professeth that it was all his relief and supportment How comes it to be an occasion of his trouble All had not been well between God and him and whereas formerly in his Remembrance of God his thoughts were chiefly exercised about his Love and Kindness now they were wholly possest with his own sin and unkindness This causeth his trouble Herein lyes a share of the intanglements occasioned by sin Saith such a soul in its self foolish creature hast thou thus requited the Lord Is this the return that thou hast made unto him for all his love his kindness his consolations mercies Is this thy kindness for him thy love to him Is this thy kindness to thy Friend Is this thy boasting of him that thou hadst found so much Goodness and Excellency in him and his Love that though all men should forsake him thou never wouldst do so Are all thy Promises all thy Engagements which thou madest unto God in times of distress upon prevailing obligations and mighty impressions of his Good Spirit upon thy soul now come to this that thou shouldst so foolishly forget neglect despise cast him off Well! now he is gone he is withdrawn from thee and what wilt thou do Art thou not even ashamed to desire him to return They were thoughts of this nature that cut Peter to the heart upon his fall The soul finds them cruel as Death and strong as the Grave It is bound in the chains of them and cannot be comforted Psalm 38. 3 4 5 6. And herein consists a great part of the depths enquired after For this consideration excites and puts an edge upon all grieving straightning perplexing Affections which are the only means whereby the soul of a man may be inwardly troubled or trouble it self such are sorrow and shame with that self-displicency and Revenge wherewith they are attended And as their Reason and Object in this case do transcend all other occasions of them so on no other account do they cause such severe and perplexing reflections on the soul as on this Thirdly A revived sense of justly deserved wrath belongs also to these depths This is as the opening of old wounds When men have passed through a sense of wrath and have obtained deliverance and rest through the blood of Christ to come to their old thoughts again to be trading afresh with Hell Curse Law and Wrath it is a depth indeed And this often befalls gracious souls on the account of sin Psalm 88. 7. Thy wrath lyeth hard upon me saith Heman It pressed and crushed him sorely There is a self-judging as to the desert of wrath which is consistent with a comforting perswasion of an Interest in Christ. This the soul finds sweetness in as it lyes in a subserviency to the exaltation of Grace But in this case the soul is left under it without that relief It plungeth it self into the Curse of the Law and flames of Hell without any cheering supportment from the blood of Christ. This is walking in the valley of the shadow of death The soul converseth with death and what seems to lye in a tendency thereunto The Lord also to increase his perplexities puts new life and spirit into the Law gives it a fresh Commission as it were to take such a one into its Custody and the Law will never in this world be wanting unto its Duty Fourthly Oppressing Apprehensions of temporal Judgements concurr herein also for God will Judge his People And Judgement often begins at the House of God Though God saith such a one should not cast me off for ever though he should pardon my iniquities yet he may so take vengeance of my inventions as to make me feed on gall and wormwood all my dayes Psal. 119. 120. faith David My flesh trembleth for fear of thee and I am afraid of thy Judgements He knows not what the great God may bring upon him and being full of a sense of the guilt of sin which is the bottom of this whole condition every Judgement of God is full of terror unto him Sometimes he thinks God may lay open the filth of his heart and make him a scandal and a reproach in the world Psal. 39. 8. Oh saith he make me not a reproach to the foolish Sometimes he trembles lest God should strike him suddainly with some signal Judgement and take him out of the world in darkness and sorrow so saith David take me not away in thy wrath Sometimes he fears lest he shall be like Jonah and raise a storm in his Family in the Church whereof he is a Member or in the whole Nation Let them not be ashamed for my sake These things make his heart soft as Job speaks and to melt within him When any Afflâ—ction or publick Judgement of God is fastned to a quick living sense of sin in the Conscience it overwhelms the soul whether it be only justly feared or be actually inflicted as was the case of Joseph's Brethren in Aegypt The soul is then rolled from one deep to another Sense of sin casts it on the consideration of its Affliction and Affliction turns it back on a sense of sin So deep calleth unto deep and all Gods billows go over the soul. And they do each of them make the soul tender and sharpen its sense unto the other Affliction â—â—â—â—ens the soul so that the sense of sin cuts the deeper and makes the larger wounds and the sense of sin weakens the soul and makes Affliction sit the heavier and so encreaseth its burden In this case that Affliction which a man in his usual state of spiritual peace could have embraced as a sweet pledge of Love is as goads and thorns in his side depriving him of all rest and quietness God makes it as thorns and briars wherewith he will teach stubborn souls their duty as Gideon did the Man of Succoth Fifthly There may be added hereunto prevailing fears for a season of being utterly rejected by God of being found a Reprobate at the last day Jonah seems to conclude so Chap. 3. 4. Then I said I am cast out of thy sight I am lost for ever God will own me no more And Heman Psalm 88. 4 5. I am counted with them that go down into the pit Free among the dead like the slain that lye in the grave whom thou remembrest no more and they are cut off from thy hand This may reach the soul until the sorrows of Hell encompass it and lay hold upon it untill it be deprived of comfort peace rest untill it be a terror to its self and be ready to choose strangling rather than life This may befall a gracious soul on the account of sin But yet because this fights directly against the Life of Faith God doth not unless it be in extraordinary cases suffer any of his to lye long in this horrible pit where there is no water no refreshment But this often falls out that even the Saints themselves are left for a season to a
the thoughts expressed in this third Verse and fixes the conclusion in his mind discoursed of before He finds now that he hath the Law afresh to deal withal Thence ariseth that sense and acknowledgement of sin that self-condemnation in the Justification of God whereof we now speak He grows not sullen stubborn displeased and so runs away from God he doth not utterly saint despond and give over he pleads not any thing in his own Justification or for the extenuation of his sin and guilt he quarrelleth not with he repineth not against the Holiness Severity and Righteousness of the Law of God but reflects wholly on himself his own unworthiness guilt and desert and in a sence of them lyes down at the foot of God in expectation of his word and sentence Three things in this condition we ascribe unto such a soul. First A sincere sense of sin There is a twofold sense of sin The one is general and notional whereby a man knows what sin is that himself is a sinner that he is guilty of this or that these or those sins only his heart is not affected proportionably to that discovery and knowledge which he hath of these things The other is active and efficacious The soul being acquainted with the nature of sin with its own guilt in reference unto sin in general as also to this or that sin is universally influenced by that apprehension unto suitable Affections and Operations Of both these we have an instance in the same person David before Nathans coming to him had the former afterwards he had the latter also It cannot be imagined but that before the coming of the Prophet he had a general knowledge and sense not only absolutely of the nature of sin but also that himself was a sinner and guilty of those very sins which afterwards he was reproved for To think otherwise is to suppose not only that he was un-sainted but un-manned also and turned into a Beast But yet this wrought not in him any one Affection suitable to his condition And the like may be said of most sinners in the world But now when Nathan comes to him and gives him the latter efficacious sense whereof we speak we know what effects it did produce It is the latter only that is under consideration and that also is twofold 1. Legal or Antecedaneous unto conversion 2 Evangelical and previous to the recovery from depths whereof we treat How these two differ and how they may be discerned one from the other being both of them in their kind sincere is not my business to declare Now this tast which we assign as the first duty work or acting of a returning soul is a deep and practical apprehension wrought in the mind and heart of a believing sinner by the Holy Ghost of sin and its evils in reference unto the Law and Love of God the Cross and blood of Christ the communion and consolation of the Spirit and all the fruits of Love Mercy or Grace that it hath been made partaker of or on Gospel grounds hoped for First The principal efficient cause of it is the Holy Ghost He it is who convinceth of sin John 16. 8. He works indeed by means He wrought it in David by the Ministry of Nathan and he wrought it in Peter by the look of Christ. But his work it is No man can work it upon his own soul. It will not spring out of mens rational considerations Though men may exercise their thoughts about such things as one would think were enough to break the hearts of stones yet if the Holy Ghost put not forth a peculiar efficacy of his own this sense of sin will not be wrought or produced As the waters at the Pool of Bethesda were not troubled but when an Angel descended and moved them no more will the Heart for sin without a saving elapse of the Holy Ghost Secondly It is a deep Apprehension of sin and the evils of it Sleight transient thoughts about them amount not to the sense of which we speak My sorrow saith David is continually before me Psal. 38. 17. It pressed him alwayes and greatly Hence he compares this sense of sin wrought by the Holy Ghost to arrows that stick in the flesh v. 2. They pain sorely and are alwayes perplexing Sin in this sense of it layes hold on the soul so that the sinner cannot look up Psal. 40. 12. And it abides with him making his sore run in the night without ceasing Psal. 77. 2. and depriveth the soul of rest my soul saith he refused to be comforted This Apprehension of sin lyes down and rises with him in whom it is Transient thoughts attended with infrequent sighs and ejaculations little become a returning soul. And Thirdly It is Practical It is not seated only in the speculative part of the mind hovering in general notions but it dwel's in the practical understanding which effectually influenceth the Will and Affections Such an Apprehension as from which sorrow and humiliation are inseparable The acts of the practical understanding do so necessarily produce together with them suitable acts of the Will and Affections that some have concluded that those are indeed proper acts of the Will which are usually ascribed to the Understanding It is so in the mind as that the whole soul is cast into the mould and likeness of it humiliation sorrow self-abhorrency do live and dye with it Fourthly It hath in the first place respect unto the Law of God There can be no due consideration of sin wherein the Law hath not its place The Law calls for the sinner and he willingly gives up his sin to be judged by it There he sees it to be exceeding sinful Rom. 7. 17. Though a Believer be less under the power of the Law than others yet he knows more of the Authority and nature of it than others He sees more of its spirituality and holiness And the more a man sees of the excellency of the Law the more he sees of the vileness of sin This is done by a soul in its first endeavour for a recovery from the entanglements of sin He labours throughly to know his disease that he may be cured It will do him no good he knows to be ignorant of his distemper or his danger He knows that if his wounds be not searched to the bottom they will stink and be corrupt To the Law then he brings himself and his sin By that he sees the vileness of the one and the danger of the other Most men lye still in their depths because they would willingly escape the first step of their rising From the bottom of their misery they would fain at once be at the top of their felicity The soul managed in this work by the Holy Ghost doth not so He converseth with the Law brings his sin unto it and fully hears the sentence of it When the sin is throughly condemned then he farther takes care of the sinner
between those whom he serves and their Enemies so that he may leave his Guard and set open the Gates and cease his watchfulness how wary will he be lest under this pretence he be betrayed No saith he I will keep my hold until I have express order from my Superiours Conscience is entrusted with the power of God in the soul of a sinner with command to keep all in subjection with reference unto the Judgement to come it will not betray its trust in believing every report of peace No! but this it sayes and it speaks in the name of God Guilt and punishment are inseparable twins If the soul sin God will judge What tell you me of forgiveness I know what my commission is and that I will abide by you shall not bring in a Superior Commander a cross Principle into my trust for if this be so it seems I must let go my Throne another Lord must come in not knowing as yet how this whole business is compounded in the blood of Christ. Now whom should a man believe if not his own Conscience which as it will not flatter him so it intends not to affright him but to speak the truth as the matter requireth Conscience hath two works in reference unto sin one to condemn the Acts of sin another to judge the Person of the sinner both with reference to the Judgement of God When forgiveness comes it would sever and part these employments and take one of them out of the hand of conscience It would divide the spoil with this strong one It shall condemn the fact or every sin but it shall no more condemn the sinner the Person of the sinner that shall be freed from its sentence Here Conscience labours with all its might to keep its whole dominion and to keep out the power of forgiveness from being enthroned in the soul. It will allow men to talk of forgiveness to hear it preached though they abuse it every day but to receive it in its power that stands up in direct opposition to its dominion in the Kingdom saith Conscience I will be greater than thou and in many in the most it keeps its possession and will not be deposed Nor indeed is it an easie work so to deal with it The Apostle tells us that all the Sacrifices of the Law could not do it Heb. 10. 2. they could not bring a man into that estate wherein he should have no more conscience of sin that is Conscience condemning the Person for conscience in a sense of sin and condemnation of it is never to be taken away And this can be no otherwise done but by the blood of Christ as the Apostle at large there declares It is then no easie thing to make a discovery of forgiveness unto a soul when the work and employment which Conscience upon unquestionable grounds challengeth unto it self lyes in opposition unto it Hence is the souls great desire to establish its own Righteousness whereby its natural Principles may be preserved in their power Let self-righteousness be enthroned and natural conscience desires no more it is satisfied and pacified The Law it knows and Righteousness it knows but as for forgiveness it sayes whence is it Unto the utmost until Christ perfects his conquest there are on this account secret struglings in the heart against free pardon in the Gospel and fluctuations of mind and Spirit about it Yea hence are the doubts and fears of believers themselves They are nothing but the strivings of Conscience to keep its whole dominion to condemn the sinner as well as the sin More or less it keeps up its pretensions against the Gospel whilst we live in this world It is a great work that the blood of Christ hath to do upon the Conscience of a sinner for whereas as it hath been declared it hath a power and claims a right to condemn both sin and sinner the one part of this its power is to be cleared strengthened made more active vigorous and watchful the other to be taken quite away It shall now see more sins than formerly more of the vileness of all sins than formerly and condemn them with more abborrency than ever upon more and more glorious accounts than formerly but it is also made to see an interposition between these sins and the Person of the sinner who hath committed them which is no small or ordinary work Secondly The Law lyes against this discovery The Law is a beam of the Holiness of God himself What it speaks unto us it speaks in the name and Authority of God And I shall briefly shew concerning it these two things 1. That this is the voyce of the Law namely that there is no forgiveness for a sinner 2. That a sinner hath great reason to give credit to the Law in that Assertion 1. It is certain that the Law knows neither mercy nor forgiveness The very sanction of it lyes wholly against them The soul that sinneth shall dye Cursed is he that continueth not in all things written in the Book of the Law to do them Deut. 27. 26. Hence the Apostle pronounceth universally without exception that they who are under the Law are under the curse Gal. 3. 10. And saith he v. 12. The Law is not of faith There is an inconsistency between the Law and believing they cannot have their abode in power together Do this and live fail and dye is the constant immutable voyce of the Law This it speaks in general to all and this in particular to every one 2. The sinner seems to have manifold and weighty Reasons to attend to the voyce of this Law and to acquiesce in its sentence For 1. The Law is connatural to him his Domestick his old acquaintance It came into the world with him and hath grown up with him from his Infancy It was implanted in his heart by nature is his own Reason he can never shake it off or part with it It is his Familiar his Friend that cleaves to him as the flesh to the bone so that they who have not the Law written cannot but sheâ— forth the work of the Law Rom. 2. 14. 15. and that because the Law it self is inbred to them and all the faculties of the soul are at peace with it in subjection to it It is the bond and ligament of their union harmony and correspondency among themselves in all their moral actings It gives life order motion to them all Now the Gospel that comes to controll this sentence of the Law and to relieve the sinner from it is forraign to his nature a strange thing to him a thing he hath no acquaintance or familiarity with it hath not been bred up with him nor is there any thing in him to side with it to make a party for it or to plead in its behalf Now shall not a man rather believe a Domestick a Friend indeed himself than a forraigner a stranger that comes with uncouth Principles and such as
the like kind But his Soveraignty Righteousness and Holiness how are they declared hereby either not at all or not in so evident a manner as is necessary that he might be fully glorified in them or for them What then doth he do leave them in darkness vailed undiscovered satisfying himself in the glory of those Properties which his work of Creation had made known Was there any Reason why he should do so designing to do all things for himself and for his own glory Wherefore he gives his holy Law as a Rule of Obedience unto men and Angels This plainly reveals his Soveraignty or Authority over them his Holiness and Righteousness in the Equity and Purity of things he required of them so that in and by these Properties also he may be glorified As he made all things for himself that is the manifestation of his Greatness Power Wisdom and Goodness so he gave the Law for himself that is the manifestation of his Authority Holiness and Righteousness But is this all Is there not Remunerative Justice in God in a way of Bounty Is there not Vindictive Justice in him in a way of severity There is so and in the pursuit of the design mentioned they also are to be manifested or God will not be glorified in them This therefore he did also in the Rewards and Punishments that he annexed unto the Law of Obedience that he had prescribed To manifest his Remunerative Justice he promised a Reward in a way of Bounty which the Angels that sinned not were made partakers of and in the penalty threatned which sinning Angels and Men incurred he revealed his Vindictive Justice in a way of severity So are all these Properties of God made known by their Effects and so is God glorified in them or on their account But after all this are there no other Properties of his Nature Divine Excellencies that cannot be separated from his Being which by none of these means are so much as once intimated to be in him It is evident that there are such are Mercy Grace Patience Long-suffering Compassion and the like concerning which observe 1. That where there are no Objects of them they cannot be declared or manifested or exercised As Gods Power or Wisdom could not be manifest if there were no Objects of them no more can his Grace or Mercy If never any stand in need of them they can never be exercised and consequently never be known Therefore were they not revealed neither by the Creation of all things nor by the Law or its Sanction nor by the Law written in our hearts For all these suppose no objects of Grace and Mercy For it is sinners only and such as have made themselves miserable by sin that they can be exercised about 2. There are no Excellencies of Gods nature that are more expressive of Divine Goodness Loveliness and Beauty than these are of Mercy Grace Long-suffering and Patience and therefore there is nothing that God so requireth our likeness unto him in our conformity unto his Image as in these namely Mercy Grace and readiness to forgive And the contrary frame in any he doth of all things most abhor They shall have judgement without mercy who shewed no mercy And therefore it is certain that God will be glorified in the manifestation of these Properties of his Nature 3. These Properties can be no otherwise exercised and consequently no other wayes known but only in and by the pardon of sin which puts it beyond all question that there is Forgiveness with God God will not lose the glory of these his Excellencies he will be revealed in them he will be known by them he will be glorified for them which he could not be if there were not forgiveness with him So that here comes in not only the Truth but the necessity of forgiveness also Forgiveness manifested in the sending of the Son of God to dye for sin And from the Obligation that is on us to forgive one another XII In the next place we shall proceed unto that Evidence which is the Center wherein all the lines of those foregoing do meet and rest The fountain of all those streams of Refreshment that are in them that which animates and gives life and efficacy unto them This lyes in Gods sending of his Son The consideration hereof will leave no pretence or excuse unto unbelief in this matter To make this Evidence more clear and legible as to what is intended in it we must consider 1. What was the Rise of this sending we speak of 2. Who it was that was sent 3. How or in what manner he was sent 4. Unto what end and purpose First the Rise and spring of it is to be considered It came forth from the Eternal mutual consent and counsel of the Father and the Son Zech. 6. 13. The Counsel of Peace shall be between them both It is of Christ the Branch of whom he speaks He shall build the Temple of the Lord and he shall bear the glory And shall sit and rule upon his Throne and shall be a Priest upon his Throne and the Counsel of Peace shall be between them both That is between God the Father who sends him and himself There lay the Counsel of Peace making between God and Man in due time accomplished by him who is our Peace Eph. 2. 16. So he speaks Prov. 8. 30 31. Then I was by him as one brought up with him and I was daily his delight rejoycing alwayes before him Rejoycing in the habitable parts of the Earth and my delights were with the Sons of men They are the words of the Wisdom that is of the Son of God When was this done Then I was with him Why before the Mountains were setled whilst as yet he had not made the Earth nor the Fields That is before the creation of the world or from eternity v. 25 26. But how then could he rejoyce in the habitable parts of the Earth And how could his delight be with the Sons of men seeing as yet they were not I answer It was the Counsel of Peace towards them before mentioned in the pursuit whereof he was to be sent to converse amongst them on the earth He rejoyced in the fore-thoughts of his being sent to them and the work he had to do for them Then with his own consent and delight was he fore-ordained unto his work even before the foundation of the world 1 Pet. 1. 20. and received of the Father the Promise of eternal life even before the world began Tit. 1. 2. That is to be given unto sinners by way of Forgiveness through his blood So is this whole Counsel expressed Psalm 40. 7 8. Whence it is made use of by the Apostle Heb. 10. 5 6 7. Then said I lo I come in the volume of thy Book it is written of me I delight to do thy will O God Thy Law is in the midst of my heart There is the Will of the Father in
another the Judge shall judge him but if a man sin against the Lord who shall intreat for him There is not saith Job between us 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 one that might argue the case in pleading for me and so make up the matter laying his hand upon us both Job 9. 33. We now consider a sinner purely under the Administration of the Law which knows nothing of a Mediator In that case who shall take upon him to intercede for the sinner Besides that all creatures in Heaven and Earth are engaged in the quarrel of God against sinners and besides the greatness and terror of his Majesty that will certainly deterr all or any of them from undertaking any such work what is the request that in this case must be put up unto God Is it not that he would cease to be Holy leave off from being Righteous relinquish his Throne deny himself and his Soveraignty that a Rebell a Traytor his cursed enemy may live and escape his Justice Is this request reasonable Is he fit to intercede for sinners that shall make it Would he not by so doing prove himself to be the greatest of them The sinner cannot then expect any door of escape to be opened unto him All the world is against him and the case must be tryed out nakedly between God and him but Thirdly It may be the Rule of the Law whereby the sinner is to be tryed is not so strict but that in the case of such sins as he is guilty of it may admit of a favourable Interpretation or that the good that he hath done may be laid in the ballance against his Evil and so some relief be obtained that way But the matter is quite otherwise There is no good Action of a sinner though it were perfectly good that can lye in the ballance with or compensate the evil of the least sin committed For all good is due on another account though no guilt were incurred And the payment of money that a man owes that he hath borrowed makes no satisfaction for what he hath stole no more will our duties compensate for our sins Nor is there any good Action of a sinner but it hath evil and guilt enough attending it to render it self unacceptable so that men may well cease from thoughts of their supererrogation Besides where there is any one sin if all the good in the world might be supposed to be in the same person yet in the indispensible order of our dependance on God nothing of that good could come into consideration until the guilt of that sin were answered for unto the utmost Now the penalty of every sin being the eternal ruine of the sinner all his supposed good can stand him in little stead And for the Law it self it is an issue of the Holiness Righteousness and Wisdom of God so that there is not any evil so great or small but is forb dden in it and condemned by it Hereupon David so states this whole matter Psal. 143. 2. Enter not into Judgement with thy servant for in thy sight shall no man living be justified That is if things are to be tryed out and determined by the Law no sinner can obtain acquitment as Paul declares the sense of that place to be Rom. 3. 20. Gal. 2. 16. but yet Fourthly It may be the sentence of the Law is not so fierce and dreadful but that though guilt be found there may be yet a way of escape But the Law speaks not one word on this side death to an offendor There is a greatness and an Eternity of wrath in the sentence of it and it is God himself who hath undertaken to see the vengeance of it executed So that on all these accounts the conclusion mentioned must needs be fixed in the soul of a sinner that entertains thoughts of drawing nigh to God Though what hath been spoken may be of general use unto sinners of all sorts whether called home to God or yet strangers to him yet I shall not insist upon any general improvement of it because it is intended only for one special end or purpose That which is aimed at is to shew what are the first thoughts that arise in the heart of a poor intangled soul when first he begins to endeavour a recovery in a returnal unto God The Law immediately puts in its claim unto him and against him God is represented unto him as angry displeased provoked and his terror more or less besets him round about This fills him with fear shame and confusion of face so that he knows not what to do These troubles are greater or lesser according as God seeth it best for the poor creatures present humiliation and future safety What then doth the sinner What are his thoughts hereupon doth he think to fly from God and to give over all endeavours of recovery Doth he say this God is an holy and terrible God I cannot serve him it is to no purpose for me to look for any thing but fury and destruction from hira and therefore I had as good give over as persist in my desing of drawing nigh to him It cannot be denyed but that in this case thoughts of this nature will be suggested by unbelief and that sometimes great perplexities arise to the soul by them But this is not the issue and final product of this exercise of the soul it produceth another effect it calls for that which is the first particular working of a gracious soul arising out of its sin intanglements This is as was declared a sincere sense of sin and acknowledgement of it with self condemnation in the justification of God This is the first thing that a soul endeavouring a recovery from its depths is brought and wrought unto His general resolution to make serious and through work with what he hath in hand was before unfolded That which in the next place we are directed unto in these words is the Reflection on its self upon the consideration of Gods marking iniquity now mentioned This is Faiths great and proper use of the Law The nature whereof shall be farther opened in the next discourse The first particular actings of a soul towards a recovery out of the depths of sin Sense of sin wherein it consists How it is wrought Acknowledgement of sin its nature and properties Self-condemnation What is the frame of the soul in general that is excited by grace and resolves in the strength thereof to attempt a recovery out of the depths of sin entanglements hath been declared We have also shewed what entertainment in general such a soul had need to expect yea ordinarily shall be sure to meet withall It may be he goes forth at first like Sampson with his locks cut and thinks he will do as at other times but he quickly finds his peace lost his wounds painful his Conscience restless God displeased and his whole condition as to the utmost of his own Apprehension hazardous This fills him with