I fall before thee my Lord and my God I here willingly tender my homage at the footstool of thy throne I take thee for the Lord of my life I absolutely surrender and resign my self to thee Thy love constrains me henceforth no more to live to my self but to thee who dyedst for me and didst rise again And I subject and yeild my self to thy blessed light and power O holy Spirit of grace to be more and more illuminated sanctify'd and prepared for every good word and work in this world and for an inheritance among them that are sanctify'd in the other Sinner never give thy soul leave to be at rest 'till thou find it brought to some such transaction with God the Father Son and Spirit as this So as that thou canst truly say and dost feel thy heart is in it Be not weary or impatient of waiting and striving till thou canst say this is now the very sense of thy soul. Such things have been done in the world but O how seldom of latter daies So God hath wrought with men to save them from going down to the pit having found a ransom for them And why may he not yet be expected to do so He hath smitten rocks ere now and made the waters gush out nor is his hand shortned or his ear heavy Thy danger is not Sinner that he will be inexorable but lest thou shouldst He will be intreated if thou wouldst be prevailed with to intreat his favour with thy whole heart And that thou may'st and not throw away thy soul and so great an hope thorough meer sloth and loathnes to be at some pains for thy life Let the Text which hath been thy directory about the things that belong to thy peace be also thy motive as it gives thee to behold the Son of God weeping over such as would not know those things Shall not the Redeemers tears move thee O hard heart Consider what these tears import to this purpose 1. They signifie the real depth and greatnes of the misery into which thou art falling They drop from an intellectual and most comprehensive eye that sees far and pierces deep into things hath a wide and large prospect takes the compas of that forlorn state into which unreconcileable sinners are hastening in all the horrour of it The Son of God did not weep vain and causeles tears or for a light matter nor did he for himself either spend his own or desire the profusion of others tears Weep not for me O daughters of Jerusalem c. He knows the value of Souls the weight of guilt and how low it will press and sink them the severity of Gods justice and the power of his anger and what the fearful effects of them will be when they finally fall If thou understandest not these things thy self believe him that did at least believe his tears 2. They signifie the sincerity of his love and pity the truth and tendernes of his compassion Canst thou think his deceitful tears his who never knew guile was this like the rest of his course And remember that he who shed tears did from the same fountain of love and mercy shed blood too Was that also done to deceive Thou makest thy self some very considerable thing indeed if thou thinkest the son of God counted it worth his while to weep and bleed and dye to deceive thee into a false esteem of him and his love But if it be the greatest madnes imaginable to entertain any such thought but that his tears were sincere and inartificial the natural genuine expressions of undissembled benignity and pity thou art then to consider what love and compassion thou art now sinning against what bowels thou spurnest and that if thou perishest 't is under such guilt as the devils themselves are not liable to who never had a Redeemer bleeding for them nor that we ever find weeping over them 3. They shew the remedilesnes of thy case if thou persist in impenitency and unbelief till the things of thy peace be quite hid from thine eyes These tears will then be the last issues of even defeated love of love that is frustrated of it's kind design Thou mayest perceive in these tears the steady unalterable laws of heaven the inflexiblenes of the divine justice that holds thee in adamantine bonds and hath sealed thee up if thou prove incurably obstinate and impenitent unto perdition so that even the Redeemer himself he that is mighty to save cannot at length save thee but only weep over thee drop tears into thy flame which asswage it not but thô they have another design even to express true compassion do yet unavoidably heighten and increase the fervour of it and will do so to all eternity He even tells thee Sinner thou hast despised my blood thou shalt yet have my tears That would have saved thee these do only lament thee lost But the tears wept over others as lost and past hope why should they not yet melt thee while as yet there is hope in thy case If thou be effectually melted in thy very soul and looking to him whom thou hast pierced dost truly mourn over him thou mayest assure thy self the prospect his weeping eye had of lost souls did not include thee His weeping over thee would argue thy case forelorn and hopeles Thy mourning over him will make it safe and happy That it may be so consider further that 4. They signify how very intent he is to save souls and how gladly he would save thine if yet thou wilt accept of mercy while it may be had For if he weep over them that will not be saved from the same love that is the spring of these tears would saving mercies proceed to those that are become willing to receive them And that love that wept over them that were lost how will it glory in them that are saved There his love is disappointed and vext crost in its gracious intendment but here having compast it how will he joy over thee with singing and rest in his love And thou also instead of being involv'd in a like ruine with the unreconciled Sinners of the Old Jerusalem shalt be enrolled among the glorious Citizens of the New and triumph together with them in eternal glory APPENDIX BEcause some things not fit to be wholly omitted were as little fit to come into the body of a practical discourse 't was thought requisite to subjoyn here the following additions that will severally have reference to distinct parts of the foregoing discourse As to what was said p. 81. of the unreasonablenes and ill consequence of admitting it to be any mans duty to believe himself utterly rejected and forsaken of God inasmuch as it would make that his duty which were repugnant to his felicity This is to be evinced by a consideration which also even apart by it self were not without its own great weight viz. that such a belief were inconsistent with his former stated and known
Tribes of the Lord unto the Testimony of Israel to give thanks unto the Name of the Lord For there were set Thrones of Judgment the Thrones of the House of David Psal. 122.4 5. He that was so great a lover of the Souls of men how grateful and dear to his Heart had the place been where through the succession of many by-past Ages the great God did use though more obscurely to unfold his kind Propensions towards Sinners to hold solemn Treaties with them to make himself known to draw and allure Souls into his own holy Worship and acquaintance And that now the dismal prospect presents it self of desolation and ruine ready to overwhelm all this glory and lay wast the dwellings of Divine Love His sorrow must be conceiv'd proportionable to the greatness of this desolating change Secondly And the opportunity of prevention was quite lost There was an opportunity He was sent to the lost Sheep of the House of Israel He came to them as his own Had they received him O how joyful a place had Jerusalem been How glorious had the Triumphs of the Love of God been there had they Repented Believed Obeyed These were the things that belonged to their Peace this was their opportunity their day of Visitation these were the things that might have been done within that day But it was now too late their day was over and the things of their Peace hid from their eyes And how fervent were his desires they had done otherwise taken the wise and safe course If thou hadst known the words admit the Optative form 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 being put as 't is observed to be sometimes with other Authors for 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 utinam O that thou hadst known I wish thou hadst his Sorrow must be proportionable to his Love Or otherwise we may conceive the Sentence incompleat part cut off by a more emphatical Aposiopesis Tears interrupting Speech and imposing a more speaking silence which imports an affection beyond all words They that were anciently so over-officious as to rase those words and wept over it out of the Canon as thinking it unworthy so Divine a Person to shed Tears did greatly erre not knowing the Scriptures which elsewhere speak of our Lords Weeping nor the Power of Divine Love now become Incarnate nor indeed the true Perfections and Properties of Humane Nature Otherwise they had never taken upon them to reform the Gospel and reduce not only Christianity but Christ himself to the measures and square of their Stoical Philosophy But these have also met with a like-ancient Confutation One thing before we proceed needs some disquisition viz. Whether this Lamentation of our blessed Lord do refer only or ultimately to the temporal calamity he foresaw coming upon Jerusalem Or whether it had not a further and more principal reference to their spiritual and eternal miseries that were certain to be concomitant and consequent thereunto Where let it be considered 1. That very dreadful spiritual plagues and judgments did accompany their destruction very generally which every one knows who is acquainted with their after-Story i. e. that takes notice what Spirit reign'd among them and what their behaviour was towards our Lord himself and afterwards towards his Apostles and Disciples all along to their fearful Catastrophe as it may be collected from the sacred Records and other history what blindness of mind what hardness of heart what mighty prejudice what inflexible obstinacy against the clearest light the largest mercy the most perspicuous and most gracious Doctrine and the most glorious works wrought to confirm it against the brightest beams and evidences of the divine Truth Love and Power what persevering impenitency and infidelity against God and Christ proceeding from the bitterest enmity Ye have both seen and hated me and my Father Joh. 15.24 What mad rage and fury against one another even when death and destruction were at the very door Here were all the tokens imaginable of the most tremendous infatuation and of their being forsaken of God Here was a concurrence of all kinds of spiritual judgments in the highest degree 2. That the concomitancy of such spiritual evils with their temporal destruction our Lord foreknew as well as their temporal destruction it self It lay equally in view before him and was as much under his eye He that knew what was in man could as well tell what would be in him And by the same light by which he could immediately look into hearts he could as well see into futurities and as well the one futurity as the other The knowledge of the one he did not owe to his humane understanding to his divine understanding whereby he knew all things the other could not be hid 3. The connection between the impenitency and infidelity that prove to be final and eternal misery is known to us all Of his knowledge of it therefore whose Law hath made the connection besides what there is in the nature of the things themselves there can be no doubt 4. That the miseries of the Soul especially such as prove incurable and eternal are in themselves far the greatest we all acknowledge Nor can make a difficulty to believe that our Lord apprehended and considered things according as they were in themselves so as to allow every thing it s own proper weight and import in his estimating of them These things seem all very evident to any eye Now thô it be confessed not impossible that of things so distinct from one another as outward and temporal evils and those that are spiritual and eternal even befalling the same persons one may for the present consider the one without attending to the other or making distinct reflection thereon at the same time Yet how unlikely is it these things bordering so closely upon one another as they did in the present case that so comprehensive a mind as our Saviours was sufficiently able to inclose them both and so spiritual a mind apt no doubt to consider most what was in it self most considerable should in a solemn Lamentation of so sad a case wholly overlook the saddest part and stay his thoughts only upon the surface and outside of it That he mentions only the approaching outward calamity vers 43.44 was that he spake in the hearing of the multitude and upon the way but in passing when there was not opportunity for large discourse and therefore he spake what might soonest strike their minds was most liable to common apprehension and might most deeply affect ordinary and not-yet-enough-prepared hearers And he spake what he had no doubt a deep sense of himself Whatever of tender compassions might be expected from the most perfect Humanity and Benignity could not be wanting in him upon the foresight of such a calamity as was coming upon that place and people But yet what was the sacking of a City the destroying of pompous buildings that were all of a perishable material the mangling of humane flesh over which the
durable is not from a spirit of fear but of love power and a sound mind 2 Tim. 1.7 You must be a new creature Gods workmanship created in Christ Jesus unto good works that you may walk in them The life of the new creature stands in love to God as its way and course afterwards is a course of walking with God If your heart be not brought to love God and delight in him you are still but dead towards God and you still remain alive unto sin as before Whereas if you ever come to be a Christian indeed you must be able truly to reckon your self dead to sin and alive to God thorough Jesus Christ. Rom. 6.11 Whereupon in your making the mentioned Covenant you must yield your self to God as one that is alive from the dead as 't is vers 13. of the same chapter A new nature and life in you will make all that you do in a way of duty whether immediately towards God or man the whole course of godlines righteousnes and sobriety easie and delightful to you And because it is evident both from many plain Scriptures and your own and all mens experience that you cannot be your selves the authours of this holy new life and nature you must therefore further in entring into this Covenant 4. Most earnestly cry to God and plead with him for his Spirit by whom the vital unitive bond must be contracted between God in Christ and your souls So this will be the Covenant of life and peace Lord how generally do the Christians of our age deceive themselves with a self-sprung Religion Divine indeed in the institution but meerly humane in respect of the radication and exercise In which respects also it must be divine or nothing What are we yet to learn that a divine power must work and form our Religion in us as well as divine authority direct and enjoyn it Do all such scriptures go for nothing that tell us it is God that must create the new heart and renew the right spirit in us that he must turn us if ever we be turned that we can never come to Christ except the father draw us c. Nor is there any cause of discouragement in this if you consider what hath before been said in this discourse Ask and you shall receive seek and you shall find knock and it shall be opened to you Your heavenly father will give his Spirit to them that ask more readily than parents do bread to their children and not a stone But what if you be put to ask often and wait long this doth but the more endear the gift and shew the high value of it You are to remember how often you have griev'd resisted and vexed this Spirit and that you have made God wait long upon you What if the absolute sovereign Lord of all expect your attendance upon him He waits to be gracious and blessed are they that wait for him Renew your applications to him Lay from time to time that Covenant before you which your selves must be wrought up unto a full entire closure with And if it be not done at one time try yet if it will another and try again and again Remember it is for your life for your soul for your all But do not satisfie your self with only such faint motions within thee as may only be the effects of thy own spirit of thy dark dull listles sluggish dead hard heart at least not of the efficacious regenerating influence of the divine Spirit Didst thou never hear what mighty woâ—â—â—ngs there have been in others when God hath been transforming and renewing them and drawing them into living union with his Son and himself thorough him what an amazing penetrating light hath struck into their hearts as 2 Cor. 4.6 Such as when he was making the world enlightned the Chaos Such as hath made them see things that concerned them as they truly were and with their own proper face God and Christ and themselves sin and duty heaven and hell in their own true appearances How effectually they have been awakened how the terrours of the Almighty have beset and seized their souls what agonies and pangs they have felt in themselves when the voice of God hath said to them awake thou that sleepest and arise from dead and Christ shall give thee life Ephes. 5.14 How he hath brought them down at his feet thrown them into the dust broken them melted them made them abase themselves loath and abhor themselves fill'd them with sorrow shame confusion and with indignation towards their own guilty souls habituated them to a severity aâ—â—inst themselves unto the most sharp and yet most unforced self-accusations self-judging and self condemnation so as even to make them lay claim to hell and confesse the portion of devils belonged to them as their own most deserved portion And if now their eyes have been directed towards a Redeemer and any glimmering of hope hath appeared to them If now they are taught to understand God saying to them Sinner art thou yet willing to be reconciled and accept a Saviour O the transport into which it puts them this is life from the dead what is there hope for such a lost wretch as I How tastful now is that melting invitation how pleasant an intimation doth it carry with it Come unto me all ye that are weary and heavy laden and I will give you rest c. If the Lord of heaven and earth do now look down from the throne of glory and say what Sinner wilt thou despise my favour and pardon my Son thy mighty merciful Redeemer my grace and Spirit still What can be the return of the poor abashed wretch overawed by the glory of the divine Majesty stung with compunction overcome with the intimation of kindnes and love I have heard of thee O God by the hearing of the ear now mine eye seeth thee wherefore I abhor my self and repent in dust and ashes So inwardly is the truth of that word now felt that thou mayest remember and be confounded and never open thy mouth any more because of thy shame when I am pacified towards thee for all that thou hast done saith the Lord God Ezek. 16.63 But sinner wilt thou make a Covenant with me and my Christ wilt thou take me for thy God and him for thy Redeemer and Lord And may I Lord yet may I O admirable grace wonderful sparing mercy that I was not thrown into hell at my first refusal Yea Lord with all my heart and soul. I renounce the vanities of an empty cheating world and all the pleasures of sin in thy favour stands my life Whom have I in heaven but thee whom on earth do I desire besides thee And O thou blessed Jesus thou Prince of the Kings of the earth who hast loved me and washed me from my sins in thy blood and whom the eternal God hath exalted to be a Prince and a Saviour to give repentance and remission of sins