occulta even your secret sins que sunt contra duo ultima decalogi praecepta Nay those which are committed against the two last commandments circumstancias yea and all the circumstances of your sins this is the confession which the Church of Rome in the Trent Council doth injoin upon pain of Anathema to be made unto the Priest Sess 14. Can. 7. but without any warrant from the Scripture or averment from true Antiquity for Scripture assures us that confession of sin made to God alone obtained remission of sins and favour Psal 32. 5. I said I will confess my sins unto the Lord and thou forgavest the iniquity of my sin Lo here confession to God alone not to a Priest and upon it remission of sins by God himself dares any Popish Priest reverse this absolution or confession because not made to man which yet is accepted with God Saint Chrysostome speaks strange words Let Tom. 5. Hom. de paenit confess Lat. â—d Bas an 1 558. God onely see thee confessing And again upon Hob. 12. Hom. 31. 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Reveal thy way unto the Lord 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Confess them before God and again 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Confess thy sins before thy Judge and Saint Austins tongue needs to be clipped Quid mihi cum hominibus ut audiant confessiones nostras Conf. lib 10. cap. 13. quasi ipsi sanaturi sint omnes languores meas What have I to do with men that they should hear my confessions as though they could heal all my diseases Saint Basil saith that the groans of his In Psal 37. heart did suffice for a Confession Surely here was no absolute necessity to confess all to the Priest but yet again observe there is a use of Confession in case of 1. Injury 2. Anxiety 3. Scandal to the Church as in the next particular 2. Christian and prudential Confession and this is the acknowledging Christian and prudential of sins to men either in case of notorious scandal which the primitive Churches much urged and used or else in case of trouble and thus we deny not but any person may lawfully and warrantably go unto a faithful godly skilful compassionate Minister and confess his sins either to obtain counsel out of the Word of God for the remedy of sins to recover or prevent them or to be imformed aright concerning his present estate or to have his conscience quieted and settled 3. Penitential which is made onely to God this the Scripture Penitential to God doth command and this wee hold as absolutely necessary when wee do repent then to make confession of our sins to God Penitential confession considered In respect of the material part onely or Secondly This penitential confession may be considered either in respect of the material part onely and so it consists of words whereby we acknowledge wherein we have transgressed Hos 4. ver 1 2. Or of the formal part also and thus it conteins these Of the formal also ingredients which specifie and distâ—nguish it from all superstitious or hypocritical or false confessions 1. It is an hearty acknowledgment noâ— nuda confessio feigned And so it is or meerly verbal confession It is affectionate the lips do uâ—ter An hearty acknowledgment the mind of the heart in it cum sensu peccati miseriae as a sick man opens his disease here I feel it c. The publican smote upon his breast and confessed True confession is the language of the very soul being very sensible of sin 2. It is voluntary not coacta confessio the Thief may confess upon the rack though And voluntary there were no wrath in God no rack in conscience no flames in hell yet the true penitent will confess When there is no other cause of confession of sin but that which is penal it is not then truly penitential Pharaoh confessed under the plagues and Judas under the stings of conscience it was an extorted confession but penitential confession is voluntary it is an act that ariseth from an inward displicence with and detestation of sin though there be no apprehension of hell no sense of wrath yet the penitent confesseth even to a Father I have sinned Many of the Saints did I shut up in prison and when they were put to death I gave my voice against them I punished them oft in every Synagogue Acts 26. 10 11. 3. It is distinct and not confused the penitent hath special bills of inditement he knows his sins and And distinct wherein he hath exceeded and failed such sins as he hath most delighted in such as he hath most walked in such as he hath most dishonoured God by such as cleave most unto his nature such as conscience may be most clogged with these he doth more especially confess unto God and indite and condemn himself for small sins as well as great Sauls lap as well as Vriahs murther antient sins as well as present secret sins as well as open But must our confession of sins be particular Sol. Either explicitly so or virtually so the heart hath a particular intention or affection the more particular the better to humble our hearts to obtein mercies to make us fervent As David though hee did give a touch at all his sins in the beginning of the 51 Psalm yet at length brancheth his confession into particulars into that of Adultery and the other of Blood So doth Paul often uncover his special sins of Persecuting the Church and Blaspheming and of Injuriousness Judas cryed out of Blood but not of Covetousâ—ess and Hypocrisie 4. It is Humble and not And Humble proud as Benhadads servants with ropes c. done with Contrition of Heart not with Ostentation of Spirit Like a flash of Lightning breaks out of a cloud rented and Josephs garment was shewed to his father rent and dipt in blood Anciently when they did confess their sins to God they did it with Sackâ—loth and Ashes and the opening of their sins is termed The pouring out of water before the Lord I am vile Job 40. 4. Not worthy c. Luke 15. because when they pâ—ured out their sins in confession of Tongue they likewise poured out contrition of Heart their tears of Grief spake as much as the words of their Lips I will declare mine Iniquities and be sorry for my sin Psal 38. The Papists indeed have as course a Garment and as severe a Garb in penitential confession as any but underneath they have dainty Linnen there lies great pride under all this pretended Humiliation as if all this did merit at the hands of God the Voice is humble Jacob's but the pride upon the act is proud Esau's If they saw the wrong which they did by sinning how could they so proudly challenge God upon their confessing what doth the murtherer deserve because he confesseth But truly Penitential Confession is accompanied with grief in the heart and with
c. At a Funeral Feast there is no mirth because the Master of the house is dead Ah weep over thy Father over thy Son the Master of the house is dead his precious soul is dead Thy pity can do a dead body no good but it may do a dead soul some good especially if you take in the next Duty which is 3. Pray for the dead I mean not in the Popish sense they Pray for the Dead you know pray for souls departed supposing them to be in Purgatory where the pains as they say are intollerable equal to them in Hell and the souls are deprived of the vision of God and therefore their Priests and others often pray for them and upon the Graves they inscribe Pray for the soul of such a one and on his soul Jesu have mercy But this is a wicked superstition We acknowledge no Purgatory and no need of Prayers for souls departed yet we hold Prayers requisite for one another whiles we are upon the earth And because some are dead whiles they live O pray to the Lord for them Lord Jesu have mercy upon the soul of my Husband Child Wife O convert them quicken them from the dead suffer them not their poor souls to die for ever When Steven was to die he prayed for those that were spiritually dead When Christ was dying he also prayed for them And Monica the Mother of Austin prayed for him and all of them were heard Object But I have prayed but yet no good comes of it Sol. Pray still as long as there is life and as long as there is prayer there is hope It will be an excellent comfort to thee and eternal happiness to thy friend if thou canst at length by thy prayers prevail with God to deliver that one soul from death Use the means by wâ—ich you may be quickned 4. If the Lord hath opened any of your eyes but to see what your spiritual condition is that you are yet in your graves yet dead in treâ—passes and sâ—â—s my advice unto you is this Go use the means by which your dead souls may be quickned Object Why but this is ridiculous to bid a dead man do work go stir do any thing Sol. I answer 1. There is a difference twixt a man corporally dead and a man spiritually dead The former can do no action whatsoever neither spiritual nor civil nor natural the latter though he can do nothing in spirituals yet for the other he may and can 2. You must distinguish twixt a spiritual action and an action which brings to a spiritual means He cannot convert his own heart yet he hath power to hear the Word which can 'T is true that a wicked unconverted man cannot exert any one spiritual action nevertheless he hath liberty and power to go to Church and hear a Sermon Why use this power and this liberty to come to the Pool where the Angel stirs to come to the Ordinances where God is pleased to quicken and raise the dead 3. When thou art under a spiritual Ordinance thou art under the voice of Christ himself who hath said That the dead shall hear the voice of the Son of God and live And truly let me tell thee That the Voice of Jesus Christ in his Word hath not only a power to find a lost man but also to quicken a dead man I have finished the first Proposition out of these words viz. Luk. 15. 24. That the unconverted man is a dead man I now proceed to the second which is this That every converted man is a living man When the sinner Doct. 2. Every converted man is a living man is converted he is then made alive Conversion is a Sinners Life So the Text This my son is alive again It is reported of Similis Captain of the Guard to the Emperour Adrian that he retired from the Court into the Countrey seven years before his death and caused this to be written on his Tomb Hiâ— jacet Similis cuâ—us aet as multoruâ— annorum â—uit ipse septem duntaxat annos vixit For so many years only was he converted We count the length of our lives from the time of our birth and we must count the life of our souls from the time of our new birth said Hierom. It is frequent in Scripture to stile converted persons living persons or persons made alive Rom. 6. 13. Yield your selves unto God as those that are alive from the dead Chap. 8. v. 10. If Christ be in you the spirit is life because of righteousness Gal. 2. 20. I live saith Paul Col. 2. 13. You who were dead in your sins hath he quickned For the advantagious discussion of this Point I shall briefly open unto you 1. What Life that is which the converted sinner attains unto 2. How it may appear that he is invested with such a Life and why 3. Then the useful Application of all this unto our selves 1. What Life that is wherewith the converted man is invested What is the life of a converted sinner A four-fold life Natural Sol. I speak only of that Life incident unto man which is four-fold 1. Life natural which is a power to move and act I count not my life dear unto me said Paul Act. 20. 24. All that a man hath he will give for his life Job 1. This is the Life of Nature and every man good or bad enjoys it 2. Life connatural which is a prosperous fruition of our Lives Life connatural with peace contentment and comfortable successes in the external matters and affairs of our life This also is possibly incident to all sorts of men 3. Preternatural which is a death Preternatural rather than a life A sinfull life a life acted under the power and motion of sinfull lusts I was alive once said Paul Rom. 7. In this respect wicked and ungodly men only are alive 4. Supernatural Supernatural a divine life a new life a life in Christ and from Christ and to Christ Of which there are two parts and they are proper only to converted persons 1. There is the Life of Grace which they enjoy in this world 2. There is the Life of Glory which they enjoy in the world to come called often in Scripture eternal life The Text speaks of the first of these The The life of Grace is The life of Justification converted sinner is invested with the Life of Grace And this again is branched into the life of 1. Justification for when a sinner is justified he is then in the condition of life The unjustified man is a dead man for he lies under the sentence of death and the justified man is a living man he is passed from death to life the Lord takes off the sentence of eternal death from him He shall not die for the sins which he hath committed for I have pardoned all his sins and now he shall live and not die saith the Lord. 2. Sanctification
but the real cause of his sinning is his own will for he loves Darkness rather then Light and had rather serve his Lusts then God he makes choice of them before God as the multitude did of Barrabas before Christ and when Life and Death God and Sin are propounded yea and that with the true rewards from the one and severe wrath from the other yet he like Issachar bowes down under the burthen and loves rest he had rather go on in his sins and will not leave them And therefore we alone are guilty of our own bloud God is innocent as well as just our condemnation is but a due guerdon or paiment for our own voluntary departings from God A third moral Observation is this that The pleasures of sinning will quickly end and the end of them is extreme misery The Prodigal Doct. 3. The pleasures of sin will quickly end in misery here will be gone he must have pleasure his Fathers house was too strict well he begins his â—iotous living but then you read that he quickly consumed and wasted all his substance and brought himself into such extreme necessities that he became a servant to the swine and fain would have fed his belly with the husks which they left but none gave unto him This point I intend more fully to press which contains in it two branches 1. That the pleasures of sinning are but short 2. That though delights and pleasures begin a sinfull course yet extreme necessity and misery or streights do end it 1. The pleasures and delights of sinning are but short The riotous life of the Prodigal was a present consumption of his estate The pleasures of sin are but short The pleasure of sin is like a Candle which in the very burning and lighting burns and consumes away It is in Scripture compared to the crackling of thorns which is but a speedy blaze and to the Lightning which is but a glance and a flash and away and to a season the pleasures of sin for a season Heb. 11. which is a very inch of time a 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 a little article of time for though time be long yet a season is but a short space In Job the pleasure of sin is compared to a sweet morsel a morsel is no great quantity and though it be sweet yet it slips quickly away from the tongue and palate And the Apostle compares it to a bait wherewith a fish is taken the fish looks on and nibbles a little and takes it down and then away goes the bait Cain pleased himself a while but not long for the sin of murther presently pursued and cried against him And Adam before him had but one taste of the forbidden tree it quickly set his teeth on edge Gehazi's gold and garments and Achan's wedge as they were stoln waters and though sweet yet short So was it with Ahab he got Naboths vineyard sinfully but he scarce ever enjoyed it he met with a mighty curse from God presently upon him But here observe that the pleasures of sin may be said to be In respect of estimation short 1. In respect of estimation when the hearts of men judge of them as false unlawfull and short Thus Moses esteemed of them and therefore refused the pleasures of sin which were but for a season 2. In respect of duration For if Life itself be not long In respect of duration the pleasures of sin must needs be short It is true that as long as the impenitent soul hath a being the guilt of his sin shall have a being and consistence in the soul but at the utmost sinful pleasures extend not beyond our life their date then of necessity must be expired though usually they are extinguished or interrupted before and life is a very short tale hour moment 3. In comparison In comparison with eternity with eternity though a man should live in the pleasures of sin 20 40 60 years yet what is that space of time to an eternity of sorrows and bitterness Compare the longest time with eternity it is scarce a considerable moment But you may demand Why should the pleasures of sin be so short Sol. Nay Reasons of it you might rather demand Why they should be at all for indeed real pleasure cannot arise out of sinful acts yet a carnal and sensual pleasure there is which is nevertheless short Because 1. Sin is never so pleasant but it breeds that which is Sin is never so pleasant but it breeds that which is unpleasant unpleasant nay the more pleasure we find in it the more displeasure it works like a draught of beer which the more fully and pleasantly drops down the more danger is added to the patient So is it with sin it seems a delightful thing to you to follow your lusts your evil waies but the more you sin the more you increase your guilt and guilt is but a sword to cut the throat of your sinful pleasures It is like sweet poison which goes down easily and delightfully but it will suddenly disturb and crack the body 2. God hath cursed the waies of sin and therefore though they God hath cursed the ways of sin seem pleasant for a while yet that shall not be long he hath hedged it with thorns threatned all evil miserable and judicial evil against it And look as when a good man earnestly presses God upon his promises his sorrowes shall not stay long but sighs and tears shall flie away So when a wicked man provoketh God by his sinnings his pleasures shall be short for the Lord will perform his threatnings against him 3. The pleasures of sin must necessarily be short because conscience Conscience cannot be long quiet cannot be long quiet If you should wound and wound a man he will begin to feel and to complain even your pleasant sinnings are the most grievous woundings of conscience and conscience will not bear it will awake with blood trickling and will be revenged of you with most bitter expostulations severe accusations unsufferable gnawings and then where are the pleasures of your sins Who can stand before envy said Solomon so against conscience the wounds thereof yea and her woundings by it who can bear thy delights will sink and flie off yea thy heart will fail thee utterly when conscience ariseth to accuse and condemn thy sinful pleasures 4. They raise up manifold afflictions and calamities which shorten our pleasures and delights They raise up manifold afflictions But I proceed to the opening of the second branch viz. the endings of sin That though a sinful course may begin in many Sin will end in many miseries pleasures yet it shall end in many miseries extremities and straits There are diverse sorts of ending of things some end by way of annihilation as the souls of the beasts they shall cease to be they are resolved into nothing some end by way of perfection as the souls and waies of
holy men Glory and Salvation is their end some end by way of corruption as when the beauty of a thing is marred or a goodly body is turned and ends in a loathsome carkass or sweet Wine turns to sharp Vineger After this manner doth sin end or a sinful course end as it was with the day in which Sodom was destroied it began with the pleasant light of the Sun but it ended in fire and brimstone Thus was it with those sinners their delightful flames of lust ended in horrid flames of Vengeance There are two sorts of sorrow and trouble one Penitential and the other Judicial one of these sin must end in Achans wedge pleased his eie but it lost his life Ahabs desire was satisfied to get Naboths Vineyard but his blood paid for it in the portion of Jezreel Gehazi obteined the garments and talents and at the end a Leprosie to his dying day Judas gets favour with the chief Priests and money to betray his Master but he got horrour of conscience final despair and damnation for his treachery The young man in the Proverbs is inticed with the filthy flattery of the Prov. 7. 17. Whore her bed was perfumed with Myrrhe but her house is the way to hell going down to the chambers of death those chambers 17. of delight prove chambers of death But to open this in some particulars Quest 1. To what extreme miseries and streits may sin bring the sinner Sol. 1. To those of Body sin may be rottenness of his bones and may infect him with the most nasty irking painful diseases Miseries of body that he shall have no rest in his flesh it may so poison his marrow inflame his spirits corrupt his humors that many times the body which was the instrument of sin proves to be the great torment of the sinner 2. To those of Estate sinning may eat out a goodly estate as the worm which is gnawing at the root of Oâ— estate a tree disrobes it disflourishes it pines and shrivels it though a man hath quick parts ample dealings yet if he has secret waies of sinning his sins will blast him they will be as the Moth which eats out the garment or as the canker to the brass or iron How many by such such sinnings are quickly stript laid low brought to a morsel of bread and are cloathed in rags as the Prodigal here in the tex wasted himself out of all 3. To those of Name Of name which is one of the three precious and tender things viz. a mans Eye a mans Conscience and a mans Name This is a precious Fama Fides Oculus ointment a mans life is as his name is yet sinning casts a flie into that ointment a blur upon that copie it procures reproach and shame an hissing a Proverb a by-word an odious name a name that shall perish 4. To those of Conscience which are Of conscience streits indeed so that a man is almost distracted knows not which way to turn himself either to God or man day nor night is weary of life and yet afraid to die he fears God he fears man he fears himself he fears the shadows of things 5. To those of the imagining and thinking part of man a mans heart shall do nothing Of the imagiâ—ing and thinking part of man but meditate terrour apprehend guilt see the formâ— of bitter sinnings and the Idea's of infinite wrath kindling from God against him so that he shall be still amazed at the representation of his former sinnings or at the expectation of future judgments 6. To those of the affecting part all his aâ—fections shall rise up as a tumult Of the affecting part within him burthens of cruel fear tremblings of a fainting grief and thick throws of hopeless despair Quest 2. But why is it that sins or sinful courses end in such extreme miseries and streits Sol. Reasons thereof are many Reasons of it 1. Because though the beginning of sin be from a deceived heart yet The ending of sin is from a just God the ending of sin is from a just God The corrupt heart begins sin deluded thereto by sinful pleasure but God puts a period to the sin in just judgment in wrath and tribulation upon every soul that does evil What we conceive about sin is one thing and what God will do to the sinner is another thing we make it sweet but God will make it bitter at the latter end The intentional way of theft is with delight but the judicial end of theft is death so Finis 1. â—peris 2. operantis is it in all sinnings the intention of the sinner is to please his own corrupt heart but the judicial end of it which belongs to God he being the righteous Judg offended is misery 2. The true effects of sin must be made manifest Men would not The â—rue 〈◊〉 of sin must be made manifâ—st onely question the Righteousness of God but the unlawfulness of sin if sinning should end peaceably Well might they say with him I have cleansed my heart in vain if sin should end in peace and blessing but God by this dolefull Catastrophe of sin doth convince man that sin deceives them while it pretends so much pleasure delight contentment and at length repays them with shame loss horrour and despair 3. Hereby men should learn To put a difference betwixt them that fear God and that fear him not that there is a difference twixt them who fear God and such as fear him not For indeed in this among many other things do godly ways and the ungodly differ The Godly begin oft times in sorrow in trouble but the end of them is peace at the last we see and meet with the worst of our journey at the first as the Israelites did with the Wilderness and Sea but they came to Canaan at length but the Ungodly ways yield their best at first their vanity delights like painted colours fall off and their worst is hidden and appears at last Alas thou doest not imagine that hell which thy sinnings are kindlings or that sword which it is unsheathing or that death which it is breeding or that horrour which it is maing within thee against thee these are now hid from thy eyes but yet they are the end of thy sinnings I now come to the application of this point Is the entrance of sin pleasant and is that pleasure but short and ends that pleasure Vse in miserable extremity then 1. for 1. Information We may hence be informed That all things are not right and safe which yet are pleasant The ways of a man Information All things are not safe which yet are pleasant seem right in his own eyes said Solomon and the motives of sin seem pleasant to our corrupt hearts yet sinfull ways are false and sinfull pleasures are nought and short The first demand of any in point of opinion should be how
to take heed of sinning though mixt with pleasures and delights Consider these motives Motives 1. What thing that is wherein thou doest take pleasure Why What is that wherein thoâ— doest take pleasure what is it O man that hath enticed thee and what is it O man which in thee is so enticed It is sin that hath enticed thee and it is thy soul which is thus enticed by sin Sin enticeth thee then which no evil is worse thy soul is enticed then which no part in thee is so precious And wilt thou adventure that precious soul that immortal soul which must live for ever wilt thou adventure it for a sin for one draught of sinfull pleasure Wouldest thou adventure all thy earthly estate for one draught of Beer as Esau did his for one mess of pottage Thou wouldest not Yet wilt thou adventure the eternal being of thy soul for one minutes pleasure of sin Though thy sins be pleasant in thine eyes yet they are odious in Gods sight though thy sins do delight thee yet they do grieve him they do incense and provoke him Hast thou nothing to take pleasure in but that which provokes thy God and will damn thy soâ—l 2. Thou mayest enjoy thy pleasures without sin Hast thou not Thou mayest enjoy thy pleasures without sin a Wife to delight thee an Husband Children many outward comforts not a God not a Promise not a Christ that thou longest onely for forbidden fruit 3. Is sin a thing to take pleasure in did it not shed the bloud of Is sin a thing to take pleasure in Christ doth it not break a righteous Law transgress an holy Will grieve the Spirit of God cast the clouds of threatnings over our heads bring down all our Judgements on body kindle our terrours in Conscience heap up all our wrath against the day of wrath is this the thing of thy pleasure call you this a delight If one should say unto thee Be drunk commit filthiness and within an hour after thy whole body shall be roasted in a fire or thy skin shall be flead off thee or every bone in thy body should be distinctly broken in pieces wouldst thou now sin And what are these punishments to sins themselves and what are these punishments to those of Conscience or to that of Hell 4. God can easily shorten thy pleasures of sin and he hath many God can easily shorten thy pleasures of siâ— waies to do it First Is not his Word of mighty power is it not a discerner of the thoughts and intentions of the heart can it not divide twixt the marrow and the joint Is it not a light and a fire Is it not the sword of God a two-edged sword able to pierce and that with quickness and that with sharpness Or Secondly if yet thou be able to maintein thy sins and by the strength of sensual pleasures to beat off the purest convictions and revelations and pursuits of the Word cannot the Spirit of God drive home the sharp displeasure of God cannot he break through the midst of all thy resolutions and delights and so enter into thy conscience can he not in a moment awaken that drouzie conscience can he not inliven that seared conscience can he not injoin it to stand up and act its accusing power when he hath irresistably inlightned it and set the great sins of thy delight before thee and when conscience is deeply wounded where then are all thy pleasures O it will be as bitter then unto thee as hell the wrath of God felt and the guilt of sin felt and the terrors of Conscience felt O how will they drown thy pleasures sink thy spirits and if God be not the more merciful confound thy soul Yet this God can do and he can easily do it if he saith but the word My wrath be upon him Conâ—cieâ—ce arise and accuse him it is done and then where are thy dâ—lights Those sins of thine unto which thou hast been enâ—iced by a little false pleasures even they alone shall rise up and be the sufficient punishment for all their pleasures Or Thirdly He can shorten thy pleasures by many Judgements he can lay such a disease upon thy body or such a loss on thy estate or such a rottenness on thy name or such a vexation upon thy spirit or such a madness in thy mind or such a cross in thy delight that thou shalt find no more pleasure in any thing Or Fourthly Can he not send forth the King of Fears that which thou least thinkest of and which will make thy joynts to tremble Death it self upon thee Hath not He the Keys of Life and Death and when life is gone where then are the pleasures of thy sin Sin makes way for death and death to a wicked man though it makes not an end of his sinning yet it makes a full end of the pleasures of sinning thou shalt never rejoyce in the way of thy wickedness more thou shalt never taste delight more neither lawfull delight nor unlawfull delight And cannot God do this suddenly and art thou able to withstand him art thou greater then he 5. Thy pleasures of sin will end in bitterness Read the Scripture Thy pleasures of sin will end in bitterness see whether it be not so and I beseech thee tell me hast thou not found it so already canst thou not say That thy sin hath been an evil thing and bitter Canst thou not say What fruit have I in those things whereof I am now ashamed Two things remember There is a certainty of bitterness for former sinnings Eccl. 11. 9. Rejoyce O young man in thy youth and let thy heart chear thee in the days of thy youth and walk in the ways of thy heart and in the sight of thine eyes but know thou that for all these things God will bring thee into judgment 2. Thou knowest not the manner of that bitterness The sinning that is thy work but the punishing of thy sins that is Gods work thou hast taken the pleasures which sin delivered unto thee and thou must now take the bitterness which God will inflict on thee And canst thou tell 1. When the Lord will begin to account with How sudden thee either to night or to morrow thou art not secure a moment Secondly How the Lord will begin with thee whether How great in thy body or in thy soul or in both in conscience or estate Thirdly How far the Lord will extend the cup unto thee perhaps How endless it shall be in thy hand a cup of fury and trembling and amazing horrour and whether he will have thee to drink to the lowest dregs of his wrath how knowest thou This bitterness after thy pleasures may be purely judicial which shall not be tempered with any comfort nor yet at all with the hope of any mercy it may be an endless displeasure from God Object Yea but we mean to repent hereafter and so we
often an eye-salve than an heart-salve they may be a qualm to bring sin to sence when yet they are not a potion to bring off the sinner from wandring 3. Again twixt impediment to sin and twixt amendment of sin Impediment to sin and amendment of sin Miseries and straits may be a Dam to stop the Current when yet they are not like the Prophets salt effectual to heal the waters A Lock may stop a Thief but not alter him When the the Prophet Eliah met Ahab with a sharp message about Naboth's bloâ—d and Vineyard it made him go softly it cooled his spirit but did not change it Miseries more ordinarily for the present make men less forward and bold in sin as Jupiter's Log did quash the noise of the Frogs when yet they make them not so good as to turn them from sin They do like a shower of rain and hail make the Traveller to stand a while under the Tree who yet intends to hold on his journey again 4. Again twixt Declamation and Declination A sinner under misery may play the Oratour and yet never prove the Penitentiary Declamation ' and Declination he may both indite and accuse the sin which yet by no means he intends to condemn and execute It is one thing to confess that my sins do now hold me in bonds of affliction and thereupon to profess a discharge of such inmates and it is another thing really to repent and to forsake those sins yea the very those which a man more then suspects as patrons of his misery So that straits may bring sin to sight and the sinner to a stand and to a confession yet not always to repentance and to conversion which is true This is true 1. Of inward straits those manacling and severe fetters of conscience to which no distresses are comparable The boylings of Of Inward straits conscience may be but like the boylings of the Sea a person may have many guilts fretting there like a Leprosie and gnawing there like death and flaming there like hell it self and yet not be brought off from sin As Judas who betrayed his Master O think of that sin and fell into quick horrours of conscience and these cured him not but he proceeded to despair and then to self-murther 2. Of outward straits which do never come without cause but many times go off without remedy they may in all the sorts of Of Outwardâ— straits them say oft times as they did of Babylon We would have healed Babylon and she would not be healed They find us evil and they leave us worse as we do our friends upon their dying-beds Ye revolt more and more why should ye be smitten any more Isa 1. 5. This is evident in Pharaoh whose hardnings increased like the iron with the stroaks Or like the Snake which Salvian spake did multiply by occision It was no better with Saul and Ahab nor with that King Ahaz who is blackt and fingred out amongst all the Kings of Judah because he sought not to the Lord in his distress but trespassed yet more against the Lord This is that King Ahaz 2 Chron. 28. 22. Thus it was with the Israelites many a time who felt the scourage but mended not their work but with bleeding shoulders oft times went away to sin and no sooner were the Assizes past but they adventured the way to the prison again If you now demand the Reasons why straits or miseries do not Reasons of it always bring men off from sins I answer 1. Because that onely true Grace is it which brings men off from sins Afflictions may be considered two ways either immediately Onely true grace brings men off from sin and solitarily so they are not forcible to bring any man oâ—f from his sinfull course no punishment whatsoever is an immediate Agent and sufficient to turn a sinner Mediately and concomitantly as they are sanctified i. either as they light upon an heart sanctified or as sanctifying Grace with them or by them is wrought in the soul and so they may bring off the heart from sin not the naked afflictions but grace in the heart afflicted turns the heart for nothing turns the heart from sin buâ— that which is contrary unto sin now though miseries are contrary to the sinner yet not to the sin they are contrary to the sinners ease and way but not to the affection and delight of sin which may and oft times doth live and remain even under extreme miseries Now then many men are in miseries by reason of sin yet they turn not from sin because they want true grace by the strength of which alone men come off from sin for that it is which changeth the sinfull heart You know that Physick ordinarily works as the body is into which it is received there must be some strength of nature to help it else it will not work the Philosophers rule being true Quicquid recipitur recipitur ad modum recipientis The heat which melts the wax hardens the clay and the juice which goes into the Rose makes it sweet but that which goes into the Nettle makes it stink so it is with miseries they work as he is on whom they fall if true grace be not in the heart what good use can an evil heart make of them 2. Secondly Because straits and miseries are sometimes meerly judicial onely the strokes of revenging Justice You know that Straits are somtimes meerly judicial there is a great deal of difference 'twixt a whip which causeth smart and a plaister which causeth healing All miseries which befall us are not healing plaisters sometimes they are judicial lashes they are not the wounds of a friend but of an enemy God is said in Job to distribute sorrows in wrath and then they are not remedial effects but exitial they come not then with their teaching and recovering assistance but are the beginnings of a greater judgment yet to come You know that God plagued Pharaoh in a judicial way the miseries which befel him were as sharp and great and many and came as thick as most that ever befel any man of whom we ever read nevertheless they were so far from reclaiming of him from his sins that still he hardned his heart and exalted himself If you should demand why it should be thus with him that no not quick nor great nor many plagues did him any good I answer One cause amongst many is this Because they came onely in a judicial way they did not come out of the hand of a mercifull Father but of a provoked and revenging Judge If there be not grace in the heart to joyn with and to improve the affliction and if there be not mercy to send out and bless the affliction it will then never do us good it will not turn us from our Sins 3. Thirdly The Heart of a Sinner may be above his miseries There is not such a power in miseries alone as to
deep which no Potion can remove and sin doth not sit close and strong to the heart which no not extreme miseries can occasionally and effectually discharge and quit There are no penalties so grievously and unspeakably afflicting and miserable as those in Hell which cause weeping and gnashing of teeth and yet these though highest for intention and endless for duration never are able to turn the sinning soul so madly and excessively is the person enthralled that the greatest Calamities effectually avail not to bring him off from the least course of Iniquities 3. Not to wonder if some men make ordinary Revolts after ordinary miseries Some persons may like some stones which Wonder not if â—ome men Revolt after miseries yield a sweat in change of weather somewhat reflect on themselves and relent and confess and profess what they will be and do if God will take off his heavy hand And may I not appeal to many of you this day whose hearts have been visited with the plague that thus then it was with you c. Yet when the plague is off and the smart and fear gone the bitterness of death is past that health succeeds the sickness and plenty succeeds the want and strength succeeds the weakness good Lord what are they how live they what do they what mind they what affect they what work they Do they leave their sins ah as the Pharisees made their proselites twice as much more the children of the Devil then before so these men become more vile more profane more careless more rebellious against the truth of God more earthly sensual then ever Brethren if as Solomon spake in another case When thou seest a violent perverting of judgment and justice in a Province marvel not at the matter So Eccl. 5. 8. if thou seest a man to pervert the judgments of the Lord to pervert his afflicting hand to go on in his sins after he is punished for his sins I say in this case do not much marvel at the matter for miseries alone cannot make any saving impression or sanctified alterations If men may hold fast their sins even under their miseries as a Thief may steal under the Gallows what marvel then if they go on in their sins after their miseries And what cause have we to think that any pious semblances and pretences should hold long which did owe themselves to such temporary causes as were never able to alter the sinners heart though they were in some degree able to stop the sinning person But I proceed to a second Use which shall be a little to reflect on our own hearts and wayes and to enquire how it is with us Use 2. Reflect upon our own hearts notwithstanding the miseries and straits that are upon us as Solomon spake concerning sin Who can say My heart is clean that I may speak this day concerning punishment of sin Who can say I have been free As it was in Egypt upon the departure of the Israelites so it hath been of late with most of us there is scarce an house of us where at least one hath not been dead I may confidently affirm That either death in opposition to Life or death in opposition to Livelihood to some one kind or degree of outward comfort hath within this year befallen most of us that are now here this day Nevertheless I pray you tell me Can you shew your repentance yet as you can relate your straits and miseries still Have not we the Ministers of God faithfully and plainly told you of your sins have not your miseries and straits been clear Glasses to represent your sins have not your Consciences delivered up your sins and said as Jonah I know that for my sake so they for our sake this great Tempest is upon you Jon. 1. 12. Were you not in great fears in great griefs and troubles of mind need I say in great Protestations and Purposes But now I demand of you Have your great straits brought you off from your great sins did they not find thee in a sinful way and do they not now leave thee walking in that path Ah! and must the Lord say of you They refuse to receive instruction they turn not to him that smites yet have they not returned to me they will know no shame they are reprobate silver they are not refined nor purged their scum is not departed If we continue in sin after miseries wherefore should they be smitten any more they revolt more and more Well if it be thus with thee yet remember 1. That this continuance in sin notwithstanding our miseries may give us just suspicion to sear that our Corrections come not We may suspect our corrections comâ— not from mercy from mercy because they go off with impenitency You need not ascend into heaven to pry whether your chastisements come out of the land of Indulgence or of Vengeance when they come from a merciful hand they are assisted â—â—th some recovering and curing blessing The Prophet saith That the Lord did not smite his people as he smote others and in two respects he Isa 27. 7. manifests the difference one of Proportion He did debate with them in measure ver 8. Another of Operation v. 9. By this shall the iniquities of Jacob be purged and this is all the fruit to take awy his sins God never strikes in mercy but he in some measure betters the sinner Look as every outward good if it comes in mercy it proves a step unto more holiness so every outward misery if it come in mercy it proves a stop nay an abatement of more sinfulness 2. We may justly fear that our hearts are hardned for the soft We may fear our hearts are hardned heart will tremble with Josiah at a correction in a threatning and much more will it melt and amend when it is in execution as he in Job 34. 31. I have born chastisement I will not offend any more But when the heart can feel wrath as well as hear of it and receive the stroaks with stoutness and strike God by sinning when God strikes it by punishing is it not hardned unsensible I had almost said desperace And is an hardned condition a good or safe condition 3. Do we not treble our accounts unto God by not We treble our accounts to God coming off from sins which have brought on our miseries Now we must answer 1. For the sins which brought down our corrections 2. For the continuing in those sins still 3. For doing this being corrected thus for our sins not onely thy sins but Gods punishments being thus abused come into the account the Vineyard was reckoned with for the pruning as well as the withering 4. And lastly What can we look for from God when former miseries bring us not off from former sins Christ said Sin no What can we look for from God when miseries do not bring us off from our sins more least a worse thing befall
thee and will not a worse judgment then attend us for worse sinnings It is with divine punishments as with the messengers of a displeased King who in his name summons us to yield and become loial and if you despise a few messengers they indeed may return but then more and greater are sent perhaps not to parley but to destroy If one punishment brings not off from sin it doth onely go back to fetch a greater and thou canst not tell but that the next messenger may be death itself and then somthing worse then dearh The last use which I will observe from this point is since miseries do not alwaies bring men off from sins therefore to apply Vse 3. Apply our selvs to such waies under our miseries as may bring us off from our sins In general A sanctified heart A sanctified use In particular 〈◊〉 Repentance our selves to such waies and to get those things under our miseries which may bring us off from our sins In the general two things are available hereto 1. A sanctified heart until the heart be sanctified can it possibly break off from sin 2. A sanctified use you must not be sensless nor yet impatient but under every hand of God seek for direction and blessing from God Secondly in particular I conjecture these things mainly conduce 1. Repentance which you know takes into it these branches 1. Serious consideration of the present condition and of the end of present afflictions 2. Solid humiliation 3. Earnest praier 4. Effectual reformation 2. Love of God and more intire communion and delight in him and with him Afflictions will drive you off from Love of God God unless you love him Even a small stroke is enough to mend and bring in a loving child 3. Faith to believe our pardon and acceptance Nothing more avails with the soul to leave the course Faith of sin then when it can be assured if it comes back to God it shall receive the pardon of sin Therefore God generally propounds to his afflicted people an hope of mercy as the great motive to bring them home from sin to himself by true repentance Joel 2 c. All which are wrought by the Spirit of God in the use of the Word and shall be given unto us if under our miseries and straits we do earnestly crie and pray unto the Lord. And he sent him into his fields to feed Swine You have heard of the Prodigals design under his misery to relieve himself he did not return to his father but joined himself to a citizen of a far country Now yee are to hear of the success of this design how much it mended his poor and famished condition viz. nothing at all and that will appear in two particulars One in the basestness of his service That citizen sent him into his fields to feed swine Of all creatures the most nasty and filthy these must he serve and none but these his whole service was to be base and therefore he is sent into the fields to perform it any houshold-service and homeservice though mean had been tolerable Another in the nothingness of his reward or wages he did the basest service and without the least husk of paiment for it follows in vers 16. That he fain would have filled his belly with the husks that the swine did eat and no man gave unto him If he had had any thing afforded either to have nourished or to have procured nourishment though it had been but mean nay the meanest but to have nothing at all for the fordidest service of all yet this was the fruit of his sinful design that he was set upon a most base work and without any profit or relief at all whence I conjecture we may ohserve this Doct. 2. The further men go on in sin the worâ—e work it will prove Here is premised second conclusion That the further men go on in sin the worse work they shall find it to prove You see it a manifest truth here in the Prodigal his sin drew down his penury notwithstanding this he proceeds to his sins and now he is sent to the Swine c. For the better opening of this Assertion premise with me some few particulars 1. A supposition viz. That wicked men do use to go on in sin They are said in Scripture to proceed from evil to worse and to A Supposition Wicked men use to go on in sin add drunkenness to thirst and to fill up the measure of iniquity and to know no shame and to revolt more and more and to grow Worse and worse 2 Tim. 3. 13. therefore is sin in them compared to a Canker which frets from place to place or eats up from part to part and to a fretting Leprosie which diffuseth it self 1 Tim. 2. 17. Levit. 13. 8. 1 Kin. 8. 38. 1 Cor. 5. 6. from a lesser to a larger compass and to a Plague which by degrees seizeth on all the spirits and to Leaven which spreads over all the lump And this is verified of them every way whether they live in ease or live in misery prosperity and ease do but flesh them the more adversiâ—y and punishments do not turn them at all smiles or frowns word or rod mercy or misery neither of them do alter but after both they yet put forth they will lanch further As he in the Proverbs concerning his Wine When I shall awake I will seek it yet again that may be said of evil men though they have felt many a smart blow from God for Prov. 23. 35. theâ—r sinnings already yet they will look back to this trade again they will still deal unjustly What David spake in another case they will fully act in this of Sin I will be yet more vile 2. A Posiâ—ion which is this Though after punishment they will be progressive in sin yet they shall never be successfull in sin A Position Tâ—ough after puâ—ishment men be progressive in sin yet they shall never be successfull They may renew their work but they shall never amend their wages they may set up again but they shall break again if they after so great a shaking will build upon the same foundation they shall find their future labours to end in the same ruine Nay that 's not all but as Joshuah's curse upon the man who should again build the City Jericho was that He should lay the foundation thereof in his first-born and in his youngest son he set up the gates of it Jos 6. 26. So will it prove to the person whose sins God did strive to demolish and overthrow by former punishments if he again will presume to set up the gates of them recover them to their strength by future love and further progress he shall be so far from being hereby more successfull that his condition doth become more fearfull he doth lay his foundation again in the ruine of his soul and shall build up the gates with
or last they shall know that it shall not be well with the wicked and that between a former punishment and a greater there may step in many mercies as twixt the fits of a Fever some real slumbers and pauses Now I proceed to the Application of this Point which shall be for Conviction 1. Of the vanity and deluding presumption Vse Conviction of The vanity and deluding presumption of the sinner in the heart of sinners who imagine that worse they cannot be and as much misery is befallen them as can be and therefore they will on to their sins again Let us not deceive our selves that God with whom we are to deal is of infinite power and wrath and the conscience of a guilty sinner is capable of infinitely many miserable impressions The Bee may leave her sting in the flesh and so be disabled c. Therefore let no man say as Agag Surely the bitterness of death is past you know Samuel presently hewed him in pieces before the Lord in Giâ—gal Alas thou knowest not the wrath which is yet behind God doth never fully manifest his wrath upon any sinner in this life nor doth he punish him so in any kind but that a greater judgement a worse thing as Christ spake to him in the Gospel may yet befal him Consider that as greater judgments are yet behind all the punishments which we have felt so it is Gods method to begin low but to end his work of Judgement heavily he doth by some lighter afflictions skirmish with a person or a Nation and if they yield not then he will bring the great Army of his Plagues and Judgements And again know that multiplication of sins is a just cause for the addition of Judgements Renewed sinnings are alwayes the more hainous and strong in deserts but renewed sinnings after punishment for sin are yet of a deeper dye because They relish much of Presumption though God hath already testified his displeasure yet the sinner will adventure on his wrath and provoke him again They receive universal condemnation the sinner now sins against all the waies of recovery the Word of God which called upon him to be wise and to receive instruction and to return unto him that smote The punishment or rod which did tender him the sins which brought this upon his back The mercy of God which drew off the wrath and though it might have been a destroying sword at once that destruction should not have risen up the second time yet it so wrought with the master that he would try the sinner yet a little longer thou mightst have been among the dead yea among the damned for thy former sinnings yet mercy hath so tempered justice that time is left thee to repent and this space thou abusest to sin again yea though justice met with thee for them already yea though mercy released thee yet a little longer yea though thou didst confess these sins yea though thou wert greatly troubled for these sins yea though thou didst resolve against these sins and if thou thus sinnest more will not thy punishment be greater Doth not God hate sins now as well as then Or if thou be greater in transgressions will he be less in justice Canst thou expect mercy should come more easily when sin is raised more deeply He that being often reproved hardneth his neck saith Solomon Prov. 29. 1. shall suddenly be destroied and that without remedy The same may be affirmed of being punished usually perseverance in sin after punishment brings a sudden and a sore destruction God hath many arrows which flie over the heads and after that hee hath arrows to wound the hearts of his enemies You know that there be not onely warning-pieces but murdering-pieces in the roial artillery The punishment which a man hath already felt for his sins are but so many warning-pieces to repent to return from sin but if men will harden their hearts there are murdering-pieces God can so deeply strike that destruction shall not rise up the second time 2. The second conviction shall be of Duty If the further Conviction of duty men go on in sin the worse rhey shall speed then let us learn a double duty 1. To avoid such things as will occasion a further progress in sin after punishment 2. To apply our selves to such Avoid waies as may take us off from sinning being punished 1. Vitanda The things which we must avoid as occasioning a further progress in sin are these 1. Ignorant Misconstruction as if Gods Ignorant misconstruction arrows did flye out as his who shot at an adventure and lighted on Ahab so that our punishments are but meer casual things naked acts but no lessons Nay brethren if we had but an ear to hear every affliction and punishment hath a voice to speak this may be said of every punishment what Ehud said to â—glon I have a message unto thee from God 2. Atheistical pride as Pharaoh who is the Lord that I should let Israel go When a Atheistical pride person will exalt himself in the times of wrath and will not tremble nor fear before the Lord but slights the operation of his hands and for all this will not lay to heart the hand of God alas this makes way for sinning 3. Froward Impatience when persons are sensible of punishment but vex against God who strikes so close yea and like that Froward impatience King in the strait This evil is of the Lord why should I wait on the Lord any longer When men will forsake God because hee doth punish them this is a further sin and makes way for more sinning The soul which is most apt through a murmuring impatience to question God will be apt through a presumptuous confidence to sin against God in the dead sea there is least sailing and in the raging sea there is most ship-wracking 4. Empty confessions when persons satisfie themselvs with words and a meer form of Repentance putting on for the time a grave Empty confessions countenance and fetching a sigh and dropping a tear and acknowledging that all is not well but all this while they search not to the root they do not strive to examine their hearts to humble them to cleanse and reform them and what then can be expected but upon some convenient occasion the old heart should return to its old waies and courses Pharaoh confessed that he and his people had sinned but still he hardned his heart and would not let Israel go Hypocritical humiliation or repentance because rising from mutable causes lasts not long nor changes the disposition of the soul The sore which is but covered and not cured will break out again 5. Negligent remissions An heart which likes not to change its course may ye for the obtaining some special good give out Negligent remissions unto the doing of much good and for the removal of some evil make a stop of much sin You may observe that
moved to endure much in his body for the preservation and defence of it for sin is an evil thing and therefore worthless Or 2. Because any sin is less evil then misery and therefore this shall be endured rather Noâ— because any sin is less evil then misery But because The sinner doth exceedingly love his sin then that shall be forsaken But 1. The sinner doth exceedingly love his sin The heart of a sinner is set on his sin he hath made a Covenant with death and an agreement with hell He loves darkness and is held fast with the bonds and cords of his sinful affections A person doth many times suffer pains sharper then death because he doth exceedingly love life Why a sinner loves his sin as he loves his life nay more then his life the which he doth often hazard for ever to preserve his sin 2. The sinner is a Fool Put a fool never so oft in the Stocks it doth The sinner is a Fool. him no good he understands not the cause nor end of it Evil men are chastized and punished by God but they know not nor understand they know not that their sins are the cause thereof and that Conversion from sin is the end thereof 3. There is a marvellous stout Spirit of pride in the sinner who is therefore said to There is a stout spirit of pride in a sinner fight against God and to resist him and though he be smitten yet to refuse to return and wilfully to transgress and that they will not hearken Stifnecked are they called and foreheads have they which cannot be ashamed and faces that cannot blush 4. A vain presumption From a vaine presumption that yet their sinful wayes shall be well at last From the Contrariety betwixt the wayes of God and the Sinners heart that yet their sinful wayes shall be well at last It is but bearing a while and at length their calamities will off He who goes on in a sinful way is never without some sinful project and chimeraes silly fancies of some good and some support and wearing out of his troubles c. 5. There is a bitter contrariety twixt the wayes of God and the sinners heart Light and darkness are not more opposite hence is it that in Job they say unto God Depart from us we desire not the knowledg of the Almighty And in Psal 2. They break the cords in sunder And Heb. 10. They are said to offer despight unto the Spirit of Grace Holiness and holy walking ah it is that which their hearts hate more then hell they will adventure their damnation before they will affect and practice holiness no greater burden and torment to them then it 6. And sometimes Unbelief may be a special cause why a sinner doth thus shift and From unbeliefe try The guilt of his sins under his afflictions may lie heavy upon his conscience and he may be so wholly taken up with the apprehension of wrath and judgment and an implacability in God towards him that God will never shew him mercy who hath been so much and so long provoked that it is in vain to return now there is no hope 7. The Vanity of a corrupt Judgment which deludes From the Vanity of a Corrupt Judgment the sinner as if he could be sinful and safe or that he could subsist well enough without returning to God Now I proceed to the Application of this point the Uses are many 1. For Conviction of Error in Judgment Use 1. Conviction It is no easie work to Repent 1. That it is an easie work to Repent and to leave sin When I am sick or come to dy then I will think of that work No brethren if the heart of man be of so subtil a temper and so perverse a frame can afflictions do it of themselves if the love of sin be so strongly in grain that many waters of afflictions cannot wash it out nor many beams of mercy melt and turn it you must then imagine it not to be an easie work to turn the heart from sin if it will adventure the loss of heaven and the endurance of hell and the actual presence of many sore calamities confess then That the descents into sin are easie but the returns from it are not ordinary or facile Faciles aditus Dificiles oxitus saith St. Austin More is required to Convert then External and Congruous Grace Where all the means tending to the Conversion of a sinner are opposed and as it were wholly defeated and frustrated there the heart is not so easily wrought upon to retâ—rn 2. That no more is required to Convert a sinner but External and Congruous Grace as if the heart were like a Fish upon the hook which might be drawn at pleasure to the shore or like Wax prepared and it were no more but to put on the Seal or as if to Convert a sinne were no more then to report a History or to offer a man a Purchase Nay but there must be likewise Impressions as well as Invitations not only Means but Grace it self not only the Rod and Word but likewise the Spirit of God and his mighty Operation not only a Voice saying This is the way but also the Spirit of God which must cause us to walk in that way there must be healing Medicines put within the Soul by the hand of God himself or else all the means in the world the Word the Sacraments the afflictions and miseries and examples may say and complain with the Prophet Isa 49. 4. I have laboured in vain I have spent my strength for nought 2. For Information 1. Of that excessive stubbornness and madness in the hearts of us sinners Good Lord what an hand hath sin Information Of the excessive stubbornness of the hearts of sinners over us That terrors should arise like an horrible tempest within the conscience for sinning and drive a man to his feet yea to the dust yea almost as low as hell That his sinning should pull down one calamity after another take away the dayes of peace of plenty of safety of health and darken them with war and tumults with scarcity and indigence with danger and trouble with losses and diseases cloath a mans body with rags fill a mans body with rottenness obscure a mans name with infamy and yet yet after all and under all that a person should hold fast his wickedness which is the cause of all and will not let it go he will not be weaned from it nor charmed No Mercy nor Justice nothing can dissolve the Covenant twixt his heart and sin but llke that Athenian Commander if I forget not the story who when he was threatned to let go the Ship held it when one hand was cut off he held it with the other when both were cut off he held it with his teeth The Lord be merciful to us thus is it with us though God threatens yet we sin though he
strikes us in one kiâ—d yet we sin though in many kinds yet we sin though losses though crosses though death be in our doors though it riseth on our bodies though we lose earth life heaven all yet we still sin and return not but stand it out 2. Of the admirable patience and goodness of God Not without reason is he stiled a God Of the admirable patience and goodness of God of long-suffering and to endure with much long-suffering the vessels of wrath and his Goodness the riches of Goodness Rom. 9. 22. Rom. 2. 4. That he should look after a sinner nay speak nay strike nay wound nay almost take away his life to save his life that he should run after a proud and resisting sinner though a sinner doth contrive the ways of opposing and cunningly strives against all the methods of mercy yet that God should not desert him and give him over but try again and again and be actively ready to give grace to an unwilling to a resisting to an obstinate foolish sinner who but a vile sinner would obstinately abuse such great mercy who but a God would endure the same with so much patience It is not that the Lord seeth not the ways of a sinner for he is Omniscient It is not that he approves or likes the ways of a sinner for he is most Holy It is not that he will not recompence the ways of a sinner for he is most Just It is not that he wants power to execute his wrath Habet in potestate vindictam mavult tamen diu toâ—ere patientiam c. Cyprian and displeasure for he is Almighty No no that he all this while spares and holds up ariseth onely from his nature which is delighted rather to shew mercy and which is slow to wrath and of much long-suffering 3. Of the freeness of Gods grace It is not of him that willeth nor of him that runneth but of God that sheweth mercy Rom. 9. 16. Alas what is Of the freeness of Gods grace it that the Pelagians scribled of Merits and Papists of Deserts and Congruities Lo here naturally we run from God and naturally we are fighters against God we resist the motions of his Spirit the counsels of his Word the lessons of many Afflictions and could we any how subsist we would never lay down our weapons Did not the Lord shew more compassion to us then we do unto our selves did he not enquire after us and follow us and as it were beset us on every side and in a sort surprize us by the goodness and strength of his own Grace we should perish in our bloud die in our folly and be lost for ever but this commends the exceeding graciousness of his Grace towards us that though we be not onely enemies by nature but rebellious also by practice yet the Lord shews pity to our wandring souls will forgive our proud rebellions and will heal our foolish and gainsaying hearts It is great mercy for him to spare us who might for our manifold sinnings so often have condâ—mned us and it is the greatest mercy that he doth not onely not leave and damn us but pities converts and saves us 3. For Caution And this is the main Use which I desire to For Caution Take heed of shufflâ—ng with God insist on To take heed of shuffling with God and digging after pits which will hold no water when God calls upon us by his Word or by his Corrections to return from our sins unto him and not to hold them fast or to withstand the Lord and hold him off Here I shall propound two things 1. Some Motives or Arguments to hearken unto this 2. Some Rules and Directions to guide us The Motives may respect us either Motives 1. in the evil of thus shuffling with and delaying of God 2. in the good on the contrary I will mingle them together Consider therefore 1. It is a most precious thing which the Lord offers unto us It is a most precious thing the Lord offers to us when at first he calls upon us to return when at first he calls upon us to leave our sins and to return unto him A thing may be reputed precious partly in respect of the necessity of it when it doth so nearly concern us that we are undone without it Now what shall become of us unless we come off from our sins What is it that we so shuffle for and will not let it go What! is it a good in it self or a cause of good to us and what is it that we so hold off from is it not Grace and Salvation I shall perish with hunger saith the Prodigal So mayest thou truly say Unless I do accept of this offer of Grace if I do thus hold on in my sinfull ways if I shuffle never so long yet if I continue thus I shall at length perish for ever Exod. 10. 7. Knowest thou not that Egypt is destroyed so c. to go on thus is the way of death to return and submit is the onely way of life I cannot be saved unless I repent It is not a vain thing for which the Lord strives with me it is to give grace and life to my poor soul In respect of the excellency of it Excellent things are truly precious Now every grace is excellent it hath a native beauty in it and makes us a choice and estimable people Do throughly weigh a penitent and converted condition how in it we are partakers of the Divine nature what a communion we have thereby with God what a fellowship with Jesus Christ how we pass from death to life are made the sons of God and become the heirs of glory and will we then thus devise and flie from our best good Why when the Lord offers grace to a sinner what doth he therein but offer himself to be his God offer Christ to be his Saviour offer the pardon of all his sins offer all the comforts of his Spirit the blessings of his promises and the hopes of eternal life and if this be not an excellent thing what is can a better or greater matter be tendred to you 2. The Lord will not alwaies be calling upon us nor tendring repentance unto life and which brings forth salvation as the Apostle The Lord will not alwaies be calling upon us speaks My Spirit shall not alwaies strive saith God Gen. 6. God strives when he comes close in any means 2. When hee continueth and multiplieth means And to day if ye will hear his voice harden not your hearts as in the provocation Heb. 3. God did deal often with the Israelites by wonders by words by corrections but you know that though he bore long with them yet he did not bear for ever at length he consumed and made an end of them he would not continue to seek after them for ever I will ease me of mine adversaries Cut it down why cumbers it the ground If we
and a seeing what we have done a pondring of our paths It is opposed not only to Ignorance and Nescience but also to Negligence yea to rashness and suddenness and indeed it is a very deep searching and minding and weighing of matters When a man sits down and museth so that his mind and thoughts are throughly imployed he makes it a special business he bends all his strength rightly to inform himself to bring himself to a right understanding of his estate this is a proper consideration There be two kinds of thoughts and mindings some are only Intuitive they are but the cast of the eye a glancing lightning motion Others are Discursive fully searching the mind in them doth throughly insist on the Natures Kinds Circumstances Occurrences and Issues of things it is taken up with it as a business The serious consideration of a mans sinfulness falls into this latter it is not a confused work or a light overly sight of sin it is a setled and deep pondering of the estate in the Qualities Acts and Fruits of it Nature Number Circumstances Danger v. g. When I seriously consider of my sinful estate I reflect on my self what kind of life I lead what are those qualities what those wayes which I find and walk in my Thoughts my Affections my Speeches have been thus and thus my actions and thus my course of Life I have many bonds upon me to serve the Lord and not to sin against him but Wretch that I am I see all my ways which I took for pleasures and profits have been sinful and vile By them all I have violated a righteous Will dishonored and provoked a great God whose wrath is a consuming fire I have to satisfie them lost all my comforts caused many evils to others brought many miseries on my self put Christ to death and if God be not merciful lost my miserable soul for ever These wayes will I not believe mine own eyes are extremely sinful and therefore should I not believe the Scriptures are damnable many a year have I run this course and often times under checks of Conscience very much evil hath already been upon me and all for sin some troubles of Conscience And that wrath which God threatens and is behind is terrible If I go on thus I perish for ever for whilst I keep my sins the least sin of them I must necessarily part with God and lose my soul Tell me O my vainly deluded soul can that be good which God hates or safe which God doth curse Wouldst thou dye thus O then thou dyest for ever and why then wilt thou live thus any longer O thou hast presumed too far already perhaps Patience will bear no longer and Mercy being often abused may be for ever recalled and then thou O my Soul then whither wilt thou go No no we must no more of these forbidden fruits and no longer must we trade in the paths of death there is a God who hath lookt on thee all this while and hates thy wayes and hath sealed his implacable wrath with an Oath if thou return not Come my soul think aright of God of thy past acts of thy present estate of thy future condition believe me thy Guilts are many thy Accounts will be bitter God hath been still dishonoured he will not be mocked let us return for we are out of the way of Heaven and are even upon the brink of Hell 2. Concerning the right Comparison of the miserableness of a What this right Comparison is Opposita juxta se posita c. sinful with the happiness of a penitent Condition I need say but little It is nothing else but after a distinct view of either to set the one against the other in the Nature Kinds Qualities Concomitants Ends and Issues v. g. Thus base and foul is an In penitent estate thus excellent and glorions is a Converted estate That how opposite to God This how suitable That how odious to God This how acceptable That how covered with threats This how inriched with promises That is a cloud of thunder This a river of delight That is a path of misery This a way of mercy in that God Abhors me in this God loves me in that I feel his Frowns and strokes in this I feel his Smiles and comforts that brings down all Curses on me this all Blessings on me In that I shew my self a Rebel and do nothing but dishonour God in this a Servant and in some measure bring him Glory if I continue in that farewell all Mercy and happiness I perish with hunger I am lost for ever if I attain to this God is mine Christ is mine Mercy Pardon Favour Comfort Grace Heaven Happiness I shaâ—l be saved for ever Now O my Soul thou seest both Estates in their Nature in their Fruits in their Ends yea thou hast felt the bitterness of the one say Is not Mercy better then Misery is not God better then Sin is not Heaven better then Hell is not Plenty better then Famine Life then Death O then arise up be gone relinquish thy course of Sin of Misery of Death of Hell and arise and go by true Repentance unto God unto Christ unto Grace unto new Obedience unto Mercy unto Joy unto Blessing unto Life unto Eternal Life and that most happy c. 3. The third thing is to clear it How these two are prime steps How these are prime steps to Repentance to Repentance viz. A Consideration that a sinful course is most miserable and a penitent is most happy and comfortable are steps c. Only premise a difference twixt a Cause and twixt an Occasion of Repentance The Spirit of God is the Cause these considerations are Occasions and work by way of argument or means They work by way of Argument or Means proved By Scripture 1. That they do so appears by Scripture 1 King 8. 47. If they shall bethink themselves in the Land whither they were carried Captive and repent Ezek. 18. 28. Because he considereth and turneth away from all his Transgressions c. Nay if inconsideration be given as a proper reason why some repented not no man repented saying What have I done then è contra Consideration of our sins must be a right step unto Repentance Here you see clearly that solid consideration is as it were the Foundation of true Conversion there it begins and takes rise there is a Bethinking of sin before a Repenting from sin 2. Nay and it is evident in Example too I thought on my wayes said David Psal 119. 59. and turned my feet unto thy By Example Testimonies Like a Traveller who in a Journey stands still and considers with himself surely this way is wrong I am out of my way and then he turns about and gets him into the right way again So in this case the like may be said for comparison of an Unconverted course with the happiness of a Converted and penitent condition Hos
are but stolen waters and at the best but for a season they will end bitterly and on the contrary That Repentance from sin makes way for the most precious fountains of the most living comforts that it enables a man for a nearer conjunction with the truest happiness and fulness of most infinite goodness and lets in to such pleasures and joyes which pass all understanding c. Now the soul is reduced to a right judgment and begins to contemn those false vain deluding temptations by sin and is carried off to another course or way which will afford the real solid superlative advantages in happiness and comfort c. 2. This Comparison will win our love and affection to a Converted and penitent condition It is true that as long as the heart loves This wins our love to a converted condition sin it will never leave it for love is an iron clasp a strengthning quality a strong and tenacious quality but if a mans love be changed then his sinfull wayes will quickly be changed for that way doth the heart and life go that love doâ—h go they are not out who say that Amor is Radix actionum as well as Passionum Now by a right comparison of estates there will appear in a converted and penitent condition the sole and sufficient causes of Love viz. Good and the best good and only good and most proper and sutable good all which is apt to draw love and consequently Repentance for as much as Conversion from sin begins in love to God 3. This comparing of estates in the wofulness of the one and This occasionally stirs up the beat to fly to God by Prayer and in the use of meanes in the happiness of the other that the one is death and the other is life as Moses propounds it to the Israelites occasionally stirs up the heart to fly unto God by prayer and in the use of other means for grace and ability to leave the paths of death and to walk in the wayes of life for naturally men do affect life and happiness and are afraid of death and misery The first Use which I would make of this shall be for Information Use For information Of the cause why many are yet in their sins You here see the Cause why many are yet in their sins that they repent not though we preach though God punisheth though man counsels Surely they never yet did search their hearts and wayes they never did consider of what they have done they are like the Laodiceans who thought themselves to be rich and increased and to stand in need of nothing but they never yet saw their blindness nakedness and extreme poverty and misery There are many duties unto which men will be perswaded as to hear the Word receive the Sacrament give some Almes say some Prayers and now and then to confer of some good but of all the duties which do so nearly concern them they are hardly perswaded to this viz. to consider of their sins 't is true they will confess That all men are sinners and themselves too but as some do with their debts they care not to see and view them so many with their spiritual estates they have no mind to search into them to look them over to meditate of the Vileness of them Consider these things 1. That this inconsideration leaves many a sin already committed upon a sad account God doth consider Considerations to such as doe not Consider their wayes them though we will not they are in his book and before his eye though we will not think and look on them 2. That it ripens sin exceedingly The heart which will not consider of past will break out into sin future it will be high in sinning if negligent in considering he will venture deeply who knows not the nature nor the merit of sinning 3. All the work of Repentance will lye flat and dead Why where can be that brokenness of heart that filial lamentation for sinning that remorse of spirit that indignation that detestation of it that resolution against it that watchfulness and fear until by a sound consideration we come to see the vileness and miserableness of sinning c. He who thinks his way right will not turn aside and that man who knows no better will never leave or change a bad course 4. You advantage Temptations exceedingly You are under the edge and power of them all for you see nothing to hinder you the motions to sin will pass without any contradiction for you know not the evil nor misery of being impenitent Great sins will seem but little little will seem none how easie is he to sin who considers not the great evil in sin 5. All the edge of the Ordinances is blunted and dulled by inconsideration they are but water on the Tiles which passe away For what are Threatnings against sin what operation have they on us to make us tremble and humble our hearts whiles we hear them as Pieces discharged at others not at our selves And so what force have the Precepts for new Obedience or the Promises for much mercy to the Penitent until we see that we are the men as Nathan said to David whom all this concerns 6. You will never prize Christ aright nor the love of God in giving of Christ nor will you ever seek him to purpose with hungrings and thirstings until you do seriously consider of your sinful estates A man if whole will not seek to the Physician and if he hath but a scratch will not send to the Chyrurgion No sense or slight sense of sin hath no influence on ouâ— affections but let a man sadly view and find out that he is bad indeed out with God ready for Hell must perish for sin this man will cry out Is there no Balm in Gilead is there no hope for us sinners He will enquire for a Saviour and when he knows him he will with tears beseech him O the hope of Israel and the Saviour thereof in the time of Trouble Master have mercy on me or else I perish if thou canst do any thing save me 7. You will never come to any true setledness nor grounded assurance of peace with God nor in your own Consciences until you do throughly consider of your sinful conditions and estates For how know you whether you be good or bad in Covenant or out of Covenant with God that he will save you or condemn you what shall become of you when you die Untill you by solid Consideration find out the vileness and miserableness of your sinful condition out of which you must indeed be translated if ever you would be saved or know assuredly that you shall be saved 8. You will not know how to make special requests unto God For you know not the nature nor danger of that pride of that hypocrisie of that uncleanness of that envy and malice c. which are in you When we do not know what our selves
received unless the apprehension of their kindness and goodness descends to the affections they never stir up thankfulness and as it is with the promises unless their excellency and sutableness come down from the mind to the will they never excite faith so is it with sin unless besides the consideration of it there be not an operation and influence upon the heart to grieve and mourn it will never prove right and penitential Thou sayest thou knowest thy sins as well as any man can tell thee Be it so but if thy heart remain hard not humbled abased broken grieved for these sins alas as their unworking faith Jam. 2. so thy unaffected speculation of sin is vain but findest thou this that upon the serious consideration of thy sins thy heart is humbled and abased in thee that thou art cast down in the sense of thy exceeding vileness O wretched man that I am O Lord to me belongs nothing but shame and confusion and that thy heart is grieved within thee and afflicted that bitter mournings arise because of bitter sinnings my soul hath them in remembrance and is humbled within me Lam. 3. Thy heart melts before the Lord I assure thee this is a right and blessed consideration of sin 3. If it work in him Detestation of sin Griefe seemes to be more If it work Detestation of sin passionate but hatred is a more fixed quality as I may so phrase it Ezek. 36. 31. Ye shall remember your own evil wayes and your doings that were not good here is the consideration we speak of and ye shall loath your selves in your own sight for your Iniquities and your abominations here is detestation the proper effect of true consideration for in a right consideration the singular causes or reasons of hatred do arise v. g. Excess of evil absolute repugnancy to our best good effectual prejudice and greatest injury Repugnans Offendens the Schoolmen make the two chief grounds of hatred Vide Summistas in 1. 2dae q. 29. But I will not prosecute that Now then peruse thy self Hast thou considered of thy sinnes aright if thou doest not hate them thou hast not Seest thou sinne and art thou brought to hate it Let me but propound a few things unto thee that thou mayest see whether thou loathest and hatest sin or no. Is it peace or is it war If sin lies quietly in the soul it is peace it is not hatred hatred breeds variance enmity opposition conflict Paul hated sin Rom. 7. 15. and wars with it v. 23. Is it a deadly war is it for life will this suffice thee that sin doth not terrifie thy conscience or wilt thou not be satisfied till sin be mortified and crucified in the lusts and affections thereof Is it like Davids war wherein he left not one Amalekite to escape and carry tidings and not like Sauls to kill some and spare the rest Canst thou say Lord I hate the thing that is evil Psal 97. 10. and I hate every false way Oh if there be raised in thee upon the consideration of sin a deadly enmity and defiance with it an implacable general dislike abomination resistance and desire to root it out happy art thou thy consideration of sin is rightly and effectually penitential 4. If it work in him Reformation of sin Do you not read in If it work in thee Reformation Psal 119. 59. that David considered and thought on his wayes I thought on my ways saith David so do many many indeed do so but not as David did for after he had said I thought on my ways he addeth and turned my feet unto thy testimonies He so thought of his ill ways that he left them and betook himself unto good ways If thinking on sin doth not produce leaving of sin it is nothing if thinking of sin doth not breed leaving of sin then going on in sin will make you leave thinking of sin And though we think of an ill way yet if we do not enter into and walk in a good way it is nothing There is a two-fold leaving of sin one which is proper to the condition of Glory another which is proper to the condition of Grace I speak not of the former which is the absolute dissolution of sin but of the latter which is an imperfect though true separation from sin consisting in Affection wherein the Will is alienated from sin the evil which I would not do saith the Apostle In Mourning O wretched man who shall deliver me from this body of death In Endeavour willing or endeavouring to live honestly Heb. 13. 18. There is a purpose to walk in new obedience and an hearty desire so to do and not to serve sin any longer and also an active endeavour to put off the former conversation and to crucifie the flesh with the affections and lusts thereof To consider of sin and yet still to love it and still to live in it to study to fulfil the lusts of it to give up our selves to the service of it to walk in darkness to be the same in our affections to it and in our obedience unto it this is not onely a vain but a fearfull consideration But if when we have throughly considered of sin in the vileness of it we are effectually wrought upon to arise from our sinfull course O Lord I have sinned exceedingly and done very foolishly I am resolved to leave this sinfull way Lord help thou me give me thy grace turn thou me and I shall be turned turn away my heart and eyes cause me to put off my old conversation enable me to walk and live in newness of life This is an happy Fruit especially if it hath two other Effects accompanying it viz. 1. Fervent Supplication if it carries the soul to God in Christ for mercy for grace for strength The resolution to reform if it goes no further than the strength of the soul it will easily cool and quickly fail us if ever it prove right it must carry us to Christ for as much as it is by his strength and by his grace that we get our hearts turned from sin or that we are able to forsake our sins Hast thou considered of thy sins why and doest thou not discern such infinite guilt in them as makes thee for ever accursed if thou hast not mercy in Christ and doest thou hereupon apply thy self in all humbleness of heart to the Throne of mercy O Lord be mercifull to me a sinner according the multitude of thy tender mercies blot out my transgressions Behold me through the bloud of Christ yea O Lord heal my sinfull soul O Lord change my heart O Lord dissolve the powers of sin in me by thy mighty power subdue my iniquities turn me from all sin make me a servant of righteousness 2. Diligent application of our selves to the Means private and publick ordinary and extraordinary through the right use of which we may expect sufficient grace from God to work
life and maintain the bent and inclination of the will It doth arise from and depend upon mature consideration and upon deep conviction The sinner doth first look into and seriously peruse and weigh an impenitent and sinful course and seeth the strongest and forciblest and justest causes to renounce it for ever and also upon due trial and searching and weighing in the ballance of the Sanctuary he doth find the wayes of new obedience to be the 〈◊〉 and only wayes of life to which if he doth not turn he cannot please God nor be saved and unto which if he doth turn then he is under the best God and in the most excellent and saving condition and hereupon begs of God for grace and strength and so resolves c. In a Word the Resolution is well grounded when it followes serious deliberation and is raised upon divine assistance and entred into with earnest supplication for our strength cannot bring forth nor maintain so great a work as reformation 2. It is a strong purpose of the will The operations of the will are reputed strong when either they are not divided A strong purpose of the will but united or when they are rooted in an habit or principle and not only in an occasion and accident or when they are absolute and not conditional If the operations be divided they are weak as Rivers c. so when a man partly wills this and partly that he is inclined somewhat to leave his sin and yet he is inclined to keep it this division hinders right resolution which is not so indifferent so indeterminate so divided but centers the inclination of the will only one way viz. to a peremptory rejection of evil and a peremptory election of good the soule goes down and it is not a grain which will turn it Again if the operations of the will arise only from occasions which is busied in alterable circumstances they can never be strong as the colour in the face which ariseth from violent exercise only goes off presently so that resolution if it may be so called which ariseth from changeable impressions is alwayes weak and fading a deceitful bow unstedfast In their afflictions they will seek me early but c. Hos 6. 4. But to the production of a penitential resolution which makes a strong purpose in the will there must be an habit which will set the heart and incline it so that it will not be taken off as in Ruth to Naomi Intreat me not c. there was a strong principle of love which made up this strong purpose to cleave unto her Again if the operations of the will be conditional they can never be so strong as when they are absolute for a supposition and case where the will may put off and dispence with it self cannot make the act of the will so firm as where the case is absolute for now the whole bent of the will is carried without any check or diminution If a man saith I will leave such a sinful course in case I may have the countenance of such friends or the benefit of such an estate and I will lead a godly life in case I may hold correspondence and esteem in the world c. purposes upon variable conditions are variable These conditions do diminish the strength of Resolution but when a person is carryed in an absolute way come what will come friendship or enmity greatness or poverty life or death I will change my course this is a strong purpose of will and a right Resolution 3. It is a constant purpose or continued The â—hylosophers do It is a constant purpose well distinguish twixt Passions which are but the soul in a mood and a fit and twixt Qualities which are setled tempers and Constitutions as it were Resolution is not a transient passion but it is a fixed quality Not that it is not interrupted but that it is not renounced and given over but is still maintained Nor that it is not assaulted but that it is not changed A twisted Cord Propositi tenax that is a resolute man sibi constans but a double minded man an unstable spirit a will though strong as Passion yet if unstable as water hot in the first assault as if we would be stronger then Men and flat in the succeeding assaults as if we were weaker then Women these humours are rather some complements which still shrink at the acting then resolutions for change of Life Passions are violent but not constant as the Galathians to Paul 4. Lastly It is an active purpose for as it is a vain thing to It is an active Purpose deliberate much and to resolve on little at length so it is a vain Resolution which purposeth great things but doth nothing If I resolve to take Physick for my health and never take any what avails that Resolution Like Antigones I will give but never gave So if a man resolve to leave his sins but the day is still to morrow he sets not upon it indeed but yet a little slumber yet a little sleep as S. Austin spake of himself cras cras this is vain But true resolution is stirring and striving it puts a man upon the work as the Prodigal I will arise and goe to my Father who indeed did thereupon arise and go I am resolved to confess my sins to judge my self to seek unto God by prayer and I do indeed do so I do confess judge pray use the means c. Quest 2. Why this Resolution is requisite to a sound Reformation Why Resolution is Requisite 1. Because Reformation of our wayes cannot be performed without much Opposition As when Nehemiah began to repair the walls There can be no Reformation without much opposiâ—ion was wiâ—h much opposition If you will not serve sin as a Lord you must expect to hear of sin as an Enemy if you will not serve its Lusts you shall be hindred and molested with its Lusts Stronger rowing is requisite against a strong Tide So for Satan he will not easily be dispossest if you will not follow his Counsels you shall feel his Darâ—s and the world will wonder at you and reproach you and vilifie you temptations on the right hand and on the left Now all these shocks and brunts will not be sustained without a firm Resolution It must be an house strongly built upon an unmoveable Rock which will stand against all winds and waves 2. Because sin hath been very dear unto us and is beyond measure Sin is very subtle to Intice us subtile to perswade and entice us It is not an easie thing though death otherwise be threatned to make a man willing to have his Arm or Leg cut off Sin is as our members ot us it is called our self born and bred with us The separation is not easie where the Conjunction is Natural and hath been more familiar It will not be done by reasoning or intreaty but Resolution is
thus have I sinned and whatsoever punishment thou hast inflicted or mayest inflict I must quit thy Justice in all thy proceedings thou canst not but be Righteous for I confess my self to be sinful Nay his Justice only is not glorified but his Wisdom that he knows all our sins and wayes and his Power that he is able to Judge and condemn us yea and his Mercy too that we hope yet he will pardon and forgive the sins which we confess unto him If true Repentance brings forth true Confession then by this it will appear That there are very few true penitents because Use 1. Then there are very few true Penitents very few who do truly and aright confess their sins 1. Some may say of sin what Pilate did of truth What 's Truth So they What 's Sin They are so ignorant that they know not what is evil or when they do evil Now how can any confess or acknowledg that sin to God which is not known at all to himself 2. Others are so far from confessing themselves to be sinful that they like the proud Pharisee justifie themselves to be righteous talk of their good meanings purposes â—ust dealings c. Sana membra ostendebat saith S. Austin of that Pharisee vulnera tegebat I am no Extortioner no Adulterer c. Ask some persons Do you acknowledg One only God who is most Merciful Just Holy Omnipotent Faithful Long-suffering 〈◊〉 of Goodness and Truth c. Yes that do they God forbid else c. Ask them again Are you Idolaters make you no Idols or did you ever worship them Who they nay they defie them and all such trumpery But do you not use to swear and take the Name of God in vain Nay for swearing of all sins they cannot away with that a man gets no good by swearing But do you remember to keep holy the Sabbath Yea all their neighbours can bear witness that they keep to the Church constantly Ask them again Did you never injure your Parents O they were always dutifull Children But did you never play the whore or the adulterer or the thief Nay now they will talk no longer with you if you be so uncharitable as to imagine such guilt Why O thou ignorant sinner why doest thou deceive thy soul if thou art thus righteous thou needest not to repent and if thou art free from all sin how canst thou confess thy sins as a true penitent ought to do to God 3. But some others there are who do both know and acknowledge their sin but how onely in a formal cold indifferent manner True we are all sinners God help us and there is no man but he sins yea the best of them all Never considering That great Justice of God which is provoked by their sins nor that vile and abominable nature in their sins nor that infinite wrath unto which their guilt doth oblige them nor the excellency and necessity of pardoning mercy which we should earnestly sue out when we confess our sins 4. There is another sort who do more distinctly and perhaps somewhat feelingly and freely confess their sins but then they keep Benjamin back And as Rachel hid the images under her so they reserve some one special lust they do not bring all the Prisoners forth unto the Bar There is a sin which they hide close because it is sweet as Zophar speaks Job 20. 12. Now this argues 1. Hypocrisie and guile of heart a secret love to sin it is made in Job 20. 12. the guise of an Hypocrite to hide his sin 2. Extreme folly and vanity of spirit for canst thou conceal any sin from that God who is acquainted with all thy paths and knows thy thoughts afar off and to whose eyes all things are naked will not the Lord discover the sin which thou doest cover before Men and Angels to thy eternal infamy and condemnation assuredly though thou wilt not set thy sins in order before him yet he will set thy sins in order before thee and will reprove thee for them Psal 50. i. he will publish them and he will everlastingly punish thee for them 5. Others do confess all their sins but this onely in times of wrath and judgment and death not like Penitents but as Malefactors as men make their Wills upon a death-bed not out of an hatred of sin but out of meer sense or fear of punishment it is not filial ingenuous free but onely extorted involuntary and servile and therefore not truly penitential They do not go and confess their sins as they to John the Baptist but cry out and confess their sins it is that not which they would do but which they cannot avoid Conscience like an over-charged stomack doth so over-press and pain them that they cannot hold but out it comes what oppression injustice usurious injurious beastly filthy swinish sins they have lived in 6. Others seem to be more ingenuous and voluntary or ready to confess their sins but then this is with such pretences colours shiftings shuffling as if they were like Lawyers to mitigate and colour a bad cause S. Austin complains of some who would impute their sins to Fate to Fortune to the Devil nay to God himself The complaint may well suit with us generally we have some device or other either to deny or to extenuate our sinfull facts rather to plead for our selves than to plead against our iniquities It was company and we are but flesh and bloud and it is not usual or which is contrary it is my nature and the Devil was strong with me others do worse c. 7. But of all men they are most contrary to penitential Confession who â—all evil good and darkness light and that make a a mock and a sport of sin whereas they should with grief of heart and shame of face mournfully penitently humble themselves before the Lord and acknowledge their iniquities instead thereof They boast themselves of their iniquites and make but a jest of that which cost the bloud of Christ It is but a trick of Youth and good Fellowship and Handsomness and Complement and discreet Thrift thus do they phrase their Uncleanness their Drunkenness their Pride their Lying their Covetousness 8. Lastly to mention no more They are defective too about the true penitential confession who are assiduous to confess but desiduous to forsake frequent to acknowledge and declare their sins but negligent in forsaking and leaving of them Discovery sufficeth but Recovery they mind not This is most ordinary with us that we make our confession of sins to God rather an act of our Memory than a work of our Conscience it sufficeth us to deliver in the tale to number our transgressions but then we wrestle not with the Lord in prayer for his Spirit of Grace to heal our hearts and to turn us from the sinfull ways unto which we find our hearts so apt and forward But I will no longer insist upon the Convicting part I proceed
death what rewards after death it shall procure to persons upon the one and the other he is stirred up to the sense of his sins to the admiration of Holiness to a condemnation of his evil course to a resolution for a better But then it is with him as with some ship sometimes as soon as it is putting out of the Harbor it strikes upon a rock or falls into the sands and loseth all the precious lading Or as with Corn sown and let fall in an open and solid place where the Birds come down and instantly pick it up so is it here with this man the world meets him again at the Church door or at his own door and all these impressions and resolutions are spilt and gone Worldly engagements take present possession of his thoughts and all the service of his affections so that he hath no time to consider what God did speak or work in him no time secretly to beg of God to write those truths in his heart to keep all this in the purpose of his heart to give him the Spirit of Grace and strength to walk in the wayes of God revealed now unto him When you turn the course of the water another way the Mill cannot stir so when men turn the course of their thoughts and affections to secular and vain imployments all resolutions stand still they have nothing now to elicit or draw them on and out into any holy or careful diligence of obedience and performance The Oxen and the Farm c. took them quite off and they made excuses .i. for the present they had other engagements therefore take heed of worldly cares It is impossible that you should be much in the actings of any Grace if you be very much in the service of worldly cares 6. Lastly Presumptuous Confidence is also an Impediment to the Presumptuous confidence present executions of good resolutions whether it be of future time hereafter shall serve the turn it is not wisdom to be so forward soft and fair will go far we have day enough yet before us a year two or ten hence after such a business is effected or which is worse after the pleasures of such a sin is a little more tasted Or of Future ability This is a work which we will do at pleasure and at leisure when we see the scouts the forerunners of the army then we will buckle on our armor when we espy the harbingers of death approaching old age sickness weakness diseases then we will think of heaven and forsake hell what need we be troubling our selves to be doing of that a long time which we can dispatch at any time if we have but time to say Lord have mercy upon me what would ye more Or of Future Mercy Wherefore hath God Mercy but for sinners and he hath said That if at any time a sinner convert he will have mercy We have found him kind unto us all our dayes and doubt not of his fatherly compassion at the last Thus do men post of all penitential executions and for ever endanger their souls Alas for future time whose is it Seneca the Heathen could see more truth then this Solum tempus presens nostrum No time is ours but the present Thou carriest thy life in thy hands thy breath in thy nostrils and seest more Graves made for the young then for the aged And as for thy future ability why dost thou so grosly befool thy self knowest thou not that present Neglects cause stronger Indispositions Qui non est hodie cras minus aptus erit the School-boy will teach thee Every man by more sinning grows more sinful and therefore most unapt and averse to good And then Future Mercy it is of all things the most uncertain to pardon sin where present mercy leaves us not to repentance from sin it is all one as if thou shouldst thus argue God will hereafter pardon me and therefore for the present I will sin against him disobey dishonour vex and grieve and abuse him These are the principal impediments to a present expectation of penitential resolutions and are to be declined by us I now proceed to the helps and furtherances to a present Helps execution of penitentialâ— resolutions which are these amongst many 1. Solid Conviction of a sinful estate This will put us upon a present Execution When the Soul is brought to an experimental Solid conviction of a sinful state sense of the vileness and bitterness of sin it will not then lye hovering Were I best to give up this course or shall I go on in it still No but when the Soul is indeed wounded the wayes shall without delay be reformed take a person in some judicial and close conviction of sin upon a sick and dying bed how forward is a person then to change and better his courses much more do solid and evangelical convictions sweetly dispose and incline the heart to the forsaking of an evil and walking in a good way They in Acts 2. 37. were pricked in their hearts and what did this work in them they cry out presently Men and brethren what shall we do So Saul was struck to the ground and was astonished and trembled and then presently cries out Lord what wilt thou have me to do Act. 9. 4 6. Outward afflictions you see many times do put on men to alter and reform their wayes of much greater force are inward afflictions of spirit Go on yet in sin God forbid shall I continue in sin any longer who if I make not haste may lose all mercy and drop into Hell it self what I feel is much what I deserve I cannot bear 2. Holy Wisdome To know times and seasons is an high Holy wisdome part of Wisdome Walk not as fools but as wise redeeming the time saith the Apostle Eph. 5. 15 16. There are four things which solid Wisdome teacheth a man One is to look to the best part Another to make choice of the best good A third to walk in the best wayes A fourth is to do all this in the first place and surest time Have I any thing more near to me then my soul more concerning my soul then God more concerning God then walking before him Where am I if I lose my Soul what am I if I enjoy not God whether run I if I continue in sin if my soul be nearest and God choicest and his wayes safest why do I demur what should I take time or put off the doing of that which is ever best done when it is done If I will live yet in sin for ought I know I may then dye in sin and if I dye in sin I must for ever perish for sin Why should I not Do I not admit the present loss of that which else may be the eternal loss of my Soul But if I set into an holy life this is the very path of God the image of Glory the Ark of safety and the pledg of an happy eternity
In the expression of it and this is when so much Grace appears as to enter into a new path and do new works 3. In the progression of it And this is when a greater Victory is obtained over our sins and appears in our course of new obedience Now the Initials of true Repentance I conjecture to consists partly in the Conversion of the heart when the mind and will and affections are healed and turned and partly in the reformation of the life when the person out of an hatred of sin and love of God sets upon another course of obedience and service It is just like a Ship that is going out or like a Shop that is newly set up things are very raw there is much dross with the little Silver a little health and much lameness a great journey and but a few steps the work is rather in desire and much in complaints and though perhaps little be done yet all is heartily endeavoured to be done this I call the Initials of Repentance There are six things shew that Repentance is begun in truth Six things shew Repentance is begun in truth Condemnation 1. One is Condemnation When the judgement looks upon all sin after another manner then formerly sentencing it as the most vile and accursed of all evils and no sin knowingly finds favour 2. Another is Aversation When the will flies Aversation and shuns it as that which is most contrary to all goodness and happiness 3. A third is Weariness When the Soul is as Weariness weary of Sin as any Porter can be of his Burthen or as a sick-man is of his Bed Psal 51. 17. The sacrifices of God are a broken spirit a broken and a contrite heart O God thou wilt not despise 4. A fourth is Lamentation That the Soul cannot yet be rid of Lamentation the unruly motions and insolencies of sin It is grieved that Life and Death Hell and Heaven Grace and Sin should thus be together 5. A fifth is Resistance or conflict The Soul doth Resistance use the best means it can to separate more from sin and all sinfull wayes and to walk only in all holy pathes in the pathes of righteousness And the sixth is an active Inctination to obey God in all things a thirsting and striving an aiming a writing after the Copy An active Inclination And there are four things which do shew that Repentance is Four things shew that Repentance is but begun Impotency but begun it is only initial 1. One is Impotency or weakness of operation When the penitential parts do move and stir yet like a child who begins to go very feebly There is as much appears in the course as declares another spring or principle and rule by which the Soul strives to walk but the performance is very tender and feeble like a young Tree that hath but tender branches and small fruit The person doth mourn and confess and pray and live and obey but with weakness 2. A second is efficacy of Temptation When Temptations do easily Efficacy of Temptation beset and discourage the Soul as when the Tree is but a young plant the Winds to toss it and make it reel so when Temptations do as it were drive the Soul and are apt to raise quick fears and discouragements Oh! I shall be overcome again I shall hardly hold on I cannot well see how I shall be able to perform and preserve in these wayes which I have chosen A third is the Validity of present Corruption which though it be truly hated and bewailed yet it is very apt upon occasions to assault and Validity of present Corruption prevail when every little stone is apt to make one stumble it argues that the strength is weak 4. Necessary presence of many helps When a Man cannot go but with two Crutches and a Child must lean upon many props and a penitent upon many sensible encouragements Now that these Initials of Repentance are graciously accepted The Doctrine proved God respects the truth as well as the degrees of Grace of God may be thus manifested 1. The Lord doth respect the truth of Grace as well as the degrees of it every quality as well as the quantity Are not thine eyes upon the truth The Goldsmith hath his eye on the very thin raies of Godl as well as on the great knobs and pieces Grace is excellent and amiable at the lowest though then admirable when at highest 2. The main thing that God looks upon is to the heart My Son give me thy God looks most at the Heart heart All that is done if the heart be not in it it is of little or no estimation with God but if the heart be right this the Lord prizeth exceedingly and so much that for its sake he passeth by many infirmities The good Lord pardon every one that prepareth his heart c. 2 Chro. 30. 19. Now in the Initials of Repentance the heart is set right it is set on God and towards God in truth 3. Even the Initials of Repentance are his own Gifts special gifts of his blessed Spirit it is he that worketh The Initials of Repentance are his Cist in us to will and to do Phil. 2. 13. The spirituall will and the spiritual deed though both be imperfect yet are they the genuine effect of Gods own spirit sparks out of his fire works of his own hands Now as in the Creation God looked upon all that he made and saw that it was good he liked it well So is it in our Renovation all that good which God works in us he doth accept and approve he doth not despise his own image which though it shine more fairly in progressive Repentance yet is it truly stampt in our initial Conversion 4. Tâ—at which comes This Springs â—â—om faith not only from a person having faith but from faith it self that the Lord will graciously accept For as our actions do not please him without faith it is impossible without faith to please God So on the contrary when the actions do come from faith they do please the Lord. Abels Sacrifice presented in Faith did please him when Cains presented without faith was not regarded faith puts a value and acceptance on our actions But even initial Repentance comes from faith the person is by faith united to Jesus Christ from whom he hath received strength and grace to forsake his sins and to become a servant of righteousness 5. The Lord hath said that he will not despise the day of small things nor quench the smoaking flax nor break the God will not deâ—pâ—se â—he Day 〈◊〉 â—mall things bruised reed What Husbandman doth despise the little plant which he hath set Or what father doth despise the little child he hath begoten Why that God who hath appointed all the meanes and ordinances to cherish and prop and comfort and nourish and perfect the initials of Repentance doth not he
hast thou prayed would trouble thee if thou didst not pray and therefore hast thou prayed to give it a little quiet as we do a crying child the brest to still it What things soever ye desire when ye pray believe that you receive them and ye shall have them Hast thou and doest thou consider and ponder the promises of Gods mercy made over the penitent persons Hast thou considered of his mercifull nature tender love in and through Christ of his commands to broken and afflicted souls to come unto him for Balm and Oyl Hast thou found how proper his mercifull promises are to thy condition every way good and convenient and doest confess this word of promise a gracious and a good word and judgest him to be faithfull who hath promised and thy self unworthy of mercy and thereupon in the Name of the Lord Jesus hast bended thy heart and knees to the God of mercy trusting through him to find grace and mercy to help in time of need and those his promises to be Yea and Amen to thy soul through Christ Joh. 14. 13. Whatsoever ye ask in my Name that will Ido According to your faith said Christ to the blind men Matt. 9. 29. so be it unto you Alas thy prayers have not found the way to Gods Mercy-seat all this while because they have not had faith for their Guide if our Messenger lose their way no marvel if we stay long for an answer Lastly Why hast thou called home the Embassadors those prayers Hast thou not called home thy prayers of thine which were Leigers at Heaven In a fit of proud impatience and fruitless vexation and bold presumption thou hast limited the holy One of Israel to a day And if at such another prayer God did not sensibly answer thee thou wouldest and hast restrained seeking of him What doest thou mean to beg and yet to prescribe Alas that there should be so much pride yet in an heart which we would think humbled as low as Hell That it should profess it self to deserve a thousand damnations and yet quarrel with God for not being quick in a present expedition of mercy Thou art too quick with God Judge how these answer one the other O Lord I do not deserve the least mercy I deserve never to find mercy and yet if the Lord doth not presently shew me mercy I will not seek unto him any more As you must get humbled hearts so you must get humble hearts He hears the desires of the humble Your Prayers must be patient as well as â—ervent Mercy pardoning mercy is worth the waiting for It is the most excellent of mercies and most sure to the patient Petitioner Psal 40. 1. I waited patiently for the Lord and he inclined unto me and heard my cry Blessed are all that wait for it Isa 30. 18. Or there may be Reasons on Gods part why he doth a while Reasons on Gods part God suspends mercy To give us some taste what it is to provoke him suspend or hold up the demonstration of his mercy to a troubled soul and seeking 1. To give us some taste what it is to provoke him and sin against him Jer. 2. 19. Thine own wickedness shall correct thee and thy back-slidings shall reprove thee know therefore and see that it is an evil and a bitter thing that thou hast forsaken the Lord thy God As we have had years to bath our selves in the delights of sin so we must have some minutes to taste the proper fruits the bitterness of sin Thou wouldst not believe the Gall and the Wormwood c. Lam. 3. 2. To alienate or work off our affections wholly from sin which now is so To alienate our affections from sin deadly a sting so smart a wound so noisome a prison which fills us with such horrible terrours and costs us almost our lives to obtain pardon and mercy Thou wouldst not easily part with sin Who would love sin any more which 1. raiseth so great terrours 2. utterly depriveth of mercy 3. or hinders it and makes it slow to answer 3. To abase us more in our own eyes To abase us the more in our own eyes that we may exalt his mercy that so his mercy may exalt us and we may exalt his mercy to value the excellency of mercy to confess our unworthiness of mercy to enlarge our desires of mercy 4. Nay not onely to exalt his mercy but retain his mercy not easily forfeit the excellency and sweetness of mercy by any future sinning The That we may retain his mercy Church which had much adoe to find Christ she then caught him and would not let him go The pardoning mercies of God ordinarily yield us most sweetness and abide in their strength To make us an Instance of mercy and Instrument of comfort with us after deepest humiliations and difficultest fruitions of them 5. Perhaps the Lord will make thee a great Instance of mercy and a great Instrument to comfort others and therefore suffereth thee to lie a long time in darkness and silence and at length will relieve thee Object Yea but how shall a troubled soul be supported in the How shall not be supported in the interim the interims until mercy pardoning mercy doth come and prayers therein be answered fully Sol. I answer to this also 1. If thou canst not have comfort to feed on yet thou hast duty to work on If thou hast not comfort look to duty Every Christian may either find it an Autumn to gather fruit or else a Spring to set it It is a great mercy that thou art at the gates of Mercy it is a great mercy 1. to enjoy 2. to beg 3. to wait for mercy a comfort to have such an heart to come so near to mercy thou hast a time to search thy heart more and to review thy estate and to peruse thy prayers to mend and continue all All which are but thy improvements in grace and will eventually prove the enlargements of thy mercy and peace No man can make a better progress in his repentance but he doth thereby prepare for the greater for the sweeter for the longer mercies 2. Though you have not experience to support you yet you have faith Though thou hast not experience yet thou hast faith It is written and sealed though not delivered as yet Whosoever doth truly repent mourn for sin forsake it endeavour to walk with God c. though he have not the joy of his pardon in his conscience yet he hath the assurance of his pardon in the promise Now Gods Word should support us as much as Gods Testimony his Word should be as good to our faith as his Testimony is sweet to our sense and feeling 3. The dawnings of pardoning mercy The dawnings of pardoning mercy may support which are rising upon you may also support you Though you cannot read your Pardon under the Broad Seal yet you may find it passing
himself in dust and ashes So the penitent upon the manifestation of divine favour doth more acknowledg his vileness judg his follies and abhor his iniquities it is ever true that the greatest mercies set the heart at greatest distance with sin But now it is demanded Why should the expressions of mercy elicite confession of sin if it be pardoned why any more confession Reasons though hereof be many 1. Piety in man is Reasons of it Piety in man is not opposite but subordinâ—te to pity in God not opposite but only subordinate to Pity in God Divine love doth not destroy but increase duty Assurance followes the habits and alwayes advances the acts of grace As it is our duty to seek our pardon by confession so also to carry away the same with continued confessions confession of sin is not a transient but a constant duty As the Mathematicians speak of a Line That it is not punctum but fluxus punctorum so I say of any duty It is not one indivisible act only but an act repeated to believe is a duty in which one act only is not enough for I must still keep my eye upon Christ So to confess sin is a duty not done altogether because once done but still to be done because a duty to be done though God be pleased to forget yet it is our duty to remember But secondly By confession of sin after remission and testimony Mercy is now acknowledged to be mercy mercy is now acknowledged to be mercy What a man may speak in straights is one thing what in free circumstances when extra aleam is another Many a man cryes out for mercy who perhaps scarce will give mercy all the glory afterward But when we are pardoned and yet confess sin we do really profess That it was not Worthiness in us but only Goodness in God that pardoned No man can more fully give the glory of his pardon to sole mercy then he who doth confess his sins after mercy What is this confession of sin but as if the person should say O Lord to me indeed nothing did belong but shame and confusion for I for my part have thus and thus sinned against thee and deserved thy wrath but it was meer mercy that saved and pardoned me 3. The more pardoning mercy God shews The more humility is thereby wrought in the heart The more pardoning mercy the more Humility for who can behold much pardon but withal must know it was much sin that hath that much pardon He hath greater cause of shame because all this while a God of such mercy hath been offended So that here is more cause for the heart to abase it self and to confess its own vileness 4. Upon New and more grounds of confession do arise gracious remission more and new grounds of Confession do arise Before I am pardoned I confess my sins because God requires confession and also because he doth upon a right confession promise Remission When I am pardoned more reasons of Confession are upon mercy namely mercy granted and mercy sealed O then have I not more cause to confess my sinful vileness having tasted of most unspeakable goodness in the pardon of it Doth the penitent person humbly confess his sins after the Vse Upon sense of pardon let us do so pardon of them Why let us if any of us think that we are pardoned do so too T is a truth that of all things we are most willing to forget our sins we have much adoe to keep our thoughts on them in a penitential way its death almost to some men to think on their sins thus and in case if by a little duty we have got the least hope of pardon we ordinarily put those sins off from any future solemn Confessions This I conceive ariseth from two causes the one is the sensible influence which sin often to be thought on imprints on the conscience After considerations of sin we have usually most bitterness and trouble which we willingly would not feel Another is an ignorance of the power and use of pardoning mercy which as it brings Rest Peace so most hearty grief and confession I will say to Such as faâ—l in after confession It is suspicious whether ever they had any Pardon at all Or whether they ever truly repanted or no. men presuming on pardon and yet failing in an after confession of their sins 1. It is suspicious whether ever they had any pardon at all or real assurance thereof forasmuch as they fail in this after effect of confession which is alwayes the more increased by the greater evidence of divine mercy 2. It is suspicious whether they ever truly repented or no for as much as true repentance doth incline us to go over and perfect all the acts and branches of Repentance whereof confession in a right manner performed is not the least But for our parts if any of us upon a penitential course have been so far blessed as to see the face of God with peace and have found any testimony of his pardoning mercy let us never cease to bless that mercy and with mournful and self-judging hearts to iterate and continue our confession of the sins for which we have found mercy Motives hereunto are these 1. We shall hereby the better prolong Moâ—ives to it We shall hereby the better increase our assurance of mercy and increase our assurance of divine mercy I conjecture that you shall in your experience find this truth viz. That assurance lives longest in a believing Eye an humble Spirit and in a Soul accustomed to the strict exercise of Repentance the way to get assurance of pardon is ever the best way to preserve and inlarge Our Conscience will hereby acquit us for the sincerity of our Confession it 2. Hereby our Consciences shall most acquit us for the sincerity of our confession Antecedent acts do not alwayes yield unto us that solid ground as subsequent acts As about our outward mercies after prayers do more denominate the celestial frame then former prayers because those may be depending on self-love and necessity but the other springs out of spiritual love and piety and respects to divine glory So is it in the business of confession of sin to confess under the beams of mercy is a better temper then to confess under the strokes of Justice it argues a more holy Ingenuity to acknowledg and bewail our vileness being discharged of wrath and punishment then only to exclaim either upon the Rack or upon hopes to be taken off 3. Hereby the frame of the heart is kept more tender against sin The frame of the heart is hereby kept more tender against sin as Ezra 9. 14. Should we again break thy Commandments Continued sense of sin produceth four singular effects and with much addition too Most cordial Thankfulness Most tender Fearfulness Most diligent Fruitfulness Most careful Tenderness The daily judger of his former sins by a penitential
of the City if the arm or foot slip out of joynt then indeed there is ache and pain instead of ease and quiet so if a penitent person do what is sinful he must not think that God will appear in that amiableness for as God will frown on no man which is in a good way so will he smile Distinguish of Gods expressions of himself and Satans representations of him on no man if found in an evil path 4. Lastly You must distinguish of Gods expression of himself and either Satans or our own unbelieving hearts representations of God Before we repent our own hearts and Satan represent God all in mercy to us and when we do repent so far as our hearts are sinful they are still guileful and conjoyn with Satan to represent God unto us all in Justice and terror But a natural and proper representation is one thing and a preternatural and corrupt representation is another thing How the dispositions and actions of men may present me in their due and real Entity to a man is one thing and how the cunning lies and artificial devices of an envious enemy may report me this is another thing This then is the sense of the assertion That when any person doth truly repent God will not only not upbraid and object unto him his sins but will graciously pass them over and for his part the penitent behaving himself like a penitent and judging of him aright according to his nature and promises shall find all in love graciousness and kindness to him and for him Reasons whereof are these 1. Vpon true repentance sin is Reasons of it Upon true Repentance sin is pardoned pardoned Repent saith S. Peter that your sins may be blotted out Acts 3. And he that forsakes his sin shall find mercy Prov. 28. And Isa 55. 7. Let the wicked forsake his way and I will abundantly pardon Whence I infer If sin be pardoned then there is no voice from heaven to be heard but that of Love and kindness Indeed while we continue in sin like Adam we hear the voice of God and are afraid for then it is the voice of his wrath and threatnings but sin being pardoned wrath is removed God is reconciled and his voice now is only the sweet voice of the Gospâ—l not the thunders of Sinai but the glad tydings of Sion Therefore 2. God hath said That he will not God will not break the bruised Reed break the bruised reed and takes it ill from any to add afflictions to the afflicted Now there is no expression more observed by a penitent then Gods Gods expressions are bruising or raising all is for comfort or discomfort as it comes from God the least harshness from him would set back the penitent into an overwhelming multitude of terrors fears and distractions and discouragements the which the Lord likes not having made the soul â—it for his mercies 3. Comfort is the proper expression for the penitent As threatnings are the most proper for an impenitent person Comfort is the proper expression for the Penitent so comfort for a penitent It were a dangerous mistake to give a Vomit when a Cordial is proper binding up is proper for the broken in heart and comfort for mourners and reviving for the contrite Gracioâ—s expressions from God are the very thing which the penitent needs his spirit cannot else live and uphold it self There are two things under which the spirit of man cannot well bear up and sustain it self One is near and strong afflictions without Divine strength Another is the quick sense of sin without the gracious sight of mercies As they are needful so are they seasonable for as much as 1. Satan is most ready to fall fâ—ul upon the Soul upon its Repentance with strongest accusations falsest suggestions and oppressions to overwhelm it with despair as on him in the Corinthians 2. The Heart at such a time is most apt to fear the worst to suspect its own soundness and Gods kindness 3. Nothing would settle and quiet the Spirit of the penitent person more then Gods gracious expressions This is light in darkness life in death the only Restorative to a sensible sinner and a languishing soul Therefore The first Use of this Point shall be to imitate God in this Vse Imitate God in this kindness and goodness kindness of expression and goodness of oblivion When we see persons truly penitential for former sins as we must not call Evil Good so neither must we call Good Evil if God will not mention former sins to a penitent how dare we to do it It is an usual way of a sly and malicious person in his detractations Yea he is so and so now indeed but what was he heretofore And thus he digs up those old rotten corruptions with his malicious tongue which the penitent hath long buryed with many tears and God hath covered with much mercy It is an argument that thou art of a beastly nature who art still in the wounds and not on the sound parts Speak against sin and condemn it as well in thy self as in others with all â—it zeal but spare at least the converted and penitent sinner Never open a wound which God hath healed nor shamefully blaze the sin which God hath mercifully pardoned 2. You see the way to have your sins covered and You see the way to have our sins covered and hid hid Men upon sinful commissions devise many shifts and colours and arts to keep their sins close and hid as if the Sun could be muffled or the Fire stiâ—led or the Wound not cured would not break out No truly repent of sins and that is the best way for to get sins concealed as well as pardoned Now the Lord will not mention them but if we continue impenitent the Lord will set our sins in order they shall break out to our shame as they have broken out to his dishonour But the Father said to his servants Bring forth the best Robe and put it on him and put a Ring on his hand and Shoes on his feet These words are a List of the special favours which were conferred The special favours conferred upon the Penitential Prodigal upon the penitential Prodigal where you have 1. The Number of them 1. The Râ—be 2. The Ring 3. The Shoes a suit large enough from top to toe We need a compleate furniture and God here bestows it 2. The Quality of them 1. The Robe is the best and 2. The Ring is precious and 3. The Shoes are proper and fit and the best God gives unto his people what is most excellent and what is most useful 3. The Order of them first the Robe and then the Ring because if the Allusion be to a Marriage the Wedding Garment is ever put on before the Wedding Ring Or else because the Garment which is the Robe is alwayes more necessary then the Ornament which is the Ring Or which is choicest
Return to God you know not the sweetness of his mercy of his love 9. If God hath found thee indeed Then thou mayst be found in Gods wayes The wayes or course of life which a man leads He will be found in Gods wayes plainly discovers whether he be found or lost a man that is still lost he continues in wayes which are loose and lost which will bring him to everlasting perdition and loss A man that is found by Grace is now in such wayes as brings Glory to him which finds and also brings him to Glory who is found What! talk of being found by Gods mercy and yet wallowing in thy lusts still running on in thy sinful base wayes what brought back to God and still running away from God! Assuredly the found man is to be found in new wayes in the paths of righteousness and holiness he is a shamed of his old wayes and forsakes them Paul is not persecuting now but humbling himself for it and praying and preaching and living to Christ The next Use shall be of Exhortation unto a twofold Duty Vse 2. Exhortation 1. To find out your lost condition 2. To get out of a lost condition 1. Labour to find out your lost condition Be convinced To â—ind out our lost condition Consider The extream pride and selfconceltedness of every siâ—ner We shall never seâ—k to God till we find our selves lost that naturally you are lost men There are two Reasons which may move you to this 1. The extream pride and self-conceitedness the self-conceit and self-deceit in every sinner there is no sinner thinks himself so safe and well as the lost sinner I have need of nothing said Laodicea I was alive once said Paul We were never in bondage said the Jews 2. You will never seek unto the Lord to bring you out of a lost condition until you â—ind your selves lost Who seeks his bread but the hungry or asks the way who thinks himself in the way or comes home who is not gone abroad Obj. But you will say how may a man be convinced that his condition is lost Sol. I answer there are seven special convictions of it 1. The fall of mankind in Adam Our nature â—even Convictions of our lost condition was like a stock deposited in his hand what he had we had what he kept we kept when he fell we fell and what he lost we also lost his condition was not personal but natural not particular but Universal Oh that Ship is split that Tree is fallen that Stock is spent 2. The Observation of our wayes and pathes do but eye them and judg of them As when God opened the eyes of the Syrians they saw themselves to be in the midst of Samaria so if God ever open thine eyes thou wilt see and confess that all thy wayes are but wandrings and all the time of thy life hath been lost in iniquity and vanity 3. The study of the Law Ah! When wilt thou read thy self in it thou wilt find thy self many a thousand mile from home and to have been a long very long wanderer a lost and undone person Rom. 7. 9. When the Commandment came sin revived and I dyed 4. A conscience inlightned and quickned There is no one faculty in man which can discover his present condition to him so certainly and so clearly as Conscience Men speak fancy speaks corrupted judgment and reason speak yea but what doth conscience speak in private on a sick bed in an immâ—ent judgment 5. The judgment of Godly and experienced Christians who have known experimentally a lost condition and a found condition 6. The un-inclination of his spirit to all Communion with God Nay the very aversness of it thereto 7. The absolute inexperience of his soul in the family of God never yet knowing what such a fathers house doth meâ—n Secondly When you have found out your lost condition then Sâ—â—â—ve to get out of this lost Condition strive to get out of it O do not continue in it either through presumption that you can quickly come home or through despair that God now will never look after you nor regard you But pray the Lord in mercy to turn thy heart to give thee an heart to come back unto him Obj. But I have wandered so long that I shall never be accepted nor welcomed although I should come back Sol. Say not so But consider well of these ensuing particulars 1. The Lord saith That he hath been found of them that sought him not and will he not then be found of them that return and seek him Si peccanti quid penitenti si erranti quid quâ—renti If he looks after thee then will he not look on thee now 2. There was never awandering lost Soul that ever returned back to his Fathers House but the door hath been opened to him and he hath found mercy the Prodigal here Manasses Paul c. 3. If thou hast a heart to turn home it is a certain sign that God intends thee mercy he hath put returning thoughts in thee because he hath already contrived thoughts of mercy towards thee We love him because he loved us first we turn to him because he first turned to us 4. The Lord God hath sent Jesus Christ from Heaven to look after and to find and to save that which was lost Now though thou canst not expect to find the door opened for thine own sake yet thou shalt see the door open and the Armes of Mercy open to thee for Christs sake 5. How many messengers and servants hath God and doth God still send after which cry earnestly unto thee Come back return and live Thus the Gospel cries thus Conscience cries thus all thy mercies cry thus all thy afflictions cry If God be yet seeking after thee thou mayst yet be found and if thou wilt seek and wait a while thy poor lost soul shall also be found 6. God hath chalked out the wayes and steps of returning home to him 7. God hath found men in their blood and hath said unto them Live Ezek. 6. For this my Son was dead and is alive again These words do hold forth a pithy description of a sinners conversion that is a passage from death to life or a mutation from a dead condition into a living condition the estate of sin is a dead estate yea a deadly estate and the state of Grace is a living estate yea a lively estate There any many Doctrinal Propositions which are couched in these words As 1. That an impenitent or unconverted man is a dead man This my Son was dead 2. That when a sinner is converted he is then made a live And is alive 3. That God doth sometimes convert a very great and notorious sinner This this my Son 4. That great afflictions are sometimes the means of a great sinners Conversion This my Son was 5. That there is an almighty power required to convert or change a sinner As much as
to make a dead man to live 6. That true Conversion is a very great and conspicuous alteration No change is like that from death to life 7. That true Conversion is an inward or a soul-alteration not of cloaths or painting It is the putting of life into a dead man 8. That a sinner contributes nothing at all towards his Conversion but Conversion of a sinner is the sole work of a God for it is God only who can quicken the dead no dead man can make himself alive 9. That the Lord takes notice of every condition of man of the Prodigals former condition he was dead and of his present condition but he is alive again 10. That the Lord doth own every converted person as a Father owns a Son This my Son 1. That an impenitent or unconverted man is a dead man This Doct. 1. An unconverted man is a dead man my Son was dead The sinner is in Scripture sometimes stiled A fallen man Hos 14. 1. Thou hast fallen by thine iniquity Yea but this fall is a deadly fall not like Eutychu's Fall Acts 20. 29. in whom yet there was life vers 10. But like Ahaziah's Fall which was deadly to him 2 Kings 1. 4. A diseased man Isa 1. 6. From the sole of the soot even to the head there is no soundness but this disease is a deadly disease and therefore sin is called the Plague of the heart 1 Kings 8. No disease is so deadly as the Plague and no Plague is so deadly as the Plague in the heart A wounded man Luk. 10. 30. A certain man fell among Theeves who woâ—nded him But this wound is a deadly wound like that which the King of Babilon gave to Pharaoh which made him groan with the groanings of a deadly wounded man Ezek. 30. 24. An inthralled man 2 Pet. 2. 19. Of whom a man is overcome of the same he is brought in Bondage But this Bondage is a deadly Bondage whether of sin unto death saith the Apostle of the servants of sin Rom. 6. 16. A dead man and this is the highest unless you say a damned man frequently doth the Scripture Phrase this way Psalm 106. 28. They did eat the sacriâ—ices of the dead because offered to dead Idols and by dead Idolaters Prov. 21. 16. The man that wandreth out of the way of understanding shall remain in the Congregation of the dead .i. of the ungodly wicked impenitent The Ephesians what were they before their conversion See Chap. 2. 1. Dead in sins and trespasses The Colossians what were they before their conversion See Chap. 2. 13. And you being dead in your sins c. 1 Pet. 4. 6. The Gospel was preached to them that were dead .i. to wicked and impenitent persons nay Jude v. 12. speaks of some that were twice dead dead in respect of Original Sin and dead in respect of Actual sin or dead in respect of corruption and dead in respect to their former profession I grant that an unconverted sinner may be alive 1. In respect of his own opinion I was once alive said Paul Rom. 7. 9. but when the Commandment came sin revived and I dyed 2. In the opinion of men Rev. 3. 1. Thou hast a name that thou livest and art dead So Christ of the Church of Sardis 3. To sinful works he lives in them and lives with them and lives to them but this life is death this life is a sign that he is dead that unto spirituals he is dead This is a great Point of which I am now discoursing and hath been the subject of much dispute as in former Ages so in this latter Age. There have been some that have denyed utterly this death of a sinner others have held sinful men to be wounded and to be half dead The Pelagians go this way so do all the Papists and verily the Arminians come not much short herein yea most men preâ—me that though they be sinners yet that they are not altogether dead but some life still remains in them or some power Favour me therefore to oâ—en the point with some distinctions and then I shall confirm the truth delivered both with Scripture and Arguments and wind up the rest with some profitable Applications to our Several Distinctions selves 1. For the first of these I distinguish thus Man is considerable Man considered under a three â—â—ld Stâ—te Of Creation Of Degeneration Of Regeneration Man in his Degeneration Considered as to Natural actions Political actions Or Theological under a threefold estate 1. Of Institution or Creation Wherein he was alive and had a power to live or dye 2. Of Destitution or Degeneration In this estate every man living is dead 3. Of Restitution oâ— Regeneration And here he is born again and is made alive again Again man in his degenerate or fallen estate may be considered in relation to actions and objects either 1. Natural To these he is alive the soul in man is no dead but living thing and is able to understand will desire discourse and reason and this man can eat drink sleep c. 2. Political Here also life is found in him even a wicked man destitute of all Grace is alive to trade to bargain to buy to sell to plant to build 3. Theological or Spiritual Now here the impeâ—itent or unconverted man is plane mortuus stark dead An understanding I confess he still hath but none that is able to know God aright or Christ or any saving truth without Divine aid or Grace 2 Cor. 3. 5. We are not sufficient of our selves to think any thing as of our selves If we Apostle and regenerate be not sufficient who is if not to think then to what to think is the lowest act of poâ—er 1 Cor. 2. 14. The natural man receiveth not the things of the Spirit of God for they are foolishness unto him neither can he know them because they are spiritually discerned John 1. 5. The light shineth in darkness and the darkness comprehended it not A â—ill also I grant unto the natural and unconverted man for he could not be a man if he had not a will but this will without Grace cannot do any spiritual good nor chuse it nor love it nor desire it Non potest home aliquid velle nisi adjuvetur ab eo qui malum non potest velle So S. Austin against Pelagius Tom. 3. De spiritu Litera cap. 3. Without me saith Christ ye can do nothing Joh. 15. 5. No man comes to me except the Father draw him Joh. 6. 44. It is God who works in us to will and to do saith the Apostle Phil. 2. 13. And Works I grant unâ—o this man but spiritual work I deny to them Quid boni petest perditus nisi in quantum à perditione liberatus Austin in Enchirid c. 30. They that are in the flesh cannot please God saith the Apostle Rom. 8. 8. An evil Tree cannot bring forth good fruit so our Saviour Mat. 7. 18.
Without saith it is impossible to please God Hebr. 11. 6. 2. But let us proceed further and search what Reasons may be produced to demonstrate the Assertion That the natural or Reasons of it unconverted man is spiritually dead and as to spirituals altogether dead Thus then 1. He who hath no Communion at all with Hâ—â—ath no communion with the principles of spiritual life the principles of spiritual life is in a spiritual sense altogether dead for where there is no principle of life there cannot be any thing but death Tolle animam tolle vitam but the impenitent and unconverted sinner hath no communion with any one principle of spiritual life Therefore c. There is a twofold principle of this life 1. A primitive conjunction with God in the estate of Innocency but this is lost 2. Arenewed Conjunction with God by Christ but yet this is not attained to by an unconverted sinner It is a confessed truth that Jesus Christ is the Author of spiritual life to the sinner He that hath the Son hath life and he that hath not the Son hath not life Joh. 5. 17. And the sinner hath it partly by Faith which taking Christ takes life from him by the Spirit of Regeneration which renews and makes him alive but the unconverted sinner hath neither the one nor the other had he either he were then converted 2. Original sin whilst reigning is a compleat cause of spiritual Original sin is a compleat cause of spiritual death death But original sin reigns in the impenitent and unconverted sinner therefore he is dead The Fathers have diversly Phrased Original sin some call it Venenum Syerpentis so Cprian others Plagam serpentis so Ireneus others Vitium parentum so Pauâ—inius in Austin the Apostle Paul calls it sometimes the body of sin sometimes the body of death sometimes the Law of sin and death sometimes the Vncircumcision of the heart Our Divines generally conceive two things in it viz. In Original sin there is 1. A total deprivation of original righteousness The Faculties remain but the Rectitude is gone It is reported of an excellent Philosopher that he fell into a Disease which dashed out all the Learning that ever he acquired so that he forgat even his own Name Original sin is like the extinguishing of a Candle the Candle remains still but the Light is gone Or like the quenching of red Iron the Iron remains but the fiery redness is all gone Or like a Tree the Limbs remain but the Life is gone It is an Universal spoil it hath robbed us of all our supernaturals worse to us than the Devil to Job who took away all that he had yet spared his Life But Original Sin not onely took away Paradise and Righteousness but all self-power so much as to desire to be good 2. A total depravation of all the man Seges ubi Troia The Soul of Man was once like a Garden fully set with the sweetest Flowers of Righteousness but now it is become like a Wilderness run over and filled with Briars and Thorns Or it is like a Face which once was the most curious of features every part expressing most amiable sweetness now it is like the same Face most deformed with the clusters of the Pox and the very shame and reproach of it self There is not a Faculty in the Soul but it is like the Bough of a fruitfull Tree thickly laden with Iniquity It is a Spring bubling out nothing but aversation enmity resistance to spiritual good and readiness inclination eagerness unsatiableness to all that is evil God saw that every imagination of the thoughts of the heart of man was onely evil continually Gen. 6. 5. The best of men complain of blindness of dulness of deadness Alas then what or how is it with the worst of men Paul could not do good a wicked man would not do good Paul complains for want of power what then may an unconverted man do By all this I think it manifectly appears That the unconverted man is spiritually dead because Original Sin reigns in him if in any then in him and where Original Sin reigns there is a total privation or absence of all spiritual Life and total corruption or presence of spiritual Death in the Soul The terms used in Scripture to express conversion 3. The Terms used in Scripture to express a sinners conversion do seem sufficiently weighty to prove That before his conversion he was spiritually dead For it is set forth sometimes By the Resurrection of the dead Ephes 5. 14. Awake thou that sleepest and arise from the dead By the Generation of a person Of his own good will begat he us with the word of truth Jam. 1. 18. By Creation 2 Cor. 5. 17. If any man be in Christ he is a new creature Now observe if Conversion be a Resurrection a spiritual Resurrection then the soul before Conversion was spiritually dead if Conversion be a Regeneration then a new life is brought into the soul which it totally wanted before If Conversion be a Creation and the converted man qua talis be a new creature then he had no spiritual being before If spiritual Life be a creature onely of Christ's making then c. 4. To me those spiritual Promises which God makes of giving The promises of giving a spiritual being and life a spiritual being and life do abundantly clear that man is dead As of pouring forth the Spirit of Grace giving his Spirit taking away the heart of Stone and giving the heart of Flesh of giving Knowledge Love Fear c. Such kinds of Promises imply three things 1. Our total want and need 2. Gods undertaking to bestow them 3. A free and total donation of them to us on Gods part 5. S. Austin useth the Duty of Prayer to prove this Assertion The duty of Prayer against the Pelagians Petenda à Deo bona omnia ergo nihil boni ex nobis possumus And in an Epistle to Vitalis he saith Prorsus non oramus Deum sed orare nos singimus si nos ipsos non illum credimus facere quod oramus 6. I will add but one Argument more viz. That man is totally dead quantum ad spiritualia who cannot so much as Man cannot prepare himself to life prepare himself no not remotely no not in any degree unto the life of Grace But the Unconverted man cannot virtute propria and without supernatural aid in the least degree prepare himself c. for without that aid he cannot desire deliverance out of his sinfull estate nor mourn over it nay not feel it nay not spiritually know it The Use which I desire to make of this Point I shall reduce unto 1. Information 2. Trial 3. Instruction 1. For Information Is every natural and unconverted man a Information spiritually dead man Hence we may be informed of several The unconverted man is in the saddest condition Truths 1. That the
unconverted man is of all men on the earth in the saddest vilest miserablest condition Why Because he is spiritually dead dead spiritually dead A wounded man is in a tedious condition and a diseased man is in a languishing condition but what is a wound to death what is a disease to death Me morienti mori Death is the Sun-set of all comfort Death is the drowning of a little world Death is the very Hermitage of forgetfulness and loathsome corruption Death is the lowest and vilest condition what then is a spiritual Death No Death like the spiritual Death O my friends consider spiritual Death either in comparison in its proper complexion Consider this death or in the consequents of it surely no Death no condition is so dismal as it 1. In comparison with any other In comparison with other death Death This is the worst this is the heaviest There is the Death of our Goods and Estate into which Job fell of our Name and Reputation into which David fell of our Bodies and natural Life into which Lazarus fell of the Soul the immortal soul of man into which every unconverted sinner is fallen Now what is a dead Estate to a dead Soul Or what is a dead Name to a dead Soul Or what is a dead Body to a dead Soul It is not so much as the death of a Dog to the death of a Man Every unconverted man hath a dead soul a converted man may have a troubled soul but the unconverted man hath a dead soul sin hath slain his precious soul If the soul be dead what is alive What is that man whose soul is dead In all other deaths something is alive if Goods be gone the Name lives if the Name be gone the Body lives if the Body be gone the Soul lives But if the Soul also be gone what lives 2. In it self Why spiritual Death is a total privation of God In iâ— self of Christ of Grace no life of God no life of Christ no life of Grace is there in any unconverted person none at all Ah poor wretch what art thou and what is thy condition who art thus dead A total corruption diffusion possession with sin S. Austin affirms That the very Vertues of the Heathens were but splendida peccata meer flowers on a dead man And Solomon The sacrifices of the wicked are an abomination to the Lord. What a gastly sâ—ght would it be to open a grave and see the dead body run over with crawling worms and a general putrefaction over all the parts And truly so it is with the soul of an unconverted person it is the filthiest nastiest corruptedst may I say Câ—â—â—on Luther said once So many sins so many hells surely I may then say So many Sins so many Deaths The unconverted man is full of sin his heart is full of evil so Soloman He is filled with all unrighteousness so Paul affirmeth Job was filled with botches yea but he was not filled with sins and Lazarus was filled with sores yea but he was not filled with sins and Davids soul was filled with complaints and Christs soul was filled wich sorrow yea but it was not filled with sin Every unconverted mans dead soul is filled with living sins as a good mans soul is filled with dying and dead sins and a soul full of living sins is much like a soul filled up with Hel-fire There is no evil so evil as sin and no sin so evil as living sin and no living sin so evil as a fulness and an onliness of living sin 3. In the consequents of it I will name but three of them In the consequents of it 1. All the guilt of all those sins lie on him alone 2. All the wrath of God looks on him the sentence of curse 3. An eternal death may soon befal him 2. Then no marvel that publick and private admonitions counsels No marvel that admonitions reproofs counsels prevail not with most men reproofs prevail not with the most of men We Ministers preach and we think we preach Religion and with evidence enough of Reason and deliver things fairly and plainly and convincingly and now we wonder at it that men should hear such clear and undeniable truths and not be moved and perswaded And Parents give admirable counsels and instructions to their Children and no good comes of them c. Why Sirs are not unconverted men dead men And what can all our undertakings alone considered do unto dead men Assuredly unless the Lord of Life himself will speak these counsels and these admonitions unto sinfull men they will never hear them so as to be stirred so as to be moved so as to be converted by them they will remain in their sinfull condition and obstinate wayes to eternity 3. Then it is of Gods meer mercy and pity and power if ever It is Gods mercy that any soul is converted thy poor soul be converted Never ascribe it to thy excellency what excellency is there in a dead man to thy power what power is there where there is no life to thy self preparations what active disposing or preparation can a dead man afford The dead sinner is the meer object of purest mercy and the dead sinner is without all strength if ever his souls lives then to Christ must that life own it self and to Divine Mercy and Power c. The next Use shall be for Trial or Examination Since every unconverted man is spiritually dead let 's therefore search our Vse 2. Trial Whether we be spiritually dead Four Tokens of it hearts in what a condition they are Are not many of us yet dead in sins and trespasses spiritually dead men There are four Tokens of a man spiritually dead 1. Vnsensibleness Where there is no life there is no sense of all sinners the unsensible sinner is in the most deadly condition Tanto pejor quanto insensibiliter saith Austin Do what you will to a dead man he is Unsensibleness unsensible of it call to him he hears not put the sweetest perfumes to him he smels not kick him cut him burn him he feels not although he be full of loathsomness he perceives it not Now I beseech you mind this Trial for verily if spiritual unsensibleness prevail upon you you are spiritually dead If spiritual sense be the first evidence of Life then è contra spiritual unsensibleness is a sure evidence of Death And what spiritual sensation is yet wrought in you There are sins upon sins mountains upon mountains in your hearts the least of them hath been an heavy burthen to a living soul but what hast thou ever felt of thy sinfull heart and life There is in the Ministry of the Gospel no less than riches of Mercy freeness of Love glories of Heaven tendred to you but what do you perceive in it Didst thou never yet feel and cry out of a body of Death O here here is a dead heart an ignorant heart a
proud heart an unbelieving heart an heart in which there is no good in which is all evil Ah poor man thou art a dead man no feeling no complaining no crying out of thy heart against all those many many vile and notorious sins 2. An universal and constant coldness If life be gone heat is gone the Feet are cold and the Hands are cold and the whole An universal and constant coldness Body is cold and the very Heart is cold too A living man may have cold hands and feet but he never hath a cold heart for life is there and heat is there Why there is no one converted man under heaven but he hath some heat in him though not much in some of his actions yet certainly some in his heart O saith he I approve of what is good and I would do good and I delight in the Law of God after the inward man I believe Lord help my unbelief But now an unconverted man hath 1. A cold heart unto any spiritual good Suppose he be at Prayer and at Sermon why but he hath no heart to or in these duties he hath no mind to these works no delight in them or in the Sabbath or in a Fast and though his body be present yet his heart is afar off it goes after his covetousness 2. And this Coldness is universal There is not any one spiritual Duty unto which his heart is not dead or cold He will tell you when he hears Catechizing I should like Preaching and so when he hears Preaching I could like Praying and so when Praying comes I could like Reading and when Reading comes I could like Meditating and when that comes I could like Practising and when Practising comes I could like Understanding But he dissembles he loves not one Duty at all his heart to these is like a sick stomack that seems to like any thing but what it hath but indeed likes no meat 3. And it is also constant I confess even a good and converted heart may find sometimes more actual indispositions to good than at other times and sometimes a greater measure of dulness and deadness but an heart constantly cold from one end of the year to another all the life long still to loath spiritual services never to attain unto a delightfull and affectionate communion with God This is a Token of a dead soul 3. Where the Word preached is but a dead Letter unto the hearer Where the Word preachâ—d is but a dead Letter certainly that man is in a dead condition If our Gospel be hid 't is hid to them that are lost saith the Apostle So may I say If our Gospel be dead it is so onely to them that are dead The Gospel is the great Trumpet of Christ the Silver Trumpet by which he raiseth the dead as at the last he shall raise the dead by the Voice of the Trumpet this is that by which Jesus Christ quickens and pulls a soul out of its sinfull condition 1. It lets in light to see that condition 2. It affects Conscience to feel it 3. It puts in Faith to go to Christ to fetch life Yet many men are not wrought on at all by the Gospel preached Unmoveableness is the token of a dead man 4. A delight in dead things and in dead works plainly declare A delight in dead works a dead condition Paul in Ephes 2. 1. tels the Ephesians that they were once dead but how did that appear See vers 2. In time past ye walked according to the course of this world And vers 3. Ye had your conversation in the lusts of the flesh fulfilling the desires of the flesh and of the mind 1. In dead things Dead men are heavy and descend to the earth worldly things are the Optima and the Vltima of an unconverted heart Who will shew us any good Psal 4. If that of Paul Col. 3. 1 2. If ye be risen with Christ then seek those things that are above and set your affections on things that are above be a true sign of a living raised man then è contra to seek to settle affections on things below is a true sign of a dead man 2. In dead works These opera mortua mortifera And truly nothing doth more discover a spiritual death than a delight and a service of sin certainly such a man is yet an unconverted man The last Use shall be for Instruction unto several Duties I will but glance a them 1. Have as little society with wicked men Vse 3. Instruction Have as little society with unconverted men as may be as may be for they are dead men Would any man living have a dead man to be his companion There is a two-fold Society with men 1. One is necessary in respect of our Relations or of our Commerce and Trade which cannot well be avoided 2. Another is arbitrary in respect of our Election avoid this do not make choice of wicked society There are two Reasons to hearken to this advice One is You shall never get any spiritual good by their society a wicked man is an unprofitable man Can any one gather Figs of Thorns or Grapes of Thistles Who is the better for a dead man Another is You shall receive much hurt by such society The Jews were unclean if they did but touch a dead body It was the practice of a Tyrant once to tie a dead man to a living man that the filthy savour of the dead man might infect and destroy the life of the living man O you who are to marry your children take heed of marrying them to the dead and you who are Free-men take heed of embracing society with the dead There are three notorious mischiefs will ensue hereupon 1. Dead society will by degrees bring you into a deadness of heart wicked company will certainly abate your zeal and holy affections as waters do the flaming fire 2. Dead society will quench your Life in spiritual Duties they will not onely interrupt but mitigate your sweet and wonted society with God and good men 3. Dead society will in time corrupt you to dead works Remember Solomon 2. Lament and bewail thy unconverted Friends and Kindred Lament thy unconverted friends You read that David wept for Absalom O Absalom my son my son c. and you read that Christ wept for Lazarus being dead and you read of both of these weeping also for those that were spiritually dead David Psal 119. Rivers of tears run down mine eyes because men keep not thy Law Christ came near to Jerusalem and wept over it saying Oh if thou hadst known even thou at the least in c. Wouldst not thou weep to see thy Fathers or Mothers or Sisters or Brothers dead body carrying out to the grave and say Alas my Father alas my Brother alas my Child How then canst thou refrain tears for their dead souls Why doest not thou pity the dead and unconverted soul of thy Father
When a sinner is sanctified Of Sanctification Which may be considered In the cause of it he is then made alive At this I suppose the Text doth principally aim This Life is considerable 1. In the Cause of it which is no other but the Spirit of Jesus Christ who unites Christ and the Soul together and upon this union the Soul is quickned with the life of Christ I live by the faith of the Son of God Gal. 2. 20. 2. In the Nature of it it is a novum spirituale esse which doth regenerate the man and as it were create him In the nature of it again The Scripture stiles this quality a new creature and the new man It is an holy living principle In a word this life is nothing else but the Grace of the Spirit regenerating and renewing the whole soul of a sinner It is saving light set up in the Mind and saving wisdome set up in the Judgment and saving grace set up in the Will and Affections which alter the old sinfull nature in man and are a new spiritual inclination to matters that are spiritual yea and a new spiritual ability or power in the whole soul of man to work that is spiritual Whereas the Understanding could not know the things of God now it is enabled to know them and to admire them and to study them whereas the Will was both unable to good and unwilling to good and only set on what was evil now being quickned by Grace it is drawn off from that affectionate inclination to evil and it is bent and inclined and in some measure enabled to desire Christ to love Jesus Christ to fear God to obey God and to walk with God And when this comes into the heart of a sinner he is said to be alive again Shall I draw out my thoughts of this Subject more clearly unto When a sinner is made alive Jesus Christ applies himself unto the soul and breaths into it the breath of life you Take me then thus When any sinner is made spiritually alive 1. Jesus Christ applies himself to the Soul and he breaths into it the Spirit of Life He doth with a poor dead soul much like as Eliah did with the Shunamites dead child who lay upon the child and put his mouth upon the childs mouth and his eyes upon the childs eyes and his hands upon the childs hands and he stretched himself upon the child and the flesh of the child waxed warm So the Lord Jesus applies himself by his Spirit to the soul of a sinner to all the soul of a sinner and works mightily in it producing knowledge in a blind mind and feeling in an hard heart and faith in an unbelieving spirit and all his Graces in the whole Soul 2. Which gracious principles He puts in living principles are all of them living principles and alter all the soul and incline it spiritually So that the man who cared not for God nor Christ nor Grace nor holy Duties heretofore now his soul bends to these and he minds these and he is never better than when he is thinking of God and mourning for his sins and thirsting for Christ and praying to God and hearing of the Word of God this is his desire and this is his delight 3. There is a power in these principles of spiritual life A power There is power of spiritual life in these principles against his sins so that now he can hate them and say What have I to do any more with Idols Get ye hence And a power in his affections so that now he is able to love God above all and able to fear God and not displease him willingly And a power in his will so that now he is able to come to Christ and cleave to Christ as his onely happiness And a power to spiritual actions so that he is now able to hear and understand to pray and wrestle to pray and believe to believe and repent Quest 2. How it may be evidenced that the converted man is How this may be evidenced thus made spiritually alive Sol. Thus 1. Every converted man hath a living union with Jesus Christ he is brought into He hath a living union with Christ fellowship with Christ Now Jesus Christ is a living Head and all his members are living Members 1 Joh. 5. 12. He that hath the Son hath life And Joh. 6. 51. I am the living bread if any man eat of this bread he shall live for ever 〈◊〉 2. All true grace is of a living nature False grace is a dead thing it True grace is of a living nature hath no life and can give no life but true grace is living True â—aith is a living faith I live by the faith of the Son of God Gal. 2. 20. And true hope is a living hope 1 Pet. 1. 3. God hath begotten us to a lively hope 3. Every converted man is the child of the living God he is born of the Spirit who is the Spirit of life He is a child of the living God God is not the God of the dead but of the living and God as a Father never begets any dead Children All his children are begot after his own image they are partakers of the Divine nature and that is a living nature 〈◊〉 4. The converted man lives the rest He lives the rest of his life to God of his life unto God 1. Pet. 3. 2. None of us liveth to himself for whether we live we live unto the Lord Rom. 14. 8. Can he possibly live unto the Lord until he be made alive by the Lord What glory can God get by the life of a dead sinner The living the living he shall praise thee as I do this day said Hezâ—kiah Isa 38. 19. God must have much glory from the converted man not only passive glory on him this he hath on wicked men but active glory from him glory from his believing and glory from his obedience which cannot be unless he be made alive spiritually alive The Use of this Doctrine shall be to draw you into a searching acquaintance with your spiritual condition There is not Vse Trial of our selves about our spiritual life a business which can possibly concern you more nearly than this Whether you be children of Death or of Life Whether yet dead in sins or quickned by the life of grace Can it be said of us as here of the Prodigal This my Son was dead but is alive So we were sometimes disobedient ignorant proud vile serving divers lusts but after that the grace of God hath appeared we are alive we have put off those lusts and have other Principles other Natures other Lives Let me offer unto you four Motives to try your souls about their spiritual Motives to this Trial. Life 1. You have enjoyed the means of Life The Gospel is often You have enjoied the means of life called the Word of Life
a quickning and regenerating Word it carries Christ in it the Author of Life and the Apostle calls it the Ministration of Life And perhaps it hath been so to some poor man and woman and to some of thy children But O how long hast thou heard it how often hast thou come to this Bread of Life to these Waters of Life What! and yet dead in thy sins not yet quickned and made alive Why thou art a reproach to the Gospel and thy sins have not only given death to thy soul but death to the Gospel of Christ the Gospel is made by them a dead Letter it is not so in it self but thou hast made it so And how wilt thou answer God for killing thy soul and killing his Christ and killing his Gospel 2. Many have a name that they live but like the Angel of Many have a name to live and yet are dead the Church of Sardis they are dead Revel 3. 1. Oh Sirs Spiritual life the life of grace is a rare thing and a difficult thing Every man loves his life but few love this life No man hates his own life almost but most men hate this life of grace because it is destructive to this life of sin And many think they have it and others think so too and yet they have it not You know it is one thing to put Flowers upon a dead body and another thing to put life into a dead man It is one thing for the Sun to convey light another thing for the Sun to convey life I might shew you that mâ—n mistake spiritual life exceedingly Education in a person may lead him far and so may an enlightned and generous Conscience and so may restraining Grace and so may Art and so may the common gifts of the Spirit they may enable a man to strange conceptions and strange affections and strange actions and yet the man may be spiritually dead Not any of these flow from a gracious principle of spiritual life Why common Gifts may lead up the soul far and Education may lead to Duties much and Conscience may awe sin exceedingly and Art or Hypocrisie may counterfeit the very life of Grace as a Stage-player doth a King wonderfully O therefore look to it that you have more than a name of life that you live indeed 3. If you should deceive your selves and when you come to It would be very sad to be deceived in this die you find that you have been dead all your lives and never were spiritually made alive Oh! in what a condition will thy poor trembling soul be To die and see nothing but death I thought there was life in my heart and life in my strong faith and life in my troubles of spirit and life in my obedience but alas I never lived I never enjoyed Christ never enjoyed grace c. 4. If the Lord hath made thee alive from the dead I do not To be alive is cause of great joy know any man living on the earth that hath such cause of joy unspeakable and glorious I will mention but three particulars unto thee 1. Hereby thou mayest be assured of thy interest in the richest mercy and greatest love of God to thy poor soul Read but the Apostle in Ephes 2. 4. But God who is rich in mercy for his great love wherewith he loved us v. 5. even when we were dead in sins hath quickned us 2. Thou mayest palpably discover the tokens and vertues of Jesus Christ upon thy soul the very Effigies of the saving works of Christ that which Paul so longed to know even the power of the death and of the resurrection of Christ Philip. 3. 10. In thy death to Sin and in thy life of Grace doth the power of Christs death and of Christs resurrection appear 3. Thou mayest certainly know that Heaven shall be the place of thy rest hereafter Spiritual life comes from Heaven and bends to Heaven and shall bring to Heaven It prepares for Heaven and it is a part of Heaven and it shall be perfected and filled up in Heaven O what things are these who would miss of these For Christs sake search throughly whether you be made alive Now me thinks I hear some soul secretly longing to know how it may be cleared unâ—o it That God hath quickned it from the Signs of spiritual life dead That as it was once dead yet it is now alive Sol. There are many things which may clearly declare it for indeed life is such an active thing especially spiritual life that it may easily appear sometimes or other to him who hath it 1. If sin be alive then thou art still dead and if sin be dead thou art certainly alive I will open both these parâ—s 1. If sin be alive then the man is dead for it is impossible that the If sin be alive the man is dead same man should be alive and dead under the same consideration Spiritual Life and spiritual Death are incompatible at the same time in the same subject And therefore if sin be alive questionless you are spiritually dead Now there are four things which manifest sin to be alive in any mans soul 1. The flaming bents and inâ—atiable desires of the heart after things forbidden in the Word Ephes 4. 19. we read of sin with greediness 2. The universal and easie authority law or command that it hath over the soul and body that it can use them in the service of lusts when and as it pleaseth Ephes 2. 2 3. 3. The joyfull contentation and satisfaction which the heart takes in evil things as we do in meat and drink 4. The customary trade and course of our life in sinfull ways a walking in them a living in them O if these be yet found in thee sin is alive still and thou art dead still 2. But if sin be dead thou art certainly alive If sin be dead thou art alive I confess sin may be restrained and a man not alive and sin may be troublesome in some respects and a man not yet alive But if it be dead the man is spiritually alive for sin in thee can never come to be dead but by spiritual life Now sin is dead in thee if thou canst find two things 1. If it hath lost thy affections If love to sin be gone and hatred of sin be come if delight in sin be quenched and sorrow for sin be implanted Oh Sirs the love of sin is the life of sin and if the hatred of sin doth live then the love of sin is dead 2. If it hath lost its Authority its free and uncontrolled power although it molests still and tempts still yet it rules not thou art not a slave to it and subject to it thou wilt not serve it obey it any longer If thou hast Christ for thy Lord the Law of Christ for thy Rule and Sin for thy Enemy thou art alive 2. A second sign of spiritual life is a spiritual sense
by this opinion is manifestly placed in the liberty of a sinners will whereas the Scripture plainly ascribes it to the will of him who calls not to the will of him who is called 2. Others hold it to be much beyond this To be a most High Power a Iâ— is a most high power a creating power Creating Power a Divine Power an Almighty Power such a Power as overpowers all the sinful power in man bears it down and overcomes a proud stubborn resisting heart though it doth not totaliter eradicare yet it doth actualiter predominari vincere resistentiam voluntatis Now that no less power is sufficient effectually Proved to convert a sinner may be cleared by these Arguments 1. If you consider the nature of Conversion it self there are two From the nature of conveâ—sion things which Conversion doth denote One is an immediate work of God renewing man or giving unto him a new birth this cannot be done without an almighty Power Our Divines in the Synod of Dort call this Mirabilem operationem Prosper calls this Grace Bonorum in nobis creatricem This is the creating work to bestow a Soul upon the Soul a Spirit of life upon a spirit this must be the work of an almighty God indeed Omnipotentissima potestas inclinandi humanorum cordium Austin de Cor. Gra. c. 14. No man nor Angel can make a creature only a God can make creatures and new creatures The Ethiopian cannot change his skin and can any but a God change the heart the nature of a sinner Another is A work of man by Faith and Repentance turning himself unto God some term the former conversionem primam and the latter conversionem secundam these two in the order of time cannot scarce be distinguished but in order of causality they are the work of God converting man is before and it is a cause of the action in man converting unto God Now Conversion in this sense depends upon an almighty Power even the believer cannot believe without Gods mighty Power there is a wonderful Power required to draw out the act of believing Oh how much power is necessary to make any troubled broken heart actually to come unto Christ actually to believe to embrace Jesus Christ how many Seas must be divided first how many Mountains levelled and removed out of their places first It must come from the Father if any do come unto the Son See Jo. 6. 37. 45. Vnto you it is given to believe 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Faith is the gift of God and the act of Faith is the gift of God too a renewed will is from God and when it is renewed even now to will is from God God works in you to will and to do of his good pleasure Phil. 2. 13. there must be his good will to make us will good and his 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 for our 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 his work to make us to work 2. If you consider the strength of sin in mans nature we look upon two things in From the strength of sin in mans nature sin the guilt of it Oh this was so great so mighty that it could never be expiated but by an almighty satisfaction even the blood of the Son of God the filth and corruption of it why thus considered it is of that strength in the Soul that no Power but what is Divine can overcome it an almighty Power is necessary to this it must be a stronger then the strong that must dispossess this strong man they are no weak weapons but mighty weapons and mighty through God which must pull down these strong holds the heart of man is full of evil saith Solomon it is desperately wicked saith Jeremy I beseech you pause a while upon two Considerations 1. There is an exceeding strength in Sin even in the Regenerate and converted Person Paul cries out I am sold I am led captive David is weeping for no less sins then of Adultery and Murder Peter weeps bitterly for no less sin then denying of Christ then for swearing and cursing In the very best the flesh lusteth against the Spirit So that they cannot do the Good they would and cannot overcome the evil that they hate Now mark if there be so much strength in sinful nature dying how great is the strength in sinful nature living If there be so much power in a broken arm how great is the power in a perfect strong unbroken arm If all the Christians Grace he hath be sometimes too weak for his sinful inclination assuredly then all external counsels advises reproofs are too weak to alter the whole sinful nature for the quality of Grace is much more strong then the exhortation unto Grace 2. That there is such a strength in sin that all the degrees of Grace unto which a converted person can possible attain in this life are not able totally to rid the soul of it Till the mud-wall be quite pulled down some of the Ivy will stick unto it Jacob went halting unto his grave Till death makes an end of our lives Grace cannot make an end of our sins Is it thus with the converted person that neither Counsels nor Exhortations nor Grace received can utterly extirpate sin nay is sometimes too weak for sin verily then there can be no conversion of a sinner without an Almighty power the power of sin in an unconverted man being in fullest strength in every faculty and making highest resistance to Grace because naturally of deepest contrariety thereunto 3. Nay thirdly consider as there is a mighty strength From that strength joyned with Sin to oppose the sinners Conversion in sin so there is a mighty strength joyned with sin to oppose the sinners Conversion and the sinner cannot be converted until both these armies be conquered 1. Satans strength is joyned with the strength of sin the sinner is under the dominion of sin and he is likewise under the dominion of Satan and as sin is a powerful Lord so Satan is a powerful Prince he is the God of this world he works mightily in the Children of disobedience Ephes 2. 2. He takes them captive at his pleasure and as Pharaoh raised all his host when the Children of Israel were to go out of Egypt so doth Satan stir up all his policy and put forth all his power to withhold a person from being converted He arms the Judgment with reasons exceptions shifts disputes and he arms the Will with aversness unreasonableness stubbornness pride And he arms the Conscience and he arms the Affections O what corrupt reasonings how many proud denials what hideous representations of the wayes of Grace what delights what profits we have had by sin what impossibilities what disputes what feares what terrors what dampings of the Word what distractions in Prayer what agonies and continual and vehement and violent conflicts doubts scruples c 2 All these must be answered and all these must be conquered if the
over-rule the The heart of a sinner may be above his miseries heart or to mend it As it was with Gallio when the Jews did beat Softhenes and kept a stir the Text saith He cared not for any of those things i. they made no prevailing impression on him so as to divert his purpose In like manner may it be with the miseries which personally befal a man his heart notwithstanding may not regard them neither may he lay things to heart they may be thrown off in respect of any beneficial impression as water from a rock as is evident in Pharaoh and in the Jews see Isa 42. 25. He hath powred upon him the fury of his anger and the strength of battel and it hath set him on fire round about yet he knew it not and it burned him yet he laid it not to heart Here was anger and fury of anger and poured out and so as to set him on fire and to burn him yet he laid it not to heart If you should take dross and corrupt stuff and put it into the fire you shall never refine it it is to no purpose the founder in such a case would melt but in vain Jer. 6. 29. so in this case For the proper operation of all miseries is onely moral and rather reâ—resentative then effective i. they can of themselves do nothing perhaps they may point a man to his sins but his heart may effectually resist that evidence of sin by the rod of God as well as by the word of God Look as it is with the Light of the Sun though great and gentle yet it never opened a blind mans eyes nor yet the Lightning which runs swiftly in the time of Thunder For that natural privation exceeds the strength of such Agents So it is with a sinner his heart may so cleave to sin that neither the Light of the Sun I mean the blessed Word of God nor yet the Lightnings and Thunders of afflictions may divorce him so great may the power of sinfull love be that not the kindest mercies nor the sharpest miseries alone shall ever be able to melt him or turn him The love of sin may increase even an incorrigible and desperate perversness in the Will such perversness that the afflicted sinâ—er possibly may be so far from leaving his sins that therefore he will cleave to his sins the more and in a proud despite will forsake God as that prophane person This evil is of the Lord why should he wait for him any longer 2 Kin. 6. 33. 4. Lastly Miseries do not always bring men off from their sins Mâ—n hate holiness more then miseries because Men hate holiness and a godly life more then miseries i. There is a greater contrariety twixt their sinfull natures and holiness then twixt them and miseries it is confessed that misery in some respect is contrary to nature at least to the peace and ease of nature yet misery is not so distastfully contrary to a wicked nature as holiness and godliness Sin can live and rule whiles the sinner is under misery but it never can do so when he is under grace You know that a man never can turn from sin but when he loves holiness now holiness is that which many a sinfull heart like Paul before his conversion persecutes to the death Why if some sinfull hearts will venure the loss of heaven rather then they will be holy will they not rather then endure the loss of friends and estate c. and if they will adventure the pains of hell rather then they will come off unto an holy life will they not rather endure some temporal distresses c. and doth not this shew that some had rather be passive in misery then active in holiness Now I proceed to the usefull Applications of all this to our selves Where 1. for Information Do not straits and miseries always Vse 1. Information bring men off from their sins then 1. An afflicted condition is no infallible testimony of a safe condition Some people are of an opinion that if God doth punish An afflâ—cted condition no infallible testimony of a safe condition them in this life in crosses losses sicknesses penuries c. they have all their portion of misery already and undoubtedly shall besaved To which I reply 1. Though as the Israelites came at length to Canaan through the Red Sea and through the wilderness so a person may after many afflictions and miseries come to heaven Heaven can admit of a poor Lazarus and of a distressed Job and of a pursued David 2. Yet it is not always so A person may be under many miseries and notwithstanding them he may never be happy the meer presence of miseries is of common providence and not a distinguishing priviledge by what is before us whether outward good or outward evil we can know neither love nor hatred but as it is with the Ships at sea whether of the Kings Loyal subjects or of hostile pirats either of them are exposed to winds and storms to leaks and rocks and sands so is it with good men and bad men each of them are exposed to outward calamities as each of them are capable of outward mercies there may be a change in their outward condition when yet there is no change in their inward dispositions Job may hold fast his uprightness under all his miseries and Pharaoh may retain his hardness under all his Judgments And where the sinful affection and practice is still retained he shall not be free because of his present miseries but for ever rejected because of his continued iniquity 2. That the Conjunction twixt Sin and the sinful soul is very The Conjunction betwixt sin and the soul is very strong strong For as much as very great straits and miseries effect nothing many times You see here that though the Prodigal had spent all and a famine yea a great famine arose over the Land in which he was yet he is so far from returning and giving over his sinful course that he does not so much as think of it or mind it assuredly the Covenant of affection is very firm which cannot be untied with the fairest promises nor with the severest indurances When the Lord shall come to a sinner meet him in his course and way and because of his contempts and rebellions distrein his estate and goods and then lay an Attachment of sickness on his body and more then this indite him for his life by the summons of death And yet neither the loss of all the Mercies which once he had nor the presence of all the Evils which now he feels neither the poverty of his Table nor the rags on his Back nor shivering in his Bones nor anguish in his Conscience no nor appearance of Death nor yet the roâ—râ—sentations of Hell do turn him from his sinful affections and courses judge whether the tree be not tough which no Wedge can cleave and the disease be not