the flesh And all their thoughts and words and actions that have such an End are wicked and pernicious Till you are Resolved by Conversion to be for God you have never a right End in a prevailing sence and therefore you cannot order one thought nor word nor deed aright I tell you every thought you think and every word you speak and every deed you do while you are unconverted are so many steps towards Hell except only those that tend towards Conversion and some way further it Resolve therefore of this or you can Resolve of nothing 15. Moreover if you would presently and firmly Resolve you would ease your friends and the Ministers of Christ of much of their sorrows and fears and cares for you and of much of the most troublesome part of their work As long as you are unconverted they can look on you but as the heirs of Hell that will be quickly in those torments if conversion prevent it not and therefore their hearts are full of sorrow for you when you sorrow not for your selves and their care is how they might prevent your damnation which they know without Conversion can never be done Many a groan doth your Misery cost them and many a thought have they of your danger which you are not aware of O what a grief is it to believing Ministers to see so many of their people in the power of Satan and the high-way to Hell after all their care and labour for their recovery We cannot say that the unconverted shall certainly perish because we have yet hopes that they may be Converted though they be not But we know that if they die in the case that they are in there is no hope of them at all and we know they are uncertin to live an hour And therefore as long as they are in this Condition how can we chuse but be filled with fear and grief and care for them All the troubles that befall a faithfull Minister in his worldly affaires by crosses and persecutions are nothing to the trouble that your sinne and misery bringeth to their minds O what a comfortable life were it for a Minister to live with bread and water among a people that would obey the Gospel and give us hopes that we should live with them in Heaven O how cheerfully may we study for them and preach to them when we see that it is not lost upon them How willingly should we prepare them the bread of life when we see they feed and live upon it How joyfully may we pray and praise God with them when we think how they must joyn with us in the Celestial Praises O Sirs I beseech you grudg not your Ministers this comfort Do not destroy your selves to grieve and trouble them O put them once out of their fears and grief for you by your Resolving ad speedy return to God That they that have many a time thought in their hearts I am afraid this poor sinner will never be recovered I am afraid he will be a firebrand in Hell may now rejoice with you when they see you coming home and may meet you as the Father himself doth meet his prodigal children and weep over you for joy as they were wont to do in sorrow You would ease our hearts of abundance of sad thoughts if we could but perceive you once Resolved and see you come home Now you think our preaching harsh to you because we tell you so much of sinne and of damnation and you think our discipline more harsh when we refuse to have communion with you But if you would once Resolve and Turn how gladly should we open our doores and our hearts to you and how gladly should we turn the stream of our preaching and tell you of nothing but Christ and Heaven and peace and comfort further then your own necessities should require it What say you Sirs to this reasonable request Will you Resolve without any more ado and ease us of our grief and fears and give us but leave to preach more comfortable Doctrine to you 16. Moreover consider that you have much work to do when you are Resolved and Converted and a great way to go when you have begun your journey towards Heaven and till you are Resolved none of this can be done You can go no further till Conversion have set you in the right way Till then the further you go the further you are out of the way Will you be unresolved till the night come on Shall all the rest of your work be undone Will you begin your race when you should be at the end Alas you should be able to say as Paul 2 Tim. 4. 8. I have fought a good fight I have finished my course henceforth is laid up for me a crown of righteousness when as you cannot yet say I have begun my course I am set in the right way 17. Consider also that Rosolution maketh works easie and successfull The resolute Army is seldom couquered A resolute travailer will go through with his journy and it is easier to himself His spirits are excited and doing it with vivacity he findeth less trouble in it A slow and lazy pase doth sometime soonest weary us A slow motion is most easily stopt when a swift one bears down that which would resist it A man that Resolvedly sets himself to the Work of God and is past any further deliberating of the matter and is at a point with all the world will make a pleasure of that which will stop and stall an unresolved professour Resolve therefore for your own success and ease I tell you by Resolving it is that you must conquer and by conquering you must obtain the Crown The unresolved are wavering at every assault like cowardly soldiers even ready to runne before they fight They will not bear the cost or labour they are soon aweary They cannot say Nay to an old Companion or a tempting bait But the Resolved breaks through all and treads that under his feet as dirt which another sells his Soul for If he meet with reproaches and scornes from men he remembreth that Christ foretold him this and suffered much more of the like before him If his friends turn enemies for the Gospel sake he saith I was told of this before even that I must be hated of all men for Christ. If he be ticed by lewd and wanton company he saith as David Psal. 119. 115. Depart from me ye evill doers for I will keep the Commandements of my God If he be tempted with rewards and honours in the world he will not stand wavering and longing after it as Balaam but he will say as the same Balaam was forced to do If you will give me a handfull of Gold and Silver I cannot go beyond the Word of the Lord. And let their money perish with them that think all the Gold in the world worth the peace of a good Conscience and the favour of God If he be threathened by
Christians and What would you have done in Spain or Italy where it would cost you your lives He that will not be Converted now but thinks the termes of grace too hard is so impious a despiser of Christ and Heaven that it is no wonder if God resolve that he shall never taste of the salvation that was offered him Luk 14. 24. Moreover you know upon what uncertainties you hold your lives you have no assurance of them for an hour but you are sure that they are passing away while you delay And will you trifle then in a work that must be done What a case are you in if death find you unconverted The heart of man is not able now to conceive the misery of your case How dare you venture to live another day in an unconverted state least death should find you so Are you not afraid when you lie down at night and afraid when you go out of your doors in the morning least death surprize you before you are converted If you be not it 's long of your deadness and presumption And I would fain hear what it is that should thus stop you What are you afraid of Is God an Enemy that you are loath to come to him Is the devil a Friend that you are so loath to leave him Is sinne a Paradise Is Holiness a Misery Is it pleasanter life to love your money or your lands or your meat and drink and lusts then to love the most blessed God the Creatour of the World the life of our Souls and our Eternal Felicity Is it better to pamper a carcass that must shortly stink as the dung then to provide for a living immortall soul Whether do you think that Earth or Heaven will be the more glorious and durable felicity What is it sirs that you stick at that you make so many delayes before you 'l turn Is there any difficulty in the point Do you think it a hard question whether you should turn or not Why how can you be so blind Do you stand pausing upon the business as it were a doubt whether God or the world were better and whether sinne or holiness Christ or death Heaven or Hell were to be preferred I pray you Consider Can you reasonably think that Conversion will do you any harm Can it bring you into a worse condition then you are in Sure you cannot fear such a thing You are in your blood you are dead in sinne you are children of wrath while you are unconverted you are under the curse of the Law of God you are the slaves of the devil you are the heirs of hell and under the guilt of all your sinnes your life is a continued rebellion against God you are employed every day in the destroying of your selves in kindling the flames that must everlastingly torment you and laying in fewell for the perpetuating of your misery and fighting against your friends that would deliver you and unthankfully abusing Christ and grace and Ministers and Friends that would save your souls This is the condition that every one of you is in till you are converted And can you fear least Conversion would bring you into a worse condition then this Sirs these Truths are sure and plain and if yet you stick at it your errour is so palpably gross that unless you are mad men I may be bold to say it is a wilfull errour And if you love to be deceived and wilfully choose a lie you must take that you get by it 3. Consider further That half-Conversions do often prove an occasion of deluding mens souls and making them quiet in a miserable state and so of keeping them from being converted to the last If you had never done any thing in it you would more easily be perswaded that your case is bad and that there is still a necessity of your change But when you have had some convictions and troubles of mind and fears and sorrows and so have fallen into an outside partiall reformation and now are perswaded that you are truly converted when it is no such matter What a dangerous impediment to your Conversion may this prove And all because you slubber over the work and cut it off before it reacheth to sincerity and strive against the workings of the Spirit and break away from your Physicâ—in before he hath done the cure and would not follow it on to the end I know that a half-Conversion if it be known to be no more is much better then none and doth often prepare men for a saving work But when this half-Conversion is taken to be a true and saving change as â—oo commonly it is it proves one of the greatest impediments of salvation When ever Christ shall afterwards knock at your door you will not know him as thinking that he dwells with you already If you read any Books that call on you to be converted or hear any Preachers that call on you to turn you have this at hand to cousen your selves with aud frustrate all You 'l think This is not spoken to me For I am Converted already O how quietly do such poor deluded sinners daily read and hear their own doom and misery and never once dream that they are the men that are meant and therefore are never dismayed at the matter This formeth you into a state of hypocrisie and makes the course of your duties and your lives to be hypocriticall If another man that knows himself to be still unconverted do but read the threatnings of the Word against such or hear of the terrours of the Lord from a Minister he may be brought to confess that this is his own case and so to perceive the misery of his condition But when such as you do read and hear these things they never trouble you for you think that they do not touch you You are Scripture-proof and Sermon-proof and all by the delusion of your half-Conversion O how zealously will such a man cry out against the sinnes of others and tell them of their misery and perswade them to turn and shew them the danger that is near them if they do not and in the mean time little thinks that this is his own case and that he speaks all this against his own soul. How will such men applaud a Sermon that drives at the Conversion of a sinner and that tels them their misery while they are unconverted O thinks he this touched such and such I am glad that such a man and such a man heard it And he little thinks that it as nearly touched himself How smooâ—hly will he go on in any discourse agaâ—nst wicked unregenerate men as David heard the Parable of Nathan and it never once entreth into their thoughts that they speak all this against themselves till the Judge shall tell them when it is too late Thou art the man It will turn not only the stream of your thoughts into hypocrisie and self-deceit but also the stream of your speeches to others
in the dark and therefore we call you to the Law and to the Testimony and desire you to take our words into the light and see whether they be according to the Word of the Lord. Nothing troubleth us more then that we cannot perswade our hearers to this tryal Some of them are so hardened in their sinne and misery that they will not be at so much labour as to open their Bibles and try whether we say true or not Some of them will not trouble their minds with the thoughts of it Psal. 10 4. God is not in all their thoughts And some are already too wise to learn they will not so long abate their confidence of their former opinions though poor soules their ignorance doth threaten their damnation And some are so engaged in a sinfull party that their companions will not give them leave to make so much question of the way that they are in And some will scarce take the Scripture for the Rule by which they must try and be tryed but look more to custom and the will of those in power over them And most are unwilling to try because they are unwilling to know the truth and cannot endure to find themselves miserable nor see the sinne which they would not leave nor see the duty which they love not to practice And thus we cannot get them to try whether the things that we teach them be so For want of this it is that men deceive themselves and think their case to be safe when it is miserable because they will not try it by the Word This makes them rage and be confident in their folly Prov. 14. 16. and laugh and sing at the brink of Hell and swimme as merrily down the stream to the devouring gulf as if no evil were near them This makes them in the depth of misery to have no pitty on themselves and to do so little to escape it Though they have time and means and helps at hand yet there are not hearts in them to make use of them yea they runne themselves daily further on the score and all because we cannot get them to search the Scripture and try whether sinne be so small a matter and whether this will not be bitterness in the end Hence it is that they are so easily drawn by a temptation and that they dislike a holy life and have base thoughts of them that are most diligent for salvation and are most precious in the eyes of God and that they can even deride the way that they should walk in Prov. 1 22. Psal. 1. 2. because they will not search the Scripture to see what it saith to these matters The Word is a Light and would do much to open their eyes and winne them over to God if they would but come to it with a desire to know the truth You think that the ungodly that are rich and great are in a better condition then a godly man that is poor and despised And why is this but because you will not go into the Sanctuary and see in what a slippery place they stand and what will be the end of these men Psal. 73. 16 17 22. In a word this is the undoing of millions of souls They are all their life time out of the way to Heaven and yet will not be perswaded to ask the way but they runne on and wink and put it to the venture Many a thousand are gone out of the world before they ever spent the quantity of one day in trying by the Scripture whether their state were good and their way were right Nay let their Teachers tell them that they must be sanctified and take another course they will differ from their Teachers though they be never so wise or Learned and they will contradict them and not believe or regard them And yet we cannot get them to come to us and put the case to the tryal and let the Scripture be the jndge Would they but do this they could never sure have such hard thoughts of their Teachers and be offended at their plainest closest dealing You would then say I see now the Minister saies not this of himself he speaks but that which God commandeth him And if he would not deliver the Message of the Lord he were unworthy and unfit to be his Embassadour He were cruel to me if he would not pull me out of the fire by the plainest closest meanes Jud. 23. He hated me if he would not rebuke me but suffer sinne upon me Lev. 19. 17. If he would please men he should not be the servant of Christ Gal. 1. 10. I know it is no pleasure to him to trouble me or to provoke me but it would be his own destruction if he tell me not of my danger Ezek. 3. 18. And I have no reason to wish him to damn his own soul and suffer me to do the like by mine and all for fear of displeasing me in my sinne These would be your thoughts if you would but try our words by the Scripture and see whether we speak not the mind of God And sure it would go somewhat deeper in your hearts and it would stick by you and be more before your eyes when you once understood that it is the Word of God This then is my request to you sirs that the work of your Conversion may not miscarry that you would carry all that you hear to the Scripture and search there and see whether it be so or not that so you may be put out of doubt and may be at a certainty and not stand wavering and that your Faith may be resolved into the Authority of God and so the work may be Divine and consequently powerfull and prevailing when the Ground and Motive is Divine If you be not satisfied in the Doctrine which the Minister delivereth to you first search the Scripture your selves and if that will not do go to him and desire him to shew you his grounds for it in the Word of God and joyn with you in Prayer for a right understanding of it Do you question whether there be so severe a judgment and a Heaven and a Hell as Ministers tell you Search the Scripture in Mat. 25. 2 Thes. 1. 8 9 10. Joh. 5. 29 Matth. 13. Do you question whether a man may not be saved without conversion regeneration and holyness Open your Bibles and see what God saith John 3. 3 6. Mal. 18. 3. 2 Cor. 5. 17. Rom. 8. 9. Heb. 12. 14. Do you think a man may be saved without Knowledge Let Scripture judge 2 Cor. 4 3 4. Joh. 17. 3. Hos. 4. 6. Do you think a man may be saved that doth as the most do and goeth in the common way of the world Search the Scripture and see Mat. 7. 13. and 20. 16. and 22. 14. Luke 12. 32. Do you think an unhumbled Soul may be saved that never was contrite and broken hearted for sin Try by Isa. 57. 15. and 66. 2.
the Gout or Sâ—one or other disease and he forbid him wine or strong drink or such meats as he desireth as long as he feeles himself at ease he will be venturing on them and will not be curbed by the words of the Physion But when the fit is on him and he feels the torment then he will be ruled Pain will teach him more effectually then words could do When he feeleth what is hurtfull to him and feeleth that it alway makes him sick it will restraine him more then hearing of it could do So when Humiliation doth break your hearts and make you feel that you are sick of sinne and filleth your Soul with smart and sorrow then you will be the more willing that God should destroy it in you When it lyeth so heavy on you that you are unable to look up and makes you go to God with groanes and teares and cry O Lord be mercifull to me a sinner When you are faine to go to Ministers for ease to your Consciences and fill their eares with accusations of your selves and open even your odious shamefull sinnes then you will be content to let them go Now there is no talking to you of Mortification and the resolute rejecting of your sinnes The Precepts of the Gospel are too strict for you to submit to But a broken heart would change your mindes The healthfull Plow-man saith Give me that which I love these Physicians would bring us all to their Rules that they may get money by us I never mean to follow their directions But when sickness is upon him and he hath tryed all his own skil in vaine and paine giveth him no rest then send for the Physician and then he will do any thing and take any thing whatever he will give him so that he may but he eased and recovered So when your hearts are whole and unhumbled these Preachers and Scriptures are too strict for you You must have that which you love self-conceited precise Ministers must have leave to talk but you will never believe that God is of their mind or will damn men for taking that which they have a mind of O but when these sinnes are as swords in your hearts and you begin to feele what Ministers told you of then you will be of another mind Away then with this sinne There 's nothing so odious so hurtfull so intollerable O that you could be rid of it what ever it cost you Then he will be your best Friend that can tell you how to kill it and be free from it and he that would draw you to it would be as Satan himself to you Matth. 16. 22 23. Gal. 1. 8 9. Humiliation diggeth so deep that it undermineth sinne and the fortress of the Devil and when the foundation is rooted up it will soone be over throwne When the Murderers of Christ were pricked to the heart they 'l then cry out for counsell to the Apostles Acts 2. 37. When a murderer of the Saints is stricken blindfold to the earth and the Spirit withall doth humble his Soul he will then cry out Lord what would'st thou have me to do Acts 9. 6. When a cruel Jaylour that scourged the Servants of Christ is by an Earth-quake brought to a heart-quake he will then cry out What shall I do to be saved Acts 16. 30. And here comes in the usefulness of Afflictions even because they are so great advantages to Humiliation Men will be brought to some Reason by extreamities When they lie a dying a man may talk to them and they will not so proudly fly in his face nor make a scorne of the word of the Lord as in their prosperity they did God will be more regarded when he pleadeth with them with the rod in his hand stripes are the best Logick and Rhetorick for a fool When sinne hath captivated their Reason to their flesh the Arguments to convince them must be such as the flesh is capable of perceiving We may long tell a beast of dangers and discommodities before we can perswade him from that which he loves Sensuality doth brutifie men in too great a measure And so far as they are brutish it is not the clearest Reasons that will prevaile And if God did not maintaine in corrupted man some remnants of free Reason we migh preach to beasts as hopefully as to men But Afflictions tend to weaken the Enemy that doth captivate them as prosperity by accident tends to strengthen him The flesh understandeth the language of the rod better then the language of Reason or of the Word of God And as the sensible part of our Humiliation promoteth Mortification so the rational and voluntary Humiliation which is proper to the Sanctified is a principal part of Mortification it self And thus you may see that it 's necessary that we be throughly humbled that sin may be throughly killed in us 3. Another use of Humiliation is to fit the Soul for a meet entertainment of further Grace and that both for the honour of Christ and Grace and for our own welfare 1. In respect of Christ it is equal that he should dwell in such Souls only as are fit to entertaine him Neither his person nor his business are such as can suit with the unhumbled heart Till Humiliation make a sinner feel his sinne and misery it is not possible that Christ as Christ should be heartily welcome to him or received in that sort as his honour doth expect Who cares for the Physician that feels no sickness and feares not death He may pass by the doores of such a man and he will not call him in But when paine and feares of death are on him â—e will send and seek and bid him welcome Will any man fly to Christ for succour that feeleth not his wants and danger Will they lay hold on him as the only refuge of their Souls and cleave to him as their only hope that feele no great need of him Will they lie at his feet and beg for mercy that feel themselves well enough without him When men do but hear of sinne and misery and superficially believe it they may coldly look after Christ and Grace and feel the worth of the later in such a manner as they feel the weight of the former But never is Christ valued and sought after as Christ till sorrow have taught us how to value him Nor is he entertained in the necessary honour of a Redeemer till Humiliation throw open all the doores No man can seek him with his whole heart that seeks him not with a broken heart And it 's certain that Christ will come on no lower terms into the Soul Though he come to do us good yet he will have the honour of doing it Though he come to heâ—l us and not for any need he hath of us yet he will have the welcome that 's due to a Physician He comes to save us but he will be honoured in our Salvation He inviteth all to the
have the Love the Honour or the thanks that he intended by his gift It is necessary therefore that the Soul be throughly humbled that pardon may be received as pardon and Grace as Grace and not set light by And 2. as this is necessary for the honour both of Christ and Grace so also it is necessary for our own benefit and consolation The Mercy cannot indeed be ours if Humiliation do no make us capable of it These Cordials must be taken into an empty Stomack and not be drownd in â—legm and filth A man on the Gallows will be glad of a pardon but a stander by that thinks he is innocent would not regard it but take it for an accusation There is no great sweetness in the name of a Redeemer to an unhumbled Soul It sets not by the Spirit the Gospel is no Gospel to it the tidings of Salvation are not so glad to such a one as the tidings of riches or worldly delights would be As it is the preparation of the Stomack that maketh our meat sweet to us and the coursest fare is pleasanter to the sound then sweet-meats to the sick so if we were not emptied of our selves and vile and lost in our own apprehensions and if Contrition did not quicken our appetites the Lord himself and all the miracles of his Saving Grace would be but as a thing of nought in our eyes and we should be but weary to heare or think of them But O what an inestimable Treasure is Christ to the Humbled Soul What life is in his promises What sweetness in every passage of his grace and what a feast in his unmeasurable Love 4. Another Use of Humiliation implyed in the former is that it is necessary to bring men to yield to the terms of the Covenant of Grace Nature holds fast it 's fleshly pleasures and lives by feeling upon present things and knows not how to live upon invisibles by a life of Faith And this is the life that all must live that will live in Christ And therefore he calleth them to the forsaking of all the crucifying the world and flesh the denying of themselves if they will be his Disciples But O how loath is nature to part with all and make a full resignation unto Christ but fain it would make sure of present things for fear leâ—t the promises of Heaven should but deceive them and then they would have Heaven at last as a reserve And on these terms it is that Hypocrites are Religions and thus it is that they deceive their Souls But when the heart is truly broken it will then stand no longer on such terms with Christ but yield up all It will then no longer Condition with him but stand to his Conditions and thankfully accept them Any thing will then serve with Christ and Grace and the hopes of Glory 5. Another Use of Humiliation is to fit us for the Retaining and Improving of Grace when we have received it The Proverb is Lightly come lightly go If God should give the pardon of sinne to the unhumbled how soon would it be cast away And how easily would such be hearkning to temptation and returning to their vomit The burn't Child we say dreads the fire When sinne hath kill'd you once and broken your hearts you will think the worse of it while you live And when a temptation comes you will think of your former smart Is not this it that cost me so many groans and laid me in the dust and had almost damned me and shall I go to it again Was I so hardly recovered by a Miracle of Mercy And shall I runne again into the misery that I was saved from Had I not sorrow and fear and care enough but I must go back again for more and renew my trouble Thus the remembrance of your sorrows will be a continuall preservative to you And a contrite spirit that is emptied of it self and is taught the worth of Christ and mercy will not only hold them fast but will know how to use them in thankfullness to God and benefit to himself 6. Another Use of Humiliation is to fit the Soul for it's approach to God himself from whom it had revolted As it beseems not any creature to approach the God of Heaven but in Reverentiall humility so it beseems not any sinner to approach him but in Contrite Humility Who can come out of such wickedness and misery and not bring along the sense of it on his heart It beseemeth not a Prodigal to meet his Father as confidently and boldly as if he had never departed from him but to say Father I have sinned against Heaven and before thee and am no more worthy to be called thy sonne Luke 15. 18. It is not ingenious for a guilty Soul or one that is snatcht as a brand out of the fire to look towards God with a brazen face but with shame and sorrow to hang down the head and smite upon the brest and say O Lord be mercifull to me a sinner For God resisteth the proud but giveth Grace to the humble 1 Pet. 5. 5. Jam. 4. 6. Though the Lord be high yet he hath regard unto the lowly but the proud he knoweth afar off Psal. 138. 6. For thus saith the High and Holy one that inhabiteth Eternity whose Name is Holy and I dwell in the High and Holy Place with him also that is of a contrite and humble spirit to revive the spirit of the humble and to revive the heart of the contrite ones Isa. 57. 15. To this man will I look even to him that is poore and of a contrite spirit and that trembles at my Word Isa 66. 2. The Lord is nigh to them that are of a broken hâ—art and saveth such as be of a contrite spirit Psal. 34. 18. The Sacrifices of God are a broken spirit a broken and contrite heart O God thou wilt not dispise Psal. 51. 17. There is no turning to God unless we loath our selves for all our abominations Ezek. 16. 63. The nearer we approach him the more we must abhor our selves in dust and ashes Job 42. 6. He will not embrace a sinner in his dung but will first wash and clense him Isa. 1. 16. Conversion must make us humble and as little Children that are teachable and look not after great matters in the world or else there is no entering the Kingdom of God Matth. 18. 3 4. And thus you see the Uses and Necessity of Humiliation III. By what hath been already said you may perceive what Mistakes are carefully to be avoided about your Humiliation and with what caution it must be sought 1. One Error that you must take heed of is That you take not Humiliation for an indifferent thing or for such an appurtenance of Faith as may be spared Think not an unhumbled Soul while such can be Sanctified Some carnal hearts conceive that it is only more haynous sinners that must be contrite and broken hearted and
they would have been if they had been judged only by the first Law When they see Christ and Heaven that was offered them and remember their wilfull and obstinate contempt of them their own Consciences and tongues shall justifie God and confess that he is Righteous in the dreadfulest of his Judgments If the word spoken by Angels was stedfast and every transgression and disobedience received a just recompence of reward How shall they escape that neglect of great Salvation which at first began to be spoken by the Lord and then was confirmed by them that heard him God also bearing them witness with signs and wonders and with divers Miracles and gifts of the Holy Ghost Heb. 2. 3 4. And if they escaped not that refused him that spake on Earth much more shall not they escape that turn away from him that speaketh from Heaven For our God is a consuming fire Heb. 12. 25 29. So much of the Ends of Christ's undertaking in our Redemption In which you may see that there are divers things which Demonstrate the Glory of the forementioned Attributes of God in this Gospel Dispensation 1. It shineth forth in the Person of the Redeemer as he was on Earth in his Nature and wonderfull conception and his perfections 2. And it also shineth forth in the Actions of his life overcoming the world and the Devil and perfefectly fullfilling the Law of God So that the Image of his Father did shine forth in his Conversation 3. And also in his Death and Sufferings was the Father glorified as I shewed before 4. And also in the most Wise and Holy frame of those Laws by which the grace of the Mediator is conveyed and the Church governed 5. And by the Image of God by the impress of those Laws on the Souls of his Saints and by the holiness of their lives the Glory of God is also demonstrated 6. As also by the Justifying sentence of the Judge and the glorious Reward bestowed on the Faithfull 7. And by the Condemning sentence and execution on the ungodly in whom Vindictive Justice will be honoured 8. And in the perfection of the Individual Saints and their perfect Love and Praise 9. And in the Saints as imbodyed in the Heavenly Jerusalem the Glory of which will be the Glory of God 10. And pricipally in the Blessed Person and Work of the Redeemer In all these will Gods Glory shine forth for ever Quest. But to whom is it that God doth thus Demosntrate his Glory Answ. 1. To the Saints in this life in that degree as is suited to a state of Grace and the condition of a travailer that lives by Faith We are apt to look upward and long after fuller revelations of the Heavenly Kingdom and mystery and marvail that God will not shew himself more fully to his Saints on Earth Fain we would know more of God and Christ and the life to come and it is oft matter of some temptation to us that God doth not satifie these desires but leaveth them in so much darkness that are willing of his light But this is because we do not consider how much of Glory consisteth in the light and that Grace is more in the Disires of it then in the possession and if we should have as much of it as we desire it were but to bring down Heaven to Earth Means must be suited to their ends God will discover to us so much of his Glory as may quicken our desires and keep alive our hope and patience and endeavours but not so much as shall satisfie us and answer our expectations For Heaven is not here We must not carry our Home about with us but travail towards it that we may reach it at the last 2. God doth even now Demonstrate the Glory of his forementioned Attributes in the work of Redemption not only to his Saints but to the Angels of Heaven The consideration of this hath often satisfied me when I have been tempted to wonder at the work of Redemption that God should so far condescend as to be incarnate and make such glorious discoveries of himself and yet that so few in the world should take notice of it and be should have from men so little of the honour that he seemeth by his preparations to expect But the most part of the world did never once see the Glory that shineth to them in the Redeemer But God hath another world besides this and other Creatures besides man in all likelyhood incomparably more numerous perhaps thousands for one and certainly more excellent And though Christ did assume the Nature of Angels and came not to Redeem them that needed no Redeemer yet may the lustre of this work of Redemption appear to the Angels more clearly then to man and God may have a thousand-fold more Glory from them that are but the spectators and admirers then from us in our present darkness that are yet possessors As we that are here on Earth do look upon and admire the Glory of the Sunne which is as it were in another world and out of our reach so the Angels much more may gaze upon the Glory of the Sonne of God and admire the Lord in the work of our Redemption though they were not the Redeemed ones So that unto them doth God shine forth by it in his excellencies Perhaps you 'l say that cannot be because this is but seeing him in a glass when the Angels see him face to face and immediately behold his blessed Essence or else how can the Saints expect that beatificall Vision To which I answer First that I am uncertain whether seeing face to face bean immediate intuition of the Essence of God or only such a sight of his Glory in those emanations that are as appropriated to the place or state of Bliss Gods Essence is every where but that Glory is not every where And so I know not whether our present knowledg be not called Enigmaticall and as in a glass comparatively to that Glory prepared for the Saints But secondly I answer that certain I am that God is Demonstrated to his Angels in the Redeemer yea in the Church it self which is the Subject of his Grace and that they are both Affected and Imployed about us accordingly He that spoiled Principalities and Powers and openly triumphed over them and by death overcame him that had the power of death Col. 2. 15. Heb. 2. 14. And had so much to do against the evill Angels as Enemies no doubt is joyfully observed by the good Angels And he that is set so far above Principalities and Powers and Might and Dominion and every name that is named in this world or that which is to come Ephes. 1. 21. And is gone in to Heaven and is on the right hand of God Angels and Authorities and Powers being made subject to him 1 Pet. 3. 22. no doubt is honoured and admired by Angels And indeed it is expresly said Let all the Angels of God worship him
Saints you have far more to do then other men You have a multitude of head-strong passions to subdue and abundance of deadly sinnes to kill and rooted vices to root upâ—â— You have many a false opinion of God and his waies to be plucked up and the customes of many years standing to be broken You have blind minds that must be enlightned with heavenly kowledg and abundance of Spiritual Truths that are above the reach of flesh and blood that you must needs learn and understand You have much to know that is hard to be known You have a dead Soul to be made alive and a hard heart to be melted and a scared Conscience to be softned and made tender and the guilt of many thousand sinnes to be pardoned You have a new heart to get and a new End to ayme at and seek after and a new life to live abundance of Enemies you have to sight with and overcome abundance of temptations to resist and conquer Many Graces to get and preserve and exercise and increase and abundance of holy works to do for the Service of God and the good of your selves and others O what a deal of work doth every one of these words conteine and yet what abundance more might I name And have you all this to do and yet will you delay And they are not indifferent matters that are before you It is no less then the saving of your Souls and the obtaining the blessed Glory of the Saints Necessity is upon you These are things that Must be done or else wo to you that ever you were born And yet have you another day to lose Why Sirs if you had a hundred mile to go in a day or two upon paine of death would you delay O think of the work that you have to do and then judg whether it be not time to stirre 20. And me thinks it should exceedingly terrifie you to consider what abundance by such Delayes do perish and how few that wilfully delay are ever converted and saved Many a Soul that once had purposes hereafter to repent is now in the misery where there is no Repentance that will do them any good For my part though I have known some very few Converted when they were old yet I must needs say both that they were very few indeed and that I had reason to believe that they were such that had sinned before in ignorance and did not wilfully put off Repentance when they were convinced that they must turn Though I doubt not but God may convert even these if he please yet I cannot say that I have ever known many if any such to be converted Sure I am that Gods usual time is in Child-hood or youth before they have long abused grace and wilfully delaid to turn when they were convinced Some considerable time I confess many have before their first convictions and purposes be brought to any great ripeness of performance but O how dangerous is it to delay 21. Consider also Either Conversion is Good or Bad for you Either it is needfull or unnecessary If it be bad and a needless thing then let it alone for altogether But if you are convinced that it is Good and necessary is it not better now then to stay any longer Is it not the sooner the better Are you afraid of being safe or happy too soon If you are sick you care not how soon you are well If you have a bone out you care not how soon it is set If you fall into the water you care not how soon you get out If your house be on fire you care not how soon it be quenched If you are but in fears by any doubts or ill tidings you care not how soon your fears be over And yet are you afraid of being to soon out of the power of the Devil and the danger of Hell and of being too soon the Sons of God and the holy justified heirs of Heaven 22. Consider also Either you can turn now or not If you can and yet will not you are utterly without excuse If you cannot to day how much less will you be able hereafter when strength is less and difficulties greater and burdens more Is it not time therefore to make out to Christ for strength and should not the very sense of your disability disswade you from delay 23. Consider how long you have staid already and put Gods Patience to it by your folly Hath not the Devil the world and the flesh had many years time of your life already Have you not long enough been swallowing the poison of sinne and long enough been abusing the Lord that made you and the blood of the Sonne of God that was shed for you and the Spirit of Grace that hath moved and perswaded with you Are you not yet gone far enough from God and have you not yet done enough to the damning of your selves and casting away Everlasting Life O wretched sinners it is rather time for you to fall down on your faces before the Lord and with tears and groans to lament it day and night that ever you have gone so far in sinne and delayed so long to turn to him as you have done Sure if after so many years rebellion you are yet so far from lamenting it that you had rather have more of it and had rather hold on a little longer no wonder if God forsake you and let you alone 24. Have you any hopes of Gods acceptance and your Salvation or not If you have such hopes that when you turn God will pardon all your sinnes and give you Everlasting Life is it think you an ingenious thing to desire to offend him yet a little longer from whom you expect such exceeding Mercy and Glory as you do Have you the faces to speak out what is in your hearts and practice and to go to God with such words as these Lord I know I cannot have the pardon of one sinne without the Blood of Christ and the riches of thy Mercy Nor can I be saved from Hell without it But yet I hope for all this from thy Grace I beseech thee let me live a little longer in my sinnes a little longer let me trample on the Blood of Christ and despise thy commands and abuse thy Mercies a little longer let me spit in the face of thy Goodness and prefer the flesh and the world before thee and then pardon me all that ever I did and take me into Glory Could you for shame put up such a request to God as this If you could you are past shame If not then do not practise and desire that which you cannot for shame speak out and request 25. Moreover it is an exceeding advantage to you to come in to God betimes and an exceeding loss that you will suffer by delay if you were sure to be converted at the last If you speedily come in you may have time to learn and get more understanding in the matters of
Heaven and its Eternal Glory and yet to be unresolved whether to turn or not Or canst thou think of the endless miseries of the damned and yet be unresolved whether to turn or not Can any heart be so senseless or deluded Moreover he pleadeth with thee from the equity and sweetness of his Service It is but to Love him and to seek his Kingdom and forbear those things that hurt thy Soul His Commands are not unreasonable nor grievous Darest thou speak out and say that sinne is better and that Satan hath provided thee a better work then God hath done He reasoneth with thee also from his Wisdom and his Justice He tels thee that as Satan hath nothing to do with thee and as he is none of thy friends and meaneth thee not so well as God doth so he is not able to prescribe thee a more just and perfect law then God hath done Follow God and thou art sure thou shalt never be deceived or misled For he wanteth not Wisdom or Power or Goodness to be a meet Law-giver and Guide But if thou follow the Devil the world or the flesh thou followest a blind and a deceifull guide And yet after all these Reasons art thou not Resolved He Reasoneth with thee also from thy own experience What good hath sinne done thee And what hurt would Holiness do thee Yea he reasons with thee from the experience of all the world Who was ever the bâ—tter for sinning And who was ever the worse for Holiness How long will thy fleshly delights endure What will this do for thee in thy extremity Was ever man made Happy by it Thou knowest well enough thou must shorty leave it and that it will forsake thee in thy greatest need But so would not God if thou hadst Resolvedly given up thy self to him All men that refuse a Heavenly life do sooner or later wish that they had chosen it Abundance of such Reasonings God useth with thee in his Word and by his Ministers and dost thou think indeed that there is not weight enough in these to give thee cause immediately to Resolve How little or nothing canst thou say against them Canst thou bring any Reason that is Reason indeed against these or any of these Reasons of the Lord Darest thou say that ever a one of them is false or insufficient And what are the Reasons which you have on the contrary to hinder you from Resolving Forsooth because your sinnes are sweet you would fain have the pleasure of them a little longer yet O wretched Souls that find more pleasure in the abusing of your Maker and Redeemer then in loving honoring and pleasing him That delight more in serving the flesh and the Devil then in serving God and seeking after his Favour and your own Salvation You are a hundred times madder then a man that lieth tumbling himself in his dung and will not rise out of it to receive a Kingdom because it is so soft and so sweet that he is loth yet to leave it You are foolisher then Nebuâ—hadnezzar had been if he had been loath to return again to his Kingdom because he would fain stay longer among the beasts of the fields among whom in his distraction he had betaken himself Dan. 4. 31 32 33. And what other Reasons have you against Resolving Forsooth you shall be mockt or jested at by others By whom I pray you Not a man but a miserable fool will do it Yea but you are told you must forsake â—ll and be ready to die for Christ if he â—all you to it Very true and can you â—eep that which he calleth you to forsake How long will you keep it Silly Souls do you not know that you forsake it by not for saking it and lose all by saving any thing and that you have no way to save it but by losing and forsakeing it Suppse you were by enemies banished out of England and upon pain of death you must be gone within a twelve-month And a King that loveth you inviteth you to his Country and tells you for the poor livings that you have lost he will make you Lords and Princes so you will bring with you the little goods you have and leave nothing behind you Hereupon one man takes the next wind and ships over all his riches that he may have it when he comes there Another saith I am loath to leave my goods I have a while longer to stay here and what shall I do without them I am loath to see the habitation of my Ancestours impoverished And so when his time is expired he is fain to leave them all behind him and hath none that will receive him in the Country where he must abide Which of these think you is the wiser man Which of them was it that lost his goods and which did save them I speak to you but such another parable as Christ used to you himself Luke 16. 2 3 4 9. Where you are advised to send your riches before you and to make you friends of the mammon of unrighteousness that when you dye you may be received into the everlasting habitations I know there are other vain delusions that hinder you from Resolving I will not call them Reasons for they are unreasonable I shall only say this to you that if there be ever a man of you that heareth his words that dare be such a Blasphemer as to reproach the Laws and Image of his maker and say that he hath made you too strict a Law and laid too heavy a task upon you and a Heavenly life is troublesome and unnecessary If there be a man of you that is so devilish as that you dare plead the Devils cause and justifie his work before the Lord's and say that it is better to please the flesh let that man prepare himself to make good these words before the Lord and his Holy Angels and be sure that he shall be there put to it in another manner then he is here by me And if you have such Reasons as you will stand to before the Barre of God to prove the Devil the better Master and an unholy life to be better then a Heavenly see then that you look them up and there make your best of them and expect to live with the Master that you served and to reape as you sowed and eate the fruit of your fleshly waies which you took to be the best But if you have no such Reasons but your Consciences are convinced that God should be served and sinne should be speedily forsaken and Heaven should be provided for above all Resolve then to do it before you stirre Or else say plainly I have no Reason to be wicked but because I will be wicked I will forseke God and damn my own Soul without any Reason because I will do it And if you are at this pass you may take your course 11. Another thing that I would intreat you to consider of is this It is a most