amended the Lord will knocke them to peeces and consume them And when we shall see the streets runne with the bloud of drunkards and loose persons then you will say had the hand of the Lord wrought upon us it would not now have beene thus with us Isai 9.13 the Lord smote the people and they returned not therefore what saith the Lord he will plague and make an utter ruine of them because they would not humble themselves before the Lord nor seeke to him nor make their peace with him the Lord hath seven plagues more and he will welter you in your bloud and plucke your cursed abhominations from your bosomes then you will say God is just and terrible and had wee beene reformed by former punishments wee had not hence under this fierce rodde which we now feele The second signe of the strength of sinne is this when the Lord sends peace and plentie and prosperitie and these blessings of God doe not perswade men to love him so much the more and use them so much the better but they fall in love with the gift and forâ—ake the giver you make your honour and ease and pleasure you make them gods and depart from the Lord which is the giver of all then it is just with the Lord to plucke away that ease and honour and preferment that you dote upon and are addicted to that in the want of these you may learne to prize the Gospel and learne to esteeme of the Lord Christ and his grace above all these contents the world can afford now unlesse the Lord should be accessary to the dishonour of his owne name what would you have the Lord to doe would you have him give you peace and prosperitie to neglect the peace of a good conscience by this meanes God should be as it were the author of his owne dishonour no no thinke of it I feare it will be true if the Lord should take away our ease and liberty that we have made Idols off then you shall say if you had prized God and Gospel more than ease and liberty you might have had these and God and Gospel too Deut. 28.48 this is that which will one day sticke heavie upon your hearts for your soules sake thinke of it and remember it if the Lord should send the enemy upon us and lay hardnesse over us and wee should be made vassals unto the tyranny of wicked men this will sticke to your hearts had I served the Lord in plenty and such a time when I enjoyed the meanes of salvation then it had beene well with me but I was loose and profared the Lords day and therefore it is just now I serve the enemie upon the Lords day I am made a drudge and a vassall and a slave to the malice of the wicked It is just with God and righteous with the Lord you would not serve God when time was you would not heare the Word when time was God will provide a course for you you shall have service enough and God will hold you to it you shall serve cruell and bloud-thirsty enemies to the shame of your faces here and to the ruine of you and yours hereafter for ever 2 Chron. 36.21 then shall the land rest one Sabbath saith the Text marke this among the Iewes the Lord appointed every seventh yeare to be a Sabbath that the Saints should rest there should be no plowing nor sowing and all creatures should rest now they were so covetous that they would plucke commonly out of the earth the seventh yeare well saith the Lord you will not let the land rest you shall be led captive and then the land shall rest on her Sabboth it is just that God should plucke away these benefits to the confusion of our face for ever when we abuse them Looke as it is with a wife if she should have a servant in the house which shee loves more than her husband what course must be taken hee must fling him out of the house and away with him so when wee should love God and prize his glory and truth I yet we will love the world and profit and ease and quiet and peace and liberty and we wil do nothing that may hazard these it is righteous with the Lord to cashere those commodities and plucke away the adulterous lover of wealth and honour and ease that he may make a way himselfe in your soules that he may rule in you and take possession of you The third meanes is this when corrections reforme not and the blessings of God perswade not men then the Lord vouchsafeth to send his Word among his people and that should supply the want of all other meanes and should be more powerfull than any other in the world besides so that howsoever the covetous Carle dotes upon his wealth the Word should loosen his mind from it and reveale the vanitie of it however corrections humble not yet the Word is able to breake the soule and worke the soule to an humble subjection the Word is the power of God to salvation which is able to crush all corruptions and subdue all sinnes but sinne is come to this height that the Word is unfruitfull and unprofitable then sinne is desperately strong and wee are then come to the last and worst estate that can be it is more than wee are aware of and more than commonly wee consider of we know not what we doe when our hearts continue in resisting the Word of the Lord 2 Chron. 36.16 It is a deadly signe of desolation of any people When the liberty of Ierusalem was at the last gaspe giving up the Ghost and there was but an inch between them and desolation marke what the Text saith they mocked his Prophets and despised his Messengers till the wrath of the Lord arose and there was no remedy here was the ground this was the maine thing that the sinne eates the estate in sunder and pulled downe the pillars of the common wealth of Iudea you would thinke was it so much to despise the Word of a Minister Ah saith the Text the wrath of the Lord arose and there was no remedy as if hee had said the Lord is able to beare much at the hands of ungodly men and me thinkes the Lord saith I could have endured your drunkennesse and endured your profanesse had you but submitted to my Word those corruptions might have beene subdued but not onely to practise ungodlinesse but to refuse the word that should subdue those corruptions when the Lord saw this his wrath arose and there was no remedy God can endure much though a man have many corruptions in him though many sinnes have beene committed by him if the soule be yet content to heare and tremble at Gods Ordinances but when a man is not content to commit sinne onely but he will oppose Gods Word then the Lord like the Lyon of the tribe of Iudah can hold no longer then the wrath of the Lord arose and there
was no remedy but he would lay waste the Land when wee spill the physicke that should cure us and cast away the salve that should heale us how can we be helped and cured this is the ground and reason of those many phrases we have in Scripture Why the Lord is said to extend his providence over a people in vouchsafing the Gospell Mat. 23. the later end it is a well knowne place wee will open it a little and apply it to our purpose because it is pregnant the Text saith O Ierusalem Ierusalem how often would I have gathered thee under my wings by the preaching of the Gospell and revealing of their sinnes he would have gathered their hearts unto him and would have cast the wing of his providence over a people as they are willing to submit to the Gospell but Ierusalem would not hee sent his Prophets to reveale his will they stoned them therefore saith the Text Your habitation is left unto you desolute that is the issue they would not have the Word reforme them therefore they shall have the Sword to plague them Luke 19.44 the case is evident the Lord discovers the besiedging and the sacking of Ierusalem there shall not a stone be left upon a stone because thou knowest not the time of thy visitation as who should say the Lord came to visite Ierusalem with mercy to comfort her with pardon to cheere her to shew her her sins humble her soule but she regarded not this kindnes of the Lord therefore there is a siege about her and that is very heavie and take notice of it The Lord is specially angry with a Nation for the breach of his Covenant and neglect of his worship the Lord doth hate it and is carried with great violence towards those people that worship God falsely 1 King 13. the two last Verses the Text saith He made of the lowest of the people Priests as who should say he made a company of drunkards and belly-Gods Ministers and is that such a great matter Yes that one sin turned to the utter ruine of the house of Ieroboam to roote him out Fourthly if this will not doe the deede but men will resist the meanes that God puts into their hands then fourthly this is an other evidence that sinne groweth strong when there wants a competent number of mourners in a land which might uphold it and joyne sides against sinne and Satan and maintaine the good of a kingdome in despight of the wicked in a kingdome this is one of the last succours of supplies a kingdome hath how ever wicked men will not be perswaded and humbled yet if there be a competent number if there be so many as will make an army of fasting and prayer to grapple with God they may prevaile with God for mercy for a kingdome there is hope though the most be naught yet the better side will prevaile but when the flouds of iniquitie slow in amaine so that the best of Gods people are taken aside with the streame of corruption and beginne to grow carelesse and not to oppose the sinnes of the times this is a sore argument that there is almost no remedie for such a Nation no meanes to beate backe the indignation of the Lord Gen. 19 when Sodom could not save it selfe ten righteous persons would have saved it though they wold have pulled Gods indignation upon them yet a competent number often men would have stayed the indignation and gone betweene the living and the dead so were there a proportionable number of mourners in a Land though there be a company of mocke-gods that would pull downe the indignation of God upon them yet a company of godly gracious men might strive with the Lord and uphold their libertie but when corruptions are growne so strong that good men are defiled and their hearts tainted and their mouthes stopped woe to that kingdome and people Looke as it is with the sea-coast when the bankes are such that they can beare out the waves be the sea never so boysterous there is hope of safetie but if the sea breake all before it there is no hope to stoppe it so it is in this case the bankes that beare out the indignation of the Lord are righteous holy men they stay the hand of God and stop the floud of Gods vengeance that they doe not breake in and overflow all but if the banke be gone if a convenient company of godly men be taken away then there is no hope of mercy but the sea of Gods indignation will flow in amaine upon that place The fifth and last meanes to uphold liberty and safetie of a Nation is this when men begin to be sensible of misery when they have eyes to see the plague and hearts affected with the sinnes committed and with the judgements deserved when they observe what will befall they will use some meanes that it may not befall but when a people grow senselesse and benummed and secure in a base practise and ungodly course that they observe not the evills committed nor take notice of the judgements of God deserved but lie in a carelesse secure condition there is no expectation in reason how such a Nation should prevent the wrath of the Almighty when they see not what shall befall have no care to prevent what may befall 1 Thess 5.3 There is a warning shot before the Cannon shot there is a watch word before destruction commeth when they crie peace then commeth destruction when they quiet themselves in their owne courses when they are not onely wicked but secure in their wickednesse then comes suddaine destruction I conclude with that Matth. 24.39 As it was in the dayes of Noah there the Lord as it were smites men with Plagues answerable to their sinnes they were carelesse and secure in the dayes of Noah and then came suddaine destruction so it will be now as in the dayes of Noah when Noah was knocking the Arke every naile hee drave was a Sermon Repent you carnall and unjust oppressors the flood is comming and desolation approaching but they knew nothing that is they feared no such matter Let Nâ—ah say what he will what a flood come and destroy all the world it will not be it cannot be they knew nothing before the slood came so then the issue is this when sinne is growne universall when men are shamelesse in the commission thereof and out-bid all meanes of reformation the corrections of the Lord humble not the mercies of the Lord perswade not the word reformes not nay when the righteous are perished from the earth and the bankes are broken downe when there is not a competent number of mourners to withstand the wrath of the Lord nay when men are sencelesse and secure all men commit sinne and feare not the wrath of God for sin then sinne comes to bee of a Giant-like strength and bignes Wee will now make use of the point the case is cleare when sinne outbids all meanes
person and profession of a godly humble lowly man and he acts the part marveilous curiously and hee speakes bigge words against his corruptions and he humbles himselfe before God and he heares and prayes and reades but when God pluckes him off the stage of the world and his body drops into the grave and his soule goes to hell then it appeares that he had not the power of gâ—dlines he was onely a stage-player a stage professour When Saul went to the witch to raise him up Samuel the devill tooke upon him the guise of Samuel but he was the devill so many hipocrites though they have the guise of holinesse and the forme of godlinesse yet there is no soundnesse there is nothing but dissimulation within Hence note this That godlinesse hath a forme Doctr. 2 or more clearely thus Sound godlinesse alwayes shewes and discovers it selfe where it is in the life and conversation of him that hath it For it is not a meere fancy as some thinke And they thinke when wee talke of godlinesse and inward moving c. what say they will you have us Saints and Angels as if godlinesse were some secret thing that never saw the Sunne the Apostle doth professely oppose these and sayes they are reall thing and it is really in your hearts that have it and it doth not keepe close but appeares and discovers it selfe in a holy conversation outwardly Psal 45.13 The Text saith The Kings daughter and that is not all but her cloathing is of gold The Kings Daughter is the Church of God the Saints that God hath soundly humbled and powerfully converted they are the Daughters of God they are sanctified and purged and the Image of God is stamped upon them and what is their rayment outwardly it is of gold they have golden speeches golden conversations not durty filthy conversation as the wicked hâ—ve Act. 4.20 See how prevalent grace is where it is it was also the resolution of the Apostle 2 Cor. 4.13 it is also said of David he beleeved inwardly and therfore spake outwardly so must we or if wee rest upon God we will expresse the power of his grace in the course of our lives Looke as it is with a clock if the wheeles run right the clocke cannot but strike so it is with the trees of the field if there be sap in the roote it will discover it selfe in the branches by the fruit and greenenesse of them though it be hidden in the Winter yet it will appeare in the Spring and in the Summer so it is in the Soules of Gods Servants the frame of a mans heart that is like the wheeles of a clocke if a man have an humble heart he will have a holy life it will make the hand worke the eye see the foote walke and the actions be proportionable unto the disposition of the heart So if there be the sap of godlinesse and holinesse and meekenesse and patience in a mans spirit it will appeare in the blossome and fruites in good speeches actions and an holy conversation If there be sound grace in the heart and godlinesse within wee must not thinke godlinesse wil make a monster but it will make a comely decent proportionable Christian that is foure square in all good duties at all good duties at all times in all places upon every occasion I conclude with Iohn the Baptist Luk. 3.8 Worthy the word in the Original is fine Let your fruite be worthy that is answerable let them hold weight for weight with amendment of life if there be obedience in the heart it will answere such obediences outwardly lay obedience in one ballance and then repentance will poyse that obedience in the other scale But you will say how comes this to passe Object may not a man have a gracious good heart may not a man have a soule truely humbled and converted and yet be a retyred Christian and not expresse it Answ outwardly I answer no if there be holinesse in the heart it will shew it selfe without From the power of grace Reason 1 where ever it is imprinted upon any soule it will breake through and make way for it selfe what ever maketh opposition against it Mat. 6.22 The meaning is the eye is the Conscience the sincere eye is the sincere conscience now if a man have a good conscience inwardly his whole conversation will bee proportionable to the same Mat. 13.33 The grace of God is compared to leaven it will never leave leavening till it hath leavened all the whole lumpe if the heart be leavened with grace and godlinesse never thinke to keepe godlinesse in a corner and contrive it into a narrow compasse no no it will never leave leavening till the eye lookes holily and the hand workes mercifully Nay observe this in particular first let corruptions be never so strong in a gratious heart the power of godlinesse will over power all and worke out it selfe and get ground in conclusion Look as it is with the Moule put her into the ground and stop her up she will worke her selfe out one way or other so it is with a gracious frame of spirit though there be a great deale of earthly corruption yet a gracious heart will worke under ground and worke it selfe out of all these It is observed by naturall Philosophy when a Shippe is cast away the Sea vomits on the shore the dead persons and the Sea will not fetch them in againe so there is a Sea of grace in the soules of Gods servants there is but a beginning of grace indeede but there is abundance of life and vertue and power in the graces of Gods children so that though there be many corruptions much deadnesse and untowardnesse yet if this gratious worke be there it will vomit out all it will fling out those dead bodies but never take them in againe Ier. 20 4. observe when Ieremy out of a kind of discouragement and pride of spirit because he could not find that successe and some despised it and some scoffed I will preach no more saith he but even then the word of the Lord was as burning fire this was the power of this gratious frame of heart we speake of Matt. 12.35 Bring forth good things the word in the Originall is All cast out good things and it implies a kind of copulsion so that a holy man out of the treasure of holines casts out holy things that is how ever many corruptions hang about him and would hinder him from doing what hee should yet a good heart will cast out all and break through all Looke as it is with sire let it be raked up never so close yet there will be fire it will heate and burne and consume all into it selfe so it is with the sire of grace in a mans heart though there be many clogging corruptions yet if this grace be there though a man have a great deale of filthy noysome humors of vanity and coller and anger and carelessenesse yet this
fire will heat and burne make way kindle and turne all into a flame at conclusion Secondly it will not onely breake through all corruptions but through all outward occasions that comes against it Psa 39.3 The good man was among a company of mocke-gods that were flowting and gibing and now saith he I burned and spake with my tongue as who should say the grace of God was so powerfull that he could hold no longer he could beare no more but spake with his tongue Looke as it is with the Husband man he casts his seede into the ground and covers it over with earth yet that little seed will breake the earth and rend the ground and come out so it is with a godly and holy heart where in the immortall seede of Gods word is sowne though there be clogs and occasions of oppositions this way and that way and another way yet a gratious heart will breake through and the good worke of the Lord that is implanted in the soule will appeare in the life and conversation Consider Reason 2 the end why God gives grace which cannot be attained unto unlesse wee expresse the power of this grace outwardly as well as to have it inwardly in our hearts For marke the ends why God gives grace are principally these two First to glorifie the Lord Ephe. 1.6 There was such a proud heart humbled such a carnall wretch purified 1 Pet 2.12 I would have Gods children carry themselves so holily that the wicked may admire at them and glorifie God the second end why God gives grace that we may be a meanes to draw others on in the same way wherein God hath inabled us to walke 2 King 7.9 There they say Wee doe not well this day is a day of glad tidings come therefore let us tell it to the Kings houshold so it is with a mercifull gracious loving heart if God ever opens his eyes and shewes mercy to his soule and pardon his sins then he thinkes sure I doe not well that I doe not tell it to my fellow servants that they may love grace and embrace it and be blessed by it this thou must doe and ought to doe and this you cannot do if you keepe your grace secret within your hearts therfore tell your fellow servants of a truth I had as stony as carelesse a heart as you but it hath pleased the Lord to breake it it hath cost me many a sob and salt teare but now the Lord hath pardoned me did you but know the peace of a conscience you would never live as you doe this is the frame of a gratious heart Instruction Vse 1 that it is not a fault for any man to shew himselfe forward in a holy course and holy conversation know it is no fault to expresse that grace which God hath bestowed upon thee I speake this the rather by reason of the cavils of a company of carnall persons that cast reproaches upon this course ah say they they can make a shew but they are all hypocrites if a man knew their hearts they are as bad as the worst I answer how dost thou know their hearts to be bad we judge the tree by the fruite and we may judge the heart by the life and conversation But be his heart naught yet there is not a fault in that hee makes a shew to make a shew and to expresse holinesse is good but that is a fault that the heart is naught let that therfore which is good be commended and that which is naught be avoyded It is not the fault of gold that it glisters but that it glisters and is not gold But what heart is thine in the meane time that cannot indure so much as the shew of godlinesse it shewes a heart marveilous violent against God a heart marveilous Satanicall he that loves his father will love the picture of his father so if thou lovest holinesse thou wilt love the picture of holinesse But you will say we doe not discommend holinesse Object but it is this Hypocrisie that we disallow God forbid that we should speake against holinesse Give me leave to reply two things First Answ that which thou seest them want labor thou for and that which is good in them labour thâ—u to take up Thou that sayest those are Sermon hunters yet they will couzen and lye and the like dost thou speake against hearing the word and praying in families no oh but this couzening dissembling why then take thou that which is good sanctifie thou the Lords day and pray thou in thy family shew thy holinesse outwardly and bee thou also inwardly sincere but thou that hatest the forme of godlinesse it is a signe thou hatest the power of godlinesse Secondly if thou hatest them for hypocrisie then thou hatest them because they are sinnefull and if thou dost thou wilt hate those more that are greater sinners as a man that hates a tode the greater the tode is the more he loathes it so if thou hatest hypocrisie because it is sinneful then thou wilt hate that man which hath more sinne but thy conscience testifieth that thou canst love drunkards and harlots adulterers and speake wel of blasphemers those thou art content with and wilt not reproach them this is a great signe thou hatest holinesse and sincerity because thou hatest the shew thereof For reproofe it condems the opinions of a great company of carnall professours that bragge Vse 2 of their good heart when in the meane time they have base lives Take any carnall wretch that hath neither the forme nor shew he will though he make not such a shew as many doe but he hath as good a heart to God ward be not deceived God is not mocked this is an idle conceit of thine owne carving and coyning a thing that the Saints of God never found a thing that the Scriptures never revealed no no if grace be inwardly it will shew it outwardly You would thinke a man were beside himselfe that should tell you of a Sunne that did never shine or of a fire that did never heate this would be a strange sun a strange fire so it is a strange kind of imaginatioÌ„ thou hast thou thinkest thou hast a good heart and yet never expresse it outwardly in thy conversation it is well sometimes there may be a shew without a substance but this is impossible that there should be a substance without some appearance Should thou see a body lye on the bed and neither sence in it nor action proceeding from it you would say it is dead it lives not so in this case if faith worke not it is a fancy it is an idle foolish carnall presumption why faith purifies the heart and workes by love faith is mighty and powerfull and faith is operative and effectuall therefore thou that thinkest thou hast a holy heart and never shewest it in thy course it is a foolish delusion of thy heart therefore know this for an everlasting rule that
the worst is alwayes within Out of the abundance of the heart c. if thy eye thy tongue and thy life bee naught what a vile heart hast thou then there is the puddle of all abomination and prophanenesse from within for the heart mooves the eye and the tongue and the foote to wickednesse If the Streames be impure the Fountaine is much more filthy therefore away those carnall pleas and foolish delusions Exhortation we heare the Vse 3 duty God hath revealed and the taske God hath set us therefore take up the taske if you desire any evidence to your soules or testimony to your hearts that God hath wrought grace in you then shew it in your lives Expresse the vertues of him that hath called you from death to life as the Apostle doe not onely have vertues as patience meekenesse c. but shew forth these vertues that others may bee bettered by them Therefore the Lord saith be yee holy as I am holy not in affliction onely but in all manner of conversation marke he doth not say have good mindes onely and honest hearts but in all manner of conversation bee holy in buying selling travelling trading c. Gods Saints should be so holy in their lives as men should say surely there is a holy God see how his servants are holy there is a righteous God see how righteous his servants are Away therefore with those idle sottish policies of a company of carnall persons in the world that are directly opposite to the power of godlinesse There is a generation of Polititians in the world that count it a point of great wisedome for a man to conceale his Religion to himselfe and the phrase is among men keepe your holinesse and your hearts to your selves and they confine godlinesse within a mans Closet or study but if any holinesse appeare in his life or any exactnesse in his Courses there is an outcry made presently O descretion would doe well if men were but wise much might bee done Wisedome I dare not stile it but that the Scripture speaketh of a wisedome that is not from above that is carnall sensuall and divelish wisedom which the Word requires not the Word warrants not These men may imagine the holy Apostles wanted wisedome Phil. 4 5. Hee exhorts you to let your patience be made knowne to others and let all know it for the Lord is at hand This takes away a cavill some may say if a man doth shew and expresse godlinesse outwardly then contempt and persecution will be at hand presently why saith the Apostle the Lord is at hand to comfort you to deliver you Nay in these mens conceits Christ should have wanted wisedome when hee commanded peremptorily Matth. 5.26 Let your light c. hee doth not say hide your light in your soules and keepe your hearts to your selves No no but let it shine forth You that are tradesmen you are not content onely to have your sonnes put to prentise but you would have them to learne their trade also you are bound prentise to the trade of holinesse you professe your selves to be schollers in the schoole of the Lord Iesus Christ therefore let us expresse something wee have learned let us shew something wee have gained shew some workemanship as the Apostle calls it Ephe. 2.10 I would have every Christian man expresse the workemanship of the Lord that is I would have him expresse such holy graces in his couâ—se and conversation that all the world should finde no flaw that when the wicked shall say what have you done with your grace are you a professour and pray reade and heare Sermons now let a Christian put the word to silence I am more able to suffer persecution then thou art to thinke of it I am more able to beare trouble then thou to heare of troubles Heb. 10.34 But some may say I wonder you can endure such indignities to be laid upon you fye you may wonder indeede but now godlinesse sheweth it selfe what serves grace and godlinesse for but onely that wee should doe something for the glory of God more then you can Aye Object but you will say to mee this is the onely way for to make a company of proud professors in the world this is the onely way to blow up a haughty heart to make it shew it selfe to the world which is nothing else but pride I Answ answer the Saints may shew forth godlinesse and yet not themselves however a carnall heart is ready to abuse the best duties sometimes as the corrupt stomacke doth turne the best Cordialls into Choller so a corrupt heart may set forth his owne vaine glory but yet the duty it selfe is good though the abuse is to be avoided But Object you will say how shall a man so order himselfe that he may bee neither cowardly in hiding his grace nor vaine glorious in expressing his grace I Answ answer there are foure rules to be observed First labour to lay downe all Rule 1 carnall excellency of thy parts and abilities and of all outward respects that are in thee and God hath bestowed upon thee lay downe all those in all thy service that onely the power of the Lord Iesus may bee discovered to the view of the world let grace be above all make that knowne and lift that up above all other things whatsoever Marke how carefull Paul is to knocke off his owne fingers 1 Cor. 15. 10. but not I saith he he shrinks in and will take nothing to himselfe it was not I but the grace of God which was the author and the cause of it and therefore 1 Phil. 20. Paul did set up God on the Pinacle so that nothing appeared but Christ and his grace hee lay in the dust that the Lord onely might tread upon him that he onely might be magnified admired and extolled I would have a Christian deale in Christianitie as men doe when one lifts another over the wall he that is lifted up is onely discovered but the other is not seene all men may view him but the other not descried so I would have the soule lye downe low in the dust and at the foote of the Lord and lay downe all excellency of gifts that Christ and his grace might onely appeare I would have a Christian heart in reading praying and professing to shew forth Christ onely lye thou hid and beare up the Lord and his grace that he onely may be presented to the view of the world Secondly Rule 2 labour that others may acknowledge that worke of excellency and that the excellency of that grace might be seene of others but not of our selves Matth. 5.16 O that Christians would so walke and converse that the whole world might see what grace can doe that men may say such a one by nature is marvelous chollericke but see what grace can doe hee is very calme and meeke such a man is a very coward naturally but see what grace can doe he is couragious for the
measure that hee denies the power of godlinesse I say not neither that hee which is surprised either by temptations or corruptions if hee omit good duties now and then and recover himselfe and useth greater speede and care afterwards because hee hath beene negligent As it is with a horse that stumbles as soone as hee recovers himselfe be goeth the faster so if his stumbling and neglecting workes this effect he doth not this power of grace deny but they that know this onely and will not take it up hee onely denies it Grace wherever it comes it makes not a man a monster but â— new creature so that it hath a heart but no foote a foote but no tongue a hand but no head a head but no heart some will doe something but know nothing some will know something and affect nothing grace will not doe thus No no grace makes a man a new creature whatever a Christian should doe grace inables a man to doe 2 Tim. 2.21 A vessell of honour not onely fit for some good worke but for every holy duty and a good Christian due not but at the first submit to it Col 4.12 Drunkards now submit Vusurers now submit Oppressers now submit make restitution or else thy heart cannot be sound Aye but you will say Object It is but a duty I omit I performe all the rest let the world spare me in this I say he that will not set upon the performance of every duty that God requires and endeavours not to doe it as well as he can Answ hee that will not performe every duty he never had the power of grace to performe any hence it comes to passe that if any man will paddle with the Lord and take up services by halfes and will have his reservations and excuses I have oppressed and cannot make restitution any thing but that I am loath to pray in my family that is seditious c. Now if you are convinced of any duty and set not upon it you are profest opposers of the power of godlinesse He that is wilfully ignorant and will nâ—t search nor seeke out those truthes whereof hee ought to be informed nay hee will not receive directions from those that are able to teach and guide him in the way of salvation he that purposely flies off because he may have some plea and pretence for himselfe to take up the course he would walke in hee is a denier of the power of godlinesse As for example sake A man will often hold this as a shield and a buckler knew I it or were I perswaded of it then would I doe it thus men as it were withdraw themselves from the jurisdiction of the truth and they will not know that they should know that so they may have colour to excuse them in the not doing of that they would neglect now these men though they be not informed yet they because they are wilfully ignorant and because they withdraw themselves from under the power of the meanes that should informe them these are profest opposers for godlinesse hath that power which is able for to make a man performe any duty 1 Cor. 2.5 1 Iohn 2.27 Now we come to the carriage of the Saints what their behaviour should bee to such dissemblers the Text saith turne away from them because they turne away from godlinesse as they are estranged from God so should wee bee estranged from them First for the meaning of the words this phrase turne is not to be found in all the Scripture but in this place and it is a borrowed speech from things that are contrary one to another and therefore withdraw your selves one from another and set your selves one against another these are implied in the phrase first the heart is estranged from another secondly the life and conversation is in some measure withdrawne from another Secondly we come to shew the nature of this communion wee ought to have with these and how farre wee may goe first we will discover it in generall secondly wee will lay forth the rules in particular Communion therefore is twofold Publike Private Publike concernes the publike Congregation and it is an open meeâ—ing of many together by vertue of publike authority to partake of holy duties Three things observe in the description first there must be an open meeting because it is in the Congregation the Congregation is like to common pastures that are common for every mans Cattle so the ordinances of God are common pastures for every one secondly it is by vertue of publike authority for that is observed of Hezechiah that hee opened the temple doores so that publike authority gives warrant to publike meetings thirdly is the sharing of men together in the holy ordinances of God Now the question groweth on how farre is it lawfull for the Saints of God to converse with those that are common swearers and drunkards and adulterers and the like for the present what are these rules The rules are two first those that have publike authority in their hands they to whom God hath committed authority over others such as are eyther scandalously naught or openly prophane should by them bee excommunicated as wee may see by the example of Paul 1 Corrinth 4.5 Matthew 18.15 The second rule suppose they that are in authority will not separate them the second rule then is this yet the Saints of God should not abstaine from the Congregation it is pittifull indeede and the thing is troublesome and tedious to a gratious heart and wee must mourne for it but being it is not in my power I must not abstaine I know there are many objections and cavills of the Anabaptists against this and they thus reply This ought to be done Object that such persons should be excommunicated therefore why should I enjoy communion with the body of Christ I answer it is true Answ wee must mourne for it as King Iames said of the abuse of excommunication it is a shame in the Church but that part is yours to whom authority belongs But they cast this as a reproach upon our Church common drunkards they say and swearers if they do but pay 2. pence for their offering at Easter may receive the Supper of the Lord. Wee confesse this fault let it lie where it is we cannot reforme it we can onely mourne for it and that God will accept 1 Cor. 5.11 there they bring Scripture for it If there bee any Adulterer or uncleane person saith the Text among you let him not eate that is communicate with him say they Answer I say to eate there is not referred to the communion in eating the body of Christ but eate not with him that is be not familiar with such a person and it includes the word familiarity not communion at the Lords Table Psal 41.9 There eating implyeth a common inward familiarity my owne familiar friend c. But Object yet they reply againe from the greater to the lesse if wee may not eate with
of all the Ordinances of God that they can never worke upon the heart wonder not then though they cause a man to breake all the commandements of God since the Word of God works not nor cannot for these three causes First either it keepes a man from comming under the meanes and therefore shall never receive good thereby loose company loade all holy courses with such scandalous reproaches that they scare poore sinfull creatures from undergoing of them 2 Nay further it is the policie of all loose persons they will appoint their meetings when they may hinder men most from the meanes that may doe them good and this is the reason that of all the dayes in the weeke they chuse the Lords day and of all the houres in the day the Sermon or Prayer time is theÌ„ houre wherein they meete And if he be resolved to attend upon the meanes they then fore-stall the market and make him have a slight account of preaching what neede wee all this preaching let him preach till his heart ake who is the better for his preaching so then if the poore soule doth come the soule heare and cares not if he cares he attends not if he attends hee regards not if any thing touch him he casts it off as if it did not concerne him Thirdly loose persons if it be so that any thing doe remaine upon the heart if the Lord comes home and affrights his soule and discover his sinne and writes bitter things against him and the soule promiseth resolves to turne unto the Lord and to leave all never to returne O then what a doe is there with this cursed rabble to pecke out the good seed of the Word which is sowne in the heart they will never leave plucking haling of the poore soule til they have made him cast away the blessed truth it is with cursed ones in this case as it is with the ravenous bird Math. 13. Hence it is that it they see one hang the wing a little and goe aside they thinke the Minister hath wounded him and they imagine hee will withdraw himselfe from their company therefore they make after the soule overcome and thus they set upon him why is it how comes it what is the reason what is the cause that thou art thus disquieted what art a mad man to be troubled thus at the words of a Minister I would never doe it while I lived what would I care what all the Ministers in the world should say they must say something now let not this trouble thee and thus they plucke the soule from under the power of the meanes and haply the seede of the Word that the Lord then sowed will never sow it againe may be it was the last time of asking had he then withdrawne himselfe from the societie that seede might have taken roote and he might have beene blessed for ever but the ravenous companions stole it away thus then we see wicked companions keepes a man from comming to the Word if he doth come they forestall the power of the Word if the Word doth prevaile they plucke the seede of the Word out of the soule that it can doe their soules no good that keepe company with the wicked 3 Parti Your cursed companions will never leave a poore sinner till they mould him even according to their owne mind untill they bring him to their owne bent and frame therefore note thou that keepest company with wicked ungodly persons they will leaven thee according to their owne frame and they will leave thee the very same lusts and corruptions this is the cause of a finall and totall destruction of a world of people There is this kind of priviledge in ungodly company keepers that there is a kinde of army of corruptions they are the devills army and they fight the devills battels therefore the soule is beset round with them Were a man to fight against another man there were some hope of resistance or if there were two against one there were some hope of esâ—ape if hee could not oppose them yet hee might slie from them but if hee be among an army there is no way to escape so it is with those that keepe wicked company thou art beset with an army perhaps profanenesse hit thee not their hypocrisie haply hypocrisie doth not their loosenesse haply loosnesse doth not then envy or some other distemper Imagine you see a man in the midst of an army of Archers happly though one hit him not yet one of twentie if one of twentie hit him not one of a hundred may if one of a hundred may not one of a thousand may one or other will hit him he cannot avoide it all ungodly courses all wicked speeches councells perswasions are but like so many arrowes and thou that art in the midst of wicked persons thou art in the midst of an army one or other will hit thee thy conscience will be wounded thy soule ruinated by this meanes This I observe by my experience wicked men will never leave till others be worse than themselves they are like the foggy aire in the Fenns if a man live in the place it will be sure to arrest him it is called the Fenne Bailiffe and will never leave till it hath turned the humour of his body into the same nature with it selfe and then hee may live there and have his health well enough so it is with a company of filthy foggy drunkards and adulterers company-keepers they will never leave thee till they arrest thee with base courses til they have moulded thee with their frame then thou maist enjoy their society here wiâ—h them and goe downe to hell hereafter Mat. 23 15. So it is generally in this case he that before company-keeping was somewhat tender and shamefast he would blush to be seene in an Alehouse in base courses but after he hath bin a while with them they make him twofold the child of the devill now hee hath a whores forehead and his brow is of brasse and his necke of iron sinewes and dares be drunke at noone daye c. the reason is hee is perfectly new moulded Instruction Vse 1 to the wicked themselves you must not be displeased with the Saints of God in that they judge meanely of you and estrange themselves from you But Object you will say what care I what the Saints of God say and doe doe you thinke I care for their company let them keep what company they will I can keepe as good as they O take heede of this if the Saints of God say depart from me yee wicked what will then the God of all Saints if the gracious Saints will not abide thee here will the God of all Grace abide thee in heaven hereafter no no the fearefull sentence will passe upon you at the great day of account Depart from me ye cursed therefore labour to be senceable of this and so be humbled and abased for this and labour
for to be better and then the Saints of God will love and delight in your societie THE CHVRCHES Deliverances IVDGES 10.13 Wherefore I will deliver you no more THese words are the speech of the Lord to the people of Israel From the sixt Verse of the Chapter to the end of the seventh we have the condition of the people of Israel in great distresse discovered together with the dealing of God towards them and their behaviour towards him In the Chapter three things are especially considerable First wee have the children of Israel Apostatizing and declining from the Lord and the sinceritie of his worship In the first part of the Verse Yee have forsaken me and served other Gods Here was the declining of the people of Israel they forsooke the true God and served false gods and as their sinnes were so were their plagues the Lord pursued them with heavie judgements and fierce indignation hainous sinnes are commonly accompanied with great plagues and punishments and that appeareth in the ninth Verse Israel was sore distressed Secondly we have the people of Israel crying and complaining to the Lord in the time of their trouble they that forsake the Lord in the time of prosperity were faine to flie to him in time of adversitie for succour And therefore wee shall see how earnestly they cry unto the Lord in the tenth Verse heavie afflictions breed hearty prayers and earnest supplications their punishment was not so grievous but their prayers were as hot and vehement They cried to the Lord saith the Text. Then lastly wee have the Answer of God in the 12 13 and 14. Verses where the Lord doth relate his good dealings with them and their unkinde dealing towards him I have delivered you saith the Lord out of the hand of such and such enemies he reckons up his former mercies but now he doth deny to shew any more favour toward them because they had abused his former mercies and that is in the words of the Text Wherefore I will deliver you no more as who should say goe now to the gods of Zidon let those Idols save you now let those Images deliver you now but my kindnes was not regarded my mercy was not respected and for my part I will deliver you no more expect no succour from me at all In the generall before wee come to the maine see here the deniall of the Lord to the people of Israel though they sought him and cried unto him The Point is this Those that come unto God in prayer in their sins Doct. they shal be sure to have a deniall of their prayers Psal 66.8 If I regard iniquity in my heart God will not heare my prayer so it was here though they sought God marvellous earnestly and cried in the vehemencie of their spirits yet the Lord stopped his eares and listned not unto them he gives no answer unto their cry hee professeth plainely he will not deliver them he will not succour them The Vse of this Point in generall is this First Vse of Instruction wee may here see the reason why we call and God answers not why wee seeke the Lord and he is not found of us in mercy and compassion why we pray unto him and yet he rejects our persons and stings out our Petitions and is angry with the prayers of his servants The cause is wee bring our sâ—…es with us before God and therefore we cannot receive mercy from God The abomination of our hearts spoile the petitions we powre forth before the Lord that he neither accept them nor sheweth any favour unto 〈…〉 when welcome before the Lord and bring out sin herewith as our pride and our malice and our covetousnesse it is not praying but lying and dissembling and mocking and abusing the great God of heaven as though wee should come before the Lord to aske him leave to sinne and intreate favour of him that wee might commit our sinnes without any disquiet that he would give us a privie seale to sinne these drunken prayers these idle proud prophane prayers and lying prayers the God of heaven will not heare them when they come from a lying dissembling filthy drunken heart thou that bringest such prayers the Lord will not heare the Lord will not accept the Lord will not regard such prayers This is the thing I would have wicked men take notice of that thinke to heale all in the time of distresse with a few large desires and idle wishes they will be proud and loose and opposers of God and his Gospell and yet you thinke God cannot but grant you what you desire if you have but halfe an houres warning to aske pardon no you that live in your sinnes and pray to God in your sinnes you bring judgement upon your selves and plague upon your soules but mercy you shall have none answer you shall not receive in this kinde Prov. 28.9 The prayer of the wicked c. The second Vse is a ground Vse 2 of Exhortation Would you so come to God that you may finde acceptance with him Would you so call that the Lord may heare you when you call then wash your hands in innocencie and so compasse his Altar this is the counsell God gave Esay 1.17 Cease to doe evill learne to doe well and then whatsoever your abhominations be they shall be pardoned whatsoever your miseries be I will ease you Psalm 10.17 18. The Lord prepares the hearts of his people to call upon him a heart mourning for sinne and a heart loosned from sinne when you leave sinne behinde you and send up a prayer from an humble heart and a broken soule then God will heare you and you shall receive an answer from the God of heaven as he seeth you have most neede to carrie you on in a Christian course In the Verse there are three things observeable He saith I will not deliver you goe to your gods let them comfort you for my part I have no comfort no mercy for such as you are those gods you served in prosperity goe to them now for succour in the time of trouble In the Verse it selfe take notice of three things first that God doth deliver his Church for that is presumed I will deliver you no more as who should say I have preserved you and protected you and the like God takes this for granted and they found this by experience Secondly God sometimes denieth succour to his people I have done so but now I will deliver you no more I have no more mercy for you to succour you in the day of trouble Thirdly we have the cause of this Wherefore that is because you have served other gods and departed away from my worship because you will not reforme your wicked wayes I will deliver you no more First for the former God doth deliver his Church The Doctrine is this Doct. The Lord is the deliverer of his Church and people in the time of trouble the Church is in great misery it is confessed
toward his people as ready to helpe them as they are ready to call upon him so lastly the Lord is marvelous watchfull to doe that which he is able and willing to doe we know what the Text saith Psal 121.4 Hee that keepeth Israel neither slumbers nor sleepes Nay he is exceeding zealous for Israel That is the phrase of the Prophet Let us summe up the Point then and see the issue of all and the case will be marvelous cleare If it be so that God onely knowes how to deliver his people if he be able to doe what he knowes if he be mercifull to doe what hee is able and if he be watchfull to doe what he is willing then God must needs be the deliverer of his Church We come now to the use of the Point and so we will proceede to the next It is great pitty that we should so behave our selves that this God should not succour us but say He will deliver us no more but let us make use of the Point in hand And the Vse we are to make is this Is it so Vse that the Lord is the Author of all the deliverance and succour of his servants 1. Then it must teach us a point of wisedome namely to whom we must give the praise of all our marvelous deliverance and preservation wee have enjoyed to whom it is wee ought to render all the glory of our protection and safetie that hath beene continued for the space of above sixtie yeares to this Kinâ—dome Doe as the Prophet David doth The Lord is the Author of all let the Lord have the honour of all Give unto the Lord the honour due unto his Name The Prophet David doth distraine as it were he is violent with the hearts of men and he labours to wrest praise and honour from men Give unto the Lord the honour and the glory due unto his name the truth is we must not sacrifice to our owne nets that is we must not praise our owne power and say it is our power that hath accomplished it and our wisedome that hath effected it no it is not our shipping it is not our power or courage or meanes that have done it Therefore let us doe as the Prophet David doth in the 44. Psalme It was not my Bow that did succour me it was the Lord that hath delivered me and relieved me and his be the praise for ever and if all people should doe this and ought to doe this then I had almost said nay why may I not say so why should wee not doe it more than all the world besides for whence comes it whence is it that the Lord hath had an eye unto mee above all the rest when the fire of Gods fury hath flamed and consumed all the country round about us Bohemia and the Palatinate and Denmarke when the fire hath thus burnt up all yet this little Cottage this little England this Spanne of ground that this should not be searched nay when the sword hath ruinated and overcome all the other parts of Christendome where the name of the Lord Iesus is professed we sit under our Vines and Figtrees there is no complaining in our streets our wives are not husbandlesse our children are not fatherlesse marke the reason and ground of all is nothing else but Gods mercy towards us and above all here is seene the abundant goodnesse of the Lord notwithstanding our unthankefulnesse and carelesnesse we yet continue to be a nation there is no other reason to be given of this but Gods love will have it so when as in other Countries here one is banished from his house another from his country that we are here this day to call upon the Name of the Lord this is evidence enough that it is the Lord that delivers England and shall the Lord doe this and shall not wee acknowledge it shall not we observe it and remember it for ever shall not wee score up the kindnesse of the Lord and set up pillars of his preservation and records of his mercy to our soules for ever and above all other deliverances that in 88. was a great deliverance but we specially record that upon the fifth of November this wee record unto all posteritie and let us but cast our thoughts upon the malice of our enemies and then it cannot but be confessed that the Lord hath delivered us it is the Lords owne worke and this shall appeare if we compare the practise of the wicked and the deliverance of the Lord together agreeably three things in the former may be observed three things in the latter may be considered and doth shew that God onely delivered if we looke to the enemies of Gods grace and Gospell three things will make it appeare that none but the devill could devise that plot and if on the other side wee consider the succour and deliverance the Lord did lend it will appeare that none but the Lord could deliver us and succour and relieve us Let us consider three things in the Gunpowder plot First observe their policie secondly their malice thirdly their stoutnesse whereby it will appeare that they intended the whole ruine not onely of us but of the Gospell they thought to have carried the matter so cunningly that it should never have beene spied nay so fiercely that it should never have beene recovered first for the former behold in the forefront the depth of their policie the place that is marvellous fit the conveiance marvellous easie the pretence marvellous unsuspected for they have a seller it is in the earth and hard by the water that they may convey things thither and what can be alleadged better than barrells of beere for a seller and therefore no man questioned or imagined that there was any matter of treason intended against the State Secondly as their policie was great so the rage of these sinfull persons was beyond measure hellish for murther is so unnaturall that the earth groanes under it and the Sunne blushes to behold a murtherer but to stay a Magistrate the Law of Nations and Civilitie loathes it but to lay hands upon the anointed of the Lord Reason and Religion and the law of all Nations condemnes it to the pit of hell It was not the bloud of a subject they did intend to spill nor of a Magistrate that they did desire to take nor yet the bloud of the King they sought for but when the best of the Cominaltie and Gentrie of the Land were assembled the choisest of the Nobles and the Councell the King himself the highest of all degrees and the choisest of all estates when King Queene and Nobles were there assembled for the glory of God and to enact good lawes for this Common wealth now these in that place in one houre in one instant should all have beene miserably blowne up and torne in peeces so they should not have beene found or being found should not have beene knowne that they might be buried according to
of reformation then men are ripe for desolation wee will first raise a ground of instruction and then make way for an use of examination and learne this point of instruction that this of all plagues under heaven is one of the heaviest of all judgements it is the sorest that a wicked man should prosper and thrive in his ungodly courses that hee should bee able to breake through the net and come off clearely whatsoever comes to the countrary he hath what hee will and doth what hee please and no word reformes him no meanes hinder him thinke of this when the Lord pulls up the stake and gives him the reine and lets him goe post-haste and hurry headlong downe to destruction that is the onely way to pull the soule of a sinner into the bottomlesse pit It is said Hosea 2. that when the Lord doth please to bring any of his people home this is Gods speciall care in the sixt Verse the Lord prickes his fingers and stops him and makes a hedge about a covetous deceitfull wretch that he cannot breake through but hee hath now a knocke of conscience now a judgement of God now a terrour of the Almighty This is the onely way to bring a soule home to God then shee will say I will returne unto my first husband but this is one of the heaviest judgements and sorest plagues that can befall a sinfull creature that the Lord should pull downe the hedge and breake open the wall and let them runne ryot take thy course and follow thy vanities I will hinder thee no more till I have thee in hell and then thou shalt be plagued for all together Ier. 12.3 it is a fine phrase when Jeremie was perplexed with the prosperity of the wicked he was marvelously troubled because of the excellency of ungodly men at last hee quits himselfe with this they were as Sheepe fatted for the slaughter What will become of you that have all meanes of reformation the Lords mercies and Ministers and judgements have striven with you what will become of you when such a creature comes to hell the divell will make bonefires of him but they shall make holy day in hell their plagues shall be nothing to theirs that have had all meanes and resisted all meanes of grace and salvation the divells will rejoyce to meete a drunkard in hell and say what art thou come to hell after all meanes vouchsafed and all helpes bestowed the divells will make bonefires and stand on tip-toes and crow over such persons What you that enjoyed the meanes of grace and salvation what you come to hell too all the whole route of them will outbrave such an opposer of God and his ordinances hee shall bee a head blocke in hell I will conclude the point and say no more if there be any such here present as there is too many that can bragge of their loose courses and glory of their villanie I drunke him under the table no counsell shall prevaile with him no meanes shall take place in him dost boast of thy villanie in this kinde dost glory because thou thrivest in thy wickednesse woe woe to thy soule thou art ready for the slaughter and the Lord shall bring thee downe into everlasting destruction know it God hath sayd when the harvest is ripe he will put in the Sickle and thou that art ripe shalt bee sure of desolation Looke as it is with a sicke man when meate cannot nourish him when phisicke workes not and Phisitians are at a stand and all leave him then wee say hee is but a dead man the Phisitians have left him thinke of it the Lord of heaven comes to visit thee thy sicke soule is like the sicke man many mercies he powreth into thy soule to humble thee many judgements to eate out thy proud flesh he comes to launce thee on one side and binde thee upon the other side but if all these will doe thee no good it is a fearefull symptome nay it is certaine there was never any man so sure to dye when all meanes left him as thy soule shall bee damned when all meanes prevaile not The second use is a use of examination Is this true then when sinne growes ripe then the Lord will not succour and relieve any more then wee may have a shrowd guesse and gather a soare argument of the ruine and desolation of any person towne or countrey when a Nation is as it were giving up the ghost and drawing on to everlasting destruction the former doctrine will be a mervelous helpe and great succour unto us for direction in this caâ—e The Phisitians one part of their skill is this they call it a foretelling signe whereby they have a soare guesse when the body is dying and nature growing on to dissolution when they see such and such signes in a man they say he is dying why the truth saith the Text saith and the Scriptures professe it where ever there is a full encrease a full strength of sinne an universall kind of incorrigiblenesse in a sinfull course it is a deadly signe that that state kingdome or person is breathing out his last and drawing to desolation as neare as may be THE DECEITFVLnesse of sinne PSAL. 119.29 Remove from me the way of lying and grant mee thy Law gratiously TO presse on to the words and not to make any long Preface either with the commendation of this booke of Psalmes in generall or this Psalme in particular onely thus much Interpreters observe this Psalme as a Diamond among Pearles or as the Gold among other mettalls or as Saul higher then his brethren there is a kinde of excellencie which Interpreters conceive to bee in this Psalme partly in regard of the largenesse of the matter partly in regard of the spirit and life and strength that appeareth in every line therein Not to trouble you with these tinglings which come onely to the care but are not sappy to nourish and affect the heart onely a little consider that the Lord by the Penman of this Psalme doth strive after a spirituall kinde of exquisitnesse dividing it into 22. Parts according to the Hebrew Alphabet and every part having two verses beginning with the same Letter Secondly it is observeable that among 176. verses there is not above one or two but mentioneth the Law of God either Law or Precepts or Commandements or Word or Statutes Testimonies or the like as if the Prophet David had bestowed himselfe wholly and had beene eaten up with the Law of God The ayme of the Text is to discover the great desire that the holy Psalmist hath and expresseth to God for the removall of the body of sinne that was upon him and for the supply of that grace he stood in neede of and craved at the hands of the Lord and the two parts of David prayer are the two parts of the Text the first is the evill that hee would have removed from him first take from mee the way of lying
phrase I will doe what I can Lord and doe thou what I cannot but however it is take it away from my soule The Point is this A good heart is in good earnest content to part with any corruption What David did a good man must doe the ground is the same and the worke of grace is the same a good heart is in good earnest content to part with any corruption he doth not put off God with good words and thinke to satisfie God with faire speeches but it is seriously and sadly and in good earnest content to part with any corruption Hee doth not say Lord take away some stile out of the way or take away some logge or impediment in the way of sinning I would not be disparaged and disgraced and troubled in sinning no Lord take away the way of sinning that I may never walke in that way more this was the guise of the soule of the holy man and it is so with every holy man and Hos 14.2 and it was so with the converted Church when their hearts were humbled and they came to seeke the Lord they say take away from us all our iniquitie and receive us graciously they doe not halfe it with God and patch it and peece-meale it but oh take away all iniquitie even the greatest and the least and the dearest take away all Lord not onely the open and the knowne but the secret and the hidden Lord take away all iniquitie and receive us graciously In the old Law the burnt offering was all to be burnt so is it with a sound heart when it offers a whole burnt offering to the Lord of sinne leave not a haire or a hoofe behind but let all be consumed and all over-mastered and subdued so Psal 119.133 Let not any iniquitie have dominion over thy servant markē the generalitie there is none exempted none reserved there is no reservation not one Lord Let no sinne have dominion over me A good heart will not deale with sinne as the people of Israel dealt with the Cananites the Lord commanded them to drive out the Cananites and leave none there but they for their owne profit would not destroy them utterly but made them tributaries but a sound haart will not thus deale with sinne he would have it utterly removed it is a base thing that a man should retribute from his sinnes he will not banish all malice but he will take tribute of malice that hee may vexe those he hath some secret spleene against but this is the course every man should take up we should banish all sinne every Cananite every corruption and not onely not suffer it to dwell with us but not to be among us therefore looke what Haman did against Mordecay hee was not content to kill Mordecay alone but hee hated the whole Nation of the Iewes therefore hee would be at the charge to dispatch the whole nation let but the King send out his decree and hee would be at the charge for the destroying of the Iewes this shewes the malice of the man so it might be with our malice against sinne a man must not onely hate a base beggerly corruption a poore Mordecay that will not profit but the whole nation of corruption abandon that God hath given out his warrant against every corruption therefore be thou at the charge to execute it and set thy selfe against the whole nation of rebellion of heart and distemper of spirit this ought to be the guise and frame of the soule I have done with the proofe of the Point we come now to open the Point when I say the good heart is content to part with any corruption this parting of sinne and the soule appeare in two particulars First hee labours and strives and endeavours to doe what he can himselfe secondly he goes to God to doe that he is not able first for the former the endeavour and strife of a sinner for the parting of his sinne and his soule it appeares in foure particulars in all which we may fully perceive that in the soule of a gracious man there is this resolution to make a breach betweene his soule and his distempers first a sound heart is ready to take the least notice of any thing that is unlawfull it hearkens to any information that may discover any thing to be sinnefull in any measure after any manner this is one argument that the soule is resolved to part with any sinne because it is marvellous ready to heare any thing against sinne that it might part there from a man that doth seriously desire to remove another out of his possession the course whereby hee doth expresse his affection is this he is ready to heare any report and hearken to any relation by any man after any manner that will beare an action against the party and hee will not onely heare it but record it and make his advantage of it that he may remove the man if it be possible out of his possession so it is with a gracious heart when the soule of a faithfull Saint of God is weary of his inmate of the sinfull body of death that hangs about him and would dispossesse it and reforme it were it in his power not onely the dominion of it but the presence of it in his heart any longer hee is ready to hearken to the least information from any occasion from any speech from any action of the meanest Saint of God that appeares in his course and conversation whereby he make it questionable such a course is sinnefull and such a practice unlawful he is very carefull to attend lay his heart levill thereunto nay if his enemy out of malice and spleene and envie shall cast any thing upon him as a matter unlawfull it mill make his heart shake within him and he beginnes to consider I never thought such a course unlawfull and such a practise unwarrantable I see such a man dares not doe it if it be a sinne why should not I reforme it as well as another and if it be not a sinne why should he abridge himselfe of that liberty which is lawfull and the soule will never be quieted till it get sound information what is lawfull and may be performed and what is unlawfull and ought to be avoided this is an argument that hee is willing to part with his corruptions because hee is willing to know what is evill that hee may avoid it Iob 6.24 Teach thou me and I will hold my tongue cause mee to understand wherein I have erred He doth not quarrell with the man that counsells him or wrangle with the man that adviseth him but teach thou me and I will hold my tongue I know not I perceive not but cause me to know informe soundly reprove mee throughly wherein I have done amisse Nay Iob 34.32 it is a sine passage What I know not teach thou me if I have done amisse I will doe so no more he is willing to heare any thing
willing to be informed he will not cast off counsell and reproofe with matter of scorne and say I know as well as you let every tubbe stand upon his owne bottome meddle you with your owne matters and doe not you come in another mans Diocesse no a gracious heart will not doe this but what I know not teach thou me if I have done iniquitie I will doe it no more a gracious heart when he cannot see himselfe will be suspicious what courses are unlawfull and will seeke direction from God that he may clearely perceive it and reforme it and avoid it the heart of man is deceitfull above all things therefore a good man when he hath searched what he can if hee heare of any tricke and device that a carnall hypocrite may have he searcheth and seekes am I such a one and hee lookes up to heaven and saith Lord thou knowest the heart let mee know it thou knowest the windings of this soule of mine let me understand it that I may not be couzened The second is this when the sound heart is informed of the sinne with evidence of reason it yeelds quietly and sits downe convinced and submit it selfe to the authority of the power of the truth this is another thing a gracious heart as it will not when there is no reason to gainsay a truth so it will not invent trickes to defeate the power of the truth when it is evident and plainely brought home to the judgement this is certaine though a man out of a carnall minde because flesh will have his bouts although a gracious heart sometimes when it is informed and Reasons are sound and Scriptures undeniable it will a little quarrell and wrangle for the while yet when it seeth it cannot answer the argument it will be content to embrace the reason and be framed thereby and submit to the rule thereof Iob 40.4 when the Lord came to schoole Iob and had informed him of his owne exellencie and his basenesse he yeelds up the bucklers presently once have I spoken but I will not answer yea twice but I will proceed no further as who should say I have spoken foolishly and said unadvisedly but I will say it no more and famous is that of the Cananitish woman when Christ was hot upon her and called her dogge truth Lord saith shee yet the dogges may eate of the crummes that fall from their masters table as who should say I confesse I am as bad as thou speakest I deny not what I am I am a dog I yeeld it yet the dogges lye under the table that is all I crave and aske that I may lye under the table and waile for crummes of mercy you know how it was with Peter when he had denied our Saviour he doth not wrangle it out colour it over but the very looke of our Saviour was enough to make him got out and weepe bitterly if the arguments be plaine and reason good it will not cast them behinde his backe and winke with his eyes and will not see the truth but a gratious heart yeelds easily and comes on comfortably to receive the truth I confesse this and experience hath taught as much in this nature in point of conscience it is possible for the soule partly out of weakenesse of judgement not being able to perceive the truth or else out of a selfe wild distemper which blinds the judgement it will wrangle against the truth but in my experience I have observed this is the issue it will never leave inquiring and disputing about the businesse till it fall that way the bias of the soule will runne directly towards the truth it is with a good heart though a weake one as with a sound stomack though distempered take hot water into a windy stomacke the winde will stirre on one side and the water on another side and distemper the stomacke but let the party take a little Methridate the Methridate closing with the stomacke will ease a man and refresh a man in this kinde so a good man hath a weake judgement in this kinde and sometimes a distempered heart but when the good word of the Lord the Cordiall water the Methridate when that comes into his minde and is taken into his soule a man will quarrell with profit and ease and carnall reason but yet the soule will bee the better and will close with it for its everlasting good Thirdly when a sound heart hath taken notice and is informed and upon that information sits downe convinced then in the third place it will set it selfe immediatly to the duty whereof it is informed and convinced when the judgement stands cleare and the heart yeelds the floodgate is set open and the water will flow if there were any evill before committed the soule sets upon the reformation of it if any duty not before performed it now sets upon the performance thereof consider of it it is true I doe not say that when a man is informed and convinced what is the course God requires and what is the duty God commands a man can then doe the duty as hee ought but hee will doe what he can and labour for ability to doe that which for the present he cannot Gen. 22 3 it was a hard taske that God enjoyned Abraham to sacrifice his beloved and darling sonne Isaack now when the thing was plaine though it was never so hard Abraham set about it he got up betimes in the morning and he and the child went and the servants and all and he addresseth himselfe to the performance of the duty and hee prevents all occasions that might hinder him his wife was not acquainted with it his servants knew nothing of the matter so if a man be the sonne of faithfull Abraham if thē Lord commands it though it bee the killing of a darling secure tender beloved lust if the Lord say it must bee done this sinne must bee abandoned this corruption must bee reformed though it bee never so profitable and bring never so much contentment hee will rise betimes in the morning that is hee will use all meanes and imploy all helpes for the accomplishing of it A gracious heart if his minde be informed and his conscience convinced of a duty he will set upon the duty it is a thing I would have you remember it is a marvelous distemper of Spirit when people speake thus I confesse it is a thing that ought to bee avoyded the word forbids it the Lord condemnes it and my conscience goes against it but what would you have me doe I cannot set into the worke I cannot goe on in the worke why then lay all aside lay sincerity aside for it cannot stand with sinceritie that I should be informed and convinced of a duty which the Lord requires at my hands and I not set upon it I doe not say a found heart will not doe it as he ought but he will strive to get abilitie to performe that God requires Alas
and to master a malicious vaine spirit Lord doe this for the soule of thy servant take away these distempers and in thy faithfullnesse answer the desires of the soule of thy servant helpe me Lord against the rage of these sinnefull distempers and when the truth of Christ layes battery against a mans heart and that it brings and sets up another frame and disposition of heart the soule lies under the blow and closeth with that truth more of that Lord oh there againe Lord. A man that is troubled with the toothach if the Tooth-drawer apply his instrument and hee find hee hath hold of it hee saith that is it pull it out leave nothing behind So when the soule is under the stroake of strong distemper if hee make conscience of these things when the word comes home to his soule and meetes with that distemper he saith Lord plucke out all of it that I may never see that pride more that I may never see that malice more leave not a stumpe behinde Lord that I may be freed from that cursed distemper of spirit this is the difference betweene a varnished hypocrite and a sound heart a wretched unsound heart it feares least the Word should come home to it it feares the blow when hee seeth it comming hee wisheth he were ridde of the place or the Minister ridde of that point but a sound heart feares least the Word should not come close enough it is conscious to it selfe and knowes and sees I have heard such Sermons and such terrors and such mercies revealed and I am still to this day stubborne to this day rebellious so that I feare nothing will prevaile with mee nothing will get ground against this rebellious spirit of mine I feare the Word will not touch me nor master this rebellious spirit this is somewhat you meane in good earnest that you and your sinne will part it is a fine passage Zach. 13.6 One meetes him and askes him where hadst thou this wound I was wounded in the house of my friend a gracious heart counts the Minister a friendly Minister and a friendly Word that cuts his heart to the quicke and goeth to the coare of his corruptions oh the wound was the wound of a friend it was a friendly reproofe the Minister spake friendly to mee that wounded my corruptions I saw the coare comming why this is somewhat when the soule can wellcome such truths as are for the a wakening of it Secondly as the soule wisheth and wellcomes those particular truths that may awaken and overpower a distemper and leave a contrary grace so it is restlesse before God be pleased for to worke this before it see every corruption mastered and the frame of sinne tottered at a restlesly looking to God and restlesly waiting upon God why when will it once be such a mans heart is broken and such a mans conscience awakened and such a mans spirit brought low and Lord shall nothing prevaile with me He is restlesse in seeking unto the Lord till he see every sinne mastered and every corruption overpowred so that though it be inherent yet it is not regnant The Irish man being malitious and fearefull he never thinkes his enemy killed till he hath cut off his head hee will be sure to make him past recovery so a gracious heart never thinkes his sinnes are slaine till hee see the strength and power thereof subdued in every particular more or lesse till hee see the very bloud and life of his corruptions removed this is that a gracious heart is restlesse and intreats at Gods hand from day to day therefore it is a fine passage Rom. 7.24 Oh wretched man that I am who shall deliver me from this body of death marke the weight of his complaint hee doth not say deliver mee from the stroake of sinne or the action of sinne but from the body of sinne there is a body of pride there is a body of malice a body of anger a body of the cursed distempers of a mans soule now a gracious heart is not content to be freed onely from the tongue of pride that hee may not speake proudly but Lord deliver mee from the body of pride from the body of malice from the inward frame of my distempers in a word looke what Haman said concerning Mordecay when hee had all the cappes in the country and all knees bowing to him What availeth this saith he so long as I see Mordecay sit in the Kings gate So saith a gracious heart what availes it me that I am not a theefe or a drunkard or an adulterer if yet this proud heart prevailes this proud heart and carnall confidence of mine will bring my soule into everlasting destruction the soule is restlesse till the Lord looke upon him and deliver him from his corruptions The third thing is this that the soule is content that God shall doe what hee will with his corruptions take them away after what manner hee please though it bee upon the hardest tearmes in the world as it welcomes those truths that may worke as it is restlesse till they doe worke so it is contented that the Lord should worke upon sinne and subdue it upon the hardest tearmes in the world A covetous man if nothing but beggery will loosen his heart from the world then hee will pray the Lord to make him give away all and leave himselfe a beggar so hee may have a liberall heart So if a man bee notable to subdue the pride of his heart a man hath great parts and abilities and hee prankes up himselfe therein if there bee nothing will cure this timpany if nothing will doe the deede unlesse God knock off the wheels and leave him in the dust and make him the off-scouring of the world yet a gratious heart though this be hard saith Lord let mee have an humble heart whatever it costs me this man now is in good earnest content to part with his corruptions For the use of the point wee have first here a matter of lamentation and I know not whether wee are to condemne the evill of the world or mourne for the evill that appeares in the hearts and lives of men but this is sure that if this be the behaviour of a sound heart then there is little soundnesse and uprightnesse in the world not to hover in generall but to pitch upon particulars which is the life of application let me make it appeare in these three particulars this is a bill of inditement and falls heavy and foule upon these three sorts the first is the prophane person the second is the indulgent hypocrite he is very loath to part with his corruptions if this be true if this bee the frame of heart which David expresseth and is in the soule of every good man then judge you I will say nothing but judge you set downe the sentence what doe you thinke of those that are content rather to part with their blood and with their hearts then with their
base corruptions I meane the prophane carnall wicked of the world they are so farre from being content to have their sinnes taken away that they are not willing to heare of it they are not willing that the Minister should meddle with them or that any man should touch them or come neare them nay there is no power outwardly that can prevaile no abilitie in any meanes that is able to teare these distempers away from their soules and plucke the cup from the drunkard or the dalliance from the adulterer or a fashion from the fashion-monger they are up in armes presently nay observe it men must beware it they meddle with these things they will take away mens credit and liberty and life many times rather then they will suffer their corruptions to bee remooved and their soules humbled by the power of the Word Iohn must rather lose his head then Herod his incestuous adultery Nay the league of these men with their lusts it is everlasting Ier. 18.12 when the Prophet came early and late speaking to the people this is the good and ancient way walk in it mark how they answer we will walke in our owne wayes and as they resolved so they did Ier. 8.5 the Text saith when the Prophet came to speake to them and informe them of their wicked wayes and plucke away their corruptions they tooke hold upon their deceits the phrase is strange this is all the quarrell in the world betweene the Minister and the hearts of the people we come to plucke away your sinnes wee would pull downe your proud heart and subdue your cursed distempers and you take hold of your lusts you take hold of pride and will continue proud still you take hold of malice and you will be malicious still in despight of God and Ministers and counsels and directions and what ever comes to the contrary looke as the Philistims dealt with the Arke so these prophane carnall hearts deale with the Word of the Lord when it comes to take away their distempers 1 Sam 4.9 when the people of Israel brought the Arke into the Campe they began to be amazed and said there was never such a thing before therefore say they strengthen your hand O yee Philistims and quit your selves that yee be not servants to the Hebrewes The Arke was a type of Christ now if they would have beene ruled by Christ and have received him they might have beene blessed by Christ but all is gone when the arke comes to take away their sinnes therefore they joyne hand in hand and strengthen themselves against him so it is with a naughty and carnall heart when they see the word of God close that the ministery of the Gospel is keene and pierceth when a man shall not hover in the generall that a man may bee a Christian and prophane a swearing lying prophane Christian but the word will pluck away every corruption and master every lust when they finde the ministery thus strong and the Word thus keene and the worke of Gods Spirit thus mighty they arme themselves and say Play the men O yee Philâ—stines they bend head and hand and heart together looke either to master the power of the Word or to lay downe the power of your corruptions therefore take heede of the nice precise curious course that the word reveales and the ministers would presse upon you The resolution of these men is that of Ruth and Naomi they say to their sinnes as they did nothing but death shall part us the contentious man will part with his estate before hee will part with his brangling so the ambitious man will be content that God shall take away his Word and Spirit but shall not take away his vaine glory you will not part with your sinnes untill death why you shall live in your sinnes here and you shall bee damned for ever for your sinne wee have now done with the carnall Gospeller and prophane person Wee will now trade in the second place with the indulgent hypocrite I use this terme because it fits the passage of the point in hand and he is cashered and cast out as not sharing in as not partaking of the least dramme of uprightnesse of heart this indulgent hypocrite I compare to a fond cockering father that never loves to have his child out of his sight but if hee die hee will die with him almost So this hypocrite hee is not willing to see an everlasting divorce betweene sinne and his soule he hath some secret haunt of heart and distemper of spirit and hee will leave them now and then a little but hee will not part wholly with them the soule of the hypocrite is hankering after those secret distempers of spirit and though sometimes the Word doth overpower him and the worke of conscience doth make him not dare to live with his sinnes yea hee will meete with his sinnes as occasion serves and they will mainetaine their old league and friendship in this case as it is with a cockering father when sometimes the friends perswade him and necessitie forceth him and hee seeth hee must put out his child to schoole or else hee will be spoiled loath he is to have him goe out of sight but goe hee must therefore goe he shall but his conclusion is this hee will see him once a quarter or every good time or looke as it is with servants in a family that intend marriage before the master be acquainted with it though the master turne one of them out of the house that they doe not dwell together yet they will meete one another and conferre with one another as occasion serves So it is with this indulgent hypocrite he is very tender over his old ancient darling distempers privie pride and secret selfe-love and carnall confidence and earthly mindednesse he is not able to part wholy with these but if reason force him and conscience presse him and he must part with his profit if he be covetous then with a sad heart hee parts with his base profit away you must I must couzen no more and ease away you must I must suffer for the cause of Christ but though he puts them from under his wings thus for the present yet he will not have them goe farre but he must heare of them and see them at some seasons so the Tradesman he hath his fingers knockt off from base dealings and false weights and measures but when the faire comes and advantage comes hee will send for couzening againe so hee that prizeth his liberty more than the Gospell and truth and he that prizeth his honour more than Gods honor yet saith he must abandon all and forsake al if dangers approach and miseries are at hand then he can send for securirie and shift for himselfe and by base dealing maintaine his owne quiet this I take to be the indulgent hypocrite and mee thinkes it is like Pharaohs dealing when Pharaoh was battered with the hand of God and the
not adultery a man may pot it a little though he be not drunke oh deale kindly with drunkennesse and deale kindly with wantonnes these are the guises of wretched hypocrites whereas I beseech you observe it a gracious heart is like that spoken of Deut. 13.8 the Lord gave this charge If thy brother the sonne of thy mother or thy sonne or the sonne of thy daughter or the wife of thy bosome or thy friend which is as thine owne soule shall entice thee secretly let us goe serve other gods thou shalt not spare him this is the frame of a gracious heart indeede and of a sound heart indeede that is content to have his corruptions though never so deare removed from him that will not pitty his sinne that will shew no mercie to pride no mercie to earthlimindednesse but will slay them this is sound dealing indeede Wee see then all this while that this man hides his sinne and will not be knowne of it and when he knowes it he will not kill it but put in bayle and when hee doth proceede against it hee will not slay it but onely snibbe it a little this is a rotten naughtie heart it is not content to part with his sinnes which is the frame of every good heart Now in the second place it is a word of exhortation you see the way walke in it you see what God requires doe what you know you see what a sincere heart will doe therefore call and knocke at one anothers doore is my heart good you beare in hand so this will trie it a good heart is content to part with any corruption art thou so say it is so aske thy heart am I content to part with the world and idlenesse and pride are you content to pray in your family and reforme your servants then you have sincere hearts goe your wayes and goe comfortably goe cheerefully and the God of heaven goe with you if there be a Saint in heaven thou art one heare upon earth if there be a sound heart in heaven thou hast a sound heart here though thou art weake and feeble but doe it to purpose now doe not pretend faire and fall short halfe in Egypt and halfe out of Egypt body out of Egypt and heart in Egypt but take away all and then the worke is sincere profit might perswade you to this doe not trouble your selves to thinke if I leave all my sinfull courses what will become of my comfort and honour and contentment Why you shall not lose these but onely alter these and change them for better what profit is it to be proud and dogged and waward and snarling at Gods truth What profit is got by covetousnesse and cheating all these profits and pleasures and contentments are but shadowes and lying vanitie there is woe in all thy wealth and poyson in all thy prosperity and the best are but temporary and mutable insufficient but part with these and have eternall joy and everlasting comfort and durable riches doe but change therefore it is not the leaving of these but the laying out of these a man will doe much for a good purchase he that hath a faire bargaine and a great penny worth though hee hath so me old gold hee is loath to part withall yet if for so many hundreds as hee layes downe shall have so many hundreds a yeare he will art with his old gold for such a purchase so you shall not lose your profit and pleasure and contentment but lay them out for a greater fold He that leaves father or mother or friends for my sake shall have a hundred fold heres and everlasting happinesse here after the purchase is propounded therefore bring out your old gold those old pleasures those old contentments and delights in the world bring all out and lay all downe before Christ and part with all for Christ and you shall receive comfort here and everlasting happinesse hereafter but if profit cannot prevaile with you yet let danger force you hereunto know therefore there is danger in the neglect thereof if you would not have God take away your sinnes the truth is God will take away his mercy from you and God will take away his grace and spirit from you you shall never have it upon these termes is there any man such a babe in nature that hee will not part with the wound that will kill him is there any man so foolish that hee will not take that physicke which should purge him when he knowes it will recover him Take notice of it one of these two things you must take either part with thy sinne or part with happinesse either suffer God to take away thy sinnes or else he will take away his mercy Psal 53. Thou art a God that lovest not wickednesse if you will have sinne dwell in your soules God will never dwell with you nor you shall never dwell with him if you will harbour and hold your sinnes you must hold your shame too you will not part with your sinnes you must part with heaven for there is no comming there for you with your sinnes Heavie afflictions breeds earnest prayers from the wicked PROV 1. 28 29. Then shall they call upon me but I will not answer they shall seeke me early but they shall not finde me FOr the coherence of these words know thus much from the 20. verse to the end wee shall take notice of two things mainely intended by the Spirit of God First the kind loving and passionate invitation of wisedome to simple sinfull scornefull wretches this we shall observe from the 20. verse to the 23. there wisedome cryeth earnestly and uttereth her voyce in the streets that is shee presseth in with a kind of violence to win and woe the soules of sinners that at last they may know the things belonging to their peace The second is the issue and successe that the voyce of wisedome found in the hearts of those to whom shee spake and the successe is double the first is the contempt of scorners against the call of wisedome they stop their eares and harden their hearts and will not submit to Christ and bee ruled by him and that in the 24. and 25. verses the second issue is in the words of the Text they rejected God God rejected thē they cast his call behind their backes and therefore hee casteth off them Then shall they call saith the Text but I will not heare they that rejected mercie offered shall not obtaine mercie sought and desired this is the scope of the words Then shall they call that is in the time of trouble and in the day of distresse then they will call for mercy and comfort No saith the Lord time was I offered mercie but then mercie was not worth the receiving I called and you would not obey therefore call you shall and seeke you shall but I will never answer you you shall never finde me In the words observe two passages First wee have
anguish that is the first ground that seeke unseasonably secondly they seek upon a false ground it is not out of hatred of sin that they seeke for mercy but out of horror of conscience it is not out of loathsomnesse of corruption but by reason of the burthensomnesse that lieth upon their hearts it is not for holinesse they labour but for quiet ease and contentednesse that they might not be troubled and vexed Psal 78.36 The Text saith those that did seeke the Lord when hee plagued them dissembled in their hearts they pretended to seeke the Lord and worship the Lord but they did not seeke the Lord but their owne ease and dissembled fearefully and abused the Lords mercy and patience that he had vouchsafed unto them looke as it is with the dogge hee doth not cast up his vomit because he loathes it but hee is weary of it hee loves it still therefore lickes it up again presently he did not cast it up out of loathsomnesse of it but because it did trouble his stomacke so it is with a carnall hypocrite in the horrour of heart and anguish of spirit it is not for love of holinesse but of quiet that he renteth himselfe and saith I have hated Gods people profaned the Sabboth and committed adultery secretly he would vomit and confesse his sinnes and crave mercie not because hee loaths his sinne but he loathes anguish and horrour of heart and when that is taken away he falls to his vomit and base practice Thirdly they seeke to a false end hee doth not seeke grace for a Christs sake and Christ for the love of a Christ to have union with him but hee seekes grace not to have have sinne removed but to have a kind of safenesse in his sinne a wretch in the desperate anguish of spirit seekes unto a Saviour as to a Surgeon not that hee may remove sinne but that he may be the more quiet in sinne hee would have Christ pardon sinne that hee may commit sinne with quietnesse not to have him take away his corruptions and convert his soule but to heale the wound and to take away the bitternesse of sorrow Esay 58 34. A company of wicked wretches seemed to seeke the Lord by fasting but they did not seeke the Lord but their owne lusts they fasted that they might continue in their base courses with more quietnesse without destraction or suspition as a malefactor after hee is attached and condemned hee will seeke a pardon and sue for it not that hee might become better afterwards but for quiet and libertie that hee may not be hanged so a cunning chapman is content to attend and pray that he may couzen and cheate by fasting and praying so much the more so then gather up the Point if they seeke out of season out of false grounds and to a wrong end no marvell then though they call earnestly and seeke vehemently and yet God answers not nor is found of them according to their desires The first Vse is for terrour Is it so that a man may seeke earnestly and yet never obtaine mercy then this is able to shake and sinke a company of soules of carnall wretches Oh the lamentable condition of a company of poore creatures that live in the bosome of the Church and therefore it falls sore upon those creatures that make a scoffe at praying and hearing all ignorant and deluded persons that know not how to pray and seeke to the Lord for grace and mercie me thinkes the former truth were sufficient to dash all the carnall hope that can creepe into the minde of such creatures therefore take notice of the desperate condition wherein they lie Reason thus Is it so that those that seeke the Lord shall never finde him then what shall become of me that never cried at all nay that loath prayer and reject the use of Gods ordinances and dispise the meanes of grace and salvation whereby I must seeke and obtaine mercy if ever I have it if they that doe seeke attaine not then I that never seeke my condition is desperately lamentable fearefully irrecoverable why Why my heart riseth at such persons I have tanted this praying and mocked this fasting good Lord what shall become of my soule desperate is my condition and fearefull is my estate the Lord be mercifull unto me I am gone for ever I grace will the Lord vouchsafe grace to me doe I count of mercy and pardon for my sinnes no let me set my heart at ease those dayes are gone I mercie no I have loathed and scorned mercie the day will come when the Lord will say you have hated mercy therefore you shall be condemned and never partake thereof nay what will become of a companie of carnall wretches that set themselves with desperate indignation to hinder and crush and oppose the improvement of all holy meanes if there be any servant in their family that riseth early to pray to the Lord if there be any child that is godly and a wife that lookes towards Sion there is an uproare in the family the master he flieth about and saith I cannot maintaine my family by poaring on a booke how then dost thou get thy living if not by praying and reading thou gottest thy living but a curse with it if thou get without these meanes thou mayst get wealth but God will curse thee with it and thou shalt goe downe to hell and thy wealth with thee why reason thus with your selves I cannot so much as buy cattle but I must seeke in the Fayres I cannot provide foode for my family but I must goe to the market and what a wretched heart have I that thinke to get mercy and grace and salvation and yet he in my base lusts and never stirre a foote to seeke the Lord and call upon his name how is my judgement blinded and my soule couzened â—hinke of it if those that offered faire for mercy and grace by many prayers and desires and endeavours if they in the meane time fell short and never came to heaven what will become of mee that never looke after the things of grace and salvation surely if the Lord be in heaven I shall never come there The last use is this you will say what shall we doe if seeking will not get it at the hands of the Lord then wee had as good cast away all and doe nothing as get nothing by what wee doe therefore the last use is a word of exhortation wee are to be intreated in the name of the Lord Iesus to doe not onely what these seekers doe but goe further and doe more This is no argument because they obtaine not mercy by seeking therefore wee should not seeke therefore seeke after another manner so seeke and pray that you may finde benefit thereby and comfort therein unto your soules in the 13. of Luke 24. this is the use Christ makes many shall seeke to enter in and shall not be able what shall wee therefore cast care
away no therefore strive you to enter seeke after another manner then they doe that so thou mayst obtaine that which they shall never obtaine many deale in this case as Gentlewomen at a Sermon if they may have a seat at their ease they will sit downe and heare but if they must crowd for it then they returne and get no good so many seeke but they strive not with their seeking they are not able to crowd thorough all occasions and take up armes against the distempers of their soules that so they may obtaine that mercy they stand in neede of But you will say if earnestnesse and vehemency will not doe the deede what then will doe the deede the rules therefore for our direction in seeking are three first labour to seeke seasonably while the day of grace lasts and the Sunne shines take the season and goe on cheerefully and arrive at the end of your hopes call upon the Lord while hee may bee found it was the direction God gave to Ierusalem and the mone he makes for her neglect therefore Luk 19.41 O that thou hadst knowne in this thy day c. hee ceaseth praying and falls to weeping he had preached often and prayed often but nothing would prevaile hee falls a weeping over it O that thou hadst knowne at least in this thy day the things that belong to thy peace as who should say now this is thy day now the word is brought home unto thee now my Disciples are preaching and the Sonne of man himselfe is come to wooe you Oh that thou hadst knowne in this thy day the things that c. but they are hidden from thine eyes take notice every man hath a day and a season which is the harvest of salvation doe you not take notice of this that at some Sermon God opens the eye and prickes the conscience and sometimes lovingly perswades a man and the soule is yeelding and walking after the Lord the soule melts lovingly under the hand of God this is thy day take heede how thou neglectest it and as thou goest home intreat the Lord to make profitable that which thou hast heard and say this is my day I am now in the fire Lord melt me I am now under the power of thy ordinance make it effectuall to my soule and take notice of it if the spirit of God call and you regard it not and let all goe and all commodities are plucked up and gone you may come and call and cry but it is too late that Spirit which thou hast resisted shall never worke more thanke thy selfe the day is gone now they are hidden from thine eyes the day is over and therefore thou maiest crie Oh for a Minister oh for a Sabboth no no if all the Angells in heaven should speake and all the Ministers on earth should preach themselves hoarse thou wouldest not be affected therewith therefore take the season and the golden opportunitie of grace and when Christ comes to your soules entertaine him if Christ knocks open the doore if hee awaken thy conscience doe not snubbe it labour now to see thy sinne that thou mayest finde mercy at the hand of the Lord. Secondly as wee must seeke seasonably so wee must seeke with our whole heart now the whole heart makes knowne it selfe in two particulars the first is this when all the good things of this world be they what they will be cannot withdraw us from Christ this is one part of the whole heart when profits and pleasures of this world stand in competition and opposition betweene God and our duty to cast off all and say whether I have honour and libertie or no I care not so I have God my God I will have this is a happy seeking away therefore with that lazie heart I thinke it should be so and ought to be so and it is good sanctifying the Sabbath and praying it is mervellous reasonable I ought to doe it but if I doe it ease and honour will be gone and disgrace will be cast upon mee thou now seekest thy ease and honour and the Lord of heaven will curse thee and thy seeking but if thou diddest seeke with thy whole heart thou wouldest goe thorough the worke and say what regard friends and honours let ease and friends looke to themselves let friends bee displeased I had rather friends should be displeased then God it is not necessary to be rich or honorable but it is necessary to finde mercy and to have sinnes pardoned Secondly as no good thing must withdraw us from God so no misery must be a stoppe to let us from comming to the Lord but we must breake through all miseries that lie betweene God and us this is that Saint Paul resolved Acts 20.24 as who should say come what can come though heaven and earth meete together I am resolved to doe what God requires hee that seekes God with his whole heart if hee were to runne thorough hell he would runne thorough it to goe to God now away with that dawbing and hagling with the Lord O saith the poore soule I confesse the course is honorable God requires it and I should doe it but if I doe it trouble and persecution will befall me what shall become of me and mine will you have my wife and children undone if thou thus seeke the Lord thy seeking is accursed thou dost not seeke with thy whole heart they that seeke with their whole heart are like a mayd that sets her affections strong upon a man happily her friends will be reasoning about the portion and there is a cavill on the one side and an objection on the other povertie on one side and maintenance on the other side but if the woman love the man for the mans sake shee will say let me have him though I beg and die with him so it is with the soule of a poore Christian that seeke Christ with his whole heart when Christ and grace and duty bee propounded and the match offered and Christ tendered to the soule and the Lord saith I will bee thy Saviour and Redeemer but thou must looke for disgrace and misery and persecution but there is a better life a comming now if you stand for a portion with Christ that you must have ease and quiet and will not have misery and prison with Christ then you are never like to make a match but he that loves Christ for Christs sake the soule saith let the Lord Iesus be a Saviour to mee though I beg and die and never enjoy good day it is enough my soule shall bee saved if I should rot in prison and bee banished into the utmost coasts of the earth yet let mee have my Saviour let him take possession of me let his Spirit rule me whatsoever come of it this is to seeke God with our whole heart and now you are like to finde him Thirdly you must seeke the Lord constantly you must persevere in the use of all meanes looke as it is with a man that is resolved to finde another and not to leave seeking till hee hath found him he goeth first to his house he is not there he was gone to such a place an houre before well hee pursues him thither hee is not there but is gone to the Market hee followes him thither when hee comes thither hee is gone home againe well then backe againe hee goes to his house and never leaves hunting and pursuing of him till he findes him so it is with a soule that truly and constantly seekes after the Lord hee is to be found in his ordinances haply thou commest to the Word and findest him not here the Word saith hee went from hence to fasting and prayer then thou findest him not there neither then thou goest from fasting and prayer to holy conference then hee is not to be found there but is gone to the publike ordinance in the Congregation then thither thou goest and wilt not be content till thou findest him but goest backward and forward from the Word to prayer and fasting from them to conference from thence to the Word againe this to seeke the Lord constantly and hee that thus seekes is like to obtaine Psalme 122.1 The Prophet David saith Hee will waite untill the Lord sheweth mercy let this be thy resolution seeke unto God till he doe worke effectually upon thy heart thou hast fasted and prayed yet God hath not heard why fast and pray still untill hee supply what is wanting and pardon what is amisse thus never leave endeavouring and doing untill the Lord sheweth mercie unto thy soule and give the assurance of the pardon of thy sinnes thus seeke the Lord seasonably thus seeke thee Lord with all thy heart thus seeke him constantly thus seeke him with your whole heart and hee will be found of you in mercie and compassion FINIS
here the practise of the wicked In the time of trouble A company of scorners and mockers in their distresse they will crie and call unto the Lord Secondly we have their successe God will not heare them In the former wee have severall particulars to be observed first they sought the Lord and called upon the Lord a company of scornefull wretches and wicked reprobates sought the Lord secondly observe the time when they sought him when their calamities did come like a whirlewinde In the day of trouble then they crie and call and cry unto the Lord the last thing is from the manner of it it was not slightly but they cried unto the Lord and withall the Text saith They sought him early that sheweth their earnestnes and their crying that sheweth their vehemency and yet the successe is this the Lord will not answer they shall not find him In the Verse wee have three points of great use the first is from the time Then shall call The Point is this That scornefull persons in the time of affliction are forced to seeke and to sue unto the Lord. Secondly that when they doe seeke they seeke somewhat vehemently and earnestly the third is this that howsoever they doe thus seeke yet the Lord will not answer The first point is this That scornefull wretches in the time of affliction are forced to seeke unto the Lord They that have neglected prayer formerly when trouble comes and desolation approacheth then they call and seeke for favour In the 78. Psalme Verse 4. This is plaine the children of Israel when the Lord slew them then they sought him so Isaiah 25. The Text saith that in the time of trouble they will visite the Lord In the time of prosperitie the Lord calls for holy duties but then he cannot heare of you you wil not visit him but in the time of trouble then the Lord shall be acquainted with you Experience teacheth this when a man is upon the wracke then hee confesseth his sinnes and then the Lord rends a yrayer from him and then hee confesseth like Pharaoh I have sinned and I and my people are wicked but God is just and righteous 1 Sam. 12.19 When the people of Israel were set a â—…adding after a King Samuel made a marvellous elegant gracious Sermon unto them exhorting them not to forsake the Lord but they say in the eight Chapter Nay but we will have a King as who shold say have you said what you will is your Sermon done why yet we will have a King but but when the Lord thundered from heaven then they cried wee have sinned he is a terrible God wee see now he is an angry God wee observe it now we have sinned pray for us and to the rest of our sinnes we have added this in asking us a King when the Lord sent his judgements upon them then they desired favour and pardon and desireth the Prophet to pray for them The reasons of the Point are two the first is this because nature it selfe is proffessely crosse unto trouble and vexation it is tired therewith and is desirous to be eased thereof and howsoeuer a man be never so unreasonable no counsell takes place in him yet the Word prevailes not with him and God cannot rule yet hee carrieth nature about with him hee is a man still he hath flesh and bloud still therefore when Gall comes to his heart and the Wormewood into his soule Nature it selfe will make him in regard of the horrour that lieth upon him to seeke unto God and endeavour after meanes to ease and refresh him yon know how it is with rebellious children a froward little one however he will heare no counsell not receive any direction from the Parents yet when the rod comes and falls heavily they will downe on their knees and aske forgivenesse and nature forceth this hee feeles the blow and so useth meanes to be eased even nature compells us to seeke for case and call for succour in the time of trouble Nay the beasts though never so sturdy yet the bit in their mouthes and the shackles on their heeles and the whippe on their backe will make them teachable and tractable nature teacheth us this therefore so long as nature is in a man afflictions force the soule being tired with misery for to seeke and call and use meanes to be succoured The second Reason is because all other meanes are helpes in the time of trouble and therefore they are forced to seeke to God because all other comforts faile in the 107 Psal ver 20. the Prophet speakes of those that travell by sea when they are tossed by the waves then they call upon God as who should say so long as any thing would doe it God shall never heare of them but when all helpes and meanes faile then God must helpe or no one can Take a man when outward afflictions ceaze upon him as in the time of death friends may talke to him and companions may mourne for him but all now leave him in the lurch unlesse the Lord helpe they cannot therefore they are forced to repaire to the Lord and to visit him with their prayers so then the argument is this if it be so that nature forceth a man in the time of trouble to seeke for ease and if it be so that all other meanes cannot helpe a man but onely the Lord then no marvell and that in the time of distresse the wicked seeke unto the Lord for comfort This is the first use of the point is it so that scoffers in the day of trouble are forced to seeke unto the Lord then this highly commends the price and worth of Gods ordinance heaing and praying and the like because in the heaviest times at a dead lift when all faile wicked men then selves are forced to take up these ordinances of God take a drunkard or an adulterer on his death-bed then let all the profits in the world bee offered him you see how unprofitable they are it is a vexation to the drunkard to see his campanion nay all the pleasures of the adulterer they are as so much gall to his conscience because he hath delighted in those dalliances Now when all the profits and pleasures in the world are not able to comfort them then send for a Minister that he may pray for me pray for you why I had thought you had not stood in neede of prayer is prayer come into any reckoning with you what is the reason of this why they that scorned prayer formerly now at the day of death and time of affliction then nothing but Ministers and Christians and prayer why the reason is nothing else will hold water and give a man comfort in the day of distresse therefore let us prize those meanes of salvation that will be so powerfull and comfortable when all other meanes faile it is true that wicked men in their mad moods and wicked fits scoffe and are despisers of the ordinances of God