they should have received the Word with sorrow first and then afterwards with joy and therefore this sudden and disorderly coming brings as sudden and shameful departing away therefore it follows in the 21. verse Yet hath be not root in himself but dureth only for awhile and in the time of temptation falls away As it is with the corn upon the House top it flourisheth and fades speedily but no man fills his hand with it But would you not have a man to beleeve is it not a duty which God reveals and commands upon no less hazard than the loss of eternal life He that beleeves not is condemned already John 3. 18. This is the sin of all sins which the spirit convinceth the world of that they do not beleeve John 16. 8. Can a man do so necessary a duty too soon or hath he allowance to neglect it and not beleeve at any time why would you not have a man to beleeve at some times when God commands him to beleeve at all times No God forbid There is no allowance for unbeleef at any time It 's his duty for ever to 〈◊〉 it the Ministers duty to exhort unto it and require it Beleeve 〈◊〉 he can but that he will never be able to do it to be married to Christ and sin also to be under the 〈◊〉 of corruption and 〈◊〉 command of the Lord Jesus to grow upon two stocks at one and the same time t is not possible And when the Lord in his word so strictly enjoyns it and his 〈◊〉 call upon men to beleeve the aim and intendment of both is to 〈◊〉 them to use 〈◊〉 means and take that 〈◊〉 whereby they may come and beleeve First to make room for Faith before they can receive Faith first go out of themselves and 〈◊〉 before they can go unto a Savior and therefore this is not to hinder the work of Beleeving but to further it and that unto the utmost according to the mind of God A Third sort who miss the way to the Lord Jesus are such who indeed attend 〈◊〉 work in the right place but spoyl it in the doing make an entrance but never come to any perfection yea pervert it 〈◊〉 by their rash and unskilful proceeding There be some quarrels and babbles raised between the soul and a mans sinful distempers they begin to be at ods and contention and therefore upon a push they purpose to part dwellings because of some hard measure that they find unexpectedly from their beloved lusts the venom thereof vexeth his spirit and the sting of those terrors and the righteous plagues which are now deserved and so presented before the veiw of the soul makes him sal out with his corruptions as having expected other and more pleasing dealing at theirhands and that upon their 〈◊〉 and pretences made but 〈◊〉 he feels the bitterness thereof and therefore can 〈◊〉 judg of them by his owne sense and experience and thus the terror and trouble and hart-smart which his sin hath wrought in him setts him busily and resolutely to the reformation and amendment of it and in this turn there may be no Sinne he Sees or knowes but in his own apprehension he would renounce all no Service or duty but he doth approue and practise all selfe-terror setts him a worke for 〈◊〉 owne honor or quiet and pitch him at what narrownes you will he will Come to it And as the dint of the blow is and the power and strength of the ordinances under which he lives and the Constant houlding himselfe to the use and excercise of holy duties continue this may continue long and cause both Confidence and comfort with it And this is a dangerous and desperate mistake being a preparatiue for a Child of the law i. e. to a legall reformation not for the implantation of the soul into Christ and here millions perish When by self terror occasioned by the sting of Sin the Sinner is set upon reformation and that with much violence with a kind of thorownes stricktnes to procure his owne safetie selfe loue meeting with terror setts a man upon amendment of himselfe for selfe ends as his owne salvation and honor That preparation which sets a soul upon reformation so that he attayns his end and ease there so that there is deep silence about a Christ nor yet sight and sence of the need of him its certaine it s naught for it issues only from this principle and when that failes both his duties and comforts come to an end This was the guise of that young man Matth. 19. 20. who could say to our Saviour I have kept all the commandements from my youth what lack I yet he lived in a reformed way and rested there when yet his heart was not loosened from his 〈◊〉 Corruptions and therfore when he came to the triall he would rather part with 〈◊〉 and heaven and happiness then part with his 〈◊〉 I his was also the frame of those hipocrites Isay. 50 36. who fasted and afflicted their soules and yet did not loose the bonds of wickedness A saving preparation though it be not a principle of life yet it makes way and roome for the comming of a Christ that will 〈◊〉 a principle of life into the soul this is the end of it and if it cease before it come 〈◊〉 it misseth its end A fourth sort are such who have weltered long in their owne sorrowes and their owne performances and Services and 〈◊〉 find and therfore are forced to 〈◊〉 there is neither power nor pardon nor peace there to be had for their guilt and 〈◊〉 and distempers remaine as before and therfore they see all in 〈◊〉 Christ know they must have it from him and are 〈◊〉 to expect it therfore they ply him with 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 prayers yea are contented that he should doe all for them Only they would 〈◊〉 with him 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 in this proviso that he must doe it for them 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 spoke of the Centurion Luke 7. 4. he is 〈◊〉 for whom thou shouldst doe this So they thinke of themselves since they sorrow and seek and attend upon him according to his will they cannot 〈◊〉 with patience to think they should misse These men have not renounced their owne worthyness and would inded 〈◊〉 in upon the prviledge of the Lord and not make it free and so not grace How shall the soul know it 〈◊〉 thus look to much to its owne worthiness I answer in two things 1. If it 〈◊〉 snarle at Gods dealings and quarrell with his 〈◊〉 and privily 〈◊〉 and repine when they see others have more and better then they I see others have been humbled and pardoned and comforted but I go on still in a disconsolate way the Saints of God have sought the Lord and found him gracious to their souls they have used the means and found a blessing upon them but I pray and fast and use all the means of Grace and yet I feel
they were from the beginning of the creation 〈◊〉 yee not see how men provoke God and prosper and hath it not been so in all ages 〈◊〉 wicked ungodly continue in sinful courses yet succeed according to their own content It was so in the former ages it went best with the worst men it is so in this and wil be so to the end the Lord lookes not after the mean occasions of men upon earth finds himself employment in the affayres of Heaven it matters not what the desert of our sins be we shal never feel what they do deserve so those rulers Amos 7. they put away the evil day far from them and then they cause the seat of violence to come near 〈◊〉 73. 10. 11. those blasphemers who set their mouths against Heaven and their tongue walks through the midst of the Earth they say how doth God know this and is there knowledg in the most high Upon this ground it is that they let loose themselves in the fearless pursuit of 〈◊〉 loathsom abominations then said he unto me the Angel of the Lord of Hosts the iniquity of the house of Israel and Judah is exceeding great the land is ful of blood and the city ful of perversness For they say the Lord hath forsaken the earth the Lord seeth not Ezek. 9. 9. For since here we must learn to chase out and keep out such imaginations by setting up the light of the truth in our minds and listening wholly thereunto So the psalmist shewes the cause and applyes the cure Psal. 94. 8. Understand ye brutish among the people and ye fools when wil ye be wise He that plantd the ear shal not he hear he that formed the eye shal not he see Yea the Lord professeth to take notice of these mens wayes in an especial manner to make privie search after them Zeph. 1. 12. he wil search Jerusalem with candles and visit such as sit upon their lees and say who sees us you shal find he knows both good and evil and he wil work both as a reward to such as deserve This Job felt by experience Job 14 16. For now thou numbrest my steps dost thou not watch our my sins my transgression 〈◊〉 sealed up in a bag and thou shalt find it so the Lord wil follow thee step by step and track and trace thee in all thy wandrings and keeps an account of al thy sins sealed up as it were in bags But if the Lord doth see and observe al our evils yet he is patient and wil pass them by and put up those many 〈◊〉 being pitiful and compassionate to poor creatures knowing they be but dust True it is the Lord out of his long sufferance wil bear long with the base dealings of the sons of men yet out of the purity and holiness of his nature he cannot but bring them to account and trial for al the swervings of their lives Psal 50. 18. Thus the secure sinner counted the Lords patience a kind of connivence and allowance of him in ungodly wayes I held my tongue and thou thoughtest wickedly that I was such a one as thy self that God could wink at wickedness look aside at the slips and swervings of the ungodly and suffer them to go away with it but al in vain For I wil reprove thee and set thy sins in order before thee consider this yee that forget God so likewise in Eccles. 11. 9. rejoyce O yong man in thy youth and let thy heart chear thee in the wayes of thy youth walk in the sight of thine eyes but know thou that for all these 〈◊〉 thou shalt come to judgment the Lord wil arrest thee for the wrong done to his holiness and follow the suit against thy soul for al thy injurious dealings and he himself wil come in against thee as a swift witness If thy Conscience condemn thee God himself is greater than thy Conscience and he knowes al things and wil bring to light the hidden things of darkness will make manifest the counsels of the heart When al those dunghil stains of Adulterous lusts and malicious envious and covetous desires shal be layd open to the view of the sun al those swarmes of foolish and wicked imaginations shal be then discovered it s better therefore that thou shouldst see them now in the day of Grace better thou shouldst have them now discovered to thy Conscience for thy humiliation then at the day of judgment for thy confusion But if the Lord will require all then I hope I may use means to satisfy for al when my day beginns to decline and my Sun to set and my glass is run when I am dropping down to the grave and groaning upon my sick bed I wil then betake my self to my prayers tears and repentance for my sins I wil sorrow for my sins seek unto God for mercy I wil repent and reform the evil of my wayes and the Lord wil remove the Plague of them In thy declining daies wilt thou do this Oh deluded creature who knows but this day or before thou hast read over this book the Lord may take away thy soul who knows whether thou shalt have time to seek or a heart to seek or God wil accept of thee when thou seekest Whether a time or no. Whether the date of Gods bounty the day of Grace and period of Gods patience be come to an end When thou hast abused 〈◊〉 many opportunities whether ever he wil give thee leave or time once to look out for 〈◊〉 when thy tongue shal be faultring in thy mouth thy eyes fallen in thy head 〈◊〉 heart sink and dy within thy bosom not able to sigh out one desire and the Lord snatch thee out of the land of the living before thou canst see or consider whithere thou art going Luke 19. 41. 42. If thou hadst known at least in this thy day the things that belong to thy peace but now they are hidden from thine eyes the things of their peace were before their eyes and yet were hid from their eyes Rev. 2. 21. 23. I gave her day to repent but shee repented not therefore I wil cast her in to a bed and 〈◊〉 her children with death shee had no more dayes of repentance but of ruine shee was cast into a bed of sorrow and had not time to pour out her prayers If thou hast time who knows that God will give thee a heart to seek for mercy or sue for Grace It 's true God may help thee but it 's as true God may harden thee he may humble thee and he may 〈◊〉 thee and it 's most likely he wil thou which hast refused to hear he wil refuse to help Ezek. 24. 13. I would have purged 〈◊〉 and thou wouldest not be purged thou shalt never be purged more Jer. 51. 9. we would have cured Babilon but she would not be cured leave her then leave them to the blindness of their
the other she would have made a hard shift but she would have followed and sound her lovers but the hedg was made of thorns 〈◊〉 and unsufferable sorrows and necessities unavoydable not to be indured not to be removed and those wearied her out of al pretended delights she had formerly taken This is the method that God 〈◊〉 Hos. 5. 12. 14. Hos. 6. 1. First I wil be a Moath 2 if that wil not do I wil be a Lion 3 If that wil not do I wil leave them and go to my place withdraw his comforting and protecting presence and then we hear 〈◊〉 Come let 〈◊〉 return unto the Lord for he hath torn and be wil heal us this did it This 〈◊〉 way for our spiritual comfort in a special blessing if he be pleased to follow the 〈◊〉 with his blessing For its a special means to bring in clearer evidence and 〈◊〉 assurance both of the soundness of the work and the certainty of a mans good estate al the dayes 〈◊〉 his life if the Lord be pleased to second these heavy breakings of heart with his blessing For it is the nature of 〈◊〉 when they are set in opposition to make each other appear more 〈◊〉 For a conscientious 〈◊〉 to be made of a 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 is so 〈◊〉 a 〈◊〉 especially when the dreadful expressions of Gods displeasure have been so amazing in the eyes of al that have been the spectators and in a peculiar manner astonishing to the soul of the prophane creature that hath selt the arrows of the Almighty sticking fast in him 〈◊〉 he cannot be but restless before he get relief and help so he cannot but know it when he hath gained it the change is great and open Gods dispensation so glorious This man is able to say at such a time in such a place by such a man out of such a 〈◊〉 the Lord was pleased to speak home to my heart to make known himself my self and sin to my self which caused my soul tody within me in the sence of my vileness and misery and from that time forward followed me daily with fears and horrors the venom of vengeance drinking up my spirits until in such and such a manner and by such means he was pleased to work my heart to his own tearms made me glad to seek him importunately yea restlesly and more glad to find him sealing up the truth of his free love by his own spirit in the word of truth This man can tel how he came by his grace and can tel what to say and shew for heaven and happily unless it be through his own careless neglect may carry the assurance with him to his grave Whereas such as the Lord doth sweetly but secretly draw unto himself in an insensible and undiscernable manner restrains them from common evils traynes them up under Godly Parents religious government good company and spiritual means of Instruction and so implants by little and little into the Lord Jesus without their privity or apprehension however their estate is good and their condition safe in its self yet they gaine littl evidence or maintain little assurance thereof in their own hearts but upon every turn are questioning and quarrelling doubting and staggering touching their condition whereas they that come to their grace by many and great troubles retain it commonly with great evidence Thus Paul when the Lord Christ had made a glorious conquest over his proud rebellious and malicious heart against the holy wayes of his truth and 〈◊〉 He could tel and did upon al occasions when the field was fought how the Lord Christ got the day over his hellish distempered heart Thus he relates Gods dealing Acts. 26. 10. 11. 12. 13. 14. 15. Acts. 22. 1. to the 14. And so issues having obtained help of God I continue until this day thus it was so it is thus it was wrought so maintain d. And though it be true I confess that no man should or wil break his arme that he may have it the stronger for the setting or know how it is set or therefore be careless to become scandalously vile that God may be gloriously merciful yet through the riches of mercy which makes our losses gaines The certainty of the assurance we find doth countervail and exceed the terrors and horror we felt Give me the man who can say I was blind but now I see I know I was in prison but am now delivered it s not delusion but a vision and real accomplishment of the work by the Allmighty hand of God Lastly its honourable for a poor scandalous wretch to be under such heavy breakings of heart and therefore it should be comfortable to him I rather mention this to stop the mouths of the reffuse rabble of the world and to shew the desperate mistakes unto which carnal reason carryes us out of the pride of our own spirits wee know that sin is 〈◊〉 and shame loathsom even to nature especially corrupt and proud to be forced to acknowledg the one to take the other It appears very direful to the apprehension of al the sons of Adam And therefore when the Lord is pleased to hold a scandalous wretch upon the wrack and to make him roar out his wretchedness vomit out his sin and take the shame he hath deserved His companions that have conversed with him and his freinds that have honored him they are driven to their dumps in discouragment and discontentment and cry out the man is undone and curse the day that ever the Minister came into the countrey and blames his folly and silliness that he would attend to what he saied and be troubled with any thing he heard to bring an everlasting blemish upon himself No I say ther 's no such matter This is the greatest honor that yet ever befel him in this world and wil be a means of blessing to him in another It is a shame to commit sin but not to have the heart breaking under the apprehension of it Nay it is an expression of Gods favour and as it may prove a sign of Gods special love if it be rightly emproved God thus far honors a poor wretch that he wil speak to him as he passeth by Should a Prince that was provoked by the conspiracies and rebellions of many Traitors as he passed by should he vouchsafe to send unto and cal upon some one to reclaime him from his crew and company and courses and that upon very equal terms he might find acceptance and pardon and peace when he wil not so much as look after others or change a word with them would not this be accounted matter of marvelous respect from the King and honor to the man So here As David begs favour from the Lord. 〈◊〉 119. 132. be merciful to me and lookupon me as thou usest to do upon them that desire to fear thy name he takes it to be the highest pitch of his happiness to be so dealt withal If God deal with
procure it  3 There is no Promise made to a Natural man  Uses three hence Matter of  1 Thanksgiving 〈◊〉 the 〈◊〉 of Grace  2 〈◊〉 to 〈◊〉 sinners in the sight of their sins and 〈◊〉  3 Exhortation to such as want and are seeking mercy to stay Gods time and wait his pleasure  DOCT. 2. VVhile this life lasts and the Gospel is continued that 's the day of Salvation  1. The time of this Life the time of getting Grace 241 Reason Because after this Life  1 The Sentence past is irrevocable  2 The condition of a man is unchangable  2 While the 〈◊〉 is 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Reason 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Gods 〈◊〉  In regard  1 Of the Causes and means which are then afforded  2 Of the effect and work it self which is then wrought  3 Of the subject the persons wrought upon  Uses three hence  1 Learn That long life is a great blessing  2 Caution To fortifie our selves against self-murder  3 Exhortation to improve the time of Salvation  1 It is a Season 251 2 It is a short one but a day  3 A Season not of our but of Gods acceptation  4 It is a day of Salvation  BOOK V. On Matth. 20. 5 6 7. He went out about the sixth ninth and eleventh hour and hired Laborers  DOCT. God calls his Elect at any Age but the most before old Age. 〈◊〉 1 God calls his at any Age some in yonger some in elder yeers  〈◊〉  1 To shew the freeness of his Grace  2 To shew 〈◊〉 Power  〈◊〉 God calls the most before old Age viz. In their yonger or middle 〈◊〉  Reasons Because that 's the fittest Age in regard of  1 The Subject For  1 The Faculties are then most capable of being wrought upon  2 Corruptions are not so strongly rooted  2 The End why Grace is given viz. the Glory of God  Uses three hence 271 1 Instruction Be not rash in censuring the 〈◊〉 Estate of any  Though we may judg of their present state by their fruits  2 Consolation to support aged sinners though it 's not ordinary yet possible they may be converted then 276 3 Exhortation to yonger men take 〈◊〉 present time defer not till old Age if you do  1 Either you will never attain it  2 Or it will be uncomfortable if you do  Motives to provoke such Consider  1 What good you may do while you live  2 What Comfort you will have at your death  3 What your Glory will be in Heaven  BOOK VI. On Revel 3. 17. Thou sayest thou art rich when thou art poor and miserable c.  DOCT. The soul is naturally setled in a sinful security 285 1 The sinner 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 in his Condition  2 He 〈◊〉 no 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 present  3 He 〈◊〉 none 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 future  4 Hence 〈◊〉 puts his condition beyond question  5 And therefore 〈◊〉 scorns  6 And openly 〈◊〉 an alteration of his estate  Reasons three taken from 292 1 The 〈◊〉 of sin  2 The 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 the soul  3 〈◊〉 and Self-ease  Uses four 〈◊〉 295 1 See the reason why sharp and soul-saving preaching 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 little acceptance Because it awakens men out of security  2 It 's the 〈◊〉 plague for a man to be let alone in his sins  3 〈◊〉 as never were 〈◊〉 and awakened to 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 of their 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 yet in it  4 〈◊〉 to 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Such should  1 Suspect their 〈◊〉  2 〈◊〉 about it  3 Yield that 〈◊〉 the present their condition 〈◊〉 〈◊〉  BOOK VII 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 the slesh is enmity against the Lord and is not subject to his Law  DOCT. The frame of the whol heart of a Natural man is wholly unwilling to submit to the VVord that would sever him from his sins 305 1 He seeks not after truth  2 He is loth to meet with it  3 He stops the passage of it  4 He doth what he can to defeat the power and evidence of it  5 He will professedly oppose it  6 He will privily 〈◊〉 the stirrings of the Truth in his Conscience  Reasons four taken from 315 1 The Corruption of the will  2 The Revenging Justice of God  3 The power of Satan  4 The 〈◊〉 and neer alliance between the heart and sin  Uses sive hence  1 It 's the heaviest plague for a Natural man to have his own corrupt will  2 The will of a Natural man is the worst part 〈◊〉 him  3 The 〈◊〉 of a carnal man 〈◊〉 cross to sence and reason  4 Tryal of our estates by our 〈◊〉 or unwillingness to part with sin  He that is willing 331 1 He is speedy and 〈◊〉 in improving 〈◊〉 〈◊〉  2 He takes delight in those means that 〈◊〉 and work most  3 He is not content till his sin be removed  4 He takes not up his stand till he come at God  5 Exhortation Labor for willingness to part with sin 343 1 The greatest and hardest work lies with the wil.  2 Beleaguer the heart with the evidence of Truth  3 Look up to God that he would work upon the heart  BOOK VIII On John 6. 44. None can come to me but whom the Father draws  DOCT. God the Father by a holy kind of 〈◊〉 plucks his out of their corruptions and draws them to beleeve in Christ. 349 This work of Attraction is a transient work 〈◊〉 both these  1 Plucking from sin  2 And drawing to Christ are handled together  For Explication six Particulars  The sorts of drawing two  1 By moral Suasion  2 By Physical or internal operation  This latter is meant here 353 The proper Nature of this drawing it 's the motion or impression of the Spirit upon the Soul not any habit in it or act put forth by it to 〈◊〉 with the Spirit 355 The means how God works and by wich he draws  These are four 355 1 By a hook of Instruction shewing a man that he is out of the way to Heaven  2 By the Cords of Love shewing that Christ and Mercy are  1 Able to 〈◊〉 him  2 Willing to save him  3 Are freely offered for that end  4 The Lord waits to see when the sinner will come  3 By the Iron Chains of Conscience  1 Warning  2 Accusing  3 Condemning  4 By the hand of the Spirit himself  How the holy violence in drawing the Soul from sin to Christ may be discerned in four Conclusions 373 1 The will of man as such is a subject capable of sin and Grace successively  2 The faculty of the will cannot actually
able to reach the 〈◊〉 Psal. 49. 8. The Redemption of the Soul is 〈◊〉 it ceaseth for ever Men and Angels must 〈◊〉 it alone only the Lord Jesus the God of glory in 〈◊〉 all the treasures of Grace are hid he is able to 〈◊〉 the purchase and it hath cost him sweetly 〈◊〉 full dear no less than his very heart blood Reproof It checks a double Practice First of those that have interest in this purchase and 〈◊〉 want the Exercise of that heavenly skill or care 〈◊〉 confidence or all to improve it for their best 〈◊〉 They sit down appaled and 〈◊〉 with the 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 their sins so 〈◊〉 so loathsom with the 〈◊〉 of Gods holiness and 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 as that they dare not beleeve it dare 〈◊〉 think it that either the pardon of their sins 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 their persons 〈◊〉 the least look of Gods love 〈◊〉 be vouchsafed to them Another while they sit 〈◊〉 discouraged under the pressure and pursuit of 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 and policy the violence and strength of 〈◊〉 own corruptions their sins live and are mighty 〈◊〉 therefore they conclude they can never overcome They stagger again in the assurance of Gods love and 〈◊〉 they dare not say but they would be Christs and 〈◊〉 his Death and 〈◊〉 shed is theirs they will not 〈◊〉 away that Why Have you laid down the purchase Take possession then into your hand Have you tendered the payment Take the Commodity 〈◊〉 is your own nay your due Say Lord I and all 〈◊〉 I have and all I can do are worthless and vile I am 〈◊〉 base sinful creature that need all spiritual good and comfort and yet deserve nothing but the contrary But here is the precious Blood of thy Son which thou 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 upon me it is a full purchase every way answerable to thy justice this precious blood is 〈◊〉 of precious Faith precious Peace 〈◊〉 Grace its pardoning purging pacifying blood 〈◊〉 beseech thee therefore though I be a sinful 〈◊〉 Creature through the blood of Jesus pitty me though polluted and loathsom through the 〈◊〉 of the blood of Jesus clense me So the 〈◊〉 Let us draw neer with a true heart in full 〈◊〉 of Faith having our hearts sprinkled from an 〈◊〉 Conscience and our bodies washed with pure water Heb. 10. 22. Eye the worth of this Blood above all our unworthiness the Holiness of this above all the unholiness of our hearts and lives He that knowes 〈◊〉 what the purchase will come and hath the sum in sight and under his hand he can lay it down upon the 〈◊〉 pay it take it here is one there 's the other So Paul Rom. 8. 34. Who shall lay any thing 〈◊〉 the charge of Gods elect it is Christ that 〈◊〉 died Here 's the Blood of Jesus which thou art well pleased with hast accepted of therefore Lord give me my due that comfort that peace that wisdom that assurance which I stand in need of So again Gall. 6. 14. 〈◊〉 be it from me that I should rejoyce in any thing 〈◊〉 in the Cross of Christ He rejoyced in nothing but this therefore far be it from him that he should 〈◊〉 rejoyce in this It crusheth the confidence and dasheth the 〈◊〉 and delusions of presumptuous wretches who out of a brazen-faced kind of boldness will be scrambling for their own comfort catching at grace and mercy and peace when it belongs not to them True say they our sins persons conditions are such and so vile but the Lord is gracious and merciful and therefore they doubt not but to be accepted and saved and conclude that peace and happiness is theirs they take the good but tender no purchase lay hold upon their comfort 〈◊〉 never lay down the payment A way that God 〈◊〉 appointed a course that justice never permits 〈◊〉 mercy it self will not allow There 's no precious 〈◊〉 without precious blood No Redemption from 〈◊〉 blood and filth in which we lie by reason of our 〈◊〉 evils when I saw thee in thy blood I said 〈◊〉 but only by the blood of Jesus So the Apostle 〈◊〉 9. 22. The Book the People the Tabernacle 〈◊〉 Vessels the Ministery all things by the Law was 〈◊〉 with blood and without shedding of blood 〈◊〉 no remission No entring into the Holy of 〈◊〉 but by the blood of Jesus Mercy it self through 〈◊〉 vertue of the blood of Christ is communicated 〈◊〉 it self through the vertue of the blood of Christ 〈◊〉 unless therefore thou canst bring the 〈◊〉 the payment the blood of Jesus with thee 〈◊〉 dream to receive any good at the hands of the 〈◊〉 3. For Whom This is the Third Particular to be considered in 〈◊〉 the former point viz. The Parties for whom 〈◊〉 Purchase is made The Doctrine tels us Christ 〈◊〉 purchased all Spiritual Good FOR HIS 〈◊〉 we are to attend 1 What is that Formalis ratio that special respect 〈◊〉 which they come to be considered as having part in Christs merits 2 The meaning of that Particle what it imports to purchase FOR HIS To the First 〈◊〉 Answer plainly That this Purchase 〈◊〉 obtained this precious blood of Christ was shed 〈◊〉 Sinners BUT NOT AS SINNERS It s true Rom. 5. 6. That Christ died 〈◊〉 the ungodly That is When they are such and 〈◊〉 they are such vers 8. While we were yet Sinners Christ died for us but not 〈◊〉 such That is 〈◊〉 the special respect unto which the death of Christ 〈◊〉 appropriated in a peculiar and proper manner 〈◊〉 an old rule A 〈◊〉 ad omne That which agreed firstly to a thing under such a respect agrees to all 〈◊〉 have that respect and therefore if our Savior should die for sinners as sinners then he should die for all sinners and therefore for al men because all are 〈◊〉 When our Savior professed Matth. 9. 13. He 〈◊〉 not to call the righteous but sinners to 〈◊〉 i. e. there is none righteous all men being sinners 〈◊〉 such sinners as are secure and carnally confident 〈◊〉 their own righteousness Christ came not to call them Though then this respect is not to be excluded 〈◊〉 there is somthing more to be added 1 Tim. 1. 15. Christ came to save sinners of whom I am 〈◊〉 saies Paul Such sinners as are or shall be 〈◊〉 sensible of their sins in a right manner being lost 〈◊〉 point of pardon and grace and peace such sinners Christ came to save Besides However Christ died for none but the Elect and none but they shall receive any benefit 〈◊〉 Christ yet I take it Election is not that special respect that Christ looked at in his death and sufferings it is not low enough it lies not level to that 〈◊〉 which Christ and his have one towards another But Christ died for a sinner who is of the seed of the Covenant and shall beleeve qua peccator 〈◊〉 and therefore I do not exclude the respect of sin 〈◊〉 require that with an Addition Cum
past 〈◊〉 3. 18. He that beleeves not is condemned already is cast in al the Coutrs of Heaven and Earth the 〈◊〉 cannot the Gospel wil not save thee a body 〈◊〉 appeal from Justice to Mercy but if Mercy 〈◊〉 him who shal comfort who can releeve 〈◊〉 what ever he doth where ever he is the wrath God abides upon him thou art not within the 〈◊〉 of Mercy nor the compass of that Redemption 〈◊〉 Lord hath wrought Nay that thou mayest see 〈◊〉 thou art and what to hold to the Lord 〈◊〉 hath sealed up thy destruction by a sollem oath 〈◊〉 can never be repealed He hath sworne he that 〈◊〉 beleeves shal never enter into his rest Heb. 3. 〈◊〉 That which God saies barely he many times 〈◊〉 so the first Covenant Do and live a man may 〈◊〉 do himself and yet live but he that wil not 〈◊〉 God swears and his oath is unchangable 〈◊〉 he shal never enter into life That a man may 〈◊〉 with reverence God himself cannot save a man 〈◊〉 never shal Beleeve because he cannot deny 〈◊〉 and his oath Rest thou mayest in thy vain 〈◊〉 in thy carnal confidence sit down secure in 〈◊〉 self-pleasing humor but thou shalt never enter to Gods rest of Pardon Peace Comfort and 〈◊〉 but shalt be in a restless fear and dread 〈◊〉 and discouragement which wil pursue the 〈◊〉 endless disquiet and the powers of Heaven 〈◊〉 a fford thee releif in this condition if thou 〈◊〉 herein There is no peace saith God to the 〈◊〉 Isay. 57. last But if this be so and you pale in the precious 〈◊〉 demption of Christ into such a narrow 〈◊〉 you wil straiten it and the comforts of sinners 〈◊〉 much and extend as much mercy to Devils 〈◊〉 Unbeleevers for by this means you make the 〈◊〉 probates in as desperate a condition as the 〈◊〉 themselves being wholly voyd of al help and 〈◊〉 of Salvation either in themselves or any 〈◊〉 they cannot save themselves and the Lord wil 〈◊〉 save them A Blasphemous Cavil I Answer The consequent part of the reason unsound and blasphemously false as shal appear 〈◊〉 sundry Considerations The merits of our Saviour and the compleat 〈◊〉 ture of his sufferings is made up or issues out two principles without either of which there new had been any satisfaction to divine Justice 〈◊〉 Divinity cannot suffer the Humanitie canot 〈◊〉 without blood there is no Redemption Justice 〈◊〉 quireth death and unless it be the death of 〈◊〉 that is God there is neither value nor vertue 〈◊〉 to the infinite wrong done and therefore 〈◊〉 satisfaction In that nature therefore the Lord 〈◊〉 offended in that he must he satisfied for the 〈◊〉 of Angels may be annihilated but die or be 〈◊〉 ved they cannot therefore the nature of man 〈◊〉 assumed therefore Redemption and Purchase 〈◊〉 longs to that nature because sufficient 〈◊〉 was only tendred for that Hence al that Beleeve of this nature may be 〈◊〉 ved there is not an impssibilitie in the nature 〈◊〉 the thing To many Persons of this nature God afford means so that if they wil but submit to the 〈◊〉 and be content to receive Grace they shal not 〈◊〉 and that Adam could do and we in him The Gospel doth not require a Man should 〈◊〉 of his own power but that he should be 〈◊〉 and content to be made able to Beleeve and 〈◊〉 of that Grace he is called unto But the fallen Angels differ in al these regards For theirs being the sin against the Holy Ghost 〈◊〉 Lord provided no remedy for them For Christ no case took upon him the nature of Angells Heb 2 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 in no wise it was in no case comely or 〈◊〉 enient Their nature not assumed for them no 〈◊〉 was made as the Apostle disputes purposely 〈◊〉 2. 11 12. c. And therefore no possibility they 〈◊〉 receive any good by Christ if possibly they 〈◊〉 Beleeve Therfore the Lord neither provides nor offers any 〈◊〉 to convert them so that there is a broad and 〈◊〉 difference in al these That which is only true in the objection is this at the wicked being dead in sins and trespasses it no more possible for them to help themselves by 〈◊〉 own power on t of this condition than it's 〈◊〉 for a Devil For with Man there is no 〈◊〉 no more than there is with Devils and 〈◊〉 negation admits no degrees in regard of the 〈◊〉 of their nature But the riches of Gods 〈◊〉 on His part in taking our nature entering into 〈◊〉 with His in it providing means and 〈◊〉 with Men for their good by the Covenant and 〈◊〉 no more but the bare receiving of that 〈◊〉 al these shew great ods But Christs merit is infinite and of infinite 〈◊〉 therefore is able to save al Angels and al Men it not The consequence of the reason is false which wil appear by the right understanding how Christs 〈◊〉 rits are infinite and how the sufficiencie of 〈◊〉 can reach all Christs merits are said to be infinite then 〈◊〉 ther properly in regard of the Person of the 〈◊〉 head whence that virtue comes or in regard of 〈◊〉 Persons to whom it is applyed as that it should 〈◊〉 infinite Creatures and this is very improper and 〈◊〉 The merit of him who is an infinit God and of 〈◊〉 finit vertue is not sufficient for infinite 〈◊〉 for then had he taken any nature he had been a 〈◊〉 ficient Saviour which the Apostle contradicts 〈◊〉 2. 11 12. Then had he suffered any outward evil as 〈◊〉 cution the spilling of some drops of his blood 〈◊〉 would have sufficed for that had been the 〈◊〉 of a partie who is infinit and yet justice 〈◊〉 that which requires not only payment from an 〈◊〉 nit Person but in the same kind and nature also 〈◊〉 that upon such conditions as the Covenant 〈◊〉 red before agreed and now exacted Merits from such an infinit Person performed 〈◊〉 such a kind and nature have an infinit vertue to 〈◊〉 swer an infinit justice for al such for whom such Person shal undertake And according to this 〈◊〉 pass it must be conceived that Christs death is 〈◊〉 cient for all else the phrase wil not bear a rigid 〈◊〉 That which I would leave to your thoughts 〈◊〉 be expressed in two things thus 1. Christs death is sufficient to save al 〈◊〉 they shall Beleeve 2. It 's not sufficient to save one Man 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Beleeve It s sufficient to save al if they Beleeve and 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 to be the meaning of that phrase which is 〈◊〉 amongst judicious writers That if God had 〈◊〉 and Christ intended to save many 〈◊〉 more he needed not nor intruth should have 〈◊〉 any other or any more punishment so 〈◊〉 he must have suffered for the substance of the 〈◊〉 and second death to save one sinner and no 〈◊〉 he needed to have suffered if he should save al
be like this Corrosive to eat down the pride of our hearts Thus Paul frequently in the remembrance of his former wretchedness bleeds kindly and 〈◊〉 in the abasement of his spirit he mentions not his Apostleship which might exalt him but presently he remembers his 〈◊〉 which might abase him 1 Tim. 1. 12. I thank Christ Jesus our Lord who hath enabled me for that he counted me faithful and put me to the Ministry who was before a 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 and injurious vers 13. Hence again he observes it was Gods way that he might not be exalted above measure to buffet him with the sence and assaults of his own weaknesses 2 Cor. 12. 7. and thus far he did glory in and take pleasure in his 〈◊〉 not to have them but to use the consideration of them as a wholsom Corrosive to pull down those proud swellings As a man somtimes takes pleasure 〈◊〉 the pouder of Scorpions or Mercury Water because 〈◊〉 a Medicine against some poysonful humors and 〈◊〉 he directs Eph. 2. 11 12. Remember that you were dead in sins and trespasses Gentiles in the flesh without God without Christ without hope If a man conceit that his make or mettal is better than other mens Let him look into the Pit whence he was digged the Rock out of which he was hewen he wil 〈◊〉 see cause to conclude he was as hard as stubborn 〈◊〉 proud as any other as unteachable as unframable 〈◊〉 any other And here that Question hath place What hast thou that thou hast not received yea 〈◊〉 degree lower How camest thou to be able to 〈◊〉 it stake down thy heart in this Determination 〈◊〉 answer I have received nothing further than 〈◊〉 hath enabled me and I have nothing unless he 〈◊〉 it I do nothing unless he quicken me to the 〈◊〉 of it the remembrance of 〈◊〉 plagues of 〈◊〉 heart and nature should 〈◊〉 me for ever to be 〈◊〉 I am what I am by mercy let that have the 〈◊〉 of all which is the worker of all the good I 〈◊〉 as men pul away the steps and stool from 〈◊〉 a man if he stand too high so 〈◊〉 should pul away 〈◊〉 swelling conceits which lift us up in our own 〈◊〉 It 's not I but the Grace of God in me 〈◊〉 I any power to be humbled to beleeve to be 〈◊〉 No it 's not I but Free Grace that is the 〈◊〉 and Worker of all let Grace therefore have 〈◊〉 honor and praise of all Here is matter of cordial refreshing to support the 〈◊〉 of sinners from sinking into desperate 〈◊〉 when they see the weakness of their own 〈◊〉 not able to reach this work the stifness of 〈◊〉 own wills as ready and resolute to oppose it and 〈◊〉 of both an utter impossibilitie to attain it or any 〈◊〉 good unto themselves their hearts and hopes cannot but fail so far as they look to themselves but when they look to this that as it is beyond their own po wer so it is not their own work this may be some support It is in 〈◊〉 hand must proceed from his power who can do what he wil in Heaven and Earth and in thy heart also therefore repare hither and rest thy fainting spirit here In regard of a mans weakness the well is deep and thou hast nothing to draw withal the work of applycation is spiritual and mystical the eye is dim and thy understanding shallow not able to search into such mysteries thou canst not discern neither the way nor the work how wilt thou be ever able then to attain it remember thou canst not make thy self able but thou must be made able to know it and to receive it it s in his hand and it s his work who is able to do it Jer. 24. 7. I will give them a heart to know me hither our Saviour resolves this work and rests himself here Mat. 11. 25. I thank thee Father Lord of Heaven and Earth that thou hast hid these things from the wise of the world and revealed them unto Babes even so Father for so it pleaseth thee And it 's Gods promise Isay 42. 16. The hlind shall see and the deaf shall hear It 's his ordinary proceeding He calleth the foolish and things that are not to bring to nought things that are 1 Cor. 1. 28. Therefore thou shouldest press God with his own promises mind him that this is his prerogative say Lord it is not in man to direct 〈◊〉 to humble himself to convert himself but it is with thee and it s thy promise to give me a heart to know thee thou callest things that are not I am not wise nor humble nor holy I am not able to know thee let me be known of thee that so I may come to the knowledg of thee But happily thy stifness is more and worse and more dangerous than thy weakness though thy mind be enlightned cavils removed the truth made clear thy 〈◊〉 settled what should be done but Oh! the 〈◊〉 stifness of this wayward will that hath 〈◊〉 al promises and distrusted them al threatnings 〈◊〉 slighted them so that the distressed sinner wil 〈◊〉 I have a heart that cannot repent or beleeve that 〈◊〉 receive grace that cannot give way to the power of Gods ordinances or make choise of any good 〈◊〉 that I am even weary of my heart and of my life 〈◊〉 Yet God can pluck away this unteachableness 〈◊〉 thy heart though thou canst not take away thy 〈◊〉 from it Of his own good will he hath begotten 〈◊〉 Jam. 1. 18. It s not in the wil of Satan nor in thy own will to hinder it if God wil do it it 's his work he hath challenged it to himself and hath engaged himself do it for al His I will take away the heart of stone Ezek. 36. 26. Say thou Lord I cannot do it and 〈◊〉 truth I should not do it for that were to arrogate more than I should and to press into the priviledg of the Almighty I only wait upon thee and bring my heart to thee that thou wouldest bring me to thy self 〈◊〉 the Leaper said Mat. 8. 3. If thou wilt thou canst make me clean I have neither wil nor power I can 〈◊〉 do it nor receive it but thou canst do both for me and work both in me It was the ground of 〈◊〉 which the Lord gave to his people in building the material Temple when they looked at the greatness of the work and their many oppositions Zach. 4. 7. Who art thou O great mountain thou shalt become a plain difficulties are compared to mountains when a man sees a mountain lye before him he thinks it is inaccessible and impossible for him to go over it so when a man sees the pride and stubborness and rebellion of his own spirit he thinks 〈◊〉 is impossible for him to subdue these but if the Lord wil he can say unto it who art thou O great mountain
the soul let the best obects be presented the most perswasive and strongest 〈◊〉 pressed to a man under the power of his sins 〈◊〉 these wil never prevail with him Let God come 〈◊〉 Heaven and preach to Cain Gen. 4. 6. 7. Let our Savior preach to and weep over Jerusalem with many tears O Jerusalem how often would I have gathered thee Mat. 23. 37. Let Judas live in the Family of Christ yet if there be no more but an ordinary power Cain wil be Cain and Judas wil be Judas and go to Hell for all this For 1 The Soveraignty of Mans 〈◊〉 Will is such that it exceedeth all created power in Heaven and Earth Amos Chap. 4. See what conclusions the Lord there tries upon the rebellious Israelites I 〈◊〉 given you cleanness of teeth and want of bread 〈◊〉 6. I have witholden the rain from you vers 7. I 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 you with blasting vers 9. I have sent among you the 〈◊〉 and overthrown you as Sodom vers 10. 11. And still this is added at the end of every instance Yet ye have not returned to me Rev. 16. 11. They blasphemed the God of Heaven because of their pains and sores and they repented not Dan. 9. 13. All this evill is come upon us yet made we not our prayer c. The Seventy years Captivity was ended but their repentance was to begin When the Jews had travailed forty years in the Wilderness and been spectators of the wonders of God yet they wanted a heart to turn unto their God Deut. 29. 4. There is nothing but God that made the Will that is above the Will and can bow it and frame it to the obedience of his own Will 2 Besides the strength of the corrupt Will look we at the power of Satan that hath possession of the soul Mat. 12. 29. The Devill is said to be as a strong man that keeps the house till a stronger than be comes and binds him he improves al his policy and power to the utmost to keep the soul under the power of it's sins and there is no created policy or power above that of Satan He is only subject to the Almighty power of God to be driven out and 〈◊〉 thereby Look to the nature of that good which the soul is to be made partaker of It 's a supernatural good That which eye hath not seen nor ear heard nor can it enter into the heart of man what the Lord hath prepared for those that love him 1 Cor. 2. 9. It 's meant not only of the things of glory but the things of grace Now a man is naturally and wholly corrupted and possessed with sin Jo. 3. 6. That which is born of 〈◊〉 is flesh that which comes by Generation is but either nature or corruption Gal. 5. 19. The flesh lusteth against the spirit Therefore it is beyond the power of the flesh to close with the spirit because contrary thereunto therefore Paul concludeth it Rom. 7. 14. The law is spiritual and I am carnal sold under sin Again that which must lift up Nature to act above its self must be something above nature for nothing can act beyond its own sphere and compass Trees grow but they have not sence Beasts have sence but not reason Devils have 〈◊〉 but they cannot close with God That that must cause the Dog not to return to his vomit again must change the nature of a Dog into a Lamb It 's beyond the power of darkness to bring light so 〈◊〉 It must be as the Apostle expresseth it 2 Cor. 4. 6. God who commanded the light to shine out of darkness that must shine into our hearts to give the light of the glory of God in the face of Christ. 〈◊〉 is the 〈◊〉 of power not only to work something out of nothing but something out of that which is contrary to it And therefore this work of the Application of Redemption to a lost sinner is harder than the work of Creation it self for as the Lord had nothing then to help him so he had nothing to hinder him in Creating the World but here the Lord must take 〈◊〉 the heart of stone he must turn the heart of flint into a heart of flesh he must cause light to shine out of darkness and work one contrary out of another Why then are commands so frequent it Scripture as make you a new heart and a new spirit Ezek. 18. 31. Turn ye turn ye why will you die Ezek. 33. 11. Beleeve in the Lord Jesus and thou shalt be saved Acts 16. 31. If a man have no power to turn himself to what purpose are these commands if there be need of an Almighty power to work these why are they required of us 1 These and the like commands of God in Scripture do shew not what we can do but what we should do not what our ability is but what our duty is and what would be acceptable to the Lord if we could perform the same 2 When the Lord gives a command together with the command he gives a power unto al his Elect to enable them to obey the command as when he commanded Lazarus to come forth Jo. 5. 20. 3 When we are commanded to return to repent and beleeve the meaning is not that we of our selves by our selves and our own power should do this but thus that we should be content that the Lord should work in us what he requires of us we should lie under the stroke of the truth and receive the powerfull impression of the spirit and be content to be made able The Third Proposition We have heard 1 That God himself is the Principal Cause of Application and 2 That the Power which he puts forth in this Work is an Almighty Power Now Thirdly Those means which the Lord is pleased to appoint and to use are the instrumental causes of Application This meets directly with that vain conceit of the Familists Doth the Lord do all the Work it seems then a man may sit still and do nothing nothing is required of us there is nothing for us to do It was a wise speech of one of the Antients He that created thee without thy self will not save thee without thy self know therefore we must God by his Almighty Power is the Principal Cause and those means that he hath appointed are the Instrumental Causes These are First The Word accompanied by the presence and operation of the Spirit Isa. 59. 21. My Word and my Spirit shall never depart away from thee The word he hath sanctified and promised to accompany for this great Work and it is the Word of the Gospel mainly which makes this Application for our good He hath left an Impression of his own 〈◊〉 upon it It is called the Ministration of the Spirit 〈◊〉 of Life 2 Cor. 3. 6 7 8. but the Law is a killing Letter it shews a man what he is and what he 〈◊〉 but the Gospel shews the means
not give his Glory to 〈◊〉 Isa. 42. 8. The Lord Jesus as he will not suffer 〈◊〉 Corruption never so strong to hinder his Work when he will accomplish it so neither will he suffer 〈◊〉 of our performances or abilities be they what 〈◊〉 will to joyn Purchasers with him in the 〈◊〉 of Grace as though he were not either able or willing to be the Author and sinisher of our Faith 〈◊〉 No no We must not ad of ours but in 〈◊〉 case take all of him and from him not bring 〈◊〉 own wisdom with us but become fools that we 〈◊〉 be wise and that 's the way which God hath 〈◊〉 to gain information not think to ioyn our 〈◊〉 with Christ and so become Co-partners with 〈◊〉 I speak of the first Work of Conversion to 〈◊〉 our selves Holy Just and Wise but 〈◊〉 our selves we must look that he should be made Wisdom Righteousness Sanctification and 〈◊〉 to us Hence the Apostle Phil. 3. 9. professeth he desired 〈◊〉 to be found in Christ not only as not having his 〈◊〉 sins but not having his own 〈◊〉 which 〈◊〉 by the Law A Real Renouncing of our own worthiness of that Grace and Mercy which we need and without which 〈◊〉 are most miserable this being one Condition of the Second Covenant of Grace made in Christ wherby it 's differenced from that of the Law made with Adam Namely That Holiness and Righteousnes wherewith the Nature of man was beautified in Paradice though it was not so natural as issuing out of the Principles out of which he was compounded and made yet by all Orthodox Divines it is in this sense judged natural in that in Gods wise Providence and righteous appointment it was due to Nature It being cross to the wise proceeding of the infinite wise God to require Obedience from a Creature if he should not have given ability to the Creature to perform it It Arguing weakness and unskilfulness at the least in the Workman to make a thing for an End and not make it able to attain the End 〈◊〉 which it was made But in this Second Covenant of the Gospel it is far otherwise when we in our first 〈◊〉 had mispent the stock the Lord had bestowed upon us we were unworthy to be betrusted with any more and hence it coms to pass when the Lord wil lay hold upon the proud heart of a Sinner and draw him to himself he sinks his Spirit with the sence of his own wretchedness so that he sees and confesseth freely that he is undone without Mercy and yet conceives it 's not possible that ever such a worthless worm should partake thereof acknowledgeth it's just with God to deny to give nay to offer Grace to him that hath slighted rejected opposed Grace from day to day He knowes he cannot procure or Purchase Gods favor challenge he dare not without it he concludes he must perish and yet deserves by his own confession he should never obtain it Dan. 9. 7 8. O Lord Righteousness belongs to thee but unto us confufion of face nothing but shame and confusion belongs to us no mercy nor grace Ezek. 36. 31 32. They shal loarh themselves in their own eyes and not for your 〈◊〉 do I these things saith the Lord be ashamed and confounded O house of Israel In a word then is a man truly worthy that is fit to hear of and to receive mercy when he is rightly really become 〈◊〉 of his own unworthiness The soul now stands ready to side it with Christ for him to take possession of it that though the soul be not able to kill sin yet it 's empty the Coast is cleer as when Joab sent to David to come and take the City so the soul stands ready that if Jesus Christ would come and take possession of it and do that for it which it cannot do it self this is that that it would have the soul is content that Christ should do all as suppose a City that is Garrisoned with Enemies they cannot get them out themselves but they are willing that the General should come with his Soldiers and drive them out and place another Garrison there so the soul is content that Christ should dispossess whatsoever opposeth him and do whatsoever is pleasing to himself Isa. 26. 13. O Lord our God 〈◊〉 Lords besides thee have had Dominion over us but by thee only will we make mention of thy Name as if the soul should say I cannot subdue my sins my self but let Christ do what is good in his eyes the soul is content that Christ should work upon it and do all for it The Second Particular to be attended for the Explication of the Point is to shew the Manner of this Work and that will also appear in Four things The soul of a sinner is meerly patient herein it 's wrought upon him not wrought by him by any power he hath inherent in himself so the phrase and language of Scripture Jer. 31. 18. Turn me and I shal be turned and verse 19. After I was turned I 〈◊〉 that also includes as much Gal. 4. 9. we know God 〈◊〉 rather in this first Work are known of him And therefore it 's no work of Sanctification properly and as it 's taken in a narrow and strict sense for the sinner be ng justified by Faith and having the Spirit of Adoption dwelling in him hath received a principle of life wherby he comes to be active Act. 15 9. Having purified their hearts by faith This only is in way of preparation to fit us for our being in Christ that I may receive this power this is to make room for faith and Christ that having received him I might be enabled by the power of the Spirit to run right which is Sanctification Hence then go no further than this work the sinner as yet is not a good Tree nor can he bring forth good Fruit but is in way of preparation to be made one yet this work as it comes from the Spirit is good and pleasing to God because the Spirit is a good tree and is the Author of this I only am the receiver of it and therefore it is none of my fruit properly nor am I said to do any thing to please God by this because it 's done in me not by me As it is in the infusion of the Grace of Faith look at it as the soul is the subject of the Work the act it self comes from the Spirit and as a fruit of the Spirit it is good and accepted of God yet I cannot properly be said to please God in it because it is not an act done by me Hence those feeble Objections fall to the ground and are wiped away with a wet finger If there be any saving Preparation before the infusion of Faith then the soul brings forth good fruit and is a good tree without Faith And Secondly then there is somthing which pleaseth God
reason Where there is nothing but opposition and resistance between two there can be no union for all union implies 〈◊〉 and agreement there must be a mutual accord 〈◊〉 things on both hands before they can be made one Amos 3. 3. Can two walk together except they be agreed love tends to unity and 〈◊〉 the cause of it and that ever presupposeth some I keneis But 〈◊〉 man remaining in the state of Unbeleef and Corruption is wholly opposite to Christ and the work of his Spirit he is wholly Flesh John 3. 6. And the flesh lusts against the spirit and these are 〈◊〉 Gal. 4. 17. the wisdom of the flesh is 〈◊〉 against God it is not subject nor can be subject to the Law so far from closing with the work of the Spirit as it is not able to bear it The Scribes and 〈◊〉 rejected the counsel against themselues i. e. to their own 〈◊〉 Acts 7. 51. Ye stifnecked and 〈◊〉 hearted ye have ever resisted the Spirit of the Lord. Paul did no more than every Natural man would do Being mad saies he I persecuted that way The way of Christ and so Christ himself In a word It 's said of all and it 's true of all the best of the Saints take them in their Naturals ye were darkness Eph. 5. 10. darkness cannot but oppose light He that is acted wholly by the power of Infidelity he must resist the work of Faith and so the receiving of Christ by it There are but Two Covenants that ever God made with man touching his everlasting Estate The Covenant of Works or of the Law the Covenan of the Gospel and so of Grace and these two Covenants are so opposite that the one 〈◊〉 the other If it be of Works it is no more of Grace else Works were not Works If it be of Grace it is no more of 〈◊〉 else Grace were no more Grace Rom. 11. 6. Hence they are severed as far as blessing and cursing Gal. 3. 9 10. So then they which be of Faith are blessed with faithful Abraham For as many as are of the Works of the Law are under the Curse Now all men by Nature are Members and Heirs of the first Adam and therefore under his Covenant and under his Curse Rom. 7. 5. 8. Whilst we were in the 〈◊〉 the motions of sins which were by the Law did work in our Members to bring forth fruit unto death Those who are in Christ are under the Covenant of Grace and Life for he that hath the Son hath Life Hence I 〈◊〉 To be under two contrary Covenants of Law and Grace is impossible because so a man should be accursed and blessed at once But he that is in his corrupt Condition and state of Infidelity he is under the Covenant of Works he that is in Christ under the Covenant of Grace Hence followeth a Fifth Reason Who ever is under Grace over them sin shall not have Dominion Rom. 6. 14. Sin shall not have dominion over you for you are not under the Law but under Grace 〈◊〉 they who are in their natural condition and in the state of Unbeleef they are under the power and dominion of 〈◊〉 therefore they are not under Grace nor yet in Christ. This discovers the folly and dasheth the fond conceit of many carnal men who have framed a speedy way to Heaven in their own fancies through which yet never any had passage thither to wit they fondly imagine they have Christ and Mercy at command and that they can make a step to Heaven in the turning of a hand they 〈◊〉 not make such large provision or preparation before to tire out themselves with tedious and heart breaking sorrows and dayly remorse 〈◊〉 their dayly failings smal warning will serve 〈◊〉 mens turns Be it they love their lusts and practise them they harbor continually their noysom distempers in their souls express 〈◊〉 also in their lives they crave but the 〈◊〉 of 〈◊〉 few hours before their 〈◊〉 to fit themselves for their departure and happiness a few forced sighs faigned and formal confessions of their evils and howling for pardon out of the horror of their spirits now and then customarily adding a Lord have mercy on me they suppose they have made all even with God but if they can but get the Sacrament they conclude all is sure they must needs go post hast to Heaven if they can but say they beleeve Christ must comfort them cannot but save them No no Brethren the Word reveals none our Savior accepts of no such agreement he comes upon no such terms to bring any comfort with him unless any man should be so far forsaken of reason and sense as to imagine the Lord Jesus would carry the Drunkard and his Cups the Adulterer and his Harlots also the riotous Gamester his Cards and Dice Hawks and Hounds and all to Heaven together which is 〈◊〉 and incredible Oh! these men will one day find and that to their wo they cozened their own souls by their own folly whereas sound 〈◊〉 cost more the way must be prepared thy heart loosened rent and plucked away from thy corruptions before the Lord Jesus will vouchsafe once to look in upon thee No Harbenger before no King follows after where the heart is not 〈◊〉 for a Savior there is no hope to 〈◊〉 the presence of a Savior It 's the condition upon which his coming is promised and can be expected upon any sure ground It 's the order and connexion of things 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 hath set in the work of Grace Luke 3. 8. And all flesh shall see the 〈◊〉 of the Lord. The Copulative Particle And tells us the sight of Salvation depends upon that which went before when we see the mountains of Pride high and lofty imaginations levelled crooked perversness of our own spirits taken off and we made meek and tractable then there is some hope that Salvation will appear unto us but if any man will yet rear up mighty Bulwarks and strong holds of rebellion and hardness of heart and maintain those high imaginations sturdy distempers of pride security and carnal confidence he must know whoever he be that as yet he is not within the ken of mercy and though he look until his eyes 〈◊〉 in his head and his heart 〈◊〉 in his body he 〈◊〉 never come within a true sight of Salvation much less may he think ever to be made partaker of it why confer with thy own conscience Dost thou think it fit the King should lie in the Truckle-bed under a company of Traitors Is it reasonable the Lord 〈◊〉 should be an 〈◊〉 to thy lusts No certainly the gods that thou hast obeyed by those thou must be saved thou would have thy lusts but reject Christ thou shalt perish with them but the presence of the Lord Jesus thou canst not enjoy Let the 〈◊〉 man forsake his way and the unrighteous man 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 and return unto the Lord for he will
intends to such undeserving ones as we be His own good will being the only 〈◊〉 of any saving work he is pleased to put forth upon the hearts of those who appertain to the Election of Grace This was that which the Lord proclaims and which he urges upon all drooping and discouraged Spirits to make them put on more cheerfully in the pursuit of life and happiness 〈◊〉 55. 1. Oh every one that thirsteth come to the waters and he 〈◊〉 hath no money come buy and eat yea come buy wine and milk without money and without price It s very remarkable how the Spirit of God labors to remove that which will and most usually doth hinder the fainting hearts of dismaied sinners in their endeavor after Mercy They fondly conceit they must come with their cost they must bring some Spiritual abilities and 〈◊〉 with them unless they have that money they are like to miss of their market they shall not be able to purchase Gods acceptance the Graces and Comforts of his Spirit signified by Wine and Milk The Lord therefore that he might wholly dath these dreams and take off these 〈◊〉 thoughts he puts it beyond all Question and Doubt by a 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 to the contrary He that hath no money that is No Spiritual 〈◊〉 or worth let him buy question it not yea I speak it seriously and mind what I say therefore I say again without money doubt it not yea I 〈◊〉 as I say openly and plainly without money or money worth no in 〈◊〉 no weakness no unworthiness shall hinder be not needlesly suspicious I intend not to sell my Graces and Comforts but to bestow them freely upon such who have an open hand to take them and an empty heart to carry them away This was the ground of Encouragement whereby the Prophet emboldned those rebellious Jews to take words and resolution also to themselves to press in with some hope to speed with the Lord Hos. 14. 2 3. Take unto 〈◊〉 words and say Receive us graciously But the Lord might have replyed You have no worth in your selves you deserve no favor therefore it s added with thee the Fatherless find mercy As if 〈◊〉 should have said Thou doest not vouchsafe mercy to sinners because of any excellency they have any friends they can make any abilities they can bring but the helpless friendless fatherless orphane souls such as be destitute of all succour no eye to pitty no friend to provide no strength to support themselves such find mercy with thee such we are therefore Lord shew us mercy If the Dole or Alms was to be bought and purchased then the 〈◊〉 who had most and needed least would 〈◊〉 be possessors of it but because its only out of the 〈◊〉 to bestow it freely he that 's poor hath never a whit the less but the more hope to receive it so it is here in the Dole of Grace when 〈◊〉 thou considerest the infinite baseness of thy heart on the one side the incomprehensible worth of mercy on the other and withal conceivest an utter impossibility ever to attain it ever to expect it settle this Conclusion in thy heart as matter of marvelous Encouragement yet mercy is free others have received it and why not I Lord If the multitude of thine 〈◊〉 plead against thee if Satan be busie to discourage thine heart and drive thee to despair Why dost thou Canst thou Expect any kindness from the Lord since thy frailties so many thy rebellions so great against the offer of his mercy and the work of his Grace How utterly unable 〈◊〉 thou to do any thing to procure any Spiritual good How unfit to receive it And is it not a folly than to hope for it Thou hast hence to Reply Be it I am as base as can be imagined yet my 〈◊〉 cannot hinder the work of Gods Love for it s altogether Free True I have nothing to purchase it Abraham had not I can do nothing to deserve it David could not I have no right to challenge it at the hands of the Lord nor yet had Paul any thing to plead for him in the like case and yet all these were made partakers of mercy and why not I Lord Put in for thy particular and plead for thy self and say Blessed Lord thy mercy is not lessened thy wisdom decayed thy arm shortned what thou didst freely for Abraham an Idolater 〈◊〉 a Rebel for Paul a Persecutor do for my poor 〈◊〉 also my vileness cannot hinder the freeness of thy Compassions If it be here Replyed That this affords small ground of Comfort for if the Dispensation of Grace depend upon Gods Free Will he may fail us as well as help us he may deny it as well as give it The Answer is He may give it as well as deny it and that 's Argument enough to sustain our hopes and to quicken our endeavors put it then to the adventure Thus the Prophet Joel pressed the Israelites to 〈◊〉 to God for the removal of a Judgement and the Pardon of their Sins upon this very possibility Rent your hearts and not your garments and turn unto the Lord who knows if he will return and leave a blessing behind him Joel 2. 13 14. Thus the 〈◊〉 Ninivites provoke themselves to importune the God of heaven for the with-holding of the destruction threatned Let us cry mightily unto God who can tell if he will turn and repent Jonah 3. 8 9. When then thy Spirit sinks under the unsupportable pressure of thy sins and the expectation of the righteous Judgements deserved thereby here is that which will ad Comfort and Encouragement to look upward to the Lord for refreshing Who knows but God may who can tell but God will yet shew mercy therefore I will yet hope because no man can tell but I may at last be made partaker thereof Lastly Those who want and seek for mercy from the Lord in the use of the means which he hath appointed they are to be exhorted from the former truth to arm themselves with patience to stay Gods time and to 〈◊〉 his pleasure if it seem good to his Majesty to with-hold this Favour or delay the work of his Grace Beggars must not be chusers we must not be Carvers of Gods kindness it s a Free Gift and therefore as he may give what he will so he may give it when it seems most fit to himself Just cause we have to wait no reason at all to murmure against him Hast thou then endeavored after this work of Grace and canst not attain it Endeavor still Hast thou begged it and yet findest not thy desires answered Crave still with perseverance It s good to hope and to wait also for the Salvation of the Lord Lam. 3. 26. both must go together to wait without hope is uncomfortable and to hope without patience is unprofitable We know 〈◊〉 what time God will take it is our duty and will be our wisdom and comfort to
attend upon him at all 〈◊〉 Say not then out of the shortness of thy spirit I have come often begged much and 〈◊〉 long at the gate of grace I find not the work yet done my heart not yet throughly humbled for my 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 refreshed with the assurance of Gods Favor Shall I wait any longer Oh fearful Pride Is it come to this If you be in such haste you may go to Hell time enough What not wait See who will have the worst of it God can better keep his Compassions than thou canst want them And as its fit he should so its certain he will make thee to know thou must wait nay bless his Name that you may wait for his mercy The 〈◊〉 of all men that 〈◊〉 breathed have done it So David Min eyes fail with looking for thy Salvation saying O when wilt thou comfort 〈◊〉 Psal. 119. 82. 123 It s enough we may beg the Grace of God as a 〈◊〉 not command it as a Debt Labor we then to 〈◊〉 and 〈◊〉 those proud and impatient distemper whereby we repine and quarrel at the 〈◊〉 on of Gods dealings with us if he answers 〈◊〉 Expectation to the full Others seek and the 〈◊〉 hath bestowed and they have received a great 〈◊〉 sure of Grace with little labor and in a short 〈◊〉 When we have labored long and 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 and yet the Lord answers not our 〈◊〉 nor 〈◊〉 us that Spiritual Good we need Learn we now 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 and controul those boystrous 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Spirits with that of the Apostle Who art 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 that reasonest against God What if 〈◊〉 will not Rom. 9. 20 21 22. What if he will 〈◊〉 ver 〈◊〉 our hearts never pacifie our Conscience pardon our sins save our Souls It is 〈◊〉 his 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 he may do what he will and therefore he doth us no wrong what ever he does Fit then it is we should stay his times who hath all times especially of Grace and Life in his own hands While this life lasts and the Gospel is continued that is the particular Season and Period wherein the Lord expresseth his good pleasure to work graciously upon the 〈◊〉 of His. The time of Grace and day of Salvation is here discovered in the Two Periods of it which make up the parts of the Doctrine 1 Grace is only to be gained in this life 2 While the means of Salvation are continued that 's the Season which the Lord usually takes to work upon the Souls of those 〈◊〉 belong to him we shall severally open and prove both 〈◊〉 and after make joynt Application of them Preparation and Conversion of the Soul must be made in this life Seek ye the Lord while he may be found Isaiah 55. 6. The time of our living is one of Gods whiles the time of finding Grace and Mercy if ever we come to share therein The 〈◊〉 of Jacobs Ladder is here on Earth though the top of 〈◊〉 unto Heaven The Lord must dwell with 〈◊〉 here in an humble and contrite heart Isaiah 57. 15. 〈◊〉 else we shall never dwell with him in that high and holy place whither Christ is gone to prepare a mansion for us Now is the time of 〈◊〉 and gaining Grace in the other world we shall enjoy the fruit and sweet of it here we must get the conquest if we think to wear the Crown in another world Reasons are Two Because after the parting of the Soul from the body and the dissolution of the whole Gods peremptory Sentence is passed and the final doom of the Soul is determined a Sentence never to be revoked a judgement never to be repealed and therefore the sinner becomes irrevokably either miserable or happy Heb. 9. 27. It is appointed for all men once to die and after death comes judgement Death and Judgement are coupled immediately one to another the end of the one is the entrance of the other as Death leaves us so Judgement will find us Though the full and compleate execution of the Sentence is deferred until the great day of accounts yet condemnation seizeth upon each part as soon as they be severed the one from the other if they do deserve The body is imprisoned in the dungeon of the grave and the Soul of him 〈◊〉 is wicked is taken instantly and dragged by the Devils into torment Luke 12. 20. This night shall they fetch away 〈◊〉 Soul With the Saints contrariwise Their bodies are laid in the Grave as in a bed of Down perfumed with the precious Death and Burial of the Body of Christ the ashes thereof carefully preserved yea loved by the Lord So the Apostle Rom. 8. last I am perswaded that neither life nor death is able to separate us from the love of God in Christ Jesus So that the Lord loves the very dust of the bodies of his Saints in the Grave and receives their Souls to himself in glory as soon as Body and Soul are parted one from another Luke 16. 22. The Soul of Lazarus was by the Angels carried into Abrahams bosome For at the great day of accounts we must all appear before the judgement seat of Christ that every one may receive the things done in his body according to that he hath done whether good or 〈◊〉 2 Cor. 5. 10. The Sentence we see shall not 〈◊〉 according to that men do in Purgatoty as the Papists dream but according to that only which they did while they had Being and Breathing in this Natural life The Condition of a man after this life is 〈◊〉 For as the Godly after this life ended receive perfect Sanctification and so become wholly 〈◊〉 of the Spirit of God and thereby fully and unchangeably confirmed in the state of Glory never more to be pestered or annoyed with the presence of Sin or Misery Rom. 8. 23. Here in this world we 〈◊〉 but the first fruits of the Spirit but there 〈◊〉 then the full Harvest So contrarily the Wicked after Death are 〈◊〉 delivered up to the tyranny and authority os 〈◊〉 Corruptions and there settled and that 〈◊〉 in a state of rebellion and become utterly 〈◊〉 of receiving any spiritual Grace or 〈◊〉 any spiritual Good but sink down in 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 without hope of either For those 〈◊〉 Graces whereby the Lord in the time of life 〈◊〉 their distempers and those outward 〈◊〉 Word and Sacraments wholsome Laws and 〈◊〉 Counsels and Examples which formerly 〈◊〉 them from many notorious outrages are now 〈◊〉 away Now the Lord plucks up the Hedge 〈◊〉 pulls down the VVall takes away all the 〈◊〉 Gifts of his Grace vouchsafes not one 〈◊〉 of his Spirit to strive with the Sinner any more 〈◊〉 one check of Conscience to aw him not the least 〈◊〉 of any Good to affect him any more 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 the reins in the neck of the Rebel and 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 loose upon him to execute the fulness of the fierceness of his malice to the uttermost 〈◊〉 his rage was consined before he could
afford for it issues amain and with a full sourse from all Particulars mentioned before the foregoing Truths meeting together like so many streams to make this more forcible upon the Conscience and like a mighty Current to carry us along to everlasting happiness It is a Season and therefore to be Observed an Opportunity and therefore to be Improved without Delay We should address our selves presently to this so great a work Redeem the time Col. 4. 5. Having opportunity let us do good to all Gal. 6. 10 If unto others much more to our selves If to their bodies especially to our own Soul if to them in Temporal things than most of all our best good in Eternal blessings is to be attended But the Season is not yet come that Opportunity is not yet offered Answ. 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 the Apostle points at it as at hand and in view Behold now while I am Speaking and you are Hearing while the doors of the Sanctuary are yet opened while we are in the land of the living behold now is the acceptable time Oh let us not harden our hearts nor shut our eyes 〈◊〉 stop our ears unto the voice of the Lord but pursue opportunity present strike while the iron is hot 〈◊〉 our Harvest while the heat and Sun-shine is upon us while wind and tide lasts sail we cheerfully towards the Haven the end of our hopes the Salvation of our Souls This is the Argument which the Apostle presseth with so much eagerness as having such apparent evidence in it That considering the Season it is high time we should awake from the sleep of security our salvation is neerer than heretofore Rom. 3. 11. The Lord now speaks to us as sometimes to the secure Church Cant. 2. 10. Arise my Love my Dove and come away For lo the winter is gone the flowers appear the voice of the Turtle is heard in our land c. I may truly say This Scripture is this day fulfilled in our ears wherein the Lord Christ by the Ministery of his Word calls and that with all instancy upon every corrupt 〈◊〉 hearted sinner to come to him to receive the word of his Grace and the power and comfort thereof upon his soul Behold the foggy mists of Popery and ignorance are over the shaddows of 〈◊〉 are passed away the flowers grow and the 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 apace peace and prosperity with abundance of outward blessings shoured down upon us the voyce of the Turtle is heard in our Land the sound of the Gospel and the glad tydings of Peace have been and yet 〈◊〉 proclaimed in our streets Arise arise therefore 〈◊〉 secure and dead hearted Sinners and come away Arise ye drunkards come 〈◊〉 from your Cups and Companies Arise ye Adulterous wretches come away from your 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 and beds of dalliance come to him who 〈◊〉 kindly invites you who promises to accept you who is able and willing to save you Oh! consider opportunities will not last alwayes we have no 〈◊〉 of them much less command of them and who knows whether we shall ever enjoy that which we now neglect Especially considering the Lord at the present vouchsafes all helps to further and perswade us to this Preparation dealing with us as 〈◊〉 he did with the stubborn-hearted Jews by Ezekiel who to strike their hearts with an open Conviction that they must go into Captivity he is injoyned to carry out his stuff in the most plain manner in their sight from one place to another and the end is added If it be possible as some translations reade it if per adventure as the propriety of the Hebrew bears it all to one sense they may consider it Ezek. 12. 3. As if he should say There is some small hope that somthing may procure their welfare and if it be possible this plain dealing is like to prevail A lively picture and resemblance of Gods special bounty to us-ward who enjoy the means of Grace above many others The Lord hath seen other Countryes but he hath settled his abode amongst us he hath passed by many Congregations but he hath lodged with those where he hath set up the Light of his Truth the Son of 〈◊〉 hath sent abroad his beams to many corners of the Earth a glimpse of his goodness hath appeared unto many places but his saving health like the Sun in his full strength hath stood over our heads as it did once in Gibeon and the Moon in the valley of Ajalon Some people have had many means and many people have had some but almost all have met together to procure our good and to make up the fulness of opportunities even the fulness of all fitness that if it were possible we might consider it and 〈◊〉 at the last convert and turn unto the Lord. The Birds of the Heaven the Sinners upon Earth and the Devils in Hell know and pursue their 〈◊〉 Opportunities the one for the comforts of nature that they may enjoy them the other for their 〈◊〉 that they may enjoy their lusts though they perish for it Ask then thou sluggard of the Birds of the Heaven and they will tell thee demand of the Beasts of the Field they will shew thee nay 〈◊〉 of the Devils in Hell and they will testifie how Opportunities ought to be prized and how 〈◊〉 improve them Wilt thou be more unreasonable than the Beasts More careless of thine own 〈◊〉 Comforts than the Devils be to procure thy own Confusion Shall the Lord provide all 〈◊〉 for our Good and shall we neglect both him and them and our own everlasting welfare Wo to our sluggishnes Object True let this Opportunity 〈◊〉 great so 〈◊〉 the Continuance of it long and therefore we may take it hereafter Answ. No It s a Day saith the Text very short and yet most uncertain It is but for the day 〈◊〉 this Life and who knows how soon it may end there be Skuls of all sorts in Golgotha Skins of all sorts in the Market yong and old aged and 〈◊〉 haste unto the rend No man yet had a lease of 〈◊〉 Life which is as Grass a Flower a Bubble and alas how soon doth this Grass wither this 〈◊〉 fade this Bubble break And our day being short so is it almost 〈◊〉 many of us have past our highest point the best 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 time our Evening draws on and behold pale 〈◊〉 and feeble hands crazy bodies dangerous 〈◊〉 which are as Har bengers of our dissolution 〈◊〉 will soon bring us to the house of our age to 〈◊〉 dust of death thus is our breath but a shaddow 〈◊〉 soon passeth away and we are gone Oh! that we 〈◊〉 wise to consider these things and because our 〈◊〉 is short and passeth away we would take hold 〈◊〉 the opportunity present But the yong man Replyes It is a good thing 〈◊〉 the Eye to behold the Sun Eccles. 11. 7. To 〈◊〉 this Light to enjoy the present Pleasures to 〈◊〉 the Rose while it is in the bud to
must be a stranger from the life of Christ Rom. 8. 1. hath not yet his Spirit is in the state of Condemnation and that if he so continue he shall perish but whether he shall be converted and brought home at last by the Almighty Power of the Lord it rests only in his own bosom depends alone upon his good pleasure leave we then the Sentence with the Lord who will either recover him out of his sin or most righteously judg him for it Of Consolation Here 's also a Cordial to keep up the fainting hearts of decrepit and aged sinners whose noysom lusts plead prescription of continuance as though they were beyond the Authority of any Law to cast them out I confess it indeed Oh that ancient men would consider it the case is very desperate and brought to the last cast Is it not a marvelous streight that the great work of Everlasting Life lies upon the moment of an hour as it 〈◊〉 to follow the words of the Parable 〈◊〉 considering it is not usual for men then to be 〈◊〉 The little twig such may take hold on is this hath been done and therefore there is hope it may done again and this hope it is which keeps the 〈◊〉 above water never too late to forsake our 〈◊〉 the Lord accepts at the Eleventh hour 〈◊〉 must not then suffer our own fears or Satans 〈◊〉 to pluck up our resolutions and 〈◊〉 by the roots with any false shews of hopeless possibilities When a decrepit sinner hath tired 〈◊〉 in his ungodly courses grows weary with 〈◊〉 burden of an accusing conscience and 〈◊〉 of an ill led life and begins to bethink himself is not in a right way suddenly the Enemy 〈◊〉 to his view the number and nature of his many 〈◊〉 and withal suggests the way so long 〈◊〉 the time to return so short better not set out 〈◊〉 not to be able to get home In vain now saies 〈◊〉 to begin so great a work of Preparation when 〈◊〉 have so little opportunity and so great an 〈◊〉 thereunto To what purpose is it to strive 〈◊〉 we cannot overcome to enter upon the 〈◊〉 when in all likely hood we shall be benighted see 〈◊〉 Sun is but an hour high and never come to the 〈◊〉 of it Oh shake off those sluggish discouragements sit 〈◊〉 down and perish there is yet hope in Israel 〈◊〉 this thing 't is true the work is hard yet God 〈◊〉 done as much for others and therefore can do much for thee also Thy time is short thou hast 〈◊〉 foot in the grave but the Arm of the Lord is 〈◊〉 shortened that he cannot help thou hast ancient 〈◊〉 he hath ancient mercies his loving kindness 〈◊〉 been ever of old When thou hast neither time 〈◊〉 strength to relieve thy self the Lord notwithstanding at the last hour and when thou doest least expect it and hast least deserved it who knows but yet he may call thee into his Vineyard listen therefore unto his voyce make hast to answer his call and leave the success with him Lastly If the Lord put forth this work of Preparation most ordinarily in our middle age all those whom more especially it concerns who are yet in the flower of their years whose Breasts run full of Milk and their Bones full of Marrow as Job speaks they are to be exhorted in the Lord to take the safest and the easiest course for themselves even the counsel of the wise man Eccles. 12. 1. Remember now thy Creator in the daies of thy youth before thy evil daies come the time that God useth to bless most let us be wary to improve most for our good A wise Traveller useth to take the day before him and 〈◊〉 accounts the middle of the day most safe for his passage the Rule is most true and useful also for us while we are wildring onward towards the end 〈◊〉 our hopes rise we early prevent the morning watch to make speed to run the waies of Gods Cammandements while the best of our Natural abilities are about us the middle of our age like the middle 〈◊〉 the day will be most safe for our spiritual Travel and endeavor considering we carry such a charge about us even our souls and the care of their Salvation and happiness lest deferring till our old age and our evening shut in upon us we be wholly spoyled of both for Preparation put off untill our crazy time is like never to be or very uncomfortable if 〈◊〉 be attained It 's not likely we shall ever share in so glorious a work they who are setled so long upon their 〈◊〉 are hardly ever removed considering the company 〈◊〉 common infirmities troops and multitudes of sicknesses and sorrows which seize upon old age and surprize it as 〈◊〉 prey decay the Sences enfeeble the Judgment weaken the Memory as though all the passages were now stopped and gates shut whereby Grace should have any entrance How shall Faith come to him by hearing whose Ears are become deaf that he cannot hear How shall he search the Scriptures in which Grace and Life are to be found who hath not an eye able to see much less to read them How shall he be able to fatham the depths and mysteries of Salvation who is become a child in understanding not sufficient to conceive of the most common things Hence it is the Prophet gives such a man for gone past recovery as it were Isa. 65. 20. The sinner of an hundred years old shall be accursed a Curse is the Portion that is carved out unto him he must look for nothing else that 's his allowance an old rotten post is only fit to be chipped out for the fire no waies prositable to be laid in the Building no not to make pins for it He that hath seen an hundred yeers and yet never came to the sight and rellish of the saving work of Grace farewell he as we use to speak I will not say it is impossible for him to avoid the Curse I must say it is unusual For how justly may God deny to entertain him who would not so many years give way and entertainment to his Word and Spirit What Captain will entertain a Soldier that is not able to fight What Master will hire a Servant that is not able to work in his Vineyard Why should the Lord 〈◊〉 wise chuse such weaklings aged and decrepit who shall not be able to strike one stroke for him in the defence of his Truth or set one foot forward in 〈◊〉 waies of his Statutes As Achish spake of David when he came to the 〈◊〉 and seigned himself mad 1 Sam. 21. 15. What 〈◊〉 I need of mad men that you have brought this man to me shall he enter into my house So the Lord may say Have I any need of dead men that you have brought these aged 〈◊〉 ruinous carkasses before me shall they ever find acceptance or entrance into the Kingdom of Grace or Glory Hath
the Lord such need of Services that he must entertain in the worst hath he such need of Sacrifices that the 〈◊〉 and 〈◊〉 must serve his turn Let men judg Go offer now the 〈◊〉 and the 〈◊〉 unto thy 〈◊〉 will be accept it Mat. 1. 8. will he not loath thy Person and thy 〈◊〉 and can the great and glorious God take pleasure 〈◊〉 either Yea 〈◊〉 others were silent let thy own Conscience 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 in this case when these evil daies these dog 〈◊〉 come thou thy self shalt say I have no pleasure in them Caust thou for 〈◊〉 present that to the Lord which thou thy self 〈◊〉 Nay not only thy self but thy 〈◊〉 may seem to be weary of thy service thy pleasures have taken their leave the world and the delights thereof 〈◊〉 gone from thee thy unclean lusts have forsaken thy 〈◊〉 and languishing members blasphemy is departed from thy speechless tongue and shall the Lord have the Devils leavings When thus thou art become a burden to thy self a trouble to others and fit for nothing but to be fuel for the fire of Hell how 〈◊〉 is it to desire it how hard to conceive it that the holy wise and blessed God will make choyce of thee and therefore it is to be feared thou 〈◊〉 never 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 But Secondly I 〈◊〉 thou dost attain it it will he very uncomfortable when thou wilt be like 〈◊〉 that could not tast his meat for age so you will not be able to tast the sweetness of the Promises of Grace and Christ little or nothing A poor old man comes in and gets as near the Pulpit as he 〈◊〉 and listens but he saies he cannot hear he asks 〈◊〉 what was said they tell him Oh the great and precious Promises of Grace and Mercy and Christ saies he I did not hear them where are they and takes his Book and then takes his 〈◊〉 and looks 〈◊〉 child saies he I cannot see tell him of them presently after I cannot remember them And so you will be unfit for any Service to God as an old Journey-man that is but a 〈◊〉 so you will bungle at Prayer and Conference and in all the duties of Obedience and when God hath shewed mercy to you you will wonder and think if I had a thousand lives what could I do again for God but alas he can do little but sit down as a senceless spectacle of Gods everlasting compassions a wonder to himself and a warning to others not to defer 〈◊〉 till old Age it being then so uncomfortable and he so unfit for it And therfore 〈◊〉 little ones that are growing up to years of understanding you have the day before you if you do not take and improve the first of your time to repent and turn to God in God will require it of you beleeve it he will you may read in 2 Kings 2. 23 24. of a company of wicked children who mock'd the Prophet and the Lord sent two Bears amongst 〈◊〉 that devoured two and forty of them they might have said my Father caught me or I did not know what I did or I was but yong but none of all this would serve their turn they had their time to repent in but they spent that time in sin and wickedness and the Lord sent Bears among them to devour them and so he will deal with you that are careless impenitent wicked children beleeve it he will God hath thousands of Devils to torment you for ever if you go on and continue in your Natural condition without Jesus Christ. And you yong men your glass is now running and as yet you have the day before you My heart in with you al you that offer your selves willingly Oh remember your Creator in the daies of your youth before the evil daies of sickness and sorrow and age come upon you 〈◊〉 only say Three Things to you Consider what good you may do now A yong 〈◊〉 and a glorious Christian Your example may be leading to many that may know you and 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 you all the daies of their lives and 〈◊〉 you shall be going to Heaven in your old age 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 be able to say Lord here am I and the 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Children that thou hast given me you may 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 means to convert others and they will bless 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 in the day of their visitation 1 Pet. 2. 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 smell of your gracious speeches and holy 〈◊〉 will be as Lebanon that no man 〈◊〉 meets you but will be the better for you and 〈◊〉 you are going to Heaven every man wil mourn 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 loss of you He was a Father to me 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 and he was a great help to me saies another 〈◊〉 was a means under God to bring my soul to Christ. Thus you will not only do good to your 〈◊〉 but you will do good to others also 〈◊〉 your death you will have more than this 〈◊〉 to your Peace and Joy will be unspeakable 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 then you will go to Heaven 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Death and Hell and Devils and all you 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 be Fathers serving God in uprightness you 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 your children I go to my God and to 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 and I leave you to a better Father that 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 well for you and so he shakes hands 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 saies he we shall meet in Heaven again so Paul 2 Tim. 4. 7 8. I have fought a good fight I have finished my course I have kept the Faith henceforth there is laid up for me a Crown of Righteousness which the Lord shall give unto me he saw it before him and was able to tell others of it So David 2 Chron. 28. 9. And thou Solomon my Son know thou the God of thy Father and serve him with a perfect heart and a willing mind c. Thus you will be able to give a change and a blessing to your Children and to speak somthing suitable to the condition of all that come about you as a man that hath been a good husband from his youth he hath been a gatherer he is able to give to every one about him somwhat another that hath been a spend thrift can scarce pay his debts and well if he do so So here a man that has been long a gathering of Promises Commands Directions Consolations when his friends come about him on his death bed he knows the frame of every man he knows one man is worldly another hath good Parts and gifts but he is proud another under discouragements and he will speak somthing suitable to every mans condition and his dying words stick by them while they live And this is but the beginning but what will the Crown of Glory be He that begins betimes shall have a 〈◊〉 weighty Excessive Exceeding Crown of Glory he shall go loaded as it were to the Kingdom of Heaven the Sufferings Obedience Commands Promises Counsels of so many years all shal be rewarded other men shall be honored and crowned but he especially and when he
ignorant A man that is loth to rise shuts his eyes from 〈◊〉 light and stops his ears that he may not hear 〈◊〉 knocks at the door so a man that would sleep 〈◊〉 in the security of his natural state he would 〈◊〉 suffer the certainty of Gods Judgments and the terribleness of them to come home to his soul to awaken him out of his dead sleep Thus the Deceitfulness of Sin promiseth nothing but Good the 〈◊〉 of a mans heart is such 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 nothing but Good mens Self-love and 〈◊〉 is such it will not suffer any thing but Good to be presented to the view of the soul. These are the Grounds why a sinful Heart settles it self in security and blesseth it self though nothing belongs to him but misery Hence we may see the Reason why sharp and soul-saving Preaching seems so greivous and tedious to the carnal hearts of wicked and natural men they hardly vouchsafe audience but not acceptance What 's the cause It would awaken them out of their sleepy security in which they lye To bring a Candle to a sleepy man is unpleasing but to pluck off the Clothes he will hardly bear it but will let flie at you Why will you not suffer a man to be quiet in his bed c. All men are naturally in a dead sleep of sin therefore to bring the Candle of the Law to them to shew them their condition to pluck away all their coverings and hidings that they may see their sins and themselves as they are it is death to a man in this case Plain dealing and rough dealing evermore finds harsh entertainment here still Musick is pliasing and rocks men asleep but sound blows will awaken men and not suffer them to sleep in their sins and therefore they cannot bear them they have itching ears saith the Apostle heaping up Teachers to themselves after their own lusts and therefore they cannot endure sound doctrine 2 Tim. 4. 3. Such Ministers and such Preaching as answer their desires and please their pallats that they and their sins and all may go to Heaven together this they like very well of Itching ears must be scratched not buffeted You know what he said to Elias Art thou he that troubles Israel And hast thou found me O my Enemy 1 King 18. 17. 〈◊〉 had 400 false Prophets he could endure them well enough because they never disquieted him in his sins but Elias was a troubler of Israel because he troubled his sin therefore he was not able to bear with him Hence again We should be perswaded and informed its the heaviest plague that can befal a man That God should suffer him to sleep in his sins and prosper in a wicked Course Because it argues for ought any man knows that God intends no good to him nor will work no good for him but as if the Lord hath left such a one to be a prey to sin and Satan he is in the hands of his lusts and become a spoil unto them Jesus Christ passeth by him as it 〈◊〉 pitties him not meddles not with him to rescue him out of that Condition as if the Lord should say I have nothing to do with him he is none of mine Therefore know this to your terror all you that never knew what it was to be in distress of Conscience for sin nay when the Word hath come home to you to convince you of your miserable estate for you have not been able to bear it bate of your sleep nor rest you cannot lose any thing of your 〈◊〉 and 〈◊〉 you will not nay you bless your selves in this condition thinking your case is good enough Mark now The Lord Jesus sees sin and Satan have thee in their power hurrying thee down to Hell with them and he passeth by and saith Let them alone they belong not to me I will not rescue them nor save them my Word and Spirit shall not convince 〈◊〉 nor work upon them this is the heaviest 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 can befal thee in this world Acts 17. 30. The 〈◊〉 of this ignorance God regarded not they lived in their sins without God and Christ and 〈◊〉 and the Lord never regarded them so as to look after them to recover them out of this estate Acts 14. 16. He suffered the Nations to walk in their own wayes It was the heavie displeasure of God towards them he saw they followed their own wayes and he suffered them so to do to go on still in the broad and the road way that leads to eternal Death All sinners are sick persons and we know 〈◊〉 a sad thing for those that are sick unto death not to be seen not to be helped and succoured when the Physitian will not so much as look in upon them Luke 19. 44. Jerusalem had her day of 〈◊〉 she was sick at the heart and God came to 〈◊〉 her but she would not take his advice therefore the Lord left her and let her alone this is a woful case when the Lord leaves a sinner to himself and doth not visit him with his saving health it s a sign that he hath no love unto nor care to do good to such a soul. Of Tryal Hence we way get undoubted Evidence to our selves whether we are yet in our natural condition or brought out of it I shall press it only negatively now Is the day yet to dawn the hour yet to come that ever thou didst endeavor to come out of thy natural condition nay happily thou never sawest cause why thou shouldest But thou 〈◊〉 and conceivest that all things remain alike with thee from the first beginning unto this day as thou wast thou art thou hast lived quietly and walked comfortably all thy life long Truly know it if thou art not another man than when thou camest into the world thou art but a natural man thou art but a damned man Thou camest flesh and blood into the world thou camest a Child of wrath and thou art so still and if so be thou doest live so and die so thou art sure to be damned for ever for flesh and blood cannot inherit the kingdom of God 1 Cor. 15. 50. We know saies the Apostle that we are born of God and the world lies in wickedness 1 Joh. 5. 19. Brought to bed in 〈◊〉 as the Original saies thou art one that livest in some base wicked courses and liest in the bed of security and thou shalt perish with the world It s observable in the Parable when all things were at peace the strong man kept the house that 's certain As it s said of the City of Laish Judg. 18. 7. They were quiet and secure and had no business with any man Is it so with thee Thou art quiet and secure and hast no business with the Word of God thou dost come and sit and return again as if thou hadst no business with the Lord thy Conscience not convinced thy affections not stirred thy heart not affected with saving
it not as a part of weakness but a madness in truth if a Malefactor wil lie in the Dungeon when means of deliverances is afforded for a man to chuse his fetters and to keep on his chains and bolts when he may be freed yet this is the case and condition yea the disposition of men who are not willing to be severed from their sins nor to be set free from those chains of darkness wherewith they are fettered and go up and down imprisoned in the world Sin is compared to a deadly poyson the poyson of Asps is under their tongue Rom. 3. 13. that is Such 〈◊〉 which is deadly and venomous which admits no remedy no cure no recovery Now shouldest 〈◊〉 see a Patient that should be offended with the Medicine that would Cure him or with the Physitian that would counsel him and recover him out of 〈◊〉 Disease Or take it heinously and grievously that any should keep him from drinking the Poyson that would destroy him Each man would conclude that his brain were more distempered than 〈◊〉 body as doing that which is directly cross even to nature which desires the preservation of it self even in unreasonable Creatures Turn but the tables as we say consider aright thine own carriage 〈◊〉 thou wilt confess it is thy case thou art the man Thou art poysoned with the loathsom and 〈◊〉 lusts of thine own Heart which threaten thy everlasting ruine and that beyond recovery in 〈◊〉 course of ordinary means Thou art not able 〈◊〉 hear the Counsel that would direct thee for 〈◊〉 Cure nor bear a savory and seasonable 〈◊〉 which would take away the poyson of those 〈◊〉 distempers Thou canst not endure to be severe from that which wil sever thy soul from God 〈◊〉 canst not abide the Word or the Messengers 〈◊〉 would take away that from thee which wil take 〈◊〉 way thy peace thy comfort thy happiness and a Thus Herodias waited for the Baptists life 〈◊〉 he endeavored to cross her in her Incestuous 〈◊〉 and loathsom abominations Mark 6. 19. Therefore Herodias had a quarrel a secret grudg again him and would have killed him She lay at 〈◊〉 she was watchful and covetous to observe and 〈◊〉 any hint of opportunity offered to do him harm because he desired and endeavored to do her the greatest good that he could A type of this we may 〈◊〉 in the Israelites when their own hearts could tel them and their own experience could testifie and that unto their own sense it was the greatest pressure that ever they found the 〈◊〉 of the wrath of Pharoah and that they sighed under it and their groans went up to heaven And yet they would return to their own ruine and to the house of bondage And Would God said they we had died in Aegypt Aegipt typifyed the kingdom of darkness the state of sin and death and Pharoah was a type of Satan who exerciseth the fierceness of his fury upon the souls of those that are under his power somtimes men wil cry unto the Lord by reason of the hard usage they find from Sin and Satan yet when God comes by his Word and the Counsels of his Servants to pluck them out of their sins and out of their bondage they cannot endure that they wil rather return again unto and lie down under the bondage of sin and Satan than be delivered from it John 5. 40. Our Savior Christ tels the Jews there You will not come to me that you might have life Christ hath Purchased it and Promised it and Offred it yet saies he You wil not come to me you wil not though you may have life and happiness for the coming for Here 's also a ground of Tryal We may hence discern and that undeniably and easily what our condition is Whether we be yet in our Natural estate so far from the interest and possession of Christ or any saving work of his Spirit as that indeed we have not attained any through preparation hereunto We need not send up to Heaven to look into the Cabinet Counsels of Gods everlasting Decrees what is 〈◊〉 concerning us Descend thou into thy own soul thou hast that in thy bosom wil be the best discovery of thy condition Ask but honestly plainly and in earnest thy own heart and that wil cast the ballance and that beyond al question Such as thy will is such is thy condition look what thou wouldest be that thou art in truth and in the account of the Almighty The Lord cares 〈◊〉 for al the Court Complements thou canst express in the wayes of Christianity he 〈◊〉 not for 〈◊〉 thy fair 〈◊〉 and the quaint appearances of 〈◊〉 was thy carriage gilt over with the most glorious shews of Godliness and thy tongue tipped with the language of heaven this wil not do the deed This would not answer the Lords expectation nor thine own hopes and comforts in the issue It was said concerning Eliab Davids elder brother when it was conceived that he should be the man appointed for the Kingdom and indeed holy Samuel was deceived in his goodly stature Surely this is the Lords Annointed The Lord himself checks his judgment Man looketh on the outward appearance but the Lord looketh upon the heart 1 Sam. 16. 7. Look we then as God looks and judge we as he judgeth if we would have comfort and truth in our judgment that we may not fail in that and so our hopes and happiness and al fail in the issue Thou saiest Thy 〈◊〉 is savory and free thy understanding large thou art able to search the Mysteries of Grace thou knowest in a great 〈◊〉 the things of Grace and art able fully to express what thou knowest and thou pretendest readmess and zeal for the service of the Lord. Thou 〈◊〉 al these are thus And I say What is thy heart thou lookest to these I say Look to thy heart and then to these that is Gods way The people in Deut. 5. 28. made as full and free a profession as all the world could desire but the Lord desired somwhat more 〈◊〉 went further They have well said but Oh that 〈◊〉 were such a heart in them v. 29. It is the heart then that gives the casting Evidence of a mans condition and wil not deceive The Woman that hath two Suiters that make love and express their 〈◊〉 to her if she ask her own Spirit that will easily speak which is the man that must be her Husband the Answer which will 〈◊〉 it is this Such a one hath her heart he hath got her good will and therefore hath gained the woman 〈◊〉 is his to give one all good language and 〈◊〉 entertainment that is nothing if another hath the heart So if the Question be which is indeed a Question of the greatest consequence in the world Whether art thou to be matched to thy Sin or to thy Savior to thy Lusts or to the Lord Jesus This will put it beyond peradventure hath some bosom
the world to honor him to esteem him yet 〈◊〉 dasheth all what avails it so long as this Pride 〈◊〉 peevishness this frothy vain heart remains within me When the heart is assaulted with some sudden qualm or deadly fume that assaults the spirits 〈◊〉 ye drive it from his heart nothing will do him good Oh he is sick at the heart now I thank the Lord it 's gone from my heart So it is with the plague of 〈◊〉 that assaults the heart a man that knows it and 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 and is really sick of the lusts and corruptions that are in his heart he can never be at quiet till he find his heart in some measure freed from the power and poyson of those sinful distempers as Rebecca said If Jacob should take a wife of the Daughters of Heth what good shall my life do me Gen. 27. last So what good wil my credit my profit my profession all my priviledges and performances do me if my heart be married to any base lust 〈◊〉 my corrupt will and my wayward peevish stiffness and malignancy of heart continue with me still But thou that canst lift up thy head and know all these evils in thee that God knows and thou knowest there are such bosom abominations which thy heart finds and takes contentment in thou canst live with them talk with them lie down and sleep with them and arise with them again nay and thy corrupt heart is restless if it may not be pleased and satisfied with thy lusts Amon is sick of Incest Ahab of Covetousness unless they may enjoy 〈◊〉 lusts they cannot enjoy their lives Grace I would not trouble my self or spend any time to prove that such have any grace When a mans sins are so far from being his vexation that it is his vexation that he cannot have free 〈◊〉 to commit his sins that he is vexed with the word that discovers his evil vexed with Conscience that checks him for it plagued and tormented with all that come in his way that will cross him in his lusts if there be a graceless heart in Hell thou art one to this very day thou didst never know what it was to put off the will of sinning Observe where the will takes up its last stand and what it looks at as that which lastly satisfies its desire either in pretended parting with sin or in performance of duties or improvement of means The end steers the action and gives in evidence of the goodness of it The Merchant and the Pyrate goes in the same channel useth the same wind to carry them the same Compass to direct the one about his honest Affairs to serve Gods Providence and his own Duty and the other to serve his own covetous and unlawful lusts of Theevery and spoiling So here I speak it for this purpose because it 's one of the cunning cheats of a deceitful heart he will perform such Duties and forsake such sins not because he either loves the Duty or loaths the sin but because he would land himself at the place where he would be at some other end of his own Nay it 's possible and ordinary for a man to part with his sin for a push when indeed it is only that he may keep his sin As Paul spake of Onesimus he departed from him for a season that he might be received for ever and as the Adultress chides her mate before others that she may enjoy him more freely without fear or suspition so it 's usual for a false heart to chide with his corruptions and to speak great words against them when yet the secret 〈◊〉 is but to enjoy them more freely by that means therefore let not the Devil cozen you with colors your confessions and resolutions your prayers and tears against your sins and that in secret and that unto God if your hearts 〈◊〉 these but as means for your own ends you never were willing to part with sin The 〈◊〉 of a gracious heart is Never to take up his stand till he come to God and the guidance of his Grace and Spirit Hosea 14. 2 3. c. Take away all iniquitie and receive us graciously what have I to do any more with Idols c. and the heart wil never more have to do with these sins but with God he sees these evils sorrows for these 〈◊〉 to have these removed that he may be under the power of God and his Grace As Samuel said to Israel 1 Sam. 7. 3 4. If you do return unto the Lord with all your hearts then put away your gods and prepare your hearts unto the Lord and serve him only So if you be indeed resolved to forsake your sins and renounce your corruptions then abandon them and al occasions leading to them and al beginnings of them and submit your selves your thoughts and affections to the Lord and to his Word and serve him only Lodg thy soul here and let it never take up its stand until it come hither The last Use is of Exhortation and Direction both together It should guide us and it should perswade us to take the right way of Reformation Never leave thy prayers and tears and sorrows and remorse until thou come to thy very heart thy tongue professeth fair and thy hand forbears the practice of evil but ask thy heart Heart what sayest thou Shame may prevail with thee Authority of men may constrain thee and conscience may force thee to abstain from evil I but what saies thy Heart art thou willing to part with thy sin I do not do it I dare not do it but Will what sayest thou Heart what sayest thou Never cease before you be able to answer I am really willing to part with every sin I am convinced of It was the great complaint of Moses concerning the People of Israel that notwithstanding al that the Lord had done for them yet they had not a heart to fear him and to walk in obedience before him So 〈◊〉 may say God hath crowned thee with 〈◊〉 honored thee with encouragements thou hast the Esteem of others thou hast all Liberties and opportunities to be as good as thou shouldest be but truly all these will do thee no good unless thou hast a heart for God and against thy sin therefore rest no where until thou hast this The great Fort that must be taken is the Will or else all the rest is as good as nothing he that wil cure a disease must not only skin it over but must take away the core of it if he think to heal it throughly and cure it fully So here it is not enough to wash a mans mouth and to wipe his hands but the core of a mans corruptions must be got away thy soul must be brought off from the Will of sinning as wel as from the Practice of sinning or else thy soul will never be brought home to God stay not therefore till thou comest hither and be sure to make sound work
soul as somtimes to his Disciples Be not afraid it is I I come not as a Judg to condemn thee but as a Savior to save thee I desire thy Conversion not thy Confusion So our Savior expressed himself to 〈◊〉 Acts 9. Who art thou Lord saies he I am Jesus i. e. I am a Savior to save my People from their sins and so of thee to save thee from thy sins Why wilt thou oppose thine own mercy and so thine own safety Why wilt thou persecute him that comes to preserve thee This Cable of Mercy is made up of four Cords which cannot easily be broken The infinite sufficiency of that saving health that is in the Lord Jesus the boundless and bottomless depths of Mercy and that plentiful redemption that is provided and laid up in Christ. That Sea of Mercy and Grace that is able to drown al our sins and guilts and remove al our 〈◊〉 a treasure that cannot be spent a fountain that cannot be drawn dry Isa. 55. 7. Let the wicked forsake his way and the unrighteous man his thoughts and let him return unto the Lord and he will have mercy and to our God and he will abundantly pardon He hath pardons in store such as lie by him they are not to seek he hath bowels of mercy yet opened arms of pitty and compassion yet stretched out to 〈◊〉 thee Nay though thou coldest not imagine it or conceive it yet he can do it Psal. 103. 10 11. He deals not with us after our iniquities but as the heavens is high above the earth so great is his mercie to them that fear him Psal. 1 30. 7 8. Let Israel hope in the Lord for with him there is multiplyed 〈◊〉 and he shall deliver him from all his iniquities Thou hast multiplyed thy sins and provocations he hath multiplied Compassions Lo there thou shalt see a Manasseh pardoned a Paul 〈◊〉 and yet there is room for thee also He never casts off any that come unto him therefore it s thy fault only which casts off Mercy If yet the sinner stand murmering behold yet further He hath not only sufficiency and enough to do thee good but freely and frankly offers 〈◊〉 to al that wil have it He is not only content and ready that thou shouldst come but invites and perswades thee for to come that thou mayst be partakers of it Jer. 3. 22. Come unto me ye rebellious Children and I will heal your back-slidings With that the sinner is at a wonderment with himself did he not say Rebellious sinners did he not invite such Why may not I therefore be entertained Yes The words are express Come ye back-sliding Children If then there be any Doubt arising God Cleers it any Question the Lord Answers it any Hinderance he Removes it Jer. 3. 1. 2. 7. They say if a man put away his wife shall she return again Amongst men its usual and ordinary if an Adultress Wife depart away her Husband receives her not again Yet return unto me saith the Lord though thou hast played the Harlot with many lovers And vers 7. After thou hast done all these things yet return unto me Then the Soul bethinks it self shal al these abominations be clensed al these rebellions remitted What after al this pride and uncleanness and Covetousness nay after al the abuse of Gods Grace and Mercy yet accepted yet received yet 〈◊〉 Either then now or never He that 〈◊〉 so gracious a command so kind an offer it s a wonder if the Lord do not cast him off and accurse him for ever nay is he not worthy he should be so The Lord not only offers it freely that we might be encouraged but heartily intends it yea entreats it earnestly that indeed we might be perswaded without gain-saying to yeild He not only commands the sinner to come but if he go away Mercy pursues him if yet he seems to withdraw himself Mercy laies hold on him wil not leave him but weeps over him kneels down before him and begs importunately at his hands his own reconciliation with the Lord 2 Cor. 5. 17. The Lord by us doth beseech you to be reconciled the Ministers proclaim it but God professeth it they desire men and God in them 〈◊〉 and entreateth to be reconciled This makes the bowels of a sinner to rowl within him and drives him to a stand and almost overcomes our unkind natures What! A King to entreat a Traytor to be pardoned the Judge a Theif to be acquitted a Conqueror fal at the foot of a Captive and his Prisoner and desire him to be reconciled I hat God the great God of heaven and earth who was offended by us who hath no need of us who was infinitely happy in himself without us who might with the breath of his nostrils for ever confound us and that justly why it had been enough and enough a Conscience but to admit such accursed dust and ashes into his presence 〈◊〉 to hear him speak and give him but leave to bewayl his sins before he should have perished for them It had been a high favor and mercy to have given him leave to have begged mercy though he had never granted it But to hear me when I cal and cry to receive me to favor when I come that is as much as could be desired But that God should stoop to man heaven to earth 〈◊〉 to meanness he that was offended by me had no need of me was happy without me and might have honored the name of his Justice in my everlasting confusion not only to hear me and receive me when I come but to send after me but to beseech a damned forlorn Creature to be pardoned This is the wonder of Mercy more than I could have conceived durst have begged yea I should have conceived it unreasonable to have desired it nor could I have thought it but that the Lord hath said it and done it His wil be done and blessed be his holy name for ever Oh that I should live to hear of this Mercy but wretch that I am if I should out-live the offer of it or not entertain it I need not question that the Lord is serious and heartily willing to have the tender of his Grace entertained and my self for ever comforted therein and thereby Why he takes his Oath not that he can change but that he would have me be settledly assured thereof As I live saith the Lord I desire not the death of a sinner but rather that he should repent and live Ezek. 33. 11. If God do not desire my death but my repentance Why should I desire my own death so that the heart of a sinner could almost be content to give way but yet his loose domineering lusts wil not give leave If yet the sinner wil not come away but staies stil and clings to his darling lusts the Lord leaves the Record of these his kindnesses upon his heart and stil out of his long sufferance waits
from his Cups the Adulterer from the arms of his Queans and the worldly man from all the snares of the world the Lord can do it and wil do it also for those that belong to him therefore to that God look 〈◊〉 that Christ look who hath said it and can do it he can do it for thee as wel as for any other A Third ground of Discouragement which the sinner finds and that is the worst of al viz. The stiffness and stubbornness of his own heart he cannot blame the Devil for 〈◊〉 of him or the world for snaring of him he sayes and knows his heart is as bad as Hell it self he hath courted and desired temptations his heart hath been lingering and hankering after them and had not God been merciful to him he had lived and lien and perished for ever in his sins Nay though there were no 〈◊〉 to tempt nor world to allure yet I have a heart like a dunghil that steams up continually noysom abominations Nay that that 's worst of al If after al the Mercies I have abused and sins committed I had a heart that could repent there was some hope but Oh! the stiffness and knottiness of this heart of mine I have had Conscience checking of me and the Minister reproving of me and the Spirit of God striving with me but Oh! I have a hard heart that cannot repent And this is the plague of al plagues worse than the Devil and Hell it self How shal I help my self here Moral Perswasions Alas my heart spurns at them all and makes nothing of them al I have had the Minister speaking to my soul and the flashes of Hell in my face and yet alas such is the desperate frame of my heart that I wil have my sins or 〈◊〉 die for it What wil al Moral Perswasions and Congruity of Means do here Alas the Heart scorns al As in the Case of a man who fell into deep distress and horror of Conscience 〈◊〉 he had 〈◊〉 the sin against the Holy Ghost lying in that a twelve month together and the Lord let loose the 〈◊〉 of his own Spirit upon him that he often thought to lay violent hands upon himself but this was al that he had to support himself in that sad time my Salvation is not in mine own hand it is not in my Will but in Gods Will It is not in him that Wills or in him that Runs but in God that shews mercy Jam. 1. 18. Of his own Will he hath begotten us by the word of truth He that made the Will can only Convert the Will Oh! then bless God that hath taken our Salvation into his own hand for if it were in our hands if it were left to our Wills we should never have it This is that that may uphold the heart in the midst of al the heavie temptation which wil 〈◊〉 or last seize upon the hearts of men Again Secondly It is matter of Consolation to al the faithful who have found this work of God upon their souls it wil afford them ground of glorious support to fence and fortifie their souls against the dayes of difficulty and times of distress against what ever discouragements or desertions may 〈◊〉 them from within what ever assaults or temptations may press in upon them from without in the following Course of their lives in future times From hence they may promise themselves assistance and deliverance without fail and certainly expect it What ever the temptations be they shal never prevail against them what ever the power and strength of their Corruptions be they shal never be able hurtfully to overcome them If God the Father have once drawn them to his Christ when they did nothing but oppose this work al the power of Hell shal never be able to with-draw them from the Lord Jesus when they desire to cleave to him and to be His. He that plucked me away from my sin with a holy kind of violence when I loved it as my life and was loath to part with it will he deny his 〈◊〉 to me when I strive against it He that forced his Mercy upon me when I resisted it in the dayes of my folly and wretchedness when I resolved I would none of him wil he deny me Mercy when he hath given me a heart to beg and prize it He that sought me and drew me when I forsook him wil he not embrace and entertain a poor Creature when I seek and sue for acceptance from him Thus the Apostle disputes and cleers himself with much boldness and assurance of invincible success and he gains and gets the higher ground of his Fears and Discouragments Rom. 5. 6. 9. If Christ died for us when we were of no strength nay when we were ungodly How much more being Justified by his Death shall we be saved from wrath through him for if when we were enemies we were reconciled how much more shal we be saved by his life If when we had no strength he rescued us from the hand of Hell and Sin and when Enemies reconciled us when he hath given us strength and made us his Friends wil he not for ever releive and succour us yea much more sayes the Apostle he gets upon the higher ground and triumphs over al the enemies of our salvation as knowing he should certainly be Assisted against them al. Thus Samuel shored up the dismayed and sinking hearts of the Rebellious Israelites when the Lord had thundred out his displeasure against them by reason they had wretchedly and treacherously and unfaithfully rejected the Lord and his gracious Government when they would not beleive Samuels words he tels them That God would thunder out his threatnings from heaven 1 Sam. 12. 17 18. c. And when the people saw the lightning and heard the thunder and then saw the hamousness of their sins and feared what heavy punishment they might expect from so terrible a God Then they that cared not for his words and Counsels crave his Prayers Oh pray for us say they for we have sinned and to all our other sins have added this in asking for a King Samuel to prevent the deadly symptom of desperate Discouragement which would drive them from the Lord and so from their own Comfort heads You have indeed sinned yet turn ye not aside from following the Lord And again he ads Turn not aside unto vain things that cannot help And he gives this as a ground For the Lord will not forsake his People for his great Names sake because it hath pleased the Lord to make you his people He that out of Mercy made you his people when you were not he wil not forsake you when he hath called you to him As the Elders of Israel Reasoned when they were to War with Jehu in the defence of their Masters Sons 2 King 10. 4. Behold two Kings could not stand before him how shall we Let this be thy comfort and undoubted evidence of succour and deliverance
When thy heart was Satans home and the power of darkness dwelt in it when he had levyed al his Forces he was strengthened and encouraged by al the advantages that might be he had the hold of the heart and entrenched himself in the stubbornness and invincible stiffness of my Will and that I was resolved to leave my life but never to leave my lusts nor renounce his temptations which I entertained as my delight and sided with al alurements and stood in open 〈◊〉 against the Holy One of Israel If Satan in his ful power could not keep his hold nor my heart but the Lord cast him out when he is Conquered and his Forces spoiled by the Lord Christ Shal he not for ever keep him out When I was under the power of Satan he then rescued me being now rescued from his rage and beyond his power shal he not preserve me He that destroyed the works of Satan when he was in his ful strength intrenched fortified in the unconquerable stiffness of his Will and took away his Armour being Disarmed Dispossessed and Conquered shal he ever be able to recover and set up his works again By no means The Third and Last USE of this Doctrine is of Exhortation First To the Converted Then To the Unconverted Here is somthing for both First the Converted are hereby to be provoked to follow the dealing of the Lord Here is a pattern to order their daily practice by Hath God doth God deal so with poor Creatures as to draw them from their sins to 〈◊〉 Christ Go thy wayes and do thou likewise Herein shew your selves Children of your heavenly Father be merciful as he is merciful And if in any case I take it Mercy is herein to be discerned ought to be practised and expressed As the Elect of God put on bowels of mercy Col. 4. 11. If you be the Elect of God shew it in this if ever you have received Mercy express it if ever God hath shewed favour to you shew the fruit thereof in shewing compassion to others put too the best of your endeavors even by a holy kind of violence to pluck away poor sinners from their sins unto the Lord. So David Psal. 51. 13. I will teach transgressors thy wayes and sinners shall be Converted unto thee I wil take no nay at their hands they are stubborn I was so they resist I did so they are unwilling to part with their sins I was so and yet the Lord hath done me good and overcome al my evil with goodness when I was in my blood when I lay weltring in the guilt and filth of my sins when I said I would have my sins and I would die and was resolved to destroy my self then he said unto me Live poor Creature Live You cannot get your heart away from your Corruptions the Lord wil do it for you nay he can do it for you without you If he wil put forth the same power upon your soul as he hath done upon my soul you shal be drawn from your sins to Jesus Christ. In a word 1 Do what you can your self 2 Help them with supply from others First do what you can your self let every man in his own particular set upon al such loving Means as are in your power Compassionately and Couragiously to draw sinners from their sins to Christ Heb. 3. 13. Exhort one another daily lest any be bardened through the deceitfulness of sin 1 Thess. 5. 14. Now we exhort you Brethren warn them that are unruly comfort the feeble minded support the weak be patient towards all men As who should say Lay about you to do al the good you can he makes a Christian man to be as busie as a Bee that he should go no whither but should seek and find occasion of doing good to one or other you wil meet with some that are unruly warn them and instruct them and some that are weak labor to strengthen them some that are feeble minded and discouraged Christians labor to quicken and encourage them Let not those thoughts be found once in thy heart Am I my Brothers keeper Yes thou art or else thou art his murtherer wilt thou defend his house from a thief his body from 〈◊〉 nay wouldest thou ease and raise his Ass from falling and return his Ox from straying and wilt thou not do much more for his Soul Therefore take al opportunities that are offered and seek what is no offered and improve what you have to the 〈◊〉 Jude 23. And others save with fear plucking them out of the fire If thy neighbors Ox were in the pit or himself in the fire thou wouldest break 〈◊〉 the door and not strain Complements much more when his soul is fallen into his distempers as into a deep ditch his soul is 〈◊〉 on fire from Hell 〈◊〉 away the Drunkard from his Cups and hale the Covetous man from the world and those whom you see to be 〈◊〉 by any special Corruption do 〈◊〉 you can to rescue them from the snare of the Devil and double thy forces lay battery against the heart to it again and take better hold it may be he sees his evil and acknowledgeth his sin and yet returns to it again return thou to thy prayers and tears an 〈◊〉 if he forget thy Counsels Counsel him again admonish again besiege him lie at him when thou meetest him in the way walkest in the field 〈◊〉 at the table leave some remembrance upon 〈◊〉 of those you converse withal say and do som thing that may help to draw their souls from their sins to Christ. God hath dealt so with thee therefore deal thou so with others Succour them also by all other Means 〈◊〉 thou according to thy power and place to 〈◊〉 them under the means of Grace As they said one 〈◊〉 another Isa. 2. 3. Come let us go up to the house 〈◊〉 the Lord he will teach us of his wayes And as 〈◊〉 good man Cornelius when Peter was to come 〈◊〉 Preach the Gospel to him Acts 10. 24. he Calls 〈◊〉 his friends and kindred together that the Lord 〈◊〉 work upon them and sayes he We are all here ready to hear what the Lord hath commanded thee This especially belongs to al such as have power and authority over others as Magistrates may compel the Subjects the Master may compel his Servants and the Father his Children to use the Means for they can go no farther than a moral violence and to be under those Ordinances which they in their own Consciences are convinced of to be the Means of Conversion and Salvation And look as they did when our Savior Christ came to any place they brought the blind and the deaf and dumb and those that were possessed of Devils and laid them down before him and intreated him to Cure them Mar. 2. 4. So if thou hast a stubborn Servant or a Rebellious Child al the Means thou hast used can do no good upon him bring
him before the Lord in the use of the Ordinances lay him down before him and tell him what his Case is what a blind mind and what a hard heart he hath and how he is possessed with a Devil of pride and self-willedness and resistance against God and Grace and say It is with thee alone O Lord to work upon him Thus we should use al the Means we can to draw others to Jesus Christ. Here is also a word of Exhortation to the Unconverted such as are not yet Called You are to be entreated That as ever you desire to see the face of God in Christ as ever you desire to gain Evidence of Gods love here and happiness in another world be sure of this That you come under the Call of God This work of drawing is Gods proper work come therefore under his hand when doles are stirring every man goes to that door So here It is not in Man nor in Ordinances that 's true but there God dispenseth it Rom. 1. 16. The Gospel is the power of God unto Salvation And if the Lord draw by his Spirit in his Ordinances repair thou to his Ordinances for ever It is the Lord only that makes his Call effectual therefore come under 〈◊〉 Call of his in his Ordinances It is God only that doth this work in us 〈◊〉 us It is not in our power to help our selves therefore better sit still then rise and fall why 〈◊〉 we endeavor that we can never do I do not say thou canst do the work but do 〈◊〉 go to him that can do it Thou sayest thou canst 〈◊〉 go I confess thou canst not as a Christian but 〈◊〉 I exhort unto is Do what thou canst as a man improve those Faculties and Parts and Gifts that 〈◊〉 yet left in thee and come under and keep 〈◊〉 the Call of God God meets his People in the 〈◊〉 of his worship in the use of the Ordinances which he appoints therefore go thou thither to meet with him Thou hast an Ear to hear the word therefore thy feet can carry thee to other places let them carry thee to the house of God that mind and memory of thine can meditate upon other things 〈◊〉 it meditate upon the word and fasten upon the truth and the reasons thereof I do not say thou 〈◊〉 pray so as to please God but pray still who know but God may help thee thou canst confer 〈◊〉 things of no profit and remember idle things of 〈◊〉 worth nay such as leave a taint of Corruption 〈◊〉 Pollution upon thy soul use that mind and 〈◊〉 thoughts and that tongue of thine about the 〈◊〉 of God and Jesus Christ. Thou mayest do this 〈◊〉 shouldest do this Attend further these Two Directions Present thy self before God in the use of 〈◊〉 Means of Grace and when thou art there 〈◊〉 thy own abilities either to do good to thy self or 〈◊〉 receive good from God in al the Means that are appointed for thy good Say therefore Lord it 〈◊〉 not in Man or Means to do any good to my soul 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 heart here and be sure thy soul be rightly 〈◊〉 of it And mark what Balaam said Lo I 〈◊〉 come now have I now any power at all to say 〈◊〉 thing Numb 22. 38. So say thou Here 's a 〈◊〉 mind a dead heart a damned soul I live to 〈◊〉 and hear that that thousands desired but never 〈◊〉 but now I am here Lord have I any 〈◊〉 to receive any good from any of the Ordinances 〈◊〉 Lord the work is thine do al for thy Servants 〈◊〉 receive al the Glory from me you think you 〈◊〉 a large understanding to catch the reason of the 〈◊〉 and a strong memory and can recount what 〈◊〉 hear and you go for a right Godly man because 〈◊〉 hear and repeat and profess c. Thou mayest 〈◊〉 al this be utterly destitute of any saving work 〈◊〉 thy soul thou hast the out-side but thou canst 〈◊〉 come at the kernel the sap the sweet the good of the Ordinances therefore say thus I can hear 〈◊〉 Word blessed be thy name and I am able to remember and repeat and to discourse of the things of God but Oh! the power of God to work upon my 〈◊〉 that I want here 's a blind mind and a dead 〈◊〉 a lame heart Lord work upon it and draw 〈◊〉 to thy self and that effectually It was 〈◊〉 speech 2 Chron. Chap. 20. Vers. 12. when 〈◊〉 had Mustered up all the Forces of ISRAEL Yet sayes he We have no strength nor do 〈◊〉 know what to do but our eyes are unto 〈◊〉 So shouldest thou say for thou mayest have 〈◊〉 strength and moral strength but spiritual 〈◊〉 to hear profitably and savingly and to bring 〈◊〉 fruit unto God this is not in any mans power of himself Therefore say it and acknowledge it Lord though I do what I can yet I have no strength 〈◊〉 do I know what to do but mine eyes are unto 〈◊〉 When you are got hither and keep here be sure now not to leave the Ordinances of God before you find some power beyond the power of Ordinances and Man and Means leave them not till you find the almighty power of God working upon your souls As the Woman that labored of the Bloody-issue and had 〈◊〉 al she came and desired Oh! that 〈◊〉 might touch the Hem of the Garment of Christ and she felt in her self she was made whole Mat. 9. 21. 22. Thou knowest the pride and peevishness 〈◊〉 uncleanness of thy Nature the bloody-issues of corruption in thy soul that nor word nor Ordinances could help thee to this day thou hast spent all and done al thou canst do in the use of Means and yet the issue is the proud heart the carnal heart the unclean heart remains still taken aside by 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 still what will you do now you are in the croud of Means and Helps but say Oh! the Hem of the Garment of Jesus That Vertue and Power may come from Jesus Christ 〈◊〉 work upon this Soul 〈◊〉 mine But how shal I know that Answ. When you see the Ordinance so upon your soul really as you see it in your understanding and judgement when you find it in the work of it upon your heart as you apprehend it in the letter of it And 〈◊〉 you shal 〈◊〉 the work really done and your heart bowed and loosened from those base Distempers you never touch Jesus Christ until you find it so Therefore as the Widdow whose Child was dead when Elisha sent his Servant she was not contented with that but sayes As the Lord lives and 〈◊〉 thy soul 〈◊〉 I will not leave thee 2 Kings 4. 30. The man came and the staffe was laid but 〈◊〉 Child was dead till the Prophet came and the power of God came along with him and then 〈◊〉 Child arose Let me leave this upon Record for ever amongst you This effectual drawing and quickning of the
heart is the alone work of God It is not in him that Wills nor in him that Runs 〈◊〉 in God that shews Mercy You know many of you hundreds for ought I know that you never knew what Christ and his Grace meant and you know your hearts close with your sins though you dare not give way to them Now mark when you come and hear the mind of God and the Ministers speak unto you and the Will of God is published Oh! Go your wayes home and say As the Lord lives I will not leave thee until the Lord hath spoken to my soul till I find the effectual work of the Word and Spirit of God drawing my soul from my sins to Jesus Christ. Therefore call for that same shewing Mercy which the Apostle speaks of Rom. 9. 16. So then it is not of him that wills nor of him that runs but of God that sheweth mercy When you have run what you can and willed what you are able then look up to the Lord to shew you Mercy the Minister hath spoken what he can and I have heard what I can but Lord shew Mercy and never leave until you have found that the Lord hath shewed you Mercy in this work of drawing your Soul from Sin to Christ. FINIS THE Application OF Redemption By the Effectual Work of the Word and Spirt of Christ for the bringing home of lost Sinners to God The Ninth and Tenth Books Beside many other seasonable and Soul-searching Truths there is also largely shewed â—â—The heart must be humble and contrite before the Lord will dwell in it â—â—Stubborn and bloody Sinners may be made broken-hearted â—â—There must be true sight of sin before the heart can be broken for it â—â—Application of special sins by the Ministry is a means to bring men to sight of and sorrow for them â—â—Meditation of sin a special means to break the heart â—â—The same word is profitable to some not to others â—â—The Lord somtimes makes the word prevail most when its most opposed â—â—Sins unrepented of makes way for piercing Terrors â—â—The Truth terrible to a guilty conscience â—â—â—Gross and scandalous sinners God usually exerciseth with heavy breakings of heart before they be brought to Christ. 11. Sorrow for sin rightly set on pierceth the heart of the sinner throughly 12. They whose hearts are pierced by the word are carried with love and respect to the Ministers of it And are busie to enquire and ready to submit to the mind of God 13. Sinners in distress of conscience are ignorant what they should do 14. A contrite sinner sees a necessity of coming out of his sinful condition 15. There is a secret hope wherewith the Lord supports the hearts of contrite sinners 16. They who are truly pierced for their sins do prize and covet deliverance from their sins 17. True contrition is accompanied with confession of sin when God calls thereunto 18. The Soul that is pierced for sin is carried with a restless dislike against it By that Faithful and known Servant of Christ Mr. THOMAS HOOKER late Pastor of the Church at Hartford in New-England somtimes Preacher of the Word at Chelmsford in Essex and Fellow of Emmanuel Colledg in Cambridg Printed from the Authors Papers written with his own Hand And attested to be such in an Epistle By Thomas Goodwin And Philip Nye London Printed by Peter Cole at the sign of the Printing-Press in Cornhil neer the Royal Exchange 1657. READER IT hath been one of the Glories of the Protestant Religion that it revived the Doctrine of Saving Conversion And of the new creature brought forth thereby Concerning which and the necessity thereof we find so much indigitated by Christ and the Apostles in their Epistles in those times But in a more eminent manner God hath cast the honor hereof upon the Ministers and Preachers of this Nation who are renowned abroad for their more accurate search into and discoveries hereof First For the Popish Religion that much pretend to Piety and Devotion and doth dress forth a Religion to a great outward Gaudiness and shew of 〈◊〉 and wil-worship which we confess is entermingled with many spiritual strains of self-denial Submission to Gods wil Love to God and Christ especially in the writings of those that are called Mistical 〈◊〉 But that first great and saving Work of Conversion which is the foundation of al true piety the great and numerous volumns of their most devout writers are usually silent therein Yea they eminently appropriate the word Conversion and thing it self unto 〈◊〉 man that renounceth a Secular life and entereth into Religious orders as they cal them and that Doctrine they have in their discourses of Grace and free wil about it is of no higher elevation than what as worthy Mr. Perkins long since may be common to a Reprobate though we judg not al amongst them God having continued in the midst of Popish Darkness many to this day and at this day with more Contention than ever that plead for the Prerogative of Gods Grace in mans Conversion And for the Arminian Doctrine how low doth that run in this great Article this we may without breach of Charity say of it That if they or their followers have no further or deeper work upon their hearts than what their Doctrine in that point calls for they would fal short of Heaven though those other great truths they together therewith teach God may and doth savingly bless unto true Conversion he breaking through those Errors into some of their hearts And how much our reformed Writers abroad living in continual wranglings and Disputes with the Adversaries of Grace have omitted in a Practical and Experimental way to lay open and anatomize the inwards of this great work for the Comfort and settlement of poor souls many of themselves do greatly bewayl And to find them work and divert them from this it hath been the Devils great Policy who is at the head of all those Controversies as also ever since Pelagius time to this very day to make that dry and barren plot of Ground namely the naked dispute of the freedom of mans wil to be the great seat of this War as the Pope did the Conquest of the Holy Land in the darker times to find al Christian Princes work and thither to draw al the forces and intentions of mens minds jejunely in a great part Phylosophically to debate what power mans wil for-sooth hath in the Summity and Apex of Conversion to resist or to accept the Grace of God and so whether Moral perswasions only be not Sufficient or that Physical Pre-determinations be not also requisite to Conversion whilest in the mean time al those intimate actings of a soul in turning to God The secret particular passages both on Gods part and on the souls part which are many and various by which the soul is won over unto God and Christ those treaties the souls of men hold with God and Christ for justifying and
impossible to him or had power above him And hence the Lord delights to set forth the praise of his Mercy and therefore when sin is most vile and hainous and hellish then doth he express his compassion in a most glorious manner it 's the glory of the Physitian when the Disease is most deadly then to do the Cure Isa. 43. 24 25. You have wearied 〈◊〉 with your iniquities and made me to serve with your sins behold I even I am be that blotteth out thy transgressions for my name sake q. d. None but a God of endless Mercy could do it therefore behold it acknowledg it I will blot out your iniquities and remember your sins no more This is the dispute of the Apostle Rom. 5. last having said that our Justification Reconciliation and Life comes by Grace he ads why then serves the Law he answers That sin might abound that sin might be encreased and become more and more hainous because against an express Law but where sin abounded grace abounded much more the Lord gave as it were sin all advantages to do its utmost and yet then Grace would abound so much the more in conquering and raigning over sin And therefore it 's certain if all sins in the world that against the Holy Ghost excepted should meet in one Soul as Waters in the Sea the Mercy of the Lord would abound much more 〈◊〉 those sins did abound The Merits of our Savior Christ are of an 〈◊〉 satisfying vertue and exceed the venom of the guilt of all sins Rom 5. 18. So Paul constantly disputes If by the offence of one sin entred unto 〈◊〉 much more by the death and obedience of our Savior Righteousness entred unto eternal Life And therefore it was that our Savior was pleased to receive our Nature even from the vilest of sinners that he might shew himself a Savior from all sins Matth. 1. Hence also his blood is called a fountain set open for Judah and Israel to wash in for sin and for uncleanness Zach. 13. 1. i. e. For all kind of sinners and all sorts of sins So that were thy heart a Sink a Sodom a Hell of wickedness if the water of this Fountain might pass through and be applied it would clense all For our Savior 〈◊〉 the infinite wrath of his Father which was due for our sins more he needed not nay should not nay could not have suffered if he died for a thousand worlds of his Elect if they had come from the Loyns of our first Parents And I do beleeve there is vertue enough there to pardon the sin against the Holy Ghost if it were applied but because it was committed against the work of the Spirit so directly it is not just he should and there is no other that will for the Spirit works from the Father to the Son and therefore last of all so that they both have put forth their works before and if therefore his be wronged he will not apply and there is none else that can if the Work of the Father be wronged Christ may intercede if he be blasphemed the Spirit may apply but if he be despighted there is none left that will or can Because the power of the 〈◊〉 is such that he can conquer and overcome all which with his own Honor he can attempt to remove as all but that which is committed immediately against his Operation he wil and doth this is the ground of overcoming which the Apostle gives 1 John 4. 4. You have over come the world because greater is he that is in you than he that is in the world That also which Paul propounds for the clensing of the most loathsom puddles 1 Cor. 6. 11. But ye are washed but ye are sanctified in the Name of Jesus and by the Spirit of our God for that Spirit is above all unclean Spirits and therefore when he will come and work upon the soul and clense it from all its corruptions Sin and the World and the Devil and all give way they cannot hinder his work So that if the Mercy of God be infinite able to forgive all the Merits of Christ of infinite Vertue able to satisfie for all and the Spirit of infinite power to conquer all then the worst of sinners may become broken hearted sinners when the Lord will please to look upon them We have here matter of Admiration to see and stand amazed at the riches of Gods mercy and grace which succors the most desperate sinners relieves at the hardest streights saves even from the nethermost Hell It 's the Collection the Prophet makes from the ground formerly mentioned Mich. 7. 18. Who is a God like unto thee that par donest iniquity and passest by the transgression of the remnant of thine heritage because mercy pleaseth him He intends pardon to such who have nothing that can purchase it do nothing that can deserve it nay practice nothing which is in any manner pleasing which might perswade him to it yea when he is displeased with all things but his own mercy and indeed can be pleased with nothing else when they dishonor his Name wrong his Justice reject his Commands and grieve his Spirit every thing provoketh him yet because his mercy pleaseth him therefore he doth good against evil therefore he overcomes all their evil in goodness Yea When sinners out of their impenitency and malignant enmity of their Spirits would destroy themselves and his mercy also and cast away his compassions his mercy is pleased to honor it self and to save them who is a God like this God and what mercy like this mercy He is not like the Idols of the Heathens even themselvs being witnesses for the followers favorites of Idol Gods who 〈◊〉 upon them in time of prosperity and devote themselves to their Worship yet in the day of distresse their Idols leave them in the lirch and they are forced to look to the Lord for relief Jer. 2. 27. In the time of their trouble they will say Arise and save us But the hope of Israel is not like them when the Disease is most deadly he then cures the condition of the sinner most desperate he then delivers out of the jaws of Satan and botom of Hell he then rescues It s the Prerogative he takes to himself Thy destruction O Israel is of thy self but in me is thy help Hos. 13. 9. It 's that praise which the Saints give as the proper due of the Lord Psal. 103. Praise the Lord O my soul who forgiveth all thy sins and healeth all thy diseases and Jonah leaves this Cure upon Record after he was landed by the 〈◊〉 Jonah 2. 6. Yet hast thou brought up my life from corruption O Lord my God and verse 9. Salvation is of the Lord. Here is a ground of Encouragement to sustain the hearts of such forlorn Creatures as are sunk down in desperate discouragement as past help and hope to provoke them yet to seek out
many prayers promises resolutions continues still yet it may be otherwise saies Hope this holds up the head from sinking the heart from failing But despair takes away this you have tried used the means expected help but you see it comes to nothing nay there is no hope it will ever be set your heart at rest it will never be This stops all the passages that there is no hope for any good or comfort to accrue to the soul. This is the Instrument of death whereby the Enemy at once makes an end of the very life of our comfort The hope of Salvation is made the Helmet of a Christian so the Apostle 1 Thes. 5. 8. Put on the Breast-plate of Faith and Love and for an Helmet the Hope of Salvation Well-grounded evidence and assurance of Gods Love in Christ is as it were the head and the highest top of a Christians comfort hope is the Helmet for when our sence and feeling experiences and performances yea our hearts fail in regard of any present sweet or refreshing we have yet hope saies it may be it will be better hereafter and this holds the aking head of a Christian The Devil who ever fights at the head labors to shake our assurance and comfort and if he can dash a mans hopes by despair he kils him dead in the head there is no help nor recovery to be looked for know this and be wary and wise for after times 2. As it dams up the way and stops the passage that there is no possibility of any good to come so it deads all a mans endeavors takes off the edg of a mans abilities puts all out of joynt and off the hooks that there is no striving after a good when there is no hope to attain it All men that are carried by counsel if not fools or mad-men they ever have an end in their eye at which they look and for which they labor this is the white they shoot at the price they run for for this they devise and contrive means and use what they have attained improve what they take in hand in hope the end they have attended may be brought about Now where there is no hope which 〈◊〉 casts off there is no good to be expected therefore no possibility to attain our end therefore no reason to attend our labor in that behalf Why should I se k saies the despairing man when I have no hope to find Why should I spend my labor in praying hearing reading improving any Ordinance when there is no possibility I should speed that ever God should help or hear or bless as good sit still as rise and fall So Cain when he had laid that desperate conclusion My sin is greater than can be forgiven he flies into the Land of Nod drowns himself in sensual delights but forsakes the Lord. The Hope of Good is the Load-stone of a mans labor it carries on our course with speed and resolution So they in Jonah 3. 9. Who can tell if God will turn and repent and turn away from his fierce anger that we perish not Therefore do these two things Let not Satan make conclusions from our weaknesses nor do thou listen to them nor beleeve them if he should make them We should be wary not to suffer our selves to be deluded by his false collections Thy Conscience saies thy corruptions are strong and many and of long continuance therefore there is no hopes saies Satan Temptations are violent and subtil saies thy experience thou feelest them so therefore there is no expectation of relief or abatement saies Satan the inference is unreasonable and grosly false the sins of Manassah Paul these Converts in the Text were such and yet such received the work of Grace and Mercy also therefore listen not to him who is the father of lyes Look not to the power of means we do enjoy the abilities we have the performances we take up for we shall find them all broken staves and bruised 〈◊〉 they will not only break under us but pierce us 〈◊〉 they will fail us and our hearts also there is no sufficiency for our succors and therefore no sound ground of Hope But we should keep our eye constantly and continually upon the sufficiency of Gods saving health and incomprehensible power Who is able to do abundantly above all that we can ask or think Eph. 3. 20. Do you not see saies the Enemy the means do not work your prayers do not profit the abilities you have and the endeavors you take up serve rather to encrease your sin than to help you they nor you are able to subdue the least sin to gain the least assurance not able to procure the least peace True be it so Yet God is able Thus our Savior to his Disciples dismayed with the difficulty of the work Lord say they who then can be saved he answers With man it is impossible but not with God for with God all things are possible Matth. 19. 26. It 's not possible saies Satan so many waies have been tryed so many means used and yet all is in vain Ay but saies Christ though with man and means it is impossible yet with God it is possible Psal. 73. 26. My 〈◊〉 fails and my heart fails but God is the strength of my heart and my portion for ever So much for that Point We are come now to enquire the Particulars expressed in the Description and here also presented to our view And first touching the sight of sin whereby the sinner is made rightly apprehensive of his own corruption and his condition by reason thereof The Point thence is this There must be a true sight of sin before the heart can be truly broken for it A right apprehension goes before through Contrition The Judgment must be rightly enlightened to see the nature of our sins before the heart can be pierced with that sence and sorrow that is meet This is Gods way which he takes in whose hand it is only to do this work Job 36. 8. to 11. When sinners come to be bound in fetters and holden in cords of affliction then he sheweth them their work and their transgressions wherein they have exceeded and then bows their ear to Discipline and commands them to turn from iniquity So repenting Ephraim prosesseth it was the course the Lord took with him After I was instructed I repented Jer. 31. 19. That which the eye sees not the heart rues not that which is not apprehended by the understanding is not affected by the will so in 1 Cor. 14. 24 25. when 〈◊〉 word comes home in power and plainness so that the thoughts of his heart come to be discovered he falls down and saies God is in you of a Truth The want of this was the reason why the Woman of Samaria manifested such sawcy impudency and peremptory boldness in her conference with our Savior though she could not be ignorant that those abominable loose haunts of hers would call to
they bring not their own carriages to the scanning each man will be ready to be Eagle-eyed into other mens occasions and can easily enquire and question and determine and say others have done thus and so here such have fallen therein such and such have failed but no man saies What have I done and therefore become fearless of what they have done and careless of what they do but each man rusheth into his own wretched course as the horse into the battel because he carries not the light of the Truth into each 〈◊〉 and 〈◊〉 of his conscience to pry into the secret 〈◊〉 of his own spirit and judg aright of that else be his knowledg never so large he will get little good by it The 〈◊〉 that hath his full charge if it carry but level give fire to it it hits and kils the live mark at which it is shot but 〈◊〉 hurts the shooter unless it recoyl in the full power then the man that dischargeth it hardly escapes with life It is so with the understanding that stands charged that is fully informed with a cleer discovery of the nature of sin it 's able to dart in that light into the minds of others that may dazle their eyes daunt and wound their consciences with the dreadful apprehensions of the 〈◊〉 of their evils and work their hearts through the blessing of the Lord to a godly remorse for it but unless their own thoughts recoyl back again upon their own miscarriages and the falseness of their own hearts they will never be awed or humbled or helped against their own sins thereby Here is then the rule we must arrest our own souls in 〈◊〉 Achan was never troubled all the while he heard there was an 〈◊〉 thing in the Camp in general but when the lot had found him and all Israel had charged the evil upon him then his heart failed So we should not content our selves to know and confess that sin is an execrable thing in general which causes Gods gracious presence to be estranged from 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 leave not before we see the lot fall upon Achan 〈◊〉 thou 〈◊〉 attach thine own heart take it in the very fact and as men deal with mutinous Traitors drag thy wretched and rebellious heart before the Tribunal of the Lord and deal faithfully and give in 〈◊〉 against it say Lord there be many Traitors and Rebels abroad in the world which dishonor thy Name grieve thy 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 thy Kingdom 〈◊〉 thy Law loe 〈◊〉 they be 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 heart that hath been stubborn and proud it is my mind that is vain my affections loose my life barren and unprofitable here are those 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 unclean 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 desires no 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 here they be Lord 〈◊〉 they 〈◊〉 We must also pass sentence impartially without any respect to any private end or ease or quiet which our own carnal hearts would happily 〈◊〉 into the consideration These and these sinns are as bad and as base and as dangerous in this vile heart of mine as in any heart I know under the cope of Heaven if not worse nay what ever abomination is in the bottom of Hell and in the heart of Beelzebub the spawn of the like sins and of the same hellish nature are in my soul they are the seed of the Serpent and that they break not out into the like hideous practises its no thank to my corrupt nature that hinders me but thy Grace and providence restraynes me from such evils It s our desperate weakness and a great part of our misery that we are apt to be favourable to our own follies that sin should be of annother appearance apprehension when we see it in our selves then when we pass sentence upon it as it is presented in the word and in its own nature Impannel a jury of the most wicked nay the worst of men that have been trained up under the Preaching of the word and confess the Scriptures to be the word of God which cannot deceive and let the text be propounded and their opinions be asked in that case 2. 〈◊〉 1. 9. The Lord wil come in Flaming Fire rendring Vengeance to them that know him not and obey not the Gospell they wil all give in their verdict as one man with one mind such as be guilty of such disobedience must certainly have this 〈◊〉 Vengeance from the hand of the Almighty but infer therfore this is 〈◊〉 lot and allowance from the Lord because they have not they do not obey the Gospel 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 their 〈◊〉 do testify so much Now the case is altered when it s once come to their 〈◊〉 It s another kind of ignorance and 〈◊〉 and 〈◊〉 another 〈◊〉 acted then 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 they This 〈◊〉 of our 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 self 〈◊〉 hearts the Philosopher in the practise of men even by the twilight of the common Principles of reason remaining in the decayes of nature observed For taking it for granted that no man doth wil evil under the name of evil but as it comes under the appearance of som good and that all men easily grant and freely confess that Drunkenness Injustice Intemperance are evil the question then growes how these men judging these carriages to be evil are daily taken aside with the Commission of them Ask the Drunkard whether 〈◊〉 be unlawful he consesseth it Loathsom and yet commits it Ask the Blasphemer whether 〈◊〉 be a sin He wil profess it detestable at one breath and practice it at the next Theeves themselves count it unjust that any by cunning should deceive them cry out of falshood and yet by force 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 others the ground is here When the question is put and propounded in the general they wil grant it when it comes to their particular for such a man at this time upon this occasion in this company for such an end to be loose or tipple in this manner this is not unlawful For in these the Devil casts in 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 or 〈◊〉 Credit Friendship Familiarity as the Lawyers alter the Case by circumstances and by these he would put another 〈◊〉 upon 〈◊〉 carriages and 〈◊〉 make them 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 hearts they give in evidence of 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 our 〈◊〉 and 〈◊〉 would have the sentence 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 them that in case they may be 〈◊〉 and not utterly 〈◊〉 So David saw sin in the 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 own 〈◊〉 So 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 her 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 when he himself 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 of the 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Gen. 〈◊〉 24. Therfore thou 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 thy 〈◊〉 with 〈◊〉 Application that they are in thee as in others and 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 in thee 〈◊〉 thou 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 in 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 The 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 them apply 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 upon our Consciences otherwise such a particular apprehension may and will suddenly pass away and the steams of our distempers wil easily alter and corrupt our understandings and bring the cause quite
and understand with their heart and convert and be healed 〈◊〉 Instruction why men of the greatest ability for depth of brain and strength of understanding are most hardly brought to brokennes of heart and to be wounded with Godly sorrow for their sins the ground is from the point in hand because they are hardest brought to see their sins the power of carnal reason doth so mightily prevayl in them being now in their natural condition the strength of their abilities becomes wholly perverted to their own hurt and the maintaining of their own distempers their subtilty deceives themselves they abuse the sharpness of their wit to beat back the authority of the 〈◊〉 and to wind away from the evidence of argument that is 〈◊〉 to their view They shut out the light of the truth from coming into their hearts and therefore it s not 〈◊〉 it should work upon them 〈◊〉 or effectually prevail with them for God Hence that peremptory 〈◊〉 of the Apostle not many wise men after the flesh 1. 〈◊〉 1. 26. because the wisdom of the 〈◊〉 is enmity against God Rom. 8. 7. 〈◊〉 it is as a weapon in the hand and under the command of our fleshly hearts It fortifies most strongly against the evidence and essicacy of the truth wil not suffer a conviction to fasten upon the Conscience and therefore no Godly sorrow to affect the soul of a sinner As it is in war when the trenches and outworks are slight and the wal of the City low and the Castle weak it s no matter of danger or 〈◊〉 for a wise Commander with compitent forces to surprise it to carry the place and Conquer the people their defence was but feeble but were their out-works strong their walls high the Citadel and Castle impregnable it wil abide many assaults and stand out long even against the 〈◊〉 power that shal 〈◊〉 them and happily be forced to raise the 〈◊〉 and 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 place as not able to prevail It is so in our spiritual condition when the Lord coms to lay siege to the soul of a sinful creature who is now under the power of darkness and the soveraign command of his corruptions which rule as supream Lords over him There is no Conversion without Conviction as hath been shew'd in 〈◊〉 the point It s not possible the heart should be content to leave sin unless the understanding clearly see the loathsomness of it the out-works and walls of the soul are our apprehensions and understanding now where there is wiliness depth and subtilty of 〈◊〉 large reaches of carnal reason these the Apostle calls strong holds 2. Cor. 10. 4. and they wil abide the battery and force of the most plain evidences strongest arguments that can be devised and alleadged with the best skil and yet hold it out against all where the opposition is not so strong the entrance is more easy and subjection is sooner yielded to the evidence of the truth This is the ground the prophet gives of that invincible stiffness pride and contempt of Babilon as being unteachable under al dispensations Thy wisdom and thy knowledg they have perverted thee or caused thee to rebell Isa. 47. 10. It was the reason of that stubbornness of which the Lord complains in the Scribes and 〈◊〉 the great Rabbies of the world Luke 7. 30. 31. the Publicans and sinners 〈◊〉 God because of John Baptists doctrine and so yielded themselves and were overcome of the evidence of the truth but the Scribes and Pharisees rejected the counsel of God They put it by and would not suffer the counsel of God to take place or to prevail with them Paul never found worse entertainment and greater opposition than at Corinth and Athens the 〈◊〉 of sciences and Store-house of learning and learned men the excellency of whose parts and the conceit of 〈◊〉 and wisdom did so transport them and puffe up their earthly minds that they slighted the simplicity that was in Christ and trampled upon the meaness of the Gospel Acts. 17. 18. Phylosophers of the Epicure and Stoicks they encountred Paul and said what will this babler say and v. 〈◊〉 some mocked As though the 〈◊〉 of the meaner sort though they had no heart to receive the Gospel yet they had no skil to resist or were able and 〈◊〉 durst not grapple with his arguments These only who had more learning they gave the encounter and openly contemned both his purpose and doctrine As it is with men who are but weak and unskilful at the weapon not able to 〈◊〉 a blow or put by a thrust it 's no hard matter to get within them but those who are 〈◊〉 of defence are dextrous and handy at their weapons there is little hope to hit them or to come within them So here men of meaner capacities and of shallow reach they yield more easily and are forced to let fal their weapons but such who are skilful are masters of defence can devise devices the subtilty of their own reason is 〈◊〉 by 〈◊〉 suggestions they wil latch allmost any blow and put by the plainest truth for the present push that there is no hope to come in to them And this also is the ground why your painted Formalists and subtil hypocrites who are grown cunning in the craft of profession for so they make it they are so hardly brought on to beleeve Publicans and sinners and Harlots shal goe before them And for this cause it is our Lord so marvailously distasts this condition Rev. 3. 17. I would thou wert either cold or hot Lukewarmnes is worse than prophanness not that fals shewes are worse than grosser evils when heart and life outside and inside are both ill but intruth because such are more difficult to be convinced of their evils and therefore not likely to be amended or brought out of them q. d. As though the Lord had sayed if thou wert openly naught thou mightest be brought to see acknowledg thy naught iness Here Paul issues the strength of that resistance against the Lord and his Gospel 1. Coloss. 21. Enemies in your minds by wicked works but in the original Enemies by reason of your discourses set or attent to evil works It 's the first step to wisdom to become a fool and that 's hard to him that is highly in love with his own wit Examination we may hence gain certain evidence whether ever the Lord 〈◊〉 made any entrance upon this great work of preparation and so any expression of his purpose 〈◊〉 to call us to himself to this day or no. happily the Lord Christ hath been knocking oft at thy dore as he passeth by in the dispensation of his Ordinances in the wayes of his providence in which he hath walked towards thee hath called in upon thy Conscience presented the guilt of thy sins and layd heavy things to thy charge and knocked hard at thy dore awake thou that sleepest so that thou hast heard a confused noyse as it were
him is no darkness John 1. 5. The law is a light and the Commandement a lamp unto our feet Prov. 6. 23. And by the sight of both these we come to have a ful discerning of sin which is opposite to them both Our ignorance of God breeds the ignorance of our own hearts and the hidden waies of wickedness and the cunning conveyances of corrupt distempers which are there in Psal. 14. 1. 2. The fool hath said in his heart there is no God and then it followes they are become abominable he makes bones of no sins at al for herein lies the spiritualness or spiritual evil of sins and that hidden poyson and malignity of the corruption of our natures that they justle professedly against the Almighty so far as he is pleased to communicate himself unto us in the waies of his Holiness and goodness Thus the blasphemer is said to pierce God by his oaths Levit. 24. 11. and the wicked are said to walk contrary to him Levit. 26. to 〈◊〉 him to weary him to load him while then we see not him whom we do oppose by our sins no wonder that we neither see nor are sensible of the sins by which we do oppose him Whereas could we grope after the Almighty as the Apostle professeth we may because he is not far from any of us nay in him we live and move in every spiritual action of our minds and hearts So that did but a wicked man or could he perceive that in every thought of his mind motion of his wil stirring of any affection that he did justle with the infinite Holiness and purity of the Lord who meets with him in every action and motion of his mind and wil It were able to sink the soul of a sinful creature and make him sit down confounded in the sight of the loathsomness of his own 〈◊〉 nature as being wholly opposite to so infinite a good in all he is or doth thus it was with Job when the Lord had schooled him out of the whirlwind discovered the surpassing excellency of his Glory to him he puts him beyond al pleas of his own worth Job 40. 4. Behold I am vile yea more expresly he gives this as the reason of the discovery of his own wretchedness I have heard of thee by the hearing of the Ear but now mine eye sees thee wherefore I abhor my self in dust and ashes Job 42. 4. So it was with the Corinth who was convinced by the preaching of the Word he saw God before he saw the secret vileness of his own heart presented to his view 1 Cor. 14. 24. God is in you of a truth Search we into the holy Law of God and examine our hearts and lives thereby and see how far they stand guilty of the breach thereof but view the compass of the Law and what is vertually contained therein for though the words are few yet the things are many that are comprehended in them And especially look not at the Letter but at the Spiritual Sense and Mind of the Almighty in each thing there required that the whol heart must close with God and his Will as the chiefest good look at and lift up his Glory as his last end in every duty we do and that we make a breach in al those particulars in every sin we do commit our heart is not with him nor make we choyce of him set not up his Name but seek our own base ends thereby and serve our selves and not him By this narrow search and dayly observation of our dayly course we shal be able to see the frame of our hearts and carriages presented to our view and so discern to the ful the loathsomness of those noysom 〈◊〉 that leprosie-like overspreads our whol man Thus James adviseth James 1. 25. that we should look our selves into the Law of Liberty that is a Cristal and cleer Glass and wil discover what is amiss even to a mote the smallest sins and 〈◊〉 and that unto their ful view Paul a learned Pharisee he saw more of sin and more of himself by the Law than either 〈◊〉 conceived or suspected to 〈◊〉 to him Rom. 7. 7. 9. I had not known that lust had been sin but that the Law saith Thou shalt not 〈◊〉 nor did he think himself bad or his condition so miserable but when the Law came that is the light and discovery of the Law he perceived his sin alive but himself dead When the Lord in any Ordinance by the Truth shall discover our sins our Conscience shall come in as a witness to 〈◊〉 or as a Sergeant and Officer by Commission from the Almighty to arrest and condemn us for any evil we should attend both to see Gods mind to the utmost therein and then it 's certain we shal see We must beware that neither out of carnal fear nor sensual security of our sinful hearts we be willing to lay aside the evidence of the truth as content not to hearken to the Verdict of it 〈◊〉 desirous not to listen to the dictate of Conscience but to shake off the Consideration of either lest we should sink down in discouragement It 's certain Truth is terrible and the Dictates of Conscience are dreadful when they come with Commission from the Almighty yet true it is walking humbly under Gods hand we should be so far from fearing the discovery of our sins that we should be comforted in this that they are discovered to us and we should compose our hearts in quietness with the right consideration of the manner of Gods dealing in this kind and commune with our selves on this manner It 's a fearful thing indeed to fall into the hands of the Almighty who is a consuming fire but yet herein the faithfulness of the Lord is seen he deals so with me as he doth with those that he intends good unto he makes His see their sins and that 〈◊〉 before they ever see his pardon of them or power against them if he never convinceth he never 〈◊〉 He sent his holy Spirit into the World for this purpose to perform the work this is the way to Grace and Christ I bless his Name I am in the way I wil hearken to the Evidence of the Truth that I may understand al that God intends and listen to the checks of Conscience that I may know to the full the Nature of my sin When we have a little inkling either by an Ordinance or Conscience take hold of the least intimation and leave it not until you come to the bottom and perceive the utmost vileness in such a course It was so with David who took hold of the reproof of the Prophet Nathan and though he mentioned but one thing wherein the grosness and greatness of the evil appeared yet hence he took occasion to overlook his whol course to consider every circumstance and to ravel out all until he came to the bottom he confesseth al the falsness of his heart
a poysoning and spreading and infectious Nature it 's not consined within a mans own compas and conscience it 's not a sin in a mans self but there be many sins in this one it becomes the Cause of sin to many others Many are provoked and encouraged to the practice of the like Evils by thy practice Examples are of a constrayning Nature Peter dissembles and many are snatched 〈◊〉 by his example to do as he did Gal. 2 Many are strengthened and confirmed in their wickedness because they have thy example to warrant them they will certainly perish But their Blood will be required at thy hand thou wast the man that did lead them to an ungodly Course and didst harden them therein And the Name of God and his truth will be blasphemed amongst the Heathen for thy sake Rom. 2. 24. How can they but conclude that Religion allows such an ungodly Course which men dare So Commonly to commit and to Continue in without remorse or reformation The Second shift whereby our carnal hearts would keep off the Evidence of Conviction is this As the commonness seems to 〈◊〉 our corruption so the naturalness is made pretence to excuse it Here the plea is ready whereby men would challenge pity 〈◊〉 connivance as their debt It is my disposition or constitution I cannot mend it it is my Nature I cannot alter it Al flesh is frail God knows whereof we be made how feeble we be and he doth not expect perfection at our hands no man counts his coat the worse because there 〈◊〉 some moats in it or casts away his Gold because there is a flaw or mark in it It 's my natural infirmity and hath not each man his failings would you have us be Saints Saints Yea either Saints or Devils The Lord would have thee to be so This is the will of God even your sanctification 1 Thes. 4. 3. the Law would have thee to be so 1 Peter 1. 15. Be ye holy in all manner of Conversation thy Profession would have thee to be 〈◊〉 Let every one that cals upon the Name of the Lord depart from iniquity 2 Tim. 2. 19. And he that hath this hope purgeth himself as he is pure 1 John 3. 5. That generally but to come a little neerer and to shew the vanity of this Shift I Answer First This excuse that would cover one sin discovers another and thy Plea doth give in undeniable evidence that all the means of Grace that ever thou hast enjoyed and God hath vouchsafed hath never wrought upon thee nor prevailed with thee for good to this very day nor hast thou received benefit or profit therefrom but al the pains that hath been taken with thee is like water spilt upon the ground For that 's the manner of the Lords proceeding with the soul of a sinner when he intends savingly and effectually to work upon him he changeth his Nature gives him another heart and as it was said of Saul in a like case 1 Sam. he makes him another man It 's the Prophesie of the power of the Gospel The Leopard becomes as a Lamb and the Lyon as a Kid Isai. 11. 6. the savage harsh and 〈◊〉 distempers which like a fretting Leprosie possessed the nature of sinners are taken away when the Lord comes to take possession of them or to prevail with them in the power of any Ordinance It 's the first step in the profession of the Gospel He that wil be Christs Disciple must deny himself he must be able to say as the blind man whom our Savior cured I was blind but now I see I was dead but now I am alive I was of a proud peevish wayward waspish contentious froward quarrelsom disposition could agree with no body nor with my self neither but since the Lord hath met with me and wrought upon me by his Word and Spirit I am not I I have another mind and another heart and another carriage and Conversation than formerly He that is in Christ and Christ in him he is a new Creature and hath a new Nature he strives most against that unto which he is most addicted by his own disposition he watcheth how to prevent that he fears al the day long lest he should be surprized with it fortifies most in the improvement of al means against that confesseth that with most sorrow and bitterness seeks with most care and diligence to obtain help from Heaven to subdue that and commonly gets the greatest ground against the same Hast thou then the same corrupt Nature Conclude thou mayest and write upon it thou never hast prayed aright heard aright thou hast never received a Sacrament aright unto this day thou hast never profited by any means thou hast enjoyed or duties thou hast performed to this day Thy Disease and distempers are desperate and likely never to be cured and thou recovered out of them when they come to be natural as it were and yield to no Remedy Jer. 13. 23. Can the Black-more change his skin and the Leopard his spots no more can they learn to do well who are accustomed to do evil There be some spots of filth which are cast upon our coats and flesh there is a sooty blackiness wherewith our garments and our skins are somtimes sullied withal by somthing from without which may be clensed and washed away with little labor in a short time but 〈◊〉 which grow out of Nature as Moles and Wens in the Body there is little hope that ever they should be altered as long as Nature it self continues It is so with distempers when some sudden occasions or temptations from without taints and pollutes the soul there is Hope in Israel that some Spiritual means like healing Medicines seasonably applied may help and recover But when men out of a corrupt inclination are customarily carried in the continuance of some distemper it 〈◊〉 like another Nature he may lose his life and soul but is like never to lose his lust that wil go to his Grave and so to Hell with him Job 20. 11 12. When wickedness is sweet in a mans mouth when he hides it under his tongue when he spares it and forsakes it not his bones are full of the sins of his youth they have been bred and brought up with him grown and continued and encreased dayly with them he would not leave them they wil not leave him they shal lie down in the dust with him rise with him to Judgment and go to Hell with him in the end Thy person comes most to be abhorred and loathed by the Almighty for which thou vainly conceivest thou mayest be pitied We pity a man that drinks poyson because it 's not his disposition to be so but the infection that befel him but the Spider and the Toad we abhor the sight and not endure to touch them because they are 〈◊〉 a poysonful Nature So it is with the Spiritual plague of thy Soul even the dearest of Gods
alas what can Nature do in such a case if God wil not help Is it equal that men be put upon impossibilities or that they should be punished for that which cannot be avoided It 's not in man to direct his own waies to subdue his own sins we are nothing else but a lump of corruption the Lord knows we do what we can and we hope we shal not be condemned for what we cannot do I Answer The Lord knows and thy Conscience knows and the world knows thou speakest a horrible fal ehood or to use the Phrase of Scripture Thou lyest and speakest not the Truth More particularly I answer Four things Thou doest not what thou mayest and canst do 〈◊〉 Lord hath left in thee the remainder of many natural abilities hath lent thee the help of many common 〈◊〉 and Graces which by Art and Education have grown to some ripeness and thou hast found the strokes of his Spirit partly restraining of thee from evil and constraining of thee to good and thou neither hast nor dost put forth actions and endeavors answerable in any measure It was said of them it 's as true of thee Rom. 1. 21. When they knew God they 〈◊〉 him not as God The unprofitable Servant was not condemned so much because he had no Talent but that when he had received a Talent he idled away his time and Talent hid it in a napkin he traded not gained not consequently Matth. 25. 25. This is thy condition thou art in his rank thy sin the same and thy sentence wil be the same thou hast 〈◊〉 one but many Talents hath not the Lord given thee a mind to conceive and a memory to retain things why canst not thou lay out these for the Lord and his Truth as wel as to lavish out both in the pursuit of the world and thine own lusts and lying vanities thou mayest read the Bible as wel as other vain Books seek the communion of Saints and thy legs would carry 〈◊〉 to them as wel as to riotous company Nay thou art not only faulty in not doing what thou canst but even neglecting 〈◊〉 opposing the practice of those Duties unto which thy judgment would carry thee and 〈◊〉 constrain thee Rom. 1. 18. thou holdest down the Truth in unrighteousness when thy reason props it thy Conscience provokes and calls this thou shouldest this thou oughtest to do and yet thou neglectest it Yea let thine own Experience give in evidence in this behalf thou laziest away thy time in the waies of thy Calling and the work of the Lord reads not 〈◊〉 not prayest not in private recallest not the things heard 〈◊〉 not in thy place with meekness but crooked carriages peevish and froward speeches rugged behaviors attend thee in thy dayly course Answer me out of thine own heart Would not so much money hire such reward promised and performed perswade thee to do such duties or reform such sins Would not the fear of some displeasure at least the sharpness of some punishment compel thee to reform outwardly to find thy heart and tongue and mind and force thee to pray and read and recal make thee bite thy lip and compose thy carriage not to speak a cross word or vent a passionate speech Thou wretch doth twenty pound or a whipping post give thee any Grace thou hadst therefore ability which thou never didst improve as thou mightest Secondly Be thy weakness whatit wil be or inability that is not the worst but that which ads to the heap of the 〈◊〉 of thy evil and the height of it Thou art not yet WILLING to be made ABLE to receive the grace which the Lord in the Gospel hath prepared and now tenders and would give thee 〈◊〉 thou but willing he should Rev. 22. 17. Oh every one that wil let him come to the waters for the Gospel doth not require that a man should beleeve by his own power nor yet condemn him because he doth not but that he wil not encline his Ear and suffer the power of the Truth to take place with him and prevail with him for good Christ comes to his own and he comes with Grace and Life but they receive him not John 1. 10 11. yea our Savior professed it to them Ye will not come to me that you might have life John 〈◊〉 40. And light is come into the world but men love darkness rather than light John 3. 19. men love their distempers hug and 〈◊〉 their lusts they are weary of the Word that would reveal and remove their corruptions Rom. 8. 7. The wisdom of the flesh is enmity against God it is not subject to the Law nor can be It hath not any Spiritual good it wil not bear the power of the Truth that would pluck away our corruptions and take place in us Do not plead so much therefore thou art not able but go to the bottom thou wouldest not be made able thou would'st have thy proud heart and not be made humble thou wouldst have thy loose heart and not be purged when thou art in Hell and art tormented with these and for these know thou hast thy will and therefore why dost thou complain Nay it is thy disposition to withdraw thy self from those means and not to give attendance and leave thy self under the stroke of the Word that would take away thy unwillingness John 3. 20. He that doth evil hates the Light and comes not to the Light he went away sorrowful Matth. 19. 22. And after that time many of his Disciples went away from him and walked no more with him because his words were spiritual and piercing which they could neither hear nor bear Not attending for redress and help against the frowardness and perversness of thy heart it 's a just and righteous thing with God to stake thee down under all thosedistempers that thou mayest be deluded with them hardened in them and damned for ever for them and thou hast no more than thou hast righteously deserved 2 Thess. 2. 10 11. Because they did not entertain the Truth in the love of it therefore he gave them up to the activity of Error that they might beleeve lyes and it 's the best Reason that ever yet appeared to my apprehension why the Woman who in Reason could not but know the Serpent could not speak yet would and did talk with it But she had begun before not to love the Truth being set to till the Garden and to keep it Gen. 2. that is to keep the wild beasts out of it she did not so therefore God gave her up to be deluded by the Serpent the like may be said of Balaams conference with his Ass in reason he should have fled from his Ass not have fallen in conference with him but when men delight not to have God in knowledg no marvel that he delivers them up to a reprobate sence Rom. 1. What ever difficulty and impossibility attends thy weakness thou art the cause of it
we take up mens minds and exercise their Ears and thoughts with some hovering Discourses and common words of course We are all sinners In many things we offend all All flesh is frail but I hope better things of you I hope there is none such amongst you Those daubing discourses and roving reproofes toothless powerless dispensations like arrowes shot a cock-height they touch not trouble not and in the issue profit no man at all They come proud and stubborn and perverse and careless they sit so and returne so day 〈◊〉 day and year aster year But you should shake up a sinner go down under the hatches to Jonah set upon the hearts of men in particular Awake thou 〈◊〉 Thou a master of a family and 〈◊〉 not 〈◊〉 not those that are under thee Thou a servant yet stubborn and 〈◊〉 and 〈◊〉 not to those that are set over thee in the Lord 〈◊〉 thou a Wife and dost not reverence and obey with 〈◊〉 him whom God hath made thy head and guide Art thou a member of a Christian Congregation and hast the name of Christ called upon thee and art thou treacherous to the Covenant of Christ opposest the government and spirit of Christ and despisest the 〈◊〉 of the Lord Jesus Awake you 〈◊〉 masters and rebellious servants perverse wives treacherous and 〈◊〉 embers Know that your Religion is vain and your selves also while these distempers rest in your bosom cal upon your own hearts for 〈◊〉 and repentance and unto God for mercy that you perish not Thus when Peter was recovered out of his fal and had the blood of Christ running warm in his veynes and the power of the spirit of the Lord now setting on the right hand of the Father filling his heart with love to his Saviour and zeal for his glory see how sharply 〈◊〉 applies the keenest 〈◊〉 to cut the Consciences of al to whom he speaketh without fear or partiality Acts. 4. 10. 11. Be it known to you Oh ye rulers and all yee people of Israel that by the name of Jesus of Nazareth whom yee have crucified you have slayn the just and inocent one and desired a murderer to be given to you c. and see the success God added daily to the Church such as should be saved It 's Cartwrights expression when our saviour sent out the sons of thunder then Satan fel like lightening from Heaven the right levelling the ordinances of Christ wil 〈◊〉 make battery in the kingdom of Satan sharp reproofs make sound Christians It 's a course which God commends in scripture and hath not fayled to bless Judges 2. 4. When the Angel pleaded the inditement so punctually so plainly against the people their hearts brake al in pieces under such blowes they lift up their voyces and wept they left cavilling and replying and fell to weeping 〈◊〉 Here see the reason why the best preaching finds the least and worst acceptance at the hands of rebellious sinners that which works and troubles most that they most distast that which gives the least quiet to them to that they give the least respect and liking like children they love raw fruit which wil breed worms and sickness rather then worme-seed though that would prevent both So men love raw and windy discourses to please sinful humors and corrupt hearts rather than some bitter and particular reproofs which would make them sound in the Faith Ahab wil nourish four hundred false Prophets at his Table feed them with Dainties and make choyce provision for them that they may feed his humor and speak good things to him when he is not able to abide the sight scarce to hear the name of ' Micaiah the Prophet of the Lord who would speak the Counsel of the Lord without fear and partiality 1 Kings 22. So they in Isai. 30. 10. They say to the Seers see not and to the Prophets 〈◊〉 not unto us right things 〈◊〉 smooth things such as might suit their sensual Appetites and would down without chewing And it 's strange to see when such men have told a grave tale and vented a heartless toothless discourse neither pith 〈◊〉 power in it I say it 's strange to see what admiration and esteem such carnal hearts wil set upon such persons and expressions great their parts prudence and discretion Oh how sweet and seasonable their discourse how glad to hear and how unweariable to attend such And al the while they may sit and sleep in their sinful condition and neither have their Consciences awakened nor their corruption discovered Squeamish Stomachs had rather take 〈◊〉 a whol week together than a bitter Potion one day This is the Disease which Paul complains of as incident to the last Age of the World and therefore adviseth his Scholler Timothy 2 Tim. 4. 2 3. To be instant in season out of season convince rebuke exhort for the time will come that men will not endure sound Doctrine but according to their proper lusts having itching Ears will heap to themselves Teachers itching Ears must be scratched not boxed Information It 's not only in the Liberty but it 's the Duty of a Minister according as the Text suits and the condition of the Hearers answer to aim at the sins of the persons and people to whom he speaks Particular application implies a special intendment of the parties 1 Kings 21. 20. When Ahab met Elijah he salutes him on this manner Hast thou found me O mine Enemy He answers him I have found thee q. d. It was my duty to do so and therefore I have endeavored it and according to my desire and endeavor I have accomplished it I came on purpose Ezek. 33. 8. If the Watch-man do not 〈◊〉 the wicked from his way that wicked man shall die in his iniquity but his blood will I require at his hand The necessity of the people the nature of the work which he intends and the charge of his place which lies upon him cals for this at the hands of a Minister Will not common Sence conceive it reasonable that the Physitian discover the Nature of the Disease that troubles the Patient and put in such Ingredients as may purge the particular Humor it 's the choycest skil he can use and the chiefest good he can do and therefore he should intend it and endeavor it in a special manner Would you not have the Commander in the Field search the particular disorder in the Camp and pursue the reformation of it in each special passage thereof Herein the Faithful Execution of his place appears This I speak the rather to crush that vain Cavil of captious Spirits Why did not the Minister mean me intend me if the Word meet with their corruptions and begin to ransack and search the festered sores of their guilty Consciences I Answer four things If 〈◊〉 heart misgive thee that thou art 〈◊〉 he did mean thee he should mean thee If thy heart condemn thee know that God is greater than thy
sinner and to speak terror to his Conscience out of the word that they may be troubled and tumbled and so find rest at the day of Christ. These Quack-salvers send the distressed sinner to sports pastimes and recreations and merry Company that they take up their thoughts and take off their minds from attending to their sins or the truth that is take off the Slave that should cure them spil the Physick that should heal their maladies thus they ease their terrors for the while that they may increase their torment forever accursed comforters or rather they take up the Devils name and Office Apollyon destroyers of the souls of men therefore holy Peter gave that advise to these hearers Save your selves from this crooked generation q. d. your safety and their society cannot stand together you must not continue with them if you would have the power and comfort of the word continue with you and therefore experience evidenceth God so disposeth ever in the dispensation of the work of his Grace either the sinner that is wounded wil shake off his wicked company or els the counsel of the word and the worke of Gods spirit Hence that of the Apostle Eph. 5. 14. Stand up from the dead and Christ shal give thee light and 2 Cor. 6. 17. Come out from among them and be yee separate and then I wil receive you and walk among you God wil not walk with you if you wil walk with the world there is no coming into communion with Christ unless we come out there Christ tells his disciples John 15. 19. I have chosen you out of the world Exhortation We here see the way that the Lord hath chalked out before us the means which in mercy and in way of his providence he hath provided appointed to break our hearts to bring us to his son and so to life We are therfore to be exhorted to attend and follow the counsel of the Lord that we may expect and so receive his blessing even with Consciencious diligence and studious endeavour to press on to the perfourmance of this service some hapily never knew it looked not at it as a labor or task that did 〈◊〉 to them let such now own it and set about it with al 〈◊〉 might others it may be have been convinced of the duty and have been forward in the practice of it in former times and forced to it in the 〈◊〉 of their distrels but now are fallen back and grown wearish in their way those are to be perswaded to proceed on with more chearfulness and speed he that never knew the work let him now learn it He that hath set about it in former times let him be for ever quickened and encouraged in it Joyn al your counsels and resolutions you that are children and servants in the same family members in the same assemblies neighbours in the same place and plantation and 〈◊〉 upon each other to this holy course Lam. 3. 40. Let us search and try our wayes and turn again unto the Lord. say so one to another you that are privy to the wretchedness of your own hearts and lives we complain and that justly of a giddy slightness of spirit we meet with many stroks of the word stirrings and recoylings of spirit our hearts misgive us many checks of Conscience and motives we think of the holy Ghost cast into our minds but nothing stayes with us sticks upon us they pass away insensibly and leave no impression no power behind them we wash away al we cannot but see and wonder at the unreasonable hardness of our heart and condemn our selves who have had so many blows from Gods hand and they break not so many dreadful threatnings we hear out of the word dayly able to shak the heart of a Divel we stirr not we are not affected therewith our corruptions are hainous for their nature many for their number accompanied with direful plagues from the Lord are daily before our eyes have driven many to untimely deaths and so to Hel. We cannot but acknowledg al this and yet we be not touched with any saving remorse for them we have had al helps and the Lord hath tried al conclusions upon us and yet al in vain Who knows but we have been negligent this ordinance and therefore God hath cursed al others we have not used this means as wel as others and therefore we have got benefit by none who knowes but the want of this hath hindred the success of al other that we have had and used in our times and places Oh then recover our former carelesness send our thoughts a far off and survey our former conversations let us search and consider our own wayes who knows but the Lord may turn our hearts to him Let us question our own souls and say to our selves what have we done that it may be beyond question that God hath humbled pardoned and accepted of us What is the reason that one sinks under the sin that another never feels It is with our sins as with our burdens he that sees a weight and it may be lifts at it but if he never lay it upon his shoulder or if it be layed he never keeps it there but casts it off immediately he wil never be touched or troubled with it which another dies under as not able to endure so it is here our sins and iniquities are a burden too heavy for any man to bear and not to break under them and they who are forced to feel the Least of them are compelled to confess as much as the Devils and damned in Hel the wicked in horror of Conscience my punishment is greater than can be endured Others whom God abates of the execution of his displeasure for the present these men look at them and may lift at them a little by some sudden flashy and flitting apprehension as they hear or read c. But by Meditation to bind this burden upon their Consciences that the heart cannot get from under it they are not able to abide the weight of them therefore wil not abide the thought of them they 〈◊〉 off and cast away the burden and so they never feel it before the infinite Justice of the Lord seizeth upon their souls by everlasting discouragement Better we set them in order before our eye trouble our hearts with them than that the Lord should set them in order before us at the day of Judgment and tear us in pieces when there shal be none to deliver us To help in this so hard a buisiness let me speak something 1. By way of provocation to stir you up to this work 2. By way of direction to guid you in it To provoke your hearts thereunto take these considerations Let every man take it to himself as his own task charge it upon his own soul as a service which by unavoydable necessity lyes upon him which he may not neglect This wil awaken the soul to the work say
he did he would otherwise reward us As Taul saith Rom. 9. 20. Nay but O man who art thou that repliest against God 2. Beware I say beware of bringing the righteous Command and holy Law of God which discovers our sins and requires our Duties and our ability and feebleness together as though the power and principle of the Work must come from us and we go out in that For there wil follow bigh and hellish provocations fierce and fel rebellions against the Lord when out of thine own heart thou dost tug against thine own heart and corruption for instead of the first principle of working which is not in us but in the Lord Jesus we become the first principle of sinning and then direful and dreadful effects wil follow which I profess I am afraid to speak lest I should occasion some tender hearts through mistakes to question 3. Check and 〈◊〉 all those risings with that of the Apostle Rom. 9 21 22. What if God will not and deny any Spiritual power of thine own and stand stil and expect no principle of any performance in thy self but that which is from God in and by his Word and let him alone with thy heart Say I have nothing it 's fit I should have nothing it's righteous that God should give me nothing I do not expect to do any Spiritual good of my self nor yet expect that God should give me Grace for what I do because al that I do is sin only I know it is with him to do what he wil the wil the power and thework is al from him therefore I wil lie in his way and be at the pool it may be he wil cast me in I know he can and who knows but he may if not I have no reason to rise up against him Men devise new Rules and make new Gospels of their own and set such a measure to themselves in their own apprehensions which unless they can compass they are resolved to take no content nay not to follow any other direction than that they have coyned in their own conceit and thus they please themselves in their own apprehensions and resolve to dwel in the consideration of their sins until their hearts were brought so low see themselves so vile the soul so through broken under the weight of their evil and their own unworthiness else what have they to do with a Christ or once to look toward him How we come to grapple with the heart by Meditation we heard before and because this Work is wearisom in it self and tedious to our corrupt Nature to be ever raking in the Wound set a mans heart upon the rack and keep it in restless disquiet that the venom of a mans guilt and plagues should ever be before his eyes and the Summons to Judgment ever sounding in his Ears the soul is not able to bear the unsupportable weight thereof and therefore it cannot get to Christ to be cured and healed it winds and turns every way that yet it may be eased therefore the sinner tries al conclusions that possible may be that he may drive away the dismal thoughts of his sinful condition and cast aside those stabbing considerations that makes his heart die within him Therefore he turns every stone if he can drink it out or game it out or work it out or pray it out or any waies or by any means wear out the thoughts that weary him of his life Thus he strives if he cannot get good by his Mediration yet to get rid of it because he cannot be bettered by it he would not be troubled with it As the Patient when he is not able to bear the extremity of the Corrosive that would eat out the proud flesh takes it off and laies it aside rather keep his sore though it hazard his life than suffer the smart of it and may be his perversness costs him his life A serious consideration set on and kept on upon the soul is like this extream Corrosive the rebellious heare is not able to endure the continuance of it and therfore at last it wil make an escape from under the sting and strength of it if possibly it may and usually it doth unless the Lord put forth his powerful hand in some special help and therefore herein lies the last and the hardest part of Meditation to get above the heart and to get the better of it And to this purpose the Directions are Three Labor to possess thy heart aright with a dreadful fear of thy sinful and desperate condition maintain it alive in thy self that it may go along with thee that will keep thy Meditation alive also and mightily prevailing Where a mans fears are his thoughts wil be they carry a mans consideration uncontroulably with them Fear is a faithful Watch-man it sends post between the head and heart it cals up our consideration and thoughts and carries them along with them as the occasion is presented and it 's beyond al a mans skil either to prevent the coming or gainsay the power and overbearing force of fears If once Satan get the heart fearless it becomes careless and thoughtless as I may so speak Eliphas couples them together Job 15. 14. Thou casrest off fear and restrainest prayer thou hast taken off the activity of fear fear hath fallen from his authority and then it follows thou restrainest prayer Fear keeps Centinel gives the 〈◊〉 dayly to the soul of the approaching plagues as the deserts of our sins cals up the best ability of our minds and strength of our thoughts to attend the 〈◊〉 so that there is no sleeping nor idling under such a watch-man What wil be the Judgments which your sins deserve who can conceive and how soon they may come who can tel Come they wil that 's certain but when they wil come that 's uncertain think and ever be inusing how to prevent those evils that ye are never able to avoid nor bear Job compares fear to an Army of mighty force that commands where it comes Job 30. 15. Terrors are turned in upon me they pursue me 〈◊〉 the wind therefore by an over-ruling command they cal for attendance of the strength of the mind and man and they cannot be put off or laid aside or silenced but press a man to his most serious consideration to be exercised with all diligence how to foresee and prevent the evils expected Psal. 48. 6. Fear is said to seize and lay hold upon the sinner as travel upon a woman with child We know when the appointed time of Travel comes on there is no preventing or delaying of the work as that the party can stay til the 〈◊〉 day or week or hour nor yet can she put off her work to another as she may do her other occasions as a friend may go this way for her a servant may do that which she desires but when her throws come no body can stay them no body must bear them but her self and
Hebrews 6. 8. The Earth that often drinketh in the rain and yet brings forth thorns and 〈◊〉 is nigh is nigh unto cursing whose end is to be burned The rain is the Word heard understood embraced acknowledged and yet have their malicious venemous conspiracies against the Gospel of God and Saints of Christ and that in 〈◊〉 like thorns under the leaves like bryars under pretence of moderation and humility can scratch bitterly it 's a heavy suspicion their end wil be burning Take heed thou content not thy self in thy rebellious condition for upon this supposition that thou wilt have this thou puttest thy self out of any possibility of good goest against Gods Order Course and Covenant and the whol Work of Redemption Christ comes to bless his by turning them away from their sins Acts 3. last and therefore when the Lord comes to hale thee out of thy sins take heed thou dost not go from under Gods strivings lest he strive with thee no more EXHORTATION We have hence special motives to quicken the desires and provoke the endeavors of the most carnal minded men in the world to attend with all the care and diligence they may upon the means of Grace But you wil tel us It is not in our Preparations Performances and Improvements that our Spiritual good depends there is nothing we can do can procure it it depends wholly upon the good pleasure of the Lord Why then should we trouble our selves to endeavor any thing I Answer The Inference is the quite contrary way All is in God and his good pleasure attend therefore upon him in his own means that thou mayest receive al from him If a man should reason thus I can do nothing for my self therefore I wil take a course that no man shall do any thing for me it were not a weakness but a kind of madness but rather in common sence a man would be provoked to press his own heart thus I can do nothing of my self therefore I must attend upon God in those means which he useth to do for all those he useth to do good unto So the Disciples to our Savior when he would arm them against his departure Will ye also go away John 6. 68. They answer Lord whither should we go thou only hast the words of eternal life Christ only can humble and convert Christ only hath peace and pardon therefore only go to him We are so wise for our bodies where one is most like to speed every man is most willing to go especially considering as nothing can purchase his favor 〈◊〉 nothing can 〈◊〉 the expression of his good pleasure when he wil go therefore what ever thy condition is When thou art at the weakest here is supply As he said Why stand you gazing fainting and famishing get ye into Egypt for Corn that we may live and not die though thou livest in the height of the perversness of thy heart in the out-rage of thy rebellion though thou carriest a scornful contemptuous spirit with thee yet go who knows when is Gods time what he may do bring your own souls your rebellious Servants and disobedient Children fall down at the foot of Christ in his Ordinances and say Here are a company of Hellish Traitrous hearts which bring proud stubborn scornful rebellious distempers like so many bloody weapons even to wound thy good Majesty withal Oh pluck these weapons out of our hands these treasons out of our hearts that would pluck us to thee and so to destruction As we cannot deserve any thing so our wretchedness cannot hinder thy Work And because thou knowest not the season of mercy take al seasons thou knowest not what time God may or wil work because it is in his own pleasure therefore attend upon him at al times 2. Tim. 2. 25. Proving if at any time God will give thee Repentance Attend upon him in all Ordinances because it is in his pleasure to breath in which he wil and to bless which he wil for thy Spiritual Comfort Sow thy Seed in the morning and in the evening because thou knowest not which may prosper this or that Eccles. 11. 6. Thou knowest not whether Prayer or Meditation or Reading wil prosper and which of these or any other Ordinance God wil bless for the saving good of thy soul. When thou findest the Lord stirring moving enabling and working in thee move thou and work thou also As the Marriner when he finds the gale coming any way he tacks about 〈◊〉 way to take the advantage God was tampering with the heart of Agrippa it was at a ha now a ha Thou hast almost perswaded me to become a Christian saies he to Paul Acts 26. 28. Ah what a pity was it he should fal back again It 's matter os wonderment able to swallow up the heart of a sinner with the everlasting admiration of this 〈◊〉 unmatchable kindness of the Lord. Micah 7. 18. Who is a God like unto thee that pardonest iniquity and passest by the transgression of the remnant of his Heritage He retaineth not his anger for ever because he 〈◊〉 in mercy he will turn again he will have compassion upon us he will subdue our iniquities and thou wilt cast all their sins into the depths of the Sea You that have tasted how good the Lord is and found this Truth made good in your own hearts by your own experience as Paul was wont to recount his course I was a persecuter blasphemous and injurious but I obtained mercy I doubt not but many of you may say if ever there was a Fiend in Hell or a Rebel upon Earth I was one an opposer of the Gospel a despiser of the means of Grace a hater of the holy waies of the Lord and his servants that walk therein yet then God did me good when I desired and 〈◊〉 my own hurt Get ye homeye blessed Saints and in the secret of your Closets cal Heaven and Earth together and leave these compassions upon Record Say the time was this carnal mind of mine plotted my wretched 〈◊〉 and mine own ruin but then the Lord prevented both I opposed 〈◊〉 entreaties and he yet pursued me and would take no 〈◊〉 he called after me wept over me Turn ye turn ye why will you die I provoked him he pitied me I resisted him he imbraced me I said I would have none of him nor his Grace he said he would have no denial I resolved to walk on in the frowardness of mine own 〈◊〉 and to perish in the despight of al means and he would and did shew me mercy in the despight of the pride and rebellion of this heart or else I had never seen this day nor never had hope to see his face in glory Be astonished and confounded at this O ye Devils and come down ye blessed Angels from Heaven and magnifie this mercy Leave this in your last will and testament to your little ones O ye Fathers leave
delivers touching Gods Dispensation and I know not but it may hold here Psal. 18. 27. With the froward thou wilt deal frowardly the place is hard for the apprehension of it in the fair and full sence of it The words that go before will give in some light With the bountiful thou wilt shew thy self bountiful with the perfect thou wilt be perfect with the pure thou wilt shew thy self pure and with 〈◊〉 perverse or froward thou 〈◊〉 shew thy self froward thou wilt make thy self deal frowardly To speak to the pinch of the Point but in two words I conceive 〈◊〉 to be the meaning 〈◊〉 the place and the mind of God in it He that walks with God in the exercise of the Rule in a 〈◊〉 manner God 〈◊〉 meet with him in it and give him the 〈◊〉 and comfort that follows and flows from it he that conscienciously keeps the Rule shal be more fitted for to keep it and to share in the blessing and 〈◊〉 of it he that deals bountifully in vertue of the Rule he shal be more apt to that Duty and shal find bountiful dealings from the hands of others God and men he that is upright thorough and simple in Spirit and practice he shal be more exact every way and find peace and praise as the fruit of that he that is pure that is not only contents himself to be simple and sincere hearted in his whol course but is dayly purging himself and clensing his own heart 〈◊〉 severing himself from such taints and remainders of distempers that appear and 〈◊〉 to cleer up the Rule in the beauty and excellency thereof to himself that he may see more of it submit more freely and fully to it the Lord will make himself pure to him So the word God wil let in pure instructions that no darkness or dimness may stumble him or cause him to mistake pure evidence of pardon and acceptance no guilt may unsettle him pure comforts and peace that no doubts or fears may discourage him pure holiness and power of 〈◊〉 that no strength of corruption may blur the Image of God in him or darken the Evidence of the Work of Grace received But 〈◊〉 a man will be froward crook the Rule go cross to the Command and wil walk in the vanity of his own 〈◊〉 and stubbornness of his own Spirit oppose the power of the Truth not willing to look upon or abide to hear of the purity of it God will shew himself froward towards such a one he wil 〈◊〉 you and cross you in your whol course and in al your comforts you crook and wind away from the Rule to content your sins God by his Righteous Law by vertue of the provoking power therof wil deliver you up to the power of your sins and to al the terros and plagues and expressions of his 〈◊〉 that attend thereupon and in the daies of thy distress when nothing wil help thee but the holy Word of God God wil then deal with you and follow you with the 〈◊〉 of your own 〈◊〉 thou would'st not see the holiness and purity of Gods Precepts thou 〈◊〉 have a mind not able to attend or receive or remember any thing that may be for thy direction support or comfort but only live upon thine own guilt and the terrors that attend thereupon and the perversness of thine own heart wil be thine own plague In your froward pangs you flinch and fling care not what you say or do God can be as 〈◊〉 as you nor hear prayers nor regard your complaints nor pity your necessities but pursue you with his plagues let fly on every hand the fierceness of his displeasure God can and wil hamper thee if thou had'st a heart as sierce as a 〈◊〉 of Hell make thee weary of thy part be as perverse as thou wilt or canst be And therefore the word in the place is marvelous pregnant it signifies to contend with another as one that wrastles wil do wreath and 〈◊〉 and turn his body every way that he may meet with his adversary with whom he is to grapple So the Lord will meet with thee at every turn the greater thy opposition hath been against him the greater expression of his displeasure shalt thou be sure to 〈◊〉 and that in the most dreadful manner The sins of Manasseh were high handed and hellish abominations mighty provocations out of measure sinful 2 Chron. 33. 11. Therefore God abased him mightily fettered and 〈◊〉 and humbled him mightily and made him cry mightily before he could 〈◊〉 audience and acceptance with him the cruel and harsh carriage of the Jaylor Acts 16. exceeded his Commission and so the bounds of common Humanity to deal worse with the distressed than either their Fact deserved or the Law permitted or Authority allowed him in that behalf a 〈◊〉 transported with deadly indignation against the waies of God and his People and as it appears by the circumstances of the story a man that pleased 〈◊〉 in such unreasonable practices the Lord therefore handles him answerably to the harshness of his spirit makes the Earth quake and the Prison totter the bolts break and the door fly open and at last his heart begins to shake and die within him notwithstanding the fierceness of his Spirit So Paul Acts 9. he comes trembling to crave the Counsel of those whose presence formerly he loathed There is a Three-fold Ground from whence the Reasons of this Point may be fetched which will Evidence That this manner of proceeding best suits with the insinite Wisdom of God look we at God at others at the sinner himself with whom the Lord is now trading The Holiness of Gods Nature and exactness of his Truth not only commends but even seems with some kind of comely necessity to call for such a manner of Dispensation The Lord stiles himself the holy One of Israel a God of purer eyes than can endure to behold iniquity not able to pass by sin in the least appearance of it and therefore leaves so strict a charge beware lest there be an evil thought in thy heart and abstain from all appearance of evil 1 Thes. 5. When the Lord is to convince the sinner of sin to express his mind and displeasure against him because of those his evils so scandalous and detestable to al that have but the least spark of saving knowledg and Grace yea loathsom to the very light of Conscience in corrupt Nature Should the Lord casily and overly 〈◊〉 them by with some smal 〈◊〉 of some little dislike it could not but impeach his Purity and make himself accessary to the dishonor of his own Holiness When Eli proceeded not with that zeal against 〈◊〉 evil of his Sons as the 〈◊〉 thereof might justly have provoke 〈◊〉 him unto but after a slight manner manifested a heart-less dislike of it the Lord 〈◊〉 1 Sam. 2. 39. That he honored his sons before him rather respected their carnal content that they might not be
contrary and who can expect but he wil accomplish what he hath said the Word excepts no man what folly is it then that I should except my self 2 Thess. 2. 12. That all they might be damned that have pleasure in unrighteousness If I take the same pleasure I must look for the same plagues Luke 13. 5. Except ye repent ye shal all likewise perish If I be in that condition I must expect the same condemnation and be likewise accursed and confounded and cast out from the presence of the Lord. It 's certain it will be so and it 's uncertain how soon it may be What if God do Who knows but God will What if God should pluck me out of the Land of the Living I may truly justly suspect it may be so and fear it will When I lie down I shal never rise more when I go forth I shal never return more when I depart from the house I should take my leave and never see Sabbath more nor the Assembly of the Saints more why may not my meat be my poyson my table my ruin my bed my grave all Creatures instruments of death to me who have been an enemy to God So that their hearts begin to fail them for fear 〈◊〉 21. 26. Thus the 〈◊〉 under the 〈◊〉 of his 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Acts. 19. 27. Adam at the coming of the Lord into the garden feared and fled Gen. 3. 10. this is the fruit of the spirit of bondage Rom. 8. 15. and the distressed sinner becomes as Pashur a terror to himself Jer. 20. 3. 4. the slying of a 〈◊〉 the 〈◊〉 of a leaf the shadow of darkness and approach of the night like the shadow of death he knowes not but the devils may have received a commission this night shall they 〈◊〉 away thy soul 〈◊〉 thee and drag it down to hell While the sinner is 〈◊〉 fearing the evil that is deserved behold the feet of the officer now approaching to see present excution 〈◊〉 and therefore the Lord in the third place puts a commission into the hand of Conscience really to attach and arrest the soul of a sinner to fasten all those curses upon the soul and to force it to feel the vennome of those punishments which were formerly threatned and feared That as it was said to Belshazzar when he was quassing in his cups and bowls of the Sanctuary and the hand writing came out against him the appearance of it affrighted him with the expectation of some direful evil but the present execution of it ushered in ruin upon him and his Kingdom Dan. 5. 28. 30. So the Prophet to thee be it spoken thou art weighed in the ballance and found too light thy Kingdom is departed from thee So Conscience as Gods officer comes to see 〈◊〉 execution done and therefore comes authorised as a serjeant to arrest as a witness to accuse as a judg to condemn tells the soul thou art weighed in the scales of the Sanctuary and 〈◊〉 too light thy doom is past thy destiny is determined thy sentence set down and thy salvation is departed from thee that which thou didst fear is now befallen thee and thou must feel it to thy wo Psal. 140. 11. wickedness hunts the wicked man but it overtakes them also If Conscience condemnes God is greater than our Conscience and he condemnes much more His iniquities lay hold upon him that he is not able to look up Psal. 40. 14. thou hast feared the punishment of sin before man and hast not 〈◊〉 to commit sin before God and thus thou hast sealed up thy condemnation casting away the goodness of the Lord. If thou doest evil sin lyes at the dore Gen. 4. Hence flowes in the fearful expression of the displeasure of the Almighty the dreadful wrath of the Eternal like the mighty waves of the Sea overwhelm and sink the soul of the sinner in desperate discouragement There be 2 things in sin 1 The 〈◊〉 of it 2 the punishment that comes from it the stayn in it and the sting and tartness of it cross to me and cross to God cross to my honor and shames me cross to my quiet and peace and troubles me cross to my safety and destroyes me And this second the sinner is firstly most sensible of the plague of sin first stings and stabs the heart Because nature seeks its own preservation and self love carryes al men readily and easily to provide for their own safety And here sorrow begins usually when the Lord by the Ministry of Conscience awakened encamps about the sinner with al the curses of his righteous law broken besigeth him with the armies of his indignation and his fierce wrath followes him at every turn So that now 〈◊〉 ever he is which way so ever he turns himself his sins and plagues compass him about on every side If he look to heaven he sees a just God there ready to destroy him before him are his sins ready to accuse him within him nothing but guilt to condemn him below him hell opening her mouth prepared to receive him and the Devils at 〈◊〉 to torment his wretched 〈◊〉 as soon as it 〈◊〉 depart out of his body And 〈◊〉 behold 〈◊〉 pale 〈◊〉 those weak hands and feeble knees that the poor creature becomes not worth the ground he goes on a 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 himself and weary of his life The Lord dishes out 〈◊〉 sins and plagues to him on the table where he 〈◊〉 writes them upon the tester of the bed 〈◊〉 he lyes his pressures and miseries become unsupportable and unsufferable and were it not that God sustaines with one hand as he beats him with the other A wounded Conscience no man can bear Hence it is in such horror men betake themselves to the pit to the knife to the halter rather choose not to be then to be so miserable In these perplexities the sinner as a man under his burden would shift shoulder try al conclusions turn every stone wind every way if any way he could get ease or relief And if the counsel of carnal friends can lessen the trouble company allay it false reasonings of his own vain mind abate it time and continuance wear out the terror his confessions and reformations put in bayl upon his Conscience and quiet it or some false mistakes of pardon and mercy heal the wound he walks in a wily way how to serve sin and yet God too how to keep in with the truth upon some fayr tearms and yet attend his own ends the man is where he was returnes to his ould sinful distempers and the latter end proves worse than the beginning he dyes in the birth Thus millions of men perish go within the view of Canaan and never possess it cast away in the very haven within the sight of land and never arrive But he whom God loves he wil not leave here though his hand be upon the sore and his eye upon the sting and terror the plagues and judgments
Gods spirit and grace and al the saveing operations of al the means thereof The flesh lusts against the spirit and the spirit against the flesh and these two are contrary Gal. 5. 17. And what is born of the flesh is flesh John 3. 7. that is the temper and inward constitution of a soul in its natural condition it s wholly born of the flesh and therefore nothing but flesh and therefore can do nothing but resist the spirit yea it cannot but oppose what ever would take that resistance away for it 's a received rule of reason and confessed of al hands every thing desires the preservation of it self and its being otherwise the being and the causes that made up the being should be cross to the thing if it should endeavor its own destruction nay a thing should be opposite to it self Hence it is that the corruption of the heart wil put forth al the skil strength it hath or by the contrivements of carnal reason can compass to fortify preserve it self against the spiritual and saving dispensation of the work of Gods spirit in his own ordinances because wicked men look at the power thereof as that which works the ruin of their lusts therefore they labor to avoyd the light if they can if not that to oppose it and overbear it by their delusions if not that to destroy it they wil not hear the truth or gainsay what they hear or abhor and loath what they cannot many times gainsay nay endeavour to destroy what they so hate and are tormented withal The wisdom of the flesh cannot be subject to the law Rom. 8. 7. the heart riseth up in armes and indignation against the soul-saving and uncontroulable evidences of the truth they wil not be ruled by the holiness of it and they cannot endure the terror and Majesty of it 〈◊〉 sometimes the Philystians dealt with the Ark when it came into the field they thus spake one to another there was never such a thing heard of as this these are the Gods that destroyed the Egiptians in the red Sea quit your selves like men Oh yee Philystins that ye be not servants to the Hebrewes They say of the word as sometimes of our Saviour Math. 21. this is the Heyr come let us kill him and the inheritance shal be ours they cannot have their lusts so long as the power of the word would overtop and cross them therefore Herodias prefers John Baptists head before half the Kingdom that she might be quiet in her sins Before the soul can act against the evil of sin or for the removal of this resistance wherein the destroying venom of sin lyes and that which stops the passage of the power of the ordinance the work of Grace It 's necessary that the Lord should not only concur with the 〈◊〉 of the wil of a sinner to lead or draw forth the act thereof which he hath ability to express but he must let in an influence of the 〈◊〉 power vertue into the faculty of the wil whereby it may be enabled to put forth an act unto which it formerly it had no power of it self It 's a subtile pang of Pelagianism and the Arminians som of their successors have licked up that loathsom heresy of theirs at this day 〈◊〉 this delusion cunning pretence of theirs they would color over those rotten and poysonful conceits hence it is they labor to bear men in hand that they labor to set forth and exalt the honour of Gods free grace they profess that without the preventing grace of God mans free wil and al that ability he hath left in nature since the fal is able to do no spiritual good The words are fayr but the intent is fals and 〈◊〉 and indeed they do privily and cunningly undermine the work of Gods grace while they pretend indeed to advance it For the meaning is this God must enlighten mens minds and reveal the things of life and happiness to mens wils excite stir up and cal forth their hearts to the embracing of that which is good and concur with him in their endeavors to the performance of the work or else they can do nothing so that upon this grant Gods free grace in the work of conversion cals forth and concurs with that act which mans free wil hath sufficiency to put forth which is to make man share with God in his work and to part stakes with him But the truth is this The Lord must let in an influence of some special motion and operation and leave some impression of spiritual power upon the wil to enable it to act not onely to concur with the act thereof God gives a man ability whereby he may wil doth not 〈◊〉 with him by assistance and providence when he wills as one in whom we live and move Of the first of these it 's true which many of the Antients speak God works without us many things in us i. e. unto which we being in no causal ability at al God gives us ability to do that which is pleasing and spiritual to the obtaining whereof we had no causal ability of our own when the Lord Christ raised Lazarus now dead and smelling in the Grave he did not concur with the action and motion of his Soul in rising out of the Grave but without any causal concurrence or help of Lazarus he put a soul into his body whereby he was enabled to stir and move So it is with a soul dead in sins and trespasses when the mind and will have no ability for any spiritual act not able to take off that deadness and indisposition that is there the Lord without the will without any causal concurrence of it le ts in ability into it for the work and concurs with it in the work So Paul expresseth this manner of Gods Work 2 Cor. 4. 6. He causeth light to shine out of darkness he gives light and being out of darkness without the help of light and then concurs with the light in the shining of it God lets in an Influence to the will not only lends a concurrence to the work The Influence of this spiritual Power whereby the Lord takes away this sinful resistance is not by any gracious habit of sanctification but by an irresistable motion of the work of his spirit upon the soul By a gracious habit of Sanctification I mean those spiritual Graces of Wisdom Holiness Righteousness in which Adam at first was created and according unto which al the Elect and called are renewed according to the Image of him that created them Eph. 4. 24. Col. 3. 10. these gracious habits are so many Spiritual and Supernatural Principles as it were left in the soul whereby it is in a state of Life and Grace and liberty and free will to any good and therefore as those that are Agents by Counsel they are 〈◊〉 of their own work can act or not act can act more or less according to
it vexed al the veyns of their hearts that 's the way to weary them and there they solace themselves ah it's roast meat to them and thus it is a pastime to a fool to do wickedly but know thou art a hard-hearted fool a graceless wretch in the wise mans account do not our plantations groan under such sons of Belial such senceless 〈◊〉 do they not swarm in our streets are not our families pestered with such Esau-like when he sold his 〈◊〉 eat and drank and rose up and went his way not affected with what he had lost not ashamed of what he had done but 〈◊〉 of al or like the man in the Gospel possessed with the Devil sometime he cast him into the fire and sometime into the water so these rush headily into sin and impudently continue in such 〈◊〉 courses they commit sin and continue in sin hasten Gods wrath and their own ruin and go away senceless of al so that it 's now seasonable to take Jeremiahs complaint I 〈◊〉 and heard and no man sayd what have I done 〈◊〉 Jer. 8. 6. He might and did hear of hideous vile evils without any diligent hearkning see and meet loathsom distempers without any searching but when he followed men home wondring in what quiet do these men live what comfort do these men find how do they bear up their hearts under such hellish carriages I wil go see how they lye down in their beds and whether they dare sleep or no under such trangression and such guilt and when he came he hearkned surely I shal now hear them mourn bitterly afflict their hearts with unfained grief there is no such thing no man said what have I done not a word of that it was the least part of their care the furthest off their thoughts And this is the temper the condition and disposition of scores hundreds of you that hear this word at this instant Is not the day yet to dawn the hour yet to come that ever you shed a tear sent up a sigh to heaven in the sence of thy evils or set thy self in secret to bewail thy distempers before the Lord God knows and your hearts know the Chambers where you lodge the Beds where you lie can bring in witness against you you are strangers to this blessed brokenness of heart yea enemies to it you were pricked no not so much as in your eyes nor in your tongues God and his word and al means that have been tried could never wrest a tear from thine eye not a confession out of thy mouth thou wilt commit thy follies and die in the defence or excuse of them but to have thy heart affected in serious manner with the filth of thy sinful distempers it is to thee a riddle to this day Nay there be thousands in the bottomless pit of hell that never had the like means as thou never committed the like sins and yet never had such a senceless sottish heart under such rebellions as thy self Wo be to you that laugh now you shal mourn those flinty spirits of yours wil not break now they shal certainly burn you draw a light harrow now you find no burden of your pride and stubbornness rebellions idleness and noysom lusts they are no burdens ye can go boult upright with them and Sampson like carry the very gates of hell upon your backs and never buckle under them wel the time wil com you wil cal to the mountains to fal upon you and the hills to cover you from the infinite weight of Gods everlasting displeasure Tast a little the sting of this sin and see the compass of this accursed condition of thine and go no further than the point in hand Thou art far without the walk of the Almighty there is no dealing and entercourse between thee and the holy one of Israel the Almighty passeth by and wil not so much as change a word with thee or cast a look 〈◊〉 thee to leave any remembrance of himself upon thy soul thou livest as though thou hadst nothing to do with him nor he with thee nothing to do with grace or heaven the holy spirit a wes some humbles others some it quickens that were sluggish establisheth others who were weak onely thou art senceless of any operation of the Lord thou hast a heart that puts away the presence of the Lord out of thy mind if it were possible thy fleece is dry when there is dew upon al the earth this is that which the Apostle discovers to be the cause of that heavy curse of the heathen Eph. 4. 18. strangers from the life of God by reason of the hardness of their hearts Oh thou hast a 〈◊〉 heart and leadest a strang life even as opposite to God as darkness to light hell to heaven differs onely but in degree from that 〈◊〉 which appears most eminently amongst the Devills and damned even to be an adversary to God and his grace to stand it out in defiance with the divine goodness of God his power and faithfulness Pharaoh he 〈◊〉 it but thou dost it 〈◊〉 it out with the Almighty and impudently darest the great God who is Jehovah I know not Jehovah neither wil I let my heart go to yield subjection and service to him I know no authority of a command that shal rule me nor admonition that shal awe or reforme me Thus thou art a stranger to the wisdom of God the folly of thine own self-deceiveing mind and heart leads thee and deludes thee thou art a stranger to the grace and holiness of the Lord the perversness and rebellion of thine own wretched heart takes place onely with thee yea a stranger to mercy and to the compassions and consolations of the Lord Jesus and his blessed spirit who choosest thine own ruin lovest thine own death following lying vanities and forsakest the mercies purchased and tendred to thee Upon these tearms in which thou now standest God hath appoynted no good for thee while thou continuest in this temper as he said write this man childless so write upon it write thy soul graceless that shal never prosper Isa. 61. 1. 2. The spirit of the Lord is upon me because the Lord hath annointed me to preach good 〈◊〉 to the meek to bind up the broken hearted liberty to the captives opening of the prison to those that are bound to appoint to them that mourn in Zion beauty for ashes the garment of gladness for the spirit of heaviness thou hearest the glad tidings of mercy pardon and peace grace of life that passeth understanding joy unspeakable rich and plentiful redemption from al sins and miseryes which God hath layd up in his everlasting decree and laid out in the great work of redemption by the Lord Jesus but thou mayest set thy heart at rest as long as thou seest that hard heart of thine thou shalt never see good day joy and comfort and liberty they are not thy allowance they are childrens bread it
and found not the harlot he was content to let her go away with his ring and bracelet lest saith he we be ashamed So David would have covered his solly with 〈◊〉 by sending Uriah to his own house 2 Sam. 11. And for a push the very servants of the Lord may be surprised with this sinful shifting away of their shame from them and al that while never see their sincerity nor find peace but when they are brought to see their sin then they yield immediately 2 Sam. 12. 13. I have saith David sinned against the Lord. Sometime by falshood gainsaying and denying so Gehazi 2 Kings 5. 25. Where hast thou been Gehazi thy servant went no whither Somtime colouring excusing putting it off as Saul to Samuel first it were not done then the people did it then he did it but for sacrifice and for love to Gods worship 1 Sam. 15. and in the issue he would be helped against his shame but not against his sin yet honor me before the people v. 30. he doth not say let me be humbled before the people who have sinned before them of this rank are these when the stals of Conscience and the pressures of their spirits constrain them to confess and seek for ease their complaints are like Lapwings cryes farthest from their nest or their bosom distempers which lye in the deck onely their acknowledgments are so general and of such evils that more or less belong to al and therefore they conceive they are yet under a safe cover little shame wil fal to their share Oh they are proud and dead hearted and have a deal of self within them the issue is here and the English is this I say I am thus and who is not so more or less and so a little shame wil come to their allowance and allotment And if their words which fal from them give a prudent man advantage of further enquirie and just suspicion to lay his hand upon the loathsom sore you wil see what shuffling and winding and biting of the lip wil presently appear The fourth and last sort are such who when the arrowes of the Lord have stuck fast in them and the venom therof hath drunk up their spirits when the poyson of their sin and pangs of conscience like a strong potion hath made them extremely sick that they are not able to conceal their evils any longer but the vengeance of the Lord forceth them to vomit out al their filth to the ful as a stiring potion kept in works with much violence but when it s over and they have thus taken the shame it s with no content to them it s a secret torment that their own tongues have gone beyond their own intents they do inwardly repine and befool themselves and could eat their flesh that ever they should lay themselves open so to contempt and therefore they begin to devise wayes and means how to mitigate the matter that it may not seem loathsom nor they so vile by reason of it and therefore they make constructions of some things and interpretations of others and then lay the extremity upon their distemper which was fired and followed by Satan that they belyed themselves in some things and said they knew not what and thus like the unclean dog they lick up their vomit again they cannot be quit of the shame and wash away the filth they have flung in their own faces but they are in no wise content with it and therefore would fain get it off by al the means they can devise thus their sins come to be healed too soon like a sore that closeth too fast not being daily tented and opened and so it festers again and proves dangerous so it is with the soul when it is not tented with daily taking shame for the evil and so kept open it again rankles and growes worse But how shal we know that we are content to take shame for sin by a right confession of it I answer that wil appear in four particular evidences The heart that is indeed content to take shame fon the sin it hath committed and stands guilty of it hath this disposition wrought in it and expresseth this affection also as occasion serves namely it opposeth not that Truth which doth evidently discover a mans 〈◊〉 and how worthily he deserves it though it doth it sharply To be content with a thing and to be opposite against the same thing implies a professed contradiction which neither Reason allows nor common sence wil admit He that is content in earnest with the portion and condition that is carved out to him in the course of Providence when it 's offered he welcoms it when it 's come and that he hath it in his possession closeth therewith as that which is a suitable good and most serviceable to him for the present necessity all circumstances considered An humbled heart takes his shame as a sick man doth his physick he could heartily wish he did not need it and yet as the case stands he cannot want it but in reason he shal want his Cure and health the potion is loathsom to take and troublesom in the working of it but the disease he knows to be far worse and more dangerous which he conceives may be purged by the use of this means and therefore seeks it earnestly and is not content without it and glad indeed to be so troubled because he may be eased as he hopes So it is with a heart truly sensible of sin and turned from it looks at this shame as a most loathsom and tedious potion and could have wished and that heartily he had never need of it had never so miscarried himself as to have deserved it but as the case now stands the dishonor done to Gods Name and Truth the scandal to others the danger to the spiritual and everlasting welfare of his own soul he looks at the Truth which shal be most evident and most sharply set on as the most special Receipt and Soveraign Medicine which he is glad to seek and more glad to take that the noysom distempers may be taken from his soul the dishonor from Gods Name and scandal from before the way of his Brethren 〈◊〉 to have a thing and crossness of spirit to resist that which brings it cannot stand together and in this sence it is you shal find the Saints pray so earnestly and affectionately for the keeping away of shame somtimes Psal. 119. Turn from me rebuke and shame and again Let me not be ashamed And somtime again so willingly to welcom and entertain it We lie down in our shame and are covered with confusion Jer. 3. 〈◊〉 Shame is a heavy curse as deserved by sin and justly inflicted from the Lord but to accept of it with an under abasedness of heart as the punishment of our 〈◊〉 from the hand of the Lord this is indeed the work of Grace and a gracious heart wil not side it against that Truth which