consider that Sinners Reconciliation unto God is a thing purposed by God purchased by Christ and proved to be so by the Holy Ghost I have shewn it to be so But O Man Vnderstandest thou what thou readest I have proved it by Authority of Sacred Scriptures but alas Believest thou the report of them It is scarce every hundredth Man of those who own them that doth in truth believe them So judg'd the great Calvin himself And the truth is if in any thing it be harder then other to credit Divine Scripture it is in its Testimony unto this great Truth Nevertheless so it is that its Testimony herein must be credited sincerely and considered of seriously before we can be qualified for Christianity That is for Jesus Christs reconciling and saving Religion For the embracing it with seriousness and sincerity unto our Reconciliation and Salvation Who can charge his Conscience with all respects to a Religion whose first Principles and very Foundations he is ignorant or doubtful of Who can pursue it whatever it costs him and give it the Government of his Life and Soul They who do any less do but dally with Religion they do not use it like it self And they who do so much need to be very well certified of the goodness of the grounds they go upon If not they must continually be like to Builders who doubt their Foundation is ill laid and therefore either by and by desist from their work or go on very heartlesly with it Thus therefore must thou do whoever thou art that desirest Reconciliation unto God With a solemnity suitable to the moment of the affair thou must go and enquire into these things Namely Whether thou hast Faith And if thou hast What a Faith it is that thou hast concerning the things foresaid Alas Sin is distractive And Minds sinfully distracted do conceit themselves to believe whatever they do not in words contradict Nor do they at all discern the difference between Moon-light and Sun-shine Though the former be cold and dispel no Vapours and ripen no Fruits as the latter doth by its equally useful and beautiful Beams They distinguish not between the Historical and worthless Faith of Divels and the operative saving Faith of the operation of God Though the difference be as plain as that of a painted Sun upon a rotten Sign-post from the true Sun in the middle Heaven In a word Thou must discourse thy self soundly concerning these things and admit no rest till thou feelest thy self more then almost perswaded Till thou canst say as the Doctor of the Gentiles I know and am perswaded and as the Doctor of the Jews I believe and I am sure Lord 1. There is a God 2. This God is Three distinct Persons as to manner of Being and of Working 3. Of these Divine Persons the First hath eternally Purposed the Second hath in time dearly Purchased the Reconciliation of lost Sinners and this the Third hath convincingly Proved 4. I perish for ever if this Reconciliation be not Purposed concerning me if it be not Purchased for me and if it be not Proved some way unto me 5. Until I have this Proof made unto me I cannot possibly have knowledge of the Purchase and Purpose touching me 6. Wherefore I ought I may and I will by Gods assistance seek diligently this said Proof unto my inmost Heart and Reins Hasten Man hasten thou go Read go Pray go Hear and go Consult the best Ministers and Christians Beseech them both to tell thee how they gat assurance and certainty hereof charge them to pray the same Spirit in the use of like means to give it unto thee But this caution take thou Never judge thy Belief right and valid until it discover it self to be so by these properties e. g. Till it do shame thee for former neglects of the Father Son and Spirit and their Purpose Purchase and Proof Making thy blushing Soul to exclaim O never had I one thought worth the thinking till now Miserable Fool I have lived like a bruit as if I had been born in the Field and bred among the Cattle therein I abhor my self and every breath of my past Life Again Till it do smart and pain thee and give thee grievous feelings of thy want of more acquaintance with the Divine Persons and these their actions Causing thee to esteem and desire acquaintance with the same above all the sensual delights under the Sun Likewise Till it become an effectual Goad to quicken thee to the use of all means for it and a Nail also to fasten thy Soul unto it Driving thee to this conclusion q. d. Whatever I shall henceforth propose to my self or prosecute in the World I will never so absolutely propose any thing Never so laboriously and incessantly pursue any thing as my acquaintance with the Divine Persons and these their foresaid Works In other things I will be less resolute and more moderate in this I will be peremptory and I will strain every Nerve of my Soul Lastly Till it do sweeten and make grateful and pleasant all thy Religious pains At least as the most imperfect certainty that Husbandmen have of Harvest doth impart a sweetness unto their perpetual motions Till thou canst truly say thus So much I know of the Divine Persons So far I do credit the Holy Spirits Testimony of their Works Such Faith I have of both that what Ordinances and Duties were heretofore burthensome or undelightful are now become of my chiefest joy And such as I could not live without And now Man now first beats thy Pulse This is the first breath of thy laudable Life The first step of thine toward God The first stroke of reconciling work This is the first hairs breadth thou hast stirred from thy self-ruining Enmity toward the way of Peace God speed thee onward For Secondly Thou must Pray and Labour for the actual possession the comfortable perswasion and the practical improvement of Reconciliation unto God Thou art now out of doubt there is a way to get possessed of the Reconciliation Purposed Purchased Proved But can thy blindness unassistedly find that way Or can thy halting Soul enter into and walk in it unassistedly Or if with much ado thou wer 't able wouldst thou go without infallible counsel and invincible aid And that for want of asking Or didst thou never hear of multitudes that perish in the very mouth of their way Stumbling unto perdition at the very threshold of the door of Salvation I do now suppose thee to have an Eye in thy Head And if so I nothing question but thou hast a Tongue in thy Head too The Eye of Faith and Mouth of Prayer were never yet known far asunder And indeed it would be a wonder if any seer of Reconciliation should not be straitway a wrestler for it However wot it well Divine Authority requires and Bounty invites and intreats thee to shew that with thy sight of Reconciliation thou hast received Praying Lips and
or abate their degree of Religion but then when Satan can indeed present an appearance of gain by it I mean a gain of somewhat better or as good as Gods Love in their very own Thoughts And Secondly That when ever they have thought themselves to have seen profit coming by it and have by and by found their mistake That then they would acknowledge their horrid effascination and resolve never again to trust the spectacles through which they looked unto their cost I know that Lust does bewitch into Error and Error when it gets into the throne of the Heart fearfully plays the Tyrant Let Men but listen unto their Senses Fancies and Passions they shall take the most loathsome Lyes for self-evident Truths And when they have done they shall be as much governed by them They shall adore Dogs and Crocodiles scorning God and his Christ They shall dig for a Worms favour as for immortal Treasure and dye away for fear of its frown And all with unshaken Confidence as if God were nothing and Idols were all things As if the smiles of a mortal Man were really a richer good then Gods Heaven and a hard look from Caesar were more dreadful by far then Hell-fire But I do also know and I keep some stir to make others know it too Such is the admirable constitution of our Religion such is its perspicuity with its purity that Humane Minds are not presently so stupified as to be unsensible of its Glory or so distracted as to dream ought spoke against it to be true or so much as probable 'T is abundance of Opium you give your Reason before you make it dormant enough to let an ill thought of Religion into your Heart Before you are capable of your sweet Follies and dear Deceits Most commonly you that neglect Religion are fain to serve Satan without so much as any imagination of gain by it I and with many a fearful expectation of loss too And when your bewitched Eyes are drawn unto some imaginary recompence in any way of sin ye oftentimes soon afterward find the Proverbs truth Fraud and Frost end in dirt Well were it if then you would set your selves to verifie another as known a saying Burnt Children dread the fire In a word The day is coming that will reveal it The Religion instituted and taught by Jesus Christ is one that Men can bray and bark against as they do and as he foretold us that they would But they cannot argue against Without that quickness and subtlety and solidity which are the priviledges of very few heads its excellence and importance are the plainest of things unto all honest hearts And our Motives unto the severest Duty are ten thousand times stronger then our Temptations unto the sweetest Sin He has a very hard task who goes about to prove that I shall do better without Gods friendship then with it That I shall have more Light if I go further from the Sun I. 9. The Kingdom of God is not Meat and Drink Christianity or Gospel saving Religion doth not consist in external Observances and little Opinions If it be Reconciliation or a new very Friendship with God it cannot stand in the poor despicable things wherein 't is placed by too many Ceremonialists I mean Ceremonialists of every Sect and Party among us Many of which seem to value themselves more by some peculiar dividing Ceremony then by common and universally professed Christianity Natural corruption disposes Men to allow God nothing at all of Subjection or Obedience By Gods inward and outward Calls of Conscience Parents Ministers they are brought quickly unto shame of that open malignity But Carnality and Sloth admit not any great liberality to him And Lust and Fancy and ill Example soon prescribe a narrow pittance He shall have outward Homage and Bodily service Presence at the places of his Worship and observation of all laudable gestures therein He shall have Lamps of Profession carried for him Oyl they cannot tend for Graces are mysterious things He shall have loud Cryes but as for intelligent and sincere Prayers they promise him not He shall have their Eyes lift up to Heaven but he must excuse them if their Affections be set on Earth He shall have their Company at every Sacramental Feast but they desire in this thing to be forgiven if they come having not on the Wedding-garment and unengaged in the cares of imputed inherent and practical Righteousness He shall have Zeal for the Religion they neither know nor practice I and it may be against the sins that they do love and live in They hope he will accept it from them without Integrity In short He shall have his Church obeyed and Gospel too as far as they themselves please But that reaches not unto the concerns of Regeneration Repentance Faith Love and Obedience principled from them Entering Covenant and keeping Covenant with him with all the Heart and Soul and Strength is that which they see no necessity of Miserable Creatures Do ye believe the blessed God to be a spirit or a dead stock Did ye ever read one Chapter of the Holy Bible Yea or of the Heathen Moralists Can ye in sober sadness think that our Blessed Redeemer was sent to raise dead sinners that he might make them unnatural and monstrous Flatterers Or that the Holy Spirit was sent by him to make painted Sepulchres of you Can ye really perswade your selves that God may be honoured and Satans Kingdom be demolished and your Souls be changed and qualified for Heaven by your Trifling and your Lying And without your Loving God as both your Benefactor and Ruler O shut not your eyes so very close till Vengeance open them for you Look out a little see my Doctrine and its Proof It shall possess you of other thoughts and rid you of these delusions It shall stop your scoffing at Spirituality as a thing imaginary At Vnion and Communion with God as though they were dreams or but lying pretensions of Hypocritical Men. At Gods Living in Men and their Living in God as though there were no such things It shall make you as confident as now you are ignorant that they are mad Men whom you hear Jearing at the Life of holy Love and Promising Heaven to ever so little washed swine Magna ista credimus quia nos parvi sumus Senec. It shall make you to own that had not your Sense been little you had never took any thing but very Friendship with God for honourable and great I. 10. True Religion is its own Reward It is so framed by God that in it there is great Reward besides what is prepared for it It is evidently so if as our Doctrine asserts it stands in Reconciliation and Friendship with God If it be not a meer Service but a very Friendship If as is most certain God admits all his convert Servants unto the relation of very Children and the dignity of Friends All and every of his Commands
Herein flows the Language of incomparable tenderness and such as put it beyond the most jealous suspicion that God is desirous of our Happiness in the said Reconciliation Herein the Majesty of Heaven even courts every vile Worm of us And in most compassionate manner assays to melt and overcome the perversest sinner Even thy self my Reader thy self in particular Stay therefore thy self and wonder and bless Throw aside my Book and go shut thee into thy Closet And there with humble affectionate and thankful sense of this Divine Love fall on thy Knees and say to this purpose Blessed God thy works are in themselves convincing Arguments of thy good Will unto Men. Thy innumerable Benefits conferred upon us Thy Temporal Judgments which in their own nature and in thy design are Medicinal and wholesome The Time thou allowest us in this World and in thy Church which we cannot justly take for a meer reprieve from torment but for a space to Repent in and to sue out our Pardon Above all thy giving thy Son to dye for our Reconciliation and thy Spirit to instruct and perswade us to be Reconciled After all it has seemed thee good to treat us in words of as wonderful Love as that which shines in thy works Words of Obsecration and Intreaty Such as the Potsheards of the Earth cannot afford unto their Inferiours very often no nor unto their Equals nor always unto very Superiours Thou great Judge of the whole Earth beseechest Malafactors most worthy of Hell to accept their Pardon And intreatest them to endure thee to save and glorifie them This thy Holy Angels admire at this the Divels envy But I Lord I a prodigy of stupidity what do I do Of a truth I desire to Praise and to Wonder From this Minute unto Eternal Ages uninterruptedly to Wonder and Praise I am fully convinced how justly I perish if indeed I perish after all this so superabundant Grace This thy Love and thy I know not what that is more then Love it self if more can be doth sweeten my thoughts of thee Never was my Natural Fear of thee so conquered never my Diabolical Enmity against thee so quenched as now I trust they are I am less a Divel since I considered this thy Love O my God! Experience hath now assured me Love begets Love as Fire kindles Fire I. 3. Mans Enmity unto God tho' it be strange t is true How else could Reconciliation be his Duty if his state were not of Enmity It is confessed Enmity unto God is a strange thing He is all Good and nothing but Good Our Nature reasonable can Love nothing but what appears Good and must and cannot but Love all that so appears Unto all Men if their Professions may be believed God doth appear as he is now said to be All and only Good Whence then should Hatred arise To be sure unto Angels and Men in their first holy state of Creation God did so appear and was verily and undoubtedly so believed O how could they ever break with God The particular manner is more curiously then profitably disputed by Men of argute wits It is very plain unto all thinking minds that Creatures as such are mutable things and defectible That continuation in any good is from the gift of the Creators Grace not from the strength of the Creatures Nature That God gave Angels and Men at first a stock of Holy Qualities to trade with and held both Probationers on tryal of their Faithfulness Some of the Angels and our Father Adam the infallible word assures us prov'd unfaithful Acted not up to what they had received Thereby forfeited and lost all all their foresaid Qualities of Wisdom and Goodness and consequently became full of Folly and Malice For as where Light and Heat depart Darkness and Cold must enter Where Wisdom and Goodness do cease Folly and Malice must begin to have place Now hence 't is that ever since that fatal forfeiture Devils and all unrenewed Men do do nothing but monstrously Nothing but with monstrous Folly and Malice Their Fall made them Monsters and all things must necessarily when they are not overpowered act according to their Natures let them be what they will Their depraved Natures both of them do carry them to things most unnatural To things that are and that they know to be most infinitely Vnreasonable in themselves and Injurious unto them As for example this of hating of God Men do much know and Divels do more know he is all Goodness and worthy of all Love That to hate him is to do the greatest hurt to themselves and that for which they have not the least cause from him but through the Folly and Malice that Divels hold remedilesly and unrenewed Men hold wilfully against all Divine Remedies this is most natural unto them As natural as for a poysonous Fountain to send forth poysonous Streams And alas how full is this World of this hatred of God which few in the World if any will own How less full is the Sea of water then unregenerate Souls are full of it Yea and their mouths and hands full of it Only Divels be fuller of it than Men By which means it is that only Hell is worse then this World we live in We see Mens Hands at work against God we hear their Tongues running against him in every place we discern hereby what the abundance of their Hearts is against him How passionately they wish an end put unto his Being We Instruct Perswade Intreat with tears and Beg them to let us endeavour their recovery to a better mind Nor is it above one of a hundred will regard what we say And yet must we be afraid if we will be pleasers of Men to tell them they hate God But here I publish it If I ever saw the Sun shine or the Fire burn or the Water flow I do see all unconvert Men Women and Children hate the Blessed God And whereas none that I meet with or hear of do deny but that they are sinners and do sin daily I assure them this is the soul and life of their sin And were this hatred of God but once expelled they would no longer be sinners Were that but mortifyed they would not be a minute longer impenitent or unpardoned sinners 'T is predominant hatred of God that is the ruine of every damned Man I. 4. The Gospel is a Jewel This I do argue from our common principle that it is the only directory and mean of our Reconciliation unto God If it be so and if Reconciliation be our only Duty it is surely inestimable It can be no less I trow whatever is the divinely appointed mean of our whole saving Duty Whatever is as the Gospel is and is named the Word of Reconciliation That whereby the way of making Peace with God is revealed that which is the very Charter and Grant of Christ the Peace-maker and all his benefits unto every one that will receive it If my
have cast themselves down at Gods Mercy-seat and humbled themselves at his Footstool That have turned unto him with full purpose of Heart and made with him a solemn Covenant That have took him to be their God and Father and devoted themselves to be his Servants and Children That have received Christ Jesus in all his Offices and stand bent to walk with him in all his ways And all this upon a holy change of Judgment and Inclination Not upon a meer fright and new sense of their otherwise dangerous Condition I will hope that many are Reconciled unto God truly That they are got to the end of their Greation the Enjoyment of God To the end and design of the Gospel and its Ministry Reconciliation unto him That they have attained unto that of God which is and will for ever be enough and even all unto them Enough in the absence of Creature comforts as the Sun is light enough without Candles or Stars Enough in the confluence of Worldly Troubles as the Preservation of Plate and Jewel is enough when all the Farthings in the House are stolen I will hope that many are saying most gladly to this effect There 's no Neutrality God is for or against every Man And every Man either hates God as if he were evil or loves him more then he allows himself to love his own Soul An hour or two agoe God was my Enemy and I his Now he Loveth mee and I Love him O what a Hell am I raised from What an Heaven am I raised to True I had a sort of Peace with God before but it was but a Presumption that I was dropping into Hell with I had the evidences of Hell in my Forehead while I had the dreams of Heaven in my Brain I had a sort of Peace with my Conscience but it was but a Truce One wherein it was all the while preparing torments for me Torments that have and would have more filled my Heart with anguish my Eyes with tears my Tongue with complaints My ease was but that of a drunken Sleep not the true one of sound Health The work of this day the work of my Life-time yea the work of my Eternity will be to bless and magnifie my Reconciled God and my Reconciling Advocate Christ my Advocate pleading in his own person what he has paid for me And the Holy Ghost my Advocate teaching me to plead it with God and with my self I have read that St. Jerome had always Christs call unto Judgment ringing in his head Reader Reader may his call unto Reconciliation be ever ringing in thine One of our English Martyrs dyed with his Pardon by him he would not accept it on the ill terms whereon it was offered But O burn thou not in Hell for not accepting the Pardon that God offers thee they are good terms whereon his Offers be made It is wonderfully low that God doth condescend in them Thou canst not say wherein thou canst desire lower Condescention 'T is reported that a Gentleman once prayed his King to give him leave and offered at a dear rate to buy his leave to come sometimes into his presence and cry God save the King And being asked his reason made answer that whether the King loved him or no he should gain enough by it if by that means he gat the report of being beloved much by the King Great reason there is for our fear that many Professors do aim at no more That they enter Church fellowship follow Ordinances open their Ears to Sermons and their Purses unto the Preachers and all to gain but the repute of being reconciled unto God Not making very Reconciliation it self their scope and drift the End of their Actions and as then it would be the Rule of their Desires Reader say that I warned thee against this most hyperbolical Folly I beseech thee Live for somewhat more than a Lye For somewhat more than a Name to live and that a false one also Wilt thou not be perswaded I pray thee Man think a thought or two of the short Continuance of this poor Name it self Of its very slight airy and smoky Pleasure I and of its certain attendant Torments For though thou tryest a thousand ways to disarm thy Conscience thou shalt not avoid it but shalt ever and anon have wounds that will marr thy Mirth And give thee Torments stronger then thy Delights If all will not move thee But thou hardenest thy Heart against all and art resolute against Reconcilement unto God What remains but that I say as a Pious Matron once did to a long Prodigal Son To this effect You have a long time grieved and plagued my Soul with your sin I have called counselled and begged you to Convert I have wept and mourned and cryed to God night and day Impatient of the thoughts of your Damnation But now being nothing prevails and I see no hope Now I do as I ought even sit down content I now consent to thy being Damned Let God destroy thee if he please in his Righteous Fury seeing thou wilt not accept of his Reconciling Mercy With all my Heart God do his will with thee It is said that by these last forth-coming Prints of the Mothers heart the Sons wicked one was broken That by these words set home by Gods Spirit he was Converted and became an eminent Servant of our Blessed Saviour God give alike efficacy unto these Lines of mine Heavenly Luther professed that the Article of Justification reigned in his Heart It is the more comprehensive Article of Reconciliation that I wish reigning in the Hearts of all the Ministers and Christians of England Some have called it the richest Vein in the whole Mine of Gospel treasure But as I hope I have proved it I boldly name it one and all Even the whole Mine of Gods Mercy and the whole Province of Mans Duty There are those abroad who count us narrow souls as many as confine our cares and pains unto this Argument But we think we have the Spirit of God to whom they pretend not and do walk at large while they understand it not God knows the Gospel testifies and the Day will reveal the truth I conclude with this appeal made unto all that have but any tolerable Religious eye-sight Whether a little Religion does not go a great way among them who make not Reconciliation their first middle and last work FINIS Books lately Published by Mr. Daniel Burgess and are to be Sold by Thomas Park hurst at the Bible and Three Crowns in Cheapside A Call to Sinners such as are under sentence of Death and such as are under any prospect of it from the long suffering and gracious but most righteous God Three Questions resolved briefly and plainly viz. 1. What Conceptions ought we to have of the blessed God 2. What are those Truths whereof the Knowledge appeareth most indispensably necessary unto our Salvation and therefore to be first and most learnt by us 3. What is the change wrought in a Man by Gods H. Word and Spirit before he can safely conclude himself passed from Death to Life Being the Summ of three Sermons The Christian Temper Or the Quiet state of Mind that Gods Servants labour for Set forth in a Sermon at the Funeral of Mrs. Vrsula Collins A seasonable Question plainly resolved viz. What are we to judge of their spiritual estate who neglect the Lords Supper And what is that discerning of the Lords Body in it without which men do Eat and Drink their own Damnation The Christians earnest Expectation and Longing for the Glorious Appearing of the great God and our Saviour Jesus Christ Set forth in a Discourse occasioned by the Decease of that Excellent Christian and Minister of Christ Mr. Noah Webb late of Sandhurst in the County of Berks. Some Books sold by John Lawrance at the Angel in the Poultrey SEveral Discourses viz. I. Of Purity and Charity II. Of Repentance III. Of seeking first the Kingdom of God By Hezekiah Burton D.D. Published by Dean Tillotson Octavo The Triumphs of Grace Or the last words and edifying death of the Lady Margaret de la Musse a Noble French Lady who dyed May 1681. Aged only 16 years Twelves Clavis Grammatica Or the ready way to the Latin Tongue containing most plain demonstrations for the regular Translating of English into Latin by F. B. School-master in London Octavo Orbis Imperantis Tabellae Geographico Historico Geneologico Caronologicae in quibus Geographiae Epitome Mappis quo fieri potuit exactioribus descriptio Historica Imperiorum Regnorum Rerum Publicarum seculorum series a Christo Nato ad hunc usque An. 1685. On Copper Plates Octavo A Relation of the Conquest of Florida by the Spaniards To which is added Two Journeys of the present Emperor of China into Tarcary in 1682 1683. Octavo A Help to true Spelling and Reading with a Scripture Catechism By William Scoffia Octavo