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Word A	Word B	Word C	Word D	Occurrence	Frequency Band	MI	MI Band	Prominent
sin_n	write_v	year_n	young_a	55	3	5.8114	4	false

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ID	Title	Author	Corrected Date of Publication (TCP Date of Publication)	STC	Words	Pages
A95609	A Scripture-map of the wildernesse of sin, and vvay to Canaan. Or The sinners way to the saints rest. Wherein the close bewildring sleights of sin, wiles of the Devill, and windings of the heart, as also the various bewildrings of lost sinners, yea, even of saints, before, in, and after conversion; the necessity of leaning upon Christ alone for salvation, with directions therein: as also, the evident and eminent danger of false guides, false wayes, false leaning-stocks, are plainly, and practically discovered. Being the summe of LXIV lecture sermons preached at Sudbury in Suffolk, on Cantic. 8.5. / By Faithful Teate, M.A. minister of the Gospel.	Teate, Faithful, b. 1621.	1655 (1655)	Wing T615; Thomason E839_1; ESTC R203761	372,945	489

in the wilderness 1. If you call him a tree in the wilderness oh how unfit is he now to be transplanted 2. If you call him a travailer in the wilderness oh how unfit is he to go thorough those uneven and stumbling wayes that scarce can creep in a plain way Mine heart akes to think of your hoary heads and unregenerate hearts Your heads as white as a Dove your hearts as black as a Raven You 'l say of a grave and snowy-bea●ded ancient one there goes a fine old man 't is so indeed and onely so when his heart is as holy as his head is white Prov. 16.31 The hoary head is a crown of glory if it be found in the way of righteousness T is that that makes it so A crown is a very glorious thing indeed but there are but few of them An old man walking in the wayes of righteousness is a glorious fight oh that I could see more of them But mark If it be found in the way It seems old men are not ordinarily in the way and they that are out of the way are in the wilderness Now 2. if he be found in the way with a hoary head what then why then he is a Crown But how and if he be found in the wilderness and his gray hairs be found in sin why then he is a curse Psal 65.20 A sinner of an hundred yeers old shall be accursed A wilderness tree of an hundred yeers old is a cursed tree 3. If it be found in the way who should finde whether he be or no hath he been lurking so long in the wilderness and must he now be found out yes God will finde what wayes you walk in and be you as crafty as an old Fox yet God will finde your haunts in the wilderness Sutable is that Job 14.16 Thou numbrest my steps thou watchest over my sin Thou hast forgot but God can reckon how many steps thou hast taken in the wilderness Oh! that we could alwaies so walk as alwaies remembring that we shall be found in what wayes we are walking Happy are you young ones that are found so doing and you hoary heads if you be found in the way of righteousness And doubly bewildred must the aged sinner needs be partly in the remembrance of younger yeers In two respects partly in the infirmities of his old age 1 His yonger yeers bewilder him 1. Youth-vanities 1. His younger yeers must needs be now a wilderness unto him as to their vanity their guilt their abiding iniquity 1. How can he chuse but be lost in his own spirit when he looks back and thinks of the emptiness vanity and dissatisfaction of all his youthful courses sure when he sees all the works which he hath done under the Sun he must say as Solomon Eccles 2.14 All is vanity and vexation of spirit Yea will he or nill he this shall be for the evil dayes shall come wherein he shall say I have no pleasure in them Eccl. 12.1 2. How can he chuse but be lost in his own conscience when he looks back upon his youth-sins and strength-sins 2. Youth-guilt The pleasures of sin bewildred him then the horrors of sin amaze and bewilder him now Job 13.26 27. Thou writest bitter things against me saith holie Job thou makest me to possess the sins of my youth thou lookest narrowly to all my paths God that looks so to thy pathes all thy life will by his writings upon thy conscience put thee in full possession of the sins of thy youth as you make writings when you would put one in possession thou shalt have them and hold them for God writes bitter things against thee and thou shalt possess thy youth sins Oh! what a burthen what a wilness is the guilt of twenty or thirty yeers sins to one then converted And if so at what a lose may the sinner of an hundred yeers old be 3. 3. Remainders of youth-sins The speculative re-actings of his youth and strength-sins in his aged and crazy yeers do much bewilder him seldom is it though his body be spent and consumed in sin but his mind is as full for it and as much taken up with it as ever Desire fails as to his body but his heart is as lustful as ever To see and to hear of the actings of his old sins by yonger ones pleaseth him Methinks t is a sad expression Job 20.11 His bones are full of the sins of his youth It seems sin will hold as long as any thing holds when his fl sh is consumed his bones hold still when sin leaves his flesh it enters into his bones that is his abiding part if his body be disabled for sin yet his minde is full of it yea and it shall lie down with him in the grave Thus do youth-sins bewilder him when he is old 2. 2 Infirmity of old age The infirmities of his age cannot but be as a wilderness to his soul and render his condition much more lost and remediless To instance but in two amongst many The dimness of his sight and the lameness and feeblness of his leggs and feet 1. His dim and dead-sightedness is such as he cannot see the way for those that look out at the windows are now darkned Eccl. 12.3 His judgement and apprehension is gone as to naturals and how unfit then for the view of spiritual things he is dull of hearing and slow of remembring and all his mentals are impaired and which is worst of all the Lord in rightousnes smiteth such aged ones that have had long and sleighted long the opportunities of knowing the way of peace with judicial blindness and blockish sottishness that as they will not so they cannot yea that they might not see with their eyes lest they should be converted and he should heal them Isa 6.18 2. Such lameness is in his legs and feeblness in his feet that if he could see yet could he not walk in the wayes of God and what can you now think but that he must perish in the wilderness Eccl. 12.3 The strong men bow themselves His affections were strong his soul was vigorously carryed out by them for they are the feet of the soul but they now bow under him And how can his desire think you be vigorous for God for the very native edge is taken off of it for vers 5. His desire shall fail His affections are now gone that were strong if he go to God he must go without leggs but alas little of that old men both in naturals and as to spirituals love to lay their old bones at rest Alas how should he put up strong supplications that is himself so weak or be frequent in prayers when he hales for breath such as will and must be in the pangs of conversion In a word how should he get out of the wilderness that is not able to stir from the place where he lies But yet my heart breaks to

men by running into a wilderness think to avoid merciless men and they fall among merciless beasts so in sin they think by drinking or whoring or swearing away conscience or the like to avoid an angry conscience and alass fall among Lions the roaring Lion on the one hand the sin-revenging Lion of the tribe of Judah on the other and so come to be torn to pieces The yong man thinks to scape the good man Prov. 7.19 bur yet is cast down and slain by the woman the woman sin chap. 26. I finde a precious Scripture Cant. 4.8 Come with me from Lebanon my spouse with me from Lebanon look from the top of Amanah from the top of Shenir and Hermon from the Lions den and from the mountains of the Leopards It s the call of the soul by Christ when the soul is upon the pinacle of temptation it looks upon sin and thinks it the most pleasant thing in the world like Lebanon like Hermon and Shenir which among the Hebrews were like the Baiae the pleas●ntest of all pleasant places but Christ gives it another Character then she thought of Oh! saith he Though you take them to be thus pleasant yet let me assure you the Lions den and the mountains of the Leopards are there And suppose I pray you a man were in a paradise as the case is now with us Oh! how would a Lions den or a Leopards mountain dash to pieces all thoughts of pleasures and security And therefore by way of Application If sin be thus like a wilderness promising pleasure Application producing pain promising security whilest it stirs up Lions Oh then First Look off of sin least it tempt Cant. 4 8. Vse 1 fore-quoted look from Shenir look from the top of Hermon Look off of the wilderness of sin do nor too much loook upon it because it looks so like a Lebanon Oh! that men could be perswaded to look off from sin when sin looks upon them there can no good Pro. 4.25 26. but much evil proceed from wanton and unwarrantable feeding of the eye with sin Be not so foolish as to be deceived to serve lusts counting Vse 2 them pleasures Secondly Never believe sin as long as you live Never believe sin when it flatters The wilderness is a lie fair without thorns within Psalm 4.2 How long will you love vanity and seek after lyes Selah That is observe it observe it beloved every sin is a lie Be not O be not therefore so vain as to seek after lyes never believe a liar when he speasts fairest CHAP. II. Containeth the progress in wilderness-sin dismal Lecture 2. destructive of the second branch of the first Doctrine shewing the dismalness of wilderness-sin in two things because both are barren and fruitless dry and moistureless WE come in the second place to the passage and progress in the wilderness and sin The passage and progress in both dismal and destructive 1. It is dismal in both we finde them dismal and destructive First The way of the wilderness is dismal so is the way of sin The way of the wilderness is dismal in these several respects 't is fruitless moistureless companionless comfortless wayless and husbandless and so is the way of sin 1. Fruitless First The wilderness is barren and fruitless you know the complaint Israel made of the wilderness Numb 20.5 this evil place say they its no place of seed of figs or vines or of pomgranats they do not deny but that it was a place of brambles and thorns and bryers but no place of seed grain or fruits figs or pomgranates Just thus it is with the soul under the power of sin its barren and fruitless towards God you cannot deny a sinful heart to be a place of vanity lust excess and foolishness but it is no place of seed no place for the word to thrive in it s no heart of prayer or thanksgiving obedience faith holiness hope love goodness righteousness truth which are the fruits of the spirit Eph. 5.9 But have no fellowship with the unfruitful works of darkness chap. 11. mens works while they are in the state of sin are like the wilderness unfruitful works The wilderness Beloved brings forth thorns but a garden brings forth fruits c. we read Gal. 5.19 Of the works of the flesh but of the fruits of the spirit c. v. 22. a carnal heart brings forth works but it s onely a spiritual heart brings forth fruit Now then wouldst thou know whether thou be in this wilderness what fruit dost thou bear speak conscience the fruit of the spirit yea or no you know the sinner is represented by the barren fig-tree if thou dost not bring forth fruit the fruit of the spirit thou art a bramble of the wilderness I will not deny the wilderness to be in some sense fruitful I should wrong it if I should and so should I sin also it is fruitful so is sin but how 1. If fruitful First The fruit that the wilderness bears is wilde fruit Secondly It bears all its fruit unto it self Thirdly If it be fruitful unto any other it s rather to the Chimney then to the Table such is the fruit of sin Wilde fruits First Its fruit is wilde fruits ye know such fruits as naturally grow in forests and woods without grafting planting or pruning we use to call them as they are wilde fruits and truly all the fruits that grow upon the soul whilest its a tree in the wilderness before grace hath transplanted it are but wilde fruits The trees of the wilderness are but wilde trees wilde branches wilde roots and therefore the fruit must needs be wilde fruit so in sin The sinner himself is a wilde plant stark wilde root and branch father and son at his first conception and throughout his conversation Rom. 11.17 Thou being a wilde olive-tree wert graffed in and therefore certainly the fruit must needs be like the fruit of the wilderness Isa 5.2 It brought forth wilde grapes Ah! thinks the soul after conversion how wilde was I hitherto how vain how foolish how wildly did I use to pray how wildly did I use to carry my self in publique duties how wildly did I use to come to the Sacraments truly every fruit that groweth upon the wilde Olive-tree is a wilde fruit Secondly If the wilderness be fruitful 2. Wilderness fruitful to it self it is fruitful to its self there the fruit grows there it ripens there it falls pray who is the better for it Thus it is with thee O sinner if thou bear fruit it is for thy self God is never the better for it as I may say he gets nothing by thy estate he gets nothing by thy policy he gets nothing by thine industry if thou canst keep it none of it promotes his cause none of it maintains his poor none of it advanceth his praise behold Thou art the man that art a wilderness to the Lord

fed out their time in the wilderness of sin at length they have not so much as an hand or a foor or a heart to strive they have not so much as a tongue to beg or a mouth to receive any of those provisions that the Lord hath made for poor souls in Jesus Christ Thus is the wilderness provisionless as for food As for raiment what you have the wilderness the thorns the brambles can rend away and tear from you but all the wilderness cannot help you with one garment So it is with sin if you have any cloathes on any good parts or good nature as they call it the thorns and brambles and temptations of sin can tear them off Oh! how many gallant parts and good natures hath sin rent to pieces but if you be naked you must walk naked for all sin sin can strip you but it cannot clothe you you are all naked whilest you are bewildred Ezek. 16.8 and there is none to help you Therefore till you come out of the wilderness leaning upon Christ and have gotten him up on whom you lean to cast his skirt over you you walk naked and God sees your shame there is no raiment to be had for the soul but onely where Christ keeps his Markets Rev. 3.18 and so for other accommodations all which being thus makes me sadly say Sin is a wilderness that is provisionless O how evil is sin to men and which is saddest of all yet yet are men kinde to sin Sin cannot feed you and yet speak your consciences do not most of you feed sin and cherish and nourish sin sin cannot clothe you O what shall become of those men for their courtesie that cover sin In a word sin cannot make provision for you therefore I beseech you close with the Apostles counsel Rom. 13.14 Make no provision for the flesh to fulfil the lusts thereof CHAP. IV. Containeth the two last considerations shewing the dismalness of wilderness-sin because both are wayless waste and husbandless As also the application of the first consideration Exhortation Labor to finde Christ to thy soul a Gardiner to make thee fruitful FIfthly The wilderness as it thus provisionless The wilderness is wayless upon which account there is no encouragement to abide in it so also is it wayless there is no way to get out of it This vain Poets could conclude as the most dismal travelling in the world viz. when they were to go per avia that is wayless places and this indeed the holy Ghost imports as alike dismal to the people and princes of the earth whom God thus punisheth Job 12.24 He causeth them to wander in a wilderness where there is no way And thus it is with sin you are not to think that there are no ways in the wilderness there is as you read the track to the Lions den and Leopards mountain there are ways further into the wilderness but there is no good way no right way no way out again no peaceable and secure way c. Thus there are many too many ways of sin and into sin but there is not one good way amongst them all Sin acquaints sinners with ten thousand ways and yet amongst them all the way of peace have they not known Rom. 3.17 The ways of sin are ways to the Lions den c. Prov. 7.27 Her house is the way to hell and Prov. 5.5 Her feet go down to death her steps take hold on hell Least thou shouldst ponder the path of life her ways are moveable she hath ways great store but not so much as one good living way as one foot-path of life amongst them all therefore as we are to shew afterwards though sin hath as many ways as the wilderness yet may we in the same sense that the holy Ghost calls the wilderness without way conclude sin wayless If you will have it the ways of sin are wayless ways so that as one saith of the way to the Lions den vestigia terrent Omnia te adversum spectantia nulla retorsum So saith the holy Ghost of sin many beasts went to the Lions den but none return back again Prov. 2.19 None that go to her return again neither take they hold of the pathes of life The wilderness is waste and husbandless Lastly 'T is dismal because waste and husbandless and so is the whole region of sin you have the wilderness and waste places as importing one and the same thing Isa 51.3 The Lord will comfort all her waste places and make her wilderness like Eden yea you have waste the character of the wilderness Deut. 32.10 In a desert land and in the waste howling wilderness and surely it must needs be so if that be true which we have heard Scriptures already speak In the wilderness there is no man Job 38.26 no man to plant no man to pluck up no man to plough no man to sowe how should it be but waste In this as in the rest is sin a dismal wilderness there are no provisions there as you have heard for it is desolate there are none like to be for it is waste and desert The plain English of the word desert is what God expounds it Isa 27.10 The habitation forsaken and left like a wilderness Therefore when any soul through sin is a wilderness you may write upon that soul desert the Lord hath forsaken it This is a sad consideration when the soul goes on a long time in sin and then God comes with a judicial act and doth as it were bind it in its sins The soul saith I am willing to be as a wilderness unto God unfruitful to him c. and God saith If thou wilt be a wilderness thou shalt also be a desert I will forsake thee Thus God threatens for sin to set Jerusalem and make her as a wilderness Hosea 2.2 Now this is most sadly true when the soul hath been under the pains and charges of the Lord as you say this piece of ground I have fallowed plough'd sown thus often tryed thus long and it hath brought me forth nothing answerable to mine expectations I have lost say you my time toil and cost about it and now you cast it up So the barren Fig tree Mat. 21.19 as God gave them up Psalm 81.12 Let what will become of it you will never look after it more Now is this ground left DESERT Thus the Lord telleth Isai 5. what husbandry he had bestowed upon Israel his Vineyard v. 7. which yet brought forth none but wilderness-fruit viz. wilde Grapes v. 4. I le tell you saith God v. 5. what I will do with it I will take away the Hedg and it shall be eaten up and break down the Wall and it shall be trodden down I will lay it waste it shall not be pruned nor digged but there shall come up Briars and Thorns and I will command the Clouds that they rain no rain upon it v. 6. And O what a dismal Wilderness must

devoured as shubble fully dry You see the very thickets where the thorns are folden most together shall be devoured This is that which the holy Ghost otherwise expresseth Though hand joyn in hand yet shall not the wicked go unpunished Prov. 16.5 The second part of this Treatise discovereth the bewildred or lost estate of every unconverted SOVL CHAP. I. Contains the general proof of the point and begins the Induction of Particulars First Particular We are conceived and born in the wilderness of Sin proved and applyed HAving proved sin a wilderness Come we now to enquire who they are that are bewildred Our Text tells you All that have not yet come unto nor yet leaned upon that is savingly believed in the Lord Jesus Christ And therefore our second Doctrine tells you That whoever thou art for person or quality in the world Doct. 2 Every unregenerate state is a bewildred estate that art yet in an unconverted and unbelieving state Thou art yet in a bewildred estate and condition and sin is a wilderness unto thy soul I say whosoever thou art yong old high low rich poor living or dying thou art in a wilderness This I shall first prove and then open I shall prove it first in General then by Induction of Particulars I shall open it by declaring what advantages satan hath what pains he takes what means he makes and are made use of unto the bewildring of poor souls Of these in order Proof General First Then for proof of the point in General viz. That all unconverted ones are spiritually bewildred ones even lost in the wilderness of sin Hear what the Psalmist saith and the Apostle from him When God looked down from heaven to take a view of men on earth to see if any if any I say sought after God Hear Gods own language Psalm 14.2 3. They are all gone aside And what is that but to be bewildred And hence the Apostle concludes all Jew and Gentile one and another to be under sin which you have heard proved a wilderness Rom. 3.9 None better no not one ver 12. How emphatically doth he express it now see how amply he proves it He proves first That they are a wilderness and that in all maner of latitude They are altogether become unprofitable ver 12. and what fitter character for a wilderness He proves next That they are in a wilderness and that in as great a latitude And that first By shewing that they are gone out of the right way They are all gone out of the way ver 17. Secondly by declaring That being out of it they have neither wisdom nor knowledge to finde it any more for The way of peace they have not known ver 17. Thirdly By giving an account of the ways they are gone into which is the very character that I have from Scripture given you of the waies of the wilderness of sin Destruction and misery are in their waies ver 16. And I pray What are waies of destruction and of misery if the ways of the wilderness be not Now then as the Apostle speaking puts us altogether let us put all that he hath spoken together They are saith he whether Jew or Gentile ver 9. gone out of the way ver 12 and know no more the way in to peace ver 17. but instead of that way are in the ways of misery and destruction ver 16. and now my Friends Believe you that this is Scripture I know that you believe This you have God frequently complaining of Ezek. 2.3 They and their fathers have transgressed of which word this is the plain English They have both father and childe one and another gone aside out of my ways then he pursues his complaint against the same persons and calls them bryars and thorns and scorpions which are all of the wilderness as you have already heard Though bryars and thorns be with thee and thou dwellest among scorpions yet be not afraid ver 6. but speak my words unto them ver 7. as who should say I have sent thee as a voice to cry in the wilderness but be thou not afraid My friends I desire to speak it with grief of heart as the truth of God there is not one soul of you that is out of Christ but it is in the wilderness that destructive and miserable wilderness of sin There is not a soul amongst you that lives out of Christ but it lives in that wilderness that dies out of Christ but it dies in that wilderness and for this Oh! that my head were fountains that this should be heard of and spoken of and so much concern every man and yet no man lay it to heart Secondly 2. Proof by induction of particulars I shall conclude all unregenerate soules under these spiritual bewildrings by induction of particulars You have heard that murmuring and unbelieving Israel came short of Canaan 'T is the Apostles phrase concerning all unbelieving ones That they all are come short of the glory of God Rom. 3.23 and this you shall finde sadly true begin or end where you will from the childe in the womb and cradle to the aged in the litter and on the beer if not in Christ then in the wilderness if short of Christ then short of Canaan The familiar expression of that Prophet who was so much in parables is a wilderness or forest to express the world Ezek. 17.24 You have mention of high trees and low trees of dry trees and green trees there and so it is In the wilderness are all sorts of trees in sin are all sorts of persons You have masculine and feminine among the trees you have yong and old sound and rotten cedars and shrubs flourishing and verdant and ●ea● and withered and yet all wilderness-trees still O how is sin a wilderness Here are some but sprigs new come out from the earth some but small and of a little growth of an hand of a span of yard high some taller some full grown some over-grown some sixty some an hundred years old yet all in the wilderness Some are men some women some are rich and sappy some poor and without substance some flourishing under forms of godliness some as withered trees not so much as a leaf of profession upon them but all in the wilderness of sin still I shall begin with the childe in and from the womb and observe him till he comes to the grave 1. We are conceived and born in the wildernes of sin First The childe is conceived in the desert and brought forth in the wilderness by the carnal conception and natural birth If you look unto conception 't was in the wilderness or else you must deny this point That sin is a wilderness or that which I am not afraid to reckon among fundamentals Psalm 51.5 Behold I was shapen in iniquity and in sin did my mother conceive me If you look unto your birth 't is in the desert reade but from our Text to the

of blood yet at length sin shall sting like an adder and bite like a serpent of the wilderness Prov. 23.32 Vse To yong ones Now to come up from the the wildernes Hearken then you yong ones unto me and I will shew you an excellent way Youth I know is of all ages and states most desirous and indeed most free for travel but it pities me to think that so much gallant youth and the strength thereof should be spent in wandring up and down in the worthless wilderness of sin Encouragement 1. The fitness of youthful time for that travel rather if you will be traveling remember Canaan Oh! what a time is the strength of your youth to make out your way from the wilderness of sin Thou hast some strength to rush through the thickets more then an old man hath and if thou lose a little of thy flesh in breaking through the thorns thou art yong and thy flesh will come again if thou lose by repentance as to carnal respects there 's time enough before thee to have amends made thee I observe as the yong ones were those of the Israelites that got through the wilderness unto Canaan Numb 26.64 so at this day those that are converted are converted yong ten to one of those that live to be old and yet come to be new born If old men will have their old ways still and scorn to learn a new lesson being old yea if their joints be stiff and their knees feeble that they cannot travel yet let us yong men get up and be going and the Lord be with us This day the Lord calls you yong ones from the Lions de● and Leopards mountains if you refuse this call to day you will mourn at the last when your strength is consumed and say How have I hated instruction and mine heart despised reproof Prov. 7.11 12. Take a tree from the wilderness when its young set it in your Garden keep it and water it c. and little fear of its death but take an old tree from the wilderness and transplant it in your Orchard and do what you will there is little hope of the life of it if there be 't will cost much ado much weeping to water it c. hear David crying Psalm 25 6 7. Remember thy tender mercies remember not the sins of my youth nor my transgressions If thou have only thy youth transgressions or bewildrings to reckon for it will be work enough for thee though thou have thy youth strength to do the work in Secondly As this is the fittest time for thee 2. The acceptableness of youth herein unto God so is it the most welcome time to God young ones if you did but know how kindly the Lord would take it to see you come up from the wilderness such youthfull Spouses leaning upon the Beloved it would ravish your hearts within you I le give you a tast for God hath bidden me go and cry in your ears saying Thus saith the Lord I remember the kindness of thy youth the love of thine Espousals when thou wentest after me in the wilderness in a Land that was not sown Jer. 2.2 Oh Christ the Shepheard is come into the Wilderness to seek and to save that which is lost Oh if thou wilt in thy youth be so kind as to follow him till thou shall come to Canaan God will never forget this love of thine espousals say not that thou art too young to marry Christ the younger thou art the better Christ will like thee CHAP. III. A fifth particular to wit that mans estate is a bewildred estate the world is a wilderness proved generally proved particularly the first particular poverty a wilderness opened and applyed Fifthly Mans estate a bewild red estate FIfthly Men and women as soon as they enter upon the world as we say that is upon the heart of the world they enter upon the heart of the Wilderness The world is a Wilderness to the unregenerate for here grow those Thorns that choak the word of God The world is a wilderness here are the thorns Mat. 13.22 He that hath the word choaked by the Cares of this world is said to receive it among thorns When the Word meets with a worldly heart it is like good seed sown in a thorny wilderness Worldlings you that hear me this day I appeal to your consciences if it be not so In comes a note or an observation an advice or a conviction and up start the thorny worldly thoughts that are within thee even whilst thou art within the reach of the word and choak that good seed Here are the the entangling waies that it brings not forth Again The world is a wilderness to the unregenerate for here are those crooked and foul waies that are the entanglements of the poor soul the Apostle 2 Pet. 2.20 mentioning the pollutions of the world saith They are entangled therein and overcome The world is a thorny thicket and entangling wilderness to the unconverted My friends were it only your Babes and children They that enter upon the world enter the very midst of the wilderness and youth that were bewildred it were less to be feared you might hope that when they came to have experience of and to understand the waies of the world they might come to understand their own waies or at least if you were not your selves lost you might set them into the way But let me tell you what ever you think or speak of Men of the world know not what way they wal in or unto any man Oh say you I know well enough what I do and about what I go and what way I am in there is not an unregenerate heart amongst you but is so far bewildred as not to know the way that thy soul is in Prov. 20.4 Mans goings are of the Lord how then can a man understand his own way He that is a stranger from Gods waies is altogether ignorant of his own waies nay how can he understand them Mans goings are known of the Lord The interpretation of this Scripture may be according to Prov. 5.21 Mans waies are before the Lords eyes and he pondereth all his wayes T is Gods prerogative to understand not only his own waies but thy waies as it is the Saints prerogative that know God not only to understand their waies but Gods waies but it is thy misery neither to know Gods waies nor thine own Prov. 12.26 The way of the wicked seduceth him Seduceth that is his very way leads him out of his Way It seems a right way unto him but the end thereof are waies of death Prov. 14.12 The end of his way he thinks is thriving and riches and a comfortable life this thinks he will be the end of his grinding the faces of the poor and cheating the rich and this he thinks is a right way he may lawfully buy as cheap and sell as dear as he can But the end

mercie break in upon it Psalm 40.12 Encompassing horrors For saith David innumerable evils have compassed me abeut mine iniquities have taken hold upon me so that I am not able to look up they are more than the hairs of mine head therefore mine heart fails me These are the very words and if this do not make a very Wilderness I know not what can Now when is the time that God sets the sinners sins in such order as this is He tels you in Job 36.8 9. They be holden in the coards of affliction and bound in fetters then he shews them their transgression wherein they have exceeded that is to English the word Transgressions their bewildrings wherein they have gone astray 2. As the horror of what hath been 2. Sorrowfull thoughts of what is so the distracting thoughts of that which is are enough to bewilder him Balshazzar in his dying day though he were in the midst of his Nobles his Concubines his wise men and Astrologers his wine his women his dainties his delights yet in the midst of them all was he in the midst of this Wilderness and as you know at an utter loss for saith the Text His thoughts troubled him Dan. 5.6 What thought he must I now die and leave all this Leave all this and be taken away Be taken away and know not whether And must I leave this Crown this companie this glorie these delights to lie down in the dust and in the noysom grave O! such and thousands more such were his thoughts and if these were not enough to make him at such a loss as he was Encompassing sorrows and so to bewilder him See Psalm 116.3 The sorrows of Death compassed me Observe the Phrase the sorrows of Death are surrounding and therefore they are bewildring sorrows As sorrowfull friends stand round about the dying mans bed so do these bewildring sorrowfull thoughts stand round his dying heart Pray Sits What do ye now think you will then think of Certainly you cannot tell 3. Fears of what shall be Thirdly as the horror of what hath been sorrow for what is so fears of what is like to be nay what is sure to be cannot but bewilder the dying sinner You have heard that the horror of sin is an enclosing horror you have heard the sorrows of the grave are enclosing sorrows Encompassing fears and so are these fears enclosing and therefore bewildring fears Jer. 46.5 Fear was round about on the right hand and on the left hand above beneath forward backward Look which way the sinner will or the sinner can there are these fears Look backward sin makes him afraid on the right hand and the wrath of the Lamb scares him on the left hand and the roaring Lion frightens him upward and God and Heaven and Judgment make him afraid and downward and Hell fils him as full of fears as it is of such sinners as himself is So that here is fear round about and therefore a Wilderness If these horrors and sorrows and fears were onely on the right and on the left one might get out before or behinde but seeing they encompass you cannot but think that they bewilder O●her● a Wilderness to dying sinners I might add that as the dying sinner is a Wilderness to himself so usually others are a Wilderness unto him He makes choice of wicked and vain and carnal companions for his friends whilest he lives and in his health and God in judgment hemms him in with them when he comes to die Is there nor many a dying sinner in whose conscience Hell-flames break forth in his sick bed and then O! for such a Minister such a Christian He vomits up his sins and cannot be quiet casts up mire and dirt and yet he cannot rest he must speak with them and carnal friends are about him that would not perhaps have any thing break out because they have had fellowship with him in his sins and they smother all again The Minister's not at home We sent to such a man and he will not come at you when perhaps there 's no such matter Yea the carnal Physician must counsel O! let not him be sent for if he come the sick man will spend his spirits and it will be enough to undo him to spend himself with speaking Or thus You shall not need so to trouble your self or them You shall not die but live saith the Physician No fear of dying this bout and yet presently drops the poor bewildred sinner into the dust whilest these carnal friends stand just like the greener and fresher Trees of the Wilderness round about him And as you have heard whilest they be thus folden together as Thorns they shall be devoured as Stubble fully dry Nahum 1.10 And this leades me unto thoughts of Hell it self As Death so Hell is a Wilderness to the wicked for Hell followed with him Rev. 6.8 The souls that depart in the Wilderness of sin must hence to the howling Wilderness of Hell 8. Hell a Wilderness to departing sinners there shall be weeping and wailing yelling and houling and gnashing of teeth I would have you to reckon no more difference betwixt Sin and Hell than just betwixt the Wilderness unkindled Hell a Wilderness but set on fire and the Wilderness set on fire For Wickedness burneth as a Fire it shall devour the Briars and Thorns it shall kindle the thickets of the Wilderness and they shall mount up like the lifting up of smoke Through the wrath of the Lord of Hosts is this Land darkened and the People Mark the People are the Trees of the Wilderness shall be as fuel of the fire no man shall spare his brother Isai 9 18 19. Sinfull mates in that day shall betray and accuse and do what they can to make one another brands in the burning that have been here as brethren in iniquitie Therefore houl ye for this day of the Lord it shall come as destruction from the Almighty Isai 13.6 And where shall this fall but upon the houling Wilderness For when the boughs thereof are withered that is fit for burning they shall be broken off the women shall come and set them on fire and he that made them will not have mercy on them Isai 27.11 For this he hath resolved that he will go through them and burn them up together v. 4. So true is that which God speaks figuratively in that sense which is most spiritual Sin shall have great pain Ezek. 30.16 God speaks it of that material Wilderness that is of the People that dwelt round about that desolate place You will finde it as fully and sadly true of the spiritual Wilderness of sin if ever you come to Hell When Sin comes to have great pain when this Wilderness is set on fire that 's Hell Reade Ezek. 20.47 And thus you see from first to last the unregenerate are spiritually bewildred young and old living and dying they are in a Wilderness of sin From

hence Vse Vindication of Gods justice in punishing sin Let me first plead the righteousness of God in damning sinners When God comes to punish mens crooked ways their crooked hearts are blasphemously ready to reckon Gods ways crooked If therefore you now reflect how wretchedly crooked your own ways have been in trespassing you cannot think Gods ways crooked in arresting The Lord himself thus vindicates his own righteousness Ezek. 18.24 In his trespass which he hath trespassed and in the sin which he hath sinned shall he die Blame not justice for arresting you when you die Ye have been Trespassers that is you have gone out of the way all your lives Therefore God challengeth them for challenging him Yet ye say my way is not equal v. 25. Hear O Israel are not my ways equal Are not your ways unequal 29. Therefore I will judg you O house of Israel according to your ways Repent and turn from all your transgressions that is from all your goings astray and so iniquity shall not be your ruine v. 30. And what can the Lord say other If saith God you will not cease trespassing you shall die in your trespass but if you would turn and O that you would saith God from your transgression it should not be your ruine Therefore cast away all your transgressions v. 31. For I have no pleasure in the death of him that dieth saith the Lord wherefore turn your selves and live v. 32. And if for all this you shall so love rather to wander and to trespass than to walk in the high-way of God the way of peace Be it unto you according to your hearts desire The Lord shall judg you according to your own ways Therefore Secondly 2. Caution what ways you walk in Let me entreat you to be exceedingly observant what ways you walk in There is but one way of life All the other ways are Wilderness The ways of infancie ways of childhood ways of youth ways of manhood of old age are all a wilderness if the condition of the soul be Christ-less therefore mark the way thou walkest in Many times experienced travailers miss the way which they well know by having their thoughts otherwise employed and as to their way inconsiderate David's question of young men holds true in all Wherewith shall a young man cleanse his way Why by taking heed thereto according to thy word Psal 119.9 So Job 22.15 Hast thou marked the old way which wicked men have troden Mark the bad way take heed unto the good and so shalt thou keep in the way of salvation and out of the wilderness of sin Thirdly 3. Terror to those that are will continue in the wilderness But what shall I say to those that notwithstanding all that hath been spoken are yet and yet resolve to be in the wilderness of sin That have been young and now are old yet still in sin Sirs do you not hear God inviting you into his way Do you not hear the Lion roaring in your own way Do you not hear that a wilderness-death follows a wilderness-life and that Hell follows with it You are sometimes scared from thought of the ways of holiness and mortification self-denial c. upon hear-say and thought that there 's a Lion in that way Prov. 26.13 when there 's no such matter and though God himself tels you that himself in these your ways will be as a Lion to you and that your transgression will be our ruine and asks you Why will ye dy all that he can ge● from you is this We will dy in the wilderness we have lived in the wilderness we will die What can God say but Be it as you have spoken and Die eternally Question But I hear some poor souls crying We have found sin as you have said we have found childhood youth age the world and all that is in the world a wilderness and fain would we exchange for a better state O! what would you have us to do Answer why God himself answers you Repent and turn from all your transgressions Ezek. 18.30 and cast away from you all your transgressions v. 31. that is turn unfeinedly turn universally Turn you and the Lord shall come Encouragement to com out of the wilderness Christ will meet them and meet you in your way For the Redeemer shall come to them that turn from transgression in Jacob saith the Lord. Isai 49.20 O! but what shall I do with my sins my wandrings my wilderness-provocations I durst come were it not for them Why Sirs I pray deal plainly with me and with your selves Are you willing to come in good earnest Speak and I le speak If you be I dare say of you young or old rich or poor as of any of the Saints of God already converted All we like Sheep have gone astray Mark that we and all we And the Lord hath laid upon him all the iniquity of us all and we have turned every one to his own way And bear their burthen for them and yet the Lord hath laid on him the iniquity of us all Isai 53.6 O! that as all of us have thus gone out of the way we might all of us come up out of the wilderness leaning upon our Beloved CHAP. VII Containing the discovery of the Point in three Queries Qu. 1. What advantages Satan hath to bewilder Souls 1. From our selves our hearts are a Wilderness proved and applied THus much for the doctrinal proof of the Point Discovery of the Point in three Queries 1. What advantages Satan hath to bewilder poor souls We come now to further discoverie of what you have heard so fully so sadly proved I pitch upon these three Heads First what advantages Satan hath Secondly what pains he takes Thirdly what means he makes to bewilder poor souls And what first are Satans advantages The Apostle 2 Cor. 2.11 puts us on this Lest Satan saith he get an advantage of you for we are not ignorant of his devices It seems Satan is very carefull to take and to improve all advantage of poor souls And unto what Why unto his own devices called by the same Apostle Ephes 6.11 Wiles or Methods or as we englished bewildrings You must think the same thing to be intended in both places so then call them devices or bewildrings or bewildring devices which you will there is advantage that Satan hath and that Satan takes in order unto them There are two sorts of advantages that Satan hath 2. Sorts of advantages 1. Sort from our selves 2. Sorts of them as to the bewildring of poor souls From our selves some others from himself First from us There are two great advantages First our hearts naturally are a wilderness Secondly subject to tempt and lead us into the wilderness Therefore you may observe this difference of expression Somtimes God complains that they walk in the counsels of their own hearts So Ier. 7.24 they hearkened not c but walked in the counsels

Moses said to Israel Deut. 11 27. I have set before you in this Discourse a Blessing and a Curse for the Lord hath set my feet upon both Mountains spoken of verse 29. Ebal and Gerizim the Mountains of Curses and of blessings and that upon the Authority of two Scriptures To those that are yet out of love with Christ a Curse The first speakes from the top of Ebal the Mount of CURSING and it is 1 Cor. 16 22. If any man love not the Lord Jesus let him be Anathema Maranatha that is Let him be accursed in all things in all places at all times with all Curses truly Nothing but the perfect experience of the damned in Hell can tell you what that word Anathena Maranatha meanes And who must be so accursed even whosoever loves not the Lord Jesus Art thou out of love with Christ still notwithstanding all that hath been spoken for him And art thou resolved to continue so then let thy Estate thy Body Soul here and hereafter yea and for ever be accursed Dost thou despise his Port hate his Person abhor his Discourse contemne his Carriage disdaine his Estate after all this and resolvest thou so to doe Let all the Scriptures of God curse thee let all the Saints and Angels of God curse thee let all the Creatures of God curse thee let the blessed mouth of God curse thee let the blaspheming mouth of thine own Conscience curse thee yea let the mouthes of all that are in the same curse and condemnation with thee curse thee let every mouth that blesseth God and Christ curse thee yea as long as any mouth blesseth the Lord Jesus let it curse thee for not loving the Lord Jesus This is the sad language of that sad Scripture But I had rather passe from these to those that love him and so from Ebal to mount Gerizim To those that are brought into love with this crucifyed Christ blessing the mount of BLESSING see Rev. 19.6 7 9. Allelujah let us rejoyce and be glad and honour him for the Marriage of the Lamb is come and his wife hath made her self ready And he saith unto me write blessed are they that are called to the Marriage supper of the Lambe and he saith unto me These are the true sayings of God Sins Christ is ready now if you be ready truly blessed are you for you are called to the Marriage and to the Supper If any soule among you that have heard all that hath beene spoken shall love Christs Spokesmen meane as they are in the name of Prophets blessed of God be that soule If any soule entertaine the Message plaine as it is out of love to Christ that sent that message blessed of God be that soule If any soule be in love with a crucified despised naked wounded bleeding Christ blessed of God be that soule If any soule shall account Christs Convictions precious Oyntment and his Termes Righteousnesse if it shall forsake Father and Mother and all carnall Counsells and Relations out of love unto Christ If it shall go forth weeping bearing precious seed if it shall take Christs yoak upon it and his burthen and his Cross daily accounting them light because of love to Christ and easie as Jacob did his hard service out of love to Rachel If it shall cut off its right hand and pull out its right eye and forgoe its owne will and so leave all and cleave to Christ and hate all and love Christ or unfeignedly desire so to doe for ever blessed be that soule If it shall not despise the Corrections of the Lord Jesus nor faint when it is chastised by him patiently bearing because it hath sinned and willingly suffering that it may be pollished and fitted for Christs service or truly desire so to doe for ever blessed be that soule If it shall trust Christ with what it hath and for what it is to receive following him unto the Regeneration untill it shall come unto his Kingdom continuing stedfast till death and willing to be dissolved that it may be with Christ In a word if it take or be truly willing to take Christ as thus tendered upon his own terms blessed blessed blessed be that soule God hath blessed it who can reverse it These are the true sayings of God CHAP. XX. Discovers positive Hinderances The two first viz. leaning to Sinne. Sathan Second sort of Hinderances viz. Positive THe second sort of Hinderances are positive viz. The leaning-stocks that we take unto our selves on this side Christ doe absolutely hinder us from leaning upon this beloved Two Farther Observations from the Text. Which that I may with more advantage inquire into I shall take up from my text two farther previous Observations which I think are evidently lodg'd in the bosome of this expression Leaning on her Beloved The first is That as that soul that will have Christ for its beloved 1. The soule that leans on Christ must have none other leaning-stock must have but one beloved even Christ so that soul that will have Christ to lean upon must have nothing else to lean upon beside Christs For as the Text mentions but one Spouse viz. The Church of Christ so but one Beloved viz. Christ and but one also to leane upon To this the Apostle speakes clearly I have espoused you to one Husband even Christ 2 Cor. 11.2 So unto us there is but one Lord and one God even Christ 1 Cor. 8.6 But one to set our love as our Husband but one also to lean on as our God but one to be beloved as our Husband but one also to believed on as our Lord and God But now to Christlesse soules there are many lovers and beloveds Jer. 3.1 Thou hast played the harlot with many lovers Hos 2.7 She shall not find her lovers A great number of lovers an indefinite number of lovers untill shee returne unto her first Husband and therefore to others also there are Gods many and Lords many 1 Cor. 8.5 A second Observation is 2ly The souls beloved will be the soules leaning-stock That whatever is the soules beloved that ever will be found the souls leaning-stock what ever the soule loves best on that it will be sure to lean most this is a cleare intimation from the Text leaning on her beloved So that if there be any thing that the soule loves more and better then Christ upon that it will leane and not upon Christ Now upon this twofold Accompt it is easie to discern in the generall how lost souls are hindered from leaning upon Christ because they have many Gods to lean on and therefore cannot leane upon the onely true God manifested in the flesh yea and they have many lovers and beloveds instead of Christ which as they lye in their bosomes where Christ onely should lie so stand they under their armes to support them where Christ should be to beare them up When a soule is converted we must with admiration

sing and say Who is this that comes out of the wilderness leaning upon her beloved but of others we may take up a lamentation a Jeremies sad song and say Who are all these that go farther and farther into the wilderness leaning upon their beloveds And as for those that goe downe into Aegypt they have multitudes of Reeds to leane upon many Gods and Lords many even as many as lusts Onyons Fleshpots Melons Cucumers Idols any thing but when God calls his Sonnes out of Aegypt then thus saith the Lord that brought thee out of the Land of Aegypt c. thou shalt have none other Gods beside me Many hands we may have to help us forward or backward rather into the wayes of sinne But there 's not one arme for a soule to leane unto while it comes from sinne but the alone arm of the Lord Jesus Christ Now as we say the more of those Gods the farther from God so the more of these leaning-stocks the farther from leaning upon the Lord Jesus The four usuall leaning-stocks of lost soules There are particularly foure things which lost soules doe generally more love and leane upon then Jesus Christ Sinne Satan the World and selfe And it is to be marked that scriptures charge our usuall carriage towards and in respect of these with Idolatry which is the setting of any thing up in Gods roome to love or lean upon as God which is not God 1. Sinne. First As for sin It is hence evident that sinners place that recumbency on it which they should on Christ because the Apostle enumerating the more notorious sinnes of their unregeneracy summes up all in this one word abominable Idolatries what were those why Lasciviousness lusts excess of Wine revellings drunkenness and abominable Idolatries Wines are the Drunkards Idols Women the Wantons Idols Prophaneness the Revellers Idol Yea every new lust a new Lord yea a new God as hee takes up new sin he hath new dependances upon sinne 1 Pet. 4.3 Hence John writing to those that 't is to be thought were farre enough from gross Idolatry concludes Little Children keepe your selves from Idols Amen 1 Joh. 5.21 Now you can never keepe your selves from Idols except you keepe your selves from sin Sinne ever deales as Solomons strange wives tempting first from the trusting in the true God and next to trusting in the false 2. Satan Secondly As for Satan You have heard him call'd the God of this world 2 Cor. 4.4 Therefore this world leanes upon Satan and trusts in him as their God 3. The world Thirdly As for the World 'T is plainly that which the worldling leans upon instead of God Hence those known passages Ephe. 5.5 The covetous man who is an Idolater and Col. 3.5 Covetousnesse which is Idolatry c. That is he loves and leanes upon Mammon more then God Fourthly As for Selfe The selfe-pleaser 4. Selfe that indulgeth his owne lustfull genius his belly is his God Phil. 3.19 The self-conceited self-confident and presumptuous sinner He sets his heart as the heart of God Ezek. 28.6 Strange expressions you will say yet are they Scripture-expressions you see they be and though many things be imported by them yet must this be a chiefe one that while Saints lean on Christ as their one and only Lord these leane upon Sin Satan Mamnon and themselves Of these in their order First Hinderance that doth in a positive way keepe off sinners from leaning upon Christ 1. Soules lean upon sin and thereby are hindred from leaning upon Christ Proofe of it is their leaning upon sin for proof See Psal 52.7 This is the man that made not God his trust but strengthned himself in his wickednesse What could be more expresse for both sinners make their wickednesse their stay and therefore it is that they make not God their staie so Isai 30.12 You trust in oppression and perversnesse and staie thereon It followes verse 15. Thus saith the Lord in returning and rest you shall be saved but ye would not and in quietnesse and confidence that is in the peace of believing shall be your strength and ye would not No no they could have both a stay and a strength in sinning and therefore they would none of Christs rest in the way of repenting or of his quietnesse and peace in the way of believing 'T is no wonder if sinners can have Crutches in a sinne that they neglect to seeke legges in a Saviour Now that sinners make sinne their leaning-stock Convictions of it 1. The careful hold that sinners keep of sinne I shall give you a two-fold Conviction 1. The charie and carefull and cordiall hold that they keep of sin Just as a lame man holds his Crutch so doth a sinner his sinne The head of it is bolstered and how neare is it to his heart There art that spiritually sow pillowes under their own and others arm-holes for wretched limping sinners to lean upon Ezek. 13.18 The lame man holds his Crutch fast in his right hand and will not by any means let it go as you may see the Lord was Davids leaning-stay for saith David I have set the Lord at my right hand therefore I shall not be moved Psal 16.8 and that Christ was the Spouses leaning-stay for she held and would not let him go Cant. 3.4 And the Apostle requires the Saints to hold that fast by which they may hold Christ fast viz. Holy confidence and the rejoycing of hope Heb. 3.6 By which is evinced that Christ and nothing else is the Saints leaning-stock So sinners have their lies in their right hand Isai 44.20 And they hold fast deceit and refuse to return Jer. 8.5 And this is a full Conviction your Consciences beare witnesse unto it that sinne is the sinners leaning-stock or that in the Prophets language The wicked trust in their wickednesse Isai 47.10 It is strange that a man should dare to sinne and then to trust in sin but oh that it were not more true 2ly In that they think that if their sinne fall they fall also 2ly In this it is too too manifest that sinne is the sinners leaning-stock in that the sinner thinkes that if his sin fall he shall fall too The reason which makes lame persons so loath to let their Crutches fall is because they know that then they shall fall too Did they not leane upon them whilest they stand they would not be affraid of falling with them when they fall Verily sirs If your Consciences beare you this witnesse that the reason why you doe not let your sinfull Alehouse-maintaining or Alehouse-keeping or Cheating fall is because you think that then you shall fall also 't is a plaine Conviction that your sin is your leaning-stock That of Diana's silver-smiths is a pregnant instance 't was a wicked craft that they had and an hellish gain that they made viz. by making instruments of abominable Idolatrie to that cursed vanity of the Ephesians Now they