not what am I the better when perhaps it is far more likely that I shall perish notwithstanding than be saved In answer to this it must be acknowledg'd that all that live under the Gospel do not obtain life and saving grace by it For then there had been no occasion for this lamentation of our blessed Lord over the perishing inhabitants of Jerusalem as having lost their day and that the things of their peace were now hid from their eyes and by that instance it appears too possible that even the generality of a people living under the Gospel may fall at length into the like forlorn and hopeles condition But art thou a man that thus objectest a reasonable understanding creature or dost thou use the reason and understanding of a man in objecting thus Didst thou expect that when thine own wilful transgression had made thee liable to eternal death and wrath peace and life and salvation should be impos'd upon thee whether thou would'st or no or notwithstanding thy most wilful neglect and contempt of them and all the means of them Could it enter into thy mind that a reasonable soul should be wrought and framed for that high and blessed end whereof it is radically capable as a stock or a stone is for any use it is designed for without designing its own end or way to it Couldst thou think the Gospel was to bring thee to faith and repentance whether thou didst hear it or no or ever apply thy mind to consider the meaning of it and what it did propose and offer to thee or when thou mightest so easily understand that the grace of God was necessary to make it effectual to thee and that it might become his power or the instrument of his power to thy salvation couldst thou think it concern'd thee not to sue and supplicate to him for that grace when thy life lay upon it and thy eternal hope Hast thou lain weltring at the foot-stool of the throne of grace in thine own tears as thou hast been formerly weltring in thy sins and impurities crying for grace to help thee in this time of thy need And if thou thinkest this was above thee and without out thy compas hast thou done all that was within thy compas in order to the obtaining of grace at Gods hands But here perhaps thou wilt enquire Is there any thing then to be done by us whereupon the grace of God may be expected certainly to follow To which I answer 1. That it is out of question nothing can be done by us to deserve it or for which we may expect it to follow It were not grace if we had obliged or brought it by our desert under former preventive bonds to us And 2. What if nothing can be done by us upon which it may be certainly expected to follow Is a certainty of perishing better than an high probability of being saved 3. Such as live under the Gospel have reason to apprehend it highly probable they may obtain that grace which is necessary to their salvation if they be not wanting to themselves For 4. There is generally afforded to such that which is wont to be call'd common grace I speak not of any further extent of it 't is enough to our present purpose that it extends so far as to them that live under the Gospel and have thereby a day allow'd them wherein to provide for their peace Now thô this grace is not yet certainly saving yet it tends to that which is so And none have cause to despair but that being duly improv'd and comply'd with it may end in it And this is that which requires to be insisted on and more fully evinced In order whereto let it be considered That it is expresly said to such they are to work out their salvation with fear and trembling for this reason that God works or is working 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 in them i. e. is statedly and continually at work or is alwaies ready to work in them to will and to do of his own good pleasure Phil. 2.12 13. The matter fails not on his part He will work on in order to their salvation if they work in that way of subordinate cooperation which his command and the necessity of their own case oblige them unto And it is further to be considered that where God had formerly afforded the symbols of his gracious presence given his oracles and setled his Church thô yet in it's Hoâ—â—ge and much more imperfect state there he however communicated those influences of his Spirit that it was to be imputed to themselves if they came short of the saving operations of it Of such it was said Thou gavest thy good spirit to instruct them Nehem. 9.20 And to such Turn ye at my reproof I will pour out my spirit to you I will make known my words unto you Because I called and you refused I stretched out my hand and no man regarded but ye set at nought my counsel and despised all my reproof I also will laugh at your calamity c. Prov. 1.23 24. We see whence their destruction came not from Gods first restraint of his Spirit but their refusing despising and setting at nought his counsels and reproofs And when it is said they rebelled and vexed his spirit and he therefore turn'd and fought against them and became their enemy Isa. 63.10 It appears that before his Spirit was not withheld but did variously and often make essayes and attempts upon them And when Stephen immediately before his Martyrdom thus bespeaks the descendents of these Jewes Ye stiff-necked and uncircumcised ye do alwayes resist the holy Ghost as your Fathers did so do ye Act. 7. 'T is imply'd the holy Ghost had been alwayes striving from age to age with that stubborn people for where there is no counter-striving there can be no resistence no more than there can be a war on one side only Which also appears to have been the course of Gods dealing with the old world before their so general lapse into Idolatry and sensual wickednes from that passage Gen. 6.3 according to the more common reading and sense of those words Now whereas the Gospel is eminently said to be the ministration of the spirit in contradistinction not only to the natural Religion of other nations but the divinely instituted Religion of the Jewes also as is largely discoursed 2 Cor. 3. and more largely through the Epistle to the Galatians especially chap. 4. and whereas we find that in the Jewish Church the holy Ghost did generally diffuse its influences and not otherwise withhold them than penally and upon great provocation how much more may it be concluded that under the Gospel the same blessed Spirit is very generally at work upon the souls of men till by their resisting grieving and quenching of it they provoke it to retire and withdraw from them And let the Consciences of men living under the Gospel testify in the case Appeal sinner to thine
I fall before thee my Lord and my God I here willingly tender my homage at the footstool of thy throne I take thee for the Lord of my life I absolutely surrender and resign my self to thee Thy love constrains me henceforth no more to live to my self but to thee who dyedst for me and didst rise again And I subject and yeild my self to thy blessed light and power O holy Spirit of grace to be more and more illuminated sanctify'd and prepared for every good word and work in this world and for an inheritance among them that are sanctify'd in the other Sinner never give thy soul leave to be at rest 'till thou find it brought to some such transaction with God the Father Son and Spirit as this So as that thou canst truly say and dost feel thy heart is in it Be not weary or impatient of waiting and striving till thou canst say this is now the very sense of thy soul. Such things have been done in the world but O how seldom of latter daies So God hath wrought with men to save them from going down to the pit having found a ransom for them And why may he not yet be expected to do so He hath smitten rocks ere now and made the waters gush out nor is his hand shortned or his ear heavy Thy danger is not Sinner that he will be inexorable but lest thou shouldst He will be intreated if thou wouldst be prevailed with to intreat his favour with thy whole heart And that thou may'st and not throw away thy soul and so great an hope thorough meer sloth and loathnes to be at some pains for thy life Let the Text which hath been thy directory about the things that belong to thy peace be also thy motive as it gives thee to behold the Son of God weeping over such as would not know those things Shall not the Redeemers tears move thee O hard heart Consider what these tears import to this purpose 1. They signifie the real depth and greatnes of the misery into which thou art falling They drop from an intellectual and most comprehensive eye that sees far and pierces deep into things hath a wide and large prospect takes the compas of that forlorn state into which unreconcileable sinners are hastening in all the horrour of it The Son of God did not weep vain and causeles tears or for a light matter nor did he for himself either spend his own or desire the profusion of others tears Weep not for me O daughters of Jerusalem c. He knows the value of Souls the weight of guilt and how low it will press and sink them the severity of Gods justice and the power of his anger and what the fearful effects of them will be when they finally fall If thou understandest not these things thy self believe him that did at least believe his tears 2. They signifie the sincerity of his love and pity the truth and tendernes of his compassion Canst thou think his deceitful tears his who never knew guile was this like the rest of his course And remember that he who shed tears did from the same fountain of love and mercy shed blood too Was that also done to deceive Thou makest thy self some very considerable thing indeed if thou thinkest the son of God counted it worth his while to weep and bleed and dye to deceive thee into a false esteem of him and his love But if it be the greatest madnes imaginable to entertain any such thought but that his tears were sincere and inartificial the natural genuine expressions of undissembled benignity and pity thou art then to consider what love and compassion thou art now sinning against what bowels thou spurnest and that if thou perishest 't is under such guilt as the devils themselves are not liable to who never had a Redeemer bleeding for them nor that we ever find weeping over them 3. They shew the remedilesnes of thy case if thou persist in impenitency and unbelief till the things of thy peace be quite hid from thine eyes These tears will then be the last issues of even defeated love of love that is frustrated of it's kind design Thou mayest perceive in these tears the steady unalterable laws of heaven the inflexiblenes of the divine justice that holds thee in adamantine bonds and hath sealed thee up if thou prove incurably obstinate and impenitent unto perdition so that even the Redeemer himself he that is mighty to save cannot at length save thee but only weep over thee drop tears into thy flame which asswage it not but thô they have another design even to express true compassion do yet unavoidably heighten and increase the fervour of it and will do so to all eternity He even tells thee Sinner thou hast despised my blood thou shalt yet have my tears That would have saved thee these do only lament thee lost But the tears wept over others as lost and past hope why should they not yet melt thee while as yet there is hope in thy case If thou be effectually melted in thy very soul and looking to him whom thou hast pierced dost truly mourn over him thou mayest assure thy self the prospect his weeping eye had of lost souls did not include thee His weeping over thee would argue thy case forelorn and hopeles Thy mourning over him will make it safe and happy That it may be so consider further that 4. They signify how very intent he is to save souls and how gladly he would save thine if yet thou wilt accept of mercy while it may be had For if he weep over them that will not be saved from the same love that is the spring of these tears would saving mercies proceed to those that are become willing to receive them And that love that wept over them that were lost how will it glory in them that are saved There his love is disappointed and vext crost in its gracious intendment but here having compast it how will he joy over thee with singing and rest in his love And thou also instead of being involv'd in a like ruine with the unreconciled Sinners of the Old Jerusalem shalt be enrolled among the glorious Citizens of the New and triumph together with them in eternal glory APPENDIX BEcause some things not fit to be wholly omitted were as little fit to come into the body of a practical discourse 't was thought requisite to subjoyn here the following additions that will severally have reference to distinct parts of the foregoing discourse As to what was said p. 81. of the unreasonablenes and ill consequence of admitting it to be any mans duty to believe himself utterly rejected and forsaken of God inasmuch as it would make that his duty which were repugnant to his felicity This is to be evinced by a consideration which also even apart by it self were not without its own great weight viz. that such a belief were inconsistent with his former stated and known
to deny ungodliness and worldly lusts and to live soberly righteously and godly in this present World SO looking for the blessed hope And that Christ gave himself for us to redeem us from all iniquity and to purify us to himself a peculiar people zealous of good Works How many again are Christians they know not why upon the same terms that others are Mahometans because it is the Religion of their Countrey by fate or by accident not by their own choice and judgment the same inconsideration makes them be Christians that makes others be none And now shall our Redeemer be left to weep alone over these perishing souls have we no tears to spend upon this doleful subject Oh that our heads were waters and our eyes fountains Is it nothing to us that multitudes are sinking going down into Perdition under the name of Christian under the seal of Baptism from under the means of life and salvation perishing and we can do nothing to prevent it We know they must perish that do not repent and turn to God and love him above all even with all their hearts and souls and mind and might that do not believe in his Son and pay him homage as their rightful Lord sincerely subjecting themselves to his laws and government But this they will not understand or not consider Our endeavours to bring them to it are ineffectual 't is but faint breath we utter Our Words drop and dye between us and them We speak to them in the name of the eternal God that made them of the great Jesus who bought them with his blood and they regard it not The Spirit of the Lord is in a great degree departed from among us and we take it not to heart We are sensible of lesser grievances are grieved that men will not be more entirely proselyted to our several parties and perswasions rather than that they are so disenclin'd to become proselytes to real CHRISTIANITY and seem more deeply concerned to have Christian Religion so or so modify'd than whether there shall be any such thing or whether men be saved by it or lost This sad case that so many were likely to be lost under the first sound of the Gospel and the most exemplary temper of our blessed Lord in reference to it are represented in the following Treatise with design to excite their care for their own souls who need to be warned and the compassions of others for them who are so little apt to take warning The good Lord grant it may be some way or other useful for good John Howe THE REDEEMERS TEARS Wept over LOST SOULS LUKE XIX 41 42. And when he was come near he beheld the City and wept over it saying If thou hadst known even thou at least in this thy day the things which belong unto thy Peace but now they are hid from thine eyes WE have here a compassionate Lamentation in the midst of a solemn Triumph Our Lords approach unto Jerusalem at this time and his entrance into it as the foregoing History shewes carried with them some face of regal and triumphal pomp but with such allayes as discovered a mind most remote from Ostentation and led by Judgment not Vain-glory to transmit thorough a dark umbrage some glimmerings only of that excellent Majesty which both his Sonship and his Mediatorship entitled him unto A very modest and mean specimen of his true indubious Royalty and Kingly-state Such as might rather intimate than plainly declare it and rather afford an after Instruction to teachable minds than beget a present Conviction and dread in the stupidly obstinate and unteachable And this effect we find it had as is observ'd by another Evangelical Historian who relating the same matter how in his passage to Jerusalem the People met him with Branches of Palm-trees and joyful Hosanna's he riding upon an Asses Colt as Princes or Judges to signifie Meekness as much as State were wont to do Judg. 5.10 tells us These things his Disciples understood not at the first but when Jesus was glorified then remembred they that these things were written of him and that they had done these things unto him Joh. 12.16 For great regard was had in this as in all the other acts of his Life and Ministry to that last and conclusive part his dying a sacrifice upon the Cross for the sins of men to observe all along that Mediocrity and steer that middle course between obscurâ—ty and a terrifying overpow'ring glory that this solemn oblation of himself might neither be prevented nor be disregarded Agreeably to this design and the rest of his Course he doth in this solemnity rather discover his Royal state and dignity by a dark Emblem than by an express representation and shews in it more of Meekness and Humility than of awful Majesty and Magnificence as was formerly predicted Zechar. 9.9 Rejoyce greatly O Daughter of Zion Shout O Daughter of Jerusalem Behold thy King cometh unto thee he is just and having Salvation lowly and riding upon an Ass and upon a Colt the foal of an Ass. And how little he was taken with this piece of state is sufficiently to be seen in this Paragraph of the Chapter His mind is much more taken up in the foresight of Jerusalem's sad case and therefore being come within view of it which he might very commodiously have in the descent of the higher opposite Hill Mount Olivet he beheld the City 't is said and wept over it Two things concur to make up the cause of this sorrow 1. The greatness of the Calamity Jerusalem once so dear to God was to suffer not a Skar but a Ruine The dayes shall come upon thee that thine Enemies shall cast a trench about thee and compass thee round and keep thee in on every side and shall lay thee even with the ground and thy Children within thee and they shall not leave in thee one stone upon another 2. The lost opportunity of preventing it If thou hadst known even thou at least in this thy day the things which belong unto thy Peace but now they are hid from thine eyes vers 42. And again Thou knewest not the time of thy visitation First The Calamity was greater in his eyes than if can be in ours His large and comprehensive mind could take the compass of this sad case Our thoughts cannot reach far yet we can apprehend what may make this case very deplorable we can consider Jerusalem as the City of the great King where was the Palace and Throne of the Majesty of Heaven vouchsafing to dwell with men on Earth Here the divine Light and Glory had long shone Here was the the sacred Shechinah the dwelling place of the most High the Symbols of his presence the Seat of Worship the Mercy Seat the place of receiving Addresses and of dispensing favours The House of Prayer for all Nations To his own People this was the City of their Solemnities Whither the Tribes were wont to go up the
durable is not from a spirit of fear but of love power and a sound mind 2 Tim. 1.7 You must be a new creature Gods workmanship created in Christ Jesus unto good works that you may walk in them The life of the new creature stands in love to God as its way and course afterwards is a course of walking with God If your heart be not brought to love God and delight in him you are still but dead towards God and you still remain alive unto sin as before Whereas if you ever come to be a Christian indeed you must be able truly to reckon your self dead to sin and alive to God thorough Jesus Christ. Rom. 6.11 Whereupon in your making the mentioned Covenant you must yield your self to God as one that is alive from the dead as 't is vers 13. of the same chapter A new nature and life in you will make all that you do in a way of duty whether immediately towards God or man the whole course of godlines righteousnes and sobriety easie and delightful to you And because it is evident both from many plain Scriptures and your own and all mens experience that you cannot be your selves the authours of this holy new life and nature you must therefore further in entring into this Covenant 4. Most earnestly cry to God and plead with him for his Spirit by whom the vital unitive bond must be contracted between God in Christ and your souls So this will be the Covenant of life and peace Lord how generally do the Christians of our age deceive themselves with a self-sprung Religion Divine indeed in the institution but meerly humane in respect of the radication and exercise In which respects also it must be divine or nothing What are we yet to learn that a divine power must work and form our Religion in us as well as divine authority direct and enjoyn it Do all such scriptures go for nothing that tell us it is God that must create the new heart and renew the right spirit in us that he must turn us if ever we be turned that we can never come to Christ except the father draw us c. Nor is there any cause of discouragement in this if you consider what hath before been said in this discourse Ask and you shall receive seek and you shall find knock and it shall be opened to you Your heavenly father will give his Spirit to them that ask more readily than parents do bread to their children and not a stone But what if you be put to ask often and wait long this doth but the more endear the gift and shew the high value of it You are to remember how often you have griev'd resisted and vexed this Spirit and that you have made God wait long upon you What if the absolute sovereign Lord of all expect your attendance upon him He waits to be gracious and blessed are they that wait for him Renew your applications to him Lay from time to time that Covenant before you which your selves must be wrought up unto a full entire closure with And if it be not done at one time try yet if it will another and try again and again Remember it is for your life for your soul for your all But do not satisfie your self with only such faint motions within thee as may only be the effects of thy own spirit of thy dark dull listles sluggish dead hard heart at least not of the efficacious regenerating influence of the divine Spirit Didst thou never hear what mighty woâ—â—â—ngs there have been in others when God hath been transforming and renewing them and drawing them into living union with his Son and himself thorough him what an amazing penetrating light hath struck into their hearts as 2 Cor. 4.6 Such as when he was making the world enlightned the Chaos Such as hath made them see things that concerned them as they truly were and with their own proper face God and Christ and themselves sin and duty heaven and hell in their own true appearances How effectually they have been awakened how the terrours of the Almighty have beset and seized their souls what agonies and pangs they have felt in themselves when the voice of God hath said to them awake thou that sleepest and arise from dead and Christ shall give thee life Ephes. 5.14 How he hath brought them down at his feet thrown them into the dust broken them melted them made them abase themselves loath and abhor themselves fill'd them with sorrow shame confusion and with indignation towards their own guilty souls habituated them to a severity aâ—â—inst themselves unto the most sharp and yet most unforced self-accusations self-judging and self condemnation so as even to make them lay claim to hell and confesse the portion of devils belonged to them as their own most deserved portion And if now their eyes have been directed towards a Redeemer and any glimmering of hope hath appeared to them If now they are taught to understand God saying to them Sinner art thou yet willing to be reconciled and accept a Saviour O the transport into which it puts them this is life from the dead what is there hope for such a lost wretch as I How tastful now is that melting invitation how pleasant an intimation doth it carry with it Come unto me all ye that are weary and heavy laden and I will give you rest c. If the Lord of heaven and earth do now look down from the throne of glory and say what Sinner wilt thou despise my favour and pardon my Son thy mighty merciful Redeemer my grace and Spirit still What can be the return of the poor abashed wretch overawed by the glory of the divine Majesty stung with compunction overcome with the intimation of kindnes and love I have heard of thee O God by the hearing of the ear now mine eye seeth thee wherefore I abhor my self and repent in dust and ashes So inwardly is the truth of that word now felt that thou mayest remember and be confounded and never open thy mouth any more because of thy shame when I am pacified towards thee for all that thou hast done saith the Lord God Ezek. 16.63 But sinner wilt thou make a Covenant with me and my Christ wilt thou take me for thy God and him for thy Redeemer and Lord And may I Lord yet may I O admirable grace wonderful sparing mercy that I was not thrown into hell at my first refusal Yea Lord with all my heart and soul. I renounce the vanities of an empty cheating world and all the pleasures of sin in thy favour stands my life Whom have I in heaven but thee whom on earth do I desire besides thee And O thou blessed Jesus thou Prince of the Kings of the earth who hast loved me and washed me from my sins in thy blood and whom the eternal God hath exalted to be a Prince and a Saviour to give repentance and remission of sins