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ID	Title	Author	Corrected Date of Publication (TCP Date of Publication)	STC	Words	Pages
A95609	A Scripture-map of the wildernesse of sin, and vvay to Canaan. Or The sinners way to the saints rest. Wherein the close bewildring sleights of sin, wiles of the Devill, and windings of the heart, as also the various bewildrings of lost sinners, yea, even of saints, before, in, and after conversion; the necessity of leaning upon Christ alone for salvation, with directions therein: as also, the evident and eminent danger of false guides, false wayes, false leaning-stocks, are plainly, and practically discovered. Being the summe of LXIV lecture sermons preached at Sudbury in Suffolk, on Cantic. 8.5. / By Faithful Teate, M.A. minister of the Gospel.	Teate, Faithful, b. 1621.	1655 (1655)	Wing T615; Thomason E839_1; ESTC R203761	372,945	489

Ceremonies are gone as John to those in his time when the Gospel I believe had dispelled those grosser Egyptian darknesses 1 Joh. 5.21 Little Children keepe your selves from Idols Amen 3d. Consid Thirdly Consider what ever strength thou hast on this side the strength of Jesus Christ it is an Artichristian as well as an Idolatrous strength Your Christlesse strength is Antichristian And wilt thou hope to be saved by an Antichrist Rom. 10.3.4 The Jews going about to establish their own righteousnesse that is plainly to make their righteousnesse their strength They have not submitted themselves to the righteousnesse of God for Christ is the end of the Law for righteousness to them that believe Who sees not what I say they have not submitted If thou make thy strength thy righteousness this is very rebellion against the Lord and Antichristianitie even the setting of thy self in battel aray against the righteousnes of faith and the strength that is to be had in the Lord Jesus Christ Precious is that language of Davids Psal 21.13 Be thou exalted O Lord in thine own strength so will we sing and praise thy power Mark that if we pretend to exalt the Lord but we will do it in our own strength as Arminians in their own free-will c. When we come to the matter of praise we shall quickly confer it as I observe them to do upon our owne power and not the Lords O the noble Principles cry they of the understandings and reasons and minds of men which the scriptures whilest unregenerate call darkness and foolishness and enmitie against God and say they O that noble principle of free-will which the scriptures call an heart of stone and declare it to be to every good word and worke of it selfe Reprobate Let us arise in the might of our own principles say they c. But Let God arise and then his Enemies shall be scattered say we Yet will we also say When the Ark ariseth it is not a time for Israel to sit still It is not their working but their working in their own strength that I plead against Let me leave then this word with tender Consciences which I am not afraid of declaring as the sence of my soule unto the world although it be a sad apprehension Let a poore creature go a begging to two doors the Master of the one house takes a knife and cuts a piece of victuals and gives it as an Alms to the begger and thinks when he hath done that for this he is more in the books of God I meane as to the merit of favour and acceptance and goes away priding and pleasing his owne heart in what he hath done and concluding from the bare act that he offered to God a sacrifice such as thereby to make him his Debter And the Begger comes to an others house where another man in a passion takes a knife and cuts the poore wretches throat and by that act his own Conscience is wounded and his heart struck dead that he now comes trembling and astonished before the Lord whilest the other boasting cryes out God I thank thee I cut him bread but this man cut his throat But the murtherer cryes out The Lord be merciful c. Deliver me from blood-guiltiness O God c. I believe this Murtherer way be nearer Heaven then that Alms-giver The former hath murthered the Begger the other hath murthered the Lord Jesus Christ Our Saviour resents it thus and thus expresseth it to the face of the Pharisees Mat. 21.31 Verily I say unto you that the Publicans and the Harlots goe into the Kingdom of God before you For they believed vers 32. Those that were uncleane Harlots are saved when often-washing Hypocrites are damned Those that were oppressing Publicans are justified when Beleeving Pharisees are condemned And thus much be spoken in order to the weakening of your strength CHAP. V. Containes farther improvement by a designe to weary you notwithstanding your Christless refreshments 2ly To weary you notwithstanding all your Christlesse refreshments SEcondly I shall labour to weary your Christless soules even under any of your Christless refreshments know therefore from the Lord that these are truths and such as you shall find to be so sooner or later First That whatsoever the matter be that thou be not weary yet notwithstanding there is enough in all your wildernesse wayes and refreshments too to make you weary Secondly That this being so it is the saddest symptome in the world and of the most dangerous importance not thus to be weary First Whatsoever the reason is 1. There is enough in all your wilderness-wayes to weary you however it comes to passe you are not wearied that you are not weary there is enough in the wayes and pleasures of sinne too to weary your poore soules Surely as Noahs dove that could find no rest till it came to the Ark from whence it came so can no soul find any rest after all its wearinesse but by returning to the Lord from whom it at first departed and if the Lord be as Noah Jesus Christ is as the Ark there 's no returning to the Lord but by returning to Jesus Christ I shall evince what I am a saying Evinced from Scripture testimony reason and experience First For Scripture testimony 1. From scripture testimony The Holy Ghost tells you Isai 40.30 The youths shall be weary and the young men shall utterly faint but onely those that waite upon the Lord shall renew their strengeth The young men that are the likeliest to continue fresh or to find refreshment in the wayes of sinne even all that can be found they shall faint and utterly grow weary Thus saith God concerning Israel Thou art wearied Isai 47.13 And so Jer. 9.5 They weary themselves to commit iniquity so Ezek. 24.12 She hath wearied her selfe with lyes that is saith God they sinne till thy tyre themselves and commit iniquity unto wearinesse onely here is the sad difference As there are many humbled that are not humble so many are wearied that are not weary they are humbled indeed against their will by punishment but yet they are never the more humble so are they wearied by continued acts of sinne and 't is against their will it should be so but yet they are never the more weary of it Secondly For Scripture Reason It must needs be 2ly Scripture reason that there should be all manner of wearinesse in the wayes of the Wilderness if you consider either what you walke upon or what you sit down upon 1. Wearying wayes to travell in First All the wayes or works that are on this side Christ are very wearying The waies of the wildernesse are thorny waies as you have heard and 't is tyresome travelling upon thornes either wonder then at thine owne lethargy or dead palsie or else expresly deny that Scripture Iob 15.20 The wicked man travelleth with paine all his dayes for if thou

the Wildernesse take as some do much paines to go farther down into it Alas poor soules 't is down-hil way thou art likely to be at the bottome soon enough even in the lowest hell without running down and if any take paines this way how shall this condemne those that take no paines the other way 2. Use Caution Is the way from the wildernesse up the hill Take heed of fainting take heed of falling 2d Cautino either of these will endanger your tumbling downe the hill againe 1. Caution Take heed of fainting My Brethren 1. Take heed of fainting how conscious are we to our selves how ready are the strongest of us to faint in those forementioned up-hil wayes Now it is not the pleasure of the Lord Jesus that any should faint in the waies of attendance upon him Mat. 15.32 I will not send them away fasting lest they faint in the way Let us also be careful lest our hearts faint in any of the wayes of Jesus Christ although they be never such up-hil wayes For which cause we faint not 2 Cor. 4.16 And as we have received mercy we faint not v. 1. We shall reap if we faint not Gal. 6.9 And this is the praise of Ephesus Rev. 2.3 Thou hast laboured and not fainted In laborious up-hil services they walked without fainting Rules to prevent fainting 1. Looke not down-ward Now to helpe you herein take these two Rules 1. Look not much down-ward 2. Look much upward You have both these together 2 Cor. 4.16 For this cause we faint not v. 18. Whilst we looke not at the things that are seene but at the things that are not seen for the things that are seene are temporall but the things that he look'd at that are not seen are eternall If a man you know would go up a Spire-steeple or Beacon of great height it is very dangerous and dazeling to look down-ward his way must be to look upward all the while 1. Look not down-ward look down and faint and so fall down Observe the Apostles opposition he sets minding of earthly things that is the looking down-ward that I speak of against having our conversation in heaven Phil. 3.19 20. Carnal hearts that mind earthly things will faint in the first steps of that way that leads out of the Wildernesse for it is an up-hil way Therefore saith the Wise man of riches and things earthly Wilt thou set thine eyes upon that which is not Prov. 23.5 That is Doe not so much as set thine eyes upon it 2dly 2. Look much upward Look much upward I will looke unto the hills saith the Psalmist Psal 121.1 I will lift up mine eyes The Apostle comparing our lives to a race or journey bids us Heb. 12.1 2 3. To looke unto Jesus c. lest we be weary or faint in our minde It would extreamly helpe us to have our conversation in heaven to be often yea alwayes looking thither whence we looke for a Saviour Phi. 3.20 This would keepe us from fainting in this up-hil way If you be risen with Christ to the top of this hill and would keep there why then set your affections upon things above Col. 3.1 2. For thus saith the Lord Isai 40.30.31 The Youths shal utterly faint the young men shall fall but they that wait upon the Lord shall renew their strength yea though it be an up-hil way they shall mount up with wings as Eagles they shall runne and not be weary they shall walke and not faint 2dly Caution Take heed of falling 2. Take heed of falling Is it an up-hil way beleeve it it is very ill getting a slip 1 Cor. 10. He minds us of the falls of the poor Israelites in the way towards Canaan he gives variety of instances from the 5. v. he brings all close down for our admonition vers 11. Wherefore let him that thinkes he standeth take heed lest he fall v. 12. How charily do men go up an hill in a frosty day when the wayes are slippery Oh! this is the danger 't is an up-hil way Let vs therefore labour to enter into that rest lest any man fall after the ensample of their unbeliefe Heb. 4.11 Thirdly Exhortation in two words 3ly Exhortation 1. To come up First Is it an up-hil way then pray let us up and be going let us up and repent up and beleeve up and obey up and pray and read and heare and meditate c. and that leads me to the Third main Doctrine yet before us whitherto I shall refer it Secondly Is it an up-hil way wherein is such likelihood of faintings such feare of falling Oh! 2ly To come up leaning Then labour to leane upon the beloved whilst you come up from the Wildernesse to repent and lean to believe and lean to obey and lean to pray c. and lean and this would lead to the fourth main Doctrine therefore we shall dismisse it for the present We passe on to CHAP. II. Containes the third maine Doctrine That it greatly concernes lost soules to come up from the wildernesse of sinne discovered and applyed with choice directions thereunto THe third maine Point 3d. Maine Doctrine viz. That it is the great concernment of lost soules to come up from the Wildernesse of sinne The Spouse in the Text had been in the Wildernesse but now up she gat That is the lost souls great business to come up from the wilderness and away she came and this is thy great businesse The voyce of the Lord unto such a soule is like the voyce of Christ to his chosen ones in Babylon Rev. 18.4 Come out of her my people lest you partake of her plagues Come out of the Wildernesse my poor Creatures lest you dye wlldernesse-deaths and now must the answer of thy soule be I come Lord. The Lords bewildred spouse Hos 2. takes up this main resolution as her maine worke and businesse I will return to my first husband Hos 2. v. 7. I will goe and return so the Prodigal I will arise and goe to my Father The bewildred Spouse the lost Sonne this is it that they make their great work businesse and 't is not strange that it should be so if you consider that the comming up of lost soules is the very great worke and businesse of God himselfe For this is the great business 1. Of God the Father even God the Father Son and holy Spirit 1. It is the great designe of God the Father that poor soules should come up from this spiritual wildernesse Deut. 32.9 10. Jacob is his portion he found him in the Wildernesse and led him about and instructed him you have this explain'd or if you wil seconded Thus saith the Lord God Ezek. 34.11 I even I will both search my sheep and seeke them out They have been scattered in the cloudy and darke day v. 12. Of this we have spoken I will feed them in a good pasture on the high

of blood yet at length sin shall sting like an adder and bite like a serpent of the wilderness Prov. 23.32 Vse To yong ones Now to come up from the the wildernes Hearken then you yong ones unto me and I will shew you an excellent way Youth I know is of all ages and states most desirous and indeed most free for travel but it pities me to think that so much gallant youth and the strength thereof should be spent in wandring up and down in the worthless wilderness of sin Encouragement 1. The fitness of youthful time for that travel rather if you will be traveling remember Canaan Oh! what a time is the strength of your youth to make out your way from the wilderness of sin Thou hast some strength to rush through the thickets more then an old man hath and if thou lose a little of thy flesh in breaking through the thorns thou art yong and thy flesh will come again if thou lose by repentance as to carnal respects there 's time enough before thee to have amends made thee I observe as the yong ones were those of the Israelites that got through the wilderness unto Canaan Numb 26.64 so at this day those that are converted are converted yong ten to one of those that live to be old and yet come to be new born If old men will have their old ways still and scorn to learn a new lesson being old yea if their joints be stiff and their knees feeble that they cannot travel yet let us yong men get up and be going and the Lord be with us This day the Lord calls you yong ones from the Lions de● and Leopards mountains if you refuse this call to day you will mourn at the last when your strength is consumed and say How have I hated instruction and mine heart despised reproof Prov. 7.11 12. Take a tree from the wilderness when its young set it in your Garden keep it and water it c. and little fear of its death but take an old tree from the wilderness and transplant it in your Orchard and do what you will there is little hope of the life of it if there be 't will cost much ado much weeping to water it c. hear David crying Psalm 25 6 7. Remember thy tender mercies remember not the sins of my youth nor my transgressions If thou have only thy youth transgressions or bewildrings to reckon for it will be work enough for thee though thou have thy youth strength to do the work in Secondly As this is the fittest time for thee 2. The acceptableness of youth herein unto God so is it the most welcome time to God young ones if you did but know how kindly the Lord would take it to see you come up from the wilderness such youthfull Spouses leaning upon the Beloved it would ravish your hearts within you I le give you a tast for God hath bidden me go and cry in your ears saying Thus saith the Lord I remember the kindness of thy youth the love of thine Espousals when thou wentest after me in the wilderness in a Land that was not sown Jer. 2.2 Oh Christ the Shepheard is come into the Wilderness to seek and to save that which is lost Oh if thou wilt in thy youth be so kind as to follow him till thou shall come to Canaan God will never forget this love of thine espousals say not that thou art too young to marry Christ the younger thou art the better Christ will like thee CHAP. III. A fifth particular to wit that mans estate is a bewildred estate the world is a wilderness proved generally proved particularly the first particular poverty a wilderness opened and applyed Fifthly Mans estate a bewild red estate FIfthly Men and women as soon as they enter upon the world as we say that is upon the heart of the world they enter upon the heart of the Wilderness The world is a Wilderness to the unregenerate for here grow those Thorns that choak the word of God The world is a wilderness here are the thorns Mat. 13.22 He that hath the word choaked by the Cares of this world is said to receive it among thorns When the Word meets with a worldly heart it is like good seed sown in a thorny wilderness Worldlings you that hear me this day I appeal to your consciences if it be not so In comes a note or an observation an advice or a conviction and up start the thorny worldly thoughts that are within thee even whilst thou art within the reach of the word and choak that good seed Here are the the entangling waies that it brings not forth Again The world is a wilderness to the unregenerate for here are those crooked and foul waies that are the entanglements of the poor soul the Apostle 2 Pet. 2.20 mentioning the pollutions of the world saith They are entangled therein and overcome The world is a thorny thicket and entangling wilderness to the unconverted My friends were it only your Babes and children They that enter upon the world enter the very midst of the wilderness and youth that were bewildred it were less to be feared you might hope that when they came to have experience of and to understand the waies of the world they might come to understand their own waies or at least if you were not your selves lost you might set them into the way But let me tell you what ever you think or speak of Men of the world know not what way they wal in or unto any man Oh say you I know well enough what I do and about what I go and what way I am in there is not an unregenerate heart amongst you but is so far bewildred as not to know the way that thy soul is in Prov. 20.4 Mans goings are of the Lord how then can a man understand his own way He that is a stranger from Gods waies is altogether ignorant of his own waies nay how can he understand them Mans goings are known of the Lord The interpretation of this Scripture may be according to Prov. 5.21 Mans waies are before the Lords eyes and he pondereth all his wayes T is Gods prerogative to understand not only his own waies but thy waies as it is the Saints prerogative that know God not only to understand their waies but Gods waies but it is thy misery neither to know Gods waies nor thine own Prov. 12.26 The way of the wicked seduceth him Seduceth that is his very way leads him out of his Way It seems a right way unto him but the end thereof are waies of death Prov. 14.12 The end of his way he thinks is thriving and riches and a comfortable life this thinks he will be the end of his grinding the faces of the poor and cheating the rich and this he thinks is a right way he may lawfully buy as cheap and sell as dear as he can But the end

with you this threefold account The exceeding bignesse and vast latitude and Dimensions of the heart The extream numerousnesse of the waies that are therein The windings and turnings that are in those waies First consider the vast Dimension of the heart of man 1. The vastnesse of the heart The World as you have heard is big enough for a Wildernesse but the heart is much bigger The world is not large enough to hold thine heart but thine heart is big enough to hold a great many worlds Alexanders heart was too big for the world for when he had conquered it he sate down som say and wept because there were no more worlds for him to conquer Eccles 3.11 He hath set the world in their heart The World is nothing so big as the heart I remember I once saw the pictures of our severall faculties as Will Memory c. one was the phancy of phancy or the figure of the phantasie and O it was a painter painted painting an heart in that heart the world in one Corner an harlot the Emblem of the flesh in another and the Devill in the third and I judge it lively expressed The heart is so much bigger then the World as to be able to hold the flesh that is corrupt Nature and the Devill too Now put together our own Corruptions all Satans temptations and the World allurements and if that heart that is big enough to comprehend all these be not large enough by these to become our Wildeernesse judge you CHAP. VIII Contains further proof and discovery 2. Many waies that are in the heart SEcondly Consider the great many waies of this great heart I 'l warrant enough to bewilder you Pro. 19.21 There are many devices in the heart of man and Pro. 16.9 A mans heart deviseth his way Put both together There are many Devices of mans heart and all these are the waies of mans heart therefore many are the waiee of the heart of man Like so great a City that hath so many streets that one supposed to be bred and born in it is not able to reckon or to know them all such a City or Wildernesse rather is mans heart To understand this I would have you know that all the waies of a mans life that are properly mans waies are first in mans heart A mans heart deviseth his way 'T is said Psal 84.5 Blessed is the man in whose heart are the waies of them c. that is of Gods people Gods peoples waies are in their hearts So sinners waies are first of all of them in sinners hearts Hence I prove that their hearts are Wildernesses unto them As if a man be to ride to London to morrow the nature of the heart is to ride the journey before-hand to night when it goes to sleep or in the morning when he wakes So his heart sins over his sin before-hand And how can these waies but be an heart-wilderness to the unregenerate Therefore saith God Isai 47.13 Thou art wearied in the multitude of thy Counsels and verse 15. The Merchants which thou hast laboured with from thy youth shall wander every of them to his Quarter none of them shall save thee Evidences of the multitude of wayes in the heart The waies and counsels of their owne hearts were that which undid them I shall farther offer two or three things under this head to your Consideration which may abundantly prove the multitude of the wayes of our heart and readinesse of those wayes to bewilder us First There never was any way of sin in any heart but thine heart and mine are expose thereunto 1 Cor. 10.13 There hath no tentation taken you but that which is common to man c. but God will make a way to escape Marke Every temptation is a bewildring tentation unlesse God make a way thou canst not scape and every such temptation is common to man even every one upon the Earth The same temptation that undid Cain and Cham and Jeroboam and Judas are common to thee and thy soule might be bewildred in the same wayes if God made not a way to escape Now thinke what multitudes of waies are there for sinners that live now to walke in even all the wayes that ever sinners walked in hitherto therefore 't is registred of some afterward that they went in the way of Cain before them Jud. 11. and followed the way of Balaam 2 Pet. 2.15 Their wayes and the wayes of all other sinners that ever were are before the eyes of their unregenerate heart Secondly There was never way of sinne in any heart but thine heart and mine are naturally disposed to it Prov. 27.19 As face in water answers face so the heart of man answers to man Thy face in the water which was then I suppose their onely looking-glasse is not more like thy very face then thine heart and anothers are by nature alike the same dispositions to cruelty as in Cain to covetousnesse as in Balaam to betray Christ as in Judas or what ever else was comitted by whomsoever else you have heard of or read of or knowne are naturally in thine owne heart Thou art not onely subject and exposed but inclined and disposed unto them And truly I thinke it becomming us when we heare of anothers sinne in the Act and Fruit to looke upon it as our owne in the Root and so to be humbled for it and rapt up in admiration of his Grace who hath made the difference Thirdly There was never any sinne in thine owne life but it was the way of thine heart first Psal 14.1 The fool hath said in his heart c. They are all gone aside verse 3. so Prov. 7.25 Let not thine heart decline to her waies go not astray in her paths The heart goes alwaies before the rest goes Now then if all the waies of sinne that ever thou wert in or that ever any other were in are and have been either actually or as we say in actu primo in their originall root and spawn in thine heart thou canst not but rest convicted that there are in thine heart wayes enough to make a wildernesse 3ly The many windings of those wayes Thirdly As the heart of man is very great and full of waies so are those waies full of windings and turnings to and againe and therefore the heart cannot but be a Wildernesse The heart of man is compared to the belly of a man Prov. 20.27 because of any creature a mans bowels as Anatomists note are fullest of windings so full of windings are the wayes of the heart so full I say that himselfe that walkes in them can't know where he is Jer. 17.9 The heart is deceitful above all things and who can know it In the fifth verse you have mention of an heart departing from the Lord and therefore becomming an Heath in the Desert a salt Land and a Wildernesse verse 6. And this is the heart that is so desperately full of windings and

my purpose is that Ro. 2.19 ●rt thou confident that thou thy self art a guide of the blind hat teachest another and teachest not thy self that sai'st a man should not steal and thou stealest c. thou art a sad Guide indeed saith God though thou bee never so confident that thou art a Guide and indeed we use to say None so bold as blind-bayard None will take it usually more in snuff to be undervalued as to their Ministery then such lame dead standing resting Ministers 2 A civility preaching Minry 2. A Civility-preaching or practising Minister that in neither life nor doctrine goes farther whose business it is only to make their hearers good neighbours and as they call it good Townsmen living lovingly and dealing righteously truly that 's good and it may be themselves will set them a Copy therein by living peaceably and honestly amongst their Neighbours And I would all that are called Ministers would doe so well But yet let such know that they and their people for all such preaching and practising are in the Wildernesse if they come no farther There are some Ministers in the World of this stamp whose people I believe would go to Hell and dye in the Wildernesse of sin though they should do all that their Ministers bid them do When the civill man came to Christ asked him what he should do to inherit Eternal life Christ to try him Preacheth at first after their rate Mat. 19.18 19 thou shalt not commit Adultery nor steal c. and honor thy Father and Mother c. Why thus far it seems his teachers had taught him and thus far he had learnt from his youth ver 20. say you so Oh! but saith Christ Luk. 18.22 One thing thou lackest go and sell all and follow me which is the sum of the Gospell that which he had learnt was Morality but one thing he lackt and that was Divinity that was Christianity that was self-deniall self-abasing gospell-humbling gospell-repentance sell all and gospell-faith and gospell-obedience come and follow me this Doctrine he was never taught before and this he never learnt and therefore notwithstanding his proficiency in the other and due observancy of those Guides yet was hee left in the Wildernesse still and lost ther● as you may see in the close of the story 3. A generall preaching Ministry 3. A general preaching Minister that either preacheth notions or generall things of Doctrine or else practicall truths but in a generall way Truly the reason I believe that people generally continue bewildred is Ministers preaching so much in a generall way to particular soules in their naturall condition that do not use to take home any more to themselves then we carry home into their bosoms whether almost they will or no. Surely as it is not food in generall that supports or Physick in generall that heales the body so is it not the truth in general that cures the soul but this or that food or Physick applyed to this or that body or this or that truth applyed to this or that soul You know that Drunkards doe usually sleepe under invectives in generall against Drunkennesse and be very safe too Oh! I am not the Drunkard I am but a good fellow or the like till the word come close and plain and home And truly the Guidance of a generall-preaching Minister is little more worth then the Counsell of a Country-Ideot that when a travailer should ask the way to London hee should answer London-Road and the man should reply yea but which is London-Road or which way shall I take to get into it and he should answer nay I cannot tell So they preach that sin is the way to Hel and Repentance and Faith are the way to Heaven yea but saith a poor soule which hears them preach thus generally yea but what is Faith or Repentance or how shal we do to know whether I repent or believe or no What is it to mortifie the deeds of the flesh and what is it to walk after the spirit which you say we must do and truly the Minister is come the next time to a new Text and never unties the old knot And so the poor soul is as much at a losse as ever it was Onely it knowes now that sinne will damn it and that faith would save it but how to get out of the Wildernesse of sin or how to get into the way of faith never doth the Minister shew and this is the guidance of generall Preaching A sad instance of such Preaching and an happy instance of the contrary we have at once in one Preacher upon one hearer Nathan and David Nathan he forms a curious and elegant story wherein he lively wittily reproves Davids sin to Davids very face 2 Sam. 12. the four first verses Now mark as hee Preaches in the generall so David assents in the generall and is convinced in the generall ver 5. as the Lord lives saith David the man shall die that did this Why David was the man But yet for all the beating of the very bush that David was hid in till David himself comes by particular and plain dealing to bee smitten upon the generall conviction is not worth any thing to him but himselfe lies secure in the Wildernesse of sin still But when Nathan comes to preach particularly David begins to apply particularly and when Nathan smites him he smites upon his own breast Thou art the man saith Nathan ver 7. Thus saith the Lord I did thus and thus for thee verses 7 8. and yet thou hast done thus and thus against me Thou hast slain Uriah and thou hast taken his wife to bee thy wife and thou hast despised the Commandement of the Lord and thou hast done evill c. ver 9. And therefore saith the Lord I will raise up evill against thee and the sword shall never depart from thine bouse ver 10 11. Now David begins to be startled to purpose and to be down-right in acknowledgement as Nathan was in conviction And David said unto Nathan I have sinned against the Lord. Verse 13. Whilst Nathan the cries man did soso and David cries the man shall die But when Nathan cries thou art the man David criee I have sinned against the Lord and if you read but the Penitentiall Psalms of David you shall find what a sad cry it was Particular Preaching makes penitent hearers Whilest Peter cries out Ye have Crucified c. Act. 2 36. They cry out What shal we do v. 37. We say Dolus latet in Universalibus It is easie to deceive or to be deceived by generalls A sedulous inquiry in quiry into the particulars of truth and a close application to particular Cases are the choice meanes for us Ministers to undeceive others and to be undeceived as to the state of our own soules Thus much of the third bewildring Guidance viz. of some Ministers so called Come we now to the next CHAP. VI. There are

looks she calls she feeles for her husband but he is gone yet she goeth in the darke and after him she goes but in stead of finding him loseth her selfe Now perhaps she may fear yea think yea be perswaded that the joyes of yesterday were but a dreame and that she was never at all brought out of the Wildernesse Thus she takes on perhaps more than at the beginning untill the day again breaks and her Husband that all this while observed her speaks unto her and reveales himself afresh and comforts her And now this is that she will doe she takes hold of him she followes after him and yet keeps close unto him she makes him her strength if she cannot goe he must leade her he must carry her for home with him she must she is resolved to goe Pardon the Allegory for I speake of Christ and his Church The Soul departing from the Lord as all of us did in Adam is called a woman departing from her first Husband Hos 2. It thinkes to please it selfe in sin but instead of finding a way to true pleasure hits upon this spirituall Wildernesse The Night is the darksome clouding of a convicted wounded spirit The Lyons roaring c. is the terrours of the Law temptations of Satan horrors of Conscience In this condition as I said the soul is afraid of crying out for a Guide for a God for fear of the Devil Many a such soul is more afraid of praying now than it was of cursing or swearing before This Sunset of carnall comforts this Midnight of black terrours may and often doth continue long and alwaies long enough to make the poor heart weary of the Wildernesse But God is faithfull who suffers not the soul that he loves to be tempted above what it is able but will with the temptation also make a way to escape Through the tender mercy of this God the Day-star at length visites the soul thus sitting in darknesse And here 's some glimering of comfort to the heart Yea but anon the Sunne of Righteousnesse ariseth with healing under his wings And now are the beasts of the prey laying themselves downe in their dens Satan is chained up from assaulting the Law is prohibited from condemning and Conscience begins a little to be cheared and now the soul gets up upon her feet to hear what God will say and the sound that she hears is the voice of her Beloved where art thou poore Soul come unto me and I will give thee rest And this abundantly revives her yea but by and by Christ comes and manifests himself unto her and receives her making her able by Faith to embrace him He puts his Robes his Righteousnesse upon her nakednesse his Oyle his Comforts into her wounds his Wine his Joyes revive her his Grace his Oyntments doe perfume her and now the heart that was rent and the bones which were broken doe rejoice with joy unspeakable and full of glory And now the soul makes too much haste home even greater than Christ seeth convenient for it crying out Oh that I were dissolved that I might be at home with the Lord Lord now lettest thou thy servant depart in peace Oh! that I had but power according to my minde what would not I doe for God This is much haste but doth this hold alwaies No verily the Spirit indeed is willing but the Flesh is weake it s not able to beare such hard travail it grows drowsie and dull and heavy with sleep I meane security or sloath or the like yea and asleep it falls under the edge of the Wildernesse though it be out of the state of sinne yet it is neare unto the terrours and actings of sin still And as soon as this soul falls asleep Christ seemes to withdraw Anon the soul is again awakened but night is come upon it It is not yet so free from the Wildernesse but it can againe heare the roaring Lyons that is 't is again afflicted perplexed troubled Satan's as loud Conscience is as loud as ever And now saith the soul alass all was but a dreame but a delusion and I was never at all brought out of the Wildernesse never savingly wrought upon Now she gets up and loseth her self in looking a Christ now she is in as much darknesse as ever as to her apprehension and this is the first bewildring darknesse after Conversion v●z upon the soules falling asleep in spiritual sloth and security even upon such withdrawing of its first zeale and Gods withdrawing his first smiles But when Christ hath to purpose tryed he will graciously returne unto such and restore the joy of his salvation yet perhaps never againe in such a ravishing transporting measure here though he will restore a convenient measure to support for the present yet it's like so sparingly as to keep the soul in more humble and close dependance for the future I have been the longer Made out in the Spouse because I have been telling the main of the story of this Spouse in the Canticles unto that verse which is my Text. You may observe mention of two eminent times of darknesse or benighting times to the poor Spouse Twice in the dark the first was Cant. 3.1 By night I sought him c. Being in the dark she was afraid to be any more without him The second was Cant. 5.2 when she fell asleep and Christ waited to awaken her till his locks were bedewed with the night saith the Text. Now in both these darknesses she was at a losse for her beloved Cant. 3.1 I sought him but I found him not so ver 2 so also Cant. 5.6 I sought him but he had withdrawn himselfe Here it seemes she had once found him but now she hath lost him Now suitable to this double losse Twice coming out of the Wilderness and benighted condition you have mention made twice of her coming out of the Wildernesse Cant. 3. she is bewildred and benighted and at a losse for Christ but ver 4. at length she gets at him and it followes ver 6. Who is this that comes out of the Wildernesse perfumed with all the precious powders of the Merchant Where you have to observe 1. How sadly shee was bewildred till she came at Jesus Christ 2. In how glorious and transcendent beauty she was when she by taking hold upon Christ as is said ver 4. came out of the Wildernesse Oh 't is such a bright day now that she doth not thinke of another night so much peace of conscience joy in believing so much ravishment such smoking perfumes c. Now she comes out of the wilderness and she is a perfumed Spouse But then again as you read of her second Night and second Bewildring in the fifth Chapter so of her comming out of the wildernesse the second time in our Text. Onely observe the difference and you shall find it what I said true Who is this that comes up from the wildernesse leaning upon her beloved Cant.

Christ I perswade my selfe in every respect will make a good Husband even a good Husband for me and that he perfectly is worthy and meet to be beloved even my Beloved Methinks I am fully convinced that I absolutely need such an Husband as Christ is to pay my debts which are great and as much need I have of such an head to live with me as a man of knowledge to reprove to convince to instruct me and even as great need also of such an head as I see Christ will be to govern mine unruly Family my heart my thoughts mine affections c. Methinks I see not in Christ any thing at all that I can spare neither can I find any thing missing in Christ that my soule can stand in need of this is the voyce of that Assent which I am speaking of And this you have at large explained Isai 45.21 22 23 24. Where by way of promise and prophesie he speakes of this very Assent I have sworne saith the Lord That unto me every tongue shall sweare 23. verse And what shall they sweare That there is no God else beside God a just God and a Saviour and that unto him they look even for salvation by him onely verses 21. and 22. Yea and surely shall one say in the Lord have I strength and righteousnesse v. 24. That is they shall be assuredly perswaded that in and onely by Jesus Christ there is strength and righteousnesss for those that look unto him that is for Believers yea for themselves in particular Therefore let me aske your soules this question Were they ever fully and satisfactorily perswaded that Jesus Christ were onely and fully such an one as you could unfeignedly make your Beloved If you answer no Why then take heed of leaning on him whilest you are of this minde If you answer yea you are so convinced that Christ is wholly and onely worthy of your affections Oh! why is it that you sit so much so wantonly I may say so whorishly in the laps of other Lovers CHAP. XII The consent described Direction how to improve this interest As also the third Consideration opening this leaning as to the Notion of the word SEcondly As an assent of the Understanding 2. A Consent so a consent of the Will is necessarily supposed unto such an interest This Consent I shall thus describe 1. Described It is a free and full act of the Will rejecting all other lovers and receiving whole Christ in his own way or upon his own terms So that as the forme of the Assent is in conceiving aright of Christ in the understanding so the forme of this Consent is the right receiving of Christ by the Will I say it is a free act of the Will for Christ wooes A free act of the will and wins the affections he ravisheth them not Indeed at first they are not onely coy but crooked He comes to his owne in this sence even his own intended and elect Lady and Spouse but she receives him not What gracious heart is there but with bitternesse remembers how many unmannerly and unworthy wayes it gave unto Jesus Christ before he brought it unto a Yea and a Amen But Christ of unwilling makes them willing and this is expressed Psa 110.2 3. The Lord by sending forth the rod of his strength maketh them a willing people in the day of his power This power of Christ by an holy force upon them in the first working of grace frees them Christs love constraines them He drawes them and it is with the Cords of a man and then their affections freely go yea They run after him so Cant 1.4 I say also a full act of the Will A full Act. because I thus judge that a divided heart never yet marryed Jesus Christ thou must not be almost but altother perswaded to be a Christian surely that Christ that will not allow one man to serve two Masters will never allow one woman to have two Husbands especially if himself must be one of them Surely herein though our affections are not perfect as to the degree yet must they be sincere as to their kind and united among themselves for therefore I call it the full act of the Will that is of the united affections A woman doth not onely marry her love but her fear her desire her delight even all her affections in their degree to her Husband In a word she engageth her will to her Husband If David had need to cry out unite my heart to fear thy name as Psal 86.11 What need have we to pray Unite our hearts to bear the name by marrying thine onely begotten Son by matching our selves unto Jesus Christ We must have but one heart for one Husband for one is our Husband even Christ 2 Cor. 11.2 Rejecting all others I say moreover rejecting all other lovers that is we must break our league with Hell and our Covenant with death Indeed had our hearts been chast and faithful before we should not need to break but onely to tye a knot Note but because of our former wanton dalliance with and engagements unto other lovers as you may with shame and sorrow see Hoseah 2.7 Therefore will the Lord Christ have us solemnly renounce and disclaime them though they will not give us a Bill of divorcement Heaken O Daughter and consider forget also thine own people and so shal the King greatly delight in thy beauty Psal 45.10 11. Farewel flesh get thee behind me Satan depart from me you workers of iniquity wantons worldlings my former lovers my former lusts for now am I married unto the Lord Jesus Christ And receiving Christ I say withall a receiving of Christ because dissent from other suiters must be seconded with Consent unto him as it is expressed Hos 2.7 Having left other lovers shee must returne to her first Husband It is not enough to think or say I am none of Satans I am not for the world I will not be for sin but I am Christs I am and through grace will continue Christs and none but Christs Is not this that which the Spouse so frequently professeth I am my beloveds and he is mine Cant. 6.3 I am my beloveds and his desire is towards me Cant. 7.10 My beloved is mine and I am his Cant. 2.16 Observe the variety and inversion I am his He is mine He is mine and I am his What is this but the marriage-match and in the truest sence the True-lovers-knot I say likewise a receiving of whole Christ Verily sirs Even whole Christ Christ is not divided The soule that will marry her Saviour must marry her Sanctifier and in marrying her Priest she must marry her Prophet if she match to one that will pay her debts she must match to one that will mannage her affairs yea and her desire shall be towards him and he shall rule over her so Psa 45.11 He is thy Lord and worship thou him You must

though thou hast been an Underling in Aegypt an Inhabitant of the Wildernesse who hast wrought among the Bricks and lyen among the Pots and gone among the Thornes and trod upon Serpents Art thou in Christ thou and now going homeward to the heavenly Canaan the Rest of Gods people to the Jerusalem that is ABOVE and is TREE Above Aegypt its Brick-kiln and Fleshpots Earth and all its allurements and all their embitterments Above Pharoah and his Hosts Satan and his Instruments above he Wilderness windings and woundings of sinne And therefore thou shalt be FREE from feares from falls from sinne from sorrowes from the Death of the Body and from the Body of Death and from all the evill that is in the World and from the world of Evill that is in the heart The Gulfe shall be fixed and thou shalt be free'd and though these would passe over to thee they shall not be able The Aegyptians that followed thee thou shalt see them no more for ever They followed thee but shall never finde thee There 's a Jordan betwixt thee and them which though it were dryed up before thee yet shall not be so for them to passe after thee Thine old Aegypt is on the other side of the Sea and thine old Wildernesse on the other side of the Flood The Waters shall returne and thine Enemies be cut off Where the Serpent found thee thou shalt leave Him even in the Wildernesse and where thou leavest the Serpent thou shalt leave the poyson and the sting even Satan and Sinne and Death together The first is a Murtherer the next is a Lyer the last is a Dogge that will grumble and snarle at thee but cannot hurt thee and without are Murtherers and Lyers and Dogs but within are true Israelites Feare not poore Convert that are crucified with Christ though a Prisoner among men and condemned of the World where thy legges are broken thy supports taken away the way that thou art in is life as well as Way and the sooner men breake thy legges the more hast shalt thou make to suppe with Christ in Paradice Yea thou art a stranger and strangely dealt with as in a strange Land Art thou but in Christ thou art going homeward to thine owne Country and to the house of thy friends to the Spirits of thy dear deceased Relations that are now made perfect There is Eunice thy Mother and Lois thy Grandmother if thou be a Timothy Yea Jesus himselfe will doe the Right of a Kinsman unto and will owne thee in the Gates of Heaven and before the Elders of thy people Then shalt thou that wast afraid to glean after the Reapers possesse the whole joyes of the Harvest and thou that wast afraid to uncover his feet shalt lye then in his bosome and thou shalt be ever with the Lord. And now who is there among you that are in Christ as the way to this Rest and have Christ in you as the hope of his Glory can hear of this home without desire to be dissolved and to depart if the Lord would let you to this rest in peace And yet this is but a little of that that may be spoken and all that may be spoken is but a little of that that shall be made good unto you when you come at home This is but a short Pisgaprospect of the promised Land which your owne life keepes you out of possession of These are but a few of the clusters of Canaan that are brought you for a taste by a poore Spye lest any of you should have evill thoughts of the good Land and so take up on this side Jordan but who shall reveale unto you what is the fruite of the Vine in your Fathers Kingdom This is but your Provision sent you to support you by the Way but who can Divine without Josephs Cup what a Land is that Goshen whence these Provisions come This is but the Raine that filles your Pooles in the Vale of Baca but who can tell you how it shall bee with you when you appeare before the Lord in Sion This is but Mount Tabor 't is Mount Sion that is your dwelling place and there is the City of the living God there are the innumerable companies of Angells the Church of the first born and Jesus the Mediator And if to thinke of these things seriously while wee are at home in the Body make this home an Heaven sure it will be good for us to be where this Heaven shall be our home This is the Inheritance of the Saints in light the Inheritance incorruptible and that fadeth not away but is reserved in the Heavens for them This is their Habitation made but not with hands and purchased but not with money This is their Rest prepared by Christs travailes their life purchased by his Death the joy of the Lord dearely paid for by that Man of sorrowes their Glory bought by his shame their true Riches gained through his povertie the Kingdome wonne for them by his subjection the blessing obtained through his being made as a Curse for them Oh! thanks be to God for his unspeakable GIFT This is the HOME whereunto Christ is the WAY In and By whom whilest the Ransomed of the Lord come up from the Wildernesse they shall obtaine joy and gladnesse and sorrow and sighing shall flee away Wherefore you see deare Brethren partakers of the heavenly Calling that there is a promise left us of entering into his Rest .. Let us therefore feare lest any of us should seeme to come short Heb. 4.1 The Lord hath this day shewne you the good way and hath said unto you Walke in it and you shall finde Rest to your soules Jer. 5.16 But now if any of you shall answer as they in the next verse We will not walk therein Know of a surety that every soule that goes Christlesse goes both Guidelesse and waylesse and therefore shall never find this Heavenly habitation I cannot say but Christlesse sinners have got as many Guidles as there are SATYRS and as many waies as there are windings in the Wildernesse and they also make hast to their own home for Judas who hanged himself is said to go 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 to his own place Act. 1.25 But alas as is the difference of the Waies so of the Homes the waies differ as Darknesse and light and the Homes as Hell and Heaven He that is in Christ goes home to be comforted but the Christlesse to be tormented he to his good things but thou O wretch from thy good things Hee dies to live thou diest to die He descends as to his body that he may ascend thou ascendest as to thy spirit which returns to God that gave it to give sentence on it that thou maist descend and go down into Hell for ever He may complain Abroad the sword bereaveth but thou shalt lament At home there is as death he cannot say so As death I say but worse thou death Where thou shalt