not give his Glory to 〈◊〉 Isa. 42. 8. The Lord Jesus as he will not suffer 〈◊〉 Corruption never so strong to hinder his Work when he will accomplish it so neither will he suffer 〈◊〉 of our performances or abilities be they what 〈◊〉 will to joyn Purchasers with him in the 〈◊〉 of Grace as though he were not either able or willing to be the Author and sinisher of our Faith 〈◊〉 No no We must not ad of ours but in 〈◊〉 case take all of him and from him not bring 〈◊〉 own wisdom with us but become fools that we 〈◊〉 be wise and that 's the way which God hath 〈◊〉 to gain information not think to ioyn our 〈◊〉 with Christ and so become Co-partners with 〈◊〉 I speak of the first Work of Conversion to 〈◊〉 our selves Holy Just and Wise but 〈◊〉 our selves we must look that he should be made Wisdom Righteousness Sanctification and 〈◊〉 to us Hence the Apostle Phil. 3. 9. professeth he desired 〈◊〉 to be found in Christ not only as not having his 〈◊〉 sins but not having his own 〈◊〉 which 〈◊〉 by the Law A Real Renouncing of our own worthiness of that Grace and Mercy which we need and without which 〈◊〉 are most miserable this being one Condition of the Second Covenant of Grace made in Christ wherby it 's differenced from that of the Law made with Adam Namely That Holiness and Righteousnes wherewith the Nature of man was beautified in Paradice though it was not so natural as issuing out of the Principles out of which he was compounded and made yet by all Orthodox Divines it is in this sense judged natural in that in Gods wise Providence and righteous appointment it was due to Nature It being cross to the wise proceeding of the infinite wise God to require Obedience from a Creature if he should not have given ability to the Creature to perform it It Arguing weakness and unskilfulness at the least in the Workman to make a thing for an End and not make it able to attain the End 〈◊〉 which it was made But in this Second Covenant of the Gospel it is far otherwise when we in our first 〈◊〉 had mispent the stock the Lord had bestowed upon us we were unworthy to be betrusted with any more and hence it coms to pass when the Lord wil lay hold upon the proud heart of a Sinner and draw him to himself he sinks his Spirit with the sence of his own wretchedness so that he sees and confesseth freely that he is undone without Mercy and yet conceives it 's not possible that ever such a worthless worm should partake thereof acknowledgeth it's just with God to deny to give nay to offer Grace to him that hath slighted rejected opposed Grace from day to day He knowes he cannot procure or Purchase Gods favor challenge he dare not without it he concludes he must perish and yet deserves by his own confession he should never obtain it Dan. 9. 7 8. O Lord Righteousness belongs to thee but unto us confufion of face nothing but shame and confusion belongs to us no mercy nor grace Ezek. 36. 31 32. They shal loarh themselves in their own eyes and not for your 〈◊〉 do I these things saith the Lord be ashamed and confounded O house of Israel In a word then is a man truly worthy that is fit to hear of and to receive mercy when he is rightly really become 〈◊〉 of his own unworthiness The soul now stands ready to side it with Christ for him to take possession of it that though the soul be not able to kill sin yet it 's empty the Coast is cleer as when Joab sent to David to come and take the City so the soul stands ready that if Jesus Christ would come and take possession of it and do that for it which it cannot do it self this is that that it would have the soul is content that Christ should do all as suppose a City that is Garrisoned with Enemies they cannot get them out themselves but they are willing that the General should come with his Soldiers and drive them out and place another Garrison there so the soul is content that Christ should dispossess whatsoever opposeth him and do whatsoever is pleasing to himself Isa. 26. 13. O Lord our God 〈◊〉 Lords besides thee have had Dominion over us but by thee only will we make mention of thy Name as if the soul should say I cannot subdue my sins my self but let Christ do what is good in his eyes the soul is content that Christ should work upon it and do all for it The Second Particular to be attended for the Explication of the Point is to shew the Manner of this Work and that will also appear in Four things The soul of a sinner is meerly patient herein it 's wrought upon him not wrought by him by any power he hath inherent in himself so the phrase and language of Scripture Jer. 31. 18. Turn me and I shal be turned and verse 19. After I was turned I 〈◊〉 that also includes as much Gal. 4. 9. we know God 〈◊〉 rather in this first Work are known of him And therefore it 's no work of Sanctification properly and as it 's taken in a narrow and strict sense for the sinner be ng justified by Faith and having the Spirit of Adoption dwelling in him hath received a principle of life wherby he comes to be active Act. 15 9. Having purified their hearts by faith This only is in way of preparation to fit us for our being in Christ that I may receive this power this is to make room for faith and Christ that having received him I might be enabled by the power of the Spirit to run right which is Sanctification Hence then go no further than this work the sinner as yet is not a good Tree nor can he bring forth good Fruit but is in way of preparation to be made one yet this work as it comes from the Spirit is good and pleasing to God because the Spirit is a good tree and is the Author of this I only am the receiver of it and therefore it is none of my fruit properly nor am I said to do any thing to please God by this because it 's done in me not by me As it is in the infusion of the Grace of Faith look at it as the soul is the subject of the Work the act it self comes from the Spirit and as a fruit of the Spirit it is good and accepted of God yet I cannot properly be said to please God in it because it is not an act done by me Hence those feeble Objections fall to the ground and are wiped away with a wet finger If there be any saving Preparation before the infusion of Faith then the soul brings forth good fruit and is a good tree without Faith And Secondly then there is somthing which pleaseth God
Cor. 11. 28. than he that had 〈◊〉 havock of them Acts 9. Who more fit to be 〈◊〉 Messenger of Peace and to breath out glad tidings 〈◊〉 Salvation to fainting souls than he who had 〈◊〉 out threatnings against them Acts 9. 1. Who more 〈◊〉 to pity the Saints than he who cut of his madness had persecuted them and that to the death before Acts 26. 11. But in the crazy and decayed estate of fainting Age when the whol frame begins to shake and go 〈◊〉 ruine how unable are we to perform the meanest service how 〈◊〉 to be imployed in works of greatest weight The members of a man converted are called Weapons of Holiness and Servants of Righteousness Rom. 6. 19. but doting heads palsie hands feeble knees faultring tongues are but broken weapons and lame Servants utterly unworthy to be used in the fighting of Gods Battels or performance of his Service how shall those hands which hang down for faintness be able to work the works of God how shall the feet that cannot stir walk in his waies or that tongue tell of his praise that cleaves unto the 〈◊〉 of the mouth and cannot talk two ready words To gripe the Sum of the Point in short If Nature be now most pliable to be prepared to receive Grace corruption not now so 〈◊〉 to 〈◊〉 it our abilities most able to improve it then is it a reasonable Truth that the God of Wisdom though he call some at any Age yet he should Convert most at this Age. Learn we hence to take out a Lesson of Sobriety not to be too rash and Censorious touching the final estate of any in this life since it is never too 〈◊〉 for the Lord to call though at the Eleventh hour It 's the Apostles Counsel Judg nothing before the time that is Judg nothing that is secret and uncertain determine not of any mans final condition because the time is not yet come this life is a time of mercy to some sooner to some later After death comes Judgment when God shall lay open the secrets and 〈◊〉 counsels of the heart then judg and spare not but 〈◊〉 then refer al unto the Lord and therfore if the question be touching the final estate of others we should answer with modesty as the Prophet did to the Lord in another case Ezek. 37. 2 3. When 〈◊〉 Lord had shewed him a field full of dead bones 〈◊〉 dry he asked him Son of man shall these dead bone live the Prophet answers Lord thou knowest it rests in thine own wil to work this so great a work and in thine own Counsel to determine it So 〈◊〉 the demand be Shall this gray headed sinner 〈◊〉 come to Grace he that hath been an old Standard-bearer in the Camp of the Devil shal he ever 〈◊〉 a faithful Soldier to the Lord Christ can this seared Conscience ever be made sensible of its sin 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 The answer of the Prophet will 〈◊〉 us Lord thou only knowest It 's not for us to judg Secret things belong unto the Lord. For 〈◊〉 to pry into the Ark of his privy and concealed Counsels we cannot do it without desperate pride and apparent danger Thus far indeed we may go without any breach of Charity and the Word will 〈◊〉 us sufficient warrant to wit Observing the lives 〈◊〉 men Of some of some I say we may conclude and that certainly that as yet they are in the state of Nature in a miserable and damnable condition Object If it be replyed Doth any man know that heart Who knows what is in man but the spirit of man 1 Cor. 2. 11. Answ. Can the spirit of a man pry into every corner of his Conscience and know his own condition After he hath told what he knows I may know it as well as himself and somtimes better Thus the Practice of a man discovers his Spirit A rotten Conversation when the constant tenure and frame of a mans course is corrupt and 〈◊〉 it 〈◊〉 to all the world who have wisdom to 〈◊〉 there is a refuse and an 〈◊〉 disposition within The fool saies the wise man Eccles. 10. 3. 〈◊〉 to every one as he 〈◊〉 by the way that he is a fool After the 〈◊〉 hath felt the Pulse and heard 〈◊〉 complaint of the Patient what 's the pain and 〈◊〉 the part affected how the fits and returns of 〈◊〉 distemper takes him he knows the disease far 〈◊〉 than the man that feels it it may be it's 〈◊〉 stone in the Reins the inflamation of the Liver Consumption of the Lungs the parts are within and 〈◊〉 cause of the Disease also but it discovers it self 〈◊〉 that undoubtedly many times by Symptomes 〈◊〉 thus it is with the sickness of the Body it is so 〈◊〉 the distempers of the soul the Practice of a 〈◊〉 is as the Pulse if that be commonly uneven 〈◊〉 and irreligious it argues it 's not the fit of a 〈◊〉 but even the very frame and constitution 〈◊〉 a corrupt and irreligious heart When a mans 〈◊〉 carriage and communication leaves a noysom 〈◊〉 and scent and 〈◊〉 of prophaness behind 〈◊〉 it evidently proclaims to any who have but 〈◊〉 Wisdom and Grace that these dead works 〈◊〉 from a rotten carkass of a Body of death 〈◊〉 it's our Saviors direction and conclusion he 〈◊〉 as never failing Matth. 7. 16. 20. By their 〈◊〉 you shall know them An evil tree cannot 〈◊〉 forth good fruits and a good tree cannot 〈◊〉 forth evil fruits and therefore he doubles the 〈◊〉 as that which is undeniable by their 〈◊〉 you shall know them The holy Apostle is 〈◊〉 peremptory 1 John 3. 10. In this are the children of God known and the children of the Devil 〈◊〉 doth not righteousness is not of God and 〈◊〉 that loveth not his Brother Where there be Three Particulars suit the Point in hand 1 There are but two sorts of men in the World 〈◊〉 Children of God and the children of the Devil 2 These may be known 3 He that is a hater of the Saints and a worker of iniquity hath the Brand-mark of a child of the Devil by which he may be discerned It is not then a breach of Charity to judg the tree by the fruits the 〈◊〉 by the Symptomes yea it was folly and little less than madness to do other As the Word 〈◊〉 I may judg and so should But to 〈◊〉 the Lord out of the Throne of Judgment to sit upon the life and death of mens souls to set down mens peremptory doom further than the Word warrants as though we had been admitted into Gods secrets and seen the Books of Reprobation and Election drawn this is hellish impiety and presumption we may boldly say the tree is not a Vine that brings forth Thorns nor that a Fig-tree that beareth Thistles he who hath a naughty life cannot have a good heart He who serves ' Mammon cannot serve God Mat. 6. 24. He who walks after the lusts of the flesh
give entertainment to him but unless the heart be broken and humbled we cannot receive Faith that we may receive Christ. And while the soul is thus breaking and humbling Faith also is coming in a right sense rightly understood whereof we shal speak somwhat largely if the Lord give us leave to come to that place The Words thus opened the Point is the very letter of the Text which looks full upon every Hearer or Reader that will look upon the Text. The Heart must be broken and humbled before the Lord will own it as His take up his abode with it and rule in it There must be Contrition and Humiliation before the Lord comes to take possession the House must be aired and fitted before it comes to be inhabited swept by brokenness and emptiness of Spirit before the Lord will come to set up his abode in it This was typified in the passage of the Children of Israel towards the promised Land they must come into and go through a vast and a roaring Wilderness where they must be bruised with many pressures humbled under many over-bearing difficulties they were to meet withal before they could possess that good Land which abounded with all prosperity flowed with Milk and Honey The Truth of this Type the Prophet Hosea explains and expresseth at large in the Lords dealing with his People in regard of their Spiritual Condition Hos. 2. 14 15. I will lead 〈◊〉 into the wilderness and break her heart with many bruising Miseries and then I will speak kindly to her heart and will give her the Valley of Achor for a door of hope the story you may recal out of Jos. 7. 28. when Achan had offended in the execrable thing and the hearts of the Israelites were discomfited and failed like water spilt upon the ground because they had caused the Lord to depart away from them the Text saies they having found out the offender by lot they stoned him and they said thou hast troubled Israel we will trouble thee and they called it the Valley of Achor and after that God supported their hearts with hope and encouraged them with success both in prevailing over their Enemies and in possessing the Land So it shall be Spiritually the Valley of Consternation perplexity of Spirit and brokenness of heart is the very gale and entrance of any sound hope and assured expectation of good This I take to be the true meaning and intendment of the place and part of the description of a good Hearer Luke 8. 15. Who with an honest and good heart receives the Word and keeps it by strong hand and brings forth fruit with patience the fruit is Obedience Patience is part of Sanctification and the holy disposition of heart that must be in the heart that brings and bears such fruit that which makes the heart good is Faith in Vocation which enables the soul to lay hold upon Christ in the Word and from him to receive that lively vertue of Patience and readiness to every holy word and work And an honest heart is a contrite and humble heart so rightly prepared that Faith is infused and the soul thereby carried unto Christ and quickened with patience to persevere in good Duties As we say of Grounds before we cast in Seed there is two things to be attended there It must be a fit ground and a fat ground the ground is fit when the weeds and green sword are plowed up and the soyl there and made mould And this is done in 〈◊〉 and Humiliation then it must be a fat ground the soyl must have heart we say the ground is plowed well and lies well but it 's worn out it 's out of heart Now Faith fats the soyl furnisheth the soul with ability to fasten upon Christ and so to receive the Seed of the Word and the Graces of Sanctification and thence it produceth good 〈◊〉 in Obedience Upon this condition Gods favor is promised Psal. 34. 18. The Lord is nigh to them that be of a contrite spirit and saveth them that be of a broken heart Isay 61. 3. He gives the Garment of praise to those that have had the spirit of heaviness it will suit none fit none it 's prepared for none but such it 's their Livery only Upon this condition it is obtained Mat. 18. 3. Unless ye be converted and become as little Children ye can in no wise enter into the Kingdom of Heaven 2 Chron. 33. 12. It 's said of Mannasseh he humbled himself greatly and made supplication and the Lord was intreated of him such persons and services are highly accepted Psal. 51. 17. A broken and contrite heart O God thou wilt not despise nay he wil undoubtedly accept of it The Reasons of the Point are taken partly in regard of the heart which without these will neither be fitted nor enabled to act upon God in Christ for any good partly in regard of God all his Ordinances and Dispensations will be unprofitable and unable to do that good which he intends and we need To the first in regard of our Hearts those Lets and impediments which put a kind of incapability yea and impossibility upon the soul whereby the coming of Faith into the Heart and so the entrance and residence of the Spirit are hindred are by this disposition wrought and removed These Impediments are two The 〈◊〉 which stops the way and work of Faith is a setled kind of contentedness in our corrupt condition and the blind yet bold and presumptuous confidence that a natural man hath and would maintain of his good condition Each man sits down willingly well apaid with his own estate and portion sees no need of any change and therefore not willing to hear of it Each man is so full of self-love that he is loth to pass a sentence against his own soul to become a judg and self-condemner and consequently an executioner of all his hopes and comforts at once and so put his happiness and help out of his own hand Besides we are Naturally afraid out of the privy yet direful guilt of our own Consciences to profess the wretchedness of our own miserable and damnable Condition as to put it upon a peremptory conclusion and that beyond question I am undone I am a damned man in the Gall of bitterness in the bonds of iniquity lest they should stir such horrors which they are neither able to quiet nor yet able to bear And therefore out of the presumption of their own hearts they would easily perswade and delude themselves they have no cause to alter their condition and therfore they should not endeavor it Hence the carnal heart is said to bear up himself against all the assaults of the Word Deut. 29. 19. When all the Curses of the Law were denounced with never so much evidence yet the presumptuous sinner blesseth himself promiseth all good to himself and secretly feeds himself with vain hopes that he shal attain it therfore he wil
day the things belonging to thy peace but now they are hid from thine eyes Will you suffer Christ to stand thus knocking at the door of your hearts and not let him in Take heed of this Christ knocks this day at your hearts if you now give him his last Answer and shut the door against him it may prove to be the last knocking you may hap never to see him more A plain and powerful Ministerie is the only Ordinary Means to Prepare the heart soundly for Christ. Hence it is when our Savior would have this work done he prepares a workman fit for it and furnisheth him with abilities which might enable him to the discharge thereof the work is great and the service difficult and therefore Elias is fitted with a Spirit suitable with Power answerable unto that purpose for which he was appointed an Instrument as we say for the nonce John the Baptist he also inherits these abilities and that Minister must be an Elias i. e. must have his Spirit and Power in proportion if ever this great work of preparation followeth his hand with Comfort and Success As it was in the Material so also is it in the building of this spiritual temple in which the holy Ghost doth dwell The Elect of God are like trees of righteousness the Word is like the Ax that must be lifted by a skilful and strong arm of a cunning Minister who like a Spiritual Artificer must hew and square and take off the knotty untowardnrss in the Soul before we can come to couch close and settle upon the Lord Christ as the Corner stone Paul calls the Saints Gods husbandry 1 Cor. 3. 9. A powerful humbling Ministery is like the Plow to plow up the fallow ground the thorny sensual hearts of sinful men to receive the immortal seed of the Word of Promise and the Spirit of Christ thereby For the Opening of the Point Two Things are 1 What is meant by a plain and powerful Ministery such as that of Elias 2 How this hath force to effect so great a Work The plainness of the Ministery appears When the Language and Words are such as those of the meanest Capacity have some acquaintance with and may be able to conceive when the Preacher 〈◊〉 his Speech to the shallow understanding of the Simplest Hearer so far as in him lies alwayes avoiding the frothy tinkling of quaint and far 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 which take off and blunt as 〈◊〉 were the edge of the blessed Truth and Word of God 〈◊〉 the Apostle rejects the wisdom of Words as that which makes the Cross of Christ that is The Doctrine of Christ Crucisied revealed in the Gospel to lose his proper and powerful effect when it is lo Preached where let it be observed that it is not only the vanity and emptiness of Words which is here condemned but even that pompous gaudiness and elegancy of 〈◊〉 which after an unsuspected manner steals away the mind and affection from the truth and stayes it with it self when it should be a means both to convey both Attention and Affection from it self to the truth He that puts so much Sugar into the Potion that he hinders the strength and the work of it by such a kind of mixture though he please the Pallat of the 〈◊〉 yet thereby 〈◊〉 wrongs both the Physick and his Health So here in Preaching For the excellency of Eloquence and entising words of humane Wisdom which in case were commendable to be used by him who is an Orator or a Declamor in the School in the 〈◊〉 becomes ever Fruitless and many times hurtful and prejudicial to the saving success of the Gospel Hence the Apostle makes these as Opposite 2 Cor. 2. 4. My Speech and my preaching was not with entising words of mans wisdom but in the demonstration of the Spirit and of Power taking this for granted as it appears in 〈◊〉 of the Speech the pompe of entising words 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 be discovered if we would have the Spirit in the powerful work of it be demonstrated and made to appear so much sweetness of words as may make way for the 〈◊〉 of the Gospel may be admitted and no more And as all kind of Curiosity and 〈◊〉 is to be avoided so all obscure and unusual 〈◊〉 dark Sentences and Expressions strange Languages are much more to be rejected as opposite even to the end of speaking much more to plainness of the Preaching of the tuth Words are appointed by God in his Providence to be Carriers as it were by whose help the thoughts of our minds and the savory apprehensions of truth may be communicated and conveyed over to the understanding of others whereas by mystical and dark Sentences he that comes to hear can by no means profit because he cannot conceive and so both Hearer and Speaker must needs miss their end and lose their labor since the one doth no good in his Speech because he so speaks that the other can receive no benefit He that hath a Pastoral heart must be so affected in dispensing the Doctrine of Grace as Paul was in writing Rom. 1. 7. to all that are To all that be at Rome so should he labor to reach out mercy and comfort to every soul in the congregation by every sentence he delivers as much as in him lies whereas mystical cloudy discourses which exceed the capacity and understanding of most in the assembly it s not possible they should work powerfully upon their Consciences That which the Mind conceives not the Heart affects not Ministers should be and if faithful they wil be as nurses to the people they will prepare milk for the meanest and weakest and meat for all but never give dry crust or 〈◊〉 in stead of bread to any for that was not to feed but to starve the Child Hence the Apostle concludes strange Languages in the delivery of the truth to be a Curse sent of God upon a people and therefore the Minister that so Communicates the Word he is the Messenger that brings a Curse to the 〈◊〉 1 Cor. 14. 21 22. In the Law it is written with men of other tongues and other lips will I speak unto this people wherefore tongues are fore a sign not to them that believe but to them that believe not whereas Prophecying should be in that openness and familiarity of Language that the unbeleiving yea unlearned should be convinced and have the secrets of his heart made manifest to his own Conscience that so he may be truly humbled and acknowledge Gods power and presence in the virtue of his own Ordinance blessed by him 1 Cor. 14. 24. It was the complaint of God Job 38. 2. That Counsel was darkened by Words without Knowledg It was not allowed in Jobs Conference and debate of Questions with his friends it cannot but be much more condemned in publishing the mysteries of Life and Salvation to others Its the scope of the Calling and Work of
of their daies not long 〈◊〉 their death not long before their souls depart out of their bodies and they depart from the Land of the Living I am not ignorant that some Interpreters run another way and conceive by Laborers 〈◊〉 only to be understood whether they be good or bad and their 〈◊〉 their calling unto that 〈◊〉 in the Church He that is a Demas and seeks 〈◊〉 World his penny his praise and applause if 〈◊〉 his profit and wealth if Covetous and for that he makes his agreement with the Lord when first he makes entrance upon the work of the Ministry When he that is sincere hearted and seeks the things of Christ the penny for which he indents and the hire he would have is the hearts of poor 〈◊〉 the conversion of souls and 〈◊〉 of the body of Christ are instead of all the Tythes and 〈◊〉 Livings and Benesices he desires to look after though the sence is pleasant and spiritual yet I do not think it suits with the Scope 〈◊〉 this place nor here intended by the Spirit For of those 〈◊〉 Parable must be understood of whom that conclusion in the last verse of the 19. chapter was spoken Many that be first shall be last and many that be last shall be first This Parable being inferred for the opening and proving of that as the first words of the first 〈◊〉 of this 20. chapter do plainly evidence For the Kingdom c. But they are without question the 〈◊〉 only who are there meant such who have left all for Christs sake such who shall inherit 〈◊〉 life vers 29. alwaies with this proviso Many that are first called if they bear up themselves somwhat too much upon their own worth shall be last rewarded they who are last called if yet they do renounce all confidence in their own excellency and sufficiency and depend upon the free mercy of God they shal be amongst the chiefest that shal be recompenced Following then the sense which the Scope of the Text and the best Interpreters give the Point which fits our purpose and offers it self to consideration without any forcing from the Words is this God calls his Elect at any age but the most of his he converts before old age He comes at any hour but once only at the Eleventh hour and that somwhat unexpectedly There be two Parts in the Doctrine we wil handle them severally that they may be more easily and distinctly conceived 1 The Lord can and somtimes doth call at any Age. 2 But the most of his and that most usually he converts in their riper years God calls several of his Servants at sundry times some yong some old some in their tender some in their riper years there is no season excepted he that is the God of all times can and will do his own work at any time Timothy knew the Scriptures from a child 2 Tim. 3. 15. and drew in the sincere 〈◊〉 of the Word as Milk from the Breasts of his Mother and therefore is said to be nourished up in the wholsom words of Truth 2 Tim. 1. 5. Obadiah feared God from his youth 1 Kings 18. 12 Lydia and the Jaylor in Acts 16. Paul in Acts 9. 7. and Zacheus Luke 19. 9. it's most propable they were in their middle age as their places and imployments together with their accustomed experience and practice therein do 〈◊〉 Paul indeed is called a yong man Acts 7. 58. yet his bringing up at the feet of Gamaliel the largeness and depth of his Learning and Knowledg in Arts and Tongues 1 Cor. 14. 18. together with the Commission he was betrusted by the High-Priest for the persecuting of the Saints evince undeniably that he must be of ripe years Abraham was upon his seventy fifth year when God called him Gen. 12. 5. compared with Josh. 24. 2. Manasseth was converted near upon his death about sixty yeers of age 2 Chron. 33. 19. But in the case of old Age the matter is so difficult and so unusual that there are very few examples of old men converted recorded in Scripture as though the Lord had reserved it in his own hand as a special exception that the Sons of men should not ordinarily expect it That which is usually observed with some probability besides the pregnant testimony of the Text in hand is Amongst the many thousands who were pricked in their hearts at Peters Sermon Acts 2. 36. Amongst all those who came to hear with Cornelius Acts 10. 44. It 's said the Holy 〈◊〉 fell upon all that 〈◊〉 it 's probable some among such numbers were stricken in years As for the Thief upon the 〈◊〉 it 's most agreeable to good reason by all the leading circumstances in the Text that he was in his best strength The Lord takes these times in the dispensation of his Mercy for a double End To shew the freeness of his Grace that there is nothing that he respects either in person or place no excellency that at any time any man hath no work that at any time any man can do why he should fit and prepare any for Grace and Christ or bestow them upon the 〈◊〉 Sons of Adam and therefore takes every season that it may appear it is in his good pleasure to take what season he will If the work of Grace had been 〈◊〉 to any time of Life either Youth 〈◊〉 hood or Old Age alone it would 〈◊〉 been concluded 〈◊〉 carnal grounds that there was somthing in the Creature upon condition 〈◊〉 it had been given either the tenderness of the yong ones had moved the Lord to 〈◊〉 them or the excellency of the parts and abilities of men of riper years could have procured it or the policy and experience of the aged could alone have contrived this great work of preparation and conversion unto God but when the Lord chuseth some out of all 〈◊〉 and pass by others it 's 〈◊〉 evident it 's not any thing in the persons years or condition but meerly in the compassion of the Lord that doth all This is the 〈◊〉 which the Lord himself renders of his dealing in this kind when he would suppress the murmuring of some of the Laborers 〈◊〉 20. 14. who 〈◊〉 that they had no more than others because they had been longer in the Vinyard and had born more of the burden and heat of the day than others The Lord answers May I not do what I will with mine own Again This God doth to shew his Power even the Omnipotent and All-sufficient work of his 〈◊〉 to whom nothing is hard or impossible who hath hardness at command and therefore as he doth 〈◊〉 he will both in Heaven and Earth Psal. 1 15. 3. 〈◊〉 also in the hearts of his people when the 〈◊〉 and 〈◊〉 of the little 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 deprive them of this favor when the boisterous head-strong distempers of yong men cannot hinder 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 of the aged in their cankered corruptions cannot 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉
successively As the same vessel is capable of puddle and pure water the same eye is capable of sight and blindness So the Will at several times as several impressions may be made upon it is capable of Sin and Grace Jer. 4. 3. Break up 〈◊〉 fallow ground of your hearts The Nature of man is arrable ground though now it lie fallow by 〈◊〉 of the weeds of wickedness the brambles of Baggage base lusts have over-run it yet it may be 〈◊〉 the soul may be converted again So men are called Living stones 1 Pet. 2. 5. Though the frame of the heart like that goodly building of Jerusalem have not a stone left upon a stone yet the stones wil 〈◊〉 again And hence though there be not the next passive power in a soul possessed with sin to receive the things of God because the soul is wholly possessed with corruption so becomes wholly indisposed thereunto It being impossible that Two Contraries should be in the same subject at the same time that the body distempered with unnatural heats should receive a natural and moderate temper at the same time cannot be yet remove the unnatural and the body is capable of the natural Hence it is the soul hath ever in it a remote power to partake of Grace As the Soul is ever seeking of a better but because it cannot meet with it it is unsatisfied which shews it was made for a better Which makes me that I cannot yet see Why there is any need to flye to the Obed ential power which men marvelous Judicious betake themselves to in this Dispute When a Creature hath not a capability in its kind and nature to entertain such an impression further than it yeilds to the Almighty hand of God to make it what he wil As Matt. 3. 9. God is able of stones to raise up Children unto Abraham Stones wil yeild to God to make them Children But under favor I conceive that is not here needful That God should make a new Faculty or give another natural power than before as he must do if he make Bread or Children of stones As a Wheel that runs wrong you need not another Wheel but another and a right 〈◊〉 of 〈◊〉 The Faculty of the Will attended only in its natural being and ability cannot Will a spiritual or supernatural good but must have aspiratual and supernatural power put into it to enable it to put forth a 〈◊〉 work Because nothing can act beyond the bounds of its being and ability The Trees grow but move not the bruit Creatures move but Reason not Wicked men can Reason and Will natural and corrupt things because they have Reason Nature and Corruption And Morral things also because they have some 〈◊〉 of the Spirit as wil carry them to act seemly between man and man but to close with God and his Holiness and the purity and spiritualness of a Rule they cannot 1 Cor. 2. 14. The natural man receives not the things of God Prov. 24. 7. Wisdom is too high for a fool If the Will out of a Nature Ability or Faculty could chuse a supernatural good then where there is this Faculty this act may be put forth Then the Devils and Damned in Hell may love God above al make choice of the chiesest good and close with the last end and so might be happy For they have this faculty of Will The Promise is full and free Let him that Wills take of the water of life and live for ever Rev. 22. 17. Hence its plain its a false Opinion and grounded on a false bottom and principle that to have an indifferency to any thing propounded to take it or not to take it is that liberty which issues from the nature of the Will Because it issues not from the Faculty at al to wil a supernatural good no more than from a dead man to take meat As a Wheel doth not run round because wood or iron but because the art of wheel-making is imprinted upon it because so framed and fashioned If therefore the question be asked If the Will be not free in Preparation Answ. There is no Will in the first work of Preparation there is the Faculty of Will but not the act of Will The Corruption that takes possession of the Will and rules in it it utterly indisposeth the soul to receive any spiritual power from God and consequently disenables it to put forth any spiritual or supernatural work It is not subject to the Law of God neither can be Rom. 8. 7. It wil not beat the impression of the power of the Spirit Job 8. 37. The Word of Christ found no place in the Jews that were under the power of their Corruptions Acts 13. 46. They put away the Word from them yea Truth is a trouble and a torment to a Carnal heart and the nature of the thing evinceth so much Matthew 6. 24. Ye cannot serve two Masters God and Mammon Joh. 5. 44. Ye cannot believe that seek honor one from another Rom. 2. 4. The hard heart cannot repent Shut up we are under unbelief and we shut out the Lord Jesus who comes not unless the door be opened It is not possible that contraries should be at the same time in the same subject Though there be no force afforded to the Faculty of the Will yet the power of Corruption must by a holy kind of Violence be removed before any spiritual power can be imprinted upon the soul wherby it may put forth any spiritual act First I say There is no violence offered to the Faculty of 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 For that as it hath been proved before is a capable subject both of Grace and Sin successively and in order as the air is capable of light and darkness indifferently and the one being removed the other is entertained with ease and readiness without any compulsion there needs none it requires none here As the same wax wil receive several and contrary impressions at several times so the soul which hath been made partaker of the image of God is also capable of the print impression of the image of old Adam when once the gracious disposition hath been defaced it 's capable of receiving the impression of Gods Image again when once Adams image is dispossessed Yet Secondly There must be a holy kind of violence offered unto Corruption before it can be dispossessed and removed and so way and room made for the entertainment of Faith and Christ thereby Reasons are Either Corruption must by violence be taken away or else it wil naturally and of its own accord go away and depart from the soul. For it hath been in the former Conclusions manifected That there must be a spiritual power put into the will before it can put forth a 〈◊〉 act And while Corruption takes place there is no place of entertainment 〈◊〉 this spiritual ability therefore Corruption must be removed by violence Naturally it wil not go away therefore by
And this was usual in the Course of Providence and the Dispensation of the Means of Grace for himself gives the ground of Gods dealing and his aim in this 1 Tim. 1. 16. To wit That he might be an example and pattern to all Posterity to support the hearts of the rebellious Gentiles that they might not sink under the weight of their unsufferable 〈◊〉 but yet to seek the Lord. So it was with these Converts Acts 2. Some mocked some blasphemed 〈◊〉 derided the Apostles and that was the season the Lord took to set upon their hearts by the Ministery of the Apostles And were the Scripture silent in this case how often have we found it in our own experience acknowledged by many those who came purposely to deride and scom the Ministery of the Word somtimes to entrap and ensnare the Minister somtimes to see and slight and jear at the Assemblies of the Saints that was the time which the Lord took to seize upon their souls to Convince Convert and Save them through Mercy what Congruity or suitableness was there then for this work unless you wil make Contrariety and the height of sinful rage and opposition to be Congruity this is Gods manner to do wonderful things beyond the reach of Common Reason when it was hard to the people of the Captivity to beleive it God then sayes it was not hard to work it Zach. 8. 6. Thus saith the Lord unto this people If it be marvelous in your eyes should it be marvelous in my eyes God usually carries the chiefest of the Expressions of his Providence by way of Contrariety and cross Means in Common Apprehension and the course of things that he might silence the pride of al flesh and the forgery of al 〈◊〉 who are the professed enemies of his Grace So Elias when he would make way for the Glory of the Miracle and Manifestation of Gods power he doth nor only lay the Sacrifice upon the Altar without Fire but digs ditches deep and fills them with water that the power of the Fire might appear more remarkablely 1 Kings 18. 33 34 35. So here To this Experience which cannot be 〈◊〉 take these Reasons for further cleering of the truth and the crushing of this Erronious Conceit If the Conversion or Attraction of a sinner be lastly resolved into the Congruity and suitableness of Moral Perswasions then may it lastly depend upon some natural Cause or in truth upon some Common Circumstance of some outward occasion and Conveniency with which the sinner may meet in the use of Means For in the meeting and Concurence of these as time place order or outward helps and the disposition of the party in some or al of these this Congruity wil consist But this is to resolve our spiritual and supernatural Call into a natural Cause against Rule and Reason For nothing can exceed the bounds of that ability which the Lord in the way of his Providence hath set in the Creature natural Causes produce natural Effects only Joh. 1. 12. Which are born not of blood nor of the will of man nor of the will of the flesh There is nothing in Corruption or natural Disposition or the excellency of any 〈◊〉 that brings forth this spiritual birth Nay the Apostle professedly excludes al these as not able to bring about this work and therefore sets out the vanity and emptiness of them when they are at the highest We Preach saies the Apostle Wisdom to those that are perfect which this world nor the Princes of this world were never able to reach unto 1 Cor. 2. 6. 8. If any were suited with the choicest Means or had liberty to enjoy the choicest Opportunities or the best Advantages according to their hearts Content these were the men and yet these could 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 of this work 〈◊〉 a 〈◊〉 of outward Means which properly reach not the 〈◊〉 work prove an 〈◊〉 unto this effectual Calling So the Apostle 1 Cor. 1. 26. Not many wise not many rich 〈◊〉 many noble 〈◊〉 wisdom and choice abilities wealth and outward 〈◊〉 honor and 〈◊〉 they are in 〈◊〉 and so 〈◊〉 and therefore Congruous to help forward a 〈◊〉 Course because those that are not subordinate 〈◊〉 are 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 and the Argument follows 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 reason if any then these who had 〈◊〉 and choice abilities to improve the Means 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 the work those who had wealth to purchase them those who had authority to 〈◊〉 and them to serve their turn they should be suited to al 〈◊〉 encouragements to 〈◊〉 on in a Christian Course but we see this doth it not Some who have the greatest 〈◊〉 and suitableness of al Moral Perswasions to draw their hearts to Christ do remain for ever at greatest distance from him therefore saving Conversion is not resolved into nor depends certainly upon the Congruity of Moral Periwasions That some have such suitableness and yet remain at such a distance I instance in 〈◊〉 those that sin the sin against the holy Ghost and count the Blood of Jesus a Common thing That these have the Congruity of al means to prevail with them the Word wil give in 〈◊〉 proof Heb. 6. 5 6. They taste of the heavenly gift that is Faith are made 〈◊〉 of the holy Ghost have tasted of the good Word of God and of the powers of the world to come They have a taste of Vocation of Adoption and 〈◊〉 and 〈◊〉 and that there were 〈◊〉 of Moral 〈◊〉 to work these I thus shew Where there is a Concurrence of al Moral Causes which by the rule of Providence the Lord hath appointed all those that he hath fitted and proportioned both to the nature of the soul and the nature of the spiritual work needful for it such whom he hath so far breathed upon and wrought withal that there is a taste of al the saving work of God left upon the soul only the truth and reality of the work is 〈◊〉 comes as neer to effectual Calling as may be and not be Called as neer to the stamp of true Sanctification as can be and not be Sanctified there is the Congruity of al Moral Perswasions and the meeting and Concourse of the strength of al Arguments and Reasons that can be propounded only there is yet a principle internal wanting which should indeed change the Will For if the contrary to al these be incongruous and carry a kind of unsuitableness either to the necessities of the soul and the work of God upon the soul for its saving good then the presence of these carry an undoubted congruity and answerableness to all the good of the soul and the work that should be done upon it For certain it is when al the Means that God hath appointed are attended and used also in the order and manner he hath appointed neither more help nor more Congruity can be desired nor yet attained for if there be any other Means which God hath not appointed those wil prove hinderances not
in a diverie manner Their general Tenent is this They make this 〈◊〉 Distribution of the Work of Gods Grace in Conversion Auxilium est vel Sufficiens Efficax The Dispensation of the Work of Grace in the way of Conversion is either by way of Sufficiency 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Either Sufficient or Effectual and Efficient 1 All men say they have sufficient help from God in the Dispensation of the wayes of his Providences and Ordinances that they may be Converted were it not their own fault they 〈◊〉 a power and a 〈◊〉 by the supply of this sufficient help from God to this end and for this work and yet though they may yet they do not attain success 2 But the Elect and such as the Lord hath set apart to himself have the Efficacy of this spiritual help from the Lord as that they shal be and in their times are actually Called and Converted unto God Against these Forgeries I desire this Fifth Collection may be attended Where ever there is Sufficiency of exciting and preventing Grace put forth by the Lord for the Drawing and Converting of the Sinner there is also the Efficacy of that Grace which never fails to attain success First We shal Open this Collection That 〈◊〉 ful meaning may fairly and plainly be apprehended Secondly We shal shew how it follows evidently from the former Doctrine as that the one cannot be granted but the other must needs be yeilded For the understanding of the Collection attend Three Things That this Exciting or Preventing Grace of God it is not any Habit or gracious Disposition imprinted upon the Soul wherby it was in power or possibility to act or not to act as it seems good and suits best with its own purpose For Example sake In those Actions wherein men are Causes by Counsel they have 〈◊〉 and power to put forth such an action or with-hold the doing of it as they see fit A man hath a power to go hither or thither to speak these or those words yet he may sit still and stop his motion he may be mute and silence his words But as we heard before It is the motion or actual impression of the work of the Spirit so that God is not purposing and decreeing within himself but putting his purpose into a powerful Execution and so comes under such words to be deciphered as Drawing Teaching Turning al which shew an actual Expression of Gods power and pleasure Sufficiency of any Cause or Causes is to be attended either absolutely in regard of the End at which they look and then that is absolutely sufficient which can attain his End without any other if any hinderances it can remove if any wants it can supply if any thing to be done it can procure it accomplish it 1 Cor. 12. 9. My Grace is sufficient for thee And thuse some Causes may be sufficient for the accomplishment of one Effect which are not for another Those Common stroaks of the Spirit in Illumination and Conviction and Moral 〈◊〉 in propounding Arguments to the hearts 〈◊〉 pressing on mightily by Evidence of Reason are sufficient to make people beyond 〈◊〉 Joh. 15. 〈◊〉 If I had not come and spoken to them they had 〈◊〉 no sin but now they have no Cloak for their 〈◊〉 Ezek. 3. 11. Whether they 〈◊〉 hear or whether they will for bear yet this they shall know there 〈◊〉 been a Prophet amongst them It s sufficient to Condemn them if not to Convert them But these 〈◊〉 not sufficient to 〈◊〉 the work of Conversion for there is more power required to that There is not only an enlightening of the understanding but 〈◊〉 opening of the heart 〈◊〉 3. 11. 〈◊〉 Baptize 〈◊〉 water but there is one that comes 〈◊〉 he 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 with the Holy Ghost and Fire There is Sufficiency upon Companison or Supposition upon this Ground or Supposal that we take in other Causes in their 〈◊〉 and 〈◊〉 work with others and this is very improperly and abusively said to be Sufficient This is the 〈◊〉 of the Popish Crew There is Sufficient Help vouch safed on Gods part unto 〈◊〉 for Salvation and Conversion if they would 〈◊〉 of the freedom of their own Wills use and improve them for the End that the Lord hath appointed them and doth now 〈◊〉 them if they wil give way and welcome 〈◊〉 the light which the Lord hath now 〈◊〉 and not reject the 〈◊〉 of God against 〈◊〉 which is in truth to say it is not sufficient to work their Wills and Hearts to this but it is sufficient to present and perswade the Heart if it will for they who make the Will of Man a partial Cause with God in this work 〈◊〉 that 〈◊〉 Will and Grace of God and his Spirit is not the sole and alone Cause and therefore not the Sufficient 〈◊〉 to do it As if Two men be partial Causes in drawing a Ship neither are sufficient to do it The like mistake is in that Expression Comparison in which the Fautors of this Opinion do so much please themselves Say they The Eye hath sufficient power to see but yet unless the Air be enlightened and the Object presented unto it it will never see or perceive it not put forth this power effectually upon the Object Answ. The mistake is meerly in the manner of the Expression misunderstood For Seeing implyes Two things in it 1 To act upon an Object when it is presented in a right distance and through a fit mean 2 To bring this Object in such a manner to the Eye That the Eye is sufficient to do the first and is also effectual that way the Eye is not sufficient to the second and therefore no wonder it doth not perform it Thus it is in the spiritual work Deut. 29. 4. Though they had seen many signs and wonders yet nothing was sufficient to work upon them and prevail with them effectually And it s added because that unto that day God had not given them an 〈◊〉 He had given them Wonders provided Ordinances crowned 〈◊〉 with Priviledges and these might happily 〈◊〉 and Condemn being sufficient for that but not to Convert unless he had given them an heart This is the ods our Savior gives of the Sufficiency and so the Efficacy of Gods Dispensarions Matt. 13. 11. 13. To them I speak in Parables that-seeing they may see and not perceive hearing they may hear and not understand But to you is given to know the Mysteries of the Kingdom of God He not only gives unto his Disciples a word but a mind to know Efficacious or Effectual Grace and Help is when the work formerly intended and purposed by the Lord is now really accomplished actually performed and put into Execution When the Soul 〈◊〉 turned and called according to his purpose Rom. 〈◊〉 28. So that the ful sense is Where ever there is 〈◊〉 absolute sufficiency of preventing and 〈◊〉 Grace there is an actual Efficacy in the accomplishment of that work upon the Soul And
〈◊〉 and Earth shal never hold it As he must needs go whom the Devil drives so 〈◊〉 must 〈◊〉 come whom God wil draw Though 〈◊〉 Means prevail not thy Prayers speed not thou 〈◊〉 not able by al thy Endeavors to bear up against 〈◊〉 stream yet God is able and it s his work here stay they heart God can do it and who knows but 〈◊〉 may Briefly the DISCOURAGEMENTS are Three First The Assaults of Satan he comes in amain and makes batteries against the Heart he Musters up al his Forces and presents to the view of the sinner al the darkness of the kingdom of Darkness and 〈◊〉 the venom of sin in the twinckling of an eye 〈◊〉 presents al his Sins that ever he hath committed with al the aggravating Circumstances against Mercies Covenants Checks of Conscience Lo saith Satan do you not see al these and they come in 〈◊〉 troops there is no end of them not only in New-England but upon the Sea in the Land of our nativity and he brings him to his Cradle and 〈◊〉 him how he came a Child of wrath into the world Withal Satan lets in the guilt of al these sins upon the soul Sayes Satan if one sin deserve everlasting Condemnation as you know it doth what then is deserved by so many sins Committed continued in repeated against Means and Mercies why Hell is too little for such a Rebel God must make a new Hell for such a wretch And withal Satan tells him the date of Mercy is past your best dayes are done you have had Means and Mercies and Friends to Counsel you very good now Mercy is gone and past you shal hear no more of the Mercy of God or of Jesus Christ. Now Satan hurries the 〈◊〉 when he hath got him hither the multitude of his sins the guilt of his sins and Mercy past why now had you not better go out of the world than to live without Hope and multiply your sins and so your plagues forever Here he hurries the soul up and down and gives him no leave to think of Mercy Oh! sayes the soul Is there no hope in Jesus Christ the Means of Grace and the Spirit of God Why sayes Satan Do not you deceive your self you have had Means and Mercies and you are just in the place where you were therefore you had best put an end to your sins and self and life and all Now mark 〈◊〉 In this Case you should have recourse to the former Doctrine Satan wil not cannot be entreated that 's true Aye but God is stronger than Satan and he can cast him out of thy Soul It is not Arguments that can do it but God can do it Say therefore Though my Prayers my Endeavors my Heart my Hopes fails me yet God 〈◊〉 do it though my Soul cannot leave my sin 〈◊〉 my 〈◊〉 wil not cannot leave my soul yet God can force away my sin from my soul and command my soul to return from iniquity God can do this Rom. 16. 20. The God of peace shall beat down Satan under your feet shortly What ever become of your Sense and Feeling listen not attend not to his temptations be sure to Retire hither as to your Castle God can do it it is the Almighty work of God there stand there live and there die Christ told his Disciples He saw Satan fall from Heaven like lightening Luke 10. 18. That is Suddenly and strangely And Joh. 16. 11. Now shall the Prince 〈◊〉 this world be judged God wil judge Satan for al those Temptations and Delusions of his do not you own them and God wil Condemn him for them Nay as it is Isa. 43. 6. I will say to the North Give up to the South Keep not back bring my Sons from far and my Daughters from the ends of the earth Though thou shouldst be in the mouth of Hell or in the bottom of the Sea yet God is able to call thee from thence He that saith to the Sea Give up thy dead he can say to Hell Give up thy damned Therefore bear up thy Heart and Hopes and Expectation that God may do that for thee which thou art not able to conceive of But yet there is another ground of Discouragement Satan he 's Malicious but Oh! the world and the snares thereof are so many so mighty that the soul is still in a maze taken in a net as it were and knows not which way to turn him And there are some kind of sins which snare a man exceedingly by the world As when loose Companions have 〈◊〉 within a man and licentious Courses have taken away the heart of a man Oh! the heart comes 〈◊〉 hardly there The sinner shakes at the sight of 〈◊〉 Companions he is convinced and resolved 〈◊〉 them and yet he goes away to them and is led by them and when the Adulterer is taken with his Adulterous Mate they scarce ever return again 〈◊〉 lamentable what those that are acquainted with Cases of Conscience this way do know still 〈◊〉 mates tempt and these Companions over-bear though they resolve and promise and vow 〈◊〉 pray yet they are in again just in the place 〈◊〉 they were so that the soul sayes I am not able 〈◊〉 resist these temptations I am never able to get 〈◊〉 of these snares therefore sin I shal and sin I must and perish I must temptations are desperate here a man lies prostrate under them not able to recover out of them Now Brethren when you are in such a Case as this you see your sins you confess them pray against them and yet are taken aside by them your heart is strongly engaged and ensnared you are not able to get from under these sins Here 's all the hope I can give you It is in Gods hand yet to pluck off thy soul and to take away thy heart for al that You know how Solomon the wisest and Sampson the strongest they were Deluded and snared and taken by their own Corruptions and snares of the world Sampsons head upon Dalilahs lap he would sit and lie though he died for it Brethren it is here only God may do good unto you If I 〈◊〉 tel you It is in the power of Means and Mercies and any Congruity of Means or Liberty of your own Wills your souls might be deceived but would never be Comforted But look up to the Lord there is Hope in him there is Mercy with him Joh. 16. last Be of good Comfort sayes our Savior Christ I have overcome the world Yea the Lord professeth it Ezek. 〈◊〉 32. They shall loath themselves in the sight of all their doings that have not been good Say then God is able to make me loath my self and my snares and al the sinful entanglments that my heart is so taken aside withal this is that only that wil sustain thee and support thee Joh. 16. 10. I have other sheep and they shall hear my voyce and them I must bring I must bring the 〈◊〉
detestation and sequestration appears in the last words Men and Brethren what shall we do we will do any thing suffer any thing command what you wil enjoyn what you please be it never so hard we will endeavor it never so cross to our hearts or comforts we will bear it better be any thing than be thus 〈◊〉 let 's be in any condition that once we might be freed from this sinful and accursed condition in which we be We have taken liberty to lay out our Work with as much plainness and openness of order as we may because we shall have occasion to mind you of the particulars in our future proceeding and how the several 〈◊〉 serve each others turn in their place and order Before we come to the Particulars one Point 〈◊〉 in the very entrance which will be very serviceable to make way for all the Truths following and therefore we shall take in that at this time that it may be as an Harbenger to make room for all the rest And it ariseth from a right consideration of the parties to whom 〈◊〉 here speaks and with whom his word so prevailed and took place 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 36. verse he tels them that same 〈◊〉 whom ye have crucisied They were therefore such as had rejected blasphemed 〈◊〉 the Lord of Glory those who in a bloody manner 〈◊〉 away the life of 〈◊〉 who came to take away their sins Is it possible is it credible that ever mercy should be extended unto such that ever good should be wrought in such Yes Lo here When they heard this they were pricked in their hearts They whose hands were imbrewed in the blood of Jesus their hearts are now 〈◊〉 with Godly sorrow and so made fit to receive Grace and Mercy Hence the Doctrine is Stubborn and bloody sinners may be made broken-hearted sinners Bloody hellish abominable 〈◊〉 may yet obtain broken hearts worse than these could hardly be conceived or imagined and yet God makes work of these knotty way ward Spirits It was said of him that betrayed Christ it had been good for him that be had never been born What shall we say of them that murdered our Savior they are in the highest rank of the most wicked men that ever were born yet even such as 〈◊〉 who also opposed the Word and Gospel of Grace the Disciples and Apostles the Preachers and Publishers of Grace the Author and God of Grace yet such as these have now their hearts broken and in some measure prepared to be partakers thereof The Apostle speaks of the Gentiles Rom. 1. 29. That they were full of all unrighteousness there can hardly be added any thing to the largeness of the expression No sin worse for the kind more for the number greater for the measure for they had all unrighteousness all the kinds of evil and all degrees in the largest extent they were full and yet of such the Apostle professeth 1 Cor. 6. 9. when he had mentioned a heap of most loathsom and hideous abominations Know ye not that no unrighteous person shall enter into the Kingdom of Heaven Be not deceived neither Fornicators nor Idolaters nor Adulterers nor Effeminate self-Polluters Extortioners Covetous persons shall ever enter into the Kingdom of God then verse 11. And such were some of you but ye are washed but ye are sanctified but ye are justified in the name of the Lord Jesus and by the Spirit of our God Some such as these were savingly brought home to God Yea when corruption becomes like an old cankered sore of long continuance and the sinner incorrigible under all the choycest means that have been used yet then the Lord works the Cure Isay 57. 18. I was angry with him for his evil lustings and he went on in the frowardness of his own heart ther is no help if the Disease grow worse for the dressing the Prophet adds I have seen his waies I will heal him and lead him and restore comforts to him and to those that mourn with him as if he should say Ah poor Creature he cannot see himself nor me yet I see him and his way he wounds himself but I will heal him he deludes himself but I wil heal him sink he must in his own sorrow but I will succor him and supply to him Isay 48. 4. I know thou art obstinate and thy neck is an Iron sinew and thy brow is Brass and yet Verse 17. I am the Lord thy Redeemer that teach thee to profit and leadest thee by the way thou shouldest go The Lord bows an Iron sinew and makes it bendable unto his will The Lord makes snowy Saints of scarlet sinners scarlet we know is twice dyed in the Wool and in the Web and Cloth and therefore it is beyond all the skil and art of man to alter it Yet though our Sins be such bred in our Natures committed in our Lives and therefore beyond our reach 〈◊〉 and the power of all means and performances we can take up to remove them yet the Lord hath undertaken it and he will do it Isa. 1. 18. There is a Threefold Argument to settle this Truth Taken from the largeness of his Mercy which is as himself Infinite and therefore infinitely exceeds all our wants and can supply them all our weaknesses and infirmities and therefore can forgive them and remove them as he will as though they had never been Isa. 55. 7. Let the wicked forsake his way and the unrighteous man his thoughts and return unto the Lord for he will abundantly pardon and to our God for he will have mercy But the discouraged sinner might happily reply It is Mercy that I have abused and his pardons he hath tendered yet I in the time of my folly have trampled under my feet and therefore with what face could I beg mercy or upon what ground could I think ever to receive it He answers For my thoughts are not your thoughts nor your waies my waies for as the Heavens are higher than the Earth so are my thoughts than your thoughts there is no proportion no comparison the Earth is not of a valuable consideration to the Heavens but like a Centre in the Circumference it is as though it was not So here the thoughts of Gods Mercy to pardon thee is so far beyond the evil of thy waies and thoughts to condemn that they are as though they were not nay though thou couldest not beleeve it or think it yet the Lord could and would do it This is one of his names He keeps mercy for thousands Exod. 34. 7. he hath it in store for thousands and FORGIVES Iniquity Transgression and Sin that is all kinds and degrees of sin and he must be thus or else he were not God For did our sins exceed his mercies our weakness his strength were Satan more malicious to tempt 〈◊〉 and powerful to overcome 〈◊〉 than he was gracious to defend and Almighty to deliver then were he not God if any thing were
with some Canker it cannot tast nor relish things aright when the right constitution of the Eye is altered by a blow or any putrefying Wen that Breeds there 〈◊〉 will perceive nothing nay it cannot So here When the Eye of the understanding hath lost his primitive 〈◊〉 and becomes stayned and polluted with putrefying sensual delusions it comes to be Reprobate touching the Doctrin of faith or that which ought to be beleeved not able to relish the truth in a right manner And this their practice gives evidence of beyond all doubt the revelation of the truth which is in way of discovery of corruption and that which would touch them to the quick they are not able nor willing in truth without offence to hear But the power of it to be pressed and persued they are not able to bear but there is present mutiny in their thoughts and apprehensions I say not able to hear with quietness the truths which be of a discovering Nature when our Saviour told them there must be more than an outward formal Communicating with him as the Fathers did eat Manna and are dead but they that would live by him must eat his flesh and drink his Blood they returned this is a hard saying who can bear it John 6. 60. and John 3. 20. He that doth evil cometh not 〈◊〉 the light lest his deeds should be reproved yea this is the reason they 〈◊〉 darkness rather than light because it suits best with the darkness of their minds and as the very manifestation is tedious to hear so the power of it if pressed and set on they are not able to bear that 's the scope of the Parable Matth. 21. 34. when the Messengers were sent to require fruit that is Holiness they beat some and stoned others and others they abused Acts 7. 51. when 〈◊〉 brought the Candle home to their Bed-side and would discover the roots of their corrupt carriages to the Consciences of them all Ye stiff-necked and hard-hearted ye have ever resisted the spirit of the Lord their hearts burst with anger they cast him out and stoned him And indeed hither the Apostle calls us to look as to the Magazine of all mischief the Armory and Ammunition House whence all the distempers and affections of the heart are furnished out to their sinful practices as so many enterprizes they take in hand Eph. 4. 18. they are strangers to the life of God it is because they walk in the vanity of their minds So again in Collos. 1. 21. They were alienated from God and bent upon evil practices and he ads the root and reason of all they were Enemies to God in their minds in their apprehensions or the largest reach of the best reason they had and in this the Apostle makes the Fort-royal in which Satan places and plants all the choycest of his Artillery 2 Cor. 10. 4. there are in the mind of a Natural man strong holds of imaginations which exalt themselves against the knowledg of God The Lord Christ 〈◊〉 the understanding to bear that Almighty stroak of his Spirit whereby he destroies the soveraign power of carnal reason and 〈◊〉 it to receive the prevailing impression of his spiritual light which searcheth the secrets of sin in the soul. The Conclusion intimates a double work of the Spirit 1. It destroies the soveraignty of carnal Reason 2. It leaves in the room of that an impression of spiritual light and in both these the understanding is meerly passive for so it 's added it 's forced to bear the one it 's fitted to receive the other It destroyes the over swaying Authority of Carnal Reason It was Satans Policy to turn the Understanding from the Lord and attendance to the truth 〈◊〉 3. Hath God said ye shall not eat Oh question it not fear it not Ye shall be as Gods and so she turning aside and perverting the eye of reason to listen to the delusion suggested her light was dimmed and she justly over-born with the force of the falshood presented because she took off her mind from eyeing of the command and turned it to attend the strength of that delusion and was so acted by it she conceived though falsly that it was good to get knowledg when the tasting that fruit was the only means to lose all the knowledg she had and from the abuse of her own mutability her mind becomes perverted from light to darkness from the way of truth which God had found out unto the by-path found out of her own finding Now the Lord Christ who comes to destroy and undo the works of the Devil he begins where Satan ended he turns from darkness he takes down the Supremacy of that carnal Reason by the which all the Sons of Adam in their natural and corrupt condition are constantly both ruled and carried in their whol course and that 's the Reason of the Apostles coupling those two together Eph. 2. 3. speaking of the Conversation of the ungodly he saies they did the wils of 〈◊〉 flesh and of their Discourses their carnal reasonings had ever one Oar in the Boat and it 's ever found true there is no man upon knowledg commits a sin but ever he 〈◊〉 some pretence of carnal self-deceiving reason why he doth so and therefore it is called the strong hold of Satan and the Lord Christ he first forceth this Fort demolisheth and casteth down the frame of it so that though there be some remainders continue still in the mind while that remains in the body and we in the world yet it 's never made a place of retreat to a 〈◊〉 Convert wherein he can 〈◊〉 himself and stand it out against any Truth 2 Cor. 10. 4. he puls down strong holds such as are highest and hardest to win and that which is added Casting down imaginations and every high thing that exalts it self against God 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Reasonings of the flesh and nothing but the Power of God can do this the weapons of our warfare are mighty through God For though Adam being in a mutable condition might slide away from the Government of God as well as submit yet after he had withdrawn himself from under the Covenant and Wisdom of God in the Law given him it was just with God to deliver him up to the authority of his inventions and there to stake him down that nothing but the Soveraignty of Christ who had satisfied for this his folly and carnal reasoning should be able to restore him from the power of them This makes me construe the meaning of those words of Paul so as that which best gives in evidence of the dependance 〈◊〉 4. 21 22. If ye have heard and been taught as the Truth is in Jesus then put off the old man c. The Truth as it is in the Bible only or dispensed in any Ordinance or as it was in the Covenant of the First Adam will never do it but as it is in the hand of Jesus
which he used in the contrivement of that evil and leaves not there until he come to the Root of al the wretchedness of his Nature that Original corruption in which he was born and bred Psal. 51. 5 6. Behold Lord I was warmed in wickedness and in sin did my mother conceive me but thou lovest Truth in the inward parts but I would have colored over my vile carriage and by false pretences I would have hidden the filthiness of my sins by sending for Uriah and sending him to his own house to have lien with his wife that so he might have fathered the sin without suspicion This was the guise and disposition of Eli 1 Sam. 3. 17. he enjoyns Samuel not to 〈◊〉 any thing from him of all the things that the Lord had spoken he would hear al and know the worst of al So it ought to be with every man that in earnest desires to know the evil of his sin If the Word discover Conscience accuse for any sin take the first notice and inkling cease not to make ful enquiry and see what wil become of it search unto the very bottom Labor to take all those cursed Cavils the wily shifts and devices which carnal Reason casts in to break the blow as it were and to defeat and put by the Authority of the Truth So that the edg and powerful Operation of an Ordinance is wholly blunted and hindred that it prevails not with the heart nor can the Judgment 〈◊〉 set down by Evidence of Argument and Reason which comes to be darkened by such Cavils and devices Here is then the great skil and ought to be the chief care of a Christian not to consult with flesh and blood at least to cleer the Coast of al such Carnal Reasonings that the Evidence of the Truth may be entertained without gainsaying and attain his proper powerful effect upon the mind and heart These Cavils and Shifts are commonly referred to Three Heads 1 To lighten the evil of sin that it is not so hainous and dangerous a matter as Ministers seem to make it 2 If it were so dangerous yet the danger may easily be prevented 3 If it cannot be prevented yet it may be suffered without any such extream hazard as many fear and others would bear the world in hand To remove these out of the way that so the Work of Conviction may go on with more success we shal shortly speak to all of them in the Order propounded It 's incident to al men naturally to have a slight apprehension of their sin partly they do not know it partly they are loth to be troubled and disquieted with it and therefore out of their own ignorance and security they would easily perswade themselves it 's not so hainous and dangerous that so they may not fear so much to commit nor care so much to reform them when once they are fallen nor yet suffer themselves to be overborn with terror and discouragement though they continue in them This lessening of the hainousness and dangerousness of sin issues upon a four-fold Ground for the most part The commonness of sin makes men not start at the commission of it that which so many do and so ordinarily and happily such who are for their parts and places of no mean esteem they imagine and conclude they may safely do We are sinners say they and good now are not all so If it go ill with us then God be merciful to many We have our failings we are not alone we have many fellows who lives without them If we were so gross as such you had just reason to condemn us and we to condemn and loath our selves but being no other than the most are I hope there is no great matter in it I Answer in three things 1 The more common thy sin the more 〈◊〉 it is and the heavier thy Curse will be from the Lord. The more they be that oppose the Lord and his Truth the more need of thy help and the greater had been thy love to him and his cause now to stand by it and the greater thy falsness and unfaithfulness to forsake both and to joyn sides with the wicked See how unkindly he takes the suspicion and appearance to be carried away in a common defection 〈◊〉 6. 66. When many went back and walked no more with Jesus if commonness might have given encouragement the Disciples had warrant enough to have carried them in the stream yet see how il the Lord takes the least inclination or suspicion that way Wil ye also go away See how heavily the anger of the Lord breaks out against such Apostats Iudg. 5. 3. Curse ye Meroz said the Angel of the Lord yea curse ye Meroz bitterly because they went not out to help the Lord against the mighty When opposition grows sierce and the numbers grow to be many and the power mighty of such as become Adversaries to the 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 who then becomes careless of the Lord and his Cause the Curse of God comes out against such in a peculiar manner he aims at them by name Curse ye such who go not out to help the Lord against the mighty pride the mighty stubbornness the mighty 〈◊〉 and unprofitableness and base Earthly-mindedness 〈◊〉 gets footing and grows common in the places and amongst such with whom we 〈◊〉 2 As it shews thy curse to be heavy so thy estate to be miserable and thy soul as yet destitute of any saving work of Gods Grace Thou art in the road and broad way to destruction and this is one evidence it 's the common track Broad is the gate wide is the way that leads to destruction and many there be that go in thereat Matth. 7. 13. It 's easie to find and as easie yet certain thou shalt perish in it It 's made a description of a Child of wrath and such who are dead in sins and trespasses Eph. 2. 2. Who walk according to the Course of this world according to the prince of the Aire who rules in the hearts of the Children of disobedience Dost thou walk in the common road according to the course of the world thou art in the kingdome of darkness and art ruled by the Prince of darkness and shall go to everlasting darkness Dead Fishes Swim down the stream Thou art a dead man if thou goest with the stream of the world Therefore the Apostle James gives it as an Evidence of true Religion and a man truly Religions James 1. 27. This is true Religion to keep a mans self unspotted of this present Evil world If a man say he be Religious and yet Refrain not his tongue the Religion of that man is vain If a man will lie and Rayl and Shift up and down because others do so truly the Religion of that man is vain and so his hopes and comforts will be The Commonness of this sin doth exceedingly aggravate it and make it out of measure sinful even of
judg those wil judg thee and how heavy wil that judgment be then John 15. 22. If I had not come they had had no sin but now they have no cloak for their sin Wrong to our brethren their honor and lives goods and good names especially when open and scandalous wee sin against the souls of our brethren lay stumbling blocks before them and here one sin may become many millions of offences as the numbers may be many that shal hear of it Who knows how others may be emboldned and encouraged in sin by our example how others hindred and provoked to speak evil of the good ways of Gods grace because of our wretchedness Woe be to the World because of offences Mat. 18. 7. Who knows but the blood of many who perish by our means may be required at our hand nay that our sinful example may live when we are dead 2 Sam. 12. 14. By this deed thou hast given great occasion to the enemies of the Lord to blaspheme Rom. 2. 24. the name of God is blasphemed amongst the heathen through you and therefore the Prophet David though God hath pardoned his sin and published it by Nathan he would not pardon himself but left his repentance upon record as wel as his fal Peter went out and wept bitterly that others might hear of his sorrow and humiliation for his sin who had heard of his backsliding Many wil ly and curse with Peter but he that hath his Grace wil go out with Peter and mourn bitterly Many can easily fal into filthiness as David but if he have his spirit he wil labour to have his heart and bones broken with David Add unto al the former the time wherein a man hath continued in his sins and the frequency of them having often committed one and the same sin stumbling again at the same stone taken aside again by the same 〈◊〉 and temptations after they have been confessed bewailed resolved against Psal. 78. 32. For all this they sined stil c. Psal. 40. 12. they are more than the haires of my head I am not able to look up Thus wee must survey severally the particulars which may be able to present the vileness of sin to us but that is not al nor yet sufficient but We must sum them up joyntly by serious meditation that so they may fal-upon the heart in the ful weight of them and prevail more effectually and this also helps forward the work of contrition in a special manner He that parts every stick in the bundle and takes them severally and singles them one from another he may carry them easily and lightly never be loaded or troubled with them but when he hath gathered them from several places where they lay scattered and 〈◊〉 them together he wil then find them a burden he is not able to lift much less able to stand under and bear so here that is also another and special work of Meditation besides those mentioned formerly it doth not onely look over the several aberrations of mans practice and gather up our particular miscarriages scattered up and down in our dayly course but laies and bundles them all together and so they become a burden unsupportable that seems to be one part of the meaning of the place Psal. 38. 4. My sins are passed over my head and are become too heavy for me to bear It 's a comparison say Interpreters and those very judicious taken from Waters that look as the Land-floods when the waters flow in from every Riveret and Gutter and from every Hill and Furrough at last they meet all in the main Channel and so becomes an overbearing stream that swels above the Banks and bears down all before it whereas each petty Gutter was such as any might wade through and step over the might of the Flood none can withstand So it is here with Meditation it doth not only search the several aberrations and goings aside in the several occasions of our life which when they are singled one from another seem very smal yet when our several distempers and dayly swervings become like the drops of rain not falling forty daies and forty nights but may be so many months or yeers of continued provocations the great depths of the corruption of our Nature are set open and our sins like the Waters of the Sea gathered together by sad musing pass over our heads and are past our strength to bear them and without special supporting mercy would sink us into everlasting discouragement As it is with a Bankrupt arrested some petty debts or smal bils that are charged upon him he might easily answer and be able without any great difficulty to discharge but when al his Bils are brought in from each Creditor and his 〈◊〉 summed up the Summa totalis amounts to so much that it sinks his estate and breaks his back utterly So here a slighty apprehension of such and such slips or some circumstances of our miscarriages look over them severally they 〈◊〉 but little in themselves but laid together and taken in the ful Sum unto which they amount the guilt and filth of them wil appear inconceivable and unsupportable that the sinner wil never be able to answer or to bear It is the mind and intendment of the Spirit the meaning yea the proper meaning of that word Mark 14. last when he had thought of his sins saies our Translation when he had cast all the particular and heightning circumstances together as the word properly signifies when he had summed up his several miscarriages by a serious Meditation then his heart breaketh within him though the Cock had crowed and our Savior had looked upon him and he remembred at a sudden push of apprehension his evil yet he stood it but when he had laid al together cast up the Summa totalis of his fearful departures from the Lord by denying falsefying cursing with al the aggravating circumstances that he that was not only a Christian but entertained as a Servant yea called to be an Apostle who was so seasonably and with such earnestness forewarned of his back sliding and false dealing who had promised and resolved with such courage against it that he should not only forsake his Master in a covert manner but openly and shamefully renounce him yea 〈◊〉 blaspheme and curse and that often and now especially in this 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 trouble in the day of our Saviors distress when the Innocency of his cause the Honor of his person yea his life lay at hazard that such a Servant and Apostle should so basely and 〈◊〉 deny and forswear his Master and Redeemer and that at this time of need upon so slight an occasion as the voyce of a silly Damsel or some ordinary man he laid al these together and 〈◊〉 them upon his heart and he was not able to bear it but went 〈◊〉 and wept bitterly The Art of Meditation appeared especially in two things as the special and proper parts of it 1.
to our works but according to his own purpose and grace so the resolution is into the free grace of God the soveraignty of his purpose issues not from any work of ours hangs not upon that hinge hence it is the Lord denyes the communication of means to some whom he foresees would use and husband them to beter advantages and bestowes them upon such who neither prize nor profit by al they have nay are open contemners and opposers of the truth Wo be to thee Chorazin wo beto thee Bethsaida for if the great workes that have beendone in thee had been done in Tyre and Sidon they would long before this day have repented in sackcloath and ashes Math. 11. 21. yea he professeth Ezek. 4. 6. If he had sent Ezekiel to a strange people and of hard language such as had never heard of the things of God and grace they would have hearkned to him when the Jewes rejected his counsel and the commands of God dispensed by his means Hence it is the Lord to shew the soveraign freedom of his pleasure that he may do with his own what he wil and yet do wrong to none he denyes pardon and acceptance to those who seek it with some importunity and earnestness Prov. 1. 28. they shal seek me early and shal not find me and yet bestowes mercy and 〈◊〉 known himself unto some who never sought him Isai. 65. 1. That we may 〈◊〉 from hence for ever to fear and avoyd that haeretical doctrine of the Arminians so deeply dangerous to the salvation of mens souls and so exceedingly derogatory to the glory of Gods free grace in Christ who maintayn that if we do what we can and improve the natural abilities we have and the means we do enjoy God wil not deny to give us the grace supernatural we want An opinion so gross that the Popish school wil not abide by it and the most ingenuous of the Jesuits themselves do professedly oppose and condemn For besides that it destroyes the comfort of a sinner dasheth the hopes of al the sons of men for if none should be saved but those that do what they can its certayn never any man either in nature or grace did what he 〈◊〉 either emproveing his natural abilities as he might according to special opportunites and liberties put into his hand nor 〈◊〉 faithful ever tohusband their grace according to what they received and was expected and might also be justly challenged at their hands If therefore their hopes had their support here their hearts and hopes and comforts and happiness and al would fayl them and they must needs have their lives and their everlasting condition ever in doubt and suspence and in issue sink down in everlasting discouragment but I say besides this it destroyes the whol frame of grace in the carriage of it First it undermines the very foundation of the dispensation of grace which proceeds as we have heard from the purpose and Good pleasure of the Almighty thither our Saviour looks as at the fountain from whence al spiritual favours proceed Math 11. 26. I thank thee Father c. Even the Father because it pleaseth thee 2 Tim. 1. 9. called not according to our works and free wil but according to his purpose and free mercy Rom. 11. 19. Whom he will he hardens and whom he wil he shews mercy to soften and converts he doth not expect how we improve the freedom of our wils and perform our works but he gives both wil and deed whereas this opinion resolves the issue of my conversion and so of salvation into my own purpose and as he said makes Gods free grace lackey after mans free wil. For it is in a mans power and pleasure to do what God hath put into his own power according to his own wil if I wil do but what I can if I wil and improve abilities and advantages afforded but as I may according to this conceit God wil never deny me the Grace I want the mercy and Salvation I do endeavor after So that the last resolution in this way is left upon a mans own free wil if he will not do what he may he misseth his good if he do what he can he shal not fail to receive it It cuts the very 〈◊〉 of the Covenant of 〈◊〉 and the freedom thereof For upon this ground and grant it 's not in Gods hand to dispose of his own mercy but it is in my hand and left in my choyce If I wil improve liberties and advantages I may have the Grace I want if I wil reject both then it 's my folly and negligence I must bear the blame and endure the misery and thank my self when it was in mine own power to provide for mine own comfort This course issues and returns into the Covenant of Works these Paul sets in such a direct opposition as that they cannot stand the one with the other Rom. 11. 6. If of Grace it is no more of Works for then Grace was no more grace if of Works then not of Grace for then Works were no more Works what then Israel hath not obtained q. d. It was not the bulk and body of the people nor in the power ability or performance of any person but the Election hath obtained Not because Israelites not because they had such Priviledges not because they used such Ordinances and took up the performance of Duties required but because elected therefore called therefore justified The contrary course which issues the obtaining of Grace into the improvement of abilities and advantages returns as I said into a 〈◊〉 of Works for the Condition in the ultimate resolution stil remains in my power the staff is left in my hand It 's al one upon point to have 〈◊〉 enough in my hand to pay and to have it in my power to command if at my pleasure in another hand and so I dispose of Gods mercy and my own good in the issues Whereas in the Covenant of Grace all is firstly freely wholly and only in the hand of the Lord to dispose to whom he wil what when and after what manner he wil. In this Covenant he doth not require the condition only but the Lord Christ as the Second Adam he performs the Condition also not only requires new hearts but puts new spirits into us not only commands us to beleeve but enables us and as he himself speaks Gives us to beleeve Matth. 13. 11. This crosseth the end of the Covenant and the scope of the whol course and administration of the means of life and Salvation which is to set forth the glory of the Riches of Gods Grace in the Eyes of all and to the Consciences and acknowledgments of all hearts a return of al 〈◊〉 to him and a total dependance upon him for ever Therefore the Lord chose the base and despicable things that are not to confound things that are 1 Cor. 1. last that no flesh should glory in
measure of Grace and Godliness Surely not as other men use to do and therefore it 's a great suspicion he came not truly by his Grace nor is he truly that he seems to be great sins cost other men great sorrows grievous scandals cost great grief of heart great heart-breakings humiliations and satisfactions great Grace and power against sin great pains and the highest strain of exactness in speeches and practices they that knew and see the Conversations of such never saw nor knew any such matter it 's certain he and al the Christians in the world may justly question his uprightness 〈◊〉 yet he be not worse than nothing if there were a true inventory taken of his Estate in Grace out of the depth of prophaneness to come to the height of holiness at unawares it 's a work of delusion not of true conversion to God Trees that are planted in Gods Orchard they take root downward and then bring forth fruit upward Upstart Christians are like Jonah his Guord grow 〈◊〉 and 〈◊〉 presently flourish and fade and al in a day Untimely births are never true nor yet of continuance when an old sore is healed too hastily it never proves sound it 's 〈◊〉 over 〈◊〉 cured festers inwardly proves more grievous and dangerous than at the first The skilful Chyrurgeon wil tel you it must be searched lanced tented before it attain its ful and perfect Cure So it is with that cankered corrupt 〈◊〉 of thine who hast lived and continued in those loathsom abominations which thou hast hugged in thy bosom it must be lanced by the cutting knife of the Law and the dreadful curse thereof searched by the soul-saving preaching of the Gospel and dayly tented with constant contritions and breakings of heart otherwise know assuredly that those hellish lusts of thine wil imposthume within thy soul and in issue break out more loathsomly and thy latter end wil be worse than thy beginning To find little or no hardness in that which in thy reason thou conceivest and concludest to be the hardest work of all how canst thou but suspect thou art cozened and mistaken Make it thine own case in another thing and be thine own Judg 〈◊〉 thou enjoyned to drain a Quagmire or a dirty rotten Swamp to fit it for the Plough and should any man seem to perswade it would cost but litte time or labor might easily be dispatched thou would'st scarsly with patience hear such an expression as that which is expressly contrary to common sense why should men speak of impossibilities or think that men should conceive that reasonable that is against Reason not only Trees felled stubbed removed but the ground gained which is not arable and al this in a short space with ease Look now into thy condition with this resemblance and be thine own Judg thou hast a dunghil heart a soul like a dirty swamp those hellish abominations which have taken up thy mind and will and affections in which thou hast continued and unto which thou hast been accustomed so that thy heart is like a standing puddle of prophaneness which have weakened and wasted the very faculties of thy soul so that thy heart is not fallow ground as the Prophet speaks Plow up the fallow ground Jer. 4. it 's not 〈◊〉 ground even abilities so wasted and disordered with thy wretched and unreasonable lusts and dost thou think that these abilities can be 〈◊〉 easily and thy Spirit made good soyl even a good and honest heart without extraordinary power on Gods part and more than ordinary labor on thine When the covetous yong man that was glewed to the world and had his heart riveted in restless and immoderate desires after these Earthly things so that all the directions which our Savior gave and the great offers he made of Heaven and Salvation could not take off his affections but he went away sorrowful saies our Savior How hard is it for a rich man to enter into the Kingdom of Heaven it 's easier for a Cable rope to enter in at the eye of a Needle than for a rich man to enter into the Kingdom of Grace here and Glory hereafter Matth. 〈◊〉 22 23 24. He spake of one it 's true of all by the like proportion how hard is it for a rich man it 's as true to say how hard is it for a riotous unclean malitious voluptuous self-conceited rebellious wretch he that hath scandalously continued in these accustomed himself to these how hard is it for such saies the Text. And doest thou find it easie a Holy-day task and a trifling labor that which may suddenly be done without such trouble either Christ is deceived or thou art mistaken either the Word fails or thy apprehension fails Whether the Scriptures or thy Conceit is to be beleeved let thine heart judg unless thou wilt be an Atheist The Word in reason never wrought that work nor wil it give in Evidence and approbation thereof The Prophet Isai. 46. last describing a rebellious sinner he thus speaks of him Hearken ye stout-hearted who are far from righteousness A man that hath gone many yeers and that with much speed and labor one way which is down-hil to return to the same place when the way is more difficult with a little time and less labor there is little probability if possibility in reason So here thou hast hurried headlong in the waies of wickedness hast had ful wind and tide Satans temptation thine own corruption to carry thee with mighty violence many yeers together in thy 〈◊〉 course dost thou think suddenly and easily to 〈◊〉 back No beleeve it thou must take many a weary step send out many a heavy sigh tug at it with continual prayers and tears and the utmost improvement of al thine 〈◊〉 nay it will cost thee hot water the setting on before thou seest that day I read of a double expression 1. Of the Devils going out 2. Of his casting out 〈◊〉 12. 43 When the unclean spirit goes out c. which is done by 〈◊〉 outward and serious reformation and some sudden resolution wrought out of terror to forsake such and such courses this smoaks Satan out of his house c. COMFORT This is ground of great support and in Truth of strong consolation to shore up the hearts of forlorn and scandalous Creatures when they lie under the most direful strokes of Gods heaviest displeasure When the loath somness of their lives and hellish abominations of their hearts are presented to their view their Consciences now accuse and the Lord from Heaven by his infinite indignation encamps against them with Armies of terrors so that to their sight and sence there is nothing appearing but present ruin and confusion Yet out of the strong comes sweet greatest safety issues out of the heaviest searchings and breakings of heart Here is now ground of strong support to bear thy 〈◊〉 above all these devouring horrors which like so many waves would overwhelm thy soul. The
the 〈◊〉 and 〈◊〉 is the way that leads unto Life and 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 find it Matth. 7. 13. It 's but one 〈◊〉 and a narrow one 〈◊〉 be thousands of thousands of 〈◊〉 paths and 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 miss it and there is but one way to hit 〈◊〉 and 〈◊〉 hard 〈◊〉 find it self and to 〈◊〉 that is 〈◊〉 in 〈◊〉 impossible Therefore men are said to be strangers from the life of God through the ignorance that is in them Eph. 4. 18. As men that never went a strange way they cannot tel whether they go right or wrong they know not where they are and as Travellers speak when they are in remote places I am out of my knowledg I was never in these Coasts before So it is with all men Naturally they are but strangers when they fal unexpectedly upon the Coasts of Conversion and Contrition they are at a loss and wholly unacquainted with the Coast of such a Condition know not where they are or what to make of it or themselves Rom. 〈◊〉 17. The Apostle speaking of mens conceivings of the waies and works of Christ yet in their Natural blindness Destruction and Calamity are in their waies the way of peace they have not known they think they are in the road to Heaven when they are posting down to Hell yea even such who have lived long under the means and have heard much of the Lord Jesus nay it may be have preached much of him and that with no smal approbation yet when they are come to these straights and brought to these amazing horrors of Spirit they plainly shew nay are sorced nakedly to profess they never had any sound discerning either of the work of Grace or the way to Christ but are very Children Novices No-bodies in these Spiritual Mysteries So it was with these in this place in such a multitude now brought home to the faith no question but many of them had enjoyed many means and been long trained up in the Truth of the Scriptures and the Doctrine of Moses and the Prophets yea Paul professeth of himself before his Conversion That he profited in the Jews Religion above many of his equals and that he was exceeding zealous in his way yet when the Lord met him in his way and speaks to him from Heaven he knew not what way to take but Ananias is sent on purpose to teach him Acts 9. The ground is here when the Spirit comes to convince to reveal sin to the soul and a mans self to himself things now begin to be real and seem other than ever formerly they did sin is another thing Grace and Godliness Faith and Christ and Salvation are other things than formerly they did appear unto the soul. So that the sinner is as it were in another world wonders where he hath been and what he hath done stands amazed at his own folly and madness that he should so wonderfully mistake that he should ever take contentment in those sinful carriages which are the only cause of his ruin and confusion sees he is gone so far out of the way that how to get in again he is wholly ignorant It 's true men speak much of sin and can talk much of Christ may have heard and read much of faith yet know nothing but empty words not know the thing when they should use it He that spels by rote may be wil not spel a Letter of the Book when he is put to read So your formal Professors Carnal Hearers may be out of Custom and constant attendance upon the means can make a shift to speak out their Lecture and speak somwhat freely of Faith and Christ and Conversion and yet come to distress and feel the stroak of the Truth and terror in their hearts if they be put to read to the use and improvement of any thing heard they know not the thing nor their own hearts nor yet the Nature of their distempers So it was with 〈◊〉 our Savior was constrained to point with that fescue and put his finger upon the Word and tel him that which is born of the Spirit is Spirit yet he is in a mist understands not what Christ meant nor what his own condition was How can these things be John 3. 9. As through their in-bred blindness and unacquaintance with the Waies and Works of Christ they cannot discern the means of relief So by reason of their distraction under the pressures of their present extremity they are wearish to attend and unwilling to listen and conceive aright any means that might procure their succor and comfort As we see in present fears and affrights or extream or sudden sorrows we are not our selves and so become indisposed and 〈◊〉 to conceive of that which is offered plainly to consideration and which otherwise we were able to judg aright of and improve it to our present advantage Heb. 12. 5. A person fainting under afflictions and troubles is wholly unable to 〈◊〉 any means to support him So here when mens thoughts are hurried with apprehension of evil which in the most dreadful manner are presented to their view and their hearts possessed with the feeling of them they have no leisure to lay out their thoughts and minds to provide for means of help themselves nor yet to receive them when they are offered by others Exod. 6. 9. The bitterness of the oppression was so great that they listened to the voyce of their misery but would not hearken to Moses his Counsel INSTRUCTION 〈◊〉 men in distress of spirit when and while the Lord is pleased to exercise them under his Almighty hand in this Work of Contrition they are soon mis-led by the delusions of the subtil and carried aside by the corrupt 〈◊〉 and cunning devices of such as be false Teachers They who are feeble are soon foiled even by the assaults of such as have either policy to undermine or power in any measure to 〈◊〉 They who are dim 〈◊〉 much more if blind are easily and presently misguided and led out of the way and he not able to prevent it nor yet in any way of probability like to get in and recover himself Now this is the under and weak condition of broken-hearted sinners they are out of their ken and compass the waies of God in that so sad and spiritual a Work and Trade with the soul they do not know and therefore are unfit to seek and so in reason unable to find it out and therefore it 's easie for them to be led into Samaria instead of Dothan and the Devil by his Factors to lead them into false waies for which they are commonly hardly recovered if they grow false at this 〈◊〉 of their life he may there be lodged to his dying day for this is like the fal in a mans Cradle may be never get fully recovered again And upon this ground it is that false Teachers when they make a trade to wind into mens affections and win them to the
the world to honor him to esteem him yet 〈◊〉 dasheth all what avails it so long as this Pride 〈◊〉 peevishness this frothy vain heart remains within me When the heart is assaulted with some sudden qualm or deadly fume that assaults the spirits 〈◊〉 ye drive it from his heart nothing will do him good Oh he is sick at the heart now I thank the Lord it 's gone from my heart So it is with the plague of 〈◊〉 that assaults the heart a man that knows it and 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 and is really sick of the lusts and corruptions that are in his heart he can never be at quiet till he find his heart in some measure freed from the power and poyson of those sinful distempers as Rebecca said If Jacob should take a wife of the Daughters of Heth what good shall my life do me Gen. 27. last So what good wil my credit my profit my profession all my priviledges and performances do me if my heart be married to any base lust 〈◊〉 my corrupt will and my wayward peevish stiffness and malignancy of heart continue with me still But thou that canst lift up thy head and know all these evils in thee that God knows and thou knowest there are such bosom abominations which thy heart finds and takes contentment in thou canst live with them talk with them lie down and sleep with them and arise with them again nay and thy corrupt heart is restless if it may not be pleased and satisfied with thy lusts Amon is sick of Incest Ahab of Covetousness unless they may enjoy 〈◊〉 lusts they cannot enjoy their lives Grace I would not trouble my self or spend any time to prove that such have any grace When a mans sins are so far from being his vexation that it is his vexation that he cannot have free 〈◊〉 to commit his sins that he is vexed with the word that discovers his evil vexed with Conscience that checks him for it plagued and tormented with all that come in his way that will cross him in his lusts if there be a graceless heart in Hell thou art one to this very day thou didst never know what it was to put off the will of sinning Observe where the will takes up its last stand and what it looks at as that which lastly satisfies its desire either in pretended parting with sin or in performance of duties or improvement of means The end steers the action and gives in evidence of the goodness of it The Merchant and the Pyrate goes in the same channel useth the same wind to carry them the same Compass to direct the one about his honest Affairs to serve Gods Providence and his own Duty and the other to serve his own covetous and unlawful lusts of Theevery and spoiling So here I speak it for this purpose because it 's one of the cunning cheats of a deceitful heart he will perform such Duties and forsake such sins not because he either loves the Duty or loaths the sin but because he would land himself at the place where he would be at some other end of his own Nay it 's possible and ordinary for a man to part with his sin for a push when indeed it is only that he may keep his sin As Paul spake of Onesimus he departed from him for a season that he might be received for ever and as the Adultress chides her mate before others that she may enjoy him more freely without fear or suspition so it 's usual for a false heart to chide with his corruptions and to speak great words against them when yet the secret 〈◊〉 is but to enjoy them more freely by that means therefore let not the Devil cozen you with colors your confessions and resolutions your prayers and tears against your sins and that in secret and that unto God if your hearts 〈◊〉 these but as means for your own ends you never were willing to part with sin The 〈◊〉 of a gracious heart is Never to take up his stand till he come to God and the guidance of his Grace and Spirit Hosea 14. 2 3. c. Take away all iniquitie and receive us graciously what have I to do any more with Idols c. and the heart wil never more have to do with these sins but with God he sees these evils sorrows for these 〈◊〉 to have these removed that he may be under the power of God and his Grace As Samuel said to Israel 1 Sam. 7. 3 4. If you do return unto the Lord with all your hearts then put away your gods and prepare your hearts unto the Lord and serve him only So if you be indeed resolved to forsake your sins and renounce your corruptions then abandon them and al occasions leading to them and al beginnings of them and submit your selves your thoughts and affections to the Lord and to his Word and serve him only Lodg thy soul here and let it never take up its stand until it come hither The last Use is of Exhortation and Direction both together It should guide us and it should perswade us to take the right way of Reformation Never leave thy prayers and tears and sorrows and remorse until thou come to thy very heart thy tongue professeth fair and thy hand forbears the practice of evil but ask thy heart Heart what sayest thou Shame may prevail with thee Authority of men may constrain thee and conscience may force thee to abstain from evil I but what saies thy Heart art thou willing to part with thy sin I do not do it I dare not do it but Will what sayest thou Heart what sayest thou Never cease before you be able to answer I am really willing to part with every sin I am convinced of It was the great complaint of Moses concerning the People of Israel that notwithstanding al that the Lord had done for them yet they had not a heart to fear him and to walk in obedience before him So 〈◊〉 may say God hath crowned thee with 〈◊〉 honored thee with encouragements thou hast the Esteem of others thou hast all Liberties and opportunities to be as good as thou shouldest be but truly all these will do thee no good unless thou hast a heart for God and against thy sin therefore rest no where until thou hast this The great Fort that must be taken is the Will or else all the rest is as good as nothing he that wil cure a disease must not only skin it over but must take away the core of it if he think to heal it throughly and cure it fully So here it is not enough to wash a mans mouth and to wipe his hands but the core of a mans corruptions must be got away thy soul must be brought off from the Will of sinning as wel as from the Practice of sinning or else thy soul will never be brought home to God stay not therefore till thou comest hither and be sure to make sound work
here Men that cleer ground they content not themselves to lop off the tops of trees but they stub up the roots then they make cleer work So here be sure you stub up the heart and will of sinning that 's the root of all or else al that you do is in vain it was our Saviors expression to the Pharisees Luke 11. 39. Ye fools that make clean the outside of the cup and the platter but your inward part is full of ravening and wickedness they began on the wrong side they contented themselves to 〈◊〉 the 〈◊〉 their outward conversation to manward and left corruption in their hearts unsubdued unremoved and therefore our Savior Christ calls them fools and hypocrites for their labor What can you say to my life what hath any man against me if thou hast no more 〈◊〉 say for thy self than that comes to thou hast nothing at al 〈◊〉 thy heart be not clensed from those iecret corruptions of thine Let me leave Two or Three Directions here that are just in my way not interfering with any thing to be spoken afterward Know that the greatest work of Reformation Repentance and the comfort of a mans spiritual condition it lies mainly in the Will the greatest work and the greatest difficulty lies here Brethren If you look at it as a matter of ease that thou canst do it with the turning of a hand and make wash-work of it thou never knewest it and thou shalt never attain it It 's one of the Devils greatest delusions whereby he cozens thousands to perswade men it 's an easie matter to be Religious No 〈◊〉 know it unless you find it the greatest work in the world you will never find endeavors suitable nor success answerable for the comfort of your own souls Oh therefore that every man would go home convinced and perswaded God hath helped me to temper my tongue and to keep my hands the Lord hath given me an enlightened Judgment a reformed life but Oh the difficult work is behind this wretched heart of mine the hardness of that the impossibility of that conclude it therefore and resolve upon it it wil cost me hard work and unless the Lord enable me and set in mightily and constantly upon my soul the work will never be done The heart is deceitful above all things and desperately wicked Jer. 17. 9. there is no hope of it as it were the hand and eye and tongue may be reformed but the heart is desperate who can know it who can mend it who can overpower it If thou hast found it easie nay if thou didst never stand amazed at the difficulty of the work about thy heart to get that severed from thy sins thou never hadst the right discerning of it to this day Paul cried out of the Body of Death Rom. 7. last who shal deliver me from it not from the eye or the hand but from the heart the will of Pride the wil of Uncleanness the will of 〈◊〉 and here he is at a stand at an amaze with himself who shal deliver me Beleaguer thy heart and will with the cleer evidence of the Truth of God that it may not be able to make an escape from under it It is with subduing the Will as it is in winning a strong Hold it 's marvelous hard to 〈◊〉 unto it no battery can be made against it those that are do not prevail 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 taking of it then they besiege it so that none shall come in to bring any help 〈◊〉 none go out to find any relief then in time they will be famished out and so forced to surrender Do so with thy soul thou hast a crooked proud 〈◊〉 will that hath outbid al the Ordinances of God no battery could ever prevail against it therefore labor to besiege it with the Evidence and plainness of undeniable Arguments of Truth from the Word that nothing may come in nor out listen not to any carnal Reasons within suffer not either honor or profit or pleasure from without to enfeeble the power of the Truth but so besiege it with the Evidence of the Word that the soul may say this is my sin this is my plague this is my state it will be my ruine unless the Lord shew mercy to me this wil tire the heart of a man and there is no other way in the world and it 's certain that the heart wil either lay down his corruption or his conviction but this is our misery that some go out and some come in and so the heart is relieved and holds the siege long The last Direction which may prepare us for the next Point viz. The hand of the Lord to work this for us When thou art perswaded this stubborn heart will cost me many a prayer and tear and bring me often upon my knees it wil never do else if I think it 's easie I never knew what it was and when thy heart is so besieged that it finds no relief Then Brethren look often up to Heaven He only that made the heart can frame the heart to the blessed obedience of his own wil al that we can do is to use the means and lie under the Ordinances that God may do that for us which he requires of us It 's the Lords own Promise Ezek. 36. 26 27. I will take away the heart of stone and give a heart of flesh therefore go and cry to Heaven and say Lord it is not in our hands to do it but thou hast said thou wilt give unto thy servants a heart to hate sin we come and beseech thee deny it not unto us Look to him we should in whose hand our hearts are that he may do that for us which we cannot do for our selves BOOK VIII JOHN 6. 44. No man can come to Me unless My Father which sent Me Draw him WE have already Debated and Dispatched TWO of those Divine Truths wherein the Dispensation and manner of Gods working upon the Soul in preparation was conceived and described 1 That he finds the sinner settled upon his 〈◊〉 and in the security of a sinful Condition 2 That he was wholly unwilling to be severed therefrom That it is a Death to him to be awakened out of this dead sleep when he saw no danger nor feared any but pleased himself in his Dreams and deluded 〈◊〉 of his own happy Condition 3 The Third and last Point now comes to skanning and Consideration wherein indeed the Pith and Marrow of this so deep and mysterious a Dispensation of the Lord upon the Soul discovers it self The Two former only made way for the more plain Explication of this last and the more easie Apprehension of it by those who are willing to understand Namely That by a holy kind of violence he is driven out of his sin and Drawn unto Christ by God the Father notwithstanding al the 〈◊〉 and utter unwillingness to the contrary And for the foundation of our following Discourse we have chosen these