himself for you see who 't is 't is I 't is I saith Christ Here is 1. Comfort to the drooping soul 2. Terrour to the rebellious I begin first with Comfort to the drooping soul and indeed 't is pity but these should first be comforted before the other be terrified 't is for these mourners sakes amongst others and those others that shall be brought to this condition that the world stands for if once the number of Gods Jewels shall be compleated God will then go to gathering up of his Jewels Jews and Gentiles together and they shall be mine saith the Lord in the day when I make up my Jewels To you then let me first speak you see who stands at the door and from whom those motions of Gods Spirit come whereby your hearts are at any time wrought upon whether terrifyingly in the work of conviction upon your souls for sin by the right preaching and application of the Law or comfortably by the sweet strivings and wooings of the Preparations to the Gospel whether at this or at other times from whom come all these things My Text tels you in effect that they come from Christ and is not Christ your friend think ye why are ye afraid O ye of little faith yea perhaps I may as yet say O ye of no faith In the 14th of St. Matthewes Gospel we finde that Jesus had constrained his Disciples to get into a Ship and to goe on the other side of the sea there mentioned whilest he sent the multitude away the Disciples no doubt hoped that Christ would not be long after them nor was he for we finde that when the Ship was tossed with waves in the midst of the sea for the wind was contrary about the fourth watch of the night Iesus went to them walking on the sea The Disciples seeing this were troubled they thought they had seen a spirit and they cried out for feare but Christ quickly comforts them Be not afraid saith he be of good checre 't is I. How fitly is this applicable to your soules ye sonnes and daughters of affliction Jesus Christ hath constrained you to get into a Ship a Ship of soul-affliction let that be supposed to be the Ship in this Ship ye are tossed and tumbled with waves for the windes are contrary and ye think poor soules ye shall never come to your haven stay stay a little my sweet daughters of Hierusalem doe not droope too much loose not your Anchor hold so easily looke about you a little and perhaps you will discern Christ walking in this sea of your troubles Perhaps not knowing him when ye see him nor being well acquainted with him ye will mistake him and be troubled and think 't is a spirit that will destroy you and that he is your enemy 't was thus with the Disciples why may it not be so with you But see ver 27. Jesus straightway spake unto them saying be of good checre it is I be not afraid If ye can hear Christ saying it is I it is I be of good chear be not afraid will your afflictions trouble you then Waire then upon the Lord patiently you know not how soone Christ will shew himselfe to you I can assure you 't is now towards the fourth watch of the night and 't is not long till the morning waite comfortably under your storme your afflictions cannot last long the day-starre will arise and if Jesus Christ give you the morning-starre will it not be worth all your afflictions all your sorrowes all your tossing in these waters all the troubles you have undergone in your fears Be of good chear 't is I 't is I. Would you have more when you hear him and see him catch him in your armes and cry out with old Simeon The Lord now lets his Servant depart in peace for mine eyes have seen his salvation or as Philip which spake to Nathanael I have found him of whom Moses in the Law and the Prophets did write Jesus of Nazareth the Sonne of Joseph Ioh. 3.45 I have done with you at this time I come next to the rebellious and forgive me if professing my selfe a true Minister of Jesus Christ I come to you like Christ with clouds with the clouds of Gods indignation with clouds of darknesse and trouble upon your souls for your sinnes in suffering Christ to knock so oft to call so long to cry so loud so that it may be truly said of him as Christs mother and brethren and sisters said touching themselves in seeking Christ he hath sought you sorrowing and you have beene the cause of it for ye have many a time suffered him to strive knock call cry cry aloud and yet ye have given him no entrance he is out of doors still the door is locked still nay ye have set strong barres of opposition to keep him out nay to keep him out purposely You think perhaps you have not but I can make it apparent ye have nay and God willing I shall make it appear in a spirituall enquiry after some soule transactions before I have ended all my endeavours upon this Text. And what will ye say then touching your wickednesse must ye not will ye not say then 't is of the Lords mercy we are not consumed how ye should say lesse I know not But to prepare you herein for this Sermon will be but the shell the outside the kernell is to come be pleased to remember from that which I have already spoken that when ye sinne against the motions of Gods Spirit which I am confident hath been long strugling with you that in so doing ye sinne likewise against Christ against that Christ that it may be hath washed us from our transgressions by his own bloud and we not know it This consideration of sinning against Christ was a tender thing once with the Apostle St Paul 1 Cor. 8.12 where reproving the Corinthians for offending the consciences of the Brethren in eating things offered to Idols a thing too usuall in a spirituall sense in these daies he reproves them and terrifies them in so doing by fastening this upon them that they sinned against Christ But when ye sinne so against the Brethren and wound their weak Consciences ye sinne against Christ as much as to say and what will ye do that will ye do so indeed What we Christians sinne against Christ that hath made us so that hath washed us from our sinnes by his own bloud what we doe it Tell it not in Gath. Let others doe it if they will doe ye doe it if ye will but I tell you plainely I Paul will never doe it God willing wherefore if meat make my brother to offend I will eat no flesh whilest the world standeth lest I make my brother to offend His words by plaine and ready arguing with halfe an eye you may see to come to thus much that rather then I will sinne against Christ which I must doe if I make my brother to
offend I will not eat a bit of flesh as long as the world lasts Beloved we use to say when we are averse to a thing Before I will doe such a thing I will never eat bit of bread such a kinde of zeale and such a kinde of expression may you imagin St Pauls to have been in his resolution of not sinning against Christ and yet how many are there that make no bones of this but let them take heed that God make not their bones and their hearts into the bargain ake for it Sure I am the new converts in the second of the Acts were pricked to the very heart at this very consideration see the place Acts 2.37 You may observe St Peter ver 14. beginning to preach his first Sermon after the ascension his first work is to take off a mistake a misapprehension from the people touching themselves These men are not drunken as ye suppose At ver 22. his Sermon begins to pinch close for he speakes plainely Ye men of Israel heare these words Jesus of Nazareth a man approved of God among you by miracles wonders and signs which God did by him in the midst of you as ye your selves know Ver. 23. Him being delivered by the determinate counsell and foreknowledge of God ye have taken and by wicked hands have crucified and slaine He followes this argument close all along heightning the sinne by the consideration of Gods exalting of Christ and in ver 36. he puts Gods goodnesse to Christ and their wickednesse against Christ both together and with this as with a great and irresistible hammer God pricks their hearts in Peters Ministry yea he breaks them all to pieces for see ver 37. Now when they heard this they were pricked in their hearts and said unto Peter and to the rest of the Apostles Men and brethren what shall we doe When they heard this that the same Jesus whom they had crucified was exalted by God to be Lord and Christ when they heard this and that they had thus sinned against their Lord their Christ their King this oh this pricked them to the quick this shivered them all to pieces this divided betwixt the joynts and marrow it broke downe all opposition Men and brethren what shall we doe such wretches such vile creatures as we are never were in the world What! is that Jesus that we have crucified is he our Christ our Lord have we thus wronged him thus dealt with him Woe umo us that we have sinned Thus you see how farre this consideration strikes terror here it did strike terror into their hearts may it not strike terrour into yours for know assuredly that that same Jesus the motions of whose spirit or of Gods Spirit you have stood out against I suppose you look upon it as all one for he and the Father are one is that very Jesus whom God hath exalted-heretofore yea and will exalt him again and he will make him actually both Lord and King in all the souls of his people and over all the world and this is he whom ye sinne against whom in a spirituall sense ye crucifie againe as it were even the Lord of glory nay let me go further with you and drive you up closer I must tell you that whilest ye rebell against the workings of the Spirit of God ye do at once sinne against Father Sonne and holy Ghost all at one stroake as I may say A time bath been and that in my dayes when a mans naming the sinne against the holy Ghost in the Pulpit would have made many a heart to tremble I am sure it made mine tremble when I was a boy and minded nothing but pastime and pleasure but though I tell you and I shall make it appear that in resisting the motions of Gods Spirit ye have sinned against Father Sonne and holy Ghost and that your actions especially in some have entrenched and bordered much upon the chanell of such actions as do leade directly to the grand sinne the unpardonable sinne even the sinne against the holy Ghost which you know Christ saith shall never be pardoned in this world nor in the world to come yet who trembles whose heart quakes nay do we not mock at fear and have not some sucked in such principles that doe utterly overturne all shaking all trembling either at the apprehension of their sinnes or of Gods judgements due to them for their sinne My friends for as yet I am no mans declared enemy in the world do not I tell you the truth Do not your hearts and consciences bear me witnesse and witnesse for me If so though you are so hardened that ye cannot cry out What shall we do Yet God hath so softned my heart towards you that I cannot but ask What ye will do Will ye go on I trust in God your hearts will not let you say We will go on and we will do what seemeth good in our own eyes and as for these words which thou hast spoken to us in the name of the Lord we will not hear thee No will ye not Are ye resolved thus if you are I will break your resolutions if I can and rather then suffer you to runne on thus headlong into your destruction I will kindle a fire in your very bones I will vex your very souls and bring you with David to cry out as he Psa 6. My bones are vexed O Lord yea my soul is vexed but thou O Lord how long Consider then in the fear of God what I assert what I insist upon viz. That he that sinnes against the strivings of Gods good Spirit sinnes against Father Sonne and holy Ghost That he sins against the Father is evident 1. From those words which Christ useth Joh. 15.23 24. He that hateth me hateth my Father also If I had not done among them the works which none other man did they had not had sinne but now they have both seen and hated both me and my Father also Would you have a clearer Text He that hates the Son hates the Father by the same argument He that sins against the Sonne sins against the Father and indeed he and the Father are one or else Union with Christ would not be enough to make Christs poor ones one with the Father but that this is sufficient you may most remarkably see from that heavenly piece of Scripture Joh. 14. from v. 7. to the middle of the 11. verse If saith Christ ye had known me ye should have known my Father also and from henceforth ye know him and have seen him The Disciples stumbled at this but Philip particularly saith to him Lord shew us the Father and it sufficeth us Christ seems to stumble at them as much as they at him for he speaks to Philip as in their stead Have I been so long time with you and yet hast thou not known me Philip He that hath seen me hath seen the Father and how saist thou then Shew us the Father Would ye
occasion they can of setting themselves against their own mercies they cannot endure the Lord to speak as it were one word more And therefore choaking him as soon as they can they run presently into a Refuge of lies good fellowship drinking musick some pastime or other to stop the mouth of conscience which would be convincing them of sinne of righteousnesse of judgement to come and by arguments drawn from thence would stagger them at their sinful courses but none of that I thank you their sins and they cannot part company so easily and therefore the Spirit of God is looked upon by them as their enemy because it tels them the truth and will not flatter them nor suffer them to run so quietly to their own destruction With some perhaps he gets a little faiter quarter they will hear the reproofs consider the terrors of Gods judgements which are threatned spiritually to their inward man to reclaim them from their sins but when they have heard all they think to make up all with a little humiliation a few tears a little rugging and striving to cry to God for mercy and if upon a duty of praier or humiliation they finde a little peace and quietnesse though Gods intention in giving it be but barely to bear up their hearts under soul affliction untill the times of a more full and more gracious dispensation comes then up they get upon their tiptoes presently their afflictions are all vanished or banished in a moment God is their God now sure for say they he hath heard our supplications he hath forgiven our sinnes herein miserably mistaking a little arbitrary consolation which God grants in a designe of supporting the soul till it be fit for a more gracious dispensation for a sure signification of forgivenesse of sins the groslenesse of which mistake I shall clear upon some occasion or other in Gods good time and it may be before I have ended my meditations upon this Text. Some the Spirit of God prevails so farre with that 1. They are willing to be reproved and chidden for their sins but from thence are too apt to conclude a sure estate of soul 2 The work of conviction being strong upon their souls they are apt to make many fair promises many strong engagements that they will do so no more 3. But then thirdly when Gods back is but turned as I may say or that they think him but out of sight they start aside like a broken bow and neither promises Covenants or any other obligations prevail with them at all but they turn with the dog to their own vomit and with the sow to the wallowing in the mire and if the motions of Gods Spirit presse them to consider their breach of vowes and Covenants and their promises of better obedience they either heal their hurt slightly with a few prayers and teares and then they think all is well as I observed before or secondly by a long practise of such ungodly eourses they come at length to such a desperate hardnesse of heart that they conclude there is no hope and so conceive it to no purpose to strive any more to pray any more to be humbled any more to hearken to the motions of Gods Spirit any more the finall conclusion is as they throw off all hope so they throw off all duty and let Christ by his Spirit say what he will they think all is to no purpose to hear him or obey him and this last and worst part of this character hath been my own case for almost this nine years or thereabouts till within this year and a half about which time apprehending some abatement of those judgements which my apprehensions had been long terrified with for my grievous sins especially for hiding my little Talent which I looked upon as given me by God not to hide but to publish I was about a year and half since resolved to submit my self to be at Gods disposing and to serve God as well as I could though I looked for nothing but hell as my portion for ever only I hoped it would be hell mitigated and me thought I had strange kinde of hopes that in hell I should finde a little comfort and a little strength to endure it and to dwell with everlasting burnings because I was willing to submit but these strange hopes soon vanished and became nothing for about a quarter or half a year after I was thrown down again into the dreadfullest apprehensions of Gods eternall judgements that ever were presented to any mortall man upon Gods earth since the creation of God or that the world began with this heavy load of apprehensions I walked for above half a year together viz. all this last summer and some little part of the beginning of winter but at length the spring is come and the chirping of Birds hath been heard by me there was never such mercy shewed such compassion manifested to any soul in the world I am alive and the loving kindnesse of God hath appeared to me But I tell you my brethren and friends my rebellion against Jesus Christ my standing out against the motions of Gods good Spirit hath cost me dear and so dear I would not for a hundred thousand worlds endure the like horrors again It would amaze you all nay almost affright you out of your wits to tell you what I have seen but God in Jesus Christ I trust hath delivered me for ever and God strengthning me I will praise him for it yea I will magnifie him as long as I have my being And now my dear friends I am set forth to you as an example of Gods terrors and judgements if ye shall rebell against Christ and perpetually resist the motions of Gods gracious Spirit striving with you as I have done I am withall a mirrour of Gods infinite rich mercies in the pardoning of iniquities and an example of heartning to you if God shall be pleased to give you repentance from your sins and from all your ungodly courses as to me I hope in God he hath done in some measure but if having such a warning given in such grievous judgements if the riches of Christs mercies in finding a way to pardon such a sinner as I am if neither of these nor both together prevaile with you nor be a means to hearten you and to cause you to live in some hope at least that it may be the Lord will have some mercy some compassion for you as well as for me If I say thesethings will be no means to reclaim you then I must be bold to tell you that I cannot say so much as a Judge to a condemned person Lord have mercy upon your souls I must leave you to God only at present let me put you in minde of these things which follow 1. That it is a fearfull thing to fall into the hands of the living God Heb. 10.31 for our God is a consuming fire Heb. 12.29 2. That certainly you have sucked in some desperate principles touching the decree and election of God which do so poison your souls with hopelesnesse that if ye come to hear a Sermon 't is for very shame of the world lest men should account you of no religion accounting it in all other respects vain and unprofitable either to hear a Sermon or to serve God at all and the truth is I much suspect this latter it having had a strong influence into my own troublesome and dreadfull apprehensions for so long together 3. That you will finde it dangerous indeed to dally with Jesus Christ a little longer he is now coming in a solemne manner to treat about the businesse of leaving of our sinnes and turning to God and this I hope to evidence clearly as occasion shall offer it self if I can have the liberty of a publike Pulpit as I desire but if I cannot I trust Jesus Christ who is now nigh at hand in his spiritual coming will vindicate me from the charge of being guilty of other mens transgressions which God willing I will endeavour to my utmost to prevent if I may be suffered but if I alone must be hindred I hope God will regard my innocency and men will at length know my integrity and affection to their souls FINIS
will deceive your own souls if you think so but to come to St Johns Vision again His Countenance is said to be as the Sun shineth in his strength In a word his Majesty was so great so amazing and so full of astonishment that when St John saw him he fell at his feet as dead His friend his servant fell down dead at the sight of his Majesty what shall his enemies do If the green tree be thus shaken how shall the dry tree stand when Jesus Christ shall appear in his glorious and terrible Majesty to judge the world in righteousnesse If the righteous if a Saint be thus terrified What shall lukewarm Hypocrites and ungodly sinners do when he cometh with clouds as v. 7. tels you he will If we go on with that verse we shall fee what they will do Behold he cometh with clouds and what then Then every eye shall see him and they also which pierced him as you do spiritually when you desperately stand out against his workings of loving kindenesse unto your souls even ye which shut him out of doors shall see him or feel him some way or other to your shame to your sorrow for it is said in the next words and all the kindreds of the earth shall wail because of him All ye then that are the kindreds of the earth whose hearts are set upon earth and earthly things for as for the godly they are more properly the kindreds of heaven for a like reason in the contrary See what will come on you if you go on in your rebellions against the Lord Christ and his Kingdom that is now coming towards you you will not sea him you will not take notice of him now but when he cometh with clouds shall ye not see him then how can ye avoid him Ye shall not then only see him or feel him or both but ye shall waile because of him nay and your wailing shall be for ever To conclude this If ye refuse his mercies now if whilest he stands at your doors and knocks ye will bid him be gone and shall say to him as those desperate wicked ones in Job Depart from us for we desire not the knowledge of thy waies What is the Almighty that we should serve him and what profit should we have if we pray unto him If we serve him thus or not serve him at all or bid him be gone as I said Christ will pay us with a Lex talionis he will have a Be gone for us as broad and as long as ours to him Go ye cursed into everlasting fire prepared for the devil and his Angels nay your own personal miseries and Judgements will not be all God will lay up your iniquities for your Children be will reward you and ye shall know it Job 21.19 he will reward you nay he will reward your children your sweet babes do not your bowels earn at this for your wickednesse What else can the meaning of that threarning be He will visit the iniquities of the Fathers upon the Children I have done with the first Consideration which makes it wonderful that Christ should thus stand and knock The second thing in him which improves the wonder is this that he is the party offended My Brethren my Brethren we have wounded him by our transgressions we have broken him by our sins and yet he is so willing to be friends he longs so much to be reconciled to be at one with us that he stands at our doors and knocks cals cries and he seeks entrance and reconciliation though he be the party offended What a Christ is this what sinners are we and yet it may be we think we do not sin against Christ at all but doubtlesse we do when we sinne against the motions of Gods Spirit pressing the riches of Gods goodnesse upon us and striving by it to leade us to repentance do we not sin against Christ indeed some of us know we doe but should we do so still Shall we sin against him offend him for ever What so good a Christ so ill entreated 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 God forbid my Brethren saith St James in another case These things ought not so to be 3. There is yet one Consideration more which raiseth the wonder and that is the concernment of this rich mercy if Jesus Christ will be pleased to stand at the doores of our souls and knock My Friends do ye rightly consider what Christ is doing when he is knocking at your doors I doubt ye do not But I will tell you he is striving to make us Kings and Priests and Prophets to our God that with him we may reign for evermore he is striving to come in that he may shew us that the Father hath forgiven us our sins he is striving to come in that he may reign over our corruptions and subdue our sins to us that he may tread Satan under our feet shortly and are these concernments of no value with us Beleeve it beleeve it the Lord Jesus Christ it may be will never knock at your doores if you make no estimation of these things but if you prize these things he will knock he will call yea he will wait to be gracious dut I beseech you put him not to wait too long especially when he comes to you in the night I mean in the night of your soul afflictions Alas when he comes then remember his head is full of dew and his locks are filled with the drops of the night What shall we keep him out in the cold far be it you see how it concerns you to open and make him welcome Open Open ye poor souls let him come in he will do you no harm yea he will do you all good and he will ease you of that burthen that troubles you most that is your sins why else doth he call you so eagerly so affectionately Come unto me all ye that are weary and heavy laden and I will ease you Will Christ say it and will he not do it What will not the Amen say Amen to his own promises ye wrong him yea ye do him one of the worst of injuries to think it to beleeve it I have done with these 3 Considerations that render it wonderful that Christ should stand at any mans doors and knock but I have not yet wholly done with his transaction of knocking I have a little application behinde and if I on the behalf of Jesus Christ can make any knocking work upon your souls I shall blesse my God that ever I was born that have long been afraid that Christ had knockt me off for ever because being a Minister I have been so long silent and held my peace but God hath heard my praiers and he hath had mercy on me even because he had a favour unto me And now I hope I shall speak God willing and God I hope will help me to speak to his glory and the good of your souls From the Person then declaring
have things clearer yet viz. that Union with Christ is sufficient to make up Union with the Father and consequently he that sinnes against Christ must needs sinne against the Father Would you I say have it clearer then go on to the 10th verse Beleevest thou not that I am in the Father and the Father in me The words that I speak unto you I speak not of my self as if he should say The Father speaks them as well as I nay The Father that dwelleth in me he doth the works too and then he proceeds Beleeve me Philip that I am in the Father and the Father in me Plainet words then these surely cannot be used to assert the Point in hand That sins against Christ are sins against the Father My next work must be to prove that they are sins against the holy Ghost likewise and then I have done in point of proof To evidence this clearly and plainly I suppose we take it for granted that the holy Ghost and the holy Spirit are all one that being granted me as a Suppositum not so much as disputed by your selves Let me put you in minde of some Texts of Scripture wherein the same actions being spoken of you shall finde are in one place implied or expressed plainly to be sins against God by which I understand to be meant the Father in another place they are termed sins against Christ by which name we understand the Sonne and in a third place sins against Gods holy Spirit by which 't is already supposed we mean and understand the holy Ghost These Scriptures being produced and asserting the thing in hand I suppose I have gained the Cause Compare then these three Scriptures together Numb 21.5 1 Cor. 10.9 Isa 63.10 Let us look first upon Num. 21.5 The people of Israel it should seem were in great affliction they wanted bread and water and their soul lothed the Manna they call it this light bread Being in this distresse and affliction it is said expresly They spake against God and against Moses saying Wherefore have ye brought us up out of Aegypt to die in the Wildernesse for there is no bread neither is there any water and our soul loatheth this light bread here you see plainly the Israclites sinne of murmuring under this affliction is said expresly to be against God They murmured against God and against Moses by which word God I hope you will give me leave to understand the Father and never trouble your selves with much scruple or dissatisfaction in the businesse Let us now go to the next Scripture which ye shall finde 1 Cor. 10.9 Neither let us tempt Christ as some of them also tempted and were destroied of Serpents The Question will be how it appears that the same sin is spoken of in both places To make this sure I must turn you back to Numb 21.6 again which tels us that God for their sin of murmuring immediatly before sent fiery Serpents among the people and they died Now reade the verse I have quoted out of the Corinthians Neither let us tempt Christ as some of them also tempted and were destroied of Serpents Do you desire I should argue now Is it not plain that that which was called murmuring against God in the Book of Numbers is called tempting of Christ in the Epistle to the Corinthians For what did the Lord send fiery Serpents among the people for murmuring against God For what were they destroied of Serpents for tempting of Christ These then were both one unlesse you understand any other destruction of Serpents to be intended by St Paul then this which was by the biting of the fiery Serpents mentioned in the Book of Numbers My proofs touching Father and Sonne I have done with My next labour must be touching the holy Spirit or holy Ghost as we call him For this view my third Text Isa 63.10 where the Prophet having in the verse before mentioned the gracious and generall loving kindenesse of the Lord toward his people in the daies of old sets down in the next words in the beginning of the 10th verse the general demeanour and carriage of the Israelites his people toward God And what was their carriage 'T was sad I confesse I fear ours is so too They rebelled and vexed his holy Spirit Their general posture of actions against God is termed here you see a rebelling and vexing his holy Spirit certainly if all their wicked actions come under this expression then this action likewise of murmuring against God or tempting of Christ being one of their actions must needs do so too And now I think I have gained my cause Having done with my proof let me now treat with you a little you that have sin'd so often against the motions of Gods Spirit and therein in some sense troden under foot the Son of God for Gods sake What do ye think of your selves have ye done well think ye thus at one blow as it were to strike Father Son and holy Ghost in the face Is this recompence for his mercies in sending Jesus Christ to shed his bloud for your sins a fair recompence to the Father Is it equal that such a Lex Talionis should be returned to the Son that we should thus grieve and vex the holy Spirit Certainly if there be any fear of God before out eyes the doing of these things cannot rightly please our hearts But because ye are so hardened in your wickednesse and rebellions against him who will either glorifie you if ye willingly submit to him or torment you for ever if still ye persist be ye under what Form or Administrations ye will For I love not to flatter you in your imaginary shadowâ— taken up of your own heads nor do I place godlinesse or wickednesse in externall Forms but rather in submitting or walking contrary to Christ Let me presse you a little eagerly to consider what ye are doing when ye are sinning against the motions workings and pleadings of Gods good Spirit striving within you as doubtlesse sometimes he doth or else things go very sadly with you Be as merry as ye will Shall I minde you in one word what ye do ye sinne against Father Sonne and holy Ghost all at once ye do in a sense as I told you tread under foot the bloud of Jesus Christ the Son of God for this treading things under foot what is it 't is an expression whereby we signifie our scorning and lothing of a thing as when we say If I could I would tread thee under my foot My Brethren my brethren what do ye lesse when ye do so resist the motions of Gods good Spirit that ye cannot endure to hear him speak to you Nay how many are there who when the Spirit of God would pleade with them and reason them into godlinesse or into the omission of this or that or the other particular sin as of whoredom jeering at good things drunkennesse covetousness or the like presently they take the first