against the ground But Peter here his first predecessor as he would have it took no exception at men meaner then Princes yet accepted by Peter and the other Apostles who called them all brethren by which kind acceptance of the title they shew how the men of God though the greatest Apostles should not only be content to be esteemed of by the meanest of their hearers Vse 1 even as their brethren And not to be disdained by Gods Ministers now 1 Pet. 5.3 who must behave themselves as brethren First with the people but to account of the meanest as of their Brethren and to shew the same by carrying them selves as tender shepherds to the flock not as being lords or lording it over Gods heritage Let them behave themselves as brethren First with their flock 1. By tenderness of affection and sympathy learning the same from their great master Christ Jesus Hebr. 2.7 and 4.15 and from Paul Gal. 6.1 2 Tim. 2.24 25. 2. By love and good agreement avoiding all unnecessary suits and jarres with such as they instruct 1. By sympathy as they desire to see any good fruit of their labours among them 2. Good agreement yet they must also take heed of becomming through too much or needless familiarity with them in good fellowship as they call it Brethren in evill 2. Among themselves 2 Let them carry themselves also as brethren among themselves as here all these Apostles agreed in one and conversed lovingly together which is not so soon done as said seeing before the death of Christ some of these Apostles by themselves and friends sought preheminence above their brethren yea all of them strove who should be greatest though now upon our Saviours reproof of them and that they had all received the gifts of the holy Ghost which taught them humility they carry themselves as loving brethren one towards another without envy or contempt one of another A reproof or discovery of some mens pride It were to be wished that it were so now adaies that pride or at least high place and lordliness did not make some to disdain to account or call others as faithfull it may be and as painfull in the ministery as themselves their brethren unlesse perhaps with the distinction of brother or fellow-Presbyter least that brother should think himself a Bishop though for Scripture Bishops he may be assured he is one and as true a Chaplain of Jesus Christ as some other who carry a greater port on earth Here the Apostles took it not ill to be called men and brethren as indeed they were in a large sense brethren in that they were men In what sense the Apostles were Brethren to these Jews and of the same Country and Nation and as now they were growing to be brethren in affection and spirituall obligation as Christians This was the humility of the Apostles and yet it was no pride in these humbled souls to speak to them in the stile of Men-brethren But you will say Whether beasts be our brethren Dr. F. Are there any brethren that are not men Yes saith one if we will beleeve the Legend of S. Francis for he saluted ordinarily beasts when he met them in this manner Brother Oxe brother Bear brother Wolf But this is a note beneath Gamoth and a degree below lowlinesse it self I add it is as much under true humilitie being a shew and affectation of it in a proud Friar as the other is above it in a proud Pope and Prelate Vse 2 As this said especially concerneth Ministers so now a word more by way of Vse as it concerneth hearers For the people Dr. Featly on this Text. Egeon Askew of brotherly Reconcilement c. For I list not enter upon the large discourse of Christian Brother-hood the distinctions of brethren yea or yet the Exhortation to maintain such brother-hood Others have done it largely and learnedly and I would nott too much burthen my Discourse which already is grown much bigger then at first conception of it I conceived it would prove Hearers are to conceive of their Teachers as brethren and accordingly 1. To be perswaded of their love and sympathy Let Hearers then conceive of their Teachers being faithfull especially not onely as men subject to like passions but as brethren Accordingly let them 1 Be perswaded of their love even when they do rebuke and reprove and of their sympathie towards them in anguish of conscience as of loving brethren neither of which these Jews could expect from their own Rabbies the high Priests Scribes and Pharisees no more then Judas found from them 2. To be more familiar with them 2 Let them have especially in like trouble of conscience recourse more familiarly to them by conference and craving their advice even because they are brethren assuring themselves that none but inhumane and disdainfull men will take it ill to be sought unto in such case Where they have a faithfull Minister they may confidently expect from him tender-heartednesse and sympathie and accordingly loving usage as from a naturall brother 3. Not to despise them though they themselves be great on earth 3 Lastly Great ones on earth as wel as others are taught to honour good Ministers as their brethren and not to scorn or to account meanly of them or of their calling They are our brethren and so far our equals the calling being in it self as honourable and they in regard of their calling as any other Nay they are to be respected and honoured as our elder brethren seeing they come in stead of the most honourable in the Family these being as elder brethren even of the first-born Numb 3.12 who before the Levites were taken in their steads did minister to the Lord as Exod. 24.5 The first-born then even among Lords and Dukes were to perform that office then neither were it any disparagement to their birth if so it were now at least they should not in regard of the calling despise their Brethren And thus for the Compellation Now of the Consultation in these words What shall we do CHAP. XXXII Consultation of many about the good of their souls is no Conventicle c. 2 The Consultation and how occasioned THese are words full as of sorrow and fear yet not without some hope as formerly hath been shewed so of care and perplexitie of spirit They are now convinced of their own guiltinesse they are forced to acknowledge that Christ whom they crucified is indeed the true Messias exalted by the right hand of God to sit at the right hand of God and to have shed forth this which they did now see and hear being now ready to make his foes and who were they more then his crucifiers his foot-stool Acts 2.33 34 35. They being by the word also convinced hereof apprehend wrath and damnation as most justly due unto them And therefore as men at their wits end and as having no help in
without pain ere ever it consent to marry to Christ Now can there be a divorce wrought between loving couples otherwise most loth thereunto without sorrow ask Phaltiel who being married to Michal when David her first husband sent for her 2 Sam. 3.16 went with her along weeping behind her 3 From the nature of Conversion which is such a change as a man cannot but be sensible of it first or last 3 This brings us to consider of the nature of conversion which implyeth as much as I intend which being a change from darknesse to light from bondage to liberty in a word from one contrary to another how should a man discern of his contrary new estate without feeling in some measure the horrour of his former condition under darknesse and bondage at least he can have no comfort in his Conversion unlesse he find and feel a difference between the one estate and the other which cannot be felt without some shaking and affrightment as he apprehends the greatnesse of the benefit of his deliverance by Christ so is he touched with a proportionable fence of his danger either imminent or passed as we have heard of some who having at first in their sleep drink or otherwise ignorance passed some very great danger as over some narrow or broken and crackt bridge pit or the like being brought after to see their danger they have quaked trembled been amazed if they have not wholly expired and given up the Ghost Thus such as perhaps at the very first are not so sensible of their dangerous condition or yet of their change as others are Christ being truly in them yet afterwards when they come to better consideration and deeper apprehension of their wayes and former dangers they find a proportionable measure of inward trouble terrour yea and grief for such their hainous offences whereof they were not so sensible before and so they have their portion of terrour first or last in lesse or greater measure Lastly whom doth Christ call to Repentance 4 From Christs calling of such Matth. 9.13 Even of such onely as are sinners and laden and 11.29 Lost enemies 2 Cor. 5 Isa 27.5 in bondage Rom 8.15 2 Tim. 1. he came to call sinners to repentance such as in their own sense are sinners and if Christ call none but such to repentance who can have repentance but such yea but such as are heavy laden with sin and sense of Gods wrath for sin for these and such onely he calleth also to come unto him And as he came to call such so to save the lost sheep but who are these but such as feel themselves to be lost Christ calls and sends his Ministers to call us to be reconciled to him and to make peace with him but who will ever thus do that doth not first find and feel himself under his displeasure and can a man find that and not be troubled he calls us to liberty and must we not then first be under the spirit of bondage that unto fear In a word how can any either hunger after Christ or prize him aright as a Saviour and Redeemer till they through fence of misery and of their hopelesse helplesse worthlesse and desperate condition see their need of him or who will ever fly to him till by the Law as by a Schoolmaster discovering their fearfull condition to them they be whipped and scourged and so forced to go out of themselves to him This Law then must go before and as the needle by pricking doth pierce the cloth and make way for the threed to follow and sow so it must prepare the way for faith to follow by which we are knit to Christ otherwise we would prove but loose Christians and break off when we list as we know many Libertins to do who tell us much of comfort and joy they find in and by Christ and his Spirit but neither they nor any other can tell us of any sorrow wounding or pricking going before I shall ever suspect that joy yea that Conversion which issues not in some measure out of true sorrow pricking compunction and contrition for sinne It s but a dream of joy and a false conception and birth This point yet further cleared and it shewed that though all be wounded yet not all alike Here then for the further clearing of this point of doctrine we must know that all who are truly converted do not suffer trouble and terrour of conscience in the same measure or yet manner neither doth God deal with all alike some are pricked onely as with a Pinne others as with a spear yet all pricked There are three degrees as in divers Resemblances and all of them saving by Gods mercy 1 A pricking as in my text wherein were some grudgings of conscience and such a hurt as was presently healed again and they filled with the holy Ghost 2 A wounding or a wounded spirit and who can bear that such as was sometime in Job and David from whom God seemed to withdraw himself by forsaking them c. and in such as wrestle long with God yea and with diffidence in themselves even many yeares before they can out wrestle their sorrows which at length they do And 3 there is a killing whereof Saint Paul speaks Rom. 7.9.10.11 Sinne revived and I died and the commandement which was ordained unto life I found to be unto death for sinne taking occasion by the commandement deceived me and by it slew me and yet lo Paul alive to God so All are shut up under the spirit of bondage as in a prison Gal. 3.23 before faith come we are kept under the Law shut up unto faith some as Jeremy let down to a dungeon Jer. 38.6 some as Paul put into an inner prison and his feet fast not in the mire in which Jeremy did sink but in the stocks some onely as Joseph who though a prisoner yet found favour and had more liberty Gen. 39 20.21.22 And so all being locked up under infidelity some are more easily set at liberty and their hearts sooner opened being like new and fresh locks easily opened whereas others are like old rusty locks which the key hardly and with much ado opens if at all so that they must not be broken by force and violence such is the difference of mens hearts some kept clear from rusting by restraining grace good education and example others are old rusty and cankered in sin whose doores must be broken open by strong hand and consciences awakened by terrours All hearts are hard naturally as we have heard but some as stones some as mettal which must not onely be broken but molten and as among stones some are softer then others and soon crushed some are harder as the flint without seams and sutures so is it with hearts some sooner humbled and made to relent then others some are more hardy bold crabbed and crooked then others an angry word or look will work more upon
I take it in this sence said to be our schoolmaster to bring us unto Christ not that it taught Christ but that it convincing us of sin and of the curse and bringing us to self-despair so sent or forced us to seek help if any or wheresoever any could be had and that only is in and from Christ for it as a schoolmaster first strips us naked of our own conceited wisdom righteousnesse holinesse power and then whips lasheth our naked consciences as with the strokes of an iron rod it so sends us out of our selves wholly without affording us any help hope or succour to seek and inquire first if help may be had or hoped for elsewhere and then where or in and from whom it may be had and by what means which conceit of possibility of help made the heathen of old and many superstitious ones now fly to so many devices and superstitious practices of their own devising And thus by the law and these works thereof on the conscience the way is prepared for the mercy of the Gospel so that were it not for that which reacheth out an hand to such as are otherwise ready to perish no flesh could be saved SECT 4. The order of the works of the Gospel 2 The distinct and orderly work of the Gospel 2 THe workes then of the Gospel presupposing those of the Law and the orderly proceeding of the same are now briefly to be noted The Gospel hath also its preparatory works before conversion and faith be fully wrought and the order is this 1 Knowledge of the Gospel 1 God having by the law first humbled the sinner if he intend him any further good he doth first support and keep him from utter despair by publishing the glad tidings of the Gospel and by letting him hear and know of a remedy and that his case is though to him in himself yet not absolutly desperate and that upon some termes salvation may be had Joh. 3.16 and is possible so an assent is wrought in him to the Gospel as true Which knowledge by Gods further grace works affections and actions sutable in him 2 Hope 2 So hearing of a remedy though the conditions of self-deniall in his sweet and beloved sins of repentance and faith seem things impossible as to him considered in himself they are yet being pricked forward by the aforesaid terrours of the law as by so many piercing goads and thereupon put upon it to do something not to sit still but with the Lepers at the gate of Samaria in the famine to put it to the adventure as knowing he must either do something or else dye eternally this despair of help in himself makes him seek help elsewhere not without some general and confused hope that he also 1 General as well as some others he told of it may get case to his distressed conscience which as yet he findes not And thus he generally assents to the Gospel as good as well as to the law presenting him with wrath yea as good to him and so God gives him particular hope from the generality of the promise 2 particular Mat. 11.28 to all that are heavy laden whereby he excludes none but such as exclude themselves 3 Melting and true Contrition 3. Hereupon the heart which though broken before yet retaines its hardnesse begins to melt and to thaw being warmed with a sense of Gods goodnesse and readinesse to shew mercy to him so unworthy so old a sinner and it may be frozen in the same what any hope for such a vile wretch and that from so great and holy a God oh beast that I am that I should ever so much and so long have offended so good a God! c. Thus the heart is brought to true contrition and now grieves not in sense of the curse and wrath deserved so much as of love ready to be shewed to such a vile and immeriting wretch as he both thinks and will call him self not for the punishment of sin so much as for the sin it self as it is disobedience and disloyaltie to God dishonour to his name and that which hath made and doth still make a separation between the soul and God thus he begins to conceive of sin as alone able to make a man miserable without any other misery even in abundance With pliablenesse to Gods will And thus the heart being molten is made pliable and ready to be cast into the mould of Gods will as in my Text. And hereof I take the reprobate come short who as Ahab Cain Judas Felix may be broken and wounded and tremble but still be heard-harted and unpliable to Gods will 4 Self-denial 4. Herewith goeth self-denial renouncing of all parts and priviledges gifts and abilities in a mans self with an inward acknowledgement of his own impotency guiltinesse unworthinesse 5 High esteem of Christ 5. Together with an high estimation of Christ above all as in Paul Philip. 3.7 8 c. 6 Desire of pardon 6 Desire of ease and pardon by Christ and of direction what to do to be saved oh he should be one of a thousand to him most welcome who could bring him such tidings and bring him an olive-leafe 7. Then upon good direction given as in my Text and the next verse to it 7 Approch to the throne of grace where verse 38. and as Acts 16.31 there is an Approach and coming to the throne of grâ—ce with resolution there to speed or there to dye 1 Confession Where particularly iâ— 1 humble confession of sin with all the aggravations of it as Luke 18.13 and 15.19 in the publican and prodigall 2 Prayer 3 Hope of being heard 4 Joy c. Luke 19. 2 Prayer with 3 hope in speciall of pardon 4 joy in that hope grounded on Gods call and promise and not as in Agug but as in Zacheus and the blind man Mark 10.49 50. be of good comfort rise he the Master calleth thee 5 A willingnesse to part with all to sell all for Christ 8 Special application and closing with Christ 8 After which or with which is a speciall application of Christ unto a mans self and of the promise of pardon and of salvation with a trusting and relying on him for acceptation of his person prayers and indeavours and for salvation and all good things This is his closing with Christ 9 Assurance 9 Then follows the sealing of the promise assurance and perswasion 10 Perseverance Then Perseverance in the faith and grace of conversion to the end not without some failings but without falling away from that grace either wholly and habitually or finally 11 Salvation 11 After all follows the consummation of grace in glory and the end of our faith the salvation of our souls 1 Pet. 1.9 The scope of this last discourse which is not to prescribe God or to build our justification upon duties or
in the suspected party it is accounted detection sufficient So when a member of the body becomes once to be gangrained by excessive heat Gangrenes or upon a wound or hurt not looked to in time it becomes to be void of sense as being deprived of vital heat and spirit to be blasted and like wilde-fire some call it S. Anthonies fire to spread and so tends to the destruction of the party So when that uneven swelling or tumour called a Cancer possesseth any part Cancers that part comes to be black or wan and without all sense or pain In like manner where much fatness is or corruption Mcuh fatness corrupt matter the outward skin or rind once pricked or pierced the pin weapon or instrument being thrust further in is not much felt such corruption hath no sense in it and that part is so far without sense till the corruption be drawn or purged out Now if we would be truly sensible and mourn savingly for sin in a sense of Gods displeasure as also spirituall pain and grief when and after that the word meets with us Let us take heed of such things as in a proportionable manner stupifie benum and bereave the soul of all spirituall sense of sin or judgements Take heed then of these things 1 Sensuality and worldlinesse First of sensuality love of pleasures gluttony drunkennesse good fellowship to which also let me adde cares and too much minding of the world Some give themselves purposely to sensuall courses to stop the mouth and cries of their conscience and to prevent or put away heart-qualms as they will call them binds all the spirituall senses Howsoever such courses as these do besot and stupifie the conscience dull and fill the spirituall senses of the soul cast it into a dead sleep whereby through present delectation in sin and sensuall courses and through cares of the world Isa 6.9 they have not eyes to discern distinctly of any thing or object which concerns them not an eare for God or for his word and judgements so as to hear the rod and who hath appointed it when God calls them to mourning Micah 6. sensuall courses cry louder and more prevailingly with them Isa 22.12 and 5 11 12. Psal 34.8 1 Pet. 2.2 3. God and the works of his hand can have no attention they are so taken up with sensuall delights they cannot be brought to taste the things or goodnesse of God and of his wayes all wayes leading them to repentance are so distastfull to them all the good means used for their good humbling are the savour of death to them 2 Cor. 2.16 yea their hearts are fat and so brawny that they are past feeling and insensible herein like unto Idols and images Ephes 4.19 having eyes and see not ears and hear not c. Psal 115.6 Howsoever as outward heat abates the inward as the love of one thing lessens the love of another and as the distempered eye will not let a man see any thing in its own and right colour but like it self Simil. so mens love and affection to their lusts and other distempers of their souls will not suffer any thing to work upon or affect them but what is sensuall they are so taken up in their thoughts and affections with such things as that what savours not of the flesh or of the world doth no whit affect them Talk of Religion especially of duties of mortification to a voluptuous man he hath no eare for that and of like duties to the worldling and you shall find his soul so filled and taken up with the love of the world that you shall have him go a way sorrowfull from you indeed but not for his sin or covetousnesse but because you interrupt his thoughts and courses which he is not minded to leave as we see in that rich young man who upon that ground though he seemed to have an ear to obey in all things else Matth. 19. yet not in that his love to the world made the duty of self deniall unpleasant to him So generally wine women and the world steal away and besot the heart the immoderate use of yea or love to any earthly thing takes away all spirituall sense the more sensible the soul is of such things the lesse it is of spirituall and so the soul as well as the body becomes spiritually drunken and casts into a dead sleep and so farre senselesse when once it is drowned and drenched with the pleasures and cares of the world this casts it into a dead sleep which binds all the senses of the soul and possesses it with a spirit of slumber Isay 29.10 Rom. 10 7 8. The godly like the five wise virgins may sometimes slumber but yet their heart waketh but these mens hearts are asleep yea even in a dead sleep to whom that belongs Eph. 5.14 awake thou that sleepest and stand up from the dead they cannot be got awaked like such as be oppressed with soporiferous diseases Abernethy physick for the soul chap. 7. as with Lethargies Caro's Catalepsies Cataphoraes or Typhomanes which are all deadly except they be speedily cured Now to prevent senselesnes from sensuality I onely tell you of our Saviours advice and commend it to you The Remedy is watch fulnesse Take heed to your selves lest at any time your hearts be overcharged with surfeting and drunkennesse and cares of this life and so that day come upon you unawares for so it came upon the old world Luk. 21 34.36 Matth. 24.37 watch ye therefore and pray alwayes c. yea the Scripture joynes fasting and prayer together Math. 17.21 that so we might take heed of bodily drunkennesse as well as spirituall All deadly sleeps proceed of a cold humor or vapor replenishing the brain and oppressing the animal spirits and senses so this deadly spirit of slumber is when men are frozen in the cold dregs of their sins and sensualitie and sobriety Jer. 48.11 whom God therefore will visit Zeph. 1.12 Take heed then of ebriety both corporall and spirituall and be ye sober and watch As ebriety causeth sleep 1 Pet. 5.18 so sobriety keeps men waking and sensible Let us be sober both in body and in mind that we also may be kept waking and affected with such things as do concern us even with sense of sin and wrath Let us not onely when we heare Gods word but at all times wholly put away the lusts of youth and for other delights and cares use a moderation The like let us spiritually do in all our joyes yea sorrows in our desires delights designes hopes and confidence take we heed especially of spirituall drunkennesse and of the immoderate love and use of the creature especially when we go about any good duties as this of hearing Gods word For my part I otherwise in handling this argument of godly sorrow compunction and conversion
seeing nothing is more opposite or a greater enemy to this pricking of heart or to the tender plyable humble and contrite heart such as I desire and endeavour to bring you to then is hardnesse and senselesnesse of heart and soul And thus having according to my office endeavoured to prepare the way for you and to gather out the stones I will come a little nearer to direct you to the Means Isa 62.10 by the use of which with Gods blessing you may attain to true compunction of heart and contrition of spirit the thing I aim at CHAP XV. SECT 1. Of the means of true compunction and sensiblenesse and first of Gods word heard Meanes of compunction and sensiblenesse such as was in these Jews and shall be at their calling again recalled and applyed THis pricking of heart as we have heard doth imply first tendernesse and withall pliablenesse to Gods word and will Secondly sensiblenesse and sorrow for sin not excluding fear of Gods judgements such as was in these Converts in my Text who were 1 pricked in heart that is wounded in conscience and made sensible of their sin and danger 2 Pliable to Gods will saying what shall we do And such as shall be again in these Jews at their conversion when first they also being convinced and made sensible of their sin in piercing and crucifying their Saviour shall mourn bitterly for the same Zach. 12.10 and shall no longer be stiffe-necked or abide in unbelief Rom. 11.23 such a heart was that of King Josiah and such as was in good King Josiah which was both tender and humbled yea rent and sorrowfull which made him both mourn within himself and send to enquire of the Lord with readinesse of heart to obey 2 Chron. 34.19 21 27. That then which I desire to bring or at least to direct you to The divers phrases signifying this compunction of heart is that which the Scripture in variety of phrases signifies not onely by the tender heart and heart of flesh Ezek. 11.19 and 36.26 but thus to have the heart pricked as in my Text to be of an humble and contrite heart Isa 57.15 to be of a wounded spirit Prov. 18.14 of a broken heart Psal 51.17 and to have the caul of the heart rent as Hos 13.8 Joel 2.13 God onely can and doth soften the heart Now howsoever we are exhorted hereunto and directed to the means by which it may be wrought in us yet we must know it for an undoubted truth that it is God who onely makes the heart truly humble tender and senfible Ezek. 11.19 and 36.26 Jer. 23.29 I will give them an heart of flesh which he doth by the meanes of his word which becomes as fire and as an hammer by his Judgements Mercies which yet he doth by Meanes 1 by his word and Corrections c. which he requires we attend unto and make a right use of by hearing meditation application and prayer so that whilst we thus do we are said to humble our selves though it be God by whose hand and power such hearts are given us 2 Chron. 30.11 12. 1 by our hearing his word faithfully taught 1 Make conscience of hearing of Gods word as it is taught especially by such as Peter here and other the Apostles were who without flattery in a zeal of Gods glory and of the Conversion of those they preached unto in power also and demonstration of the spirit now more abundantly powred upon them told these Jewes and convinced them of their sins that they were the crucifiers of Christ whose glory also they set forth Such teaching convinceth and judgeth the harers yea makes them judge themselves fall down and worship God and whilst the secrets of their hearts are made manifest acknowledge a divine presence and power in the preacher 1 Cor. 14.24 25 So was it here with these Converts who found a greater and more effectuall power in the word preached and thus brought home to their consciences The power of Gods word in pricking the heart which Miracles did not in these Jews then in all the miracles which God shewed either before and at the death of Christ when yet the very stones and rocks and the vail of the Temple were rent asunder or now at this time when besides the mighty noise and shew of fire or fiery tongues from heaven they saw and heard the Apostles men of no note nor learning speak in all languages the wonderfull things of God Acts 2.13 so in David they mocked at that but were pricked wounded with this Thus David after his sin of numbring the people came to a sense of his sin and his heart pricked or smote him for it and brought him to confession of it but when after the Lord had sent the Prophet Gad unto him to convince him by offering him an hard choice for that is given as the reason so that a Sam. 24.10 11 12. I do not say the word is alwayes thus powerfull or in all some are more hardened by such a ministery as the anvile by the strokes of the hammer God justly denying them his grace and not working in power with his word onely I say if the word thus preached do not prick if the word do it not nothing will do it wound and mollifie the heart nothing will do it If God by his word and spirit breath not upon the soul the soul cannot breath out so much as a sigh for sin if that wind blow not the waters of repentance will not flow if he send not out his word Psal 147.17 18. Exod. 17.6 our icy hearts will not be thawen if Gods presence promise and power be not there mans indeavours are not of effect If God stand not upon the rock our rocky hearts though Moses smiting the same shall never bring forth water onely where God will soften and wound the heart he by such a Ministery as is named shews out his power and poures out his spirit and makes his word effectuall to that purpose Wherefore if indeed we would have such hearts wrought in us we must indeavour to live under such a ministery we must desire yea and strive to live under a searching and forcible Ministery where we may hear such doctrine and so handled and applyed as that the secrets of our soul our secret sins and our hearts may be ransacked sifted and tried we may be made known to our selves and become vile in our own eys the deceits of our false hearts discovered and our sin and danger fully revealed to us without all flattery and partiality Till we be within such a distance and compass as within which the word is onely except extraordinarily active wee can expect no such at least saving effect from it Buy the truth then and spare for no cost rather then want it and accordingly to spare for no cost that is such wholsome and powerfull teaching account
the City Gaza thou carriest I may say the very gates of hell upon thy back and goest upright under many execrable abominations unclenness drunkenness oppression profanation of the Lords day and other impieties and yet art not pressed therewith though God be even as a cart laden with sheaves Amos 2.13 and groaning as it were under the burden thou hast a whole sea of Gods wrath upon thee Without which we cannot feel the burthen of it and yet as the fishes in the sea or as one diving under water feelest not the burthen But now that thou mayst feel it and be sensible of it consider thy sin in the forenamed aggravating and greatning circumstance thereof and so lay it upon thy shoulders and thou shalt finde it heavier then thou canst bear as David did Psalm 38.4 as one shall do a small vessel of water laid on his back on dry land Sins taken severally and barely and slightly looked on may seem small and little and nothing burdensome but if thou lookest on them in the heap or as on the sand lying on the sea-shore thou wilt finde them and the grief of them heavier then the sand of the sea as Job speaks of his grief and calamitie when it is throughly weighed and laid in the balance together Job 6.2 3. A weight suppose of many hundreds whilest it lieth on the ground is not felt in the burthen and heaviness of it till we begin to pluck and heave at it no more is thy sin till thus thou weigh it in the balance of the sanctuary and take it into deep and serious consideration Hold thy self then constantly to this duty of consideration and pondering thy sin Serious consideration of our sin is needful and then a small sin like a small weight which we carry far and long being much thought on will prove a burthen and make thee in the sense thereof cry and by repentance and faith come to Christ that thou mayst be eased In case thou receive an injury from man or a small affront by much thinking on it thou makest it very great Thus deal with the injuries thou dost unto the great and holy God and which lie upon thy score and I suppose thou wilt finde and feel them a burthen intolerable heavie pressing and oppressing thy heart SECT 3. Gods judgements on our selves past present and to come should humble us 2 God softens our hearts also by his judgements and afflictions 1 On our selves Which accordingly and to that end wee are to make use of Whether the afflictions be NOw moreover seeing God often wounds mens spirits and softens their hearts by his Judgements by Afflictions and Corrections working with his word let us take the advantage thereof and make a right use of the same whether they be his corrections and crosses which befall or belong to our selves or more directly and firstly do concern others 1. God would work in us true and saving sorrow by such outward evils as he is pleased to inflict upon us being otherwise justly procured and deserved by our sins which may and should be diligently considered and made use of by us to the same end and that whether wee consider them as past present or to come 1. We are to call to minde especially being of riper yeers and judgement what great things wee have suffered 1 Past and what fore afflictions have befallen us by dangerous sicknesses hurts wounds extreme perils and sharp corrections of God when we were young or howsoever in former times whether lately or longer since when it may be either through childishness ignorance or otherwise by distraction of thoughts or sharpness of bodily pain or astonishment of our senses we could not so well meditate on the same or take things into such serious consideration as was meet Such corrections would not now be forgot but seriously called to minde and considered of as then sent of God in his displeasure against us for our sins whereby we provoked this patient God so to smite us that so we may now do that which he expected from us then Which wee must remember and be humbled for them that is be humbled in soul and come to true sorrow and repentance for our sin Thus Jeremy in the name of the faithful Remembring mine affliction and my misery the wormwood and the gall my soul hath them stil in remembrance and is humbled or bowed in mee Lament 3.19 20. That which was bitter to the body in the present feeling thereof is now bitter to the soul in remembrance thereof and in consideration of sin the cause thereof Thus should it be with us 2 present By which God humbles and converts 2 If Gods hand be upon thee by any outward cross and affliction for the present which hee sends of purpose to humble thee be sure thou let him not smite thee in vain Afflictions by Gods mercy prove means of conversion as in King Manasseh though not without the word Psal 94 12. and 2 Chr. 33.10 12 18. It s said when he was in affliction he besought the Lord his God and humbled himself greatly before the God of his Fathers his affliction prepared and made his heart fitter to receive profit by the words of the Seers that spake to him in the name of the Lord. and calls to weeping Isa 22.12 God humbled Manasseh and he humbled himself God at such times cals to weeping and to mourning to baldnesse and to girding with sackcloth and by such means would break the hardness stoutness and stoniness of our hearts thus bringing us under his hammer and stroke to bruise us into his fire and furnace to try fine and melt us unless we be reprobate silver In such case then let thy cross drive thee home first to thy self in consideration of thy sin the cause meritorious of thy cross then to thy God and Father with the Prodigal the efficient and inflicter of thy cross where 1 We are to be sensible of Gods displeasure And here first learne to be sensible of Gods displeasure God will be known by executing judgement he will have thee know he is angry and displeased with thee and would have thee sensible of his displeasure See what God said concerning Miriam after her sin against Moses the servant of the Lord for which she was smitten with leprosie when Moses prayed for her healing the Lord tels him saying If her father had spit in her face should she not be ashamed seven dayes Numb 12.14 Let her be shut out seven dayes c. Even thus when God shewes any token of his displeasure against thee be ashamed and humbled smite on thy breast with the Publican and on thy thigh with Ephraim Thus Naomi which signifieth pleasant disclaimes her name Call not me Naomi call me Mara that is bitter for the Almighty hath dealt very bitterly with me Ruth 1.20 21. Why then call ye me Naomi seeing the Lord hath testified against me and
dog whose mouth you had stopped will awaken against you and fly in your faces and then be your greatest terrour when you most stand in need of comfort and to have conscience your friend 3 Or howsoever you shall be given up to Desperation and therein to perish for ever as we see in Judas who repenting of his sin meerely out of horrour not hatred of it 3 or to utter desperation and neglecting in hope to seek to Christ and to shew true sorrow for his treachery against him was in Gods justice given up to desperation to be tormented by Satan in this life till he grew weary of it as is seen in Judas and to hasten his own eternall torments with him in hel Even thus little pricks or bruises neglected prove not only extremely painfull but often deathfull and rods are turned into scorpions How was it with Francis Spira whose lamentable story is so well known who smothering a good while such checks of conscience and Francis Spira as being hearkened unto would have kept peace in his conscience was given up to be lashed in his naked soul for a long while by so many strokes of conscience as with so many iron rods and at length for all that could be done or said vnto him to dye most miserably and without comfort God by such remarkable examples though they fall out rarely in such noted manner yet by the terrour of them would and doth warn all men not to neglect conscience or to whist and smother the reproofs and checks of it that so more securely and with lesse controll they may still enjoy their lusts their sinfull gains pleasures offices honours liberty favour with men and what else they are wedded to more sorrow for such things whilst stings of conscience are followed home with godly and repentant sorrow with self deniall in them will much sooner bring a man to sound ease and solid rest then the injoying of them with a false peace by silencing deading and dulling of conscience But now supposing thou art an elect child of God who art so wounded which that thou art yea in the elect there will follow thou canst not know till thou be made truly sorrowfull and be throughly converted and attain to true faith yet though thy first prickings of conscience be such as shall prove saving to thee yet I say if thou follow not home this work of humiliation and sorrow once begun these things will follow either 1 an easie return to sinne and the best thou canst expect will be either an easy return to former sinnes so sleightly sorrowed for and an often relapsing into the same sins as we see in Abraham twice denying Sarah to be his wife and may see it much more in others not onely the wicked as is said as in Ahab Judas Felix c. but even the elect of God or 2 a questioning the truth of conversion or an uncomfortable walking all thy life time with a continuall questioning the truth of thy conversion and so nothing but deadnesse and doubting or it may be or 3 a new beginning again a coming back again under the bondage of the Law as having the whole work to begin after a dead and unfound profession for many years whereby thou hast deceived thy self or 4 crosses from God further to humble them or lastly great crosses and afflictions sent from God to humble thee yet more and more as why not in Jobs cases who by afflictions was made to remember and possesse the sins of his youth perhaps not so truly sorrowed for at the first You see then that there is no resting or taking up with every light or little pang of conscience A reproof of such as 1 seek comfort and lay hold on pardon too soon many by seeking or snatching at comfort too soon do altogether misse of it they will believe the promise of pardon ere they be prepared sufficiently for it they take too great and wide a stride at once seeing there are many steps between such sleight terrours wrought by the Law and true faith to believe the pardon of sin Others after some apprehension of wrath shaking it off 2 Shake off all former sense of sin and punishment do think it basenesse to suffer themselves to be so much disquieted as sometimes they have been and hereupon most desperately harden themselves against the word and resolve to outstare the Ministers of it they will no longer be such children as they have been they will do as they have done let Jeremy if he were among them or all the Ministers in the world say against them what they will or can But for men of this stamp I must leave them seeing by this their obstinacy and hardning of themselves which is a fearfuull case they shew that God hath left them to their own gracelesse hearts in his greatest displeasure to run on headlong without fear to their own eternall destruction as not meaning and yet who knows the mind and mercies of the Lord to give them repentance that he might save them God may do much for such and in meere mercy by his mighty power soften and reclaim them but neither may they presume thereon nor dare I promise it I therefore turn mee to such as have some sense of sin and are or shall be touched with some gripings and stings of conscience though for the present it be onely in apprehension of judgement to these I would speak a word of Exhortation and of Direction SECT 5. The former Exhortation further followed The exhortation further followed that our sorrow may be to repentance TO you then I say seeing the word hath taken hold on you and wounded you See that your sorrow be to purpose that is indeed to repentance and to salvation and that it be according to God or after a godly manner that it work and bring forth carefulnese 1 Cor. 7.8 9 10 11. and other such fruits as godly sorrow wrought in the Corinthians upon Paul's reproof of them and such as this here in my Text wrought in these Jews by Peter's conviction of them the first fruit whereof was carefulness what shall wee do upon which question they were directed to repent verse 38. they were first pricked in heart yet had not repented that was after prescribed to them as a salve and as the end of their pricking So that wee see the one of these is but a beginning a preparative and the way to the other men may be wounded heavie laden and burdened with their sin and yet not converted not as yet come and brought to Christ Matth. 11.28 Men must be first sinners in their own sense that done they are called to repentance The weight of sin may lie on one and he as yet not truly or not sufficiently humbled See then yee be humbled enough And that we be humbled enough Num. 16.14 Most come short in this great work
hate every false way True hatred is out of true judgement So by stronger resolution against sin as in Joseph who had not so much sorrow for sin that wee read of as he had strong resolutions and reasonings whereby hee withstood very strong temptations by more watchfulnesse as in Job 3 Of watch fulnesse I made a covenant with mine eys why then should I think upon a maid Job 31.1 and in David Psal 39.1 I said I will take heed to my wayes c. So by more obedience by more carefulnesse 4 Of obedience carefulnesse and other fruits of godly sorrow by more faith in flying to Christ for acceptance by anger against our selves when we have sinned by a greater measure of fear lest wee offend God so again by more vehement desire to please God better by more zeal and by a holy revenge on our selves and sins in the mortifying of them By these wee either prevent sin and consequently the cause of sorrow or otherwise both give to others and get to our selves testimony that our sorrow if it be not so very much for the measure as it was not in Joseph Zacheus Lydia or with these Converts in my Text yet that it is true and sound for the nature of it SECT 2. Signes of true sorrow and what sorrow is not sound 3 Judge when thy sorrow is enough by the signes of true sorrow THerefore thirdly Learn to judge of thy self and of thy sorrow by the true signes of godly sorrow Wouldest thou then know whether thou be savingly pricked or no This may be tryed known and distinguished from unsound sorrow 1 By the Antecedents causes and grounds of it 2 By the Concomitants of it 3 By the Consequents and effects thereof which two last we will not speak of so much severally as joyntly seeing the effects and consequents may in a large sense be called and accountted Concomitants And first by the antecedents and causes of it Gods word working by his Spirit 1 True Contrition is the fruit and effect of Gods word onely faithfully taught convictingly applied both by the teacher and hearer and made effectuall by the holy Spirit of God as in these Converts here who when they heard were pricked and Jer. 23.22 It is the causing the people to hear Gods onely word not mans which turns them from their evill way and from the evill of their doings Which conversion and sorrow though it be often occasioned by judgements felt or feared yet it is wrought effectually by the holy Ghost accompanying the word The spirit of grace and supplication was first promised to be poured out as it was on the day of Pentecost and then it s said They shall look upon him whom they have pierced and they shall mourn for him and be in bitternesse c. Zech. 12.10 Such sorrow is not sound as is caused Now try thy sorrow from hence whether it be not a sorrow and pricking 1. From Envie many men sorrow and their sorrow is very great and inward 1 By envie at the prosperity either of the wicked but the true cause of it is envie thus the Psalmist or Asaph was envious at the wickeds prosperity but it was onely in a temptation and in a short fit Thus saith he my heart was grieved or leavened and sowred and I was pricked in my reins Psalm 73.21 Lo here a pricking in the reins and grief of heart and that in a godly man yet it was no godly sorrow Psal 73.22 but such as argued much folly and ignorance and was repented of and sorrowed for Which though it be in godly men yet is no godly sorrow And now doubtlesse many good men grieve and inwardly fret to see or to have seen evill doers prosper in their way and to bring wicked devices to passe ready to think them the onely happy men but this their sorrow is no fruit of Gods word but of their own ignorance folly yea brutishnesse Psalm 73.22 and 92.6 7. Neither should such simply justifie themselves in this their grief which seems bent against wicked men or think they do well in it It is an ungrounded grief there is no cause for it or ground in Gods word which dehorts every where from it as Psalm 37.1 Prov. 23.17 and 24.1 Such grief argues not true zeal against the wicked but rather some discontent with Gods government and providence Or much lesse of the godly whom to see prosper is a grief to the wicked How much lesse then may they justifie themselves in their grief whose sorrow is grounded on the welfare of Gods people to see them prosper to see their horn exalted with honour and that they have or see their desire upon their enemies The wicked shall see this and be grieved Psalm 112.8 9 10. he shall gnash with his teeth and melt away poor comfort may such have of their sorrow and I beleeve it is the onely or chief sorrow that some especially in these dayes do shew though somewhat else may be pretended to justifie their grief though perhaps through their blindnesse and love to their own conceits opinions and superstitions they pretend it is upon other and better grounds as to see religion and devotion with reverence to holy things as table altar Temple-wals and to names as to the bare empty name and sound of Jesus even when it is indevoutly pronounced and heard so of Church Lord-bishop and the like neglected and not regarded and learning to be discouraged c. 2 By anger when upon the reproofs and discoveries made by the word men are angry at the teachers of it 2. There is a sorrow and that upon hearing of the word faithfully preached and applyed but it is meerly grounded upon anger such as was in those that heard Stephen Acts 7.54 who when they heard such things as he most truly and faithfully taught were cut to the heart and gnashed upon him with their teeth through grief anger and indignation Consider whether ever any other sorrow or upon other ground hath been wrought upon thee in the hearing of the word Thou perhaps hast gone out of the Church and go away sorrowfull Matth. 19.22 grieved and sorrowfull but no otherwise then that Justitiarie that rich youung man went from Christ sorrowfull why his hypocrisie was by Christ discovered and he tryed in his affection and love to his bosome sin of covetousnesse This made him displeased with that doctrine and sorrowfull in himself so I believe it is with too many now who come jocund and well conceited of themselves and of their own righteousnesse and innocency to the hearing of the word but return sorrowfull from it but their sorrow is out of anger against their teachers who convince them of their sins and beat them from their vain holds and confidence in themselves which sorrow therefore being not an effect properly of the word or yet spirit of God but of the spirit of anger
the next way to conversion and Converts they were in Gods purpose and intention saying Would you know what to do Repent and be baptized every one of you in the name of Jesus Christ for the remission of sins c. ver 38. for the promise is to you and to your children c. where he chiefly cals on them though in words not so expresly for faith in the promise and that by repentance and baptism in the name of Jesus Christ which presupposeth faith especially in men of yeers who shall be converted they would seek assurance of the remission of their sins which onely as the case was with them and is with others distressed in conscience would afford them comfort And first saith he Repent become other men be of other mindes then formerly let this and your other sins be your sorrow and not only confesse this your hainous sin of crucifying your Saviour And not onely to consesse by which ease pardon comes and take shame to your selves and restore to God and Christ his glory hereby whereby also you shall get ease to your Consciences as David did after his heart had smitten him and that he had confessed and acknowledged his offence 2 Sam. 12.13 and chap. 24.10 and Psalm 32.3 4 5. else not but to judge our selves Prov. 28.13 but also judge and condemn your selves Jam. 4.10 be humbled under Gods hand resigne your selves wholly unto him and to his mercy but withall lay your necks upon the block and deprecate your Judge Pray that these your sins may be forgiven you and he will be favourable unto you and you shall see his face with joy Job 33.26 27 28. This in effect is his advice to them and to others also in like case 3 To make a right use of our baptism in which pardon of sin is sealed 3. Yea saith he seeing nothing can comfort the distressed conscience but assurance of the pardon of sin to this end be baptized every one of you in the name of Jesus Christ on whom ye beleeve for remission of sins vers 39. that the promise of pardon which is made to you and to all that shall truely repent and confesse their sins Prov. 28.13 1 John 1.9 may in your baptism be sealed unto you whereby also having your beleeving hearts sprinkled from an evill conscience and your bodies washed with pure water Hebr. 10. v. 22. you may in the accusations of your conscience of Satan and of other enemies be able to make and give the answer of a good conscience towards God and so wee come to answer all doubts of conscience by your faith and repentance thus sealed in your baptism for herein the effect of saving baptism is made to consist and not in the putting away of the filth of the flesh thereby 1 Pet. 3.21 Baptism is no idle ceremony but such as is said to save as the Ark saved Noah whilest we stick to it and to Gods promise sealed by it we are safe as Noah in the Ark and need not doubt of pardon of sin and so of salvation In case of doubting then being baptized look back to baptism as men do in case their titles to lands be questioned unto their fathers and fore-fathers grants especially to their sealed Wils and Testaments In the right use of all these faith repentance baptism And to wrap up all in one consider that Baptism is into the death of Christ it is also to repentance and joyned with confession of sins Matth. 3.6 11. Rom. 6.3 Mark 1.4 Acts 13.24 And therefore if being baptized as the case is with us sin causeth in thee doubts and trouble of conscience that thou maist be comforted and assured of pardon by faith have recourse to Christ and to the promise yea humble thy self by unfained repentance and hearty confession of thy sin to God we come to be assured of pardon to our comfort Numb 14.25 Ainsw ibid. This is the way if any to finde comfort and rest to the soul Thus in a mystery the Israelites sinning in the wildernesse by murmuring and unbelief are sent back towards the red-sea a type of Christs blood wherein they formerly had been baptized 1 Cor. 10.1 2. Exod. 14. Which was to humble them by repentance that through faith in Christ they might have entrance into the Kingdom of heaven otherwise they should perish for ever as indeed their carcasses not repenting nor beleeving by making a right use of their baptism though thus occasioned by being brought back to the sight of the sea in which they had been baptized perished in the wildernesse These are such directions as the Apostles of Christ and so Christ himself do give As then in trouble of conscience for sin and sense of wrath due unto it wee are to seek our cure and comfort onely from the faithfull Ambassadours of Christ who are in Christs stead to instruct exhort and comfort Isa 50.4 or in part also from godly wise meek and experienced Christians 2 Cor. 1.4 So These Directions are to be followed and to be given by Ministers By these we may judge of other advice seeing the wisest and faithfullest give onely such directions as have been named we must both wisely judge by these of such other advice as our own mindes and judgements or other men would give us and diligently and conscionably put the same in practice yea all Ministers and others may and must from the example of Paul and Peter here learn in case they be sought unto for advice how to temper their spirituall physick especially they must make use of faith and be kept from following ill courses and from falling either into despair lest when they get no ease by common externall and false remedies they following their own distempered judgements and Satans suggestions seek to end their sorrows in a halter or by violent death and of Repentance not seeking comfort too soon lest they presume and turn Libertines both in judgement and in practice or licentiousness as many who seemingly have been humbled and in conscience it may be pricked and wounded have done Peter here directs such as were pricked in heart to repent that is to be more and further humbled and made sorrowfull as Christ calls sinners such as are sick and burthened with sense of their sin and misery Matt. 9.12 13. to repentance not to cast off all sense yea conscience of sin and fears of wrath but rather to proceed and go on in their sorrow onely converting such sorrow as is from sense of wrath for sin unto sorrow for sin it self as sin as the proper cure of the former and of all hellish or legall fears and terrours Especially by repentance As it is a very fit cure of the haemorage or bleeding of the nose to divert the flux of blood by phlebotomie or blood-letting in the arm And when once the stream of our sorrow is diverted into that channell it
grace from whom is both the will and the deed the power and the act Phil. 2.13 Even speciall and effectuallâ— It was Gods effectuall work on the heart of these converts that they were so willing to obey and so desirous to be directed what to do by such as they now judged able and faithfull to direct them aright even as it is with others both in and after their first conversion Such desire onely to know what to do that is pleasing to God and they are ready to do it yet do they not ascribe the power to themselves but to Gods grace and the effectuall work of his Spirit so David Cause me to know the way wherein I shall walk and teach me to do thy will as in David It seems then he was willing ready and resolved to walk in that way and to Gods will when once the one or the other should be made known unto him But what will he do this by his own strength though now converted no for besides the force of the words cause me to know and teach me to do which imply more then a generall direction even an effectuall knowledge and practice he hereunto craves the speciall help and effectuall assistance of Gods holy Spirit or as some read the words is assured of the same Thy Spirit is good lead me or thy good Spirit shall lead me into the land of uprightness quicken me O Lord for thy Names sake Psal 143.8 10 11. Howsoever thus it is with true converts and in these Converts as with these here who as they were willing and ready to follow good direction given which was to repent and beleeve so this readinesse as also the act and performance after was Gods work in them As on the contrary the high Priest and whole councell of Elders and Scribes being in like manner charged and convinced by Stephen as these here by Peter to be the betrayers crucifiers and murtherers of Christ opposed and stoned him Acts 7.51 52 c. and the doing thereof was the work of the Divell in them and of their own wicked and obstinate wils whereby being stiff-necked and uncircumcised in heart and ears they resisted the holy Ghost and became the authours of their own hardening and damnation But we rather hasten to the Vse of the former Point and to an end of all By what is said wee see what to judge of disobedient and refractory sinners Vse 1 and of all such as being convinced of their sins as these here were and called to repentance Of reproof of such as resist the work of grace and withstand their own salvation proudly withstand God without any trembling at his word Isa 66.1 2. and are ready to say with proud Pharaoh Exod. 5.2 Who is the Lord that I should obey his voyce and with those citizens by whom such as I speak of are meant wee will not have this man to reign over us Luke 19.14 And Our lips are our own who is lord over us Psal 12.4 These very Jews both more anciently as also Gentiles Pilate and Herod and others that rejected and persecuted Christ are meant by David therein a type of Christ in his sufferings when he brings them in Acts 4.27 28. saying Let us break their that is the Fathers and the Sons bands asunder and cast away their cords from us Psal 2.1 2 3. These bands Jer. 27.2 3 -6 7. and cords Job 39.13 Ezek. 4.8 were signes of subjection and restraint yet though these bands of Christ be also bands of love Hos 11.4 and his yoake be easie Matth. 11.29 30. these proud and disdainfull ones refuse to serve Christ and will none of him Such are also their scholers who now being called upon and now in and by the ministery of the word to repent convert and turn from their own evil wayes and to be subject to Christ as their Prophet Priest and King will none of Christ will not deny their own wisdom that they may be wise onely by his word will have as an hand in the meriting and work of their own salvation so other Priests and Intercessours then he whether refusing to take on them Christs easie yoak and in a word will not submit themselves to him as their King to be guided by his word to repent and beleeve on his name or to forsake any sin for which they are reproved and of which convinced being ready to say Who is the Minister what saucy and bold fellow is he who thus reproveth us As for the word that thou hast spoken unto us in the name of the Lord we will not hearken unto thee But we will certainly do whatsoever thing goeth forth out of our own mouth Jer. 44.16 17. This if it be not so openly said of all yet is done by all such as answer not Gods call when they are invited to repent and told of Gods heavie judgements if they repent not yea also by such as by outward profession and seeming repentance have been thought to have taken Christs yoak upon them but are such as have revolted or casting it and his cords off after a seeming profession and played the Apostate from him by making defection to Popery Antichristianisme Arminianisme Lutheranisme and to other errours and to the doctrine at least practice of Libertinisme by imbracing this present evill world in the lusts of it and by licentiousnesse of life being such as the Princes of Judah of old were Hos 5.10 who were like them that remove the bound as not willing to be kept within the limits of Gods word and like those great men to whom Jeremy did speak Jerem. 5.5 and of whom he saith But these as well as the poor and meaner sort of people have altogether broken the yoake and burst the bands Their doom But their doom there follows ver 6. as also the like or worse doom of all disobedient impenitent and refractary sinners elsewhere not onely a lion out of the forrest shall slay them but God himself will be as a lion unto them as he threatned Ephraim saying I will be unto Ephraim as a lion and as a young lion which is more fierce to the house of Judah I even I. the great glorious and mighty God will tear and go away Hos 5.14 15. not tear and heal unlesse timely repentance follow Hos 6 1. but tear and go away and leave them for ever unlesse in time they in sense of their guiltinesse acknowledge their offence and seek my face But of these mens doom more hereafter We are hence taught and instructed Vse 2 when God calls us to repentance Of Instruction and exhortation especially by his Ministers and messengers sent of purpose to that end not to harden our necks not to be stiff-necked as we and others formerly have been but to give the hand or yeeld our selves unto the Lord c. 2 Chro. 30.8 to humble our selves to walk with our God to tremble at his
prophesie falsely witness the Arminian and Popish doctrine taught by many and the Priests bear rule for whose demerits Princes are left to themselves and are strengthened by their meanes and that the people also love to have it so what will we doe in the end thereof Jer. 5.30 31. What can be expected that good is It is said The anger of the Lord was first kindled against Israel and then he moved or suffered Satan to move King David against Israel to say to Joab though unwilling go number Israel and Judah and all to the end that a plague might come upon Israel 2 Sam. 24.1 Now our people have besides all their other provocations so generally complied with their Priests for so in a more Popish sence they will be called and with their Prophets and strengthned them by their readiness to entertain their opinions superstititions and new Ceremonies and are yet such enemies to Reformation yea and yet so generally senceless of our present sufferings in the true causes thereof that we have just cause to thinke that his Majesty whose Throne ever be guiltlesse is what by the demerit of their ill deeds what by their ill counsell and instigation moved to say go number England and Wales array as many as you can c. and all that the deserved wrath may at length fall upon themselves as the first and chief procurers of these evills and that withall the better affected among them may be further tried humbled approved and prepared for after mercies Yet good hope upon our humiliation and reformation Howsoever our good hope is that upon our more solemn yea and daily humiliations in compunction of heart for our own sins and the sins of the land and times God after some triall will graciously be pleased to crown the pious laborious and constant indeavours of this present Parliament with an happy end both for our selves with a peaceable and blessed conclusion and happy Reformation now to be begun and in due time further to be setled according to his word in our own Churches of great Brittain and Ireland other nations and as our hope is to be followed in his good time also by others in other Countries by degrees and so long till the great stumbling block and main hinderance of the Jewes conversion and calling again in and by the downfall of Rome be removed out of the way and especially the Jewes Now that the Iewes shall be called and again received as from the dead and graffed into their own Olive-tree their sins according to Gods election and love taken away and the vail of their ignorance removed we need not doubt whose calling and conversion we expect See Rom. 11 12.-15-23 24. to 29.2 Cor. 3.14 15 16. And for the occasions and grounds thereof we may more then probably conclude when they shall be pricked in heart upon like grounds that by Gods blessing they shall be the same for effect and in the general which they were by the same grace working effectually to these in this my Text where that old prophesie of Zachary only began to be fulfilled God having on that day of Pentecost in outward and visible signs and otherwise poured upon them the hearers as well as teachers the spirit of grace and supplications And saith the Lord Zach. 19.9 10 11. they shall look upon me whom they have pierced and they shall mourn for him as one mourneth for his only son and shall be in bitternesse for him as one that is in bitterness for his first born Now when was it that these were so pricked in heart and mourned as were these Jewes here in my Text but when they were convicted first of Christs glory and that Jesus the son of Mary being now advanced to glory at the right hand of the Father was made and declared of God to be both Lord and Christ Secondly or withall of their own sin and unworthy carriage towards him whom they were truly charged to have crucified as appeares by the close of Peters Sermon in the words immediatly preceding my Text Acts 2.36 And when shall the body of the scattered Nation of the Jewes mourn and convert to God but when they also shall be convinced namely first of the glory and power of Jesus Christ and withall of their own wicked blasphemies and sins against him so loving a Saviour Vpon conviction and fight 1. Of the glory of Christ 1. Christ to their conviction will at length even here on earth though I will not say by a bodily appearance and residence amongst us shew himself King of his Church and deliver as once the Israelites from Pharaoh and the Ark from the Philistines and himself out of the power of death and the grave so it from the tyranny of Antichrist and from all yokes of superstitious ceremonies and of his power and victory over Antichrist and other enemies spirituall and bodily and tyrannicall government which hath so long and that in part even since the time of Reformation lien upon the necks of his people as also from all licentious doctrines and practises The Kings of the earth and of the world whom those three unclean spirits coming out of the mouth of the Dragon Beast and false Prophet shall gather to the battell of that great day of God Almighty into a place called Armageddon to make war against Christ Rev. 16. or as he is called the word of God King of Kings and Lord of Lords who sits on the white Horse and against his Army Rev. 19.11,12 -18 19. those Kings I say by their ill successe shall at length see and acknowledge as the power of Christ against whom they warred so their own madness in opposing him and his people and how they have been deluded and so not knowing what to do or how to be saved in their own Religion and way shall at length abandon the same embrace the truth and way of Christ and submit to his Scepter Then shall they hate the whore and see the abominations of poperie and so shall Euphrates be dried up that is as a good Author doth interpret the succours Mr. Cotton on the sixt viall supplies and revenues of Rome that the way of the Kings of the East whom the best Interpreters make the Jewes may be prepared Revel 16.12 13 c. for then also by the same successe of the battel in Armageddon shall the Jewes see the mighty power of Christ in rooting out all Idolatry and superstitions and prophanenesse of Professors which have so long kept and hindred them from comming to the knowledge and acknowledgement of their Messias 2. Of their own sin in crucifying and rejecting him 2. Then also upon conviction of their sin against their Messias and King now acknowledged by them there shall be great mourning but in a godly manner as at the mourning of Hadadrimmon upon the death of good King Josiah in the valley of Mageddon unto which this Armageddon may allude Which mourning shall be in compunction such as this in my Text was and with contrition of heart not only because Jesus now acknowledged their Messias and the King of glory was crucified by them but also for them and his blood shed even for them that spilt it Yet their sin in crucifying and rejecting him so long yea of cursing the name the Lord Jesus in their Liturgies praying that it might perish from under these heavens and from above this earth shall be their sorrow also as having so long brought them and their fathers under the curse of Cain Gen. 4.14 and made them no better then fugitives and vagabonds in the earth Thus when the enemies of the Church and that man of sin shall as well by the mouth â—f the sword as by the sword of the mouth be destroyed Rev. 19.21 these Jewes convinced by them both shall mourn and come to true repentance After which Christ shall reign in the purity and power of his Ordinances here on earth and in due time after make his appearance as a glorious King and judge of quick and dead and come to wipe all teares from the eyes of true mourners according to his gracious promise Joh. 14.3 I will come again and receive you unto my self that where I am there may yee be also Rev. 22.20 Surely I come quickly Amen Even so Come Lord Jesus Dantzick October 30. 1642. FINIS