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
all that is delectable to his present sense he must here leave behind him and he cannot divest himself of all apprehensions of a future state wherein if God should make him suffer nothing yet if he have nothing to enjoy he must be alwaies miserable 4. The Gospel therefore further represents to him the final eternal blessednes and glorious state which they that are reconcil'd shall be brought into They that live under the Gospel are not mock't with shadowes and empty clouds or with fabulous Elysiums Nor are they put off with some unintelligible notion of only being happy in the general But are told expresly wherein their happiness is to consist Life and immortality are brought to light in the Gospel 'T is given them to understand how great a good is laid up in store The things which eye hath not seen and ear not heard and which otherwise could not have entered into the heart of man the things of Gods present and eternal Kingdome are set in view It shewes the future state of the reconcil'd shall consist not only in freedom from what is evil but in the enjoyment of the best and most delectable good That God himself in all his glorious fulnes will be their eternal and most satisfying portion That their blessednes is to ly in the perpetual fruitive vision of his blessed face and in the fulnes of joy and the everlasting pleasures which the divine presence it self doth perpetually afford And whereas their glorious Redeemer is so nearly ally'd to them flesh of their flesh and bone of their bone who inasmuch as the children were made partakers of flesh and blood he also himself likewise took part of the same Heb. 2.14 and is become by special title their authoriz'd Lord they are assured of that than which nothing should be more grateful to them they shall be for ever with the Lord that they are to be where he is to behold his glory and shall be joynt-heires with Christ and be glorify'd together with him shall partake according to their measure and capacity in the same blessednes which he enjoyes Thou canst not pretend sinner who livest under the Gospel that thou hast not the light of a day to shew thee what blessednes is Heaven is opened to thee Glory beams down from thence upon thee to create thee a day by the light whereof thou may'st see with sufficient clearnes what is the inheritance of the Saints in light And thô all is not told thee and it do not in every respect appear what we shall be so much may be foreknown that when he shall appear we shall be like him and shall see him as he is 1 Joh. 3.1 2. And because the heart as yet carnal can savour little of all this and finding it self strange and disaffected to God affecting now to be without Christ and without God in the world may easily apprehend it impossible to it to be happy in an undesired good or that it can enjoy what it dislikes or in the mean time walk in a way to which it finds in it self nothing but utter aversenes and disinclination 5. The Gospel further shewes us what is to be wrought and done in us to attemper and frame our spirits to our future state and present way to it It lets us know we are to be born again born from above born of God made partakers of a divine nature that will make the temper of our spirits connatural to the divine presence That whereas God is light and with him is no darknes at all we who were darknes shall be made light in the Lord. That we are to be begotten again to a lively hope to the eternal and undefiled inheritance that is reserved in the heavens for us That we are thus to be made meet to be partakers of that inheritance of the Saints in light And as we are to be eternally conversant with Christ we are here to put on Christ to have Christ in us the hope of glory And whereas only the way of holiness and obedience leads to blessednes that we are to be created in Christ Jesus to good workes to walk in them And shall thereupon find the wayes prescribed to us by him who is the Wisdom of God to be all waies of pleasantnes and paths of peace That he will put his Spirit into us and cause us to walk in his statutes and to account that in keeping them there is great reward And thus all that is contained in that mentioned summary of the things belonging to our peace Repentance towards God and Faith in our Lord Jesus Christ will all become easy to us and as the acts of nature proceeding from that new and holy nature imparted to us And whosoever thou art that livest under the Gospel canst thou deny that it is day with thee as to all this wa st thou never told of this great necessary heart-change Didst thou never hear that the tree must be made good that the fruit might be good that thou must become a new creature have old things done away and all things made new Didst thou never hear of the necessity of having a new heart and a right spirit created and renewed in thee that except thou wert born again or from above as that expression may be read thou could'st never enter into the Kingdom of God wa st thou kept in ignorance that a form of Godlines without the power of it would never do thee good that a name to live without the principle of the holy divine life would never save thee that a specious outside that all thy external performances while thou went'st with an unrenewed earthly carnal heart would never advantage thee as to thy eternal salvation and blessednes And this might help thine understanding concerning the nature of thy future blessednes and will be found most agreeable to it being aright understood for as thou art not to be blessed by a blessednes without thee and distant from thee but inwrought into thy temper and intimately united with thee nor glorified by an external glory but by a glory revealed within thee So nor canst thou be qualify'd for that blessed glorious state otherwise than by having the temper of thy Soul made habitually holy and good As what a good man partakes of happines here is such that he is satisfy'd from himself so it must be hereafter not originally from himself but by divine communication made most intimate to him Didst thou not know that it belonged to thy peace to have a peace-maker and that the Son of God was he and that he makes not the peace of those that despise and refuse him or that receive him not that come not to him and are not willing to come to God by him Could'st thou think living under the Gospel that the reconciliation between God and thee was not to be mutual that he would be reconcil'd to thee while thou wouldst not be reconcil'd to him or shouldst still bear towards him a
Which thô it may seem severe is not to be thought strange much less unrighteous It is not to be thought strange to them that read the Bible which so often speaks this sense as when it warns and threatens men with so much terror as Heb. 10.26 27 28 29. For if we sin wilfully after that we have received the knowledge of the truth there remaineth no more sacrifice for sins but a certain fearful looking for of judgment and fiery indignation which shall devour the adversaries He that despised Moses law died without mercy under two or three witnesses Of how much sorer punishment suppose ye shall he be thought worthy who hath troden under foot the Son of God and hath counted the blood of the covenant wherewith he was sanctified an unholy thing and hath done despite unto the Spirit of grace And when it tells us after many overtures made to men in vain of his having given them up c. Psal. 81.11 12. But my people would not hearken to my voice and Israel would none of me So I gave them up unto their own hearts lust and they walked in their own counsels and pronounces Let him that is unjust be unjust still and let him which is filthy be filthy still Rev. 22.11 and sayes In thy filthines is lewdnes because I have purged thee and thou wast not purged thou shalt not be purged from thy filthines any more till I have caused my fury to rest upon thee Ezek. 24.13 Which passages seem to imply a total desertion of them and retraction of all gracious influence And when it speaks of letting them be under the Gospel and the ordinary means of salvation for the most direful purposes As that This Child Jesus was set for the fall as well as for the rising of many in Israel Luk. 2.34 As to which Text the very learned Grotius glossing upon the words 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 and 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 sayes Accedo iis qui non necdum eventum sed confilium that he is of their opinion who think that not the naked event but the counsel or purpose of God is signify'd by it the same with 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 and alledges several Texts where the active of that verb must have the same sense as to appoint or ordain and mentions divers other places of the same import with this so understood and which therefore to recite will equally serve our present purpose as that Rom. 9.33 Behold I lay in Zion a stumbling stone and rock of offence And 1 Pet. 2.8 The stone which the builders refused is made a stone of stumbling and a rock of offence even to them which stumble at the word being disobedient whereunto also they were appointed With that of our Saviour himself Joh. 9.39 For judgment I am come into this world that they which see not might see and that they which see might be made blind And most agreeable to those former places is that of the Prophet Isai. 28.13 But the word of the Lord was unto them precept upon precept precept upon precept line upon line line upon line here a little and there a little that they might go and fall backward and be broken and snared and taken And we may adde that our Lord hath put us out of doubt that there is such a sin as that which is eminently called The sin against the Holy Ghost that a man may in such circumstances and to such a degree sin against that blessed Spirit that he will never move or breathe upon them more but leave them to an hopeless ruin Thô I shall not in this discourse determine or discusse the nature of it But I doubt not it is somewhat else than final impenitency and infidelity and that every one that dies not having sincerely repented and believed is not guilty of it thô every one that is guilty of it dies impenitent and unbelieving but was guilty of it before so as it is not the meer want of time that makes him guilty Whereupon therefore that such may outlive their day of grace is out of question But let not such as upon the descriptions the Gospel gives us of that sin may be justly confident they have not perhaps committed it therefore think themselves out of all danger of losing their season of making their peace with God before they dy Many a one may no doubt that never committed the unpardonable blasphemy against the Holy Ghost as he is the witness by his wonderful works of Christs being the Messiah As one may dy by neglecting himself that doth not poyson himself or cut his own throat You will say but if the Spirit retire from men so as never to return where is the difference I answer the difference lies in the Specific nature and greater hainousnes of that sin and consequently in the deeper degrees of its punishment For thô the reason of its unpardonablenes lies not principally in its greater hainousnes but in its direct repugnancy to the way of obtaining pardon yet there is no doubt of its being much more hainous than many other sins for which men perish And therefore 't is in proportion more severely punish't But is it not misery enough to dwell in darknes and wo for ever as every one that dies unreconconcil'd to God must do unles the most intense flames and horror of Hell be your portion As his case is sufficiently bad that must dy as an ordinary Felon thô he is not to be hang'd drawn and quartered Nor is there any place or pretence for so prophane a thought as if there were any colour of unrighteousnes in this course of procedure with such men Is it unjust severity to let the Gospel become deadly to them whose own malignity perverts it against its nature and genuine tendency into a savour of death as 2 Cor. 2.16 which it is 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 i. e. to them as the mentioned Authour speaks who may be truly said to seek their own destruction or that God should intend their more aggravated condemnation even from the despised Gospel it self who when such light is come into the world hate it shew themselves lucifugae tenebriones as he also phrases it speaking further upon that first mentioned Text such as fly from the light chuse and love to lurk in darkness He must have very low thoughts of divine favour and acceptance of Christ and grace and glory that can have hard thoughts of God for his vindicating with greatest severity the contempt of such things What could better become his glorious majesty and excellent greatnes than as all things work together for good towards them that love him so to let all things work for the hurt of them that so irreconcileably hate him and bear a disaffected and implacable mind towards him Nor doth the addition of his designing the matter so make it hard For if it be just to punish such wickednes is it unjust to intend to punish it and to
it is a thing much less unlikely to be certain to one self than another for they that have sin'd unto death are no doubt so blinded and stupify'd by it that they are not more apt or competent to observe themselves and consider their case than others may be 8. But thô none ought to conclude that their day or season of grace is quite expired yet they ought deeply to apprehend the danger lest it should expire before their necessary work be done and their peace made For thô it can be of no use to them to know the former and therefore they have no means appointed them by which to know it 't is of great use to apprehend the latter and they have sufficient ground for the apprehension All the cautions and warnings wherewith the holy Scripture abounds of the kind with those already mentioned have that manifest design And nothing can be more important or apposite to this purpose than that solemn charge of the great Apostle Phil. 2.12 Work out your own salvation with fear and trembling considered together with the subjoyned ground of it vers 13. For it is God that worketh in you to will and to do of his own good pleasure How correspondent is the one with the other work for he works there were no working at all to any purpose or with any hope if he did not work And work with fear and trembling for he works of his own good pleasure q. d. 'T were the greatest folly imaginable to trifle with one that works at so perfect liberty under no obligation that may desist when he will to impose upon so absolutely Sovereign and arbitrary an agent that owes you nothing and from whose former gracious operations not comply'd with you can draw no argument unto any following ones that because he doth therefore he will As there is no certain connection between present time and future but all time is made up of undepending not-strictly-coherent moments so as no man can be sure because one now exists another shall There is also no more certain connection between the arbitrary acts of a free Agent within such time so that I cannot be sure because he now darts in light upon me is now convincing me now awakening me therefore he will still do so again and again Upon this ground then what exhortation could be more proper than this work out your salvation with fear and trembling What could be more awfully monitory and enforcing of it than that he works only of meer good will and pleasure How should I tremble to think if I should be negligent or undutiful he may give out the next moment and let the work fall and me perish And there is more especial cause for such an apprehension upon the concurrence of such things as these 1. If the workings of Gods Spirit upon the soul of a man have been more than ordinarily strong and urgent and do now cease If there have been more powerful convictions deeper humiliations more awakened fears more formed purposes of a new life more fervent desires that are now all vanished and fled and the sinner is returned to his old dead and dull temper 2. If there be no disposition to reflect and consider the difference no sense of his loss but he apprehends such workings of spirit in him unnecessary troubles to him and thinks it well he is delivered and eased of them 3. If in the time when he was under such workings of spirit he had made known his case to his Minister or any godly friend whose company he now shuns as not willing to be put in mind or hear any more of such matters 4. If hereupon he hath more indulged sensual inclination taken more liberty gone against the checks of his own conscience broken former good resolutions involv'd himself in the guilt of any grosser sins 5. If conscience so baffled be now silent lets him alone growes more sluggish and weaker which it must as his lusts grow stronger 6. If the same lively powerful ministry which before affected him much now moves him not 7. If especially he is grown into a dislike of such preaching if serious godlines and what tends to it are become distastfull to him if discourses of God and Christ of death and judgment and of an holy life are reckon'd superfluous and needles are unsavoury and disrelisht if he have learned to put disgraceful names upon things of this import and the persons that most value them and live accordingly If he hath taken the seat of the scorner and makes it his busines to deride what he had once a reverence for or took some complacency in 8. If upon all this God withdraw such a Ministry so that he is now warn'd and admonisht exhorted and striven with as formerly no more O the fearful danger of that mans case Hath he no cause to fear lest the things of his peace should be for ever hid from his eyes Surely he hath much cause of fear but not of despair Fear would in this case be his great duty and might yet prove the means of saving him Despair would be his very hainous and destroying sin If yet he would be stirr'd up to consider his case whence he is fal'n and whither he is falling and set himself to serious seeking of God cast down himself before him abase himself cry for mercy as for his life there is yet hope in his case God may make here an instance what he can obtain of himself to do for a perishing wretch But IV. If with any that have liv'd under the Gospel their day is quite expired and the things of their peace now for ever hid from their eyes this is in it self a most deplorable case and much lamented by our Lord Jesus himself That the case is in it self most deplorable who sees not A soul lost a creature capable of God! upon its way to him near to the Kingdom of God! shipwrack't in the Port O sinner from how high an hope art thou faln into what depths of misery and wo And that it was lamented by our Lord is in the Text. He beheld the City very generally we have reason to apprehend inhabited by such wretched creatures and wept over it This was very affectionate lamentation we lament often very heartily many a sad case for which we do not shed tears But tears such tears falling from such eyes the issues of the purest and best govern'd passion that ever was shew'd the true greatnes of the Cause Here could be no exorbitancy or unjust excesse nothing more than was proportionable to the occasion There needs no other proof that this is a sad case than that our Lord lamented it with tears which that he did we are plainly told so that touching that there is no place for doubt All that is liable to question is whether we are to conceive in him any like resentments of such cases in his present glorify'd state Indeed we cannot think Heaven a place or state
of your final condition as an exempt case reserv'd to the future judgment and the present determination whereof against your self is without your compass and line and most unsutable to the state of probation wherein you are to reckon God continues you here with the rest of men in this world and therefore any such judgment you should tear and reverse and as such not permit to have any place with you 4. Yet since as hath been said yoâ— are not quite to reject or obliterate any apprehension or thought touching this subject make it your busines to correct and reduce it to that other form i. e. let it only for the present remain with you as a doubt how your case now stands and what issue it may at length have And see that your fear thereupon be answerable to your apprehension so rectify'd While as yet it is not evident you have made your peace with God upon his known terms you are to consider God hath left your case a doubtful case and you are to conceive of it accordingly And are to entertain a fear concerning it not as certainly hopeles but as uncertain And as yours is really a doubtful case 't is a most important one It concerns your Souls and your eternal well-being and is not therefore to be neglected or trifled with You do not know how God will deal with you Whether he will again afford you such help as he hath done or whether ever he will effectually move your heart unto conversion and salvation You therefore are to work out your salvation with fear and trembling because as was told you he works but of his own good pleasure Your fear should not exceed this state of your case so as to exclude hope It is of unspeakable concernment to you that hope do intermingle with your fear That will do much to mollify and soften your hearts that after all the abuse of mercy and imposing upon the patience of God your neglects and slights of a bleeding Saviour your resisting and grieving the Spirit of grace he may yet once for all visit your forlorn Soul with his vital influence and save you from going down to perdition How can your hearts but melt and break upon this apprehension And it is not a groundless one He that came not to call the righteous but sinners to repentance will not fail to treat them well whom he sees beginning to listen to his call and entertaining the thoughts that most directly tend to bring them to a compliance with it Your hope insinuating it self and mingling with your fear is highly grateful to the God of all grace He takes pleasure in them that fear him and in them that hope in his mercy Psal. 147.11 5. But see to it also that your fear be not slight and momentary and that it vanish not while as yet it hath so great a work to do in you viz. to engage you to accept Gods own terms of peace and reconciliation with all your heart and soul. It is of continual use even not only in order to conversion but to the converted also Can you think those mentioned words were spoken to none such Phil. 2.12 13 Or those Heb. 4.1 Let us therefore fear lest a promise being left us of entring into his rest any of you should seem to come short c. And do we not find an holy fear is to contribute all along to the whole of progressive sanctification 2 Cor. 7.1 Having therefore these promises dearly beloved let us cleanse our selves from all filthines of the flesh and spirit perfecting holines in the fear of God And that by it he preserves his own that they never depart from him Jer. 32.40 Much more do you need it in your present case while matters are yet in treaty between God and you And as it should not exceed the true apprehension of your case so nor should it come short of it 6. You should therefore in order hereto aggravate to your selves the just causes of your fear Why are you afraid your day should be over and the things of your peace be for ever hid from your eyes Is it not that you have sinn'd against much light against many checks of your own consciences against many very serious warnings and exhortations many earnest importunate beseechings and intreaties you have had in the Ministry of the Gospel many motions and strivings of the Spirit of God thereby Let your thoughts dwell upon these things Think what it is for the great God the Lord of glory to have been slighted by a worm Doth not this deserve as ill things at the hands of God as you can â—ear 'T is fit you should Apprehend what your desert is thâ— perhaps mercy may interpose and avert the deserved dreadful event And if he have signify'd his displeasure towards you hereupon by desisting for the present and ceasing to strive with you as he hath formerly done if your heart be grown more cold and dead and hard than sometime it was if you have been left so as to fall into grosser sin 't is highly reasonable you should fear being finally forsaken of the blessed Spirit of God and greatly fear it but with an â—â—ful fear that may awaken you most earnestly to endeavour his return to you not with a despairing fear that will bind you up from any further endeavour for your soul at all And if upon all this by death or otherwise such a Ministry be withdrawn from you as God did work by in some degree upon you and you find not in that kind what is so sutable to your state and case take heed lest your be stupid under such a stroke Think what it imports unto you if God have as it were said concerning any servant of his as Ezek. 2.26 I will make his tongue cleave to the roof of his mouth that he shall not be a reprover to you any more Consider that God may by this be making way that wrath may come upon you to the uttermost and never let you have opportunity to know more the things of your peace Perhaps you may never meet with the man more that shall speak so accommodately to your condition that shall so closely pursue you thorough all the haunts and subterfuges and lurking holes wherein your guilty convinced soul hath wont to hide it self and falsly seek to heal its own wounds One of more value may be less apt possibly to profit you As a more polish't Key doth not therefore alike fit every lock And thy case may be such that thou shalt never hear a sermon or the voice of a preacher more 7. And now in this case recollect your selves what sins you have been formerly convinc'd of under such a Ministry and which you have persisted in notwithstanding Were you never convinc't of your neglecting God and living as without him in the world of your low esteem and disregard of Christ of your worldlines your minding only the things of this earth of