinks his Neighbour's trouble though of the same kind so grievous as his own This high dislike and loathing of a man 's own Sin when it lies quite out of sight of other men is a great evidence that the work of Mortification is set on foot and proceeding in the Soul for God giveth grace to the humble 1 Pet. 5. and as Grace is coming in Sin is going out And thus have I endeavoured to shew you those Evidences that appear in Christians that are heartily intending and endeavouring the mortifying of inherent Sin But now a little to speak to the consequence which the endeavour of mortification has to the sincere practice of Holiness or the Reasons why Christians intending an holy Life are thereupon disposed to mortify indwelling Sin R. 1. A sincere intention of obedience gives a man notice of the sin within him By a sincere endeavour to reform his Life a Christian comes to discover Sin that is within himself As 't is said of Ephraim Hos 7.1 When I would have healed Israel then the iniquity of Ephraim was discovered and Rom. 7.23 I see another law in my members warring against the law of my mind Newly converted Christians till they have tried a-while what they can do in practice of Godliness little think what proud stubborn earthly and hypocritical hearts they have within them little think what work they have to do in their own Souls But by that time they have applied themselves a-while to it they find such a backwardness to duty as they could not have imagined and such an aptness to receive Temptations and Sin without temptation as they did not think themselves guilty of their often relapses and breaking of Resolutions sheweth them the falshood and treachery of their hearts which they were not formerly aware of and now they see that they have a great work of reformation to do as well within as without as if a man reform his Family he shall find not only ill Companions without but some of his own Children against it 2dly Internal Sin once discovered appears more evil and hateful to a Christian than his outward sinful Actions It is that which the Apostle calls exceeding sinful Sin as Rom. 7.13 Outward Acts of Sin derive all their Evil from the vicious Inclinations and evil Intentions of the Soul The more there is of Pride Wilfulness and Stubborness of the Heart in any Sin the worse and more hateful it is If we sin wilfully Hebr. 10.26 after we have received thâ— knowledge of the truth there remains no more sacrifice for sin And the soul that doth ought presumptuously shall be cut off Numb 15.30 So that now a Christian sees that he has cause and need to labour more to mortify his internal Corruption than to rectify his outward Actions that being the greatest part of his work 3dly Outward Reformation can never be throughly carried on without reforming the heart All the practice of Christianity that we can attain to in our outward Actions while Sin is unmortified in the heart is but forced and violent and such as will not hold Weeds you know that are cut off above the ground will grow again you must pluck them up by the roots if you would clear the ground of them therefore the Apostle blesses God for the Romans that they had obeyed from the heart that form of doctrine which was delivered them Rom. 7.13 Cleansing the heart is of necessity to washing the hands in innocency Psal 73.13 till they come to this Christians do but intend and assay to rectify their Lives never do it to purpose But 4thly The motion of a Christian towards God is in prosecution of communion with him which is hindred by indwelling Sin Iniquities separate If a Christian would walk with God he must cleanse his heart or he can have no intimacy with him This Duty of Self-cleansing is propounded in the Text to this very end that we may attain the happiness of God's gracious presence that he may dwell and walk with us as in Chap. 6.16 17. I will dwell in them and walk in them Where God walks with a man he dwells within him and that cannot be without an ejection of Sin The Apostle James requiring men to draw nigh to God promises that he will draw nigh to them presently commands them to purify their hearts Jam. 4.8 Draw nigh to God and he will draw nigh to you Cleanse your hands ye sinners and purify your hearts 5thly Mortificatson of Sin is the proper effect of a sincere Obedience Every gracious action adds something to the habit or principle of grace in the Soul so much it doth to the weakning of the contrary corruption To perform the work of a godly man is the way to become more godly The way of the Lord is strength to the upright Prov. 10.29 And by holding on his way he grows stronger and stronger Job 17.9 Now the stronger a man is in grace the weaker sin is in him contrary qualities destroy one another as they increase Grace by doing its own work undoes its Adversary I now proceed to the Uses 1 Use The first Use is for comfort to sincere Christians against all the activity of men to hinder them in their spiritual work and business A main part of a Christian's work lies where men can give it no impediment nor so much as see what is done it lies within doors where no other person can force an entry It was the great endeavour of the Jews enemies to hinder their work of building the Temple and then of the wall at Jerusalem Neh. 4.11 And our adversaries said They shall not know neither see till we come in the midst among them and slay them and cause the work to cease So 't is the design of Satan and his Followers to hinder the work of Christianity but against this part of a Christian's work they can do nothing He may throw down and demolish the works of Satan and fortify himself inwardly against temptations and seducements and none can hinder him or observe him all external opposition serves to carry on this work to make Christians more holy within more heavenly-minded more zealous for God and indifferent to the world So they that would hinder you from the outward part of your Duty will further you in that which is your great and main work purging out malice and envy and wrath and bitterness against them
and for all that ever they can do you may be strengthning your selves in your love to God lowering your selves in humility bowing your souls to patience and perswading your hearts to love them that use you most unkindly and injuriously while men are acting their enmity against you you may be confirming your love to them which will be no small advantage to you Against these there is no law Gal. 5.22 2d Use The second Use shews the unsoundness of their Religion who rest in external Reformation Christians indeed begin there but they cannot rest there nor suffice themselves with it It 's that which our Saviour charges on the Scribes and Pharisees that they made clean the outside only You are temperate and abstain from Excesses just and honest in your dealings you worship God in publick and in Families as others But what do you within doors Thirdly 3d Use It shews how far they are from true Christianity that are not careful so much as to rectify the course of their Lives who make not clean the outside that are not ashamed to appear outwardly Ungodly Atheistical Voluptuous Intemperate Fourthly 4th Use The Fourth Use is to perswade Christians to the mortification of Sin 1. Resolvedly deny the motions of Sin when first you observe them As Asaph when he found his heart about to speak bad language against God Psal 73.15 presently recollects his thoughts and says If I speak so I shall offend against the generation of thy children 2dly When you are overtaken in any signal act of Sin take an early opportunity to humble your selves for it So what Sin gains by your Fall it will lose and somewhat more by your Humiliation 3dly In all your resistances to Sin look up to Heaven for help As the Apostle says 1 Pet. 5.3 Whom resist stedfast in the faith 4thly Interest all your Crosses and Afflictions into Rebukes for Sin that you may set your hearts against it 5thly Aim still at perfection of Holiness As in the Text Perfecting holiness in the fear of God Keep up an awful fear of God And thus much for the fourth Period of a Christian's motion towards Perfection A laborious endeavour to mortify indwelling Sin ROM VII 24. O wretched man that I am THE Fifth Step or Period of a Convert's motion toward Perfection that I shall treat of is the Sou's Conflict with Discouraging-troubles arising from the sense of indwelling Sin which as 't is the main Subject of the latter part of this Chapter so is most emphatically exprest in these words O wretched man that I am who shall deliver me from the body of this death or as 't is in the Margin from this body of death I confess I cannot well say how long Paul had been converted when he wrote this Epistle the time of his writing it being uncertain but 't is certainly evident first 1. That he speaks of himself as a converted Person and in the state of Grace renewed and sanctified in some good degree his Will being habitually determined against the evil which he did and to the good which he did not as verses 15 16. and verses 18 19. He speaks of himself of his inner man delighting in the law of God verse 22. which is the very practice of a godly man as David speaks in Psal 40.8 I delight to do thy will O my God yea thy law is within my heart The Law is always grievous to a wicked man though he may like well of some Duties required by it yet the Law it self is a burden to him which he is not willing to bear c. All this that he professes of himself to wit that he had such a will to good against evil and delighting in the Law was highly good and that for which he is thankful verse 25. I thank God through Jesus Christ our Lord. But he utterly denies any good to dwell in him as carnal verse 18. For I know that in me that is in my flesh dwelleth no good thing So that if he had now been altogether fleshly and carnal thus much good could not have been in him nor any at all 2dly That he speaks of himself as labouring to do the Will of God in a course of Obedience He did some good and intended and was desirous to do all the rest even that he did not and though he did many evil actions yet his intention and endeavour was against them all which is manifestly the case of a man applying himself to holiness of life 3dly That in his endeavouring thus to obey God in all his Actions he found a strong and vigorous Inclination in his heart to Sin and against Holiness As appears verse 21. I find then a law that when I would do good evil is present with me And ver 23. I see another law in my members warring against the law of my mind 4thly That upon this discovery of so much wickedness within him he turned his hearty endeavours against it As appears by these words verse 23. Rebelling Warring leading Captive In his mind he had as before entertained the Law of God and in obedience thereto he made resolute Decrees against his contrary Inclinations But they rebelled he fought against them and they against him for a War cannot be without fighting on both sides And when he sinned at any time he was carried Captive by his indwelling Sin which plainly argues he made resistance against it for they are Adversaries one to another that carry one another Captive 5thly That in this War against his evil Inclinations he found himself too weak of himself to obtain the Victory and therefore cries out as a distressed man in these words O wretched man that I am No man will so bewail his case that finds it in the power of his hand to keep himself O wretched man that I am it's the same word that 's translated Misery Rom. 3.16 Destruction and misery are in their ways And Jam. 5.1 Go to now ye rich men weep and howl for your miseries that shall come upon you O miserable man I It 's made of two Greek words which signify Suffering and Lamentation that is to say I am a lamentable Sufferer Hence we observe this Doctrine Doctr. That Christians heartily endeavouring and labouring against Indwelling Sin are subject to much discouraging and afflicting trouble about it O wretched man that I am The very Phrases of mortifying the members of the body of Sin Coloss 3.5 Mortify therefore your members which are upon the earth fornication c. Crucifying the Flesh imply much pain and anguish killing and crucifying are painful things Object Yea you will say to them that are killed now that is Sin not the man that kills it I answer Answ Sin in a man is so near to him and has such an union with him that it is not unfitly called himself And so the man that mortifies Sin as he is spiritually renewed mortifies himself as he is sinful and unsanctified therefore the Apostle
that many times the Sin that mostly takes up the thoughts of such a Soul at first is some sin that has less of malignity against God in it than many other which the Party has been guilty of as Lying Sabbath-breaking Disobedience to Parents or some external act of Sin in which he has been more carried by his sensual inclination than maliciously wicked 2. He considers the severe Judgment of God denounced against Sinners and his own concernment in it The Word says The soul that sins shall dye and makes Eternal death the wages of every sin Rom. 6. Yea the Word declares all men by Nature dead in trespasses and sins and children of wrath and hereupon the Sinner reasons thus with himself Is there not a reality in these Threatning words And do they not take effect upon Sinners according to the plain sense and import of them What may I think then of my self Am I liable to all this danger or have I any fence against it If I should now dye as I know not how soon I may what were like to come of me If I be under the force of these Threatnings wo unto me And what have I to plead against them If I was by Nature a Child of wrath how got I out of that condition or am I yet in the gall of bitterness and bands of iniquity Thus the Soul studies and examines his own estate And this is the First step towards Conversion Consideration The Second step or degree of this work is a strong Conviction of a miserable and perishing Estate But before we come directly to consider that work we must take notice of some hindrances or diversions by reason of which many men are taken off even at the first step and never come to a sound Conviction at all and others are long e're they come at it 1. Some grow weary of the unpleasant work of Self-Consideration and let it fall before ever they have brought it to any Convincing issue This is very ordinary with Persons a little shaken under a Sermon or griped by Conscience under an Affliction or scared with the thoughts of Death to ask the Question What estate they are in But the Subject being very ungrateful to Nature they never stay their Studies upon it to bring it to any determinate conclusion As Pilate asked What is truth But would not stay to hear the Answer They translate their thoughts to other matters as being loath to endure the pains of a thorough Examination of themselves 2. From the Consideration of themselves some turn aside to the survey of others whom they think to be as great or greater Sinners and so content themselves in hope to speed as well as they They observe many as bad as they or worse who yet are confident of a safe estate yea they are knowing Persons and likely to understand their own condition as well as any they are Learned men it may be Ministers that of all others should see if there be any danger in their way and besides they are well thought of generally by their Neighbours and few or none seem to question their estate Why then says the a-little-startled Sinner should I further disquiet my self with sad and doubtful apprehensions of my condition I see no probability but I may speed as well as thousands that are round about me I 'll even take up and run the common hazard of my Neighbours and of Mankind in general Thus Consideration is many times obstructed and falls short of a sound Conviction But where God goes on with the design of Saving a Soul he holds the Mind close and keeps it from the vain study of other things and Persons till he has made the Sinner plainly see himself Wretched Miserable and Perishing and that is the second degree of this work which comes now to be considered This Conviction is the proper effect of a well prosecuted Self-consideration and the conclusion naturally issuing from these two premises well attended 1. The demands of the Law from every man 2. The Judgment of God against every Offender of which before He that well considers these and duly applies to himself as his own concernment must needs understand himself to be in a perishing estate without the use of some proper and sufficient Remedy Thus the Prodigal was kept pondering his condition till he perceived himself perishing for hunger Luke 15.17 When he came to himself he had been ranging abroad from himself as well as from his Father's house and unmindful of his greatest concernments where he was which way he was going and what was like to come of him was none of his study all this while But now at length he returned home to himself and took his own estate into a sober consideration upon which he found plainly that he was like to dye for want of Bread I perish for hunger So the Jews Acts 2. were held under the sad thoughts of what they had done and deserved till they were pierced at the heart that is they found themselves dead men as a man that is stabb d to the heart for whom there is as we use to say but one way This account also the Apostle gives of himself Rom. 7.4 That when the commandment came sin revived and he died he perceived that vigor and Soul-destroying power of sin in himself which he was not aware of before and plainly saw himself a dying man Spiritually undone and perishing The like work we also see in the Jailor Acts 16. What must I do to be saved That word to be Saved plainly implies a sense and deep Conviction of a lost estate that he was at present an undone man Thus the poor Sinner hangs as it were over the mouth of Hell in his own apprehension and sees nothing more likely than that he should presently fall into it he plainly hears the Law threatning him with Death Eternal sees God frowning upon him and destruction ready to swallow him up he that a few days ago thought himself as safe and as much in favour with God as any in the world and it may be was secure of Soul-concernments never troubled himself with thoughts of Eternity and took it for a point of folly and a beginning of madness in other men to disturb their minds with fear of Hell and Condemnation is now become a miserable and perishing man in his own Judgment and of all men alive the most likely to be Damned Eternally The Third step or degree of this work is a Soul-Afflicting Humiliation a work made up of terror and sorrow under the apprehension of the wrath of God and the sense of a perishing estate A deep sorrow and anguish of Spirit seizing upon the Sinner under the Conviction before spoken of This work is commonly called Legal Repentance because it is a deep sorrow and trouble about sin depending upon that sense which a man has of his condemnation under the Law But though it be not that sorrow which is called Godly
sorrow yet no man attains the true Spirit of Godliness till first he has had a taste of this sorrow This is so natural and necessary a product of Conviction that no man can totally escape it that has once known what 't is to be convinced of Sin and Misery And yet there is one way that Persons strongly convinced of the evil and danger of their estate have to divert themselves from that pressing trouble and anguish which is usually the effect of a sound Conviction and that is an hope of being brought over into a better estate hereafter though they are now in such a condition as wherein to dye were certainly to go to Hell yet they hope they shall have the Grace at one time or other e're they dye to return to God and make their Peace with him The Example of Foelix is very apposite who being convinced of his bad estate so far as that he fell a trembling under Paul's Doctrine yet shifted off his trouble by adjourning his cares to another time and stopped the mouth of his Conscience by promising the Apostle a further Audience Acts 24.25 Some Persons are so much convinced that they are in an evil and perishing estate that they will not stick to say They think verily if they should dye as they are they should be damned and perish without remedy And yet they are very little troubled at the matter because they hope they shall turn to God and get Peace with him yet in time to come But where God undertakes the great work of Salvation Conviction is always attended with a deep Humiliation and Contrition of Spirit as the Jews in Acts 2. were pierced to the very heart wounded though not to death yet to extremity of pain a wounded spirit who can bear And the Terrors of God fell so vehemently upon the Jailor Acts 16. that he could not forbear trembling though a man of a Spirit sturdy and rugged enough till he had received some information about the way and means of obtaining Life eternal I perish for hunger said the poor Prodigal O sad and doleful speech the language of an aking heart you may be sure Yea Judas himself proceeded thus far towards Conversion when he was Convicted he repented with a Legal Repentance as 't is commonly distinguished a Repentance wherein the Soul is troubled and tormented about Sin under apprehension of the wrath of God This Humiliation and Anguish of Spirit doth proceed especially upon 1. The apparent danger of the Wrath to come The Poor Sinner looks upon himself as already Sentenced for Hell and it torments him before-hand to think how soon he may be thrust into it so that he is always crying Woe woe to himself in thoughts of dying in that estate 2. The Remembrance of the sins whereby he has brought himself into that estate It 's a torment to him to consider that for so vile and base a thing as Sin is he should make himself so miserable as the Jews in Lam. 5.16 Woe unto us that we have sinned And the more pleasing any sin has been to him the greater pain it is to him to reflect upon it he is out of all patience with himself to think how foolish how bruitish and how like a beast he has been before God even in those things he thought a little while ago he did gallantly and wondred at those that run not with him into the same excess 3. Conscience of his refusing Counsel and neglecting Opportunity to take a better course now he remembers what warnings he has had and how he has often been called upon and earnestly entreated by God and man to fly from the wrath to come and avoid the misery into which he sees himself now falling and still refused to be perswaded and was as the deaf Adder that stops her ears against the voice of the Charmer c. The calling over of these things makes the poor Sinner a burthen and a terror to himself See how Solomon represents it in Prov. 5.11 12 13 14. This then is the Third step of this great work a Soul-Afflicting Humiliation This is the state of men weary and heavy laden as Mat. 11. This is that Spirit of bondage of which the Apostle speaks Rom. 8. That Spiritual sickness which makes men feel their need of a Physician that wound at the heart which puts men upon enquiry What they shall do to be saved Which is next to be attended The Fourth Step or Degree of this work is a studious Consultation about a Recovery When a man is thorowly convinced of his misery and affected with sorrow for it it is proper for him to enquire what course he may take to get out of the evil estate which he is in and escape the misery which he expects But yet some Convicted Persons and Persons deeply affected with a Legal Humiliation fall short of this Step towards Conversion and never come to any serious Enquiry after the way and means of Salvation Such are they who seeing themselves undone and apprehending the wrath of God ready to come forth against them immediately fall into a despairing sorrow and conclude peremptorily against themselves that there is no help for them Thus Cain when he heard his judgment fell presently into a sad and sorrowful consideration of the evil that was now invading him till he had made it in his own opinion impossible for his wound to be healed his iniquity to be forgiven never enquiring in the least how he might get out of the unhappy estate into which he was fallen but sinking in his Sorrows without any further question But where God proceeds in a design of saving a poor Soul when once he has brought him to an humbling Conviction of his sin and misery he puts him upon a serious enquiry after the way and means of his recovery So the Jews Acts 2. Men and Brethren what shall we do and the Jailor Acts 16. Being deeply sensible of the evil of their present estate they search diligently for some way and means to get out of it as the Unjust Steward when he saw that he should be turned out of his Office fell presently a considering what course was to be taken that he might not perish as he was now like to do for want of house and harbour Luke 16.3 What shall I do This Consultation is managed with some variety Sometimes the affrighted Soul confines his terror to himself and takes counsel with his own heart as Psal 13.2 which is never like to come to any good conclusion sometimes he sets to reading Scripture and other good Books And though this be indeed the way to get information yet many there are who in this distress for want of skill to understand what they read perplex themselves more instead of finding out the proper cure for their disease But generally where the work goes on to good effect it pleases God to direct such Souls to some able Ministers or experienced Christians to whom
though shame and fear may for a time restrain them they at length open their griefs and state the case of their Souls earnestly pursuing the great Question What shall we do The Fifth Step or Degree of this Work is An heedful and humble Attendance on the Doctrine of Salvation by Jesus Christ contained in the Gospel as 't is said of Lydia she attended to the things that were spoken by Paul And what was the Sum of his Doctrine every where we know viz. That which alone gives a satisfying Answer to the Question What must I do to be saved This is the next Step toward Conversion and Salvation after Consultation had about the way to escape the wrath of God But as there are many considering Souls that never come to any full Conviction and some convinced who yet are never soundly humbled yea many proceed as far as a Legal Repentance and Humiliation and yet never come to any serious Enquiry So there are many that consult with themselves and may be with others for and about a Remedy for their bad Estate and yet never attain so far as to give any heedful Attention to the Doctrine of the Gospel as that which propounds the only way of life for dying Souls 1. Some pitch upon false Remedies and heal the Wound slightly as the Prophet speaks being deceived by their own hearts or misled by erroneous and unskilful Teachers And the Rock that men here usually split upon is an opinion that they may satisfy God and save themselves by their own works by amending their Lives breaking off from former Sins and taking up neglected Duties emancipating themselves to the Law as the Prodigal hired himself to the Citizen in hope to recover favour with God and escape his Judgment by reformation of their Lives Now they fall to praying hearing of Sermons reading of Scripture and other good Books they forsake their bad company and leave off their licentious courses and so pacify their Consciences choke their Convictions and drain up their Sorrows till at length all their trouble being suppressed they grow secure again and by degrees return to their old course or else which makes their case less hopeful having accustomed themselves to a form of godliness take up with that and run the stage of Hypocrites It is indeed their Duty to reform their Lives and high time When they see themselves perishing for Sin But to rest in that Reformation as the price of their Acceptance with God is that wherein they seduce themselves to their own ruin if God do not graciously seize upon them and give them another shaking to bring them back into the way 2. Others after some Consultation had with themselves and sometimes with others also fall into incurable Despair They can devise no Remedy for themselves and therefore they verily think there is none or they have good counsel offered them by those they advise with but understand it not aright or they ask advice of those that are unable to direct them or careless of their sad condition which was the case of Judas he considered his estate was convinced of his sin and the deserved punishment of it he was deeply humbled and proceeded to consultation But this was his unhappiness he opened his case to those that had no compassion for him no not when he professed himself tormented in Conscience with the pains of that sin into which they had hired him Mat. 27.4 What is that to us see thou to that Poor Judas He had betrayed his Lord and could not go to him for comfort he had forsaken the Disciples and could not look them in the face To whom should he betake himself for advice in so great a distress when he saw the wrath of God smoking against him and ready to consume him but to the Priests whose office it was to instruct the People to have compassion on the ignorant and those that are out of the way Hebr. 5.1 2. and who were so greatly concerned in his sin but they rejected him and left him perishing in his despair Unhappy Souls who under the Terrors of the Almighty fall into the Hands of such hard-hearted Confessors But where the work of Salvation goes on the Enquiry spoken of before never ceases till the Soul sets it self down under the teaching of the Gospel as God some way or other provides it for him and hearkens diligently to the proposals therein made to Sinners for Salvation see Acts 11.14 with Acts 10.33 Now he hears the Gospel after another manner and reads it with another attention than heretofore watches and observes every word that falls from the mouth of God as Benhadad's Servants watched the words of the King of Israel that if any argument of hope were offered they might be sure to lay hold on it O how still were the Jews and how closely attentive to Peter's discourse Acts 2. while he was preaching the Gospel to them after they had propounded to him that weighty question What shall we do Now the Sinner will not miss a Sermon that he may hear nor lose a Sentence for want of heed taking that he may see if there be any hope for such a one as he is Every one says our Saviour that hath heard and learned of the Father cometh to me John 6.45 Now is the Soul of whom we are speaking hearing the Father what offers he makes of his Son to poor Sinners and what encouragement he gives them to come to him and trust in him And if he do but understand and learn what he hears it will be well with him The Sixth step or degree of this work is Belief of the Gospel an hearty Assent to the word of Salvation Attention to the Gospel serves properly to bring the Soul to a belief of it there being such evidence of a Divine Authority and Majesty in it as strongly demands the credit of him that seriously attends it But even in this place also there is danger of obstruction or diversion to be heedfully observed Men that do attentively consider the Gospel are yet in danger to be turned aside First By Disbelief The Gospel is so great a Mystery and Salvation by Jesus Christ so strange and so unlikely a thing to the judgment of Flesh and Blood that the poor affrighted Sinner cannot bring himself to believe that there is any such way and means of Life as the Word propounds tho it may be he never doubted of it before while as yet he never understood the evil of his own estate nor what an hateful thing a Sinner is That which he never questioned before he now looks upon as hard to be believed That Jesus Christ is ready and willing to save Sinners especially so great a Sinner as he accounts himself to be and this incredulity will be his destruction if help come not in from Heaven against it 2. By Misbelief A man may attentively hear or read the Gospel and yet be far from understanding it As the Eunuch said
rather And if you tell the humble Soul that they that Sin against the Holy Ghost never heartily repent of it and no Man in this Life can certainly conclude himself reprobated because for ought any knows he may repent and turn to God He will yet object Object 6. It may be God will be so merciful as to save Sinners that are deeply and kindly humbled for their Sins and full of the Spirit of mourning and 't is Mercy indeed if he will save such But I have an hard heart and an uncontrite Spirit I cannot grieve for Sin to any purpose though I know my self to be one of the chief of Sinners All these and many more such Objections will be unanswerable if the Soul considers only the absolute Mercy of God For God may indeed be merciful and gloriously merciful in saving Sinners though he should only save some of the most restrained and least provoking the soonest yielding and most signally humbled and mourning Sinners and so the Soul that judges worse of himself can have no hope of his Salvation But the Mercy of God in Christ is such as that he freely offers his Salvation to all even the worst of Sinners to whom the Gospel is preached inviting and commanding them to accept it and rely upon him for it And this answers all Objections The worst the Soul can say against himself exempts him not from the number of Sinners and Salvation is freely offered to all Sinners in general He is one of them let him make as bad of himself as he can And though he thinks it never so unreasonable for him to hope for Mercy yet no reason in the World can have any force against the Command of the most High God which requires him to repose his hope and trust in Christ for his Salvation Thus 't is evident that the ground of a Christian's hope or that which he relies and rests upon in his hope of Salvation is the free Mercy of God in Christ And therefore is Faith commonly in Scripture called a trusting or believing in Jesus Christ because the Satisfaction which he has given to the Law and the free tender of Salvation which he makes in the Gospel to Sinners in general is the only sufficient ground that any Soul has to stay and rest upon in hope of his Salvation John 3.15 16 18 36. John 6.35 1 Pet. 2.6 Acts 11.17 Acts 16.31 and many other places Faith is a believing in God But 't is a believing on him looked upon and considered as he is in Jesus Christ The Soul cannot believe or trust in God for Salvation but as he trusts in Christ 1 Pet. 1.21 Who by him believe on God who raised him from the dead c. It is a trusting or hoping in the Mercy of God Psalm 15.5 Psalm 147.11 But 't is a trusting in Mercy only as 't is expressed displayed and offered to Sinners in Jesus Christ It is a trusting or hoping in the Word Psalm 119.42 74. in as much as it declares and propounds that Mercy of God in Christ on which alone the Soul may rest it self in hopes of Salvation Thus have we seen the Sinner brought by the several Steps of Consideration Conviction Humiliation c. to a fiducial Faith or believing on Jesus Christ And now is he in the state of Effectual Calling or Conversion 1 Thess 2.13 Then Men are called and converted when they believe in Jesus Christ as 't is fully proved in Rom. 1.16 with 1 Cor. 1.24 Now is the Soul set safe from Condemnation and therefore is this Faith called Justifying Faith Rom. 5.1 Now is the Soul adopted and entitled to everlasting Life And therefore is Faith called saving Faith or believing to Salvation Heb. 10. Yea now the Soul is by the work of the Spirit possessed of all Graces necessary to qualify and prepare him for Heaven the heart being purified by Faith Acts 15.9 and taken up by the Lord Jesus for his Habitation Ephes 2.22 with Ephes 2.17 where-ever there is Faith in Christ there is also Love to God Obedience Patience Humility Self-denial and all other Graces in which the Law is written on renewed Hearts The Exercises and Encreases whereof come next to be considered The Sum of all is 1. The Sinner takes the estate of his Soul into serious Consideration Ezek. 18.28 He considereth and turneth away from his Transgression 2. He finds himself to be in a lost and perishing Condition Luke 15.17 I perish for hunger 3. The sight of himself in this estate affects his Soul with deep Sorrow and distressing Trouble Acts 2.37 When they heard this they were pierced at the heart 4. This distress puts him upon a studious consultation and enquiry for a Remedy of his Estate And they said Men and Brethren what shall we do 5. Upon this enquiry God directs him to a serious and heedful attention to the Gospel Acts 11.14 Send for Peter he shall tell thee words whereby thou and all thy House shall be saved And Acts 10.33 We are all c. 6. Thus attending the Gospel he comes to understand and believe the Doctrine therein contained and to receive it for certain truth upon God's Testimony Acts 2.41 They that gladly received his word were baptized John 6.45 They shall be all taught of God Every one therefore that hath heard and learned of the Father cometh to me 7. Upon the belief of the Doctrine of the Gospel he proceeds to an hearty reliance on the free Mercy of God in Christ in hope of his Salvation For Gal. 2.16 Knowing that a man is not justified by the works of the Law but by the Faith of Christ Even we have believed in Jesus Christ that we might be justified by the Faith of Christ 1. Believing the Gospel he is informed of the excellency of Christ's Salvation and so desires it earnestly for himself 2. Believing the Gospel he sees this Salvation is freely offered to Sinners in general and so conceives hope that he may have it 3. Believing the Gospel he sees that Salvation is procured and granted only through the Mercy of God in Christ and therefore he rests only upon that Mercy in hope of his Salvation PART II. Of the Progress of a Believer from his Conversion to his Perfection under the work of Sanctification 1 PETER II. 2. As new-born babes desire the sincere milk of the word that ye may grow thereby THE Text is an Exhortation to an earnest desire after the Word Where note first 1. The Persons exhorted they are lately converted Christians compared to new-born Babes so young and incompleat Christians are called 1 Cor. 3.1 And I brethren could not speak unto you as unto spiritual but as unto carnal even as unto babes in Christ Babes in Christ because the work of Sanctification had gone on but a little way in them they being hitherto very Carnal 2. The matter of the Exhortation a desire after the Word Where note First First The object of this desire
and give them some heart-reviving Cordials New-born Babes desire Milk words of comfort from the breasts of Consolation Isa 66.11 That ye may suck and be satisfied with the breasts of her consolations that ye may milk out and be delighted with the abundance of her glory 3dly Their great fear of deceiving themselves Though they love Promises and search Scripture for them and gladly go many miles to hear them explained and preached yet they fear to apply them to themselves Knowing their hearts are deceitful they are always afraid lest they should take up too good thoughts of themselves And though they vehemently long after spiritual Comfort yet they heartily fear lest they should receive it too soon before they have a right to it or are duly prepared for it 4thly Their continual enquiring after Marks and Signs of Persons being in a state of Grace No Sermon suits them if it be not in some parts of it made up of Notes distinguishing between Believers and Unbelievers And in discoursing with godly men they are always asking Questions of this kind How may one know that he is converted and believes in Christ to Salvation c. What are the properties of a sincere godly man What is the lowest Evidence of Grace which is not found in a graceless Person May not an Hypocrite go thus and thus far c. These and such Enquiries shew what their minds are set upon to wit to be assured that they are converted and in a state of Grace But they that make light of such Enquiries and the notes of a saving Conversion seem not to have known the Terror of the Lord as the Apostle speaks 2 Cor. 5.11 5thly Their usual trouble at the inconformity of their Experiences about the work of Grace to these of other godly men so desirous are they to get beyond doubt of their sincerity and safety that they are always comparing themselves with what others have or think they have found They are presently dejected with fear lest they should prove unconverted and unbelieving Hence come such reasonings as these I have never been so humbled and broken for sin as such and such have been I never felt in my self such vehement desires after Christ Never could take such delight in God never knew what 't is to have such communion with him and therefore I cannot yet see ground to judge my self in a state of Salvation And though such Christians cannot deny but they have had their hearts humbled for Sin and their desires carried out after Christ yet they say that all that they have known of this kind is nothing to what others use to have weak and faint and they fear to no purpose And if you tell them they must wait for those higher Experiences of delight in God and communion with him they think 't is all one as if you should tell them they must live at uncertainties and continue in their wearisome doubtings till they come up to such attainments which they fear they never shall do This also is the reason why they are so often enquiring whether ever any such as they obtained mercy seeking for Parallels of this sort if they may be found that they may be the more encouraged to hope that themselves are in a state of life when they find some like themselves among the Heirs of Salvation And thus their labour and study is still about Assurance As their Question was formerly What must I do to be saved so 't is now How may I know that I shall be saved I come now the Use Use This argues them to be in an unconverted estate who live contentedly without any Assurance of their Salvation Either First Not minding the Question Whether they are in the state of Grace or no let the morrow of Eternity take care for it self When poor humble Christians are seeking resolution of their Doubts these are at ease caring for none of those things that concern their future estate not remembring their latter end As 't is said of Jerusalem Lam. 1.9 Her filthiness is in her skirts she remembreth not her last end Or 2dly Conceited of their being in a safe estate but upon unstudied grounds as if a meer opinion of their being in a good condition were enough to make it so Saying I shall have peace with an although to what may be objected as Deut. 29.19 though I walk in the imagination of my own heart But oh secure Souls will you consider First That 't is a most dreadful thing to perish eternally The loss of Heaven offered in the Gospel is infinitely more than the loss of a thousand Worlds The Torments of Hell an Everlasting Fire It 's hard to endure the aking of a Tooth or the pain of the Stone for twenty four hours what is it to be fryed as Laurentius on a burning Gridiron to be flead alive as Valerian and to endure that pain for ever but alas these are nothing to the anguish of the never-dying Worm the Torments of the never-quenched Fire 2dly Will you consider how sad a thing it must needs be to live at uncertainty whether this shall not be our case The Servants of Pharaoh in Prison were sad Gen. 40.7 They thought their Dreams imported some great matters and they did so indeed but they knew not what it might be 3dly To live at a careless uncertainty of Salvation is the way to make our Damnation certain For how shall we escape if we neglect so great salvation Heb. 2.3 4thly It 's much more your concernment to secure your Salvation than theirs that call upon you to do it You must bear it Prov. 9.12 God the Father calls you the Son invites you the Spirit strives with you Ministers pray you to be reconciled and pray for you that you may be reconciled But what is it to God or man beside your own gain if you be saved and your misery if you perish 5thly You may be saved and be sure of it if you do not willingly neglect Thy destruction is of thy self Hosea 13.9 Why will ye die Ezek. 18.31 The second Use is for Comfort to those that are earnestly seeking and labouring after assurance of their Salvation Even this is an hopeful Evidence of your being in the State of Salvation Your earnest and hearty following of the Question gives an answer to it this is their proper study and endeavour who are turned savingly to God even from their first Conversion Some may object Obj. That all this is but self-minding whereas a true Christian should be all for God whatever comes of himself But Answ I answer Salvation is for our selves and coming to Christ is for our selves as the Apostle says Acts 2.40 Save your selves And again Matth. 11.29 Ye shall find rest to your souls The third Use is to exhort all Christians to use diligence to clear up their Assurance of Salvation 'T is the property of the youngest Believers to endeavour it those of lowest standing and 't is the
therefore perswades them to submit themselves to the practice of Godliness for this is implied in that freedom But he speaks of the freedom of Justification which strongly calls for Holiness and demands Obedience as Psal 130.4 There is forgiveness with thee that thou mayest be feared And thus with thankfulness to God he reminds them of the gifts of his Grace under which being justified they became Servants of Righteousness By becoming Servants we understand a Self-resignation to the Will of God in the practice of the duty of Righteousness and Holiness as Verse 17. Ye have obeyed from the heart that is willingly the form of Doctrine delivered to you Neither are these Romans to be considered only as freed from Condemnation as apprehending themselves to be so As 't is evidently the main Subject of the Chapter Verse 1. Shall we continue in sin that grace may abound Where he condemns the ill use that Men might be supposed at least to make of their Pardon and Justification that is to take liberty thereupon to Sin because if they sinned never so much they were under Pardon and the more they sinned the greater would be the glory of that Grace that pardoned them Now no Man can possibly thus argue himself into Sin unless he apprehends himself to be pardoned and free from Condemnation So that the Sense of the Text is plain that when Christians do truly apprehend themselves to be free from Condemnation for Sin they willingly deliver up themselves to be Servants of Righteousness So we have clear ground for this Assertion Prop. That justified Persons especially when they apprehend themselves to be so do heartily apply themselves to Duty in the practice of Godliness Psalm 116.8 9. Thou hast delivered my soul from death I will walk before the Lord that is I 'll serve him in holiness and righteousness before him as is expressed in Luke 1.74 75. And Psalm 56.13 Thou hast delivered my soul from death c. and 2 Cor. 7.1 Let us cleanse our selves from all filthiness of the flesh and spirit perfecting holiness in the fear of the Lord. It plainly argues a propension in such Persons as are in a state of Grace and apprehend themselves to be so to obey the Lord in the perfection of Holiness And this is evident in the following Particulars 1. First They studiously endeavour to inform themselves of the commanding Will of God Whereas before they were mostly inquiring after promises that might comfort them Now they earnestly seek to know the Precepts by which they ought to be directed in the well ordering of their Life That as the Apostle says They may prove what is the good and acceptable will of God Rom. 12.2 Now they make it their business to ask questions concerning the lawfulness or unlawfulness of matters of Practice and enquire what may be done and what must be done Thus the Corinthians wrote to Paul about matters of Practice Marriage in time of Suffering 1 Cor. 7.1 2. And eating of things offered to Idols Chapter 8. Such were the things that they wrote about that they might clearly understand what was the Will of God concerning their practise in such things This also is evident in the case of the Centurion Acts 10.6 7. the Angel assured him of his acceptance with God and that he was in a state of Salvation but tells him a way to know his Duty what he ought to do And presently he observes the direction and sends for Peter carnal Reason would have replied If I be accepted with God then my Sins are pardoned and I am safe what need I more but immediately says he Verse 33. I sent for thee c. So 't is manifest that Persons in the state of Grace and perceiving themselves so do very much intend the knowledge of their Duty 2. Secondly They very gladly accept and comply with the Will of God when once they have discovered it They have in them a new Nature the Law written in their hearts which makes them with pleasure to receive information of their Duty from the Word because it agrees with what they have through Grace an internal Disposition to 1 Thess 4.1 We beseech you brethren and exhort you by the Lord Jesus that as ye have received of us how you ought to walk and to please God so ye would abound more and more Ye received the Word is often used for an affectionate Reception as a Man receives him whom he kindly entertains and makes much of him Acts 16.33 And he took them the same hour of the night and washed their stripes and was baptized And John 14.3 And if I go and prepare a place for you I will come again and receive you to my self The Commands of God are welcome to a Man in the state of Grace especially when he once comes to understand himself to be so 'T is but a Meiosis that the Apostle uses in the 1 John 5.2 His commands are not grievous that is they are very pleasant As Heb. 6.10 God is not unrighteous that is he is highly Righteous Before they were willing to know the Law but nothing was comfortable to them but the Gospel the word of promise to stay them from despair But now they rejoyce to know their Duty and what will please him that has shewed mercy on them See a notable instance of this in Acts 15.31 They rejoyced greatly for the consolation in the Margin 't is Exhortation declaring matter of Duty So the Jews rejoyced for that they understood the first words of the Law Neh. 8.12 3. Thirdly They put themselves upon speedy and present performance of Duty as soon as they know it They do not only consent to the Law and approve of what it requires and so resolve upon it for time to come but according to their Ability they apply themselves to a present performance of it As David I made haste and delayed not Psalm 119.60 This some understand by the first love Rev. 2.4 Thou hast lost thy first love that is thou art not so zealous in thy Work and Duty as formerly The Apostle's Argument implies this 1 Cor. 15.58 Always abounding in the work of the Lord for as much as ye know The words evidently presume That if Men know their acceptance they will addict and give up themselves to Duty In Scripture-Language the same word signifies Consolation and Exhortation 1 Thess 4.18 Wherefore comfort one another with these words The Comfort that Christians receive from the Promise presently exhorts and perswades them to the Duty which they owe to the Command So they set up Duty of Religion in Families and appoint themselves times of Prayer in secret take all opportunities to hear the Word and provide for the strict Observation of the Sabbath c. 4. Fourthly They are much pleased with a Course of Christian Duty when once they are got into it It 's no burden but a pleasure to them as David saies in Psalm 119.14 I have rejoyced in the way
the flesh and spirit perfecting holiness in the fear of God THE fourth Period space or interval of a Christian's motion towards Perfection that I shall speak of is a laborious endeavour to mortify in-dwelling Sin which is intimated in these words as here laid in an Exhortation from Chapter the Sixth When a Christian under persuasions that he is in a state of Grace has for some time made it his business to reform and rectify his life though he meets with no small obstacles without yet he manifestly perceives at length that the greatest difficulty of his work arises from the evil that is within him that other law of which the Apostle speaks so fully Rom. 7.23 But I see another law in my members warring against the law of my mind and thereupon proceeds to the great Design of mortifying his inherent Lusts and Corruptions Let us cleanse our selves c. The Apostle Paul here represents himself and the Corinthians 1. First As in a state of Grace and Salvation Having the Promises in which God undertakes to be their Father and takes them for his Children 2dly As being comfortably persuaded that they were in that happy estate 3dly As intending to perfect holiness That is to perform the Will of God in a course of obedience Perfecting holiness in the fear of God And in order to this he stirs up himself and them to a strenuous and diligent endeavour to purge out their yet remaining and indwelling Sin Let us cleanse our selves from all filthiness of the flesh and spirit And hence we have this Doctrinal Observation Doctr. That Christians heartily intending obedience to God in their Lives are thereupon effectually disposed to mortify Sin dwelling in their Souls Heb. 21.1 Let us lay aside every weight and the sin that doth so easily beset us and run with patience c. They that are heartily intended to run the race of duty are thenceforth put upon it to cast off the weight and fetters of inherent Sin Such is Paul's report of his own Example in the 1 Cor. 9.26 I so run not as uncertain that is that I may certainly obtain There is his intention of obedience And that he may so obey he mortifies the body of Sin I keep under my body and bring it under subjection Now that a man does indeed intend the mortifying of his Sin that is within him will appear if we consider these Evidences following First Evid 1. Such Christians they are full of sorrowful complaints of the evil and naughtiness of their hearts they would go forward in a way of holiness but being hindred by evil Inclinations and Indispositions to duty they sadly bewail the unhappy temper of their Souls which plainly argues a great desire and inclination to a better and more purified Estate Men that are always complaining of the evil posture of things Political State-matters Maleadministrations and Mis-governments are usually looked upon as studying Innovations So here The man that is generally querulous against the Corruptions of his own heart is certainly to be accounted a man aiming at the purging them out and endeavouring a thorough Reformation within his own Territories Thus Paul O wretched man that I am Rom. 7.24 Earnest complaints against Persons and Parties in a Nation are plain indications of a desire and intention to expel them if it may be and drive them out Christians What is your Errand to God when you make your secret Applications to him is it beside other things of like importance very much to give in Accusations against your proud Hearts your sensual Hearts your covetous worldly hypocritical Hearts This is a great sign you are endeavouring the mortification of your Pride Sensuality Covetousness and Hypocrisy Christians at first mostly confess their actual sins especially which lay upon their Consciences but after some progress made in Christianity and some essays to reform their Lives they come in with new complaints against themselves for the Sin that is within them that gives rise and egress to all their actual Sins 2dly Such persons are utterly unsatisfied with all their former humiliations for sin as finding themselves worse and more desperately wicked than ever they thought they were all the Sorrows that ever they have had for Sin seem nothing in proportion to that vileness and wickedness which they observe in their hearts and therefore their common complaint is of a hard heart a stony heart c. Now this is manifestly an assay to mortify their Sin to drown and choak it as I may say In godly sorrow an indeavour in the language of the Prophet to wash the heart from wickedness Jer. 4.14 as the words may be expounded by James 4.8 9. Cleanse your hands ye sinners and purify your hearts ye double-minded Though sorrow and mourning do nothing to the washing away the guilt of Sin yet it doth much to the removal of the filth of it Though it has no validity to satisfaction for sin yet it has much efficacy to purification of the Soul from it 3. They are always inquisitive after means and directions to the bettering of their hearts What may I do says one to get an humble heart an heavenly mind Inquiring how to suppress evil Thoughts and keep them out to subdue unruly affections and resist sinful Desires As before they were much in asking what is the will of God that they might do it so they are now in seeking how they may withstand and overcome their own Wills which they find rebelling against the known Command of God As Diseased Persons are always asking when they meet with those that are skilful what is good against a Consumption a Dropsie the Scurvy c. so Christians heartily intending holiness and mortification of their Sins are much disposed to Questions though not in the Jewish sense about purifying Questions about healing of Soul-diseases and purging out of evil Humours That Word that Sermon is most acceptable to such a Soul which gives most proper Directions and prescribes most hopeful Remedies against evil and sinful Inclinations and gives him most assistance against himself as he is corrupt and sinful He is not so much taken with a fine notion or an ingenious gloss upon a Text or a witty Interpretation as a solid direction against the evil of indwelling Sin 4thly They are always calling for the help of the spirit against their sins as finding themselves unable to destroy and mortify them Who shall deliver me that is to say wilt not thou O God as Psalm 60.9 10. At first newly converted Souls are all for the comforting operation of the Spirit but now for his Soul-sanctifying Work that they may through the spirit mortify the deeds of the body Rom. 8.13 and as David requests in Psalm 51.10 Create in me a clean heart O God 5thly They are altogether uncontented with the good apprehensions that others profess to have of them Yea rather discontented at them because they know so much evil by themselves which others are
speaking to the Colossians bids them mortify their members that is to say your hands your feet your eyes which is the very language of our Saviour If thine eye offend pluck it out Mat. 5.29 And that of David Psal 38.4 5. is most plainly and naturally resolved into this sense Mine iniquities are gone over mine head as an heavy burden they are too heavy for me He was engaged as every good man is in a Combat against Sin and the work too hard for him and his Sin a burden too heavy and that distressed him Troubles of Christians about Indwelling Sin 1. The first Trouble is That it seems to increase and grow upon them It 's a very grievous thing to be conflicting with a growing Adversary as David says Psal 3.1 Lord how are they increased that trouble me A great discouragement and heart-killing thing to a Christian striving against Sin when he apprehends it more and more abounding in him When the Body of Sin appears in him like the Hydra of which the Poets give us their Fictions of a Serpent of Fifty Heads whereof when one was cut off two more presently grew up in the stead of it what hope off overcoming such an Adversary and the unlikeliness of the Victory must needs be a sore trouble to the Combatant Thus Paul complains that he was sold under Sin verse 14. as a Captive or a Slave that is sold in the Market by him that has him in his power to do what he will with him as 2 Tim. 2. ult Taken captive by Satan at his will He that 's sold is more hopeless than he that is but newly taken Alas says the Soul I am at that pass now that one sight of a tempting Object one word one thought will hurry away my Soul into sinful desires and reaching after forbidden things which awhile ago were abominable to me and I thought all the Art of Hell could never reconcile me to them sure I am much worse than ever O wretched man that I am Besides this growth of Sin appears in a woful backwardness and indisposition to Duties of Holiness to which the Soul was much inclined heretofore Time was when I found no hindrance to Duty but worldly business or the prohibition of Superiors or the Scorns of Neighbours c. And if I could but get time from my Calling and leave of my Friends and liberty of my Superiors I easily broke through other discouragements and found nothing to stay me but now when I have leisure enough and leave enough to wait on God in Duties my heart stands off from them I am fain to force and drive my self to them and many times cannot do so much certainly Sin is encreasing and growing in me against all my Prayers Resolutions and Endeavours to forsake it 2dly They very much suspect themselves to be altogether graceless and unrenewed They see so much Sin in themselves and that so hateful and abominable that they can hardly think it possible it should stand with Grace It 's true the Apostle Paul could in this case distinguish between himself absolutely considered and himself in his flesh or fleshly part and therefore when he was saying In me there dwells no good thing he limited it to the flesh in me that is in my flesh but every Christian has it not in a readiness so to distinguish Many sincere Christians conclude themselves to have no Grace because that they see they have so much Sin and this is a sore Affliction I had hoped says a Christian that I was in Christ and took much joy in my supposed saved Estate after much fear and terror I had my heart quieted and I thought upon right grounds then I set upon Reformation and I thought was acted in it by the Holy Spirit but now I fear the work of Conversion was never soundly wrought in me as the Disciples were distressed with fear that Jesus was not the Christ We hoped it had been he that should have redeemed Israel I find my self so proud so sensual so under the power of brutish and base Lusts that it seems utterly improbable there should be one spark of saving Grace in me Oh sad Case so many Convictions so many Sorrows endured so many Hope 's conceived so many Prayers for Mercy poured out and so many Purposes and Resolutions of Obedience taken up and all lost and am I a graceless Sinner yet O wretched man that I am Such a Soul knows by what it has formerly felt and suffered under condemnings of Law and Conscience what 't is to be in an unregenerate Estate and therefore is most sadly afflicted when it falls under fear of being yet in that Estate 3dly They many times fear they shall never prevail against their Indwelling Sin because they find it so strong and active They labour sadly under bondage to their Lusts and they fear it will never be better with them and this must needs be a sore trouble to a Soul that has so much Grace as to make Sin a burden to him and to make him hunger and thirst after Righteousness It was a grievous thing to David that God seemed to forget him but that made it a full Affliction indeed that he begun to fear that it might be so for ever Psal 13.1 To be always thus enslaved to vile affections c. it 's a woful misery What should I do in this Case says the Soul if I humble my self acknowledge my Sin flie to mercy and cry out for help from Heaven c. it 's but the same I have done already and for ought I see the evil Spirit prevails upon me as that of old did upon the Sons of Sceva and if this be the success of such Assays what hope but I must be a Slave to Satan and to abominable Lusts while I live 4thly They charge themselves as Hypocrites in all their Profession and Practice of Christianity hitherto If they had been sincere they think they could not have been so bad and so base as they now find themselves to be within No sure such an heart as mine is must needs be unsanctified and graceless and then have I dissembled with God and Man all this while How often have Ministers comforted me as a Convert and Christians received me and prayed for me as a Believer and thought a good Work was wrought in me and were glad of it and alas I fear I have been all this while but a painted Hypocrite as the Martyr said of himself This is a sore trouble to him that knows the danger that Hypocrites are in but much more to him that hates Hypocrisy 5thly They sadly fear they shall return to their former wickedness or more in their lives Seeing they have so much Sin in themselves they can hardly hope better but that God will give them up to the Lusts of their hearts and then they believe they shall be as bad as any Work Iniquity with greediness to their own shame and the shame
towards you and have no bad suspition of them you are not moved but if you be informed and assured they are Thieves and Murderers then you think they are many more than you accounted them and your heart trembles at the sight of them Now the more Grace is in the Soul the worse opinion Men have of Sin and the more afraid they are of it I come now to the Uses First Use 1. This shews their unsoundness in Christianity whatever their Profession and external Practice may be who are untroubled about their indwelling Sin All Christians are disquieted and grieved for the Sin of their Natures and they especially that have made some progress in Christianity But if a Man lives at ease from sorrow and trouble about the internal Estate of his Soul the condition of things within him sure he is no sincere Christian Use 2. The second Use is for comfort to Christians labouring under such Fears and Troubles about indwelling Sin but against these fears there is this comfort 1st They are all Arguments of sincerity For if we only intended a form of Godliness we should be at peace with our indwelling secret Sin 2dly God has fit comforts in a readiness for them Blessed are they that thus mourn Heaviness may endure for a Night but joy comes in the Morning ROM VIII 35. Who shall separate us from the love of Christ THE sixth Period or Step of a Christians motion toward Perfection which I shall speak of is His renewed Comfort after a time of Soul-trouble about his indwelling Sin and I shall settle what I have to say of it upon these words Who shall separate us from the love of Christ They are words of triumph over all the Enemies of the Salvation of Christians among whom the Apostle plainly reckons himself as appears by this word us Who shall separate us Having spoken in the third Person concerning Justification of the Elect Verse 33 and 34. he concludes with a manifest insertion of himself among the Elect and Justified for whom Christ makes Intercession in Heaven Who also makes Intercession for us and thus proceeds to a challenge to all the World to separate him or any of them from the love of Christ Who shall separate us from the love of Christ The love of Christ in this place is not the love that Christians bear to Christ though none can abolish that but it 's the love of God to them as Verse 39. Nor height nor depth nor any other creature shall be able to separate us from the love of God which is in Christ Jesus our Lord. This love cleaves fast to them settles immoveably upon them as if it should say This is my resting-place here will I dwell Psalm 132.14 This is the love of Christ unto Christians according to that in Zeph. 3.17 God rests in his love and this happiness the Apostle Paul assumes to himself None shall separate me from the love of Christ It 's observable That Paul in the former Chapter expresses so much trouble about indwelling Sin and cries out O wretched man that I am now declares himself a happy Man among the Saints as he speaks here Who shall seperate us from the love of Christ And hence we may observe Doct. That spiritual Comfort interrupted by Soul-troubles revives in greater measures and higher degrees As the Day is more pleasant after the darkness of the Night and the Spring after the coldness of the Winter Now I shall shew you how spiritual Comforts revive after Soul-trouble for Sin 1. By advantage of Soul-trouble Christians do attain to a better discovery of the Work of Grace in themselves It serves in the end to give a Man a right understanding of himself When the Physician has shaken the Glass he the better observes the Symptoms and Indications appearing in the Water So to put a Man into a Passion is usually accounted a likely way to know what kind of Nature he is of and how he stands affected Thus Christians by Soul-trouble especially about indwelling Sin 1st They perceive that the Sin that 's in them is very grievous and a sore burthen to them 2dly That there is some better Principle in them that makes earnest opposition to it 3dly That they really hunger and thirst after a full freedom from it in Holiness and Righteousness Who shall deliver me So then I my self serve the law of God Rom. 7.25 Thus Peter by the advantage of his great trouble about denying Christ came to perceive clearly that he loved him John 21.17 Lord thou knowest all things thou knowest that I love thee Indeed unquietness of the mind makes a Man unable to judge of himself but afterward he lies more open to his own view as the Water after a Commotion being setled again is more perspicuous 2dly After Christians have been a while exercised with Soul-trouble God usually disposes and enables them to devolve the wearisome burden of their cares and fears upon his alsufficient Grace To lay their aking Heads and fainting Hearts in his Bosom as David perswades himself Psalm 42.5 Why art thou cast down O my soul Hope thou in God and so the Soul returns to its rest As Psal 116.7 Return unto thy rest O my soul for the Lord hath dealt bountifully with thee 3dly He ordinarily imploys some special part of his Word in his message to comfort the Soul As David was quickened Psalm 119.50 Thy word hath quickened me hath made me alive again as the word signifies So those comforting words in Jer. 31.3 Yea I have loved thee with an everlasting love come in as an answer to a troubled Soul's discourse with it self The Lord hath appeared to me of old they are says Junius on the place the words of the godly acknowledging God's former gracious appearing and bounty to them but complaining implicitely of the cooling of his love to them at present To which the Lord gives a present answer of kindness Yea I have loved thee with an everlasting love The Word saying is allowed by our Learned Translators to be left out as you may see by the change of the Character into Italian as if he had said Did I love thee of old Yea I have loved thee with an everlasting love Some have been mightily revived in this case by that in Micah 7.19 He will subdue our iniquities and thou wilt cast all their sins into the depths of the sea Some with that in Psalm 138.8 The Lord will perfect that which concerns me that is though I walk in midst of trouble as Verse 7. Many with that in Hosea 14.4 I will heal their backslidings and love them freely And many with that in Isaiah 50.10 Who is he among you that feareth the Lord and obeyeth the voice of his servant that walketh in darkness and hath no light Let him trust in the name of the Lord. As if that Text and this Chapter Rom. 7. were written on purpose as sure they were for establishing of comfort to
12.7 And so is that word used to which this in the Text answers Psal 90.3 Return ye children of men that is you that have been abroad in the world come home again and return ye children of men So it signifies a going away of a man out of this world 2 Tim. 4.6 I am now ready to be offered and the time of my departure is at hand Thus the Apostle expresses his desire to go out of this world Having a desire to depart the next is to be with Christ. Though Christians have now communion with Christ in Faith and Holiness as was aforesaid yet comparing their present with their future nearness to him the Apostle might well say as he does in 2 Cor. 5.7 For in this we groan earnestly desiring to be clothed upon with our house which is from heaven And ver 6. While we are at home in the body we are absent from the Lord. To be with Christ as the Apostle here speaks is to be in the state of Glory 1 Thess 4.17 18. Then we which are alive and remain shall be caught up together with them in the clouds to meet the Lord in the air and so shall we ever be with the Lord. Wherefore comfort one another with these words And so in John 14.3 That where I am there ye may be also Now says the Apostle I have a desire to depart and be with Christ that is much rather than to be on the earth And hence we may observe Doctr. That a well-setled and established Christian lives in an earnest desire to leave this world and be with Christ in heaven He has a desire to depart and be with Christ In 2 Cor. 5.2 For in this we groan earnestly desiring to be clothed upon with our house which is from heaven that is ill at ease here but desire to go hence and be with Christ So we find that excellent person Simeon addressing himself to God and saying Lord now lettest thou thy servant depart in peace Luke 2.29 So in 1 Cor. 1.7 The Apostle commends the attainments of the Corinthians in this respect that they had a desire to the coming of Jesus Christ So that ye come behind in no gift waiting for the coming of our Lord Jesus Christ. So in Rom. 8.23 Christians are said to wait for the adoption that is that inheritance whereunto they are adopted and that is the redemption of the body from the hand of the grave In all which places it's evident that well setled and established Christians live in an earnest desire to leave this world and be with Christ in Heaven For First He earnestly desires to leave the world behind him to depart as being much out of conceit with the things that usually invite men to live here and weary of them His heart falls off from that which to other men seems desirable in the world and he is well content to take his final leave of it as Asaph says in Psal 73.25 Whom have I in heaven but thee and there is none upon earth that I desire besides thee But to speak more particularly there are four things especially that take off the heart of an experienced Christian from the desirable things of the world 1st His many disappointments in them He has been so often deceived in his opinion of them and expectation from them that he is now weary of his converse with them How oft said he have I found trouble where I looked for comfort and dissatisfaction where I thought to have had some kind of contentment why should I lose any more hopes 2dly The hindrance which they give him in the way of duty He finds that his Estate more or less Credit and Esteem among Men his Relations and all earthly Comforts do many times hang upon him as Weights and Burdens and make him go slowly and heavily toward Heaven they suggest fear to him when he should be resolved for God they fill him with cares when he should be only minding things heavenly give him many Arguments of diversion from the strait way c. make him go sorrowful as the young man If he went to sell all c. Mat. 19.22 3dly The many occasions of Sin which they minister to him They do not only hinder his progress but give him many Falls he often stumbles at them and hurts himself c. 'T is true 't is not the world's fault but his own but finding himself so disposed and tempted that the world has always much advantage against him he is very willing to be gone out of the danger of being seduced by it 4thly The Avocation which it is always offering to his heart from better and more worthy things He cannot love God and delight in him and please himself with him as he would do for the world though the world be in some degree crucified to him and he to it yet 't is always tampering with his heart and suing for his affections c. and so he is weary of it But Secondly He earnestly desires to be with Christ in heaven Psal 73.25 Whom have I in heaven but thee And he desires to be with Christ in heaven 1st For the full freedom from Sin and compleat Holiness which he foresees there to be had and enjoyed When he shall appear we shall be like him 1 Joh. 3.2 And this was Paul's desire after the Resurrection Phil. 3.11 If by any means I might attain to the resurrection that is the state in which the dead in Christ shall rise that is in glory 1 Cor. 15.43 Perfection of grace is glory and in that state the godly man arises 2dly For that full contentment and satisfaction which he propounds to himself in the enjoyment of Christ He finds a sweetness in the presence of Christ here in that communion which he has with him in Heaven By the taste of Joshua's Grapes in the Wilderness he judges what 't is to sit under the Vine in Canaan In thy presence says the Psalmist is fulness of joy and pleasures for evermore Psal 16.11 3dly For the great Advantages which Saints have in heaven to glorify God The great ambition of a godly man is not his own honour but the glory of God Now he finds that in this life he cannot praise him as he should nor exalt him as he would Nay he finds that God is very often a Sufferer in his Honour by reason of his weakness inconstancy and uneven walking therefore he would fain be in that estate wherein he shall eternally glorify God and never more dishonour him So here he joys in hope of the glory of God that is not only of his being made glorious by the gift of God but God being glorified by himself in hope of glorifying God But some may object and say Object This desire of death seems to be above the ordinary experience of Christians There is rarely a man to be found among the best of Saints that is not desirous to abide in the world as bad as