Diet that provokes to 〈◊〉 by the tast the harsh and unkind language that provokes to wrath and impatience by the Ear But the Mind and Understanding toucheth the Lord directly meets with his Rule and with God acting in the way of his Government there and when it goes off from the Rule as before and attends its own vanity and folly it justles with the Almighty stands in open defyance and resistance against him This also appeared in Adams sin our of the folly of his own deluded thoughts he would have unthroned the Almighty and hoped by Satans Counsels to set himself in the room of God Ye shall be as gods knowing good and evil Gen. 3. and he saw it to be good to get knowledg and so purchase a Deity to himself and so put it to tryal thus the wicked openly profess They say to the Almighty depart from us we desire not the knowledg of thy waies Job 21. when they desire not to have the wisdom of God rule in their minds but set up their own foolish imaginations they say then to God depart from us they shake off the Authority of the Truth and with that the Soveraignty of the Lord himself and his Government Hence the Apostle Collos. 1. 21. They were Enemies and where lay that enmity in their minds in their 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 in their Discourse in the exercise of the largest act of their Understandings wherein the use of the whol faculty appears and this enmity appears in the fruit of it which wil undoubtedly follow namely evil works Hence Rom. 8. 7. the wisdom of the flesh is said to be enmity against God not an enemy to him that would somtimes cross and oppose him but Enmity the whol being and working of it is carried in constant opposition against the Law And upon 〈◊〉 ground it is when the Apostle Peter would shew Simon Magus the hainousness of his sin he staies not in the outward expression but cals him directly to consider the thoughts of his heart where that 〈◊〉 language was minted and from whence it proceeded When 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 that by laying on of the hands of the Apostles the holy Ghost was 〈◊〉 he perceived how he might get a booty and therefore he fel to bargain tries the Market what shal I give c. The Apostle carried with a zealous indignation against so vile a demand which cast so much contempt and contumely upon the holy Spirit and the gift thereof answers with a holy disdain and denounceth a Curse Thy money perish with thee q. d. thou art in a perishing condition and this money of thine which thou conceivest wil further thy proceedings wil perish also yet he ads a caution for his recovery Oh pray if it be possible that the thought of thy heart may be forgiven Acts 8. 22 23. q. d. Thy sin is so hainous so execrable so detestable it 's almost past al possibility of pardon it 's not in the tongue which uttered the word nor in the hand which offered the money nor yet so much in thine eye that saw the work done for all these met not so directly so immediately with the Lord. The words were propounded to the Apostles the money should have been payed to them but Oh it was the hellish villany of his mind and apprehension which did so basely esteem of the gifts of Gods Spirit as if they might be valued or purchased with money He did so conceive as if the holy Spirit of Grace should Lackey after his lusts and be at the beck and command of such a proud rebellious wretch as that it should be disposed and dispensed according to his will and humor This was in his mind and thought and this made it so hainous an evil that the Apostle put it to a may be if it be possible so that the hellish evil of our imaginations and cursed contrivements of our thoughts may put a man almost beyond possibility of pardon So in the sin against the holy Ghost it 's said our Savior saw their thoughts Mat. 12. ver 25. those gave in evidence of the direfulness and inconceivable hainousness of those contumelious speeches against our Savior when they said He casteth out Devils by Belzebub the Prince of Devils It is not said he heard their words though blasphemous but he saw their thoughts they issued out of their apprehensions their thoughts being calm and quiet it was not some base pang or passion but when they had no provocation their own thoughts carried them against the evidence of all Truth meerly out of the venom of their own hearts This was unpardonable blasphemy and in truth there is no Creature but a reasonable Creature that can close not with the Creature only but with God in his Rule that can sin nor is there any sin properly but where the mind and heart is an Ingredient in it So the ravished Maid though her body was abused yet her person was not charged as guilty of sin nor she polluted therewith because her judgment was not there assenting nor her heart yielding thereunto Look at thoughts in regard of al the other evils of our lives which are acted and appear in our dayly course we may thence come to take a guess at the greatness of the evil of our thoughts for it will appear they are the causes of all other evils and therefore it cannot but be concluded there is more and worse evil in them than in all the rest A mans imaginations are the forge of villany where it 's al framed the Ware-house of wickedness the Magazine of al mischief and iniquity whence the sinner is furnished to the commission of al evil in his ordinary course the Sea of abominations which overflows into al the Sences and they are polluted into all the parts of the body and they are defiled and carried aside with many noysom corruptions Matth. 15. 19. Out of the heart comes murders adulteries thefts there is the nest where al these noysom vermine are bred Matth. 12. 34. Out of the abundance of the heart the tongue speaks and the hand works If there be pride and snappishness in a mans speech stubbornness in a course 〈◊〉 in a mans Conversation there is abundance of al these and more than these within The Imagination of our mind is the great Wheel that carries al with it That loathsom and execrable wickedness worse than which the Sun never saw the Earth never bore that unpardonable siu excepted the killing of the Lord Jesus the Lord of Life the seed of it was a thought cast by 〈◊〉 into the heart of Judas John 13. 3. it was warmed with a covetous disposition and so brought forth that hideous treachery the 〈◊〉 of the Lord Jesus If 〈◊〉 be evil in the tongue that 〈◊〉 it is it not worse in the heart that indites it Wickedness in our actions and speeches are but the brats and brood of our minds and hearts there they were conceived and fashioned in al
the world to honor him to esteem him yet 〈◊〉 dasheth all what avails it so long as this Pride 〈◊〉 peevishness this frothy vain heart remains within me When the heart is assaulted with some sudden qualm or deadly fume that assaults the spirits 〈◊〉 ye drive it from his heart nothing will do him good Oh he is sick at the heart now I thank the Lord it 's gone from my heart So it is with the plague of 〈◊〉 that assaults the heart a man that knows it and 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 and is really sick of the lusts and corruptions that are in his heart he can never be at quiet till he find his heart in some measure freed from the power and poyson of those sinful distempers as Rebecca said If Jacob should take a wife of the Daughters of Heth what good shall my life do me Gen. 27. last So what good wil my credit my profit my profession all my priviledges and performances do me if my heart be married to any base lust 〈◊〉 my corrupt will and my wayward peevish stiffness and malignancy of heart continue with me still But thou that canst lift up thy head and know all these evils in thee that God knows and thou knowest there are such bosom abominations which thy heart finds and takes contentment in thou canst live with them talk with them lie down and sleep with them and arise with them again nay and thy corrupt heart is restless if it may not be pleased and satisfied with thy lusts Amon is sick of Incest Ahab of Covetousness unless they may enjoy 〈◊〉 lusts they cannot enjoy their lives Grace I would not trouble my self or spend any time to prove that such have any grace When a mans sins are so far from being his vexation that it is his vexation that he cannot have free 〈◊〉 to commit his sins that he is vexed with the word that discovers his evil vexed with Conscience that checks him for it plagued and tormented with all that come in his way that will cross him in his lusts if there be a graceless heart in Hell thou art one to this very day thou didst never know what it was to put off the will of sinning Observe where the will takes up its last stand and what it looks at as that which lastly satisfies its desire either in pretended parting with sin or in performance of duties or improvement of means The end steers the action and gives in evidence of the goodness of it The Merchant and the Pyrate goes in the same channel useth the same wind to carry them the same Compass to direct the one about his honest Affairs to serve Gods Providence and his own Duty and the other to serve his own covetous and unlawful lusts of Theevery and spoiling So here I speak it for this purpose because it 's one of the cunning cheats of a deceitful heart he will perform such Duties and forsake such sins not because he either loves the Duty or loaths the sin but because he would land himself at the place where he would be at some other end of his own Nay it 's possible and ordinary for a man to part with his sin for a push when indeed it is only that he may keep his sin As Paul spake of Onesimus he departed from him for a season that he might be received for ever and as the Adultress chides her mate before others that she may enjoy him more freely without fear or suspition so it 's usual for a false heart to chide with his corruptions and to speak great words against them when yet the secret 〈◊〉 is but to enjoy them more freely by that means therefore let not the Devil cozen you with colors your confessions and resolutions your prayers and tears against your sins and that in secret and that unto God if your hearts 〈◊〉 these but as means for your own ends you never were willing to part with sin The 〈◊〉 of a gracious heart is Never to take up his stand till he come to God and the guidance of his Grace and Spirit Hosea 14. 2 3. c. Take away all iniquitie and receive us graciously what have I to do any more with Idols c. and the heart wil never more have to do with these sins but with God he sees these evils sorrows for these 〈◊〉 to have these removed that he may be under the power of God and his Grace As Samuel said to Israel 1 Sam. 7. 3 4. If you do return unto the Lord with all your hearts then put away your gods and prepare your hearts unto the Lord and serve him only So if you be indeed resolved to forsake your sins and renounce your corruptions then abandon them and al occasions leading to them and al beginnings of them and submit your selves your thoughts and affections to the Lord and to his Word and serve him only Lodg thy soul here and let it never take up its stand until it come hither The last Use is of Exhortation and Direction both together It should guide us and it should perswade us to take the right way of Reformation Never leave thy prayers and tears and sorrows and remorse until thou come to thy very heart thy tongue professeth fair and thy hand forbears the practice of evil but ask thy heart Heart what sayest thou Shame may prevail with thee Authority of men may constrain thee and conscience may force thee to abstain from evil I but what saies thy Heart art thou willing to part with thy sin I do not do it I dare not do it but Will what sayest thou Heart what sayest thou Never cease before you be able to answer I am really willing to part with every sin I am convinced of It was the great complaint of Moses concerning the People of Israel that notwithstanding al that the Lord had done for them yet they had not a heart to fear him and to walk in obedience before him So 〈◊〉 may say God hath crowned thee with 〈◊〉 honored thee with encouragements thou hast the Esteem of others thou hast all Liberties and opportunities to be as good as thou shouldest be but truly all these will do thee no good unless thou hast a heart for God and against thy sin therefore rest no where until thou hast this The great Fort that must be taken is the Will or else all the rest is as good as nothing he that wil cure a disease must not only skin it over but must take away the core of it if he think to heal it throughly and cure it fully So here it is not enough to wash a mans mouth and to wipe his hands but the core of a mans corruptions must be got away thy soul must be brought off from the Will of sinning as wel as from the Practice of sinning or else thy soul will never be brought home to God stay not therefore till thou comest hither and be sure to make sound work
that made thee a little to look about but hath the Lord ever lifted up the latch as though he were resolved to come in hath he layd hold upon and begun to grapple with that Graceless heart of thine and held this 〈◊〉 of discovery of sin to thy mind as to constrayn thee to look wishly upon it indeed to see it clearly and convictingly according to that which hath formerly been spoken Know and conclude thou maiest thou art in the right way and the Lord begins to deal with thee as he doth with those that he intends good unto But art thou a stranger to these dispensations of the Lord and tradings with thy mind and heart Thou mayest indeed have notice and hear a rumor of Christ passing by and the excellency of his Grace but of any purpose of making his abode with thee thou never couldst have the least 〈◊〉 thereof unto this day How then shall we know whether we fall short of this true sight of sin or no We will take both Particulars mentioned into Consideration that so we may take a true scantling of our own estate and track the Footsteps and Impressions of the work of the Spirit upon our souls I will touch the first in a word and entreat more largely upon the Second to wit Touching the convicting sight of sin because there lies the life and stress of this Doctrine If then we see sin cleerly naked and in it's own Nature namely this resistance and opposition against God as the greatest evil of al other It wil thus be discerned This sight will keep the heart in cold blood from careless adventuring upon the commission of sin You must stil remember my purpose is not to dispute of sanctifying knowledg or to give in evidence of that for we are in this place to look at that light that is let in in this preparative work and this first Branch of it which how far it may go or whether it can agree to an Hypocrite I will not now dispute that only I wil infer from it is beyond exception That in cold blood i. e. Take such a man out of the hurry of a Temptation when he is himself not drunk with some overbearing distemper for then he knows not where he is or what he doth and therefore may adventure to do any thing but when a sinner is come to himself and the sight of his sin as before disputed it wil suffer him carelesly to adventure upon the Commission of that which appears such in his own apprehension even the greatest evil of all The dreadfulness then of this duty apprehended wil drive the soul to a stand and stop the sinner in his proceeding that he dare as well eat his flesh and take a Lyon by the claw and a Bear by the tooth as to have his hand in that which is the heaviest plague of all in his own Judgment There is no man living but as he hath somthing which he prizeth as the chief good in which his soul takes content so the loss of that or that which is contrary to that he looks at as the most unsupportable evil that can betide him That the Soldier should take the lye or challenge and have the contempt of cowardice put upon him and sit stil and not seek to revenge the wrong as he conceives it he cannot bear it That the 〈◊〉 yong man should sel his possessions and part with all to the poor it is such an unsufferable loss he will rather part with Heaven the very hearing of it makes his heart heavy and himself to go away sorrowful Mat. 19. 22. Yea that which Nature hath made dear to all to see death before a man and danger such as wil undoubtedly hazard the loss of life how do we fear the thought of it fly the sight avoid the occasion of it didst thou see thy sins and the hellish resistance of thy heart against God to be a greater evil than al these didst thou really judg them such beleeve them as the men of Niniveh did Jonahs threatning Jonah 3. 5. to be such It 's certain it would amaze thy heart that thou wouldest be as loth to rush into evil as thou wouldest be to run upon a Spears point or cast thy self into the mouth of the Lyon to be torn in pieces Take a rebellious sinner beset with the horror of his Conscience so that he sees Hell gaping for him and the Devils ready to seize upon that hellish heart of his how loaths he then the least appearance of those corruptions the evil of which he sees in the punishment only how tender is he to avoid the occasion of them When the evil of thy punishment is now over and out of mind didst thou but know that resistance and rebellion of thy heart against God his Grace his Spirit his Truth aright as greater than all those evils and is now present with thee thou wouldst be so far fearful not heedlesly to adventure upon the practice of it When Judas saw whether his Covetousness had brought him be flung away his thirty pieces Matth. 27. 3. And it 's certain all the Scribes and Pharisees in the Synagogue and all the money in the Country of Judea could not have prevailed with him had they been then tendred to him much more had he seen the 〈◊〉 had been a greater evil than the vengeance that did 〈◊〉 Acts 19. 16. 19. When the evil spirits prevailed against the seven Sons of Sceva fear fell on them 〈◊〉 and many of them had used curious Arts brought their books together and burnt them before them all When the hearts of these Converts were pricked and they craved Counsel what they should do Peter amidst many other Counsels which he suggested ads this verse 40. Save your selves from this crooked generation You that are in Parthia Mesopotamia Phrigia Galatia you 〈◊〉 amongst many professed Enemies to the Lord Christ his Truth therefore save your selves from their Society and verse 44. They came and abode together and sold their goods and parted them as every one had need 〈◊〉 to this you disobedient Children and rebellious Servants who have the Commands of Parents and Masters Counsels of Servants and Neighbors dayly suggested and pressed upon you listen to this you heedless Professors who have the Word and Precepts of God dayly published in your Ears and proclaimed in your hearing and you go away informed convinced and the heart cannot gainsay but it ought to stoop your carriages should not be wayward your words sharpish your behaviors uncomely and yet you dare you do 〈◊〉 carelesly adventure at the next time and 〈◊〉 upon the same sins you may talk what others say by 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 profess in words that sin is the greatest evil of al but in truth you never saw sin to this day much 〈◊〉 saw it to be the greatest evil of al. A little evil were is but the 〈◊〉 of so much of thy blood by stripes or the loss of
man say they can see or know the thoughts of our hearts therfore they cannot be offensive or scandalous to any and therefore it s not possible they should be discouraged from doing any good they desire or intend or provoked to the practice of any evil that may be dangerous to themselves or dishonourable to the Lord. besides they appear not só soon to our apprehensions but they pass away in an instant and are as though they had never been and what great evil is in the and why should the soul be so deeply 〈◊〉 with them and the sinner be forced to feel so great sorrow for them this is to make them worse than they are and our selves more miserable than we should be The evil of thy thoughts and stirrings of the distempers of thy heart are hidden and spiritual and they pass away before thou canst perceive them much less judg of them aright but didst thou but see them as they are and upon thorough search couldst truly find out the bottom of that baseness and filth that is there they would appear exceeding loathsom and hainous to thine own apprehension as he said the sin of the soul is the soul of sin The sin of the body is the body and carkass of corruption that is in the sinful motions of the soul of the mind and heart there is the life poyson and power of corruption putting forth it self in the utmost activity of the venom and malignity of it The Actions of the Body are tainted with the pollution of sin by consent as the distempers of the mind and heart appear in them and are acted by them the body is as it were an accessary in the evil and wickedness the mind is the principal that contrives all useth only the body as an Instrument to vent its own venom and wickedness by More especially see the hainousness of the evil of thy Thoughts and Heart in the Particulars following First In regard of God The sinful poyson of thy thoughts doth estrange thee from God carry thee in professed opposition against him so that the sinner comes by this means to resist the Almighty as it were to his very face Let me open both these in a few words Thy inordinate thoughts takes thee off from yielding attendance to the Lord that thou fallest off from him and the guidance of his wisdom in the Rule before thou fallest into any sin Here came in the first breach between God and the soul and by this the breach is continued and encreased dayly in our departings from him This I know saith the wise man that God made man right but he sought out many inventions or findings Eccles. 7. last He was made for God and should have eyed him directly and kept himself under the operative dispensation of his spiritual Government in which he would not have been awanting to him but he would have carried him to his end and kept him so in happiness that is carried him to himself and kept him with himself for ever But he found out findings so the words When he should have looked to the wil of God as the Compass only appointed to stere his course by he should have looked to the Law which the Lord had found out as the line and level of his life which would not have failed to have led him to his Duty and quickened him in it He was not content with the Rule and way that God had found out but he finds out an Invention out of the vanity of his mutable mind looks to that and is wholly led aside by that from the Lord. So that when he should go from Rule to Rule for the guidance of 〈◊〉 dayly course he goes from one vanity to another from one vain thought to another from one device to another as they said let us devise Devices As in a wel ordered Army break the Rank in one place and ye bring ruin and confusion upon the whol Here was the right order in which we were made and we should have kept Rank and File the mind and judgment should only have attended God the Will attend our Judgment the Affections wait on the Will the Actions issue as the execution of al. Here Satan routed Adam brake this Rank upon the first 〈◊〉 takes off the Mind from attending the Covenant Command and Direction of the Lord The day thou eatest thereof thou shalt surely die and listens to the 〈◊〉 and forgery of Satan Ye shall not die at all and so fals into the commission of the sin which brought condemnation upon him and his whol posterity and 〈◊〉 the 〈◊〉 came in thus between God and the soul so it 's dayly made greater by this means As a man once having missed his way the further he 〈◊〉 the further he goes from the right way Such is the ravelling of our own imaginations we 〈◊〉 our selves the longer we continue in them After we are overborn with the hurry of our thoughts we are 〈◊〉 a 〈◊〉 with our 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 God his Promises out Directions and Comforts cannot tel where to find our hearts This the Apostle gives as the fountain and first cause of those overflowing evils and fearful back-slidings from God Ephes. 4. 17. The Gentiles 〈◊〉 the vanity of their minds and so become strangers from the life of God Thus David by the sinful devices of his own mind departs so far from God that he cannot find any evidence of his Love or sence and feeling of his favor he plots the commission of the sin then the covering of it therefore sends for Uriah would have sent him to his house when that took not but resolves the contrary then he plots his drunkenness that he might forget his resolution when that succeeds not he sends him back to the Army and delivered him up to the hand of the Enemy in the issue So by inordinate attendance to unruly thoughts the sinner is taken aside so strangely from the Lord and so overwhelmed with the guilt and pollution of sin that partly he dare not and many times is so bewildred and 〈◊〉 that he knows not how to recover himself and come home to God The evil of our thoughts carries the soul in professed opposition against God for it is by the Spiritual Operations and Actions of our minds that we meet with the Lord and have a kind of intercourse with the Almighty who is a Spirit For al outward things are for the body the body for the soul the soul is nextly for God and therefore meets as really with him in the Actions of Understanding as the Eye meets with the Light in Seeing which no other Creature can do nor no action of a bodily Creature doth Our Sences in their sinful and inordinate sweryings when they become means and in-lets of evil from their objects they meet with the Creature firstly and there make the jar It 's the beauty of the Object that 〈◊〉 up to lust by the Eye the daintiness of the
she wil be forced to mind and attend them and her own help whether she wil or no. The fear and dreadful expectation of Gods righteous Judgments deserved and threatened let them seize upon the sinner and let him travel under the terror of the Almighty If God should come and cal me to answer how should I help my self If the Lord do as the times are in his own hands what should I judg or think of my condition In a sinful and miserable estate I am I am sure and how soon the pit may shut her mouth upon me that I may be past hope and help I know not high time therefore to think how to be affected with this and how to be freed from this damnable condition If the good man of the house did know the Thief would come he would certainly watch he would listen attentively at every stirring Matth. 24. 43. Fear saies the evil wil come and makes a man ever be thinking how to prevent it before it comes As in a Siege he that keeps the noise of the Drum the sound of the Trumpet the clattering of Spears the report of the Canon in his ears and fears he wil be kept a waking and be forced to attend upon his watch and stand 〈◊〉 his Guard for his life So do thou as the psalmist said Psal. 9. last Put them in fear O Lord that they may know themselves to be but men they wil know they are sinful and mortal and wretched 〈◊〉 that must come to death and judgment Awaken Conscience cal for the help of it and put it into commission and it wil put forth an overruling power for the settling of our apprehensions in their attentive employments when somtimes they are routed and put by their proper exercise by the unruly and inordinate distempers of our hearts For reason and understanding are the underlings as it were of inferior and lower ranck and can but as servants and attendants offer and propound to the wil and affections what they 〈◊〉 and conceive may be most convenient and the wretched way wardness of our hearts wil either snub or silence them reject or cast them away you befool reason damp and pervert the light of judgment tel reason she is a fool and is deceived and drive it to another search somtimes in the Saints 〈◊〉 and wil are for the work The one pleads for it the other approves and desires it and yet the violence and outrage of some overbearing corruptions take off Meditation and hinder it against the heart and hayr against our judgment and desire Now conscience is to be called in who hath received a supream authority to oversee both to right al such disorders and to see that the mind have its free scope for the exercise of Meditation in his times and turns And that this is so Experience of all men in al ages wil give in evidence undeniable the Godly their Conscience is controuler in their whol course by the beck and least iutimation of whose authority the frame of their spirits inwardly and their carriages outwardly are 〈◊〉 so as they can do nothing against the truth 2 Cor. 13. 8. dictate of their Conscience they could do any thing against their credit and comfort and profit yea their very lives 〈◊〉 not against their Conscience Witness again the wrastlings of the spirits of the ungodly when their 〈◊〉 reason hath contrived al waies and shifts their hearts earnestly desired also how to stifle and stop the mouth of Conscience to silence his dictates that they might proceed in the practice of their lawless course without stop and trouble and disquiet and the sad remembrance of that guilt and 〈◊〉 which Conscience tyres them with but al in vain when Conscience is armed with authority and exerciseth that authority which is given it is in his place and doth the 〈◊〉 of 〈◊〉 place but I say you must put it into commission God can and doth when he wil but we should also give way and help forward this work as we are able according to that direction for our spiritual good in this behalf for it is with Conscience as it is with men of worth in the countrey from whence we came though they be as holy and gracious and wise when they are out of the commission of the peace as when they are in yet then when they are out of the commission though they be willing and desirous according to the 〈◊〉 the Lord hath given them to see and so to reforme al wrongs and disorders yet they want power So it is with Conscience when through our careless and rebellious carriage it is either blinded or stifled and so his place and exercise of his power is utterly hindred we must therefore 〈◊〉 Conscience into his commission as much as in us lyes i. e help forward the exercise of that soveraign authority with the right whereof Conscience stands possessed according to the place the Lord hath set him in Here are three directions Let nothing joyn with Conscience in the command it gives and power it exerciseth but the holy and righteous Law of God This is that which makes the simplicity of the eye which our Saviour mentions Math. 6. 22. and that which addes that overruling vertue and 〈◊〉 thereunto insomuch that the text tells us where the eye is single the whol body is ful of light That eye I suppose is not bare reason or understanding enlightened though that sence is savory and included but there is I conceive somewhat more that eye is here meant according to the light and direction whereof the whol body is acted and ordered that is a mans whol course and conversation is guided in a right way That is by vertue of Conscience especially which hath an overpowring command with it to act and carry out al the dispositions of our hearts and actions of our lives suitable to the light and level of the law of God according to which it accuseth or excuseth This single eye is a conscience sincere when nothing interrupts the work of Conscience but the law acts it and it acts the man thus the office Conscience exereiseth is from God and for God Keep Conscience trembling and tender that it may be Eagle Eyed and easily sensible of the least evil and do thou accustome thy self to be sure to take notice of the least intimation it gives This gives as I may say encouragement to Conscience and helps forward the work and honors that authority which it exerciseth Thus David was at the beck of his Conscience even for the appearance and bordering of evil 1. Sam. 24. 〈◊〉 his heart smot him because he had cut off Sauls skirt Take undoubtedly the sentence of Conscience rightly guided to be Gods own sentence That which he wil own and make good upon al the sons of men at the great day of 〈◊〉 It wil pass current and prevayl then either for thy Condemnation or for thy absolution It should therefore prevail
such a Christ pleaseth us well but such a Christ will never do us good 2 This makes a man bold to adventure upon the commission of the grossest evill this makes him fearless to continue in it makes him negligent and regardless by godly sorrow and saving repentance to recover out of it he passeth not he cares not to take his poyson and to drink it in as his daily dyet he carries his 〈◊〉 about him and that which will undoubtedly cure him he may yet maintain union with Christ and communion with his cursed Lusts. 3 This makes a man slight in holy servises so as neither to put a price upon them nor to see an excellencie in them or iudg aright of the necessity of such performances he becomes sleepy and heartless in what he doth he is sure of a Christ that will answer all and therefore he troubles not himself with holy duties if he stumble upon the doing of them so if he neglect the doing of them so he hath a way to help all he can have a Christ he conceives without these and therefore he makes no great matter whether he do these or no. 4 Nay if he may have union to Christ while he is in his corruption if so he is then in a good estate for he that hath the son 〈◊〉 life 1 John 5. 12. Therefore he may have evidence of his good estate without the sight of any saving qualification because he may have a Christ and so be in a good estate without any saving qualification And therefore this Evidence must needs come from an immediate revelation from Heaven for there is no appearance no manifestation of it on Earth either in our hearts or lives in what we have or do and therefore then our good estate may be sure unto us by Christ when we have nothing but sin and do nothing but commit sin And hence because both graces and gracious actions may be wanting in this union to Christ because separable from it thererefore the want of them cannot infer the deniall of a good estate nor the presence of them conclude the certainty of a good estate because they are not proper and peculiar to such a condition for then they could not be severed from it which they may And thus this one Delusion like an Egyptian fog darkens the whol Heavens even the bright beams of the Sun of the Gospel and the everlasting Covenant of Gods free grace cuts the sinews of sincerity and eats out the blood and spirits of the power nd presence and life of Grace and under a pretence of advancing Christ and Free Grace destroies his Kingdom and frustrates the coming of Christ into the World For he came for this end 1 John 3. 8. To destroy the Works of the Devil the Apostle concludes it verse 10. as a proof beyond all question or exception the child of the Devil is manifest in this He that hates his brother and works unrighteousness is the Child of the Devil and yet upon this grant and according to this ground a man may do both these and yet be united unto Christ and so be blessed of him Look we therefore at these so desperate 〈◊〉 not as Rocks and Sands where men may suffer Shipwrack and yet be recovered but like a devouring Gulf or Whirl-pool whereinto whosoever comes there is no hope nor help to come out as cutting a man off from the careful and consciencious use of the means appointed by God in the Gospel to recover him As a Ship that is foundred in the midst of the main Ocean without the sight of any succor or hope of Relief Besides then the Arguments formerly alleaged I shall propound some other to fortifie against this so dangerous a Deceit Reasons to prove that Christ cannot be united to the Soul while it is in its Natural Condition and the state of Unbeleef Taken from John 14. 17. Christ saies he would send them another Comforter even the Spirit of Truth whom the world cannot receive Every man while he is in his corrupt and natural condition he is one of the World Eph. 2. 2. When in times passed ye walked according to the course of this world vers 3. Among whom also we had our Conversations in times past in the lusts of the flesh How otherwise could they be called 〈◊〉 of the World unless they were in it They who cannot receive the Spirit cannot receive the Lord Jesus nor union to him but men Naturally cannot receive the Spirit therefore they must be called out of the World and from the Power of Satan and so be prepared and then receive Faith that so they may receive 〈◊〉 But Conversion being a Creating Work a Work of Creation needs 〈◊〉 preparation to 〈◊〉 or for it 〈◊〉 his Word is 〈◊〉 he calls men his people who are not his people and by calling them so he makes them to be so Preparation is required to the implantation of the 〈◊〉 into Christ not 〈◊〉 regard of God or his work upon us as though he needed any help to the execution of his holy wil but in regard of the thing wrought in us for he working all things according to the counsel of his own will and the rules of his Infinite Wisdom he needs not any help in his work yet it is 〈◊〉 his perfection and sufficiency to go against the wise Order set down in the Dispensation of his Providence for the bringing about of this work the causes of a thing do not help God in Working or Creating they are necessarily required to make up the thing wrought or created there is nothing in a blind eye 〈◊〉 may help God to restore it to sight yet God according to reason must put a power and ability of sight or a 〈◊〉 faculty before he will nay indeed can bring forth seeing God can turn Water into Wine but in reason he must destroy the Nature of Water and then make Wine for it implies a contradiction to say that Water should remain Water and yet have Wine made out of it So it is in the soul he can change a proud and unbeleeving heart into a 〈◊〉 heart but he must first destroy the power of unbeleef 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 can bring in faith He that is under the power of infidelity and corrupt Nature he is under the guilt of his sins and in the state of condemnation John 3. 18. He that beleeves not is condemned already and vers 36. The wrath of God abides upon him But he that is in Christ to him there is no condemnation Rom. 8. 1. This is my beloved Son in whom I am well pleased Matth. 3. last and for his sake with all that are in him Now to be in the state of condemnation and acceptation together in the state of Life and death to have the wrath of God abiding and the good pleasure of God resting upon a party at the 〈◊〉 time 〈◊〉 a perfect contradiction and so impossibilities in
get it if he can by doubling he is not willing to yield therefore is resolved to quarrel and wind away from under the force of the Argument and to make an escape Acts 17. 18. They encountred Paul they came into the field with Cavils against his Doctrine observe how careful an unwilling heart is to invent a shift and how content to take it and if yet he fail of his hopes and is not able to make his party good with the 〈◊〉 he unlocks all the Devils Chests and 〈◊〉 his Skul for devices and though the Reasons be of no weight nor worth nor strength yet he is well 〈◊〉 to be cozened with them though there be scant any appearance of a pretence when the yong man had professed all readiness to follow the Command of the Lord and saw nothing would serve turn unless he sold all overpowered with the Authority of the Truth he left it in the plain field and went away sorrowful If yet the 〈◊〉 that 's rivetted in his resolution to hold his own cannot 〈◊〉 the Truth then he falls to flat opposing of it Jer. 44. 16. As for the word which 〈◊〉 hast spoken to us in the Name of the Lord we will not hearken to it that is the short and the long they then begun to be plain and peremptory Jer. 18. 12. They said there is no 〈◊〉 but we will do after our devices and we will walk every man after the imagination of his own heart If they cannot undo the Bonds they will break the Bonds of Gods Commands Come say they 〈◊〉 2. 2. let us break 〈◊〉 Bonds and 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 their cords from us Thus the Jews when they saw the Word of the Lord to prosper in the 〈◊〉 of Paul and 〈◊〉 they were filled 〈◊〉 envy and 〈◊〉 against those things that were spoken by Paul contradicting and 〈◊〉 in so much that Paul professed they put away the 〈◊〉 that would have plucked away their sins 〈◊〉 them Acts 13. 46. John must 〈◊〉 his 〈◊〉 rather than Herod will part with his Harlot When 〈◊〉 cannot get leave of God to do what he desired he goes without leave Numb 24. 1. he 〈◊〉 his 〈◊〉 to the 〈◊〉 as if he would prevent Gods 〈◊〉 and curse 〈◊〉 before God 〈◊〉 be aware of it To have their 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 tormented and kept upon the 〈◊〉 and themselves crossed in their corrupt courses so that either they dare not keep their lusts or else have no quiet if they do they fly in the face of the Truth it 's a hard saying who can hear it who can 〈◊〉 it Acts 19. 28. see what an uproar and what a dust Demetrius raiseth against Pauls Doctrine Masters you know that by this craft we get our living therefore what they wanted in Argument they would carry it in clamors There was an 〈◊〉 for the space of two hours Great is Diana of the Ephesians So they dealt with the two 〈◊〉 Revel 11. 10. they were never content before they were removed they could not have their 〈◊〉 in quiet as long as they had their lives for they tormented them with their witness the Truth is dreadful and torments carnal men that cannot bear the light and power of it If yet the Conscience be not seared with a hot Iron but there remain any sence of common Principles in it they will be dayly quickened and awakened by the Power of the Word and that will be daily vexing provoking and pressing the heart you know saies Conscience this is the Command your Duty and will be your Comfort to yield obedience thereunto you may oppose but you will perish for it you may do what you please but it will be your destruction God wil require it at your hands when you will not be able to answer for what you have done nor bear what God will inflict The 〈◊〉 then endeavors to still the clamors and to stop the mouth of Conscience and to weary it out 〈◊〉 impudency in wickedness and stifling the 〈◊〉 of it and not suffer it to take place and so by custom in sinning he takes away the sence of sin and so it befals them as those the Apostle speaks of they become past feeling Eph. 4. 19. This is to hold 〈◊〉 the Truth in unrighteousness Rom. 1. 18. Truth is pressing this ought this should this must be done or else you die for it you see the Word pregnant the way plain the Duty undeniable say nothing saies unrighteousness in the heart I do love it I must follow it therefore speak not a word more I cannot hear it nor bear it as they said Judg. 18. 25. when 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 after them for his gods Let not thy voyce be heard amongst us left angry fellows fall upon thee Thus you see how this unwillingness to be subject to the Truth shews it self They seek it not receive it not stop the passage of it defeat the Power and Evidence of it they professedly oppose it and privily stifle the 〈◊〉 of the Truth which may trouble them in sinning until their 〈◊〉 be without sence and they without care or purpose to reform their evil waies But are not the wicked many times willing to part with their corruptions see how far they speak how freely they profess Deut. 5. 27. All that thou hast spoken we will do Jer. 42. 5. The Lord be Judg 〈◊〉 thee and us enquire at the mouth of the Lord for us and whatever it be whether good or evil we will do it what more can be desired what more could be expressed I Answer in Three Things The Text denies not nor doth the Doctrine that Natural men are willing to profess subjection to the Law of God but that they neither do nor can nor will do what they say therefore it is added in Deut. 5. 28 29. This People have said well but O that there were such a heart in them there was good words but they wanted good hearts they said wel but their wils and endeavors were not answerable they professed fair with their lips but dissembled with their hearts so the Prophet Jeremiah told them to their faces Ye dissembled in your hearts when ye said enquire of the Lord for us Jer. 42. 20. It 's possible nay ordinary for a corrupt heart when it doth most reform sin outwardly then most of all to love and to give himself to the practice of some sin secretly because then all the streams are turned into one Channel he neglects all other that he may wholly bestow and lay out his heart upon that one and when he professeth against sin he conceives he may sin without suspition and distraction without suspition from others and without distraction in himself when by confessions and reformations he will put in Bail upon his Conscience and agree with it as Bankrupts use to do with their Creditors When it co nes to a streight and a justle that the Word meets him as the Angel met Balaam he cannot pass unless
When thy heart was Satans home and the power of darkness dwelt in it when he had levyed al his Forces he was strengthened and encouraged by al the advantages that might be he had the hold of the heart and entrenched himself in the stubbornness and invincible stiffness of my Will and that I was resolved to leave my life but never to leave my lusts nor renounce his temptations which I entertained as my delight and sided with al alurements and stood in open 〈◊〉 against the Holy One of Israel If Satan in his ful power could not keep his hold nor my heart but the Lord cast him out when he is Conquered and his Forces spoiled by the Lord Christ Shal he not for ever keep him out When I was under the power of Satan he then rescued me being now rescued from his rage and beyond his power shal he not preserve me He that destroyed the works of Satan when he was in his ful strength intrenched fortified in the unconquerable stiffness of his Will and took away his Armour being Disarmed Dispossessed and Conquered shal he ever be able to recover and set up his works again By no means The Third and Last USE of this Doctrine is of Exhortation First To the Converted Then To the Unconverted Here is somthing for both First the Converted are hereby to be provoked to follow the dealing of the Lord Here is a pattern to order their daily practice by Hath God doth God deal so with poor Creatures as to draw them from their sins to 〈◊〉 Christ Go thy wayes and do thou likewise Herein shew your selves Children of your heavenly Father be merciful as he is merciful And if in any case I take it Mercy is herein to be discerned ought to be practised and expressed As the Elect of God put on bowels of mercy Col. 4. 11. If you be the Elect of God shew it in this if ever you have received Mercy express it if ever God hath shewed favour to you shew the fruit thereof in shewing compassion to others put too the best of your endeavors even by a holy kind of violence to pluck away poor sinners from their sins unto the Lord. So David Psal. 51. 13. I will teach transgressors thy wayes and sinners shall be Converted unto thee I wil take no nay at their hands they are stubborn I was so they resist I did so they are unwilling to part with their sins I was so and yet the Lord hath done me good and overcome al my evil with goodness when I was in my blood when I lay weltring in the guilt and filth of my sins when I said I would have my sins and I would die and was resolved to destroy my self then he said unto me Live poor Creature Live You cannot get your heart away from your Corruptions the Lord wil do it for you nay he can do it for you without you If he wil put forth the same power upon your soul as he hath done upon my soul you shal be drawn from your sins to Jesus Christ. In a word 1 Do what you can your self 2 Help them with supply from others First do what you can your self let every man in his own particular set upon al such loving Means as are in your power Compassionately and Couragiously to draw sinners from their sins to Christ Heb. 3. 13. Exhort one another daily lest any be bardened through the deceitfulness of sin 1 Thess. 5. 14. Now we exhort you Brethren warn them that are unruly comfort the feeble minded support the weak be patient towards all men As who should say Lay about you to do al the good you can he makes a Christian man to be as busie as a Bee that he should go no whither but should seek and find occasion of doing good to one or other you wil meet with some that are unruly warn them and instruct them and some that are weak labor to strengthen them some that are feeble minded and discouraged Christians labor to quicken and encourage them Let not those thoughts be found once in thy heart Am I my Brothers keeper Yes thou art or else thou art his murtherer wilt thou defend his house from a thief his body from 〈◊〉 nay wouldest thou ease and raise his Ass from falling and return his Ox from straying and wilt thou not do much more for his Soul Therefore take al opportunities that are offered and seek what is no offered and improve what you have to the 〈◊〉 Jude 23. And others save with fear plucking them out of the fire If thy neighbors Ox were in the pit or himself in the fire thou wouldest break 〈◊〉 the door and not strain Complements much more when his soul is fallen into his distempers as into a deep ditch his soul is 〈◊〉 on fire from Hell 〈◊〉 away the Drunkard from his Cups and hale the Covetous man from the world and those whom you see to be 〈◊〉 by any special Corruption do 〈◊〉 you can to rescue them from the snare of the Devil and double thy forces lay battery against the heart to it again and take better hold it may be he sees his evil and acknowledgeth his sin and yet returns to it again return thou to thy prayers and tears an 〈◊〉 if he forget thy Counsels Counsel him again admonish again besiege him lie at him when thou meetest him in the way walkest in the field 〈◊〉 at the table leave some remembrance upon 〈◊〉 of those you converse withal say and do som thing that may help to draw their souls from their sins to Christ. God hath dealt so with thee therefore deal thou so with others Succour them also by all other Means 〈◊〉 thou according to thy power and place to 〈◊〉 them under the means of Grace As they said one 〈◊〉 another Isa. 2. 3. Come let us go up to the house 〈◊〉 the Lord he will teach us of his wayes And as 〈◊〉 good man Cornelius when Peter was to come 〈◊〉 Preach the Gospel to him Acts 10. 24. he Calls 〈◊〉 his friends and kindred together that the Lord 〈◊〉 work upon them and sayes he We are all here ready to hear what the Lord hath commanded thee This especially belongs to al such as have power and authority over others as Magistrates may compel the Subjects the Master may compel his Servants and the Father his Children to use the Means for they can go no farther than a moral violence and to be under those Ordinances which they in their own Consciences are convinced of to be the Means of Conversion and Salvation And look as they did when our Savior Christ came to any place they brought the blind and the deaf and dumb and those that were possessed of Devils and laid them down before him and intreated him to Cure them Mar. 2. 4. So if thou hast a stubborn Servant or a Rebellious Child al the Means thou hast used can do no good upon him bring
impossible to him or had power above him And hence the Lord delights to set forth the praise of his Mercy and therefore when sin is most vile and hainous and hellish then doth he express his compassion in a most glorious manner it 's the glory of the Physitian when the Disease is most deadly then to do the Cure Isa. 43. 24 25. You have wearied 〈◊〉 with your iniquities and made me to serve with your sins behold I even I am be that blotteth out thy transgressions for my name sake q. d. None but a God of endless Mercy could do it therefore behold it acknowledg it I will blot out your iniquities and remember your sins no more This is the dispute of the Apostle Rom. 5. last having said that our Justification Reconciliation and Life comes by Grace he ads why then serves the Law he answers That sin might abound that sin might be encreased and become more and more hainous because against an express Law but where sin abounded grace abounded much more the Lord gave as it were sin all advantages to do its utmost and yet then Grace would abound so much the more in conquering and raigning over sin And therefore it 's certain if all sins in the world that against the Holy Ghost excepted should meet in one Soul as Waters in the Sea the Mercy of the Lord would abound much more 〈◊〉 those sins did abound The Merits of our Savior Christ are of an 〈◊〉 satisfying vertue and exceed the venom of the guilt of all sins Rom 5. 18. So Paul constantly disputes If by the offence of one sin entred unto 〈◊〉 much more by the death and obedience of our Savior Righteousness entred unto eternal Life And therefore it was that our Savior was pleased to receive our Nature even from the vilest of sinners that he might shew himself a Savior from all sins Matth. 1. Hence also his blood is called a fountain set open for Judah and Israel to wash in for sin and for uncleanness Zach. 13. 1. i. e. For all kind of sinners and all sorts of sins So that were thy heart a Sink a Sodom a Hell of wickedness if the water of this Fountain might pass through and be applied it would clense all For our Savior 〈◊〉 the infinite wrath of his Father which was due for our sins more he needed not nay should not nay could not have suffered if he died for a thousand worlds of his Elect if they had come from the Loyns of our first Parents And I do beleeve there is vertue enough there to pardon the sin against the Holy Ghost if it were applied but because it was committed against the work of the Spirit so directly it is not just he should and there is no other that will for the Spirit works from the Father to the Son and therefore last of all so that they both have put forth their works before and if therefore his be wronged he will not apply and there is none else that can if the Work of the Father be wronged Christ may intercede if he be blasphemed the Spirit may apply but if he be despighted there is none left that will or can Because the power of the 〈◊〉 is such that he can conquer and overcome all which with his own Honor he can attempt to remove as all but that which is committed immediately against his Operation he wil and doth this is the ground of overcoming which the Apostle gives 1 John 4. 4. You have over come the world because greater is he that is in you than he that is in the world That also which Paul propounds for the clensing of the most loathsom puddles 1 Cor. 6. 11. But ye are washed but ye are sanctified in the Name of Jesus and by the Spirit of our God for that Spirit is above all unclean Spirits and therefore when he will come and work upon the soul and clense it from all its corruptions Sin and the World and the Devil and all give way they cannot hinder his work So that if the Mercy of God be infinite able to forgive all the Merits of Christ of infinite Vertue able to satisfie for all and the Spirit of infinite power to conquer all then the worst of sinners may become broken hearted sinners when the Lord will please to look upon them We have here matter of Admiration to see and stand amazed at the riches of Gods mercy and grace which succors the most desperate sinners relieves at the hardest streights saves even from the nethermost Hell It 's the Collection the Prophet makes from the ground formerly mentioned Mich. 7. 18. Who is a God like unto thee that par donest iniquity and passest by the transgression of the remnant of thine heritage because mercy pleaseth him He intends pardon to such who have nothing that can purchase it do nothing that can deserve it nay practice nothing which is in any manner pleasing which might perswade him to it yea when he is displeased with all things but his own mercy and indeed can be pleased with nothing else when they dishonor his Name wrong his Justice reject his Commands and grieve his Spirit every thing provoketh him yet because his mercy pleaseth him therefore he doth good against evil therefore he overcomes all their evil in goodness Yea When sinners out of their impenitency and malignant enmity of their Spirits would destroy themselves and his mercy also and cast away his compassions his mercy is pleased to honor it self and to save them who is a God like this God and what mercy like this mercy He is not like the Idols of the Heathens even themselvs being witnesses for the followers favorites of Idol Gods who 〈◊〉 upon them in time of prosperity and devote themselves to their Worship yet in the day of distresse their Idols leave them in the lirch and they are forced to look to the Lord for relief Jer. 2. 27. In the time of their trouble they will say Arise and save us But the hope of Israel is not like them when the Disease is most deadly he then cures the condition of the sinner most desperate he then delivers out of the jaws of Satan and botom of Hell he then rescues It s the Prerogative he takes to himself Thy destruction O Israel is of thy self but in me is thy help Hos. 13. 9. It 's that praise which the Saints give as the proper due of the Lord Psal. 103. Praise the Lord O my soul who forgiveth all thy sins and healeth all thy diseases and Jonah leaves this Cure upon Record after he was landed by the 〈◊〉 Jonah 2. 6. Yet hast thou brought up my life from corruption O Lord my God and verse 9. Salvation is of the Lord. Here is a ground of Encouragement to sustain the hearts of such forlorn Creatures as are sunk down in desperate discouragement as past help and hope to provoke them yet to seek out
at such a time the light of the word broke in upon my soul and after that I never heard the Minister preach but I received somthing and my heart did close with more than I could bear away but I could understand then and remember also ever after that time This is palpably true in cases of Conscience I wil issue this point thus 2 Pet. 2. 9. who hath called you out of darkness to his mervailous light the soul now begins to wonder and to be amazed at the vileness of sin at the frame of his heart at the patience of God that hath suffered him so long and he marvails with himself where he hath been and what he hath been doing all his dayes he is in another world as it were and if ever you have had this work of the spirit calling and turning of you from darkness to light it wil 〈◊〉 you a wondering you will see sin and your self and grace and Christ and the Ordinances and all after another fashion than ever you saw them before How far the sinner may be said to be active in this sight of sin The answer to this may be expressed in severall particulars that that way of God and the work of his spirit may more distinctly be discovered There is a weakness impotencie and insufficiencie in the understanding to reach this right discovery of sin for however there remaynes so much glimmering in the twilight of Natural reason and so much sensibleness in the stupid benummedness of the corrupt conscience of acarnal man that it can both see and sensibly check for some grosser evil or some such sins or venom of sin as crosseth his own peace and Comfort or those ends which he sets up as the chiefest good at which he aymes but to search into the entrales of sin and discern the spiritual composition of the accursed nature therof he can in no wise attayn this by all the labor and light he hath 2. Pet. 1. 9. He that lacketh these things that is these heavenly graces whereof the chief were faith and heavenly knowledg mentioned before he is blind and cannot see afarr of he may like a purblind-man give guess or have a confused conceiving of things after a dym and dazling fashion if the things be neer as the man in the gospel saw men walking like Trees but there be secrets in sin depths in the disstempers of mens hearts which are far removed from outward appearance and ordinary apprehension these he cannot perceive As it is in natural things and the several actions which issue from them each man is able to hear the sound of a mans words to discern the sence and reason of them and wil easily grant from the received principles of reason that they come from a man and evidence undeniably that there is a reasonable soul there which is and must needs be the cause thereof because they are properties that appertain to creatures of that kind alone and argue a life of the highest excellency nor Trees nor beasts can do so It s beyond their kind and the bounds of their ability But what this reasonable soul is in the constitution and composition therof this is further removed from our sence and so from our apprehension and it wil excercise the most sharp and ablest understanding and that furnished with Learning and reading to apprehend or discover so it is in sin when we hear the falsness of mens language when they speak thay care not how to cover their own shame or deny that which might bring danger to them when we see the cruelty and fiercness of their carriage in stealing or killing each man out of ordinary principles will condemn those these be as it were the words and hands of sin Ah but the spirituall pride and soveraignty of will which lifts up it self above the law and will of God justles his holiness and holy command to the wall this is the inward soul of sin thousands which condemn the former have and harbour and maintayn these to their dying day they never saw the evil of them How the sound of their actions strik outwardly they hear and observe but how the wheels of their mind and wil go inwardly and swerve al the day long and all their lives long in the whol inward frame of the whol man they be as far to seek as though there were no such thing The Conscience checks and the worst of men see the loathsomness of the evil if he should stab and take away the Life of a man but every Blasphemer stabs the Lord and yet his Conscience doth not so check him there because he sees the grossness of the one its near but the spiritualness of the other he doth not see it is a far off To stick in the medium and fall short of the object is feebleness That is the proper intendment of the Apostle when he layes open the seebleness of the wisdom of the most Eminent heathen Rom. 1. 21. they knew God but did not glorify him as God but became vayn in their discourse i. e. they fell short of their end of God whom they pretended to worship they missed of him that was their vanitie and they worshipped the creature in the room of God And hence the Prophet expresseth the practice of such as those who be wholly misguided in their course by reason of their mistakes Isay. 5. 20. They call evil good and good evil they put darkness for light and bitter for sweet and therfore it is they are so easily cousened by Satan and do so easily cousen themselves And upon this ground it is though they in Acts. 17. 23. worshipped an unknown God and Paul would have taught them the true God whom they ignorantly worshipped they would follow their own fancies and worship Gods of their own making but the true God blessed for ever they might have heard of him and been instructed concerning him his being and Worship they would not own nor entertain the Apostles Counsel in that behalf nay verse 32. they mocked him when he spake to them of 〈◊〉 things There is an incapability in our minds to receive this spiritual light by which we might be enabled to come to the right discovery of our Corruptions John 1. 5. The Light shined in darkness and the darkness Comprehended it not This is the Condition of every man by Nature So the Apostle ye were darkness Eph. 5. 8. Now one opposite will oppose and resist another but will not nay cannot entertain another and hence the Apostle gives that to be the ground of that resistance against the truth 2 Tim. 3. 8. They are men of corrupt minds therefore they resist the truth as Jannes Jambres did As it is in Nature when any sense hath lost his right temper and wholsome Constitution it is not possible to put forth its operation with any right discerning or discovery of that which comes to it the tast is corrupt the tongue tainted and over-grown
you your sins have hid his face that he wil not hear for he professeth Psal. 5. 4. that he is a God that wills not wickedness neither shal iniquity dwell with him Into the new Jerusalem shal no unclean thing enter but without shal be doggs Rev. 21. 27. The Dogs to their Kennel and Hogs to their Sty and Mire but if an impenitent wretch should come into Heaven the Lord would go out of Heaven Iniquity shall not dwell with sin That then that deprives me of my greatest good for which I came into the world and for which I live and labor in the world and without which I had better never to have been born nay that which deprives me of an universal good a good that hath all good in it that must needs be an evil but have all evil in it but so doth sin deprive me of God as the Object of my will and that wills all good and therefore it must bring in Truth all evil with it Shame takes away my Honor Poverty my Wealth Persecution my Peace Prison my Liberty Death my Life yet a man may still be a happy man lose his Life and live eternally But sin takes away my God and with him all good goes Prosperity without God will be my poyson Honor without him my bane nay the word without God hardens me my endeavor without him profits nothing at all for my good A Natural man hath no God in any thing and therefore hath no good It brings an incapability in regard of my self to receive good and an impossibility in regard of God himself to work my spiritual good while my sin Continues and I Continue impenitent in it An incapability of a spiritual blessing Why trangress ye the Commandement of the Lord that ye cannot prosper do what ye can 2 Chron. 24. 20. And He that being often reproved hardens his heart shal be consumed suddenly and there is no remedy He that spils the Physick that should cure him the meat that should nourish him there is no remedy but he must needs dye so that the Commission of sin makes not only a separation from God but obstinate resistance and continuance in it maintains an infinit and everlasting distance between God and the soul So that so long as the sinful resistance of thy soul continues God cannot vouchsafe the Comforting and guiding presence of his grace because it 's cross to the Covenant of Grace he hath made which he will not deny and his Oath which he will not alter So that should the Lord save thee and thy Corruption carry thee and thy proud vnbeleeving heart to heaven he must nullify the Gospel Heb. 5. 9. He 's the Author of Salvation to them that 〈◊〉 him and forswear himself Heb. 3. 18. He hath sworn unbeleevers shall not enter into his rest he must cease to be just and holy and so to be God As Saul said to Jonathan concerning David 1 Sam. 20. 30 31. So long as the Son of Jesse lives thou shalt not be established nor thy Kingdom So do thou plead against thy self and with thy own soul So long as these rebellious distempers continue Grace and Peace and the Kingdom of Christ can never be established in thy heart For this obstinate resistance differs nothing from the plagues of the state of the damned when they come to the highest measure but that it is not yet total and final there being some kind of abatement of the measure of it and stoppage of the power of it Imagine thou sawest the Lord Jesus coming in the clouds and heardest the last trump blow Arise ye dead and come to judgment Imagine thou sawest the Judg of all the World sitting upon the Throne thousands of Angels before him and ten thousands ministring unto him the Sheep standing on his right hand and the Goats at the left Suppose thou heardest that dreadful Sentence and final Doom pass from the Lord of Life whose Word made Heaven and Earth and will shake both Depart from me ye cursed How would thy heart shake and sink and die within thee in the thought thereof wert thou really perswaded it was thy portion Know that by thy dayly continuance in sin thou dost to the utmost of thy power execute that Sentence upon thy soul It 's thy life thy labor the desire of thy heart and thy dayly practice to depart away from the God of all Grace and Peace and turn the Tomb-stone of everlasting destruction upon thine own soul. It 's the Cause which brings all other evils of punishment into the World and without this they are not evil but so far as sin is in them The sting of a trouble the poyson and malignity of a punishment and affliction the evil of the evil of any judgment it is the sin that brings it or attends it Jer. 2. 19. Thine own wickedness shall correct thee and thy back slidings shall réprove thee know therefore that it is an evil and bitter thing that 〈◊〉 hast forsaken the Lord. Jer. 4. 18. Thy waies and doings have procured these things unto thee 〈◊〉 it is bitter and reacheth unto the heart Take miseries and crosses without sin they are like to be without a sting the Serpent without poyson ye may take them and make Medicines of them So Paul 1 Cor. 15. 55. he plaies with death it self sports with the 〈◊〉 Oh death where is thy sting Oh Grave where is thy Victory the sting of death is sin All the harmful annoyance in sorrows and punishments further than either they come from sin or else tend to it they are rather improvements of what we have than parting with any thing we do enjoy we rather lay out our conveniences than seem to lose them yea they encrease our Crown and do not diminish our Comfort Blessed 〈◊〉 ye when men revile you and persecute you and speak all manner of evil of you for my sake for great is your reward in Heaven Matth. 5. 11. There is a blessing in persecutions and reproaches when they be not mingled with the deserts of our sins yea our momentary short affliction for a good cause and a good Conscience works an excessive exceeding weight of Glory If then sin brings all evils and makes all evils indeed to us then is it worse than all those evils It brings a Curse upon all our Comforts blasts all our blessings the best of all our endeavors the use of all the choycest of all Gods Ordinances it 's so evil and vile that it makes the use of all good things and all the most glorious both Ordinances and Improvements evil to us Hag. 2. 13. 14. When the Question was made to the Priest If one that is unclean by a dead Body touch any of the holy things shall it be unclean And he answered Yea. So is this People and so is this Nation before me saith the Lord and so is every work of their hands and that which they offer is unclean If any good
thing a wicked man had or any action he did might be good or bring good to him in reason it was the Services and Sacrifices wherein he did approach unto God and perform Service to him and yet the Sacrifice of the wicked is an abomination to the Lord Prov. 28. 9. and Tit. 1. 15. To the pure all things are pure but to the unbeleeving there is nothing pure but their very Consciences are 〈◊〉 It is a desperate Malignity in the temper of the Stomach that should turn our Meat and diet into Diseases the best Cordials and Preservatives into Poysons so that what in reason is 〈◊〉 to nourish a man should kill him Such is the venom and malignity of sin makes the use of the best things become evil nay the greatest evil to us many times Psal. 10. 9. 7. Let his prayer be turned into sin That which is appointed by God to be the choycest 〈◊〉 to prevent sin is turned into sin out of the corrupt distemper of these carnal hearts of ours Hence then it follows That sin is the greatest evil in the world or indeed that can be For That which separates the soul from God that which brings all evils of punishment and makes all evils truly evil and spoils all good things to us that must needs be the greatest evil but this is the nature of sin as hath already appeared But that which I will mainly press is Sin is only opposite to God and cross as much as can be to that infinite goodness and 〈◊〉 which is in his blessed Majesty it 's not the 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 distresses that men undergo that the Lord distasts them for or estrangeth himself from them he is with Joseph in the Prison with the three Children in the 〈◊〉 with Lazarus when he lies among the Dogs and gathers the 〈◊〉 from the rich Mans Table yea with Joh upon the dung-hil but he is not able to bear the presence of sin yea of this temper are his dearest servants the more of God is in them the more opposite they are to sin where ever they find it It was that he commended in the Church of Ephesus That she could not bear those that were wicked Rev. 2. 3. As when the Stomach is of a pure temper and 〈◊〉 strength the least surfet or distemper that befals it presently distasts and disburdens it self with speed So David noted to be a man after Gods own heart He professeth 101. Psal. 3. 7. I hate the work of them that turn aside he that worketh deceit shall not dwell in my house he that telleth lyes shall not tarry in my sight But when the heart becomes like the Stomach 〈◊〉 weak it cannot help it self nor be helped by Physick desperate diseases and dissolution of the whol follows and in reason must be expected Hence see how God looks at the least connivance or a faint and seeble kind of opposition against sin as that in which he is most highly dishonored and he follows it with most hideous plagues as that indulgent carriage of Ely towards the vile behavior of his Sons for their grosser evils 1 Sam. 2. 23. Why do you such things It 's not well my Sons that I hear such things It is not well and is that all why had they either out of ignorance not known their duty or out of some sudden surprisal of a temptation neglected it it had not been well but for them so purposedly to proceed on in the practice of such gross evils and for him so faintly to reprove The Lord looks at it as a great sin thus feebly to oppose sin and therefore verse 29. he tells him That he honored his Sons above God and therefore he professeth Far be it from me to maintain thy house and comfort for he that honors me I wil honor and he that despiseth me shall be lightly esteemed verse 30. Hence it is the Lord himself is called the holy one of Israel 1. Hab. 12. Who is of 〈◊〉 eyes than to behold evil and cannot look upon iniquity no not in such as profess themselves Saints though most deer unto 〈◊〉 no nor in his Son the Lord Jesus not in his Saints Amos 8. 7. The Lord hath sworn by himself I abhor the excellency of Jacob what ever their excellencies their priviledges are if they do not abhor sin God will abhor them Jer. 22. 24. Though Coniah was as the Signet of my right hand thence would I pluck him Nay he could not endure the appearance of it in the Lord Christ for when but the reflection of sin as I may so say fell upon our Savior even the imputation of our transgressions to him though none iniquity was ever committed by him the Father withdrew his comforting presence from him and let loose his infinite displeasure against him forcing him to cry out My God my God why hast thou forsaken 〈◊〉 Yea Sin is so evil that though it be in Nature which is the good Creature of God that there is no good in it nothing that God will own but in the evil of punishment it is otherwise for the torments of the Devils and punishments of the damned in Hell and all the plagues inflicted upon the wicked upon Earth issue from the righteous and revenging Justice of the Lord and he doth own such execution as his proper work Isa. 45. 7. Is there any evil in the City viz. of punishment and the Lord hath not 〈◊〉 it I make peace I create evil I the Lord do all these things It issues from the Justice of God that he cannot but reward every one according to his own waies and works those are a mans own the holy one of Israel hath no hand in them but he is the just Executioner of the plagues that are inflicted and suffered for these and hence our blessed Savior becoming our Surety and standing in our room he endured the pains of the Second death even the fiercenes of the fury of an offended God and yet it was impossible he could commit the least sin or be tainted with the least corrupt distemper And it 's certain it 's better to 〈◊〉 all 〈◊〉 without any one sin than to commit the least sin and to be freed from all plagues Suppose that all miseries and sorrows that ever befel all the wicked in Earth and Hell should meet together in one soul as all waters gathered together in one Sea Suppose thou heardest the Devils roaring and sawest Hell gaping and the flames of everlasting burnings 〈◊〉 before thine eyes it 's certain it were better for thee to be cast into those inconceivable 〈◊〉 than to commit the least sin against the Lord Thou dost not think so now but thou wilt find it so one day But if sin be thus vile in its own nature why do not men so discern it so judg it That I may give a full Answer to this Question I shall first shew the Causes of mistake and secondly the Cure For the first There
in his dayly course there is nothing but his dayly rebellions and his confusion dayly before his face and the truth is the more terrible because he hath withstood 〈◊〉 so long That as it fares with the prisoner that had the freedom of the prison while he carried himself fairly but because he hath been taken in some false pranks and plotting an escape he is now laid in the 〈◊〉 and 〈◊〉 with 〈◊〉 now never like to 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 day or look for any breathing So here my estate is more miserable because I have opposed the means that might have procured my help the checks of Conscience I have smothered or slighted many warnings I have had but willingly forgot them many sad reproofs that laid hold 〈◊〉 me but I studied how to wrest away my thoughts it 's just with God to load me with Curses which would never look for comfort from God in a right way 〈◊〉 ever there was a 〈◊〉 I am he 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 ever God 〈◊〉 a Rebel he wil 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Lastly This Conviction is victorious and invincible It doth not only stop the mouth of carnal Reason and the cavils thereof but also displaceth it It not only stills the 〈◊〉 and pretences of the sinner but makes the mind and heart give attendance to the Truth to be subject thereunto and to take the impression thereof For otherwise the sinner thus tyred and dauled by the dayly laying at of the Truth may either happily lie still though not cavil with it yet not give attendance to it But in a stupid kind of fortish sencelesness wear out the blow and so wast away to nothing as many out of sorrow have become like senceless blocks Though their practice hath not been evil yet they have had no heart to good or else they fall to desperate prophaneness or professed opposition when they cannot escape the prison they 'l break the prison and lay violent hands upon the Keeper Rom. 1. 18. They hold down the Truth in unrighteouness they imprison the Truth while the Truth should imprison them therefore when the Lord will settle an over-powring Conviction he makes it victorious Therefore he is said Job 36. 9 10. When he shews them their transgressions he commands that they return from iniquity 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 break out and over bear and force the mind and heart to give attendance and take the impression of it as when the Conqueror and he that 〈◊〉 got the Victory comes in place all give attendance unto his 〈◊〉 The want of the maintaining this 〈◊〉 power of a Conviction I take to be the cause why many even of Gods own are so 〈◊〉 taken aside after althe helps they do enjoy and the resolutions they take up I have often wondred when a man hath be 〈◊〉 with much bitterness in daies of humiliation such and such evils begged for grace and help and resolved against them they know and 〈◊〉 it 's in 〈◊〉 to cavil or think to make an escape 〈◊〉 they reject such a 〈◊〉 and 〈◊〉 they 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 aside and that strangely and 〈◊〉 they fall 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 with their old corruptions They do not put this Conviction into commission they do not make it victorious or maintain it so or the Authority thereof so as to force attendance When the 〈◊〉 is good and 〈◊〉 Mill tight why goes it not There is not so much Water kept as to drive it because they have let out the stream and strength another way therefore there is not so much power in a conviction as to force attendance and to drive the heart to obedience Therefore as Paul said to Timothy 1. Tim. 4. 15 16. Meditate upon these things and continue in them or be in these things So you must be in a Conviction and continue under it if you would find it victorious and then it wil be so first or last and wil eat out al opposition though with much ado As it is with Aqua fortis if laid upon Iron though it do not at once and suddenly yet secretly and insensibly it wil eat the Iron in pieces So it is with a Truth which God wil make victorious it will lie upon the Spirit of a man and eat there and work there and break out effectually it may be many yeers after Job 33. 16. this is called the sealing of 〈◊〉 Instruction which is to add Authority and Soveraignty to it as when the Edict was sealed by the intreaty of Haman there was no opposing no gainsaying of it The Reasons of the Point which was the fourth Particular attended in the Explication come now to be considered And these are two The first is taken from 〈◊〉 order which the Lord in the way of his providence and work of nature hath placed betwixt the mind and the 〈◊〉 the understanding and wil of man these two faculties have a near kind of correspondencie the one to help forward the work of the other Knowledg and understanding is the inlet into the soul nothing comes to the heart nor 〈◊〉 work upon it but so far as knowledg makes way c ushers it in as it were into the presence of the wil and leaves an impression thereof upon it 〈◊〉 use to say that which the eye sees not 〈◊〉 heart rues not that which the understanding conceives not the wil is not nay cannot be affected with if Good to embrace it if evil to be 〈◊〉 and troubled therewith It s the method 〈◊〉 observed in Gods dispensation towards him when his heart was brought to a hatred against the evil of his waies Psal. 119. 107. By thy Commandements have I got understanding therefore I hate every false way Unless a right understanding go before a through hatred wil not follow after As it is in the body unless the stomach receive and hold and convey also the purgation either to the spleen or lower parts of the body be the receit never so strong yet wil it never stir the humor or trouble nature though the distemper were abundant dangerous Because in an ordinary course of providence there is no way 〈◊〉 come to the humor but by this means It s so in the soul be the truths delivered attended with never so much terror and power able to sink the heart of a sinful Creature as not able to endure the dread of it if yet the understanding conceives not the nature of such truths nor convey and settle them sadly and Convictingly upon the heart it s not at all stirred in the least measure therewith much less troubled with the danger discovered therein because they cannot reach the heart therefore can never work upon it As through ignorance we commit sin because we see not the evil in it so after commission we sorrow not because we apprehend not the 〈◊〉 and danger Acts. 3. 17. I know that through ignorance you did it as did also your Fathers 1. Cor. 2. 8. For had they known it they would never have crucified the Lord of life It fares
him thence and behold him putting the 〈◊〉 about his neck sighing out the blood of Jesus the innocent blood the blood of Jesus let me not be rather than be thus miserable and with that he 〈◊〉 himself head-long and his bowels gush out and his soul departs out of his body and the Devils they lay hold upon it Send thy thoughts post to Hell after him hear him there cursing the day that ever he was born the head that plotted it the heart that desired it the Scribes and 〈◊〉 that consented and gave it and the tongue that said Hail Master Behold what desperate evils 〈◊〉 wil drive a man unto and what unfferable desolation it draws with it As thou seest the execution of the evil upon others So act upon thy self by present consideration danger and death when they are at hand and in present expectation they put men upon real expressions when they see 〈◊〉 must dy and they must come to answer sins wil appear as they are and they must suffer what they do deserve there is no shift then their hearts and hopes shake and sink act therefore thine own death and thine own judgment and bring in a real account of thy Condition by daily and real consideration dye daily and drag thy heart to the tryal of Gods tribunal see what thou canst make of it now that thou mayest know what to expect then Go apart and keep Assises or at least Sessions with thy self I see my sins and my condition let me see how I can give an account for them and how I can answer to the Lord and his Law or how I can bear that which follows First or last I must come to trial let me 〈◊〉 up my self before-hand to it Suppose 〈◊〉 I heard the last 〈◊〉 blow Arise ye dead and come to judgment 〈◊〉 I saw Christ coming in the clouds with thousands suppose I beheld the thrones set and the Lord Jesus summoning al flesh when the bookes shal be opened and al hidden things brought to light when the wicked shal not be able to lift up their 〈◊〉 but cal to the Mountains to cover them they are not able to abide the tryal and therefore cannot endure the terror of the lamb thou canst not but say those are thy sins of which thou never yet repentedst that thy curse and condemnation is such as thou art not able to avoid thou canst not answer for the one nor bear the other Therefore bring it up to this conclusion let me not rest in this condition now that the word and my Conscience tells me I shal never find comfort therein at that day Let me now draw towards a conclusion by setting on the exhortation with two or three Motives And first consider the danger of the mistake herein to misse here is to miscarry forever in the great work of our conversion without any possibility of recovery or redress If God never let a man see his evil its certain he never recovers him out of it When he will prepare a people for destruction and cut out a people on purpose for confusion and make them ripe for plagues he takes this course Isa. 6. go thy waies and make the eyes of this people dim and their ears heavie that in seeing they may see and not perceive hearing they may hear and not understand least they should be converted and I should heal 〈◊〉 keep them there and they be safe enough from ever receiving any saving good So our Saviour Math. 6. 21. 22. The light of the Body is the eye if the light within thee be darkness how great is that 〈◊〉 the whol 〈◊〉 is so a wound here is never 〈◊〉 there is no hope of any good coming to a soul 〈◊〉 up in 〈◊〉 It 's made a character a brand that 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 upon such as be reprobates Math. 13. 13. to you 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 the mysteries of the kingdom but to 〈◊〉 in 〈◊〉 that seeing they might see and not understand If there be but one gate to come into the way miss that you miss the way so here therefore when men are but one step betewen them and destruction they are thus discovered Math. 24. 37. they eat they drank they married and knew nothing untill the flood 〈◊〉 and destroyed them al As in a town where there is but one entrance or passage block up that there 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 coming in no going out and 〈◊〉 no 〈◊〉 of relief They go not out to seek any none come in to bring any 〈◊〉 so here when the mind is blinded there is no 〈◊〉 of the coming in of any good or for 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 receive 〈◊〉 the passage of Grace and of mercy is wholy blocked up therfore our Saviour is said to come to 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 one 〈◊〉 ou by turning of you from your 〈◊〉 therefore you must see them before you turn from them no seeing no turning no blessing Acts. 3. 26. It is the easiest way of al other It easeth a man of that last reckoning and arrerages to come a seasenable and timely discovery of sin makes a man 〈◊〉 occasions of evil and prevent them it sets up a fear in the heart and stops a man that he dare not adventure to commit them He that walks in darkness knowes not whither he goes and therefore must needs go to ruin he lyes open to al evil that comes he discerns it not he wil do any evil be it never so loathsom he perceives no such evil he takes sour for sweet poyson for 〈◊〉 and preservatiues swallowes down any thing though death be in it John 16. 2. they shal think they do God good service when they 〈◊〉 you and sayes Paul I was a persecuter blasphemous and injurious and through ignorance I did all this 1. Tim. 1. 13. The kingdom of Satan is the kingdom of darkness while he keeps men in ignorance hoodwinked he can carry them whither he wil when the light of the Gospel is once 〈◊〉 up his juridiction fals to the ground nor can he prevail as before It was a good womans speech 〈◊〉 desireing that her children might be instructed 〈◊〉 catechised that their reckoning might be less and their account more easy than hers having lived in ignorance children under Parents and Servants trayned up under good masters that shew them the evils of their wayes and keeps them affrights from them they come on so easily to Christ are carryed so gently that they know not what terror means timely conviction keeps them from the pollutions of the world Lastly it is the safest and surest way See our sins we must first or last either here to our humiliation or herafter to our confusion and we had better see them by the light of the Gospel while we are within sight of 〈◊〉 that we may be relieved than to see them by the 〈◊〉 of Hell when there is no remedy If the eye be 〈◊〉 the whol body is ful of light Math. 6. 22. If we
delivers touching Gods Dispensation and I know not but it may hold here Psal. 18. 27. With the froward thou wilt deal frowardly the place is hard for the apprehension of it in the fair and full sence of it The words that go before will give in some light With the bountiful thou wilt shew thy self bountiful with the perfect thou wilt be perfect with the pure thou wilt shew thy self pure and with 〈◊〉 perverse or froward thou 〈◊〉 shew thy self froward thou wilt make thy self deal frowardly To speak to the pinch of the Point but in two words I conceive 〈◊〉 to be the meaning 〈◊〉 the place and the mind of God in it He that walks with God in the exercise of the Rule in a 〈◊〉 manner God 〈◊〉 meet with him in it and give him the 〈◊〉 and comfort that follows and flows from it he that conscienciously keeps the Rule shal be more fitted for to keep it and to share in the blessing and 〈◊〉 of it he that deals bountifully in vertue of the Rule he shal be more apt to that Duty and shal find bountiful dealings from the hands of others God and men he that is upright thorough and simple in Spirit and practice he shal be more exact every way and find peace and praise as the fruit of that he that is pure that is not only contents himself to be simple and sincere hearted in his whol course but is dayly purging himself and clensing his own heart 〈◊〉 severing himself from such taints and remainders of distempers that appear and 〈◊〉 to cleer up the Rule in the beauty and excellency thereof to himself that he may see more of it submit more freely and fully to it the Lord will make himself pure to him So the word God wil let in pure instructions that no darkness or dimness may stumble him or cause him to mistake pure evidence of pardon and acceptance no guilt may unsettle him pure comforts and peace that no doubts or fears may discourage him pure holiness and power of 〈◊〉 that no strength of corruption may blur the Image of God in him or darken the Evidence of the Work of Grace received But 〈◊〉 a man will be froward crook the Rule go cross to the Command and wil walk in the vanity of his own 〈◊〉 and stubbornness of his own Spirit oppose the power of the Truth not willing to look upon or abide to hear of the purity of it God will shew himself froward towards such a one he wil 〈◊〉 you and cross you in your whol course and in al your comforts you crook and wind away from the Rule to content your sins God by his Righteous Law by vertue of the provoking power therof wil deliver you up to the power of your sins and to al the terros and plagues and expressions of his 〈◊〉 that attend thereupon and in the daies of thy distress when nothing wil help thee but the holy Word of God God wil then deal with you and follow you with the 〈◊〉 of your own 〈◊〉 thou would'st not see the holiness and purity of Gods Precepts thou 〈◊〉 have a mind not able to attend or receive or remember any thing that may be for thy direction support or comfort but only live upon thine own guilt and the terrors that attend thereupon and the perversness of thine own heart wil be thine own plague In your froward pangs you flinch and fling care not what you say or do God can be as 〈◊〉 as you nor hear prayers nor regard your complaints nor pity your necessities but pursue you with his plagues let fly on every hand the fierceness of his displeasure God can and wil hamper thee if thou had'st a heart as sierce as a 〈◊〉 of Hell make thee weary of thy part be as perverse as thou wilt or canst be And therefore the word in the place is marvelous pregnant it signifies to contend with another as one that wrastles wil do wreath and 〈◊〉 and turn his body every way that he may meet with his adversary with whom he is to grapple So the Lord will meet with thee at every turn the greater thy opposition hath been against him the greater expression of his displeasure shalt thou be sure to 〈◊〉 and that in the most dreadful manner The sins of Manasseh were high handed and hellish abominations mighty provocations out of measure sinful 2 Chron. 33. 11. Therefore God abased him mightily fettered and 〈◊〉 and humbled him mightily and made him cry mightily before he could 〈◊〉 audience and acceptance with him the cruel and harsh carriage of the Jaylor Acts 16. exceeded his Commission and so the bounds of common Humanity to deal worse with the distressed than either their Fact deserved or the Law permitted or Authority allowed him in that behalf a 〈◊〉 transported with deadly indignation against the waies of God and his People and as it appears by the circumstances of the story a man that pleased 〈◊〉 in such unreasonable practices the Lord therefore handles him answerably to the harshness of his spirit makes the Earth quake and the Prison totter the bolts break and the door fly open and at last his heart begins to shake and die within him notwithstanding the fierceness of his Spirit So Paul Acts 9. he comes trembling to crave the Counsel of those whose presence formerly he loathed There is a Three-fold Ground from whence the Reasons of this Point may be fetched which will Evidence That this manner of proceeding best suits with the insinite Wisdom of God look we at God at others at the sinner himself with whom the Lord is now trading The Holiness of Gods Nature and exactness of his Truth not only commends but even seems with some kind of comely necessity to call for such a manner of Dispensation The Lord stiles himself the holy One of Israel a God of purer eyes than can endure to behold iniquity not able to pass by sin in the least appearance of it and therefore leaves so strict a charge beware lest there be an evil thought in thy heart and abstain from all appearance of evil 1 Thes. 5. When the Lord is to convince the sinner of sin to express his mind and displeasure against him because of those his evils so scandalous and detestable to al that have but the least spark of saving knowledg and Grace yea loathsom to the very light of Conscience in corrupt Nature Should the Lord casily and overly 〈◊〉 them by with some smal 〈◊〉 of some little dislike it could not but impeach his Purity and make himself accessary to the dishonor of his own Holiness When Eli proceeded not with that zeal against 〈◊〉 evil of his Sons as the 〈◊〉 thereof might justly have provoke 〈◊〉 him unto but after a slight manner manifested a heart-less dislike of it the Lord 〈◊〉 1 Sam. 2. 39. That he honored his sons before him rather respected their carnal content that they might not be
the old man stil. Here the main knot and the great Question remains still The looking over and skilful discerning of these first impressions left upon us may nay in truth will stand by us and relieve us in the darkest daies of our greatest distresses we may find some foot-hold here when al the rest seem to be gone from us to our own sence apprehension It 's Gods usual way many times to put his Servant to it as he tried Abraham to make them sacrifice their Isaacs even to burn the 〈◊〉 and pledges he hath given them for the 〈◊〉 of the Covenant and established their hearts therein For Isaac was all the pledg that the Lord had given That in his Seed all the Nations of the Earth should be blesfed now he commands him to cast his Evidence into the fire brings him to his beginnings Gen. 22. 1 2. So the Lord doth often with his Enlargements fail the heart is dead their Graces bed-rid their peace disturbed their assurance gone so that they find nothing feel nothing in their own sence and apprehension all is in the ashes God begins with them upon the bare board as we say they sit down with a heart yielding and melting a heart burdened with sin though it cannot disburden it self a heart loosened from his lusts willing that God should remove them though he cannot subdue them The Second thing to be opened is How God sets on this Sorrow and makes the soul to feel sin its greatest evil when Naturally it finds greatest content in it OR How it 's possible that the soul 〈◊〉 wholly possessed with sin can be made to feel the weight of sin as to be severed from it where there is no room for a habit in the subject there can be no work of a habit for habits of Grace and sin work so far as they be in their subject and have 〈◊〉 from the subjects in which they be Corruption must be in the heart before it carry and command the heart Grace must be in the soul before it can act and quicken the soul to its work Now how the soul should come to feel and be loosened from it's corruption when there is nothing in it but corruption when God comes to work upon it how doth God bring this about If by Sorrow a man be 〈◊〉 from sin then it must have this 〈◊〉 before it be loosened because it is an effect of it If so then it must have a gracious frame and be possessed with the presence of Grace when it 's wholly possessed with sin which cannot be I Answer In these Secrets and depths of Gods Spiritual Dispensations with the souls of men we must learn to be wise to sobriety and adore the waies of God which are too wonderful for us and if any paths of his Providence in an ordinary course are beyond our ken and past finding out I suppose his complyings with the consciences and hearts of men in their Conversion are some of the chief It 's of our Natural Birth David speaks Psal. 139. I am fearfully and wonderfully made much more may it be said of our new birth The wise man Eccles. 11. 5. saies 〈◊〉 thou knowest not the way of the Spirit 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 do grow in the womb of her that is with Child so thou knowest not the 〈◊〉 of God nor of his Spirit how he fashions the frame of the mind and heart of him he wil bring home to himself curious we should not be careless we must not be I shal leave therefore some such 〈◊〉 Expressions so far as my light goes and occasion the judicious to consider further for the further cleering of Gods Work That which I shal say here for the Answer and Explication of the Second thing I shal east into 〈◊〉 conclusions 〈◊〉 I conceive that is 〈◊〉 easiest and openest way to help the weak In a right sence it 〈◊〉 be truly said that sin is truly cross and opposite to the Nature of the soul and the greatest evil that doth or can 〈◊〉 I say opposite to the Nature of the foul 〈◊〉 a right 〈◊〉 Look at the soul in respect of the end for which it was created and that impression which is 〈◊〉 and left upon it unto this day whereby it 's restlesly carried in the search and for the procurement of that good for which it was made though it 〈◊〉 the right 〈◊〉 of what it is and falls short in the 〈◊〉 of it The soul was made for 〈◊〉 end and good and therefore for a better than it self therfore for God therfore to enjoy union with him and communion with those blessed excellencies of his so far as they are communicable and it were capable this impression remains still upon the soul though the work thereof is wholly prejudiced and it self disappointed wholly of that good which would satisfie the desires thereof and it misseth 〈◊〉 being possessed with sin the Judgment is blinded and deluded that it mistakes utterly and perceives not this good and so pursues other things in the room of it yet restless and unsatisfied in what it-hath and attains but it hath not that for which it was made thus Paul speaks of the Romans Rom. 2. 14. Being without the Law they shew the work of the Law written in their hearts their Conscience excusing or accusing this ever appears in the heart corrupt I was for a 〈◊〉 the ambitious man he seeks his 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 man the World 〈◊〉 gots the booty and yet is not 〈◊〉 in that which he gets I 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 and 〈◊〉 which should 〈◊〉 and yet 〈◊〉 doth not satisfie And 〈◊〉 they know no 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 these and are not satisfied with these therefore they 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 carried after more of these vain 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Honor more Wealth more 〈◊〉 the 〈◊〉 blinded 〈◊〉 the 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 and 〈◊〉 with them 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 by what light 〈◊〉 is carried to no other by the power and principles it hath This is the reason the Apostle Peter gives why carnal hearts 〈◊〉 see spiritual 〈◊〉 2 Pet. 1. 9. Because they are blind and cannot see 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 things are far 〈◊〉 and blind men 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 reach 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 they 〈◊〉 the light help and 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 the 〈◊〉 and the 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Hence the reason follows That which crosseth the end and good of the soul for which it was made that is so far contrary to the nature of the soul and the greatest evil that can befal it But sin as such and such and that onely crosseth the end and greatest good of the soul. If sin in the venome and pollution of it were discovered and brought home effectually to the nature of the soul it might be made sensible thereof and deeply affected and burdened therewith this followes undeniably from the former That which carryes the crossness of the greatest evil to the nature of the soul were it but so seen did it but so act upon the soul it would
heart But when a sinner is indeed pierced quite through the heart and feels inwardly the 〈◊〉 and evil of sin he loaths that most and his heart most of all that is most guilty and tainted with it In the soul there is 〈◊〉 it were the soul of sin the 〈◊〉 and poyson of it and he opposeth that most that hath opposed the Lord 〈◊〉 Spirit and the Word and Work of his Grace the 〈◊〉 of this mind the preversness of this will the distempers of these corrupt and carnal affections he is at 〈◊〉 with his own heart that ever it hath held any kind of connivence and correspondence with any corruption ever been acted by it carried with it that ever it hath combined and conspired with sin and Satan in 〈◊〉 against the righteous and holy One of Israel the great God of Heaven and Earth and here he finds work enough even matter of abasement al his daies he 〈◊〉 down in shame and is covered with confusion as with a cloak and never lifts up his head more because he 〈◊〉 that about him that wil dayly mind him of his own baseness 〈◊〉 It 's now his dayly task to oppose that which opposed the Lord resist that which hath resisted the work of Grace conspire against the Treacheries and plottings of his own heart where all the conspiracies against God and his holy Law have been hatched Job was vile before but he saw not the vileness of his heart He fears all sin and all provocations to sin because he hath felt the evil of all and knows the danger of all any inclination from within any temptation from without any appearance in the least measure that might provoke thereunto Therefore these two are put in way of opposition Blessed is the man that fears alwaies but he that hardens his heart shal fall into mischief Prov. 28. 14. q. d. A hard heart feels 〈◊〉 knows not the evil of 〈◊〉 and therefore 〈◊〉 like the horso into the battel to his ruine but if the heart be truly wounded and contrite truly affected with sin as having experience of the danger of it it wil come no more there he that hath been scorched with those flames will come no more into that fire As men who have wounded parts broken an Arm or a Leg how careful are they where they sit where they go they wil come neer nothing that may hurt cannot endure any thing neer lest it should so much as touch or trouble So the Apostle adviseth Heb. 12. 13. ' Make straight steps to your feet lest that which is lame be turned out of the way Lame men observe every step they take every stone upon which they tread see and view the place where they set their feet search and set al right come there no more So here a broken Spirit 〈◊〉 every thought weighs every word takes notice of the least 〈◊〉 of his heart the first appearance of any occasion or temptation Thus they fear al sin above al other evil nay the least sin above the greatest plague because he hath felt them by proof and experience to be such fears rather he shal not be sound than not quiet He that fears one sin and yet is careless to fall into another he never seared nor sorrowed aright sorrow for sin wil not make a man commit sin by sorrowing if he fear or take notice it is a sin it is enough And hence it makes watchful to 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 prevent the evil So Joseph Gen. 39. 10 11. He would not lie by her nor be with her avoided her company that would withdraw his communion from the Lord. It makes a man speedy to avoid the 〈◊〉 he 〈◊〉 the place left his garment rather than his 〈◊〉 he that would not fal into the pit wil not come neer the bank As after a 〈◊〉 the party cannot endure the sight the 〈◊〉 of it and are careful to 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 the appearance 〈◊〉 the 〈◊〉 of such evils 〈◊〉 19. 11. I 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 thy 〈◊〉 in my heart that I 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 sin against thee He is 〈◊〉 to attend all 〈◊〉 but accounts most of those 〈◊〉 work 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 and 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 the 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 of corruption 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 heart and 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 the 〈◊〉 from it Though the Truths which are delivered carry dread with them to the Conscience rack the heart of the sinner in restless horror and perplexity are like the bitterest Pils and the sharpest Corrosives cross to the sinful security and that Natural quiet the soul doth covet yea to his Credit and outward Comforts and conveniences in which he pleased himself yet he is content his hand should be cut off and his eye plucked out that is that the 〈◊〉 Truth of God and powerful and plain Dispensation thereof should pluck away those darling distempers be they as profitable as a hand as dear as an eye rather than they should once pluck his heart from the Lord quarrels with the loathsom abominations of his Nature which now are discovered but gladly welcoms those soul-saving Truths that would slay and subdue those sins and not quarrel with them The Word of the Lord is a good Word though a convicting terrifying yea a condemning Word to his own apprehension he that is sensible of his burden as unsupportable and passing strength he is best pleased with that ease A wise Patient when by his tryal he hath found it and the consent of learned Physitians and Chyrurgeons have concluded that his Gangrened part must be cut off and cauterized cannot be healed though his Nature shrink at it yet Reason and his own preservation makes him desire and chuse the sharpest Instrument because by that his life and safety is best procured The sinner that finds the burden of his sin the heaviest of al other and a disease most deadly to his soul the sharpest Truths he accounts the safest and therefore takes most content therein there shal no course that can be prescribed be it never so tedious to flesh and blood no means that shall be appointed to him be they attended with never so much danger and difficulty but he readily addresseth himself to the use thereof and easily submits himself to the Counsel and Authority and Command of God therein willing that God should do any thing with him that he might do good to his soul and remove that which he feels to be the greatest evil of it As Ely to Samuel 1. Sam. 3. 17. Hide nothing from me though the heaviest and hardest of the message that he was to report A broken hearted sinner wil 〈◊〉 capitulate with the Almighty stick with God unless he may have his own 〈◊〉 or look for some abatement from the Lord if the corruption be more than ordinary strong and the means which are to be used be mervailously cross not onely to a mans corruption but to ones outward comforts yea to nature it self yea the heart under this disposition yields quietly that the Lord should take his own course any
weare away the 〈◊〉 that stuck in his heart and therefore fondly conceited he could make a 〈◊〉 to beare the weight that should befal that he might possess and injoy the pleasures and content his 〈◊〉 courses did promise to his carnall heart But he finds it otherwise his heart say les him under pressure of one sin Psal. 130 3. If thou shouldest mark what is done amis Lord who should 〈◊〉 it An ignorant soul settled in his secure condition out of self deluding pride of his own spirit would 〈◊〉 that he could abide the misery and so the danger that might accrew to him by his distemper and so is fearless to maintain it But now he findes he is not able to abide that which his sin doth bring let him put the best of al his abilities together to emprovement 〈◊〉 14. can thy heart endure c. the time was they thought their hearts could endure the frollick Epicure and flinty hearted sinner he wonders at he feebleness of the distressed and broken-hearted that they should be such children persons of such feeble and milksop dispositions to sink at a Sermon and be troubled at the words of a Preacher tush his Conscience is cannon proof he can heare and bear al and yet pleal 〈◊〉 and bless himself in the pursuit of his lusts as before times Oh thou 〈◊〉 do so while men deal with thee thou mayest avoyd their blow or make an escape out of their hands but when God shal deal with thee in that day when thou fallest into the hands of the living God Hebr. 10. who lives to torment the to eternity what wilt thoudo The shadow and appearance of the hand-writing shook Belshazzars heart when he was quaffing in his cups in the ruff of his riot what would the stroke of that hand have done and this hand now the 〈◊〉 finds and finds himself absolutely unable to 〈◊〉 the evil of 〈◊〉 sin and therefore concludes it absolutely 〈◊〉 to be 〈◊〉 of it whatever it cost him He knowes now by proof this evil to be such as that no other can equal it the evil such as no contrary good in this world can countervail it And therefore he sees reason and chooseth never to have any good in this world rather than to have his sin to part withal rather than not part with this or be plagued with it Rather undergo al evils and suffer the utmost extremity 〈◊〉 suffer his sin to remain with him Math 16. 26. What wil it profit a man to gain the whol world and to Ioose his soul or what shal a man give in exchange for his soul. The broken in heart he sees now by proof also the cursed combination that is amongst corruptions a league 〈◊〉 lusts if any corruption rule in the heart it makes a man a slave to what ever distemper presents it self unto the soul In a word He that wil keep 〈◊〉 sin he keeps himself under the power of al corruptions he keeps off the power of al the means of grace and good for working upon or prevailing with the soul for its 〈◊〉 wolfare The keeping of one sin keeps possession for Satan and his right unto the soul and under the Allegiance of all the accursed lusts that either can come from without or arise from within one 〈◊〉 the Soveraignty but he is a slave to al as special occasion may be offered he wil serve any 〈◊〉 that he may suit the beloved distemper of his heart 〈◊〉 Tim. 2. last the 〈◊〉 rakes them captive according to his wil. and therefore its 〈◊〉 of the thorny 〈◊〉 in that the nick of 〈◊〉 they fel away 〈◊〉 8. 15. Whither sel it Nathely it gave 〈◊〉 to whatover either error in opinion or 〈◊〉 in practice 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 or satisfyed the 〈◊〉 desire of the soul. He that misseth the right way be is for any by way that comes next in view a City that is under the command of the chief Captain they must be subject to the out rage of any or al of his 〈◊〉 or underlings that wil but execute his wil and attend his tyrannous commands so it is in the soul if one lust rule it it s a salve unto what ever distemper may be serviceable and seem to give content to that they went as they were led 1 Cor. 12. 1. 2. The heart pierced with this through sorrow perceives also by woful experience that the keeping of one corruption keeps off the power of any ordinance that it cannot work kindly or 〈◊〉 effectually for any spiritual good it way 〈◊〉 the work of an ordinance The heady and 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 would have a King and they would hear no counsel nor yet take the savorest argument into Consideration that did concern their peace and prosperous proceeding in their way 1 Sam. 8. 18. the 〈◊〉 Idolaters run madding after their Idols they cast off al the advice of the Prophet with scorn contempt Jer. 44. 16. As for the word which thou hast spoken to us in the name of the Lord we wil not hearken to thee Nay when they are set upon is they profess plainly there is no hope but we wil walk every one after the vanity of his own imaginations Jer. 18. 12. so that the sinner now 〈◊〉 and resolves either he must part withal or els for ever be deprived of al good and be a slave to al sin TRYAL We may hence gain undoubted evidence whether ever our hearts were soundly soaked in this Godly sorrow for sin 〈◊〉 or no. Contrition if it be of the right stamp it hath a constraining power with it to force the heart against corruption It silenceth al shifts puts by and puts off al false pleas scatters al sluggish pretences that are made in behalf of our distempers 〈◊〉 a word it casts the ballance against al carnal reasons that are 〈◊〉 and stirring and usually cast in by Satan and our sensual disposition to keep us in our former estate and to procure some if not toleration yet mitigation in our 〈◊〉 against our 〈◊〉 It layes and leaves a pressing 〈◊〉 upon the soul that overbears what ever may come on the contrary part to plead for any connivence for any sin in any kind As we say in the Proverb there is no reasoning against sence a man hath no patience to hear words 〈◊〉 or appearances which are against a mans feeling experience If any stander by should perswade a man the potion is pleasant when a man 〈◊〉 it 〈◊〉 and his stomach 〈◊〉 it or that the fire is cold when he finds it 〈◊〉 and burn he can hardly give him the hearing but disdains him an answer say what you wil I regard not what you say shal not I trust mine eyes or so far befool my self as to go against mine own feeling I pass not that you speak in that behalf So it is with a broken hearted sinner what ever Satan shal suggest his carnal friends and companions counsel his deceitful
heart pretend or plead what need he be so strict in his way so 〈◊〉 against his sin so resolute to abandon al his former courses and his antient 〈◊〉 with whom he hath had so much content there is no such need now to set upon the work herafter wil be time enough or no such danger in maintaining a dalliance with such and such distempers which are no great matter nor is there any great harm in them the burdened sinner hath not patience to hear but disdaines to enter parly about such things as he hath past sentence upon long before this day tel not me talk not to me of such things there is no speaking against mine own experience I have felt and found the contrary my heart knowes otherwise and that by woful 〈◊〉 therefore I pass not what you speak God wil allow none I can bear none no not the sting of the least sin when God wil let it in nor you neither when once the Lord wil pursue you with the least expression of his displeasure I cannot have any sin seem it never so smal but I must 〈◊〉 under the power of al nor ever have any possibility of any good As Ruth to Naomi when she advised her to stay or return when she came with her she puts an end to al such perswasions intreat me not for I wil not leave thee so 〈◊〉 is with a soul sensible and soundly affected with the evil of his sin he is beyond 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 and carnal reasonings he wil hear nothing the soul is overpowred with a soveraign kind of absolute necessity he hath found by proof which puts to silence what ever can be said to the contrary q. d. cease reasoning about that for which no reason can be 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 not that which hath no ground of perswasion it 〈◊〉 admit a case of exception therefore I wil not once take it into consideration nothing can be spoken of weight or worth and therefore 〈◊〉 to speak further It s not necessary I should not be poor 〈◊〉 despised It 's absolutly necessary I should not be sinful I have no 〈◊〉 from God I should not leave and loose my life my liberty but I have a 〈◊〉 charge without al exception I should leave my sin Art thou come to that with the three Children 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 17. 18. Our God can deliver but if he wil not be it 〈◊〉 unto thee 〈◊〉 wil not fall down and wroship c. It s necessary we should maintain the truth of Gods worship it s not necessary 〈◊〉 should maintain our lives Resolvest thou with them Hos. 14. 3. Ashur 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 save us 〈◊〉 wil we go down to 〈◊〉 nor say any more to the work of 〈◊〉 hands ye are our Gods I wil no more be proud or perverse no more loose or vayn 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 liften to the pleasing dalliance of mine own heart that Dale 〈◊〉 mown that is determined long since by long and woful experience it s beyond consideration keep thy spirit ever in that temper and thou wilt keep 〈◊〉 undoubted evidence of the sound work of contrition with thee Hence therefore this Doctrine 〈◊〉 a Bill of 〈◊〉 against 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 of 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 short of this 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 of God 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Christ and Heaven fall away totally and finally from the Truth in the end The first sort are your NEUTERS who study to compose al their course with prudence and conveniency but conceive it not so safe to put a necessity upon each Service in this kind but only serve their own turn and that is the compass they stere by and walk by As your Neutral Towns they pay to both the Armies but sight for neither only keep their own safety and peace So is it with those Neuters in Religion they would capitulate with Christ and the Rule and enter into Articles of Agreement with the Gospel therefore they take up profess and practice Godliness but with Cautions and Provisions that they may walk at 〈◊〉 in their own deluded hearts but to put it to the 〈◊〉 of this absolute necessity and that they may dispense as they 〈◊〉 fit that they wil decline they count it and conceive it matter of comliness and conveniency nay prudence and Christian Wisdom nay necessary if occasions suit to attend the narrow 〈◊〉 of Gods Command if occasions suit provided that no 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 and desperate inconveniences and hazards appear to the contrary they plead a dispensation to relieve themselves by to be necessitated and tied to inconveniencies they conceive it unreasonable Thus the Chapman 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 wisling and ready to 〈◊〉 his day and 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 payment and perform his 〈◊〉 according to promise if means and moneys come in comfortably and his 〈◊〉 may be seived as wel as his Creditor payed then it 's necessary But if 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 upon 〈◊〉 and he cannot pay but with much 〈◊〉 to his Estate either to part with that which is profitable or upon low rates and for loss then he 〈◊〉 he may be dispensed 〈◊〉 and it 's not necessary 〈◊〉 that case to pay If a man 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 in the world then it 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 is at 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 in 〈◊〉 Estate 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 The wife that is froward she 〈◊〉 had she a head and husband so wise and able and gracious there were reason and necessitie she should carry her self in a 〈◊〉 and sweet and humble manner but one that 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 fit for his place nor answers her comfort nor his carriage so prudent as she could desire if then she carry her self pettishly and perversly in such a case a tolleration may be given So these persons put no necessity of parting with their sins but of preventing their inconveniencies It 's certain thou never foundest the evil of sin that canst take and leave thy sin with these exceptions thou never seekest Christ for himself but only as he may serve thee not take his but make thy own 〈◊〉 But if ever God do thee good he wil make thee know that God 〈◊〉 laies a necessitie upon a gracious man nor intruth upon any man to sin but 〈◊〉 necessitie and that absolute he should not sin And therefore al those pleas alas my occasions many my necessities great pinching extremities prevailed with me but as soon as convenienoies suit then I wil c. Therefore thou 〈◊〉 be just and true in promises and performances only when thou hast no necessities when thy conveniencies serve not for conscience sake No thou wilt find thou had'st better go maimed and halt with thy 〈◊〉 eye plucked out and thy right hand cut off than to keep thy sins and go to Hell with them When thy conveniencie suits thou wilt serve God and when Gods conveniencie serves he wil save thee There is another sort of Formal Professors that pretend great kindness and large affection to the Lord and the Gospel and therefore profess they wil go far to accommodate the Lord Jesus and give
him full and free entertainment Only there is a reservation they make to themselves of that which shall not be much prejudicial to the presence of his Majesty if God will abate them 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 that is all they look for As men that take in Mates they let all but reserve only a room to themselves and they 〈◊〉 they go very far to pleasure them So these men wil keep some one lust and they must be spared in that Rachel reserves her Fathers Idols Ananias and Saphira they give half and keep half Acts 5. 2. It 's certain thou never knewest the evil of sin if thou never 〈◊〉 an absolute necessity to part with all Thou sayest The Lord be merciful to me only in this No thou wilt never have mercy if thou keep this Thou sayest Is it not a little one and my soul shall live It 's certain thy soul cannot live if thou canst not leave this INSTRUCTION We here see the Reason of all that uneven and unsteady walking of many men Somtimes they are zealous and somtimes cold and careless men are off and on somtimes so 〈◊〉 that they cannot abide the appearance of any sin somtimes bold to adventure upon that which they know to be evil This is certain either thou never had'st the work of Contrition or thou keepest it not alive in thy soul 1 Cor. 5. 1 2. You are puffed up and do not mourn If they had mourned for the evil they would have been zealous to reform DIRECTION how we may keep a readiness of heart to 〈◊〉 every corruption and occasion leading thereunto that a man may have a steady even spirit keep thy heart affected dayly with the evil of thy sins and that wil over-bear al corruptions and inclinations to any sin at any time As the Naturallists say of the Nightingale she sets her Breast against 〈◊〉 Thorn that when she begins to nod the Thorn may awaken her he that lies hard wil not sleep long Two Rules here Keep the Judgment setled Conscience convinced and Heart 〈◊〉 of this Truth that the evil of sin is so great that no evil is equal no good can countervail it and then this wil certainly follow thou wilt rather chuse to have nothing in this world 〈◊〉 than to have thy sin and part with al profits and commodities and comforts 〈◊〉 not to part with thy sin suffer any evil rather than sin lose any good rather than keep thy sin Keep this in the thoughts of our hearts for ever there is no evil like to my sin Matth. 16. 26. What shall a man profit to win the world and lose his soul Do not give a hearing to any consideration of any Cavil that is cast in to the Contrary Say it 's past consideration do not therefore entertain the motion As in the Chancery or Courts of Justice when a Cause hath been tried and proved by Witnesses and Sentence past upon it if a wrangler shal then put in a motion the Judg wil not hear him but casts out 〈◊〉 motion Deal thou so with thine own 〈◊〉 reason and 〈◊〉 when thou hast seen and found the greatness of the evil of sin by thine own tryal and experience if now carnal reason should put in and say This is to be considered and that is to be considered cast out al these Cavils give no audience to any motion made for any tolleration for sin And this is the way to keep the Channel 〈◊〉 and the passage currant that your souls may be carried cheerfully in the stream of Gods Truth and that will make a man ever like himself keep this Truth 〈◊〉 in your 〈◊〉 there is an absolute necessity of it I must not sin It 's inconceivable what this Truth in the lively work of it wil do There is a secret Hope wherewith the Lord supports the hearts of such as be soundly Contrite Though the case be dangerous and their condition miserable they do not cast away all as though it were utterly impossible they do not say Men and 〈◊〉 there can nothing be done we see nothing our selves and we 〈◊〉 you discern nothing and we conclude there 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 wil 〈◊〉 can do any good Nay their words seem to issue from another principle and foundation what shal we do q. d. there may be waies we see 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 of 〈◊〉 which 〈◊〉 through our folly and ignorance of this condition and unacquaintedness with the dealings of the Almighty and his special and mysterious Dispensations with the sons of men do not conceive nor can they come so easily and readily within our reach and apprehension yet we suppose you that are the Seers of Israel and the Spiritual Physitians to the souls of 〈◊〉 sinful Creatures you that are of Gods Counsel and acquainted with his secrets we should yet think it there is yet somthing to be done Oh that we may know it and that direction that may do us good So that there is a secret kind of unknown expectation in their hearts as presuming there is some course to be taken for their cute and comfort It is true somtimes there be strong assaults of 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 in by 〈◊〉 strong Suggestions of impossibilities which of a sudden seem to 〈◊〉 over the soul when after long strife and 〈◊〉 held against our corruptions we are frequently and desperately foyled with the violence of our own distempers and our own 〈◊〉 the sinner out of height 〈◊〉 too much 〈◊〉 of Spirit is ready to 〈◊〉 away all I shall one day perish All men are Lyars The soul tired with extremity and by constant consideration as it perceives so it supposeth its condition forlorn upon a sudden push may lay aside all willing to look no further the Lord by this means in his infinite wisdom out of the deceit of our carnal Reason and by a present pang and out-rage of 〈◊〉 doth crush and confound all the pride and 〈◊〉 of 〈◊〉 Reason which by no other way happily could so easily be quelled when our own carnal 〈◊〉 conclude according to our misguided 〈◊〉 there is no way of escape or means to shift Where is now your wit that thought to 〈◊〉 your power that thought you were able to 〈◊〉 up your 〈◊〉 But this is but a present push like the rage of a 〈◊〉 by 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 fall of rain a hurry of Spirit a 〈◊〉 as it were But when the soul comes to it self as the man that swouned away it lifts up it self and looks out It may be and it 's possible Let me therefore 1. Shew you in a 〈◊〉 or two the Nature of this Hope and 〈◊〉 it differs from that which 〈◊〉 wrought in the 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 it 's wholly of another kind in the Nature and the work of it 2. The Reason why God leaves this Hope First Touching the Nature of this Hope I term it a secret kind of unknown expectation by which the heart is carried on to look for relief and help which out of the sence of
a whit the worse and the Lord loves him never a whit the less because his pressures and sorrows 〈◊〉 upon him but that is the season of Gods saving health 〈◊〉 is most neer when there is most need and our 〈◊〉 makes way for the enlargement of his love and mercy to us Joseph 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 prison land God is with him with his in the fire 〈◊〉 it 〈◊〉 not and the Waters that they drown 〈◊〉 God 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 the 〈◊〉 Isa. 43. 2. God 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 more 〈◊〉 and 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 himself to 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 than 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 the greatest 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 3. 25. 〈◊〉 the 〈◊〉 is seven times 〈◊〉 and the three children 〈◊〉 into it then the Son of God 〈◊〉 visibly with them in the 〈◊〉 thereof 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 and 〈◊〉 all manner of 〈◊〉 then God doth al manner of good for great 〈◊〉 your reward in Heaven So that what the Apostle enjoyns the sinner now finds true by proof that we have reason to count it all joy when we fall into many temptations James 1 2 3 4. For in al those wants which out 〈◊〉 befal become 〈◊〉 and intire and want nothing spiritually and 〈◊〉 the contrite is content to bear these when he finds they do not hinder the happiness of the soul. He now finds that the presence of his sins only poysons all the Comforts he hath with a curse and 〈◊〉 off the Hope and Expectation of any blessing from the hand of the Lord in al the Dispensations in the waies of Providences or Ordinances towards him nothing can prosper Why transgress ye the Commandement of the Lord for ye cannot prosper Sin stops the passage and puts him beyond al possibility of 〈◊〉 or good 〈◊〉 to be extended towards him sor the Lords determination is past and it 's peremptory there is no peace to the wicked saies my God Isai. 57. 21. he hath said it the word is past out of his mouth and no 〈◊〉 can 〈◊〉 it You know what a 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 to the Messenger the thing was so reasonable What! peace so long as the 〈◊〉 of thy mother 〈◊〉 remain Jos. 7. 12. It 's that which the Lord professeth so peremptory I 〈◊〉 be with you no more except you destroy the 〈◊〉 thing from 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 God 〈◊〉 his blessing and 〈◊〉 in al the 〈◊〉 of 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 for 〈◊〉 is the meaning he would not be with 〈◊〉 in 〈◊〉 Warring in 〈◊〉 going forth and coming in he wil not be with them in 〈◊〉 in receiving praying improving 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 shal not work Prayer 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 place a man 〈◊〉 have them but no 〈◊〉 in 〈◊〉 no Spirit with 〈◊〉 no Blessing upon them no good from them at al. That which poysons al the 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 and 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 nay in truth the evil of al evils with it He now finds the removal of 〈◊〉 would set open the floodgate of the infinite favor and goodness of the Lord 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 in amain upon the 〈◊〉 Jer. 5. 24. your 〈◊〉 with-hold good things from you God doth not with-hold them or keep them from us 〈◊〉 onely through the desert of our sins his arm is not 〈◊〉 that he cannot help nor his 〈◊〉 heavy 〈◊〉 he cannot hear 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 power that he cannot nor mercy that he wil not help It s his desire Oh that there were such a heart in them that they might fear me and keep my commandements that it may go wel with them and theirs for ever 〈◊〉 5. 29. Nay he hath taken a sollemn oath As I live saith the Lord I desire not the 〈◊〉 of a sinner but that he 〈◊〉 repent and live 〈◊〉 18. 32. so that he wants not mercy but we want 〈◊〉 unworthy of the mercy he tenders uncapable Yea unwilling to receive the grace he offers Oh 〈◊〉 man that wil let him come and 〈◊〉 of the 〈◊〉 of life freely Rev. 22. 17. If you 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 it God wil give 〈◊〉 and no man wants it 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 it s he that wil have it and it s his corruption that keeps him that he 〈◊〉 not nay is not subject nay would not be made able to receive this mercy Come out of them my people 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 and touch not the 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 and he offers himself readily I 〈◊〉 be 〈◊〉 God I 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 and walk with them he wil constantly 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 comfort them by 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Cor. 6. 18. 19. He wil walk up and down see their 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 for them answerable to al their needs and 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 which brings 〈◊〉 and the 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 we should prize as a good 〈◊〉 above al 〈◊〉 things we should prize it INSTRUCTION We here seethe 〈◊〉 why the most men in the world 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 not after 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 of the Physitian never looked for 〈◊〉 because they were never sensible of their thraldom c. REPROOF A bil of inditement to accuse and 〈◊〉 thousands giving in evidence that they never 〈◊〉 the work of God upon their souls Two sorts especially The secure sinner who is so far from seeking and coveting deliverance that he wil not take it when it s offered but is content to be in the prison of his natural condition and to lye in the boults and 〈◊〉 of his sins stil. Of this temper were those Jews in captivity that had so long lived in Babilon they were content to remain there when liberry was proclaimed and the way opened deliver thy self O Zion thou that dwellest with the daughter of Eabilon Zach. 2. 7. yet they stayed behind in Captivity stil so it is with many a sluggish 〈◊〉 he is content to perish rather then do any thing to deliver himself he blesseth himself in his misery and so is a devoted slave to the Devil as Exo. 21. 6. If when the servant had his liberty to go out free he said plainly I love my Master I wil not go out free then his ear was to be bored with an awl and he was to be his servant for ever the boaring of his ear did signify his yielding obedience to the Command of another So when Christ comes to set a man at liberty offers mercy and grace and pardon if a man then say I love my master Pride perversness and Idleness let me have and live in my sins if God say Amen thou art a bond servant of 〈◊〉 for ever thou 〈◊〉 a miserable 〈◊〉 creature for ever The sluggish professor or hypocrite that hath had some conviction of his sins and remembrance of the stings of his distempers and some promises and purposes of amendment the blow is no sooner over but al is at an end lazy prayers and feeble endeavours but when it comes to the poynt he wil do nothing he wil give you the hearing of counsels and admonitions you would think the man were in a very
a broken 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 his great request unto God that he may not go 〈◊〉 again to his 〈◊〉 In this 〈◊〉 from sin the 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 as 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 c. We here see the reason of al those 〈◊〉 and 〈◊〉 of such 〈◊〉 promised better things the 〈◊〉 to his 〈◊〉 the 〈◊〉 to his 〈◊〉 and the 〈◊〉 man to the world after 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 they are the same men they 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 to their former follyes and are as bad as ever These men were never cut off from their corruptions the union was there stil the soul was in league and love with sin stil and therefore it 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 be 〈◊〉 and therefore they 〈◊〉 and grow worse and worse many years after If thou hast a privy lust harbored in thy heart that wil be thy ruin thou wilt be as bad or 〈◊〉 than ever EXHORTATION To 〈◊〉 all our endeavors to see a 〈◊〉 of it and to seek to heaven that God may work it in us let this be alwayes in thy prayers Lord that I may hate my sin that I may put off the love of sinning whatever thou hatest sin is worse than that it s worse than reproach disgrace sickness poverty thy love to sin should be turned into hatred and thy hatred to it should be greater than ever thy love hath been And if thou dost not hate thy sin its certain the God of Heaven wil hate thee the froward in heart is an 〈◊〉 to the Lord Prove 3. 32. Thou thy self 〈◊〉 an abomination to the Lord if thy 〈◊〉 be not an abomination to thee If thou wilt part with thy sins the Lord wil set his love upon thee Jer. 3. 1. though thou 〈◊〉 done evil things as thou couldest yet return unto me It 's said Judg. 10. 15. 16. when the people of Israel came bewailing their sins crying for mercy and putting away their Gods that then the soul of the Lord was grieved for the misery of Israel and he had mercy on them He is the same God stil and if he sees thee grieving for thy sins he wil grieve for thy sorrowes When Ephraim bemoaning himself judging himself for his sin and crying out unto the Lord turn me and I shal be turned it s said he heard Ephraim bemoaning himself and his bowels were troubled for him and I do earnestly remember him stil I wil surely have mercy upon thee saith the Lord. Jer. 31. 18. 19. 20. FINIS The Contents BOOK IX On Isa. 57. 15. I dwell with him that is of an humble and contrite spirit DOCT. THe Heart must be contrite and humble before the Lord will take up his dwelling in it 5 Reasons two In regard 1 Of our selves there be two Hindrances 7 1 Contentedness in a Natural 〈◊〉 ibid 〈◊〉 removes 〈◊〉 2 Sufficiency to help a mans self Humiliation removes that 9 2 Of God his Word will not cannot take place till the soul 〈◊〉 contrite and 〈◊〉 10 Uses 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 1 Terror to hard-hearted sinners God wil not dwell with them 11 2 Instruction teaching us to delight in chuse and dwel with such as are contrite and humble 13 3 Exhortation to seek for 〈◊〉 in Gods way and order viz. 〈◊〉 and 〈◊〉 14 BOOK X. On Acts 2. 37. When they heard this they were pricked to the heart and said to Peter and the rest of the Apostles Men and Brethren what shall we do 15 DOCT. 1. Stubborn and bloody sinners may be made broken-hearted 20 Reasons three taken from  1 The infinite Mercy of God 22 2 The infinite 〈◊〉 of Christs Merits 23 3 The Almighty Power of the Spirit 24 Uses three hence  1 Matter of Admiration at the riches of Grace 25 2 Encouragement to keep distressed sinners from despair yet no ground of presumption 26 3 Instruction shewing the 〈◊〉 nature of despair It 's 29 1 Injurious to God 30 2 Dangerous to the Soul 32 Helps against Despair are two  1 Listen not to 〈◊〉 Conclusions 34 2 Attend not our own 〈◊〉 but Gods Mercy and Power 34 DOCT. 2. There must be a true sight of sin before the heart can be broken for it 35 For Explication four things  1 How God works this sight of sin 37 1 The Law of God discovers our sins ibid 2 There is a new Light put into the mind 38 3 The Spirit takes 〈◊〉 the Rule of darkness out of the mind 41 4 The Spirit leaves a set upon the understanding God-ward 42 2 How far the sinner is 〈◊〉 in this sight of sin 43 1 There is an insufficiency in the Understanding to reach the right discovery of sin 1 ibid 2 An incapability also to receive Spiritual Light 45 3 Christ forceth the Understanding to bear the 〈◊〉 of his Spirit whereby 〈◊〉 47 1 Destroyes the Soveraignty of 〈◊〉 Reason 48 2 Fits it to receive the impression of Spiritual Light 50 4 This Light received the Understanding is acted by it and so acts in vertue of it and so the sinner comes truly to see his sins 51 3 Wherein this true sight of sin is discovered 52 1 It is a cleer sight of sin 53 1 In regard of God as 54 1 It would dispossess God of his Soveraignty 55 2 It smites at the Essence of God 57 3 It spoils all the Works of God 59 2 In regard of our selves as ibid 1 It separates 〈◊〉 God and 〈◊〉 ibid 2 It makes us uncapable of any good 60 3 It 's the Cause of all other evils 62 4 It brings a Curse upon all Blessings ibid Hence sin is the greatest evil ibid Why do not men see sin thus 166 The Causes are ibid 1 The Delusions of Satan ibid 2 Men judg of sin by present sence 67 3 Or by present pleasure and profit 68 4 Or by the long suffering of God 70 5 Want of Spiritual Light 71 The Cure of these mistakes 72 1 Look upon sin so as it will look upon thee at death and Judgment ibid 2 Get a cleer sight of God 73 2 It is a convicting 〈◊〉 75 That implies  1 A particular application to our selves ibid 1 A man must reflect upon his own sins ibid 2 And pass an impartial Sentence against them 78 1 An over-powring settling of them upon the Conscience and that 79 1 Undeniably 80 2 Immovably 82 3 Invincibly 85 Reasons two Because  1 Nothing comes to the heart but by the Understanding 86 2 Ignorance frustrates all our Endeavors in the use of means 88 Uses five hence  1 Instruction An ignorant heart is a naughty heart 90 Such a one 1 Is liable to all evil 92 2 He can receive no good ibid 3 He can expect no mercy 93 2 To be hard to be convinced is 94 1 A dangerous sin ibid 1 Against a mans own soul ibid 2 Against Gods Ordinances 95 3 Against the Spirit of God ibid 2 A dreadful Curse 97 1 It makes way for Satan ibid 2 God