of your final condition as an exempt case reserv'd to the future judgment and the present determination whereof against your self is without your compass and line and most unsutable to the state of probation wherein you are to reckon God continues you here with the rest of men in this world and therefore any such judgment you should tear and reverse and as such not permit to have any place with you 4. Yet since as hath been said yoâ— are not quite to reject or obliterate any apprehension or thought touching this subject make it your busines to correct and reduce it to that other form i. e. let it only for the present remain with you as a doubt how your case now stands and what issue it may at length have And see that your fear thereupon be answerable to your apprehension so rectify'd While as yet it is not evident you have made your peace with God upon his known terms you are to consider God hath left your case a doubtful case and you are to conceive of it accordingly And are to entertain a fear concerning it not as certainly hopeles but as uncertain And as yours is really a doubtful case 't is a most important one It concerns your Souls and your eternal well-being and is not therefore to be neglected or trifled with You do not know how God will deal with you Whether he will again afford you such help as he hath done or whether ever he will effectually move your heart unto conversion and salvation You therefore are to work out your salvation with fear and trembling because as was told you he works but of his own good pleasure Your fear should not exceed this state of your case so as to exclude hope It is of unspeakable concernment to you that hope do intermingle with your fear That will do much to mollify and soften your hearts that after all the abuse of mercy and imposing upon the patience of God your neglects and slights of a bleeding Saviour your resisting and grieving the Spirit of grace he may yet once for all visit your forlorn Soul with his vital influence and save you from going down to perdition How can your hearts but melt and break upon this apprehension And it is not a groundless one He that came not to call the righteous but sinners to repentance will not fail to treat them well whom he sees beginning to listen to his call and entertaining the thoughts that most directly tend to bring them to a compliance with it Your hope insinuating it self and mingling with your fear is highly grateful to the God of all grace He takes pleasure in them that fear him and in them that hope in his mercy Psal. 147.11 5. But see to it also that your fear be not slight and momentary and that it vanish not while as yet it hath so great a work to do in you viz. to engage you to accept Gods own terms of peace and reconciliation with all your heart and soul. It is of continual use even not only in order to conversion but to the converted also Can you think those mentioned words were spoken to none such Phil. 2.12 13 Or those Heb. 4.1 Let us therefore fear lest a promise being left us of entring into his rest any of you should seem to come short c. And do we not find an holy fear is to contribute all along to the whole of progressive sanctification 2 Cor. 7.1 Having therefore these promises dearly beloved let us cleanse our selves from all filthines of the flesh and spirit perfecting holines in the fear of God And that by it he preserves his own that they never depart from him Jer. 32.40 Much more do you need it in your present case while matters are yet in treaty between God and you And as it should not exceed the true apprehension of your case so nor should it come short of it 6. You should therefore in order hereto aggravate to your selves the just causes of your fear Why are you afraid your day should be over and the things of your peace be for ever hid from your eyes Is it not that you have sinn'd against much light against many checks of your own consciences against many very serious warnings and exhortations many earnest importunate beseechings and intreaties you have had in the Ministry of the Gospel many motions and strivings of the Spirit of God thereby Let your thoughts dwell upon these things Think what it is for the great God the Lord of glory to have been slighted by a worm Doth not this deserve as ill things at the hands of God as you can â—ear 'T is fit you should Apprehend what your desert is thâ— perhaps mercy may interpose and avert the deserved dreadful event And if he have signify'd his displeasure towards you hereupon by desisting for the present and ceasing to strive with you as he hath formerly done if your heart be grown more cold and dead and hard than sometime it was if you have been left so as to fall into grosser sin 't is highly reasonable you should fear being finally forsaken of the blessed Spirit of God and greatly fear it but with an â—â—ful fear that may awaken you most earnestly to endeavour his return to you not with a despairing fear that will bind you up from any further endeavour for your soul at all And if upon all this by death or otherwise such a Ministry be withdrawn from you as God did work by in some degree upon you and you find not in that kind what is so sutable to your state and case take heed lest your be stupid under such a stroke Think what it imports unto you if God have as it were said concerning any servant of his as Ezek. 2.26 I will make his tongue cleave to the roof of his mouth that he shall not be a reprover to you any more Consider that God may by this be making way that wrath may come upon you to the uttermost and never let you have opportunity to know more the things of your peace Perhaps you may never meet with the man more that shall speak so accommodately to your condition that shall so closely pursue you thorough all the haunts and subterfuges and lurking holes wherein your guilty convinced soul hath wont to hide it self and falsly seek to heal its own wounds One of more value may be less apt possibly to profit you As a more polish't Key doth not therefore alike fit every lock And thy case may be such that thou shalt never hear a sermon or the voice of a preacher more 7. And now in this case recollect your selves what sins you have been formerly convinc'd of under such a Ministry and which you have persisted in notwithstanding Were you never convinc't of your neglecting God and living as without him in the world of your low esteem and disregard of Christ of your worldlines your minding only the things of this earth of
durable is not from a spirit of fear but of love power and a sound mind 2 Tim. 1.7 You must be a new creature Gods workmanship created in Christ Jesus unto good works that you may walk in them The life of the new creature stands in love to God as its way and course afterwards is a course of walking with God If your heart be not brought to love God and delight in him you are still but dead towards God and you still remain alive unto sin as before Whereas if you ever come to be a Christian indeed you must be able truly to reckon your self dead to sin and alive to God thorough Jesus Christ. Rom. 6.11 Whereupon in your making the mentioned Covenant you must yield your self to God as one that is alive from the dead as 't is vers 13. of the same chapter A new nature and life in you will make all that you do in a way of duty whether immediately towards God or man the whole course of godlines righteousnes and sobriety easie and delightful to you And because it is evident both from many plain Scriptures and your own and all mens experience that you cannot be your selves the authours of this holy new life and nature you must therefore further in entring into this Covenant 4. Most earnestly cry to God and plead with him for his Spirit by whom the vital unitive bond must be contracted between God in Christ and your souls So this will be the Covenant of life and peace Lord how generally do the Christians of our age deceive themselves with a self-sprung Religion Divine indeed in the institution but meerly humane in respect of the radication and exercise In which respects also it must be divine or nothing What are we yet to learn that a divine power must work and form our Religion in us as well as divine authority direct and enjoyn it Do all such scriptures go for nothing that tell us it is God that must create the new heart and renew the right spirit in us that he must turn us if ever we be turned that we can never come to Christ except the father draw us c. Nor is there any cause of discouragement in this if you consider what hath before been said in this discourse Ask and you shall receive seek and you shall find knock and it shall be opened to you Your heavenly father will give his Spirit to them that ask more readily than parents do bread to their children and not a stone But what if you be put to ask often and wait long this doth but the more endear the gift and shew the high value of it You are to remember how often you have griev'd resisted and vexed this Spirit and that you have made God wait long upon you What if the absolute sovereign Lord of all expect your attendance upon him He waits to be gracious and blessed are they that wait for him Renew your applications to him Lay from time to time that Covenant before you which your selves must be wrought up unto a full entire closure with And if it be not done at one time try yet if it will another and try again and again Remember it is for your life for your soul for your all But do not satisfie your self with only such faint motions within thee as may only be the effects of thy own spirit of thy dark dull listles sluggish dead hard heart at least not of the efficacious regenerating influence of the divine Spirit Didst thou never hear what mighty woâ—â—â—ngs there have been in others when God hath been transforming and renewing them and drawing them into living union with his Son and himself thorough him what an amazing penetrating light hath struck into their hearts as 2 Cor. 4.6 Such as when he was making the world enlightned the Chaos Such as hath made them see things that concerned them as they truly were and with their own proper face God and Christ and themselves sin and duty heaven and hell in their own true appearances How effectually they have been awakened how the terrours of the Almighty have beset and seized their souls what agonies and pangs they have felt in themselves when the voice of God hath said to them awake thou that sleepest and arise from dead and Christ shall give thee life Ephes. 5.14 How he hath brought them down at his feet thrown them into the dust broken them melted them made them abase themselves loath and abhor themselves fill'd them with sorrow shame confusion and with indignation towards their own guilty souls habituated them to a severity aâ—â—inst themselves unto the most sharp and yet most unforced self-accusations self-judging and self condemnation so as even to make them lay claim to hell and confesse the portion of devils belonged to them as their own most deserved portion And if now their eyes have been directed towards a Redeemer and any glimmering of hope hath appeared to them If now they are taught to understand God saying to them Sinner art thou yet willing to be reconciled and accept a Saviour O the transport into which it puts them this is life from the dead what is there hope for such a lost wretch as I How tastful now is that melting invitation how pleasant an intimation doth it carry with it Come unto me all ye that are weary and heavy laden and I will give you rest c. If the Lord of heaven and earth do now look down from the throne of glory and say what Sinner wilt thou despise my favour and pardon my Son thy mighty merciful Redeemer my grace and Spirit still What can be the return of the poor abashed wretch overawed by the glory of the divine Majesty stung with compunction overcome with the intimation of kindnes and love I have heard of thee O God by the hearing of the ear now mine eye seeth thee wherefore I abhor my self and repent in dust and ashes So inwardly is the truth of that word now felt that thou mayest remember and be confounded and never open thy mouth any more because of thy shame when I am pacified towards thee for all that thou hast done saith the Lord God Ezek. 16.63 But sinner wilt thou make a Covenant with me and my Christ wilt thou take me for thy God and him for thy Redeemer and Lord And may I Lord yet may I O admirable grace wonderful sparing mercy that I was not thrown into hell at my first refusal Yea Lord with all my heart and soul. I renounce the vanities of an empty cheating world and all the pleasures of sin in thy favour stands my life Whom have I in heaven but thee whom on earth do I desire besides thee And O thou blessed Jesus thou Prince of the Kings of the earth who hast loved me and washed me from my sins in thy blood and whom the eternal God hath exalted to be a Prince and a Saviour to give repentance and remission of sins
and eternity Dost thou not know thy day of grace may end before thy life end that thou may'st be cast far enough out of the sound of the Gospel and if thou shouldst carry any notices of it with thee thou who hast been so unapt to consider them while they were daily prest upon thee will most probably be less apt when thou hearest of no such thing that thou may'st live still under the Gospel and the Spirit of grace retire from thee and never attempt thee more for thy former despiting of it For what obligation hast thou upon that blessed Spirit Or why should'st thou think a Deity bound to attend upon thy triflings And 9. If yet all this move not Consider what it will be to dye unreconciled to God! Thou hast been his enemy he hath made thee gracious offers of peace waited long upon thee thou hast made light of all The matter must at length end either in reconciliation or vengeance The former is not acceptable to thee art thou prepared for the latter Can'st thou sustain it Is it not a fearful thing to fall into the hands of the living God Thou wilt not do him right he must then right himself upon thee Dost thou think he cannot do it Canst thou doubt his power Cast thine eyes about thee behold the greatnes as far as thou canst of this creation of his whereof thou art but a very little part He that hath made that Sun over thine head and stretch't out those spacious heavens that hath furnisht them with those innumerable bright stars that governs all their motions that hath hung this earth upon nothing that made and sustains that great variety of creatures that inhabit it can he not deal with thee a worm Can thine heart endure or thine hands be strong if he plead with thee if he surround thee with his terrours and set them in battel array against thee Hell and destruction are open before him and without covering how soon art thou cast in and ingulpht Sit down and consider whether thou be able with thy impotency to stand before him that comes against thee with Almighty power Is it not better to sue in time for peace But perhaps thou may'st say I begin now to fear it is too late I have so long slighted the Gospel resisted the holy Spirit of God abus'd and baffled my own light and conscience that I am afraid God will quite abandon me and cast me off for ever It is well if thou do indeed begin to fear That fear gives hope Thou art then capable of coming into their rank who are next to be spoken to viz. 2. Such as feel themselves afflicted with the apprehension and dread of their having out-liv'd their day and that the things of their peace are now irrecoverably hid from their eyes I desire to counsel such faithfully according to that light and guidance which the Gospel of our Lord affords us in reference to any such case 1. Take heed of stifling that fear suddenly but labour to improve it to some advantage and then to cure and remove it by rational-evangelical means and methods Do not as thou lovest the life of thy soul go about suddenly or by undue means to smother or extinguish it 'T is too possible when any such apprehension strikes into a mans mind because 't is a sharp or piercing thought disturbs his quiet gives him molestation and some torture to pluck out the dart too soon and cast it away Perhaps such a course is taken as doth him unspeakably more mischief than a thousand such thoughts would ever do He diverts it may be to vain company or to sensuality talks or drinks away his trouble makes death his cure of pain and to avoid the fear of hell leaps into it Is this indeed the wisest course Either thy apprehension is reasonable or unreasonable If it should prove a reasonable apprehension as it is a terrible one would the neglect of it become a reasonable creature or mend thy case if it shall be found unreasonable it may require time and some debate to discover it to be so whereby when it is manifestly detected witn how much greater satisfaction is it laid aside Labour then to enquire rightly concerning this matter 2. In this enquiry consider diligently what the kind of that fear is that you find your selves afflicted with The fear that perplexes your heart must some way correspond to the apprehension you have in your mind touching your case Consider what that is and in what form it shews it self there Doth it appear in the form of a peremptory judgment a definitive sentence which you have past within your self concerning your case that your day is over and you are a lost creature or only of a meer doubt lest it should prove so The fear that corresponds to the former of these makes you quite desperate and obstinately resolute against any means for the bettering of your condition The fear that answers to the latter apprehension hath a mixture of hope in it which admits of somewhat to be done for your relief and will prompt thereunto Labour to discern which of these is the present temper and posture of your spirit 3. If you find it be the former let no thought any longer dwell in your mind under that form viz. as a definitive sentence concerning your state You have nothing to do to pass such a judgment the tendency of it is dismal and horrid as you may your self perceive And your ground for it is none at all Your conscience within you is to do the office of a Judge but only of an under-Judge that is to proceed strictly by rule prescribed and set by the sovereign Lord and arbiter of life and death there is one Law-giver who is able to save and to destroy Nor is your Conscience as an under-Judge to meddle at all but in cases within your cognisance This about your final state is a reserv'd excepted case belonging only to the supream tribunal which you must take heed how you usurp As such a judgment tends to make you desperate so there will be high presumption in this despair Dare you take upon you to cancell and nullify to your self the obligation of the Evangelical law and whereas that makes it your duty to repent and believe the Gospel to absolve your self from this bond and say it is none of your duty or make it impossible to you to do it you have matter and cases enough within the cognisance of your conscience not only the particular actions of your life but your present state also whether you be as yet in a state of acceptance with God thorough Christ yea or no And here you have rules set you to judge by But concerning your final state or that you shall never be brought into a state of acceptance you have no rule by which you can make such a judgment and therefore this judgment belongs not to you Look then upon the matter