But to convince you of this sin consider what a Representation of the blessed God your Objection makes as if he were not a God of Grace pardoning Inquity Transgression and Sin upon Repentance which is what he hath declared concerning himself Now is it not a sin to believe God to be such an one as is directly contrary to the Character he has given of himself That though I never so much desire his Favour and value it as my Life though I desire to my utmost to comport with his Mind and Will so far as he hath or shall reveal it to me to believe that yet he hath cast me off or will cast me off What a sad Account of God does this give What a Reproach upon him would this bring Is not this to take the Devils Representation of him to be truer than his own There is likewise further sin in your Objection and Doubt by misrepresenting the Tenor of the Gospel Covenant Whereas that says Take God in Christ for your God and give up your selves to be his and he is and will be yours you add something more out of your own Head as necessary and so alter the Terms of Life and Death And what is this but to make a new Gospel The Blessed God hath said on such Terms Souls shall be saved you add others as necessary And say I shall never be saved unless it be thus and thus with me which God hath never said Though I do accept God for my God and Christ for my Saviour and consent to be his and endeavour to please him yet he will not save me This is to give God the Lye and there is more Guilt in it than we think Therefore XII LAY this as a Foundation Truth and keep it That you can never be more willing to Come to Christ than he is to Receive you If you think otherwise your seeming Humility in Doubting hath much of Pride in it If you are willing to have Christ and his Grace on his Terms He is yours If you are willing to have Christ for your Saviour and your King to receive him as Christ Jesus the Lord and the blessed Spirit as your Sanctifier and had rather have his Favour and Love and his holy Image than all the riches of this World you are then His If your Willingness be prevailing and more than your Unwillingness For Christ be assured is Willing He hath first shown his Willingness He dyed to manifest it and hath drawn up procured and published a Covenant of Grace wherein he declares his Consent and calls for yours Therefore if there be not a Covenant Union unto Eternal Life between him and you it is through your Refusal not his Now if you are not willing to Accept his offered Grace to be sanctified by him and blessed in him why do you complain for the want of that which you would not have and are not willing of For I tell you again He is willing to Receive and Accept you and to be Yours in an Everlasting Covenant never to be broken if you are sincerely Willing to be His Covenant Servants Moreover XII AS to the Doubt concerning the sin against the Holy Ghost I think such as make that Objection do not well understand wherein it lyes Read the 12th of Matthew throughout and Mark 3.28 29 30. And you will find that the Sin against the Holy Ghost never to be forgiven was to this purpose That when notwithstanding the Miracles of Christ which confirmed his divine Commission and proved him to be the Messiah They who saw those Miracles of Christ and could not deny them to be true yet did not believe him to be the Son of God or his Doctrine to be true though attested by those Miracles But rather than own him to be the Christ they blasphemously ascribed his Miracles unto the Agency ' of the Devil the unclean Spirit That were wrought by the Power of the Holy Ghost They therefore who own Christ to be the Messiah and his Gospel to be true who do not take him for a Deceiver but acknowledge him as their Lord and honour and worship him as the Christ of God they are not Guilty of the sin there mentioned called The sin against the Holy Ghost I deny not but some may be guilty in our days of such Sins as make Approaches unto this and are somewhat like it As when notwithstanding clear Evidence of the Truth of the Gospel Men resist the Light and rebel against it and turn open Apostates and Persecutors if not down right professed Infidels But the sin against the Holy Ghost there described by the Evangelist seems to imply a Man's taking Christ for a Deceiver Be sure none who own the Gospel to be true and Christ to be the Saviour of fallen sinners are guilty of that Sin though they may make dangerous Approaches to it Much less are they Guilty of it who fear the guilt of this sin But such doubting fearful Persons who make this Question concerning themselves because of some blasphemous Suggestions of Satan c. They would have been afraid of the Guilt of any other sin as well as of this if they had ever heard or read such dreadful things declared against any Other sin as against This But they seem not to understand the Nature of it * See Mr. Howe 's Append. to Redeemer's Tears I do not deny but there may also be an equivalent Evidence of the Divinity of Christ and of the Truth of the Gospel that the Infidels of our Age may sin against Equivalent I say to what the Scribes and Pharisees who where guilty of this sin did sin against And therefore our modern Deists who reproach the blessed Redeemer and the Holy Spirit of God had need look to it lest they approach unto the unpardonable sin and God should give them over to their own Hearts Lusts But as to poor doubting Christians that fear they are guilty of the sin against the Holy Ghost mentioned in the Gospel It is plain enough that they fearing the Guilt of it are not in danger of it for the present or like to be so LASTLY To bring the whole matter to a short Issue and to put it out of question that your day of Grace is not over and that God hath not left you or given you over to your own Hearts Lusts I do now tender you the Grace and Salvation purchased by Christ in his Name If now you are heartily willing to accept it the Case is determined and determined in the best manner that can be Therefore to put all out of doubt Accept the present offer of Gods Grace which is this day made you Oppose not the greatness of your sins past or the Aggravations of your present Unworthiness but penitently and humbly and thankfully accept the Pardon that is offered you in the Name of Christ Do you think in contradiction to the whole Gospel that your sins are so many or so great that Christ
did not could not satisfie for them and that he will not forgive them if you Repent and turn to God and Believe on the Name of his Son You are condemned by the Law Christ came to save sinners and such as were lost and he requires no Worthiness or Price in your Hands but that you unfeignedly Consent to be his to accept an offered Saviour and his Salvation according to the Ends and Uses of the Covenant of Grace That he may illuminate and teach you sanctifie and guide you govern and rule you by his Word and Spirit This is the Condition of your Title to the Blessings of the Covenant and consequently must be the Evidence of your Title and should be a satisfactory one But if you are Unwilling to forsake sin and return to God by Jesus Christ if you are unwilling to receive him as your Teacher Sanctifier Saviour and Lord you have reason to doubt your state indeed or rather the matter is past doubt you are unsanctified and as yet unreconciled to God Whoever theresore upon the account of their former Resistance of the Spirit stifling Convictions violating their good Resolutions c. Do question their State whether God hath not given them over yet let them Consider they are now invited and entreated to put it out of question that their Day of Grace is not past by letting this be Their Accepted time the Day of their Salvation by now heartily accepting an offered Saviour and giving up themselves unto him And then notwithstanding all your former Refusals of his Mercy and Grace if now at last you will return and submit and take his yoke upon you there is Ease and Rest and Pardon and Comfort and Life Eternal Life to be had To conclude Instead of Doubting and Complaining and questioning any longer Reduce all that which is Doubtful with you to that which is Plain and Certain It is certain that God hath sent his Son into the World to save sinners It is certain that you are some of those lost miserable guilty Creatures that need this Salvation It is certain that he has published the glad Tidings of the Gospel to such that whoever believeth shall be saved Is is certain that God cannot lye it is therefore inconsistent with his Nature that such as come to him in the Exercise of Repentance towards God and Faith in our Lord Jesus Christ should not be Accepted with him Therefore dispute and question and complain no longer how matters have been or how they are with you but come in upon the Call and Invitation of the Gospel Grace Remember the Covenant thou hast made with God the Father Son and Holy Ghost in Baptism Resign yield and give up thy self with all thy Heart and Soul to be his resolving that thou wilt throw thy self into the Arms of his Love and Mercy because it is the Command of God that you believe on his Son Resolve that through his Mercy and Grace by the help of his Spirit of Grace you will now do so whatever come of it Do not perplex your selves about the Question whether you did it not formerly four or five or ten years ago But do it again Blessing God that you may now do it that he has not repealed his Gospel and that he never will repeal it to the end of the World I may Accept of his Son now as well as so many years ago Blessed be God the Invitation the Command the Promise is the same now as it was then And to as many as Receive him he will give the Priviledge to become the Sons of God even to as many as believe on his Name Blessed be God for Jesus Christ and the Covenant of Grace The Fourth Sermon Psalm LXXXI 12. So I gave them up to their own Hearts lufts and they walked in their own Counsels I Come now in the last place to consider the Case of such who make dangerous Approaches towards such a Judgment Who have provoked God to that degree that it would be no wonder if he should give them up yea concerning whom there is Reason to fear it if speedy Repentance do not prevent HAVING therefore spoken 1. To the Nature of this Judgment And Secondly considered the steps and Methods whereby God does ordinarily inflict it And Thirdly the dreadful Severity of it in Comparison of any other Judgment in this World I proceeded to the Case of those who Fear they are thus left and given up by God Several Things I named which they alledg as the ground of their Fear which yet will not prove that God hath forsaken 'em At the same time there are many other Things that will evidence the Contrary It remains therefore that I may faithfully give every one his portion Comfort to whom Comfort and Terrour to whom Terrour is due That I also speak to the Case of Such whose Guilt may quickly infer this Terrible Judgment or concerning whom we may fear whether they be not already under it or left of God There are several things with relation to this Case which ought to be Considered I. THE First dangerous Symptom is Security or a False ungrounded Peace of Conscience This is frequently the Prologue and Forerunner of Judicial hardning It is often a part of it and an Evidence of it Their Case therefore is exceeding dangerous with whom Conscience is a Asleep or Feared When that sin which formerly thy Conscience would reprove thee for thou canst now commit without Remorse or Difficulty When such or such a Lust can be freely indulged and thy Heart not reproach thee thy Conscience not fly in thy Face or speak with any smartness and Authority against it as formerly it was wont to do When the Neglect of such or such Duties was a daily Trouble to thee heretofore but now thou canst let Them alone and thy Conscience will let Thee alone without rebuking thee or calling thee to Repentance as it was wont to do Or if Conscience do speak it is with much Faintness without any such Impressions of Fear and shame and sorrow as were wont to be produced by it This speaks as if God had already given thee up in some degree or thou art very near what is worse in very great danger of this dreadful Judgment This Security and Quiet notwithstanding the neglect of known Duty and the Commission of sin I grant has it's Degrees There are some Degrees of it into which a good Man through the Prevalency of sin and Temptation for a time may fall Particularly as to the Duty of Prayer and the spiritual Performance of it But then such Persons supposing them Upright in the main who are under such Backslidings are far from approving themselves in this Case or from having any setled Peace They have many an unpleasing Thought about their own Case many Resolutions of Repentance that they may be Recovered They often say within themselves We will go and return to our first Husband for then it was better with
Mr John Shower Of The Day of Grace OR A DISCOURSE Concerning The Possibility and Fear of its being Past before Death SHEWING The groundless Doubts and mistaken Apprehensions of Some as to their being finally Forsaken and left of God With the Dangerous Symptoms and Approaches of Others to such a sad State In Four SERMONS From Psalm LXXXI 11 12. By JOHN SHOWER London Printed for Abraham Chandler and to be Sold by John Butler in Worcester 1694. TO THE READER THe following Sermons were preacht-at the Earnest Desire of an unknown Person sent me in a Letter expressing a more than ordinary Concern and Fear lest the day of Grace should be past and the Holy Spirit finally departed so as to Return and Strive no more Many Upright Christians after aggravated Backslidings or under Great Temptations or in deep Melancholy are apt to conclude thus hardly of themselves Such as these I have endeavour'd to Convince that this is not the state of their Case or ever like to be I have also shown who have reason to Apprehend themselves in Danger of this Judgment in the Text. For 't is possible and more than possible that after long Resistance and Obstinacy God may Judicially let Men Alone and give 'em over Though their Lives be prolonged they may be sealed up to Wrath and reserved to Judgment Four Generations filled the Measure of the Amorites Sin though five past before they were destroyed And though Pharoah's time expir'd 't is thought at the Sixth Plague God upheld and harden'd him principally by suffering him to harden himself till the Tenth was past The sins of Jerusalem and the Jewish Nation were full at the Murder of the Messiah but they were not destroyed till forty years after I must Confess that we cannot tell positively when this is true concerning any particular Person Nor is any man bound to believe it concerning Himself but is alway obliged to believe that if he do truly Repent he shall find Mercy For though God may prescribe Limits to his own Grace we ought not to bound it Shall any man say Divine Patience hath waited on me or on such a one so long it can wait no longer Such Despair â—f Grace while in the use of God's Appointed Means is very Insolent Presumption You are obliged as a Thing highly grateful to him to Hope in his Mercy In short whatever your Doubts and Fears are if you firmly purpose to go on in the Way which leads to Life if you will not turn a side from following the Lord if you Resolve Come what will of it I will never give over praying seeking striving wrestling c. Let him do what he will with me I 'le not desist I 'le run after him I 'le fly to him I 'le call upon him as long as I live c. A Blessing from the Author and Purchaser of all Grace may be undoubtedly expected by such a one Prov 8.34 Blessed is the man that heareth me watching daily at my Gates waiting at the Posts of my Doors For whoso findeth me findeth Life If you hear him and wait * Dr. O. Meditations and Discourses of the Glory of Christ applyed to Vnconverted Sinners 8º p. 18. saith Dr. O though you have not yet Admission but are kept at the Gates and Posts of the Doors yet in the Issue you shall be Blessed The rule in this Case is Hos 6.3 Then shall we know if we follow on to know Are you in the way of knowing Christ in the use of means hearing the Word and Sincere Endeavors in Holy Duties though you cannot yet attain unto any Evidence that you have received him have closed with him nay tho you question whether ever he will Receive you Nothing can Râ—ine you but giving over the way wherein you are for then shall you know if you follow on to know the Lord. These Discourses are printed almost verbatim as preacht which I hope will rather promote than lessen their Vsefulness unto Such who are most like to read 'em and to whose Case they are most suited The Day of Reckoning is near Death and Judgment are at hand May I then find mercy of the Lord Give an Account of my Stewardship with Comfort And be found in Christ to the Glory of God Beg it for me as I do and shall thy profiting by this and all the many other Helps to further thy Salvation J. S. Four SERMONS ON Psalm LXXXI 11 12. The First Sermon Psal LXXXI 11 12. But my People would not hearken to my Voice and Israel would none of me so I gave them up to their own Hearts lusts and they walked in their own Counsels THE Jews have a Tradition that at stated times of the year God doth lament and complaine over their ruined Temple at Jerusalem that Temple that was once the Seat of his Glory and the Place of his special Residence for so long a time Their own Value and affection for it made them fondly imagine that God himself could not behold its Ashes and Dissolution without Resentment Not considering that the Wickedness of the People called by his Name and entrusted with the Priviledges of his House had provoked his most righteous severity to lay it waste This was a weak and groundless Fancy of the carnal Jews We have other Measures whereby to Judge of the blessed God We are fully assured that his Thoughts are not as ours in such matters That it is a far sadder spectacle in his Eye to behold the Hypocrisy and Carnality of those that worship in his Temple than to see it laid in Ruines a far more dismal sight to behold the offers of his Grace refused and slighted to have the Invitations of the Gospel and the glad Tidings of Peace rejected by those who can be saved no other Way and who must perish if they neglect this great Salvation To see Multitudes of such continue under the Power of sin willfully choosing the way of Destruction and hardning their own Hearts against all the gracious Methods of their Recovery This in the Judgment of God who Judgeth Righteous Judgment is by far the more astonishing and deplorable Object For we never read of God's complaining of any Thing so much as of this And how often and in what passionate Expressions doth he complain of the Obstinacy Unteachableness and Wilfulness of the Jews his ancient People Oh that they were wise O that they would consider how long will you not be purged when shall it once be why will ye dye c. And the Prophet Isaiah introduceth Christ and his Apostles complaining to the like Purpose Who hath believed our Report and to whom is the Arm of the Lord revealed Isa 53.1 This was that which our compassionate Redeemer resented even unto Tears concerning Jerusalem in the Dayes of his Flesh when he beheld the City and wept over it saying O that thou hadst known even thou in this thy day the Things that belong to thy Peace c.
Sorrow for sin is absolutely needful Some have more and others less even of true Penitents TAKE heed of mistaking the Case concerning the Day of Grace being over and sinners being finally left of God For it is never true in this Life that any are so left of God and their Day of Grace so over as that if they truly repent and turn to him he will not accept them This would be against the whole tenour of the Gospel Covenant For whosoever turns to God by true Repentance and Faith in Jesus Christ shall not perish but have eternal Life But there is another sense of such Exâ—ressions that is when men have so â—â—ng resisted the Spirit and refused the â—ffers of Gods Grace and rejected the Yoke and Government of Christ that God resolves to let them alone never â—o give them the prevailing Grace of his Spirit but in righteous Judgment â—o abandon them to their own Hearts Lusts to walk in their own Counsels Because they would not turn at my Reproof they shall call but I will not answer seek me earnestly but not find me Prov. 1.28 If men harden their Hearts and will not hear and obey the voice of God He may sware in his Wrath that they shall not enter into his Rest Heb. 3.11.15 18. Num. 12.22 Ezek. 24.13 It may be this very day or hour while now thou art called by God to Turn and Live if thou refuse now thy Day may be over and past for ever To morrow God may say Let him Alone he shall not be purged he shall dye in his sins Isa 42.14 Hos 4.17 This is a possible Case but who can tell when it is thus How can this be known of particular Persons when it is so though some Approach nearer to it than Others How can it positively be said of any that God will never give such Persons Repentance unto Life You may be sure that if you find your Hearts Penitent and willing to return to him that it doth not reach you It is not your Case Therefore VI. YOU that thus complain and fear have you not many of the Fruits of the Spirit visible and manifest in you Therefore the Spirit of Christ hath not left you God hath not given you over Do you not esteem and prize the GRACE of the Gospel Do you not cry to Heaven for the Spirit of Grace Are you not earnest in the seeking the Spirit of Holiness from day to day Whence is it but from Grace that you have an Heart to prize and seek it They that have outstood the Day of Grace they despise it they are sunk into Carnality and Forgetfulness of God they are insensible and stupid and unconcerned about his Grace But for you that value it and seek it your Day of Grace cannot be over For it is from Common Grace at least which has a tendency to Special and shows your Case not to be like those who are given up of God But with most that thus complain there is more than common Grace There are Fruits of special Grace visible You do unfeignedly Repent and mourn for Sin and desire to give up your selves to Christ Now what but Grace hath made you to see the evil of sin and hate it What but Grace hath made you willing to Accept of Christ for your Lord and Saviour What but Grace has made you value the Favour of God and a holy Heart and Life above all the World How is it that you are brought to love God and delight in him to seek after him and desire to please him and to be troubled that you can do so no more no better For such as you to say your Day of Grace is over is as absurd as one expresseth it as for a Man to come into our Assemblies and hear the Sermon and then go away lamenting that the Sermon was done before he came You have received that Grace which you complain you want You know 't is otherwise with Many Were you like them Did you find your Lusts and Passions lead you captive at their pleasure had you no Affections stirring after God and Holiness did you despise Christ and all Regard and Duty to him and could not perswade your selves to hear or read or pray or think of another World or do any thing to provide for it you might then fear indeed what the issue of your Case would be But that is not the Case I am now speaking of nor of any I hope that now hear me your Appearance in these Assemblies is some sign of the contrary And though as yet you may be unconverted and unsanctified if you are so far Awake as to look after Reconciliation to God if you are touched with a sense of your sin and Danger so as to desire to be assisted and enabled to Repent and turn to the Lord how bad soever your present Case be it is not Desperate and Remediless For you are in the way of Mercy and nothing but your own wilful impenitent refusal of Mercy can deprive you of it VII As to the Complaint of an Hard Heart Remember it is the Impenitent and the Vnperswadable Heart that is the only hard Heart you need to fear They that are obstinate and disobedient intractable and incorrigible as the People of the Jews were that neither regarded the divine Threatnings or Promises or minded his Precepts These are they that are under Hardness of Heart This is the Judgment you ought to fear to be left under such a Temper But you find it otherwise with you that the voice of God doth awe and command you Your Wills are bowed unto Subjection to him you are willing to take upon you the Yoke of Christ or have taken it and renouncing all Competitors you desire to chuse Christ for your Lord and Saviour and that God in Christ should be your Ruler and your Felicity If it be thus you may be sure you are not left of God VIII THAT Sight of sin and sense of the Burthen of Corruption which you complain of as the Ground of your fear will argue the direct contrary to what you alledge it for For sin has always the greatest strength where the sinner is the least Apprehensive and Sensible of it There is more hope of a sensible Patient that feels his sickness and complains of it than of one that feels nothing but is confident all is well Is not their Case much worse who feel nothing of the Evil of sin to whom the Power of it is not troublesome nor the Pollution of it lothsom nor the Guilt of it butthenfom While it is otherwise with you you may be assured you are not given over and left of God and your Day of Grace past it is yet Day with you or else how came you by so much Light to see the evil of sin more than formerly and to see so many things to be sin which before you did not Though there may and will be a Conflict between Flesh and
hath * Mr. How 's Redeemers Tears pag. 82. not made it any Man's Duty to believe this concerning himself nor to beleive it concerning any other particular Person Some of those whose Hearts were once as hard as yours who slighted Christ as much and as long as you have done who dispised many awakening Warnings who refused and turn'd their Backs upon many Invitations and Calls of the Gospel and resisted the Spirit of Grace for a long Time have afterwards been made the Triumph of the Power Love and Grace of God Therefore don't pass a definitive Sentence against your selves To pass a Judgment upon our State and to believe it concerning our selves is to nullity the Gospel and to make it impossible for us to Repent and Believe which God hath made to be our Duty It is a sinful prescribing limits to the Grace of God to say It hath waited on me so long it will it can wait no longer Secondly However Apprehend the Danger of the present Case if you are under any such Symptoms as have a Tendency to so severe a Judgment as this is It may be you have sinned your selves into hardness of Heart that you are not affected with the Word Preached as formerly that you do not find such Impressions by it that the Operations of the Spirit with the Word that were formerly strong do now seem to cease You are not so affected with the Evil of Sin with such hearty Sorrow and bitter Repentance as formerly tho thy sins be most highly aggravated And are little affected with the sins of others you are more senceless stupid and secure under the Guilt of great Provocations than formerly And this notwithstanding some Tokens of God's Displeasure by afflictive Rebukes of Providence It may be you have taken up with a fruitless barren empty Profession of Religion for a long Time joyn'd with the Neglect of the inward Spiritual Part of Godliness Mortification of Sin Watchfulness over your Hearts Government of your Thoughts Passions and Sences c. And have gone on in a formal Course and Round of some external Duties without Heart or Life or Quickning and this contrary to your Convictions Resolutions and repeated Promises c. This case is exceeding sad and sinful and God only knows where it will Issue if deep and timely Repentance do not awaken you You ought to apprehend it to be indeed a very provoking and dangerous Case but not quite desperate Nay let me go further Secret Prayer it may be hath been neglected for a Time or performed with so much coldness that you now Tremble to think how low you are sunk Or which is much worse it may be you do not Tremble The Power of Conscience is in a great measure lost both in restraining from Sin and in checking for it You can now more easily stifle Convictions rebel against Light and venture upon a known sin indulge a secret Lust and allow your selves those Things from day to day which formerly you could not without sharp Rebukes of Conscience And such Preaching and such Helps as did once startle awaken and quicken you have now little or no such Effect This is indeed unspeakably dismal O! how low are such fallen how difficult how sorrowful must be the awakening and Recovery of such Backsliders What can be said to such Persons and why should they not fear the Judgment of this Text lest God give them up to their own Hearts Lusts I am so far from discouraging such a Fear that I would by all Means awaken it Therefore I say it would be Just with God to cast thee off and God would be Righteous if he reject thee utterly if he forsake thee for Ever if he never strive with thy Heart more if Never Providence or Sermon do thee good more This would be Just But at the same Time let Hope be intermingled with Fear there is much Cause to Fear but there is none to Despair the one is a Duty and the other a Sin And if the Consideration of your sin and Danger begin to melt and mollify your Heart then know that Christ came not to call the Righteous but Sinners to Repentance and mercy may yet be had he takes pleasure in them that hope in his Mercy it is by hope we are saved Therefore aggravate your sins and the grounds of your Fear and the Danger of your perishing to Eternity But don 't sit down in Despondency don't yeild your selves to perish without striving to prevent it Fall down before his Mercy-Seat study the Nature and Promises of the Covenant of Grace and fly to Christ according to the general Invitation and Call of the Gospel to that End Thirdly if your Hearts begin to melt and move within you who have apprehended your selves in Danger of this Judgment if you are yet under the strivings of the Spirit as your very Sollicitude and Fear about it and Desire of Assistance doth Imply then I would beseech you to set presently to work out your Salvation with all Diligence Let not the Dictates of an awakened Conscience be hush'd and silenc'd Cherish and obey the holy Motions of the Spirit Let not your present Convictions and Resolutions become abortive for want of Meditation and Prayer and advising with your Ministers and Judicious Faithful Friends Especially take heed of extinguishing the Sentiments of an awakened Conscience by new Guilt and fresh Transgressions While Conscience is thus at Work your Conversion is more probable and hopeful now than formerly If you quench not the Motions of the Spirit and provoke him to leave you If you will but hearken to his Voice and follow his Counsel and not again harden your Hearts If you would now earnestly implore and thankfully entertaine and carefully improve his holy Influences Is it not of highest Importance that you do so without Delay When your Breath is in your Nostrils and the Day of your Life and your Day of Grace may both be ended before to morrow Morning Should not the Kindness of God overcome you That Mercy is offered â—o such returning Backsliders should 〈◊〉 not be a melting transporting Thought for such as you to consider â—hat Christ invites you to come to him â—f you are weary and heavy laden and â—romises Rest Read Judges 10th the â—atter End for your Encouragment where God having delivered his People and they yet forsook him it is said â—hat he would deliver them no more but â—id them go to the Gods they had â—hosen But they cryed to him and â—urned from their evil Ways and his â—oul was greived for them and he did â—eliver them They cryed heartily Lord â—o unto us what seemeth thee good only deâ—ver us so do you in like Manner and â—here is yet Hope Go in â—ecret and â—ell him that it is the Desire of your Souls now to return to him beg his â—anctifying Spirit with utmost imporâ—unity plead the Vertue of the Blood of Christ say unto him Lord do with â—ne what thou
wilt afflict me how thou pleasest strip me of all my pleasant Things if that may serve the Ends of thy Glory only let not thy holy Spirit forsake me only deliver me out of â—he hands of my Lusts break these my Chains knock off these Fetters save me from my sins and from thâ— Wrath accept me for thy Covenanâ— servant write thy Law upon my Heart that I may walk in thy Ways And whatever thou give me or whatever thou deny me Lord for Jesuâ— Christ's sake never give me up to my owâ— Hearts Lusts that I should be left to waâ—â— in my own Counsels Amen The Second Sermon Psalm LXXXI 12. I gave them up to their own Hearts lusts and they walked in their own Counsels WE can never look back to our primitive state considering how richly and plentifully the Bounty of our Maker â—ad provided for us without admiâ—ing Thoughts of his Beneficence and Kindness And yet if we view the Divine Compassion unto guilty and â—ebellious Man since the Fall and â—ow many obstacles his Grace overâ—ame This latter will be Judged to surpass his former Bounty to Innocent Man For before the Entrance of sin the Current of Divine Love met with nothing to obstruct its passage theâ— was nothing to discourage its Exeâ—cise towards an Innocent and Obedient Creature But now sin hath made a great gulf betwixt God and us We are in a state of Enmity and Hostility against Him which sets a value upon the Power and Freenesâ— of the Grace imployed to Recoveâ— and save us And yet after all this display of thâ— unsearchable Riches of Grace and Love in the Work of our Redemption it is a question whether our willful provoking Obstinacy against God be not more astonishing than his undeserved Compassion and Love to us that in contradiction to all the Princâ—ples of Reason and Interest we should slight his Kindness and despise his glorious Love and refuse his Grace the only Remedy that can save us That when he offers to be Reconciled to us and Intreats us to be Reconcileâ— to him we will not hearken to his Voice That we should persist in our chosen Distance and Estrangment and say We will have none of him Let him depart from us we desire not the Knowledge of his ways We care for â—o Reconciliation to him or Communion with him or any share in the Happiness he offers to confer upon â—s Were not this very highly proâ—oking the Blessed God would not Complain of it as he doth and Repreach â—s with it as he also doth in many â—laces and particularly in this My People would not hearken to my Voice and â—srael would none of me so I gave them â—p c. Both Expressions are in the â—uture though we translate them as alâ—eady inflicted The Original signiâ—â—es that God would deal so severely â—ith them The Aggravations of his Complaint of God concerning Israel have been already mentioned What I propose now to discourse of â—s this First That it is matter of most Just Complaint and most heavy Reâ—roach when any People or Person will not hearken to the Voice of God Secondly That for any wilful sinâ—ers to be given up by God to their own Hearts Lusts and left to walk in their own Counsels is one of the most fearful Judgments that can be threatned or inflicted In speaking to the Second General I proposed to shew First What it is foâ— God to give Men up to their owâ— Hearts Lusts And that such a thing there may be and is as Gods giving men over to their false Imaginations and Conceptions of things their inordinate Desires and irregular Passions their wicked Projects and Contrivances for the fulfilling of their variouâ— Lusts c. When he gives them up to these Lusts he casts them out of hiâ— special Care and Protection so as they become an easy prey to the Deviâ— And the Hebrew word which we translate give up is often used for thâ— casting out a People out of their Country as in 44. Psal 2. Such Persons aâ— also left of God under the Tyranny and Dominion of their Lusts withouâ— those Restraints of Providence anâ— Grace which before they had Whaâ— more may be intended in such an Expression will appear in speaking to the Second Head viz. To shew by what steps and Degrees God doth execute and inflict such a Judgment upon them And then Thirdly I shall speak something further of the Dreadfulness of this Judgment and so Apply the whole II. By What steps or Degrees the Blessed God doth usually proceed in inflicting such a Judgment as this For the better understanding of this I must premise by way of Caution 1. That Whatever Method is taken in the Execution of so severe a Doom we must remember there is a great depth of Obscurity in these Judgments of God There is so in all his works of Judgment but especially in such as do more immediately relate to the Souls of Men. We know very little of the manner of Gods Influence upon mens Spirits and therefore should be very humble and wary modest and cautions in our Expressions about it And yet from what we observe of such spiritual Judgments we may cry out with the Apostle Rom. 11.33 O the depth of the Riches both of the Wisdom and Knowledg of God! How unsearchable are his Judgments and his Ways past finding out We know very little of the manner of the Holy Spirit 's Influence in forming the Image of God upon the Soul and much less concerning the manner of this Punishment in the Text whereby men are hardened in sin through the righteous Judgment of God to their Eternal Ruine However 2. Remember This is a Judicial Act in God not an arbitrary thing that depends upon meer Will and Pleasure without any respect to the Aggravations of Mens wilful Rebellion and sinning against Light It is such a Judgment as supposes very hainous Provocations to precede it The Instance of the Jews doth abundantly prove this with whom the Patience of God did long bear and his Spirit strive But they alwaies resisted the Holy Ghost Acts 7.51 From generation to generation maintaining the war against the Divine Spirit till he turned to be their Enemy and fought against them Isa 63.9 10. And then their Doom is pronounc'd in a most solemn manner with terrible and astonishing Preparations for it Isa 6. By a glorious Apparition of the great God in the Temple which made the Prophet cry out I am undone c. The fearful message he was to deliver to that People was that 9 10. v. Hear ye indeed but understand not see ye indeed but perceive not make the Heart of this people fat and their ears heavy and shut their Eyes lest they see with their Eyes and hear with their Ears and understand with their Heart and convert and be healed This Doom we find with great Awfulness repeated in the new Testament by our Saviour Mat. 13.14 Luk. 8.10.12 John 40. And