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Word A	Word B	Word C	Word D	Occurrence	Frequency Band	MI	MI Band	Prominent
mercy_n	let_v	lord_n	magnify_v	2,538	5	10.8447	5	false

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ID	Title	Author	Corrected Date of Publication (TCP Date of Publication)	STC	Words	Pages
A89411	Several works of Mr. Iohn Murcot, that eminent and godly preacher of the Word, lately of a Church of Christ at Dublin in Ireland. Containing, I. Circumspect walking, on Eph. 5.15,16. II. The parable of the ten virgins, on Mat. 25. from ver. 1. to ver. 14. III. The sun of righteousness hath healing in his wings for sinners, on Mal. 4.2. IV. Christs willingness to receive humble sinners, on John 6.37. Together with his life and death. Published by Mr. Winter, Mr. Chambers, Mr. Eaton, Mr. Carryl, and Mr. Manton. With alphabetical tables, and a table of the Scriptures explained throughout the whole.	Murcot, John, 1625-1654.; Winter, Samuel, 1596?-1665.; Chambers, Robert, minister in Dublin.; Eaton, Samuel, 1506?-1665.; Manton, Thomas, 1620-1677.; Caryl, Joseph, 1602-1673.; J. G.	1657 (1657)	Wing M3083; Thomason E911_1; ESTC R202939	754,107	852

world between the Sheep of Christ and dogs and swine Is it nothing to have the body and blood of Jesus Christ openly prostituted to such as though indeed they have the name of Christians yet their lives to every one that knoweth them deny that they have any thing to do with Christ No purging out the old Leven and therefore no likelihood to be a new lump O that we were sensible what a guilt is contracted every where by this means Alas Let the people of God take the greatest pains with their hearts to draw near to such an ordinance as the Lords Supper and they shall have cause to pray with Nehemiah The Lord spare us according to the multitude of tender mercies And with Hezekiah The Lord be merciful to every one that hath prepared his heart to seek the Lord though he be not prepared according to the preparation of the Sanctuary but when without any care it shal be promiscuously given to Drunkards Swearers openly prophane wicked wretches to the bane of their souls to the provoking God to bring wasting judgements upon the place and people where such things are done Surely it is time to look about us O! that we who can do no more but mourn for these things had such a sense of the dishonour of the Lord Jesus and abuse of his love and grace upon our hearts as to mourn And O that such of us as have power in our hands to command a Reformation in this kind the Lord would perswade the heart that there is such a power Hezekiah and J●siah not only commanded the true worship to be set up and turned the people from their Idols to the trne God but they commanded the purifying the Temple a type of the Church of Christ and purifying of the Priests and People that they should not pollute the Ordinances of God And this example of theirs is commended and surely it was done as they were types of Christ except they were types of Christ as they were Magistrates and if so it would follow we should have no Magistrates at all For Christ the substance being come the thing typified what should we do with the shadows any more 2. Then on the other hand they are to be blamed also who are stricter then the Lord Jesus would have them in their admissions to Christs fellowship and communion All visible Saints he would have admitted to communion and fellowship with his people in their several societies that is to say they seeking to joyn themselves to them Now here indeed there is a difference of apprehensions and I purpose not to enter into disquisition of such things at this time and in this place Mens charity may do something indeed to moderate them but it s not that which is to be the judge but the Scriptures what rules are there laid down according to which we ought to own persons as belonging to Christ his visible kingdom that is to say such as profess and contradict not their profession But surely it is blame-worthy if that upon niceties and trifles in comparison we shall dis-own such as truly fear the Lord so far as we can judge of them And truly Brethren I desire to speak it with a spirit of tenderness to them they are injurious in this respect who do deny Infants of Believers any room in the bosom of the Church for they are holy they are external Saints and separated to God and it is apparent that once they were members of the Church of Christ a●d by vertue of a Covenant of grace I will be thy God and the God of thy seed which he that denyeth any more to be comprehended in then a temporal blessing when God saith he will be their God I would pity them and pray for them that they might come to themselves again for then sure they would judge otherwise Now if they were such once members of that Church with which we are one now for so saith the Apostle plainly the Gentiles are made one with the Commonwealth of Israel we are graffed in among the branches how cometh it to pass they should be all cast off and cut off from the Olive and not a syllable of it mentioning any such thing in Scriptures no account given to the world of it and that it should be in such a time when the fulness of grace was revealed in Jesus Christ for grace came by him and now there should be less grace come by him and narrower priviledges to the Church will hardly be understood I think The third Doctrinal from the words will be this In the visible Church there are some good some bad Ordinarily they were not all wise virgins that the kingdom of heaven is compared to but five wise five foolish All within the visible Church are not wise to salvation Five of them were wise five were foolish The proportion of the wise to the foolish five to five in the Parable is not concluding that there are as many good as bad in the Church there may possibly be a visible Church where there are none bad but I doubt there is none such found there were but twelve Disciples and one was a Devil and all the parables whereour Saviour holdeth out the nature and state of the visible Church to us is we find there is a mixture So in the Parable of the Sower there are four sorts of ground to which the kingdom of heaven is compared and but one of them brought forth fruit to perfection the stony Ground it was quickly scorched from the sandy ground springs up quickly and withers as soon the thorny ground holds out longer and endures happily the scorching of the Sun the Persecution and yet is choakt when all is done And so the Parable of the tares sown in the field they grow up with the Corn and it seemeth by the ancient report even Jerom are so like it while in the blade that they can be hardly discerned from it but there they grow and partake of the juice of the earth and fatness of the soyl and are green and flourish and yet at last are singled out for fire And so the Barn-floor there is wheat and there is Chaff lying together until he whose fan is in his hand shall throughly purge it and then the separation being made Woe to the Chaff but at present c. And so the draw-net though it gather together somewhat naught which is to be cast away yet while under water it is hidden And so the Apostle All are not Israel that are of Israel Some are Israel that are of Israel but all are not Some are of Israel though they be not the Israel of God that shall inherit the heavenly Canaan I hope it is needless to waste more time in heaping up of Scriptures to make it good The ground may be because the Church here below the visible Church which admitteth of members hath not an infallible spirit to discern the

that watcheth with us to keep us awake lest if he withdraw we fall asleep when of all other times we had most need to be awake Fifthly Then what have some of the people of God to bless him for and to rejoyce in the Lord for that he hath kept them awake specially in the time of need it is double and treble mercy You heard before it is matter of great praises to be kept awake ordinarily But in an hour of temptation to be kept awake watching and praying so that when others have entred into temptation thou hast been delivered O what mercy is this and whence is it that the Lord doth so highly favour thee more then others of his people So when he hath in his Ordinances sometimes been as I may say transfigured before us and when others have been asleep have seen nothing of it at all or very little thou hast been kept awake all the while O that we could tell how to set a price upon such a mercy as this how sad a loss would it have been if thou hadst slept away such a season as others have done that haply thou mightest never have seen again what had the Disciples lost if Jesus Christ had suffered them to sleep all the while of his transfiguration somewhat they saw of it and by that they saw they might gather the better what they had lost it may be thou hast lost something in such a time by sleeping a while but hath he awaked thee to see the rest Oh that God would help to prize our mercies to bless and magnifie him for it Sixthly in the last place then if we find our selves growing secure and slumbring and sleeping suspect there is an hour of great need to watch to be awake at hand Either the day of our appearing before the Lord Jesus which is a time of greatest need and if Satan can but get us asleep against that day he knoweth in likelihood we may set in a cloud which will be dishonour to Christ discomfort to his poor people or else some hour of temptation is coming and his design is now to lull us asleep that he may the more deeply wound us take his aim better where to hit us and if he might have his will to smite us once for all O suspect if Dalilah spread her lap for us If the delights of the world do open their bosom for us to lye in and begin to sing sweetly in our ears and charm us O take heed rouse up your selves with Sampson before hand as he did it afterward still until he was taken indeed the Lord being departed from him a sad end of his sleeping But suspect there is some design in hand upon us the aym is to get away God and Christ from us our peace our holy frame from us to bring the Philistims upon us Or else that there is some glorious manifestation of God towards us in his Ordinances he is about to cause his glory to pass by and the envious man and our wretched hearts would sain rob us of it therefore suspect our selves if we finde we are growing thus sleepy that there is some time of need neer at hand for our waking for we are exceeding apt to sleep when we have most need to wake But so much for this Doctrine Verse 6. 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 IN this Verse we have Christ his preparatory to his coming In the next verse Its influence upon those unprepared virgins towards a preparation of themselves for his coming and their own meeting of him In this preparation you have 1. A cry which is laid down first in general or first it is declared 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 that there was a cry 2. 〈◊〉 what this cry was Behold the Bridegroom cometh c. And then the season of it in the second place it was at midnight A Cry was made at his first coming there was a forerunner and that was John the Baptist and he was the voice of one crying in the wilderness an earnest zealous loud speaking prepare ye the way of the Lord. And now at his last coming there is a like preparation of his way there was a Cry made Calvin thinketh the Cry here is put metaphorically for the suddeness of his coming or that it may be understood so because when any great thing cometh upon a people suddenly they make a stir a tumult it discomposeth them Or as Children or Scholars that are all out of their places and at their sport their Father or Master cometh upon them suddenly O what a stir there is an out-cry the Master is coming the Father is coming Or when an Enemy surprizeth a place cometh suddenly beateth up their Quarters there is a Cry O horse horse arm arm they are here upon us But I know not what Reason thus to understand it of the suddenness of his coming the Effect being put for the Cause because before the suddenness of his coming is set forth in the season plainly as hereafter shall appear he came at midnight I rather therefore take this for a Cry by some messenger of God as a fore-runner of his Sons appearing or coming to his people either to take them to the marriage or shut them out of the marriage for ever The Doctrine briefly will be this The fore-runner of the coming of Christ is a Cry At midnight a Cry was made It is likely that this is spoken by way of accommadation to the Prothesis of the similitude as the manner of Marriages then when the Bridegroom was coming likely there was some messenger going before to prepare them that were with the Bride to meet him that there might be no confusion when he came so here in the 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 of the similitude the professors of Christ and the world they are unready for the most part and in a sleep And therefore this fore-runner goeth before the coming of the Bride-groom to give them warning that they prepare c. That this is so the Text it self is so express I think it not very needful to prove it further by Scripture but shew you that it is his course in all his comings to send some messenger before him to prepare his way to make way for his coming his coming to particular Judgments as with the old world he sent his harbinger Noah a Preacher of righteousness and every blow of the workmen upon the Ark was a Cry and might have been as a dreadful sound in the ears of the world he being the warning the Ark must be so long an hundred and twenty years in building the report of it then might go over all the world in that time for ought I know Was not Lot sent to Sodom before their ruin Jonah to Niniveh crying yet fourty days and it shall be overthrown But I will not stand upon this you see it is suitable to his former proceedings in coming to judge any people or deliver his own

may serve then to humble us brethren all of us before the Lord for this is the frame of all our hearts by nature though the Lord Jesus so loved sinners that nothing was too dear for them even to his very life and blood and yet we are all of us so unkind to him again that we would never come to him we would not be beholding to him through the pride of our hearts until we cannot subsist without him and then we will come though it be too late so that upon the matter Brethren we do but make Jesus Christ our sinning stock all the dayes of our lives and yet when we can sin no more we would serve our own turns upon him meerly we would have entrance into heaven by him we desire him not for any loveliness that is in him or in the Grace which is revealed by him Is not this great cause of humbling As suppose a Prince that deperit virginem a poor ragged filthy creature and he even dies for love of her so be that she will but come and take him she shall have all the priviledges of a wife his honour shall be hers his crown hers his beauty hers she shall be like him also be she as uncomely as she may he will put off his comliness upon her no she will not hear of coming to him at all until at last she is even perishing and then cometh and would have his Glory but not himself meerly to serve her self upon him O this is great unkindness do you thus requite the Lord ye foolish people and unwise And thus it is with all us until the Lord mightily change us Thirdly It may serve to convince us of our folly herein folly is a thing we cannot endure the imputation of But what greater folly is it then brethren to dis-joyn the end from the means specially where the end is so necessary to be had to happiness and the means so absolutely necessary to that end surely then this is gross folly he is a fool that would have health and strength and yet will not eat nor drink nor sleep nor recreate will not use the means well brethren you would have heaven every one of you you would have this blessed slate after death we are carried to it with a natural impetus the end is necessary we must enter or perish for ever 2. This means is as absolutely necessary to come to Jesus Christ when the door stands open while his bowels and bosom are open and ready to receive us for when the door is shut there is no remedy we may enter if we come while the door is open afterward we cannot Now is not he a fool in grain that will trifle when the door stands open and even goeth a begging to poor sinners and yet think to enter when the door is shut Ah Brethren this folly fils every sinners heart What is the reason else so few are perswaded while it is called to day to come to seek him early that they may find him You are wise for the world and men will speak well of you if you do well to your selves but you are fools in Gods account in the account of Saints and Angels they speak not well of you witness the Fool in the Gospel that spent himself for vanity and neglected his soul which that night was to be taken from him O that the Lord would so convince us that we might not dare to linger and trifle away our day of Grace lest when we come to cry the door be shut against us 4. Hath the Lord so far shewed us this our folly as now while the Gate stands open to make ready to get our oyl not to put it off until it be too late O bless his name magnifie that Grace of Jesus Christ towards us when others are mourning ye may rejoyce when others howl for sorrow of heart you may sing for joy of heart when others are crying Lord Lord you shall be singing everlasting Halelu●ahs Thou wouldst have Grace as well as Glory thou wouldst have Christ and none but Christ with him all things else shall be given in and thou wouldst have him poor soul thou thinkest it long before thou have him why whence isit that thou art not trifling away thy time going to them that sell whence is this but from the free mercy of the Lord towards thee magnifie him give him the glory of it for ever and ever Verse 12. But he answered and said verily I say unto you I know you not HEre is the sad Catastrophe of all the hopes of the Hypocrite in the Parable and that wherewith I shall conclude my thoughts upon this Text they would not be beaten off though the door was shut against them they come and bounce against it with a Lord Lord open to us to you who are you that I should open the Gate now it is shut upon you upon what acquaintance shall I do this for you you are strangers to me verily I say unto you I know you not In this similitude is held out to us the doom of Hypocrites and such as are not found ready for the coming of Christ Or if you will rather the reason of the doom the door was shut upon them before they are excluded heaven there is no entrance there is a repulse and here the reason of it is given as there in Mat. 7. Depart from me saith he which is equivalent it is as much as the shutting the door at least if not more the same reason is there given for it I know you not So that here seems to be two or three things note-worthy in these words I will speak briefly to them and dismiss all winding it up in one application First That many that profess to know Jesus Christ and to be his people yet are not known of him he knoweth them not Secondly Such as he doth not know shall not enter the door is shut against them and when they plead to have it opened they have a denial which is presupposed and as I may say included in the exceptive particle but Lord Lord open to us But he answered I know you not therefore I will not open the door to you Thirdly Whatever formal Professors may delude themselves with as if known of God then it shall be declared to them that he knoweth them not For the First That many that profess Jesus Christ and to know him yet are never known of Christ That this is so I think the Text is as clear as the noon-day as for these foolish Virgins they did go forth to meet the Bridegroom had their Lamps took pains to trim them when they were out and you see they have a Lord Lord in their mouths at the very last and yet saith our Saviour saith the Bridegroom I know you not do but add that other Text and there will need no more proof and that is in Mat. 7. Many shall say unto me at that day Lord Lord open

turned away either to turn away the affliction or at least the anger which is the sting the inflamation of any affliction whatsoever if it be but an itch a scab if it be fired with the anger of God it shall be enough to consume and destroy the Lord challengeth it as a priviledge See now that I even I am he and there is no God with me I kill and I make alive I wound and I heal I wound their comforts wound their peace lay them a gasping a dying art thou not he that kelled'st Rah and wounded the Dragon So Job he maketh sore and bindeth up he woundeth and his hands make whole Come say they let us return to the Lord for he hath torn and he will heal us he hath smitten and he will bind us up after two daies will he revive us and the third day we shall live in his sight Healing upon the returning of poor sinners is a choice mercy indeed and all from him their returning in order to healing and the healing unto returning Behold I will bring it health and cure I will cure them and return to them abundance of peace after be had threatened to destroy them in his anger by the Caldeans So then it may be Beloved that the trouble of spirit thou hast had for sin God hath laid his hand on thy family on thy person and all little enough to bring down the pride of thy heart and to take away the iniquity of thy covetousness and wean thee from the creature Well he will return if thou return to him he will return he will heal thee or at least take away the anger that inflameth the Visitation which is a kind of healing Brethren though we are kept under it But thus much for these particulars touching healing You see then what it is that is held forth in this Doctrine That Jesus Christ will arise unto them that fear his name with healing under his wings that is to say by his Word and Spirit and other Ordinances conveigh to them pardon and cleansing and peace and comfort and freedom from calamities or the evil of them and I hope it is sufficiently proved by the several particulars there have been many Scriptures produced to prove it in each particular therefore we will not any longer insist on that part but come to the Application which will be divers First we may take notice Brethren hence what a comprehensive evil sin is for if we speak of healing which is the main thing in this Doctrine it must needs lead us being a relative to some distemper or other that is to be healed whether it be a disease or whether it be a wound or both for diseases many times are caused by wounds that its a disease a wound might easily be proved in the first place as by that of the Prophet The whole head is sick and the whole heart faint from the Crown of the head to the sole of the foot nothing but wounds and bruises and putrifying sores O! how loathsom are these sores do we not read of the plague of the heart a hard heart the stone in the heart in that place of Ezekiel where he speaks of his people under the notion of a flock to be fed and guided the diseased have ye not strengthened neither have ye healed that which was sick neither have you bound up that which was brokon diseased and sick I might here by an enumeration of particulars shew that every sin almost according to Scripture analogy is a disease To begin with the head Brethren is not blindness a disease and is not ignorance a blindness of the mind whereby we are alienated from the life of God Dear friends consider it how many among us poor creatures are groping at noon-day the light that is in them is darkness and O how great is that darkness and is there not also a self-conceipt and pride whereby we think of our selves above what we ought and from hence it is that we grow more in the head than in other parts a dangerous disease there is much knowledge among many of us but little heat little warmth on the heart little holy walking according unto it Obstructions between the head and the heart is none of the least diseases among us Is there not corruption of Judgement and is it not a dangerous disease if we had never thought so before our times would have taught us this the leprosie in the head a man of unsound principles is leprous and one of the worst kinds also O what a vertigo hath taken many they run round until they be giddy and fall and break themselves Beloved there are strong carnal reasonings in our heads whereby almost we will make any thing good that we would have forward we shall make it seem reasonable that we may cum rations insanire Go from the head to the heart and see is there not a stone there and that is none of the least diseases is there not a plague there O what hardness of heart and what stubborness and what frowardness of heart there is we might instance in many Brethren are there not eyes full of adultry like fleams grown over them which do blind are there not pearls in the eyes when the world is dear to us what is our covetousness else and what is envy but a blood-shotten eye which proceedeth from a heart full of vexing and is not lust a feavour yea an ulcer on the liver or a dart thrust through it and what is rotten communication which men make no more of and vain and foolish discoursing but the rottenness of a grave but the rottenness of lungs breathing forth continually O how some mens tongues are set on fire of hell can utter nothing but blasphemies and oaths at every word But we might be endless if we should go to particulars How many of us have a dead palsie past feeling commit all uncleanness with greediness saith the Apostle Sinners you little think what you are doing while you are going on in a way of sin as alas are not many of you this day in this condition you are either contracting or strengthening the diseases of your souls making fresh wounds in your consciences Ah! how lamentable were his condition that were wounded head and heart full of sores putrifying that the very sight of him and savour of his wounds were enough to make all others ubhor him yea he is so far from seeking remedy he wounds himself more and more maketh them deeper and deeper increaseth his diseases he careth not how much he inflameth them this is the condition of every poor sinner you see O! what sad creatures are we that have so many sicknesses on us and each of them deadly and how much more many then together and if we feel nothing at all he that is in the most deadly palsie or lethargie feels nothing at all would be let alone cannot endure to

not that sinners are blind-folded do you think they would be led by Satan into so many horrid things O if they had known they would not have crucified the Lord of glory Father forgive them they know not what they do Alas the Panther hideth his head when he allureth the beasts the sweetness of his smell or beauty of his skin only the Drag is said to flie from him Isid li. 12. 2. See Mead upon Revel p. 2. p. 52. Alas they see not the head which is ready to affright them and devour them and not only is it the ground of this bondage but of all the rest how cometh it to pass that poor souls are plunged into such desperate gulfs of despairing and such breaking bondage in that kind but because they are held in ignorance they do not come to know the Father and Jesus Christ whom he hath sent he keepeth them in ignorance of the promises the sweet and precious promises of Jesus Christ O dear friends it is impossible were it not for our ignorance of that love of God in Jesus Christ and that riches exceeding riches of grace that is in him and his thoughts that are above our thoughts that there should be so many cloudings such fearful plunges as many poor souls are put unto yea many times even after they are once delivered from them why now I say when the Lord Jesus cometh ariseth upon a soul as the Sun of righteousness he dispels this ignorance discovers sin in its own colours and indeed worse it cannot be set forth in therefore the Apostle saith that sin might appear to be sin and then he opens the treasuries of the Promises of the Covenant of Grace to let a poor sinner see there is enough for him there though his sins be great yet mercy is transcendantly greater if he have mountains to be covered the Lord hath a sea to swallow them up if multitudes of sin there is multitude of mercies there is love which will cover a multitude and so by discovering himself thus and our selves to our selves he by degrees setteth the creature at Liberty from those fearfull apprehensions of God and from that delight in sin which formerly he had taken so that now no longer will he serve it But a little more plainly take a Scripture or two for it in that of Isaiah To proclaim liberty to the captives the opening of the prison to them that are bound the opening of the prison some read it so and so do our Translators though it is acknowledged by the learned among us that the latter is no where else used in this sense for the prison nor for the prey as some others use it and therefore some do take the word to be but one and render it om●im●do apertionem so that the doubling of the Letters here are Emphatical and by way of 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 though then Manaph here remaineth as a difficulty for words so doubled use not to be so joyned together so that some would have it here nothing else but a very large opening of their eyes and say that it is used most properly if not constantly of the opening of the eyes and surely this is the way of Gods delivering his Captives and agreeable to the text here the Sun arising in the morning opens the eyes setteth the senses at liberty from that prison of darkness they were in in the night and elsewhere it is manifest in that of Luke 4. 18. To preach deliverance to the captives and recovering of sight to the blinde and again the Psalmist The Lord looseth the Prisoners he openeth the eyes of the blinde therefore Paul was sent to open the eyes of the blinde and turn them from the power of Satan to God and from darkness to light for we must know that this bondage is of the soul the faculties thereof and chiefly the will Now the Lord when he cometh to deliver us dealeth with us as with men and therefore first opens the eyes of the mind and draweth us with the cords of a man with arguments over-powring our reason and then with the cords of love sweetly thereby inclining our hearts and bowing our wills and then the poor creature comeeth forth out of this bondage before we see we are in prison or see the loathsomness of it the darkness of it we are in love with it and will not go forth But Secondly This darkness comprehendeth another and that is Error or rather this ariseth from the other and therefore we shall speak to it apart Ye err not knowing the Scripture nor the power of God he saith not ye err not knowing immediate Revelations but not knowing the Scripture for there the light is in the Lanthorn if we will behold it now this error of what kind it will be it is a snare of the Devil and therefore it is a bondage The Apostle there speaks of Heretical Doctrine held by such as do perversly oppose themselves against the Ministers of Jesus Christ who hold out the truth as it is in Jesus He sheweth how Timothy is to carry himself to them in meekness instructing them that oppose themselves if God peradventure will give them repentance to the acknowledgement of the truth Repentance is a turning from sin to God and to the contrary Grace or Vertue and that is the acknowledgement of the truth therefore their sin was some corruption of the truth and that they may recover themselves out of the snare of the devil who are taken captive by him at his will out of the snare of the devil a sad snare it is if the devil can but get so far within a man as to dazle his eyes to blinde them he may lead them whither he will if he can but corrupt their judgement especially in fundamentals or practicals then they are his own they are fast enough he carryeth them captive takes them alive even at his pleasure Now our liberty from this part of bondage also is by the arising of the Sun of righteousness upon us the Spirit maketh us free as he is a spirit leading his people into the truth not only the notion but the practise of it also we have an anointing whereby we know all things saith the Apostle speaking of Antichrist it is needle●s for me to speak to you of him you have an anointing will teach you to avoid th●se his errors O happy is that soul that hath such a Guide such a Leader to lead him forth out of prison even as the Angel went before Peter else between sleep and wake hope and fear he might haply have mist his way So the Lord Jesus cometh and giveth his Spirit and bids the soul go forth alas whether should they go they know not the way as Thomas said why saith he ●ollow me I will lead you as he in his word hath therein revealed himself and maketh it out by his Spirit to his

necessity and distress O be ye merciful as your heavenly Father is merciful take him for o●● pattern and there will be continual room for growth and increase So the Apostle exhorts the Corinthians that as they abounded in other graces so they would labour to abound in this also Ah where are bowels Brethren towards one anothers souls with what tenderness did the Apostle stand over the souls of those poor people warning them day and night with tears And our Saviour over Jerusalem now I tell you again weeping saith the Apostle O that God would give such a heart to us and such a heart to his people indeed there is little tenderness and bowels one towards another little pittying one another while under temptation we can rather raise our hearts one against another stomack one another entertain prejudice one against another upon this account but a spirit of meekness and love and tenderness in restoring setting one another in joint if we be faln is not found among us or very little O labour to grow here and then to abound in works of mercy to give and give much liberally and do it with a tender heart an upright heart out of obedience to God not for ostentation But fifthly Labour to grow in softness of heart to see the stone wasting day by day I do not mean by softness of heart only an aptness to melt into tears for many an one may have a soft heart that cannot weep at all though most dispositions are apt to it and where it is it is a sweet expression of the heart towards Christ often-times though I must tell you there may be much of this and yet much hardness of heart many tears shed and it may be upon the consideration of sin and yet the heart hard to this day the softness of the heart Brethren lies most what in the plyableness and yielding of the spirit to God when we are ready to do all the will of God as David I have found David my servant one that will do all my will that is ready to say speak Lord for thy servant heareth Lord what wouldst thou have me to do Now alas there is many a wretched heart that it may be under a passion weeping at the apprehension of sin and yet go away and return to it again and again the heart is not plyable but stubborn wherein did lie the hardness of Pharaohs heart it lay in this that he would not harken to the Lord nor let Israel go though he had had so many judgements and so many deliverances yet all would not soften his heart no the iron sinews in his stiff neck they remained such still though sometimes he seemed to relent yet alas no sooner the hand was off but the heart was more hard then before he strouted it out and would not yield to let Israel go So when the Lord heapeth mercy upon mercy to melt out the s●one in the heart to make it like wax to the fire to the mould to be put into a fashion and it may be sometimes it draweth a few tears from the eyes but the heart is never the more plyable to God And so he cometh with rod upon rod blow after blow and yet doth it gently and all to foften and make the poor creature more plyable to him it affecteth a little sometimes but is not the heart as stubborn as unteachable as far from yielding to God in all things as before O this is the softness as a piece of joyners work it is all glued together one part to another Now then it is dissolved and broken when the glue the soder is melted and one piece falls from another so it is here our hearts and their sinful objects are glued together by carnal affections now then the heart is said to be broken to a softness when these affections are dissolved when our hearts and our objects of sin fall asunder each from the other labour to grow herein Brethren Sixthly To be more spiritual in holy duties more inward in our Communion with God you have heard this spoken to in the tryall O labour then to grow in spiritualness in prayer to pray with more faith with more fervency with more purity of heart not to ask any thing to spend it upon our lusts In meditation to keep closer to it without distraction and so to read to hear to do all these duties in a better manner but enough of this already Seventhly In your holy walking with God and with your selves as the Apostle saith we be seech you Brethren by the Lord Jesus that as you have received of us how ye ought to walk and please God so you abound more and more when a man walks with God alvvay setteth the Lord as before his face as the Psalmist speaks then he vvill be able to vvalk pleasingly to him vvhen by faith he seeth him that is invisible that is to say God to be present vvith him and knovveth him to ponder his vvaies O hovv eareful shall vve be then of our thoughts as vvell as of our vvords and actions and this vve do by faith believing his presence vvith us and his all-seeing eye to be upon us still upon our hearts and all their vvorkings according to the prevailing of these persvvasions and the constancy of them upon our spirits vvill our vvaies be ordered such a man vvill not dare to harbour vain thoughts in his heart though they vvill rudely rush in as a ruffian may rudely offer violence to a chast Matron she vvill not endure it so it is here O no I dare not as Joseph you see and then vvalking vvith our selves by more and more restection upon our selves upon our actions our waies the very truth is the want of this is the great cause we grow so little or if we do that we can take so little comfort in it herein lies the excellency and glory of a man above a beast that he can recoyl upon his own actions therefore labour to improve this O be more in it reproving your selves when you find you have done amiss whip those vain thoughts which pass through your souls and give them their Pass exhort your selves stir up your selves comfort and chear your selves in your God which you cannot do except you be much in this part of an holy walking even reflecting upon your selves and your own state Eighthly and lastly that I shall speak to shall be this To labour to grow more and more in that assurance of your relative grace your adoption the growth and other grace its true is a great help unto it but labour to improve it to that end how chearfully might many a poor soul walk if they did but know the things which are freely given them of God O beg the Spirit to be a witnessing a sealing-spirit to you more and more And do the same diligence saith the Apostle to the full assurance of hope unto the end we do content

as our end we grasp no-thing but sin and emptiness wind and misery to eternity 2. Then for the means which you see what they are immediately Jesus Christ closed with mediate the ordinances wherein he is held out Alas herein they do fearfully miss it though they profess him As will appear in many particulars 1. They do not choose the right means for the attaining the end wherein a great part of their wisdom lies this is life eternal to know Jesus Christ whom thou hast sent this is the means and the way to it and indeed a part of it the suburbs of heaven Now alas brethren there are so many things which are so like to Jesus Christ and so many acts like to the embracing of him that they are deceived and so they miss of the main means and fall short of the end simile mater erroris A man misseth his way and takes another way lay near it and was like it and he runs and takes pains to come to the journeys end but alas it never will bring him thither he is out of the way Jesus Christ is the way as wel as the life now there are false Christs which men make to themselves there is much bad like to good and much error like to truth one man he thinketh a drunken Christ will serve his turn a covetuous man he thinketh Christ and his secret lusts will stand together though his profession and open sinning will not stand together he thinketh he may have Christ in his heart and sin regarded there though he cannot have holiness in his profession an appearance of it an open prophaness there as if sin would better agree with Christ then his profession Some think they have a Christ made up all of pardons no matter for holiness at all let them live as they list no matter for walking in him yet he is so merciful if they can but cry have mercy it will do the deed though they wallow in their uncleanness all their lives some they are on the other hand that make to themselves a holy Christ not minding his pardoning mercy O if they can but do this and that they walk uprightly with men they serve God none more constant at the ordinances then they private and publike and therefore surely Christ is theirs not remembring with Nehemiah the Lord spare me according to thy great mercy or multitude of mercy even when he had done so eminently for God Alas brethren what pitiful mistakes are these Many are ready to think if they have but now and then a little affections stirring at a Sermon O sure they have Christ if they have but a little velleity sometimes a wishing and woulding this must go for Christ how prone are we to substitute any thing in the room of Christ Now a man that would live and shall eat dirt or coles instead of bread you would think that man a fool or a man that would be rich professeth that is his end and he bags up indeed but what is it dung and dross stones and trash would you not count this man a fool this is the condition of every formal professor of Jesus Christ they do indeed fix upon something but it is trash it or if any thing better their duties their holiness it is trash it is dung instead of Christ this is the first Now for the secondary means the means of getting Christ which is the more immediate means and way to his enjoyment of God which is the happiness of the Creature herein indeed most ordinarily the folly doth appear and therefore I shall here consider several particulars 1. To use means to get any thing and not seasonably is folly to use them too late for a man that is deadly sick he will not be perswaded to take Physick untill he be past recovery such a man is a fool that so long will lean to his own understanding and so for meat a man that will fast so long until he cannot eat at all this is the very case in this place you see they did not ever neglect to get oyl in their lamps in their vessels they were very inquisitive sought it of the wise virgins and went to buy it of them that sold but alas it was too late Would you not count that man a fool that hath provisions to make for his family the week following at the Market and he goeth but it is when all is done and shops shut up and there is no more place to buy any thing So here and so the Manna if they went to seek Manna upon the Seveath day there was none to be had yea if daily they went not to seek it in the morning but staid until the Sun were hot there was none to be had it was gone there is a season for every thing the wise man saith and every thing is beautiful in its season he that gathereth in Summer is a wise man saith Solomon he that maketh hay while the Sun shineth It is a sad piece of folly that a man should have his grace and his Christ to get when he should use them when we come to dye and have five times as much need of Christ as in our life-time for the most part that then we should be to get Christ and have tri●led away the day of grace in flourishes and shews in taking of Christ and had him not in our hearts 2. To have means for the getting of Christ and never make use of them there is folly indeed wherefore is there a prize in the hand of a fool and he hath no heart to it he is a fool that hath an opportunity to make himself for ever and hath no heart to it to improve it redeeming the time saith the Apostle that is to walk circumspectly not as fools but as wise what would many a poor Creature in hell give for such an opportunity of grace as we have Yea if the Gospel were preached to Tyre and Sidon they would have repented long ago saith our Saviour but you have the opportunity in your hands but you have no heart to it at all this is sad To see a man feed upon husks and dirt and so perish when he hath no bread to eat is a pitiful sight but this is necessity not folly but here is bread to eat that we might live and yet we neglect to gather it or to eat it content our selves with husks and trash is not tl is folly and this is the condition of every formal profess●r 3. They rest in the means short of the end and that is grievous folly the means of grace whereby Christ is to be gotten and Christ in us revealed to grow and increase if we rest in these means whether we have Christ yea or no it is great folly what man is there that would so do But there is more in this for this preferring and prizing and lifting them up above Christ will be our condemnation setting

this 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Here we have had the sad surprisal of these poor Creatures that have their Grace to get at the last they are taken before they are ready for Christ for alas their Lamps ware out Let men put off the coming of Christ as long as they will and trifle away their day of Grace though he tarry a while yet he that shall come will come and will not tarry Well now he cometh But that is not all neither he cometh upon them not only while they are getting their Grace but while they are seeking up and down to the creature for it and never look at him at all and this maketh it so much the sadder indeed when Jesus Christ shall come to judgement particular or general to find men with their backs upon himself and their faces upon their formalities and profession upon their flattering false Teachers that at a venture cry peace peace though there be no ground will it not be sad brethren The Lord help us every one to look to it for I intend not to stay upon this either we are such as seek our oyl of Jesus Christ we live by faith in him or else we seek to the Creature we hang our hopes upon somewhat else if so whatever it be that relieveth us in the time of our trouble on this side Jesus Christ this is the object of our whoredom Now shall the Bridegroom find us in the very act of whoredom playing the whore in departing from him and will this be peace or comfort to our souls How will you lift up your faces before him brethren how can a Woman that pretends faithfulness to an Husband if he take her in the very act how can she hold up her head to him O the confusion and amazement will be upon us if Jesus Christ find us in the like Coudition can you think how poor creatures will hang the head and be filled with their shame whether shall they cause their shame to pass from them O then brethren If you have neglected the day of Grace and while oyl hath been offered you and that upon easie terms without money and without price and now you be convinced of your want of it because you know not how soon it may come upon you Let me beg of you that whenever he cometh he may not find you going up and down to buy of the Creature but coming to him waiting upon him as the Apostle did that you may be found in him hence the poor thief upon the Cross found mercy though it were at the last O take heed of deceit here for every one will say that they have no other hope but in Jesus Christ and him they wait upon all the day O that it were so brethren but I doubt he will find many of us going to buy when he cometh and not of him but of them that sell then they are running to their flattering parasitical Preachers then they must have an absolution a comfortable word though they have lived never so wretchedly as if a few comfortable words of a daubing Mountebank would transform them from Devils incarnate into Saints in a Moment which is not much better if any thing then the Priests mumbling over the bread and wine to change it into the body and blood of Christ Then when Christ is coming the Bride-groom cometh doth he not find many running then to a prayer then to a Sacrament if they can but have that they think they are secure enough poor ignorant creatures what is this but to go and buy of them that sell instead of going to Jesus Christ Well surely as this will much concern him to find men so undervaluing him who is a Saviour to the utmost to go any whether rather then to him so will it be confusion to your souls if you be found in the very act there will be no denying no excusing of it you will have nothing to say for your selves therefore let us be warned to take heed of this But so much for this Verse 10. 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 IN this Verse you have a twofold observation of the coming of the Bridegroom His coming is to make a full distinction and separation between the precious and the vile the end is the differencing thing Mark the perfect c. the end of that man is peace hypocrites and real believers promiscuously go in and out in this Church Militant this heaven upon earth but now there shall be a difference put to some the door of heaven is opened and they enter to others it is shut it is clapt against them We will in the first place a little consider the first they that were ready went in with him unto the Marriage There are divers things Note-worthy in this little clause I shall but briefly run over them 1. Some then it seemeth are ready for entrance into glory 2. Such as are ready do enter 3. That they enter with Christ with the Bridegroom And 4. That this glory is set forth by a Marriage or a Marriage-Feast as the word elsewhere imports of which afterwards I will wind up the two first into one Note or Doctrine That such as are ready when Christ cometh do enter into glory This is sufficiently clear from the Text the Parable setting forth the state of all the Saints as they shall be differenced from hypocrites at the day of their appearance before Christ for it is the Kingdom of heaven is here compared to the Virgins the Church visible to the wise and foolish the Church invisible to the wise Virgins so I understand it Now these wise Virgins they were ready prepared for the entrance in to the Marriage though the foolish were not they that were ready that is to say all the wise Virgins they entred in so that this reacheth the condition of Gods people in all times and ages who are a part of this Kingdom The Israelites when God had proved and prepared them by enuring them to the wilderness to so many hardships then they entred into Canaan 〈◊〉 not before fourty years they wandered before they must enter but when once prepared they enter So the Apostle when he had finished his course and fought the good fight then he was ready to enter and he entred into glory therefore it is that it is said of the righteous he is gathered like a Shock of corn in his due season that is to say when it is fully ripe and ready to the sickle a wise husband-man will not reap the field while it is green and unready no more will the Lord gather his Saints to him until they be prepared they must hang in the Sun so long and endure the nipping of cold and injuries of weather so long until they be ready and then they are gathered Two things I shall do before I come to the Application First a little inquire what is meant by this readiness and herein indeed only put you in mind

But now this strait Gate is shut against them and therefore they cannot enter But so much for the proof of this Doctrine I shall not stay long upon it nor indeed is it needful having spoken before to their surprizal Only a word or two brethren for the opening of the Point and then to confirm it and then some short application of it to our selves For the opening of it What is meant by the unreadiness here supposed for it is against them that the door is shut And then the shutting of the door what is meant by that First then What is meant by this unreadiness I hope you have not altogether forgotten what was spoken lately to the readiness of a poor creature to enter in with Christ to heaven which if you remember you may easily conceive what it is to be unready we will not speak to the readiness for an abundant entrance but only for an entrance into heaven and you remember they were such things as these 1. There must be a pardon of a mans sins a righteousness of faith in the blood of Jesus Christ else a man is never ready Every unbeliever therefore is unready let him be as specious in his shews and pretences as he may yet he is unready he is in his sins condemned c. Joh. 3. And though the Gate of mercy and the kingdom of Grace ●●and open for sinners to come to Jesus Christ yet the Gate of Heaven whereby an entrance is made into Glory stands not open to any but such as are pardoned have the robes of their elder Brother the Lord Jesus upon them Ah how sad a word is that of the Jews ye shall die in your sins then surely brethren they are not ready for heaven the door will be shut against them 2. There must be a dying to sin as well as a pardon of sin before we can be ready as you heard the roots must be withered before the wall be tumbled down therefore every unmortified man or woman is unready Hear this word of the Lord ye whose Lusts are yet in their full strength your pride and hardness of heart and sensoriousness your looseness and wantonness you that walk with a froward mouth and perverse lips whose hearts devise mischief whose feet make haste to do evil it is an ill sign that the old man is mortified you are an abomination to God as the wise man speaks and will he not clap the door against all such workers of iniquity no evil can dwell with God Ah brethren you that cherish that old man of sin as I may say rub him and chafe him and pour wine and strong drink into him aqua vitae and spirits into him by your meditations of sin vain thoughts lustful proud passionate thoughts nourish your sins ordinarily and so blow up the coal into a flame you are far from mortifying your lusts instead of bringing water and the blood of Jesus Christ to kill your sins you bring to the flame well all unmortified persons are unready let our profession be what it will the door will be clapt upon such I mean such as are altogether unmortified have done nothing in the work I know a child of God may not be so mortified as he should and sometimes for some acts may cherish sin use the bellows to the fire within but it costs him bitterness afterward he liveth not in such a course If he do it is good for him to be jealous of himself how the case stands with him Thirdly He is unready that hath no real holiness put upon him without it none shall see God he knoweth his prima facie as I may say he can see the image and comeliness upon a soul if it be there If not he will not own any bastards any supposititious children changelings that Satan laies in the lap of the Church as I may say and rocks in the Cradle of security but the Lord will shut the door against them This real holiness you know what it is a conformity to the will of God in our understandings light as he is light and no darkness in him In our wills and affections conformity to his will revealed to us A holy disposition of heart to do his will suffer his will and delight in it which occasioneth our grief when we cannot well this is holiness Hear this then ye that never mind the will of God purblind ignorant creatures stubborn rebellious creatures you that have iron sinnews and brazen faces which refuse to return or to be ashamed though the Lord do blazen your iniquities before you continually by his Heralds which cry aloud and teach Jacob their transgressions and Israel their sins and spare you not nor spare themselves yet you refuse to return and to be ashamed to conform to the will of Christ you never were brought to that sweet submissive frame of Paul Lord what wouldst thou have me to do Well believe it thou art unready the gate will be clapt against thee Fourthly Then others are unready And who are those Such as have received work to do and they have not done it men of no action for Christ then the Apostle was ready and our Saviour when they had done their work he gave them to do Christ had wrought out a perfect righteousness for his people and therefore he went up to heaven and the world seeth him no more and this the Spirit convinceth the world of if he had not done that work perfectly heaven would not have held him Remember this then Brethren they are unready that have not done their work whether Magistrates Ministers or private people He giveth to his servants some five talents some ten some two some one mind you he that had but one haply out of envy at others who had more or dejection and discouragement or thinking he had little and therefore could do little good with it hid it in a Napkin and did not trade with it and therefore was the gate open to him No thou wicked and sloathful servant saith the Master to him c. and so he is cast off the merchandise os wisdom is better then the merchandise of silver and the gain thereof then fine gold that is to say the great gain and improvement that cometh by using the wisdom and knowledge the gifts and graces which God giveth us O the tongue of the just is as choice silver and the lips of the righteous feed many Do we do our work Brethren or have we never set stroke in it God hath given some charge of souls how little have they done in it Masters of Families have the charge of children of servants their souls you have done nothing you have gifts and parts enough for every thing else Well Brethren such shall be shut out also Now to shew you two or three sorts of persons who will likely be unready in some or all these respects First then all such as trisle

so many years and yet not healed have you so often received the Lord his Supper the outward part of it and yet are not healed what have you been praying and reading and coming to hear until you have one foot in the grave and yet not healed what have you been doing all this while that you have never got a sight of Christ a touch of him to this day that you might be healed Ah sure you have spent your time your money upon the Physitians that cannot heal you you have gone to the Disciples in stead of Christ you have expected healing from the Ordinances themselves and expected it haply from us in whom healing is not as they lookt upon the Apostles Why look ye upon us as if we had done this by our own power O no it is Jesus Christ alone can heal and therefore if you are not yet healed he did never arise upon you to this day It may be sinners will be ready to say what if Jesus Christ hath never risen upon us is that such a great matter Indeed I doubt we make a light matter of it but I will tell you what a great matter it is you are yet in your sins and it is a very great hazard but you may die in your sins if he never rise upon thee thou shalt undoubtedly die in them and is this nothing O but you will say God is merciful it is his nature to be merciful he triumpheth in exalting that perfection and making it glorious It is true brethren but it is in Christ all light and healing is from the Father but he hath filled the Son now with inlightning and healing influence so that they who will have it must have it from the Son he hath all power committed to him all the medecines are his now and the power of applying them is so that he heals whom he pleaseth therefore dream not of it you that are wicked transgressors that have not your sins healed that God will be merciful to any but in Christ O but we may have our sins healed though it be not yet It is true thou maist be healed and this is somewhat but consider what a cold comfort this would be to a man that had the plague seised upon him in a violent manner why faith he it may be healled and yet alas be never looks after the Physitian nor ●●e Physitian after him but groweth worse and worse and yet he may be healed It is true if the Lord do not cut thee off before thou maist be healed or if God swear not in his wrath thou shalt never enter into his rest or say to thee thou shalt never be healed O these secret things belong not to us the Father hath put them in his own power and we presume upon our courses of sinning as if we knew them were privy to them and knew certainly that we should have a day of grace an hour of mercy this is desperate if thou die in this condition with all thy running sores upon thee from head to foot no sound part but loathsome wretches what do you think the Lord Jesus will put such into his bosome Well consider this for the fourth Application of the Doctrine Such as are not healed of their lusts they have never had Jesus Christ arising upon them as yet they never knew Christ to this day let our knowledge be what it will our parts be what it will our seeming following Christ be what it will and thronging upon him never so much we never yet touched him he never yet shined upon our souls O how many such poor Christless souls hear this Word this day 5. Then let us labour to raise our spirits in admiration of the riches of grace in Jesus Christ given to poor sinners to provide a healing for us that when we had faln from the height of mercy or rather grace and goodness and so had all to be broken and bruised our selves broken our b●nes that he should provide a healing for us when we could never think of such a mercy what were we more to him then Angels if he had let us all lye under our broken bones under the wounds we had made in our selves and diseases we had contracted who could have had any thing to say against him for it this the Apostle maketh an argument of his love and it is doubtless a heightening of it to consider how free it is that their wounds should not be cured and ours healed when both alike curable to him and considering that they might have been much more serviceable to him then we being creatures of a more glorious active nature then we are yet he took not hold of the nature of Angels But consider we first the infinite disproportion between the Physitian and the Patients were it not wonderful condescention for a K 〈…〉 o come off his Throne to buckle himself about the business 〈…〉 eal a worm that hath been trodden upon O it pittieth him to see them bleeding and therefore he maketh it his business to cure them brethren you would think this strange but this is the case yea this is but a shadow Iacob is but a worm and that the Lord of Lords the King of Kings should descend from his Throne from heaven disrobe himself as I may say put on rags and all to have to do with the wounds and diseases of poor sinful dust and ashes worms and no me 〈…〉 Brethren my tongue is not able to express it we would thin 〈…〉 a great matter such of us as live in the highest honour wear soft raiment are delicate in all things to take up a poor creature in the streets that is full of sores cast out to the loathing of his person to search the wounds have to do with those loathsome sores O what love were this it may be we could be content in pitty to give money for others to do it but to do it with our own hands there is the trial and yet this creature is of our own kind but what are we to the Lord or to his Christ who would do this for a Dog for a Viper a Serpent a Toad if wounded if sick and diseased can we conceive what tenderness it must be above what we have it may be we would not kill or destroy such a creature but if otherwise hurt would we heal them O herein is the love of God to poor sinners high above our thoughts as heaven is high above the earth alas we are more ready to tread upon Serpents and Dogs we would cast them out put them away from us it is but a dog Ah dear friends what are we that are strangers from the Covenant of Promise as we are all until he entereth into a Covenant with us we are as dogs as he speaks to the Syraphinitian woman all such unclean creatures yea we are a generation of Vipers as full of venom of sin as a Toad is full of poyson and

with us at all but then when we do actually thus pollute our selves he takes occasion to depart to leave us to those evils and to fill us with our own back-slidings Thirdly Take heed of sinning against conviction against light this is dangerous indeed you may come to be shut up in darkness for this to be bound in affliction and iron to endure sad things upon your spirits for if the Spirit of Christ who convinceth you this or that is a sin be so far slighted as you heed it not what if he then forbear and is it not righteous he should forbear to shine upon your graces that you should see any thing that is ought in you So that you shall walk in darkness and see no light will not this be a paying of you home in your own coyn David could not be ignorant what his sin was before he committed it and yet you see he ventured upon it and what it cost him Fourthly Take heed of deliberate sinning when a man hath time of consideration of his sin to argue the case pro and con as we use to say and doth revolve with himself O this is sinful if I do it I rebell against God I do what in me lies to undo my self O but saith lust man it shall be satisfied God is merciful there is time enough to repent or it will easily be healed afterward Now upon such deliberations as this if a man will sin there is much of the will in it and so much the more wicked and therefore now the spirit must needs be grieved what can such a poor creature expect but to be brought under bondage as you see it in David his plotting and contriving the death of Vriah these sins in cold blood when a man is not under the sudden violent heat of a temptation and yet will sin O this grieves him much if a pot be on the fire and the scum rise we throw it out we expect it would rise but if no fire be under and yet a scum arise O this is so loathsom it is not to be endured Fifthly Take heed of Ranker and Malice of grudgings of heart one against another as the Apostle saith grudge not one against another prejudices heart-burnings grudgings upon injuries real or conceived and imagined O this grieveth the Spirit who is a Spirit of pure love and will have them that look to enjoy him to be a people of love to cover much bear and forbear and forgive in love for love will cover a multitude of offences Sixthly Take heed then of pride of being lifted up for the Spirit of Christ is a Spirit of humility O he loveth to dwell in the lowly spirit if we be lifted up we rob him of his honour to arrogate that to our selves which he hath been working for us to think we are something of our own of our selves he will let us know to our sorrow that we have nothing in our hearts but darkness and bondage and sin and that all was from him Seventhly Take heed of unthankfulness for what he hath done for us when the Spirit of the Lord Jesus shall be at all this pains with us contest with the quarrellings and disputings of our own hearts against our own peace and comfort and answer all our objections and still our complaints and seal up love upon our hearts remove our trembling and fears dispell our darkness cleanse our loathsom hearts in a great measure of those lusts that did so much prevail against us and we shall forget this now and not return to him the praise but either to grow into carnal security and when we have rest from that which galled us with the nine leapers go our waies never mind whence we received it or else so much pore upon the remainder of our sins as not to exalt that grace whereby we are in so great a part delivered O this grieveth him and therefore he may justly let us step back again or let loose upon us again those lusts that we were delivered from their strength and never prized the mercy that we learn to admire that grace much more might be added but this shall suffice The next use of the point shall be for satisfaction to some doubts since we are delivered and set free from the Law as you have heard from that It may be thought First that the Law was an evil that it is such a priviledge of the Saints to be delivered from it Secondly It may be doubted how far we are set free from it and therefore I will speak a little to each of them for the first First the Apostle meeteth with it or rather prevents it for seeing that carnal reason would be so ingenuous as to find out that cavil among others against the Doctrine of faith and of freedom from the bondage under the Law as the strength of sin specially What shall I say then saith the Apostle is the Law sin that we are said to be delivered from it and that sin hath its strength from it and so deliverance from sin is a deliverance from the Law as the strength of it Or is the Law death since sin by this means doth work death No saith the Apostle the Law is holy just and good the Law giveth no occasion to sin but sin takes occasion sin will not endure to be contradicted it sucks poyson out of that holy and good Law of God meeting with opposition it swells and rageth so that indeed it is sin that is the evil the Law is holy and good O but the Law it works wrath and works death and can this then be good and how can it be such a mercy to be delivered from it is it a favour to be put into golden fetters supposing the Law to be good and holy yet since it is as we may say ginns and fetters and bolts though of gold to hold the poor soul in to keep him in and up as in a prison is this so good then To this I answer It is true by the Law is the knowlege of sin I had not known lust except the Law had said thou shalt not covet whether in the last command or in each command now I will not dispute but the first motions thoughts risings and bubblings of corruption I had not known them to be sin but that the Law hath said thou shalt not covet Why but was that then that was good made death to me saith the Apostle You must know the Apostle speaks here of a death which is the receiving as I may say the sentence of condemnation in his own spirit by conviction for this is all his knowledge of sin that sin by the commandment might appear to be exceeding sinful this is the dying there mentioned sin revived and I dyed which is in order to liberty to make the poor creature see his necessity of Jesus Christ that so he might make out after him to make a pardon welcome therefore he casts poor sinners

See Coming Deliverance whence doth it come 156 Discouragements of the world are to be armed against 251 252 Dividing upon every occasion take heed of it 98 To Do what a man knows he is slow 23 Door of heaven will be shut against all such as are not ready to enter in with Christ 363 Door is twofold ibid. Door that it is not shut against us what have we to bless the Lord for 371 Dulness we are to be humbled for it 26 E Entrance abundant into glory as a preparation unto it what is required 328 Espousals the manner of it between Christ and his people 46 Espousals of Christ The difference between this and those espousals between men and women 86 F Faithful the soul must be unto Christ 8 Fall away from grace is to be reproved 254 Favourites of heaven that we are made so let us admire it 351 Feast what is it taken for 339 Feast may be looked upon two waies 340 Feast in it the Communion of the Saints shall be heightened in heaven p. 343. and it must needs be so 345 Feast how Christ brings the Saints in unto it 347 Feast into it none else can bring but Christ 348 Feast to it sinners are invited 353 With two cautions ib d. Feast the sinners that say they have it already answered 355 Feast to come to it laies a necessity upon you 357 Feast as many as are admitted to the beginning of it labour to prepare for it in heaven 358 Feast to those that enter in with Christ to it comfort 360 Fellowships See Admissions Folly of formal professors wherein it appears 111 Folly as many as are guilty of it reproved 290 Folly wherein it doth consist 299 See Wisdom Formality if no more doth fail a man 263 Formalists to all them a terrible word 402 G God for his own glory comes in a time unknown 210 God the Father giveth his people to his Son and giveth his Son to them 41 God and the world are of two minds 114 Gods goodness to his people is to be taken notice of in awakening them 204 Gospel its preaching to all the world understood to be a cry 199 Gospel if men refuse and reject it no wonder if they be shut out of heaven 369 Grace distinguished 99 Grace its largeness to sinners 97 Grace its act Saints may loose but not its habit 172 Grace its throne what need there is to ply it 194 Grace is not to be abused 255 Grace if once in the heart it is never lost ibid. Grace for it what shall be rendered to the Lord 256 Grace its getting being put off till the last day is very great folly 286 Grace the going to the creature for it is a note of great folly 298 Grace they that go to the Saints for it are like to be denyed 302 Grace there are none that have any surplusage of it or more then will serve their turn 309 Grace to as many as think they have enough of it a reproving word 311 Grace to such as think they have but little a word of Comfort 313 Grace its day such as do trifle away the time will come when pity shall arise from none 315 Graces must be had gotten and kept in a lively frame 218 Graces how they must be acted 219 Grow how to do it 249 H Heart of man is unconstant 23 Heart must not be trusted in the highest frame 194 Heaven men may come very neer it and yet be shut out 379 Heaven what will become of them who never set foot towards it 380 Heaven in it the Saints Communion will be heightned 343 Holiness real what is it 366 Honoured wherein Father and Son are 69 Hypocrisie deep may lie in the hearts of men 95 Hypocrites Christ coming to judge at midnight is like an evil snare 212 Hypocrites when Christ comes upon them unawares it will be a Terror 215 Hypocrites may go very far towards heaven and Salvation from 122 to 231 Hypoctites how many men know whether they be such or no 234 Hypocrites never have respect to all Gods Commandments 236 Hypocrites profession will not carry them through all conditions 262 Hypocrites lean upon two Pillars that will fail them 266 Hypocrites may long lie hid from themselves 268 Hypocrites ordinarily are not diligent or laborious in searching within 272 I James King what once he said 173 Jealousie what is it 68 Jeroms resolution 297 Jerusalem had her day of grace 279 Jesus is to be magnified we to be humbled and convinced of folly from 389 to 391 Infants of Believers are external Saints 94 Justice satisfied See Christ Justice and Mercy upon what account they are to be magnified 322 K Kingdom of heaven what is it taken for 87 Kingdom of Heaven is compared to a Feast 339 Know such as Christ doth not shall never enter into his Marriage-feast 396 Know them not Christ will declare this at the day of Judgment unto Hypocrites 399 Knowledge of God in Christ what is to be said of those that have none 231 Knowing of a soul by Christ what is 〈◊〉 understood 393 Known of Jesus Christ many never are that profess him and profess to know him 392 L Lamps what is meant by it 11 103 Lamps of the wise Virgins though they burn low yet are they not put out 244 Lamps must be trimmed every day 254 Lamps what is it to trim them 257 Lamps their Motives to stir us up to trim them 258 Lamps our own what we should do to trim them 260 Law requires absolute obedience 69 Long-sufferance of God what they treasure up that despise it 134 Look unto two things 383 Love transcendent of Jesus Christ 54 Love of Christ to us should ever keep us low 59 Love of Christ the souls objections against it answered 78 M Magistrates who are the keepers of the Lords vineyard have slept 155 Man in him Christ sees nothing desirable 47 Man in him a double principle 146 Man or Men though they will not come to Christ for Grace yet will they come to him for Glory 385 Marriage what is meant by it 338 Marriages used to be made with feasting 53 Measures that are false take heed of being deceived by them 251 Members of Christs visible Church to be one of them is a great priviledge 98 Members unregenerated in a visible Church is a sad condition 99 Memory in man is a leaking vessel 21 Metaphor what is it 2 Midnight what is meant by it 208 See coming of Christ Ministers plea for putting the People in remembrance 24 Ministers wisdom in pressing truths 25 Ministers what they do 44 Ministers duty 67 Ministers have slept 156 N Novelties take heed of affecting them 28 Number our days labour so to do 117 Ordinances of Christ must neither be neglected nor slighted 253 Ordinances many that think they can get grace from them reproved 300 Ornaments look unto them and get them ready 81 Oyl what is meant by it 14 104 Oyl there is need