those best that are of his own Opinion though there be nothing of the special Image of God upon his Soul Or if he love a true Christian it is not so much for his Holiness and Spirituality as because he is of his mind in those matters of Opinion Hence it is that he is usually a bitter censurer of those that are not of his Opinion how upright soever they may be His very esteeme of men and love to them is partial and factious to those that are of his Mind and Sect A Papist will esteem and love men of the Popish Sect and an Anabaptist will esteem and love men of that Sect most yea a Protestant if he be an Opinionist doth esteem of men and love them as a Sect Whereas the true Christian as he is truly Catholick and of the Catholick Church which is not confined to Papists no nor Protestants so he hath truly Catholik affections and loveth a Christian as a Christian a Godly man as Godly yea if he saw more serious Godliness in one that is not of his Opinion in lesser things yet would he love him more then one that is in such matters of his Opinion that is ungodly or of more doubtfull Piety For as it is God in Christ that he principally loveth so it is Christ that he admireth in his Members and so much of Christ as he sees in any so much are his special affections towards them 9. Ordinarily the meer Opinionist will Sacrifice the very Ends of the Gospel and the honour and success of the great fundamental Truths of God to the interest of those Opinions which he hath in a singular manner to his Own He will rather hinder the propagation of the common Truths and the Conversion of the ignorant then he will silence his Opinions or suffer them to lose any advantages with the world Hence it is that we cannot prevaile with the Papists to silence a while the differences between us and them till we have taught their ignorant in Ireland and other barbarous parts the knowledg of those Truths that all are agreed in Nor can we get many Anabaptists or any such Sect that is engaged in a division to forbear their Opinions till we have endeavoured â—o lay the necessary grounds on which all must build that will be saved But though it be apparent to the world that their disputes and contentions do exceedingly harden the ignorant and ungodly against all Religion and hinder their Conversion and Salvation yet will they go on in the unseasonable intemperate bruting of their conceits and will not be perswaded to agree on those terms for the managing of differences as most tend to secure the interest of Christ and his Gospel in the maine If an Opinionist be for the Truth he is usually without much zeale for it because that Nature doth not befriend the great Spirituall Truths of the Gospel so much as it doth errours and private conceits But if he be of Erroneous Opinions he is usually very zealous for them For Corrupted Nature and Self and Satan and the world oft-times do more befriend these and furnish him with a Zeale for them and blow the coale The counterfeit Angel of Light is very ordinarily also a spirit of heat and great activity not a reviving fire nor a refining fire but a consuming fire devouring Christian Love and meekness and patience and therewith the Church and Truth of God so far as it can prevail For lesser matters that minister Questions such men can say by that which tends to Godly Edifying in Faith 1 Tim. 1. 4. Yea that Charity which is the very End of the Commandement out of a pnre Heart a good Conscience and Faith unfeigned vers 5. From these they swerve and turn aside to vain jangling oft times desiring to be Teachers of such thigs in which they understand not what they say nor whereof they speak vers 6 7. Consenting not to the wholsome Words of Christ and the Doctrine which is according to Godliness they teach otherwise being proud knowing nothing but doting about questions and strife of words whereof cometh envy strife railings evill surmisings perverse disputing of men of corrupt minds and destitute of the Truth 1 Tim. 6. 3 4 5. Yea they sometime take their Opinions or their worldly gain that they often ayme at to be instead of Godliness And think that to be Godly is to he of their mind and way They use to strive about words to no profit but to the subverting of the hearers and their vain bablings increase to more ungodliness 2 Tim. 2. 14 16. But the True Convert looks principally to the main He loves every known Truth of God but in their Order and accordingly to their worth and weight He will not for his own Opinions wilfully do that which shall hazard the main or hinder the Gospel and the saving of mens Souls Though he will not be false to any Truth yet he will avoid foolish and unlearned questions knowing that they do gender strife and the Servant of the Lord must not strive but be gentle to all men and meekly instruct opposers following Righteousness Faith Charity Peace with them that call on the Lord out of a pure heart Tim. 2. 22 23 24 25. 10. Lastly True Converts are stedfast but Opinionists are usually mutable and unconstant The sound Convert receiveth the greatest Truths and receives the Goodness as well as the Truth and takes it not only into the Head but into the Heart and giveth it deep rooting He closeth with God as his only felicity and with Christ as his only Refuge and Redeemer and with Heaven as the sure everlasting Glory to which the world is but a mole-hill or a dungeon No wonder then if this man be stedfast and unmovable alwaies abounding in the Work of the Lord that knows his Labour is not in vain in the Lord 1 Cor. 15. 58. But the Opinionist either fasteneth on smaller matters or else holdeth these great matters but as bare Opinions and therefore they have no such interest in his heart as to stablish him against shaking tryals and temptations For two sortâ— there are of these Opinionists the onâ— sort have no Zeal for their own Opinions because they are but Opinions And these are time-servers and will change as the King or their Land-lords change and fit their Opinions to their worldly Ends. The other sort have a burning Zeale for their Opinions and these use to wander from one Opinion to another not able to resist the subtilty of seducers but are taken with fair and plausible reasonings not able to see into the heart of the cause These are as Children tâ—ssed to and fro and carried about with every wind of Doctrine by the slight and cunning craftiness of men whereby they lie in weight to deceive Eph. 4. 14. When with great confidence they have held one sort of Opinions a while and railed against those that were not of their mind ere long they
how long his patience will yet endure you or what hour he will call away your Souls And if death come alas what a case will it find you in how lamentably unready are you to meet him how unready to appear before the dreadfull God whom you have offended and what a terrible appearance do you think that will be to you most certainly if you die before you are converted you will not be from among the Devils and damned souls an hour The Law hath cursed you already and the execution will be answerable if you die in your sins And thus you may see the gain of sin and what it is that you have been doing all this while for your own Souls and what a case it is that you have brought you selvs into and what need you have speedily to look about you 5. The next step of your Consideration should be this Bethink your selves what a blessed Condition you might be in if by Conversion you were but recovered from this misery and brought home to God This moved the heart of the Prodigall son to return Luke 15. 16 17. When he came to himself he said How many hired servants of my fathers have bread enough and to spare and I perish with hunger He that had not husks to feed on with the swine considered the plenty that he had for saken at home The poorest member of the houshold of Christ is in a better condition then the greatest King on earth that is unconverted You might have lived another kinde of life then you have done for safety and benefit and true content if you would have turned your minds and life to God Were you but Converted you would be the living members of Christ and his precious benefits would be yours His blood would clense you from all your sins and they would be all freely forgiven you God would be Reconciled to to you and become your friend yea your Father and your God and will take you for his houshold servants and adopted children The Holy Ghost would dwell in you and guide your understandings and shew you that which flesh and blood connot reveal and bring you into acquaintance with the mysteries of God He will be a Spirit of Light and Life within you and work your hearts yet more to God and give you yet stronger inclinations and affections to the things above He will help you when you are weak and quicken you where you are dull and be your remembrancer when you are forgetfull of necessary things He will help you in prayer both for matter and for manner and help you in Meditation and conference and other duties He will warn you of your danger and strengthen you against temptations and cause you to overcome and if you fall he will cause you to rise again he will be an in-dwelling comforter to you and so effectually speak peace to you in the midst of your disquietness that by speaking it he will create it in you And in the multitude of your thoughts within you his comforts will delight your Souls O what a life might you live if Christ by his Spirit did once live in you you may easily conjecture how tender Christ would be of his own members how dearly he would love them how constantly he would watch over them how plentifully he would provide for them and how safely he would preserve them And if you should come into a rougher way he would lead you out Afflictions should never be laid on you but for your good and continue no longer then your need continueth them and be taken off at last to your satisfaction and contentment Indeed your life would be a life of mercies and that which is but a common Mercy to common men would be a speciall Mercy to you as coming from your Fathers love and furthering you salvation and hinting out to you your everlasting Mercies You could not open your eyes but you would see that which may encourage and comfort you all the works of God which you behold would shew you his Majesty his love and power and lead you to himself You could not open your Bible but you would find in it the blessed lines of Love O what good it would do you to read there the blessed Attributes of your God! to look upon his Name to peruse the description of his most perfect nature what good would it do you to read of the nature and incarnation and life and death and resurrection and assension and intercession and return of your blessed Redeemer what good would it do you to find those holy Rules which your new nature is agreeable to and to read over the Law that is written in your hearts and read the curse from which you are delivered what life and joy would your Souls receive from the many and full and free promises of grace were you once but truly sanctified and made new your condition would be often comfortable but alwaies safe and when you were in the greatest fears and perplexities you would still be fast in the armes of Christ And what a life would that be to have daily access to God in prayer to have leave in all your wants and dangers to seek to him with a promise of hearing and success that you may be sure of much more from him then a child can from the tenderest father or a wife from the most loving husband upon earth What a life would it be when you may alwaies think on God as your felicity and fetch your higehest delights from him from whom the ungodly have their greatest terrours And it is no contemptible part of your benefits that you may live among his people and in their speciall love and have a speciall Communion with them and interest in their prayers may possess among them the priviledges of the Saints and the Ordinances of God That in stead of idle talk and the unprofitable fellowship of the children and works of darkness you may joyne with the Church of God in his Praises and feed with them at his table on the body and blood of Christ and then have conveyances of renewed grace and a renewed pardon sealed to your Souls But how long should I stay if I should tell you but one half the blessings of a Sanctified and spirituall state In a word God would be yours Christ would be yours the Holy Ghost would be yours all things would be yours the whole world would have some relation to your wellfare Devils would be subdued to you and cast out of your Soules sinne would be both pardoned and overcome Angels would be ministring spirits unto you for your good The promises of Scripture would be yours and everlasting Glory would at last be yours and while you staid on earth you might comfort your selves as oft as you would with the believing foresight of that unconceiveable unspeakable endless felicity O sirs what a treasure have I here expressed in a few words what hearts would you have if they
Marriage supper and even compelleth them to come in but he expecteth that they bring a wedding garment and come not in a garbe that shall dishonour his house Though his Grace be free yet he will not expose it to contempt but will have the fullness and freeness of it glorified Though he came not to Redeem himself but us yet he came to be glorified in the work of our Redemption He hath no Grace so free as to save them that will not esteem it and give him thanks for it And therefore though Faith is enough to accept the gift yet must it be a thankfull faith that will magnifie the giver and a humble faith that will feele the work of it and an obediential faith that will answer the ends of it And therefore that faith which is the Condition of our Justification is fitted as well to the honour of the Giver as the commodity of the receiver And as Reason telleth us that it should be so so Christian ingenuity consenteth that it be so The Soul that is truly united to Christ and partaketh of his nature doth think it's own Receiving greatest where the honour of Christ is greatest And it cannot take pleasure in the thoughts of such a kind of Grace as should dishonour the Lord of Grace himself As Christ is solicitous for the saving of the Soul so that he makes the Soul solicitous of the right entertainment of him that saveth it And therefore though his Blood and not his Teaching or his Government was the Ranson of our Souls yet he is resolved to Justifie none by his Blood but on the Condition of that Faith which is a hearty Consent to his Teaching and Dominion It is not in the Application or bestowing of Christ's benefits as it was in the purchasing of them When he came to Ransom us he consented to be a sufferer and gave his cheeks to the smiter and submitted to reproach he endured the Cross despising the shame and being reviled he reviled not but prayed for his persecutors But when he comes by his saving Grace into the Soul he will not there be entertained with contempt For in the flesh he came on purpose to be humbled but in the Spirit he comes to be exalted In the flesh he came to condemn the sinne that reigned in our flesh Rom. 8. 3. and so was made sinne for us that is a Sacrifice for sinne 2 Cor. 5. 21. But in the Spirit he comes to conquer our flesh and by the Law of his quickning Spirit to free us from the Law of sinne and death both that the Righteousness of the Law might be fullfilled in us and also that there might be no Condemnation to us who walk not after the flesh but after the Spirit Rom. 8. 1 2 4. The Kingdom of Christ was not worldly for if it had been worldly he would have sought to establish it by strength of armes and fighting which are worldly means Joh. 18. 36. But his Kingdom is within us It is a Spiritual Kingdom and therefore though in the world he was used with contempt as a fool and as a Sinner and a man of sorrows yet within us he will be used with honour and reverence as a King and absolute Lord. It was the houre of the executioner and the power of darkness when he was in his suffering but it is the houre of his triumph and marriage and the prevailing Power of the Heavenly Light when he cometh by Saving Grace into the Soul On the Cross he was as a sinner and stood in our place and bore what was our due and not his owne But in the Soul he is the Conquerour of sinne and cometh to take possession of his own and doth the work that belongeth to him in his dignity and therefore he will there be acknowledged and honoured On the Cross he was pulling down the Kingdom of Satan and setting up his own but in the preparatory purchase But in the Soul he doth both by immediate execution On the Cross sinne and Satan had their full blow at him But when he entred the Soul he hath his blow at them and ceaseth not till he have destroyed them In purchasing he expended his own But in Converting he takes possession of that which he purchased In a word he came into the world in flesh for his undertaken Humiliation but he comes into the Soul by his Spirit for his deserved exaltation And therefore though he endured to be spit upon in the flâ—sh he will not endure to be sleighted in the Soul And as in the world he was scorned with the Title of a King and crowned with thorns and clothed in such Kingly robes as might make him the fitter object for their reproach So when his Spirit entereth into the Soul he will be there inthroned in our most reverent subjective and deepest esteeme and crowned with our highest Love and Thankfullnes and bowed to with the tenders of Obedience and our praise The Cross shall there be the portion of his enemies and the Crown and Scepter shall be his and as all were preferred before him on Earth even Barrabas himself so all things shall be put under him in the Sanctified Soul and he shall be preferred before all This is the end of Humiliation to make ready the heart for a fuller entertainment of the Lord that bought it and to prepare the way before him and fit the Soul to be the Temple of his Spirit A humbled Soul would never have put him off with excuses from Oxen and Farms and Wives As Luke 14. and Matth. 22. But the unhumbled will make light of him And 2. As Christ himself will be honourably recieved or not at all so must the Mercies and Graces which he offereth He will not apply his blood and righteousness to them that care not for it He will not pardon such a masse of iniquity and remove such mountaines as lie upon the Soul for them that feel not the Necessity of such a Mercy He will not take men from the power of the Devil and the drudgery of sinne and the suburbs of Hell and make them his Members and the Sonnes of God and the Heirs of Heaven that have not learn't the value of these benefits but set more by their very sinne and misery and the trifles of the world Christ doth not despise his Blood his Spirit his Covenant his Pardon nor his Heavenly Inheritance and therefore he will give them to none that do despise them till he teacheth them better to know their worth Do you think it would stand with the Wisdom of Christ to give such unspeakable blessings as these to men that have not hearts to value them Why it is more to give a man Justification and Adoption then to give him all this visible world the Sunne the Moone the Firmament and the Earth And should these be given to one that cares not for them Why by this meanes God should miss of his ends He should not
Creature who was the Subject The Wisdom and Love and Mercy of God would not give way to this that the world should be destroyed so soon after it was made and man left remediless in everlasting Misery Satisfaction therefore must be the Remedy This must be such as might be as fit to procure the Ends of the Law as if the Law it self had been executed that is as if the offendors had all dyed the death that it did threaten It must therefore be a publik Demonstration of Justice and of the odiousness of Sinne to the terrour and warning of sinners for the future And this was done by Jesus Christ when none else in Heaven or Earth could do it For it did as fully demonstrate this Justice of God and preserved his honour and the usefullness of his Law and government that a Person so high and Glorious and so dear to him should suffer so much for sinne as if all the world had suffered for themselves And thus God made him to be sinne for us who knew no sinne 2 Cor. 5. 21. And thus Christ hath Redeemed us from the Curse of the Law being made a Curse for us Gal. 3. 13. 2. Hereby also God Demonstrated the Holiness of his Nature How much he hateth sinne and how unreconcilable he is to it as light to darkness As the Law and Judgments of God do proceed from his Perfect Nature and Will so do they bear the Image of that perfection and demonstrate it to the world This therefore is the nobler End and work of Christ in our redemption to declare the Holiness and Perfection of God in his Nature and Will though the former the declaring of his Governing Justice be the neerer End If the death of Aarons two sonnes were such a Declaratition that God will be sanctified in all that draw neer him Lev. 10. 2 3 If his Laws and present Judgments do declare him to be a Holy and Jealous God that will not forgive sinne without a valuable consideration or satisfaction Jos. 24. 19. how much more evidently is this declared in the death of Christ If the Bethshemites cry out who is able to stand before this Holy Lord God 1 Sam. 6. 20. Upon the death of 50070 men how much more may the guilty Soul say so when he thinks on the Crucified Sonne of God As it is the End of Gods execution on transgressors that the Lord may be exalted in Judgment and God that is Holy may be Sanctified in Righteousness Isa. 5. 16. So was it his End in the Sacrifice of his Sonne 3. Another End of our Redemption by Christ is the Demonstration of the Infinite Wisdom of God His Wisdom in the preventing the ruin of the late-created world that it might not be said that sin and Satan had frustrated him of the Glory of his Creation and destroyed it almost as soon as he had made it Yea in getting an advantage by the malice of his enemies for the more admirable attainment of the Ends of his Law and the Glorifying of all his Governing Attributes He would not have made man a free Agent and left him in the hand of his own will and suffered him to sinne if his Wisdom had not known how to secure his own Intrest and Honour to the full And so also in the oeconomy and admirable frame of his Gracious Sapiential Government by Christ the manifold Wisdom of God doth shine forth Ephes. 3. 9 10. As the wonderfull structure of Heaven and Earth and every part of this Natural frame doth gloriously reveale the Wisdom of the Creator so the wonderfull Contrivance of our Redemption by Christ and the Reparation of the world by him and the Moral frame of this Evangelical dispensation doth wonderfully demonstrate the Wisdom of the Redeemer And as the observation of our Natures may give us Cause to say with David Psal. 139. 14. I will praise thee for I am fearfully and wonderfully made So the observation of our new Natures and condition may well cause us to say I will praise thee for I am graciously and wonderfully Redeemed marvelous are thy Works and that my Soul knoweth right well As Nature may teach us to admire the frame of Nature so Grace will teach us to admire the frame of Grace and to see the beauty of its several parts and much more of the whole where all the parts are orderly composed 4. Yea the very Power of God is demonstrated in Christ. And therefore he is called 1 Cor. 1. 24. The Power of God and the Wisdom of God not only formally because Christ himself is the Wise and Powerfull God nor only Efficiently because God doth exercise his Power and Wisdom by his Sonne in Creation Redemption and Government but also Effectually and Objectively as Christ is the great and most admirable Demonstration of the Power and Wisdom of God in the world What work transcendeth the incomprehensible Miracle of the Incarnation That God should assume the Nature of man into personal Union The Creation of the Sunne is no greater a work of Power then the Incarnation and sending of the Sonne of God the Intellectual Sunne the Light of the world That living Light that lightneth every one that cometh into the world though yet the darkness comprehendeth not his light Joh. 1. 4 6 9. What was he but the living visable Power of God when he healed all diseases cast out Devils raised the dead and rose from the dead himself and ascended into Glory and sent down the Holy Spirit on his Church enduing them with Power from on high Acts 1. 8. Luke 24. 49. when he was on Earth he was Anointed with the Holy Ghost and with Power and went about doing good and healing all that were oppressed of the Devil Acts 10. 38. Being dead he was declared to be the Sonne of God with Power by the Resurrection from the dead Rom. 1. 4. When he ascended up on high he led captivity captive Eph. 4. 8. Yea he filled his servants with power Act. 6. 8. Even such as was admired and desired by the ungodly Act. 8. 19. He being the brightness of Gods Glory and the express Image of his Person and upholding all things by the Word of his Power when he had by himself purged our sinnes he sate down on the right hand of the Majesty on high being made so much better then the Angels as he hath by Inheritance obtained a more excellent Name then they Heb. 1. 3 4. As Christ therefore in his glorified Humanity united to the Godhead is far more excellent then the Angels of God and more glorious then the Sunne so is the Power of God more abundantly demonstrated in him than in the Sunne or the Angels or any other Creature The Illuminated do know this and what is the exceeding greatness of his Power to us-ward who believe according to the working of his mighty Power which he wrought in Christ when he raised him from the dead and set him at
him to them gave he Power to become the Sonnes of God even to them that believe in his Name Joh. 1. 12. This is the wonderfull Love that the Father hath bestowed on those that were his Enemies that they should not only be reconciled to him by the death of his Sonne but also be called the Sonnes of God Rom 5. 10. 1 Joh. 3. 1. For he hath chosen us in him before the foundation of the world that we should be Holy and without blame before him in love having predestiuated us to the Adoption of Children by Jesus Christ to himself according to the good pleasure of his Will to the praise of the Glory of his Grace wherein he hath made us accepted in the beloved Ephes. 1. 4 5. 6. O what an unspeakable Mercy is it to have the blessed God whom we had so oft offended to become our Reconciled Father in Christ. For it is not an empty title that he assumeth but he hath more abundant love to us and tenderness of our welfare then any title can make us understand 5. And hereupon it doth immediatly follow that we have a right to the blessed Inheritance of his Sonnes and are certain Heirs of his Heavenly Kingdom Col. 1. 12. For if Sonnes then Heirs Heirs of God and Joint Heirs with Christ Rom. 8. 17. Being saved by the washing of Regeneration and renewing of the Holy Ghost and justified by Grace through Christ we are made Heirs according to the hope of Eternal Life Tit. 3. 5 6 7. Being begotten againe to a lively hope by the Resurrection of Jesus Christ from the dead to an Inheritance incorruptible and undefiled and that fadeth not away reserved in Heaven for us 1 Pet. 1. 3 4. 6. With all the Holy Ghost is given to us not only to close us at first with Christ but to take up his abode in us as his temples and to be the Agent and Life of Christ within us and to do his work and maintain his Interest and clense us of all filthiness of flesh and Spirit and Sanctifie us throughout and to strive against and conquer the flesh and to keep us by Divine Power through Faith unto Salvation 1 Cor. 6. 19. Gal. 5. 17 22. 2 Cor. 6. 1. 1 Pet. 1. 5. For because we are Sonnes God seudeth forth the Spirit of his Sonne into our hearts whereby we cry Abba Father Gal. 4. 6. This Spirit of Adopton which we receive doth bear witness with our spirits that we are the Sonnes of God Rom. 8. 15 16. For if any man have not the spirit of Christ the same is none of his Rom. 8. 9. By this Spirit is the spirit of the world cast out of us the spirit of pride and of blindness and of delusion and hard-heartedness and of sensuality and malice and hypocrisie are cast out By this is Gods Image imprinted on our Souls we are conformed to his blessed Will we are made partakers of the Divine Nature being Holy as God is Holy Col. 3. 10. 2 Pet. 1. 4. 1 Pet. 1. 16. Hereby we are delivered from the thraldom of sinne and the slavery of the Devil and the seduction of the world and our treacherous Flesh. Hereby also we are fitted for the Service of God to which before we were undisposed and unfit O what an ease is it to the Soul to be free from so much of the burden of sinne What an honour is it to have the Spirit of God within us and to have a Nature so truly Heavenly and Divine How can it go ill with him that hath God dwelling in him and that dwells in God 1 Joh. 4. 15. 7. Another of our precious benefits by Christ is that we shall be actually imployed in the special and neerest Service of God that on Earth is to be performed Let diseased Souls desire idlenes and swinish sinners take pleasure in the mire and feed like ravenous beasts on carrion or as dogs on dung but the Saints will ever rejoice in God and take it for the most blessed life on Earth when they can but do him the greatest Service Let his Enemies that hate his Service be weary of it as if it were a toile or drudgery but his Children will desire no sweeter work They never think themselves so well as when they are most serviceable to their blessed Lord though at the greatest cost and labour to the flesh So sweet is Gods Service that the more of it we can do the more is our pleasure and honour and content Other work spendeth strength but this increaseth it Other work must have râ—creation intermixt but this is it self the most delightfull recreation Other service is undertaken for the love of the wages but this is undertaken for the Love of the Master and the work and is wages it self to them that go through with it For other service is but a means and that to some inferior end but this is a means to the Everlasting perfection and blessedness of the Soul and such a means as containeth or Presently procureth somewhat of the end All the Saints are even here a chosen Generation a royal Priesthood an holy Nation a peculiar People that they should shew forth the praises of him that hath called them out of darkness into his marvelous light They are an holy Priesthood to offer up a Spiritual Sacrifice acceptable to God by Jesus Christ 1 Pet. 2. 5 9. Their very bodies are a living Sacrifice holy and acceptable to God in their reasonable service What a sweet work is it to live in the daily Love of God in his Praises in the hopes and sweet fore-thoughts of Everlasting Joyes The world affordeth not such a Master nor such a work 8. Another of the precious benefits by Christ is The liberty of accesse in all our wants to God by Prayer with a promise to be heard The flaming sword did keep the way to the tree of life till Christ had taken it down and consecrated for us a new and living way through the Vaile which is his flesh and now we have boldness to enter into the Holiest by the blood of Jesus and therefore may draw neer with a true heart in full assurance of Faith Heb. 10. 19 20 22. When worldlings may cry to their Baal in vaine the Righteous cry and the Lord heareth them and delivereth them out of all their hurtfull troubles O what a Mercy is it in our falls in our distresses in our dangers in our wants to have a God a faithfull mercifull Father to go to and make our moane to for relief What a Mercy is it when our flesh and our hearts do faile us when friends and worldly things all fail us to have God for the Rock of our hearts and our Portion Psal. 73. 26. When sickness begins to break these bodies and earthly delights do all forsake us and death calls us to come to our endless state then to have a Reconciled Father to go to and crave his ayd upon
Causes of mens Condemnation though Faith and Repentance be not Proper Causes of their Salvation These Promises being Conditional we cannot be assured of our part in the benefits but by being assured that we perform the Condition By this you may see the Nature of presumption When men say they believe that which never was promised or believe that they have right to the Blessings that are promised to others and not to them or believe that they shall have the benefits promised when they perform not the Conditions all this is presuming and not true believing If men believe that God is reconciled to them and will Pardon them and Justifie them and save them when they are unconverted impenitent unregenerate men this is not indeed a believing of God that hath never made them any such promise nor ever told them any such matter but the contrary But it is a believing the false delusions of the Devil and their own hearts He that will claim any title to Christ and Pardon and Salvation must have something to shew for it yea and something more then the most of the world have to shew For the most shall be shut out Every man therefore that regardeth his Salvation must seriously ask his Soul this question What have I to shew for my title to Salvation more then the most of the world can shew It is not saying I hope to be saved that will serve the turn ' except I can give a Reason of my hopes ' Thousands that lay claim to Salvation shall miss of it because they have no title to it And that which you must have to shew is this A Promise or Deed of Gift on Gods part and the fullfilling of the Condition on your part God saith to all men who ever Repenteth Believeth or is converted shall be saved When you have found that you Repent of all your sinnes and truly believe and are converted to God then and not till then you may conclude that you shall be saved 6. The sixth Point to be understood or believed concerning these Benefits of Christ is the infallible Certainty of them While men look on the promised Glory to come as on an uncertain thing they will hardly be drawn to venture and let go the porfits and pleasures of the world to attaine it much less to part with life it self The life of all our Christian motion is the unfeigned belief of the Truth of Gods Word and specially of the unseen things of the world to come Such as mens belief of Heaven and Hell is such will be the bent of their hearts and the course of their lives and such they will be in yielding to sinne or in resisting it and in all the service they do for God As all men would take another course if they did but see Heaven and Hell with their eyes so all men would presently throw away their worldly fleshly pleasures and turn to God and a holy life if they did but as throughly believe the Joyes and torments to come as if they saw them Flesh and blood can hardly judg of things without the help of sense and fleshly men take all things to be fantasmes or nothings that are not within the judgment of their senses They must see it or feel it or tast it or hear it and Believing is a way that hardly satisfies them though it be God himself that they are to believe Believing is trusting the Credit of an other and we are naturally loth to trust to any but our eyes or other senses We are so false our selves that we are ready to measure God by our selves and to think that he is a deceiver because that we are such And hence it is that the world is so ungodly that they venture on sinne and will not be at the cost and labour of a Heavenly life because they take the matters of the life to come to be but uncertainties and have not so true a belief of them as might possess them with a deep apprehension of their reallity How should the Word profit them that mixe it not with Faith Heb. 4. 2. Unless by begetting Faith it self O what a change would a sound belief of the Scriptures make in the world But having spoken so oft of this in other writings I shall say no more of it now So much of the Knowledg of Christ. II. I have shewed you the first part of this Direction How Christ must be Received understandingly I now come to the second which is that He must be Received heartily As God must be loved so Christ must be believed in with all the heart and Soul and strength If not with All in a Perfect degree for that will not be till we come to Heaven yet with All in a predominant prevalent degree There are many convictions and good meanings and wishes and purposes which may proceed from common Grace and be found in those that never shall be saved These may be called analogically Faith and Love and Desire as those are that are found in the truly Regenerate and yet the persons in whom they are found may not fitly be called Believers or Lovers of God because a man is to be denominated from that in him which is predominant and hath the chief power on his heart The Soul of man is not so simple as to move but one way Its state in this life is to stand between two differing Competitours God and the world Spirit and flesh and there is no man that is Totally given up to either of them No man is so good and spiritual that hath not something in him that is bad and carnal And no man is so fully addicted to God but the Creature hath too much interest in his heart Nor is there any man so given up to the Creature in whom God hath no manner of interest at all in his Estimation and Affections if he indeed believe that there is a God At least it is not so with all that are unconverted Otherwise 1. What is it that common Grace doth if it no whit dispose them towards God Certainly it would not else be Grace 2. And if this were not so then we must say that no unregenerate man hath any Good in him that is truly Moral For if there be no interest of God in his mind or will there can be no Good in him But this is contrary to Scripture and experience It was undoubtedly some Moral Good which Christ loved the man for in Marke 10. 21. Who was not far from the Kingdom of God 3. Otherwise all men must be equally departed from God which is contrary to experience 4. Yea all men must be as bad on Earth privatively as in Hell which certainly is false I may well say that on Earth there is some Good in the worst much more in those that are almost perswaded to be converted Christians Many a thought of the Goodness of God and the necessity of a Saviour and of the Love of Christ and of
been used purposely for God as his own O what abundance be there that in word and confident profession do give up themselves and all to God and yet in the Use of themselves and all do plainly shew that it 's no such matter but they dissembled with God and yet never knew so much by themselves How little do they use for God when they have with seeming devotion resigned all to him If a Lord or Knight or Gentleman of 4000l l or 3000l l a year or 400l l or 300l l a year were to shew the accomts of all his expences how much of all this should you find expended for God when they have acknowledged that all is his One would think by their lives that they look to be saved by robbing God and confessing the robbery by saying that all is Gods while they allow him next to nothing The devoted resigned Sanctified Soul hath the true principle of all obedience and that which will do much to repel all temptations and carry him through the greatest straits and tryals If I am not my own I need not be over solicitous for my self but may expect that he that oweth me should care for me Nor do I need to use any sinfull shifts for my own preservation If I have nothing of my own what need I to sinne for the saving of any thing What need I to venture upon unwarrantable means to preserve either credit or goods or life It is Self and Own that are the root of all sinne the heart of the old man and the seed of Hell Nothing else is pleaded against God and our Salvation If the flesh would have you abuse Gods Creatures you must remember they are not your own If the Devil would entice you to sinne against God either for the Geting or Keeping of any Creature it would easily repel the temptations were you but rightly sensible that nothing is your own For God hath no need that you should sinne to get Riches or Honours for him If you are called to let go your houses or lands or friends or lives or to deliver up you bodies to the flames did you but rightly take them as none of your own how easy would it be You can be content that another man give his goods or life it self to God when ever God requireth it but your own you cannot be content to part with and that because it is your own But if you had rightly resigned all to God and took not your selves or any thing for your own but lookt upon your selves and all as Gods the greatest works of obedience or suffering would be much more easy to you and you would have little difficulty or hindrance in your way Self denial is but Sanctification it self denominated from the wrong End and Principle which we forsake And where self is denied and dead what is there left to draw us from God or stand up against him in any part of our lives So much interest as self hath in you so much the world and the Devil hath in you And nothing is more proper to a miserable Hypocrite then deep Reserves of life or worldly things to themselves while they seem to give up all to God O happy Soul that is wrought to this sincerity by the Spirit of Grace to say unfeinedly O Lord I devote and resign my self wholly unto thee I am not my own nor desire any further to be then to be thine I have nothing that is my own nor desire to have any thing that shall not be thine Happy and truly wise is that man that keeps as constant and faithful a reckoning how he layes out himself and all that he hath for God as a faithfull Steward doth of his receivings and layings out for his Masters use Every penny that is reserved from God is the fuell of sinne and a Sacrifice to the Devil and the flesh and if it be pardoned to the truly penitent by the Sacrifice of Christ that 's no thanks to us that would else have made it the fuel of Hell God is not so careless of us or his Mercies but that he keeps an exact account of all that we have from him and will require an account of our improvement of all Not only requiring his Own againe but his own with advantage Matth. 25 27. Why else did he give us such leisure and ability to improve it I can never forget what a sinfull thought was once in my mind which I will venture to confess because it may possibly be the case of others that so they may beware I hearing of some that used to lay by the tenth part of their yearly comings in for charitable uses I purposed to do so too and thought it a fair proportion But since I have perceived what a vile and wicked thought that was to offer to cut out a scantling for God or give him a limited share of his own or say that so much he shall have and no more Though we cannot say that God must have all in any one kind of service only either only for the Church or only for the poore or only for publike uses yet must we resolve that in one way or other he must have all and the particular proportions to the poore or Church or other uses must be assigned by truly Sanctified prudence considering which way it may be most serviceable to God I must relieve my owne family or kindred if they want but not because they are my own but because God hath commanded me and so hath made it a part of my obedience But if I see where I may do more service to God by relieving a stranger and that God doth more require it I must yet preferre them before all the kindred that I have in the world When the Christian pattern was set us by the Primitive Church Acts 2. and 4. They sold all and laid down the whole price at the Apostles feet which was not distributed to their natural kindred only but to all the poor Christians that had no other relation to them even as every one had need And as it is the loving of our Spiritual Brethren in Christ that is made the sign of our translation from death to life so is it the relieving of Christ in these his Members that is the relieving them because they are his Members that is made the very matter of our Cause in the last Judgment and the ground of the sentence of life or death Matth. 25. I must provide for my own body and you must provide for your children but that is as I said before not as I am my own nor as your children are your own but as I am a Servant of Christ that must be supported in his Service or as your selves and yours are put under your care and duty by God So that I may give it to my self or others when I can truly say I do but use it principally for God and think that the principal Service I can do
him by it but I may neither take to my self nor give to any that are nearest to me any more then God commandeth or his Service doth require When you and yours have your daily bread which also must be used for him you must not go to flesh and blood but to God to ask which way you shall dispose of the remainder This is a strange Doctrine to the unsanctified world but that is because they are unsanctified And it is a Doctrine that a worldly Hypocrite is loath to believe and understand but that is because of Carnality and Hypocrisie that alwaies deals with God like Ananias and Saphira lying to the Holy Ghost and giving God but halfe and few so much as half when they daily confess that all is from him and should be his and pretend to be wholly devoted to him There are few men so bad but will spare God something rather then go to Hell But indeed this is not to devote it to God but to use it for themselves thinking by their Sacrifices to stop the mouth of Justice and to please God by a part when they have displeased him in the rest I much fear and not without apparent cause that abundance among us that think themselves Christians do worship and serve God but as some Indians are said to offer sacrifice to the Devil not for any love they have to him or his service but for fear he should hurt them And there are few Hyporcites but will pretend it is from very love O Sirs it 's a greater matter to resign and give up your selves and all you have to God and heartily to quit all claim to your selves and all things then many a thousand self-deluding professours do imagine Many look at this but as some high extraordinary strein of Piety and the Papists almost appropriate it to a few that live in Monastical orders when indeed the sincerity of this Resignation and Dedication is the very sincerity of Sanctification it self And let me tell you that the Unfeigned Convert that attains to this hath not only pluckt up the Root of sinne though all of us have too many strings of it left nor only stopt up the spring of temptation and got the surest evidence of his uprightness but also is got himself into the safest and most comfortable state For when he hath absoâ—ulutely resigned himself and all to God how confidently may he expect that God should accept him and use him as his own and how comfortably may he commit himself and his cause and all good affairs to God as knowing that God cannot be negligent and careless of his own It 's an Argument that may make us confident of success when we can say as David Psal. 119. 94. I am thine save me Isa. 63. 19. Even Christ himself doth ingratiate his Elect with the Father on this account Iâ—h 17. 6 9 10. Thine they were and thou gavest them me I pray for them I pray not for the world but for them which thou hast given me for they are thine and all mine are thine and thine are mine and I am glorified in them And indeed by resigning all to God it is the more our own that is we have unspeakably more of the benefit of it and so there is no way to make it our own but by quitting it absolutely up to God This is the mistery that the world will not learn but God will teach it all that shall be saved by the Spirit and by Faith Matth. 16. 24 25 26. Then Jesus said to his Disciples If any man will come after me let him deny himself and take up his Cross and follow me For whosoever will save his life shall lose it and whosoever will lose his life for my sake shall find it Me thinks a man that hath time and strength and money should long to be disbursing all for God that he might put it in the surest hands and it may be out of danger yea that it may be set to the most honest and profitable usery For when God hath it from the dedication of an upright heart it is sure but till God have it is in hazzard and all that he hath not is lost and worse then lost When it is in our hands thieves may steal it bad Servants or unadvised Children may consume it and our own thievish flesh may steale it worst of all and consume it on our lusts or if our Children consume it not their Children may Or if they save it they may lose it most of all by feeding their pride and fleshly minds by it But if once it be in Gods hands it is safe You can make no comfortable account of one penny nor of one hours time unless you can tell God that he had it himself that you used it for him Or that you live to him in the maine and that the rest is pardoned O that those Parents understood this Doctrine that had rather strenghten the fetters and temptations of their Children with it and help them into that state which few are saved in then to devote and use their estates for God Though Christ hath told them how hardly the Rich are saved and how few such come to Heaven yet what care is taken to leave their Children rich and how little to further the Work of God or their own accounts that they may hear the Well done good and faithfull servant thou hast been faithfull over a few things I will make thee Ruler over many things enter thou into the joy of thy Lord. Matth. 25. 21 23. O Sirs if you would be good husbands and provident indeed for your Souls see that your hearts prove not false to you in this and make no secret reserves for your selves but that God have your selves first and all things with your selves as Christ first gives himself to you and all things with himselfe Rom. 8. 32. Never think your hearts right but when they can readily say We are not our own 1 Cor. 6. 19. Think not that you come aright to God in any duty if you do not heartily devote your selves to him and intreat him to accept you as wholly his who neither are nor desire to be your own and intreat him accordingly to use you for himself Say not that any thing is your Own that you possess Acts 4. 32. In respect to God and a Communion of Charity though it be your owne as a Talent that God doth intrust you with in respect of men by a Legal Propriety And then trust God boldly for you are his Owne Serve him cheerfully and draw neere him believingly for you are his Own In poverty sickness temptations and the approach of death rejoice in him confidently for you are his Own Into his hands commend your departing Spirits for they are his Own What reason of distrustfull feares can you now have Do you fear lest God will yet hate you why remember that no man ever yet hated his own flesh Ephes. 5. 29. Nay
Saints you have far more to do then other men You have a multitude of head-strong passions to subdue and abundance of deadly sinnes to kill and rooted vices to root upâ—â— You have many a false opinion of God and his waies to be plucked up and the customes of many years standing to be broken You have blind minds that must be enlightned with heavenly kowledg and abundance of Spiritual Truths that are above the reach of flesh and blood that you must needs learn and understand You have much to know that is hard to be known You have a dead Soul to be made alive and a hard heart to be melted and a scared Conscience to be softned and made tender and the guilt of many thousand sinnes to be pardoned You have a new heart to get and a new End to ayme at and seek after and a new life to live abundance of Enemies you have to sight with and overcome abundance of temptations to resist and conquer Many Graces to get and preserve and exercise and increase and abundance of holy works to do for the Service of God and the good of your selves and others O what a deal of work doth every one of these words conteine and yet what abundance more might I name And have you all this to do and yet will you delay And they are not indifferent matters that are before you It is no less then the saving of your Souls and the obtaining the blessed Glory of the Saints Necessity is upon you These are things that Must be done or else wo to you that ever you were born And yet have you another day to lose Why Sirs if you had a hundred mile to go in a day or two upon paine of death would you delay O think of the work that you have to do and then judg whether it be not time to stirre 20. And me thinks it should exceedingly terrifie you to consider what abundance by such Delayes do perish and how few that wilfully delay are ever converted and saved Many a Soul that once had purposes hereafter to repent is now in the misery where there is no Repentance that will do them any good For my part though I have known some very few Converted when they were old yet I must needs say both that they were very few indeed and that I had reason to believe that they were such that had sinned before in ignorance and did not wilfully put off Repentance when they were convinced that they must turn Though I doubt not but God may convert even these if he please yet I cannot say that I have ever known many if any such to be converted Sure I am that Gods usual time is in Child-hood or youth before they have long abused grace and wilfully delaid to turn when they were convinced Some considerable time I confess many have before their first convictions and purposes be brought to any great ripeness of performance but O how dangerous is it to delay 21. Consider also Either Conversion is Good or Bad for you Either it is needfull or unnecessary If it be bad and a needless thing then let it alone for altogether But if you are convinced that it is Good and necessary is it not better now then to stay any longer Is it not the sooner the better Are you afraid of being safe or happy too soon If you are sick you care not how soon you are well If you have a bone out you care not how soon it is set If you fall into the water you care not how soon you get out If your house be on fire you care not how soon it be quenched If you are but in fears by any doubts or ill tidings you care not how soon your fears be over And yet are you afraid of being to soon out of the power of the Devil and the danger of Hell and of being too soon the Sons of God and the holy justified heirs of Heaven 22. Consider also Either you can turn now or not If you can and yet will not you are utterly without excuse If you cannot to day how much less will you be able hereafter when strength is less and difficulties greater and burdens more Is it not time therefore to make out to Christ for strength and should not the very sense of your disability disswade you from delay 23. Consider how long you have staid already and put Gods Patience to it by your folly Hath not the Devil the world and the flesh had many years time of your life already Have you not long enough been swallowing the poison of sinne and long enough been abusing the Lord that made you and the blood of the Sonne of God that was shed for you and the Spirit of Grace that hath moved and perswaded with you Are you not yet gone far enough from God and have you not yet done enough to the damning of your selves and casting away Everlasting Life O wretched sinners it is rather time for you to fall down on your faces before the Lord and with tears and groans to lament it day and night that ever you have gone so far in sinne and delayed so long to turn to him as you have done Sure if after so many years rebellion you are yet so far from lamenting it that you had rather have more of it and had rather hold on a little longer no wonder if God forsake you and let you alone 24. Have you any hopes of Gods acceptance and your Salvation or not If you have such hopes that when you turn God will pardon all your sinnes and give you Everlasting Life is it think you an ingenious thing to desire to offend him yet a little longer from whom you expect such exceeding Mercy and Glory as you do Have you the faces to speak out what is in your hearts and practice and to go to God with such words as these Lord I know I cannot have the pardon of one sinne without the Blood of Christ and the riches of thy Mercy Nor can I be saved from Hell without it But yet I hope for all this from thy Grace I beseech thee let me live a little longer in my sinnes a little longer let me trample on the Blood of Christ and despise thy commands and abuse thy Mercies a little longer let me spit in the face of thy Goodness and prefer the flesh and the world before thee and then pardon me all that ever I did and take me into Glory Could you for shame put up such a request to God as this If you could you are past shame If not then do not practise and desire that which you cannot for shame speak out and request 25. Moreover it is an exceeding advantage to you to come in to God betimes and an exceeding loss that you will suffer by delay if you were sure to be converted at the last If you speedily come in you may have time to learn and get more understanding in the matters of
God then else can be expected For knowledg will not be had but by time and study You may also have time to get strength of Grace when young beginners can expect no more then an infant strength You may grow to be men of parts and abilities to be usefull in the Church and profitable to those about you when others cannot go or stand unless they lean on the stronger for support If you come in betime you may do God a great deale of service which in the evening of the day you will neither have strength nor time to do You may have time to get Assurance of Salvation and to be ready with comfort when death shall call When a weakling is like to be perplexed with doubts and fears and death is like to be terrible because of their unreadiness 26. And did you ever consider who and how many do stay for you while you delay Do you know who it is that you make to waite your leisure God himself stands over you with the offers of his Mercy as if he thought it long till you return saying O that there were such a heart in them and when will it once be How long ye simple will you love simplicity and scorners delight in scorning and fools hate knowledg Turn you at my reproof Deut. 5 29. Jer. 13. 17. Prov. 1. 22. And do you think it wise or safe or mannerly for you to make the God of Heaven to wait on you while you are serving his Enimy Can you offer God a baser indignity then to expect that he should support your lives and feed you and preserve you and patiently forbeare you while you abuse him to his face and drudg for the flesh the world and the Devil Should a worm thus use the Lord that made him You will not your selves hold a candle in your hands while it burns your own fingers nor will you hold a nettle or a wasp in your hand to sting you nor will you keep a dog in your house that is good for nothing but to snarl at you and bite your Children or worry your sheep And yet God hath long held up your lives while in stead of Light you have yielded nothing but a stinking snuff and in stead of graps you have brought forth nothing but thorns and thistles and while you have snarled at his Children and his Flock and done the worst you could against him And would you indeed put God to wait on you thus while you serve the Devil yet one day more Must God as it were hold the drunkard the candle while he reeles and spues Must he draw the curtain while the filthy wretch doth once more please his fleshly lusts Marvaile not if he withdraw his supporting Mercy and let such wretches drop into Hell And it is not God only but his Servants and Creatures and Ordinances that all are waiting on you The Angels stay for the joy that is due to them upon your Conversion Ministers are studying and preaching and praying for you Godly neighbours are praying and longing for your change The Springs and rivers are flowing for you The winds blow for you The Sunne shines for you The clouds raine for you The Earth bears fruit for you The beasts must labour and suffer and die for you All things are doing and would you stand still or else do worse What hast makes the Sunne about the world to return in its time to give you light What hast make other Creatures in your service And yet must you delay Must God stay and Christ and the Spirit stay Must Angels stay must Ministers stay must the Godly stay and the Ordinances stay and all the Creatures stay your leasure while you are abusing God and your Souls and others and while you delay as if it were too soon to turn 27. Consider that when you were lost the Sonne of God did not delay the work of your Redemption He presently undertook it and turned by the stroak of damning Justice In the fulness of time he came and performed what he undertook he failed not one day of his appointed time And will you now Delay to accept the benefit and turn to him Must he make such hast to save you at so dear a rate and now will you delay to be saved 28. Moreover God doth not delay to do you good You have the day and night in their proper seasons The Sunne doth not faile to rise upon you at the appointed time You have the Spring and Harvest in their meetest seasons the former and later raine in season When you are in want you have seasonable supplies and when your are in danger you have seasonable deliverance And is it meet or equal that you should refuse to bring forth seasonable fruit but still be putting off God with your delaies 29. Moreover When you are in trouble and necessity you are then in hast for deliverance and relief Then you think every day a week till your danger or suffering be past If you be under the pain of a disease or in danger of death or under poverty or oppression or disgrace you would have God relieve you without delay And yet you will not turn to him without delay Then you are ready to cry out How long Lord how long till deliverance come but you will not hear God when he cryeth to you in your sinnes How long will it be ere you turn from your transgressions when shall it once be When you are to receive any outward deliverance you care not how soon the sooner the better but when you are to turn to God and receive his Grace and title to Glory then you care not how late as if you had no mind of it Can you for shame beg of God to hasten your deliverances when you remember your delaies and still continue to trifle with him and draw back 30. Your present prosperity and worldly delights are posting away without Delay and should you delay to make sure of better in their stead Time is going and health is going youth is going yea life is going your riches are taking wing your fleshly pleasures do perish in the very using Your meat and drink is sweet to you little longer then it is in your throat Shortly you must part with house and lands with goods and friends and all your mirth and earthly business will be done All this you know and yet will you delay to lay up a durable treasure which you may trust upon and to provide you a better tenement before you be turned out of this What will you do for a habitation for pleasures and contents when all that you have now is spent and gone and Earth will afford you nothing but a grave If you could but keep that you have I should not much wonder that knowing so little of God and another world you look not much after it But when you perceive death knocking at your doores and see that all your worldly comforts are packing up and
of God And to Delay your Conversion is the way to draw on either this or worse 49. Consider also that Delaies are contrary to the very nature of the work and the nature of your Souls themselves If indeed you ever mean to turn it is a work of hast and violence and diligence that you must needs set upon You must strive to enter in for the gate is strait the way is narrow that leads to life and few there be that find it Many shall seek to enter and shall not be able Luke 33. 24 25. When once the master of the house is risen up and hath shut to the doore and ye begin to stand without and knock at the doore saying Lord Lord open to us he shall answer I know you not whence you are depart from me all ye workers of iniquity vers 27. It is a race that you are to run and Heaven is the prize And you know that they which run in a race run all but one receiveth the prize and therefore you must so run as that you may win and obtain 1 Cor. 9. 24 25. And what is more contrary to this then Delay You are Souldiers in fight and your Salvation lieth on the victory and will you trifle in such a case when death or life is even at hand You are travailers to another world and will you stay till the day is almost past before you will begin your journey Christianity is a work of that infinite consequence and requireth such speedy and vigorous dispatch that Delay is more unreasonable in this then in any thing in all the world And besides your Souls are Spirits of an excellent active nature that will not be kept idle and therefore Delay is unsuitable to their excellencie The best and noblest creatures are most active The basest are most dull and unfit for action The earth will stand still You may easily keep clods and stones from moving But fire and winds that are purer things and the Sunne and such nobler sublimer creatures you are not able to keep idle for an hour Who can cause the Sunne to delay its Course or who can stay the ascending flames And therefore to your more excellent immortall Souls and that in a work that must needs be done how exceeding unsuitable are Delaies 50. If all this will not serve turn let me tell you that while you are Delaying your Judgment doth not delay and that when it comes these Delaies will multiply your misery and the remembrance of them will be your Everlasting torment What ever you are thinking of or what ever you are doing your dreadfull doom is drawing on apace and misery will overtake you before you are aware When you are in the Ale-house little thinking of damnation even then is your damnation coming in hast when you are drown'd in the pleasures or cares of the world your judgment is still hastening You may delay but it will not delay It is the saying of the Holy Ghost 2 Pet. 2. 3. Whose judgment now of a long time lingereth not and their damnation slumbreth not You may slumber and that so carelesly that we cannot awake you but your damnation slumbreth not nor hath not done of a long time while you thought it slumbred and when it comes it will awaken you As a man that is in a coach on the road or a boat on the water what ever he is speaking or thinking or doing he is still going on and hastening to his journeies end or going down the stream So what ever you think or speak or do whether you believe it or mock at it whether you sleep or wake whether you remember it or forget it you are hastening to damnation and you are every day a day neerer to it then before and it is but a little while till you shall feel it Behold the Judg standeth before the doore Jam. 5. 9. The Holy Ghost hath told you The Lord is at hand Phil. 4. 5. The day is at hand the time is at hand the end of all things is at hand Rom. 13. 12. Rev. 22. 10. 1 Pet. 4. 7. Behold saith the Lord I come quickly and my reward is with me to give to every man according as his work shall be Rev. 22. 12. And do you as it were see the Judge approaching and damnation hasting on and yet will you delay And withall consider that when it comes it will be most sore to such as you and then what thoughts do you think you shall have of these Delaies You are unable to conceive how it will torment your Consciences when you see that all your hopes are gone to think what you have brought your selves to by your trifling To feel your selves in remediless misery and remember how long the Remedy was offered you and you Delaied to use it till it was too late To see that you are for ever shut out of Heaven and remember that you might have had it as well as others but you lost it by Delay Oh then it will come with horrour into your mind How oft was I perswaded and told of this how oft had I inward motions to return how oft was I purposed to be holy and to give up my heart and life to God I was even ready to have yeelded but I still delaied and now it is too late Then you shall pay for all our warnings and all the Sermons and motions which you lost And now having laid you down no less then fifty moving Considerations if it be possible to save you from these Delaies I conclude with this Request to you whoever you be that read these words that you would but consider of all these Reasons and then entertaine them as they deserve There is not one of them that you are able to gainsay much less all of them If after the reading of all these you can yet believe that you have reason to delay your understandings are forsaken of God But if you are forced to confess that you should not Delay what will you do then Will you obey God and your own Consciences or will you not Will you Turn this hour without delay Take heed of denying it lest you have never such a motion more You know not but God that calls you to it may be resolved that it should be now or never I do beseech you yea as his messenger I charge you in his Name that you Delay not an hour longer but presently be resolved and make an unchangeable Covenant with God and as ever you would have favour in that day of your distress delay not now to accept his favour in the day of your visitation O what a blessed family were that which upon the Reading of this would presently say We have done exceeding foolishly in Delaying so great a matter so long Let us agree together to give up our selves to God without any more Delay This shall be the day we 'l stay no longer The flesh and the world and the Devil have had
Ghost is as necessary to your Salvation Without the sanctifying work of the Spirit you could never be delivered from sin and Satan nor restored to Gods Image and consepuently could never be the Members of Christ nor have any saving benefit by his Sufferings Would you not think him unworthy to live that would reproach the Fathers work of nature and say that the whole Creation is but some poor contemptible work And would you not think him unworthy the name of a Christian that had contemptible thoughts of the Sons Redemption as if we could be saved as well without a Saviour or as if it were but some poor and triviall commodity that Christ had purchased us I know you would confess the mistery of that man that believeth no better in the Father and the Son And how comes it to pass that you think not of your own misery that believe no better in the holy Ghost Do not you debase the Sanctifying office of the holy Spirit when you shew us your knowledg and parts and outward duties and civility and tell us that these are the work of sanctification What is Sanctification but such a thing as this Why Holiliness is a new Life and Spirit in us and these that you talk of are but a few flowers that are stickt upon a Corps to keep it a while from stinking among men till death convey it to a buriall in Hell O Sirs Sanctification is another kind of matter then the forsaking of some of your fouler vices and speaking well of a Godly life It is not the patching up of the Old man but the Creating of a New man I give you warning therefore from God that you think not basely of the work of the holy Ghost and that you think no more to be saved without the Sanctifying work of the Spirit then without the redeeming work of the Son or Creation Government or Love of the Father Sanctification must turn the very bent and stream of heart and life to God to Christ to Heaven it must mortifie Carnall Self and the world to you it must make you a people Devoted Consecrated and Resigned up to God with all that you have it must make all sin odious to you and make God the Love and Desire of your Souls so that it must give you a new Heart a new End a new Master a new Law and a new Conversation This is that noble Heavenly work which the holy Ghost hath vouchsafed to make the business of his office To slight and despise this is to slight and despise the holy Ghost To refuse this is to refuse the holy Ghost and not to believe in him to be without this work is to be without the holy Ghost if any man have not the Spirit of Christ the same is none of his Rom. 8. 9. The holy Catholick Church is composed of all through the world that have this work upon them and therefore it is called Holy The Communion of Saints is the blessed Vitall fellowship of these Sanctified Ones For these only is the Resurrection unto blessedness the life everlasting with the Lord of life for all others is the Resurrection of Condemnation the everlasting punishment But if the other two Articles of our Faith have been so denied by the blind it is less wonder if this be so Some Hereticks denied God to be the Creatour of the world and because they saw so much evill in the world they said that it was made by Devils or evill Angels who indeed made the sin but not the world So dealt the Jewes by the Son and the Second Article of our Faith The Sacrifice of Bulls and Goats and such Beasts was all the Sacrifice for sin that they believed in And thus deale the multitude of the ungodly by the Spirit Indeed they know not themselves sufficiently to know the need and worth of Sanctification They are too whole to value the skill and care of Christ or the holy Ghost The insensibility of spirituall death and misery and thinking too lightly of Originall Corruption and too well of our depraved nature is both the cause of many of the Heresies of the learned and of the common contempt of Christ and the Spirit and recovering grace in all the unregenerate For it is not possible that men should have any deeper sence of the need or worth of the remedy then they have of the greatness of their sinne and misery O Sirs did we not come upon this great disadvantage to you that we speak to dead men that have indeed a naturall life which doth but take pleasure in their spirituall death how confidently should we expect to prevaile with you all But while you think lightly of your disease we can expect no better but that you think as lightly of Christ and holiness and all the meanes that tend to your recovery and think of the new man as the Poets fabled of the Promethean race that it grows out of the earth of your own poor sorry purposes and performances like ordinary plants Truly Sirs I have led you even as farre as I can and what more to say to you or what more to do for you to procure your Conversion I do not know If it had been in my power to have shewed you Heaven and Hell it self that you might better have known the matters that we speak of I think I should have done it But God will not have men live by sense in this life but by Faith If I could but help you all to such a knowledge and apprehension of these in visible things as the worst of you shall have as soon as you are dead then I should make but little doubt of your Conversion and Salvation Sure if you had but such a sight the force of it would so work upon you that before I went out of the Congregation you would all cry out that you are resolved to be new Creatures But though this be beyond my power and though I cannot shew you your great and wonderfull things that every eye here must shortly see yet I come not to you without a glass of Gods own making and in that glass you may see them There if you have but an eye of Faith you may see that God that you have so long offended and that now so earnestly inviteth you to return There you may see that Crucified Christ that hath opened you a way for Repentance by his Blood and pleadeth that Blood with you for the melting of your impenitent obstinate hearts There you may see the odious face of sinne and the amiable face of Holiness which is the Image of God There you may see both Heaven and Hell for all that they are invisible and may know what will be and that to all Eternity as well as what is And will not such a sight in the glass of Gods Word serve turn to move thee presently to give up the trade of sinning and to Resolve before thou stir for God I
the flesh And all their thoughts and words and actions that have such an End are wicked and pernicious Till you are Resolved by Conversion to be for God you have never a right End in a prevailing sence and therefore you cannot order one thought nor word nor deed aright I tell you every thought you think and every word you speak and every deed you do while you are unconverted are so many steps towards Hell except only those that tend towards Conversion and some way further it Resolve therefore of this or you can Resolve of nothing 15. Moreover if you would presently and firmly Resolve you would ease your friends and the Ministers of Christ of much of their sorrows and fears and cares for you and of much of the most troublesome part of their work As long as you are unconverted they can look on you but as the heirs of Hell that will be quickly in those torments if conversion prevent it not and therefore their hearts are full of sorrow for you when you sorrow not for your selves and their care is how they might prevent your damnation which they know without Conversion can never be done Many a groan doth your Misery cost them and many a thought have they of your danger which you are not aware of O what a grief is it to believing Ministers to see so many of their people in the power of Satan and the high-way to Hell after all their care and labour for their recovery We cannot say that the unconverted shall certainly perish because we have yet hopes that they may be Converted though they be not But we know that if they die in the case that they are in there is no hope of them at all and we know they are uncertin to live an hour And therefore as long as they are in this Condition how can we chuse but be filled with fear and grief and care for them All the troubles that befall a faithfull Minister in his worldly affaires by crosses and persecutions are nothing to the trouble that your sinne and misery bringeth to their minds O what a comfortable life were it for a Minister to live with bread and water among a people that would obey the Gospel and give us hopes that we should live with them in Heaven O how cheerfully may we study for them and preach to them when we see that it is not lost upon them How willingly should we prepare them the bread of life when we see they feed and live upon it How joyfully may we pray and praise God with them when we think how they must joyn with us in the Celestial Praises O Sirs I beseech you grudg not your Ministers this comfort Do not destroy your selves to grieve and trouble them O put them once out of their fears and grief for you by your Resolving ad speedy return to God That they that have many a time thought in their hearts I am afraid this poor sinner will never be recovered I am afraid he will be a firebrand in Hell may now rejoice with you when they see you coming home and may meet you as the Father himself doth meet his prodigal children and weep over you for joy as they were wont to do in sorrow You would ease our hearts of abundance of sad thoughts if we could but perceive you once Resolved and see you come home Now you think our preaching harsh to you because we tell you so much of sinne and of damnation and you think our discipline more harsh when we refuse to have communion with you But if you would once Resolve and Turn how gladly should we open our doores and our hearts to you and how gladly should we turn the stream of our preaching and tell you of nothing but Christ and Heaven and peace and comfort further then your own necessities should require it What say you Sirs to this reasonable request Will you Resolve without any more ado and ease us of our grief and fears and give us but leave to preach more comfortable Doctrine to you 16. Moreover consider that you have much work to do when you are Resolved and Converted and a great way to go when you have begun your journey towards Heaven and till you are Resolved none of this can be done You can go no further till Conversion have set you in the right way Till then the further you go the further you are out of the way Will you be unresolved till the night come on Shall all the rest of your work be undone Will you begin your race when you should be at the end Alas you should be able to say as Paul 2 Tim. 4. 8. I have fought a good fight I have finished my course henceforth is laid up for me a crown of righteousness when as you cannot yet say I have begun my course I am set in the right way 17. Consider also that Rosolution maketh works easie and successfull The resolute Army is seldom couquered A resolute travailer will go through with his journy and it is easier to himself His spirits are excited and doing it with vivacity he findeth less trouble in it A slow and lazy pase doth sometime soonest weary us A slow motion is most easily stopt when a swift one bears down that which would resist it A man that Resolvedly sets himself to the Work of God and is past any further deliberating of the matter and is at a point with all the world will make a pleasure of that which will stop and stall an unresolved professour Resolve therefore for your own success and ease I tell you by Resolving it is that you must conquer and by conquering you must obtain the Crown The unresolved are wavering at every assault like cowardly soldiers even ready to runne before they fight They will not bear the cost or labour they are soon aweary They cannot say Nay to an old Companion or a tempting bait But the Resolved breaks through all and treads that under his feet as dirt which another sells his Soul for If he meet with reproaches and scornes from men he remembreth that Christ foretold him this and suffered much more of the like before him If his friends turn enemies for the Gospel sake he saith I was told of this before even that I must be hated of all men for Christ. If he be ticed by lewd and wanton company he saith as David Psal. 119. 115. Depart from me ye evill doers for I will keep the Commandements of my God If he be tempted with rewards and honours in the world he will not stand wavering and longing after it as Balaam but he will say as the same Balaam was forced to do If you will give me a handfull of Gold and Silver I cannot go beyond the Word of the Lord. And let their money perish with them that think all the Gold in the world worth the peace of a good Conscience and the favour of God If he be threathened by
men to move him to forsake his duty he saith Whether it be better to obey God or man judge ye If he heare seducers he is rooted in the Spirit and the infallible Word and is not shaken by every wind If he see never so many fall off by backsliding he saith It was not only for their company that I chose the holy way God is still the same and Heaven is the same and Scripture is the same and therefore I am Resolved to be the same If God afflict him by poverty sickness or other tryals he saith I did not become a Christian to scape affliction but to scape damnation If he kill me yet will I trust in him Shall I receive good at the hands of God and not evill Naked came I out of my mothers wombe and naked must I return to dust the Lord giveth the Lord taketh away blessed be his name If oppressing enemies insult over him he can say as Mic. 7. 8 9. Rejoice not against me O mine enemy when I fall I shall arise when I sit in darkness the Lord shall be a light to me I will bear the Indignation of the Lord because I have sinned against him untill he plead my cause and execute Judgment for me He will bring me forth to the light and I shall behold his Righteousness If the wicked cast in his teeth his profession and the name of his God he rejoiceth that he is counted worthy to suffer for that Name and yet he will hope to see the goodness of the Lord in the Land of the living And if he must go to Heaven through poverty and a mean estate he hath learned to want as well as to abound and in what estate soever he be therewith to be contented And so in the work of Conversion it self for want of Resolution many stick long in the birth and they are hanging so long between Heaven and Hell that it 's a wonder of Mercy that God doth not cut them off and let them perish But the well Resolved Soul doth deal more faithfully with the light that is revealed to him and doth not stand strugling so long against it nor hold Christ and his Spirit so long in hand but is glad to make sure work in so great a business and take so good a match while it is offered And being engaged once he is firm as Mount Zion that cannot be moved Resolve therefore that your work may be the more easy and successfull and conquer by Resolving 18. I suppose you dare not Resolve against Conversion and a Heavenly life And why then will you not Resolve for it What purpose you to do for the time to come Is it your Resolution to live and die as you are Have you not purposes in your mind to Repent hereafter Dare you say I am Resolved never to be Converted Some may be so desperate but I think it is but few even of the ungodly Why this shews that there is a secret conviction in your consciences O do not stifle it Neutrality never saved Soul Seing you dare not Resolve against it Resolve for it 19. Consider I beseech you how much it doth concern your selves to have this question well and speedily Resolved God asketh you whether you will be Converted and Sanctisied or not Resolve this question and you Resolve your selves of a great many more that depend upon it The answer to this must be the answer to the rest If the question were whether you will be pardoned or no Whether you will live in Heaven or Hell for ever Whether you will dwell with God and Angels or with Devils You would not be long in answering this You would Resolve without an hours delay Why this is the question Sirs but the answer to it must be the answer to the first question For without Sanctification there is no Salvation If you will not be Converted you shall be condemned whether you will or no For God hath Resolved of this already and there is no resisting the Resolution of God The true state of the question is Whether you will Turn or burn choose you whether for it must be one O therefore if you will but Resolve Christ and us this one question that you will be Converted Christ will Resolve you the principal questions that concern you in the world even whether you shall be pardoned or saved and where and with whom you must live for ever 20. Lastly consider that if you stay till you receive the sentence of death it 's two to one but that will force you to Resolve But a forced Resolution will not serve turn and then it will be very hard for you to discern whether it be any better then meerly from your fears You put off all till sickness come and you see once that you must die there 's no Remedy and then you will cry O if the Lord would but recover me and try me once againe with life I would delay no longer but I would become a new man and live a Holy and Heavenly life I am resolved of it by the Grace of God Yea but who knows whether these last Resolutions be sincere We heare abundance speak this in their sickness that â—â—ver turn when they come to health but forget all and live in a manner as they did before Is it not most likely to be only the fear of death that makes you take up these Resolutions If it be so they will never save you if you die nor hold you to your promises if you live For it is not bare Fear that is true Conversion but it 's a changed heart that is fallen in Love with God and Holiness and into a setled hatred of former sins No late Repentance and Resolutions but these will be any thing worth as to the saving of your Souls And therefore if you should have true Resolutions at the last which is too rare you cannot choose but be much in doubt of them when you find so much of fear upon your spirit and consider that you never would Resolve till then And therefore if you would have a Comfortable change Resolve now in your prosperity before the face of death affright you to it and those feares and the lateness do make you question the truth and soundness of it and so deprive you of the comfort which you have so much need of at a dying hour And thus I have given you twenty Considerations to perswade you if it may be presently to Resolve I am sure there is truth and reason and weight in them but what good they will do you I am not sure because I know not how you will receive them IV. And now I come to the last part of my task which is to Direct you how to perform the work that I have perswaded you to But because it is meerly the Determination of the Will it is presuasion that must do more to the work then Direction And therefore I shall only desire you to look back