when your hearts are hankering after these crazie holds stay them and deale by your hearts as the Lord sometimes did with the people of Iuda In their distresse they did not goe to the Lord but they went to Egypt and Nilus â—eremie 2.18 and therefore the Lord saith unto them What hast thou to doe in the way of Egypt to drinke downe the waters of Nilus c. When they were thus ranging for their owne reliefe in the time of their trouble the Lord as it were cals after them and saith you will downe to Egypt what have you to doe there Deale so by your owne Soules when thou findest thine heart hammering helpe from itselfe and catching it out of the fire thou seest thy sinnes and art troubled and now to quiet all thou wilt heare and pray and performe duties and thus thou thinkest to forge comfort out of thine owne shop therefore call upon thy owne heart and say what hast thou to doe to rest upon these broken staves upon thy praying and hearing and professing these if not accompanied with faith in Christs merits will lay thee in the dust and if thou makest Gods of them the Lord will plucke them away Iudas prayed and preached and heard and received the Sacraments too and yet hee is a divell in hell this day and except thou have more then he had thou wilt be no better then he was and therefore thinke thus with thy selfe what have I to doe to stand here in these duties I may be deluded by these but saved and comforted by them I cannot be therefore use these I will but rest upon them I will not If I could looke up to heaven and speake to Abraham and Paul and David and say how were you saved they would all make answer and say oh away to the Lord Christ it is he that saved us or else we had never come here and he will save you too if you flye to him Therefore brethren bring backe your hearts from these and dreame not to receive any saving succour from what you have or what you doe unlesse you relye on Christ But mee thinkes I heare some say Oh Question it is marvellous difficult and hard wee hang upon every hedge and we are ready to thinke that it is enough if wee can but take up a taske in holy duties How shall we pluck our hearts from resting upon them Answer For the answer to this question suffer mee to answer two things First I will shew the meanes whereby wee may find all these hopeles and helpelesse resting upon them Secondly I will shew when these meanes drive the heart truly to despaire of all succour in them Now that we may find these meanes to bee so to us as they are in themselves and that our Soules may be able to say It is true these are the holy Ordinances of God but it is in vaine to expect any salvation or justification from them alone I say the meanes are mainely foure and I will handle them something largely because if I bee not deceived here is the maine sett of a Christian and herein appeares the root of old Adam we will not part with our selves the meanes are foure First consider seriously with thy selfe and bee convictingly settled and perswaded of the unconceiveable wretchednesse of thy naturall condition If thou canst but see this throughly it will make thee see how vaine it is to look for any succour from thy selfe labour to see the depth of thine own misery because of thy sin and to see how thou hast sunke thy selfe into such a desperate gulfe of misery that all the meanes under heaven will bee short to succour thee unlesse the Lord Iesus come downe from heaven and his infinite power bee let downe to plucke up thy Soule from that misery wherein thou art there thou lyest and there thou art like to perish for ever if God in mercy succour not Now that I may pul down the pride of every vile wretch give mee leave to discover the depth of our miserie in these foure degrees Foure degrees of our misery by nature First consider that by nature thou art wholly deprived of all that abilitie which God formerly gave thee to performe service Whatsoever is borne of the flesh Ioh. 3.6 Rom. 7.18 is flesh saith our Saviour and therefore the Apostle Paul saith I know that in mee that is in my flesh dwells no good thing All men by nature are flesh and therefore thinke thus with thy selfe and say there was never good thought in my heart nor good action done by mee for in mee dwells no spirituall good thing there may bee morall good in us but though we are good morally yet we are nought spiritually howsoever you pranke up your selves and thinke your selves some body yet there is no spirituall good in you unlesse God worke upon your hearts whatsoever you have thought or done is all in vaine Secondly thou art not onely deprived of all spirituall abilitie 2. Degree of our misery Ephes 2.1 but thou art dead in trespasses and sinnes What is that a man is wholly possessed with a body of corruption and the Spawne of all abhomination hath overspread the whole man and it leavens all the whol lump of body and mind You often read this phrase in Scripture but you perceive it not as it is with a dead body being deprived of the Soule which did quicken it and enable it to doe the workes of a reasonable man there comes a kind of sencelesnesse and after that all noysome humours breed in the body and all filthy vermin come from the body and therefore a man may bury it but hee cannot quicken it any more Iust so it is with the Soule that is deprived of the glorious presence of Gods Spirit and grace which Adam had in his innocency For looke what the Soule is to the body the same is the grace of Gods Spirit to the Soule When the Soule is deprived of Gods Spirit there followes a senselesse stupidnesse upon the hart of a man and all noysome lusts abound in the Soule and take possession of it and rule in it and are fed there and appeare in a mans course in this kind There is no carrion in a ditch smels more loathsomely in the nostrills of man then a naturall mans workes doe in the nostrills of the Almightie There are some workes of a dead body it rots and stinkes and consumes so all the workes of a naturall man are dead workes nay all the prayers of the wicked are an abhomination to the Lord. If you can but say over the Lords Prayer you think you do a great piece of worke but though thesr are good in themselves yet because they come from a corrupt heart they are dead and loathsome prayers in the nostrils of the Almightie as the wise man saith Hee that turneth his eare from hearing the Law Prov. 28.9 even his prayer is abhominable The prayers of a drunkard
of an adulterer or of a blasphemer are an abhomination to the Lord Hee cannot abide them they are such unsavory dead stinking prayers that the God of heaven abhors them I would to God you were perswaded of it I would have a man to reason thus with himselfe and say This is just my condition How many gracious commands have I sleighted and despised How many precepts have I trodden under my feete therefore even my best prayers are abhominable to the Lord and if my prayers bee such then what is my person and all my sinnefull lusts Looke what wee doe with a dead body we may pitty him and bury him but we cannot quicken him So wee may pity a poore drunkard and pray for him and bury him with teares but we cannot save him Nay all the meanes in the world will not save him except the Lords mightie power come from heaven to worke upon his heart Three degrees of our misery Thirdly the sentence of condemnation is now already past upon him and one foot is in the pit all-ready Ioh. 3 18. Hee that believes not is condemned already Hee doth not say he may be condemned but the sentence is already past upon him his hard heart was never soundly broken and his proud heart was never content to part with it self and all for Christ and therefore he goes to endlesse torments for evermore Every naturall man is an unbeliever and therefore stands under the sentence of condemnation So that unlesse the Lord bee pleased to open his eies and to breake his heart and to draw him from that estate he is like to perish and goe to hell for ever Fourthly and lastly if this be not enough The fourth degree of our misery hee is not onely deprived of all spirituall good and dead in sinne and stands under the sentence of condemnation though this were enough to lay out hearts low before the Lord. You see the sinner in the pit But will you see him sinking into the bottome I am loath to speake the worst Nay I durst not have thought it had not the Lord Christ spoken it in his Word Therefore see what hee saith Ioh. 6.70 Have not I chosen you twelve and one of you is a Divell Who was that It was Iudas Why what did he What a dead man and a damned man and a divell too What will become of such a poore forlorne creature It is said of Iudas that the Divell put it into his heart to betray Christ out of a covetous humour to get money and the Divell entred into Iudas Thus the divell puts it into his mind Ioh. 13.27 and suggested it into his heart to devise a way how to compasse his end nay the Divell entred into Iudas not by a corporall possession but by a spirituall kind of rule which the divell did exercise over Iudas that is when the divels counsell and advise tooke place with Iudas to betray his Master this is not Iudas his condition alone but it is the condition of all men by nature That looke as it said of the Apostles They were inspired with the Spirit of God Act. 1.4 and as it is said of all sound Christians They are led by the Spirit of God So on the contrary the wicked are led by Ephes 2.2 and with the spirit of the divell He rules in the hearts of the children of disobedience The divell casts wicked thoughts into their hearts and carries them into the commission of those evils which formerly he had suggested The divell rules in them he speakes by their tongues and workes by their hands and thinks and desires by their minds and walkes by their feet Revel 2.10 The divell shall cast some of you in prison saith Saint Iohn All men are naturally under the power of Sathan and therefore Saint Paul was sent to preach the Gospel that he might deliver them from the power of Sathan to God Acts 26.18 You thinke your selves brave men and you can despise the word and the grace of God and abuse his Ministers Alas the divell hath power over you as it is with a dead sheepe all the carrion Crowes in the Countrey come to prey upon it and all base vermin breede and creepe there So it is with every poore naturall sinfull carnall creature under heaven a company of divels like so many carrion crowes prey upon the heart of a poore creature and all base lusts crall and feed and are maintained in such a wretched heart Now brethren thinke of all these and search seriously It is better to know this now then to know it when there is no remedy I say no more for pitie is it so with thee and mee and all of us by nature Then judge the case clearely and passe the verdict Doest thou thinke that a few faint cold prayers and lazy wishes and a little horror of heart can plucke a dead man from the grave of his sinnes and a damned soule from the pit of hell and change the nature of a divell to be a Saint No it is not possible and know that the worke of renovation is greater then the worke of thy creation and there is no helpe in earth either goe to Christ or there is no succour for thee We can pitty poore drunkards and sorrow for them but we are as able to make worlds and to pull hell in pieces as to pull a poore Soule from the paw of the divell Nay he is a divell and a damned divell as you have heard if this were well considered it would dash in pieces all those carnall conceits of a great many which make nothing of turning a divell to be a Saint Secondly consider seriously the infirmitie The second meanes and feeblenesse and the emptinesse of all meanes that we enjoy and all duties that we doe it were argument enough to perswade a poore broken-hearted sinner not to relye upon a poore broken reede that will deceive him when he hath most need therefore since they cannot succour us let us draw our hearts from resting on them This is a matter of great weight also for the Soule being thus broken for sinne sets a great matter of excellency and sufficiency in holy duties Nay people hang all their hope of eternall life upon what they have and what they can doe Come to a poore broken hearted sinner and tell him of his sinne that he stands guiltie of Marke what his reply is I confesse saith he it is true I have beene so and so but the world is well amended I meddle not with my sinnes and I have reformed all those base courses Nay the Lord knowes that my corruptions have cost mee hot water my heart hath beene exceedingly vexed with them I hope I have had my hell here and I shall no hell hereafter Alas poore wretch is this the hooke that upholds thy heart and is this all the ground that thou goest upon it is good that thou doest repent and amend
that you may chat and parlee a little with Christ Our Saviour saith Matth. 24.28 Where the carkasse or the dead body is there will the Eagles be This is the nature of an Eagle shee will not goe to catch flies that 's the nature of the hedge Sparrow but shee will prey upon the carkasse So this is a good heart that will not prey upon dead duties but upon the Lord Christ who is the life of the Soule If thou art of a right brood thou wilt not fill and glut thy Soule with a few duties like a hedge Sparrow still mistake me not I doe not dispraise these duties but I say they are nothing in the way of justification if faith in Christs merits be not joyned with them Therefore if thou hast a dunghill heart of thine owne thou may'st goe and content thy selfe with profession and with a few cold dead duties but if thou art an Eagle and a sound hearted Christian and one that God hath beene pleased to doe good unto thou wilt never be but where the Lord Iesus is and where his grace and mercy is As we doe at a Feast the dish is greater then the meat yet wee reach the dish not for the dishes sake but that we may cut some meat So the ordinances of God are as so many dishes wherein the Lord Iesus Christ is dished out to us Sometimes Christ in his merits is dished out in the Sacrament to all the sences and sometimes he is dished out in the Word therefore as you take the dish to cut some meate So take the Word that Communicates Christ to the eare and Prayer Communicates with Christ and the Sacrament Communicates Christ to all the sences cut the meate and let not the Lord Christ goe whole from the Table and no man looke after him fill your hungry Soules with Christ When a poore travelling man comes to the Ferry he cryes to the other side Have over have over his meaning is he would goe to the other side by a Boat he onely desires the use of the Ferry-man to convey him over So Christ is in heaven but we are here on earth as it were on the other side of the river the ordinances of God are but as so many Boats to carry us and to land us at Heaven where our hopes are and our hearts should be Therefore you would be landed Have over have over saith the Soule The Soule desires to bee landed at the Staires of Mercy and saith Oh bring me to speake with my Saviour Mary came to the Sepulchre to seeke for Christ and therefore when the Angel said to her Woman why weepest thou shee made this answer Oh they have taken away my Lord. Ioh. 20.13 So it is with you if you be not hypocrites Is there ever a Mary here is there ever a man or woman that prizeth a Christ and seeth need of a Christ and that comes weeping and mourning to the holy ordinances of God whom seekest thou saith the Word and Prayer and the Sacrament Oh saith the broken hearted sinner they have taken away my Lord Christ Oh this sinfull heart of mine oh these cursed corruptions of mine if it had not beene for these Christ would have comforted my conscience and pardoned my sinne if thou seest my Christ and my Saviour reveale him to my Soule that I may receive comfort and consolation by him This is the frame of a Christian Soule when the Ferry-man hath carried the traveller over hee stayes not there but goes to the house of his friend and saith is such a man within he desires to speake with him and to receive some good from him We heare and pray and reade till we are weary we doe not cry Have over let mee come to enjoy a neerer Communion with my Saviour that I may dwell with him and have a neerer cut to the Lord Christ I would have way that I may receive grace and mercy from Christ according to my necessities When a man hath gotten so many hundreth pounds he not onely tels that he hath met with the Ferry-man but he shewes the money that he hath gotten So you come to Church and goe from Church and you have your hearing for your hearing and your professing for your professing and the like but you should labour to say I have gotten the pardon of all my sinnes and the assurance of Gods love to my Soule I have beene with my Saviour and thus graciously and mercifully hee hath dealt with mee All that I have said is but a speech of a little time but it is a taske for all a mans life Oh thinke of it and say what have I gotten by all that I have done and what would I get when I goe to prayer I would have a Christ and mercy from him This is not in our minds I tell thee what thou must ayme at and labour for heare and pray for a Saviour See a need of Christ in all and see greater beauty in Christ then in all and be lead neerer to Christ by all or else you get nothing by all that you doe If there were no gold in the West-Indies the King of Spaine would not care for his Ships nor for that place Schoole-boyes care not for the Carrier but for Letters from a Father So now raise up your hearts higher towards heaven All holy duties are but as Ships and Carriers but the golden Mines of mercy are all in the Lord Iesus Christ It was a sweet speech of a man whether he was good or bad I know not that a man should loose the creatures in God So I would have you doe loose your selves and all ordinances and creatures and all that you have and doe in the Lord Christ How is that Let all be swallowed up and let nothing be seene but a Christ and let thy heart be set upon nothing but a Christ As it is with the Moone and Starres when the Sunne comes they loose all their light though they are there in the heavens still and as it is with rivers they all goe into the Sea and are all swallowed up of the Sea and yet there is nothing seene but the Sea So all the ordinances and creatures are as so many rivers from that Ocean of mercy and goodnesse in Christ and they all returne thither therefore onely see a Fountaine of grace goodnesse wisedome and power in Christ When a man is upon the Sea he can see no fresh water it is all swallowed up So let it be with thy Soule when thou wouldest finde mercy and grace The ordinances of God are good in themselves yet loose them all in Christ That wisedome in Christ is able to direct and that grace and mercy in Christ is able to save when all other helps faile and that power of Christ must support the Soule in the time of trouble There is some comfort and sweet and some refreshing in the Word and in the Sacrament and in the company of Gods people