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
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
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
it would be vain and insignificant for any man to take upon him to say in it what God hath not said or given him plain ground for What I conceive to be plain and useful in this matter I shall lay down in the following propositions insisting more largely where the matter requires it and contenting my self but to mention what is obvious and clear at the first sight 1. That there is a great difference between the ends and limits of the day or season of grace as to particular persons and in reference to the collective body of a people inhabiting this or that place It may be over with such or such a place so as that they that dwell there shall no longer have the Gospel among them when as yet it may not be over with every particular person belonging to it who may be providentially cast elsewhere or may have the ingrafted word in them which they lose not And again it may be over with some particular persons in such a place when it is not yet over with that people or place generally considered 2. As to both there is a difference between the ending of such a day and intermissions or dark intervals that may be in it The Gospel may be withdrawn from such a people and be restored And God often no doubt as to particular persons either deprives them of the outward means of grace for a time by sicknes or many other waies or may for a time forbear moving upon them by his Spirit and again try them with both 3. As to particular persons there may be much difference between such as while they liv'd under the Gospel gained the knowledge of the principal doctrines or of the summe and substance of Christianity thô without any sanctifying effect or impression upon their hearts and such as through their own negligence liv'd under it in total ignorance hereof The day of grace may not be over with the former thô they should never live under the ministry of the Gospel more For it is possible while they have the seeds and principles of holy truth laid up in their minds God may graciously administer to them many occasions of recollecting and considering them wherewith he may so please to cooperate as to enliven them and make them vital and effectual to their final salvation Whereas with the other sort when they no more enjoy the external means the day of grace is like to be quite over so as that there may be no more hope in their case than in that of Pagans in the darkest parts of the world and perhaps much less as their guilt hath been much greater by their neglect of so great and important things It may be better with Tyre and Sidon c. 4. That yet it is a terrible judgment to the most knowing to lose the external dispensation of the Gospel while they have yet no sanctifying impression upon their hearts by it and they are cast upon a fearful hazard of being lost for ever being left by the departed Gospel in an unconverted state For they need the most urgent inculcations of Gospel-truths and the most powerful enforcing means to ingage them to consider the things which they know It is the design of the Gospel to beget not only light in the mind but grace in the heart And if that was not done while they enjoyed such means it is less likely to be done without them And if any slighter and more superficial impressions were made upon them thereby short of true and thorough conversion how great is the danger that all will vanish when they cease to be prest and urged and called upon by the publick voice of the Gospel Ministry any more How naturally desident is the spirit of man and apt to sink into deadnes worldlines and carnality even under the most lively and quickning means and even where a saving work hath been wrought how much more when those means fail and there is no vital principle within capable of self-excitation and improvement O that they would consider this who have got nothing by the Gospel all this while but a little cold spiritles notional knowledge and are in a possibility of losing it before they get any thing more 5. That as it is certain death ends the day of grace with every unconverted person so it is very possible it may end with divers before they dye by their total loss of all external means or by the departure of the blessed Spirit of God from them so as to return and visit them no more How the day of grace may end with a person is to be understood by considering what it is that makes up and constitutes such a day There must be some measure and proportion of time to make up this or any day which is as the substratum and ground forelaid Then there must be light superadded otherwise it differs not from night which may have the same measure of meer time The Gospel revelation some way or other must be had as being the light of such a day And again there must be some degree of livelines and vital influence the more usual concomitant of light the night doth more dispose men to drowsines The same Sun that enlightens the world disseminates also an invigorating influence If the Spirit of the living God do no way animate the Gospel revelation and breath in it we have no day of grace It is not only a day of light but a day of power wherein souls can be wrought upon and a people made willing to become the Lords Psal. 110. As the Redeemer revealed in the Gospel is the light of the world so he is life to it too thô neither are planted or do take root every where In him was life and that life was the light of men That light that raies from him is vital light in it self and in its tendency and design thô it be disliked and not entertained by the most Whereas therefore these things must concur to make up such a day if either a mans time his life on earth expire or if light quite fail him or if all gracious influence be withheld so as to be communicated no more his day is done the season of grace is over with him Now it is plain that many a one may lose the Gospel before his life end and possible that all gracious influence may be restrained while as yet the external dispensation of the Gospel remains A sinner may have hardned his heart to that degree that God will attempt him no more in any kind with any design of kindnes to him not in that more inward immediate way at all i. e. by the motions of his Spirit which peculiarly can import nothing but friendly inclination as whereby men are personally apply'd unto so that another cannot be meant nor by the voice of the Gospel which may either be continued for the sake of others or they continued under it but for their heavier doom at length