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A86423
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A treatise containing three things. Viz. [3 braces] 1. A discovery of the unsupportable burthen of sinne, to a heart that is saint-like sensible of sin. 2. The restlesse resolution of a soule to returne to God, who is saint-like sensible of his withdrawings. 3. A discovery of the sweet and unexpected entertainment that wandring hearts meet with in their returnes to God. / Written by Lieutenant Collonel Paul Hobson.
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Hobson, Paul.
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1653
(1653)
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Wing H2276; Thomason E1479_3; ESTC R208731
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63,513
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154
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the 28. verse It is endlesse to reckon up the great heart-earnings and the tender and sweet entertainments that God gives to poore unworthy spirits beyond what they can expect The Lord give you power to believe it and cause you to rejoyce in it with joy unspeakable and full of glory The third and last Use is an Use of Exhortation to exhort all those that are withdrawne from God and are againe returned O take heed of wandring any more Sin no more least a worse thing come unto you * Joh. 5.14 know that the second withdrawing will be a great deale worse then the first and further consider if you are really brought home what panges and throwes you had before delivered and know it was enough nay too much that you have trampled upon Gods kindnesse so long and besides take notice it is very dangerous and desperate to make second attempts of withdrawing from God * Heb. 6.6 Heb. 0.26 27. Alas you cannot have better provision abroad then you have at home Why will you goe Jacob reproved his Sons and said Why looke you upon one another is there not bread enough in Aegypt Gen. 42.1 2. But I say unto you why will you returne back againe to Aegypt Is there not delight enough in Canaan It is better to abide with your Father and friends then to shake hands with Enemies that harbour nothing in their hearts but darts of death as sin doth Romanes the 6th and the last O I beg of you to consider what hath been said and the Lord so discover it to you that you may be overcome by it and so endeared to it that you may never again goe from God but for ever dwell with him O it is good to be there I shall say no more to this Use nor to this first Conclusion but come to speak briefly a word or two from the words in order as they lye The words are these But when he was yet a great way off his Father saw him and had compassion and ranne and fell on his necke and kissed him The first Doctrine from these words He saw him a great way off and had compassion on him is Doct. Large distances will not cause so great a disdaine but that the least reall movings towards God is eyed and imbraced by him with great compassion The word a far off is a metaphoricall expression it doth not imply any thing that doth deny Gods omni-presence but implies holds forth thus much that the poor Prodigall was very low and very far from that state or frame of heart wherein the did apprehend to meet God and the truth was there was so little and small a beginning of what in comparison ought to have been and also was when he was further enriched with commings in of God and in that sense also he was a great way off How far off think you those people were in that sense which the Lord speaks of in the 42. of of Isaiah and the 3. Concerning the goings out of his grace and love in Christ he tells you he will not breake the bruised Reed nor quench the smoaking Flax The words imply a great deale more then is there exprest for they doe imply thus much That if there be but so much fire that is to say so much grace as causes smoak though the flame be not discerned God will runne through the smoak and imbrace the fire he will by no meanes quench it but nourish and cherish it and if there be but so much beginnings of life as to give a soule the denomination of a Reed though it be a bruised Reed which commonly men cast away as being not worthy of the ownning yet God will owne it and by no means reject but imbrace it Beloved all this holds forth thus much that the least and lowest motions towards God if reall are imbraced by him How far off doe you think Ephraim was Hosea the 11 and the 3 when God taught him how to goe leading him by the arme and laid meat unto him but he knew not that the Lord led him David in the first of the Kings and the 18th had a thought in his heart to build a House to God but it was onely a thought in his heart not brought up so far as to expression or action yet the Lord pierces through all and comes into the secret Cabinet of Davids heart and finds those thoughts and tells him it was well that it was in his heart How sweetly did God imbrace those thoughts though they were a far off from the act of doing for it was Gods intent he should not doe it Beloved how far off doe you think those hearts are whom the Lord speaks of in the 50. of Isaich and the 10. God there sends comfort and consolation to a people that feare him and obey his voyce but alas it wat a far off for the Text saith they were a people that walked in darknesse and see no light that is to say they were surrounded with sorrowes and trouble and had no comfort but though they had not so much light as to rejoyce in Gods Love yet God in his Love runs out to meet them rejoycing over them and imbracing them in that condition with great compassion If you ask me the Reasons why the Lord doth eye and take notice of such small movings towards him and doth imbrace them with great compassion though a far off the Reasons are these The first Reason is because the beginnings as well as the * Phil. 1.6 Heb. 12.2 perfecting of any good in the creature is of God it being therefore one with him it must needs be owned by him The least desires or smallest groanings or heart-breaking after God though it be but a desire to desire or longing to long really after God it is that which God ownes and he cannot but doe it for it is a streame that flowes from no fountaine but his owne fullnesse he is a Father that must and will owne his owne child though covered with a ragged coat my meaning is if there be the least spark of life in a poor groaning heart groaning after Love and though it doth but groan and sigh and cannot expresse it selfe but with poore ragged and tattered expressions yet God will imbrace it and why because it flowes from himselfe Romanes the 8. the 26. 27. O what comfort and sweet encouragement is this to poor broken spirits were they but sensible The second Reason is taken from the nature of God which is so free and so ready and prone to shew mercy that he longs and waites to shew mercy Isa the 30.18 It is the delight of his soule to meet with objects to manifest Love The same pity that is in Parents is transcendently in God if the Child cannot speak but cry for the dug the mother will take it up and lay it in her bosome and if it cannot stand she will carry it and hold it dandling it upon
such a heart from his returning to God Alas God is not onely his Life and so his Center but he so lives by him that he cannot live without him Those dayes and nights wherein a heart is thus sencible of his withdrawings and hath no Refreshings in his returning they are dayes and nights of Death and not of Life to such a heart and how sad a Condition that is and how Restles that Condition is I leave to you to judge Secondly You may see from what we have already said that this restles running out to God doth arise from Gods making the heart sencible of his withdrawing Therefore this is to Informe us that the power of a hearts returning to God is of God * Can. 1.4 Joh. 6.44 Phil. 2.13 Oh what cause then have soules in that condition to acknowledge the power to be of God they cannot but cry out as David Psalme the 66. and the 16. O come see what the Lord hath done for my poore soule The mercy and kindnesse of God in this act is beyond what any can expresse but he that doth injoy it Oh you that doe enjoy it have cause for ever to speak out Gods love To convert a sinner and make him a Saint is an eminent favour but to returne and call home a Prodigall Sonne is that which speaks out much more of the power kindnesse and unchangeable love of God Oh you that have tasted of it let your life speak out Gods love and I shall say no more to you but this that Christ sayes John the 5. and the 14. Sin no more least a worse thing come unto you In the next place this may Informe us of the great mistakes of some men who in their writings and expressions declare that they are againe brought home to God but yet they are so far from being restlesse in their returne to God that they rather rest in their satisfying of others then in their assurance of their entertainment with God Alas Gods mercy is double and treble in returning such a heart to himselfe but the returnes of such are hardly single towards him but to such I shall say no more but rather with teares beg that they may be sensible of the want of sense I meane of their withdrawings from God I am sure then they will be restlesse till they doe returne Againe This is to informe us If it be so that those hearts who are withdrawne from God when made sensible are so restlesse till they doe returne then 't is no strange thing why they get so much ground of them who have all this time stood and not withdrawne Christ sayes Matthew the 19 and the 30 verse The first shall be last and the last shall be first Alas these soules that are thus recovered are exceeding swift in their returnes though know by experience what it is to capitulate with or to give entertainment to or to shake hands with sin the bitternes they have found out of their fathers heart makes them cleave close A burnt Childe dreads the fire Deare friends observe it that a child so soon as he hath gotten a knock commonly doth not onely leane to but lay hold of with both hands the Mothers knee Deare friends I speake this the rather that any of you that stand may not too much rejoyce and glory in your owne condition over them that are fallen as many in this poore Nation are who through a gathered light liberty have put themselves in it before God brought them to it and so have turned their liberty into Loosenesse These sort of people doe either belong to God or they doe not but I am confident many doe and if so God will bring them home and they will be restlesse in their returnes And take notice you that God hath made yet to stand that for ought I know these poore lost hearts may get ground on you and therefore doe not neglect your pursuite in spending time to censure them but rather double your owne diligence in your owne pursuite and endeavour with humility care and teares to recover them The second Use is an Use of Comfort to Comfort those poore hearts who are sadly fallen from God and being made sensible are restlesse in their returnes though their condition seemes in their owne eyes sad yet they have much cause of Comfort and Rejoycing and that in these things First Their condition is not alone there is not onely a David and a Prodigall but many more who have sadly fallen as well as they Secondly Consider that you are changed God is not changed for though we be unfaithfull God is faithfull and cannot deny himselfe as you may see the 2 Epistle of Timothy the 2 and the 13. Malachy the 3 and the 6 verse Thirdly Consider that there is as much readinesse in God to receive you as restlesnesse in you to be received by him Doe but view what Christ sayes about the lost sheep Luke the 15. the 5 6 and 7. verses there was greater rejoycing for the returne of that one then was for the ninety nine it was so with the lost groat and with the Prodigall more then his elder Brother Luke the 15. and 30. verse All these Scriptures hold forth the great rejoycing God takes in and the great readinesse of Gods giving entertainment to a poore soule thus returned I know the Devill doth set upon such a heart drawing Arguments not onely from the breach of a Law but their sinning against Light and Love which Arguments are of such a power and force sufficient to sinke any soule in the world were it not for the abundance of love and kindnesse given in from the Father suitably at such a season But Oh deare soules I speake to them which are in such a condition doe not be discouraged but consider not what you are in your selfe but what you are in God and at your leisure view these Scriptures Jeremiah the 3 and the 1 vers Zech. the 13 and the 1 Isay the 1 and the 18 Isa the 43. the 22 23 24 and the 25 and 26. verses Isa the 44. the 21 22. Isa 49. the 15 and 16. Jer. 31. and the 20. Read the 16. of Ezekiel from the first to the last 1 Ep. of John 2 and the 1. Mat. the 11. and the 28. Psalme 147. 3. The Third and Last Use is an Use of Exhortation to Exhort all that are thus fallen and thus made sensible that they give glory to God for giving of them a heart againe to returne it 's a double mercy Oh what hath God done for you he hath not dealt by you as you have dealt by him Ezek. the 16. the 59 and the 60. verses but he hath returned love for hatred and shewed himselfe to be a God though thou wast but a creature O praise him and prize him loose no time in speaking out his Love thou hast lost too much time already all thy dayes are too little to declare what God hath done for