Justified and Reconciled to God 7. He hath given Apostles Evangelists Pastors and Teachers to proclaim this Act of Grace to the world commanding them to go into All the world and preach this Gospel to every Creature and promise Salvation to all that by Faith will become his true Disciples Marke 16. 16. Matth. 28. 20 22. So that their commission also for the promulgation is universal 8. Though his servants have most lamentably neglected their duty and have not gone abroad the world to divulge the Gospel according to his Will imagining that this work had been proper to Apostles and though the Nations have sinfully neglected a due enquirie after this blessed Light yet hath he not left himself among them without witness but hath given them some dawnings of the day or some moon-light in the reflections of Evangelical Truth who have not seen the Sunne it self Much Mercy they have had notwithstanding their transgressions and while they served Devils they have been provided for by God in whom they live and move and be doing them good and giving them raine from Heaven and fruitfull seasons filling their hearts with foâ—d and gladness and this to teach them that they should seek the Lord if happily they might feel after him and find him though he be not farre from every one of them Acts 14. 17. 17. 27 28. And that which may be known of God is manifest among them for God hath shewed it to them for the invisible things of him from the Creation of the world are clearly seen being understood by the things that are made even his eternal Power and Godhead so that they are without excuse Rom. 1. 19 20. By experience they may find that God dealeth not now in rigor of Justice but on terms of Grace and that sinne is not â—ow unpardonable and they should know that the Goodness of God leadeth them to repentance Rom. 2. 4. 9. As the Gospel conditionally pardoneth all their sinnes and offereth them Everlasting life so it conteineth the clearest Reasons and most effectual motives to perswade them to Accept the offer It affordeth them most excellent precepts and instructions and exhortations and other helps to bring them to a willingness that Salvation may be theirs 10. To which also is added abundance of outward providential helpes to further the working of the Gospel as seasonable afflictions and Mercies of divers sorts 11. And with these is usually concurrent some inward motions and assistance of the Holy Ghost as knocking at the doore where he is not yet let in and entertained 12. And by their presence in the visible Church even the ungodly have many benefits in the Ordinances and instructions and examples of the Saints All these besides a Resurrection are common effects of General Redemption and not appropriated to the Elect. Besides which there are others that the Elect only do receive As 1. God is pleased by effectual Grace to draw them to his Sonne and make the Gospel succesfull to their Conversion insuperably teaching and charging them by his Spirit and causing them to Repent and believe in Christ and to perform the Conditions of his forementioned Promises That Love that brought the Lord on Earth that cloatheth him with flesh that lifted him up upon the Cross doth stream forth in his season into the hearts of his Elect and toucheth them with a changing Power and winneth them to his Father and himself and droppeth into them those Heavenly Principles which will grow up in them to Everlasting Life 2. Hereupon the Soul believing in Christ is United to him as a Member of his Body even of his true Catholik Church and Christ is become the Head the Husband the Lord the Saviour of that Soul in a special sort Christ himself is first given to us in these Relations and from him as our Head his following benefits are conveyed He that hath the Sonne hath life and he that hath not the Sonne hath not life for this Life is in the Sonne 1 Joh. 5. 11 12. He is the Vine and we are the Branches and out of him we can do nothing Joh. 15. 1 2 5. As it was not we that purchased our own Salvation so it is not we but Christ that must have the keeping and dispensing of the purchased benefits For it pleased the Father that in him should all fulness dwell and that he should be the Head over all things to his Church that it might by communication become his fulness Col. 1. 19. Eph's 1. 22 23. He is our Treasury and from him we must have our continual supplies For with him the Father will give us all things Rom. 8. 32. And thus Christ will dwell in our hearts by Faith Ephes. 3. 17. And set up the Kingdom of God within us 3. Hereupon we have the pardon of all our sinnes not only as to the temporal punishment nor only as to the bestowing of temporal Mercies or common helps of Creatures and Providences for this is but a winking at the daies of our ignorance Acts 17. 30. in comparison of the pardon which afterward we receive Nor is it only a Conditonal or Offered pardon But it is an Actual Remission of the Eternal and of all the destructive Punishment And thus we are Justified from all that might be charged on us from the Law and accepted and used as just by God There is a kind of forgiveness that was promised to the Sacrificers Lev. 4. 20 26 31 35 5 10 13 16 18 6. 7. Numb 15. 28. But as that was upon Christs account so it extended not to the pardon of the Eternal Punishment to any but true Believers He that was once Crucified is exalted by Gods right-hand a Prince and a Saviour to give Repentance to Israel and forgiveness of sinnes Acts 5. 31. Through this man is preached the forgiveness of sinnes and by him all that believe are justified from all things from which they could not be justified by the Law of Moses Acts 13. 38 39. When our eyes are open and we are turned from dakness to light and from the power of Satan unto God we then receive Remissioâ— of our sinnes Acts 26. 18. When we are delivered from the power of darkness and translated into the Kingdom of Christ in him we have then Redemption through his Blood even the forgiveness of sinnes Col. 1. 13 14. And blessed are they whose iniquities are forgiven and whose sinnes are covered to whom the Lord imputeth not sinne Rom. 4. 7. And now who shall condemn us It is God that justifieth us For there is no Condemnation to them that are in Christ Jesus that walk not after the flesh but after the Spirit Rom. 8. 1 33 34. 4. With this benefit doth concurre our Reconciliation to God and our Adoption by which we are made his Sonnes and God is pleased to own us as our Father For being one with Christ the Sonne of God we are Sonnes by him For to as many as receive
at least a more piercing convincing deep and savoury apprehension of the essentials of Christianity then he ever had before Where note of this special Heavenly light 1. The being usually the Consequent of a more common knowledg therefore most ordinarily the sum of Christian Doctrine is in some manner known before 2. That it doth not reveal only some one point of Faith alone and then another and so on as if we savingly knew one essential point of Faith when we have no saving Knowledg of the rest For that is a Contradiction But finding all these Truths received in the mind before by a common Knowledg the special Light comes in upon them all at once and so shews us the Anatomy of Christianity or the parts of Gods Image in one frame as to the essentials 3. For the understanding of which you must further know that there is such an inseparable connection of these Truths and such a dependance of one upon another that it is not possible to know one of them truly and not know all For example Believing in Jesus Christ is an act so inseparable from the rest that if the essentials of Christianity be not essential to it certainly you cannot do this without them For to Believe in Christ is essentially to believe in him as God and man two Natures in one Person by Office the Mediator our Redeemer and Saviour to save us from guilt and sinne from punishment and pollution and to give us by the Holy Ghost a Holy nature and life and to give us the forgiveness of sinne and Everlasting life and so to restore us to the mutual Love of God here and fruition of him hereafter and all this as merited and procured by his Death Obedience Resurrection Ascension and Intercession for his Church Whether here be all that is Essential to Christianity and absolutely necessary to Salvation to be believed I leave to consideration but sure I am that all this is Essential to saving Justifying Faith And Christ is not taken as Christ if he be not thus taken For the Ends thus enter the definition of his Relation as the Redeemer and Saviour and Lord. So that the Love of God as our felicity and End and the belief in Christ as the way are both together in the same minute of time which soever of them be first in order of nature which is a question that I dare not here so unseasonably handle 2. Upon this special Illumination of the Soul and the special Consideration with which it doth concurre the Deliberating Soul is presently Resolved And in these two Acts which alwaies go together consisteth the special Sanctifying Work Even in the Illumination and Estimation of the Understanding and in the true Resolution of the Will 2. The Determination of the Will is its own free act performed by its natural self determining power procured by the special Grace of God I mean in this special case It followeth Deliberation While we are unresolved we Deliberate what to Resolve upon that is we are considering which is best and most eligible and which not and as we practically judg we use to Determine and to choose And when this choice after Deliberation is peremtory and full it 's called Resolution So that my meaning is to let you understand that when the Matter of our Faith is set open to the Soul it is not a wavering fickle purpose that is a saving closure with it but it must be a firm Resolution Much less will it ever bring a man to Heaven to be thinking and deliberating what to do as long as he is unresolved And now I shall prove the Necessity of this II. Till you are Resolved you are not Converted and that appeareth by these Evidences 1. If you are not firmly Resolved it is certain that you do not firmly believe For such as your Belief is such will be the effects of it upon the Will An unsound Opinionative belief will produce but tottering languishing purposes but a firm belief will cause a firm Resolution of the Will And if your belief be unsound you must confess you are unconverted 2. Moreover if you do not esteem God above all Creatures and Heaven above Earth and Christ and Grace above sinne you are certainly unconverted But if you have such a true estimation you will certainly have a firm Resolution For you will Resolve for that which you highly esteem 3. If God have not your firm Resolution he hath not indeed your Heart and Will For to give God your Hearts and Wills is principally by firm Resolving for him And if God have not your Hearts you are sure unconverted 4. Moreover if you are not firmly Resolved your Affections will not be sincere and stedfast For all the Affections are such as to their sincerity as the Will is which doth excite or command them And nothing is more mutable then the Affections in themselves considered They will be hot to day and cold to morrow if they be not rooted in the firm Resolution of the Will which is the life of them 5. Lastly Without a firm Resolution there can be no faithfull obedience and execution of the Will of God For if men be not Resolved they will heavily go on and lazilie proceed and easily come off For their hands go to work without their hearts It is the greatest work in all the world that God calls you to and none but the Resolved are able to go through with it Of which we shall give you a fuller account anon III. In the next place let me intreat you in the feare of God to look after this great and Necessary part of your Conversion There are many degrees of good motions in the mind but all that falls short of Resolution is unâ—ound Many are brought to Doubt whether all be well with them and to have some fears thereupon that yet will not be brought so far as to consider soberly of the matter and deliberate what is best to be done and to advise with their Ministers for the furthering of their Salvation Many that are perswaded so far as to consider and deliberate and take advice yet go no further then some cold wishes or purposes which are all overcome by the love of the world and the power of their sinnes Many that do proceed to some kind of Practice do only take a tast or an essay of Religion to try how they can like it and begin some kind of outward Reformation without any firm Resolution to go through with it Or if their purposes seem strong it is but occasioned by something without and not from a setled habit within All these are short of a state of special Saving Grace and must be numbred with the unconverted It is a common and very dangerous mistake that many are undone by to think that every good Desire is a certain sign of Saving Grace Whereas you may have more then bare Desires even purposes and promises and some performances and yet perish
principally intended which is to give you certain Directions which if you will obey you may be Converts and Saints indeed DIRECTION I. Lest the Work of Conversion should miscarry where it seemeth to be begun or in a hopefull way I first advise you to Labour after a right Vnderstanding of the True Nature of Christianity and the Meaning of the Gospel which is sent for to Convert you You are naturally slaves to the Prince of darkness and live in a state of darkness and do the works of darkness and are hasting apase to utter darkness And it is the light of saving knowledge that must recover you or there is no recovery God is the Father of Light and dwelleth in Light Christ is the Light of the world His Ministers are also the Lights of the world as under him and are sent to turn men from Darkness to light by the Gospel which is the light to our feet and this is to make us Children of Light that we may no more do the works of darknses but may be partakers of the Inheritance of the Saints in Light 2 Cor. 4 3 4. 1 Joh 1. 5 1 Joh. 1. 5 9. Jam. 1. 17 Mat. 5. 14 Act. 26. 18. Joh. 8. 12. 2 Pet. 1. 19. Eph 5 8 13. Col 1 12. Believe it Darknes is not the way to the Celestial Glory Ignorance is your Disease and Knowledge must be your Cure I know the ignorant have many excuses and are apt to think that the case is not so bad with them as we make it to be and that there is no such need of Knowledge but a man may be saved without it But this is because they want that Knowledge that should shew them the misery of their Ignorance and the worth of Knowledge Hath not the Scripture plainly told you that If the Gospel be hid it is hid to them that are lost whose mindes the God of this world hath blinded lest the Light of the glorious Gospel of Christ who is the Image of God should shine unto them 2 Cor. 3. 4. I know that many that have much knowledge are ungodly But what of that Can any man therefore be godly or be saved without Knowledge You may have a bad servant that yet is skilfull enough in his work but yet you will not mend the matter by taking one that hath no skill at all You may send a man on your errand that knows the way and yet will not go it but loiter and deceive you But what of that Will you therefore think to mend the matter by sending one that knoweth not a step of the way nor will not learn it Though a man of knowledge may be the servant of the devil yet no man without knowledge that hath the use of his Reason can be the servant of God A man may go to Hell with knowledge but he certainly shall go to Hell without it I do not say that you must all be men of learning and skil'd in the Arts and Sciencies and Languages But you must have the Knowledge of a Christian though not of a Scholar Can you love or serve a God that you Know not Can you let go friends and goods and life for a Glory which you have no Knowledge of Can you make it the principall business of your lives to seek for a Heaven whose Excellencies you know not of Can you lament your sinne and misery when you are unacquainted with it Or will you strive against sinne as the greatest evil when you know not the evil of it Will you believe in a Christ whom you do not know and trust your souls and all upon him Will you rest upon a Promise or fear a Threatning or be ruled by a Law which you do not understand It is not possible to be Christians without knowing the substance of Christianity Nor is it possible for you to be saved without knowing the way of salvation Labour therefore to be well acquainted with the Grounds and Reasons and Nature of your Religion The clearer your Light is the warmer and livelier your hearts will be Illumination is the first part of Sanctification The head is the passage to the heart O if you did but throughly know what sinne is and what a life it is to serve the flesh and what the end of this will prove with what detestation would you cast it away If you did throughly know what a life of holiness is how speedily would you choose it If you did truly know what God is how infinitely powerfull and wise and good how holy and just and true and what title he hath to you and authority over you and what and Eternal Portion he would be to you how is it possible that you could preferre the dirt of the world before him or delay any longer to return unto him If you did but truly know what Christ is and what he hath done and suffered for you and what that pardon and grace and glory are which he hath purchased for you and offereth to you and how sure his Promise is by which it is offered it is not possible that you should refuse to entertain him or delay to give up your souls unto him Do you think a man that truly knows what Heaven is and what Hell is can still be in doubt whether he should turn or not Alas sirs if God would but open your eyes to to see where you are and what you are doing you would runne as for your lives and quickly change your minds and waies You would no more stay in your carnall state then you would stay in a house that were falling down on your heads or in a ship that you perceived sinking under you or on the sands when you see the tide coming towards you If you did but see your Chamber full of Devils this night you would not stand to ask whether you should be gone And sure then if you knew how the Devils are about you how they deceive you and rule you and wait to drag you away to Hell you would never stay a night longer willingly in such a state While men understand not what the Gospel means nor what a Minister saith to them no wonder if they regard them not but continue in their sinne If you see a Bear or a mad Dog making towards a man and tell him of it and call to him to be gone if he be a man of another language and do not understand you he will make never the more hast but if he understand and believe you he will away If people think that Ministers are in jest with them or that they are uncertain of what they say no marvell if they hear us in jest or as men that believe not what they hear But if you knew that your lives lay on it yea your everlasting life would you not regard it and look about you Now you stand deliberating and questioning the business whether you should turn and let go sinne or no But if you knew
It layeth this Tower of Babel in the dust and maketh us abhorre our selves in dust and ashes It setteth the house on fire about our eares which we both Trusted and Delighted in And makes us not only see but feel that it's time for us to be gone Pride is the Master Vice in the unsanctified and it 's the part of Humiliation to cast it down Self-seeking is the busines of their Lives till Humiliation help to turn the streame And then if you did but see their thoughts you should see them think most vilely of themselves And if you do but over-heare their Prayers or Complaints you shall hear them still cry out upon themselves and beg help against themselves as their greatest Enemies 2. The next Use of Humiliation and implyed in this is to Mortifie those sinnes which Carnal self doth live upon and is maintained by and to stop all the avenues or passages of it's provision Sinne is sweet and dear to all that are unsanctified But Humiliation makes it bitter and base As the Indians cured the Spanish Captaine of his Thirst after Gold by pouring melted God down his throat or as Children are perswaded from playing with a Bee-hive when they are once or twice stung by them or from playing with snappish dogs when they are bitten by them So God will teach his Children to know what it is to play with sinne when they have smarted by it They will know a nettle from a harmless herbe when they feel the sting we are so apt to live by sense that God seeth it needfull that our Faith have something of sense to helpe it When the Conscience doth accuse and the heart is smarting and groaning in pain and we feel that no shifting or striving will deliver us then we begin to be wiser then before and to know what sinne is and what it will do for us When that which was our delight is become our burden and a burden too heavy for us to bear it cureth our delighting in it When David was watering his couch with his tears and made them his drink his sinne was not the same thing to him as it was in the committing Humiliation washeth away the painting of this harlot and sheweth her in her deformity It unmasketh sinne which had got the vizard of Virtue or of a small matter or harmless thing It unmasketh Satan who was transformed into a Friend or an Angel of light and sheweth him as we say with his cloven feet and horns How hard is it to cure a worldling of the love of money But when God hath laid such a load of it on his Conscience that makes him groan and cry for help he hath then enough of it When he feels those words in Jam. 5. 1 2 3 4. And he begins to weep and howl for the Miseries that are comming on him and he feels the stink of his corrupted Riches and the Canker of his Gold and Silver do begin to eat his flesh as fire and his Idol is but a witness against him then he is better able to judge of it then he was before The wanton thinks he hath a happy life when the harlots lips do drop as the honey-combe But when he perceiveth her end is bitter as wormwood and sharp as a two-edged sword and that her feet go down to death and her steps take hold on Hell and he lyeth in sorrow complaining of his folly Prov 5. 3 4 5 11 12. he is then of a more rectified judgment then he was Manasseh humbled in irons is not the same as he was upon the Throne Though Grace did more to it then his fetters yet were they some way serviceable to that end Humiliation openeth the doore of the heart and telleth you what sinne is to the quick and letteth in the words of life which passed no further then the care or braine It is a tireing work to talk to dead men that have lost their feeling especially when it is an affective and practicall doctrine which we must deliver to them which is lost if it be not felt and practised Till Humiliation comes we speak to dead men or at least to men that are fast asleep How many Sermons have I heard that one would think should have turned mens hearts within them and made them cry out against their sinnes with sorrow and shame in the face of the Congregation and never meddle with them more When yet the hearers have scarce been moved by them but gone away as they came as if they knew not what the Preacher said because their hearts were all the while asleep within them But a Humbled Soul is an awakened Soul It will regard what is said to it especially when they perceive that it cometh from the Lord and concerneth their Salvation It is a great encouragment to us to speak to a man that hath eares and life and feeling that will meet the word with an appetite and take it with some relish and let down the food that is put into their mouths The will is the chiefest fort of sinne If we can there get in upon it we may do something But if it keep the heart and we can get no neerer it then the eare or braine there will no good be done Now Humiliation openeth us a passage to the heart that we may assault sâ—nne in it's strength When I tell you of the abominable nature of sinne that caused the death of Christ and causeth Hell and tell you that it is better to runne into the fire then to commit the least sinne wilfully though it be such as the world makes nothing of another man may hear all this and superficially believe it and say it is true but it is the humbled Soul that feeleth what I say What a stir have we with a drunkard or worldling or any other sensuall sinner in perswading him to cast away his sinnes with detestation and all to little purpose sometime he will and sometime he must needs be tasting them again and thus he stands dallying because the word hath not mastered his heart But when God comes in upon the Soul as with a â—empest and throweth open the doores and as it were thundereth and lighteneth in the Conscience and layeth hold upon the sinner and shaketh him all in pieces by his terrours and asketh him Is sinning good for thee Is a fleshly careless life so good Thou wretched worm Thou foolish piece of clay Darest thou thus abuse me to my face Dost thou not know that I look on Is this the work that I made thee for and that I feed and preserve thee and continue thee alive for Away with thy sinne without any more adoe or I 'le have thy Soul away and deliver thee to the tormentors This wakeneth him out of his dalliance and delaies and makes him see that God is in good earnest with him and therefore he must be so with God If a Physician have a patient that is addicted to his appetite who hath
the Gout or Sâ—one or other disease and he forbid him wine or strong drink or such meats as he desireth as long as he feeles himself at ease he will be venturing on them and will not be curbed by the words of the Physion But when the fit is on him and he feels the torment then he will be ruled Pain will teach him more effectually then words could do When he feeleth what is hurtfull to him and feeleth that it alway makes him sick it will restraine him more then hearing of it could do So when Humiliation doth break your hearts and make you feel that you are sick of sinne and filleth your Soul with smart and sorrow then you will be the more willing that God should destroy it in you When it lyeth so heavy on you that you are unable to look up and makes you go to God with groanes and teares and cry O Lord be mercifull to me a sinner When you are faine to go to Ministers for ease to your Consciences and fill their eares with accusations of your selves and open even your odious shamefull sinnes then you will be content to let them go Now there is no talking to you of Mortification and the resolute rejecting of your sinnes The Precepts of the Gospel are too strict for you to submit to But a broken heart would change your mindes The healthfull Plow-man saith Give me that which I love these Physicians would bring us all to their Rules that they may get money by us I never mean to follow their directions But when sickness is upon him and he hath tryed all his own skil in vaine and paine giveth him no rest then send for the Physician and then he will do any thing and take any thing whatever he will give him so that he may but he eased and recovered So when your hearts are whole and unhumbled these Preachers and Scriptures are too strict for you You must have that which you love self-conceited precise Ministers must have leave to talk but you will never believe that God is of their mind or will damn men for taking that which they have a mind of O but when these sinnes are as swords in your hearts and you begin to feele what Ministers told you of then you will be of another mind Away then with this sinne There 's nothing so odious so hurtfull so intollerable O that you could be rid of it what ever it cost you Then he will be your best Friend that can tell you how to kill it and be free from it and he that would draw you to it would be as Satan himself to you Matth. 16. 22 23. Gal. 1. 8 9. Humiliation diggeth so deep that it undermineth sinne and the fortress of the Devil and when the foundation is rooted up it will soone be over throwne When the Murderers of Christ were pricked to the heart they 'l then cry out for counsell to the Apostles Acts 2. 37. When a murderer of the Saints is stricken blindfold to the earth and the Spirit withall doth humble his Soul he will then cry out Lord what would'st thou have me to do Acts 9. 6. When a cruel Jaylour that scourged the Servants of Christ is by an Earth-quake brought to a heart-quake he will then cry out What shall I do to be saved Acts 16. 30. And here comes in the usefulness of Afflictions even because they are so great advantages to Humiliation Men will be brought to some Reason by extreamities When they lie a dying a man may talk to them and they will not so proudly fly in his face nor make a scorne of the word of the Lord as in their prosperity they did God will be more regarded when he pleadeth with them with the rod in his hand stripes are the best Logick and Rhetorick for a fool When sinne hath captivated their Reason to their flesh the Arguments to convince them must be such as the flesh is capable of perceiving We may long tell a beast of dangers and discommodities before we can perswade him from that which he loves Sensuality doth brutifie men in too great a measure And so far as they are brutish it is not the clearest Reasons that will prevaile And if God did not maintaine in corrupted man some remnants of free Reason we migh preach to beasts as hopefully as to men But Afflictions tend to weaken the Enemy that doth captivate them as prosperity by accident tends to strengthen him The flesh understandeth the language of the rod better then the language of Reason or of the Word of God And as the sensible part of our Humiliation promoteth Mortification so the rational and voluntary Humiliation which is proper to the Sanctified is a principal part of Mortification it self And thus you may see that it 's necessary that we be throughly humbled that sin may be throughly killed in us 3. Another use of Humiliation is to fit the Soul for a meet entertainment of further Grace and that both for the honour of Christ and Grace and for our own welfare 1. In respect of Christ it is equal that he should dwell in such Souls only as are fit to entertaine him Neither his person nor his business are such as can suit with the unhumbled heart Till Humiliation make a sinner feel his sinne and misery it is not possible that Christ as Christ should be heartily welcome to him or received in that sort as his honour doth expect Who cares for the Physician that feels no sickness and feares not death He may pass by the doores of such a man and he will not call him in But when paine and feares of death are on him â—e will send and seek and bid him welcome Will any man fly to Christ for succour that feeleth not his wants and danger Will they lay hold on him as the only refuge of their Souls and cleave to him as their only hope that feele no great need of him Will they lie at his feet and beg for mercy that feel themselves well enough without him When men do but hear of sinne and misery and superficially believe it they may coldly look after Christ and Grace and feel the worth of the later in such a manner as they feel the weight of the former But never is Christ valued and sought after as Christ till sorrow have taught us how to value him Nor is he entertained in the necessary honour of a Redeemer till Humiliation throw open all the doores No man can seek him with his whole heart that seeks him not with a broken heart And it 's certain that Christ will come on no lower terms into the Soul Though he come to do us good yet he will have the honour of doing it Though he come to heâ—l us and not for any need he hath of us yet he will have the welcome that 's due to a Physician He comes to save us but he will be honoured in our Salvation He inviteth all to the
that this is not necessary to them that have been brought up civilly or religiously from their youth But it is as possible to be saved without Faith as without Repentance and that special Humiliation which I described to you before It 's part of your Sanctification 2. Another mistake to be carefully avoided is The placeing of your Humiliation either only or principally in the Passionate part or in the outward expression of those Passions I mean either in pinching grief and sorrow of heart or else in tears But you must remember that the Life of it is as was said before in the Judgment and the Will It is not the measure of Passionate sorrow and anguish that will best shew the measure of your sincere Humiliation much less is it your teares or outward expressions But it is your low esteem of your selves and contentedness to be vile in the eyes of others And your displacency with your selves and willingness to mourn and weep for sinne as much as God would have you with the rest of the acts of the Judgment and Will before described Two great dangers are here before you to be avoided First some there be that have terrible pangs of sorrow and are ready to teare their own haire yea or make away themselves as Judas in the horror of their Consciences and these may seem to have true Humiliation and yet have none And some can weep abundantly at a Sermon or in Prayer or in mentioning their sinne to others and therefore think that they are truly humbled and yet it may be nothing so For if at the same time their hearts are in love with sinne or had rather keep it then let it go or have not an habitual hatred to it and a predominant superlative Love to God their Humiliation is no saving work That which is in the Passions and teares may be even forced against your wills And it signifieth scarce so much as a common Grace where you are not willing of it Many a one can weep through a passionate womanish tender nature and yet not only remain unhumbled but be Proud in a very high degree How many such do we ordinarily see especially women that can weep more at a duty or conference then some that are truly broken hearted could do in all their lives and yet be so far from being vile in their own eyes and willing to be so in the eyes of others that they will hate and reproach and raile at thoâ—e that charge them with the faults which they seemed to lament or at least that charge them with disgracefull sinnes and they will excuse and mince their sinnes and make a small matter of them and love none so well as those that have the highest thoughts of them So that Pride doth ordinarily reign in their hearts and break out in their words and lives and make them hate the faithfullest reproachers and live in contention with any that dishonour them for all the tears that come from their eyes Judge not therefore by passions or tears alone but by the Judgment and the Will as is aforesaid 2. Another sort there are much better and happier than the former that yet to their great trouble are mistaken in this point And that is they that think they have no true Humiliation because they find not such pangs of sorrow and freedom of tears as others have when as their hearts are contrite even when they cannot weep a tear Tell me but this Are you vile in your own eyes because you are guilty of sinne and that against the Lord whom you chiefly love Do you loath your sinnes because of your abominations and could you heartily wish that you had been suffering when you were sinning and if it were to do again would you chuse to suffer rather then to sinne Have you a desire to grieve when you cannot passionately grieve and a desire to weep when you cannot weep Can you quietly beare it when you are vilified by others because you know your selves to be so vile And are you thankfull to a plain Reprover though he tell you of the most disgracefull sinne Do you think meanly of your own sayings and doings and think better of others where there is any ground then of your selves Do you justifie Gods afflictions and mens true rebukes and think your selves unworthy of the Communion of the Saints or to see their faces and unworthy to live on the face of the Earth Yea would you justifie God if he should condemn you This is the state of a humbled Soul Find but this and you need not doubt of Gods acceptance though you were unable to shed a tear There 's more Humiliation in a base esteem of our selves then in a thousand tears And more in a will or desire to weep for sinne then in tears that come through force of terror or moisture of the brain or passionate tenderness of Nature If the Will be right you need not fear It is he that most hateth sinne and is hardliest drawn to it that is trulyest humbled for it He that will lament it to day and commit it to morrow is far less humbled and penitent then he that would not be drawn to it with the hopes of all the pleasures of the world nor commit it if it were to save his life 3. To avoid this some runne into the contrary mistake and think that sorrow and teares are unnecessary and that they may Repent as well without them as with them and they lay all in some dull uneffectual wishes and so they think the Heart is changed But certainly God made not the Affections in vain It cannot be that any man can have a Sanctified Will but his Affections will hold some correspondence with it and be commanded by it Though we cannot mourn in that Measure as we desire yet some sorrow there will be wherever the Heart is truly changed And appretiativè this sorrow will be the greatest No man can heartily believe that sinne is the greatest evil to his Soul and not be grieved for it And indeed our Liveliest Affections should be exercised about these weightiest things It 's a shame to see a man mourn for a friend and whine under a Cross that toucheth but the flesh and yet be so insensible of the plague of sinne and the anger of the Lord and to laugh and â—est with such mountains on his Soul Though grief and tears be not the heart or principal part of our Humiliation yet are they to be lookt after as our duty yea sorrow in some measure is of absolute necessity and the want of tears is no good signe in them that have tears for other things Indeed the sense of our folly and unkindness should be so great that it should even turn our hearts into sorrow and melt them in our brests and draw forth streams of tears from our eyes and if we cannot bring our selves to this we must yet lament the hardness of our hearts and not excuse it
though he consented not to the sinne of them that did inflict it For he laid down his Life it was not taken from him against his Will Joh. 10. 17 18. 9. Having thus paid the price of our Reconciliation to God the third day he Rose again from the dead Though Soldiours watcht his grave because he had foretold them that he would rise the third day yet were they soon daunted by the glory of an Angel that came and roled away the stone And so Christ made known his Divine Power and Victory and the finishing of his work And as by death he overcame him that had the power of death that is the Devil Heb. 3 14. So by his Resurrection he triumphed over death it self For how should the grave detain the innocent and death overcome the Lord of Life This was the glorious day of triumph In remembrance of this he appointed the Lords Day to be observed by the Church The Resurrection of Christ was the confusion of all the powers of darkness the great Argument to confirm the truth of his Doctrine and prove his Godhead to the unbelieving world 10. Being risen he more fully revealed his Gospel and sent forth his Apostles and Disciples to proclaim the offers of Life to the world and settle the Churches in a Holy order when they had gathered them and to ordaine such Ministers to succeed them as might carry on his work to the end of the world Matth. 28. 19 20. And thus he is the faithfull Law-giver to the Church 11. When he had abode thus forty daies on Earth he ascended up into Heaven while his Disciples stood by and gazed after him Acts 1. 9 10. And there hath taken possession in our Nature advancing it to the Fathers right hand in Glory which was by sinne deprest so low in misery And so he is gone to prepare a place for us leaving us a certain word of promise that he will come again and take us to himself that where he is there we may be also Joh. 14. 2 3. And as our life now is hid there with Christ in God so when he shall appear we shall appear with him in glory Col. 3. 3 4. 12. Being ascended he manifested his Power and his Truth in sending down the Holy Ghost upon his Disciples enabling them to do such works as he had done and such as were necessary to convince the unbelieving world and to conquer the opposing wisdom and power of the flesh Enabling them to speak in variety of Languages which they had never before learnt as also to understand and powerfully preach the mysteries of the Gospel to confirm their Doctrine by Miracles healing the lame the blind the sick casting out Devils raising the dead and conquering the resistance of Principalities and Powers in seeming weakness and in a contemptible garbe Not to speak now of the Sanctifying Work of the same Spirit on them and on the rest of the Church 13. Lastly in this Glory Christ Intercedeth for us and is our High-priest in the Heavens with God living for ever procuring and conveying to us the Mercies which we need upon the account of his Sacrifice Ruling his Church and preserving them succeeding his Cause and Servants restraining and subduing his Enemies and ours and will perfect his work at the day of his Coming to Judgment So much of the works of Christ. 4. The fourth point to be understood concerning our Redemption is The Nature and worth of the Benefits that are procured for us Which though you may gather much from what is said and the full handling of them would be a larger work then is suitable to my present Ends yet such a brief recital I shall here give you as my Ends require In General we have All from Jesus the Mediator that is worth the having even all the blessings of this present life and of the life to come As we lost our Right to all by sinne so we have our restored Right by Christ alone who came to destroy sinne and its effects Had not he interposed we might have had materially life and natural faculties and other things which now are Mercies but not as Mercies but as the requisites to our deserved punishment Even as the Devils have their Being and natural perfections to sustain them in their sufferings Nature it self so far as Good and all Natural blessings are now of Grace And that not only of such Grace as they were to Adam which was Mercy without proper Merit but of Gospel Grace procured by Christ which is Mercy contray to Merit It is no sounder Doctrine to say that God doth without the Merit of his Sonne bestow our common forfeited Mercies either on the Elect or others then that he giveth us his Saving grace without it As all things are delivered into the hands of Christ Joh. 13. 3. So none can receive any good but from his hands To give Mercies to men that forfeit them and descern misery is so far to pardon their sinne for to remit the sinne is to remit the punishment But the Scripture is not acquainted with any pardon of sinne but what is on the account of the Merits of Christ. They that deny this Mercy of God in giving even to the ungodly such a measure of forgiveness do speak against the daily and hourly experience of all the world and therefore need no other confutation More particularly 1. Christ having taken the Humane Nature into Union with the Divine our nature is thereby unconceivably advanced and brought nigh to God 2. Having fulfilled the Law and offered himself a Sacrifice for sinne Gods Justice and Wisdom and Holiness and Goodness is admirably Demonstrated And this Sacrifice is both Satisfactory and meritorious on our behalf Heb. 1. 3. 2 Cor. 5. 19. Heb. 9. 26. and 10 12. 3. The world and the Devil and Death and the Grave are conquered by him in preparation to our conquest 4. The Lord Jesus himself being risen and Justified hath received all Power in Heaven and Earth Mat. 28. 19. and is enabled to do all things that are necessary for his further ends As the Redeemer he is become Lord of our selves and of all we have and he is made the Soveraigne Ruler of all having full Power to relax the Law that cursed us and to deal with the world on terms of Grace 5. Accordingly he hath kept off the stroke of the rigorus Justice of God and hindered the strict execution of the Law of works and giveth still abundance of forfeited Mercies to the sinfull world keeping them from deserved torments while he is treating with them on terms of life 6. He hath made an Universal deed of gift of Christ and Life to all the world on Condition that they will but Accept the offer 1 Joh. 5. 10 11 12. Joh. 1. 11 12. 3. 16 17 18 19. In this Testament or Promise or Act of Oblivion the sinnes of all the world are conditionally pardoned and they are conditionally
Causes of mens Condemnation though Faith and Repentance be not Proper Causes of their Salvation These Promises being Conditional we cannot be assured of our part in the benefits but by being assured that we perform the Condition By this you may see the Nature of presumption When men say they believe that which never was promised or believe that they have right to the Blessings that are promised to others and not to them or believe that they shall have the benefits promised when they perform not the Conditions all this is presuming and not true believing If men believe that God is reconciled to them and will Pardon them and Justifie them and save them when they are unconverted impenitent unregenerate men this is not indeed a believing of God that hath never made them any such promise nor ever told them any such matter but the contrary But it is a believing the false delusions of the Devil and their own hearts He that will claim any title to Christ and Pardon and Salvation must have something to shew for it yea and something more then the most of the world have to shew For the most shall be shut out Every man therefore that regardeth his Salvation must seriously ask his Soul this question What have I to shew for my title to Salvation more then the most of the world can shew It is not saying I hope to be saved that will serve the turn ' except I can give a Reason of my hopes ' Thousands that lay claim to Salvation shall miss of it because they have no title to it And that which you must have to shew is this A Promise or Deed of Gift on Gods part and the fullfilling of the Condition on your part God saith to all men who ever Repenteth Believeth or is converted shall be saved When you have found that you Repent of all your sinnes and truly believe and are converted to God then and not till then you may conclude that you shall be saved 6. The sixth Point to be understood or believed concerning these Benefits of Christ is the infallible Certainty of them While men look on the promised Glory to come as on an uncertain thing they will hardly be drawn to venture and let go the porfits and pleasures of the world to attaine it much less to part with life it self The life of all our Christian motion is the unfeigned belief of the Truth of Gods Word and specially of the unseen things of the world to come Such as mens belief of Heaven and Hell is such will be the bent of their hearts and the course of their lives and such they will be in yielding to sinne or in resisting it and in all the service they do for God As all men would take another course if they did but see Heaven and Hell with their eyes so all men would presently throw away their worldly fleshly pleasures and turn to God and a holy life if they did but as throughly believe the Joyes and torments to come as if they saw them Flesh and blood can hardly judg of things without the help of sense and fleshly men take all things to be fantasmes or nothings that are not within the judgment of their senses They must see it or feel it or tast it or hear it and Believing is a way that hardly satisfies them though it be God himself that they are to believe Believing is trusting the Credit of an other and we are naturally loth to trust to any but our eyes or other senses We are so false our selves that we are ready to measure God by our selves and to think that he is a deceiver because that we are such And hence it is that the world is so ungodly that they venture on sinne and will not be at the cost and labour of a Heavenly life because they take the matters of the life to come to be but uncertainties and have not so true a belief of them as might possess them with a deep apprehension of their reallity How should the Word profit them that mixe it not with Faith Heb. 4. 2. Unless by begetting Faith it self O what a change would a sound belief of the Scriptures make in the world But having spoken so oft of this in other writings I shall say no more of it now So much of the Knowledg of Christ. II. I have shewed you the first part of this Direction How Christ must be Received understandingly I now come to the second which is that He must be Received heartily As God must be loved so Christ must be believed in with all the heart and Soul and strength If not with All in a Perfect degree for that will not be till we come to Heaven yet with All in a predominant prevalent degree There are many convictions and good meanings and wishes and purposes which may proceed from common Grace and be found in those that never shall be saved These may be called analogically Faith and Love and Desire as those are that are found in the truly Regenerate and yet the persons in whom they are found may not fitly be called Believers or Lovers of God because a man is to be denominated from that in him which is predominant and hath the chief power on his heart The Soul of man is not so simple as to move but one way Its state in this life is to stand between two differing Competitours God and the world Spirit and flesh and there is no man that is Totally given up to either of them No man is so good and spiritual that hath not something in him that is bad and carnal And no man is so fully addicted to God but the Creature hath too much interest in his heart Nor is there any man so given up to the Creature in whom God hath no manner of interest at all in his Estimation and Affections if he indeed believe that there is a God At least it is not so with all that are unconverted Otherwise 1. What is it that common Grace doth if it no whit dispose them towards God Certainly it would not else be Grace 2. And if this were not so then we must say that no unregenerate man hath any Good in him that is truly Moral For if there be no interest of God in his mind or will there can be no Good in him But this is contrary to Scripture and experience It was undoubtedly some Moral Good which Christ loved the man for in Marke 10. 21. Who was not far from the Kingdom of God 3. Otherwise all men must be equally departed from God which is contrary to experience 4. Yea all men must be as bad on Earth privatively as in Hell which certainly is false I may well say that on Earth there is some Good in the worst much more in those that are almost perswaded to be converted Christians Many a thought of the Goodness of God and the necessity of a Saviour and of the Love of Christ and of
will themselves forsake them and take up another way and be as consident in that and take no warning by the experience of their former deceit And thus they go oft from one Opinion to another till at last finding themselves deceived so oft some of them cast off all Religion and think there is no certainty to be found in any Suspecting Religion when they should have suspected their false hearts And all this comes to pass because they never received the Truth in the love of it that they might be Sanctified and Saved by it 2 Thes. 2. 10 11 12. Nor ever gave it deep entertainment in their hearts that it might throughly Convert them but took it as a bare Opinion into the brain to polish their tongues and outsides and deceive themselves as much as others And thus I have shewed you the difference between a sound Convert and an Opinionist or one that hath but a overly superficial Change that you may see which of these is your own condition To return now to my Advice and Exhortation I intreat every person that readeth or heareth these words to see that they stick not in an Opinionative Conversion To which End I further desire you 1. To consider that it is a higher matter that Christ came into the world for then to change mens bare Opinions and it is a higher matter that the Gospel is intended for and that Ministers are sent to you for For it is more then a corruption of mens Opinions that siane hath brought upon you and therefore it is a deeper disease that must be cured The Work of Christ by his Gospel is no less then to fetch you off all that which flesh and blood accounts your Happiness and to unite you to himself and make you Holy as God is Holy and to give you a new Nature and make you as the dwellers or Citizens of Heaven while you walk on Earth Phil. 3. 20 21. And these are greater matters then the changing of a Party or Opinion The Holy Ghost himself must dwell in you and work in you and imploy your Soul and life for God that you may study him and love him and live to him here and live with him for ever Do but think well of the Ends and meaning of the Gospel and how much greater matters it drives at and then you will see that there 's no taking up with an Opinionative Religiousness 2. Keep company if it be possible with the most Sober Spiritual and Heavenly professours that will be drawing you to the observation of your own heart and life and opening to you the riches of the Love of Christ and winning up your affections to God and Heaven And be not the companions of unexperienced wranglers that have no other Religion but a Zeal for their Opinions and will endeavour rather to make you like Satan then like God by possessing your minds with malice and bitter thoughts of your brethren and employing your tongues in reproaches and vaine strivings and making you fire-brands in the places where you live Neither be companions of them that hold the Truth no deeper then Opinion For though some such may be usefull to you in their places yet if you have not more edifying familiars your danger will be very great lest you should let go the life of Religion and take up with meer notions and formalities as they 3. When you have considered that every Truth of God is a Message to your Hearts as well as to your Heads and hath a work of God to do upon them look after that work and when you have heard or read a Truth go down into your Hearts and see what it hath done there And if you find not in your Will and Resolutions and Affections the Image and fruits of the Truth you have heard fetch it up again and ruminate upon it and do not think you have received it or done with it till this be done yea take it but as lost and sinfully rejected if it have not done you some good at the very Heart 4. Also be sure that you Practise all practical Truths upon the first opportunity as soon as you have heard them Imprison them not in unrighteousness Cast them not out in forgetfulness use not a Lecture of Divinity as if it were a lesson of Musick or a meer Philosophical or Historical discourse Read not the Doctrine of Salvation and the Promises of Heaven and the forewarnings of everlasting misery as you read a common story or a groundless conjecture in an Almanack But as a Message from God which tells you where you must dwell for ever and as a Direction sent from Heaven to teach you the way thither Fall to work then and practise what you know if you would be Christians indeed Be yee doers of the word and not hearers only deceiving your own selves For the Opinionative hearer seeth but a slight appearance of the Truth as a man that lookes on his face in a glass which he quickly forgets But he that is a Sound Believer and practiser and not only an Opinionative forgetful hearer is the man that shall be blessed in his deed Jam. 1. 22 23 24 25. Opinion without Practise is building on the Sand but hearing and sound Believing and doing is building upon the Rock where the building will stand after all assaults Matth. 7. 26 27 28. An Opinionist doth but seem to be Religious while he keeps his reigning sinnes and therefore his Religion is in vain but the Practical Religion is the pure and undefiled Religion Jam. 1. 26 27. Hearty obedience will not only shew that your Religion is deeper then meer Opinion but it will also advance it to a greater purity and root it more deeply then it was before A man that hath studied the Art of Navigation in his closet may talk of it almost as well as he that hath been at sea but when he comes to practise it he will find that he is far to seek But let this man go to sea and joyn practise and experience to his Theory and then he may have a knowledg of the right kind So if a man that hath only read over Military Books would be a true Soldier or a man that hath only studied Physick would be a true Physician what better way is there then to fall to Practise And so must you if you would have a Religion that shall save your Souls and not only a Religion that will furnish you with good Opinions and expressions 5. Moreover if you would get above Opinion be still searching more and more after the Evidences of the ancient fundamental Truths that you have received and lay open your hearts to the power of them Think it not enough that you take the Christian Religion for true but labour after a clearer sight ot its truth For you may possibly upon some conjecture take it for a Truth by bare Opinion whenas the sight of fuller Evidences and a full sight of those
himself to hope that God will save him without so much adoe which by the help of the Devil he may easily be brought to hope away then goes the duty If you could not shew him that there is a Necessity of Family Prayer and a Necessity of sanctifying the Lords Day and a Necessity of forsaking his tipling and voluptuousness and a Necessity of living a heavenly life he would quickly resolve of another course For he had rather do otherwise if he durst He never was Religious from a true Predominant Love to God and a holy life but for fear of Hell and for other inferiour respects Remember this when you have precious opportunities before you of doing or receiving good and when you see that you have leave to take these opportunities and yet you draw back and are questioning How we can prove it to be your duty or that you cannot be saved without it Do not these Questions plainly shew that you Love not the work and Delight not in a holy life and that you had rather let it alone Are you not blind if you see not this is in your selves Yea it 's plain that you have such an aversness or hatred to God and a holy course of life that if you did but know what shift to make to scape damnation you would fly away from God and Holiness and have as little to do with them as you can Your Questions and Cavils do plainly declare this wicked emnity and backwardness of your hearts and consequently shew how farre you are from true Conversion Not that I am of their mind that think there is any Good which the Law of Christ Obligeth us not to accept and which we can refuse without sinne and danger to our selves For God doth both draw us and drive us at once But when the Threatning and Punishment only can prevail with men and men Love not God and Godliness for themselves but had rather have liberty to live as the ungodly I shall never take one of these for a sanctified man nor have any hope of the saving of such a soul how farre soever his fears may carry him from his outward sinnes or to outward duties Till God shall give him a better Conversion then this I say I have not the smallest hope of this mans salvation Then you are Gods Children when the Honour the Work the Family the Name of your Father are lovely and delightfull to you And when you grieve that there is any remnants of sin in your souls and when your sinnes are to you as lameness to the lame that pain them every step they go and as sickness to the sick that makes them groan and groan again and long to be rid of it And when you think those the happiest men on earth that are the most holy and wish from your hearts that you were such as they though you had not a house to put your head in When you look towards God with longing thoughts and are grieved that your understandings can reach no nearer him and know no more of him and that your hearts cannot embrace him with a more burning Love When you admire the beauty of a meek a patient a mortified spirituall heavenly mind and long to have more of this your self yea to be perfect in all Holiness and Obedâ—ence When your hearts are thus brought over to God that you had rather have him then any other and rather live in his Family then any where and rather walk in his waies then in any then are you indeed Converted and never till then whatever other dispositions you may have And now if that were my business what abundance of reason might I shew you to make you willing to come over unto God with Love and with Delight Whom else can you Love if he that is Love it self seem not lovely to you All loveliness is in him and from him The creature hath none of it self nor for it self To Love a life of sinne is to Love the Image and Service of the Devil and to Love that which feeds the flames of Hell What is it then to Love this sinne so well as for the Love of it to fly from God and Godliness Methinks men at the worst should Love that which will do them good and not preferre that before it which will hurt them Do sinners indeed believe that God and Holiness will do them hurt and that sinne will do them greater good Is there ever a man so mad that he dare speak this and stand to it If indeed you think it best to live in sinne and therefore had rather keep it then leave it your understandings are befooled I had almost used Paul's Phrase and said bewitched Gal. 3. 1. Will it do you any hurt to leave your beastly sensual lives and to live soberly righteously and godly in the world denying ungodliness and worldly lusts and looking for the blessed hope and the glorious appearing of the great God and our Saviour Jesus Christ This is the Doctrine of Saving Grace Tit. 2. 11 12 13. Would it do you any harm to be assured of Salvation and ready to die and to know that the Angels shall Conduct your departing souls to Christ and that you shall live in Joy with him for ever Or to be employed in those holy works that must prepare you for this day and help you to this assurance If God be naught for you if Holiness and Righteousness and Temperance be naught for you then you may as well say Heaven is naught for you and therefore you must resolve for sinne and Hell and see whether that be good for you I shall say no more of this Point because I have written of it already in the Conclusion of the Saints Rest which I desire you to peruse DIRECT XI The next part of my Advice is If you would not have this Saving Work misearry Turn then this present day and hour without any more Delay Somewhat I have spoke of this already and therefore shall say the less But yet I shall back this Direction with such Reasons as will certainly convince you if you be not unreasonable of the folly of Delay and shew you that it concerneth you presently to Return And though my Reasons will be numerous it is not the Number but the Strength of them that I shall urge you principally to Consider and because of the Number I will go over them with the greater brevity 1. Consider to whom it is that you are commanded to Turn and then tell me whether there can be any Reason for delay It is not to an empty deceitfull creature but to the faithfull All-sufficient God To him that is the cause of all things the Strength of the Creation the Joy of Angels the Felicity of the Saints the Sun and Shield of all the Righteous and Refuge of the Distressed and the Glory of the whole World Of such Power that his Word can take down the Sun from the Firmament and turn the
converted He will not alwaies stand over you with Salvation and say O that this sinner would Repent and live O that he would take the Mercies that I have provided for him Do not expect that God should do thus alwaies with you for it will not be 45. Your Delaies do weary the Servants of Christ that are employed for your recovery Ministers will grow weary of preaching to you and perswading you When we come to men that were never warned before we come in hopes that they will hear and obey and this hope puts life and earnestness into our perswasions But when we have perswaded men but a few times in vaine and leave them as we found them our spirits begin to droop and flag Much more when we have preached and perswaded you many years and still you are the same and are but where you were This dulls a Ministers spirit and makes him preach heavily and coldly when he is almost out of heart and hope I do not justifie Ministers in this and say they should do thus I know they should not and if they were perfect they would not but they are but men and imperfect themselves and what man is able to be as lively and fervent in his work when people stir not and he sees no good done on the miserable hearers as if he had the encouragement of success O when we do but see the hearts of hardned stubborn sinners relent and break and melt before the power of the Word and when we hear them cry out for Christ and Mercy and cry out against themselves for their former folly and confess their sinnes and ask us what they shall do to be saved and are but willing to be ruled by Christ the Physician of their Souls this would put life into a Preacher that was cold and dull this would even make a stone to speak But when we tell men of Gods threatnings till they are past believing them and tell you of Gods Anger till they seem to be past fearing it and tell them of the plague of sinne till they are past feeling when in stead of preaching men to Faith and Repentance and fear and tenderness of heart we preach them into greater unbelief and carelesness and dead stupidity this is enough to dull or break the heart of almost any Preacher in the world What man is able to sollow so fruitless a work with liveliness And then it 's you that will have the loss and danger of it When you have dried the brests the child may famish If your Preachers could not awake and change you with all their convincing arguments and fervency how quietly may you sleep on when you have flatted them by discouragements If Satan can either dismount or make useless these Cannons that were wont to batter his garrison he may then possess you Souls in peace You talk against persecutors that silenced Ministers But O Sirs it is you that are our greatest persecutours that refuse and delay to yield to the calls of Christ by our Ministry and make us labour so much in vaine Though it be not in vaine as to our own Souls yet you make it in vaine as to yours When we have studied till we almost break our braines and preached till we have quite broke our strength and we are consumed and worn away with labour and bodily paines that it procureth then you come after and make us requital by breaking our hearts by your delaies and refusing to turn and live Truly Sirs I must tell you for my own part that if it had not been for those that gave me better encouragment by their obedience I should never have held out with you a quarter of this time If all had profited as little as some and all had stuck as fast in an unconverted state as some if the humble penitent obedient ones among you had not been my comfort and encouragment under Christ I had been gone from you many a year ago I could never have held out till now either my corruption would have made me runne away with Jonas or my judgment would have commanded me to shake the dust of my feet as a witness against you and depart But to what end do I speak all this to you To what end Why to let you see how you abuse both God and man by your Delaies and disobedience You cannot possibly do us that are your Teachers a greater injurie or mischief in the world It is not in your power to wrong us more Are our studies and our labours worth nothing think you Are our watchings and waiting worth nothing Are our Praiers and tears and groane to be despised God will not despise them if you do Believe it he will see them all on your score and you will onâ— day have a heavy reconing of them and pay full deare for them Is it equal dealing with us that when we are watching for your Souls as men that know we must give an account you should rob us of our comfort and make us do it with sighes and sorrow Heb. 13. 17. Yea that you should undo all that we are doing and make us lose our labour and our hopes And yet do you not think to pay for this I tell you again unconverted sinners we are wearied with your delaies Many years we have been perswading you but to Turn and live and yet you are unturned You have been convinced long and thinking on it and wishing long and talking of it and promising long and yet it is undone and here is nothing but delaies We see while you delay death takes away one this week and another the next week and you are passing into another world apase and yet those that are left behind will take no warning but still delay We see that Satan delaies not while you delay He is day and night at work against you if he seem to make a truce with you it is that he may be doing secretly while you suspect him not We see that sinne delaieth not while you delay It is working like poyson or infection in your bodies and seazing upon your vital powers it 's every day blinding you more and more it 's hardening your hearts more and searing up your Consciences to bring you past all feeling and hope And must we stand by and see this miserable work with our peoples Souls and all be frustrate and rejected by themselves that we do for their deliverance How long must we stand by with the light in our hands while you are serving the flesh and neglecting that which we are sent to call you to It is not our business to hold you the candle to play by or to sleep by or to sinne by these are works that better agree with the dark But God sent us to you on another message even to Light you out of your sinnes to him that you might be saved Truly beloved hearers I must needs say that the time seems long and very long to me that
Sirs I see now that which I never saw before I wonder how I could venture so madly upon sinne and how I could make light of God of Christ of death of Judgment and Everlasting life I have been hitherto your Companion in sinne but I would not take the same course again for all the world I see now there is a better portion hereafter to be obtained which I was mindless of I see now we were all this while making merry at the brink of Hell and there was but a step between us and death Now I see that the course that we have taken is wicked and deceitfull and will not serve turn If I serve the flesh it will reward me but with rottonness I will therefore hereafter serve that God that will certainly reward me with Evorlasting life I beseech you Sirs come away with me and see and try what I have seen and tryed I have lived with you in sinne O now let us joyn together in Repentance and a Holy life I shall be glad of your company to Heaven but if you will not do it take your course For my part I am Resolved by the Grace of God I am fully Resolved to be from this day forward a New man and never to joyn with you more in a fleshly and ungodly life Never tempt me or perswade me to it for I am Resolved Thus if you will declare your Resolutions to others and seek to win them you may possibly do them good but however you will be the deeper engaged to God your selves Yea though I would have no ostentation of Conversion nothing done rashly in publike nor without the advice of a faithfull Minister beforehand yet with these Cautions I must say that it 's a shame that we hear no more in publike of the Conversion of sinners As Baptism is to be in publike that the Congregation may witness your engagement and pray for you and rejoice at the receiving of a member So the solemn renewing of the same Covenant by Repentance after a wicked life should ordinarily be in publike to give warning to others to avoid the sinne and to give God the honour and to have the Prayers of the Church and to satisfy them of our Repentance that they may have Communion with us The Papists do more offend of the two in so much confining Confession and Penitence to the Priests eare in secret and not bringing it before the Church then they do in making a Sacrament of it I wonder that people should every day thrust into our hands their requests to pray for them when they are sick and that it is so rare a matter to have any desire our Prayers for the pardon of all the sinnes of their natural unconverted state I would here seriously advise all those that it concerneth that when God hath shewed them so great a Mercy as to Convert them and make them New Creatures they would go to their faithfull Minister and by his advice put up such a bill as this Such a man of this parish having long lived in blindness and deadness and ungodliness and name the particular sinnes if they were publickly known and being by the great Mercy of God convinced of his sinne and misery and sustained with some hopes of Mercy by the Blood and Merits of Jesus Christ and being now Resolved by the Grace of God to forsake this fleshly worldly life and to give up himself to Christ and Holiness doth earnestly intreat the Church to pray for him that his many and hainous sins may be all forgiven and that God would againe receive him into Mercy and that he may hold on in Faith and Holiness to the last and never turn again to the course of his iniquity And if the Minister think it meet refuse not to make your selves an open Confession of your former life of sinne and misery and to Profess openly your Resolution to walk with God for the time to come This course should be more ordinary with us and if Conversâ—ion it self were not so rare or else so defective that it doth too little quicken men to a sence of duty and sinne and Mercy or so doubtfull and by slow degrees that it is scarce discerned by many that have it were it not for some of these more ordinary would it be to the great rejoycing and benefit of the Church The Conclusion And now I have given you Directions in the most great and necessary business in this world They are such as I received of God and if Faithfully practised will put your Salvation past all hazard But what they have done or what they will do I cannot tell but must leave the Issue to God and you It s pitty eternall Glory should be lost for want of yielding to so holy and sweet and reasonable a course It is lamentable to observe what ignorant base unworthy thoughts the most have of the very Office of the holy Ghost who is the sanctifier of all that God will save The very name of Regeneration and Sanctification is not understood by some and is but matter of derision to others and the most think that it is another kind of matter then indeed it is To be baptized and come to Church and to say some cold and heartless Prayers and to forbeare some gross disgracefull sins is all the Sanctification that most are acquainted with and all have not this And thus they debase the work of the holy Ghost If a Prince have built a sumptuous Pallace and you will shew men a Swine-stie and say This is the Pallace that the Prince hath bin so long a building were not this to abuse him by contempt If he build a Navy and you shew a man two or three pig-troughs and say These are the Kings ships would he not take it for a scorn Take heed of such dealing with the holy Ghost Remember what it is to believe in the name of the Father Son and holy Ghost and remember that you were Baptized into the name of the Father Son and holy Ghost And do you not yet know why nor know the meaning of your Baptismall Covenant It is not only to believe that there are three Persons in the Trinity but to consent to the Relations and duty to them in respect to their several Relations and works If the Father had not Created you how could you have been men The Lord of nature must be acknowledged as the End and the governour of nature and accordingly obeyed And this is to believe and be Baptized into the Name of God the Father If the Son had not Redeemed you you had bin as the Divels were forsaken and given over to dispaire The Purchaser Procurer and Author of Grace of Pardon and Salvation must be acknoledged to be such and himself and his Salvation accordingly accepted and his terms submitted to And this is to believe in the name of the Son and in baptisme we make profession hereof And certainly the work of the holy
Ghost is as necessary to your Salvation Without the sanctifying work of the Spirit you could never be delivered from sin and Satan nor restored to Gods Image and consepuently could never be the Members of Christ nor have any saving benefit by his Sufferings Would you not think him unworthy to live that would reproach the Fathers work of nature and say that the whole Creation is but some poor contemptible work And would you not think him unworthy the name of a Christian that had contemptible thoughts of the Sons Redemption as if we could be saved as well without a Saviour or as if it were but some poor and triviall commodity that Christ had purchased us I know you would confess the mistery of that man that believeth no better in the Father and the Son And how comes it to pass that you think not of your own misery that believe no better in the holy Ghost Do not you debase the Sanctifying office of the holy Spirit when you shew us your knowledg and parts and outward duties and civility and tell us that these are the work of sanctification What is Sanctification but such a thing as this Why Holiliness is a new Life and Spirit in us and these that you talk of are but a few flowers that are stickt upon a Corps to keep it a while from stinking among men till death convey it to a buriall in Hell O Sirs Sanctification is another kind of matter then the forsaking of some of your fouler vices and speaking well of a Godly life It is not the patching up of the Old man but the Creating of a New man I give you warning therefore from God that you think not basely of the work of the holy Ghost and that you think no more to be saved without the Sanctifying work of the Spirit then without the redeeming work of the Son or Creation Government or Love of the Father Sanctification must turn the very bent and stream of heart and life to God to Christ to Heaven it must mortifie Carnall Self and the world to you it must make you a people Devoted Consecrated and Resigned up to God with all that you have it must make all sin odious to you and make God the Love and Desire of your Souls so that it must give you a new Heart a new End a new Master a new Law and a new Conversation This is that noble Heavenly work which the holy Ghost hath vouchsafed to make the business of his office To slight and despise this is to slight and despise the holy Ghost To refuse this is to refuse the holy Ghost and not to believe in him to be without this work is to be without the holy Ghost if any man have not the Spirit of Christ the same is none of his Rom. 8. 9. The holy Catholick Church is composed of all through the world that have this work upon them and therefore it is called Holy The Communion of Saints is the blessed Vitall fellowship of these Sanctified Ones For these only is the Resurrection unto blessedness the life everlasting with the Lord of life for all others is the Resurrection of Condemnation the everlasting punishment But if the other two Articles of our Faith have been so denied by the blind it is less wonder if this be so Some Hereticks denied God to be the Creatour of the world and because they saw so much evill in the world they said that it was made by Devils or evill Angels who indeed made the sin but not the world So dealt the Jewes by the Son and the Second Article of our Faith The Sacrifice of Bulls and Goats and such Beasts was all the Sacrifice for sin that they believed in And thus deale the multitude of the ungodly by the Spirit Indeed they know not themselves sufficiently to know the need and worth of Sanctification They are too whole to value the skill and care of Christ or the holy Ghost The insensibility of spirituall death and misery and thinking too lightly of Originall Corruption and too well of our depraved nature is both the cause of many of the Heresies of the learned and of the common contempt of Christ and the Spirit and recovering grace in all the unregenerate For it is not possible that men should have any deeper sence of the need or worth of the remedy then they have of the greatness of their sinne and misery O Sirs did we not come upon this great disadvantage to you that we speak to dead men that have indeed a naturall life which doth but take pleasure in their spirituall death how confidently should we expect to prevaile with you all But while you think lightly of your disease we can expect no better but that you think as lightly of Christ and holiness and all the meanes that tend to your recovery and think of the new man as the Poets fabled of the Promethean race that it grows out of the earth of your own poor sorry purposes and performances like ordinary plants Truly Sirs I have led you even as farre as I can and what more to say to you or what more to do for you to procure your Conversion I do not know If it had been in my power to have shewed you Heaven and Hell it self that you might better have known the matters that we speak of I think I should have done it But God will not have men live by sense in this life but by Faith If I could but help you all to such a knowledge and apprehension of these in visible things as the worst of you shall have as soon as you are dead then I should make but little doubt of your Conversion and Salvation Sure if you had but such a sight the force of it would so work upon you that before I went out of the Congregation you would all cry out that you are resolved to be new Creatures But though this be beyond my power and though I cannot shew you your great and wonderfull things that every eye here must shortly see yet I come not to you without a glass of Gods own making and in that glass you may see them There if you have but an eye of Faith you may see that God that you have so long offended and that now so earnestly inviteth you to return There you may see that Crucified Christ that hath opened you a way for Repentance by his Blood and pleadeth that Blood with you for the melting of your impenitent obstinate hearts There you may see the odious face of sinne and the amiable face of Holiness which is the Image of God There you may see both Heaven and Hell for all that they are invisible and may know what will be and that to all Eternity as well as what is And will not such a sight in the glass of Gods Word serve turn to move thee presently to give up the trade of sinning and to Resolve before thou stir for God I