all Weepe and howle Iam. 5.1 ye rich Iewes for your miseries ready to come upon you You have but gathered your wealth for your enemies and such canker and rust of sinne cleaves unto it that it will witnesse and worke against you Your pleasures profits preferments and wantonnesse have fed and filled your hearts for the day of slaughter You have killed the just without resistance but by their patience and your persecution you are now to perish and the Lord is nigh to execute the same upon you I touch still what I have taught before because I would be remembred and made fruitfull to my Reader The losse of their lives and liberties Never died people more desperately and the market they had made to sell the bloud of Gods servants for nothing is now made for them The Romans buy theirs as cheape as ever they sold Christs Never Tragedy more lamentable and if Iesus Christ had not taken some pitty upon them there had not beene left one piece of their flesh untorne in pieces Mat. 24.22 Neither was captivity better than death Ier. 22.10 That was never more verifyed thā now for to this day have they lived in their remainders as the most remarkeable wretches in the world Let this end of the Iewes be our instruction and admonition that we may be wise and not perish for the contempt of the Gospel Their misery in the world to come The bloud of Christ pursues them to Hell It is not satisfied with the bloud in their bodies but deservedly makes them a prey to Divels as well as men It were an harsh censure to say they went all to Hell that perished by the Romans We will examine their case by Scripture and a fearefull presage thereof in the Revelation The eternall end of the Iewes Matth. 24.13 Hee that shall endure to the end the same shall be saved Men even amongst you will apostatize and fall to the Iewes againe but whosoever shall hold out till their end come shall not perish with them v. 15. Men are bidden reade with understanding An Item set upon no other signe but this When you see the Roman Army placed in the Mount of Olives escape for your lives But how shall they escape when the Army lies in their way and a watch against them on every side the City I answer God raised the first Army and gave liberty to all that would reade and understand to be gone and now went the Christians to Pella as I have shewed this prophecie for their safety being seconded with a sound from heaven saying Goe to Pella goe to Pella The promise is that Christians sound and sincere in faith to the end shall escape History tels us they escaped who then perishes but rebels to the Gospel The Text tels us that the beleeving Iewes had the beginning and that the end was for all those that obeyed not the Gospel It give men leave to be charitable but I desire sinne may have his due and especially Gospel-sinnes Let men tremble that have a minde to treate more favourably of this end and see what it is to call for the bloud of Christ to be upon them The presage of their eternall woe Saint Iohn lived to see it and penned his Revelation after the destruction of the Citie He alters the style of Hell and gives it a name that no Prophet or Apostle did before him Hee deserves to be named that helped me to this knowledge Master Ioseph Mede whose praise to Gods glory bee it spoken I can never blazen too much I shall recall what I quoted in one place for the style of Hell Rev. 19 20. The Lake of Sodome or fire and Brimstone A new appellation of Hell upon this accident as that judicious and industrious man relateth it Multitudes of Iewes being met withall by the Romans upon the banks of Iordan are miserably slaughtered as formerly was touched and their dead bodies buried in the River But GOD will not suffer them there to rest but by the strength of the streame tumbles them from place to place till hee plunge them into the Lake of Fire and Brimstone for their buriall and graves A sad spectacle in my judgement and no small conjecture that their soules were buried in hell Saint Iohn seemes to intimate so much to me I will not bind any man to the strict observation of it still my desire is to presse the punishment of disobedience to the Gospel Such notes I am sure thou mayest credite better than Popish legends and fables to make men feare hell into which by Idolatry they teach them to leape and never listen after any legend or reading to prevent that I will now wholly leave the instance of the Iewes and teach all the misery of Hell in the lamentable extremity of it and extreame lamentation Matthew 13.42 A furnace of fire there is the lamentable extremitie wailing and gnashof teeth there is extreame lamentation The extremitie we will expresse in foure termes first fire secondly darkenesse thirdly worme fourthly perdition The fire of Hell Fire and water as they are of best use so wee say of them they are without mercy It is their nature to doe what they doe but it is the nature and property of God to have mercy and therefore most unnaturall to be without mercie It is just with God to change his mercy into justice and kindle for the damned an unmercifull fire Wee can quench our unmercifull fires with water but in hell no water no not a drop will bee allowed not to quench but not so much as to coole the heate of that flame upon the tippe of the tongue The fire is a fearefull extremity that nothing can allay it Spirits are agents too subtile to be patients in our fire they are more quicke in avoyding than that element can smite them It hath beene much questioned by Schoolemen what we might deeme hell fire to be If corporall how shall it torment spirits and soules of men If spirituall how bodies and the flesh of men It were casie to answer by adding to fire the breath of the Almighty who is able to extend or contract any creature to touch bodies or spirits with what torments he pleaseth I had rather rest in some lively example than busie my selfe with rules of uncertainties Our blessed Lord and Saviour is best able to tell us by experience what fire that is that God kindles against sinne and with what extremitie it scorcheth and scourgeth the poore soule that must buckle and bend under it I will present unto you for an example Iesus Christ in the Garden and upon the Crosse Christs agony in the Garden Feare and sorrow begin his Passion The objects that feare Christ and worke him to sorrow are no easie scarcrowes and spectrums of men Nay all the Devils in hell are not able to put Christ into a Passion To make him heavy in heart and soule is no small weight of woe to complaine it presseth him to the very
have thoughts of fulnesse in themselves Their vertues and good actions are all they boast of and therefore these men prove barren under the Gospell With these full Pharisees wee have another sort of people in as great danger upon a contrary ground faith is their glory and they seare not to â—ee found with the best in Gods favour Aske thâ—se 〈◊〉 in good earnest 〈◊〉 they were convinced of sinne and they will bee briefe with you that they scorne but to bee lesse holy than the best and to reprove them is audacious slander Why but are you not sinners yes for fashion sake they will not deny that Are we not all sinners But what say you to want of faith in Christ to this they have a vulgar and grosse answer marry God forbid I should be so bad as not to beleeve in Christ I thanke God I love him with my very heart and so have done ever since I was borne But were you never soundly convinced by the Gospell and Gods Spirit of this great want What would you make us infidels wee abhorre to thinke of such questions goe and aske them the Turkes for we by the grace of God will never turne Turkes and take part against Christ But when came this perswasion into your hearts and by what meanes was it wrought I finde Iohn 16.8 9. a Spirit of conviction what say you Have you heard of this Spirit since you were baptized how and in what manner hath this Spirit wrought in you Truly we beleeve there is such a person in the Trinity for so we were baptized but for such a gift it is all one to us as if there were no Spirit at all Now poore soules you have put them besides all their divinity and convinced them of that for which they give God thankes blessing God they never wanted faith which assures them they never had it for to want it is the way to have it and to beleeve the contrary an undoubted testimony of their dangerous presumption God open their eyes and bring them to a better triall by the truth of his word I will therefore descend into a more strickt examination of the sinne and the judgement in my text and deale right downe in the whole worke of the conviction Iohn 16.8 and then againe repeate the judgements and summon up as many particulars as my memory and Gods mercy shall suggest unto mee I will reade this text alleadged and deale by faire and capitall titles for the more firme and faithfull remembrance of my Reader in all that followeth A glorious Kingdome Iohn 16.8 And when he is come c. There bee two great Doctors come from the Father into the world by whom he will convince the world before he judge it and these two succeed the one the other the first absents himselfe and the other comes in his roome To finde Christ a successor in man is the crime of the Church of Rome of which they are now ashamed and by correction mend their Authors and bid them say the Pope is the Vicar of Christ and Successor of S. Peter But by their leave they yet want an Index expurgatorius to expunge and wipe out the Pope and put in a more equall for Christ left by himselfe when he left this earth fitter to bee both Christs Vicar and Successous These two excellent Teachers undertake the conviction of the world before the condemnation of it So dealt Iesus Christ with the Iewes We will enlarge our selves in the worke of the Trinity and bee ample in the view of their Kingdome The excellent and admirable administration of Gods Kingdome There bee three persons in the Divine nature that worketh all things yet are all things wrought in a wonderfull and most distinct and unconfused manner The Father of himselfe and to himselfe worketh all things and so is the beginning and end of every action 1 Cor. 8.6 The progression from this beginning and regression to this end is the rarest and sweetest mysteries in the Bible In the progression the Father goes on by the Sonne and both Father and Sonne by the blessed Spirit and here beginnes the immediate administration of the Kingdome within the Spirit alwayes taking the possession of it I will open clearely this Divine and ravishing secret and set men on work with no new notion but an old truth for I abhorre to deflect from the wayes of Antiquity Of the progression and regression of the Kingdome from and to the Father St. Paul setling true religion upon the surest pillars pluckes downe the rotten and ragged pillars of Pagans and Papists 1 Cor. 8.6 To us there is but one God the Father of whom are all things and wee to him c. Many gods confound themselves in their beginning and end and therefore if creatures were from them they should bee confounded in their originall this confusion would breed a greater they should not know whom to serve But wee saith the Apostle have this errour corrected in one God neither neede wee be confounded with many persons for they are our best helpe in religion Take the first person make him the beginning of all creatures and our end in speciall and we shall know both to whom wee are beholding and to whom we owe our thankes The Heathen have no such knowledge they neither know Author nor end of their actions praise In this wee agree with them that to goe to God without a mediator is presumption in both and therefore they have their many lords to goe by to their many gods and are here againe confounded in their praiers not knowing to what Saint to turne Fryer Teitis made a sermon that Saints might bee served with the Lords prayer for that it was a common question with the Romane Chanters to demand to whom do you say your Pater noster This is a straine of the old religion and many lords of the Heathen and therefore Christ being put out or shuffled in with the multitude it was no marvaile such a question should bee raised for to God must we goe by a mediator but Paul in the progression of our religion hath given us better direction that as the Father by one Lord Iesus Christ hath made all things so we if we will proceede aright must by the same Lord Iesus Christ and no other goe to the same Father and so in conclusion after a long and glorious perigrination upon earth we shal be brought to the Father that hee in us as Paul witnesseth 1 Cor. 15.28 may be all in all Of the Sonnes mediation in this Kingdome It was expedient for us that the Father should send his Sonne for wee which are the best of his creatures being lapsed cannot without Christ serve our end He is 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 1 Cor. 8.6 Ephs 4.5 1 Tim 2.5 and 6â—15 c. the alone mediator and powerfull potentate with God for us For this end he is incarnate and to this purpose he lives and dies riseth from
the dead conferreth forty dayes of this Kingdome Act. 1.3 and so departeth into heaven and makes further way for progresse in this kingdome and to perfect this sends his Spirit telling us of a truth how expedient this is for them that are now to bee left to preach his kingdome to have him depart that the second Doctor may come Expedient and necessary for all that are to be saved for Christ being risen againe had all power and iudgement from his Father Mat. 28. c. The present execution of this power had beene a woefull thing with the world being both unrighteous and unholy Christ redeemed it and therefore will not presently destroy it but commands in the same place that proclamation of his power bee made and being with his Heraulds unto the end will in the end call the world to an account and shew both his power their iudgement This great Embassage into all the world had need of some noble Agent to leade the way and bee present with the holy Apostles and their successours and this honourable person is the third person in the blessed Trinity in whose hands and administration Gods Kingdome is for this present age and of which wee are now to speake The Kingdome of Grace In the Lords prayer wee petition Thy kingdome come our understandings at this day abbreviate this petition and are defective in the expression of it and so consequently our prayers come short of their dutie deale with God for no more than they know We wil God assisting inlarge our thoughts in the regression of the Kingdome from the Spirit to the Father againe and shew First the administration of the Spirit Secondly of the Sonne Thirdly of the Father and so teach you plainely to pray for the Kingdome of grace Kingdome of power and Kingdome of glory when all is returned to the Father The Kingdome within and seated in mens hearts Luke 17.20 21. The Pharisees would have a Kingdome by observation but Christ knowing the Kingdomes administration first to rest in the Spirit and grace thereof takes away that error and according to the nature of the Kingdome sets and seates it within for such as is the government such must bee the Kingdome The government spirituall therefore the kingdome spirituall Grace and the Spirit of grace carry no outward pompe and externall state but are all glorious within And this is that kingdome that suffereth violence without and is oppressed by rebels and traitours to the Lord Iesus and their owne soules The Kingdome of violence The Kingdome of Gods Spirit is the most pious and peaceable Kingdome in the world yet suffereth more than all kingdomes as shall now appeare Math. 11.12 Luke 16.16 Gods kingdome under the Law and the Prophets suffered violence and so shall it under Iohn Christ his holy Apostles and Ministers doe for the time of the Gospell I know these texts are strained to another sense and so my selfe have beene a follower of this violence till that man of God M. Ioseph Meade cleared my sight by his industrious and judicious observation of the text It may bee we are both deceived it becomes humble men not to bee peremptory in crossing and controlling others We all agree of the violence offered to the Kingdome of grace and disagree in the proofe of it by these texts Heare then mine arguments and reasons which I subject to the spirit of the Prophets 1. Christs answer by the Law the Prophets sheweth the conformity betweene the old and the new Testament the ancient and surrogate Israel of God Violence waited upon the Church before Christ and so will it now and after him It is your error O foolish Iewes to looke now for a kingdome by observation and to see your selves more redeemed from the Romines and men than from devils your sleves more deadly enemies You have more neede to have Sathan displaced than your selves placed in a temporall Monarchy I am come to save your soules from sinnes and not your bodies from bondage Secondly Iohn that now preacheth the new Kingdome is in prison Math. 11.2 and must lose his head I looke for no greater favour my Apostles will succeede mee and by succession it will last till I come and take the Eagles off the carkeise Luk. 17.37 3. The Kingdome is preached a thing that the world hateth and therefore will every man have a blow at it and violent men will prey upon it this reading the texts will render without all renting and tearing the phrases 4. The word signifying violence or violent men was never taken by any Author for inward violence or motions free and voluntary but for outward force and externall power putting others to be patients of their persecutions and punishments The Spirits conquest God is not wanting to his poore servants but gives courage and consolation in all their oppressions The Spirit sets up such a Kingdome in the heart and soules of Gods people that no paine or perill can prevaile to conquer their faith and confidence They are resolved to carry their lives in their hands rather dye than deny that truth that the holy Ghost hath taught them This spiritual I Kingdome subdues all Kingdomes yea more than all Kingdomes for it gaines that victory over our selves which is more than any earthly conquest Conquest by convict on The greatest opposition to the Spirit of grace is in our selves It were easie to ruine all the world and in such conquests and conversions men have shewed their might and manhood but to enter the house held by the strong man both of corruption in our selves and suggestion of Sathan out of our selves is a potent and powerfull worke of grace Gods Spirit alone is able to beate downe these holds helpe in the conquest of our selves and subjection to the Kingdome preached and offered vs in the Gospell He it is that brings in faith to beleeve and excludes infidelity That raiseth up in us the comfort of Christs righteousnesse and rejecteth our owne That teacheth us holynesse and how to deny all ungodlinesse and every worldly lust and to live soberly in our selves righteously to others and godly to our King and Commander of the severall branches of conviction we shall intreate afterwards and shew what sinnes are convicted and controuled in us and how wee ought to see them and sorrow for them c. Conviction by supportation The Spirit in this Kingdome of grace worketh effecteth another strange worke and operation upon the world in giving his subjects power of conquest in trials and to triumph over the world and all its workings and mischiefes Rom. 8.37 In all these things we are more than conquerours What things even the worst that the world can doe unto us and that is to make us Martyres and themselves murtherers yea even to murther themselves to see us so little affected with their torments We stand still and do nothing and see our salvation of God To conquer by passion is cleane
bring home the convictions of Grace that we may not with these stubborne Iewes disobey thy Gospel and bring upon us and our habitations their end and misery And thus much of their first sinne I will speed on in the rest and spend lesse time in my discourse It was needfull to beate this sinne home and make the greater stay because the greater stirre hath beene made about it The denyall of righteousnesse Morrall and civill men never knew the meaning of Evangelicall and Christian righteousnesse What Law acknowledgeth a man just by another mans justice or wise by another mans wisedome Papists deride it and the world hath not learned how to conceive of it It is a great sinne to live in this ignorance and an assurance to a man hee wants wisedome to know his own justification Hee rests in hope he is righteous and wanting the knowledge of Christ perisheth in his own pride and presumption Christ is both righteous in himselfe and for us and so is no man in the world A world of unrighteous men We have a world of wicked men that are destitute of common honesty but if we adde to them even another world of honest men that know no more than good neighbourhood what a vast heape and confusion have we of men and women unrighteous before God and destitute of Iesus Christ A world is heere condemned for want of righteousnesse and alas how did the blinde Iewes oppose this righteousnesse and seeing themselves just by another Law than the Gospel are now frying in hell for their disobedience Conviction of righteousnesse It is pitty the world should perish without reproofe of this sinne It is that which Christ and all his Apostles laboured to bring the Iewes unto They condemned Christ for a malefactour and by his resurrection and ascension hee prooved plaine that he was both just and the justifier of sinners Here is strong conviction by reason and force of argument No man can goe to God the Father that is unrighteous There is no acceptation of such into heaven Now I have many witnesses saith Christ of my ascension You shall see me ascend and see mee no more upon earth You are my faithfull ones to you I make demonstration of my righteousnesse that you may demonstrate the same to others The office of the Spirit in this conviction The world lies in sinne and is held by Satan in strong condemnation It was a lie at the first that murthered himselfe and all mankind Iohn 8.44 Hee stood not in the truth it was that which he opposed from the beginning First by a question Hath God said c. Secondly by a contradiction Yee shall not dye at all c. Thirdly by disputation God knowes and yee may know that to eate and feare no death will make you wise and worthy to be like God himselfe c. Thus was man murthered and by a lye deluded of his happinesse and became a loser of that righteousnesse that God imprinted in his soule when he first breathed it into his body This losse can never be repaired by another of the same stampe and therefore the Spirit of God beginning with feare to put a man beside himselfe and his own presumption openeth unto him his bondage and basenesse in sinne and from the very bottome of hell recovereth him by the righteousnesse of Christ and puts into him a more ingenuous Spirit to looke up to God in Christ and call him Father and by adoption and grace to finde himselfe the childe of God heire of righteousnesse and inheritour of the Kingdome of God Rom. 8.15 His comming for this end The great Doctour CHRIST IESVS absenting himselfe sends another to be present with us both for counsell and comfort He counselleth us to seeke the best righteousnesse and comforteth us with the fruition of it Hee perswades us to deny our selves and make sure to be found in Christ cloathed with his righteousnesse I wonder not to see civill honest men to wander naked of this cloathing in the nasty ragges of their owne rotten righteousnesse they have no better spirit than the spirit of the world to teach them a morall lesson and to grow proud to see themselves before their neighbours in the honour of their owne vertues This is the applause the best men of the world seeke for and rest in it as their summū benū Such were the Pharisees the Iewes here in my text that disobeyed the Gospel because they saw in their own thoughts a better way of justification than Christ by his Spirit taught them But all their supposed comfort is a poore and beggerly payment in the praise and applause of men with their comming short of heaven I disgrace not morality and civilitie in the world I wish there were more of their ranke so they rested not in that righteousnesse but reached at an higher price even the invaluable treasure in Christ willing in humility to let all goe for the gaine therof Yet I must conclude against the underlings of moral honestie that all such as are inferiours to them must needes come short of heaven because they come short of them that by Christs verdict are before them Now the best moralists come short of heaven and therefore must they needs come short that are left many leagues behinde them Gaine the Spirit and grace that in holinesse wee may exceed them all as we shall doe in righteousnesse by Christ Want of judgement This is the great sinne of the world in advancing against Christ Satans soveraignty and superioritie He reigneth and ruleth the world and is a speciall enemy to Christs kingdome Holinesse is the companion of righteousnesse we may not grow wanton because the grace of justification hath abounded God hath not left us to our liberties as if by the way of hell wee might advance to heaven Iudgement and spirituall government is appointed to order us in our wayes and to waft us by safe conduct over the Sea of this world to our harbour and haven in heaven A world of people without grace and sanctification The subject that the Spirit is to season is the unsavory world Holinesse is a by-word amongst men and derision hath banished it by the conceit of precise and strict walking with God A Saint is the worlds spectacle and a very gazing-stocke as if hee were as much runne out of himselfe and madde as he is runne from the world and his merry company But the wonder is in the world it selfe wilde in wickednesse and wretched in the hands of Satan His judgement is followed and government extolled in all places and persons Wee can but exempt a few from being followers of him no more than Saint Iohn exempts the world from guilt in this place Hee is plaine and chargeth the world with the Divels government and freeth none but by the Spirit from this misery Conviction of the best government The setting up of the Lord Iesus in the hearts and soules of men is the best
of them in the I ather O ravishing Societie and blessed Communion wee shall enjoy in our Fathers house when all is given up unto him and yet in him all to be enjoyed In him we enjoy Christ and the blessed Spirit we are no losers but gainers by these wayes of Divine and deepe wisedome The regression of the Kingdome to the Father 1 Cor. 15.28 That God may be all in all v. 24. God even the Father God essentially shall blesse us but the Father in speciall shall be glorified in us This was Christs prayer upon earth Iohn 17.21 That we might be one in the blessed Trinitie as they are one in themselves and have all conspired to make us happy Christ prayeth they may be perfect in one that they may be where he is now c. The holy Ghost and the Sonne conclude in the Father and so must wee for our full happinesse Zech. 14.16 Why not the Passeover to be kept in the great day spoken of before this was the greatest feast in Israel but the feast of Tabernacles hath a more apt allusion to those times Our Mansions are in heaven as long as we stay upon earth though under assured safety and freedome from danger yet we are not at the best In the Kingdome of Grace we are well and happy In the Kingdome of power we are better and more happy but in the Kingdome of Glory we are best of all We have thus farre digressed and I hope transgressed no rule in Religion Wee can easily recall our selves to our first intention concerning the comming of the holy Ghost And when he is come he shall convince the world of sinne and of righteousnesse and of judgement Of Sinne. That is want of faith in Christ the signe of all sinne for we can expect no discharge without it All sinne in one sinne is convinced of the Law we are guilty in Adam and of this sinne wee are guilty in the Gospel The sinnes of the Law are strong enough to condemne us but this firme brings in our great condemnation Ioh. 3.19 the Law is not that light that containes life in it that light is Christ Ioh. 1.14 He came into the world both as the light and life of it and yet men loved darkenesse more than light not onely because their deeds were morrally evill but because they esteemed not to have them mended by this new principle of faith in Christ Infidels come not to the light of the Gospel because that does most convince them of sinne The Law is more sparing than the Gospel for it chargeth man no further than of originall and actuall sinne But the Gospel extends to his wants of such faith righteousnesse and holinesse as the Law leaves at liberty It commands us faith in God and is silent of faith in Christ It bids us bee righteous but not in another It bids us be holy but that is from our owne vertues and not spirituall graces The Spirits light is too strong for weake eyes to looke upon it It blunts and blindes him to thinke his deeds so ill as God does not approve the best of them It is strange to him to beleeve that without faith in Christ nothing that is done by him is accepted of God He conceives better of himselfe and trusts that his good meanings and vertuous actions are not so out of request with GOD but he shall gaine some favour and friendship at Gods hands to be esteemed of better then of the worst and most wicked man Hee must therefore know that if the Gospel prove him guiltie of the want of faith no sinne is spared or pardoned any more to him than the lewdest liver in the world Hee must therefore learne to love the truth of the Gospel and come to the light thereof that his deeds may be made manifest that they are wrought in God and the power of his Spirit and not in or by any of his good dispositions Let us in the holy feare of God looke to our lives and never applaud our selves by our owne vertues The whole world is guilty of a sinne it hath no sense or feeling of and even the best are in worst case let thē come to triall and by a conviction more than legall see what the Gospel reproveth let them thus reason with themselves It is too grosse and sottish to say I am a sinner I am worse I am an Infidell and wrapped up in the worlds condemnation It is high time for my soule to bee dealt withall and that by a more powerfull cause than the morrall Law or mine owne conscience I must to the Gospel and conviction of Gods Spirit and never rest till I finde the Spirit present and come home to my heart I shall afterwards intreat of all the heads of this first conviction I will first open the sinne secondly who are guilty of it Thirdly how they must be dealt withall Fourthly by whom Fiftly in what manner The same methode shall be observed in both the other convictions that by the instance in my Text of the Iewes disobedience and judgement we may learne to tremble and feare to live either without Evangelicall faith Evangelicall righteousnesse or Evangelicall judgement Three things in the Gospel inseparably lincked together He that beleeves in Christ hath righteousnesse imputed and hee that hath righteousnesse imputed hath holinesse infused to reject Satan and his service and receive the true judgement of the Spirit to bee at his command and Kingly government I shall wish every head propounded may have it's use and application Vse 1. Let the want of faith in Christ and righteousnesse from him and an holy subjection to Gods Spirit more perplex us than all earthly wants Let such especially as are profane thinke of it who beside the burden of the Law grosly abused have the Gospel to beat home their condemnation and beare them downe headlong to hell for contempt of great salvation tendred them in their sinnes But especially let the more morall men marke themselves if they were as forward as Paul to know none or little evill by themselves yet to thinke they are not so justified but the Gospel can bring upon them a greater condemnation than the Law and challenge them for more than ever was dreamed of by their owne account and reckoning by the Law Lastly let carnall Gospellers descend and see their presumption that will bee sure of faith without conviction They suppose it is soone gotten and lost and that to play at fast and loose with God is no danger They will have faith when they list and easie convictions leade them any wayes It is time for them to learne a better lesson and to bee soundly lashed from our Text that the convictions of Gods Spirit are no easie and morall perswasions fitted to our inclination but sound convictions taking from us all excuses be they never so witty and laying us low before God to be dealt withall at his pleasure Vse 2. These wants are
Common-wealth It was that the woman travailed for Rev. 12. She lives in the Pagan Empire and is pained as much to make it a Christian as she is pinched by it The strong argument of perswasion is that Christ by his death and resurrection hath judged the prince of the world and defeated him of all judgement He held a right in the world till Christ removed it Hee is a Father of all that hee murthered by his lie in Paradise and therefore challengeth a right in his children Christ to bee partaker with these children takes their flesh and by death subdues the murtherer and delivers them from bondage Hebr. 2.14 15. It is therefore good reason that the children should be subject unto him leave the lyer and live in conformity to the new Law of the Gospell The Spirits application of judgement It is just Satan should bee expulsed and cast out by Christ and hee confesseth against blasphemers that his command over Divels was executed and effected by the Spirit Matth. 12.28.29 He enters into the strong mans house and being stronger than hee bindes him and spoyles him of his possession Hee casts downe in us the strong holds of this adversary and brings us into subjection and obedience to Christ and his rule and regiment and for this end also must the Spirit descend and dwell with us Thus have we the sinne of disobeying the Gospell in want of faith righteousnesse and holinesse the use followeth The worlds insufficiency and danger First I looke upon the world and wonder at pride and arrogancie Men neither know their debt nor danger They see not the charge of the Law nor discharge of the Gospel They live as men set at liberty by their owne lusts They looke up and feare no account Faith they minde not neither doe they feele or finde any want of it to get them a discharge Insufficient to beleeve and yet confident all is paid Trusting they are righteous and yet scorne to be beholding to any for justification They will barter with God and by commutative justice give him as much as they receive They pleade innocencie and yet impleade holinesse They will be honest and yet hate sincerity But seeing the guilt is most where the Gospel is preached let vs see our professours and pry into their sufficiency Many we have lesse morrall than Turkes and more ignorant than Heathens of their owne Religion They heare the Gospel and understand nothing Better these men had lived Turkes than Christians in name to incurre all the guilt of the Gospel Others presume they have faith and never knew they wanted it They were never acquainted with the conviction of Gods Spirit whose office is first to perswade men they want faith in Christ before he worke it in them They would loath be such Infidels as once to know or acknowledge the time when they beleeved not Ever since they were borne they have had a good faith and they hope they shall dye so God helpe them by his Spirit to search their deceitful hearts and to change the time of their untimely beliefe and learne to know that the first of convictions is to finde faith wanting in the heart Either conviction of the wat must precede or the gift will never follow but this was touched before though never too much The Spirits sufficiency Second Vse is to see how well Christ hath left us not to an insufficient and deficient Teacher but to a compleate and perfect Doctour armed with all arguments of conviction to bring us from infidelitie to faith from condemnation to justification and absolution from all our sinnes from uncleannesse to holinesse and from the thraldome of Satan to the liberty of sonnes God bee blessed for his Spirit hasten his kingdome that we may bee prepared for Christ to reigne and rule in us when hee destroyeth the world and triumphantly having ended all his victories hee may bring us bodies and soules to his Fathers house Amen The Christians triall Third Vse Disobedience to the Gospel is a fearefull sinne and brings a fearefull end we may by degrees make sure our safety if wee search and seeke to climbe to heaven by these staires or staves in Iacobs Ladder Matth. 5.3 First gaine poverty of Spirit labour to bee an indigent begger Know thou hast nothing but what must come from Christ Secondly be sensible of thy povertie be no sturdie begger that will not stoupe and stirre from his flashes and flourishes in a bold and impudent seeking as if the giver were as much in his debt for the receit as hee will be in the givers for the gift Verse 4. learne thou to mourne and to grieve that ever it was thy hard hap to fall into such misery as to incurre Gods displeasure of all plagues the greatest greater than Hell it selfe Mourne to have that taken off more than any judgement Say not with Pharaoh take away the plague of my Land but the hardnesse of my heart Say with David take away the trespasse and for the rest say no more but this here I am Lord doe and deale with me as thou pleaseth Thirdly ascend yet higher and be possessed of a meeke spirit even to the Lord as well as to men A man may mourn and remaine stubborne and unbroken but verse 5. bee thou blessed with a meeke and milde heart Mourne till thou be meeked and tamed for the Lords use Fourthly raise up thy selfe to hunger and thirst verse 6. even for that righteousnesse that will satisfie thy meeke and mournefull spirit Empty thy selfe first with sorrow and subjection to Gods will and then bee assured thou shalt be filled Fiftly blesse thy selfe with a mercifull heart to others Say unto God if thou hadst mercy in store thou wouldst bestow it liberally say thou art so eager for it that it would doe thee good to see God in denying it thee to give it to others It is that above all thy hunger and thirst is bent upon and by the want of it thou knowest the worth value and price of so rich a commoditie Certainely it cannot be long before the Lord will reach mercy to thy heart that art so mercifull to others and even fill all thy desires verse 7. Sixtly having obtained mercy to pardon all thy sinnes and to justifie thy person forget not the third conviction in studying for holinesse gaine a pure heart for that will bring thee still nearer unto God to see him in his Ordinances in this world and in his glory in the world to come verse 8. Seventhly being at peace with God thy selfe become a peace-maker for others Study that all may be partakers of thy peace both with God and man verse 9. Eightly and lastly take in the last beatitude and thinke thou hast made no ill bargaine to suffer persecution for righteousnesse sake Thou thy selfe art at peace with heaven and earth and desirest warre with no man If they make warre with thee and falsely smite thee with their tongues be patient and