Selected quad for the lemma: lord_n
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A32046
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The poor doubting Christian drawn to Christ plainly shewing every poor sinner his estate he is in without Christ ... being very useful for every poor sinner to practice and make use of in these sinful, wicked, and backsliding times / by E.C.
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E. C.
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1669
(1669)
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Wing C26; ESTC R33297
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9,735
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25
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THE Poor Doubting CHRISTIAN Drawn to CHRIST Plainly shewing every poor Sinner the miserableness of his Estate he is in without Christ With several sweet Motives to Draw us to Christ Also comfortable Directions how to live by Faith and so to attain unto Grace and Salvation Being very useful for every poor Sinner to practice and make use of in these sinful wicked and backsliding times Isa 55. 1. Ho every one that thirsteth drink of the waters of life and he that hath no money come buy and eat freely Come ye blessed of my Father inherit the Kingdom prepared for you from before the foundation of the World Mat. 25. 32. BY E. C. The 4th Impression London Printed for John Wright at the Globe in Little-Brittain 1669. THE Poor Doubting Christian Drawn unto CHRIST THe great Design that the most Wise God Created Man for was that he being Obedient might be happy to all Eternity But Man being no sooner plac'd in that most Beautiful and Fruitful Garden of Eden but by the instigation of the Devil he soon Rebell'd against his Creator in breaking the Command and so Fell and became wicked and sinful in all his Posterity which was That the Seed of the Woman should break the Serpents Head So that we being dead unto sin might live in Christ And the great Design of Christ comming in he Flesh into the World was to Draw poor Sinners unto him that thorough Faith they might be Saved For whom did Crist come into the world and for whom did he dye when he was come Was it for the Righteous such néeded him not It was for the poor Sinner that judges himself that condemns himself and he that cannot save himself Paul saith Christ Jesus came into the world to save sinners of whom I am the chief 1 Tim 1. 15 and Zech. 13. 1. There is a Fountain opened for sin and for uncleanness that is for all sorts of sins and kind of sinners be their iniquities never so great and never so vile there is a Fountain set open for them come who will There was never any saved or reeeived to mercy that first opposed not the mercies of God and his grace in Christ What Scripture ever said that the greatness of mans sin could hinder the greatness of Gods mercy No Scripture saith so we sée David prayed to the contrary Have mercy upon me O Lord and pardon my sins for they be great Psal 25. 11 Nay God himself doth the quite contrary Isai 43. 24. 25. Thou hast made me serve with thy sins and wearied me with thine in quities yet I am He that blotteth out thy transgressions for my Names sake When the Iews did fire God with their distempered manners and burdened him with their sinful courses then the Lord for his own Name sake would not so much as remember their Iniquities against them Sins though they be never so hainous of themselves yet if the soul can sée them and the heart be burdened with them they are so far from hindering the work of faith and from making thée uncapable of mercy that they fit thée the rather to go to Christ The truth is which I pray you take notice of it is not properly our unworthiness but our pride and haughtiness that hinders us from comming to Christ for we would fain have something from our selves and no◠all from him but to the distressed soul that sées the vileness of his sins the Lord will not cast thee away if thou wilt come and séek him earnestly again and again The Lord said to Judah I have seen his ways and will heal him again Thou hast played the Harlot with many Lovers yet turn again to me saith the Lord. So then there is no time past if a Man have but a heart to returne There is no limitation of the riches of Gods frée grace except the sin against the Holy Ghost therefore saith Christ I standing at the door and knock Revel 3. 20. Though he cry till he be hoarse and stand till he be weary yet he stands still if any adulterous or deceitful wretch will open Christ will come in and bring in store of comfort to him and sup with him Oh all this is true saith the poor soul had I but a heart to mourn for my baseness Sée my sins I do but this is my misery I cannot be burdened with them I have a heart that cannot break mourn for dishonoring God and offending him so many ways But I say This hurts not neither provided that thy heart be weary of it self because it cannot be weary of sin The Lord sheweth mercy because he will shew mercy It is not because thou canst please him but because mercy pleaseth him When did the Lord shew mercy unto Paul but even when Paul did express most malice against him Saul Saul Why persecutest thou me He persecutes Christ and yet Christ pitties him and shews him mercy and so the churlish Jaylor when he was most opposite against the means of grace the Lord even then shewed most comfortable upon him He that before resisted the means of grace was brought home by those means that before he resisted Alas saith the poor Sinner I never knew what it was to have the assurance of Gods love I never received any evidence of Gods favour and can I then think that I have Faith they that Believe have their hearts filled with Ioy unspeakable and glorious the Scripture saith as much But I am a Stranger to this Ioy how then can I think that I have any work of Faith wrought in me I answer When a poor Sinner sées his sins the number of them that nature of them the vileness of them the cursedness of his soul that he can take no rest he sées no rest in the creature nor in himself Though he pray all day yet he cannot get the pardon of one sin the soul is out of any expectation of pardon or power of mercy in any thing he hath or doth Though all means all helps all Men and Angels should joyn together yet they cannot pardon one sin of his Now the LORD lifts up his voice and says from Heaven Thy sins are pardonable O the infiniteness of Gods power though the guilt of sin is powerful to condemn the soul But when the infinite power of the Lord is considered as able to over power all his sins this lifteth up the heart in some expectation that the Lord will shew mercy to a man though it is a hard thing to hope when the Soul is thus troubled Object Can this heart be broke can these sins be pardoned can this Soul be saved Ans God can pardon them Never measure the power of God by that shallow conceit of thine All things are possible to God though not to men And as it is said of Abraham He hoped above hope he looked to the Lord that was able to do what he had promised he considered not that he had a dead body but that he
had a living God to hope on Iustice cannot be so severe to revenge thée as mercy is gracious to do good unto thée If thy sins be ne'r so many Gods Iustice ne'r so great yet mercy is above all thy sins This may support thy Soul thy sins are pardonable There is no more power in God to shew mercy to thée then power in sin to destroy thée The Lord Iesus Christ came to seek and to save that which was lost it was the scope of his coming Now saith the broken and humble sinner Did Christ come to save sinners my sins are so many and great can they be pardoned Yet God says Come to me all ye that are heavy laden I am weary and unless the Lord intended good to me Why did he invite me and bid me come Surely he means to shew mercy to me O take héed Question thy estate thou maist but to cast away all hope is very heinous in the eyes of the Lord Cast away all carnal confidence thou must and yet thou must hope Let Israel hope in the Lord for in the Lord c Thou goest to the déep Dungeon of thy corruption and there thou saist these sins can never be pardoned Is any thing too hard for the Lord You wrong God exceedingly you think it 's a matter of humility to count your selves so vile Can God pardon such a wretches sin as mine no no my sins are greater than can be pardoned saith the dispairing Soul Consider how injurious this is to God to make the power of sin greater to condemn thée than the power of God to save thee Sée now and consider what desperate danger Despair brings to a poor heart and carries him beyond the reach of mercy That 's a swéet passage of Davids Psal 77. 7. Will the Lord cast me off for ever I said this was my infirmity What is mercy gone for ever then is all my comfort gone Therefore take héed of this it takes off the edge of all our endeavours and Gods Ordinances that might do us good Therefore let the soul in this case bear upon the Almightiness of the Power of God who said to Abraham I am God Al-sufficient For if thou be perswaded of the Al-suffciency of God that assurence cannot but stay thée from falling and here remember that God can do more then thou canst think He is able and doth the good though thou knowest it not Measure not the riches of Gods love and the swéetness of his saving grace according to your own conceits nor do you think that because you cannot presently receive it therefore God will not do it for Isaiah saith Let the wicked forsake his way and the unrighteous man his thoughts Isa 55. 7 8 9. that is All you wicked ones and you that have lived Lewdly Return from your wicked ways and vain thoughts and God will abundantly shew mercy Thou must in all things that concern thy Soul repair to the Scripture so thou must consider thine own uprightness by it and sée what work is in thy soul that is able to answer the Word and to testifie that the work of grace is there And here be sure to take your soul at the best do not always pore upon the worst that is in it nor upon thy failings nor that that can onely accuse thée but if thou find any thing there that may justly speak for thée neglect not that It is an injustice for any Court to hear one side and not the other The Scripture is a Text of Iustice and the Lord doth not lie at catch with his Children but takes them at the best as Rom. 4. 22. it is there said of Abraham that he believed the promise and it was imputed to him for righteousness Indéed as in the 12. of Gen. he had some doubtings but God took him at the best and speaks this of his faith So Sarah is spoken of as a gracious Woman and of a pattern for women by calling her Husband Lord which was a sign of reverence to her Husband and an humble heart to the Lord and yet we read that she derided the Messuage of the Lord by the Angel the Lord buries that and onely speaks of that which was to her commendation Gen. 12. 12. and so took her at her best too Now as the Lord dealt with these so should we with our selves what soever is found sincere and upright in us that should we observe as well as that which is not so So when men shall bring in so many Indictments against themselves and say Oh what pride and stubborness is in my heart Oh how weak am I and dull and dead and backwardness to holy duties O how careless of enioying Communion with God! How negligent in sifting and trying my own heart in watching over my senses and mourning in secret for my own failings Though this were so yet if men will sée no more and these too much no marvel if they trouble their own house or if Sathan by their own words Iudge them To such a one therefore I say All that thou sayest may be true but art thou not troubled with these failings and are they not the greatest grief that thy soul hath Yea saith the poor soul I confess my heart is vexed and my soul grieved for them and I could be content to be any thing that I could be so Now labor to have thy Conscience settled and stablish'd in the truth which now thou hast gotten to bear witness of the work of grace in thée For if there be any want of the assurance of Gods love For if our Conscience condemn us not then we have boldness towards God We must stop the mouth of Conscience that is be convinced and agrée that it is a sin to say God hath not wrought this work of grace in the heart when 't is so clear he hath For though sense and féeling be as it sometimes will be gone yet Conscience remembers the day and year when the sinner had a clear evidence of Gods love and therefore saith Lord thou knowest it and thou didst say out of the Word at such a time that the heart of this poor soul was upright and sincere before thée You must therefore wait vpon God and the Spirit of God in the use of the means for this matter by believing rightly to your assurance For so the Text saith To you it is given to believe it must be given therefore and Faith is the frée gift of God It is God then that must do it who yet will not do it without us being reasonable men and women in the power of willing Again the Lord affords us means yet not so use them and give him the slip And here it is a good saying let the Lord do what he will and let us do what we should We must not think when wée have the means that we can get Faith presently for as Paul saith The same power that raised up Jesus from the dead must make us