works of nature a tree which hath been many years growing may be cut down in an hour but in works of sin it s otherwise mans weakness can easily build them up but Gods power can onely throw them down Pompey when the Romans said That if Caesar came to Rome they saw not how they could resist his power told them That if he did but stamp with his foot on any ground in Italy he would bring men enough both footmen and horsemen to do it but when Caesar was coming with his Army Phaonius bid Pompey stamp with his feet and fetch the Souldiers which he had promised but all was in vain Pompey found it more difficult then he thought for Caesar made him first flee and then in a fight totally routed him The devil perswades men that they may defer their regeneration till their dissolution and then 't will be an easie matter to foil their spiritual foes but alas they finde it not so easie to mortifie earthly members and destroy the body of death when their souls adversaries with united strength encounter them fiercely and conquer them eternally Further all thy earthly comforts whether friends relations name estate limbs life must be laid at the feet of Christ hated for his sake and parted with at his call and command and that for the hope of such things as thou never sawest nor art ever like to see while thou livest Is not this Reader an hard chapter to forgo an estate in hand for something onely in hope to throw away present possessions and follow Christ thou knowest not whither to receive an inheritance thou knowest not when And as thy sins and thy soul must be parted asunder so thy Saviour and thy soul must be joyned together faith must follow repentance thy own righteousness must be esteemed as dross and dung the weight of thy soul and burthen of thy sins must be laid on the naked cross of Jesus Christ Now for thee who art by nature so extreamly in love with thy self to loath thy self and for thee notwithstanding thy discouragements from the number and nature of thy sins the threatnings and curses of the Law the wrath and righteousness of God to cling about and hang upon the Lord Jesus and resolve though he kill thee yet thou wilt trust in him surely this is not easie the work of God in infusing justifying faith is as great as in faith miraculous This is the work of God saith Christ that ye believe in the name of him whom he hath sent John 6.29 The work of God not onely in regard of its excellency because no work in man is more pleasing to God then believing on his Son but also in regard of its difficulty because none but a God can enable a man to believe the bird can as soon fly in the egg as thy soul mount up by faith towards heaven till the Almighty God assist thee Further all the commands of God must be heartily embraced some whereof are as contrary to flesh and blood as fire to water Self which is thy great idol must be denied the world with all its pomp and pride in comparison of Christ refused principalities and powers rencountred and foiled thine enemies loved and if killed it must be with kindness godliness owned though much disgraced by others truth followed close though it threaten to dash out thy teeth with its heels a buffeted Christ with his naked Cross preferred before weighty Crowns things which reason cannot comprehend believed and which none ever obtained labored for Friend are these easie things what thinkest thou add to all this the consideration not onely of thy weakness and inability to do these things but also thy wickedness and contrariety to them thou art not onely deprived of good but all over depraved with evil The imaginations and thoughts of thy heart are evil onely evil and that continually Gen. 6.5 Thou dost resolvedly and obstinately refuse good and choose evil Eccles 8.11 Jer. 44.16 The hearts of the sons of men are fully set in them to do evil Eccles 8.11 observe how full that text is man is resolved to have his minion his lust though he have wrath and death and hell into the bargain as the mother of Nero being told that her son would be her death if ever he were Emperor answered Let him kill me so he may reign so they say Let sin reign though it kill us though it damn us The heart of the sons of men is fully set in them to do evil If thou wert onely empty of God and grace the work were more easie but thou art an enemy to grace and godliness thy carnal minde which is Lady Reason her self thy highest natural excellency is not an enemy for such an one may be reconciled but in the abstract emnity against God Thou hatest God Rom. 1.30 His people 1 John 3.12 His precepts Prov. 1.25 29. His Son John 15.25 and all for his sake thou fightest against him daily sinnest in defiance of him continually entailest thy quarrel upon thy posterity carriest it with thee into the other world if thou diest unregenerate and there art throwing thine invenom'd darts of blasphemy and spitting thy poison against the Most High to eternity Now be thy own judge is it easie to cure that Patient who thus desperately hates both Physician and Physick John 3.5 Water indeed saith one may somwhat easily be dammed up but no art nor labour can make it run back in its own channel It was by a miracle that the river of Jordan was driven back and it is no less then a miracle that the tide of sin which ran so strong should be turned that the sinner who before was sailing towards Hell and wanted neither winde nor tide to carry him forward should now alter his course and tack about for Heaven This is hard it is not more strange to see the earth flye upward and fire move downward then to see a sinner walk contrary to his nature in the wayes of grace and holiness Now Reader is not that man worse then mad that either delayeth or dallieth about his conversion upon supposition that he can do it easily enough hereafter when all this which I have written must be wrought in regeneration and when he is not onely empty of an enemy to but even emnity against it all Though the work of conversion and therefore the way to salvation be thus difficult to all yet to some 't is more difficult then to others In respect of God indeed quoad Deum one is as easily converted as another for infinite power and mercy know no difference but quoad nos in respect of us it is more hard to bring some towards holiness and heaven then others where the matter is most rugged and untoward it s harder to bring it to a good and comely form Some pieces of timber are more knotty then others and therefore not so easily squared and fitted for the spiritual Temple and heavenly Jerusalem as
brains dasht out his great care is every day to conquer his corruptions The body of sin and death to which he is tied is as noisom to his soul as a dead body to his senses Lust is as burthensom to him as a withered arm which hangs on a man like a lump of lead Never did prisoner more ardently desire to be rid of his fetters then this Saint to be freed from subjection to his sins The distressed Jews did not groan so much under their Egyptian slavery as this true Israelite for spiritual liberty O wretched man that I am saith he who shall deliver me from this body of sin and death Rom. 7.29 His great end and endeavor in every providence and every Ordinance is not the repression but the ruine of this evil of sin If the Sun of mercy shine warm upon him he makes use of it to put out the kitchin fire of wickedness When God folaceth his spirit with extraordinary kindness the sacrifice of thanksgiving that he offereth up is the beast of some sin which he layeth on the Altar and poureth forth its blood before the Lord When the storm of affliction ariseth he enquireth for the Jonah which raised the tempest and endeavoureth that he may be cast over-board and drowned And as he makes use of divine Providences so likewise of divine Ordinances for the weakening his corruptions In prayer like the sick childe he pointeth at the place of his pain he indicteth accuseth and condemneth sin and intreateth that it may be executed his prayers and tears are his daily weapons wherewith he fighteth against his most inward and secret wickedness When he perceiveth lust like Adonijah usurping the throne of his heart he goeth in to God as Bathsheba to David sighing and saying Did not my Lord promise his servant that the true Solomon should reign in my soul that Jesus Christ the Prince of Peace should sway the scepter in my spirit And now behold his foes which thou hast sworn to make his footstool have trayterously aspired to the Crown and forcibly made me subject to their commands As Esther he is very desirous of these Hamans destruction and watcheth continually for a fit opportunity to present his Petition to the King of Kings for that end and when in any duty he seeth the God of glory to hold out the golden Scepter of mercy towards him O then he beggeth for justice If I have found favour in thy sight O King and if it please the King let the life of my soul be given me at my Petition and the death of my sins at my request Did thy dear Son die for sin and shall thy poor servant live in sin shall not these thine enemies which would not have thee to reign over me be slain before thy face Order my steps by thy word and let not any iniquity have dominion over me Psal 119.133 Thus by prayer as by one main piece of his spiritual armour he becomes prevalent The Romans overcame their enemies sitting that is the Senate by their prudent counsels but the Christian kneeling by his holy valour he wrestleth with God and through the power of Christ gets the victory 2 Cor. 12.6 And because the devil of some lusts will not be cast out without fasting and prayer therefore he joyneth fasting to supplication and trieth to starve his corruptions Before-hand he fitteth himself for that day of purging out his ill humors by the preparatory potion of meditation The consideration of his sins how bloody and hainous in their nature how crying and crimson in their circumstances makes his physick work the better He thinketh before The day of mourning for offending my father is coming and then I will slay my brother Jacob my dearest and nearest sin This man bringeth under his natural body which he may lawfully cherish that he may abate the strength of the body of death as men sometimes in a feaver open a vain and let out their blood though it be not bad that they may weaken their enemy In reading and hearing the Law of God he setteth his lusts naked before that sword of the Spirit that they may be hewn by the Prophets and slain by the words of Gods mouth He desires that it may pierce deep to the dividing of soul and spirit of the joynts and marrow and to the discovering of the thoughts and intents of his heart His voice to the Minister is like the Prophets to his neighbour Smite me I pray thee and likes him best that in smiting wounds his sin most he approves of that Chirurgion that searcheth his wounds throughly though he put him to pain he rejoyceth that the Preacher revealeth to him his errors that he may follow them with Hue and cry till they are taken and punished and so Gods pursuit of him may be prevented If the Minister give him a bitter pill of reproof he doth not like a queasie stomach favour his malady and loath his medicine but takes it down willingly knowing that though such things be not toothsom yet they are wholesom and that they must be bitter things that breaks the bag of worms in his stomach sweet things will nourish and cherish them He is glad that the word is fire that thereby his dross may be consumed that it is water because his heart thereby may be washed and purified He hideth the word in his heart that he may not sin against God Psal 119.11 He goeth to the Lords Supper that the blood of his sins may be shed by the blood of the Saviour The Cross of Christ is the souls armour and sins terror there is life in it for the death of sin Pliny saith that the fasting spittle of a man will kill Serpents Sure I am the blood of Christ applied by faith will mortifie sin and therefore the Saint frequenteth the Sacrament He goeth to it as Naaman to Jordan to be cured of his spiritual leprosie when he approacheth the table of the Lord and seeth in the bread broken and the wine poured out by faith Jesus Christ crucified before his eyes O how his heart burneth within him in hatred and indignation against his sins and in desires after and delight in his Redeemer He beholdeth there the knives of his pride unbelief hypocrisie malice and the like all redded in the blood of the Mediator and now his eyes sparkle with fire and fury and his soul swelleth with wrath and revenge against them were but his hand answerable to his heart I mean his power to his will he would put sin to as much pain make it suffer as much shame cause it to undergo as cursed a death as ever Jesus Christ did Now this frame of spirit exceedingly pleasing to the King of Saints he bespeaks the soul at the Sacrament as Herod did the damsel Ask of me what thou wilt and I will give it thee to the half nay to the whole of my Kingdom The soul having before consulted with his regenerate part for this
whereby it breatheth after exerciseth and delighteth it self in the wayes and worship of God there is an inward frame and disposition infused into the new Creature different from nay contrary to his former inclinations The stream of his heart and life before ran swiftly after the flesh and the world The creature sate upon the throne in his inward man commanding all things at pleasure earth was the mans heaven the world lay in his heart and all the mans affections and actions were ordered and disposed for the advancement of that interest But now the tide is turned the waters run in another channel the Lord is exalted in his affections as his chiefest good and in his conversation as his utmost end the Law of God is written in the heart and commented upon in the life the inward man is of a good constitution and the outward man of a good complexion Grace is a tendency of the soul Godward his understanding knoweth God to be the greatest good John 17. His will chooseth him his affections love him his desire is after him his delight is in him his fear is of him his trust is on him his care and endeavor is to walk worthy of the Lord unto all well-pleasing Joh. 17.3 Psal 16.5 6. 73.25 26. Isa 7.8 Psal 37.4 Gen. 42.18 like the Sun-flower he followeth the motion of the Sun of righteousness Now Reader try thy self Art thou alive to God Doest thou take him in Christ for thy happiness and make him thine end Is it thy business and trade to do his will thy calling and employment to finish his work Is thy heart devoted to his fear and thy life to his honor how art thou affected to his word and worship Dost thou perform duties out of love to God with complacency in God It it thy ment and drink to obey his precepts How is thy soul ravished with the sweetnesses of his promises Art thou joyful in the house of prayer Is the Sabbath thy delight Is the Scripture sweeter to thee then the honey and the honey-comb At the Sacrament canst thou fit under Christs shadow with great delight and finde his fruit sweet unto thy taste Doest thou esteem the yoke of thy Saviour easie his service liberty his wayes wayes of pleasantness and all his paths peace Canst thou say One day in Gods Courts is better then a thousand elsewhere Hast thou found that 't is good for thee to draw nigh to God If thou wert put to thy choice hadst thou rather solace thy soul with sensual recreations or in communion with the Father and Jesus Christ his Son Examine thine heart for if thou hast the divine nature divine and spiritual things will be natural and so pleasant to thee A man whose nature is covetous how exceedingly doth he delight in viewing and feeling money as the Roman Emperor would putt off his cloaths and tumble up and down in heaps of silver If a mans nature be proud how exceedingly pleased is he in the cap and the knee in being flattered and respected it is meat and drink to him as we say to be reverenced in mens carriage and honored in their language men love those things a life because they suit with their natures So when a man hath a new nature a spiritual holy nature things which are spiritual and holy will be acceptable to him because they are suitable to his nature the word will be welcom prayer will be pleasant ordinances will be as savory as food to the hungry the man will love the habitation of Gods house and the place where Gods honour dwelleth though his flesh be weak his spirit is alwayes willing He may be weary at a duty that the wheels of his soul should so be clog'd with the dirt of infidelity and make him to drive so heavily but he is never weary of duties though corruption and Satan now dog him at and disturb him in his performances yet 't is the comfort of his soul that he now drags them in chains after the triumphant chariot of Grace and he rejoyceth to think how he shall leave the body of death behinde him at the entrance of his soul into the Capitol of Glory His heart leaps now when his feet do but creep in the way of obedience when he goeth to the house of God it is with the voice of joy unto the altar of God yea his God and excceeding joy Whatsoever a man doth from an ingrafted propensity he doth it not onely in sincerity but also with alacrity He delights in it as the fish in the water as the mole in the earth it is his proper element God and the things of God are his element He would still be and live in this element He delights to know God to worship him to believe in him to meditate on him to sanctifie his day to glorifie his name to observe his Laws to view his children he is never so well as when he is walking with God if there were no heaven to prefer the obedient and no hell to punish the disobedient yet he would fear the Lord and delight greatly in his commandments But on the other side speak Friend Art thou listless and dead to spiritual things are they irksom and tedious to thee Probably the commandments of God are bonds and cords the Sabbath thy toilsom day not a day of rest and refreshment the Sanctuary is thy prison the service of God is snuft at by thee and wearisom to thee thou art glad that the duty is done the day is over thy conscience quieted like a Tenant who is glad his rent is paid to his Landlord but took no pleasure in parting with his money thou rejoycest at the end not at the beginning of thy duty thou countest Amen the best word in a prayer not because it 's the fruit of thy faith but because it puts a period to thy petitions the Blessing is the best part of Divine Worship thou esteemest no part to be before it because that is last and nothing comes after it Religion is but possibly thy by-business and a Lacquey to thy lusts a pass and a convoy which thou hast need of in thy travelling through the world It may be thou goest to duty as a Bear to the stake it goeth against the hair with thee to walk in the way of holiness though necessity compel thee sometimes or once or twice a day to take a turn in the path of piety Conscience will roar unless it may finde rest in some outward performance Or thou mayst now and then perceive good company walking in the narrow way which leadeth to life and so as travellers care not if they go a mile or two out of their way for company especially if the way be fair and the company pleasing so thou mayst go out of thy own way sometimes and walk a little with the Saints for company Reader be faithful to thy soul A real fire differeth from a painted one by its heat and so doth
shall not so much as taste of Thou mayst see a Cherubim there with a flaming sword to guard that tree of life and keep thee out of that pleasant Paradise Nay thou mayest behold there the plagues and judgements the pain and punishments which the righteous God threatneth against and will execute upon thee and all in thy condition In a word thou mayst as it were find thy very self mentioned in the forlorn hope for Hell 1 Cor. 6.9 10. Rev. 21.6 7. While thou livest thou art fed like a beast by a common providence and art a meer stranger to all the saving promises If at any time thou fingerest the unsearchable riches in Christ like the riches which Solomon speaks of they make themselves wings and flye away from thee thou goest every day without thy guard being turned naked into the wide world amongst legions of Devils and soul-damning lusts to be rent and torn in pieces like a silly Hare amongst a pack of Hounds and none to shelter thee or call thee off Many dangers attend thee every day many miseries every moment when thou goest out or comest in liest down or risest up still are those frightful hel-hounds watching for thee and waiting only for leave from God O that his long-suffering might be unto thee salvation to drag thy soul into the lake of fire There is but an hairs breadth as it were between thee and hell And O when thou diest man what wilt thou then do as soon as that Captain death strikes the first stroak whole Armies of woes will fall upon thee Reader I have told thee somewhat of thy lamentable portion in this life though none can give thee a full Inventory of thy personal wretched estate One would think that every line under this head should be as a dagger stabbing thee at the heart and that if there were nothing else but these small guns I call them so comparatively of miseries in this world the fear of them should cause thee to flie as the distressed dove to the clifts of the rock the wounds of a crucified Christ But this is not all the murdering-piece the great Ordnance is yet behind I must hasten to write of thy misery in the other world which thou poor wretch though now without fear yet art hastning to feel As while thou livest thou art a cursed sinner so when thou diest thou art a damned creature Here I confess I shall fail much more then before for no pen can describe no pencil can delineate though both did it in blood to the utmost of humane wit and Art the thousand thousandth part of that pain which thou shalt there undergo I have read of a Court where it was made death to mention death Surely the word Death must needs sound dreadfully in thine ears because when it comes it will strike and that home 't will both kill thee and damn thee 't will part thy body and soul for a time and God and the soul to eternity 't will send thy body to the grave and thy soul to hell Thy condition now is lamentable and dangerous but then O then 't will be irrecoverable and desperate Thy deaths-day will be thy dooms-day wherein the guilty prisoner of the soul shall be fetched out of the noisom goal of the body and appear before the Judge of the whole earth and from him receive a sentence of eternal death and then be hurried by frightful Devils to execution It is storied of Charls King of Sweden a great enemy of the Jesuites that when he took any of their Colledges he would put the younger sort of them into his Mines saying That since they had wrought hard above ground he would now make trial how well they could work under ground Truly thus Satan will serve thee when thou hast wrought hard for him on earth he will pay thee thy wages in the dark vaults of hell and make trial how well thou canst work there Ah who would serve such a Master Look to it and remember that thou wast warned of it For if thou diest naturally before thou livest spiritually thou diest eternally Austins prayer was Hack me hew me burn me HERE but spare me HEREAFTER Spare me hereafter Alas what will thy condition be Thou art in hell upon earth for thou livest without God whose gracious presence is heaven and in hell after death thou shalt never be spared here nor hereafter now thou art a cursed sinner and then thou shalt be a damned creature thy best is past and thy worst to come though thy best portion is a poor pittance a few brutish pleasures I come now to thy misery in the other world ETernal death will teach thee six lessons though now neither mercy nor misery neither fair means nor foul means can prevail with thee to learn them First It will teach thee the vanity of this world Thou now seest it written with the finger of God in his word in capital letters Vanity of Vanities all is Vanity Eccles â— 3 yet thou wilt not believe it As 't is reported of a Gentlewoman that being told so answered 'T is true Solomon said so but he tried the world first and so will I Thou wilt try the world also before thou wilt trust the Word But be confident in the other world thou wilt find God true to thy cost when thine honor which now is but the breath of thy neighbor a thin cabinet of air which every one hath a key to but thy self shall be blown away when thy wealth which hath great eagles wings to flie from thee here shall not have so much as a small Sparrows wings to follow after thee there and when all thine earthly comforts for which thou sellest thy soul and thy Saviour shall as the Pharisees did Judas leave thee in the greatest extremity and bid thee look to thy self Then possibly thou wilt say as Cardinal Wolsey when he was out of favour with his Prince and left by him to the rage of his enemies If I had served my God as faithfully as I have served my King he would not have served me thus So thou wilt think If I had served my God as faithfully as I have served the world he would not have served me thus to leave me in my greatest need to the rage of scorching flames to the fury of roaring lions and tormenting devils if I had served my Saviour as faithfully as I have served my sins I should have received other manner of pay But for all thy faithful service to the world and thy flesh they will forsake thee Thou mayst then cry to the things of this world which have so much of thy time and heart and trust and which are indeed thy god as those Idolaters did to their Idolgod O Baal hear us O riches hear me O friends hear me O pleasures hear me O merry-meetings hear me O relations hear me yea if thou shouldst continue crying never so long thou couldst not have the least help Were
imagine what a full good this one God is in himself and would be to thee He would be to thee health in sickness strength in weakness light in darkness joy in sadness riches in povery honor in ignominy freedom in slavery ease in pain safety in dangers and life in death This one God would supply all thy need according to his riches in glory by Christ Jesus Phil. 4.19 God would subdue thy corruptions enable thee to overcome temptations to be a gainer by afflictions to hold out under desertions to improve providences to be the better for ordinances to be filled with holiness and fitted for happiness He would do more for thee then thou couldst ask or think Ephes 3.20 Well might the Psalmist wonder at the riches of his portion who had a propriety in God Psal 144. ult Happy is the people that is in such a case YEA HAPPY IS THE PEOPLE WHOSE GOD IS THE LORD Ainsworth reads those words by way of admiration O happy is the people whose God is the Lord As if the Psalmist Beatus ergo populus cujus Iehova est Deus Tremel considering what he had said before that it was an happiness to enjoy children cattel and outward comforts did from those streams ascend to the fountain and gathered by rational arguing If they are happy that have their sons growing as plants and their daughters as polished stones their barns swelling and their flocks thriving O how happy are they whose God is the Lord If they are so blessed who have the Stars how happy are they that have the Sun For in the presence of this Sun all those Stars must vanish and disappear a Praedicâ— populum beatum oâ— haec bonaâ— Deo conti gâ—rint sed addâ—t mox correctiâ—nem ne qâ—iâ— in hâ—s rebus terrenis fubsistat summan beatitudi nâ—â— ponâ—â— Mollerus in loc Mollerus takes the words by way of correction Yea rather Blessed is the people whose God is the Lord. As if David had recalled himself and with his pen given a dash to all that he had said Did I say that they were happy which abounded with relations possessions and outward comforts I recal my self Alas they are not happy in comparison of their happiness who have the Lord for their God yea rather hapyy is the people whose God is the Lord. By this latter he cuts off the neck of his former expression Some take the words conjunctively as if David had proclaimed them happy indeed for whom the Lord as their God doth so liberally provide The children must needs be happy that have a Father that takes such care of them and bestoweth so many outward good things on them Austin takes the words dis-junctively as if the former part of the verse Happy is the people that is in such a case were the voice of the world and the latter part of it Yea happy is the people whose God is the Lord were the choice of the Saints And that Father explains himself to this purpose O vain and foolish speakers O strange children They have called the people happy that are in such a case But what sayest thou David What sayest thou O Body of Christ What say ye O Members of Christ What say ye O Children of God Because those vain Speakers and strange Children have called them happy that are in such a case What say ye And then he answereth for them as the voice of all O vaniloquâ— O silii alieni Beatum dixerunt populum eui haec sunt Quid tu David Quid tu corâ—us Christi Quâ— vos membra Christi Quid vos non filii alieni sed Dei Quoniam vaniloqui fili alieni Beatum dixerunt populuâ—â— Cui haec sunt Vos â—â—id dicitis Beatus populus cujus Dominus deus ipsius Aug. in Psal 143. Tom. 8. Happy is the people whose God is the Lord. Thus happy Reader shouldst thou be if thou wert once regenerated That God in comparison of whom the whole Creation is as nothing would be thy God O how eminently how infinitely wouldst thou be blessed in having so rich so vast so boundless a good for thy God Thou shouldst be blessed in thy body that should be the temple of the Holy Ghost and part of the mystical body of the Son of God and so nearly and closely united to him that neither death grave nor dust should ever be able to separate it from him 1 Cor. 6.19 1 Thes 4.14 16. Thou shouldst be blessed in thy soul that should be ever fat and flourishing Psal 92.13 14. like a watered Garden abounding in fruit the smell of thy soul would be as the smell of a field which the Lord hath blessed Thou shouldest be blessed in thy estate that blessing which can turn a Prison into a Palace a Cottage into a Court poverty into plenty would be thy portion thou shouldst be sure of necessaries of enough to bear thy charges till thou comest to thy Fathers house Psal 37.25 26. and 34.11 Having faith thou should not fear a famine but wouldst be assured that he who feeds the birds of the air fodders the beasts of the fields filleth the bellies of his Enemies with hidden treasures would never forget his friends or starve his children The Lord would be thy Shepherd and therefore thou couldst not want Psal 23.1 As they that are well lined within and have much good blood and spirits can endure to go in cold weather with less clothes then others So thou being inwardly strengthened with the grace and love of God shouldst be able to walk in the world comfortably with a less estate then others If thou shouldst be thine own carver thou wouldst cut thy fingers If thy means were small thy stomach should not be great As the sheep can live upon bare Commons and thrive there where the fat Ox would be starved so in the midst of thy straights thy contentedness would give thee a sufficiency when others who are strangers to grace in the midst of their sufficiency are in straights Job 20.22 True piety hath true plenty and is never without a well-contenting sufficiency for t will give him who hath nothing the possession of all things 1 Tim. 6.6 Hab. 3.16.17 2 Cor. 6.11 Thy dinner of herbs with the love and favour of God would be better then a stalled Ox with his anger and frowns Prov. 15.15.16 Thou shouldst be blessed in thy children The just man walketh in his integrity and his children are blessed after him Prov. 20.7 John's Children fared the better for their fathers godlyness thoug it were but counterfeit 2 Kings 10.30 Surely then The generation of the upright shall be blessed Psal 112.2 When thou didst leave them God would find them and require thy children for thy love to him much more faithfully then David did Mephibosheth for Jonathans good will Gen. 17.8 Act. 2.39 Thy whole house would be the happier for thee God blesseth the habitation of the righteous Prov 3.33 Nothing can possibly be
thy folly in making and continuing a League with them to thine extream and unconceiveable disadvantage I shall endeavour to set before thee though briefly the far greater felicity which thou shouldst obtain in the other World As whilst thou continuest in this world thou shouldst be a blessed soul so when thou enterest into the other world thou shouldst be a glorious Saint And this Reader is the best wine which Christ keeps for his Ghests till the last though how good it is none can tell but they that have tasted it Truly what Nazianzen said of Basil I may say of this glorious Saint There wants nothing but his own tongue to commend him The Subject is large and weighty and sure I am that it would require the words not onely of a Saint but an Angel to do it according to its worth I shall onely give thee a say briefly of that which glorified Saints enjoy fully First thou shouldst know what perfection of holiness is if thou wert but new born this one thought would fill thy soul with marrow and fatness and cause thy mouth to praise God with joyfull lips One dram of holiness infinitely surpasseth in the esteem of a Saint all the Kingdoms and Empires of this world how much then is perfect holiness worth In heaven thou shouldst have it There thou shouldst be before the throne without fault and serve him day and night in his temple Rev. 14.5 What price doth a Saint set upon and what pains doth he take for a little holiness If thou wouldst know why he hideth the word in his heart t is that he might not sin against God the purging out of sinful humours is the end for which he takes that phisick Why he readeth and heareth so diligently t is that he might be sanctified through Gods truth cleansing is the reason why he useth that water Why he prayeth so frequently and so fervently t is that he might have a clean heart created and a right spirit renewed within him Grace is the chief alms for which he knocks and begs so hard at the beautifull gate of Gods Temple why he goeth to the sacrament t is that he might grow in sanctity he goeth to the death of his Saviour for the death of his sins and his great design in that spiritual feast is so to feed that he might get some more spiritual strength Nay how contented can he be under very sad crosses if they may but make him more like to Christ he can patiently bear the pain of lancing and cutting so it may but let out corruption He can take bitter pills for the removing of inward diseases and the furthering of his souls health and more willingly spend all be hath for the cure of his issue of sin then ever the widow did for the cure of her issue of blood Now Reader thou shouldst have the vessel of thy soul filled with this water of life One drop of which is so precious as thou hast heard to the regenerate Thou shouldst have a perfection of degrees as well as of parts and enjoy so much of these true riches that thou shouldst not desire one grain more Thou shouldst be a book wherein the image of God should be written in a fair large print and there should be no errata's in thee Sin now is like the Ivy in the wall cut it never so much yet it will sprout out again but as grace mortifieth it here glory shall nullify it in heaven Wert thou in Christ t would be no small comfort to think the time is comming when thou shalt never offend God more never deal unkindly with Christ more Thou shouldst by blessed experience know the truth of those Scriptures Whosoever is born of God sinneth not for his seed remaineth in him and he cannot sin because he is born of God 1 John 3.9 Christ loved his Church and gave himself for it that he might sanctify and cleanse it with the washing of water by the word That he might present it to himself a glorious Church not having spot or wrinkle or any such thing but that it should be holy and without blemish Ephes 5.25 26 27. The body of death should die with the death of thy body Thou shouldst not be taken away in thy sins but from thy sins It would be impossible for thee to sin there because of thine happy sight of God there Sin is an aversion from God and conversion to the creature Now thou shouldst enjoy such soul ravishing sweetness in the blessed God and that so fully that thou couldst not leave so excellent a good for any creature thy graces here in their minority and nonage would be then in their maturity If that holiness which is but in part on earth would be so beautiful in thine eyes that it would ravish thine heart more then all the glory of this lower world what would perfect holiness in heaven be If the picture or image of God be so comely in its rough draught here below Ah how lovely a peice will it be in all its perfections when Gods Novissima manus his last hand shall come upon it above 1 John 3.2 Secondly thou shouldst know what compleat happiness is Thine holiness and happiness like twins would grow up and come to their full age together thy perfect purity there would cause perfect peace Thy day of light and gladness in heaven could never be overcast with the smallest cloud because sins that are the vapours out of which they breed could not ascend so high Thy freedom from evil would be full thy fruition of good would be full and therefore thy felicity must needs be full Thy body there would be free from the diseases and deformity to which it is liable and with which it is affected here The errors of the first would be corrected in its second edition A body of vileness shall be a body of glory All those miseries which fright and molest thee now would then forsake thee No evil durst arrest thee when thou shalt walk in the presence of Sions King In this thou shouldst be like irrational creatures that thy misery should end with thy life And in this resemble the blessed Angels that thou shouldst alwayes behold the face of thy father In his presence is fulness of joy When the Sun beholdeth the Moon with his full aspect then the Moon is at the Full. In heaven the Sun of righteousness would ever look on thee with his favourable face in so full a degree that thou shouldst be at the Full of thy light and happiness God is an universal good the soul of man hath a kind of an infinite appetite It desireth this pleasure and that treasure and when it hath them it is like a dropsicall body as thirsty as ever for those creatures having but a particular limited goodness can never satisfy but God will supply all the souls wants because he is infinite and universal good and answereth all things Thou shouldst ever be at the
sin who would open his mouth for such a monster when there is no evil like it Doth God offer thee any thing to thy hurt when he would make a separation between thy soul and thy sins doth he desire any thing to thy disadvantage when he desireth thee to give a bill of divorce to sin which is the sourse of all sorrows the onely enemy of thy best friend the ever-blessed God and to be given up to which is the greatest plague and punishment on this side hell Tell me is not regeneration excellent which killeth such venemous serpents which executeth such traytours which mortifyeth these earthly members and dasheth these brats of Babylon against the wall Thirdly the price paid for this pearle doth loudly speak its excellency Reader little dost thou think what regeneration cost I tell thee and thou mayst well wonder at it The son of God came from heaven suffered the boundless rage of Divels and infinite wrath of God in mans nature upon this very errand to purchase regeneration and sanctification for poor sinners Read and admire Forasmuch as ye know that ye were not redeemed with corruptible things as silver and gold from your vain conversation but with the precious blood of Christ as of a Lamb without blemish and without spot 1 Pet. 1.18 19. See the worth of this ware by that which it cost The precious blood of Christ surely it was a jewel of inestimable value which the Son of God thought worth his precious blood As lightly as thou thinkest of the death of sin and the life of righteousness the Lord Jesus underwent more then any one in hell feels to buy them of his father for the sons of men Ah none knoweth but God and Christ what it cost to buy off mans debts and guilt and to procure a new stock of holiness for his poor bankrupt creature to set up with again Who his own self bare our sins in his body on the tree that we being dead to sin might live unto righteousness 1 Pet. 2.24 Had man kept his original purity the Lord Jesus might have spared all his pains T it 2.14 Ioh 10.10 The second Adam came to restore that jewel to man of which the first Adam robd him This rare jewel this choice mercy was regeneration and holiness and this Christ looks upon as the full reward of his sufferings He shall see the travail of his soul and be satisfied Isa 53.11 The truth is Christ had exceeding hard labour the Greek Fathers call it unknown sufferings he had many a bitter pang many a sharp throw but for joy that children are born of God that those throws bring forth a numerous issue of new creatures he forgets his sorrows He shall see the travail of his soul and be satisfied Consider friend did Christ esteem regeneration worthâ— his blood to merit it and is it not worth thy prayers and teares and utmost indeavours to obtain it Did Christ come to destroy the works of the Divel which is sin 1 John 3.8 and wilt thou build them up did the Lord Jesus come to build up the temple of holiness and wilt thou pull it down did Christ think it worth the while to be reproached condemned crucified and all to make thee holy and wilt thou be such an enemy to the cross of Christ as by continuing in sin to deprive him of that which he earnd so dearly Why wilt thou bind thy self to be a slave to Satan when he redeemed thee with such a vast sum Did the mercifull God send his son into the world to bless thee in turning thee from thine iniquity and canst thou look upon that great blessing as thy bondage Acts 3. ult Believe it God had servants enough even Angels that are ever ready to do his will to send ordinary gifts by surely then t was some extrordinary present that he thought none worthy to carry and would trust none with but his onely Son God sent him to blesse you in turning every one of you from your iniquities I hope reader thou wilt have higher thoughts of holiness and worse thoughts of sin all thy dayes surely the son of God was not so prodigal of his most precious blood as to poure it out for any thing that was not superlatively excellent Fourthly Regeneration and the renewing of man will appear to be excellent in that it is the great end of God in his works The more noble any being is the more excellent ends it propounds to it self in its working thence it is that a man hath higher ends then a beast the ends of a beast are onely to please sence but the ends of a man are to satisfie his understanding Hence also the ends of a Christian are more excellent then the ends of other men his being is more noble and so are his ends To please glorifie and enjoy God How excellent then is that which the infinitely perfect God makes his end Surely the Most High cannot propound any low ends in his operations he that is the onely wise God must have eminent designs and ends Now unclasp the secret book of Gods decree and look into it as far as the word will warrant thee and thou shalt finde that in that internal work of Election God had the renewing of man after his image in his eye and to be his end According as he hath chosen us in him before the foundation of the world that we should be holy and without blame before him in love Ephes 1.4 As an Artificer or Statuary that hath many pieces of stone all alike hewn out of the same Quarry in his yard sets some apart from the rest in his own thoughts intending to make some choice Statue some special piece of them So when all mankinde was before God he did in his eternal thoughts set some apart to be choice pieces to be holy and without blame Go from Gods decree to its execution from his inward to his outward actions and thou shalt finde thy renewing after his image to be still in his eye In thy creation he thought of thy regenerationâ— Prov. 16.4 Psal 100.4 5. Rev. 4. ult he made thee that he might new make thâ—â— Thou art a man that thou mightst become a Christian God made thee a rational creature that thou mightst be made a new creature He gave thee the matter in giving thee a body and a rational soul that thereby thou mightst be capable of the form which is the impression of his image on both There must be a tree before it can be hewed and squared for some curious building God did not make thee to eat and drink and sleep and toil in thy calling but to honor him and to live to him which are the actions of the new creature Trace God further from creation to providence and therein also thou mayst observe this to be his end Why doth he send the warm Summer of prosperity and refresh thee with his clearing beams and influences but to
The DOOR of SALVATION OPENED By the Key of REGENERATION OR A TREATISE CONTAINING The Nature Necessity Marks and Means of Regeneration As also the Duty of the Regenerate By GEORGE SWINNOCKE M.A. and Pastor of Rickmersworth in Hertfordshire Matth. 18.3 Verily I say unto you Except ye be converted and become as little children ye shall not enter into the kingdom of Heaven Non est via ad regnum sine primitiis regm nec sperare porest coeleste regnum cui neque super propriam regnare concupiscentian adhuc datur Bernard LONDON Printed by John Best for THO. PARKHURST at the Three Crowns in the lower end of Cheapside over against the great Conduit 1660. To the right worshipful Sir Charles Herboard Knight To the Worshipful Richard Franklin Esq John Beresford Esq Edward Ironside Esq Richard Beresford Esq And to the Gentlemen Yeomen and the rest of the inhabitants of the parish of Rickmersworth IT is the custom of our Country and if I mistake not a Statute Law of the Nation that children should be kept and maintained by those places in which they were born This book which treateth of the Babe of grace was conceived in your Parish brought forth in your Pulpit and now presenteth it self to you not for your protection and patronage but for your perusall and practice I confess that I am bound to many of you in courtesie to all in duty and I know not better how to express my thankfulness to some and my faithfulness to all then by dealing uprightly with you in the concernments of your souls Rom. 1.9 God is my witness whom I desire to serve with my spirit in the Gospel of his Son that without ceasing I make mention of you always in my prayers And can through the strength of Christ much more rejoyce in one of your conversions then in all your possessions Ye know what a large Epistle I have already written to you I beseech you to read it often To the Reader in Hell and Heaven epitomized and O that the Lord would write it within you We live in days that are full of division but all that have any face of religion or form of godliness will acknowledge the things which I have written to you to be the commandments of God My cheif work is and hath been to preach unto you Repentance towards God and faith in our Lord Jesus Christ which are of such infinite weight in order to your unchangeable welfares And could I prevaile with you heartily to embrace those essentials of Gods word I should have confidence of your joyful appearance in the other world T is a sign of a very foul stomach to loath such solid food as those vitals of Christianity are and to pick at Kickshaws or Sallads I mean either the new-fangled opinions of some upstart way or the vaine flourishes of humane wit O how gladly would I stand forth to your comfort at the judgment feat of Christ which that I may I earnestly request you again and again in obedience to your blessed Saviour and for the sake of your precious souls to ponder and practice these three particulars Consider that they are not onely commended to you by your weak and dying Minister but commanded you by your Maker who will within a short time reckon with you for the performance of them First Make conscience of be diligent about the means of grace neglect not secret private or publick ordinances Your bodies may as probably live without diet as your souls without duties This is Gods way by which he infuseth grace where it is wanting and increaseth grace where it is As the head by the nerves and sinews as organs conveyeth animal spirits to the whole body So doth the Churches head Christ Jesus by ordinances convey his Spirit and grace to his members Doth not experience teach you that your hearts are like water though heated a little while over the fire of the means of grace yet are no sooner taken off but they are returning to their former coldness Mariners that swim against wind and tide must row hard and continue at it if they intermit but a little while how far and how forcibly are they carried backwards It is not unknown to you if ye have any knowledge in spiritual affaires how busily and unweariedly the Devil world and flesh are drawing you to hell it highly concerneth you to be always by duties fetching in supplies from above if ever ye would arrive at heaven I do not wonder that many in our perillous times who live above duties are given up to sensuality or blasphemies The Papists say that if they can get the Protestants out of their strong holds of Scripture into the open fields of Councils and Fathers they should quickly be able to foil them If Satan can prevaile with men but to throw away the Word of God which is the sword of the Spirit and the prayer of faith which engageth Christ himself in the combat he will never doubt the conquest While men wall in the Kings high way between Sun and Sun they have the protection of the Law if otherwise it is at their own peril If you keep the way of God he will be your guard but if you wander and leave him no wonder if he leave you And certainly wo will be to you when God departeth from you A dreadful night of darkness must needs be expected when this Sun is departed The ministry of the word is called the salt of the earth Mat. 5. Saints are called Doves Who are those that fly as doves to their windows Now the property of Doves is to be exceedingly in love with a salt-stone Kites and Rooks care little for it but Doves are mightily incited to it Graceless persons neglect and despise the means of grace but they that ever enjoyed God in them cannot but set a due price upon them The beggar the poor in spirit will know that door again at which he hath received a good dole I will never forget thy precepts for by them thou hast quickned me Secondly Mind the religious education of your children Bring them up in the nurture and admonition of the Lord. It was the wish of Crates that he were upon the top of the highest hill in the world that from thence he might cry out against monstrous parents that toile to leave their children great estates but take no care what maner of persons they should be which should enjoy those estates I doubt not but ye are careful to breed your Sons Gentlemen or to bring them up to trades that they may know how to live a few days in this world but alas how few of you are solicitous to breed them new creatures and to bring them up to Christianity that they may know how to live for ever in the other world I remember that Augustine speaks mournfully Some praise my father for being at such cost even beyond his estate in my nurture but alas his care
the soul that this New creature is conceived and brought forth godliness is not natural but adventitious to man not by propagation but by donation Man cannot generate himself naturally much less regenerate himself spiritually they which are born of the flesh contribute nothing to their own beings neither do they which are born of the Spirit bring any thing to their new beings unless it be a passive receptiveness as they are reasonable creatures Some read the Text and not unfitly for the original will fully bear it Except a man be born 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 from above or from heaven and therefore in the fifth verse of this third Chapter of John Christ telleth us Except a man be born of the Spirit he cannot enter into the kingdom of God and in Tit. 3.5 it is called a renewing of the holy Ghost so 1 Joh. 12.13 Jer. 31.18 19.2 Cor. 3.5 1 Pet 1.1 2 3. Ephes 2.10 1 Pet. 2.9 10. This work is somtimes called a transplanting out of the natural wilde olive-tree and ingraffing it contrary to nature into a true good Olive-tree Rom. 11.24 out of the first into the second Adam now the Cions cannot transplant or ingraff it self It is termed a new creation 2 Cor. 5.17 To create or bring something out of nothing is beyond the power of the strongest creature it is above the strength of all men and Angels to create the least pile of grass God challengeth this as his prerogative royal Isa 40 26. As the old heaven and earth were the work of his hands Gen. 1.1 so are the new heavens and new earth wherein dwelleth righteousness Isa 65.17 Austin said truly To convert the little world Man is more then to create the great world It is further stiled a Resurrection from the dead Ephes 5.14 and 2.5 It is a great work to recover a dying body a far greater to restore one that is dead to life but the greatest of all to enliven a dead soul in the former there is no opposition in this there is much In spight of man and devils to pull down the ugly rotten frame of sin and set up the lovely lasting Fabrick of sanctity requireth no less strength then Omnipotency The Almighty God putteth forth the exceeding greatness of his power in forming the New creature Ephes 1.19 20. nay the same power which he did in raising up Iesus Christ from the dead who had beside the watch of Romans and the malice of hell such an heavy weight as the sins of the world to keep him down Repentance and Faith are the two chief ingredients in this rare composition and neither of them are such drugs as grow in Natures Garden no they are fetched from far It is God that giveth to the Gentiles repentance unto life Acts 11.18 2 Tim 2.25 The stones will as soon weep as mans heart of stone unless he that smote the rock force water out of it by turning it into a heart of flesh for Faith also it is the gift of God Ephes 2.8 Phil. 1.29 None come to the Son but such as are drawn by the Father Joh. 6.44 He alone that caused iron to swim 2 King 6.6 can keep the humbled sinner that is pressed down with the burden of innumerable iniquities from sinking in the gulf of desperation To part a man from his dearest carnal self and to make him diligently seek the destruction of what before he sought the preservation to make him cut off his right hand and pluck out his right eye hate father mother wife childe name house land u◠do all he had done go backward every step he had gone see things with a new light understand things with another heart and in the whole course of his life to swim against the stream and tide of nature and winds of example to bring a soul to this I say which is all done and much more in conversion requireth the infinite God's operation Flesh and blood can neither reveal these things to a man nor work these things in a man but the Father which is in heaven The Minister like the Prophets servant Instrumentum non movet nisi moveatur may lay his staff on the dead childe but he cannot raise it to life till the Master cometh Paul may plant and Apollo water but God only can give the increase Cor. 3.6 Without him we can do nothing John 15.3 We may preach out our hearts unless God affords his help our people will never be holy As Protogenes when he saw a picture in a shop curiously drawn cryed out None but Apelles could do this So when thou seest the beautiful image of the blessed God lively portrayed on the soul thou mayst say This is the finger of God None but a God could do this Secondly I say Whereby God out of his meer good pleasure here is the impulsive or moving cause of Regeneration Of his own will begat he us again by the word of truth Jam. 1.18 Gods good will is the highest moving cause of this gracious work 't was not any fore-sight of Faith or good works not any thing without him that turned the scale of his thoughts for thy purity and peace but only his own good pleasure and pity Ezek. 36.21 22. therefore he is said to give a new heart verse 26 27. because he bestoweth it freely not for mans merit but from his own mercy The gift of grace is meerly of grace For we our selves saith the Apostle were sometimes disobedient foolish serving divers lusts and pleasures But after that the kindness and love of God our Saviour toward man appeared Not by works of righteousness which we have done but according to his mercy he saved us by the washing of regeneration and renewing of the holy Ghost Titus 3.3 4 5. so Ephes 2.1 to 6. verse If you would know the grand reason why some are taken by the net of the Word let down in the sea of the world when others are left why some like wax are melted before this fire of Scripture when others like clay are hardned why some have the light side of this glorious pillar towards them when others have the dark side of it why the same path of the red sea is salvation to some when it is destruction to others why the mysteries of the kingdom of heaven are revealed to babes when they are hid from the wise and prudent I must give you the same reason which Christ himself doth Even so Father because it seemeth good in thy sight Matth. 11.27 his will and mercy are the cause of all our felicity Rom 9.18 1 Pet 1.3 Deut 7.7 8. Grace chuseth thee Rom 11.5 There is a remnant according to the election of Grace so Ephes 1.5 Grace calleth 2 Tim 1.9 Who hath called us according to his purpose and grace which was given us in Christ before the world began so Gal 1.15 Grace distinguisheth and differenceth thee from others By the grace of God I am what I am 1
Cor. 15.10 Grace justifieth Rom 3.24 being justified freâ—ly by his Grace Grace glorifieth Ephes 2.8 For by grace are ye saved Grace doth lay both the foundation and the top-stone of glory that deserveth the thanks and praise of our beginning progress and perfection in holiness Every step in our ascent to mount Sion is free-stone Every link as one observeth well in the golden chain of mans salvation is richly enameled with Free-grace O how lively doth this lovely Attribute play its part from first to last in the recovery of lost man Thirdly Here is the instrumental cause I say by the Ministry of the Word Of his own will begat he us again by the word of truth Jam 1.18 Scripture is the ordinary means of conversion The Gospel of Christ is the power of God unto salvation Rom. 1.16 God indeed is a free agent working when in what manner and by what means he pleaseth though he tieth us to means he doth not tie himself to means he doth sometimes make relations the instruments of Regeneration some by being matched to Christians have been married to Christ some matches which have begun in the flesh have ended in the spirit therefore the Apostle telleth the beleiving Wife she knoweth not but she may save her Husband and the beleiving Husband he knoweth not but he may save his wife 1 Cor. 7.16 1 Pet. 3.1 God hath made pious education effectual for childrens conversion The mornings draught of wholesom instruction hath preserved many young ones from infection by and perdition with others 2 Tim 3.15 Prov. 22.6 Some Masters have also been spiritual fathers to their servants there are those that by being of the family of the faithful have come to be of the family of Faith Acts 10.1 Iosh 24. God sometimes converteth by sufferings Affliction like the Shepherds dog hath brought those home into the fold of Christ which went astray like lost sheep God hath cast some Manasses and Prodigals that were hard mettal into some hot fire and thereby melted them and fitted them to receive his own impression and image Luke 15. 2 Chron 33.11 12 13. But usually the Minstry of the word is the pen in the hand of the Holy Ghost with which he writeth the Law of God in the heart The Law of the Lord is perfect converting the soul Psal 19.7 'T is the incorruptible seed of the word which by those spirituall husbandmen is thrown into the soil of mens hearts that through the influence of the Son of righteousnesse and dews of heaven springeth up in grace and holinesse 1 Pet. 1.23 Ordinarily there is no other way to beget grace then the word of grace and it tendeth not the least to Gods dishonour nay rather the weakness and meanness of the instrument in such cases commendeth the workman because he hath manifested this to be his pleasure it pleased him through the foolishnesse of preaching to save them that believe 1 Cor. 1.21 He will give light to the world onely by the Sun though he could do otherwise therefore as some observe though light were made the first day yet the Sun was not made till the fourth day to shew that God could give light to the world without a Sun Thus God could convey the Spiritual light of holiness without the Sun of scripture but it is his will to make that his ordinary means It is the word which makes clean the filthy John 15.3 which sanctifieth the unholy John 17.17 which begetteth grace in those that were graceless Acts 2.37 For this cause it is called the ingrafted word James 1.21 for as the Cions of a good apple grafted into a crab-tree stock doth change the harsh sowr nature of it and maketh it sweet and pleasant so the word preached for of that he speaketh verse 19.20 can change the stony cannal earthly heart of man and make it soft spiritual and heavenly Some have indeed been converted by reading as Luther Augustine Junius and others confess they were but most commonly it is by hearing that mens souls come to live Rom. 10.14 There is a blessing for Readers and there may be a fish or two caught in the net that is let down in an heap but that is rare it is not the net lapped up together but haled out at length and spread all abroad that bringeth in the draught So it is the spreading out the word the dilating on the matter in hand which usually catcheth souls The Law like John Baptist prepareth the way of the Lord by opening and searching the festred wounds of the finner by making him sensible of his sores his sins and misery and heartily desire a Physician a Redeemer Rom. 7.9 then the Gospel perfecteth the cure by pouring oil into the wounds and binding them up by acquainting the soul with and interesting him in the free and rich mercy of God in Christ 2 Thes 2.14 The Law like Moses bringeth to the borders but the Gospel like Joshua leadeth into Canaan Thus the Scriptures as is wittily expressed by one are the bells which ring all in which call people into the Church of God The Poets speak of musick which hath made stones leap into walls this word of God hath turned stones into flesh of stones it hath raised children unto Abraham Fourthly Here is the formal cause of regeneration whereby God doth at first renew the whole man after his own image now because this is the cause which doth specifically difference a thing and this being opened its nature will best appear I shall speak the more to it and observe in it these four particulars 1 The act renew 2 The Subject the whole man 3 The pattern after his own image 4 The season or time at first 1 For the act I call it a renewing and so doth the Apostle Titus 3.5 Eph. 4.23 24 upon a double account partly because in Regeneration nature is not ruined but rectified The Convert is the same man but new made The Faculties of his soul are not destroyed but they are refined the same Viol but new tuned Christ gave not the blind man new eyes but a new sight to the old ones Christ did not give Lazarus a new body but enlivened his old body So God in Conversion doth not bestow a new understanding but a new light to the old nor a new Soul but a new life to the old one The powers of the man are like streams not dryed up but turned into another Channel The truth is that man by his fall from God is so exceedingly degenerated and polluted that repairing and mending will not serve he must be wholly and throughly new made as the house infected with the leptosie scraping would not do it must be pull'd down and new set up but as when an house pul'd down is new set up we use possibly the same timber and stones and materials which were in it before onely they are new squared and polished what is rotten or amiss in them is pared off and what
is wanting as severall things will be are added So when this new building of Regeneration is erected the Spirit of God makes use of the old substantial materials the soul and its faculties the body and its members which were in man before onely polisheth and purifieth them and squareth them according to the rule of Gods word it hews off what is unsound and sinfull and bestoweth that grace and holiness which is needfull He taketh not away our beings but the wickedness and crookedness of our beings and addeth a new gracious beauty which we had not before We put off the rags of the old man and put on the Robes of the new man and continue in regard of substance the same men Again I call it a renewing partly because of the great change which is wrought in a man converted New things differ much from old for the better O how wonderfully doth the new born soul differ from his former self As Saul when he received the spirit of courage became another man 1 Sam. 10.6 so doth the Christian when he receiveth the spirit of grace He is not in some sense the same man he was before he liveth a new life he walketh in a new way he steereth his course by a new compass and towards a new coast His Principle is new his Pattern is new his Practices are new his Projects are new all is new He ravels out all he had wove before and employeth himself wholly about another work What a change is there when the blind see the deaf hear the dumb speak the lame walk the dead live when the Lion is turned into a Lamb darkness into light sickness into health why all this and more is done in Regeneration when a sinner is changed into a Saint It is therefore most fitly called Conversion Acts 15.3 which is a term borrowed from travellers who being out of their way turn about and so get into it leaving the way in which they were and taking another if need be quite contrary to it The sinner is born with his heart and face towards the flesh the world and hell and with his back towards God holiness and heaven and so he goeth on a many years possibly till God convert him and turn him about then his back is towards the former his face and heart towards the latter his whole life before was a departure every action being a step from God his whole life now is a drawing nigh every duty being a nearer approach to God A man and a beast differ much in their lives but a natural and regenerate person differ far more even as so far as the Spirit of God which is the principle of a Christian life differeth from the rational spirit of a man Extraordinary and strange things are called new Acts 17.19 Jer. 31.22 Well may the Convert be called a new creature the work of Conversion making such a wonderful alteration that carnall men admire it They think it strange that ye run not with them to the same excesse of riot 1 Pet. 4.3 4. nay those that are thus renewed wonder at themselves Being called out of darknesse into his marvellous light 1 Pet. 2.9 Wofull darknesse makes it wonderfull light As a man that hath been all his dayes kept in a dark prison and never beheld the Sun when he cometh to be set at liberty and see the light he stands amazed wondering at it 2 The Subject I call it a renewing of the whole man As in our fist birth not one part or member is born but every one so in our second birth the whole man is new born By our first birth the whole man is polluted and therefore by our second birth the whole man must be purified Original sin defileth the whole man from the crown of the head to the soles of the feet and Regeneration refineth the whole man soul body and spirit Rom. 3.13 14. 1 Thes 5.23 The plaister must be as broad as the sore the leaven of grace doth season the whole lump Old things passe away and behold all things are become new 2 Cor. 5.17 The water of life within is not like a Spring which ariseth in some parcel of ground and terminateth in the same but like the Ocean which compasseth about the whole little world of man As when Gods laws were written in Tables of stone The Tables wâ—re written on both their sides on the one side on the other were they written Exod. 32.15 the Tables were written all over they were full of the Law so the spiritual Tables have the Law the image of God written on every side body and soul every part of each an inward conformity in the heart an outward correspondency in the life In the new creature though every part be not throughout sanctified yet he is sanctified in every part throughout he hath a perfection of parts though not of degrees Regeneration like the Sun goeth through the twelve signs of the Zodiack there is nothing hid from the heat thereof it moveth in and worketh upon every faculty of the soul and every member of the body but the image of God is principally in the soul or the inner man Heb. 8.10 Rom. 7.22 Eph. 4.23 As the heart being the forge of the spirits is the chief seat of a natural so also of a spiritual life The Kings Daughter is most glorious within though her cloathing without be likewise of wrought gold there Satan before had his Throne it was as a childs pocket full of trash or as a ditch full of mud and dirt but now Christ will make â—hat place the sâ—at of his Empire and fill it like a Cabinet with precious jewels and indeed the soul being spiritual is principally â—apable of his image who is a spirit I shall shew how the soul in its faculties and the body in its members are both renewed In the soul I shall cousider 1 The Understanding to which the spirit of God makes its approach in the first place inlightning it in the knowledge of sin and the Saviour Eph. 4.23 The understanding to a man is as a window to an house which before being continually shut and little light appearing 't was no wonder that the heart lay so sluttishly and was so full of the deeds of darknesse but now God reneweth the soul in knowledge after the image of him that created him Col. 3.10 before the god of this world had blinded the mind that it could see neither the emptinesse of the world nor the preciousnesse of the word nor the lothsomness of sin nor the loveliness of the Saviour nor the vanity of the creature nor the excellency of the Divine nature but whereas the man was blind before now he seeth being made spiritual he judgeth all things 1 Cor. 2.14.15 He judgeth the things of heaven to be far better then the things of earth the concernments of his soul much more worth then the concernments of his body and the affairs of eternity far more
20. Psal 109.16 Indeed as the rest so this faculty is renewed but in part and therefore as in the best room a spider may set up her cobweb in the best garments there will be dust so in the best memory there may be somewhat which is bad and filthy but the cleanly Christian no sooner spieth it but he sweeps it away This work of Regeneration doth also reach to the body the strong Castle of the soul being taken and sanctified the Town of the body commanded by it presently yieldeth The wheels and poises being right within the hand of the Dial will go right without When Satan sate on the Throne of the soul as King the members of the body which the Holy Ghost termeth in unregenerate persons weapons of unrighteousness Rom. 6.13 were his Militia and employed to defend his unjust Title to execute his ungodly designs to perform his hellish pleasure the head to plot the hands to act the feet to run the eyes to see the ears to hear the tongue to speak for him but as when an enemy is conquered and a Magazine in War is taken the General maketh use of those Arms and of that Ammunition for his service which before were employed against him so the strong man Satan being beaten out of his strong holds by Christ the stronger then he the members of the body which before were instruments of unrighteousness unto sin are now instruments of righteousness unto God Rom. 6.13 16. The eyes which before were wanton open and full of adultery 2 Pet. 2.14 are now lock'd down fast with a covenant not to look after a maid Job 31.1 They are turned away from beholding vanity Psal 101.3 The ears which before were as deaf as the adder not hearing the voice of the heavenly charmer do now hearken to what the Lord speaketh as soon as the wandring sheep is brought home to the fold of Christ he is known by his ear-mark He heareth Christs voice and followeth him John 10.27 Psa 85.8 The breath and speech which before were corrupt stinking as proceeding from rotten lungs an unsanctified heart Rom. 3. is now sweet seasoned with grace for the mans inward parts are sound Anatomists teach us that the heart tongue hang on one string The mouth of the righteous speaketh wisdom and his tongue talketh of Judgement for the Law of God is in his heart Psal 37.30 31. his lips speak the language of Canaan The sound of the mettal discovers it to be silver His very speech bewrayeth him as they said of Peter Matth. 26.73 to belong to Jesus His feet before made haste to shed blood they ran to evil were the Devils Laquey to go on his errands Rom. 3.15 Prov. 1.16 but now they are turned to Gods testimonies they run the way of Gods Commandments Psal 119.1 59 His hands before were full of oppression violence bribery and extortion Psal 26.10 Prov. 6.17 Satans servants to make up that work which he cut out but now they are lifted up to Gods Law and word thus in their places are all the faculties of the soul and members of the body Obedients to Gods Precepts and serviceable to his Will Thirdly I observe in this formal cause the pattern it is a renewing of the whole man after the image of God Mans loss and misery by his fall consisteth in these two things 1. He lost Gods image and likeness 2. Gods favour and love Now that the second Adam might recover us to Gods love he doth imprint on us Gods image for likeness is the ground of love Therefore the regnerate are said to be partakers of the divine nature 2 Pet. 1.4 and the new man which they put on in conversion is said to be after God and after the image of him that created them Ephes 4.23 Col 3.10 The Law of God is written in their hearts Heb. 8.10 which Law is nothing but a conformity or likeness to the nature and will of the Lord. The corrupt image of Satan and the old Adam is defaced therefore it 's called a putting off the old man Col. 3.9 Ephes 4.23 the pure image of God is introduced therefore it s called a putting on the new man Ephes 4.24 which after God is created in righteousness and true holiness and a being holy as God is holy 1 Pet. 1.14 15 16. And indeed all these new born children do so far as they are regenerate compleatly resemble their father Their godliness is nothing but Godlikeness a beam of the divine glory a representation of Gods own perfections As the wax bears the image of the seal and the glass of the face so doth the new creature bear the image of his Creator David was a man after Gods own heart because a man in some measure after Gods own holiness Fourthly I observe in this formal cause the season I say it is a work of Gods Spirit whereby he doth at first renew the whole man after his own image These words at first do distinguish regeneration from Sanctification Sanctification is a constant progressive renewing of the whole man whereby the new creature doth daily more and more dye unto sin and live unto God Regeneration is the birth Sanctification is the growth of this Babe of Grace In Regeneration the Sun of holiness rises in Sanctification it keepeth its course and shineth brighter and brighter unto the perfect day Prov. 4.18 The former is a specifical change from Nature to Grace Ephes 5.8 The latter is a gradual change from one degree of grace to another Psal 84.7 whereby the Christian goeth from strength to strength till he appear before God in Sion As Creation and Preservation differ so do Conversion and Sanctification Creation is the production of something out of nothing preservation is a continued Creation or Creation every moment in a new edition Conversion is a new Creation 2 Cor. 5.17 The making of new heavens and new earth wherein dwelleth righteousness Sanctification is a continued Conversion or conversion every moment in a newer and more correct edition Thus much for the formal cause of Regeneration A renewing of the whole man at first after Gods image Fifthly Here is in the definition the Final causes of Regeneration The glory of God and the salvation of his elect The first is the more the other the less principal end They are both joyned together in God's decree and intention and in the Saints calling and the execution of his decree The Lord made all things for himself Prov. 16.4 but especially the new creation that being his Masterpiece and choyce work is particularly designed for the credit of the Workman All thy works shall praise thee O God and the Saints shall bless thee Psal 145.10 All Gods works do praise him even the earth and heavens and bruits analogically after a manner by serving him in their places and stations and giving others matter and occasion of praising him Sinners may praise him formally after their maner as Trumpets make a loud noise
the commanding power of sin Tit. 2.14 He gave himself for us that he might redeem us from all iniquity and purifie unto himself a peculiar people zealous of good works so Luk. 1.71 72 74 75. Ephes 5.25 26. He gave himself for his Church observe the end that he might sanctifie and cleanse it He died for sin that all his might dye to sin Joh. 17.19 he poured out his heart blood that God might power down his holy Spirit His name is called Jesus because he saveth his people from their sins Matth. 1.21 not only from the punishment but also from the power of their sins Now canst thou think O Atheist to make Christ an half Saviour as the Papists do a Purchaser of pardon but not of purity then questionless thou canst be but half saved and have the greatest part of thy misery still upon thee to wit thy slavery to sin But surely thou canst not think that when Justification and Sanctification are joyn'd together in the purpose of the Father and the purchase of the Son it shall be in thy power to part them asunder A third gate through which all must go that get to heaven is the gate of Scripture The Promises are the gracious deeds and evidences which Saints have to shew for their right to that glorious inheritance And it is cursed presumption to expect heaven without a promise Now God hath in many places excluded thee but in no place promised heaven to thee Look from the beginning to the end of the Bible and thou shalt not finde one good word spoken to thee there are woes and curses threatnings and judgements which thou mayst challenge as thy part and portion but no promise or saving blessing All the promises of salvation are conditional Matth. 5.8 11.28 John 3.16 yea including and expressing this very condition of conversion He that believeth shall be saved saith God Mark 16.16 And repent that your sins may be blotted out Act. 3.19 the body and soul do specifically constitute the whole new man and upon those two hinges of Faith and Repentance do all the saving promises in the Bible hang therefore thy expectance of the benefit of the promise without the performance of the condition is soul-damning delusion Thou mayest like a dog snatch at the children bread the Promises but assure thy self thou hast no part nor lot in these matters This Reader is the difference betwixt presuming and believing he that believeth finding in his own soul the conditions mentioned in the promises of eternal life as namely that he walks after the spirit mortifieth the deeds of the flesh hath his conversation in Heaven Rom. 8.1 Phil. 3.19 and the like relieth on Christ for pardon and life upon the warrant and security of his word and promise Psal 119.114.145 He that presumeth looketh that God should perform his part of the promise in giving salvation but never mindeth whether he perform his part of the promise in observing the condition Let thy conscience be judge whether thou art not such a presumtuous person and therefore doest in vain look for the fruit of the promise 4. All that get to heaven must go through the gate of mediate communion heaven must be nigh thee before thou canst be in heaven it is fellowship with God in this world which fitteth for fellowship with God in the other world without holiness none shall see God Heb. 12.14 because without holiness none can see God an unholy mind cannot behold him an unholy will cannot enjoy him unholy affections cannot delight in him an unholy man in heaven could not finde it a place of happiness for 't is not a Turkish Paradice but a place of holy pleasures 't is mediate communion which doth capacitate the soul for immediate communion and as the weaker eyes may behold the Sun in its beams then in its glorious body at the highest in a clear day so a smaller degree of holiness will enable the soul to see God in the glass of his ordinances then to see him face to face Now thou canst not enjoy him in this imperfect degree much less in a state of perfection If thou sayest that thou hast fellowship with him and walkest in darkness thou liest 1 Joh. 1.6 Mark If thou sayest that thou enjoyest fellowship with God and leadest a sinfull life thou tellest a broad lye all that enjoy the Ordinances of God do not enjoy the God of Ordinances all that go to Church do not meet with Christ What cummunion hath light with darkness or Christ with Belial truly no more hath God with thy soul Princes are not so prodigal of their intimate friendship and favour as to throw them away upon their foes Thy carnal minde is emnity against God God is a profest enemy to thee and therefore can they ever walk together till they be agreed now there is a necessity of walking with him before thou canst be translated to him Gen. 5.21 or else thou hast found out a nearer way to heaven then the children of God went in Besides the Scripture speaketh plainly that he who hath a true hope of heaven doth purifie himself as God is pure 1 John 3.3 True hope begetteth and increaseth holiness now doth thy hope cause thee to purifie thy self when like an infant thou pollutest thy self liest contentedly in thy filth and never mindest cleansing Now tell me Reader whether thou doest not sadly cozen thy self in dreaming of salvation without regeneration when God predestinated all to be conformable to the image of his Son in purity whom he predestinated to be conformable to the image of his Son in glory Rom. 8.29 when Jesus Christ suffered not onely to procure pardon but for all his freedom from the power of sin when the promises of the Gospel do express regeneration as the indispensable qualification of all that shall be saved Acts 3.19 and when thou art so far from being capable of immediate communion hereafter that it is impossible that thou shouldest in thy carnal estate have mediate communion with him here canst thou continue in thy thoughts that heaven shall be open to thee when the hand of Almighty God hath shut it against thee and blocked up every way which leads to it to keep the out and how deceitfull and desperately wicked is thy heart to promise thee if thou wilt serve sin and the world the beautifull Rachel of heaven when after all thy slavery to thy lusts thou shalt be put off with the blear-eyed Leah of Hell Believe not O Reader The wicked one if thou lovest the life of thy soul he may by his lying spirit in thy heart as sometimes in the mouth of Ahabs false prophets perswade thee to go on in thy sinfull courses and promise thee as he did Ahab that thou shalt prosper but if thou doest not perish if thou followest such counsel the Lord hath not spoken in his Word I tell thee man God hath no birthrights for such prophane Esaus nor inheritances for such
a gracious man yet be without grace as the Ape imitateth the actions of reasonable men yet is without reason or as a Tragedian acteth the part of a passionate man but is all the while without passion Some men have wrought hard at duties when a naturally inlightened Conscience not God hath been the Master to set them on work they would but cannot neglect duties at so cheap a rate as others as he said Sollicitor nullos esse putare deos I could find in my heart to think there were no God but could not As they say of the Wolf in the body if you feed not it it will feed on you so if Conscience when its mouth is opened should not be fed with duty it would feed on them and therefore to keep it from gnawing them they stop its mouth with performances though they never do them from a renewed Principle Do not therefore Reader hang the weight of thy soul upon such weak wyers since men do so ordinarily take the way of duties no otherwise then Amaziah did the way of the garden-house 2 Kings 9.27 meerly for necessity to escape an enemy that followed him wherein he was at length pursued and slain Remigius a Judge of Lorraighn telleth us how the Devil gave some in those parts mony which at first appeared to be good coin but being laid up and when need was taken out to be spent it proved to be nothing but dry leaves Reader I wish it may not be so but it is possible for thee to drive a great Trade in duties while thou livest to hoord up a a great heap of those riches and they may seem to be currant coin good silver to have the image and stamp of the King of heaven upon it but when thou comest to die that thou art to spend it for then thy works will follow thee and God will give thee according to thy works it may then prove but dry leaves of no worth or profit to thee Though these unsound bottoms hold out well enough in a fair sea when they are put to no stresse yet stormy weather will quickly discover their rottennesse Not a few take up duties onely because they were educated in such a Religious manner not from any rellish or savour which they find in them and truly 't will be an easie matter to part him and his work who never took any pleasure in it The stone for a time may against its nature be mounted upward but when the force of that imprest vertue which moved it is spent 't will fall downward according to its nature Partridges that are hatched under an hen may walk with her and answer her call for a time but anon they flie away and shew what they are Reader I write not these things to dishearten thee from duties which are the body of Religion but to quicken thee to mind Regeneration which is the soul of it Sixthly The commendation of others though they be real Saints will not prove thee to be in a state of salvation The holiest mans confidence of thee is a pittiful evidence that thou shalt be happy How many have there been in the City who made a great noise were cried up by their knowing judicious neighbors to be very rich and to be worth thousands when on a sudden we have heard of their breaking and being worse as we say then naught so many even by them which are godly and discerning may be counted rich in grace rich towards God and on a sudden either by some temptation or at their dissolutions they break and God takes away from them what they seemed to have How was good David mistaken in Achitophel Surely he thought him Gods Favourite otherwise he would never have made him his familiar and bosom friend It was thou O man mine equal my friend and my acquaintance we took sweet counsel together and walked to the house of God in company Psal 55.12 13 14. How was Simon Peter deceived in Simon Magus who believed wondered at the miracles which were wrought and was baptised but notwithstanding that was in the gall of bitterness and bond of iniquity Acts 8.13 20. How was holy Paul mistaken in Demas Luke the beloved Physitian and Demas greet you Coloss 4.14 there he ranks him with one that was eminently religious but Philemon vers 24. he puts him before Luke and calls him his fellow-laborer yet 2 Tim. 4.10 which Epistle was the last of all Pauls Epistles Demas hath forsaken me having embraced this present world he turned as some write Idol-priest he followed the chase till he met with the honey and Jonathan-like then left the pursuit How much were all the holy Apostles deceived in Judas If Peter as their mouth speaks of their faith Judas is included Joh. 6.69 We believe and are sure that thou art Christ the Son of the living God When he speaks of their good works Judas is not excepted Behold we have forsaken all and followed thee Matth. 19.27 Further when a Traytor is mentioned Judas is not suspected his carriage was so fair that they were more jealous of their own hearts then of him Mat. 26.22 and yet he was a Traytor a Devil Infallibility was never annexed to the godly mans choice Dedalus made an image that moved it self by art which made the spectators believe that it had a living principle the Hypocrite may walk so exactly perform duties so devoutly that Saints may judge such motions to flow from a principle of spiritual life Because men have the exact resemblance of Christians therefore godly men who are charitable abroad and censorious at home judge them to be true Christians Now in regard there may be a resemblance of a Christian in external actions where there is not the essence of Christianity in internal sanctified affections therefore they though they sin not yet sometimes they err in their judgements 1 Sam. 16.6 7. When Samuel came to Jesse being sent to annoint a King and seeth Eliab a proper handsom person he presently crieth out Surely the Lords annointed is before him but mark what God saith Look not on his countenance nor the height of his stature for I have rejected him for God seeth not as man seeth for man looketh on the outward appearance but God looketh on the heart So when godly men see their neighbors lovely in their lives civil in their practices high in their profession strict in performances they according to their duty say inwardly at least Surely the Lords annointed is before him these are the blessed of the Lord annointed to the Kingdom of heaven but God may often answer them Look not on their profession or their performances for I see their hearts that they serve not me but themselves of me We read of Zeuxes the Painter that he drew grapes so to the life that he deceived the birds who came flying to them and pecking at them as if they had been real grapes Certainly a graceless man may have such a compleat
that have passed the Pikes shot the Gulf gone through the pangs of the new birth and travelled a considerable part of their way heavenward how hard wil it be for them who are not yet set out that have not taken one step in the way to life The sleepy world indeed dream that men may go to heaven without so much adoe they look upon civility to be sanctity wordly sighs to be godly sorrow not doubting their estates to be faith in Christ and if they can but spare a little time and now then from the world the flesh to mumble over a few night Petitions they hope with the help of these bladders to swim through the Ocean of Divine fury to heaven Or if they come short of these fig-leaves wherewith many of Adams children endeavour though in vain to cover their nakedness yet if they have the warning-piece of sickness before the murdering piece of death be shot off that they can but cry Lord have mercy upon us or tell their neighbours that they are sorry for their sins or get a Minister to pray with them then all must be well and they must as sure go when they die to God and Christ as they lived to the flesh and the Devil But stay friends a little there are more words then one to this spiritual bargain between God and your souls there is a work of Regeneration to be done or else ye are undone eternally ye must be throughly and universally new made or else ye are mar'd for ever Christ would never have commanded men to strive as to an agony to enter in at the straight gate Matth. 7.13 to work out their salvation with fear and trembling Phil. 2.12 To labour for the food which endureth to everlasting life John 6.27 If it had been such an easie thing to have reached heaven Things of such excellency are not obtained with such facility Pebbles lie common but pearls are hardly come by They must trravel far dig deep work hard that will get the golden mines The way to hell lyeth down hill a weak body may run down hill but 't is hard to go up hill to Mount Sion Friend I write not these things to discourage alas I need not there is not a straw in the way to heaven but thou if unconverted stumblest at it when thou canst leap over blocks in the way to hell but to awaken thee out of thy carnal security and to quicken thee to seriousness and industry about that which is of such unspeakable concernment to thy soul Our first births are many times accompanied with hard labours usher'd in by sharp throws and bitter pangs Our second births are alwayes harder O the terrors and horrors the convictions and convulsions the tremblings of soul and lancings of Conscience the thundrings from the Law the lightnings from hell-fire with which often this new creature is born It is hard labour indeed which bringeth this babe of grace into the world I have read of Melancthon that when he was first converted he thought it almost impossible for any man to withstand the evidence and authority of the word of God whereupon he told one of his friends that when he came to preach he would make work among souls but after some years spent in that calling being demanded what successe of his labours he answered that Old Adam was too strong for young Melancthon Alas friend possibly thou mayst think that thou wilt turn to God hereafter and thereby prevent thy burning in hell for ever Believe it 't is not so easie to turn from sin to God as thou imaginest Conversion is another manner of thing and more hard then most men think thou couldst sooner create a world then make thy self a new creature The resurrection of thy body if it were dead in the grave were an easier work then the resurrection of thy soul to newness of life As the birth of the natural so the birth of the spiritual man requireth infinite strength It is God not the midwife that taketh the child out of the mothers womb Psal 22.9 The hand of God alone can open that door and let the lettle infant into the world Gen. 29.31 otherwise the womb would be its tomb So the birth of the new man is wholly from God and the power wherewith he effects it is both miraculous and Almighty Reader if thou dost take a brief view what things are wrought when any one is new made and how little he doth contribute to them nay how opposite he is against them thou mayst perceive that neither Regeneration nor salvation are easie Thy mind must be enlightened to see both sin and the Saviour now is it easie to open the eye of the blind who can do it but he whom Augustine calleth totus oculus all eye When Jesus gave sight to one that was born blind the Jews themselves could not but acknowledge him a worker of miracles John 9.6.16 What then will the scattering the mists of ignorance and dispersing the clouds of darkness which gather and thicken about our understandings by nature speak the sun of righteousness to be Eph. 5.8 Thy heart also must be throughly humbled stone must be turned into flesh And O 't is not easie to melt such hard mettal when thy heart naturally is like clay hardened both by the Sun-shine of mercies and fire of judgement that no change of weather can make that stone to weep Ezek 36.26 Besides the strong holds of sin must be cast down thy old friends must be deserted and prosecuted with implacable hatred as irreconcileable enemies those beloved lusts which are at thy right hand and have such a large room in thy heart must be cut off and parted from thee Thy dilectum delictum the Isaac of thy corruption which is the child of thy warmest affection in which thou hast taken such great delight and from which thou hast promised thy self such large returns of profit pleasure or preferment must be laid on the altar and have the sacrificing knife of mortification thrust into the heart of it and its blood poured out before the Lord. Man is not this an hard saying as they spake in another case who can hear it an hard Lesson who can learn it thy lust will not like a lamb go silently to the slaughter but it will roar and rage fight stoutly for its life with many many carnal arguments and even rend thy heart with its hideous outcryes Who can tell the struggling of this beast before 't will be brought to the block Dives and his dishes Balaam and his wages Achan and his wedges Herod and his Herodias the young man and his great means are not easily separated O how difficult is it to wean the child of disobedience from those breasts which he hath sucked so often and with so much complacency and to divorce them which like man and wife have been ravished with each others love in works of Art its hard to build easie to destroy in
is with more difficulty kept from sinking then one which hath but just enough to ballast it so it s more hard to keep him from sinking into hell that hath a great estate then him that hath according to Agurs wish neither poverty nor riches And the reason is because though spirituall comforts run low this rich man is contented in regard that his temporal comforts run full-tap He makes up the absence of Christ with the presence of creatures when it may be poverty might cause him as the prodigal to think of returning to his fathers house where is spiritual plenty Quintus Aurelius in the dayes of Sylla had a fair Grange which lay convenient for some great person which caused him to be put in among them that were to be put to death but as soon as he saw his name among those that were in the list he cried out my Land at Alba hath kild me Some mens Lands have cost them their lives and been the knife to cut the throat of their bodies but many a mans gold hath lost him his God and been the knife to cut the throat of his soul Rich men like pamperd horses are the more unruly leaping over the hedges of divine precepts the hardlier kept within their bounds because full fed the young mans silver lost him his precious soul He went away from Christ sorrowful because he had great possessions Had the man been poor for a few days he might have been rich for ever but alas his wealth here through the wickedness of his heart caused his everlasting want whereupon Christ tels us How hardly shall a rich man enter into the Kingdome of Heaven I say unto you that it is easier for a Camel to go through the eye of an Needle then for a rich man to enter into the Kingdome of heaven Mat. 19.23 24. Heaven is a stately Palace with a narrow portall through which this Camel with his thick bunch of clay can hardly get It is observed amongst Anglers that Pickerils are not easily nor often caught A man may catch an hundred Minums before he take one Pickeril and the reason is he preyeth at pleasure on the lesser fish and therefore seldom hath any stomack to bite at the bait so it faireth with rich men their stomacks are so cloyed with the things of this world that they have no appetite to the dainties of the word when the poor are Gospellized They contentedly take that for their portion which God intended only for their pension and make their wealth their throne to sit down upon with delight which God designed for their footstool and the faithfull laid at the Apostles feet In some fenny places in England it s storied where they are much troubled with gnats the people hang up dung to which when they flye they are caught with a net provided there for that purpose The dung of profit is the Devils bait with which he catcheth many persons Well may it be called the Mammon of unrighteousness for it both prompteth them to many sins as well as pierceth them through with many sorrows Gregory saith that sitting in the sea of Rome when it flourished he trembled every time he thought on that text Son remember that thou hadst thy good things in thy life time lest his outward plenty should be all his portion If Reader thou art wealthy be watchfull over thy heart lest like Birdlime it hinder the wings of thy soul from mounting up to heaven What the Egyptians sayd of the Israelites They are intangled in the land the wilderness hath shut them in Exod. 4.13 may fitly be applied to many men that are wealthy They are intangled in the world this wilderness hath shut them in like Lot's wife they set out for the Zoar of heaven but their hearts hanker after the Sodom of earth and so they look back perish in the way Ah 't is rare indeed to be very rich and truly religious Such men are often taken out of the world before the world be taken out of them Be careful O Friend if the Lord hath dealt bountifully with thee in earthly enjoyments that they prove not heavenly impediments that his mindfulness of thy body do not make thee forgetful of thy soul lest thy wealth like Achans wedge of gold cleave thy soul in sunder Fourthly The old sinner is not easily converted but like an old maid when married hath harder labour then ordinary The longer the ground of mans heart lieth fallow bringing forth nothing but weeds unploughed up by repentance the harder it groweth and with the more difficulty is broken up 'T was hard to cast out the Devil who had for a long time possessed the man the Apostles could not do it and when Christ himself did it 't was not without much renting and raging Mark 9.21 26. Common experience telleth us that a ship the longer it leaketh the harder it is to be emptied An house the longer it goeth to ruine the worse to repair a nail the farther it is driven in the harder to get out Christ raised two to life in the Gospel besides others one was a maid newly dead Luk. 8.54 to whom Christ spake but little Maid I say unto thee arise and the work was quickly done the other was one who had been dead so long till he stunk now mark what work there was to enliven him Joh. 11.41 Christ weepeth groaneth in spirit prayeth to his Father then turneth to Lazarus and cryeth with a loud voyce Lazarus come forth I only allude to it When the sinner hath been but few years dead in sin a low voyce of Christ can raise him up but when a man hath been not four days but forty or fifty years rotting in the grave of corruption that he stinks in the nostrils of others it must be a loud voice indeed which must quicken him How hard is it to turn the old swine the old drunkard to temperance and the old goat the old adulterer to chastity though they be so old that their bodies cannot act them yet their hellish hearts affect them when they have nothing left but the dog-dayes of their age their bodies full of sores yet their souls are fuller of sins The longer the tree standeth in the ground the more it roots and the faster it setleth it self so that though a child might sometime have removed it yet now all the men in the Parish cannot pluck it up Jer. 13.23 Can the Ethiopian change his skin or the Leopard his spots then may ye also do good that are accustomed to do evil Custom in sin takes away all conscience of sin and hardeneth the heart more against God and godliness As a youth when he first cometh to be Apprentice to some handicraft trade his hand is very tender and no sooner is it set to work but it blisters and puts him to pain but he continuing long at the trade his hand hardens and he can follow his work not onely without pain but with
much pleasure so when a man is a young sinner conscience is tender like a a queasie stomach troubled much with the least thing that offends it but continuance in sin makes conscience seared and brawny that afterwards the sinner like the Ostrich can digest iron and like the Turkish slaves feed on Opium and his stomach not at all recoil or complain It is reported of the Cretians that when they cursed their enemies they did not wish fire in their houses nor a dagger at their hearts but that which would bring greater wo ut mala consuetudine delectentur that they might delight in an evil custom for custom is not another nurture but another nature and that which is natural is not easily reduced Some say there is no transplanting trees after seven years rooting I am sure it is hard to transplant them out of a state of nature into a state of grace who have been seventy years rooting in the earth old servants will not easily leave their masters they will many times have their ears boared and be everlasting slaves rather then be made free T is with old sinners saith one as with them who have lived long under a Government Gurnals Armour they like to be as they are though but ill rather then to think of a change or like those who in a journey have gone out of their way all day such will rather take a new path over hedge and ditch then think of going so far back to be set right Old sinner for the sake of thy soul proceed no further knowest thou not that every step thou takest in thine unconverted state maketh thy condemnation more deep thy condition more dangerous and thy conversion more difficult Is it not high time for thee to begin to work out thy salvation when the sun of thy life is setting Ah 't is one of the saddest spectacles in the world to behold a man full of silver hoary hairs that is void of a golden sanctified heart surely of all men alive thou hast cause to abound in sorrow who doest to this day abide in thy sins THe second Use which I shall make of this doctrine shall be by way of Examination If without the second birth thou canst not escape the second death nor obtain eternal life Then Reader Try whether thou art new born or no commune with thy heart and see whether this work be done that thou mayst know how thou shalt fare in the other world Wherefore brethren give diligence to make your calling and election sure 2 Pet. 1.10 The first fountain of our felicity is election and the manifestation of this is our calling by vocation God bringeth to pass in time what he appointed from eternity As a word is an outward thought and a thought an inward word so vocation is outward election or election put into act and made visible and election is inward vocation or Gods intention to convert and save Election is eternal calling Calling is a temporal election so that by ensuring thy calling thou ensurest thy election make thy calling sure be not satisfied to let thy salvation hang in suspence to follow Christ as the people followed Saul trembling not knowing how it shall fare with thee but strive for full assurance that an abundant entrance may be ministred unto you into the kingdom of our Lord and Saviour Jesus Christ 2 Pet. 1.11 I have read of an old wicked Usurer who had nothing in his mouth but It is good to be sure if his servant went to receive money he would follow after him and being asked the reason would answer It is good to be sure If he had told his money once he would do it a second yea a third time saying It is good to be sure If he locked his door himself he would arise out of his bed to feel it locked still pleading for his reason It is good to be sure It came to pass that this man fell desperately sick his servant calleth to him desirous to make him sensible of his sins Master have you been at prayers yea John saith he Sir said the servant go to prayers again you know 'T is good to be sure That 's more then needs saith the Usurer I am sure enough of that Truly this mans heart is the resemblance of most men they are all for security in bargains sales and purchases if they buy an inheritance on earth how sure will they make it the tenure shall be as strong as the brawn of the Law or the brains of Lawyers can devise what Bonds Deeds Fines Recoveries Leases Evidences and if any scruple collateral security are there to ensure it but alas who ensures the inheritance above how few are there that take any pains to secure their right to those everliving pleasures Like Jacob though in another sense men put their right hand of care caution and diligence upon the younger Son the body and their left hand on the elder the soul How few make their calling and election sure But Reader if thou wouldest make sure thy predestination and fore-appointment to glory it must be done by making sure thy Regeneration and translation into a state of grace Thou canst not ascend into heaven and see thy name written in the Lambs book of life but thou mayst descend into thine own heart and see it by the seeds and principles of a spiritual life as if any man would know whether the sun shineth or no he need but look on the ground and see the reflection of its beams and not on the body of the Sun which will but the more dazzle his eyes the pattern is known by the picture the cause by the effect the original by the copy Election by regeneration the soul that is conformed to Gods Law may know that he is inrolled in Gods list If I have chosen God I may safely conclude that God hath chosen me The Historian reporteth how a Senator relating to his son the great honors decreed to a number of Souldiers Tacitus whose names were written in a book the Son was importunate to see the book the Father shewed him the out-side it seemed so glorious that the son desired him to open it by no means saith the Father it is sealed by the Council then saith the son Tell me if my name be there the Father saith The names are secret to the Senate the Son studying how he might get some satisfaction desired his Father to declare the merits of those inscribed Soldiers which the Father doing and the Son consulting with his own heart found himself to be none of them Reader though the Book of life which includeth the names of those whose heads are destined to glorious Diadems be secret yet the deserts of those inscribed there are open they are as a chosen generation a peculiar people so also an holy nation a royal Priesthood a called company a sanctified society a regenerated remnant they are culled out of the world called by the word
him he esteemeth the word of Gods mouth more then his appointed food Job 23.12 Mark not then varieties or superfluous fare but then daily necessary food the former might be spared but this for the preservation of life is necessarily required but Gods word was before this Spiritual dainties are most delightful to them that have special grace And truly 't is no wonder that the childe doth so exceedingly long for and love that which is as it were his father I will never forget thy precepts for by them thou hast quickened me Psal 119.93 Some men say they shall never forget such a friend the longest day that they have to live What 's the reason they will tell us they were nigh death either by fire or water or some disease and under God such men saved their lives so saith David I le never forget Gods Law the longest day I shall live why what 's the matter Alas I was nigh death next door to eternal damnation there was but a thin paper-wall of life between me and everlasting wo and under God the Word helped me it saved my soul I will never forget thy precepts for with them thou hast quickened me If Alexander could say That he was more bound to his Tutor Aristotle then to his Father Philip because he had only his being from the latter when he had his well-being from the former and therefore he prized him so much How much therefore doth the true Christian value that word which is instrumental to his being in Christ here and his everlasting wel-being with Christ hereafter So for prayer the regenerate person cannot live without it and fellowship with God in it He is like a full vessel his heart filled with complaints against sin with longings after Christ and his likeness if you will not give it vent 't will burst Prayer is his breathing Godward without breathing the body could not live it would be inflamed and burnt up with the heat of its own entrails no more could the soul unless the Saint should breath often towards heaven crying Abba Father Spiritual breath was the first sign of Pauls spiritual birth Behold he prayeth Act. 9.11 So I might speak of other Ordinances of God for there is a constant trade driven between the Convert and heaven which is carried on by several commodities and if this commerce were broken off he could not subsist He findeth the means of grace as needful to keep grace and soul together as meat to keep life and soul together his heart though fired with this spiritual life is like green wood which will burn no longer then it s blown with the bellows of Ordinances Reader How dost thou find thine appetite unto the bread and water of life dost thou hunger after the Word Prayer Sacraments Commonion of Saints and the Lords day canst thou feed on them with delight dost thou rise from Table with an appetite longing to sit down again Canst thou lay as the Psalmist I watch and am as the Sparrow upon the house top Psal 102.7 Observe the Sparrow upon the top of an house looketh on this side and that side of the house it looketh this way and that way and round about if he can spy any corn and food and when it can see any it flieth to that place and pecks it up so dost thou watch for and resort to the Ordinances of God which are the food of thy soul what sayst thou It may be thou art for high language oratorical expressions such Sermons only are pleasing to thee the dish must be set out with many flowers on which thou lookest more then at the meat Believe it as there is no greater sign of a foul stomack then to loath solid meat and to pick sallats or feed on ashes so there is hardlier a greater sign of an unsanctified heart then to loath the solid food of the word and to pick the flowers of mans wisdom in a Sermon or to feed on the world Or possibly thou art one of the new-fangled opinionists of our unhappy times that are above Ordinances I must tell thee That to live above Ordinances is to live below a Saint He that doth not reckon the means of Grace his greatest priviledge on this side the place of Glory may well question whether ever he enjoyed God in them methinks the begger should know that door again at which he had a large alms a full bait James 1.18 19. 1 Pet. 2.2 3 4. A childe indeed may forbear his meat either in a fit of sullenness or under some disease but if he be a childe his dogged fit will be over he will get the mastery of his distemper and fall to his food again Secondly The new-born creature groweth in Grace the picture of a childe groweth not but a living childe doth After generation followeth augmentation the same word which breeds the new man feeds him and enables him to grow thereby 1 Pet. 2.2 As the same blood of which the babe is bred in the womb strikes up into the mothers breasts and by a further concoction becometh milk and so nourisheth it The good seed of the word falling into the foil of an honest heart makes it abundant in the work of the Lord Common Grace sometimes like Joshua's Sun standeth still but usually like the dial of Ahaz it goeth ten degrees backward when special grace like the morning light shineth brighter and brighter to perfect day Prov. 4.18 First the blade next the ear then the full corn first they who are begotten of God become little children next young men then old men and fathers 1 Joh. 2.1 12 13 14. The unfound Christian is like the Manna for the Israelites daily use which did corrupt and putrifie or like a pond of water which quickly drieth up when true Christianity as the Manna in the Ark doth keep sweet and as the waters of the Sanctuary is up first to the ankles then to the knees then to the loyns and at last became a River so deep that none could pass over it Ezek. 47.3 4 5. If Grace be true there is a natural tendency in it to growth as there is in seed cast into the earth There is vertually in a little plant the bigness and height of a great tree towards which it is putting forth it self with more and more strength every day So there is in that seed of Grace planted in the soul at conversion vertually that perfection of grace which Christ hath appointed that man unto towards which its putting it self forth every day He that hath clean hands groweth stronger and stronger Job 17.9 They go from strength to strength till they appear before God in Sion Psal 84. This River of living waters runneth along notwithstanding many turnings and windings till it empty it self into the Ocean and grace commence glory The grain of mustard-seed groweth into a tree and the smoaking flax is blown into a flame The least spark of true holiness cannot be put out
by all the blasts of men and devils but will like the coal-fire wax the hotter for the waters of opposition and never leave aspiring till it be joyned and become a pure and perfect flame He was never good man that mends not Hal medit and vows p. 7. medit 44. saith that holy Bishop for if he were good he must needs desire to be better Grace is so sweet that whoever tastes of it must needs long after more and if he desire it he will endeavour it and if he do but endeavour God will crown with success Gods family admitteth of no dwarfs which are unthriving and stand at a stay but men of measures Whatever become of my body or my estate I will ever labour to finde somewhat added to the stature of my soul The children of God are therfore compared to trees which are thriving and profitable as to the fruitful vine the fat olive the seasonable sapling planted by the Rivers of waters for he abideth in Christ and whosoever abideth in him bringeth forth fruit John 15.4 The branch which seemeth to belong to the vine by hanging on it yet is dead will wither and perish but that which is alive in the vine will partake of its sap and thereby thrive and flourish Indeed all Christs Scholars are not of the same form All gracious men are not of the same growth as in the natural body some parts have more beauty and strength then others so in the mystical body of Christ one member may be more eminent in spiritual strength then another God doth not give Grace as he did Manna by the homer one star differeth from another in glory but though all the children of God are not of the same strength and stature yet they are all thriving children and as some write of the Crocodile they grow while thy live As all pieces of land are not alike fruitful some bring forth thirty some sixty some an hundred fold but all the good grounds are fruitful and return the seed with advantage every one bringeth forth some fruit It is confest also that a true Christian doth not grow at all times alike A violent winde may force those waves for some time backward whose natural motion is forward Natures retraction of it self from a visible fear upon a sensible danger may make the pulse of a Christian that beats truly and strongly in the main point the state of the soul to intermit and faulter at such a time Peter was far from thriving when he denied his Master first with bare words and then with curses and oathes And so was David from growing when he first commits adultery in person and afterwards murder by a proxie But mark as children under a fit of sickness grow not at present but after their recovery shoot up the more for it and as trees stand at a stay in winter but in spring shoot forth to purpose so the childe of God though he may have his declensions yet afterwards he recovers himself and his distemper being removed he falls to his food and gets strength apace nay the greater his fall was the greater his rise the lower the ebb and decrease the higher the tide and increase as we see in Peter who though he denied Christ out of cowardize Euseb came afterwards to own him with courage and that to the loss not onely of his liberty but his very life And David who could once imbrue his hands in another mans blood would not afterwards drink of that water the fetching of which had but endangered blood Reader How doest thou find thine heart to thrive in holiness doest thou like a dead stake in an hedge grow but it is every day more rotten or doest thou like a living tree grow bigger and better extending in the branches and increasing in fruit from the sap which thou derivest from Christ thy root Art thou like those Seducers which Paul speaks of that grow worse and worse like a carkass more unsavory every hour then other or dost thou like the moon alwayes increase in the light of purity till thou come to the Full of Glory Art thou ever pressing forward towards the price of the high calling of God in Christ Or doest thou slide backward with a perpetual backsliding Art thou one of them that boast they are still the same as loose as deboist as ever no changling unless it be from one lewd company or loose course to another like the Camelion thou canst turn into any colour but white into any thing but what thou shouldst be truly thou art far from the Kingdom of Heaven Friend Let conscience speak Was the time with thee when thou couldst not suffer half a day to pass without duties nor a duty without communion with God in it thou didst constantly either meet God or miss God in an ordinance thou couldst not hear an oath but thou wast sensible of Gods dishonor nor speak an idle word but thou wast fearful of divine displeasure God and thy soul like two intimate friends did walk together And is it now otherwise canst thou neglect prayer and the word and never be troubled at their want or if thou minde any performance art thou indifferent whether or no God affords his presence Canst thou hear others lash out with their lips and give thy self liberty for vain and frothy language yet none of these things move thee O Friend consider whence thou art faln and repent and do thy first works for surely 't is sad to see the dayes grow shorter and shorter to see a body wasting away every day more and more of a consumption And how sad is it to see a soul declining in regard of spiritual strength If thou fall forward thou mayst help thy self but if thou fall backward as old Eli did thou mayst undo thy self thy fall may prove thy downfall Remember that a vessel of true gold will wear brighter and brighter to the last when a cup which is onely gilt will grow paler and paler till all the gilt be of Take heed thou be not like an apple fair in the outside and rotten at coar for then thou wilt corrupt farther and farther till thy outside be like thine inside and God discover thee to be unsound all over Thirdly the new-born creature endeavoreth to make others gracious All living creatures have a tendency and inclination to beget others and propagate their own kinde Adam when polluted begets a son after his image truly so doth the Christian in his desires and endeavours as soon as he is purified No sanctified soul did never make a Monopoly of his Saviour like the wall he receiveth warmth from the Sun of Righteousness and reflecteth it on them that are near him An Hypocrite who hath no true grace himself careth not how little others have He is like a dead coal whatever be nigh him is never warmed or quickned by him but the sincere soul wisheth that all were altogether as he is and as a live coal
how soon it may overcast nay it may be followed with flakes of fire before night Sure I am that God hath given thee no lease of thy life and that others have died of the same age and likeliness tolive and why thou shouldst promise thy self a priviledge beyond others that thou shalt live longer I know no reason unless this That the Devil and thine own heart have conspired together to murther thy soul by getting thee to future and put off thy conversion till thou comest to Hell-fire and then thy ruine will be past remedy Suppose the same voice should come to thee which did to Hezekiah Set thine house in order for thou shalt die and not live meaning speedily What woulst thou do thy house is not in order thy soul Man is all out of order and therefore death would come to thee as Abijah to Jeroboams wife with heavy tidings with such news as Samuel brought to Eli which will make thy ears to tingle and thine heart to tremble Ah how will he do to die that never knew how to live The black Usher of death will go before and the flaming fire of Hell will follow after Didst thou but believe the word of God as much as the Devils do thou couldst never depart this life in thy wits who hast not led thy life according to Gods will One would think the noise of this murthering piece of this great Cannon Death though it should not be very near thee might awaken and affrighten thee when that deluge of wrath cometh that the fountain of fury from below is broken up and the flakes of fire from above are rained down thou hast no Ark no Promise no Christ to shelter thy self in For Regeneration is the plank cast out by God himself to save the sinking sinner by bringing him to the Lord Jesus and thou wantest it Dost thou not see that thy Sentence of death if thou continuest so is already passed in the High-Court of Heaven entred and engrost in the Book of Scripture and God knoweth how soon the word of command may be given to some disease for thy execution What comfort therefore canst thou take in all the creatures while thou wantest this new creation It is reported of Xerxes Plutarch in vit Themist the the greatest of the Persian Monarchs that when the Grecians had taken from him Sardis a famous City in Asia the less he commanded one every day at dinner to cry before him with a loud voice Sardis is lost Sardis is lost It seems to me that thou hast far more cause to have a Friend without or Conscience within to be thy Monitor every day and every meal to sound in thine ears Friend Thy Soul is lost Thy Soul is lost Certainly such a voice might mar thy greatest mirth sauce every dish with sorrow make thy most delicate meat a medicine and thy sweetest drink distastful to thee O didst thou but know what it is to lose thy soul thy God thy Christ thine Heaven and all for ever thou wouldst in the night be scared with dreams and visions and in the day be frighted with fears and terrors When Vriah was bid by David to go down to his house and refresh himself he answered The Ark and Israel and Judah abide in Tents and my Lord Joab and the servants of my Lord are encamped in the open fields shall I then go into mine house to eat and drink and lie with my wife As thou livest and as thy soul liveth I will not do this thing 2 Sam. 11.11 Mark The good man could take no pleasure in relations or possessions because the natural lives of others were in danger nay he forswears the use of those comforts for that very cause How then canst thou solace thy self with lying vanities when thine Eternal life is not in jeopardy but lost really and thou canst not assure thy self one day for its recovery Shouldst thou see a condemned prisoner which knoweth not whether he shall be hanged on the morrow or the day after hawking or hunting sprucing himself or sporting with his jovial companions what thoughts wouldst thou have of such a man wouldst thou not think surely this man is mad or desperate were he not beside himself he would minde somewhat else since he is so near his end But Friend turn thine eyes inward and see whether there is not infinitely more reason why thou shouldst wonder at thine own folly and madness who art by the word of the dreadful God condemned not to be hanged but to be damned not to the gallows but to the unquenchable fire and canst not tell whether this night or to morrow morning justice shall be done upon thee and yet thou art buying and selling eating and drinking pampering the perishing body never minding or thinking what shall become of thy poor precious soul to eternity The wise mans advice is that if thou art indebted to men and liable to their arrest and imprisonment thou shouldst not give sleep to thine eyes nor slumber to thine eye-lids before thou hast made thy peace Prov. 6.1 2 3 4. What speed shouldst thou then use when thou art infinitely indebted to the Almighty God at his mercy every moment liable continually to be arrested by that surly Serjeant Death and by him to be hurried into the dark prison of Hell to agree with thine Adversary while thou art in the way and to get the black lines of thy sins crost with the red lines of Christs blood and so for ever blotted out of the Book of Gods remembrance As the Chamberlain of one of the Persian Princes used to say to him every morning Arise my Lord and have regard to the weighty affairs for which the great God would have you to provide So say I to thee Awake O man out of thy carnal security and have regard to the great end for which thou wast born and the great errand for which the great God hath sent thee into the world Reader that thou mightest avoid the endless wo of the damned and attain the matchless weale of the saved I shall do two things in the prosecution of this exhortation I shall both give thee some helps towards regeneration and remove some hindrances First I shall offer thee three helps unto holiness and thereby unto Heaven Secondly I shall answer three objections which probably may arise in thine heart If thou hast any real desire after thine eternal welfare ponder them seriously and practice them faithfully And the good Lord make them successful O how happy might it be for thee if the getting of a regenerated nature were the main taske of thy whole time Believe it thou wilt have no cause to repent of it For the helps towards Regeneration and thereby towards Salvation The first help to Regeneration Serious Consideration 1. THe first help which I shall offer thee is serious consideration He that goeth in a wrong path and never thinketh of it will not return back or turn about though
the farther he goeth the greater is his deviation and danger A serious consideration of the evil and end of thy way were a cheap prevention of eternal and endless wo. Observe I say Consideration Consideration is an Act of the practical understanding whereby it reflecteth upon its actions and intentions and comparing them with the rule of the word proceedeth to lay its command upon the will and affections to put what is good in execution This was hinted by chewing the cud under the law and the beasts which did not were unclean and indeed it is the excellency of a man above a beast that he may in a rational discursive manner meditate on things which concern his salvation and by chewing the cud get some nourishment to his soul It is a pondering the sayings of Christ Luke 2.19 It is to the soul what digestion is to the body t is not the quantity of meat but a good digestion which nourisheth and strengthneth the body For they which eat much and cannot digest it instead of repairing they ruine nature so 't is not the great knowledge of the truths of God but the serious consideration and practicall application of them which nourisheth and strengthneth the soul Without this mens knowledge be it never so much is but like rain in the middle region or fire in the flint unprofitable and to no purpose at all I say serious consideration The thoughts must dwell upon Divine weighty truths Surely men if they should do thus would undo all they have done but when the thoughts of God and Christ sin and holiness death and judgment heaven and hell pass speedily through them as travellers through a Country making no stay no wonder if they cannot give any account of the worth and vertue of them It is not the hasty showre but soft snow which soaks deep whilst the former goeth off as fast as it comes on the latter gently creeps into every chink of the ground It is with the truths of God as with a salve if a man have never so precious a salve which will help a dangerous mortal wound in twelve houres and he do nothing but lay the plaister which is spread with this salve on the wound and take it off presently t will never heal the wound if ever it eat out the corruption and cure the sore it must lie on some considerable time together the best salve under heaven will not otherwise do the wounded man good So if a man turn his thoughts upon the loathsom nature of sin the unspeakable danger of sinners the misery that he is liable to whilst he continueth carnal the mercy that he might obtain if he were spiritual the alsufficiency of God the excellency of godliness the purchase of Christ and the promises of the Gospel every of which is a precious medicine to cure soul maladies yet if his thoughts do not stay upon them if they are onely glancing thoughts off and on like lightening flashing on the conscience and away they will never heal thy spiritual diseases That messenger which would dispatch business of weight and concernment must not call at a door and then be gon but he must go in sit down and make some stay there This serious consideration Friend I propound to thee as an excellent receipt for the recovery of thy dying soul I considered my wayes saith David and turned my feet to thy testimonies Psal 119.59 Some translate the Original I looked on both sides upon my wayes I considered them every way and turned my feet unto thy testimonies I considered that I was wandering like a lost sheep and then I returned unto the fold of God Conversion beginneth at consideration Because he considereth and turneth from all the transgressions which he hath committed he shall surely live he shall not die Ezek. 18.28 The Mariner who is running his vessel against a rock if he consider it and steer another course he doth thereby prevent a desperate shipwrack When David would stop the enemies of God in their full career of wickedness he layeth this block in their way Commune with your own hearts and be still Psal 4.4 Self-communion is one special help to sinconfusion and sound conversion The Prodigal came to himself before he came to his Father He considered what a fool he was to feed with swine upon husks when he might eat bread as a son in his Fathers house He considered what a mad man he was to feed on the short commons of the world and endure the slavery of the Devil when he might feast on the exceedings of the Gospel and enjoy the liberty of the children of God After this serious considera he cometh to this solid resolution I will arise and go to my Father Luke 15.17 18. and accordingly went and was welcom Truly Reader 'T is inconsiderateness that doth both defile thee and damn thee the want of consideration causeth men to abound in sin The people committed falshood the thief cometh in the troop of Robbers spoileth without Hos 7.1 There was ground full of weeds but mark the reason was because it lay fallow 't was not ploughed up with consideration They consider not in their hearts that I remember all their wickedness vers 2. They consider not that I remmeber and record all their omissions commissions the corruptions of their hearts transgressions of their lives and write them down with a pen of iron and point of a diamond Jer. 17.11 and will bring them forth in the day of slaughter Plin. lib. 10. cap. 1. As the foolish bird Pliny speaks of called Struthiocamelus which thrusts her head into a thicket conceiving that no body seeth her because she seeth no body and so becomes a pray to the Fowler So the Adulterer the Thief the Drunkard and the like consider not that God seeth them plainly hateth their sins perfectly can turn them into hell presently and thereby become bold in wickedness they hide God from themselves and think that they are hidden from God They consider not in their hearts that he remembreth all their wickedness Friend when thou seest a man in a phrensie or one in Bedlam tearing their hair biting and cutting their own flesh what dost thou say Surely this man wanteth the use of his reason could he but use that without question he would never do thus May not a gracious man that beholdeth thee tearing lancing stabbing and wounding thy precious soul with worldliness swearing athism or uncleanness upon as good ground say Surely this man wanteth consideration did he but consider what a jealous God he provoketh what bowels of love he spurneth at what a hell of sorrow he provideth for his long home he would never do thus The Ostrich leaveth her eggs in the dust not considering that the feet of the Passenger will crush them to pieces because she is deprived of wisdom and wanteh understanding Job 39.14 15 17. The sinner leaveth his soul naked and liable to all dangers imaginable because
it possible for them to speak to thee when thou art in the other world it must be the same answer which the King of Israel gave a poor widow in her distress Help my Lord the King saith she If the Lord help not I cannot help saith the King such would their answer be to thee If the Lord help not we cannot help But friend what will thy case be when they cannot help and God will not help what a poor helpless creture wilt thou be for ever Secondly It will teach thee the severity of the Lord. Now possibly thou knowest what the pain of the teeth is or what the fury of a fevor or what the violence of the gout or what the wrack of the stone is but not what the wrath of the Lord is though these things speak it somewhat yet thou dost not believe it at all but then feeling will be believing Suppose every part of thy body were as much tortured as ever thou hast felt any one part and that for ten thousand years how heavy would it be to bear This were but a fleabiting to what thy body must undergo in hell And yet the torments of thy soul will be the soul of thy torments in the other world thou shalt know what the worm that never dieth what the fire that never goeth out what blackness of darkness what to be tormented day and night what weeping and wailing and gnashing of teeth what destruction from the presence of the Lord what the wrath of the lamb meane Mark 9.43 44. 2 Thess 1.7 8. O t is a fearful thing to fall into the hands of the living God Heb. 12.31 His wrath is as the roaring of a lyon Amos 3.4 as a terrible earthquake which makes the hils to quake Psal 18.7 8. as the rage of a bear robbed of her whelps Hos 13.8 It is a devouring fire the most terrible of all Gods creatures Tophet is prepared of old for unregenerate ones it is prepared he hath made it deep and large the pile thereof is fire and much wood the breath of the Lord like a stream of brimstone doth kindle it Isa 3. ult Fire which is so irresistible that thou art but straw and stubble before it so intolerable that thou wilt moan and mourn sigh and sob under it so unquenchable that when it is kindled in Gods anger it shall burn to the lowest hell Deut. 32.6 This fire I say will speak a little what that great fury is which thou shalt feel I have read that a frown of Queen Elizabeth kild Sir Christopher Hatton Cambden Elizab. the Lord Chancellour of England What then will the frowns of the King of Nations do If the rocks rent the mountains melt and the foundations of the earth tremble under his wrath what wilt thou do When God shall with one hand strike thee according to his infinite anger and with his other hand support thee by his infinite power to feel the stroak of that fury who can expresse or conceive what thou shalt endure When thou considerest that the wrath of God hath thrown millions of Angels our of heaven drownd a whole world destroyed Sodom and Gomorrah with fire and brimstone opened a flood-gate of matchless miseries and let them in upon Adams posterity thou mayest conceive a little what it is But when thou considerest that this cup of the Lords wrath made Jesus Christ who in his person was true God when he did but sip of it to be all over in a bloody sweat in a cold winters night and that in such abundance that the clods of blood trickled down from his face to the ground and when he drank it off to cry out in bitterness of soul and anguish of spirit My God my God why hast thou forsaken me what apprehension wilt thou have of the indignation of the Lord Well all this must fall on thee if thou diest in this estate how darest thou any longer to provoke the Lord to anger art thou stronger then he 1 Cor. 10.22 The Roman would not contest with his Soveraign that could command Legions Wilt thou by sin contend with that God Matth. 18. â— 18. and 21.13 Iude 6 7 12. ver Mark 9.44 who can command fire to burn thee chains to binde thee brimstone to choak thee Lions to tear thee Serpents to sting thee scropions to scourge thee darkness to fright thee Devils to wrack thee Worms to gnaw thee millions of woes to seise on thee and Hell to hold thee to feel all this for ever Ah! who knoweth the power of thine anger according to thy fear so is thy wrath Psal 90.11 3. It will teach thee the woful nature and fruits of sin Now thou canst mock at mischief and sport with sin as if it were nothing but Good Lord what thoughts wilt thou have of thy most pleasureable wickedness in the other world when the sensual delightful streams thereof shall be dried up with the scorching heat of Gods wrath and nothing left but the mud of horror and vexation Sin dogs thee up and down all the while thou livest as the Fowler doth the flying bird conscience will ever now and then give thee a gripe have a fling at thee whether thou wilt or no but when the bird settles then the gun goeth off so when thou art settled in thine own place then expect the murthering piece After thy death the vermin of thy lusts will crawl in thee and feed upon thee Thou shalt see all thy millions of sins like an Army set in order and marshald in rank and file before thine eyes and every one with their envenomed arrows poysonous bullets and wounding weapons set in array against thee First Original sin the Commander in chief marcheth up in the front after that thine innumerable actual transgressions thy carnal-mindedness unbelief pride adultery hypocrisie drunkenness swearing lying malice hatred envy unrighteousness atheism blasphemy profanation of the Lords-day undutifulness to parents unthankfulness for mercies unprofitableness under the means of Grace incorrigibleness under afflictions thy secret private publick sins thy omissions commissions thy personal relative sins all these and many which thou now never thinkest of shall let flie whole vollies of shot upon thee Then thou wilt know that 't is sin which hath made thee so like to Satan that 't is sin which hath separated God and thy soul that 't is sin which hath shut heaven against thee that 't is sin which hath brought thee into Hell that though sin be delightful in the act yet t is dreadful 't is damnable in the end O 't will be sin indeed there Now thou walkest lightly under the weight of those grievous sins which make the whole Creation to groan but then thou wilt feel sin to be a burthen too heavy for thee to bear A massy piece of timber floating upon the waters and swimming may be drawn this way or that way by one man but when it is once grounded he cannot stir it 't
shall inherit the earth Matth. 5.5 If heaven can make thee blessed thou shouldst be blessed Blessed are the poor in spirit for theirs is the Kingdom of Heaven Matth. 5.3 If all things could make thee blessed thou shouldst be blessed Whether Paul or Apollo or Cephas or the world or life or death or things present or things to come all are yours and ye are Christs and Christ is Gods 1 Cor. 3. two last verses Reader I shall do my utmost so to set forth the felicity of the regenerate which no pen can fully that thou mayst admire it How goodly are thy tents O. Jacob and thy tabernacles O Israel Numb 24.5 and not only as Balaam desire their deaths Let me die the death of the righteous and let my latter end be like his Numb 23 10. but also endeavour to live their lives and to have thy conversation like theirs While thou continuest in this world thou shouldst be a blessed soul and when thou entrest into the other world thou shouldst be a glorions Saint In this world thou shouldst be a blessed soul in every condition into which thou couldst come in every relation in which thou dost stand at all times and in all places whatsoever All the Providences of God should be profitable to thee If Gods hand were enlarged in mercy thy heart should be enlarged in duty If God should prosper thee in temporals the streams of his bounty should lead thee as the water course either upward to the spring or downward to the ocean to the source and fountain of all thy happiness Thy heart would still be in heaven where thy best things were even then when thy body were busied among earthly good things 1 Cor. 7 29 30 Phil. 3.19 Some observe of the seed called Henbane that it killeth all birds save sparrows and to them it is nourishing food and they give this reason because their veines are so narrow that the fumes of the seed cannot passe through them to their hearts truly thus t would be with thee though thou sands of others are poisond with their worldly portions because the fumes thereof penetrate into their vitals but if riches increase thou shouldst not set thine heart upon them nay thou shouldst get nourishment from them As Jehosaphat the more honour and wealth thou hadst the more thy heart would be lifted up in the ways of God 2 Chro. 17.5 6. If thine estate were but little yet t would be perfumed with love and that lump of sugar in thy cup would make the liquor sweet be it never so small As the waters which flow from the hils of some of the Islands of Molacca taste of the Cinamon and Cloves which grow there so should thy guift though it were but water taste of the good will and special grace of the giver Thy little with the fear of the Lord would be better then the riches of many wicked men Psal 37 15. As a little ring with a very costly Diamond in it is far more worth then many great ones without it so thy estate though it were but a penny should be joyned with the pretious jewel of that love which is better then life and enjoyed by special promise and thereby be infinitely more worth then the thousands and millions of others bestowed meerly from common bounty and enjoyed onely by a generall providence If the black frost of adversity overtake thee thou shouldst as Conies thrive the better thy soul being hail thou wouldst become thereby the more healthy By affliction thou shouldst be partaker of Gods holiness Heb. 12.10 The waters of affliction should wash out the diri of thy corruption and the more they increased they would raise thee as the flood the Arke higher above the earth and mount thee nearer to heaven Torches burn the better for beating Spices smell the sweeter for pounding Vines bear the more for bleeding and the more thy soul were kept down by those weights like the Palm-tree the more thou shouldst grow That scouring and rubbing which fretteth others should make thee shine the brighter Psal 94.12 Divine corrections should make thee learn thy sacred lessons It is said of the Lacedemonians that when all other people were undone by war they onely grew rich Truly thus when ungodly ones are the worse for outward miseryes and wants like Ahaz in their distress they sin more against the Lord thou shouldst thrive the better grow the richer in grace and good works The diminution of thy temporal should be an addition to thy spiritual estate Job 36.9 10. As spring-water smoaketh when other waters are dried up because that is living and these are dead nay t is observed waters arising from deep springs are hotter in winter then in summer the outward cold keeping in and doul â—â—g the inward heat So the waters of thy graces should not onely continue having a living principle when the Sun of calamity scorcheth and drieth up the dead ponds of unregenerate professors Mat. 13.21 but also increase in spiritual heat Job 17.8 9. Philip. 1.14 If the Devil assaulted thee with temptations they should never be for thy perdition but probation Rev. 2.10 The Captain of thy Salvation would so strengthen thy soul with the Shield of Faith and Sword of the Spirit that thou shouldst not onely defend thy soul from all deadly wounds but offend thine Enemy and be more then a Conqueror over Principalities and Powers through him that loveth thee It would possibly be grievous and terrible to thee to be tempted but if God did not see it needful he would not suffer it nay if he could not make it useful he would not send it by those thorns of the flesh he would prick the vein and let out the ranck blood of thy spirit It is said of Telephus that he had his impostume opened by the dart of an Enemy which intended his hurt Truly so God would make to thee the fiery darts of the Devil though they were intentionally mortal to be eventually medicinal 1 John 5.18 The evil one should not touch thee that is with a mortal or deadly touch As a sound tree shaken with the winde thou shouldest not fall but root thy self the â—â—â—ter thou shouldest like Sampson fetch meat out of the Eater and out of the Strong sweetness thou shouldst get honey even out of this roaring Lion thy Regeneration like Pollium would be a special preservative against the poyson of that croocked Serpent Nay when thou shouldest fall into the evil of sin even that should turn to thy good God no thanks to thee like the skilful Apothecary would make wholsom treacle of such poisonus drugs If thy corruption should at any time get the mastery and break out in thy life thou shouldst be so well purged by the Physician of souls with the bitter Aloes of Repentance that as those who have had ill humors of their bodies getting head and breaking out in the small-pox and do well thou shouldst be the healthier in thy soul
wanting but it may be made up by this blessing If thou dost hearken unto the voyce of the Lord thy God blessed shalt thou be in the city and in the field blessed shall be the fruit of thy body and the fruit of thy ground and the fruit of thy cattel Blessed shall be thy basket and thy store blessed shalt thou be when thou goest out and blessed shalt thou be when thou comest in Deut. 28.1 to 14. verse Thou wouldst be a blessing to thy neighbours as a conduite yield clear water for others comfort If they were prophane they might be brought to mind piety by thy precepts and pattern If they were good they would rejoyce at thy conversion to God and like Abraham make a feast at the weaning of thee a child of the promise from the breasts of the creatures Thou shouldst be blessed in thy name The memory of the just is blessed Prov. 10.7 Thy name would be heir to thy life as soon as ever thy nature were religious thy name would be reverend and when thou diest thou wouldst go out of this world like some sweet perfume leaving a fragrant savour behind thee O Reader how many sheets might I write in relating thy felicity How honourable shouldst thou be having blood royal running in thy veins and being heir apparent to a Kingdom of glory How rich having a key to Gods treasury and being interested in the covenant of grace which hath more wealth in it then heaven and earth How comfortable having the promises for thy cordials and being garrisond within with that peace of God which passeth all understanding How beautiful having the robes of the righteousness of God to adorn thee which is infinitely more comly then the unspotted innocency either of Adam or Angels The infinite God would be thy God blessed Angels thy guardians beautiful Saints thy companions durable riches thy portion the flesh of Christ thy food his own robes thy raiment and his own mansion house thine everlasting home Thou couldst not cast an eye but it would see matter of mirth nor send forth a thought but it would return with a report of mercy Whether thou lookest up to thy father in heaven and his glorious attendants there or lookest down to his creatures on earth and the signs of his manifold wisdom and mighty power here or whether thou lookest into conscience or Scriptures every thing all things would yeild thee cause of comfort and give thee occasion of inward exaltation In all conditions be they never so sad thy soul would be safe and thine everlasting estate secure The vails are incertain but the standing wages are certain What ballast is to a ship that regeneration would be to thy spirit If the vessel be sound and well ballasted though it may be tossed and rocked with windes and waves yet it shall not be ruined So if thine heart were stablished with grace thou shouldst be steady in the greatest storm nay though thou wert naked in deep waters in the mighty Sea yet Christ thine head being ever above water thou couldst not possibly sink When thou shouldst come to die and to throw thy last cast for Eternity thou mightest walk in the valley of the shadow of death and fear none ill for God would be with thee Psal 23. When pale-faced death knocks at the door of thine house of clay by the hand of some mortal sickness thou needst not be daunted at his grim looks but mightest boldly open to him and bid that Messenger heartily welcom as knowing that he comes from a God in Covenant to give thee a passage into fulness of joy and everlasting pleasures It s reported of Godfry Duke of Bulloign in his expedition to the Holy-Land that when his Army came within view of Jerusalem beholding the high Turrets and fair Fronts which were the skelitons of far more glorious bodies they were so transported with joy that they gave such a shout that the very earth was said to ring again How might thine heart leap with joy when thou upon thy death-bed shouldst with the eye of faith behold the stately Turrets and pearly gates of the New and Eternal Jerusalem Thou mightest contentedly leave thine earthly habitation for the Fathers house and joyfully bid adieu to thy corruptible silver and airy honors for an enduring substance and an eternal weight of glory How cheerfully mightest thou forsake thy meat and drink and all thy carnal comforts to eat bread in the Kingdom of Heaven and to bathe thy soul in angelical delights With what courage mightest thou bid farewel to thy stately dwelling dearest wife most lovely children all thy kindred and acquaintance to go to mount Sion and to the City of the living God the heavenly Jerusalem and to an innumerable company of Angels to the general Assembly and Church of the first-born which are written in Heaven and to God the Judge of all and to the spirits of just men made perfect to Jesus the Mediator of the new Covenant Hebr. 12.22 23 24. Thou shouldst comfortably think of thy bodies being laid in the grave to sleep there till the morning of the Resurrection for that bed would be sweet to thee being perfumed with the precious body of thy Saviour for thee And with what joy mightest thou think of the day of Judgement when thy body should be awaken out of its sleep united to thy soul fashioned like unto the glorious body of Christ and both soul and body made perfectly blessed in the full enjoyment of God to all eternity O the felicity of the regenerate How blessed are they whom God chooseth and causeth by Regeneration to approach unto him Friend Friend Can the world do half this for thee Why then dost thou spend thy strength for what is not bread and thy labour for what will not satisfie Will not God do all this and much much more for thee Why then dost thou forsake the fountain of living waters and hew unto thy self broken cisterns that can hold no waters Ah didst thou but know the gift of God and who it is that offereth these things to thee thou wouldest ask of him and he would give thee living waters John 4.10 Reader what sayest thou to these things Is there not infinite reason why thou shouldst speedily give a Bill of divorce to thy most beloved lusts and strike an hearty Covenant with the Lord Jesus Art not thou fully convinced of the matchless gain of godliness Let conscience speak one would think such powerful arguments could not be denied that so many and such costly Loadstones should draw thee towards Heaven though thine heart were as hard as iron or steel If thou art for profit man here is profit indeed and to purpose Thus whilst thou continuest in this world thou shouldst be a blessed soul The Felicity of the Regenerate in the other World THough in what I have already offered in the Name of the blessed God I have unspeakably out-bid Devil World and Flesh yet to manifest
blood and confirmed by the death of the Testator Hebr. 9.16 17 18 19. The Lords Supper is precious because it sheweth forth the Lords blood and death 1 Cor. 11.26 pardon of sin peace of conscience the affection of the Father the sanctification of the Spirit are all precious because they are the fruits and effects of this precious blood 1 John 1. and 7. Rom. 5.1 Hebr. 9.14 Ephes 2.13 All our comforts run in this channel the blood of Christ is the stream which bears them up and brings them to us yea Heaven it self and the Crown of Glory have weight and worth from this precious sparkling stone Heaven is the purchased possession Ephes 1.14 'T is the blood of Jesus which giveth boldness to enter into that holy place Hebr. 10.19 The precious price paid for it will speak it and make it a glorious place If thou wert once regenerated Christ would be so precious to thee at this day that all things would be dung and dross in comparison of the excellency of the knowledge of Christ Jesus thy Lord to them that believe Christ is precious 1 Pet. 2.7 O the price which true Christians set upon Christ The wise Merchant sold all for this Pearl I have read that the Duke of Burgundy had a Jewel which was afterwards sold for twenty thousand duckets But Christ to a Saint is better then silver and more desirable then choice gold more precious then rubies yea then many millions of worlds When the Athenian Ladies were boasting to Phocion's wife of their Jewels she told them My jewels are my husband Phocion When Alexander was asked where his treasure was he shewed them his friends Such a Jewel such a Treasure is Jesus Christ in the esteem of his Spouse his Friends Christ is all in all The pious soul is of the same minde with John of Alexandria sirnamed the Almoner when at the years end he had given all he had left to the poor and made even with his Revenues he looks up to Heaven and thanked God that he had nothing left but his Lord and Master Jesus Christ to whom he longed to flye with unlimed and untangled wings The face of none is so comely to the Saints eye the voice of none so lovely to his ears the taste of nothing so pleasant in his mouth as Jesus Christ But the Christian hath a choice room in his soul for the blood of his Saviour He prizeth the shameful cross of Christ above the most glorious crown of the greatest earthly Potentate Gal. 6.14 Thus Friend it would be with thee here if thou wert conveted thou wouldst determine to know nothing but Jesus Christ and him crucified O the honey which thou wouldst suck out of the Carkass the death of this Lion of the Tribe of Judah When thou shouldest consider that this blood of Jesus Christ is that alone which hath satissied Gods justice Rom. 3.25 Rom. 5.9 Col. 1.20 Heb. 9.14 Rev. 1.5 6. pacified his anger justified thy person sanctified thy nature removed the curse of the Law from thee and thee from the eternal wrath of God and unquenchable torments of Hell would it not be precious blood in thine esteem think of it what a price thou wouldst set upon it but when thou shouldst in Heaven for ever behold the blessed body of Christ shining with incomprehensible beauty far above the brightest Cherub and consider that every vein of that body bled to bring thee to glory when thou shouldst see thousands and millions in matchless and endless burnings from which thou wert delivered and behold thy body made far more glorious then the Sun in his high noon attire and thy soul filled brim-full with unspeakable joy nay every part of thy body and soul enlarged to the utmost and fully fatisfied with unconceiveable delight and thou shouldst be confident and assured to enjoy this for ever and know clearly all this to be the travel of Christs soul and the fruit of his blood Friend friend what thoughts then wilt thou have of the blood of Christ Surely 't will be precious blood indeed thou wouldst have other manner of thoughts of him that came by water and blood then thou ever hadst here below The work of our redemption will be the matter of the Saints communion and the great subject of their eternal admiration Their delivery from sin Satan wrath and hell into a state of liberty love grace and salvation by the blood of Jesus will fill their eyes and hearts with wonder love and joy for ever All the voices there shall sing this song and all the vials there shall be set to this tune Thou art worthy to take the book and to open the seals thereof for thou hast redeemed us to God by thy blood out of every kindred and tongue and nation and hast made us unto our God Kings and Priests And I beheld and I heard the voice of many Angels round about the throne and the beasts and the elders and the number of them was ten thousand times ten thousand and thousands of thousands saying with a loud voice Worthy is the Lamb that was slain to receive power and riches and wisdom and glory and blessing Rev. 5.9.10 11 12 to end If the Queen of Sheba when she beheld the wisdom and magnificence of Solomon was so transported that there remained no more spirit in her how will thine heart be transported to see the love and glory of the true Solomon who wept and bled and lived and died to bring thee to heaven Fourthly Thou shouldst know what God is and truly this would be no smal part of thy felicity Knowledge is the excellency of a man and differenceth him from a bruit divine knowledge is the excellency of a Christian and differenceth him from a Heathen The knowledge of humane things hath been so highly esteemed by some of the Heathen that they have profest they would give their whole estates to enjoy their books without interruption what then is the knowledge of divine things worth Aristotle saith That a little knowledge of heavenly things though but conjectural is better then much certain knowledge of earthly things what then is the knowledge of the God of heaven worth The excellency of the object doth much dignifie the act In this world thou canst see but little of him thy sight is so weak but there thou shouldst see him as he is 1 Joh. 3.3 Now the Christian rather seeth and knoweth God as he is not then as he is we describe him for indeed he is infinitely above all definitions by way of negation to be a Spirit Infinite Unchangeable and the like which particulars tell us what God is not He is a Spirit that is a being without a body for God is not a Spirit as the souls of men and as Angels are I mean not of such a substance The Spirit of God in that expression God is a Spirit Joh. 4. condescendeth to our capacities because we are not able to conceive
glorious body of his Son and our souls like unto his blessed Majesty in holiness beauty and delight O what are we and what our fathers houses that God should do any thing for us As Perillus when Alexander promised his daughter fifty talents for her portion cryeth 't was too much ten were sufficient And when David sent to take Abigal to wife she wondred at it she counted it an honour to wash the feet of his servants 'T was too much to be his wife So we cannot but count it a favour to wait upon his servants to be his door keepers and stand without 't is too much we think to be marryed to Christ the eternal Son of God and to dwell in the house of the Lord for ever We can hardly be perswaded that God will thus dignifie such worthless worms but then seeing and enjoying will be believing then we shall say It was a true report which I heard in the lower world what God would do for poor creatures in heaven howbeit I believed not till I came and mine eyes have seen it and behold the half was not told me my glory and joy exceedeth the fame which I heard Sixthly Thou shouldst enjoy all the forementioned good things and more then I can speak or thou think without intermission interruption and for ever The good things of this life are intermitted partly by contrary and evil things as our health lost by sickness our wealth by want partly by necessary diversions the body must have sleep and then we lose the comfort of the creatures but there thy day of comfort should never be overcast for all tears will be wiped from thine eyes and thy fruition of God should be without intermission thou shouldst ever stand in his presence and behold his face thou shouldst ever be with the Lord 1 Thes 4.16 Hadst thou here a confluence of all comforts yet because thy life is short thy joy could not be long but there thy life will be an everlasting life and thy joy therefore everlasting joy I wil see you again and your hearts shall rejoyce and your joy shall no man take from you saith Christ Joh. 16. Eternity will perfect thy felicity indeed It is a boundless duration without intermission and end Suppose that all the vast space between heaven and earth were filled with sand and once every ten thousand years a bird came and carried away a crum in her bill what a long while would it be before this vast heap would be carried quite away but suppose after the bird had done that it was to come every ten thousand years and take one drop of water out of the sea what a while would it be before it could empty the Ocean but after all this thou shouldst have as long to continue in thy joy and delights as at thy first entring into heaven If thou shouldst have but one glimpse of God as he was passing by thee as Moses had it were an happiness beyond all that this world can give thee but thou shalt there not have a transient view but a permanent vision of God thy God would not passe by but stand still that thou shouldst never lose the sight of him When the object would be so lovely and the act so lasting would not thy spirit be chearful and lively As the damned shall be without all hope ever to be released of their pains so thou shouldst be without all fear ever to be deprived of thy pleasures O who would not serve such a Master that giveth after poor imperfect works done for him such infinite eternal rewards 'T is bottomless love indeed which giveth such a boundles life Thus Reader I have given thee a taste of that of which thou if regenerated shouldst have a full draught Whilst thou continuest in this world thou shouldst be a blessed soul blessed in thy body in thy soul in thy calling estate relations children and name All the providences of God should be profitable to thee in all thy performances thou shouldst be acceptable to God all the ordinances of God should further thy good The precious promises one of which excels the whole world should all be thy portion When thou enterest into the other world thou shouldst be a glorious Saint Thou shouldst be perfectly holy and infinitely happy in the knowledg of the blessed God in finding the incomparable fruits of Christs blood and in experiencing the extent and certainty of Gods promises and thou shouldst enjoy all this not for a year or an age or for a million of ages but for ever ever ever Now what saist thou to this subject of consideration hast thou not unspeakable cause by an hearty marriage to close with the Son of God and accept him for thy Lord and husband when he offereth such matchless priviledges here and such an heavenly joynture hereafter Good Lord is it possible for man to be such an enemy to his soul as to neglect such great Salvation What an hard stone is the heart of man that neither misery nor mercy can move it Ah Friend thou art bewitched indeed if neither the wonderful woe of the unregenerate nor the unheard of weal of the regenerate can prevail with thee But before thou readest farther make a pause and consider what is included in these two subjects of consideration The Heathen tell us that such as cannot be perswaded by profit or disprofit are unperswadable Think of it here is the greatest advantage imaginable if thou wilt turn to Christ Here is the greatest damage conceivable if thou continuest in thine ungodly course surely thou art resolved upon thine eternal ruine or such reasons as these are will reforme thee Ponder this seriously if thou refusest the Lord Jesus as thy Saviour and Sovereign thou art a cursed damned sinner if thou acceptest him thou art a blessed saved creature in the one scale there is hell in the other scale there is heaven upon the turning of either is the turning of thy precious soul its making or marring for ever if thou wilt not embrace Christ upon his own conditions thy soul is lost O the loss of a soul thy God thy Heaven is lost O the loss of a God! no eye ever saw greater losses all other losses are nothing to these If thou dost thy soul is saved how sweet is that word Saved Thy God thy Heaven is gained O the gain of a God! how savoury is that sentence read it again If thou takeâ— Christ thy God is gained Dost thou know what is included in the gain of a God no nor all the men on earth nor all the Saints and Angels in heaven there never was such a gain before it nor ever shall be after it Ah who would not wade through thick and thin for such a gain What sayst thou shall not things of such concernment as these are stir thee It is reported of Adrianus an Officer under Maximinianus the Tyrant Laurent Sur. in vit that beholding the constancy of the
things exceedingly injure thee Is not God a hard Master to desire such things of thee Ah didst thou but know the worth of them hadst thou ever beheld their excellency or tasted the comforts which is in them thou wouldst scorn this lower world with all its pomp and pride and pleasures for them and befool thy self to purpose for ever refusing or neglecting them I shall endeavour in some few particulars to shew thee the worth and excellency of that to which thou art so unwilling and possibly thou mayest thereby be convinced of thy madness and folly in sticking at that which would be thine honour and felicity Pliny saith that an exact face can never be drawn but with much disadvantage Without doubt Regeneration or the new Creation can neither be admired nor declared by any no nor by all the Saints on earth according to its worth It is the beauty glory and wonder of Saints and Angels in Heaven First Regeneration is the image of God who is an infinite and most perfect good Vide p. 36 37. Here friend at first flight I soar high One would think if I should speak no more in commendation of it here is enough to ravish thine heart with admiring it for ever it is the picture of Gods own perfections Put on the new man which after God is created in righteousness and true holiness Eph 4.24 As it is the same light that shineth forth in the morning which shineth in the body of the Sun in its Meridian so it s the same holiness that shineth in its degrees in the Christian which shineth in perfection in God Regeneration would make thee pure as God is pure Gods will is the rule and his nature the pattern of the Saints holiness Heb. 1.3 Rom. 8. The coin hath the image and impressions of the King Christ is the express image of his fathers person and the Saints are conformable to the image of his Son The Church is Christ unfolded Christ is not a monster Mr Ball of faith p. 285. the head and members are homogeneal like to each other By Reason man excelleth beasts by holiness he excelleth himself inferiour onely to the Angels in degree and made like unto the Lord as far as a creature may be to his creatour Now how excellent is the image of God! the picture of a King is esteemed and valued at an high rate but what is the picture of a God! Some say that the naked body of man was so glorious in his estate of innocency that all the beasts of the field admired it and thereupon did homage to him O how beautiful and glorious is his soul become by Regeneration the image of God that both Saints Angels and Jesus Christ are taken with it and wonder at it He that would not hear when the disciples were speaking and wondring at the buildings of the material temple but contemned it did both hear see and admire at one piece of this spiritual temple when Jesus heard the Centurions words he marvelled and said to them that followed him I have not found so great faith no not in Israel Mat. 8.10 15 and 28. Nay Christ is so taken with it that his heart is ravished and lost with it he he is behearted with it Cant. 4.9 10. It is observable that the blessed God after every days work in the creation of the world Gen. 1. takes a view of what he had made he saw it was good but when he had made man the sixth day after his own image and then took a review of his works and saw every thing that he had made behold it was very good or extream good So good that it caused delight and complacency in God and called for wonder and contemplation from man Behold it was very good no doubt but the making of man so noble and holy did above all the visible creatures so affect the heart of God that he liked the house much the better because of so rare an inhabitant which he had made to dwell in it Therefore when he had made man he made no more man being so fair a peice such curious workmanship that the infinite God resolved to rest and delight in him So when he createth a soul in Christ Jesus unto good works Eph. 2.10 he rejoyceth over his new workmanship with exceeding joy and resteth in his love Eph. 3.17 But when he shall finish his new creation for he will print mans holiness in the second edition in a larger letter and fairer character then it was at first and bring it forth in the other world t will infinitely surpass the stately fabrick of heaven and earth And O how how will it take not onely perfect spirits but even the God of the spirits of all flesh Friend can that be less then eminently excellent which doth thus ravish the heart of God himself with admiration at it and affection to it Would this tend to thy dishonour or disadvantage to be made like unto him who is the foundation and ocean of all excellencies and perfections Secondly Contraria â—uxta se pâ—sita magis cluces cunt Regeneration is the destruction of sin the greatest evil therefore it must needs be excellent Contraries put together will illustrate one another the baseness and loathsomness of sin will be a good foil to set off the beauty and loveliness of Grace For which cause I shall speak the more to the filthiness of sin For as the better any good is the more excellent it is to be full of it So the worse any evil is the more excellent it is to be free from it Besides dying to sin being one essential part of Regeneration I shall not at all digress Now Sin is the greatest evil in the world there was none like it before it nor ever shall be after it This Brat of the Devil is so vile and abominable that it is very hard to finde out a name futable to its ugly nature Those terms by which it is called of leprofie spot plague vomit mire scum ulcers issues dead carkass exhalation from a grave the vessel into which nature emptieth it self filthiness superfluity of naughtiness the pollution of a new born Infant and many more these all come far short of shewing the poysonous evil which is in sin Therefore the Apostle when he christens this child of disobedience calls it by its sirname That sin by the commandment might appear exceeding sinful Rom. 7.13 The Apostle there doth discharge the Law and charge all upon his own lust which by the commandment takes occasion as water at a bridge that stops and hinders it to rage the more or possibly as a foul face by a glass so sin by the commandment appeared to be exceeding sinful Mark the Apostle doth not say that sin by the glass of the Law appeared to be exceeding foul and filthy or exceeding deformed and ugly or exceeding hellish or devilish but exceeding sinful this includes all them and much more
cause thee to blossom and bud and ripen in the fruits of holiness There is mercy with thee that thou mayst be feared Psal 130.4 Why doth he send the nipping winter of adversity but to kill the hurtful weeds of thy lusts This is his end in afflicting even the taking avay of sin Isa 27.9 He useth the flail that the huskes may flie off when one key will not open the door of thy heart he will try another Why doth he interweave mercy and affliction that his providences towards the children of men are chequer-work white and black black and white mercy and affliction affliction and mercy but because his infinite wisdom seeth that this mixture will suit best with his ends the purifying and renewing his creature If all the year were summer the sap of the trees would be quite exhausted if all were winter it would be quite buried If thou hadst nothing in thy body but natural heat it would burn thee up if nothing but moisture it would drown thee therefore thy radical moisture allayeth thy natural heat and thy natural heat giveth bounds to thy radical moisture and each well tempered make an excellent constitution of body If thou hadst nothing but mercy thou wouldst be wanton and conceited if nothing but misery thou wouldst be too much dejected therefore God sendeth mercy to make thee cheerful and misery to keep thee awful The good Physician tempers his drugs wisely and weigheth them exactly and so prescribes and gives them as they may best conduce to the carrying on of his own end the spiritual health of his Patients Fifthly Regeneration will appear to be excellent in that it is the special work of God himself Grace is the immediate creatue of God man can ruine but not renew himself Which were born not of blood nor of the will of the flesh nor of the will of man but of God John 1.13 Man may lay some claim though there also God is the principal to the fatherhood of our fleshly beings but God onely can lay claim to the fatherhood of our spiritual beings Holiness is a beam of light darted forth from none but the Sun of righteousness We are his workmanship Ephes 2.10 His workmanship both by way of efficiency and excellency How beautiful is that structure which hath such a Builder what a rare work must that be which hath such a workman Surely that is a choice plant which is of Gods own planting O who would not be in love with so fair a child for the fathers sake The creation of our outward beings as we are men Iob 10.8 1.10 is the work of God Thy hands have made me and fashioned me Psal 119.77 God makes every man as well as the first man Nature and natural causes are nothing but the order in which and the tools with which he is pleased to work Now this work of God is excellent it is the Master-piece of the visible Creation Man is the fair workmanship of a wise Artificer saith one Heathen The bold attempt of daring nature saith another One of the Ancients calleth man The Miracle of miracles Another The measure of all things A third The worlds Epitome The world in a small volume The body which is the worst half of man Psal 1 â—9 14.15 is curiously wrought in the lowest parts of the Earth and made in secret as curious workmen when they have some choice piece in hand they perfect it in private and then bring it forth to the light for men to gaze on In thy book were all my members written Psal 139.14 15. A skilful Architect who is to set up some stately building will draw a model of it in his book or upon a table before he will adventure to set it up to be sure that it shall be done exactly So to shew what an exact piece the body of man is God is said to work it by the book But the soul which is Gods work too is a more exquisite piece the body is as it were the sheath Dan. 7.15 the soul is the glittering sword the body is but the cabinet this is the jewel 't is by this that man claims kindred with the Angels in Heaven and surpasseth all creatures on Earth Consider then if this work of Gods hands this visible Creation be so excellent how excellent is the invisible Creation the creating man in Christ unto good works Surely that is curious work workmanship indeed The Tables of stone hewed immediately by the hand of God and on which he had with his own fingers written the Law was such a piece that mortal eyes could not behold it without astonishment and admiration What a rare Manuscript was that where the book the matter the writing were all of Gods own making and doing But the writing of the Law in the fleshly tables of the heart by the Spirit of God is much more glorious I am very willing Friend to convince thee of the excellency of Regeneration and therefore would speak more to this head Think of what thou pleasest which thin eunderstanding can judge excellent and thou shalt finde the image of God far more excellent Is wealth excellent Luk. 16.11 1 Tim. 6 7. Mat 6.19 â—0 Prov. 8.18 this is the true riches others are but the shadow this is the substance other riches are but for a short time these are for ever durable riches and righteousness Other riches will go only as brass farthings in some particular places in this beggarly low world of earth but these like gold and silver go in all countries are currant coyn even in the higher world of Heaven Is wisdom excellent this is wisdom the fear of the Lord is the beginning the word fignifieth the apex the top the perfection of wisdom Prov. 1.7 Job 28.2 The pious man is the prudent man He alone can judge rightly of things set a due price upon things propound to himself the noblest ends and use the best means therefore he is called by way of eminency A man of wisdom Mic. 6.9 The knowing subtle Pharisees for want of this were but learned fools Matth. 23.17 Sinner and Fool are Synonima's in Scripture The English word Fool is thought to come from the Greek 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 which signifieth wicked Is beauty excellent Grace is the greatest beauty the beauty of holiness Psal 110.5 O how comely is the new creature never any saw it but fell in love with it The Spouse of Christ is the fairest among women Thou art all fair my love thou art all fair Cant. 4.1 Godliness is such a beauty that as I have said before God himself is taken with it Sin is a spot a defilement this beauty is inward it sits upon the face of the most noble part of man the Soul and thereby is the more comely its lasting not liable to the rage of a disease or wrinckles of old age but always increasing whilst here to a greater perfection Is pleasure excellent Godliness is
time and takest much pains which are nothing at all necessary in comparison of this Riches are not necessary the want of temporal may be supplied by the fruition of spiritual riches Thou mayst be poor in the world and yet rich in faith and heir of a Kingdom Jam. 2.5 Nay riches are so far from being absolutely needful that they may be hurtful to thee Thou mightst as the Reubenites shouldst thou have good land here take up short of the Land of Promise Christ calleth riches thorns Matth. 13.22 and surely 't is hard to touch them and not to prick thy fingers How hardly shall arich man enter into the Kingdom of Heaven Pleasures are not necessary He that hath little but misery here may finde mercy hereafter Though Job had his sores and pains yet he had a right to the pleasures at Gods right hand for evermore He that endured hunger cold thirst nakedness watching fasting weariness painfulness that was scourged imprisoned stoned yet was a chosen vessel unto God and heir to a crown of righteousness 2 Cor. 11.23 to 29. Acts 9.15 2 Tim. 4.6 Besides pleasures may be hurtful to thee those bees have their stings as well as their honey and many feed so plentifully on such luscious food that they surfeit themselves Aristotle speaks of a piece a ground in Sicily which sendeth forth such a strong smell of fragrant flowers to all the fields thereabout that dogs cannot hunt there the scent is so confounded with the smell of those flowers Earthly pleasures do not seldom hinder our scent and sense of spiritual delights Honors are not necessary A man may be condemned and lightly esteemed by men and yet be commended and highly esteemed by God Disgrace may be the way to glory Joseph went through a prison into a palace and Jesus from a shameful cross to a glorious crown Honors also may be hurtful to thee Some climb so high that they break their necks Those that are in high places are apt to have their heads giddy and thereby are in great danger of falling Hamans height and glory brought him to be high at last on the gallows Friends and relations are not necessary He that is friendless on Earth may be a favorite of Heaven when no man stood by Paul the Lord was with him and strengthned him when David's father and mother forsook him God took the care of him When those Stars vanished the Sun arose These also may be hurtful to thee thou mayst catch their diseases Ammon was the worse for Jonadab and Ahab the more wicked for Jezebel Health is not necessary A distemper'd body may have an healthy soul When the outward man decayeth the inward man may be renewed day by day No disease so it be not spiritual can keep the Physician of souls from visiting his Patients sanctified sickness is far better then unsanctified soundness Nay life it self which is far more worth then all the foresaid particulars is not necessary but in order to this spiritual life of Regeneration If that work be done a man by losing his life may be a gainer Some by yeilding up their Leases which were but for term of years have got the Fee-simple the inheritance for ever by parting with their natural lives they have got possession of eternal life But Friend Regeneration is absolutely necessary The Emperor told the Mariner when he would have disswaded him from going to Sea Necessâ— est uâ— eam neut vivan because the waters were rough and it might indanger his life 'T is more necessary that I go then that I live I tell thee 't is more necessary that thou live spiritually then that thou live naturally thy riches honors pleasures health friends are but toyes and trifles to Regeneration and truely life it self is little or nothing worth but as it makes thee capable of getting and enjoying this O what a poor empty shadow is the life of the greatest Prince that is a stranger to fellowship with God which Regeneration bringeth the soul to The reason why these fore-mentioned things are not necessary is partly because the want of all these things may be made up in the enjoyment of God Verily I say unto you that ye who have followed me in the Regeneration Matth. 19.28 when the Son of man shall sit upon his throne shall also sit upon twelve thrones judging the twelve tribes of Israel There is no man that hath left house or brethren or sisters Mark 10.29 30. or father or mother or wife or children or lands for my sake and the Gospels but he shall receive an hundred fold in time houses and brethren and sisters and mothers and children and land with persecution and in the world to come life everlasting The regenerate though never so poor naked disgraced sickly yet in the Sun they have all those beams and much much more As Alexander told Parmenio when in the beginning of a battel he was earnest with him to send some forces to regain their weapons and baggage then newly lost Let ussecure the main battel for if the field be won we shall recover all our baggage with advantage So if the soul be safe being by Regeneration grafted into Christ if thou winest the main battel against sin and Satan thou wilt recover those with advantage Those things are not necessary partly because the want of them will not undo a man for ever a mans eternal estate may be secured though those things be removed but Regeneration is indispensably necessary because nothing can make up the want of it not all the golden Mines in India not the sweetest Paradise of earthly pleasures not the highest chair of state nor friends nor kindred nor health nor strength nor life can make up the want of this If this be wanting thy God is wanting thy Christ is wanting thy heaven thy happiness thy All is wanting The want of this will undo thee for ever 't will make thee miscarry in the Ocean this leak will sink thee eternally It is a standing Law of Heaven That except a man be converted he cannot enter into the Kingdom of Heaven Matth. 18.3 There is in regard of the ordination of God as great a necessity of Regeneration as of Jesus Christ for what advantage canst thou have by all the riches and revenues of the Son of God till by Regeneration thou art married to him and made one with him Observe Reader this fourfold necessity of Regeneration It is * See the necessity of it farther in the reasons of the doctrine and the first use of Information necessary in regard of Gods precept Turn ye turn ye why will ye die Ezek. 33.11 31 32. Isa 1.16 17. Jer. 3.1 Hosea 14.1 James 4.9 There is a necessity either of hearing Gods voice or feeling Gods hands either the commandments of God must be obeyed by thee or the judgements of God must be inflicted on thee It is a Gospel-precept Ephes 4.23 24. now Gospel-precepts must be minded by
prophaning it either by idleness or worldly labours or omission of duties and ordinances against the fifth in not carrying himself according to his duty towards them that are above him equal to him or below him Against the sixth seventh eighth ninth and tenth in wronging his neighbours either in regard of life chastity goods name relations either in thoughts words or actions It sheweth him the darkness of his understanding the stubbornness of his will the disorderedness of his affections the hardness of his heaâ—t the searedness of his conscience the mis-improvement of his outward parts how his eyes have beheld vanity his ears been open to iniquity all his senses been through-fares to sin all the members of his body instruments of unrighteousness how from the crown of the head to the soals of his feet there is no sound part in him nothing but wounds bruises and putrified sores It is not one or two sins that trouble this sinner but innumerable evils compass him about whole swarms of these Bees flie in his face and sting his conscience it may be one sin did first set upon him some sin against the light which God had given him and now that creditor hath cast him into prison all the rest come and clap their actions upon him to keep him there his sins in his dealings with men in his duties to God his sins against seasonable corrections against merciful dispensations his sins against the motions of Gods Spirit against the conviction of his own spirit against light love purposes promises they all compass the sinner round that he cannot escape now he sees the ugly loathsomness of all his lusts how they are against an infinite God against a righteous Law against a precious soul how by reason of them he is wholly unlike God and become the very picture of the Devil and truly now he is far from having those flattering thoughts of himself and favourable thoughts of his sins which formerly he had for sins part t is abounding polluting poisonous sinful sin He seeth the wrinckles of this Jezabels face under her paint and O how ugly is she in his eyes and for himself he is more out of love then ever he was in love with himself Some say after they have had the Small-pox that they come to see themselves in a glass they look so ugly by reason of their spots that they cannot endure to see themselves Truly this poor sinner beholding himself in the glass of the Law and viewing those hellish spots of sin all over his soul and body he abhorreth himself in dust and ashes This is the first thing the Spirit convinceth the soul of and that is sin When he is come he shall convince the world of sin Joh. 16.8 God never cured a spiritual Leper but he caused him to fall down first and cry out unclean unclean Secondly The Spirit convinceth him of his miserable and dreadful condition Now the commandments of God come to the soul sin reviveth and the sinner dieth He thought before that he was whole a sound man to have little need of a Physician but now he both seeth his sores and feeleth his wounds Ministers before had frequently told him of his dangerous damnable estate but he had a shield to keep off all their darts He was not so bad as they took him to be somewhat they must say for their money and besides though he were as bad as such precise censorious Preachers would make him to be yet God was a merciful God and Jesus Christ died for sinners and he hoped to be saved as well as the best of them but now God comes to him as he did to Adam after his fall Adam where art thou Hast thou eaten of the tree of which I said unto thee thou shalt not eat Sinner where art thou Dost thou know what thou art doing and whether thou art going how darest thou prophane my day blaspheme my name scoff at my people neglect my worship cast my Laws behinde thy back and hate to be reformed Darest thou provoke the Lord to anger art thou stronger then he how will thine heart endure or thine hands be strong in the day that I shall deal with thee Dost not know poor dry stubble that 't is a fearful thing to fall into my hands for I am a consuming fire Now the sinner heareth the voice of God and is afraid Alas alas thinks he I am a dead a damned man the Almighty God is angry the weight of my sins at present is heavy but the sufferings which I am every moment liable to are infinite and eternal O that I should ever be born to do as I have done Now the lightnings of divine fury flash in his eyes and the canons of the Laws curses thunder in his ears he seeth a sharp sword of pure wrath hanging by a slender thread of life over his head he feeleth the stingings of his sins those fiery serpents at his heart There is no rest in his flesh because of Gods anger nor quietness in his bones because of his sins the arrows of the Almighty are within him and the poison thereof drinks up his spirit the waves and billows of God go over his soul and he sinketh in deep waters God writeth bitter things against him and makes him to possess the sins of his youth Now the man is calmed he will hear what God speaketh before though God himself had told him out of his word what a wicked wretched man he was he would not minde it but storm and rage at it he was like a wilde Ass snuffing up the wind and as an untam'd heifer impatient of the yoke he would kick and fling like a mad man What he give credit to the doctrine and submit to the severe discipline of a few whimsical Puritans that must be wiser then all their neighbors no not he though they shewed him the very hand of God in Scripture to those warrants which they desired him to obey But now he is of another mind for the Law hath shut him up under sin and guilt Gal. 3.22 The Law hath pent him in and shut him up that he cannot possibly get out As Lions Bears and wilde beasts are tamed by being shut up and kept in so the Law causeth wrath Rom. 4.15 shuts the sinner up under it and keeps him in that his former starting holes cannot help him and thereby tames him While he was unconvinced of his sins and misery his conscience was seared not troubled at all the threatnings which were denounced against him but now his conscience is sore touch it which way you will you put him to pain tell him under this conviction of his drunkenness or swearing or atheism or eagerness after this world heartlesness about the things of the other world his neglecting God in secret of not instructing and praying with his family tell him how cold and customary he was in his devotion saying to others that they took more pains for heaven
thousands of rivers of oil nay though the first-born of thy body all these could no be a propitiation for one of the least sins of thy soul no no the redemption of a soul is more precious for all these it must cease for ever Thus God ferrits the sinner out of all his Borows and causeth the poor Prodigal while he is wandring from his Father to finde a famine in all the creatures As a General that besiegeth a City doth not onely play in upon it with his Cannons and Granadoes but also secure the several passages stop all provision that no relief can come to it then they will yeild upon his terms So when the Spirit besiegeth the soul it often plyeth it hard with the batteries of the Law and alwayes stoppeth relief from coming in either from the world or a mans own righteousness and then and not till then will the creature yeild upon the terms of the Gospel Fourthly The Spirit convinceth him of the willingness sutableness and al-sufficiency of Jesus Christ to help and heal him The sinner now in his burning fit is very thirsty like Hagar he sits weeping for his bottels are empty and his creature comforts are found by experience to be broken cisterns which can hold no water he knoweth not what to do how can I see the death of my soul thinks he When the sinner is brought to this strait the spirit of God openeth his eyes to see a well of salvation even Jesus who delivereth from the wrath to come The spirit discovereth to the sinner that though his wound be dangerous because the God whom he hath provoked is resolved either to have his law satisfied or his eternal wrath endured yet that it is not desperate for there is Balm in Gilead and a Physitian in Israel that can heal his soul It convinceth him that Christ is a sutable help bread to the hungry water to the thirsty rest to the weary and heavy-laden that he hath a precious salve made of his own blood which is a proper and pecular remedy for his sores It convinceth him that Christ is an alsufficient help that he can supply all the souls wants be they never so many and bear all the souls iniquities be they never so weighty that he is able to save to the uttermost those that come unto God by him Heb. 7.25 It presenteth to the soul his fitness and fulness in regard of his natures and offices and the impossibility of his being unfaithful to this great work of saving poor sinners for which he came into the world It sheweth the sinner the infiniteness of Christs merits and his omnipotency to help because he is God the examples of other wounded diseased persons who surrendred themselves to the care of this Physitian and were cured He shall convince the world of righteousness because I go to the father and ye see me no more John 16.9 10. That is the world shall be convinced that there is righteousness enough in me to satisfy both the law and law-giver in that I shall appeare in my fathers presence and that with acceptance he would not send an Angel as his officer to roll away the stone and release the surety out of prison the grave and bring him before the Judge with so much credit and countenance if the law were not satisfied and the debt fully discharged Heaven could never have held me ye would have seen me upon earth again if I had not done that work perfectly which the Father gave me to do He shall convince the world of righteousness because I go to the father It convinceth him that Jesus Christ is exceeding willing to save poor sinners that he is joyful that any will accept him for their Saviour that he came from heaven to earth was born meanly lived miserably and died shamefully meerly upon this errand that he might seek and save them that are lost that he inviteth him to come to him and promiseth that he shall be welcom that he calleth them that go from him but casteth away none that come to him Thus when the prodigal is in a far country and cannot fill his belly so much as with husks that he is ready to perish for hunger he is shewd and convinced that there is bread enough in his Fathers house When the sinner is like the Israelite in the wilderness beholding the curse of the law like the Egyptian behind him and pursuing him hard the red sea of divine wrath before him into which he is hastening his crimson and bloody sins like mountains on each side of him incompassing him round that he knoweth not what to do then the spirit biddeth him look up to Jesus and he shall see the salvation of God The third step which the spirit takes is anhelation to cause the soul of the convinced sinner to breath and pant after Jesus Christ breath is the first effect of life Conviction hath emptied his stomach of creature confidence and self righteousness made him poor in spirit and O how hungry he is after the righteousness of Jesus Christ the bread which came down from heaven As the thirsty ground cleaves and opens for drops as the heart panteth after the water brooks so panteth his soul after Jesus Christ God blessed for ever thinks he O when shall I come and appear before him His voice is like Rachel Give me children or I die Give me the holy child Jesus or I die or like Abraham Lord what wilt thou give me if I go childless Ioh. 12.21 O what wilt thou give me if I go Christiess or like the Jews to Philip Sir we would fain see Jesus Mat. 28.5 If the Angel should meet him he might bespeake the soul as he did the woman I know what thou seekest thou seekest Jesus which was crucified O the ardent desires the vehement longings the unutterable groans which this poor creature hath after his Saviour as David he cryeth out Who will give me to drink of the water of the well of Bethlehem Where is that blessed guide that can leade me and help me to drink of the water of life Methinks I see how Jesus Christ presents himself to the eye of the dejected souls understanding in all his glory and gallantry in his sutableness unto the sinners indigencies and sufficiency for all his necessities with the freeness of his mercy the fullness of his merits and the sweetness of his love how he appeares before the soul with all his retinue and train of graces comforts his blood his spirit the favour of God freedom from sin wrath hell on the one hand of him there stand his gracious promises of pardon peace adoption sanctification heart-chearing love and everlasting life On the other hand of him there stands his precious precepts of self denyal crucifying the flesh walking after the Spirit despising the sensual pleasures honours and profits of this world and delighting in God walking with him having the conversation in heaven and rejoycing
no solid food for his hungry and thirsty soul heareth at last Christ calling to him Ho every one that thirsteth come to the waters buy wine and milk without money and without price cast thy sins thy soul on me and thou shalt finde rest Lord thinks he I have tried creatures and they cannot help me I have tried duties and they cannot ease me I have taken much pains and caught nothing and should I come to thee wouldst thou open thine eye upon such a wretch my unworthiness makes me mistrust the success nevertheless at thy command I will do it and now he cometh in his sinking estate to take hold on the arm of the Lord which the Gospel stretcheth out to him and thereby he is saved The last step is a resolution of the sinner to give up himself to all the Laws of Christ or an hearty acceptation of the Redeemer as Saviour and Soveraign The heart of the man is so melted by Evangelical sorrow for sin and the heat of Gods love to his soul that he is like soft wax for any impression God may command him what he pleaseth he cleaveth to the Lord with full purpose of heart Before he was like the Prodigal he must go as far as he could from his Fathers house the orders there were too pure the Laws there too strict the discipline there too severe he travelleth therefore into a far Country but now the man is hungry he will submit to do the duty of a Son so he may but have the childrens bread and diet nay now he is come to himself it is his meat and drink to do the will of God he seeth such equity in Gods will such beauty in his worship such excellency and comfort in his wayes that he would not part Jesus Christ and his holy precepts which he now savoureth for all earthly pleasures he is tied so firmly to his Master with the bond of unfeigned love that Satan himself will but work at the labour in vain when he goeth about to separate him and his service He writes Holiness to the Lord upon his body soul estate family relations and all that he hath thankfully acknowledgeing Gods propriety in all and his own felicity to consist in improving all for God He considereth how infinite his obligations to God are what an hell of endless horror he is redeemed from what an heaven of love and happiness he is called to and wisheth that he had or could do something worthy of such a God And because he hath nothing more or better he gives himself to God as Aeschines when he saw his fellow-schollers give their Master Socrates large presents being poor and having nothing to give went and gave himself to his Master acknowledging that he was his devoted servant The sinner before was unbroken and so as unfit for subjection as the unbroken colt for the saddle but now the heart being humbled the eare is heedy to whatever God speaketh Lord what wilt thou have me to do Acts 9.6 It is with an humbled M. Fenner of the kiling power of the Law and with an unhumbled sinner as with two men that are going to market whereof the one hath need he and his family are in extreme want ready to perish for bread now this man will go what ever weather come if it raine never so fast he will go when he comes there whatever the price be he will buy though he pawn his cloaths he will have bread why he is like to famish for want of it bread he comes for and bread he must have The other hath no great need therefore if he like the weather he will go if not he will stay at home if he goeth when he comes to the Market he will buy or forbear as the price of things pleaseth him he is indifferent whether he lay out his money or no if commodities are held at an high rate he will go as he came and buy nothing and all because he hath no need he can do well enough without them thus an humbled sinner seeth nay feeleth his extreme need of Christ that he must perish everlastingly without an interest in him and therefore what ever it cost him he will have Christ he is resolved to deny himself to crucifie the flesh to hate father mother house name land all for Christ let God hold the price of his Son never so dear he will sell all but he will buy this pearl and what is the reason truly because this man hath need he knoweth the absolute necessity which he standeth in of Christ that none but Christ can deliver him from the weight of his sins the Almighty Gods fury and the vengeance of eternal fire therefore a Saviour he comes for and a Saviour he will have what ever commands or prohibitions are joyned with him but an unhumbled finner feeth not his extream need of Christ and therefore though when he heareth of the infinite perfections in Christ and the unspeakable priâ—iledges which the regenerate have by Christ he will acknowledg that the wares are good he hath nothing to say against them but the price is too dear he will not come up to it and why truly because he seeth not his need of Christ he thinks he can do well enough without Christ If God would let him serve Christ and the world and flesh with him he would not care much if he did buy but if he cannot have Christ at his own price farwel Christ and pardon and mercy and God and eternall life Mat 9.12 farwel for ever for him and all because the man is an whole man unbroken unhumbled But you have read in the former steps that the sinner before he comes thus far is throughly melted and therefore he is for any mould which God thinks good Yet I believe that a man or woman whom the Spirit of God hath brought over to Jesus Christ doth by the new nature bestowed on them or the law of God written within them resolve upon all known duties and against all known iniquities more out of love to God and holiness then out of any slavish fear of wrath and hell The man seeth by the law the contrariety of sin to the image of God and consequently to his own real and spiritual good whereby there ariseth within him not onely an estrangedness from but an emnity against sin though it were the object of his affections before yet t is the object of his passions now So for duties the soul is brought through working of the Spirit to approve and delight in the good and perfect and acceptable will of God Communion with God and conformity to God are the utmost of his desires and indeavours O how willingly doth this Christian take upon him the yoak of Christ not complaining of its uneasiness but of his own unholiness The man formerly was as a Virgin before marriage she standeth upon her terms she will indent with her Sweet heart what shall be setled upon
her and how he shall deal with her or else she will not have him but now Christ by his spirit hath prevailed with the soul and 't is heartily willing to take him for better for worse to resign up all to Christ to part with all for Christ to take all from Christ to be disposed in all by Christ in a word it promiseth with the whole heart to be a loving faithful and obedient wife and now the match is made nay the Saviour and the soul are actually married together And O what an happy joyful day is this If Aaron when he met Moses was glad at his heart how glad is this poor soul now he meets with the Messias The Father accepts him for his child the Son accepts him for his spouse the Spirit hath given earnest already to have the Christians heart for his everlasting habitation the Devils in hell are vexing the Angels in heaven are singing the Saints on earth are shouting for it is meet that they should be merry for this son was dead and is alive was lost and is found was a cursed sinner and is become a blessed Saint So I have dispatched the first branch of this second help to regeneration namely an observation of those several steps whereby the wandring sheep is brought home I come now to the second branch of this help which is a pliable submission to the workings and motions of the Spirit when the Spirit at any time maketh his addresses to thy soul Reader I must earnestly beseech thee if thou hast the least spark of love to thy soul and endless good in the other world that thou be more tender of the motions of the Spirit then of the apple of thine eye When the Holy Ghost cometh to thy soul by its motions to good thy kinde entertainment of it may be as much as thine eternal happiness is worth and probably invite the Spirit to stay with thee perfect the work and abide in thee for ever whereas if thou shouldst grieve or quench the Spirit and affront this Ambassador which is sent to treat with thee about terms of peace between God and thy soul he may be called home and thou never hear of him more We read in Genesis 2.2 Incubabat aquis Iun. Gen. That the Spirit of God moved upon the face of the waters Several read the words The Spirit of God was sitting or hatching upon the waters It is a Metaphor taken from birds or hens they sit and move upon their eggs to hatch them and bring them forth and when they are hatched they still sit and move upon them to cherish and bring them to perfection So the Spirit of God sat or moved upon that face of the deep that by his motion or incubation he might hatch and bring forth out of that vast Chaos the several kindes of creatures Thus the Spirit moveth upon thy heart he sitteth upon he broodeth on thee that he may hatch and bring thee forth a new creature Therefore consider what thou dost and how thou carriest thy self towards him fowls when they have been much disturbed have left their eggs and never hatched them they have come to nothing shouldst thou resist the Spirit in his operations or quench him in his motions when he is brooding on thy soul he may take its eternal flight from thee When the Spirit cometh to thy soul by its motions disswading thee from sin or stirring thee up to holiness Jesus Christ then knocks at the door of thy heart every motion is a knock from the hand of Christ if thou hearkenest and openest he will come in and sup with thee but if notwithstanding his knocking thou wilt not hear though he cometh upon an errand so infinitely for thine advantage he will depart away in a distast as neighbors when they are so uncivilly used and thou mayst never hear of him more Thou art apt to complain that thou wantest help to turn from sin and to turn unto God I tell thee when the Spirit moveth and worketh within thee to minde thy soul and thine eternal estate he offereth thee his help and assistance and if thou hearkenest to and obeyest his motions thou shalt have his help As he was teaching the power of God was present to heal them Luke 5.17 Whilst the Son of man was teaching at that niâ—k of time the power of God was present to heal mens bodies so when the Spirit is moving at that very time the power of God is present to help thy soul now if thou takest that time thou mayst be an happy man for ever If when the windes blow fairly for mens voyage they then hoise up their sails and be going they may through the help of the winde be at their Haven in convenient time but if they neglect the opportunity and will not lanch out whilst the winde offereth its help they may be dead before they have another winde and so never go that voyage Thus if when the gales of the Spirit blow and offer thee their assistance for Regeneration and Salvation thou then presently lanchest out and compliest with its motions through its help thou shouldst be seasonably and safely landed in Christ and at the Haven of Heaven but if thou then liest still and neglectest this oportunity God knoweth but thou mayst be dead before the Spirit blow so favorably for thee again Solomon telleth us that there is a time for every purpose under Heaven and a time to be born Eccles 3.1 2. There is time for every purpose that is an opportunity when the work may be done best and with most advantage yea when it must be done or shall not be done at all now such a time such an opportunity there is for the new birth there is an accepted time 2 Coâ— 6â— Psal 3.6 and 55.6 a time when God may be found when he is near a day of Salvation this is when the Spirit moveth and stirreth and offereth thee his help if thou passest by that time and dost not then strike in thou mayst come as Esau too late for the blessing thou mayst as some idle persons that are tippling and drinking in an Ale-house when they should be in the market let slip thy opportunity and finde it too late to buy the wine and milk in the Gospel It is one great misery of men and women that they observe not neither improve their opportunities The turtle and the stork Ier. 8.7 and the crane and the swallow they all know their opportunity and their time but the generation of mankinde neglect theirs O that thou hadst known in this thy day the things which concern thy peace Opportunity is a transient thing it is quickly gone but it bringeth a lasting treasure along with it which if neglected can never be recovered time is all the while a man liveth on earth but opportunity is onely when the Spirit moveth Me ye have not alwayes saith Christ Friend thou wilt make hay while the Sun shineth
thine house one by whom thou expectest to be promoted highly and inriched greatly or one whose heir thou lookest to be how welcome wouldst thou make such a man especially the first time that he commeth to visit thee and upon those very accounts I mean for thy advantage he must have the best room the best fare the most pleasing language the most respectful carriage all things must be done as much as possibly can be according to his mind and nothing must be done which is known to be offensive to him and all lest he should be provoked to forsake thee to cast thee off and to do nothing at all for thee Reader is there not far more reason that when the infinite Spirit of the blessed God cometh to thine heart who onely is able to promote thee to become the child of God an heir of heaven and to inrich thee with the image of God in Regeneration that when he cometh first to thee and for these very ends thou shouldst give him all the respects imaginable that thou shouldst follow his counsel forbeare what thou knowest grieves him do what thou knowest will please him lest he depart away from thee and do none of these things for thee Saul by disobeying the counsel of Samuel from God concerning the slaughter of the Amalekites did so grieve his spirit that Samuel tels him plainly That God had rejected him from being King 1 Sam. 15 â—3 ult And the text saith expresly That Samuel came no more to see Saul until the day of his death that is never nevertheless Samuel mourned for Saul Truly now the Spirit of God delivereth thee counsel to destroy those notorious fins which if thou wilt thou canst forbear should thou spare those fat those King corruptions though the Spirit of God may mourn for thee that thou shouldst be such a wilful soul-murderer and reject the counsel of God against thy self yet he may utterly reject thee from being any of the heirs of the heavenly Kingdom and thou mayst see him no more to the day of thy death If thou livest under the Gospel I question not but the Holy Spirit doth move thee to forsake thine ungodly comrades thy scandalous crimes and to set upon prayer in secret in private Scripture and meditation which I must tel thee that if thou haft will at home as we say thou hast power enough in thine hands to do again and again I pray thee to cherish and obey such motions the Spirit makes short work with some least he bid thee adieu and clap such a curse upon thee that thou never clawest off while thou livest no not whilst thou hast a being It may be this skilful Physitian proceedeth further he doth not onely shew thee thy disease and tell thee what things are bad what things are good for it but also gives thee Physick in order to thy cure and such Physick as works to purpose and makes thee heart sick indeed I mean the Spirit of God proceedeth from illumination to humiliation it doth not onely convince thee of thy wounds and putrified sores but also lanceth and cutteth them applieth a stinging corrosive to eat up thy proud flesh and putteth thee to great pain the Spirit sheweth thee sin and wrath in their colours making thee see the former more frightful then a devil and feel the latter more painful at thy heart then a dagger possibly he takes thee and holds thee as it were over Hell making thee see the smoak of that bottomless pit smell the brimstone and feel the scorchings of that eternal fire that thou beginnest to sink under the weight of thy wickedness and to cry out Mine iniquities are gone over my head Psal 38.1 and they are a burthen too heavy for me to bear Those sins which were as sweet as honey in thy mouth are now taken down into thy belly and they are there more bitter then gall The Law chargeth thee home with its great guns that thou fearest and tremblest and knowest not whither to flie for succor If thou art come thus much of thy journey I would bid thee welcom so far and would tell thee for thy encouragement that these pangs and throws seem to foretell the new birth to be coming if thou sufferest not the Devil and thy corrupt heart to be at thy labour to try their experiments and tamper about thee for questionless they would destroy both thee and the babe of Grace in thy womb but sufferest the Spirit of God to be the midwife and followest his directions I durst be the man that should prophesie an happy and fafe delivery But thou knowest that the condition of one in travel is very ticklish a little miscarriage may then undo both mother and child therefore it behoveth thee now to be extraordinary careful what thou dost and how thou carriest thy self it is as much as thy life is worth For thy direction I shall tell thee what thou shouldst not do and what thou shouldst do Be sure that thou do not run to creatures for comfort Foolish people when sometimes an able Chirurgion hath laid some sharp medicine to their festered wounds which puts them to much pain though unless by such means the rottenness of them be eaten up and the corruption in them forced out they can never be cured yet they are ordinarily so impatient that they will not endure it but as this good woman and that neighbour if they do not know a milder medicine for such a sore surely say they this medicine which the Doctor useth will never do it we finde the member or part very angry and extreamly raging and then some one or other acquainteth them with gentler means which they presently apply and thereby skin over their sores before they are half searched that afterwards the wound either breaks out again and puts them to more pain if ever they be healed or else it keeps still in overspreads the body and kills them Thus thus do too many with the Physitian of their souls and thereby do often undo themselves The Spirit of God applyeth the terrors and consternations the Law to make way and prepare them for the dainties and consolations of the Gospel the good Samaritan poureth wine into the wound to search it before he poureth oil to heal it now foolish men are impatient not able to bear such sad melancholy thoughts as they call them and therefore they often break away from the Spirit of God before they are throughly humbled and run to their earthly enjoyments whereby they get some present ease but here or hereafter far greater pain It is reported of the Italians that in a great thunder they ring their bells and shoot off their canons that the noise of them might drown the voice of the thunder Thus do some with the voice of their awakened and terrified consciences they seek to drown it by the noise of worldly businesses recreations or it may be ungodly delights But surely damning a soul is not
the way to save a soul Reader didst thou never know of any that were in a journey and coming to some deep dirty pochy lane they thought to avoid it and broke over the hedge into the field but when they had rod round and round they could finde no way out but were forced to go out where they got in and then notwithstanding their unwillingness to go through that mirie lane or else not to go that journey Truly so it is in thy journey to Heaven thou art now come to this deep lane of humiliation through which all must go that will reach that City whose builder and maker is God do not think to avoid it no not the least part of it for this is the narrow way and strait gate that leadeth to life Suppose thou shouldst run to the world or any thing here below now thou beginnest to be sensible of thy sickness and pain and so in an hopeful way of recovery First 't is impossible that any of those things can cure thee Miserable comforters are they all and Physitians of no value Can a silver Slipper cure the gout or a golden Crown the head-ach or the greatest Empire in the world the pain of thy teeth much less can these things cure the diseases of thy soul All the wrapping of thy foot that hath a thorn in it though with never such fine scarlet cloth will be altogether ineffectual to ease thee of thy pain for the thorn must be pulled out so must sin be pluck'd out its guilt removed before thou canst possibly be eased But my great reason is which I desire thee to consider seriously shouldst thou throw off this medicine of thy spiritual Physitian because it is somewhat sharp and run to the Empericks and Mountebanks of the world thou wilt provoke thy tender able Physitian to leave thee for what man will bear such affronts and where art thou then what will become of thee for ever Those that work in Coal-mines finde by experience that the earth sendeth up damps which quench and put out their candles and what then becomes of the men that are there they are often slain Shouldst thou like Jonah run from the presence of the Lord to more pleasing employments then the work of a thorow humiliation either he will bring thee back again to the same business by storms and tempests or else such damps will arise from thine earthly interruptions as will quench Gods Spirit and eternally ruine thy spirit The evil spirit I know will be busie to perswade thee to smother and put out the sparkes which the good Spirit hath kindled within thee by heaps of worldly rubbish and dirt but take heed what thou dost for thy soul is at stake if those sparks should die thou art like to live in hell fire for ever Observe how it fared with unhappy Felix He was a Prisoner to his Prisoner and in a ready way to have been one of Christs freemen but now hells jaylor was like to lose one of his captives for I question not but Satan for fear of losing him trembled more then he what therefore through the Divels advice must Felix do He must needs cure himself of his convulsion by an abruptdiversion When the Spirit struck in with the word and caused him to tremble he sendeth Paul away till another season and we never read when that time came Had Felix struck in with the Spirit when the iron of his heart was hot he might have been happy indeed but he quencheth those motions which were so likely to recover his soul and thereby in all probability misseth salvation Some say that Samsons mother was forbidden wine and strong drink all the while she was with child of him partly because that wine and strong drink are naught for the child in the womb I am confident that carnal diversions that To put back thy pangs by earthly affaires much more by wine and strong drink is infiniely prejudicial to the babe of grace and many to one but it may cause thine eternal miscarriage Friend that which in this case I would advise thee to do is to betake thy self to thy closet or chamber and there to fall down before the most high God and to accuse indict and condemne thy self for thy sins poure out thy soul before the Lord in acknowledging the pollution of thy nature the transgressions of thy life with all their bloody aggravations confessing the righteousness of the law and thy obnoxiousness thereby to the infinite and eternal wrath of the Lord. O now is the onely time to repent with that repeniance which is never to be repented of if ever thou wouldst draw water and pour it out before the Lord it must be now the spirit hath thawed the tap neglect this season and it may freeze again speedily When Nathan came from God to David after his fall when he had lain in his impenitency many months and told him of his sins and convinced him that he was worthy to die what doth David do doth he run to his crown or honour or power in the world No. Doth he hastily snatch at the promises No but he goeth to God as appeares by the title and body of the 51. Psalm bewaileth his original and actual sins condemneth himself justifieth God offereth up the sacrifice of a broken heart beggeth hard for pardon and holiness O do thou follow this blessed pattern if thy body were sick of a violent feaver and nature were so far thy friend as when thou wast in thy bed to put thee into a fine sweat and thereby give thee hope of evacuating the ill humours which cause thy disease through the pores what wouldst thou do in this case wouldst thou rise presently and run into the cold aire or wouldst thou not rather abide still in thy bed and if need were call for more cloaths to increase thy sweat whereby thy body might be perfectly cured Thus it is in the state of thy soul thou art sick unto death the Spirit of God is so much thy friend as to help thee to sweat out thy distemper by humiliation and godly sorrow t were a madness in thee now to run to the open air of the world or to do any thing which might hinder this sweating thy onely way is to encourage and increase it by betaking thy self to thy chamber and there to look into thy heart and consider how full it is of unholiness to look back upon thy life and consider how contrary it hath been to the Divinâ—law to look up to God and consider the Majesty holiness and mercy which are in him whom thou hast provoked this is the way to continue and increase thy humiliation and thereby for the spirit delighteth to proceed in assisting those that thus cherish his motions to be perfectly healed Duties now are the Spirits pleasant garden in which he will delight to walk with thee they are like bellows to blow up the heavenly fire into a flame or as
Regeneration First Vse and attend on the means of grace The ordinances of God are the Marts and Faires whereat Christians must trade for grace At them thou mayst buy spiritual commodities without money and without price The ever blessed God hath upon a twofold account enjoyned the use of his ordinances partly out of soveraignty over us that we might thereby acknowledg that homage and fealty which we owe to his Majesty Partly out of mercy to us that we might therein receive of his Spirit and grace By our attendance on ordinances as by a pepper-corn for all that we can do is very little we acknowledg of whom we hold and to whom we are bound and also they are the door at which God giveth his gracious doles The manna of the spirit doth usually fall down in the dews of ordinances Thou hast Gods command for thy warrant Mat. 7.7 8. Isa 55.1 2 3 5. and his promise for thy motive In all places where I record my name there I will come and will bless thee Exod. 20.24 And if thou wouldst know what blessing what alms God giveth at those places There the Lord commandeth his blessing even life for evermore Psal 133.3 God giveth not such blessings anywhere as there there are the mercies of the Throne pardon love peace conversion increase of grace joy in the Holy Ghost the kidneys of the wheat the finest of the flowre and the honey out of the rock of mercy It is said of Constantine that he impoverished all his Empire to enrich Constantinople God doth pass by other parts of the world as waste ground or as a wilderness but the place where he records his Name is his garden that he will dung and dig and dress and take care that it bring forth good fruit there he commands his blessing It is an allusion possibly to great persons to a General or an Emperor Where the word of a King is there is power The Centurion said I say to one Souldier Go and he goeth to another Come and he commeth to a third Do this and he doth it So God commandeth one ordinance Go and build up such a Saint and it goeth he saith to another ordinance Come and call home such a sinner and it doth it Gods word and work goe together Men cannot enable others or give them power to obey them they may bid a lame man walk or a blinde man see but they cannot enable them to walk or see God with his word giveth strength to do the thing commanded as in the old so in the new creation He spake and it was done he commanded and it stood fast Psal 33.9 But there the Lord commands his blessing even life for evermore The stream of Regeneration or a spiritual life which shall never cease but still go forward and increase till it swell to and be swallowed up in the Ocean of eternal life even life for evermore Thou hearest Reader where thy wants may be supplied through what pipes the water of life is conveyed do thou like the impotent man wait at the porch of Solomons Temple begging and expecting some alms God may do more for thee as for him Acts 3.2 8. then thou dost ask or think It was as easie for Boaz and it might have been done with as little charge to have given Ruth as much corn at first as would have yeilded an Epah of barley and so have sent her away without any more ado but he will have her glean it and then break it So God could infuse Grace immediately but he will have men hear read and pray attend on Ordinances though not as masters yet as means of Grace He giveth earthly riches to them that are diligent in their particular callings so he giveth heavenly riches to them that are diligent about their general calling Secondly Observe in this third help a serious constant use of all the means of Grace appointed for this end David in meditation findeth the Spirit kindling that fire which at last broke out into an holy flame Psal 39.3 While I was musing the fire burned The two disciples at godly conference found Jesus Christ to make a third while they were discoursing of him he presents himself to them causeth their hearts to burn within them and openeth their eyes to know him Dead coals are kindled by live ones O 't is good for thee to be among the Saints Thomas by missing one meeting did his soul unspeakable dis-service Cornelius at prayer in his house Acts 10. initiâ— had a messenger from heaven directing him whither to send for one to instruct him in the way of Salvation Prayer hath been a prevalent Orator at the Throne of Grace Many that have gone thither with prayers and petitions have come away with praises and thanksgivings Jacob added tears to his prayes and as a Prince prevailed with God He wept and made supplication and prevailed Hosea 12.4 Musick sounds best upon the waters such water of a sinner mingled with the blood of a Saviour hath melted the very heart of God A broken and a contrite heart O God thou wilt not despise Psal 51.17 When Daniel was fasting his body an angel is sent to feast his soul Dan. 9.21 While some have been casting themselves down God hath been raising them up Papists on their fasting dayes deny themselves flesh but have dainty fare costly sweet-meats Thou mayst Reader if thou humblest thy self under the mighty hand of God expect that he should in his own time lift thee up These duties have helped to increase and also to beget holiness The Eunuch was reading the Scripture when Philip was commanded by commission from the Holy Ghost to joyn himself to his Chariot and to instuct him in the knowledge of Christ Act. 8.33 Junius by reading Joh. 1. Augustine by reading Romans 13. were converted The three thousand Act. 3. by hearing came to love and truly many thousands have found the Gospel of Christ preached to become the power of God unto Salvation Cyprian confesseth that he was converted from idolatry and negromancy by hearing the history of the Prophet Jonas read and expounded by Cecilius whom therefore he calleth the father of his new life Faith and repentance are both wrought by hearing Rom. 10.14 Acts 3.37 The wandring sinner is most frequently reduced by the Scripture either read or heard God cals to him when he is running away saying Return Return O Shulamite Return Return In all Gods great works there is ordinarily a word accompanying it as in the creation God said Let there be light when Christ raised Lazarus Lazarus come forth when he converted Paul Saul Saul why persecutest thou me At the great day Arise ye dead and come to judgment The Devil got in at first into mans heart by his eare The Dragon bites the Elephants eare and thence sucks his blood knowing that to be the onely place which he cannot reach with his trunk to defend The Spirit of God comes in with the word 2
the Serpent that stings thee to death is from thy warming and hatching that egg in thine own breast All the men on earth and all the devils in hell could not damn thee were it not for thy wilfulness in sin And canst thou expect that Jesus Christ should save thee against thine own will that he should carry thee to heaven whether thou wilt or no Believe it a state of sin and wrath is the matter of thine own choice The door which shuts thee out of the fathers house is bolted against thee by thine own hands Answer me this question or else never more make this objection Art thou willing to turn from sin unto God Art thou willing to take the son of God for thy Saviour and Lord If thou art willing I am sure God is willing he hath confirmd it with an oath Ezek. 33.11 Jesus Christ is willing that sinners should live or he would not so willingly have died such a death he hath paid the price of thy ransom and offereth thee an happier estate then that of which Adam deprived thee If thou art willing to accept of thy freedom thou mayst have it If any man will let him drink of the water of life freely Rev. 22. And if thou art not willing why dost thou complain Fourthly I answer the fault is clearly in thy self because thou neglectest to do what thou hast power to do Thou hast power without any special grace to perform duties to hear the word to pray in secret and with thy family to forbear thy wicked company thy swearing lying drinking scoffing at godliness and yet dost not mind those duties constantly nor forbear those sins shall a servant friend be thine own judge which is trusted with five pound to imploy for his Masters honour spend this in whoring and gaming and then blame his master for not trusting him with thousands When man broke by his fall there was some stock left in his hands not enough to set him up again but that which might do him some good now they spend this profusely they throw away those checks of conscience which escaped the ruines of the fall they corrupt themselves in what they know and wickedly refuse to do what they can and yet are so impudent as to flie in the face of the ever-blessed God that he doth not give them power to do more Fifthly thy weakness and impotency should drive thee to Christ for strength Lex data ut gratia quaereretur gra tia data ut lex impleretur Aug. de Spi. et l. 1. cap. 19. Thy misery by the first Adam should cause thee to mind thy recovery by the second Adam The word of God discovereth to thee the necessity of regeneration thine own inability to do it that thou mightst ply the throne of grace flie to Jesus Christ for help and succour A man that is lifting a peice of timber and finds it too heavy for him will call in help thus the Law is a School-master to drive thee to Christ When thou considerest with thy self that thou must be regenerated or damned in hell for ever and that thou art altogether unable to renew and sanctify thy self how diligent should it make thee in attendance on Jesus Christ for his Spirit and grace How shouldst thou wait on thy redeemer in reading hearing praying meditating using all those meanes which he hath appointed for the conversion of thy soul The second objection answered That unregenerate men sin in performing duties and attending on ordinances SEcondly it may be thou wilt say You presse me much to pray and hear and frequent the means of grace but I sin in doing so I sin in praying I sin in hearing and singing and would you have me sin I answer First thou sinnest in eating and drinking and following thy calling in not doing these things upon right principles and for right ends and wilt thou therefore forbear them thou wilt pamper and please thy body right or wrong not onely in the use but even in the abuse of the creatures but how ordinary an excuse will make thee neglect thy soul Secondly Regenerate men themselves sin in all their performances though not in such a manner as unregenerate ones do and should they therefore lay them down Thirdly no pretence whatsoever can excuse from obedience to clear precepts remember also that the commands of God do not interfere or contradict each other Now God expresly commandeth thee though thou art in a natural estate to perform duties Peter when he had told Simon Magus that he was in the gall of bitterness and bond of iniquity yet he bids him pray to the Lord Acts 8.22 if peradventure the thoughts of his heart might be forgiven him our sinning in duties cannot abrogate that Law of God which enjoyns duties as Gods precepts are not measures of our strength so they are not lessened by our weakness The Ninivites though unregenerate as some think yet when threatned with destruction did both pray and fast and found that it was not in vain Jonah 4.3 Fourthly thou sinnest less in performing duties then in neglecting them If thou art resolved to go on in a course of sinning and damning thy soul I know not what to say to thee the Lord pitty thee but if thou hast any desire of Salvation in a Gospel-way thou offendest far far less in waiting on God in his Ordinances then those do that refuse them in performing duties without suitable grace thou failest in the manner of Divine worship others that omit duties fail both in the matter and manner thou owest God outward as well as inward service the confession of thy mouth as well as the conversion of thine heart surely then if thou givest God the former though without the latter thou dost not sin so much as they that give him neither Fifthly shouldst thou neglect the means of grace thou wouldst make thy condition which is already dreadful to be desperate if ever God meet thee it must be in his own way Rom. 10.15 17. Prov. 8. I believe thou scarce ever heardst of any man converted while he cast by the means of grace which God afforded him Sixthly If thy condition be so sad that thou sinnest in all thou dost thou hast the more need to hasten out of it Ah who would be quiet one hour in such an estate wherein what ever he doth is abominable to God! Men that are weak and sickly do not therefore forbear food because they are not able to digest it well and it may possibly yeild some nourishment to their disease but do therefore eat that they may get strength and be enabled to overcome their distempers Seventhly God may meet with thee in the means of Grace The Ordinances of God are the golden pipes through which he conveyeth the oil of Grace from Christ the olive tree God doth not bid thee to wait upon him for nothing thousands have found by happy experience that they are blessed which watch at Wisdoms gate
thy dying soul What more weighty busines hast thou to do then to set upon those things whereby thou mayst avoid unquenchable burnings and arive at fulness of joy and pleasures for evermore Is thy ploughing or sowing thy buying or selling nay thine eating and drinking half so necessary as the Regeneration of thy soul without which the everliving God hath told thee over and over that thou shalt not be saved O that thou didst but believe what it is to be in heaven or hell for ever ever ever I have read of a woman that when her house was on fire she was very busie and wrought hard in carrying out her goods but at last bethought her self of her onely child which she never minded before for eagerness about her goods but had left it burning in the flames and then when it was too late she cryeth and roareth out sadly O my child Ah my poor child Truly thou art in danger thine everlasting estate is every moment in jeopardy if thou now busiest thy self wholly in scraping and carking and caring for thy body forgetting thy poor soul leaving that to the fire that shall never go out consider there is a time I would say an eternity coming when thou wilt think of it though then t will be too late and then O then how sadly how sorrowfully wilt thou sigh and sob howl and roare and screech out O my soul Ah my poor soul how wretchedly have I forgot my precious soul It is an unconceivable mercy that yet thou hast a day of grace wherein thou mayst think of and indeavour the good of thy soul For thy souls sake for the Lords sake O dear friend mind it speedily hear God now he calleth or then though thou callest loud and long he will never never hear thee When the mother of Thales urged him to marry Diog. Laert. he told her that t was too soon she continuing still importuning him he told her afterwards that t was too late Regeneration is thine espousal unto Jesus Christ the father of eternity calleth upon thee wooeth beseecheth commandeth thee now while it is called to day to accept of his own Son for thy Lord and husband do not O do not say T is too soon I will do it hereafter I assure thee before to morrow night God may say T is too late and then thou art lost for ever Hear counsel and receive instruction that thou mayst be wise in thy latter end lest thou mourn at last when thy flesh and thy body are consumed when thy soul is in hell tormented and say How have I hated instruction and my heart despised reproof And have not obeyed the voice of my teachers nor inclined mine care to them that instructed me Pro. 19 20. Pro. 5.11 12 13. An Exhortation to the Regenerate First to give God the glory of that good work which is wrought in them Secondly to do what good they can to the souls of others especially of their relations I Come in the last place to a word of exhortation to the regenerate If without Regeneration none can attain salvation then O new born creature it highly concerneth thee to be thankeful to God and to be faithful to men First be thou thankful to God What wilt thou render to the Lord for this great inestimable benefit Is not thine heart ravished in the consideration of that good wil which took such notice of thee a poor worm Praise saith the Psalmist waiteth for thee in Sion Psal 65.1 and well it may for of Sion it may be said This and that man was born in her Psa 87.5 6. An heathen had three reasons for which he blessed God One of them was that he had made him a man a rationall creature I am sure thou hast more cause to blesse God that he hath made thee not onely a man but a Christian not onely a rational but a new creature They that are new born in Sion have infinite reason to honour God with the songs of Sion If David praised God Psa 139.14 15. because he was wonderfully made in regard of the frame of his body what cause hast thou to praise him for the curious workmanship of grace in thy soul Thou canst never give too great thanks for whom God hath wrought such great things Do thou say The Lord hath done great things for me whereof I am glad Ps 125.3 What joy is there at the birth of a great heir or a prince What ringing of bels and discharging of guns and making of bon-fires when those infants are born to many crosses as well as to crowns nay and their Scepters wither and crowns moulder away O the joy which thou mayst have in God who art born a child of God an heir of heaven of a kingdom which can never be shaken Do wicked men keep the day of their natural births with so much pleasure and delight when they were therein born in sin and brought forth in iniquity when by reason of those births they are obnoxious to eternal death and wilt thou not keep the day of thy spiritual birth with joy whereby thou art purified from thy natural pollution and assured of entrance into the purchased possession where thou shalt be perfectly purified It was the speech of Jonadab to Ammon Why art thou lean from day to day being the Kings son so say I to thee Why art thou sad who art Gods son Rejoyce O Christian thy name is written in the book of life thy soul hath the infalliable token of special and eternal love It was matter of great joy that Christ was born at Bethlehem Behold I bring you good tidings of great joy For to you is born this day in the City of David a Saviour which is Christ the Lord Luk. 2.10 11. but I tell thee it may be matter of greater joy to thee that Christ is born in thine heart For notwithstanding the birth of Christ in Bethlehem thousands and millions go to hell but Christ was never formed in any ones heart but that man went to heaven It is reported of Annello who lately made an insurrection at Naples that considering how mean he was before and to what greatness he was raised he was so transported that he could not sleep O how shouldst thou be transported with the thoughts of that infinite happiness of which thou art an heir Serve the Lord with gladness come before his presence with singing for it is he that hath new made us and not we our selves enter into his gates with thanksgiving and into his courts with praise be thankeful unto him and bless his name Psalm 100. per tot Give thanks to God in thine heart by an humble admiration and in thy life by an holy conversation First Give thanks to God in thine heart by an humble admiration of his bottomless mercy If David when he considered the glorious heavens which God had made for man cryeth out so affectionately What is man that thou art mindful of
themselves godly men must be like candles which being lighted kindle others Grace is compared to oil which is of a diffusive spreading nature Matth. 25.4 and it doth like the oil in the widows barrel increase by pouring out the oil never ceased running till she ceased pouring The more thou improvest thy little stock of Grace the more thy master will trust thee with Peter Martyr speaketh of some mountains of salt in Cumana which whilst they lay common for the good of many never wasted though Merchants carried away in abundance but when they were once ingrossed to one mans use they consumed away He that hath greatest layings out for God shall have greatest comings in from God The loaves increased not whilst they were whole in the basket but whilst they were breaking and distributing to others Womens milk increaseth by drawing if the brest be not drawn it will dry up Prov. 11.14 15. He that soweth liberally shall reap liberally Believe it Friend the onely way to make thy one pound ten pounds is by trading with it I speak not of thy intruding into the Ministers calling but of dealing faithfully with the souls of thy friends and relations in thy place and station Truly one would think that every time thou considerest the dreadful danger of poor sinners thine heart should almost bleed within thee Jesus Christ groaned and wept for dead Lazarus How did David mourn for dead Absolom At a funeral though there be much cost yet there is no chear because one is dead What bowels of pity shouldst thou have towards them that are dead spiritually nay dying eternally Dost thou not remember there was a time when no eye pitied thee when God passed by thee and saw thee polluted in thine own blood yea when thou wast in thy blood he said unto thee Live behold that time was the time of love to thy soul canst thou now behold others wallowing in their pollutions weltring in their soul blood and thine eyes not affect thine heart with pity to them Especially we that are parents should use all means for the Regeneration of our children and relations We have a little sister that hath no breasts what shall we do for her said the Jews Cant. 8.8 Have not we little Children that have no Christ no hope no grace O what shall we do for them in the day that they shall be spoken for When Samson had found honey in the carcass of the lyon he did not onely eat himself but carryed some to his father and mother thou hast found hony and sweetness in the carcass of the Lyon of the tribe of Judah in a crucified Christ wilt thou not endeavour that thy relations and friends may share with thee Friend canst thou think without trembling on the unnaturalness of most fathers and mothers towards their children All their care is to get earth enough for them but never mind the instating them in heaven the Ostrich leaves her eggs in the earth Iob 39.14 15 and warmeth them in the dust where the foot crusheth them and the wild beast breaks them thus worldly men warm the fruit of their bodies in the earth are diligent to leave them dust enough but consider not that the foot of Gods fury will crush them and the roaring Lion devoure them if they be not Regenerated O the many soul murders which worldly parents commitâ— but if thou art born again I am perswaded nay I am confident of better things of thee thou darest not but teach thy sons Gods ways and labour that thy servants may be converted to him Christianity doth not diminish but rectify thy natural affection it causeth thee to love thy relations not less but better then thou didst before grace makes thy love to run out towards their souls and their spiritual and eternal good O what an honour and priviledge is it that thou mayst be instrumental for the saving of souls Jam. 5.2 ult which that thou mayst be take these three words for thine help First Be sure that thou set them a good pattern let thy life be so exact that others may write after thy copy with credit Look on thy self as new born for this end that thou mightest adorn the Doctrine of God thy Saviour Parents and Masters are often authentick patterns to all their inferiours their zeal will provoke many and if they fall as tall cedars they beat down many shrubs O therefore do nothing of which thou mayst not say to thy family and neighbours as Gideon to his souldiers Iudg 7.17 Look on me and do likewise It is reported of the Hares of Scythia that they teach their young ones to leap from bank to bank from rock to rock by leaping before them which otherwise they would never learn and by this means when they are hunted no beasts can overtake them Do thou set others a pattern in the performance of duties and in the exercise of graces that others learning by thine example may thereby be secured from Satan the great destroyer The morall is good of the fable The old crab bid the young one got forward Shew me the way saith the young crab the mother goeth backward and sideling the daughter followeth her saying Lo I go just as you do Truly thus thy little ones will quickly imitate thy doings Be careful therefore how thou livest walk circumspectly consider of every expression and action not onely whether it be lawful but also whether it be expedient and exemplary Thy religious pattern may do more good then the Ministers preaching they preach with their lips one day in a weak but thou by thy life preachest all the week long 1 Pet. 2.12 Have thy conservation honest among others that they may glorifie God in the day of their visitation 1 Pet. 2.12 Secondly Let thy prayers be constant and instant for their Regeneration How can I see the death of my childe said Hagar Alas how canst thou see the eternal death of thy dear children When thou kneelest to prayer with thy wife children and servants and considerest that death will shortly break up thy house and then heaven and hell will claim their due The Regenerate shall go to heaven the unregenerate to hell Thou and they who live together are likely to be parted asunder for ever Good Lord How shouldst thou pray for them with what fervency with what importunity Thou art new born and knowest that hell and heaven are no jesting matters Iohn 4.23 doth not thine heart ake to think that any of thine should dwell in everlasting burnings O go to Christ as the Centurion for his sick child Sir come down ere my child die Lord come down ere my poor children die for ever And as the woman of Canaan Have mercy on me O Lord thou Son of David my daughter is grievously vexed with a devil Lord help me If thou canst do any thing help them Lord pitie poor children and form thy dear Son in them thus carry thy little children
of the nature of the blessed God as he is in himself therefore the Holy Ghost doth speak of God by the most excellent beings which our understandings reach as Spirits are for God is questionless such a spiritual being as is far above the most enlarged understanding Besides we are so clog'd and piniond with flesh that we know but little yea very little of our own spirits much less what a Spirit God is But there thou shouldst if converted know him fully thy understanding should be enlarged and satisfied Those scales which now hang about thine intellectual eye should then fall off and thou that didst behold him upon earth in the galss of his Gospel shouldst then see him face to face as the Sun doth by his beams and brightness so enlighten the eye and the air that we see thereby not onely other creatures but its own most glorious body so God would by the beams and beauty of his majesty so irradiate thy minde that thou shouldst see both the comeliness of his creatures and the brightness of his own being Thou shouldst know the great mystery of the Trinity the love of the Father the wisdom of the Son the sweet fellowship of the Holy Ghost That Riddle which now puzleth thee should there be unfolded thou shouldst know how the Father begat the Son how the Spirit proceeded from Father and Son and the difference between the generation of the Son and procession of the Spirit Thou shouldst know God in the unity of his nature now the Saints know him most by his Attributes which indeed differ not at all from his Being they are but different manifestations of one individed essence and distinguished by us for our better understanding of the Divine Nature but they are all the same in him and in themselves and then we shall know so Thou shouldst know the Hypostatical Union Ioh. 14.20 how the Son of God became the Son of Man that wonder of wonders Emanuel God with us God and Man in one person would be clearly seen all those knots would be untied thou shouldst then plough with Gods heifer and understand all his ridles thou shouldst know all things in God that were to be known in a full manner in a large measure to thine infinite comfort and content Thou shouldst know all this and far more for thy good If a little knowledge of God here be so pleasant to the soul Psal 19.10 though it be but a glimpse of him in the dawning of themorning what satisfaction will the compleat knowledge of him yeild to see that Sun at noon day If it be life eternal to know God and Jesus Christ imperfectly what will it be to know them perfectly and so as to enjoy them fully surely such instruction will be better then silver and such knowledge then choice gold this wisdom is better then rubies and all that thou canst desire is not to be compared to it How much have many wasted their wealth dried their brains macerated their bodies for a little knowledge of Nature which when they had gone to their utmost could not satisfie them they might as soon have broke their necks as their fasts by such knowledge but of what inestimable value is the knowledge of the God of Nature is the knowledge of him in Christ here and O of what incomparable worth will it be to know him as we are known of him to see him face to face this will be without question the beatifical vision Fifthly thou shouldst know the extent and truth of all the promises in the word which concern thy welfare in the other world How various and how precious are the promises which relate to heaven God promiseth his children such as are born of him large portions when they shall come to age unto the measure of the stature of the fulness of Christ And thou shouldst then find that God will make good his word to a title He promiseth that they shall rest from their labours and their works shall follow them That they shall be before the throne and serve him day and night in his temple and he that sitteth on the throne shall dwell among them That they shall hunger no more nor thirst any more neither shall the Sun light on them nor any heart For the Lamb which is in the midst of the throne shall feed them and shall lead them unto living fountains of waters and God shall wipe away all teares from their eyes Rev. 7.3 ult He promiseth that they shall be with Christ where he is and behold his glory John 17.24 That they shall not be hurt of the second death That they shall eat of the tree of life which groweth in the midst of the Paradise of God That they shall be cloathed in white raiment and not blotted out of the book of life but confessed before the father and the holy Angels Rev. 2.7 11. and 3.5 Christ promiseth him that overcommeth will I make a pillar in the temple of my God and he shall go no more out and I will write upon him the name of my God and the name of the City of my God which is new Jerusalem and I will write upon him my new name Rev. 3.12 That they which overcome shall sit down with him on his throne even as he hath overcome and is sit down with his father on his throne Revel 3.21 Look Psalm 16. ult and 17. ult Rom. 8.18 2 Cor. 5.1 1 Cor. 13.12 Mat. 8.11 1 Pet. 1.4 Phil. 3.21 1 Thess 4.2 ult 1 John 3.2 Ephe. 5.25 26. All these promises and many more shall be fully accomplished There shall not one good thing of all that the Lord hath spoken be unfulfilled The expectation of the promises hath filled several of Gods Children with extasies and ravishments of spirit what joy then will the possession of them bring The very thought of a promise hath made them like Leviathan to laugh at the shaking of Spears at the threatning of their adversaries nay to kiss stakes and smile at fire and fagots O what then will the performance be The promises are large but our straitened minds cannot understand their breadth but then happy experience shall teach us their full latitude they are now like bones which have the sweetest meat upon them and the sweetest marrow in them but we are not able here to pick them clean nor to suck out half the marrow but then we shall taste and enjoy every thing in them Now when we read of drinking of the rivers of Gods pleasures of dwelling in his house of a kingdome and thrones and scepters and palms and crowns of glory and reigning with Christ for ever and ever our hearts are ready to faint as Jacob at the news of his Sons honour in Egypt and as the Queen of Sheba at the news of Solomons wisdom believed it not so we What God look upon such sinks of sin such clods of clay as we are and make our vile bodies like unto the
Had he studied a thousand years for a name he could not have called it by a worse name then its own sinful sin Luther saith that could a man but see perfectly the evil of his sins on earth it would be an hell to him such a frightful ugly monster is sin Look on sin which way thou wilt and it is exceeding sinful the evil of evils Take it in its nature it is a deviation from Gods Law a wandring from his word a casting his Law behinde the back the Law is strait sin is crookedness Psal 125.5 The Law is holy sin is defilement Rom. 7.12 2 Cor. 7.1 The Law is just sin is unrighteousness 1 John 1.7 The Law is liberty sin is bondage Jam. 2.8 12. 2 Tim. 2.26 Sin is a defacing of Gods image it blots and blurs that fair and beautiful writing not onely meritoriously as it provokes God to withdraw his Grace but physically Numb 15.30 Rom. 2.23 24. 2 Sam. 12.12 as one contrary expels another Hereby it dishonours Gods name and reproacheth his Majesty for what greater disgrace can be done to a Prince then to tread his orders under foot and tear and scratch and deface his picture Nay Lev. 22.26 Zec. 11.8 Rom. 8.7 Rom. 1.30 1 Sa. 15.23 Isa 1.2 Rom. 6 16. Psal 14.1 it s a defying and fighting against God a walking contrary to him a daring of him it is enmity against him loathing him hatred of him contrariety to him it is against his Soveraignity and so is rebellion against his mercy and so is unkindness against his justice and so is unrighteousness against his wisdom and so is folly against his will Omne seccatu est deicidium and so is stubbornness Were it strong enough it would ungod him were the sinners power according to his corrupt heart he would pluck God out of Heaven I would I were above God saith Spira When the body of sin is nailed as a thief on the Cross yet even then it will rage as he and spit out poison against Heaven Reader Canst thou finde in thine heart to hug and embrace such a Traytor against the gracious and blessed God! To stretch out thine hand against God as every sinner doth and strengthen thy self against the Almighty Vid. Car. in loc 10 this purpose Job 15.25 Stretch out thine hand against God! No man should lift up a word against God our mouthes should shew forth his praise Stretch out thine hand against God! no man should lift up a thought against God our meditations of him should be for him Stretch out thine hand against God every man should bow down and worship before God and be satisfied in what ever he saith and doth Stretch out thine hand against God! thou art bound to stretch out thine heart and hand and tongue to think and speak and act and all for God and all little enough Take sin in its effect and what evil is like it Eccl. 1.3 it is the cause of all other evils Dost thou consider the emptiness vanity and vexation in the creatures the heavens fighting against man the earth bearing thorns and briars the diseases in mens bodies the burning Feavor watery Dropsie aking teeth running Gout wracking Stone renting Collick the quivering lips trembling loins gastly looks of dying men The horrors of conscience flashes of the infernal fire curses of the Law wrath of God torments of Hell all these are the fruits of sin All misery calleth sin mother this is the root of bitterness upon which they grow the wages of sin is death Rom. 6.21 ult and 5.12 that big-bellied word Death hath all these woful brats in its belly and Sin is the father that begat them Sin turned Adam out of Paradise Angels into Devils Sodom and Gomorah into ashes flourishing Families Cities Kingdoms into ruinous heaps Sin shuts heaven against man laid the foundation of that dark vault of hell Sin kindled the fire of hell Sin feeds it with fuel and will keep it burning for ever Oh what an evil is sin who would not hate it more then hell Is it good to play with such fire as sin is didst thou believe sin to be the cause of all this thou wouldst never open thy heart or mouth more for it Dost thou know that as where the effect is good the cause is better so where the effect is bad the cause is worse Can there be worse effects then eternal separation from God and suffering the vengeance of eternal fire how bad is sin then which is the cause of them Take sin as a punishment and 't is the evil the only evil there is no suffering like to this to be given up to a course of sining Reader take heed of continuing an hour longer in thine ungodly practices it may be thou hast been ready to think it a great happiness to sin without controle to run in the road of the flesh and to meet with no rubs to prosper though thou art wicked I tell thee and think of it the longest day thou livest for it highly concerneth thee that the infinite God never claps a more dreadful curse on any man or woman on this side hell then to give them up to sin If God should give thee up to the sword famine most painful diseases to thy most cruel potent and malicious enemies to be wrackt by them at pleasure these were nothing to this to be given up to one sin When God hath used his rods scourging men and they will not reform then he takes this ax and presently execution followeth to be delivered up to the power of men may be the lot of Gods sons but to be delivered up to the power of sin is the portion of Rebels of Reprobates This is the stinging whip with which God punisheth Ephrahim 2 Tim. 3.13 2 â—hess 2.10 11. Ephraim is joyned to Idols there is his impiety but what grievous punishment shall he have for his God-provoking Idolatry Let him alone Hos 4.17 It is not I will send the raging pestilence or cruel famine or bloody sword but he is joyned to idols let him alone I will not have him disturbed or molested but he shall have his will though it prove his everlasting woe Rom. 1.21 22. Psal 81.11 12. Hos 8.11 It is a woe with a witness 1 Cor 5. comp with 2 Cor. 7. for God to let thy lusts like so many ravenous Lions loose upon thee and to lay the reins of thy sins upon thy own neck We read of one delivered up to Satan yet he was saved but never of any delivered up to their sins but they were damned It was a sad sight which Abraham saw when he beheld flakes of fire rained from heaven upon the Sodomites but it was a sadder which Lot beheld when he saw the fire of hell burning in their hearts and breaking out in their lives and his righteous soul was vexed therewith Reader have a care that thou never in thy heart plead more for