ye that labor and are heavy laden and I will give you rest Or if invitation will not fit without proclamation hear him proclaim Joh. 7.37 Jesus stood and cryed saying If any man thirst let him come unto me and drink he that believeth on me out of his belly shall flow rivers of water Or least thou shouldest think thou must come to thy cost and bring somewhat in thy hand hear how he doubles and trebbles his cry to the contrary Isa 55.1 Ho every one that thirsteth come ye to the waters and he that hath no money come ye buy and eat yea come buy wine and milk without money and without price And yet lest thou say I am so far from bringing any thing in my hand that I bring a world of wickedness in my heart and my sins I fear will hinder my acceptation no saith he again Isa 55.7 Let the wicked forsake his way and the unrighteous man his thoughts and this is thy desire thy case and let him return unto the Lord and he will have mercy upon him and to our God for he will abundantly pardon Or if all this will not do without a more solemn invitation see then how the Lord of heaven sends forth his Embassadors to move thee and entreat thee to come in 2 Cor. 5.20 Now then we are Embassadors for Christ as though God did beseech you by us we pray you in Christs stead be ye reconciled unto God Or if he cannot woo thee lo he commands thee 1 Ioh. 3.23 And this is the Commandment that we should believe on the name of his Son Jesus Christ Or yet to drive thee to Christ he not onely commands but threatens Heb. 3.18 And to whom sware he that they should not enter into his rest but to them that believed not And what can he do more unto his Vineyard First to bid thee welcom he keeps open house secondly he invites thirdly he proclaims fourthly he calls thee sans-fee without money or moneyworth fifthly he apologizeth sixthly he sendeth seventhly he commandeth eighthly he threatneth Hear what mine Author concludes from these premises How cruel then is that man to his own wounded conscience who in his extreme spiritual thirst will not be drawn by this eight-fold merciful cord to drink his fill of the fountain of the water of life to cast himself with confidence and comfort into the arms of the Lord Iesus Yea how is it possible but that all or some of these should bring in every broken heart to believe and every one that is weary of his sins to relye upon the Lord of life for everlasting welfare Sect. 5. The promises procuring obedience to Christ ANd yet thou mayest say I have cast my self on Christ is this all I must do no there is yet another step he is not onely to be thy Savior but thy husband thou must love him and serve him and honor him and obey him thou must endeavor not onely for pardon of sin and salvation from hell but for purity new obedience ability to do or suffer any thing for Christ And to provoke thee to this duty consider of these texts Matth. 7.21 Not every one that saith Lord Lord shall enter into the Kingdom of heaven but he that doth the will of my Father which is in heaven Matth. 11.29 Take my yoke upon you and learn of me for I am meek and lowly in heart and ye shall finde rest unto your souls Matth. 16.24 If any man will follow me let him take up his cross and follow me 2 Cor. 5.15 He dyed for all that they which live should not henceforth live unto themselvs but unto him which dyed for them 2 Cor. 5.17 If any man be in Christ let him be a new creature old things are passed behold all things are become new 1 Joh. 1.6 7. If we say that we have fellowship with him and walk in darkness we lye and do not the truth But if we walk in the light as he is in the light we have fellowship one with another and the blood of Jesus Christ his Son cleanseth us from all sin 1 Joh. 2.5 6. He that keepeth his word in him verily is the love of God perfected hereby know we that we are in him He that saith he abideth in him ought himself also so to walk even as he walked 1 Joh. 3.6 9. Whosoever abideth in him sinneth not Whosoever is born of God doth not commit sin for his seed remaineth in him and he cannot sin because he is born of God 1 Joh. 3.24 He that keepeth his Commandments dwelleth in him and hereby we know that he abideth in us by the Spirit which he hath given us 1 Joh. 5.18 We know that whosoever is born of God sinneth not but he that is begotten of God keepeth himself and that wicked one toucheth him not All these may invite thee to enter into the holy path and to fight under Christs banner against the world the flesh and the Devil unto thy lives end Sect. 6. The promises procuring comfort in Christ ONce more thou mayest say I have been truly humbled with the sense of sin and sense of misery and sorrow for sin yea I have seen and thirsted and relyed and purposed universal obedience to my Savior and yet no comfort comes it may be so but hast thou praised God for this work of wonder the new birth wrought in thee If so then is there another duty expected from thee right precious and pleasing unto God and that is waiting yet I could wish thee address thy self to these precious promises settle thy soul on them with fixed meditation and fervent prayer and where thou perceivest the condition of the promises to be by Gods grace formed in thee thou mayest safely assure thy soul of so much favor as is expresly contained in the promises Levit. 26.40 41 42 44. If they shall confess their iniquity If their uncircumcised hearts be humbled Then will I remember my Covenant that I might be their God I am the Lord the condition is to confess and be humbled and this if thou dost the Covenant is sure the Lord is thy God Job 33.27 28. If any say I have sinned and perverted that which is right and it profited me not he will deliver his soul from going into the pit and his life shall see the light The condition is If any say I have sinned if thy heart say thus in sincerity and truth the promise is sure God will deliver thy soul from hell and thou shalt see the light of heaven Psal 51.17 A broken and a contrite heart O God thou wilt not despise The condition is a broken and a contrite heart for sin and if thy heart be thus be sure God will not despise it Prov. 28.13 Whosoever confesseth and forsaketh his sins shall have mercy The condition is to confess and forsake sin and this if thou dost as sure as God is God thou shalt have mercy Isa 57.17 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 The condition is to be of a contrite and humble spirit and if thou art thus God is true who hath said it he dwels in thee to revive thy spirit and to revive thy heart Isa 61.1 The Lord hath anointed me to preach good tidings unto the meek he hath sent me to binde up the broken hearted The condition is to be meek and broken hearted and if this be thy case then good tidings belong to thee and Christ is sent to binde up thy broken heart in the bundle of peace Jerem. 31.19 20. Surely after that I was turned I repented saith Ephraim and after that I was instructed I smote upon my thigh I was ashamed yea even confounded because I did bear the reproach of my youth Therefore saith God my bowels are troubled for him I will surely have mercy upon him saith the Lord. The condition is to repent to be ashamed confounded for sin and if thy case be like Ephraims God is the same to thee his bowels yearn for thee he will surely have mercy on thee Matth. 5.6 Blessed are they which hunger and thirst after righteousness The condition is to hunger and thirst after the righteousness of Christ and this if thou dost then art thou blessed from the mouth of our Savior Matth. 11.28 Come unto me all ye that labor and are heavy laden and I will give you rest The condition is to labor and be heavy laden with sin and if thou art thus Gods Word is sure thou shalt have rest spiritual and eternal Revel 21.6 I will give unto him that is athirst of the water of life freely The condition is to thirst after the heavenly streams of Gods favor and Christs soveraign blood and this if thou dost then hast thou part in the fountain of the water of life that proceeds out of the throne of God Revel 22.1 and of the Lamb Revel 22.1 All these are so full of comfort that if thou but crush them with the hand of faith they cannot but yield some juyce of sweetness to thy afflicted soul Sect. 7. The means to apply the said promises I Said before it was enough for me to prepare the medicine it is thou must apply it yet if thou feelest a backwardness to perform thy part I shall tell thee of some means to incite thee and help thee onward to the performance of this duty Take then the promises and carry them as thou didst the Catalogue of thy sins into the presence of the Lord and faln down on thy knees beseech God for thy Saviors sake to encline thine heart to believe those promises If thou hast the repulse pray again and again yea resolve never to make prayer but to use this petition that the Lord would please to let thee have some feeling of the life of those promises Some soul may object I have no heart or spirit to pray yet use thy indeavor and in thy indeavors God may come in and whensoever thou feelest any of them to be spirit and life to thee whensoever thou feelest by a certain taste the joys of the Holy Ghost to fall upon thee O happy man that ever thou wast born then art thou to thy own knowledge new born indeed then hast thou without doubt done this most glorious exercise of passing thorow the new birth and then hast thou cause as thou canst not choose to sing and praise God day and night world without end Matth. 5.4 So true is that of Christ Blessed are they that mourn for they shall be comforted Amen Sect. 8. The Conclusion HEre is an end and to you to whom I have dedicated this work my conclusion is this The year hath now run his round since I first came amongst you and how the Lord hath wrought by me you your selves know best for my part if I did but know one poor soul amongst you truly converted by such a weak unworthy instrument I would ever think my self most happy in that soul and richly payed for my pains I know it neither Paul nor Apollo can do this except God give the increase howsoever I must tell you with Paul my desires have been this way I have since my coming travelled of you and travelled again that Christ might be formed in you Gal. 4.19 And what 's the issue once could the Lord say Shall I bring to the birth Isa 66.9 and not cause to bring forth and to joyn issue with you have I travelled of you in birth and not one of you brought forth the Lord forbid I confess beloved I have received from you many kindenesses of love now for the Lords sake do me this one kindeness more give me at least one soul among you that I may give it unto God O what a kindeness would you then do me not all the wealth in your Town nor all the increase of your state nor all you have or ever shall have would do me so much good in the day of my Lord Jesus as this one boon I ask then could I say Lord I have not lost the fruits of my labor in this Town see here the soul now shining in glory which I converted by thy power see here the soul of such a one and such a one which through thy grace and my ministery were converted unto thee If this were thus why then beloved you would bless me for ever and I should bless you for ever and we should all bless God for ever for this so gracious and so blessed a work Now the Lord of his goodness give you a sight of your sins and a true sorrow for sin and if not afore now yet now this day the Lord this day set his print and seal upon you The time draws on and I have but a minute a little time to speak to you for a farewel then let these last words take a deeper impression in your hearts if you would do all I would have you do I could wish no more but that to this humiliation or repentance you would adde charity or love the first you owe to God and the second to your neighbor by the first you might become new creatures by the second true Christians like them in the Churches infancy of one minde one heart and one soul sure it is not possible that we should have forgiveness of sins but that we must be of the communion of Saints A thousand pities it is to hear of the many factions in our Church and Kingdoms and Towns and Families O pray for the peace of Jerusalem they shall prosper that love it and let us pray as need we have too for our own peace one with another You cannot come to a Communion but you hear this lesson in the invitation You that do truly and earnestly repent you of your sins and be in love and charity with your neighbors c. Here 's both repentance to God and Charity nay more then charity as we use the word commonly even love of your neighbors For my part I wish that my very heart-blood could cement the divisions of Reuben for which are great thoughts of heart in this Town Iudg. 5.15 in this Church in these Kingdoms 2 Cor. 13.11 I will say no more but conclude with those words of the Apostle Finally brethren fare ye well be perfect be of good comfort be of one minde live in peace and the God of love and peace be with you for ever and ever FINIS
wicked a creature he naturally is and therefore in that respect is he odious to himself and loathsom in his own eyes Or if we consider the second Prudence How is it possible that a man unregenerate Prudentiam should experimentally know the practice of piety in a Christian course Should we instance in this mystery of Regeneration Here is one Nicodemus a ruler of the Jews and a teacher of Israel yet as learned as he was if he confer with Christ about the salvation of his soul he is strangely childish and a meer infant tell him of the new birth and he thinks it as impossible as for an old man to return into his mothers womb and be born again The natural man cannot discern the operations of grace he knows not that dark and fearful passage which leads from the state of nature through strange terrors and torments of soul into the rich and glorious happiness of the kingdom of Christ whereas on the contrary the regenerate man that hath had the experience of the power of godliness upon his own soul he can see and judge of the light of grace he can taste and rellish of the fruits of the Spirit and hence it is that many a silly one man and woman whom the worldly-wise pass by with scorn and contempt are often in spiritual affairs more wise and learned then the learnedst Doctors Secondly Rectitudinem Promptitudinem the Will must be renewed and this will of the regenerate contains two things Rightness and Readiness It is first rectified when it is conformed to the will of God Secondly it is so inflamed with the love of goodness that willingly he pursues it with alacrity of spirit If we consider the first the Rectitude of the will we see by experience the will of the unregenerate is all out of course Rectitudinem he wills nothing but that which is evil How should he considering his want of Gods image his blindeness of heart his proneness to evil together with the vehemency of his affections which draw the will after them and trouble the judgement But in the man that is regenerate the will being moved it afterwards moves it self Gods grace that concurs with it quickens it and revives it so that now his will is nothing but Gods will if it may appear that God bids him or forbids him to do this or that he chooseth above all to follow his commands whatsoever becomes of him why this is the very heart and marrow of regeneration you may be sure the man that chooseth above all to please God Promptitudinem is the onely man of God and shall be rewarded by God Or if we consider the second the Readiness of the will to God alas the will of the unregenerate hath no pleasure in goodness he understands not the sweetness of it Iob 21.14 and therefore nothing is more irksom to him then the ways of godliness whereas on the contrary the will of the regenerate is willing and this willingness indeed is the perfection of his will yea if we can say more it is the highest degree of his perfection in this life to be willing to do good Thirdly the memory must be renewed and this memory reflects occasionally on a double object on God Deum Dei verbum and the things of God First on God by remembrance of his presence every where Secondly on the things of God by calling them to minde at useful times If we consider the first object God the unregenerate hath no minde on God Deum Psal 10.4 God is net in all his thoughts like the hood-winkt fool that seeing no body thinks no body sees him so hath he said in his heart Job 22.13 14. How doth God know can he judge thorow the dark cloud Thick clouds are a covering to him that seeth not and he walketh in the circuit of heaven But contrariwise the regenerare man Eccles 12.1 he remembers his Creator in the days of his youth And though God as being a Spirit is in some sort absent from his senses yet by vertue of his sanctified memory that makes things absent as present his eye is on God and he considers God as an eye-witness of all his thoughts and words and doings and dealings he knows nothing can be hid from that all-seeing eye though sin tempt him with the fairest opportunities of night and darkness yet still he remembers if his eye sees nothing all those eyes of heaven of God and of his Angels are ever about him and therefore he answers the Tempter How dare I sin to his face that looks on me what I am doing if I dare not do this folly before men how dare I do it before those heaven-spectators God and his Angels Or if we consider the second object the Word of God the unregenerate never burthens his memory with such blessed thoughts Dei verbum if sometimes he falls upon it it is either by constraint or by accident never with any setled resolution to dwell on it or to follow it Luke 2.51 Psal 119.11 but the soul that is regenerate with Mary keeps all these things in his heart or with David gives it out Thy word have I hid in my heart Psal 119.11 Whatsoever lessons he learns like so many jewels in a casket he lays them up safe and then as need serveth he remembers his store and makes all the good use of them he may I will not deny but any man good or evil may retain good things according to that strength of retainment which nature affords him but the regenerate whose memory onely is sanctified whatsoever he retains he hath it opportunely at hand in tentation or affliction he remembers and applyes and so remembring to apply and applying that he remembers he is thereby inabled to resist evil or to follow those good things which the Lord hath commanded Fourthly the conscience must be renewed and that two ways Ad bonum or a malo either by drawing the soul to good or from evil first to good by inclining and incouraging and secondly from evil by restraining and bridling If we consider its first office in that it draws and leads the soul to good I confess the unregenerate is not of that conscience Ad bonum for the most part his conscience lies dead in his bosom or if it stir sometimes he labors all he can to smother it in his waking to such an one should men and Angels preach yet so far is he bewitched with sin that he hath no minde of goodness or if ever he do any good act which is a rare thing with him it is not out of conscience to do good but for some sinister end or respect It is otherwise with the regenerate his conscience incites him to good and he doth good out of conscience he stands not upon terms of pleasure or profit but his conscience being guided by the rule and square of Gods holy
with illusions and vain forms you know a Beggar may dream he is a King so hope abusing the imagination of the unregenerate fills their souls many a time with vain or empty contentments but the hope of the regenerate both enjoys the right object and right means his eye is fixt on future good and he endeavors to pursue it till he get the possession if in the pursuit he meet with crosses losses griefs disgraces sicknesses or any other calamities his hope is able to sweeten the bitterest misery that can possibly befal him the afflictions of this life bid him look for a better a cross here mindes him of the glory above and howsoever this Hope may have many difficulties and wrastlings in him therefore it is compared to an anchor which holds the ship in a storm Heb. 6.19 yet it holds and sticks so firm in God and his promises that he is confident that after this life an heavenly crown shall be set on his head by the hands of God and his Angels The fourth affection is fear which in the unregenerate is either worldly or servile If it fasten on the world then he fears the loss of his credit or of his profit and because he and the world must part at last he fears this separation above all fears O death saith the wiseman how bitter is the remembrance of thee to a man that liveth at rest in his possessions unto the man that hath nothing to vex him and that hath prosperity in all things Ecclus. Ecclus. 41.1 41.1 O these thoughts of the grisly forms and ugly face of death of the parting from all worldly pleasures for ever of his rotting in the grave dragging to the Tribunal and Terror of the last day they cannot but make his heart to shrug together for horror and many time to quake and tremble like an Aspine-leaf or if his fear reflect on God then is it a servile fear for as the servant or hireling works not for love of his master but onely for fear of punishment or as the adulterous woman is afraid of her husband not out of love or affection but lest he reward her to her foul demerits so he fears God for fear of punishment due unto him from God It is otherwise with the man that is born again his fear is either initial or filial in pangs of the new birth Weems or in the new born babe it is called initial because then he casts away sin both out of Gods love to which he hath partly attained and out of the woful effects of sin which he hath throughly considered with the right eye he beholds God and with the left eye he beholds punishment so that this fear is a middle as it were betwixt servile and filial fear and as the needle draweth in the threed so this fear draweth in charity and makes way for filial fear to which if by growth in grace he be fully ripened then he fears God out of love to God as the Prophet Isaiah proclaimeth Isa 33.6 The fear of the Lord is his treasure Isa 33.6 Never was treasure more dear to the worldings then is Gods fear to him his love of God his desire to please God and his fear of being separated from God keeps him in such awe that though no punishment no death no hell were at all yet he would not sin wickedly wilfully and maliciously for a world of treasures The fifth affection is joy which in the unregenerate is meerly sensual and bruitish it hath no better objects then gold or greatness or offices or honors or the like and what are all these but a shadow a ship a bird an arrow a post that passeth by or rather as crackling of thorns under a pot as flashes of lightning before everlasting fire But the joy of the regenerate is a spirituall joy and the matter of it is the light of Gods countenance or the robe of Christs righteousness or the promises of Gods word or above all God Almighty blessed evermore Thus David Whom have I in heaven but thee Psal 73.25 and there is none upon earth that I desire besides thee Psal 73.25 Why this is that joy which no man can concieve but he that enjoyes it this is that white stone Rev. 2.17 Revel 2.17 whose splendor shines onely upon heavenly hearts this is that glimpse of heavens glory which springing up in a sanctified heart out of the wells of salvation and carried along with addition of fresh comforts from the Word and Sacraments through a fruitful current and course of mans life it is at last entertained into the boundless and bottomless Ocean of the joyes of Heaven I will not say but sometimes it may be assaulted and stopped with some doubts or distrusts or weaknesses of degree yet in respect of its creation or essence Boltons walking with God or blissful issue it is saith one a very glimpse of heaven a pure taste of the rivers of life and first fruits as he calls it of everlasting joyes The sixth affection is sorrow which in the unregenerate is a worldly sorrow and the effects of it are death so the Apostle The sorrow of the world worketh death 2 Cor. 7.10 2 Cor. 7.10 In this kinde how endless are the sorrows of men for their losses or crosses that sometimes may befall them And howsoever some may endeavor to comfort them in Christ they are so dead-hearted that nothing can perswade nothing rellish with them that concerns heaven or salvation But in the regenerate sorrow looks up to Godwards not that the beholding of God in himself can bring sorrow to a man for he is a most comfortable object which made David say The light of thy countenance is gladness to my heart Psal 4.6 7. but the beholding of sin which hindreth from the cleer sight of that object this is it which breeds sorrow and this the Apostle calls godly sorrow working repentance to salvation not to be repented of 2 Cor. 7.10 It is not every sorrow but godly sorrow 2 Cor. 7.10 V. 9. I rejoyce saith the Apostle not that ye were made sorry but that ye sorrowed to repentance And would you know who sorrows to repentance it is he and onely he that groans and sighs under the heavy weight and burthen of his sins that is of a broken and contrite heart that trembles at Gods word that is grieved at his enormities that forsakes all sins and that resigns up himself in all holy obedience to Gods blessed will this sorrow is a blessed sorrow that brings forth joy and immortality Therefore comfort ye comfort ye all that mourn in Sion what though for a night in pangs of the new birth you lye sorrowing and weeping for your sins mark a while and the day will dawn ride on because of the word of truth and a day star will arise in your hearts that will never set nay weep weep again till you can say with David Psal
nature in diverse respects to their several causalities Thus a man must have repentance before he have saving and justifying faith and yet a man must have faith before the work of repentance be perfect in the soul As we maintain repentance to be a precedent work so we deny it not to be a subsequent effect Sorrow is before the birth too as the Apostle intimates 2 Cor. 2 Cor. 7.10 7.10 Godly sorrow works repentance that is sorrow prepares a man for repentance it goes afore it and prepares for it And now it is that Gods spirit begins to renew his heart as God himself proclaimeth I will put a new spirit within them and I will take the stony heart out of their bodies and will give them an heart of flesh Ezek. 11.19 Ezek. 11.19 his heart that before was hard as flint now begins to relent and soften and break in pieces Acts 2.37 How so it is Gods Spirit that pricks the heart and this pricking softens it Dum pungit ungit saith Jorom Hieronym Compunction softens and supples the heart so that be it never so stony presently it becomes an heart of flesh you know those that are apt to weep or yern or sorrow we call them tender-hearted you may be sure then he that is prickt till his heart bleed inwardly he that weeps blood which every heart doth that is prickt on this maner sure his heart is tender indeed I say tender for as the very word imports 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 his heart weeps why his heart is broken David joyns these together A broken and a contrite heart O God thou wilt not despise Psalm 51.17 Psal 51.17 And no wonder if an heart that is broken and rent and wounded and prickt falls a weeping blood well might David say when he was broken Psal 38.8 I have wept Psal 38.8 nay more I have roared for the very grief or disquietness of my heart and again My soul or my heart melteth or droppeth for very heaviness Not that his heart dropt indeed Psal 119.28 but because the tears which he shed were not drops of water running onely from his eyes an onion may cause so much but issuing from his heart which heart being grieved and sore grieved it is said to be wounded and so his tears coming from it they may be called no less then very blood drops of blood issuing from a wounded heart Thus it is with the man now laboring in his new birth his heart grieves his eye weeps whence the Proverb The way to heaven is by weeping cross the way to Gods kingdom is to cry like children coming into the world the way to be new born is to feel throws as a woman laboring of childe and so is Christ formed in us Can a man be born again without bitterness of soul no if ever he come to a sight of sin and that Gods sanctifying Spirit work in him sorrow for sin his soul will mourn till he may say with Jeremy Mine eye droppeth without stay mine eye breaketh my heart because of all the daughters of my City because of all the sins of my soul Lament 3.51 True it is Lam. 3.49 51. as some infants are born with more pain to the mother and some with less so may the new man be regenerated in some with more in some with less anxiety of travel but more or less it cannot be so little but the man that labors in these pangs shall mourn and mourn There shall be a great mourning as the mourning of Hadadrimmon in the valley of Megiddon Zach. 12.11 What else Zach. 12.11 He cannot look on a Saint that sailed not first through the Ocean of tears and therefore he falls on his face with Abraham Gen. 17.17 Gen. 32.24 Iob 3. 1 Sam. 1.15 Psal 119.136 Isa 38.14 he wrestles with God like Jacob he roars out his grief with Job he pours out his soul with Hanna he weeps rivers of tears with David he mourns as a dove with Hezekiah yea like a crane or a swallow so doth he chatter Isa 38.14 O the bitter pangs and sore travel of a man when he must be born again The fourth step is Seeking rightly for comfort He runs not to the world or flesh or Divel miserable comforters all but to Scripture to Prayer or to the Ministery of Gods word if he finde comfort in Scriptures he meets with it in the * Lex ostendit peccatum at Solum Evangelium peccati remedium Aug. tract 17. in Joh. Gospel not the Law but the Gospel saith the Apostle is the power of God to salvation to every one that believeth Rom. 1.16 The Law is indeed the ministery of death and damnation 2 Cor. 3.7 but the Gospel is the glad tidings of salvation Luk. 2.10 The Law shews a man his wretched estate but shews him no remedy and yet we abolish not the Law in ascribing this comfort to the Gospel onely Rom. 1.16 2 Cor. 3.7 Luk. 2.10 though it be no cause of it yet is it the occasion of it those doleful terrors and fears of conscience begotten by the Law may be in their own nature the very gates and downfal to the pit of hell yet I cannot deny but they are certain occasions of receiving grace and if it please God that the man now laboring in his pangs of the new birth do but rightly settle his thoughts on the Gospel of Christ no doubt but thence he may suck the sweetest comforts and delights that ever were revealed to man Or if he finde comfort in prayer to which he ever and anon repairs in every of these steps then is it by Christ in whose name onely he approacheth to that heavenly throne of grace no sooner had the King of Niniveh humbled himself but his proclamation runs Ionah 3.8 9. Let man and beast be covered with sack cloth and cry mightily unto God Who can tell if God will turn and repent and turn away from his fierce anger that we perish not and thus the man now wrestling with the grievous afflictions and terrors of his conscience Who can tell saith he if God will turn away his fierce anger let me then cry mightily unto the Lord of heaven let me cry and continue crying until the Lord of mercy do in mercy look upon me and if for all this God give him a repulse for reasons best known to himself if at the first second third fourth or at many more times he seem to have cryed in vain at last he flyes to the ministery of the Word and if he may have his will he would hit upon the most skilful experienced searching and sound-dealing man amongst all Gods Messengers thus was it with Peters hearers whose hearts being pricked and rent with legal terrors then could they begin to cry it out Men and brethren what shall we do Act. 2.37 Act. 2.37 Thus was it with the Jaylor who after his trembling and falling down to