eyes that thou mayst see the wonderful things contained in his law Psal 119.18 If thou cryest after knowledge and liftest up thy voice for understanding if thou seekest her as silver and searchest for her as for hid treasure then shalt thou understand the fear of the Lord and find the knowledge of God For the Lord giveth wisdom out of his mouth cometh knowledge and understanding Prov. 2.3 4 5 6. 3. Take heed of sinning against those commands which thou knowest Hold not the truth in unrighteousness Do not wanton away the light least God give thee up to judiciary darkness Thou knowest thou shouldst pray with thy family and in secret make conscience of the Lords day instruct thy children forbear drunkenness swearing lying uncleanness and the like be sure thou do not shut up this knowledge in thy conscience and deny it in thy conversation lest as a candle pent up in a dark lanthorn it swail out quickly If any man will do my will he shall know my doctrine whether it be of God or no John 7.17 To practice what you know is the way to know what to practice Knowledge is the mother of obedience it breeds it and obedience is the nurse of knowledge it feedeth and nurtureth it if thou improvest thy little stock well doubt not but God will adde to it and encrease it leave no means untried for the obtaining this purchase I have if thou belongest to our Parish offered thee to instruct thee to my power in the mysteries of Christ appointed also days for that end it may be thou art one of those many that ate too old to learn that scorn to be taught I would ask thee one question and think of it Art thou not too old to be saved Dost thou not scorn to go to heaven Surely thou dost by contemning the way thou scornest the end Well take heed thou dost not die without knowledge for if thou dost all the world cannot keep thee one quarter of an hour out of hell and then thou wilt have time enough to befool thy self for refusing a good offer and willfully rejecting through thy pride those things which concerned thine eternal peace I shall conclude this head with the words of that eminent and pious writer Mr. Gurnal Arm 1 part p. 239 240. How long saith he may a poor Minister sit in his study before any of the ignorant sort will come upon that errand i. e. to learn the knowledge of God themselves Lawyers have their Clients and Physicians their Patients these are sought after called up at midnight for counsel but alas the soul which is more worth then raiment and body too that is neglected and the Minister seldome thought one till both these be sent away Perhaps when the Physitian gives them over for dead then we must come and close up their eyes with comfort which were never opened to see Christ in his truth or else be counted cruel because we will not sprinkle them with this holy water and anoint them for the Kingdom of heaven though they know not a step of the way that leads to it Ah poor wretches what comfort would you nave us speak to those to whom God himself speaks terror Is heaven ours to give to whom we please or is it in our power to alter the laws of the most High and save those whom he condemns Do you remember the curse that is to fall upon his head that maketh the blind to wander out of the way Deut. 27.18 What curse then would be our portion if we should confirm such blind souls as are quite out of the way to heaven encouraging them to go on and expect to reach heaven at last when God knows their feet stand in those paths that lead to eternal death No 't is written we cannot God will not reverse it you may read your very names amongst those damned souls which Christ comes in flaming fire to take vengeance on 2 Thess 1.8 And therefore in the fear of God let this provoke you of what age or sex rank or condition soever you be to labor for the saving knowledge of God in Christ whom to know is life eternal John 17.3 Secondly Do not rest in bare knowledge but endeavor to get thy will affections and heart renewed a clear head must be accompanied with a clean heart saving knowledge is ever a sanctifying knowledge Content not thy self with any thing short of regeneration and the power of godliness Master Robert Bolton Mr. Boltons life â—y Master â—gshaw when dying told his children That he verily believed none of them durst think to meet him at the great tribunal in an unregenerate estate So I am confident that none of you can with any comfort nay without unspeakable horror and sorrow meet me at the Bar of Christ in your natural estates O how sad will it be for thee that art now asleep in sin to awake like the Jailor at the midnight of death and to find this inward change this new creation this life in Christ missing what an heart quake will possess thee how pale and trembling wilt thou spring into the presence of Christ in the other world for thy particular judgement Consider thy profession will not serve turn the storm of death will wash out all colours of profession that are not laid in the oyle of renewing grace Mat. 25.8 Thy priviledges will not do it circumcision is nothing nor uncircumcision but a new creature Gal. 6.15 Thou mayst enjoy Scripture and Sabbaths and Sacraments and many seasons of grace and hell at last Nay the higher thy exaltation in regard of these priviledges if thou diest unconverted the greater thy condemnation will be None go to such Chambers of utter darkness as they that are lighted thither with the torches of Ordinances Heathen will keep holy day in hell in comparison of those that are now lifted up to heaven and perish If the sweetest wine make such sharp vinegar and the cold lead when melted be so hot and scalding how pure and weighty will that wrath be which shall be extracted out of abused love and mercy Grace is the sweetest friend but the bitterest enemy If thou waste the riches of grace God will recover out of thee riches of glory Thy performances also can be no infallible evidence of thy good estate The Pharisees prayed fasted did many of them abound in outward acts of charity righteousness and holiness which are commanded by God and must be minded by all that will be saved and yet Christ telleth us expresly That except our righteousness exceed the righteousness of the Scribes and Pharisees we shall in no wise enter into the kingdom of heaven Mat. 5.20 There was in them aâ— in the young man one thing wanting and that was the regeneration of their natures the actual predominancy of the interest oâ— God and Christ in their hearts above all interest of the flesh and world I beseech thee therefore make sure of the new
there how high and noble their works how holy and pure their worship and hadst known the infinite power holiness wisdom and justice of God as they do and God should turn thee again into this world wouldst thou slubber over thy duties and play with his Ordinances as now thou dost wouldst thou pray to this God as if thou prayedst not or hear from his Majesty as if thou heardest not or attend on him so carelesly as if thou didst not attend on him at all or wouldst thou not rather think I can never be too serious in the service of such a God I can never wait on him with humility enough and with watchfulnesse enough with uprightnesse enough and with care and diligence enough Shouldst thou not be laborious in the service of such a good God Give me leave to urge this thought a little farther and to give thee a Scripture or two which through the free grace of God have sometimes helped me against deadness and dullness in duties The one is 2 Chron. 2. and 5. where Solomon telleth us The house I am to build must be great mark the reason for great is our God above all gods If God be so great a God how greatly is he to be reverenced canst thou do too much service for him or give too much glory to him Can thy love to him be too great or can thy fear of him be too great or can thy labor for him be too great when this God is so great That he measureth the ocean in the hollow of his hand and meteth out the heavens with a span and comprehendeth the dust of the earth in a measure and weigheth the mountains in scales and the hills in a ballance Behold the Nations are as a drop of the bucket and are counted as the small dust of the ballance Behold he taketh up the Isles as a very little thing And Lebanon is not sufficient to burn nor the beasts thereof sufficient for a burnt-offering All Nations before him are as nothing and they are counted to him as lesse then nothing and vanity Isa 40.12 15 16 17. God is a great God and therefore greatly to be feared Psal 89.7 God is a great God and therefore greatly to be praised for his greatness is unsearchable Psal 145.3 If he be a great God he may well require a great house to be his material temple and if he be a great God may he not justly call for a great part of yea all thy heart to be his spiritual temple It is likely the Son Solomon learned this of his father David who giveth us this as the reason why he danced before the Arke of the Covenant of the Lord of the whole earth with all his might 2 Sam. 6.14 21. It was saith he before the Lord as if he had said Had it been before men only or in their service I might have been cold and careless slothful and sluggish but it was before the Lord the infinite incomprehensible and holy God to whom I am unspeakably obliged for his distinguishing mercy and therefore all my might and all my strength was little enough for such a God I might mind thee further that thou hast wrought hard in thy slavery to the world and thy flesh in thy drudgery to the devil and thy lusts whose reward and wages is nothing but disappointment and vexation hell and damnation and shouldst thou not be fervent fiery seething hot as the word signifieth in spirit when thou art serving the Lord 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Rom. 11.12 Rom. 11.12 I might also ask thee to whom thou owest thy whole strength and thy whole heart if not to God Art thou so much indebted to the world and thy flesh those enemies of thy salvation as thou art to the blessed God and who will at last pay thee best for thy strength and time God or the world Christ or the flesh But I may speak more to this in another place Well Reader have I yet or rather the Lord by me perswaded thee to set about this great business upon which thy eternal felicity dependeth timely that is presently throughly that is withal thy strength as the main chief and onely work thou hast to do Art thou resolved to do thine utmost endeavor and through the strength of Christ faithfully to follow the directions which I shall commend to thee from the Lord in order to thy recovery out of that bottomlesse misery into which thou hast plunged thy self Is there not abundant reason in what thou hast read Are they the words of a sinfu◠dying man or of the jealous everliving God Is it I only that call upon thee to mind this spiritual life or do not the daily and nightly mercies which thou unworthy wretch injoyest do not the dreadful judgements which others feel and thou hast too much cause to fear do not thy sweet babes thy dear children cry often and aloud in thine ears O thar there were an heart in our Father in our Mother to fear the Lord and keep all his Commandements alwayes that it might go well with them and with their children for ever Deut. 5.29 Nay doth not the Almighty God who observeth all thy wickednesse in whose hands thou art every hour who can with a word speak thee into that place of wo where the worth of grace and holinesse is better known and where the weight of sin and ungodlinesse is more felt In hope that thou wilt not be such an enemy to the God that made thee that thou wilt not do that despight to the Spirit that moveth thee that thou wilt not be such a wilful murderer of thy precious soul as to neglect them I shall set them down the Lord set them home to thy heart Come along with me and I will shew thee the Bride the Lambs Wife how she must be trimmed and adorned for the marriage First Get thine understanding inlightned in the knowledge of thy sins and misery 1. Direction Illumination The knowledge of thy disease and danger must precede thy recovery and cure O how many thousand souls have miscarried in the dark of ignorance Did men know surely they would not daily by their sins crucifie the Lord of glory Did they know their misery they would not be so merry as they are in wayes of iniquity they rush into sin as the horse rusheth into the battel not knowing it will be to their death to their destruction I have sometime read a story of a King that was ever pensive and never seen to smile and being asked by his Brother the cause of it he put him off till the next day for an answer and in the mean time caused a deep pit to be made commanding his servants to fill it half full with fiery coals and then causeth an old rotten board to be laid over it and over the board to hang a two-edged sword by a small slender thred with the point downwards and close by the pit
The Spirit indeed is a free Agent and worketh in what manner and measure he pleaseth But this is certain he convinceth all of their sins and miseries conviction doth go before conversion The Physitian of souls will heal none but such as know both their distemper and their danger and thereby how infinitely they are obliged to him for their cure As in the first creation one of the first thing God made was light so in the forming the new creature illumination is before sanctification Every one is able to say in Christ as he in the Gospel This I know whereas I was blind now I see John 9.25 This is absolutely necessary in order to the second direction I have to commend to thee which is the sincere humiliation of thy soul There must be a day-break of light in the understanding before there can be an heart-break of sorrow in the affections till sin and wrath be discerned by knowledge in the mind they will be no burden to the conscience nor grief to the spirit As no good wrapt up in darknesse excites desire so no evil swathed up in ignorance striketh terror We may observe this by the holy Apostles expression I was alive without the law but when the commandement came sin revived and I died Rom. 7.9 i. e. the time was that I was ignorant both of the laws strictnesse and my own sinfulnesse and then I thought my self to be very safe my conscience was very quiet and my heart full of hope or more properly presumption about my future eternal happinesse thus I was alive without the law but when my eyes were inlightned to see how exceeding broad the Commandements of God were and that once I compared my crooked race with that strait rule and took notice how far short I came of that obedience which the law required I was then a dead a lost man I quickly pulled in my plumes and took down my sails with which I was hastening in my conceit to Heaven for I found that I was in very deed in the road to hell When the Commandement came sin revived and I died There was then life enough in my lusts to wound me unto death for I dyed Reader if thou art convinced so farre of the absolute necessity of conversion as to desire it unfeignedly let me request thee for the sake of thy poor soul to set some considerable time apart thy body hath had many years surely thy soul deserveth one day and that speedily to be serious in about its endlesse estate and to compare thy wicked life with the pure Law of God and observe how exceedingly thou hast swerved from the precepts therein commanded consider not only its outward and literal but likewise its inward and spiritual meaning and thou mayst presently discern that thy whole conversation for so many years as thou hast lived hath been a continued aberration and wandring from the Lord and his Laws If thou lookest aright in that glasse it will discover all the spots all the dirt that have been in the face of thy heart and life Jam. 1.23 By the Law is the knowledge of sin Rom. 3.20 Consider also that thy breach of the Law makes thee liable to the curse of the Law which is the infinite eternal wrath of the Law-giver Cursed is every one that continueth not in all things that are written in the book of the Law to do them Gal. 3.10 The Law must be satisfied since not in its accomplishment it will in thy punishment If God cast the glorious Angels out of heaven and reserved them in chains of darknesse to the judgement of the great day for one sin and that as some think in thought into what an hell may he cast thee whose iniquities for weight are like the sand of the sea and for number like the sparks of a furnace and the stars in the firmament Think of it with all possible seriousnesse thou hangest over the mouth of hell every moment by a small thread of life and if that should be cut asunder the whole world cannot save thee from dropping into it 2. Direction Humiliation 2. In the next place labour to get thy heart deeply and throughly affected with thy sins and misery Humiliation must follow Illumination It is not enough for this knowledge of the transgressions thou hast committed and the wrath thou hast deserved to swim in thy head it may be there as fire in the flint to no profit but it must sink down into thy heart and be beaten out into an application of and lamentation for thy guilt and wickedness Man is so sinfully subtle that he can bear the historical knowledge of these things in his understanding he can hear the name of sin and hell and be no more troubled then at a painted devil or a tale of purgatory but when God brings down sin from being a notion to be an obligation and entereth an action against the soul within it self then it will begin to melt and mourn under the sense of its sins and sufferings Thus after the Spirt of God hath been a spirit of conviction it becometh a spirit of bondage that eye which was before enlightened to see the lewdnesse of his heart and life cometh now to affect his heart with grief and sorrow This we find in those Converts Acts 2.37 when they had heard of their sin and guilt they began to recant and repent When they heard those things they were pricked to the heart The nails which had pierced Christs hands now pierce their hearts It was with them saith one as if the sharp points of daggers had been stuck or fastened in their hearts They wounded themselves with sorrow that ever they had wounded the Lord Jesus with their sins The whole life indeed of a true Christian is in some respects a life of repentance He is often greiving Gods Spirit and therefore he is often greived in his own spirit As long as the ship leaketh the pump must go Though the Christian doth not paddle or wallow in the mire of sin every day as gracelesse ones do yet he findeth that daily his hands contract dirt and his soul guilt therefore he must daily wash with faith and repentance Some report of Mary Magdalen that she spent thirty years in Galba in weeping for her sins And Tertullian saith of himself That he was born for repentance Anselm telleth us That with grief he considered the whole course of his life I found * In lib. meditat writeth he the infancy of sin in the sins of my infancy the youth and growth of sin in the sins of my youth and growth and the ripenesse of all sin in the sins of my ripe and perfect age and then he breaks out into this pathetical expression What remaineth for thee wretched man but that thou spend thy whole life in bewayling thy whole life But especially at the time of a Christians conversion he is to mind contrition when the vessel is newly tapt
Turky or India or in Spain and Italy where the tree of knowledge is forbidden fruit where they may not read their fathers mind in their mother tongue but is it possible that in England where the will and word of God is more powerfully preached more practically applied more clearly discovered than in any nation of the world there should be any ignorant persons Alas alas We finde by woful experience that there are many very many Indians and heathen for ignorance in England Men and women that know as little of God and holiness of Christ his natures offices of true faith and repentance as if they had been born and bred up all their time in Turky or India I am ashamed to write what I know of the sottish stupid hellish ignorance of many and some that are aged too that are going to dye and yet never knew what it was to live either to God or their souls The good Lord affect my heart more with the danger and dreadfulnesse of their eternal conditions O how sad is it that so many precious souls should lie lazing on their beds of security and idleness and though the Sun shine brightly in upon them they will not draw their curtains and open their eyes to behold it That in a valley of vision a Goshen a land of light thousands should live and dye in worse then Egyptian darknesse that the Bible should be a sealed book to them and almost every one have the dark side of that glorious pillar towards him Reader To cure this soul-murdering distemper I have endeavored according to the trust committed to me and the grace bestowed on me to discover in this Treatise the life in Christ or true Christianity with the matchless endless felicity that accompanieth it as also the nature and danger of unregeneracy with the means to come out of it by which thou mayst see that many cozen their souls with counterfeit coin false evidences for heaven instead of true which will not abide the touchstone of Scripture and so like Uriah they carry those letters about them though they know it not which will at last cost them their lives and cause their eternal deaths That there is no fool like the sinner who selleth his soul for a song his Saviour his eternal happiness the unspeakable pleasures at Gods right hand for evermore for the perishing empty profits and base brutish pleasures of sin which are but for a season Though sin be delightful in the act to carnal wretches yet it will be bitterness in the end It will be a bitter-sweet to all its lovers when for their momentany pleasure they shall be recompenced with eternity of intolerable unconceivable pain That it is not for nothing that Ministers call so loudly and earnestly to thee to kill those lusts which would kill thee and to follow after holiness without which no man shall ever see the Lord Heb. 12.14 It will teach thee that God and Christ heaven and hell thy soul and eternity death and judgement are not things to be dallied with believe it thou wilt one day find that it is bad jesting with such edged tools Surely the greatest seriousness that is imaginable is too too little for them O hadst thou but the thousandth part of that seriousness about them which they deserve and call for at thy hands surely thou wouldst have other manner of thoughts of them and carriage towards them then now thou hast Well I have four special things at present from the living God to commend to thee and leave with thee in order to thine eternal good I known not how soon I may be taken from thee If thou lovest thy soul practice them faithfully if not answer the contrary when thou and I shall meet in the other world at the great and terrible day of the Lord Jesus First do thou labor for the knowledge of God and his Son thy self and the duty which thou owest to thy Maker and Redeemer hast thou not read the doleful consequence of ignorance and doth it not nearly concern thee to get out of that damnable condition Without this thou canst never be Religious notwithstanding all thy pretences that thou meanest well and hast as good an heart as the best If thou knowest not the God of thy fathers thou canst never serve him with a perfect heart 1 Chron. 28.9 All thy worship will be but wild and wandering from God all thy services but the sacrifice of a fool The foundation of obedience must be laid in knowledge Mal. 1.8 till then thou offerest up to the Lord the lame and blind which he will not accept God expecteth reasonable services Rom. 12.1 such for which thou canst give a good reason out of his word which must be the warrant of thy worship Be not therefore in shape a man a reasonable creature and as NebuchadneZZar in heart a beast be not as the horse and mule which hath no understanding Psal 32.9 Without knowledge thou canst not be saved If the Gospel be hid it is hid to them that perish 2 Cor. 4.4 Wilful ignorance is a sad sign that thou art in Gods black bill If God will ever have thee to be saved he will bring thee to the knowledge of this truth 1 Tim. 2.4 When Hammans face was covered his execution was near Do not delude and destroy thy soul by presuming that thy ignorance will not damne thee for if thou art without knowledge he that made thee will not save thee and he that formed thee will shew thee no mercy Isa 27.11 Mark Reader but this one place Psal 95.10 11. where the God of truth confirmeth it by an oath that they which do not know his ways shall not enter into his rest One would think that a prisoner should be both earnest and diligent to learn his neck verse who knoweth he must be hanged if he cannot read and dost not thou read in broad Characters in the word of God that thou must be an eternal monument of divine fury in hell if thou dost not learn to know the onely true God and Jesus Christ whom he hath sent doth it not then behove thee to be diligent for knowledge 1. How shouldst thou wait on the word of God which enlightneth the mind and maketh wise the simple Auditus est sensus disciplinae Psal 19.7 8. David had more understanding then the ancients because Gods word was his meditation Psa 119.98 99. Watch at wisdoms gate with an humble hungry soul and God may fill thee with good things God maketh manifest the favour of his knowledge by his Mnisters in every place 2 Cor. 2.14 If thou wouldst see go where the Sunne shineth 2. Ply the throne of grace with uncessant prayers Bene or assc est bene studuisse that God would enlighten thy mind in the knowledge of his will If any man lack wisdom or knowledge let him ask it of God who giveth liberally and upbraideth not Jam. 1.5 Intreat him to open thine
birth without which it is impossible for thee to escape the second death I have in the third use of this Treatise endeavoured to awakeâ— thee to and to direct thee about this great work as in the first use I have discovered the unspeakable endless misery of them that dye before it be done Those which had the Sudor Anglicus or sweating sicknesâ— dyed assuredly if suffered to sleep those were their best friends that kept them waking though they possibly had little thank for it It may be thou mayst think I am too sharpe but truely the wound is deep dangerous yea deadly and therefore though I put thee to pain by lancing it I am forced to it otherwise thou wilt not be cured Sin and hell and holiness and sanctification are other manner of things then the sleepy world dreameth of The Lord give thee an heart to obey his counsel in order to thy conversion and then I am sure thou wilt have cause to give him thanks that I would not let thee sleep quietly on a bed that was in a flame nor in an condition that was next door to infinite misery and eternal desperation Thirdly exalt godliness in thy family If once Christ be chief in thy heart I am confident he will to thy utmost power be so in thy house that thou art really which thou art relatively Labor that thy children and servants may know and serve God Dwell with thy wife as a man of knowledge as heirs together of the grace of life that your prayers be not hindred 1 Pet. 3.7 Bring up thy children in the nurture and admonition of the Lord Eph. 6 4. Teach thy servants their duty to God and their own souls Consider these are the laws of the righteous God and ere long when thou shalt leave all the dying and lying vanities of this world thou must give an account in the other world how thou hast obeyed them God hath committed a great trust to thee even the charge of the souls of all in thy family and doth not thine heart tremble to think of soul-blood of soul-murder I assure thee thou mayst be as truely and really guilty of their deaths and damnations by starving them as by poisoning them I mean by not instructing chatechizing and principling them in the things of God by not praying with them and over seeing that they mind the worship of God as in making them drunk and teaching them to steal and swear For thy children Dost thou not know that they are born children of wrath and heirs of hell and canst thou be quiet till thou seest in them some signs and hopes of regeneration an interest in Christ and thereby a right to heaven When thou readest of Herod how he murdered poor children thou condemnest him thou thinkest Ah hard-hearted Herod But dost not thou do ten thousand times worse in murdering the souls and bodies of thy dear children for ever Ah hard-hearted ah bloody father Herod was a man of bowels a merciful man to thee Is it any wonder to hear saith one of that ship sunk or dasht upon a rock that was put to sea without card of compass nor is it a wonder to hear of children sinking in perdition who are thrust into the world which is a sea of temptations without any knowledge of God and their duty One would think every time thou readest and hearest of the extremity and eternity of hells torments of the multitudes that must undergo them of the few even of those within the visible Church that shall be saved and of the difficulty of obtaining salvation that thy loyns should tremble and thy joynts smite together that thy head yea heart should ake for fear any of thy dear children should be among those many that must drink that cup of the Lords pure wrath that thou shouldst be restless night and day in wrastling with â—od and instructing them in using all means to prevent their endless ruine surely if thou hadst a spark of true love to thy children thus it would be with thee And for thy servants unless thou art careful that they serve the Lord they are but little beholden to thee for thy service thou givest them possibly food and outward things convenient but dost thou not do as much for thy cattel And is it thinkest thou enough to do no more for those souls which must live in unspeakable pain or pleasure for ever then for thy beasts If he that provideth not for the bodies of his family be worse then an Infidel 1 Tim. 5.8 surely he that provideth not for their souls is kin to a devil say not they are stubborn and will not be taught Hast not thou power in thy hands either to teach them or turn them out of doors Let none serve thee that will not serve God Thou wilt not keep a servant that knoweth not how to do thy work at least if he will not learn and then follow it with diligence Now let thy conscience be judge Is not Gods work the pleasing and glorifying his infinite majesty of far greater concernment than thy greatest and weightest work and darest thou keep one that neither knoweth how to do it nor will learn Follow the man after Gods own heart Ps 101.2.9 I will walk within my house with a perfect heart Mine eyes shall be upon the faithful in the land that they may dwell with me he that walketh in a perfect way he shall serve me It is said of Constantine that in this he was truely great that he would have his whole Court gathered together and cause the Scriptures to be read to them and instruction to be given them from the Word of God Besides if thou didst but regard thy own temporal good thou wouldst instruct thy servants and children in spiritual things for they that are unfaithful to their Master and father in heaven will be unfaithful to their master and father on earth They that make no conscience of their duty to God but rob him of his service and worship will never make conscience of their duty to thee but if they have opportunity will rob thee of thy time service and goods Be sure that thou performe family duties as praying reading and the like morning and evening do not serve the flesh and the world all day and then put God off with a few cold sleepy petitions at night the command is Pray continually 1 Thess 5.17 Daniel was at it three times a day Dan. 6.10 David seven times a day Psal 119.164 Gods mercies are renewed on thee every morning and should not thy prayers and praises be renewed every morning Doth not the preservation of thy family every night deserve family acknowledgement in the morning Wearisome nights are appointed to others the beds of others prove their graves thou and thine might have awaken in hell doth this distinguishing mercy deserve no thanks Is not thy family every day lyable to many dangers both bodily and spiritual doth it not need pitying sanctifying
the person that had but gained this good and the first could not have been without this The eternal death of the soul consisteth in its farthest separation from that God whose favour is far better than life This is the lowest round in that ladder by which thou shalt descend into the bottomless pit This is the foot of this black bloody account the head of that arrow which pierceth the hearts of the damned This is the worst effect and fruit of sin that it is privative of our union with and fruition of God Vines on James 4.8 pag. 23. Depart from me is as terrible a word as everlasting fire Ah whether do they go that go from him when he alone hath the power of eternal life how dismal how dark must that dungeon be where this Sun will not shine in the least degree with the light of his countenance well may it be called blacknesse of darknesse for ever Jude 15. the hell of the hypocrites which will be hottest of all is set out by this Job 13.16 the hypocrite shall not come before God Couldst thou have all the mercies that the world can give yet in this want of God thou wouldest be compleatly miserable Ten thousand words cannot speak a soul more unhappy than those two words Without God Ephes 2.12 Thou mayest be without riches without friends without health without liberty nay without all outward blessings and yet blessed but if without God thou art cursed with a curse When God would couch all arguments in one to perswade to duty this is instead of all Obey my voice and I will be your God Jer. 7.23 when he would disswade and drive them from iniquity Sicut Sole recedente succedunt densae tene brae sic Deo recedente succedit horribilis maledictio Paraeus in â— Hos this is the stinging whip Be instructed O Jerusalem lest my soul depart from thee Jer. 6.8 When he would strike Israel dead with a blow this is it Wo unto them when I depart from them Hos 9.12 How sad a saying is that of Saul I am sore distressed and well he might the Philistines are upon me and God is departed from me 1 Sam. 28.15 If a partial Eclipse of the Sun cause such a drooping in the whole Creation what will a total Eclipse of this Sun cause how mournfully doth Micah bemoan the losse of of his dunghil deity Ye have taken away my gods and what have I morâ—e and what is this that ye say unto me what aileth thee Judg. 18.24 surely the damned as they will have infinitely more cause so they will with more horrour and anguish bewail the losse of the true God though all the tears in hell are not sufficient to bewail the losse of this heaven If the body from which the soul is parted be such a deformed sad spectacle what shall the condition of that soul be from which God is parted for ever How unable are the children of God to bear the absence of God in this life though it be but in part and for a short time take Heman Psal 88.14 15. Lord why castest thou off my soul why hidest thou thy face from me I am afflicted and ready to die while I suffer thy terrours I am distracted Observe the good man is at deaths door and no wonder when as to his apprehension the life of his soul had left him for though no man can see the essential face of God and live yet no Saint can live unlesse he see the providential face of God Consider Job a man of courage one that had entered the list against Satan and foild him The Sabeans and Chaldeans were too hard for his servants and captivated his cattel but Job was too hard for them he conquered them the winde that blew down the house on his children could not blow down the tower of his confidence his hold on Christ yet when this valiant Warriour comes to encounter with the withdrawings of God how exceedingly is his courage withdrawn Job 13.24 wherefore hidest thou thy face and holdest me for thine enemy Why Lord are all the appearances from heaven so black and lowring Why is it that I see not the former smiles of thy face O what is the cloud that hindereth the light of thy countenance from shining on me What sin is the mist which is gathered about the true Sun impeding my fight of thee Behold our Lord Jesus himself that could bear the spiteful buffetings of some the bloody scourgings of others the scorn and derisions of many that could suffer the treason of one Apostle the denial of another and the unkindnesse of them all without complaining yet when the Deity did but withdraw it self for a time that the humanity might suffer for our sins how mournfully doth he sigh out that expression My God my God why hast thou forsaken me Matth 27.46 It was not his torturing from men nor the terrours of devils not the presence of all the powers of darkness that Christ complained so much of as the absence of God Now meditate O sinner if the departure of God though partial and temporal were so terrible to his Saints to his Son how intolerable will the losse of God be to thee when it shall be total and eternal Do they mourn so bitterly when for a small moment he forsaketh them though with great mercies he gathereth them when in a little wrath he hides his face from them though with everlasting kindnesse he hath mercy on them Isa 54.7 8. How bitterly wilt thou complain when he shall forsake thee to eternity when he shall hide his face from thee for ever and not bestow on thee the least mercy or the smallest kindnesse This will be a woe with a witnesse Suffering may be the portion of Saints but separation from God the punishment of Devils As the face and comfortable presence of God is the greatest felicity of the saved Summa mors animae est alienatio à vita Dei in aeternitate supplicii Aug. de civit Dei lib. 6. so the full withdrawings or absence of God will be the greatest misery of the damned Now thou doest not value the enjoyment of God thou thinkest often that he is too neer thee the coming of God to thee is as to the Devils a torment Matth. 8.29 If he draw nigh to thee sometime in a Sermon in a private Instruction in a motion of his spirit or in a conviction of thy conscience thou wishest him farther off with his precise laws that thou mighst have more liberty for thy fleshly lusts The voice of thine hellish heart unto God is Depart from me I desire not the knowledge of thy wayes Job 21.14 Well thy petition shall be granted to thy destruction and God will take thee at thy word and give thee thy wish to thy woe when thy doom shall be to depart from him Luke 13.27 Matth. 25.41 and then thou shalt know the incomparable worth of him thy understanding shall
to set a table full of all manner of delicacies His Brother coming next day for an answer was placed at the board and four men with drawn swords about him and with all the best musick that could be had to play before him Then the King called to him saying Rejoyce and be merry Brother eat drink and laugh for here is pleasant being But he replied O my Lord and King how can I be merry being in such danger on every side Then said the King Look how it is now with thee so it is alwayes with me for If I look above me I see the great and dreadful Judge to whom I must give an account of all my thoughts words and deeds if I look under me I see the endlesse torments of hell whereinto I shall be cast if I die in my sins if I look behind me I see all the sins which I have committed and the time which I have spent unprofitably if I look before me I see death every day drawing nearer and nearer unto me if I look on my right hand I see my conscience accusing me of all the evil I have done and good I have left undone in this world and if I look on my left hand I see the creatures on their Makers behalf crying out for vengeance against me a Rebell Now then cease hereafter to wonder why I cannot rejoyce in the things of this world This is the condition of every unsanctified man and woman and did they but know it they would see but little cause to spend their dayes in pastimes and pleasure but what the eye seeth not the heart greives not Had Haman known he had been so nigh his funeral he would hardly have boasted so much to his friends but it is the policy of the God of this world to blind mens eyes least they should see and avoid damnation As when a Malefactor is for some capital crime cast at the Assize Diogenes being demanded what burthen the earth did dâ—d beaâ— most heavy answered An ignorant man he is then carried into a dark dungeon and thence to execution So the Devil knowing that all the Sons and Daughters of Adam are cast by the Law of God the Law shutting them all up under sin and wrath endeavoureth to keep them in the dungeon of ignorance till the day of their execution When Nebuchadnezzar had conquered Zedekiah 2 Kings 25. and 7. he put out his eyes bound him in fetters and then carried him away to Babylon Thus Satan as soon as he entereth into the soul laboureth to put out the eyes of the understanding and so to lead them hood-winkt to hell Did men know what they had done against God and how they had undone themselves they would be restlesse till they attained a remedy Did the sinner but know the purity jealousie power and justice of that God whom he daily provoketh Did he but know the love and kindness the blood and bowels of that Saviour whom he undervalueth Did he but know the pleasures and joy and happinesse in heaven which he neglecteth Did he but know the beauty and amiableness the delights and comforts of grace and holinesse which he despiseth Did he but know the emptinesse and vanity of this deceitful world which he so heartily embraceth Did he but know where sin is in the premisses sorrow and hell without faith and sanctification must be in the conclusion Did men I say but know these things how quickly would they turn from sin unto God giving a bill of divorce to their most beloved lusts and entring into a most solemn covenant with the Lord But having their understandings darkned they are alienated from the life of God that is a life of holinesse through the ignorance that is in them because of the blindnesse of their hearts Eph. 4.18 Observe how expresly the Spirit of God speaketh ignorance to be the reason why men are such strangers to the power of Religion Reader thou mayst by all this see the necessity of knowledge if ever thou wouldst be converted and saved The Devil as I said before carrieth men hood-winkt to hell but God will never carry thee blindfold to heaven The end of a Saint is the inheritance in light Col. 1.12 and the way thither is a way of light The path of the just is as shining light Prov. 4.18 and surely in respect of knowledge as well as in other respects Do not please thy self that though thou art not book-learned yet thou hast as good an heart as others as thy foolish ignorant neighbors will prate for when thou thus speakest thou speakest beside thy book for the Book of God telleth us otherwise The soul without knowledge is not good Proverbs 19.2 There may be a clear head without a clean heart the light of knowledge without the heat of grace but a gracious heart in a grown person not distracted was ever accompanied with a competency of knowledge in the head And indeed knowledge is so near a kin to grace that it is often in the Word of God put for it John 17.3 It is life eternal to know thee to be the only true God and Jesus Christ whom thou hast sent So 1 Cor. 2.2 Phil. 3.8 Isai 53.11 If thou would be sanctified and saved get knowledge seek knowledge as silver and search for it as for hid treasure Prov. 2.3 4. This is the first thing to be done it is first in the Ministers Commission Acts 26.18 I send thee saith God to Paul to open the eyes of the blind and to turn men from darkness unto light and this is first in the Spirits operation on the soul It convinceth the man of his sins John 16.10 11. It presenteth to the understanding a catalogue of its many and bloody provocations Imprimis thus Guilty in Adam of high treason against Heavens Majesty and thereby of want of original righteousnesse and of a deep deadly pollution in the whole nature Item so many hundred ungodly actions so many thousand unholy and idle expressions so many millions of evil thoughts and suggestions Item so many omissions and so many commissions Item so much precious time mis-spent a moment of which cannot be recalled or purchased with the revenues of the world Item so many talents of health strength food rayment esteem riches and the like misimployed Item so many Sacraments Sabbaths seasons of grace mis-improved Item so much uncorrigiblenesse under afflictions so much unprofitablenesse under mercies Thus the Spirit inlighteneth the sinners mind to see his sins with their circumstances and black aggravations as also what is like to be the fruit and effect of sin even nothing lesse than suffering everlasting perdition from the presence of the Lord. It may be the Spirit may cause him as it were to see the smoak that ascendeth from the bottomlesse pit to smell the scent of that infernal brimstone and fire to hear the roarings and howlings of the damned nay possibly to feel a very hell in his own conscience