and therefore it awakens the soule to be earnest to please him in all things for the time to come the soule was dead and carelesse and drowzie and neglectfull of obedience goodnesse holinesse humility purenesse strictnesse precisenesse of walking it cared not for these things afore but when true repentance comes in it wheeles about the life of the soule towards God now the cares shall be to him now the endeavours make after him paines labours cautious watchfulnesse considerativenesse studious striveings and all 's active that way now so that if a man be still dead his repentance is false Againe to goe over all the duties of religion they all must be done with life to doe them with a dead heart is as good as not to doe them at all First prayer suppose we pray at Church and pray in our families and pray in our closets is this all to pray with a dead heart as if we cared not whether we sped or no no pullings of our heart downe before God no wrastlings with God for what we aske no liftings of our soules up no fastnings of our minds upon his presence no cryes no mournings no importunity but the heart as lumpish and unweldy as a stone is this praying no sayes David quicken us O Lord that we may call upon thy name Psal 80. 18. Secondly for hearing of the word It is not thy hearing of it so many times a weeke though thou must heare it as often as ever thou canst and those that will not no hearing as frequently as they may are high despisers of God his Ordinances but yet if thou hearest the word with a dead heart thy hearing is made as no hearing it is said of those primitive converts that they were pricked in their hearts as they were hearing Act. 2. 37. they onely got good by their hearing they heard the word with life so it is said of many of Christs hearers they did 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 they laye upon him they preased upon him Luk. 5. 1. in another place it is said that they hung upon him they were attentive and eager to him our Saviour Christ says it is a very great judgement to be dull of hearing Matth. 13. 15. when people set as if the word did not concerne them when they heare without any motion or affection the word hardly joggeth their hearts it hardly shaketh their conscience at all the word does neither delight them nor wound them nor pierce them it heales none of their sinnes it cannot get betweene them and their lusts when they have heard a Sermon they goe away just as they came they sinde nothing now to doe it does not dragge them one jot more out of the world nor an inch neerer heaven their carriage is much at one as it was when they come home it cannot be perceived that ever they were at the word as earthly as ever as carnall as ever as backward to all goodnesse as ever this is no hearing at all Thirdly for sanctifying of the Lords day it is said of the Sabboth that we should call it our delight Isa 58. 13. that is we should keep it with life it should even quicken up our hearts to think it is coming we should be revived to consider Gods goodnesse that he would give us such a day seeing we have so much need of it when we have been six dayes about our owne businesse in the world that we should have a seventh given us of God lest we should be over head and ears in the world to take off our hearts now when this is no delight to us our hearts are dead to it we doe not sanctifie it indeed but prophane it as though it were not honorable and the house of the Lord. Fourthly for taking hold of an opportunity to doe good this is a duty too to be done with all life how glad should we be if there be any opportunity for us to shew our love to God or our hatred to sin we should be willing to ride or goe or be at charges nay we should deny our selves and lay downe our gaines and credits and goods and friends and all that we have at Christs Foot and blesse God that gives us such a price in our hands but now we have a dead heart to this what a horrible thing is this though we doe take the opportunity yet to goe about it as though we were sorry that God hath given it unto us this is meere folly as Solomon sayes Wherefore is there a price in the hand of a Foole to get wisedome seeing he hath no heart to it Proverbs 17. 16. Fifthly In one word for all the wayes of God there 's neere a one of them all that can be walkt in aright without a live heart as the Prophet sayes Lord turne away mine eyes from beholding vanity and quicken me in thy way Psal 119. 37. now when we goe dreamingly on as though we could not doe withall though the way be God's yet our going in it is stark naught and little better then not going in it at all and therefore the Lord accepts not of it when we humble our selves before God to hang downe our â—eads â—ike a bull-rush it 's naught it 's naugh the Lord cannot away with it when we conferre about the word or any gracious and Godly theme to speake as if we had no saveur of it no pleasure in it when our hearts would rather be on another subject and never lin till they have wound all good talke out if we speake one word to edification there shall be twenty to that one that shall serve to no other end but to the hardening of one another when Christ and the two disciples were communing together their hearts burned in them did not our hearts burne within us while he talked with us by the way Luk. 24. 32. that was talking with life But when our hearts are as cold as a flint this we may call talking but holy conference it cannot be termed Thus ye see a dead Christian is as good as no Christian at all no grace is without life no duty can be done without life the reasons of this are First because this is all one as to have no grace at all though a man be a member of the congregation of the Lord though he have the seales of the covenant and professe the faith of Jesus and be as morall in his life as ever any of the heathen and as full of good duties as ever any hypocrite was and more too yet if he have not life yet he is but a tinckling cymball he hath no grace at all I meane no saving grace at all saving grace the Apostle cals it the grace of life 1 Pet. 3. 7. It is the grace of life it breeds life in him that hath it it makes him alive towards God it lets out the life of his heart in every good word and worke it makes him pray with life
their wages therefore must set them on work ibid. 4. They cannot otherwise look for his assistance Page 166 5. Nor have peace of Conscience ibid. 6. The people can have no pleasure under such a Ministery Page 167 Vse 1. Ministers ought to look for Christs placing ibid. 2. It condemnes intruders Page 168 3. Use to them that have Ministers of Christs placing among them ibid. 4. Never complain of gracelesse Ministers Page 168 2. What is the reason there is no more able Ministers every where Page 169 5. God hath the placing of Ministers then we know whether to goe for good Ministers Page 170 The Reasons Page 171 Vse 1. Ministers should not feare to bee deprived of their liberty Page 173 2. A Reason why the Gospel continues any where when the world cannot abide it Page 174 3. Christ hath the continuing of his Ministers Page 175 4. Reason to be earnest with God to have his Gospell continued Page 176 Christ hath the removing of Ministers And how Page 177 Vse 1. If Christ remove Ministers we ought to mourne before him Page 178 2. Look to the meritorious cause our sins Page 179 3. Christ takes away Ministers we ought to repent of our sinne Page 180 Doct. 1. The Lord knows every mans ill courses Page 185 How Page 186 Why. Page 188 Vse 1. If God knows all mens sinfull courses then men cannot dawb before him Page 192 2. To condemn those that doe not consider of this truth Page 194 3. A terrour to all that goe on with a selfe-condemning heart Page 195 4. Comfort to good people that if he see sins he sees goodnesse much rather Page 196 5. It should make us affraid at any time or place even the secretest Page 198 Doct. 2. The knowing that God knows our works is the powerfull meanes to all Gods Elect to quicken them Page 199 Reasons 1. Gods knowing our works is not a meer knowing but a marking Page 200 2. God sees our sins with a pure eye ibid. 3. He records them in a book Page 201 4. If God see them all one as if the world should see them too ibid. 5. Our disposition we cannot indure any should know of our Wickednesses that cannot indure them Page 202 Vse 1. They that this point cannot work on are gracelesse Page 203 2. If such meanes can work on our hearts let us not harden them ibid. The Reasons why God knows all our works Page 210 What is meant by dead Page 214 A horrible thing to rest in the name of being Religious Page 215 The Reasons Page 216 An unexcusable thing not to be alive Page 217 The Uses Page 218 2. What is meant by dead Page 219 Doct. 1. A dead Ministery none at all Page 222 2. The Scripture calleth it no Ministery in effect Page 223 3. It doth little or no good ibid. 4. God seldome goes along with it Page 224 5. It prophanes the word of God ibid. Vse 1. We see a reason why a dead Ministery is applauded in the world Page 225 2. To reprove Ministers that are no more lively in the Ministery Page 226 3. Of Exhortation to labour for a quickning Ministery Page 228 Motives ibid. 4. How to get a Ministery to be quickning Page 240 What meant by deadnesse of guilt Page 245 What by deadnesse of minde Page 246 What by deadnesse of heart ibid. What by deadnesse of conscience ibid. What by deadnesse of affection Page 247 Doct. 1. A dead Christian as good as none at all ibid. 2. All duties of Religion must be done with life Page 250 Reasons why a dead Christian none at all Page 253 Vse 1. If dead Christians be none what then that are not Christians in name Page 255 2. How dangerous to be a dead-hearted Christian Page 267 For 1. All we doe with a dead heart is nothing ibid. 2. It does not please God Page 269 3. It cannot yeeld us any true comfort Page 271 4. Though it comfort us in time of prosperity it cannot in adversity Page 272 5. We can never blesse God with a dead heart Page 273 6. So long Religion is irkesome to us Page 274 7. If a dead heart take it up it will soon be weary of it Page 276 Causes of living Christianly 1. Efficient God Page 278 2. Instrumentall Faith Page 280 The parts of it 1. Justification Page 281 2. Sanctification ibid. 3. Joy and Comfort Page 282 2. What is the life of man Page 283 Six stirring acts in the mindes of men Page 289 1. Application ibid. 2. Meditation Page 291 3. Considering Page 292 4. Remembring Page 294 5. The Inventing of the heart Page 295 6. The judgeing of the minde Page 296 Vse 1. How rude or profane wicked Christians are rejected for deadnesse Page 297 2. Condemnation of the sins wherein most part of the people are dead Page 298 3. What to be a living Christian ibid. Every act of an heart not an argument of the life of it Page 304 No not her wouldings Page 306 When wishing is an argument Page 308 The same proved Page 310 The acts of the heart living if converted to God Page 312 Five other acts of life in the heart towards God Page 319 What the life of a Conscience Page 327 1. A Conscience some what awakt may like of God and his wayes Page 328 2. It may oblige a man to all manner of good things Page 329 3. It may be troubled about his sins Page 330 4. It may urge one to good things Page 332 5. It may be very eager in urging Page 333 6. It may prevaile far by its cagernesse Page 334 7. It may make one look a great way as it prevaile ibid. But these cannot be the life of conscience and why Page 335 Signes of a living conscience Page 341 Two kindes of Conscience in a godly man Page 346 Foure effects of a lively Conscience Page 351 Effects of a good conscience Page 355 What is an humbled Conscience Page 356 How to know quicknings of Conscience Page 358 Arguments of a live conscience Page 360 Vse 1. How few have live Consciences Page 362 When the memory is dead Page 363 When the memory is alive Page 364 Memory a great blessing Page 367 And that for 8 Reasons Page 368 There must needs be the office of the memory Page 370 Vse 1. The onely living memory that remembers God Page 378 2. We can never retain Gods Commandements without some memory ibid. 3. The want of this cause of sin ibid. Seven causes of an alive memory Page 379 CHRIST'S ALARM To Drowsie SAINTS REVEL 3. 1. And unto the Angel of the Church in Sardis write These things saith he that hath the seven Spirits of God and the seven Starres I know thy works that thou hast a name that thou livest and art dead SAint JOHN being banisht into the Isle of Patmos though the persecuters of the Gospel thought to doe him a displeasure yet the Lord turned it unto his great good
company dare talk of their roguery before them as Amnon before Jonadab Jonadab ask't him what he ailed he was so sad O sayes he I would fain lie with my sister Tamar 2 Sam. 13. 4. He knew before whom he was if Jonadab had been a godly man he durst as well have eaten his own tongue as have told him his base lust A godly man the very presence of him would have made him ashamed and to have bitten in his lips When a minister is unsent of God no body does respect him out of conscience they care not for his words whereas when a minister is sent this makes him as an Angel of God when others call him all to naught the conscience of many will plead for him as we see there of Jeremy O this man is not worthy to die for hee hath spoken unto us in the Name of the Lord Jer. 26. 16. There 's never a sent minister but if he come in trouble except peoples consciences be seared with a hot Iron they wil speak for him in their bosomes Alas why is he put down Why is he imprisoned Why is he opposed He hath spoken to us in the name of the Lord. So that this is the second wherein all ministers should agree they should be all sent of God not contenting themselves with the calling of man without being also called of God Thirdly they must all agree in the matter that they preach the same word is delivered unto all ministers to preach Preach the word 2 Tim. 4. The same Gospel the same Truths the same Duties the same Commandments the same Promises the same threatnings Ye know there is one God and one Faith and one Baptisme one Lord Jesus Christ there is but one way of life one gate to heaven one salvation one Bible Now every minister must agree in this You know all men are by Nature the children of wrath in a damned estate now all Pulpits should agree in this every minister labouring to bring their people to a sight of their misery by sinne every minister should shew his people what cursed creatures they are untill they be converted and renewed every Minister should presse the evill of sin and open the wiles of Satan the guilt of the conscience the spiritualnesse of the Law the necessity of humiliation and repentance and amendment of life that there is no mercy but in Christ no salvation but by Christ except people take him to live in their hearts by faith All ministers should let their people know the terror of the Lord the strictnesse of Gods judgements the inseparable connexion of mercy and a godly life that no profane person can enter into Gods Kingdome no hypocrite no meer civill man that a form of godlinesse will not serve turn that none but Saints shall stand at Christs right hand at the last day All ministers should preach what a narrow path there is to Paradise how few there bee that find it that saving grace cannot stand with the reign of the least lust that people must be pure and holy what ever the world think of purenesse and precisenesse and strictnesse yet without this no flesh shall be saved If all pulpits sounded with these truths and all ministers cried those aloud would lift up their voyces like a trumpet and not spare what a land should we have The want of unity in this matter is the cause that wickednesse does so much abound a drunkard a whoremaster a muckworm may come to a Sermon and goe away with hope that he shall have peace When ministers make the pulpit a scaffold in which like Masters of Defence they play their prizes blazon their own wits descant upon their text as though the Scripture were a Rattle for children and fools to sport with tossing it to and fro hither and thither as boyes at a Tennis when they go about to amaze their hearers to mount aloft to be in their high phrases and coyned words more like Mimicks and Comedians then Ministers when they search into moath-eaten Friers affect allegories would fain be thought Linguists and interlace a many of allegations of Latin and Greek sentences which a School-boy might doe with a Polyanthea or if they speak plain they skim the truth of the Scriptures and never dive deep to the edifying of the soule May be they will preach good morall matter But a man may goe to hell though he doe as they teach people may heare them a thousand times and no man made to cry out What have I done They preach of repentance but then they open it so slightly that a man may repent as they say and be damned they preach of faith in Christ but they make it so broad that thousands have it and sink into the bottomlesse pit with it they preach that sin must be forsaken and a good life must be led but they handle it in that wise that their hearers may doe as they say and yet have no more grace then a reprobate nor so much neither Now beloved the unity among brethren should be this to agree in the right matter of preaching that the word may be carved to all as their need is that they may see their own cases that they may understand the wiles of the Devil the fallacies of their own evill hearts the counterfets of faith and repentance and new obedience and that they may not be cousened with them This is the third thing Fourthly they should all agree in the true manner of preaching That which our Saviour sayes of hearing Take heed how yee heare Luke 8. 18. he means of preaching too let your Ministers take heed how they preach Beloved we that are the Ministers of God we are to labour to turn Lions into Lambs and to transform the heart of man to breed new creatures unto God and therefore it is not every kind of preaching will serve the turn 1. Then Ministers should agree in preaching with the demonstration of the Spirit and of power as Paul sayes not with the wisdome of words lest the crosse of Christ be made of no effect 1 Cor. 1. 17. q. d. If we should preach wit and learning eloquence then the death of Christ would be of no effect that is no man would be converted Christ would be offered to none therefore we must preach nakedly to flash the naked word into mens consciences that they may see Thus saith the Lord against their sinful courses thus saith the Lord of their estates this reproofe is from the Lord this threat is from the Lord thus saith the Lord you are a wretch this is thy sin and this is thy cursed condition and it is the Lord and not I that does affirm it It is said of Christ that he preacht with authority and not as the Scribes Matth. 7. 29. What is it to come with authority When a man speakes from God to the consciences of men as when a Constable comes in the name of a King I
to doe good nay does he not shrinke and winch and draw back we see thus in the Jewes how irksome the Sabbath was to them when they were held from buying and selling O that the Sabbath were over Am. 8. 5. it may be men doe not finde the Sabbath so tedious now because they help themselves by talking of the world by taking liberty that way but if they were held to it as they ought to be would they not wish it to be over The like we may see in the young man what an irksome thing was it to him to heare that he must fell away all the Text sayes he was sad at that saying Mark 10. 22. now is not this too a very hideous thing to be dead-hearted when it makes all the wayes of God tedious nothing should be more delightfull unto us then they they are perfect freedome there is great reward in them they are the best wayes in the world all his wayes are wayes of pleasantnesse and all his pathes are peace and if we were quickened in our hearts we would say so too as the Apostle speakes when he had said that none of Gods Commandements are grievous 1 Joh. 5. 3. in the next words he gives a reason of it O sayes he He that is borne of God overcometh the world that is he that hath the life in him that cometh from above he hath gotten above the world he hath past all the irksomnesse of them The irksomenesse of any commandement does not lie in the commandement that is sweet and pleasant but it lyes in the deadnesse of the heart a dead heart will ever count them grievous Seventhly as religion is an irksome thing to a dead heart so a dead heart if it should take it up it will in the end be weary of it as we see in the example of Israel when they grew to be dead-hearted towards God at last they were weary of his worship they went and devised othergets worships an easier kinde of religion they were weary of his Thou hast beene weary of me O Israel Isa 43. 22. we see this in Judah too Behold what a wearinesse is it Mal. 1. 13. this is too plaine and palpable how are we growne weary of God and of his pure service we have had the Gospell so long till we are even weary of it weary of sanctity weary of spirituall truth whence are all innovations but because people are weary of the old way many that have been very forward in preaching and in hearing and very zealous of good courses they begin to abate to side with the times to remit of their former strictnesse whence is all this whence is it that we see so many apostates that once loved good people now doe not once were very zelous against disorders now are not once were against humane devises now are not now they can brook any thing well enough they are weary of their first pitch they were wound up too high now they let themselves downe againe all this is because men have no life in them they are dead to what they did professe you shall see many a man smitten at the word and there he is knockt downe and sees what wretched courses he hath taken that will lead him to hell well he goes and reformes and growes very precise and now there shall not be a Sermon but hee 'l heare it There shall not be any good Christian duty but he will take it up hee 'l leave his old acquaintance hee 'le joyne himselfe to good people hee 'le have very good orders in his Family all this is well if 't would hold I but if this man doe not goe on to get the grace of life in the end hee 'le be weary a dead heart be it never so forward it will end in wearinesse It is meerely for want of quickening that any man growes weary of well-doing as the Apostle sayes Be not weary of well-doing for in due time ye shall reap if ye faint not Gal. 6. 9. take heed ye doe not let quickening goe if ye let your quickening goe directly you 'le grow weary if ye suffer your selves to faint if ye doe not get aqua-vitae to cure your fainting sits you 'le be weary of well-doing now beloved what a pitifull thing is this that we should be weary of well-doing if any of us have begun to doe well O how should we labour that we may never grow weary how ever things goe though persecution arise what ever dealings we meet with at the hands of the wicked world yet never to give in what ever flesh and bloud say what ever discouragements we meet with from without or from within we should earnestly labour that we may never be weary of wel-doing never weary of preaching to their conscience never weary of attending on the word or of preaching of our hearts or of resisting of sinne or of redeeming our time or of keeping our garments never weary of washing our hands in innocency and keeping of our selves that the wicked one touch us not and therefore what a dangerous thing is it to be dead-hearted for that 's the high way to be weary of well-doing at the last This then is the second use that we are to make of this point to see what a dangerous thing it is to be a dead Christian REVEL 3. 1. And art Dead I Come now to the fourth thing and that is this what it is to be aliving Christian First I will describe it by the efficient cause Secondly by the Instrumentall cause Thirdly by the parts of it For the first the efficient cause that makes one a liveing Christian is God as the Psalmist sayes he is the fountaine of life Psal 36. 9. He is the fountaine of al life it is he that makes one a living man He giveth life and breath to all Act. 17. 25. if he should take away our naturall life we dye and turne againe unto our earth as long as he breatheth on us we live as Elihu speakes the breath of the Almighty gives me life Job 33. 4. yea all the world would be a dead Chaos if he did not quicken it there 's a kinde of life in every thing that hath being But it would be a dead Masse if he did not concurre with it what is money and meat and clothes and friends and life and health it selfe men thinke they are well to live when they have them all True if he blesse them and quicken them unto us but if he be wanting to them they are dead things and can doe us no good nay the word of life it self it is but a dead letter without him all the ordinances of God we see they Minister life to some because God puts life into them but if he doe not put life into them they are sappelesse and cadaverous things so that God is the author even of our naturall life as John sayes in him is life and his life is the life of men
Sarahs wombe is said to be dead he considered not the deadnesse of Sarahs womb Rom. 4. 19. that is her womb had no activity to conceive now when a wombe is active this way then we say it is quick so a coale that hath sire in it is said to be a live coale There flew one of the Seraphins having a live coale in his hand Isa 6. 6. we call it alive coale because it is active it is able to burne whereas if that fire were out then it were not able to burne and therefore then we call it a dead coale so when a man is active towards God Take him in prayer there he can act now take him in selfe deniall in reconciling of himselfe in humbling of the heart in mourning for sinne in hungering after righteousnesse even as a man does after his appointed food take him in any of the things of God though he were like a dead coale afore yet here he can act now now he can move this way when one is like a block in good duties that man is dead we call moving things living things Every moving thing that liveth Gen. 9. 3. when a thing cannot stirre that we call dead when a man is not stirring in heavenly things he is stirring enough in earthly but he cannot stir in heavenly things that man is a dead Christian though he professe never so much yet if he be not stirring towards God from day to day he is dead I thinke it meet to stirre you up sayes Saint Peter 2 Pet. 1. 13. that is I think it meet to quicken you up Now beloved this being so if ye would know what it is to be alive towards God let us but finde out a little what is the life of a man First what is the life of a mans understanding people thinke that bare knowledge is and approving of Gods wayes and thinking of them now and then they thinke this is the life of their understandings But you shall see these are not it therefore we will search out what is the life of the understanding Secondly what is the life of the will or of the heart people are apt to thinke that wishings and wouldings and velleities if they have some volitions towards God and all holy courses they thinke their wills are alive no these are not it therefore we will search too wherein the life of the will does consist Thirdly what is the life of the conscience people generally doe conceive that if their consciences doe check them for their sinnes and smite them for evill and excuse them in other things that are good then their conscience is alive now we desire to enquire what is the life of the conscience indeed Fourthly what is the life of the affections I gave you a touch of these when I shewed you what it is to be dead now let me speake of them more fully to shew you what it is to be alive For the first what is the life of the understanding ye know there be many things in the understanding knowing approving studying determining now the world thinks that when the understanding is so far wrought upon as to know Christian religion to approve it to study it to determine aright upon things evill things to be evill good things to be good duties to be duties sins to be sins now they suppose their understandings are alive But the truth is none of all these are the life of your understandings The understanding hath another life besides these The understanding may have all these and be dead As first for knowledge I need not stand to prove that the dead Heathens the Apostle sayes they knew God when they knew God they glorified him not as God Rom 1. 21. knowledge is not enough as cur Saviour Christ speakes is ye knew these things blessed are ye if ye doe them Joh. 13. 17. nay literall knowledge does not so much as give them understanding true light much lesse life a great learned divine that is wicked his understanding is still in darknesse nay it may leave him more dead then those that are groslely Ignorant as the Prophet sayes of them that had knowledge I will get me to the great men for they have knowne the way of the Lord but these have altogether broken the Yoke Jer. 5. 5. they were more dead their hearts were more averse from all goodnesse Bare knowledge is a poore thing and yet people are apt to glory in it the Apostle makes a pish at it we know we have all knowledge 1 Cor. 8. 1. q. d. is that such a peece of matter never tell me of your knowledge I know ye all have knowledge but that 's a poore thing nay the greater is thy woe if thou hast not a quickened mind as Solomon sayes he that increaseth knowledge increaseth sorrow Eccl. 1. 18. thou increasest thine owne selfe condemning the more thou hast the greater knowledge in thy Bosome thou knowest the more thou feest to condemne thee thy knowledge is like a sword in thy bowels that daily galls thee and wounds thee and therefore little reason to thinke that knowledge is the life of the minde it is not so much as the light of the minde take heed sayes our Saviour that the light that is in thee be not darknesse Luk. 11. 35. that is thou mayst have a great deale of light and yet be in darkenesse nay in worse darknesse then Ignorant blinde people that have no light at all if the light that is in thee be darknesse how great is that darknesse Matth. 6. 23. such people are more senselesse at the word harder to be wrought on they have the more distinctions to deceive their owne soules they thinke to well of themselves they are too wise to be fooles that they may be wise they are farther of from confession if they had lesse knowledge it may be there might be more hope to doe them good But having so much knowledge in a carnall minde it is made a strong hold against grace it is with such people as it was with Babylon thy wisedome and thy knowledge hath perverted thee Isa 47. 10. true knowledge is a good thing but when a man is fleshed with it that he takes himselfe to be some body this marres all but I will speake no more of this Secondly for approving of the truth that cannot be the life of the minde neither when a man approves goodnesse and good people this indeed is an excellent mercy of God to make a man approve goodnesse and good men O how are such bound to be thankfull few goe so farre But alas if thou goest no farther thy minde is not yet quickened up to God as the Apostle shewes that a man dead in his sinnes still may yet approve the best things Thou knowest his will and approvest the things that are most excellent Rom. 2. 18. Herod approved Iohn the Baptist and his preaching Achish King of Gath approved David and all
and therefore hee is a blasphemer of God that gets the name of it and lets the thing alone and therefore how shoud wee take heede how wee have the name for Religious people except wee bee Religious indeed and holy indeede and Heavenly indeede as Ambrose sayes nam â—it nomen inane crimen immane a bare name is a horrible blame unto any man whosoever he be Thirdly it is a flat lie when a man hath the name for a good Christian and hath not the thing signified by the Name this is a flat lie as God sayes Note it in a Booke that it may be for time to come for ever and ever that this is a rebellious people lying children children that will not heare the Law of the Lord Isaiah 30. 8. 9. that is they had the name of his children but they had not the thing signified by that name they would not doe as children should doe they would not bee ruled by their fathers Lawes therefore they are lying children they lie in bearing such a name the Lord notes it in a Booke that it might stand for ever and ever against them at the day of judgement this was nothing else but to lie before God you goe for my children what and will not doe as I bid you you lie in haveing the name of my children when a man shall have the name of a child of God or the name of a Minister of the Lord Jesus or the name of a Christian baptized into Christ hee had need to take heed what hee does for if he doe not answer this name hee does but play the Ananias to lie to the Holy Ghost Looke into thy generall calling looke into thy particular looke into thy carriage looke into thy manner of good duties whether thou doe behave thy selfe answerably to this holy name whereby thou art called knowing thou dost but lye to God if thou dost not Fourthly it is an unreasonable thing when a man hath not the thing there is no reason that hee should have the name when God gave Abram the name of Abraham hee told him there was a reason why hee should bee called by that name thy name shall bee called Abraham for a Father of many Nations have I made thee Genesis 17. 5. so it is an unreasonable thing why wee should have the name of Gods servants or Christians unlesse there bee some reason why wee should have the imposition of this name now when wee make it a bare title and doe not obey Christ nor make conscience of all his holy waies this is very unreasonable as Abigail reasoned about her Husbands name as his name is so is hee Nabal is his name and folly is with him 1 Samuel 25. 25. So my brethren as our name is so should we be if Christian be our name true Christianity should bee with us humility love meekenesse patience faith holinesse and all other parts of Christianity should be with us now if we have the name without these things intimated by the name this is a very unreasonable thing nay it is not onely unreasonable but also ridiculous who will not count the names that the Papists give to their blockish Friers ridiculous subtilissimus Doctor Doctor Angelicus Seraphicus these are ridiculous as a drunkard a Christian a whoremonger a Christian a worldling a Christian a vaine man a Christian what a ridiculous thing it is to call such the Saints of God strangers here on earth such as have their conversation in Heaven such as are buried together with Christ in his death such as are men of another World mortified justified sanctified crucified to themselves loving the things above and not the things that are here beneath If these things doe not agree with us what a ridiculous thing is it that wee should bee termed good Christians here bee Christians indeed this is a meere mockery Fifthly it is an impudent thing when we have a name to live and to be wrought upon by the word what an impudent thing is it if we doe not looke to it that wee be so indeed one would thinke wee should blush to thinke what a name wee have and how little wee make good our name between God and our owne soules When the men of Bethlehem said is not this Naomi O how she was ashamed of her selfe call me not Naomi call me Marah for the Almighty hath dealt very bitterly with me Ruth 1. 20. so when wee are named Christians we should even blush call me not a Christian call me a wretch call me a vile creature a hell-hound a limme of the Devill a cursed sinner for the Almighty never yet turned my heart he never yet purified my Soule and life I never yet have resembled Christ to this very day I say the most of us should even be confounded to thinke what a name wee have I a Christian and doe no more good and live no better life I a Christian and not humbled not abased yet before God so dull to all goodnesse so carnall so dead to all Gods Ordinances so voide of all grace so sencelesse of my sinnes how can this be wee are impudent if wee have our name for naught our name may upbraide us the good opinions that others have of us may fill our faces with shame to thinke how short we come of it Sixthly it is an inexcusable thing if we have a name to be alive wee are without excuse if wee be not First because now out of our owne mouthes God will judge us wee said wee were his people wee tooke the name of his servants why then he will say why had I not your service why would you doe no more for me why were you coveteous why were you proud why were you hard-hearted why were you so carelesse of me you wore my livery you shrouded your selves under my name So the Lord did with the Jewes that had the name of his children and servants see how he judges them out of their owne mouth a Sonne honours his Father and a servant his Master if then I be a Father where is my honour and if I be a Master where is my feare Malachi 1. 6. q. d. you say I am your Father and I am your Master and I am your God well out of your owne mouthes I will judge you why then did you honour me no more why did yee regard mee no more yee cared not for mee yee did not looke after mee you had little or no heart after me your owne mouthes have even cast you Secondly ye can have no other excuse can you say you could not beleeve in my name ye could not forgoe such and such lusts at my command why then would you goe for my servants you should have said so plainely and not daily have come into my Courts as if you would obey me nor taken up the profession of my Worship as if you would goe through stitch with it why would you come to my Table
is thus they jear these things but beloved t is certain for it is not enough to beleive except we do it with life he that liveth and beleeveth in me Joh. 11. 26. faith without life is but equivocally termed faith so it is not enough to hope in God except we doe it with life he hath begetten us againe to a lively hope says Peter So it is not enough to be a member in Gods Church a Stone in Gods building except we be lively Stones Ye also as lively Stones sayes he 1 Pet. 2. 5. The like I may say of all the duties of Religion it is not enough to doe them but we must doe them with life as to pray to pray with a dead heart is nothing no sayes David Lord quicken us and we will call upon thy name Psal 80. 18. In a word not to heape particulars we cannot walk in any of Gods wayes aright as long as we walke in them with a dead heart as the psalmist sayes Lord quicken thou me in thy way Psal 119. 37. it is a poore thing to walk in Gods wayes onely for the matter of them That indeed a dead heart may doe there 's no duty that God bids a man doe unlesse it be them that consignifie life but flesh and blood may doe it for the matter of it if there be matter and forme in it True some duties are simple that flesh and blood cannot doe as to love God to delight in God to have communion with God himself to take God for ones Portion and Lot and inheritance to be all in all to him these are simple acts they are not compounded of matter and forme But when a duty is compounded of matter and forme flesh and blood may doe the matter of it whatsoever it be now then as the essentiall forme is the life of the matter so the matter without it is a dead matter and the doing of it dead Well then now we see what is meant by dead the next is what is the meaning of Thou Thou art dead the word hath a double relation the one to the Minister of the Church in Sardis thou art dead thy Ministry is dead the other to the Church in Sardis it selfe thou art dead thou art a dead people First it hath relation to the Ministry thou art dead thy Ministry is dead there 's no life in it at all hence the Doctrine is this that a dead Ministry is as good as no Ministry at all for this our Saviour meanes in regard of the Angell of the Church in Sardis q. d. thy Ministry is little better then no Ministry it is stark dead well neare it is not lively at all there is little or no warmth to be had by it Like the Ministry of the Scribes that had no authority nor power at all in it Mat. 7. 29. As Luther said when he heard a cold Sermon cold cold cold sayes he this is cold Preaching here is no heat at all to be gotten as God sayes of the Ministry of Laodicia Thou art luke-warme Rom. 3. 16. that is as there was no heat in his people so there was no heat in his Ministry this is little better then no Preaching at all it is even as good as nothing First because true preaching is lively preaching when the Minister is a stirring Minister as Peter speakes I think it meet to stirre you up a Pet. 1. 13. when the Minister is earnest to save the peoples soules as the Lord sayes I earnestly protested to your Fathers Jer. 11. 7. He speakes of the Ministry of Moses and the prophets down along untill the Prophet Jeremies time they did not onely witnesse the word of God unto the people but they did it in a lively and earnest manner as Paul did I have striven to Preach the Gospell Rom. 15. 20. marke he belaboured him in the Pulpit he lay about him soundly that his Ministry might have life in it Saint Luke shewes that he had sweaty Handker-chiefes Act. 19. 12. 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 as Hugo sayes upon the place it seemes he swet much in preaching and so Christ compares Ministers to Harvest men that labour in Gods Harvest ye know Harvest men are hot at their worke so Ministers should be Harvest men they should be hot at their worke Thus ye see dry and dull Preaching is little better then no preaching at all it is contrary to the manner of preaching contrary to the practice of all true and right preachers Secondly a dead Ministry is called no Ministry the Scripture calls it no Ministry in effect The Scripture is the best Judge what is a true Ministry and what is not now the Scripture makes a dead Ministry and no Ministry all one the Scribes and the Pharisees ye know were partly morall men most of them as we may see by Pauls Testimony of himself and they were orthodox Ministers as our Saviour witnesses of them in the maine for our Saviour bids people heare them yet their Ministry was little better then no Ministry as the Text shewes the people that sate under their Ministry are said to be as sheep having no Shepheard Mat. 9. 36. they preacht as if they did not preach people might come to their Sermons and be neere a jot moved nay such as came with a desire to be quickned could get no quickning at all under them Matthew sayes they sate under darknesse yet for all them These are Idoll Sheepheards wo to the Idoll Shepheards Zach. 11. 17. Thirdly a dead Ministry does doe little or no good though it be never so true yet it is very unfruitfull it does not awaken any of the auditory it does not startle any of the hearers it does not rowze up mens hearts it does not grapple with the obstinate it does not pull down the proud neither does it carry life at all with it neither is it sitted to work upon the conscience you may see an example of this in the Angell of the Church of Sardic a dead Minister a dead people as he was dead himselfe so his people were dead too a lively Ministry does a great deale of good it even is the saveur of life unto life unto those that be of God or else the savour of death unto death unto those that be not of God 2 Cor. 2. 16. it ever workes one way either it makes people rage or it fats people up or else it drives people home unto God which way so ever it works it is a sweet savour unto God it glorifies God but a dead Ministry does neither it is a flat weapon and cuts not it is a blunt Sword and wounds not may be it hath the true words of God but they are not in a wise work mans hands to make them as Goads and sharp Nayles partly good points but not pointed to prick any bodies heart it is said when Paul Preacht some went away converted others went away blaspheming Act. 13. 45. 48. Fourthly a
heare with life use the ordinances in publike and private with life the naturall life that is in the soule it turnes it to God it turnes the man about as a ship is turned on the Sea that sayled before towards North now it sayles towards South So when grace comes into the soule ye know the man had life afore but it sayled towards the world and the things of the world but when grace does come in it makes it row and sayle and steere towards God so that when a Christian is dead he is as no Christian at all Secondly a dead Christian hath not Christ dwelling in his heart by faith he is no Christian indeed that hath not Jesus Christ dwelling in him by a truly and a lively faith It is the indwelling of Christ that makes one a true Christian now when Christ does dwell in any man Christ is a quickening spirit as the Apostle speakes the second Adam was made a quickening spirit 1 Cor. 15. 45. that is Christ he is the second Adam he is a quickening spirit where ever he dwels he quickens all the soule He makes it dead to that which by nature it was alive to and alive to that which by nature it was dead to he inclines the soule unto God he infuses a principle into it to shine with life towards God he does more and more hale the strength of the soule towards him though he doe not doe it at all once yet he does it more and more now when a man is still dead to God and all goodnesse he hath not Christ dwelling in him by a lively faith for if he were in once though the soule may complaine still of deadnesse as commonly those that are alive complain most of deadnesse yet it hath a supernaturall quickening and it shall have more and more Thirdly a dead Christian was never yet soundly wrought upon by the word the word of Christ is a word of life and it quickens where it doe effectually work and therefore though such a one have heard a 1000 thousand Sermons he never fed upon them in all his life as Christ sayes If any man eat of this bread he shall live for ever Joh. 6. 51. it is better then ordinary bread ordinary bread indeed if a man have a naturall life it will feed it and preserve it But if a man be dead it will not revive him But the word of God is such a bread that as it feeds a spirituall life in them that have it so it is able through the eternall spirit to quicken the dead it is able through God to put life into men that never had any and it does so to all that are of God sooner or latter now when a man is dead it 's a plaine signe that the word hath not yet wrought upon that man it may be it hath shaken him many a time yea but if he be yet dead it never wrought upon him soundly the oracles of God are lively oracles as Steven cals them Acts. 7. 38. they make their hearts lively that they come to worke soundly on though they were never so dead to God and good things afore yet now they waxe lively they make their hearts to receive a divine strength that now they waxe able in some measure to live towards God to hunger and thirst after God to delight in the seeking of him be their lusts never so mighty now they can compose themselves to oppose them and to swimme against the streame now they can pray and they cannot abide to have blockish hearts in that nor in any other duty they have a life that resists that same deadnesse that dwelleth in them So then this is another reason that a dead Christian is as good as no Christian at all the word hath never wrought soundly on that Man The use of this is first if the dead Christians in Sardis be as good as nothing what are the riff-raffe in the Towne that are not so much as Christians in name if a dead Christian be rejected of God what 's a dead drunkard a dead whormonger a dead prophanling if one that walkes in good courses be refused because he is dead in them then what shall become of them that will not follow good courses at all if such that are Saints to them cannot be saved where shall they appeare it is said that Christ loved the goodly fine carriaged young man Mark 10. 17. Christ is never said to love a drunkard a prophane wretch no he regards one that carries himself in a sayre civill honest way more then all the world besides except onely his own children and therefore if he counts meer civill men stark naught how much more does he thee that art a very beast compared with them thou art so vile that we that are men doe know thou art in a fearefull estate nay the Lord pronounes a woe upon them that dare speake well of thee these sinnes are to be punished by the Iudges if thou hast lived in Israel thou shouldst have been put to death a drunken Son should have been stoned an adulterer a fornicator should be burnt a blasphemer should be brained to death Thy sinnes are so palpable that pillaries and stockes and prisons and gallowes should be thy fare if thou wert well served Thou art not onely dead for the manner of thy life but for the matter too not onely the Saints doe abhorre thee but all that have any civility in them doe loath thy filthy doings and would not doe as thou doest no no for a world as Solomon sayes such as thou art are not onely dead but in the depth of hell Pro. 9. 18. There be many though they be not right yet they are so much reformed that the Saints of God cannot say but that they may be good Christians But thou art so foule that he that hath but one eye may see the devill leads thee there be some that a man may be to blame for judging them wicked but he that judges thee other wise hates his own soule poor creature does thy foolish heart promise thee hopes to finde mercy alas the devill does but lead thee in a string he knowes well enough though he will not let thee see it there is no mercy for them that goe on still in their wickednesse Thou hast not so much as a name that thou livest how dead then art thou Thou art dead and rotten and stinkest not onely in the nostrils of God but of all that have any common grace in them Others may be in a damned condition for all their profession but to be sure thou art in a damned condition there 's nothing between thee and hell but onely the poore thread of thy life How canst thou keep out of hell that canst hardly keep out of the Ale-house O heare this ye that have not so much as any face of Religion See the word of the Lord and thinke upon it for your good if ye have any
eare to heare before it be too late Consider first thou art farre from the Kingdome of God such as are sober and morall and frequenters of the ordinances of God professe godlines though they be not alive yet they are not farre from the Kingdome of God as Christ said of the discreet Scribe Mark 12. 34. But thou art a hundred hundred degrees farther off thou art so farre off that thou hast need to hasten quickly thou hast a 1000 degrees of reformation to passe over before thou canst get so neere as some of them that are short Secondly thou art altogether become unprofitable as the Apostle speakes Rom. 3. 12. thou art good for nothing but to doe mischief in a parish to infect to spoile youth to trouble thy wife and thy poore Children to corupt thy servants and thy neighbours to spill the good creatures of God to be a very slave to thy fleshly-lusts others that are well governed in their lives though they be dead yet they doe a great deale of good they help the Saints they are I say gotten to stand for good order but thou art a very burden to all well disposed people the very shame of the Towne the disgrace of the family where thou art what will people say yonder 's a drunkard yonder goes a fornicator a dissolute fellow though he be a gentleman yet he is fit for none but rogues and raseals and tinkerly companions a man that hath but a spark of honesty would be ashamed of him a Christian no he is a very beast he cannot govern himselfe But what doe I stand spending of time to speak against such wayes which the Apostle sayes should scarcely be named in Christians mouthes The very heathens shall judge thee the Lord open thine eyes to see what a cursed creature thou art that thou maist come out of the snare of the devill I have hindered my selfe from going on I should shew you first a reproof of those that are Christians and yet dead Secondly I should shew you the danger of being a dead Christian Thirdly what it is to be a lively Christian Fourthly how we may know whether we be dead Christians or no. Fifthly how farre forth a childe of God may be dead Sixthly what is the reason that so many are dead Seventhly how we should all come to be lively Eighthly what motives there be to induce us to labour for life in our Christian course But of these at another time REVEL 3. 1. And art Dead THe last doctrine that we gathered out of these words was this that a dead Christian is as good as no Christian at all though a man be orthodoxly converted baptized reformed though a man professe the true faith towards God repentance and amendment of life and follow all manner of good and honest courses for the matter of them yet if he be dead to them he is even as good as nothing I told you what I meant by a dead Christian I shewed you this in five things First deadnesse of guilt when a man is guilty of any offence that is death by the Law he is said to be a dead man so every man hath sinned against God which is death by Gods Law and therefore every man is dead by nature when a man is pardoned of God then he is alive againe and therefore it is called Iustification of life Rom. 5. 18. now when a man is not pardoned of God he is dead though he have never so many hopes and conceits of forgivenesse yet as long as he is not forgiven indeed he is but a dead man Let a man have never so much Christianity about him if he be not forgiven indeed he is a dead Christian Secondly deadnesse of minde when the understanding of man is dead my beloved ye must know it is not bare knowledge that quickens the minde a man may have the knowledge of all Christian divinity and yet have a dead understanding it is said of Christ every true Christian that he is of a quick understanding in the feare of the Lord Isa 11. 3. then is the understanding quick when it is quick in the feare of God when it feeles the weight of all divine truth we may see this in worldly minded men their understandings are quick in the things of the world if there be any booty to be had presently they feele it you may lead them any way so you doe but let them see profit and gaine there is weight in such reasons But now shew them divine reasons why they should beleeve the sacred writings of the holy Prophets and Apostles and yeeld obedience unto the form of wholsome words delivered in the Gospell though they understand well enough what we say yet they feele no weight in these reasons whole Sermons doe not stirre them their understanding is here dead so that this is a dead Christian who though he have never so much knowledge yet his understanding is dead he feeles not the weight of divine things he hath divine things in his speculative understanding and carnall in his practicall gracious truths in his fore dictats and carnall in his last when he knowes heavenly things but mindes earthly my meaning is this O sayes his understanding I should live thus and thus this is the rule this is the will of God But then his owne corrupt will suggests unto him for to doe otherwise and His understanding does not hinder Thirdly deadnesse of heart when the heart is not inclined towards God The life of the heart consists in the inclinations and bents of the heart as David sayes Incline mine heart to thy Testimonies Psal 119. 36. what followes quicken thou me in thy way This is the quicking of my heart to thy Testimonies when it is inclined unto them now though a man goe to good duties everyday yet as long as the heart is not inclined unto them it is dead to them all it goes about them in a dead manner as a Boy that is not inclined to his Book though he doe goe to Schoole it is with a dead heart This then is another expression of a dead Christian he is a man though he be a professour of Holinesse yet his heart is not inclined towards God and all goodnesse and therefore he goes on in good duties with a dead heart Fourthly deadnesse of conscience when the conscience hath no force it may be it finds fault with such and such wayes but it hath no power over a man to make him to leave them it approves such and such holy courses yea but it hath no power over him to make him to buckle to them indeed O sayes the conscience I should not doe thus I should be more mindfull of God I should not be so vaine I should not spend my time as I doe I should make another use of Gods warning then I doe I should be better But it hath no force over the man whose conscience it is this is a
dead conscience there 's no life in it at all when the conscience hath life in it once then it hath power over a man as the Church sayes my soule made me like the Chariots of Aminadab Cant. 6 12. that is my conscience was very forcible and powerfull in me it made me goe after Jesus Christ nay it carried me freely like the Chariots of Aminadab But when the conscience can whisper and onely finde fault and hath no power at all with it to make one obey from day to day this is a dead conscience Fifthly deadnesse of affection when the affections are clumbzie and will not move towards God and all supernaturall things when a mans affections are lively enough in other things and too lively But hee 's like a block in good duties he hath no affections to them nor in them These are affections out of order mortifie your inordinate affections sayes the Apostle Colos 3. 5. that is your affections must not be out of order if they be alive to the things here below ye must turne the life of them another way ye must kill them that way and let the life of them run out towards God and his service and worship now when the affections will not move this way at all then they are dead Thus ye see what I meane by a dead Christian Now that such a one is as good as no Christian at all is very plaine goe through all Christianity and you shall finde this to be true in every passage First for conversion conversion is not onely the turning of a man from wicked wayes unto good but so as to be quickened up in them Conversion puts another life into a man when we were dead in sinnes he hath quickened us together with Christ Eph. 2 5. that is conversion is the quickening of a man not onely the turning of a man from not praying to praying from not hearing of the word to hearing of the word from not sober to be sober from not chaste to be chaste from not professing Christian religion to be a professor of it but also it is the quickening of a man up in it it is the putting of a new life into a man and therefore to be converted meerely from the one to the other is just nothing as long as a man is dead-hearted to the same Secondly for beleeving should a man leane himself upon God should a man apply all the promises of the Gospell to his soule and credit all that 's contained in the Covenant of grace alas what of all this if this man be dead still True faith produces life as Christ sayes he that liveth and beleeveth in me Joh. 11. 26. True faith carries life with it wheresoever it is and therefore if a man have such a faith as lets him be dead still it is as good as nothing faith it may be Put true faith it cannot be if thou wouldst be able to say thou beleevest in Jesus Christ thou must be able to say that thou livest in him too it is impossible that a man should rightly beleeve in Christ and be dead Thirdly for hoping in God it may be thou hast hope that thou art a good Christian that thou hast a part in the redemption of the world by Jesus Christ thou hast a hope of the heavenly inheritance that thou shalt be saved in that day now if thy hope be a dead hope if it doe not quicken thee up to beat downe thy worldly lusts to serue thee up towards God more and more to carry thee on through thick and thin thy hope is not worth a rush True hope is lively he hath begotten us again to a lively hope 1 Pet. 1. 3. it is not a dead hope that lies sluggishly and blockishly in him that hath it not stirring him up every day but it lies like a carcase in the heart to little or no purpose no no this is as good as no hope at all True hope is a lively hope it revives a man up to the Kingdome of God it beares a man aloft in good duties it fortisies a man against daily temptations Fourthly for repenting what ever thou hast to say for repenting canst thou plead never so many teares for thy sinnes a thousand changes and reformings yet if thou hast not gotten out of a dead temper thou art yet under an impenitent heart true repentance is to life Act. 11. 18. True repentance rends the heart it shewes sin to be the greatest evill and so it rowzes a man daily up to take heed of it it makes us see what a God we have dishonour'd and therefore it awakes the soule to be earnest to please him in all things for the time to come The soule heretofore was dead to all holinesse and purenesse and precisnesse and humblenesse and mortifiednesse of walking it was dead to such things heretofore but when true repentance comes in it turnes about the life of the soule towards God now the cares shall be to him now the endeavours make after him paines labours cauâ—eloâ—snesse watchfulnesse circumspection consideration all are active now towards him so that if a man be still dead his repentance is false Fifthly for praying suppose we pray at Church and pray in our Families and pray in our Closets is this all alas if we pray with a dead heart no pullings of our heart downe before God no wrastlings with God for what we aske no heaving of our soules up no fastnings of our mindes on his presence no favouring of Jesus Christ no yearnings to the throne of grace this is as good as no praying at all no sayes David quicken us O Lord and we will call upon thy name Psal 80. 18. Sixthly for hearing of the word Though thou heare it never so often and duly yet that is not it if thou hearest it with a dead heart thy hearing is little better then no hearing our Saviour Christ sayes it 's a great Iudgement to be dull of hearing Matth. 13. 15. when the people sit as if the word did not concerne them when they heare without any motion or affection the word hardly joggeth their hearts the word does neither delight them nor warme them nor pierce them nor touch them it heales none of their sinnes it cannot get between them and their lusts when they have heard a Sermon they goe away just as they came it does not drag them one jot more out of the world nor an inch nearer heaven the carriage is much at one as it was when they come home it can hardly be perceived that ever they were at the word as earthly as ever as carnall as ever as backward to all goodnesse as ever This is as good as no hearing at all Seventhly for taking hold of opportunities to doe good This is a duty too to be done with all life How glad should we be if there be any opportunity for us to shew our love unto God or our hatred
to sinne we should be willing to ride or goe or be at charges nay we should be willing to deny our selves to lay downe our names and goods and friends and respects and all that we have at Christs foot and blesse God that gives us such a price in our hands But now to have a dead heart to this what a horrible thing is it though we doe take the opportunity yet to goe about it as though we were sorry that God hath given it unto us This is meere folly as Solomon sayes wherefore is there a price in the hand of a foole to get wisdome seeing he hath no heart to it Prov. 17. 16. But I will not repeat any more you see now that a dead Christian is as good as no Christian at all I shewed you the reasons of this point but I will let them passe I come now to the uses And first this is for the reproof of the deadnesse that is now among us the Lord may say to us as he did unto Sardis I know thy workes thou hast a name that thou livest and art dead for notwithstanding the great means of life that the Lord hath placed among us O how does deadnesse of heart reigne we are like them the Prophets speakes of that drew nigh to God with their mouth and honoured him with their lips but their heart was far from him Matth. 15. 8. they had no heart to his holy worship So it is with most of us we draw nigh to God with our outward man but our heart is farre from him no heart to prayer no heart to the word we heare it peradventure but no heart to it at all how ordinarily doe we come to Gods house but heartlesnes hath dominion over the most of us the doctrine of the Gospell does not quicken up our hearts we deale with it as Phinehas his wife did with her Sonne when the women about her told her she had a Sonne the text sayes she did not regard it So what little regard have we of the Gospell of God! I stretched out my hands and no man would regard Prov. 1. tell us of our damned estate by nature how cursed we are from the wombe what infinite need we have to be sensible of it we know it but how dead is our knowledge of it it does not stirre up our hearts to consider of it neither does it prick us so much as the pricking of a pin tell us of the the redemption of the world by Jesus Christ his precious bloud his passion and merits whose heart is enlivened and quickened up by them nay our soules are hardly moved at all at the hearing of them Tell us of the Kingdome of heaven the marriage Supper of the lamb his Oxen and his fatlings O they are all ready come Sirs come to the marriage we are even as they in the parable they made light of it Matth. 22. 5. these things are made as if they were of no moment as if they were light matters they finde poore entertainement at our hands what little irk somnesse do we feele in sinne what little dejectednesse of heart what little remorse of conscience nay few know by experience what humiliation meanes we can confesse in our prayers how vile we are and how unworthy and how wretched and sinnefull but as though these were words of course our hearts are so dead that there is little or no relenting at it we can say we are undone if God doe not heare us our prayers are all nothing except they be with faith and life and yet who strives to awaken and rowze up himselfe we can say O how are we beholding to God for life for health for his daily good providence for his patience his bounty and we can say it is not the bare naming of his Blessings before him that is counted thanksgiving without being affected with his infinite goodnesse and yet who does unseignedly labour to be affected with them from day to day no body of us dares deny but that we should set the Lord alwayes before us tthat he may be at our right hand and yet who hath the heart to provoke this hereunto The devill may be of their right hand not God for all the pains that they take to have him there So that dead-heartednes is a common evill now a dayes as Christ saies of the last times Because iniquity shall abound The love of many shall waxe Cold Matth 24. 12. so it is now because iniquity abounds the most are prophane and dissolute and licentious and loose therefore many that profession love to Jesus Christ their love does grow cold and dead no life heardly at all no signe that they are alive from the dead if they doe beleeve after a manner there 's all they doe not live in Jesus Christ if they have any hope of mercy or heaven that 's all they have it is not a lively hope that may quicken them up in Gods holy wayes if they doe see their sinnes there 's the utmost it is a dead sight that does not excite them up unto strictnesse and precisenesse of living if they doe follow good and godly duties alas there be few that doe so but if they doe goe so farre it is cleane without heart and life as though any thing would serve Gods turne well enough what a horrible thing i' st when a dead Christian is as good as no Christian all No matter how many Christians we have alas none of us are true but such as are alive from the dead Secondly is it so that a dead Christian is even as good as no Christian at all then learne hence my Brethren what a dangerous thing it is to be a dead hearted Christian First all that we doe with a dead heart 't is as good as nothing as Paul sayes of love had we all faith and all knowledge yet if we have not love we are nothing 1 Cor. 13. 2. Whatsoever we doe if we doe not doe it out of love all 's nothing so I may say of life whatsoever good duty we doe if we doe not doe it with life it is but a dead worke and therefore it is no more then nothing when the prophet David would doe good duties so as to doe them to good purpose indeed you shall see how he labours against a dead heart Quicken me after thy loving kindnesse so shall I keepe the Testimony of thy mouth Psal 119. 88. so we may say too Lord quicken me after thy loving kindnesse so shall I preach so shall I heare so shall I doe thy holy will so shall I goe up and downe doing good now as long as a man does it with a dead heart it is even all one as if a man had not done it at all a dead man is no man as the Apostle sayes God quickens the dead and calls things that are not marke dead things are no things so dead workes are no workes as Solomon sayes There is
no worke and no devise and no wisdome and no purpose in the grave whether thou goest that is when men are dead then they can doe nothing so it is here as long as we are dead we can doe nothing True because we have the life of sense and of nature and of a naturall conscience in us we may counterfeit good workes as a painter may make a man True he cannot make a living man so as long as we are dead-hearted we doe but paint out good duties before God all our Prayers are but painted prayers all the good workes we doe are but paint there 's none of them to the life as God sayes of the Jewes you will say they did very many good workes they fasted and prayed and sacrificed and many other things they did But what sayes God they are vanity their workes are nothing Isa 41. 29. as a dead Corps there be eyes and nostrils and eares and mouth But when the life is out they are as good as nothing so it is with a dead heart we may thinke we preach much and study much and heare much and professe much and doe much the truth is we doe nothing Secondly all that we doe with a dead heart it does not please God God sayes my Son give me thy heart Prov. 23. 26. ye know the heart that is primum vivens that's the first living thing in us now if we give God never so many performances yet if all our heart be not with them what cares he for them all when they are a company of heartlesse things when the Apostle had said that to be fleshly minded is death by and by he concludes so then sayes he they that are in the flesh cannot please God Rom. 8. 8. would that please any of us that one should come and rake up a dead stinking carcase and lay it before us no more can it please God to lay a dead duty before his heavenly Majesty ye know a dead carion it is loathsome as long as life remaines in it that 's a sweet thing and it preserves it from stinking and therefore the heathens called the soule the salt of every living thing because the life is a preserving thing it preserves a thing sweet but when the life is gone out presently it becomes odious so is all that we doe when we doe it with a dead heart it is odious with God it cannot be accepted of him as the Apostle Peter speakes Ye also as lively stones are built up a spirituall house a holy Priesthood to offer up spirituall Sacrifices acceptable to God by Jesus Christ 1 Pet. 2. 5. that is the Apostle had compared true Christians unto stones now he correcteth himselfe did I call true Christians stones I pray doe not mistake me I doe not meane for deadnesse but for firmenesse a stone is a dead livelesse thing O sayes he ye must be stones I but ye must take heed of deadnesse ye must be lively otherwise ye cannot offer acceptable sacrifices unto God this is even as if a Jew should have taken a dead sheep out of a dich and laid it on Gods Altar This is abomination to God even so are dead doings to Almighty God as Vinagar to the teeth and smoke to the eyes so is a sluggard to him that sends him Prov. 10. 26. that is when a Master sends a servant on his errand if he goe dully about it even as if he had no life nor heart in him at all to doe his Masters businesse this will not please him nay it will offend him as smoke does the eyes or as Vinegar does the teeth it will make him looke with a sowre looke upon such a servant so beloved when God bids us serve him in all our wayes may be we are not so grosse as not to goe about it at all But we goe about it with a dull and a dead heart this does not please God one whit nay he takes it ill that we should thinke he will accept it at our hands as when the Jews had no heart to Gods holy and pure worship it was too chargeable to them it put them to too much charges what a whole sheep and a whole lamb every morning besides many whole ones at other times whole Bullocks whole Oxen and whole Goates this was even as death to them they went up to Gods Temple with a dead heart nay they thought much to give him of the best they gave him the torne the maimed now mark what he says should I accept this at your hand saith the Lord Malac. 1. 13. He took it ill they should thinke he would accept it so when we thinke much to be so precise and so strict to pray so much to heare so much to minde him so much and to deny our selves so much to watch so much over our hearts to humble our selves so much what may we not keep one lust may we have no more liberty then so may be we doe some thing this way but God knowes how with a dead heart it is the Lord takes it ill that we should hope he will accept this at our hands Thirdly all that we doe with a dead heart it cannot yeeld us any comfort true if we were quickened up towards God if we served God with all our heart and soule and life this would comfort us indeed to seeke him daily in a lively manner to goe into his presence with all our minde if we went eagerly a dayes to the throne of grace if we were earnest in prayer earnest against sinne earnest for all goodnesse this were a signe of his favour and a Testimony of the true grace of life this would comfort our hearts exceedingly this would breed peace in our conscience as the Apostle speakes To be spiritually minded is life and Peace Rom. 8. 6. there 's life and therefore there is peace The reason is thus because lively works alone can truely pacifie conscience when a man hath beene a professour all his dayes and done never so many things yet if the conscience can say yea but all these are dead workes all this while I have gone on with a dead-heart this fowles the conscience it can never have true peace How much more shall the blood of Christ purge your conscience from dead workes to serve the living God Heb. 9. 14. it shall purge the conscience from dead workes dead workes foule the conscience whether they be dead for matter or manner sinne is a dead worke for matter and good duties heartlessely done are dead workes for manner now both fowle the conscience the conscience remaines under guilt continues without peace it is an ill conscience why because the conscience knowes it hath the living God to serve that will not like of such workes when a man payes in his rents onely by halves or by dribblets or with light money the Kings receiver will not give him an acquittance my brethren conscience is Gods receiver no wonder it does not
give you an acquittance when ye pay in onely wash duties clipt obedience if ye served God with life conscience would give you an acquittance when ye have prayed it would give you an acquittance when ye have done a dayes worke in his harvest it would acknowledge the receipt of it well done good and faithfull servant it is well done in some measure This made Paul full of life every day Herein doe I exercise my selfe to have always a conscience void of offence towards God and towards men Act. 24. 16. that is I doe not onely goe on in good duties both towards God and towards men but this I doe always I do even exercise my selfe that I may have an acquittance from mine owne conscience when I have done that my conscience may give me a true discharge well done I have done well in some measure now as long as we are dead-hearted and hollow in Gods wayes our conscience can never give us a discharge no marvell that so few of us have Peace of conscience when we are so dead-hearted as we are if we would stirre up our selves to serve God with all heart and life we should have Peace but till this will be once we can never looke to have Peace and comfort Fourthly Though we have comfort in time of prosperity yet we cannot have comfort in affliction if we be of a dead heart how many are there that seeme to have comfort while they are well but when they come to be sick and at deaths doore then they are all to peeces then they see they have no grace no faith no good cards to shew then they are stript stark naked then their conscience sees what they are O I am a wretch how have I deceived my self so beloved though we have comfort in time of prosperity yet if we be dead-hearted we can have no comfort in affliction As David sayes this is my comfort in affliction thy word hath quickened me Psal 119. 50. when the word of God hath quickened our hearts and made us lively in all manner of goodnesse this will yeeld us comfort in affliction But if we be dead to all spirituall wayes though we scramble up hopes now they will not hold when affliction comes now what a fearefull thing is 't we shall all come to affliction ere long for man is borne to trouble as the sparks that fly upward as Job speakes nay we know not how soone man knoweth not his time as Solomon speakes but as the Fishes are caught in an evill Net so are the Sonnes of men snared in an evill time when it falleth suddenly on them And God onely knowes what sore afflictions we may have the Cup of affliction is in Gods hand and he tempers it and powres it out as his pleasure is I say what a fearfull thing is it not to have comfort then then we have most need of comfort and if we have not comfort then we are utterly undone now my brethren it is not a dead dull profession will yeeld us comfort then Let us thinke of this as God sayes What will ye doe in your day of visitation to Whom will ye flye for helpe then Isa 10. 3. so may I say though ye can be quiet and comfortable enough now in the dayes of health and peace your deadnesse does not trouble you now but what will ye doe in the dayes of visitation doe but consider what a sorry comfort ye shall have then assuredly a dead heart will assord not a syllable of true comfort then Fifthly we can never blesse God with a dead heart a dead heart is not able to affirme upon any good ground that God is his or that the promise is his or that Christ is his the soule knowes Christ is a quickening spirit and they that have him are quickened up by him the promise is a promise of life and they cannot be dead that are the possessors of it we cannot blesse God either for love or mercy or grace or any thing else when we would blesse God for any of these things the deadnesse of heart it will be objected to us O I am so dead that how can I hope that these things belong unto me Let my soule live and it shall praise thee Psal 119. 175. when the soule is alive towards God then it can praise God then it knowes all the good it hath it hath it in mercy doubting and deadnesse doe ever goe together or it 's a great marvell And indeed what is deadnesse of heart towards Christ and all his holy Gospell but a secret doubting whether it have any part in it or no as when a poore man sees a rich treasure it does but dead him the more because he sees no interest he hath in it if he could see he had an interest in it this would quicken up his heart and put it out of it's dumps And is not this now a miserable condition when a man cannot praise God if he pray it is but in a sorry manner no life no heart at all But for blessing and praising of God that he cannot doe at all except he be in a fooles paradise and dreame of a false gift This is a dreadfull condition when we are hindred from that which God most delighteth in what is there that more delighteth God then to blesse him and praise him The Lord sayes we never honour him otherwise who so offereth me praise he glorifieth me Psal 50. 23. now we can never offer God praise except our heart live Sixthly Religion is a very irksome thing unto us as long as we are dead-hearted what is it that takes away the grievousnesse of it but a lively heart when the heart is dead it must needs be very tedious very tedious to be thinking of God to be meditating of death or the world to come to be imployed in prayer to be constant in the humbling of the soule or the abstaining from our naturall inclinations to be discoursing of repentance or studying of Gods heavenly Kingdome to be imployed in the word or to goe through dirty and frozen wayes to it to goe and repeate it in our Families or to urge it upon our hearts O what weary tedious duties are these when the heart is a dead heart This is the reason why the world lets them all generally alone and never troubles their hearts with them at all because they have no life in them and many that are better minded fend them very tedious because they are dead-hearted as Solomon sayes correction is grievous to him that forsaketh the way Prov. 15. 10. now as long as we are out of the way of life while we are dead-hearted we forsake the right way and therefore correction is grievous unto us nay all the commandements of God are grievous unto us does a dead heart rejoyce to goe to Prayer nay generally he is loth to goe to it is he glad that the Sermon Bell rings is he glad at an opportunity
Joh. 1. 4. in him we live and move and have our being and therefore it is a great sinne not to be thankfull to him for our naturall life David blesses God for his naturall life very often life is a very great blessing a poor thing that hath life a living dog is better then a dead Lyon A man will give skinne for skinne and all that he hath for his life I am sure many of us may be very glad of life for if it were gone now we should be in hell and therefore we had need to make much of our naturall life yea every houre of it least we dye before we be converted and brought home to God But this is not the life that we doe speake of we speak of spirituall life and God is the author of that more especially when a man is alive towards God he is the onely cause of it He spiritually moveth our hearts by the holy Ghost and begets us againe after a strange and an inessable manner by joyning his spirit to our spirits his minde to our mindes and his will to our willes he revives all the powers of the soule with his presence and therefore this life is called the life of God which the world are strangers to and aliens from being alienated from the life of God Eph. 4. 18. so likewise it is called the life of Iesus 2 Cor. 4. 11. He onely is the author of it Thus ye see the efficient cause of it Secondly the Instrumentall cause of this life is true faith this is the ligament that couples this life and a man together that now he is said to be a living man ye know God is the onely living God they that are not united unto him remaine in the congregation of the dead now faith unites a man unto him faith is the having of him He that hath the Sonne hath life and he that hath not the Sonne hath not life 1 Joh 5. 12. when a man cleaves unto God by a true and lively faith this man hath life as Moses sayes That thou mayst love the Lord thy God and that thou mayst obey his voyce and that thou mayst cleave unto him for he is thy life Deut. 30. 20. Though a man hath not that strong faith that some have whereby he hath a cleare evidence of Gods love and favour in Jesus Christ though a man have not this faith yet if he have a faith of adherence and cleaving unto God this man is a living Christian this man is joyned unto the true life This is the true God and even life and therefore whosoever cleaves to him hath life if he will not away from him he will still seeke him still pray unto him still make him his refuge though he have no feelings that is not it if a man will never give over seeking of God He beleeves God is the fountaine of all life and peace and grace and comfort and Gods way is the onely way he beleeves himselfe is a cursed wretch in himselfe and that all hope is in Christ now if this man have such a faith whereby he adheres though with never so much weaknesse this man is a live This is the faith whereby a Christian lives as Paul sayes the life that I live I live by the faith of the Sonne of God Gal. 2. 20. Thus ye see the Instrumentall cause of it Thirdly now for the parts of it The parts of it are three The first part is the life of Justification ye know every man by nature is a dead man as a malefactour that hath committed an offence that is death by mans Law we say he is a dead man so we have all offended God from the womb which is death by Gods Law and therefore we are dead men now when God hath justified a man freely by his grace when God hath given him a pardon in Christ Jesus now he is a live man and therefore Justification as ye heard is called Iustification of life Rom. 5. 18. now beloved this life is not in the man that does live but in Christ that he lives by this life supposeth no life in this party no it lookes upon him as a dead man in himself But God counts him alive in Jesus Christ as the Apostles sayes Christ is our life Col. 3. 4. q d this life is not in us but in Christ so that this life denominats aman alive as Christ denominated the demosel alive that was yet dead The Damosell is not dead sayes he Matth. 9. 24. ye know the Damosell was dead at that time when Christ said so and yet he said she was not dead because he had life for her she had life in him now when he raised her up then she had life in her too And so I come to the second part of this life and that is the life of Sanctification and this life is in him that doth live for though he were dead before to all goodnesse and holinesse and alive unto sinne yet now he is made dead unto sinne and alive unto God as the Apostle speakes likewise also reckon ye your selves to be dead indeed unto sinne but alive unto God through Jesus Christ our Lord Rom. 6. 11. this life is called the life of grace and new obedience when a man is quickened up to all the wayes of God you hath he quickened who were dead in trespasses and sins Eph. 2. 1. and this is the quickening that I would faine open to you The third part of this life is the life of joy and comfort ye know when a mans eyes are opened to see his sinnes and his damned estate by reason of them the Law comes and that kils him his very heart dyeth in him now when God propounds to him a Saviour and causes him to beleeve in him this revives his heart againe this yeelds him some joy and comfort so that true joy is a life too we may see this in the Children of God let their joyes and comforts be all gone this makes them all amort this makes them very heavy and sad as if they had no life at all in them as the Church sayes Wilt thou not revive us againe that thy people may rejoyce in thee Psal 85. 6. Now my brethren all this is onely by way of preface to come then to the question what is it to be a quickened Christian a Christian that hath not onely a name to live but is dead dead towards God dead to all good duties no But is quickened up to them I answer that as death is taken in a metaphoricall sense when we say such a one is dead to God dead to the holy ordinances of God we doe not meane properly dead as if he were naturally dead and had no soule in his body but we take it in metaphoricall sense so is life here to be taken too namely for the activenesse of a thing when a thing is not active we use to say it is dead as
and the Starres which thou hast ordained then I say Lord what is man Psal 83 4. you see how stirring his minde was when he considered the heavens and the earth it wrought mightily on him it made him the more humble Others see the Heavens every day and it does not move them one whit to Humiliation before God But when the minde comes once to consider then it shakes off its dulnesse and remissnesse then it growes busie such a man will not goe to Prayer but he considers what he goes about what a great God he is to speake to what a vile creature himselfe is that is to pray to him he will consider how he may pray with faith and hope and feeling of his wants how he may rise up from his knees not without profit Now he will not goe to the word but he will consider what it is he repaires to now all his mind is how he may get good now he is busie in every duty when he is tempted to doe as others doe he considers what the issue will be and this makes him forbeare Beloved this is the life of our mindes when they consider things when we consider our latter end when we consider Gods promises when we consider his threatenings when we take his commandements into our deep consideration when we consider the danger of sinne we doe not onely know all these things but we consider them Though we know neere so much yet except we consider what we know our mindes are lumpish and dead consideration is the activity of the minde and therefore if we would prove our selves to be alive towards God let us put on consideration a dayes Fourthly the remembring of the minde when the minde forgets it selfe every day this is nothing but the deadnesse of the minde for if it be alive to a thing it will be sure to remember it selfe of that if it oan Can a maide forget her ornaments or a Bride her attire yet my people have forgotten me dayes without number Jer. 2. 32. that is my people are dead-minded to me if they regarded me they would remember themselves every day to serve me looke what a man is alive to the minde will be sure to remember us of that we can have no journey to take but our mindes remember us of it no businesse to doe to feed our Cattell to milke our kine every morning and evening to sheare our sheepe every Lammas if we forget any thing in this kinde presently it 's a 100. to one but we remember our selves now when a man is alive to the best things in some measure he will remember himselfe of them every day so David did I remembred thy name O Lord yea in the night too and so I kept thy Law Psal 119. 55. I remembred my selfe and I would be sure to doe what God bid me do it may be his heart began to arise but presently he remembred himselfe and beat it downe againe it may be some other lust began to be up but by and by he remembred him and checked his owne soule when the minde is alive towards God the knowledge of the word does not lie dead in that man but still he remembers it at every need when the Sabbath is coming then thinkes he I remember what God bade me doe Remember the Sabbath day to keepe it holy when the Sacrament comes then he remembers himselfe O thinkes he let a man examine himselfe and so let him eat of that Bread and drinke of that Cup now the minde thinkes I will labour to remember God continually what ever I forget I will not forget him when I rise up when I lie downe still I will set my selfe to remember him when I goe out when I come home what ever the Devill say what ever the flesh whisper I will labour still to remember God if I be tempted to wrath then I desire to remember what God sayes give not place to the Devill when I feel spirituall lazinesse then I will unfeignedly endeavour to remember what God speakes unto me cursed is he that does the worke of the Lord negligently c. Fifthly the inventings or the devisings of the heart where the minde is naturally bent and alive there it is witty if riches if preferment if pleasure if learning be a mans lust that he lives in there he is witty so when a man is a live unto God his wit will have that way it's vent as Christ sayes I finde out witty inventions Prov. 8. 12. he speakes not onely of himselfe But of his grace in every one that is this when the minde is alive set towards Christ it will finde out witty inventions nay it 's a strange thing though men have no parts yet if they be worldly how witty they are for such matters and so for good people whose mindes are turned towards God though they be of very weake parts yet how witty they will be in good things what pretty ways they will have to doe good to shunne offences to break occasions of sinne as a Minister in his preaching as Paul sayes I caught you with guile 2 Cor. 12. 16. so let man have a liberall minde the Prophet sayes he will devise liberall things Isa 32. 8. mercy and truth shall be to them that devise good Prov. 14. 22. whence comes the blockishnesse of our mindes but from this that our mindes are so dead if our mindes were more alive towards God it would make us more graciously witty we should devise good things finde out admirable inventions it would teach us plots against Satan plots against the flesh as the wicked their mindes are full of sinfull devises fetches stratagems policies a man would wonder to see how witty the devill is in them to carry them headlong to hell c. Sixthly and lastly the judging of the minde But I spake of this not long agoe and therefore I will let it alone now thus I have shewed you what a lively Christian is in regard of his minde Now the next is that we shew you what a live Christian is in regard of the heart c. And then in regard of the conscience c. and then in regard of the affections c. REVEL 3. 1. And art Dead THe point we are in is this That a dead Christian is as good as no Christian at all First we have opened the meaning of this point and shewed you what is meant by a dead Christian Secondly we have shewed you that this is so by going over all the graces of Gods spirit a man hath near a one of them all that is dead againe by going over all the duties of Christian Religion ye heard a man does neare a one of them all as long as he does them onely in a dead hearted manner Thirdly I shewed you the reasons of this point why a dead Christian is even as no Christian at all there be many reasons of it it stands with good reason that it
is deep in the heart so if thou beest alive towards God God is in the deep of thy heart the word is deepe in thy heart nor like the salt water in the Sea onely on the Top. Ye know what became of the Seed that wanted depth of the earth Matth. 13. 5. so it is with the heart when the word does not get into the depth of it it never quickens in it The heart may be so farre towards goodnesse as to bring a man to good duties a dayes it may bring one to Sermon or to Prayer to others of the Ordinances of God and other good courses but what 's all this as long as it is dead the life lies in the bottome of the heart look what the bottome of the heart stands unto that 's a man alive unto then thou art alive towards God when the bottom of thy heart is unto him when thou labourest to obey him from the bottome of thy heart when thou callest upon him from the bottome of thy heart like Sugar at the bottome of the Cup stirre up the bottome the best is at bottome so thou must stirre up the bottome of thy heart the heart is a deep thing Psal 64. 6. though religion be on the top yet if the world be in the deepe thy heart is dead towards God as it is with a puddle it may be cleare at the top faire water at the top but there 's nothing but mudde at the bottome Secondly there be flitting Acts of the heart be they never so deep in the heart yet if they doe not stay there the heart is dead still Solomon sayes of his Father he said unto me let thy heart retaine my words keep my Commandements and live Prov. 4. 4. though the word does stirre neere so much for the present this is not life except thou retaine it and hold it fast a man may have many flashes of life in him but as long as the heart does not keep them it remaines dead they that seeke the Lord the heart shall live Psal 22. 26. that is when it is not a flash but it is an Act that abides by a man the heart is stedfastly set towards God now his heart lives now when people are moved onely by fits they are humbled by fits and startled by fits their righteousnesse is like a morning dew ye know there the dew is every morning but all the day it is gone may be when morning comes there it is againe but all the day it is gone It is true there may be horrible offs and on s in the Children of God to the confounding of their faces before God But I doe not speake to discourage them But let us take heed we may have admirable flashes of life fits of humblings fits of enlargements fits of selfe-denyall sits of great eagernesse after God the heart may be towards God for a sit a false heart as the Land of Israel their heart was firmely towards him for a sit they remembred that God was their rock and that the high God was their redeemer but their heart was not right with him they were not stedfast in his Covenant Psal 78. 37. mark it was but a fit like Esays crying for a fit This is a poore argument of life then no no the flitting acts of the heart may be no acts of life Thirdly there be wouldings and wishings in the heart and these cozen the world more then any other these they thinke verily are effects of true life First because these are not in the outside of the heart but lye or at least seeme to lye very deepe in the heart it is very certaine that many naturall men would give the whole world if they had it as they doe verily conceive that they had true grace that they were Saints that they could leave their sinnes that they were in a childe of Gods case they deeply wish it it is a profound would in their hearts and therefore now when they see such yearnings in their hearts they doe verily apprehend this is life certainly Hence it is that they will say they would from the bottome of their hearts serve God they have nere a lust but they would full faine have God deliver them from that indeed they confesse in their consciences if they might have a 1000 worlds they cannot give it over I but they would faine they could and thus they deceive themselves because this act seemes to be from the depth of their heart this fancy you may see to be in mens hearts out of Mich. 6. 6. 7. where ye see though they could not finde in their hearts to walke humbly before God to live justly and righteously yet they would give thousands they could O say they what would not we give for the sin of our soules no question but they thought they were alive but God told them they were not Secondly another reason why they thinke this is a token of life is because this is no flitting act neither But they have these wouldings every day nay you can never come to them but still they have these they would doe well nay they would doe as well as the best thus they hope they have a fountaine of living water in them that springeth up daily thus it was with them in the Prophets they seeke me daily sayes God Isa 58. 2. they thought it was their every dayes work to serve God and where they did faile they thought they could say they would doe better they sought the Lord daily Thirdly because they finde that this is attributed to the Saints as the Apostle sayes ye cannot doe the things that ye would Gal. 5. 17. nay the Apostle Paul himselfe speakes it of himselfe the good that I would doe that doe I not and the evill which I would not doe that doe I Rom. 7. 19. So that thus they argue now when they finde this same woulding in their hearts and cannot doe as they would O say they I may say with the Apostle the good which I would doe that doe I not I cannot doe as I would Thus they hoodwinke their owne soules It is very true these be the Saints groanes and a part of their sighing towards God that they cannot doe as they would this makes them a burthen to themselves and so againe when they finde themselves disturbed and limited and straightened by their flesh this is a comfort to their soules and an argument of Gods infinite goodnesse unto them that they can unfeignedly say they would doe better they doe please him in some measure through his grace and they would please him better they doe some good by his heavenly spirit and they would doe more they doe resist every sinne and they would resist it more This is very true But yet how many a thousands lul themselves asleep in security by the fancy of this thing The heart may put forth daily wouldings and be as dead as a carcasse to all the workes of
when the heart comes once to be willing towards God now every thing is possible I may say of him as Christ saith of faith All things are possible to him that beleeves Mark 9. 23. so all things are possible to him that willeth as we use to say there is nothing hard to a willing minde And therefore godly men in Christ Jesus the Apostle cals them 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 c. 2 Tim. 3. 12. Fourthly because this takes in the manner of good duties too as well as the matter it is more a thousand times then the bare doing of them a dead heart will serve to doe them Put when the heart is made willing this is more then the bare naked deed as Paul sayes to the Corinthians about Almes ye have begun not onely to doe but also 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 to be willing a yeare agoe 2 Cor. 8. 10. as he sayes of his preaching if I doe it willingly I have a reward but if against my will c. 1 Cor. 9. 17. that is q. d. I may preach indeed I may have so much heart to it as to doe the deed alas that is nothing because if I doe it willingly this is it this is it brethren this is the right manner too Fifthly this is an argument that the heart hath an inward principle what is the life of the heart but an inward principle of acting looke where the heart is alive there it workes from within there needs no compulsion to a covetous heart to have regard of his profit no he regards it most willingly he hath an inward principle to regard it and therefore he is alive to it now when the heart puts forth its will towards God now it hath an inward principle of agency it needs no constraint as Peter sayes to Ministers feed the flock of God not by constraint but willingly 1 Pet. 5. 2. that is doe it very lively doe it with an inward principle not because ye see others feed not because ye see the disgrace what will people thinke if I should not preach constantly not because ye dare not doe otherwise conscience will flye in your face alas ye may doe it that 's with a dead heart But doe it willingly where note this is the hearts life this is an inward principle of the heart now the heart will doe it though no body else doe it though he be hated for his labour though he have no thanke for his paines among men Thus ye see this is the life of the heart Now for your better understanding we will open this more particularly this willingnesse of the heart you see in the life of the heart and it containeth seven things First the inclinations of the heart Secondly the intentions of the heart Thirdly the Elections of the heart Fourthly the aversations of the heart Fifthly the appropiating of the heart Sixthly the savourings of the heart Seventhly the carings of the heart Beloved these are the living acts of the heart if these be converted to God in you now your hearts are alive towards him These make up the whole willingnesse of the heart First then the inclinations of the heart it may doe a thousand thousand good things with a dead heart But marke if your hearts be inclined towards God then ye serve God with a live heart if the Lord hath inclined your heart to him I have inclined my heart to performe thy Statutes alwayes even to the end Psal 119. 112. Hath God made you doe thus hath he inclined your heart to his name once ye were without heart but now he hath inclined your heart to doe good now ye finde sweet inclinations to every good duty ye doe not goe to them as a Beare to the Stake but now ye have an inward disposition to them he hath given you a feeling of your sinnes and your wants and that caryes you to Prayer a feeling of your Ignorance and forget fulnesse and that carries you to Sermons that ye may learne more of God that ye may see more into your owne unworthynesse that ye may be stirred up in all his wayes ye doe not onely shunn your owne iniquities in some measure but your heart is inclined unto it inclined to thinke of God inclined to holy talke inclined towards them that are Godly-minded ye had no disposition to the works of God heretofore but now the Lord hath not onely put you upon them but inclined your heart towards them ye â—â—ele inward impressions that bowes you others may be have good talke but you feele an unfeigned desire to be edisied and that bowes you unto it Others may be doe good things but the Lord hath bent your heart to them when you went to good duties heretofore ye went against the hare as a Stone does upwards but now in some measure the Lord hath put in a new nature and ye feele an internall mover This is life now Secondly the intentions of the heart we have a saying in Divinity voluntas sua natura vult finem the heart naturally wils the end now if God were our end if communion with him and sanctifying of God in our hearts and lives were our end our heart could not be dead towards his wayes nay we should be very eager after them all all our deadnesse comes from this that God is onely a matter by the by with us But if he were our end then we would be mainely for him and how to approve our selves to him Would we talke as we doe if edification were our end would we keep such company as we doe if mutuall helpe towards eternall life were our end Looke what the heart does intend from day to day the heart is very earnest after it therefore those that intend to rise if they can in the world they are very earnest in the pursuit after the same flatter fawne please humor they will doe any thing to the attaining of it if it be to rid a 100 miles it 's nothing with them if it cost them never so much O how greedy are they if a man intend to gather an estate if he can or to live in pleasure if he can all the world are eager in their intentions the heart runnes naturally on after it's ends Now when the heart is alive towards God these intentions are towards him now the heart standeth thus so I may obey God so I may take heed of dishonouring God so I may keep my heart close to him this is that I doe desire now I goe to worke so I may keep the world from carying away my heart I shall be glad now I am going to Prayer so I may draw down a blessing and get some farther help to walke before God this is the thing I ayme at now I goe to be in such a company so I may discharge a good conscience carry my selfe well and not bring dishonour to God and the like you may see this in Paul what was the matter he was
so eager to deny himselfe I count all drosse and dung the intentions of his heart were after Christ O sayes he that I might know him Phil. 3. 10. Thirdly the elections and choosings of the heart this is another part of the hearts life no man is dead to that which he chooses rather then any thing else now if we did still choose the wayes of God we could not be dead to them when we are dead to them at any time it is because we could even finde in our heart to make another choyce and therefore if we would know whether our heart is alive unto goodnesse whether doe we choose the way of goodnesse every day before any other way as David sayes I have chosen the way of truth Psal 119. 30. as the Lord sayes of the good eunuches they choose the things that please me Isa 56. 4. Beloved what ever we doe or thinke or speake still there be two wayes propounded to us one that is Gods way another that is our owne way now which doe we choose every day what thoughts doe we choose rather of the two to thinke what words doe we choose what actions what courses when we are together what conference doe we choose when alone what doe we choose there be two kinds of eating and drinking which choose we when we are provoked there be two wayes to take either to be impatient and suffer our passions to arise or to quell them and beat them down which doe we choose doe we say as that good man said Lord let thy han help me for I have choosen thy precepts Psal 119. 173. Fourthly the aversions of the heart ye know the heart it chooses what it likes so there is some thing that it shuns now if thou wouldst know whether thy heart be alive towards God doe but thinke with thy selfe what it uses to shun when thou art angry is it disgrace or sinne it ever shuns some thing or other either what God dislikes or what thou every day and houre something it puts off does it put off things that are offensive to thy flesh or things that are offensive to God Here lies thy hearts life if thy heart be alive towards God it is of this temper to put off those things that are displeasing to God I hate vaine thoughts sayes David Psal 119. 113. marke his heart was of this temper to put of all those things that were contrary to God it may be many of those thoughts his own heart would have rather kept I but when his heart was alive towards God he put them off though I have refrained my feet from every evill way that I may keep thy word Psal 119. 101. now when good things shall be put to a man every day by the word and by conscience and a man hath a refusing heart to them this is a dead heart as God put to Iudah to returne but they refused to returne Jer. 5. 3. God put shame before them for their sinnes but they refused to be ashamed Jer. 3. 3. now my brethren examine your bosonies how stand the refusals of your hearts doe you refuse good or evill every day if thou canst refuse temporall evill and not spirituall thou hase a dead heart Fifthly the savourings of the heart this is another peece of the hearts will something there is that every heart savours most and that it is which it is alive unto now then if thy heart be alive unto God it will savour the things of God most it will not onely doe good duties but savour them too not onely heare the word of God but it will have an admirable savour with the heart as the Apostle sayes it will have the savour of life unto life 2 Cor. 2. 16. as the Church sayes to Christ because of the savour of thy good oyntments therefore the Virgins love thee Cant. 1. 3. Oh how it will savour a reproofe how it will relish but if holy things have no sweet savour in thy heart it may be thou canst not for shame of the world not seeme to stand for them thy conscience will not let thee but thou wilt give them a good word and seeme to approve them but there 's no more savour in them then in the white of an egge nay they are irksome and untoothsome they doe not goe merrily down with thee like sweet conserves assure thy selfe thy heart is a dead heart Sixthly the cares of the heart this is another show of the hearts will what the heart is alive to it carketh and careth for it and therefore if thy heart be alive towards God how carefull will it be that it may not offend him yea what care 2 Cor. 7. 11. As the Apostle sayes to Titus I will have thee affirme constantly that they which beleeve in God must be carefull to maintaine good works Tit. 8. 8. therefore if a Minister be alive towards God he will be full of care for his people how he may pull them from their sins how he may draw them to God how he may most doe them good as Paul sayes of Timothy he will naturally care for your Estute Phil. 2. 20. True a man hath many things to doe in the world many cares how to live how to pay rent at quarter day what may become of his poore Children c. I but if the heart be alive towards God it will labour to cast these cares upon God cast all your care upon him 1 Pet. 5. 7. But for heavenly things for the having and keeping of a good conscience it will be full of cares about these things yea it how may get to be more afraid of sinne how may I get a weaned heart from the earth it will be caring how he may be provided for evill times how he may stand in the wofull day Seventhly the appropriating of the heart the esteeming of the heart what 's the hearts jewell that 's the heart most alive to now thinke what does thy heart prize most of all if it be alive towards God he is dearest to thee his will dearer then thine his glory then thy credit his word then thy life as Paul sayes I doe not count my life deare so that I may finish my course with joy Act. 20. 24. this was the Jewell of his heart how he might doe the worke that God set him to doe that he might finish his course so likewise if thy heart be alive love will be like a precious oyntment Psal 133. 2. heavenly wisedome more precious then Rubies Prov. 3. 15. a promise will be precious to the heart 2 Pet. 1. 4. So also faith will be a precious thing 1 Pet. 1. 7. But above all Christ will be precious to the heart to you that beleeve he is precious 1 Pet. 2. 7. these are heart Jewels these it endeares most it will rather â—art with any thing then these nay it will morgage any thing to redeeme these againe These things are little
esteemed among men in their consciences indeed they say they are better then the whole world I but their heart does not greatly esteeme them nay it slights them and seekes them accordingly this is a dead heart Eighthly thus ye see what is the life of the heart it is the absolute will of the heart when the heart is inclined towards God when it intends God when it maks choice of his wayes and puts off whatsoever is contrary to them when it prizes and endeares every one of them all when it savours them and is full of care for them I might adde another the cleaving of the heart when the heart cleaves to the Lord as it is said of Hezekiah that he clave to the Lord 2 King 18. 6. when the heart closes in with God and will not let him goe no nor let his wayes goe it sticks to a Godly course all the world cannot pull him away not firenor faggot though it be never so much hindred and interrupted by the flesh yet now it hath a sticking quality in it as David sayes I have stuck to thy Testimonies Psal 119. 31. Now because when the heart is made willing on this fashion towards God there is left still an adverse unwillingnesse by reason of the flesh so that the heart can never put forth these acts without horrible clogges therefore now in a live heart towards God there be other acts that are not in a heart that is alive to the world And the reason is this Because when the heart is alive to the world the hearts of it own nature is willing unto that and there is no unwillingnesse mixed together with it never was it heard that the heart should be willing and unwilling to the same thing till saving grace came to divide asunder the will in two ye know the regenerate are two men apeice and they have two wills one towards God and another towards sinne and the world nay it 's the same will that hath both these branches in it and this does much puzzle the hearts when they finde such a deale of unwillingnesse in them towards God Therefore I say there be other acts of life in the heart towards God aud they are five The first is the preparing of the heart whereby the heart prepareth it selfe towards God 2 Chron. 30. 18. 19. 1 Sam. 7. 3. The second is the Combating of the heart Gal. 5. 17. 23. 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 I beate downe my body 1 Cor. 9. 27. The third is the endeavouring of the heart it reaches forth it selfe Phil. 3. 13. it stirres up it selfe it awakens it selfe why art thou so sad O my soule Psal 42. 5. The fourth is the binding of it selfe by determinations and purposes so Paul bound his owne heart with a determination before he came unto Corinth 1 Cor. 2. 2. Daniel knowing how unwilling his heart would be to abstaine from the Kings meat though by grace he was willing therefore his heart bound it selfe with a purpose he purposed not to defile himselfe with the Kings meat Dan. 1. 8. So Act. 11. 23. The fifth is the groaning and sighing of the heart as David though he were willing yet feeling the unwillingnes of the flesh therewithall fetch a groane O that my wayes were so direct that I might keepe thy Statutes Psal 119. 5. So Paul groaned earnestly to be dissolved 2 Cor. 5. 2. This is the putting of the heart more forward These I have named you may name more it may be But thus if the heart be alive towards God it will doe because it feeles a great deale of unwillingnesse it gets what advantage it can of it selfe to make it selfe willing as the Church ere ever was aware my soule made me like the Chariots of Aminadab Cant. 6. 12. it sets it selfe right as the soule when it 's dead it neglecteth this act quite and cleane from day to day as the Psalmist sayes of dull Israel he calls them a generation that set not their heart aright Psal 78. 8. REVEL 3. 2. And art Dead WE are come to declare what it is to be a live Christian quickened up towards God and all his holy wayes and after sundry passages we came to enquire what is the life of the soul here I propounded five things First what is the life of the minde Secondly what is the life of the heart Thirdly what is the life of the conscience Fourthly what is the life of the memory And Fifthly what is the life of the affections We have spoken of the first what is the life of the mind ye know by nature the minde is alive to the things of the world and dead towards God and therefore we enquired what the life of the minde is it cannot be the bare knowing of things it may be dead to what it knowes it cannot be the bare thinking of things nor the bare approving of things nor the bare studying of things the minde may performe all these acts to a thing that it is dead to no no the life of the minde is First the applying of the minde Secondly the meditating and minding of the minde Thirdly the considering and weighing of the mind Fourthly the remembring of the minde Fifthly the devising and plotting and projecting and contriving of the minde Sixthly the Judgement of the minde The 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 of the minde looke where the minde is alive there it puts forth these dispositions and therefore when the minde is alive towards God it lets out these towards him Then in the second place we came to enquire what is the life of the heart and this we spake of the last day we shewed you the heart may be somewhat towards a thing and yet be dead towards it for all that First there be shallow acts of the heart the outside acts of the heart there may be so much heart as to bring a man to good duties to constant preaching and hearing and praying and the like and civill carriage and the like and yet the heart dead to them all This is not the life of the heart The life of the heart lies at the bottome of the heart not in the outside no it lies deep within as Salomon sayes my Sonne keepe my sayings in the midst of thy heart Prov. 4. 21. Secondly there be flitting acts of the heart Though they be never so deep in the heart yet if they be such as doe not stay there the heart is dead still for if it were alive it would keep them Let thy heart retaine my words keepe my Commandements and live Prov. 4. 4. Though the word doe stirre one never so much for the present This is no life except thou retaine it and hold it fast a man may have many flashes of life in him but as long as the heart does not keep them it remaines dead when people are moved onely by sits humbled by fits startled by sits their righteousnesse is onely as a morning dew
will not let you doe otherwise alas ye may doe it thus with a dead heart but doe it willingly doe it out of an inward principle no obedience is good without it be done with an inward principle if ye be willing and obedient Isa 1. 19. that is if ye obedient with an inward principle of obedience I this is it indeed Thus you see an absolute will is the life of the heart Now least any should be deceived I shewed you what this absolute will of the heart is I shewed you first it is the inclination of the heart ye know the heart that is alive to the world all its inclinations are that way and therefore the will runnes mainely out that way but its averse from God backward to all heavenly things now when the will is absolutely set towards God God inclines it towards him and makes it incline it selfe as David sayes I have inclined my heart to performe thy statutes alwayes even to the end Psal 119. 112. it may be the world may wonder that any man should be so strict as some are to forgo the pleasures of the flesh as some doe be so precise and so taken up with God as some are the reason is this their wills are absolutely set that way the Lord hath inclined them Secondly the intention of the heart we have a saying in Divinity voluntas ut natura vult finem the heart naturally wills it own ends looke what men aime at looke what they would have what they beat at what they drive at that they will naturally that they will eagerly now when the hearts intentions are towards God then the will is absolutely towards him Beloved what is it ye would have what doe ye drive at a dayes what is the souls scop if that be God if that be to commune with him if that be to please him doubtlesse ye are alive towards God for then the wills are absolutely to him This is a rare worke and therefore true grace of life is a rare thing for how few doe attaine this you come to Church if God were your aime certainly ye would heare otherwise then ye doe many would ye set in your pewes so as ye doe if your aime were to please God or that the word should direct you if this were your aime ye would heare in another gats manner so when ye discourse if your meaning and aime were O now I will discourse to be edisied would ye talke so loosely as ye do nay ye would speake more to the purpose a great deale you may see this in Paul what made him so eager to deny himselfe I count all things drosse and dung sayes he O sayes he the intention of my heart is to Christ that I may know him c. Phil. 3. 10. But I must hasten Thirdly the election of the heart ye know all our life is in Bivio There be two wayes in everything there be two wayes of thinking two wayes of speaking two wayes of doing the one godly the other not There be two wayes in eating and drinking in sleeping and waking in studying in praying and in all our cariages one gracious and the other not now which doe your hearts choose if your hearts have such a disposition to choose the gracious way then your wills are set absolutely that way there ye are alive as David sayes I have chosen the way of truth Psal. 119. 30. marke he had this disposition in him to choose the true way Fourthly the conversation of the heart the heart ever shunnes something or other every day and houre the heart puts off something or other now what does thy heart shun every day does it shun things offensive to thee or things offensive to God if thy will be set absolutely towards God then thy hearts shunnings will run there in things displeasing to him as the Prophet sayes I have refrained my feet from every evillway that I may keep thy word Psal 119. 101. Fifthly the appreciatings of the heart or the estimations of the heart what 's the hearts Jewell that the hearts will is absolutely to now doe but thinke what does thy heart prize most of all what 's dearest to thee O sayes Paul I doe not count my life deare so that I may finish my course Act. 20. 24. this was his hearts Jewell how he might doe the worke that God set him to doe how he might finish his course Gods commandements were dearest to him not his owne credit but Gods glory Sixthly the savouring of the heart this is another piece of the hearts will something there is that the heart savours most Now doth thy heart savour the things of God most thou savourest a businesse where there is profit I but doest thou savour Gods word most canst thou finde the best relish of all in holy duties canst thou savour life in them as Paul sayes there 's the savour of life in these things 2 Cor. 2. 16. Seventhly the cares of the heart This is another signe of the hearts absolute will worldly minded men are full of cares above the things of the world but art thou full of cares about heaven does heaven fill thy head full of cares about it how thou mayst get it c. Thus ye heard what an absolute will is Now because when the will is made absolutely to be for God yet there is an unwillingnesle in the same will in regard of the unregenerate part therefore I shewed you there be other acts of life in the heart towards God opposing that unwillingnesse in the flesh But I must of necessity breake off so much for the heart The next thing to be inquired about is the conscience what is the life of the conscience and here the world is deceived too for the conscience may be awakened very much and yet never quickened indeed First à conscience awakened may like all good things Secondly a conscience somewhat awakened may oblige a man to all manner of good things Thirdly a conscience somewhat awakened may be troubled about his sinnes Fourthly a conscience somewhat awakened may urge one exceedingly to good things Fifthly a conscience somewhat awakened may be very eager in this urging Sixthly a conscience somewhat awakened may prevaile very farre with it's eagernesse Seventhly a conscience somewhat awakened may make one looke at God so farre as it prevailes all this may be in conscience and yet the conscience never quickened indeed so that you see what need there is to enquire what the life of conscience is First I say the conscience somewhat awakened may like of God and all his wayes it may like of Gods judgements be they never so terrible as we see there in Pharaoh when God plagued Aegypt his conscience liked of Gods dealings he thought in his conscience the Lord dealt very righteously with him The Lord is righteous sayes he and I and my people are wicked Exod. 9. 27. So when Rehoboam was horribly beset with Enemies
his conscience justified God O he deales very rightly with me The Lord is righteous 2 Chron. 1â— 6. so Adonibezek when the Lord brought that lamentable judgement on his head his conscience likâ— of Gods doings as I have done so God hath done to me so againe the conscience awakened may like of Gods commandements as Moses tels Israel that God gave them no other Commandements but such as were right and wise and good in the sight of the Heathen Deut 4. 6 7 8. that is they were such commandements that the Heathens thought in their conscience were good Againe the conscience somewhat awakened may like of Gods people that walke according to those Lawes and Commandements you may see this in Balaane O that I might dye the death of the righteous Numb 23. 10. his conscience lik't of their courses so Sauls conscience did approve Davids courses Thou art more righteous then I 1 Sam. 24. 17. A conscience somewhat awakened may like of the best preaching and the strictest preachers never man spake like this man O how mightily they lik't him Herod lik't Iohn admirably he was glad for to heare him profane Israel did wonderfully like the Sacrament of Gods presence when the Arke of God came into the Camp they shouted with a great shout that the earth rang againe 1 Sam. 4. 5. now when a carnall man perceives this work to be in him he is apt to conceive this is true grace of life Beloved you see this is very false Thou mayst like of Gods dealings with thee yea thou mayst thinke in thy conscience he deales very rightly with thee though it be never so bitter thou mayst thinke in thy conscience his commandements are good though they be never so strict thy conscience may like his Ministers and like his precepts and like his Ordinances and his Sacraments and yet be a dead conscience Secondly a conscience somewhat awakened may oblige a man to all manner of good things it may lay the commandements of God to his charge conscience may make him say not onely that the commandements are good but that it is his duty to doe them we see this by experience in many carnall people tell them of any commandement what is their answer Oh you say well I confesse it is my duty every drunkard will say thus I it is my duty never to be drunken the swearer will say thus you say right it is very true I confesse I should not take Gods name in vaine and therefore they are said to be under the Law Rom. 3. 19. that is they are bound in conscience to the Law their conscience tels them they ought to doe it their conscience layes it on them as a bond as the mad Prophet said must I not take heed to speake what God bids me speake Num. 23. 12. conscience layed a must upon his soule And this is the reason why a naughty heart will put off a commandement of God if he can when he sees it goes against his profit or his ease or his credit for he knowes if he yeeld it to be a commandement of God his conscience will come over him and say why then ye must doe it as we read of the Priests and the Elders they would not yeeld that Iohns Baptisme was from heaven O if we should yeeld that why then Christ will say why doe ye not beleeve Mat. 21. 25. mark the conscience comes over a man in all that he knowes God hath commanded and it layes it to his charge and you must doe this and you must doe that this is your duty now when men see this they are apt to conclude that their conscience is alive they thinke this is the life of their conscience to lay Gods commandements to their charge Alas brethren the conscience may be dead for all this you see this in people that are dead in trespasses and sinnes All that the Lord speakes that must I doe Num. 23. 26. it was the speech of a very wretch thou mayst have this principle in thy conscience all that the Lord bids me that must I doe and yet be a dead man O how does this beguile people because they feele such a principle in their conscience a dayes O thinkes one all that the Lord bids me that must I doe when people feele such a principle as this they thinke they are well now if they doe offend at any time they hold it to be but their infirmity and there 's an end But this is very false the conscience may have this principle in it and be dead Thirdly a conscience somewhat awakened may be troubled about his sinnes he may be troubled before he commits he may be very loth to commit them as we see there in Herod when he was betrayed with his rash Oath and he was now tempted to behead John the Baptist his conscience made him very loth to doe it the Text sayes â—â— was exceeding sorrowfull Mark 6. 26. and the contempt shewes it was meerely because he thought in his conscience he should doe very ill to behead so good a man and therefore he was very loth he was troubled in conscience about it so was Darius when the Princes had wound him to cast Daniel into the Lions Denne he was moved troubled in conscience about it he was very loth to doe it he sought a good while how to put off the temptation by getting away how to avoyd this great sinne Dan. 6. 14. so was Pilot troubled in conscience about the condemning of Christ he went to it with a heavy heart and as a conscience somewhat awakened may be troubled before the committing of sinne so he may be troubled in the committing of it An example of this we have in Saul when he committed that sin in sacrificing before Samuel came he was troubled in conscience in the very act I forced my selfe and offered a burnt offering 1 Sam. 13 12. Marke he did not commit the sinne hand-smooth as some doe but he felt a reluctancy againstit Againe a conscience somewhat awakened may be troubled exceedingly after the committing of sinne when Iudas had betrayed our Saviour you see how his conscience was troubled after he had done O sayes hee I have sinned in betraying innocent blood Matth. 27. 4. especially at the hearing of a searching Sermon or at a Fast also then the conscience if it be onely awakened a little will be troubled exceedingly for his sinnes when Samuel kept a Fast there at Mizpah the Text shewes how they were smitten in conscience for their sinnes in so much that they cryed out in the open congregation we have sinned against the Lord 1 Sam. 7. 6. and yet many of these very men by and by shewed the rottennesse of their hearts so that this is another gall when men feele a lothnesse in them to commit sinne trouble of conscience before and at and after they thinke this is true grace doubtlesse doubtlesse their conscience hath life Fourthly conscience somewhat awakened
let his Baalisme alone or if the conscience be against all manner of sinnes it is but in a fume cito redibit in gratiam they are but like new Wine in old Bottels at last the Bottels break and the Wine is all spilt so all these workes in an awakened conscience are onely then while the conscience cannot sleep But when it can fall asleep againe then the man can be quiet againe the conscience is an old conscience and not renewed and therefore it is not able to hold them well then ye see these are not consciences life What then is the consciences life for this ye must know First the conscience hath a Testimoniall life a life whereof it lives as the soul lives for it is the reflexion of the soule the soules privity to it selfe betweene God and it selfe And therefore if the soule be alive towards God then the conscience is alive too as the Apostle sayes How much more shall the bloud of Christ who through the eternall spirit offered himself without spoâ— to God purge your conscience from dead workes is to serves the living God Heb. 9. 14. marke when a mans dead workes are purged away the conscience is alive when a mans selfe is alive and his workes are alive the conscience is alive as we say of the goodnesse of conscience though the conscience be never so good in it selfe yet as long as the man is not good his conscience can never be good conscience is said to be good as a Messenger is said to be good namely when he bringeth good tydings though he be never so good a man yet if he doe not bring good tydings we say he is an ill Messenger he sent evill Angels among them Psal 78. 49. Calvin thinkes it may be meant of good Angels yet said to be ill Angels because they brought evill Plagues upon Aegypt so stands a good conscience that can bring good tydings of a man that he is a good man true a wicked mans conscience may report well of him as Absolon did of the people O your matters are good sayes he when they were stark naught so thy conscience may flatter thee and say thy matters are good But when conscience can say truly thy matters are good The conscience is like a Register or a Bill now then it is a Bill of good Items when all thy sinnes are blotted out ye know we call it a fowle bill that hath fowle crimes written in it Item this man stole a horse Item he brake into such a mans house Item he murdered such a man when such a Bill as this comes in at the Assizes against a poore Prisoner this is a black Bill this is a fowle Bill so as long as thy conscience is a fowle Bill Item I was born in sinne Item I have lived very loosely Item I have heard so many Sermons and gotten litte good Item I was at such a Sacrament and was nere the better thy conscience is a fowle Bill this is a fowle conscience as the Apostle sayes a defiled conscience Tit. 1. 15. This is a bad conscience now when the conscience is cleane then it is a good conscience so I may say of a lively conscience the conscience is alive when the man is alive towards God then it beares witnesse but that is not all the conscience hath other acts Secondly the conscience hath another life of it's own namely the conscience is said to be quickened up to its duty when it quickens up the whole man to doe his As the conscience of the good people that offer'd to the Tabernacle was a quick conscience their conscience was quick to doe its duty because it quickened them up to doe theirs their heart made them willing Exod. 35. 29. that is their conscience made them willing though the conscience be never so eager that is not it it never does its duty with life till it make thee doe thy duty with life The conscience of the godly may be is not so eager neither does it keep such a doe as many a wicked mans conscience The eagerer conscience is faine to be it 's a signe the man is the more dead when a man is alive the conscience stirres him up with more ease like a man that is willing to pay his debts the creditor need no more then aske whereas when the debter is a slye fellow there needs the more Bawling so that if thou would'st know whether thy conscience be quick the question is not whether it be eager or no But whether does it quicken thee up to doe thy duty or no. This then is the life of conscience when it makes a man doe his duty towards God and man when it makes a man beleeve with all his heart when it makes him love God with all his soule and mind to serve him in truth to doe his holy will to humble himselfe soundly before God for all his sinnes to make his peace with God daily to please him and to walke before him in newnesse of life This is a living conscience this conscience hath the grace of life in it whether it doe it by eagernesse or not that is not it whether with much a doe or little that is all one First When the conscience does not onely check but it checkes to some purpose as when David had numbred the people his heart smote him 2 Sam. 24. 10. such checks there may be in a wicked heart when a man is made to doe the Lords will for conscience sake Secondly When it does not onely accuse for sinne so a naturall conscience may doe but it pulls a man downe before God and cites himselfe effectually before God The just man first accuseth himselfe as the Greek and the Latin read it Prov. 18. 17. Thirdly when it does not onely condemne one for sinne for so the wicked have condemning consciences as the Apostle sayes if our heart condemneth 1 Joh. 3. 20. that is if we be wicked as Paul sayes knowing that he that is such is subverted and sinneth being condemned ef himselfe Tit. 3. 11. that is he is a wicked wretch so that a wicked mans conscience may and will and shall condemne himselfe But I meane when the conscience does not onely condemne one for sinne but it tramples upon ones self as a damned wretch in himselfe to save God a labour as the Apostle speakes if we would judge our selves we should not be Iudged 1 Cor. 11. 31. Fourthly when it does not onely pull a man a dayes so it may doe the wicked and the ungodly they feele many puls every day and may be their conscience makes them leave many particular sinnes But when the conscience puls a man out of every known sinne withall the detestation and loathing out of unbeleife out of inpenitency and heardnesse of heart out of formality and all this is a lively conscience as Iob sayes my heart shall not reproach me as long as I live Job 27. 6. These are the
lively acts of conscience about sinne The lively effects whereof are three The first is penitent shame that ever he hath done it conscience makes him flye from it as a horrible shame and confusion of face before God as the Apostle sayes what fruit have ye of those things whereof ye are now ashamed Rom. 6. 21. Secondly another is penitent griefe and compunction of heart so ye may see this effect in the new converts They were pricked in their hearts Act. 2. 37. Thirdly another effect is penitentiall feare whereby he is afraid to sinne against God againe 2 Cor. 7. 11. Fourthly another is humbling despaire in himselfe that he sees nothing in him but death and damnation and so he lies at Gods Gate as a man utterly undone in himselfe having no hope but onely in Christ for as God dealt with Paul in regard of his recovery out of his sicknesse he brought him to despaire of life in himselfe 2 Cor. 1. 8. so does a lively conscience in regard of misery Thus ye see for sinne Secondly now for the lively acts of conscience in regard of good when the conscience hath life it does not onely excuse in part for so it may doe in a wicked heart nay a wicked man hath such an excusing conscience when he does good for the matter of it as we read in the Heathens Rom. 2. 15. But it does sweetly excuse him and tels him he hath done it unfeignedly in the truth of his heart that he does beleeve that he does truly repent that he does in some measure walke in new obedience from day to day and that he stands guiltlesse before God through Jesus Christ When the conscience does not urge a man onely to that which is good As it urged Agrippa almost thou perswadest me c. 26. 28. Thirdly approbation when the conscience either may or does pronounce a man to please God The lively effects of these acts are 1 Ioy. 2 Cor. 1. 12. The second is boldnesse freedome from slavish feare The righteous is bold as a Lyon Prov. 28. 1. Againe a lively conscience is a sudden conscience Secondly a tender conscience REVEL 3. 1. And art Dead THe point we are in is when is the conscience alive when is that quickened up in a man ye have heard First what is the quickening of the minde Secondly what is the quickening of the heart now I say it followes what is the quickening of the conscience I shewed you how thousands are deceived here for the conscience may be awakened very much and yet never quickened indeed First the conscience somewhat awakened may like of good things Secondly the conscience somewhat awakened may oblige a man to all manner of good things Thirdly a conscience somwhat awakened may be much troubled about sinnes Fourthly a conscience somewhat awakened may urge one to good things Fifthly it may be very eager in this urging Sixthly it may prevaile very farre with its eagernesse Seventhly it may make one looke at God in some sence so farre as it prevailes All this may be in conscience and yet the conscience never quickened indeed and we have shewed you all these and cleared them unto you so that you see what need there is to enquire what the life of conscience is After the handling of these seven particulars we gave you five reasons to prove that these are not arguments that the conscience is truly alive that the conscience may doe all this and yet not have the grace of life in it First because all these workes of conscience may be in a naturall man 2. Because the conscience notwithstanding all these may be deader then ever it was Thirdly because such a conscience as this may be foolish and childish and soone pleased if the conscience were alive indeed nothing would content it but the favour of God and the Image of God and true faith ' and true peace c. But this conscience may be soone pleased if it have but any colour of grace and goodnes that 's able to still it quiet it Fourthly because the conscience though it be thus stirring as ye heard it is so far from being alive that it uses to be a help furtherance unto ones lusts Fifthly because this conscience is not universall it culs out onely some particular sinnes to be violent against and lets alone others it picks out some particular duties and good courses to be very eager for and is carelesse of others You will say then what is consciences life when is the conscience said truly to be quickened For the opening of this ye must know there be two lives of conscience in a godly man The first is a relative life whereby it 's alive when the man is alive The second is a simple life The first I say is a relative life whereby it is said to be alive when the man whose it is is alive for conscience is the reflection of the soule the soules privity to it selfe between God and it selfe And therefore if the soule be alive towards God then the conscience is alive too as the Apostle sayes How much more shall the blood of Jesus Christ who through the eternall spirit offered himselfe without spot to God purge your conscience from dead workes to serve the living God Heb. 9. 14. Marke when a mans dead workes are purged away the conscience is alive when a mans selfe is alive and his workes are alive the conscience is alive also as we say of the goodnesse of conscience so it is the life of conscience though the conscience be never so good in it selfe yet as long as the man is not good his conscience can never be good conscience is said to be good as a Messenger is said to be good namely when he bringeth good tidings as David said of Ahimaaz he is a good man and he bringeth good tidings 1 Sam. 18. 27. Though a Messenger be nere so good a man yet if he doe not bring good tideings we say he 'es an ill Messenger He sent evill Angels among them Psal 78. 49. Calvin thinkes it may be meant of good Angels yet said to be evill Angels because they brought evill upon Aegypt so that 's a good conscience that bringeth good tidings to a man that he does beleeve that he is in Christ that he is a good man True a wicked mans conscience may report well of him as Absolon did of the people O your matters are good sayes he when they were stark naught so thy conscience may flatter thee and say thy matters are good but when conscience can say truly thy matters are good The conscience is like a Register or a Bill now when it is a Bill of good Items when all thy sinnes are blotted out and good things are written in now it 's a good conscience ye know we call it a fowle Bill that hath fowle crimes written in it though the Bill be never so faire written yet if it have fowle
crimes written in it it 's a fowle Bill Item this man stole a Horse Item he broke into such a mans house Item he murdered such a man when such a Bill as this comes in at the Assizes against a poore prisoner this is a black Bill this is a fowle Bill so as long as thy conscience is a fowle Bill Item I was borne in sinne Item I have lived very loosely Item I have heard so many Sermons and yet I have beene nere the better Item I have beene at so many Sacraments and yet I have gone on in my vile courses thy conscience is a fowle Bill this is a fowle conscience as the Apostle sayes a defiled conscience Tit. 1. 15. now when the conscience is cleane then it 's a good conscience so I may say of a lively conscience the conscience is alive when the man is alive when his mind is quickened up towards God his heart which before was dead in trespasses and sinnes now it 's alive towards God this mans conscience is alive The reason is because now his conscience may say I am alive for conscience is the reflection of the soule on it selfe and therefore if thou beest alive thy selfe thy conscience is alive too This is the first life the relative life of conscience Now that this is one life of conscience is plaine because if a mans selfe be dead conscience will say I am dead as Paul sayes speaking of himselfe and the Ephesians before their conversion O sayes he ye were dead in sinnes Eph. 2. 5. looke what a man is if the conscience be inlightened it takes it on it selfe when David had sinned I have sinned sayes his conscience so let a man be holy the conscience presently takes it upon it selfe as we see there in David when he was holy I am holy sayes his conscience Lord preserve my soule for I am holy Psal 86. 2. So that if thou beest dead thy conscience is dead if thou beest alive thy conscience is alive But I let this passe I come now to the second life of conscience and that is it 's simple life conscience hath another life of its owne for as when the man is alive the conscience is alive so the conscience is quickened up to doe its duty when it quickens up the whole man to doe his as the conscience of the good people that offered to the Tabernacle was a quick conscience their conscience was quick to doe its duty because it quickened them up to doe theirs their heart made them willing Exod. 35. 29. that is their conscience made them willing Though the conscience be never so eager that is not it it never does its duty with life till it make thee to doe thy duty with life The conscience of the godly may be is not so eager neither does it keep such a doe as many a wicked mans conscience The eager conscience is feigne to be it 's a signe the man is the more dead when the man is alive his conscience stirres him with more ease like a man that is willing to pay his debts the creditor need no more then aske whereas if the debtor be a very slye fellow there needs the more bawling so that if thou wouldest know whether thy conscience be quick the question is not whether it be eager or no but whether does it quicken thee up to thy duty or no This then is the life of conscience when it makes a man doe his duty sincerely both towards God and man when it makes a man beleeve with all his heart when it makes him love God with all his soule and minde to serve him in truth to doe his holy will to humble himselfe soundly before God for all his sinnes to make his peace with God daily to please him and to walke before him in newnesse of life This is a living conscience This conscience hath the grace of life in it whether it doe it by eagernesse or not whether with a horrible stirre or a great pudder or no that is not it if it make a man doe his duty aright then conscience does its duty this is Consciences life First when the Conscience does not onely check but it checks to some purpose when it smites so that all the soule feeles it and lies downe under it when the Conscience does not onely doe duty in this thing but it makes a man to doe his it makes him smite himselfe as the Publican did he smote upon his breast Luke 18. 13. as Ephraim did I smote upon my thigh Jer. 31. 10. when a man is made to Check himselfe what have I done Jer. 8. 6. when David numbred the people the Text shewes how his conscience was quick his heart smote him 2 Sam. 24. 10. Dull checks there may be in a wicked heart yea mighty checks and mighty smitings yea greater for quantity then in any Childe of God but all to little or no purpose Davids Conscience smote him to purpose you see there it made him doe his duty indeed it was a Divine Check it was a Check that put him into a right way againe so except thy Conscience thus Check thee a dayes may be thou forgetest thy selfe now and then and then thy Conscience gives thee a Check O what a beast am I and so sets thee to rights againe sometimes thou art over taken in passion but then comes Conscience and tels thee what God sayes O why doe I give place to the Devill and then thy passions goe downe againe This is Gods Bit that he guides his people by as the Rider does his beast with a Bridle The wicked are like your sturdy horses that get their Bridle in their Teeth God may pull hard at them give them fiercer twitches then he does his owne Children but they get the Bridle in their Teeth and so they are unrulier But when it is Gods Bridle to lead a man by now his Conscience is alive when it Checks to purpose Secondly when it does not onely accuse for sinne so a naturall Conscience may doe but it puls a man downe before God and Cites himselfe effectually before his Tribunall I make this a different work for the accusation of Conscience differs from its Checking the Check is a spirituall lash the Conscience gives the soule now the accusation gives the reason of its lashing O thou hast sinned against God ye know this is a duty of Conscience too in regard of sinne to accuse And then Conscience is alive when it does this duty to purpose to make a man to doe his namely to goe and Confesse his sinne in a penitent manner True a wicked mans Conscience does accuse but that drives a man from God as it 's said of the Scribes and the Pharisees when their Consciences accused them they went cut Joh. 8. 9. But when Conscience is alive it accuses before God it Cites a man soundly before God and what a vile wretch am I it so does its duty in accusing
that it makes a man to doe his freely to accuse himselfe The just man first accuseth himselfe Prov. 18. 17. So it is in the Greek and the Latin Hast thou such a Conscience as this this is a lively Conscience when thy Conscience does not onely doe its duty to accuse thee for every sinne that thou dost but it makes thee to doe thine freely to accuse thy selfe before God a wicked Conscience may accuse I but it does not mak the man to do his duty he does not freely accuse himselfe it is onely forced in him it is with Coaction and Compulsion But it s free in Gods Children when Daniel went to confesse his sinnes before God the Text says he set himself to do it I set my face unto the Lord God Dan. 9. 3. that is his Conscience did not onely doe its duty in this thing but it made him to doe his Thirdly when it does not onely Condemne one for sinne for so the wicked have condemning Consciences as the Apostles says if our heart condemne us 1 John 3 20. that is if we be wicked as Paul sayes Knowing that he that is such is subverted and sinneth being condemned of himselfe Tit. 3. 11. that is he is a very wicked Creature so that a wicked mans Conscience does Condemne But I meane when the Conscience does not onely condemne one for sinne it does not onely doe its owne duty in this thing but it makes the man to doe his it makes him trample upon himselfe as a damned wretch in himselfe to save God a labour as the Apostles speakes if we would judge our selves we should not be judged 1 Cor. 11. 31. when Conscience makes a man freely to accept of damnation thou shalt accept of thy punishment then I will remember my Covenant Levit 26. 41. 42. when it makes thee lay thy Neck on the block Lord the worst place in hell is too good for me I have often told you a story in the acts and monuments of the Church when Edward the first one of the Kings of England was a hunting and one of the standers by had displeased him the King rid after him with a drawne sword for to stab him the man runne away for his life the King rid over hedge and ditch to overtake him and when the man saw he had no way to escape he fell downe and held up his throat to the King if it please your Majesty here is my throat The King melting towards him shewed him mercy So when Conscience makes thee say Lord here is my throat here is my soule if it please thee thou maist send Satan to take it and carry it to hell with him Thou hast no way to escape therefore offer thy selfe unto God may be thy Conscience does Condemne thee alas that is not it thy Conscience does not its duty with any life till it make thee doe thine doest thou freely Condemne thy selfe accept of thy punishment lay thy head on the block does thy soule lye groveling before God this is a live Conscience Fourthly when it does not onely pull a man a dayes from sinne and Iniquity so it may doe with the wicked and the ungodly they feele many pulles every day and may be their Conscience makes them leave many particular sinnes though that 's very rare as the times now be but when the Conscience pulles a man forth of every knowne sinne when it so does its duty in this kinde that it makes thee to doe thine when thou pullest thy selfe withall detestation and loathing out of pride out of security out of unbelief out of heardnesse of heart out of formality and all this is a lively Conscience as Iob sayes my heart shall not reproach me so long as I live Job 27. 6. that is as my heart does its duty towards me so it shall make me doe mine I will yeeld to mine owne Conscience in every thing whatsoever sinne it tels me off I will be sure to set my selfe against it it shall not lie heaving at me and I never stirre then it would reproach me but it shall never reproach me so long as I live These are the lively acts of Conscience about sinne The lively effects whereof are foure The first is a penitent shame that ever a man should sin against God when Conscience does thus as ye have heard then it produces this effect that the man is ashamed before God as the Apostle sayes what fruit have you of those things whereof ye are now ashamed Rom. 6. 21. people are apt to be ashamed before men Diodorus Cronus when Stilpo askt him a ridiculous question and he could not answer him he was so ashamed that he fell downe starke dead he thought it was such a disgrace to be nonplust But if Conscience were alive and did doe its duty indeed it would make us ashamed for our sinnes before God Ezra was ashamed before God for the sinnes of the people I blush sayes he to lift up mine eyes unto thee when a man is Ignorant of God in Jesus Christ this should be a shame I speake this to your shame 1 Cor. 15. 34. that is if there be any grace in your hearts certainely ye will be ashamed that ye should have no more knowledge of God I say when the Conscience is alive against sinne it makes a man ashamed before God It shewes him his nakednesse before heaven it propounds God before his eyes seeing all his uncleanenesse and so it makes him ashamed before him doest thou Count it a disgrace to doe evill a disgrace to offend God a confusion of face to doe iniquity though it be never so secret Canst thou not looke upon thy unworthy dealings with God but it makes thee ashamed in his sight this is the effect of a living Conscience Secondly another effect is penitent griefe and compunction of heart ye may see this effect in the new converts they were prickt in their hearts Act. 2. 37. when their Conscience began to be alive to smite them for their sinnes to accuse them and Condemne them it grieved them exceedingly it went to the quick it was like a Dagger in their heart it prickt them it made them mourn for all that they had done True a naturall Conscience produces griefe ther 's nere a wretch but if his Conscience be awakened to Check him and accuse him and condemne him it will make him to grieve for his sinnes But this is onely legall and surly Now when the Conscience is alive to doe its duty as to make the man to doe his now it makes him grieve out of love to God out of love to grace and goodnesse now he grieves because he hath broken those Commandements that he loves he loves to obey God O it is the unfeigned desire of his soule to obey him and therefore he grieves that he hath done the Contrary Thirdly another effect is penitent feare It makes a man afraid to sin against God againe as the Apostle
sayes Yea what seare 2 Cor 71. 1. a natural conscience may cause a kind of feare too nay a horrible feare The sinners in Zion are afraid fearefulnesse saith surprized the Hypocrites c. Isa 33. 14. for a guilty Conscience cannot but worke feares when it s awakened but this feare is meerely out of selfe love and of Bondage But when the Conscience hath done so its owne duty upon a man that it hath made him to doe his now it makes him filially afraid to sinne against God as a true Childe feares to offend his Father when a man hath this feare in him this is a signe of a living Conscience Fourthly another effect is trembling despaire in ones self it maks him see nothing but hell and damnation in himselfe and it flings him downe at Gods Gate as a man utterly undone in himselfe having no hope in himselfe for as God dealt with Paul in regard of his recovery out of sicknes he brought him to despaire of life in himselfe 2 Cor. 1. 8. so does a living Conscience in regard of mercy a naturall Conscience the effect of that is to despaire too But that is to despaire in God because when there is nothing but nature in the Conscience how can it be otherwise But when there is grace in the Conscience grace in the heart now though Conscience represent to him his damned estate it represents withall the free grace of God in Jesus Christ to all such as are heavy laden and so it is onely despaire in himselfe now hast thou such an effect in thee to despaire in thy self to fling of all thine own hopes and thy own dependences hangings holdings ye know the soule hath a thousand thousand such wishes wouldings purposes dutyes performances these the soule hangs on But now hast thou this effect in thee that thou doest absolutely despaire in thy selfe I meane selfe confidence with whatsoever good is in thee be it grace or what ever doest thou despaire in thy selfe this is a signe of a living Conscience now thou hang'st upon nothing but the meere mercy and good will of God And this is the best hold in the world though the world cannot abide it Thus ye see for sinne The livingnesse of Conscience in regard of sinne Secondly now for the livingnesse of Conscience in regard of good Then is the Conscience alive to that which is good First when it goes and it does not onely urge a man to that which is good so it did Agrippa Almost thou perswadest me to be a Christian Act. 28. 28. when Paul spake unto him it seemes his Conscience tooke hold of Pauls words and it did mightily urge it had almost done the deed alas this is not it a dead Conscience may doe this yea with admirable importunity as it is in many But when the Conscience doth not onely urge when that does not onely doe its duty in this point but it makes a man doe his duty too the man freely urges himselfe and freely sets himselfe to it and about it as it was with David when thou sayest seek ye my face my heart said unto thee thy face Lord will I seek Psal 27. 8. that is when thou sayest thus in my Conscience seeke my face my heart ecchoed back I will doe so indeed marke his Conscience did not onely doe its duty but it made him to doe his as his Conscience did urge him so he tooke these urgings and urged himselfe Secondly when the Conscience hath life towards good it excuses and it does not onely excuse in part for so it may doe in a wicked heart many a wicked man hath such an excusing Conscience when he does good for the matter of it as we read in the Heathen Rom. 2. 15. their Consciences accusing or else excusing their Conscience did excuse in part But it excuses full out it tels him he hath done it unfeignedly in the truth of his heart that he does beleeve in God that he does truly repent from dead workes that he does in some poore measure walke in new obedience from day to day and that he stands guiltlesse before God by faith in Christ Jesus or if it doe not excuse thus it is meerly out of Ignorance of the things given him of God a living Conscience is an excusing conscience it does not onely say the thing that he does is good but that he does it unfeignedly withall his heart true a naturall Conscience not awakened may doe thus but that 's a misprision for when it comes to see its owne condition indeed then it will be in another tale ah I am rotten I have beguiled mine owne soule to this very day but a living Conscience can never be confuted as it excuses so its excuses shall stand before God because it is quickened by the grace that is in Jesus Christ his bloud is sprinkled on it Thirdly when the Conscience hath life towards good it approves a man and his wayes it either may or does pronounce a man to please God As it was with Enech he had a conscience that told him he was approved of God before his translation he had this Testimony that he pleased God Heb 11. 5. this is the nature of conscience if it be alive to do its duty and so as to make a man to doe his to tell a man that he is allowed of God which is an admirable mercy that a childe of God should have such an intelligencer in his owne bosome that can tell him he is approved of God no creature is able to expresse what comfort this is none but good people can have this others may be approved of men others may heare that such and such doe approve them but they can never heare that God does approve them These are the consciences onely towards good which it can never doe except it be alive Now the effects of these be First Joy when the conscience does its duty towards God and makes a man doe his duty too this worketh Joy in his heart as Paul says This is our rejoyeing even the Testimony of our conscience that with sincerity and godly purenesse we have had our conversation in the world 2 Cor. 1. 12. There is no joy like this joy wicked men may laugh and seeme as merry as crickets but in the of their laughter their conscience gives them but cold comfort now when a man hath such a conscience as this that sets him about that which is good this makes him have truer joy then all the world besides for howbeit the world are besotted that they doe not looke after God Yet the conscience knowes it is goodnesse onely that will please God and therefore when the conscience is privy to this no tongue can speake what a joy this is unto one Secondly another effect is boldnesse and freedome from slavish feare There 's a deale of feare in a mans heart as long as he does not serve God and doe the things that are
for his conscience he called it up every day he was active about it so that the stirrings that are in wicked men they are none of theirs but Gods meerly to pull them out of the bottomlesse pit if it might be in the meane time his conscience is as dead as himselfe Thus ye see what the life of the conscience is First there is a relative life of conscience the conscience is alive when the man is alive Secondly the conscience is alive when it makes duty so that it makes the man do his duty too when it does not onely check for evill and accuse for evill and condemne for evill and prompt a man that he should take heed of evill but it make a man doe his duty in all these so also when it does not onely urge a man to that which is good and excuse him and approve him but in all these it makes him doe his duty too so likewise when it counsels it does not onely counsell and dictate what is to be done and what not but it so does all these particulars that it makes the man to doe his duty in sincerity from day to day This is alive conscience Now that this is the live conscience I prove it unto you by five Arguments 1. Because conscience was made not onely to doe all these acts but to make a man to doe his so that when conscience does its own acts never so much that 's nothing to the life of conscience does thy conscience check thee and smite thee does it whisper never so much in thee this is no Argument it 's alive except it make thee to be obedient unto God Conscience was given man for this purpose and therefore then onely is it alive when it is for this purpose in thy Bosome when David would get up out of his temptations you may see how he got up by conscience I communed with my owne heart and my spirit sayes he made diligent search Psal 77. 6. that is he communed with his conscience what he knew about God and so got himselfe up this is thy consciences office to tell thee what thou hast heard out of the word and that is not all but to lead thee guide thee as the helme does the Ship It is given thee to be thy keeper as he sayes J was upright before him and I kept my selfe from my iniquity Psal 18. 23. that is this is my iniquity this is the sinne that I am most inclined to I must keepe my selfe from that Thus his conscience was his keeper under God Secondly another argument is because this is the way whereby godly people doe their duties their conscience makes them doe their duty it makes them beleeve it makes them feare God it makes them eschew evill and doe good from day to day Blesse the Lord O my soule and forget not all his benefits Psal 103. 2. when the Prophet would doe this duty he made his conscience presse it soundly upon him to doe it so when he would waite upon God he set his owne soule and conscience upon him to make him to doe it waite on the Lord be of good courage he will strengthen thy heart waite I say upon the Lord Psal 27. 14. Thirdly another argument is this is the description of those that have a live conscience they are such as make themselves doe their duties continually as the Apostle sayes He that hath this hope in him purisieth himselfe even as he is pure 1 Joh. 3. 3. that is he is a man that makes himselfe doe his duty his owne soule and conscience sayes thus unto him Christ is a pure Christ and I must be like him as ever I hope that he will bring me into his kingdom and this makes him doe his duty he purisieth himselfe even as he is pure I could quote abundance of places to prove this Fourthly another argument is when God speakes to any that are alive from the dead to doe their duties towards him he bids them make themselves to doe their duties on this manner so Saint Paul sayes Having these promises let us cleanse our selves from all filthinesse of the flesh and spirit perfecting holinesse in the sight of God 2 Cor. 7. 1. that is goe and aske your owne soule and conscience what have I not these and these promises why then I must labour to be cleansed from all manner of sinne I must perfect holinesse in the feare of God now sayes he let us make our selves doe our duties thus Nay fifthly when God speakes to them which are yet dead and would turne them home unto him he bids them doe thus in regard of the meanes turne your selves and live you Ezek. 18. 32. that is Let your owne soules and consciences consider this is the way to live ye cannot be saved without turning as ever I would live for ever I must be turned from all my sinfull courses make your selves doe your duties in this manner that is use all the meanes that the Lord hath given you to use make your selves goe about it not as though any man hath free will to turne himselfe But he speakes of the use of all meanes that he puts into your hands make your selves to use them nay no soule can ever look to be saved except he doe not onely let his conscience check him and tell him thus and thus his duty is but also let his conscience make him doe his duty too so that this must needs be the life of the conscience when it does not onely doe its owne duty to check and to whisper but also it makes a man to doe his The use of this is first then we see here how few have live consciences for people have consciences that doe onely tell them they should be more carefull they should give over such and such sins they should beleeve and they should be zealous and they should be more setled but O how few have consciences that make them doe their duties Numb 15. 40. that ye may remember and doe all my commandements and be holy unto your God REVEL 3. 1. And art Dead WE are come to speake of this necessary point when is a man quickened up towards God and all his holy wayes We have shewed you three things concerning this already First what the life of the minde is Secondly what the life of the heart is Thirdly what the life of the conscience is Now there remaines two more the one is the life of the memory the other is the life of the affections Fourthly then what is the life of the memory for the memory too may be dead and the memory may be alive First the memory may be dead when a man may be remembers if ye aske him a thing he can tell it aske him of a Sermon he can tell the Text and the points and the particulars that were delivered in the Sermon but here 's all it 's a dead memory he never remembers it to
I have had Psal 77. 5. 6. so if any of you besecure ye may remember some thing or other that is past which may awaken you againe hath God never shewed you your damned estate heretofore were ye never sick heretofore and did you not see that if ye had dyed in that case ye had perisht ye may remember that now and awaken your selves and how if God should take you away in such a case as that It cannot be related what a blessing it is that we have a memory But let us come to the third thing and that is this when may the memory be said to be alive I answer there be two parts of the memories deadnesse towards God The first is an aptnesse to forget God and all his commands Secondly an aptnesse to remember those things that are not so good for us now when those two faults are rectified in some measure then the memory is alive towards God First There 's aptnesse in your memories to forget God and all his commands ye know God commands us to remember the Sabbath day to keepe it holy Exod. 20. 8. how apt are we to forget it how commonly is it out of our minds so in the 78. Psalme and the 7. verse God sayes there he would not have us sorget his workes but that we should keepe his commandements now O how apt are we to let them leake out of our hearts we have a hellish art of forgetfulnesse how often doe we forget our selves herein and suffer the remembrance of God to be taken away from us ye have forgotten the exhortation that speakes to you as to Children Heb. 12. 5. how often doe we forget to keep our selves unspotted though we be told of the will of God yet any little thing is enough to put it out of our minds stay them not least my people forget it though we be told of our misery and the infinite danger we are in may be at the first it moves us a little but how soon doe we forget it and other things take us up now when this aptnesse is rectified in some measure when God hath a sound impresse on our minds that we must needs remember him and all the things that concerne our peace when there 's a Law in our mindes that we will not forget God as ye may see there in David Blesse thou the Lord O my soule and forget not all his benefits Psal 103. 2. when our memory is sanctified and is made the good Treasury of our heart when the Lord hath lifted up our memory unto him then it is alive Secondly as by nature there 's an aptnesse in our memory to forget God so there 's an aptnesse to remember other things that either are not good for us or not so good we are apt to remember injuries nay one injury will be thought one more then many good turns so likewise idle tales we are apt to remember them whereas good things goe out in our hearts like sparkes in wet tinder We may see this in the hearing of the word the Apostle tearmes us forget sull hearers James 1. 25. if a tale be told us in a Sermon that we can remember how many are apt to carry that way whereas that which is wholesom and might doe us more good how apt we are we to forget that as a Divine sayes our memories are like strainers all the pure milke runneth through but if there be any drosse that stayes behinde or like a grate that lets the pure water run away and if there be any strawes and stickes and filth and mud and dregs that it holds so it is with our memories by nature trifles and toyes and worldly things them we are apt to remember like the Shepheard in York-shire that could remember all his flock he kept a thousand sheep and if one should but change one Sheep and put in another he could tell which it was But for gratious things our memories does soon forget them like Israel they soon forgot all the workes of God Psal 106. 13. now what is this but the corruption deadnes of our memories towards God may be we are apt to excuse it alas we have weak memories true if we were as weake memoryed in other things it were something but when we can remember our pleasures and profits and tales and any thing when we goe to buy weel 'e be sure to remember our selves there when to sell wee 'le be sure to remember our selves there that we will have to the worth if we can But in matters of God there we forget our selves this cannot be excused Now when this is rectified in some measure then our memory is alive when we will rather forget any thing else then God rather forget our selves in all the world then forget our duty towards God when this study is once set up soundly in the soule in some measure now the memory is alive Thus ye see the third thing Now for the fourth that this must needs be the life of the memory I prove it by arguments First because the memory hath hardly any other quickening then the quickening of the man whose memory it is so that when the mans mind is quickened together with his conscience and heart the memory is quickened too as the Prophet sayes I will never forget thy precepts for with them thou hast quickened me Psal 119. 93. that is my memory is quickened up to thy precepts because with them thou hast quickened me for we see commonly that the faculty of memory is much at one after conversion that it was before conversion if it were a weake memory before so it is after onely this as the strength of it was let out towards the world and sinne and selfe before so now the strength of it is in some measure let out towards the best things And therefore what can the life of the memory be but the aptnesse of a man to remember God Secondly because this is the onely practicall memory ye know a man may have an admirable memory to remember Sermons whole Chapters in the Bible and yet have a dead memory to God a Sanctified memory is a practicall memory as the Lord sayes remember the Sabbath day to keep it holy q. d. ye may remember still when the Sabbath is come I this is the Sabbath day that is not it that 's onely a contemplative memory But I would have you have a practicall memory not onely to remember the duty but remember for to doe it for as the contemplative understanding hath a faculty of conserving its species so the practicall understanding hath a faculty of conserving its species too as long as a man hath not this practicall memory it is nothing Because he remembred not to shew mercy Psal 109. 16. marke the Lord does not sinde fault with a man for not remembring of that duty for may be he did remember that I but he did not remember to doe his duty this is