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
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
they neither see the evil of their sins by it nor yet receive any spiritual Direction from it nor indeed know any such thing and therefore though their carriages are somwhat reformed yet their inward corruptions are not observed at least not reformed or they made sensible of them As it is with a pur-blind man he may see things of a greater bulk as a great Print or the like but the smallest Print or the least pricks he perceives not So it is with a pur-blind Christian who cannot see afar off 2 Pet. 1. 9. If there be some loathsom and gross sins discovered he can see them but to see the stirrings of sin in his Nature and the secret inclinations of his soul to sin and the base aims and ends that are up and down in his heart in the performance of holy Duties to see the smallest Print of the Law discovering secret and spiritual wickedness in the Heart that a man that hath no more than Nature cannot see And therefore for we come to the Point the Spirit of Bondage is required which may let in the light of the Law into the mind and set on the power of it mightily upon the consciences of sinners and so dazle their Eyes and daunt their hearts with the dreadfulness of their sins Rom. 8. 15. You have not received the spirit of Bondage again to fear as who should say it 's a gift and it must be received or else we shall not by all that we can do attain the bondage and thraldom of that base condition in which we are whereof more afterward in Conviction The Law is a Hammer but it will not break the Flint unless the hand óf the Spirit take it and use it a Hammer in the hand of a Child will not move the stones so the Law in the hand of a man or Minister it is as a Rod to whip us unto Christ but unless the Spirit take it into his hand we shall never feel the blow or smart and so be forced to go Hence that Phrase John 16. 8 9. I will send the Spirit and he shall convince it 's his Prerogative he is appointed by him it 's only performed The two former may agree to a false-hearted Hypocrite he may have a lighter stroke of the Spirit of Bondage and the Law may convince him and his own heart condemn him and he may go away in dreadful horror for his sins and yet it doth not remove the Rule of Ignorance and darkness out of the mind but the Saints of God have the two former and they have this further viz. such a through stroak of the spirit of bondage as takes away the rule of darkness and removes the Soveraignity and Authority of it from the mind this I take to be the meaning of that phrase Acts. 26. 18. to turn them from darkness to Light When the Lord wil work throughly he wil not onely scatter the sogs and disperse the grossest of the dimness and darkness of a mans mind and leave the soul under the power of it for all that The hypocrite may be dazled and astonished by the light of the truth breaking upon him but yet his understanding is under the power of darkness but the Saints of God are turned from it that is their understandings are delivered from under the power of that darkness that was in them before Conceive it thus when the night comes darkness overspreads the face of the Earth and though there be Moon-light or some flash of Lightning sometimes that may something take off the grossness and blackness of darkness but yet it is dark stil the Moon-light or Starre-light doth not remove the rule of darkness but when the Sun ariseth in the East we say it is day break and you shal see apparently when light comes with a Command of the Sun it scatters the darkness that was in the ayr it removes the rule of it and it rules there it self So it is with the spirit of bondage when he comes to an hypocrite he enlightens him with Star-light or Moon-light as it were so that the grossness of darkness and blindness is scattered that now a terrified hypocrit sees his sins and is able to Discourse of sin and of the Law of God and to Discover it to others and yet it is but Moonshine it makes not day the root and rule of Darkness is there stil which stops and hinders the entercourse of the dispensations of God unto the soul. But now in a Godly man whose understanding is turned from darkness to light when the truth and light of it hath by the spirit of bondage been 〈◊〉 on upon the mind and Conscience you shal see day breaking as it were he then sees himself and his sin and he sees God and Christ as the sun of righteousness shining gloriously in his Eyes dazling of him with such a light as he never saw nor knew before so in Acts. 9. the scales of ignorance and blindness fell from the Eyes of his mind and he was turned from the power of darkness and that light which was let in to his understanding could never be overcomē again by al the darkness inthe world 4 When the spirit of God hath let in this light of the law in the specification of it as it belongs unto the Saints and so hath turned the understanding from darkness he leaves a sett upon the understanding God-ward that its ready it s that way-ward to receive any truth that comes in the impression of it and this is the turn of the understanding to light it was before turned from God and sett hell-ward sin-ward under the 〈◊〉 of darkness and acted therby wholly to bestow it self upon the creature in the room of God As when Adam sinned the whol man was turned from God to the creature and sin so now in Conversion the whol man is turned from sin and the creature to God again and therfore the understanding from darkness to light And Hence it is that a poor ignorant creature that hath come many years to the Congregation and hath learned nothing he understands nothing remembers nothing or if out of the strength of memory he remember something yet he knows no more the thing than a Parrat But when God hath once turned him and left this sett upon his understanding and the day is broken as it were and the rule of darkness removed a new light set up there now he never comes but he takes somthing he can understand it and remember it there is no subject but he will get somthing of it because his understanding is heaven-ward I have known some by experience that though they have been wise and wittie enough for outward things yet so senceless and sottish in the things of God that they could sit and hear a Sermon of an hour long of those very sins they have been guilty and yet it hath been to them as though it had never been yet afterward they have professed it that
contrary and who can expect but he wil accomplish what he hath said the Word excepts no man what folly is it then that I should except my self 2 Thess. 2. 12. That all they might be damned that have pleasure in unrighteousness If I take the same pleasure I must look for the same plagues Luke 13. 5. Except ye repent ye shal all likewise perish If I be in that condition I must expect the same condemnation and be likewise accursed and confounded and cast out from the presence of the Lord. It 's certain it will be so and it 's uncertain how soon it may be What if God do Who knows but God will What if God should pluck me out of the Land of the Living I may truly justly suspect it may be so and fear it will When I lie down I shal never rise more when I go forth I shal never return more when I depart from the house I should take my leave and never see Sabbath more nor the Assembly of the Saints more why may not my meat be my poyson my table my ruin my bed my grave all Creatures instruments of death to me who have been an enemy to God So that their hearts begin to fail them for fear 〈◊〉 21. 26. Thus the 〈◊〉 under the 〈◊〉 of his 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Acts. 19. 27. Adam at the coming of the Lord into the garden feared and fled Gen. 3. 10. this is the fruit of the spirit of bondage Rom. 8. 15. and the distressed sinner becomes as Pashur a terror to himself Jer. 20. 3. 4. the slying of a 〈◊〉 the 〈◊〉 of a leaf the shadow of darkness and approach of the night like the shadow of death he knowes not but the devils may have received a commission this night shall they 〈◊〉 away thy soul 〈◊〉 thee and drag it down to hell While the sinner is 〈◊〉 fearing the evil that is deserved behold the feet of the officer now approaching to see present excution 〈◊〉 and therefore the Lord in the third place puts a commission into the hand of Conscience really to attach and arrest the soul of a sinner to fasten all those curses upon the soul and to force it to feel the vennome of those punishments which were formerly threatned and feared That as it was said to Belshazzar when he was quassing in his cups and bowls of the Sanctuary and the hand writing came out against him the appearance of it affrighted him with the expectation of some direful evil but the present execution of it ushered in ruin upon him and his Kingdom Dan. 5. 28. 30. So the Prophet to thee be it spoken thou art weighed in the ballance and found too light thy Kingdom is departed from thee So Conscience as Gods officer comes to see 〈◊〉 execution done and therefore comes authorised as a serjeant to arrest as a witness to accuse as a judg to condemn tells the soul thou art weighed in the scales of the Sanctuary and 〈◊〉 too light thy doom is past thy destiny is determined thy sentence set down and thy salvation is departed from thee that which thou didst fear is now befallen thee and thou must feel it to thy wo Psal. 140. 11. wickedness hunts the wicked man but it overtakes them also If Conscience condemnes God is greater than our Conscience and he condemnes much more His iniquities lay hold upon him that he is not able to look up Psal. 40. 14. thou hast feared the punishment of sin before man and hast not 〈◊〉 to commit sin before God and thus thou hast sealed up thy condemnation casting away the goodness of the Lord. If thou doest evil sin lyes at the dore Gen. 4. Hence flowes in the fearful expression of the displeasure of the Almighty the dreadful wrath of the Eternal like the mighty waves of the Sea overwhelm and sink the soul of the sinner in desperate discouragement There be 2 things in sin 1 The 〈◊〉 of it 2 the punishment that comes from it the stayn in it and the sting and tartness of it cross to me and cross to God cross to my honor and shames me cross to my quiet and peace and troubles me cross to my safety and destroyes me And this second the sinner is firstly most sensible of the plague of sin first stings and stabs the heart Because nature seeks its own preservation and self love carryes al men readily and easily to provide for their own safety And here sorrow begins usually when the Lord by the Ministry of Conscience awakened encamps about the sinner with al the curses of his righteous law broken besigeth him with the armies of his indignation and his fierce wrath followes him at every turn So that now 〈◊〉 ever he is which way so ever he turns himself his sins and plagues compass him about on every side If he look to heaven he sees a just God there ready to destroy him before him are his sins ready to accuse him within him nothing but guilt to condemn him below him hell opening her mouth prepared to receive him and the Devils at 〈◊〉 to torment his wretched 〈◊〉 as soon as it 〈◊〉 depart out of his body And 〈◊〉 behold 〈◊〉 pale 〈◊〉 those weak hands and feeble knees that the poor creature becomes not worth the ground he goes on a 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 himself and weary of his life The Lord dishes out 〈◊〉 sins and plagues to him on the table where he 〈◊〉 writes them upon the tester of the bed 〈◊〉 he lyes his pressures and miseries become unsupportable and unsufferable and were it not that God sustaines with one hand as he beats him with the other A wounded Conscience no man can bear Hence it is in such horror men betake themselves to the pit to the knife to the halter rather choose not to be then to be so miserable In these perplexities the sinner as a man under his burden would shift shoulder try al conclusions turn every stone wind every way if any way he could get ease or relief And if the counsel of carnal friends can lessen the trouble company allay it false reasonings of his own vain mind abate it time and continuance wear out the terror his confessions and reformations put in bayl upon his Conscience and quiet it or some false mistakes of pardon and mercy heal the wound he walks in a wily way how to serve sin and yet God too how to keep in with the truth upon some fayr tearms and yet attend his own ends the man is where he was returnes to his ould sinful distempers and the latter end proves worse than the beginning he dyes in the birth Thus millions of men perish go within the view of Canaan and never possess it cast away in the very haven within the sight of land and never arrive But he whom God loves he wil not leave here though his hand be upon the sore and his eye upon the sting and terror the plagues and judgments
heart stil more 〈◊〉 it from Hypocrisie and makes it 〈◊〉 refined causeth the heart to come forth from each new Cast and moulding with a deeper and fairer Impression 〈◊〉 his Image and Glory If then the Holy Ghost the Writer of his Law in the Heart set that high value upon that Work 〈◊〉 his that he vouchsafeth to take 〈◊〉 pains to write it over and over again in the same Tablet Let it be no Diminution to this great Author but let us bless God rather for the Providence that the same Divine Hand and Spirit should set him this Task to take the Doctrine of 〈◊〉 VVork into a second yea a third Review and thereby make it as it were the 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 the VVork of his Life Only thus it is That the other Great Points as Union with Christ Justification Adoption Sanctification and Glory which Subjects as he was able for so his heart was most in them he hath left unfinished And so thereby as is most likely multitndes of precious yea glorious thoughts which he might have reserved as often fals out to Preachers and Writers for those higher Subjects as the Close and Centre and Crown of what forewent as preparative thereto are now perished and laid in the dust with him None but Christ was ever yet able to finish all that Work which was in his Heart to do Farewel Thomas Goodwin Philip Nye Eleven Books made in New-England by Mr. Thomas Hooker and printed from his Papers written with 〈◊〉 own Hand are now published in 〈◊〉 volnms two in Quartò one in Octa. vo VIZ. The Application of Redemption by the Effectual Work of the Word and Spirit of Christ for the 〈◊〉 home of lost 〈◊〉 unto God The First Book on 1 Pet. 1. 18 19. The Second on 〈◊〉 1. 21. The Third on Luk. 1. 17. The Fourth on 2 Cor. 6. 2. The Fift on ' 〈◊〉 20. 〈◊〉 6 7 The Sixt on Revel 3. 17. The Seventh 〈◊〉 Rom. 8. 7. The Eight on John 6. 44. The 〈◊〉 on 〈◊〉 57. 15. The Tenth on Acts 2. 37. The Last viz. Christ's Prayer for 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 John 17. There are Six more Books of Mr. Hookers now printing in two Volums The Contents BOOK I. On 1 Pet. 1. 18. Ye were redeemed by the Blood of Christ. Oct. Christ hath purchased all spiritual good for His. 5 For Explication three things  What this Spiritual good is  All that we lost in Adam all that we need and 〈◊〉 desire to make us happy  How Christ hath purchased this by laying down 〈◊〉 sufficient price for it viz. His Death and Obedience  〈◊〉 two hence 8 1 Instruction See how difficult it is to obtain the least spiritual good Nothing to be had without this Purchase  2 Reproof to two sorts  1 To those that have interest in this Purchase 〈◊〉 improve it not  2 To those that catch at it having no right 〈◊〉 unto  3 FOR HIS here consider 〈◊〉 1 The special respect in which they come to have 〈◊〉 in Christs merits 〈◊〉 on Sinners 〈◊〉 Elect. 〈◊〉 But as the Seed of the Covenant such as shall 〈◊〉 leeve  2 Christ hath purchased FOR THEM  1 In their room  2 For their good  Reasons why Christ hath purchased only for His 〈◊〉 the Faithful not for all 〈◊〉 〈◊〉  1 The 〈◊〉 of God is satisfied only for them  2 Christ prayed only for them  3 They only shall be saved  4 They 〈◊〉 have the means of Salvation made 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 to them Many have not so much as 〈◊〉 means  〈◊〉 sour hence 〈◊〉 1 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 three things  1 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 challenge any spiritual good to 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 before he beleeve 〈◊〉 For  1 No man hath Christ but by Faith  2 Beleevers 〈◊〉 are in the Covenant of 〈◊〉  3 〈◊〉 are in the state of 〈◊〉  2 The Spirit of God deth not witness to any 〈◊〉 interest in this spiritual good before and 〈◊〉 Faith Because  1 It 's a falshood cross to the Covenant of 〈◊〉  2 An 〈◊〉 is uncapable of knowing receiving such a witness  Inferences hence 29 1 It 's a delusion to say you may have Christ before Faith this is the ground of Prophaneness and 〈◊〉  2 There are no absolute Promises in the Covenant of Grace but such as do either express or imply the condition of Faith And yet it 's a Covenant of free Grace  3 The 〈◊〉 of Christ never gives evidence to any man of his good Estate without respect to a qualification viz. Faith and Grace Because 41 1 This work of Evidencing is a work of Applicacion  2 The Spirit never Evidenceth without tha Word  3 The Spirit alwaies 〈◊〉 by applying of a general Promise wherein particular persons are included  4 This would be to charge the Spirit with witnessing a falshood  5 The Spirit ever witnesseth as the Covenant of Grace doth  6 The Spirit witnesseth in the same respect as the Father intended and Christ purchased  7 The Evidence of spiritual Knowledge and Assurance of Faith arise upon the same ground  Hence see the excellency and blessed condition of Beleevers 54 Confutation it dasheth the dream of universal Redemption 57 Objections Answered  Exhortation to provoke our hearts 66 1 To get Faith  2 To have all at Christs Command and lay out all for his praise  BOOK II On Matth. 1. 21. He shall save his People from 〈◊〉 sins DOCT. Christ puts all his into possession of all 〈◊〉 Good that he hath purchased  Two Branches  Branch 1. Redemption and Application are of 〈◊〉 extent For 〈◊〉 1 The Spirit applies Redemption to all and 〈◊〉 such as the Father intended and Christ 〈◊〉 sed it 〈◊〉 2 Application was the end of purchasing  3 If the Application were narrower than the 〈◊〉 chase then Christ should have died for many 〈◊〉 should have no benefit by his death  Uses three hence  1 Consutation of these false Opinions  1 Christ died for all  2 Christ died for all in point of Impetration 〈◊〉 not of Application  3 That the Application of mercy depends upon liberty of mans will  2 Instruction See the Reason why the work of 〈◊〉 cation prevails so powerfully though sinners 〈◊〉 it  Christ having redeemed them will and doth 〈◊〉 that Redemption to them  Direction to distressed sinners Look to the purchase and blood of Christ.  〈◊〉 2. The Manner bow this Application is wrought  Three things implied in that 81 No man can make Application of any spiritual good in Christ to himself  1 Nor by power wrest it  2 Nor by Justice claim it  3 Nor able to receive it  4 Nor willing to be made able  Uses four hence  It dasheth the 〈◊〉 of such as conceive they have power to take Christ and Grace when they
peccator sed 〈◊〉 crediturus as may appear in this expression As Adam being a common person and root of all mankind and in their room he sinned for himself and all his that is all those that were to proceed of him by natural generation so that if there were any 〈◊〉 should not have been begotten of him as they 〈◊〉 not of his nature no more should they be 〈◊〉 or his fault So it is with the second Adam 〈◊〉 a common root suffered and obeyed for all his 〈◊〉 is all those that should come of him and be 〈◊〉 by spiritual generation so that if there were any 〈◊〉 did not partake of his spirit in effectual Vocation 〈◊〉 Faith neither should they have benefit by his 〈◊〉 so that if the Lord should in his Election 〈◊〉 and create thousands of men 〈◊〉 in holiness 〈◊〉 so save them by a Covenant of works in yielding 〈◊〉 obedience they should never be partakers of 〈◊〉 death and obedience of Christ or have the vertue 〈◊〉 applied to them though Elect. A sinner then under the Covenant of Grace the 〈◊〉 of the Covenant for whom he undertakes to make him self denying and beleeving and so one of the posterity of Christ for him Christ dies and this I chuse 〈◊〉 than that consideration of Elect as Elect for these Reasons 1. Because the merits and mediation of our Savior seem to challenge in Scripture some special respect in the party to himself and put a new kind of relation and consideration upon him Now to be Elect is before or without any such respect God Electing of his out of his meer good will and pleasure not looking to our sin or Savior Eph. 5. 23. Christ is the Savior of his Body vers 25. Christ loved the Church and gave himself for it that is the called beleeving and this is the reason Paul and the rest of the Saints 〈◊〉 themselves into the company of Beleevers He gave himself 〈◊〉 us Tit. 2. 14. John 17. 20. I pray not for the world but for those that shall beleeve on me 2. In what relation Christ looks at his as the Head of the Covenant in the same he looks at his in the work of Redemption and purchase for that he performs as head But as he is head of the Covenant 〈◊〉 looks at his as Members called by him and to be 〈◊〉 ted to him Therefore in that relation he laid 〈◊〉 his life and blood for them 3. By this means we may perceive a more easie passage for the execution of Gods Judgments and 〈◊〉 and a fitter way to stop the mouths of many 〈◊〉 would fain load the truth with many absurdities 〈◊〉 Hence men are made justly faulty and guilty 〈◊〉 their own death in not beleeving nor relying upon Mediator thus graciously offered in the second 〈◊〉 nant through their own corruption and hardness 〈◊〉 heart neglecting their Savior Though it be as impossible to beleeve as to fulfil the Law yet because 〈◊〉 comes through their own original sin whereby 〈◊〉 refuse beleef in the one as obedience to the other they are punished for both Hence also that cavil is crossed whereby they 〈◊〉 load our Doctrine of special Redemption with 〈◊〉 In vain it is say they to perswade a Reprobate to beleeve for if he could attain it he is 〈◊〉 come within the compass of a person rightly qualified for Redemption for he is not elected Now Election is the Lords work only and not mans no not in innocency and therefore in vain to labor for it when 〈◊〉 was and is impossible to attain it Whereas this gloss is hence plainly confuted For if Christ died for al that shal beleeve in him whosoever shall or will beleeve in him shall not spend his labor in vain If he say he cannot beleeve Answ. The fault is his own let him but lie under the stroke of the 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 resistance and he shall receive it FOR HIS The meaning of that Particle is 〈◊〉 Two things 1. In their room in their stead 2 Sam. 18. last Would God I had died for thee Rom. 5. 7 8. Christ 〈◊〉 for us we being sinners should have died and suffered our selves but Christ did this for us he died in our room 2. For their good He died for us to redeem and save us to make us partakers of that his obedience and suffering for our good and benefit Coloss. 1. 24. I rejoyce in my sufferings for you saies Paul he suffered for their good comfort and encouragement And thus Christ layed down his life for his sheep Joh. 10. 11. that they might have life and salvation thereby It 's true in both the second issues from the first the first is the ground of the second The Reasons of the Doctrine come now to be scanned Christ died and merited either for his and the faithful only or for all indifferently If for all then 〈◊〉 shed his blood suffered the pains of the first and the second death and performed whatever was due unto Divine Justice in the behalf of the unfaithful and such which are and shal be damned and that in their stead as their surety for that 's the meaning of those phrases He laid down his life for his sheep Joh. 10. 11. He gave himself for his Church Eph. 5. 25. that is he suffered and performed all in their room as their surety Heb. 7. 22. And that he must be their surety and in their stead perform all may appear divers waies 1 For as the first Adam was a common person and head of the first Covenant and did covenant with God for himself and his so that what he performed or failed in they were all subject unto the same condition and should in the same manner partake thereof So the Lord Christ the second Adam he is the head of the second Covenant of Grace and therefore engaged himself unto God the Father as a common pledg for himself and his posterity that shall come of 〈◊〉 2 What the Lord Christ 〈◊〉 and performed that the Law exacted and the Father required of him even when he endured the direful indignation of God the Father and bore the sierceness of his fury seizing upon him But the Father could neither in Equity exact these punishments or in Justice 〈◊〉 them upon him for any desert of his own for any thing he had that was evil or any thing he did commit which 〈◊〉 contrary to his righteous Will and holy Rule of the Law Being wholly 〈◊〉 from all sin he should be freed from all plagues and death which is the 〈◊〉 of sin where there is no 〈◊〉 no sorrow no 〈◊〉 can be His punishments which he endured and God exacted for there was nothing done but according to his counsel were for sin therefore for 〈◊〉 sins imputed to him therefore he was surety in 〈◊〉 room therefore if he suffereed for all he had the 〈◊〉 of all imputed and so was surety in the place or all 3 Lastly The
and 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 to him without destraction 2. As we should lay up all for him so we should lay out all for his praise when ever 〈◊〉 occasion 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 any 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 it that we may 〈◊〉 2 Cor. 5. 15. So the 〈◊〉 we live no more 〈◊〉 selves labour 〈◊〉 for 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 but live only to 〈◊〉 who hath 〈◊〉 all Spirituall good for Us. BOOK II. Matt. 1. 21. He shall save His People from their Sins APPlication was the Second Part of Mans Recovery whereby all that Good which Christ hath purchased for His is made Theirs The Sum of this Description we resolved into Two Divine Truths which take up the Nature of it 1 First Christ hath purchased all Spiritual Good for His. That we have finished 2 The Second now follows for which we have 〈◊〉 these words in which we shall attend only so 〈◊〉 as serves our purpose in hand Christ puts all His into the Possession of all that Good He hath Purchased for Them So much the 〈◊〉 letter of the Text sounds Salvation we know 〈◊〉 the substance and marrow of all that Good which we have or hope for here or in another world it 〈◊〉 the removal and absence of all evil that might 〈◊〉 the presence and confluence of all such 〈◊〉 which either we want or desire or can receive to make us happy they are all comprised in this word Salvation And this our Savior 〈◊〉 purchased not to lay it up and to keep it by him but to lay it out in the behalf of his not alone to provide it but to bestow it actually upon them It is his Name it was his Office and he doth the work he doth 〈◊〉 actually save his People from their sins 1 Cor. 1. 30. 〈◊〉 is said to be made of God to us not only so in 〈◊〉 and the sight of God but he is made to us wisdome Righteousnes Sanctisication and Redemption and therfore the Apostle gives thanks to God who 〈◊〉 blessed us with al Spirituall blessings in heavenly places in Christ Eph. 1. 3. So that all the treasuries of all kinds of blessings withall advantages are by Christ Communicated to his Hence the Prophet sets out the Particular inventory of those speciall favours which the Lord doles out unto all 〈◊〉 servants and followers to suit them in their occasions and necessities Isay. 61. 1. 2. the Lord hath 〈◊〉 me to preach good tidings to bind up the broken hearted to proclayme libertie to the 〈◊〉 the opening of the prison to those that are in bonds to give them the oyl of joy and Gladness for the spirit of 〈◊〉 that they may be clothed with the garments of praise He not only hath made a 〈◊〉 of gladness but he puts it on and cloathes all his servants with it In a word hence it is Christ is said to be a perfect Redeemer to save to the utermost not only to offer Salvation and redemption to present it before them but to make it good to their hearts and consciences to their everlasting comforts There are two branches of the Doctrine the explication of them severally will shew the breadth of this truth 1. The extent of this Application or the parties who do partake of ir Theirs Or Ours namly all such for whom these good things were purchased 2. The manner how they come to be made partakers herof the Description told us it was made theirs the Doctrine they are put into the possession of them First Touching the Largness and breadth of this Application it s here to be attended according to the purchase by way of paritie and proportion Redemption and Application are of equall extent Christ purchaseth for his and Christ applyeth unto his and to his only al they have this but only they have this 〈◊〉 of those that ever Christ purchased grace and life 〈◊〉 shall 〈◊〉 of it and none but those shall be made possessors of it both these goe hand in hand Those 〈◊〉 those and those only for whom Christ 〈◊〉 this to them and to all them and only to them Christ applyes this This is the paritie and proportion and equall extent of these two Redemption and Application See this made good by some few Arguments Look we at the manner of the three persons working that will give in Evidence unto this truth this worke of application is attributed in a speciall manner to the spirit because his manner of working doth therin Specially appear he works from the father and the Son and this is the last work The Father as the Will Determines it the Son as the wisdom of the Father he disposeth of this work the holy Ghost as the power of the Almighty Consummates the action For whom the Father appointed this redemption for them Christ purchased it to them the Spirit applies it If the Spirit should not apply it to all for whom Christ purchased it that might argue want of power if to any other but such that might argue want of tuth Application of the purchase is the end of purchasing for therefore redemption was purchased for those for whom Christ had undertaken it that as they needed it he intended it for their good so they might partake of it for their everlasting good and benefit thus the current of the Scripture runnes as a mightie stream 1 Pet. 3. 18. for Christ also once suffered for sin the just for the unjust that he might bring us to God Titus 2 14. He gaue himselfe for us that he 〈◊〉 redeeme us from all iniquity and purifie unto himselfe a peculiar people zealous of good workes 〈◊〉 1. 4. who gaue himself for our Sinnes that he might redeem us from this present evill world I add 〈◊〉 more but that John 17. 19. for their sakes I 〈◊〉 my selfe that is he prepared himselfe on 〈◊〉 for his death and 〈◊〉 that by virtue therof they also might have their corruptions subdued and their hearts purified by the truth and hence it is the 〈◊〉 of the 〈◊〉 of Grace containes not only the manifestation of Gods mind and counsell touching what is done for us but what he will worke in us and 〈◊〉 to us by the power of his grace Ezek. 36. 26. 〈◊〉 will Power clean water upon you and clense 〈◊〉 from all your filthines a new spirit I will give you and a new heart will I work in you and Jer. 31. 33. I will write my lawes in their hearts and 〈◊〉 my spirit in their inward parts and therfore 〈◊〉 lives forever to Save Perfectly all that come unto 〈◊〉 by him Heb. 7. 25. Iftherfore this be the end of 〈◊〉 Purchase that it might be made good upon the souls 〈◊〉 his children either Christ must misse of his 〈◊〉 and not have his end or els they must of 〈◊〉 have all this good which the Father intended to 〈◊〉 and Christ purchased in their behalf aud for 〈◊〉 Speciall benefit 〈◊〉 the 〈◊〉 of Salvation by the death and 〈◊〉
gather the 〈◊〉 whilest it is fresh while time and strength 〈◊〉 take the pleasures of the world and enjoy the 〈◊〉 of my heart not now to sit moping in a 〈◊〉 go drooping and sorrowing for my sins when 〈◊〉 hair grows gray and decrepit age comes on 〈◊〉 yeers hence when my Sun grows neer the setting 〈◊〉 Life begins to decline and my strength to decay 〈◊〉 shall than have leisure to talk of holiness to turn 〈◊〉 a new leaf and betake my self to my Beads and 〈◊〉 of Grace in the mean time these jolly 〈◊〉 speak unto Preparation and Humiliation as 〈◊〉 somtimes to Paul Go your way for this 〈◊〉 and when we have a convenient time we will 〈◊〉 for you Answ. Thou fool this night may thy soul be 〈◊〉 from thee Luke 12. 20. How knowest thou but the Lord may pluck thee out of the land of the living and send thee packing down to thy own place give thee thy Portion with Unbeleevers and Despisers of his Grace and then all thy thoughts perish thy time is past and Repentance too late when the Pit hath shut her mouth upon thee how fond to think to have leisure to Repent when thou wilt not have time to Live 2 Be it the day of thy Life continue yet the day of Salvation may be ended for this is but a minute or moment of that span of time a point or 〈◊〉 of that opportunity If the Lord remove his 〈◊〉 take away the light of his Word dam up the fountain of Grace and stop the well-springs of Salvation thou mayest perish for thirst and live to 〈◊〉 the folly of the neglect of Means when happily thou shalt not know where they be nor yet have liberty and ability to enjoy them if thou knewest while therefore the day of our life and the day 〈◊〉 Salvation the Mart of Mercy lasts both which are but short and uncertain let us be watchful to observe and careful to take all advantages to buy the chiefest and best Commodities Humiliation and Faith Especially considering it may be any 〈◊〉 particular day as our Savior to Jerusalem Oh that thou hadst known at least in this thy day Luke 19. 42. When the Word is mighty and the Spirit speaks powerfully unto thy soul when the undeniable evidence of the Truth convicteth thy judgement and the keen threatnings thereof cuts and lanceth thy corrupt Conscience to the Core and the Lord raps at the door of thy heart by the hammer of the law Oh now follow those motions and cherish them make much of a little and suffer the blessed Ordinance of God to have its full blow upon thy Soul go aside and consider seriously with thy self Certainly the Lord came home this day unto my heart touched me to the quick and met with my particular Corruptions withstood me to my face and by the authority of his Truth like the naked Sword in the hand of the Angel stopped me in my Course and bad me back again assuredly this is my part a Portion carved out in special 〈◊〉 my Soul this 〈◊〉 is my day of Salvation in which the 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 to work the good work of his grace 〈◊〉 me True it may be so and for ought that thou 〈◊〉 I or any under heaven know it is so Remember 〈◊〉 thou hadst a fair offer and take heed how 〈◊〉 dost refuse it lest thou never have the like 〈◊〉 Break therefore through all Oppositions cast 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 listen to no alurements to the 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 while 〈◊〉 is called to day harden not thy 〈◊〉 And as Paul to his Company Acts 〈◊〉 thou never to see their faces more I know as one of the 〈◊〉 brings in his sins our old 〈◊〉 like old 〈◊〉 will threap kindness from 〈◊〉 plead prescription and continuance we have 〈◊〉 long taken much sweet Counsel together 〈◊〉 much delight and content Give us warning 〈◊〉 before you give us a discharge let us 〈◊〉 our 〈◊〉 of 〈◊〉 for the while and hereafter let 〈◊〉 think of amendment Thus the same Father when 〈◊〉 had often resolved to renounce his bosom 〈◊〉 and the beloved lusts of the flesh still that sounded in his ears To morrow to morrow as the burden of Satans song To morrow soon enough hereafter time enough thus while he was startling and 〈◊〉 by the terrors of his Conscience he lulled him and rocked him a sleep again by delayes 〈◊〉 at last in a holy kind of violence and indignation of heart breaks through all demurs nomore delayes no longer but cryes out Why not to day why not to day Lord and from that day following God gave him victory Go thy wayes and do thou likewise stand not haggeling and dallying with the Almighty set down a resolution like the Laws of the Meads and Persians never to be revoked that thou wilt from this 〈◊〉 and ever hereafter wait upon the 〈◊〉 of grace and give way to the work therof Dispute no more but determine thus with thy self Why yet am I here in the land of the Living yet 〈◊〉 this side the bottomless pit the Lord still tenders the offers of Salvation strives still with this sturdy heart of mine I know not how soon I may be taken from the Means or the Means from me or the Blessing of the Lord from us both while therefore the spirit speaks to my Soul Seek thou my face give me a heart to eccho back again Thy face Lord will I seek this day After all this the heart still sings loath to depart and the deluded finner lingers after his lust as Lot after Sodom and therefore puts in a new Plea on this manner Imagine the worst should I put off this fair and kind Call of the Lord Yet since it is in my power to entertain it hereafter there is not so much danger though I now refuse it Answ. Be it granted Thy life might be prolonged the words of the text do most apparantly dash this presumptuous conceit It s the Season of Gods acceptation It s not in thy power but depends meerly upon his good Will We are not the Patrons of the means of Grace much less of their work it is not in our Gift the Sending and Blessing of both issues only from the good pleasure of the Almighty prolong not then put not off the time deny not Gods gracious offer lest thou never have offer again he that now holds out the golden Scepter of Mercy to receive thee hath an Iron rod wherwith he can 〈◊〉 thee to nothing and break thee in pieces like a Potters vessel He that hath the Keyes of David and now sets open the gate of Salvation he can shut it and no man shall open it any more and when thou hast stayed too long and comest too late thou mayest knock hard with the foolish Virgin and cry aloud with Esau and yet receive neither Blessing nor Birthright and its just with God it should be 〈◊〉 that the Word which thou hast dispised should
must be a stranger from the life of Christ Rom. 8. 1. hath not yet his Spirit is in the state of Condemnation and that if he so continue he shall perish but whether he shall be converted and brought home at last by the Almighty Power of the Lord it rests only in his own bosom depends alone upon his good pleasure leave we then the Sentence with the Lord who will either recover him out of his sin or most righteously judg him for it Of Consolation Here 's also a Cordial to keep up the fainting hearts of decrepit and aged sinners whose noysom lusts plead prescription of continuance as though they were beyond the Authority of any Law to cast them out I confess it indeed Oh that ancient men would consider it the case is very desperate and brought to the last cast Is it not a marvelous streight that the great work of Everlasting Life lies upon the moment of an hour as it 〈◊〉 to follow the words of the Parable 〈◊〉 considering it is not usual for men then to be 〈◊〉 The little twig such may take hold on is this hath been done and therefore there is hope it may done again and this hope it is which keeps the 〈◊〉 above water never too late to forsake our 〈◊〉 the Lord accepts at the Eleventh hour 〈◊〉 must not then suffer our own fears or Satans 〈◊〉 to pluck up our resolutions and 〈◊〉 by the roots with any false shews of hopeless possibilities When a decrepit sinner hath tired 〈◊〉 in his ungodly courses grows weary with 〈◊〉 burden of an accusing conscience and 〈◊〉 of an ill led life and begins to bethink himself is not in a right way suddenly the Enemy 〈◊〉 to his view the number and nature of his many 〈◊〉 and withal suggests the way so long 〈◊〉 the time to return so short better not set out 〈◊〉 not to be able to get home In vain now saies 〈◊〉 to begin so great a work of Preparation when 〈◊〉 have so little opportunity and so great an 〈◊〉 thereunto To what purpose is it to strive 〈◊〉 we cannot overcome to enter upon the 〈◊〉 when in all likely hood we shall be benighted see 〈◊〉 Sun is but an hour high and never come to the 〈◊〉 of it Oh shake off those sluggish discouragements sit 〈◊〉 down and perish there is yet hope in Israel 〈◊〉 this thing 't is true the work is hard yet God 〈◊〉 done as much for others and therefore can do much for thee also Thy time is short thou hast 〈◊〉 foot in the grave but the Arm of the Lord is 〈◊〉 shortened that he cannot help thou hast ancient 〈◊〉 he hath ancient mercies his loving kindness 〈◊〉 been ever of old When thou hast neither time 〈◊〉 strength to relieve thy self the Lord notwithstanding at the last hour and when thou doest least expect it and hast least deserved it who knows but yet he may call thee into his Vineyard listen therefore unto his voyce make hast to answer his call and leave the success with him Lastly If the Lord put forth this work of Preparation most ordinarily in our middle age all those whom more especially it concerns who are yet in the flower of their years whose Breasts run full of Milk and their Bones full of Marrow as Job speaks they are to be exhorted in the Lord to take the safest and the easiest course for themselves even the counsel of the wise man Eccles. 12. 1. Remember now thy Creator in the daies of thy youth before thy evil daies come the time that God useth to bless most let us be wary to improve most for our good A wise Traveller useth to take the day before him and 〈◊〉 accounts the middle of the day most safe for his passage the Rule is most true and useful also for us while we are wildring onward towards the end 〈◊〉 our hopes rise we early prevent the morning watch to make speed to run the waies of Gods Cammandements while the best of our Natural abilities are about us the middle of our age like the middle 〈◊〉 the day will be most safe for our spiritual Travel and endeavor considering we carry such a charge about us even our souls and the care of their Salvation and happiness lest deferring till our old age and our evening shut in upon us we be wholly spoyled of both for Preparation put off untill our crazy time is like never to be or very uncomfortable if 〈◊〉 be attained It 's not likely we shall ever share in so glorious a work they who are setled so long upon their 〈◊〉 are hardly ever removed considering the company 〈◊〉 common infirmities troops and multitudes of sicknesses and sorrows which seize upon old age and surprize it as 〈◊〉 prey decay the Sences enfeeble the Judgment weaken the Memory as though all the passages were now stopped and gates shut whereby Grace should have any entrance How shall Faith come to him by hearing whose Ears are become deaf that he cannot hear How shall he search the Scriptures in which Grace and Life are to be found who hath not an eye able to see much less to read them How shall he be able to fatham the depths and mysteries of Salvation who is become a child in understanding not sufficient to conceive of the most common things Hence it is the Prophet gives such a man for gone past recovery as it were Isa. 65. 20. The sinner of an hundred years old shall be accursed a Curse is the Portion that is carved out unto him he must look for nothing else that 's his allowance an old rotten post is only fit to be chipped out for the fire no waies prositable to be laid in the Building no not to make pins for it He that hath seen an hundred yeers and yet never came to the sight and rellish of the saving work of Grace farewell he as we use to speak I will not say it is impossible for him to avoid the Curse I must say it is unusual For how justly may God deny to entertain him who would not so many years give way and entertainment to his Word and Spirit What Captain will entertain a Soldier that is not able to fight What Master will hire a Servant that is not able to work in his Vineyard Why should the Lord 〈◊〉 wise chuse such weaklings aged and decrepit who shall not be able to strike one stroke for him in the defence of his Truth or set one foot forward in 〈◊〉 waies of his Statutes As Achish spake of David when he came to the 〈◊〉 and seigned himself mad 1 Sam. 21. 15. What 〈◊〉 I need of mad men that you have brought this man to me shall he enter into my house So the Lord may say Have I any need of dead men that you have brought these aged 〈◊〉 ruinous carkasses before me shall they ever find acceptance or entrance into the Kingdom of Grace or Glory Hath
therefore to mind this or to be led by this is present death The minor is thus again confirmed because it submits not to the Law and that is not for a present push only and out of a surprizal of some temptation but it 's certain it will never nay it can never be other because it 's beyond its power nay cross to its Nature so to do so that it hath no ability nor will for to do it nor can it of it self attain any sufficiency thereunto To make way for the collection of the Point of which we purpose to speak there be two words in the Text to be attended for Explication sake 1 What is meant by The Wisdom of the flesh or to be Carnally minded The Original word 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 is of large compass and in truth comprehends in this place the frame of the Reasonable Faculties the Understanding and Will in the extent of their full work what he understands and plots by Reason the Will effects and this latter of necessity implies the other for so the word whence it comes is taken 1 For the work of the Understanding Acts 28. 22. We desire to know what thou thinkest they would understand his Opinion and Judgment touching the way of Christianity so the Apostle speaks when he would confine our Reason to the compass of the Wisdom of the Scripture and Gods Counsel therein revealed he adviseth We should not be wise above that which is written 1 Cor. 4. 6. 2 Again It 's used and that often to express the work of the Will and therefore it is 〈◊〉 translated by Care Phil. 4. 10. I rejoyced that your Care of me again flourisheth Somtimes by the work of Seeking If ye be risen with Christ 〈◊〉 those things which are above 3. Col. 1. Or by the act of tasting or savouring Mat. 16. 21. Get thee behind me Satan thou savorest not the things 〈◊〉 be of God And therefore Beza is constrained to Paraphrase and lay out the compass of it in a 〈◊〉 of words That which the carnal man savors is enmity that is the frame of the plotting of the minds and affecting of the hearts of carnal men is enmity against God 2 Enmity as we say in the abstract made up of nothing but malice and hatred and that in an extream manner against the Lord more than against any thing in the world And if it be enquired how that doth appear and can be proved The Evidence is added in the next words It is not subject to the Law As the heart is to the Law so it is to the Lord as it is to the Word of God so it is to God himself It wholly shakes off the Sovereignty and Authority of the Law and it is not a pang only of a temptation that carries it nor a push or 〈◊〉 of some present infirmity that overbears it but in truth it is the very Nature of a naughty and 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 That which is born of the flesh is flesh John 3. 6. and nothing else but 〈◊〉 and therefore it can do nothing but oppose the Spirit and the Law which is Spiritual every thing will do and in 〈◊〉 can do no 〈◊〉 but its Nature And this denyal 〈◊〉 only of the Act of Subjection but the very Power of Subjection shews the height of that opposition that is in the heart against the Law and so against 〈◊〉 Lord himself for subjection is one degree lower 〈◊〉 obedience it 's possible for a Servant not to 〈◊〉 the command of his Master and yet he may in 〈◊〉 and subjection submit himself to his authority to bear what he will inflict upon him with 〈◊〉 though not to do what he requires of him A Patient may be subject in silence and meekness to 〈◊〉 the launcings of the Chyrurgion to cut him and so cure him when he can in no wise help 〈◊〉 and yet a carnal heart will not do this for his 〈◊〉 of subjection implies 1 It doth not acknowledg the Authority and 〈◊〉 of the Law 2 It will not obey the Rule of it 3 It will not bear the Power of it whereby it would redress the sinfulness of our hearts and reform the disorders and miscarriages of our lives and pluck away that sin from us that would pluck away our hearts from God He hath no right to challenge 〈◊〉 sovereignty no reason to exercise it no Lawful power but usurped that doth maintain it and 〈◊〉 I do not acknowledg this right nor obey that Rule nor bear that Power saies the Will it would take away my lusts and so take away my content 〈◊〉 life and I will rather die than yield rather be 〈◊〉 than abide my pleasing distempers to be crossed by the Law Hence then the Point is plain The frame of the whol heart of a Natural man is wholly unwilling to submit to the Work of the Lord that would sever him from his sins I say the frame of the whol man to the words of the Text and interpretation of them each plotting of the Mind each affecting of the Will the 〈◊〉 current of the carriage of the inward man and 〈◊〉 is not only unable to follow the direction of the Law and of the Lord but not willing to bear the power thereof to force it to the reformation of those 〈◊〉 and sins unto which it subjects it self and sets it self resolutely to keep So the Lord professed of Nimrod and his company when they had set themselves upon the building of Babel out of their pride and self confidence Gen. 11. 6. Now nothing will 〈◊〉 restrained from them which they have imagined to do let us go down and confound their Language It 's in vain to perswade them in vain to send Messengers and shew Arguments never so sad and weighty to stop them only confound their language that they may not be able to do what they would It 's the Scope of that Parable Matth. 21. from 33. to 41. wherein the waywardness of the hearts of the sons of men and their desperate unteachableness is apparantly discovered Messenger is sent after Messenger all variety of means provided and continued they beat one evil entreat another slay a third and when the Son himself is sent that Reason would have concluded that which the Master of the Vineyard conceived they will reverence my Son they were most outragious against him because happily he was more instant and importunate to press them to Sanctification the rendring of the fruit your fruit in Holiness and the end eternal Life Rom. 6. 22. they express greater opposition against him because he most of all opposed their sins Come say they this is the Heir let us kill him and the Inheritance will be ours Nor was this the guise of some graceless forlorn persons but the disposition of all men it 's part of that Curse we inherit from the Loyns 〈◊〉 our first Parents Gen. 6. 5. The frame of the imagination of our hearts are evil and
he part with his beloved lust his Isaac his 〈◊〉 his 〈◊〉 he will then shew and discover his falsness But are not the Servants of the Lord many times unwilling to bid adieu to their special and ancient 〈◊〉 that have been bred and born with them brought up and lived with them a long time together There is two men in a regenerate man a heart and a heart a will and a will Rom. 7. last Paul delighted in the Law of God after the inward man but in his lust after the corrupt man With my mind I serve the Law of God saies he but with my 〈◊〉 the Law of Sin or as our Savior The Spirit 〈◊〉 willing but the Flesh is weak Matth. 26. 41. the spiritual part is ever prest and ready and wholly willing for good for he that is born of God so sins not and Paul professeth it 's not I but sin in me but saies he The good that I would I do not and the evil that I would not that I do Rom. 7. 18. still the heart and will of a regenerate man stands God-ward against every sin and for every good that he is convinced of The Reasons of the Point are Four and they are of great weight The First is taken from the Nature of the Will of man which since the Fall is wholly tainted and totally infected with corruption which universally overspreads the whol man As he in another case the whol head is sick the whol heart is faint the whol man wholly possessed with sin no sound part As Jobs contagion wherewith the Devil infected his Body and Natural man he was all one botch from the crown of the head to the sole of the foot So in regard of thr Spiritual man the whol man is as it were a man of sin called therefore the old man Eph. 4. 22. As though a corrupt heart were made up of nothing else but Apostacies backslidings and departings from God and swervings from his righteous Law Whatsoever is born of the flesh is flesh that is sinful and sensual and we are all of us altogether so born and have nothing of the Spirit of Grace in us so the Apostle Jude verse 19. These are sensual having not the spirit The Sons of Adam are all of us partakers of his Image and hence also called the Seed of the Serpent Gen. 3. 15. that as each Creature and Plant answers the Seed whereof it is made hath no more in it but that so mens hearts are only framed and constituted out of that corrupt 〈◊〉 whereby Satan carried aside our first Parents Paul so professeth of himself In me 〈◊〉 is in my flesh dwelleth no good thing Rom. 7. 11. nothing that is spiritually savingly and 〈◊〉 good and therefore in the old Law our corrupt Nature is signified by the Leprosie which overspread the whol man The sin of Adam had in it this peculiar to it self more than any nay I may 〈◊〉 say more than all the sins that ever was committed in that it was the Deordination of the whol Nature of man and that against the whol Law of God For Adam did not sin as a particular man so as all the Sons of Adam do sin but as a common stock as one who was in the room of all and had the Humane Nature as the common stock of all Man-kind so that the Nature of Man as one would say Humanity in Adam as it was under the Covenant of the Law so it went wholly against the holy and righteous Law of God and therefore the whol Nature of man broke when it made a breach upon the Law As he that justles his finger against a rock breaks that only he that runs his hand unjoynts that but if all the whol body fall from a steep place upon it it breaks all the whol frame of Nature in pieces So it is comparatively between the sin of Adam and the sin of any of the sons of Adam They sin personally one is unjust and he makes a breach against Justice and so far that disposition of heart is perverted and so unfitted for the work of Justice but in Adam the whol Nature of Mind and Will and Affections which was the subject of all Grace it comes against the Law and so brings a ruine upon the whol Frame of Grace Ad hereunto to make up the Evidence that this was indeed against the whol Law as that wherein he neither loved God nor himself nor 〈◊〉 neighbor But take it here he made a breach upon the seal of the Covenant and trampled that under foot and so consequently made voyd and 〈◊〉 upon the Covenant wholly and cast it behind his back as not worth caring for Now Reason 〈◊〉 that as the Seal confirms and ratifies the 〈◊〉 and all the Conditions of it joyntly so the 〈◊〉 of that nullifies and makes void the whol Covenant So that this transgression of Adam let 〈◊〉 a Deluge of Sin that as in Noahs Flood when the Windows of Heaven were opened and the great depths were broken up the waters covered the face of the whol Earth that no dry Land appeared So 〈◊〉 is here when the deeps are broken up as it were the whol Law opposed by the whol Nature of man the Deluge of corruption spreads it self over the whol face and frame of Nature Therefore the Apostle first Summarily gives in his Judgment in the 3. to the Romans the 9. verse That all are under sin And then Particularly They are all become abominable there is none that doth good no not one their throat is an open Sepulchre vents nothing but venemous steams of deadly distempers the poyson of Asps is under their tongues their feet swift to shed blood 12 13 14 15. vers And if all the Parts be such what is the heart within that acts all vents all fills all these That as it befel the Temple of Jerusalem after the destruction of it there was not a stone left upon a stone so with the soul in regard of that glorious frame of Grace which was in it in the first Creation there is not a stone left upon a stone nothing but pollution and corruption remains in the whol Nature of every man But you will say Are there no Reliques left of that glorious Image of God in the Will and Understanding There is somthing left of the Law but nothing left whereby a man can be enabled to do any thing as an act of Spiritual Life that may be acceptable to God In a word there are these Two things to be attended and may be observed in every man naturally at the lowest and the worst as I look at these poor Indians amongst whom we live as the very ruines and rubbish of mankind the forlorn Posterity of Adam 1 They are made for another and for a better 2 They ought to yeild obedience to that other and better But to know the Will of God and do it to be
approbation of Satan but by Compulsion For do but weigh a little what manner of Construction in a common apprehension can be made of a Morral Perswasion in this Case Namely The Lord Christ casts in so many Convicting Arguments into the mind of Satan and stirs up that malice and envie that is within him that he doth perswade Satan to destroy his own malice and envie yea perswades him to lay down his power and to make choice and desire that the Spirit of Christ should exercise power in the Soul He Conquers him only by perswading of him to yeild willing subjection to the power of Christ which is indeed to make Satan a Saint and the Devil not to be the Prince of darkness The Power and Rule of Satan cannot be Destroyed without violence but in this work Satan his power is destroyed and himself bound and Conquered therefore it s done by Violence Fifthly Now we are to enquire How the plucking of the Soul from Sin and Drawing unto Christ is accomplished by this holy Violence To which I Answer 1 Generally 2 Particularly 1 Generally thus All that hold that Sin Satan had of the Soul and al that authority they exercised in it is now removed and the bent and set of the heart is now under the hand of the Spirit of God The Lord comes now to manifest his claim and to make good and challenge the right he hath unto the soul through his Christ whom he hath appointed to bring his unto himself This is his good pleasure for the execution whereof he hath sent the Lord Jesus Isa. 49. 45. Therefore he is said to be formed from the womb to be a servant unto God the Father to restore the preserved of Israel and to be the salvation of God to the ends of the earth Hence that of our Savior Christ Joh. 10. 16. Other sheep I have there 's the ground those I must bring and they shall hear my voice they are mine I have died for them sin and Satan shal not keep them shal not hold them hands off sin hands off Satan I must Humble them and Call them and Justifie them and 〈◊〉 them and Save them for ever And therefore the Lord was typed out in the Parable of the Owner that left Ninty and nine to seek the lost sheep Luke 15. 4 5. And when it could not seek its own good or Christ or find either the Lord sought it up and found it and brought it home upon his shoulder 2 ' More Particularly The accomplishment of this Work Discovers it self in Four Particulars The Lord calls in that Commission which formerly he put into the hands of Satan to lay hold of the heart of a sinner as a Malefactor attached of high Treason committed against God and Heaven and therefore it was he sent him with his Mittimus as the Justice doth the Fellon into the Custody and keeping of Satan that since he would not be ruled by the Law of Liberty and Life he should be made a slave unto sin and subject to death and that for ever to be kept in the Chains of darkness until the day of 〈◊〉 great Goal Delivery and the Declaration of the fierce wrath of God and this Durante bene placito during the pleasure of the Lord or until ye shal understand his Majesties pleasure to the 〈◊〉 For still you must remember That as in Courts and Course of Justice amongst men upon earth it is so in the Court of Heaven and the Proceedings of the Almighty the Malefactor is the Kngs prisoner The Jaylor is but the Keeper or under Officer betrusted with the Execution of Justice the Lord is the sole Commander of mens souls and of life and death unto which they are liable by reason of their sins This being the Commission the Lord put into the hands of Satan and sin for the present unless any Express appear to the contrary He is now pleased to signifie to the Prince of Darkness and to the Power of Hell and to those Damned Spirits by the Ministery of the Word in the mouths of his Servants and by the Hand and Almighty Operation of his Spirit Be it known 〈◊〉 you you Principalities of 〈◊〉 and spiritual wickednesses that take possession of and rule in the hearts of the Children of disobedience that upon the first hearing of this holy Word and Message dispensed by my faithful Servant as a warrant under my hand that it is my Royal Wil and Command That you forthwith let loose that poor 〈◊〉 who hath been long prisoner in the chains of Darkness For my Justice is fully answered and satisfaction fully accepted Fail not at your 〈◊〉 under 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 displeasure of the Almighty Dated at the Court of Mercy before all worlds published this present day and instant according to the counsel of mine own Will This puts the powers of Darkness the Devils and his Angels to deep Consultation what to do they see they have no warrant now to hold the sinner any longer and yet they have no wil to let him go They are 〈◊〉 loth to part with him and yet their power is gone whereby they have hitherto kept him For the strength of 〈◊〉 is the law 1 Cor. 15. 56. And this is to take away the Devils Armour Luke 11. 22. When Justice will deliver the sinner Satan hath no power to hold him As our Savior said to Pilate when 〈◊〉 said I have power to bind thee or to loose thee our Savior 〈◊〉 Thou hadst no power 〈◊〉 was given thee from above John 19. 11. So Satan hath no power but what is given from above according to the Edict of Gods revenging Justice and their just deservings Therefore now God the Father through the perfect Death and satisfaction 〈◊〉 the Lord Jesus hath yeilded the Edict of 〈◊〉 is 〈◊〉 and therefore the Devils cannot 〈◊〉 As it was said touching our Savior when he was in 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 was impossible he should be 〈◊〉 2 Acts 24. 〈◊〉 Gods Justice was answered to here When the Devils power is now gone and that Justice hath signified her pleasure That the Prisoner must be set loose they then begin to pretend the right they have and the claim they can make yet unto the Sinner Therefore Sin and 〈◊〉 seem 〈◊〉 plead their own Cause in way of Justice and that which cannot be gain-said as that the souls of such 〈◊〉 Creatures do appertain to them for besides saies Satan the Statute Law The soul that sins that soul must die The Evidence is cleer from their practice and experience Whether these be the seed of the Serpent because they express the nature of the serpent in their actions Is it not written John 8 44. You are of your Father the Devil for the lusts of your Father you will do These are they whose hearts if they were discerned whose carriages if they were traced and taken notice of would give in Evidence that the 〈◊〉 of the Serpent was in the one
that as Preparatory which includes indeed the beginnings of true Faith And a man may be held too long under John Baptists water To rectify those that have slipt into Profession and Leapt over all both true and deep Humiliation for sin and sence of their natural Condition yea and many over Christ himself too professing to go to God without him However this we may say without diminution to any other or detraction from the Author himself in respect of his 〈◊〉 raysed knowledg of Christ and 〈◊〉 free Grace That if any of our late Preachers and Divines came in the 〈◊〉 and power of John Baptist this man did This deeply humbled man and as 〈◊〉 raised both in Faith and 〈◊〉 with Christ the Author of 〈◊〉 Treatises He had been trained up 〈◊〉 his Youth in the Experience and 〈◊〉 of Gods Dispensations and 〈◊〉 this way and vers'd in digging 〈◊〉 the Mines and Veins of Holy 〈◊〉 to find how they agreed with his 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 His Soul had 〈◊〉 the intricate Meanders and the 〈◊〉 through temptations 〈◊〉 of this narrow passage and 〈◊〉 into Life and few there be that 〈◊〉 it And by deep reflections upon 〈◊〉 step of Gods Procedure with 〈◊〉 hath descried those false and 〈◊〉 by-waies which at every step 〈◊〉 man who errs in his heart not 〈◊〉 the knowledg of Gods waies is apt to 〈◊〉 astray when they have but inferior 〈◊〉 of the Spirit on them from 〈◊〉 way of Life which only those do 〈◊〉 that are un-erringly guided by the 〈◊〉 Spirit peculiar to the Elect into 〈◊〉 waies of Peace And whereas there hath been published long since many Parts and Pieces of this Author upon this Argument Sermon-wise preach'd by him here in England which in the preaching of them did enlighten all those Parts Yet having been taken by an unskilful hand which upon his recess into those remoter parts of the World was bold without his privity or consent to print and publish them one of the greatest injuries which can be done to any man it-came to pass his genuine meaning and this in points of so high a Nature and in some things differing from the Common Opinion was diverted in those printed Sermons from the fair and cleer draught of his own Notions and Intentions because so utterly deformed and mis-represented in multitudes of passages And in the rest but imperfectly and crudely set forth Here in these Treatises thou hast his Heart from his own Hand his own Thoughts drawn by his own Pensil This is all truly and purely his own not as preached only but as written by himself in order to the Press which may be a great satisfaction to all that honored 〈◊〉 loved him as who that was good and knew him did not especially 〈◊〉 that received benefit by those 〈◊〉 imperfect Editions And we cannot but look at it as a blessed Providence of God that the publishing of the same by others in that manner that hath been mentioned should have provoked him and that by the excitation of the Church whereof he was the Pastor in New-England to go over again the same Materials in the Course of his Ministry amongst them in order to the perfecting of it by his own hand for publick Light thereby to vindicate both himself and it from that wrong which otherwise had remained for ever irrecompensible And hereby it came to pass that so far as he hath proceeded this Subject came to have a third Concoction in the Heart and Head of him that was one of the most experienced Christians and of acutest Abilities that have been living in our Age. He Preach'd more briefly of this Subject first whilst he was 〈◊〉 and Chatechist in Emanuel Colledg in Cambridg The Notes of which were then so esteemed that many Copies thereof were by many that heard not the Sermons written out and are yet extant by them And then again a Second time many yeers after more largely 〈◊〉 Great Chelmsford in Essex the 〈◊〉 of which was those Books of 〈◊〉 that have gone under his Name And Last of all now in New-England and 〈◊〉 in and to a setled Church of Saints to which the Promise is made of being The Seat and Pillar of Truth and 〈◊〉 which all Ordinances set as the Load stone in the Steel have the greater power and energie In which the Presence of Christ breaks forth and all 〈◊〉 Springs are found therein And truly we need not wonder 〈◊〉 God set his heart and thoughts a work 〈◊〉 much and so repeatedly about this Subject VVe see that the Holy Ghost himself the Author of this Work of Conversion doth somtimes and that in an 〈◊〉 manner go over the whol of that Work again and again in the hearts of Christians whom God means to make great in his Church as in Peter when 〈◊〉 art converted c. who was yet 〈◊〉 already And to the Disciples Except ye be converted c. And the 〈◊〉 of the Holy Ghost upon them at and 〈◊〉 Pentecost was as a New Conversion 〈◊〉 them making them to differ 〈◊〉 much from themselvès in what they were afore as wel-nigh they themselves 〈◊〉 afore truly wrought on did 〈◊〉 differ from other men The 〈◊〉 of God himself goes over this work 〈◊〉 in al the parts of it As to 〈◊〉 anew to draw to Christ to change and 〈◊〉 the heart to higher strains of 〈◊〉 And when so then his Second 〈◊〉 excels the First that it comes not into mind and his Third the Second 〈◊〉 it ceaseth as it were to be remembred as the Prophet in other works of wonder speaks for thereby he every 〈◊〉 Spirituallizeth the heart stil more 〈◊〉 it from Hypocrisie and makes it 〈◊〉 refined causeth the heart to come forth from each new Cast and moulding with a deeper and fairer Impression 〈◊〉 his Image and Glory If then the Holy Ghost the Writer of his Law in the Heart set that high value upon that Work 〈◊〉 his that he vouchsafeth to take 〈◊〉 pains to write it over and over again in the same Tablet Let it be no Diminution to this great Author but let us bless God rather for the Providence that the same Divine Hand and Spirit should set him this Task to take the Doctrine of 〈◊〉 VVork into a second yea a third Review and thereby make it as it were the 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 the VVork of his Life Only thus it is That the other Great Points as Union with Christ Justification Adoption Sanctification and Glory which Subjects as he was able for so his heart was most in them he hath left unfinished And so thereby as is most likely multitndes of precious yea glorious thoughts which he might have reserved as often fals out to Preachers and Writers for those higher Subjects as the Close and Centre and Crown of what forewent as preparative thereto are now perished and laid in the dust with him None but Christ was ever yet able to finish all that Work which was in
give entertainment to him but unless the heart be broken and humbled we cannot receive Faith that we may receive Christ. And while the soul is thus breaking and humbling Faith also is coming in a right sense rightly understood whereof we shal speak somwhat largely if the Lord give us leave to come to that place The Words thus opened the Point is the very letter of the Text which looks full upon every Hearer or Reader that will look upon the Text. The Heart must be broken and humbled before the Lord will own it as His take up his abode with it and rule in it There must be Contrition and Humiliation before the Lord comes to take possession the House must be aired and fitted before it comes to be inhabited swept by brokenness and emptiness of Spirit before the Lord will come to set up his abode in it This was typified in the passage of the Children of Israel towards the promised Land they must come into and go through a vast and a roaring Wilderness where they must be bruised with many pressures humbled under many over-bearing difficulties they were to meet withal before they could possess that good Land which abounded with all prosperity flowed with Milk and Honey The Truth of this Type the Prophet Hosea explains and expresseth at large in the Lords dealing with his People in regard of their Spiritual Condition Hos. 2. 14 15. I will lead 〈◊〉 into the wilderness and break her heart with many bruising Miseries and then I will speak kindly to her heart and will give her the Valley of Achor for a door of hope the story you may recal out of Jos. 7. 28. when Achan had offended in the execrable thing and the hearts of the Israelites were discomfited and failed like water spilt upon the ground because they had caused the Lord to depart away from them the Text saies they having found out the offender by lot they stoned him and they said thou hast troubled Israel we will trouble thee and they called it the Valley of Achor and after that God supported their hearts with hope and encouraged them with success both in prevailing over their Enemies and in possessing the Land So it shall be Spiritually the Valley of Consternation perplexity of Spirit and brokenness of heart is the very gale and entrance of any sound hope and assured expectation of good This I take to be the true meaning and intendment of the place and part of the description of a good Hearer Luke 8. 15. Who with an honest and good heart receives the Word and keeps it by strong hand and brings forth fruit with patience the fruit is Obedience Patience is part of Sanctification and the holy disposition of heart that must be in the heart that brings and bears such fruit that which makes the heart good is Faith in Vocation which enables the soul to lay hold upon Christ in the Word and from him to receive that lively vertue of Patience and readiness to every holy word and work And an honest heart is a contrite and humble heart so rightly prepared that Faith is infused and the soul thereby carried unto Christ and quickened with patience to persevere in good Duties As we say of Grounds before we cast in Seed there is two things to be attended there It must be a fit ground and a fat ground the ground is fit when the weeds and green sword are plowed up and the soyl there and made mould And this is done in 〈◊〉 and Humiliation then it must be a fat ground the soyl must have heart we say the ground is plowed well and lies well but it 's worn out it 's out of heart Now Faith fats the soyl furnisheth the soul with ability to fasten upon Christ and so to receive the Seed of the Word and the Graces of Sanctification and thence it produceth good 〈◊〉 in Obedience Upon this condition Gods favor is promised Psal. 34. 18. The Lord is nigh to them that be of a contrite spirit and saveth them that be of a broken heart Isay 61. 3. He gives the Garment of praise to those that have had the spirit of heaviness it will suit none fit none it 's prepared for none but such it 's their Livery only Upon this condition it is obtained Mat. 18. 3. Unless ye be converted and become as little Children ye can in no wise enter into the Kingdom of Heaven 2 Chron. 33. 12. It 's said of Mannasseh he humbled himself greatly and made supplication and the Lord was intreated of him such persons and services are highly accepted Psal. 51. 17. A broken and contrite heart O God thou wilt not despise nay he wil undoubtedly accept of it The Reasons of the Point are taken partly in regard of the heart which without these will neither be fitted nor enabled to act upon God in Christ for any good partly in regard of God all his Ordinances and Dispensations will be unprofitable and unable to do that good which he intends and we need To the first in regard of our Hearts those Lets and impediments which put a kind of incapability yea and impossibility upon the soul whereby the coming of Faith into the Heart and so the entrance and residence of the Spirit are hindred are by this disposition wrought and removed These Impediments are two The 〈◊〉 which stops the way and work of Faith is a setled kind of contentedness in our corrupt condition and the blind yet bold and presumptuous confidence that a natural man hath and would maintain of his good condition Each man sits down willingly well apaid with his own estate and portion sees no need of any change and therefore not willing to hear of it Each man is so full of self-love that he is loth to pass a sentence against his own soul to become a judg and self-condemner and consequently an executioner of all his hopes and comforts at once and so put his happiness and help out of his own hand Besides we are Naturally afraid out of the privy yet direful guilt of our own Consciences to profess the wretchedness of our own miserable and damnable Condition as to put it upon a peremptory conclusion and that beyond question I am undone I am a damned man in the Gall of bitterness in the bonds of iniquity lest they should stir such horrors which they are neither able to quiet nor yet able to bear And therefore out of the presumption of their own hearts they would easily perswade and delude themselves they have no cause to alter their condition and therfore they should not endeavor it Hence the carnal heart is said to bear up himself against all the assaults of the Word Deut. 29. 19. When all the Curses of the Law were denounced with never so much evidence yet the presumptuous sinner blesseth himself promiseth all good to himself and secretly feeds himself with vain hopes that he shal attain it therfore he wil
Heaven for revenge but when our Savior laid his hand upon the sore and let the light shine in her face and points at the vileness of her practice Thou hast had five Husbands but he whom thou now hast is not thy Husband she then becomes sensible of his soveraign wisdom and her own wretchedness John 4. 18 19 20. So it was with Paul when the Lord met him going to Damascus persecuting the Saints he saw not the sinfulness of his course and therefore was senceless of it Saul Saul saies Christ why persecutest thou me Then he answers Who art thou Lord Jesus said I am Jesus whom thou persecutest it is hard for thee to kick against the pricks when he understood the evil of his way then he stood trembling and astonished saying Lord what wilt thou have me to do Acts 9. 5 6. Before the Corinthians were made conscious of their own carelesness neither pitying the soul of the incestuous Corinthian nor yet seeking to reform his sin they gloried over him and prided themselves in their own conceited excellency but when the Apostle had discovered their miscarriage and failings what sorrow and care did it work in them and what serious endeavor to reform the guilty party The Doctrine is true we shall endeavor to make it plain and therefore we shall open several particulars the right conceiving whereof will be as a key to unlock the Treasury of this Truth that each man may take what will serve his turn Enquire therefore we will By what means and after what manner God works this sight of Sin How far the sinner may be said to be active in it Wherein this true sight and apprehension properly consists and so discovers it self The Reason of this Truth and the Lords Order in this proceeding And then we shall make Application of it By what means or after what manner the Lord works this sight of Sin To which I shall Answer in four Conclusions Or the Answer unto which Inquiry will be expressed in four Particulars The Righteous Law of God as it is the Rule of our Lives so it is the Discoverer of our Sins and swervings therefrom and by the light thereof together with that little light of common Principles of Piety and Love left upon our Consciences we come to have our corruption made known to us Rom. 3. 20. By the Law is the knowledg of sin insomuch that Paul a learned Pharisee one that profited in the Jews Religion more than his equals he was yet at a loss in discerning and judging of the turnings and distempers of his heart before he takes the light and lamp of the Law So himself professeth Rom. 7. 7. I had not known that lust had been a sin those first stirrings of the Body of death and secret lingrings and inclinations to that which is cross to the wil of God though there be no consent given to them no delight taken in them but that the Law said thou shalt not lust the Sentence of the Law set down his Judgment and therefore the Apostle James compares it to a perfect and curious Looking-glass wherein each man may see the least blemishes or motes if he will present himself before it James 1. 25. But whoso looketh into the perfect Law of Liberty and continueth therein will lay his mind and heart and life level to the Law of God and hold his heart and apprehensions to the righteous Judgment and Sentence thereof it will plainly discover the smallest imperfections the least stirrings of the most hidden distempers that arise so Rom. 2. 14. the Heathens with the twi-light or Star-light of the remainders of the Law written in their heart past Sentence against themselves touching the sinfulness of their course But this is not all nor yet enough to make us to attain a right sight of our Sins unless the Lord put a new Light into our minds within as we have the Light of the Law and Counsel of God shining without unto us otherwise the Law may be and wil be a clasped Book and a dead Letter we shall see little in it or receive little from it So Paul Rom. 7. 9. I was alive without the Law once but when the Commandement came sin revived Without the Law how could that be since he was an Hebrew of the Hebrews of the Tribe of Benjamin trained up at the feet of Gamaliel a Doctor of the Law prosessed it and practised it according to the most exact Sect of the Pharisees as he speaks But the meaning is that he was without the power of it and the spiritual life and lively efficacy of the Law It was a dead and a killing Letter Look what the sence of the words or some evidence of Reason or Arguments could hold out to a Natural Understanding the bark and shell and outside of such directions he took and entertained But the Spiritualness of the Law For the Law is Spiritual saies Paul and that spiritual and lively power of Conviction and Direction it puts forth upon the souls of the Saints who are subject to it and therefore indeed receive the work of it This Paul once in the time of his unregeneracy was destitute of and then he was alive that is in his own overweening and self-deluded conceit he concluded himself to be a living Christian to have the power and truth of Grace and to live the life of it So that it 's possible nay it 's ordinary and nothing more usual than for men to be without the Law when they have the Law to be without the Life of it while they have the Letter of it to be without the Law as a Soveraign Rule to their Lives while they take upon them the profession of it to be without the Spiritualness of the Law and so to miss the end of it that is closing with God as our last end and chief good which is the sap the pith and substance of the Law though they have the appearance of the practice of it And if they miss the end of the Law at which it aims and unto which it tends they must needs fall short of the Wisdom and Counsel and Spiritual efficacy of the Law which should direct them So in 2 Chron. 19. 3. Now for a long time Israel had been without the true God that is his true Worship that would bring them to him and that is the meaning of that Phrase Ephes. 2. 12. Without God in the World that is without the true Worship of God so that they who want the true Worship of God are without God So they who have the manner of the true Worship and want both Spirit and Truth in which God will be worshiped they have the Appearance but want the Spirit and Truth of the true manner they have So of the rest Thus it is with thousands in the Church which hear and know and have the Letter of the Law and yet are indeed without the Power and Spirit and therefore
Psal. 19. 7. the law of God makes wise the simple 2. Tim. 3. 15. it's able to make us wise unto Salvation 3 There 's a Sufficiency of God to content and satisfy us Blessed are they who walk in his wayes and blessed are they that keep his Testimonies Psal. 119. 1. 2. Great prosperity have they that love the law and nothing shal offend them ver 16. and in truth there can be no greater reward for doing wel than to be enabled to do well he that hath attayned his last end he cannot go further he cannot be better Now by sin we justle the law out of its place and the Lord out of his Glorious Soveraignty pluck the Crown from his head and the Seepter out of his hand and we say and profess by our practice there is not authority and power there to govern nor wisdom to guide nor good to content me but I wil be swayed by mine own wil and led by mine own deluded reason and satisfied with my own lusts This is the guise of every graceless heart in the commission of sin so Pharaoh who is the Lord I know not the Lord nor will I lett Israel go Exod. 5. 2. in the time of their prosperity see how the Jews turn their backs and shake off the authority of the Lord we are Lords say 〈◊〉 we will come no more at thee Jer. 2. 31. and our tongues are our own who shal be Lords 〈◊〉 us Psal. 12. 4. So for the wisdom of the world see how they set light by it as not worth the looking after it Jer. 18. 12. we wil walk after our own devices we wil every one do the imagination of his own evil heart yea they sett up their own traditions their own Idols and delusions and Lord it over the law making the command of God of none effect Math. 15. 8. 9. So for the goodness of the word Job 22. 17. Mal. 3. 14. It is in vayn to serve God and what profit is there that we have kept his ordinances yea his Commandemnts are ever grievous It s a grievous thing to the loose person he cannot have his pleasures but he must have his guilt and gall with them It s grievous to the worlding that he cannot lay hold on the world by unjust means but Conscience layes hold upon him as breaking the law Thou that knowest and keepest thy pride and stubbornness and thy distempers know assuredly thou dost justle God out of the Throne of his glorious Soveraignty and thou dost profess Not Gods wil but thine own which is above his shall rule thee thy 〈◊〉 reason and the folly of thy mind is above the wisdome of the Lord and that shal guide thee to please thine own stubborn crooked pervers spirit is a greater good than to please God and enjoy happines for this more Contents thee That when thou considerest but thy Course dost thou not wonder that the great and Terrible God doth not pash such a poor insolent worm to pouder and send thee packing to the pitt every moment 2 It smites at the Essence of the Almighty and the desire of the sinner is not only that God should not be supream but that indeed he should not be at all and therefore it would destroy the being of Jehovah Psal. 81. 15. sinners are called the haters of the Lord. John 15. 24. they hated both me and my Father Now he that hates endeavours if it be possible the annihilation of the thing hated and its most certain were it in their power they would pluck God out of Heaven the light of his truth out of their Consciences and the law out of the Societies and Assemblies where they live that they might have elbow room to live as they list Nay what ever they hate most and intend and plott more evil against in al the world they hate God most of all and intend more evil against him than against all their 〈◊〉 besides because they hate all for his sake therefore wicked men are said to destroy the law Psal. 126. 119. the Adulterer loaths that law that condemns uncleaness the Earthworm would destrow that law that forbids Covetousness they are sayd to hate the light John 3. 21. to hate the Saints and Servants of the Lord John 15. 18. the world hates you he that hates the Lanthorn for the lights sake he hates the light much more he that hates the faithful because of the Image of God and the Grace that appears there he hates the God of all Grace and Holiness most of all so God to Zenacharib Isa. 37. 28. I know thy going out and thy Comming in and thy rage against me Oh it would be their content if there was no God in the world to govern them no law to curbe them no justice to punish no truth to trouble them Learn therfore to see how far your rebellions reach It is not arguments you gainsay not 〈◊〉 Counsel of a Minister you reject the command of a 〈◊〉 ye oppose evidence of rule or reason ye 〈◊〉 but be it known to you you fly in the very face of the Almighty and it is not the Gospel of Grace ye would have destroyed but the spirit of Grace the author of Grace the Lord Jesus the God of all Grace that ye hate It crosseth the whol course of Providence perverts the work of the Creature and defaceth the beautiful frame and that sweet correspondence and orderly usefulness the Lord first implanted in the order of things The Heavens deny their influence the Earth her strength the Corn her nourishment thank sin for that Weeds come instead of herbs Cockle and Darnel instead of Wheat thank sin for that Rom. 8. 22. The whol Creature or Creation grones under vanity either cannot do what it would or else misseth of that good and end it intended breeds nothing but vanity brings forth nothing but vexation It crooks all things so as that none can straiten them makes so many wants that none can supply them Eccles. 1. 15. This makes crooked Servants in a family no 〈◊〉 can rule them 〈◊〉 inhabitants in towns crooked members in Congregations ther 's no ordering nor joynting of them in that comly accord and mutual subjection know they said the adversary sin hath done all this Man was the mean betwixt God and the Creature to convey all good with all the constancy of it and therefore when Man breaks Heaven and Earth breaks all asunder the Conduit being cracked and displaced there can be no conveyance from the Fountain In regard of our selves see we and consider nakedly the nature of sin in Four particulars It s that which makes a separation between God and the soul breaks that Union and Communion with God for 〈◊〉 we were made and in the enjoyment of which we should be blessed and happie Isai. 59. 1. 2. Gods ear is not heavy that it cannot hear nor his hand that it cannot help but your iniquities have separated betwixt God and
they bring not their own carriages to the scanning each man will be ready to be Eagle-eyed into other mens occasions and can easily enquire and question and determine and say others have done thus and so here such have fallen therein such and such have failed but no man saies What have I done and therefore become fearless of what they have done and careless of what they do but each man rusheth into his own wretched course as the horse into the battel because he carries not the light of the Truth into each 〈◊〉 and 〈◊〉 of his conscience to pry into the secret 〈◊〉 of his own spirit and judg aright of that else be his knowledg never so large he will get little good by it The 〈◊〉 that hath his full charge if it carry but level give fire to it it hits and kils the live mark at which it is shot but 〈◊〉 hurts the shooter unless it recoyl in the full power then the man that dischargeth it hardly escapes with life It is so with the understanding that stands charged that is fully informed with a cleer discovery of the nature of sin it 's able to dart in that light into the minds of others that may dazle their eyes daunt and wound their consciences with the dreadful apprehensions of the 〈◊〉 of their evils and work their hearts through the blessing of the Lord to a godly remorse for it but unless their own thoughts recoyl back again upon their own miscarriages and the falseness of their own hearts they will never be awed or humbled or helped against their own sins thereby Here is then the rule we must arrest our own souls in 〈◊〉 Achan was never troubled all the while he heard there was an 〈◊〉 thing in the Camp in general but when the lot had found him and all Israel had charged the evil upon him then his heart failed So we should not content our selves to know and confess that sin is an execrable thing in general which causes Gods gracious presence to be estranged from 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 leave not before we see the lot fall upon Achan 〈◊〉 thou 〈◊〉 attach thine own heart take it in the very fact and as men deal with mutinous Traitors drag thy wretched and rebellious heart before the Tribunal of the Lord and deal faithfully and give in 〈◊〉 against it say Lord there be many Traitors and Rebels abroad in the world which dishonor thy Name grieve thy 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 thy Kingdom 〈◊〉 thy Law loe 〈◊〉 they be 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 heart that hath been stubborn and proud it is my mind that is vain my affections loose my life barren and unprofitable here are those 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 unclean 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 desires no 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 here they be Lord 〈◊〉 they 〈◊〉 We must also pass sentence impartially without any respect to any private end or ease or quiet which our own carnal hearts would happily 〈◊〉 into the consideration These and these sinns are as bad and as base and as dangerous in this vile heart of mine as in any heart I know under the cope of Heaven if not worse nay what ever abomination is in the bottom of Hell and in the heart of Beelzebub the spawn of the like sins and of the same hellish nature are in my soul they are the seed of the Serpent and that they break not out into the like hideous practises its no thank to my corrupt nature that hinders me but thy Grace and providence restraynes me from such evils It s our desperate weakness and a great part of our misery that we are apt to be favourable to our own follies that sin should be of annother appearance apprehension when we see it in our selves then when we pass sentence upon it as it is presented in the word and in its own nature Impannel a jury of the most wicked nay the worst of men that have been trained up under the Preaching of the word and confess the Scriptures to be the word of God which cannot deceive and let the text be propounded and their opinions be asked in that case 2. 〈◊〉 1. 9. The Lord wil come in Flaming Fire rendring Vengeance to them that know him not and obey not the Gospell they wil all give in their verdict as one man with one mind such as be guilty of such disobedience must certainly have this 〈◊〉 Vengeance from the hand of the Almighty but infer therfore this is 〈◊〉 lot and allowance from the Lord because they have not they do not obey the Gospel 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 their 〈◊〉 do testify so much Now the case is altered when it s once come to their 〈◊〉 It s another kind of ignorance and 〈◊〉 and 〈◊〉 another 〈◊〉 acted then 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 they This 〈◊〉 of our 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 self 〈◊〉 hearts the Philosopher in the practise of men even by the twilight of the common Principles of reason remaining in the decayes of nature observed For taking it for granted that no man doth wil evil under the name of evil but as it comes under the appearance of som good and that all men easily grant and freely confess that Drunkenness Injustice Intemperance are evil the question then growes how these men judging these carriages to be evil are daily taken aside with the Commission of them Ask the Drunkard whether 〈◊〉 be unlawful he consesseth it Loathsom and yet commits it Ask the Blasphemer whether 〈◊〉 be a sin He wil profess it detestable at one breath and practice it at the next Theeves themselves count it unjust that any by cunning should deceive them cry out of falshood and yet by force 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 others the ground is here When the question is put and propounded in the general they wil grant it when it comes to their particular for such a man at this time upon this occasion in this company for such an end to be loose or tipple in this manner this is not unlawful For in these the Devil casts in 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 or 〈◊〉 Credit Friendship Familiarity as the Lawyers alter the Case by circumstances and by these he would put another 〈◊〉 upon 〈◊〉 carriages and 〈◊〉 make them 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 hearts they give in evidence of 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 our 〈◊〉 and 〈◊〉 would have the sentence 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 them that in case they may be 〈◊〉 and not utterly 〈◊〉 So David saw sin in the 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 own 〈◊〉 So 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 her 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 when he himself 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 of the 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Gen. 〈◊〉 24. Therfore thou 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 thy 〈◊〉 with 〈◊〉 Application that they are in thee as in others and 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 in thee 〈◊〉 thou 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 in 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 The 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 them apply 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 upon our Consciences otherwise such a particular apprehension may and will suddenly pass away and the steams of our distempers wil easily alter and corrupt our understandings and bring the cause quite
is the way that God hath appointed and he wil bless the order which he hath set in his infinite wisdom and which he wil prosper If you would find his blessing walk in his way if you expect success attend his order and direction which he hath left to bring us to his Christ and so to life and happiness If you see not your sins you are in hazard never to see good day while you live nor when you dye Christ is said to stand at the dore and knock and if any man wil open unto him he wil come in and supp with him Rev. 3. 20. Saving Contrition is a shooting back the boults of our base lusts a severing and unlocking the heart from the Soveraignty of ones noysom Corruptions that stop the passage and hinder the coming of our Saviour this clear and convicting sight of our sins is as it were the lifting up of the latch or letting in of the Key the powerful dispensation of the truth and operation of his spirit whereby the knot and combination between sin and the soul is broken and severed and the way made that the authority of the truth may come at the heart and work kindly upon it for good An error here in the entrance is hardly ever recovered to miss here is mervailous dangerous it spoyles our whol proceeding in the great work of our calling and everlasting comfort as the naturallist and Physitian observe an error in the first concoction is never recovered in the second for the Lord in his wisdom and the course of nature hath so ordayned that each part doth that which is its proper and peculiar work but doth not rectify or redress that which was done amiss by another and so the goodness of the nourishment is never recovered or the body strengthened or health so comfortably preserved herby as were to be desired So it is in the entrance of 〈◊〉 great work of preparation for Christ and our effectual bringing home unto him never see sin aright the soul cannot be affected with it in a right manner never truly see the need of a Savior never seek after him or come to him this through sight of sin is as it were the setting open of the window whereby the light and good of the truth and the loath 〈◊〉 of sin is laid open unto the soul and comes in a main upon the Conscience to prevayl with it whereas shut this window and stop this passage the soul is cooped up in the dungeon of darkness and delusion be the ordinances never so powerful the means never so effectual there 〈◊〉 no coming into the heart no hope to work upon it or to prevail with it for good the evil of sin is not acknowledged and therefore not prevented that which his reason cannot see a man cannot shun the excellency and necessity of a Christ is not discerned and therefore not endeavoured after as were meet It befalls the soul smote with this spiritual blindness as with the Assyrian Host when they came to surprize Elisha 2 Kings 18. 19. 20. He prayed Lord smite this people with blindness he did so and they saw nothing before they were in the midst of their enemyes so here when the sinner is misguided by the dimness of his deluded mind he goes on in an evil way and knowes not whither he goes or where he is before he be in the botintoless pit Oh be wise and wary therefore that we err not here least we rush into ruine and that past alrecovery Expect then Gods blessing upon our endeavour but in Gods order attend his work in his own way It is the aym of our Saviour in sending and the office of the Holy Ghost in coming into the world when he intends to work effectually the saving good of his people to intitle them to the pardon of their sins and to establish their hearts under the government of his spirit John 16. 7. 8. If I depart I wil send the Comforter and when he is come he wil reprove he wil convince and set down the world by 〈◊〉 conviction of sin of righteousness of judgment of righteousness that the law is satisfied justice answered and that fully because he that was in prison is now released and therefore the debt payd and he gone to heaven to his Father Of judgment the power of his Kingdom government erected and set up in the soules of his servants and children in that by death he overcame him that had the power of death that is the Devill and therefore he is judged and falls in his cause as having no right nor in reason can challenge no rule in the hearts of those for whom Christ hath satisfied divine justice and therefore are free from that authority that sin and Satan had of them thereby But before we can share either in the righteousness of Christ for our justification or the rule of his spirit in our Sanctification the Holy Ghost must and doth convince us of sin that we have rejected and not entertained this Saviour If we do not convictingly see our sin in settling upon the root of our Corrupt rebellions and casting away the riches of Christs mercy the rule of his Grace it s not possible that those spiritual benefits should ever be made ours As ever therefore you desire to see and find the mercies of Christ sealed up unto your Consciences in pardoning of sins and acceptation of your persons As ever you would find the Kingdom of Satan cast down in your hearts and the government of his Grace and spirit there set up labor for this clear and convicting sight of sin begin you where the Holy spirit begins that you may find his presence with you his effectual power and blessing to accompany your endeavours in that way Catch not disorderly at pardon look not for peace of Conscience or hope to see the government of Christs Grace set up in your souls before you come to 〈◊〉 your sins by convicting evidence of the Holy Ghost The holy spirit of Grace wil not cross his course to gratify our Corruption That I may further set on the exhortation I shal endeavour to do these two things First To propound some means to help in 〈◊〉 work Secondly Some motives to quicken you therein The means are these that follow First Labor we to see that unconceivable excellency of holiness that is in the Lord and search we into the 〈◊〉 and the righteous laws there recorded for the direction of our daily course and that wil make us see the loathsomness of our own hearts and the vileness of 〈◊〉 As it s said of darkness it cannot be seen by it self but its light that discovers it self and darkness It s as true of sin it is not by it self to be discerned for it is spiritual darkness the light of Gods Holiness and wisdom which by sin are wronged and the law which is transgressed these are both lights God is light and in
him is no darkness John 1. 5. The law is a light and the Commandement a lamp unto our feet Prov. 6. 23. And by the sight of both these we come to have a ful discerning of sin which is opposite to them both Our ignorance of God breeds the ignorance of our own hearts and the hidden waies of wickedness and the cunning conveyances of corrupt distempers which are there in Psal. 14. 1. 2. The fool hath said in his heart there is no God and then it followes they are become abominable he makes bones of no sins at al for herein lies the spiritualness or spiritual evil of sins and that hidden poyson and malignity of the corruption of our natures that they justle professedly against the Almighty so far as he is pleased to communicate himself unto us in the waies of his Holiness and goodness Thus the blasphemer is said to pierce God by his oaths Levit. 24. 11. and the wicked are said to walk contrary to him Levit. 26. to 〈◊〉 him to weary him to load him while then we see not him whom we do oppose by our sins no wonder that we neither see nor are sensible of the sins by which we do oppose him Whereas could we grope after the Almighty as the Apostle professeth we may because he is not far from any of us nay in him we live and move in every spiritual action of our minds and hearts So that did but a wicked man or could he perceive that in every thought of his mind motion of his wil stirring of any affection that he did justle with the infinite Holiness and purity of the Lord who meets with him in every action and motion of his mind and wil It were able to sink the soul of a sinful creature and make him sit down confounded in the sight of the loathsomness of his own 〈◊〉 nature as being wholly opposite to so infinite a good in all he is or doth thus it was with Job when the Lord had schooled him out of the whirlwind discovered the surpassing excellency of his Glory to him he puts him beyond al pleas of his own worth Job 40. 4. Behold I am vile yea more expresly he gives this as the reason of the discovery of his own wretchedness I have heard of thee by the hearing of the Ear but now mine eye sees thee wherefore I abhor my self in dust and ashes Job 42. 4. So it was with the Corinth who was convinced by the preaching of the Word he saw God before he saw the secret vileness of his own heart presented to his view 1 Cor. 14. 24. God is in you of a truth Search we into the holy Law of God and examine our hearts and lives thereby and see how far they stand guilty of the breach thereof but view the compass of the Law and what is vertually contained therein for though the words are few yet the things are many that are comprehended in them And especially look not at the Letter but at the Spiritual Sense and Mind of the Almighty in each thing there required that the whol heart must close with God and his Will as the chiefest good look at and lift up his Glory as his last end in every duty we do and that we make a breach in al those particulars in every sin we do commit our heart is not with him nor make we choyce of him set not up his Name but seek our own base ends thereby and serve our selves and not him By this narrow search and dayly observation of our dayly course we shal be able to see the frame of our hearts and carriages presented to our view and so discern to the ful the loathsomness of those noysom 〈◊〉 that leprosie-like overspreads our whol man Thus James adviseth James 1. 25. that we should look our selves into the Law of Liberty that is a Cristal and cleer Glass and wil discover what is amiss even to a mote the smallest sins and 〈◊〉 and that unto their ful view Paul a learned Pharisee he saw more of sin and more of himself by the Law than either 〈◊〉 conceived or suspected to 〈◊〉 to him Rom. 7. 7. 9. I had not known that lust had been sin but that the Law saith Thou shalt not 〈◊〉 nor did he think himself bad or his condition so miserable but when the Law came that is the light and discovery of the Law he perceived his sin alive but himself dead When the Lord in any Ordinance by the Truth shall discover our sins our Conscience shall come in as a witness to 〈◊〉 or as a Sergeant and Officer by Commission from the Almighty to arrest and condemn us for any evil we should attend both to see Gods mind to the utmost therein and then it 's certain we shal see We must beware that neither out of carnal fear nor sensual security of our sinful hearts we be willing to lay aside the evidence of the truth as content not to hearken to the Verdict of it 〈◊〉 desirous not to listen to the dictate of Conscience but to shake off the Consideration of either lest we should sink down in discouragement It 's certain Truth is terrible and the Dictates of Conscience are dreadful when they come with Commission from the Almighty yet true it is walking humbly under Gods hand we should be so far from fearing the discovery of our sins that we should be comforted in this that they are discovered to us and we should compose our hearts in quietness with the right consideration of the manner of Gods dealing in this kind and commune with our selves on this manner It 's a fearful thing indeed to fall into the hands of the Almighty who is a consuming fire but yet herein the faithfulness of the Lord is seen he deals so with me as he doth with those that he intends good unto he makes His see their sins and that 〈◊〉 before they ever see his pardon of them or power against them if he never convinceth he never 〈◊〉 He sent his holy Spirit into the World for this purpose to perform the work this is the way to Grace and Christ I bless his Name I am in the way I wil hearken to the Evidence of the Truth that I may understand al that God intends and listen to the checks of Conscience that I may know to the full the Nature of my sin When we have a little inkling either by an Ordinance or Conscience take hold of the least intimation and leave it not until you come to the bottom and perceive the utmost vileness in such a course It was so with David who took hold of the reproof of the Prophet Nathan and though he mentioned but one thing wherein the grosness and greatness of the evil appeared yet hence he took occasion to overlook his whol course to consider every circumstance and to ravel out all until he came to the bottom he confesseth al the falsness of his heart
man cares 〈◊〉 he laies it and can easily find it and that in the dark So it is when thou lookest at the Commands the Lord gives and the duties he requires as matters of no great consequence and therefore bestowest not thy thoughts or remembrance about them see how the prophet argues from this ground Jer. 2. 32. Can a maid forget her ornaments or a bride her attire yet my 〈◊〉 have forgotten me daies 〈◊〉 number so where their esteem is their memories are also It 's certain it 's a base 〈◊〉 heart of the duties which are in daily practice and the discharge of his place which ought to be his daily wear A man should put on Christ his holiness meekness c. and 〈◊〉 themselves with a quiet and modest and peacable spirit yet these are not in his way nor his thoughts It 's certain thou carest not so much for Gods command as a frothy headed maid doth for a clout Weigh then but in serious consideration the wretchedness of thy pretence shouldest thou hear a servant or a child excuse their idleness or disobedience to Master or Father on this manner I hope you wil excuse my neglect and pardon 〈◊〉 disobedience because I do not love your person 〈◊〉 or esteem your place or command were not 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 aggravate the evil no way to excuse it Such is the silliness of this shift of thine when thou wouldest make thy forgetfulness to lessen thy fault Because thou doest not love the Lord nor reverence his holy law this encreaseth the evil exceedingly It argues a sensual sottish Atheistcal disposition of heart tolive without God and 〈◊〉 in our course 〈◊〉 to put off the apprehensions of Christians and men these are joyned together Ezek. 23. 35. Thou hast forgotten me and cast me behind thy back to live an outlaw upon earth when we attend not mind not a law by which wee live Thy duty is plain which is required the sin evident that is forbidden thou neglectest the one and committest the other and this is the balsom that heals and helps al I did not once think of it It was wholly out of thy mind I did quite forget it why then forget thou art a Christian nay a man forget there is a God that there is a Heaven to reward 〈◊〉 a Hell to Torment thee forget thou hast a soul to be saved or sins to be pardoned or avoyded until thou feelest the plagues of them which thou 〈◊〉 never be able to forget nor yet to bear Another Shift which keeps off the edg and power of a Conviction Is the deadly and destroying hazards they expect and great extremities which they fear will 〈◊〉 befal if they should not dispense with some sins in such cases Hence it is their Arguments come on armed with such unanswerable Interrogations in their apprehensions Why what would you have us do You little know the desperate streights unto which we are driven were you but in our places we are perswaded you would not only pity us in what we have done but would do the same things Alas would you have us begger our selves undo our families destroy our Liberties and Comforts yea hazard nay lose our lives herein we hope the Lord wil allow us some dispensation or connivance Thus they with one 〈◊〉 consent not only desired but took it for granted they should also obtain their desire which to them appeared so reasonable Luke 14. 18. 〈◊〉 Guests began to excuse themselves One hath hired a Farm and he must go and see it Another a yoke of Oxen and he must try them and therefore I pray you have me excused Another hath married a Wife and he cannot come and 〈◊〉 desires he may be excused q. d. We conceive the case so equal and reasonable we suppose we need not speak our selves you wil plead our excuse which indeed pleads for it self should not a man preserve his state and therefore in a way of providence go visit his Farm should he not attend his Calling if he be called to follow the Plow why should he not follow it For Answer I shal shortly leave two or three Scriptures with thee Is it not one Command of the Gospel That they that will 〈◊〉 godly in Christ must suffer persecution and through many Tribulations we must enter into the Kingdom of Heaven 2 Tim. 3. 12. He that will save his 〈◊〉 shall lose it Matth. 16. 25. He that loves 〈◊〉 or Mother more than me is not worthy of me Matth. 10. 37. If thou art so far from yielding obedience to the Gospel as to refuse the terms of it canst thou be excused To fear man more than God to preser thine own ease more than his Honor canst thou be excusable To attend the Comforts of this world with the loss of the peace of thy Conscience to look after the preservation of thy life and neglect the Salvation of thy soul nor God nor man nor Angels nor Devils nor 〈◊〉 own Conscience will excuse thee The Seventh Shift and forgery whereby our Carnal Reason would 〈◊〉 and defeat the power of the Truth and lessen the loathsomness of sin is that which seems to them so reasonable even to common sence as that it admits no denial and it 's taken from THE HOLINESS AND SPIRITUALNESS OF THE LAW unto which they are bound and that overbearing strength of the body of sin and original corruption 〈◊〉 they are wholly disenabled to the performance thereof so that there is not only a difficulty but even an impossibility to corrupt Nature and to men in their Natural condition to answer the exactness thereof doth not the Text say 〈◊〉 such cannot cease from sin 2. Pet. 2. 14. That which is 〈◊〉 of the flesh and comes from it is flesh John 3. 8 9. Are not the words plain That the Prince of the Air rules in the hearts of the children of disobedience and that he takes them captive at his will 2 Tim. 2. last Nay if the holy Apostle who had the Spirit of Grace yet found his distempers bear up so hard and make head against him that they soiled him and put him to the worse and forced him to cry out as under captivity and thraldom I see another Law in my members carrying me captive Oh wretched man who shall deliver me Rom. 7. If he that had received the power of Grace against his sin was yet so overborn what can they be able to do that are yet in their natural condition and have nothing but sin as al the Sons of Adam are since the Fall That as 〈◊〉 in a storm are forced by the rage of winds and weather to go whither they wil carry them not whither they should men pity them for what they suffer do not 〈◊〉 them for what they cannot do So it is with the strength of distempers which like a mighty stream carry us uncontroulably to the commission of evil and it 's impossible for us to prevail against
would judg our selves we shal not be judged of the Lord 1. Cor 11. 31. Who would not now be convinced that he may then be acquitted see his sins now for his humiliation that he may never have them then laid to his charge Jer. 50. 20. In those dayes and at that time saith the Lord the iniquity of Israel shall be sought for and there shal be none and the sins of Judah and they shal not be found for I wil pardon their iniquities and wil remember their sins no more How should this encourage thee to seek out for thy sins now to search thy heart and to look into thy life when as indeed if thou dost so see thy sins as to sorrow for them and by this sight and sorrow thou be driven to a saviour thy sins may be sought for but they shal be found no more When they heard this The description of contrition stood of two parts wherby the nature of the work was especially discoverd Partly in the Causes of it Sight of sin Sorrow for sin Effects of it 〈◊〉 of sin Sequestration from sin Concerning the sight of sin so far as it serves our turn in a true conviction of it in that they stood here as accused by Peter and condemned in their own Consciences as guilty of no less than the blood of Jesus we have already spoken The second thing in the text to be considered is the means how this was wrought And these are two The first is a particular Application of their special corruption the Apostle doth not hover in the general and shoot at rovers but comes close to them chargeth them expresly in a special manner and le ts fly in the very faces of them this Jesus whom yee have 〈◊〉 he names not he blames not any other he sayes not Judas was a wretch that betrayed him the souldiers cruel that took him Pilate base and fearful and 〈◊〉 that condemned him no this is the Jesus and you are the men that have committed this villany A person could not be more innocent a practice more bloody you are men that stand guilty of this horrible abomination of Crucifying the Lord of Glory The Doctrine from hence is this A plain and particular Application of special sins by the Ministry of the word is a special means to bring the soul to a sight of and sorrow for them Plain Application and powerful conviction 〈◊〉 together Let the house of Israel know that God hath made him Lord and Christ whom ye have crucifyed you are the men I mean this is your sin I mention Thus our saviour the great Prophet of His Church who spake as never man spake and best knew how to deal with deceitful hearts he layeth his finger upon the sore and mark how he pincheth with particulars as his ordinary manner of dispensation was to the Churches Rev. 3. 2. I know thy works thou hast a name to be alive but thou art dead I say thou art hypocritical and I know what I say and I tell thee openly what I know thou hast a form of profession but thou hast no heart nor life nor power of religion in thy course He that could not erre in what he did teach he teacheth what Ministers should do in their dispēnsation And there was nothing more usual with our Saviour then to point out particular sins and sinners Woe be to you Scribes Pharisees Hypocrites Math. 23. and therefore he doth not closly and covertly as it were give a kind of intimation afar off what he would and leaves 〈◊〉 to pick and search out his meaning but tells them their own in English as we say plucks them out by the pole goes not behind the dore to tel men their faults but gives in testimony against their sin and that to their teeth Luke 16. 15. when the Pharisees in an impudent manner began to mock at him he lets fly poynt blanck You are they that justefy your selves but the Lord knows your hearts Yea it was the charge he gives to al his prophets when they were to deal with the Jewes and to dispense his counsels unto them Hos. 2. 1. 2. Plead with your Mother plead tell her she is not my Wife Plead is a Law term cal her by name summon her into the court of Conscience follow the suit against her Lay the charge and plead the Acton against her particular sins Thus Stephen Acts. 7. 51. Yee stiff-necked and hard hearted yee have alwayes resisted the holy Ghost as your Fathers did so do yee So the Apostle frequently Acts 4. 10. 11. be it known to you and to all the people of Israel that in the name of Jesus c. whom ye have crucifyed This is the stone refused by you builders you are the men and this is your evil The Reasons shall be touched in a word The place and duty of a Minister requires this who hath a special charge and therefore should have a particular care to foresee and so to prevent the particular and special evils which he perceives to blemish the Christian course and endanger the spiritual comforts of the people under his guidance and of whose safety he must give an account and this wil not be done unless a man single out the persons and set home their sins in special The steward is not only to know 〈◊〉 several conditions of the persons in the family but to provide a portion suitable for each if ever the safety of the whol be provided for and the cordials for the weak milk for the little ones and stronger meat for those who are of able strength the Skil of the Physitian the onely way to cure a settled and inward distemper as the dropsy or falling sickness is not to give the patient an ordinary purge a common receit that every Quack-salver wil do and do no good at al But he must have that wisdom to hit the humor and to provide ingredients that wil suit the temper of the party and the 〈◊〉 nature of the disease So it is the part of a skilful Minnister to hit the humor of the heart of a sinner to make a receipt on purpose to meet 〈◊〉 the particular distemper such as wil worke upon or sluggishness pride hypocrisie perversness and as the medicine doth upon the spleen or choller and so the Lord to the Prophet Ezek. 16. 2. Cause the house of Israel to know their abominations The Sedulous shepheard who indeed would provide for the wellfare of his sheep it s not enough that by common survey he casts his eye upon them but he must pen them and handle them search them and 〈◊〉 them 〈◊〉 to their several ayls and such Maladies unto which they are subject So a faithful Minister must 〈◊〉 with poor sinners as with the Sheep commended to 〈◊〉 care and custody he must find them in their particular evils and follow them with application of special helps The necessity of sinners requires this For this
away meditation layes hold upon it and wil not let it go but exerciseth the strength of the attention of his thoughts about it makes a buisiness of it as that about which he might do his best and yet fals short of what he should do in it So David when he would discover where the stream and overflowing strength of his affections vented themselves he points at this practice as that which employes the mind to the ful Psal 119. 197. Oh how I love thy law it is my meditation all the day love is the great wheel of the soul that sets al on going and how 〈◊〉 that appear it is my meditation day and night the word in the original signifyeth to swim a man spreads the breadth of his understanding about that work and layes out himself about the service wherein there is both difficulty and worth Serious Meditation is not a flourishing of a mans wit but hath a set bout at the search of the truth beats his brain as wee use to say hammers out a buisiness as the Gouldsmith with his mettal he heats it and beats it turnes it on this side and then on that fashions it on both that he might frame it to his mind meditation is hammering of a truth or 〈◊〉 propounded that he may carry and conceive the frame and compass in his mind 〈◊〉 salute a truth as we pass by occasionally but solemnly entertain it into our thoughts Not look upon a thing presented as a spectator or passenger that goes by but lay other things aside and look at this as the work and employment for the present to take up our minds It 's one thing in our diet to take a snatch and away another thing to make a meal and sit at it on purpose until wee have seen al set before us and we have taken our fil of al so we must not cast an eye or glimpse at the truth by some sudden or sleighty apprehension a snatch and away but we must make a meal of musing Therefore the Psalmist makes it the main trade that a Godly man drives professedly opposite to the carriage of the wicked whether in his outward or inward work in his disposition or expression of himself in his common practice whereas they walk in the corrupt counsels of their own hearts stand in the 〈◊〉 of sinners not only devise what is naught but practice and persevere in what they have devised and sit in the seat of the scorners A blessed man his rode in which he travels his set trade he meditates in the Law of God day and night that is the counsel in which he walks the way in which he stands the 〈◊〉 in which he fits Look at this work as a branch of our Christian 〈◊〉 not that which is left to our liberty but which is of necessity to be attended and that in good earnest 〈◊〉 a Christian duty which God requires not a little available to our spiritual welfare The end is doubly expressed in the other part of the description 1 The searching of the truth 2. The effectual setling of it upon the heart The search of the truth Meditation is a coming in with the truth or any cause that comes to hand that we may enquire the ful state of it before our thoughts part with it so that we see more of it or more clearly 〈◊〉 fully than sormerly we did this is one thing in that of the Prophet Hos. 6. 3. Then shall yee know if you follow on to know when we track the 〈◊〉 of the truth in al the pass 〈◊〉 until we have viewed the whol progresse of it from truth to truth from point to point This it is to 〈◊〉 for wisdom Prov. 2. 2 When men have found a mine or a veyn of Silver they do not content themselves to take that which is uppermost and next at hand within 〈◊〉 which offers it self upon the surface of the Earth but they dig further as hoping to find more because they see somewhat So meditation rests not in what presents it self to our consideration but digs deeper gathers in upon the truth and gaynes more of it then did easily appear at the first and this it doth 1 When it recals things formerly past sets them in present view before our consideration and judgment Meditation sends a mans thoughts afar off cals over and revives the fresh apprehension of things done long before marshals them al in rank together brings to mind such things which were happily quite out of memory gone from a man which might be of great use and special help to 〈◊〉 our condition according to the quality of it may be Conscience starts the consideration but of one sin but meditation looks abroad and brings to hand many of the same and of the like kind and that many dayes past and long ago committed This distemper now sticks upon a man and brings him under the arrest of Conscience and the condemnation thereof But saies meditation let me mind you of such and such sins at such and 〈◊〉 times in such and such companies committed and multiplyed both more and worse than 〈◊〉 that now appear so 〈◊〉 and so troublesom to you meditation is as it were the register and remembrancer that looks over the records of our daily corruptions and keeps them upon file and brings them into court and fresh consideration 〈◊〉 13. 26. Thou makest me to possess the sins of my youth This makes a man to renew the sins of his youth makes them fresh in out thoughts as though new done before our eyes This Interpreters make the meaning of that place Job 14. 17. My trangression is sealed up in a bag and thou sewest up mine iniquity though God do thus yet he doth it by this means in the way of his Providence i. e. by recounting and recalling our corruptions to mind by serious meditation we sew them all up together we look back to the linage and pedegree of our lusts and track the abominations of our lives step by step until we come to the very nest where they are hatched and bred even of our original corruption and body of death where they had their first breath and being links al our distempers together from our infancy to our youth from youth to riper age from thence to our declining daies So David from the vileness of his present lusts is led to the wickedness in which he was warmed Psal. 51. 5. This was typed out in the old Law by the chewing of the cud Meditation cals over again those things that were past long before and not within a mans view and consideration Meditation takes a special Survey of the compass of our present condition and the Nature of those corruptions that come to be considered It 's the traversing of a mans thoughts the coasting of the mind and imagination into every crevis and corner pryes into every particular takes a special view of the borders and 〈◊〉 of any corruption or
the Haven therfore each man in reason concludes that was the cause that invited him to al that variety in his course It 's so in the carriage of the soul the cause why a man fetcheth such a compass and tacks about in his own contrivements now this now that one while one way another while this or that presented and pursued busily yet in the issue we land al our thoughts and look at the last how to bring in content to such a lust It 's certain the vanity of that lust occasioned and drew the vanity of thy thoughts after it The Cause being thus conceived the Cure is fair and easie to comprehend namely Cure these inordinate and raging lusts and thence wil follow a stil and quiet composure of mind purge the stomach if it be foul and that wil ease the pain of wind in the Head because that is caused by the fumes that arise from thence Take off the plummet or lessen but the weight of it the minutes though they hurried never so fast before yet wil not move at all or at least very slowly and quietly So here take off the poyse of the affections purge away these noysom lusts which carry and command the head and send up dunghil steams which distemper the mind and disturb it and those windy imaginations wil cease and those thoughts of the mind like the minutes either wil not move or move in order and manner as may help and not hinder Here the great skil and care ought to be to labor the clensing and sanctification of such affections which are most tainted and where the vein and fourse of original corruption either through custom or constitution or company hath vented it self most usually and so hath taken up the soul and gained and so exercised greater power over it For as in bruised or weak parts all the humors run thither so commonly this corruption is the link and drain of the soul all distempered thoughts and other inferior lusts empty themselves and become Servants unto this If once the affections had gained such a tast and rellish of the sweetness that is in Christ and his Truth that al these baggage and inferior things here below seemed sapless and that the heart were endeared to him his Truth and carried strongly 〈◊〉 both this would carry the thoughts vehemently keep them so strongly to both that they would be so far from wandring away from Christ that they would not be taken from bestowing the strength of their intentions about him Psal. 119 97. Oh how I love thy Law it is my Meditation 〈◊〉 the day verse 93. I will never forget thy Precepts for thereby thou hast quickened me ver 23. Princes sate and spake against me but thy servant did meditate in thy Statutes In reason he would have conceived it 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 time for him to bethink himself how to prevent their fury it would cost him sad thoughts of heart how to provide for his 〈◊〉 and safty no truly Thy servant did meditate in thy law Possess thy heart with an 〈◊〉 consideration and a holy dread of the glorious presence of the Almigbty who sees and pondereth all thy paths and therefore wil take an account and that strictly of all the outstrainings of thy thoughts when thou comest to give attendance upon him and to draw neer into his presence in some peculiar and 〈◊〉 Service There is a kind of heedless wantonness which like a Canker breeds in our Atheistical dispositions whereby we see not the Rule that should guide us we lay aside also the consideration of that power that doth rule us and wil bring us to judgment and so missing the guide that should shew us the path and the power that should awe us and constrain us to keep the rode a mans mind powrs out it self to every vanity that next offers it self unto its view Whereas were we aware of his presence and awed with it it would cause us to eye him and attend him in his way and work wherein he commands us to walk with him As it is with trewantly Schollers who are sporting and gaming out of their place and from any serious attendance upon their books when nothing wil stil them and force them to their studies as soon as ever there is but the least inkling of the Master or any eye they can cast upon his approach they are all as stil as may be repair 〈◊〉 to their place fal close and set their minds to their work O Master Master our Master is yonder there follows stilness and attendance presently Our trewantly and wanton minds are of this temper we are apt to straggle out of our places or from giving attendance 〈◊〉 those special Services which the Lord cals for at our hands and to lay out themselves upon things that are not pertinent and further than we are awed with the apprehension of Gods sight and presence who cals for the dayly attendance of our thoughts when we draw neer unto him doth see and observe our carelessness and wil proceed in Judgment and 〈◊〉 punishment upon us for it it 's scant 〈◊〉 to hold the bent of our thoughts awfully to the business we have in hand It was the Curse which attended Jonah when he departed away from the 〈◊〉 of the Lord and from following his Command he followed lying vamues Jonah 2. 8. And it 's 〈◊〉 peculiar plague which is appointed in the way of Providence and the Lords righteous proceedings to befal al who bestow not their hearts upon him Eph. 4. 21. They walk in 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 of their minds and the reason is 〈◊〉 they are strangers from the life of God When our thoughts start aside from under the Government of Gods Wisdom the Rule of Truth and stability they wander up and down in the waies of error and vanity and find no end or measure follow vanity and become vain nor can they attain any stability before they return thither As your vagabond beggars and vagrant persons in the Country from whence we came there is no possibility to fasten them to any imployment or settle them in any place before they come under the eye of Authority and power of the Magistrate So fares it with our vagabond and vagrant thoughts further than they are under the eye of God and awed with his presence it 's not possible to stop them from the pursuit of vanity or confine them to setled consideration of that which 〈◊〉 our duty and comfort The Rule is one like it 〈◊〉 accompanied with stability and rest if once we go astray from that there is neither end nor quiet in error but restlessness and emptiness The Sea while it keeps the Channel the course is known and the Marriners can tel how to advantage their 〈◊〉 but if once it exceeds the banks no man can tel whither it wil go or where it wil stay Our imaginations are like the vast Sea while we eye the Rule and are ordered by the
mind and the Rule of the Law and therefore cannot save you yet thy sinful neglects impudent and scornful contempt of the way and means of Grace will undoubtedly damn thee This is condemnation that light is come into the world and men love darkness more than light John 3. 17. The Scribes and Pharisees despised the Counsel of God against themselves Luke 7. 30. The Law and Command was given to Adam in innocency and to thee in him to Husband all advantages and to lay out thy self in all thy sufficiencies to advance Gods Name and to do his will to love him and serve him with all thy mind and with all thy might 〈◊〉 22. 37. How ever thou beest changed yet the Law is not changed however thy ability is not the same by reason of 〈◊〉 wound thou hast taken by original corruption yet thy Duty is the same to this day Gods will is done in Heaven and should be done in Earth The Debtor that borrows the money and stands bound to the Creditor to answer the Debt though his state alter and he be impoverished and made unable to pay yet his Bond for payment continues in full force against him and he will be constrained to make it good Though all that thou canst do can neither prepare thee for Grace nor purchase Grace for thy self yet the means through Divine Institution are mighty God by them can work effectually and if it seem good to ' his good pleasure he will wait upon him only for that good thou wantest from whom only it can be received As the Leapers in the time of the Famine resolved to try what might be done by others for their safety who could do nothing for themselves That is Gods way and means try what God will do in whose pleasure it is to give or deny I might ad what Divines speak and seasonable 〈◊〉 to the Point in hand While thou art endeavoring as thou canst it lessens thy sin and prevents further plagues unto which thou wilt be subject through Gods just Judgment and thine own just deserving Abab's 〈◊〉 humiliation prevented the 〈◊〉 plague though it did not free him from the eternal 1 Kings 21. 29. Seest thou 〈◊〉 Ahab humbles himself I will not bring the evil in his daies A Patient that hath a Wolf in her Breast and an 〈◊〉 Gout knows neither can be recovered yet both may be eased by use of Physick and moderate Diet and therefore he intends both Cast away the evil of your works but keep your works still keep some Rules if thou canst not keep all better save one side of thy 〈◊〉 good than both naught If thou canst not avoid al sin avoid as much as thou canst Is it then beyond the power and any possibility of man to attain Grace Yes It 's not in man to direct his own way Jer. 10. 23. It 's beyond the power of a dead man to restore himself to life And our Savior is express and peremptory in giving Sentence in this case and his determination is conclusive Matth. 19. 26. when he said it 's as easie for a Chamel to go through the eye of a needle as for a rich man to be saved The Disciples ask Who then can be saved He returns this definitive Answer With man it is impossible but with God all things are possible Look we at the power and performances of man there is no sufficiency 〈◊〉 possibility for of our selves we are not able to think a good thought 2 Cor. 3. 5. But if we look at the Almighty Power of God there is nothing hard to him who hath Hardness at Command But is any man tied to impossibilities and can any be punished because he 〈◊〉 not 〈◊〉 that which is impossible to him Impossibilities are of two sorts 1. Some are absolute that exceed the compass of our being or all that ability we ever received 2. Impossibilities by supposition which though the things be possible yea easie in their Nature and with reference to their first order and institution yet by reason of some inconveniences hindrances weaknesses which fall in beside and cross to the course and constitution of things as they were at first that which formerly might easily have been compassed there is in ordinary course no possibility to attain unto it And to such 〈◊〉 a man may be justly tyed and failing in his performances may justly be punished by the Law of Nature Nations right Reason and the righteous Rule of God The 〈◊〉 hath borrowed so much money which he may improve and is bound to repay at such a day appointed if he through his prodigality and riot shal vainly mis-spend not only the Sum he borrowed but his stock a fair estate unto which he was born so that it 's now impossible to him thus impoverished to satisfie May not the Creditor according to al the Rules of Right and Reason require his Money in the default of payment punish or imprison No Nation ever questioned it It was not only possible for Adam but easie to love God above all if he through his fall hath brought impossibility of payment upon himself the Lord may in Justice require it and punish him for it And certain it is God justly may and doth deny Reprobates Grace not only because they do not what they may but also because they do that which through the corruption of their own hearts they cannot avoid As namely because of the enmity of the wisdom of the flesh they are not nor cannot be subject to the Law and 〈◊〉 Will of God Rom. 8. 7. That for which God condemns the wicked for that he denies them Grace and Glory For Condemnation implies both and cannot admit either But they are condemned not only because they do not so much but because they did such and such Duties to false ends not because they did not fast and pray but because they did both to a wrong end to serve themselves and lusts and not to serve God and yet they could not aim at Gods Glory as their last end If for the not doing of such Duties they should and might do they only want 〈◊〉 then if they had done such and such according to their power as they could and improvement of their abilities then they had received Grace undoubtedly which hath been fully confuted by the former Arguments To issue this Point that we may fence our selves against so dangerous a conceit let us take in and store our hearts with some saving Truths as a Soveraign Antidote against such fals-hoods and herein I shall not only speak mine own Judgment but the Judgment of all my fellow Brethren as I have just cause and good ground to beleeve that so you may receive them 〈◊〉 Truths under the Testimony of many Witnesses Ballast therefore thy heart with the Conclusions following All men are by Nature dead in sins and trespasses A dead man can not prepare himself for life much 〈◊〉 hath power to
grievous yet the plague-sore of their sins was heaviest upon their hearts and most in their thoughts so it is with a contrite sinner his complaints and thoughts return hither as to their center publish the comforts promises and priviledges of the Gospel the sinner acknowledgeth the promises are precious the comforts are sweet the priviledges great and happy they that ever they were born that have a title thereunto But alas what have I to do with these my heart is yet hard and my sins yet unsubdued Those keep good things from me Lay open al the threatnings of the word the plagues the Lord hath prepared the curses iudgments and punishments that are recorded in the scripture and ever were inflicted by the justice of the Lord the contrite sinner looks presently beyond these plagues to his sins which is the cause of al these and worse than al these and that gives the sting and evil unto al these evils what shal I do I have sinned deliver me from blood guiltiness O God not from the sword though that was threatned but from his sin The sinner that hath his heart thus truly affected and pierced through with his sins is marvelous tender easily to be convinced of a yielding disposition i. e. freely and readily enlarged in the open acknowledgment of an evil that is discovered he stands guilty of As it is with the body when it is pierced or pricked with a stiletto He bleeds inwardly it may be but so as the blood hath no vent nor the party relief hence the life is in hazard but when it s thrust quite through though the wound be greater and wider yet the danger is less because the party bleeds kindly and naturally the wound is more 〈◊〉 to be cleansed and healed there is no fear of festering and rankling inwardly but the Chirurgeon may readily come at it for the cure So it is when the soul is wounded aright with Godly sorrow for its sin it bleeds kindly and naturally ready to see the evil the core the root of that corruption from whence it comes and willing and open hearted that the saving word of the truth either of instruction reproof comfort or exhortation may be applyed for cure and recovery A broken hearted sinner fals immediately before the power of the word takes the sin presently home to himself when ever or what ever is presented with evidence to him without cavilling or gainsaying shifting or winding away from under the authority thereof That resistance and gainsaying opposition is now removed which formerly took possession and the irresistible power of the spirit hath flung down those strong holds of Satan and sin hath conquered and captivated the high thoughts of the mind and sturdy rebellions of the heart unto the obedience of the Lord Jesus and therefore there is an entrance and easy passage made for the truth to take place and the heart to take the impression thereof with some pleasing content parts of the body which are wounded broken and sore and very sensible of the least stir or touch of any thing that comes nigh them they feel presently and are affected with some trouble Oh say we it s my broken Arm my sore Hand the least touch it goes to my heart It 's so with broken spirits they are presently sensible of the least touch of any truth the least intimation or discovery of any sin that comes by the by if from a work that fals occasionally it feels it forthwith yields it and owns it without any more ado That 's the deceit of my heart which I never saw before that 's my distemper unto which I have been addicted the law is holy and good but my heart naught and sold under sin Rom. 7. this was the temper of good 〈◊〉 at the reading of the law which the Lord observes and so much 〈◊〉 2 Chron. 34. 27. because thy heart was tender melted when thou heardest the words of this law he took the impression of the truth at the first without the least appearance of any opposition in any particular or rising of spirit against them though the severity and sharpness of the threatnings were marvailous cross not onely to a corrupt heart but to the outward comforts eminent priviledges of his place pomp and prosperity of his Crown and Kingdom the heart is melted and broken is conquered by the truth and therefore can do nothing against it But can do any thing against its own lusts and the pleasing corruption of his own nature this is part of that preparation which the Baptist the Harbenger of our Savior made to make this plain for his coming into the hearts of his as into his temple Luk 3. The rough things shal be made plain and crooked things straight the rugged and sturdy gainsayings of a rebellious heart are taken away and it 's made easy and readily yielding to the evidence of any part of Gods wil it finds a plain passage into the soul no rub in the way no rising against the righteous and good wil of God If any thing be doubtful he is easy to be informed amiss to be reproved and amended thereby Those crooked aymes and by ends also whereby falshearted hypocrites serve their turn of the Lord Jesus seek for grace and mercy either to quiet the horror of their 〈◊〉 promote their own credit or under a profession against sin to get more liberty to commit sin to sin without suspicion or distraction these rugged distempers must be levelled and the spirit of a man made plyable simple and sincere and then all flesh shall see the salvation of the Lord. And unless this de done set thy heart at rest thou canst never see Gods Salvation True indeed I confess the truth many times may be secret and such as at the present exceeds the reach and apprehension of weaker judgments And here wil be and in some 〈◊〉 may a long inquisition and painful and tedious search for the right discovery where the narrow way lyes But there is great ods betwixt an inquisition and serious enquiry that we may see the truth And a quarrelling against the evidence thereof that we may not see it Inquisition is one thing contention against the truth is another that al the Saints should endeavour this none but the ungodly wil practise for it 's given as a never failing note of a graceless person who is appointed to destruction to them who are contentious and obey not the truth but obey unrighteousness Rom. 2. 8. for where the one is not the other wil be contentious persons joyn sides with their sinful distempers against the truth authority of the righteous law of God openly to maintain a professed opposition against the truth is so loathsom to common sence and 〈◊〉 even to the remainders of light left in the 〈◊〉 of a natural man that hardly any man is come to the height of wickedness that he dare openly own a course so hellish and
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
conceive much less endure First Thy Case to common Reason leaving secret things to God seems past cure it 's a great suspicion the day of Grace is over the date of mercy past the period of Gods Patience come to an end all means have been used and conclusions tryed with thee the invincible stiffness of thy Spirit hath won the day thou hast tried Masteries with all means Law and Gospel Promises 〈◊〉 and 〈◊〉 the unconquerable hardness of thy heart hath out-bid all Dispensations thou art Cannon proof Law proof Gospel proof Threatning proof there is no other means of good in Heaven or Earth and thou art worse by them all which are provided to better others and have so done without means thou hast no reason to think that God wil work and thou hast had the try al of al and thou art beyond 〈◊〉 in thy stifness and therefore beyond all helps in an ordinary way Prov. 29. 1. He that being often reproved 〈◊〉 his heart shall be destroyed and that without remedy he that casts away the salve that should cure him spils the Physick that should recover him casts away the meat that should nourish him how should he be either cured or supported There are no Commands that awe no Promises perswade no Terrors awaken then there is no Remedy He must be deluded that opposeth the Wisdom that only can guide him he must be cursed that resists the mercy that only can save him he must be damned that 〈◊〉 upon the blood of Jesus that only would redeem him there is no other Remedy no other Name but the Name of Jesus wherby men must be saved Acts 4. 12. Nay not only means fail him but God himself seems to forsake Gen. 6. 3. My Spirit shall not alwaies strive with man He hath striven by his Terrors by his Mercies striven and laid hold upon thee by heart-breaking 〈◊〉 Turn ye why will ye die turn ye and cause others to return and so iniquity shall not be your ruin Ezek. 33. 11. Oh that there were such a heart in them to fear me alwaies that it might be well with them Deut. 5. 29. but thou hast wound away from Gods hand and forsaken him and he hath forsaken thee there is Word and Promises but no God in them Terrors and 〈◊〉 but no God in them Thou art without God and art thou not then without hope When the throws of a travelling Woman leave her her life leaves her So here It 's said of a company of Despisers of Christ That they 〈◊〉 him again unto themselves Heb. 6. 6. When they resist one Christ and resist that Salvation that hath been offered either they must have another Christ or he anew crucified if ever they be saved So there must be a new Christ and new Scriptures before such miserable wretches can be relieved the Blood of Jesus the Spirit and Promises of Jesus Grace and Salvation hath been tendered to these stubborn-hearted and they have opposed and cast all away either there must be another Christ or he must die again All the Commands and Comforts in the Word all the Rules and Directions 〈◊〉 and Counsels have been used and tryed without any profit and prevailing power therefore there must be another Covenant 〈◊〉 and Scriptures if thou beest saved that 's incredible therefore the other impossible 〈◊〉 can ye escape that neglect so great Salvation Heb. 2. 2. I appeal to your selves You will go from the Law to the Gospel from justice to mercy but whither wil you go when you have departed away from mercy and mercy is departed away from you Thy judgment hastens thou canst not not escape it nor prevent it and truly it's coming more speedily and suddenly then thou art awar of Thou bringest upon thy self swift destruction though thou sleepest yet thy damnation sleeps not Hebr. 6. 8. the earth that often receives rain from heaven and yet brings forth thorns is near unto cursing look every day that God should curse al thy comforts thy out-goings and thy in-comings Prov. 28. 14. He that bardens his heart fals into mischief fals into it and is overwhelmed with it al of a sudden he may fal into any tempration he opposeth that counsel that should preserve him falls into sins he casts away that grace and resists that spirit that should strengthen him nay being past feeling such a one wil run to commit al wickedness with greediness Eph. 4. 19. Hell and Divills and 〈◊〉 are let loose upon such the light of nature evidence of reason dictates of of Conscence authority of the law terrors of judgments intreaties of mercies the hard heart hath cast away al these and therefore rusheth into what evil comes next against Conscience command reason sence nature men put of the principles not of humanity but of sence and become more base than the beasts themselves do that which beasts wil not do and morality is ashamed to speak As the ship when the anchors are broke and cable cut and a mighty tempest arises she is wholly left to the rage of wind and weather When men harden their hearts God swears they shal never enter into his rest Hebr. 3. last Ground of COMFORT to support the sincking spirits of broken hearted sinners when they seem to faint under the fierce displeasure of the Almighty and to be 〈◊〉 with the unsupportable weight of the wickedness of their own souls which they are neither able to avoid nor 〈◊〉 to undergo Here hence is matter of sound refreshing both to the parties that are the patients and bear 〈◊〉 bitterness and burden of their sorrow to their friends who as spectators do mourn with them and are affected with a fellow feeling of the evil of that which they find experimentally let me speak a word severally to them both Know therefore to thy comfort thou distressed soul this sorrow and anguish which now oppresseth thee it s not unto death nay it s the onely way and means to deliver from death from the death of sin and that security in which thou lyeft without either sence of thy misery or the least appearance and possibility of deliverance from the death everlasting of thy soul unto which thou wast hastening amain As it is with a dead body when with rubbing chafing and pouring in of hot waters there is some kind of warmth coming and overspreading the parts there is good hope the soul is again returning the man reviving again It s so in this spiritual quickening of a soul dead in sin stone dead stiff insensible of the distempers that lodge within him take possession of the whol frame of the inward man as stif coldness takes possession of a dead body when the Lord begins to affect the sinner und makes throughly sensible with Godly sorrow by rubbing and chafing in of sharp reproofs and passionate exhortations there is a kind of spiritual warmth coming into the soul and certain evidence like a harbenger or immediate
of spirit are such they cannot express and their pressures beyond strength more than they are able to undergo We should yern towards them in mercy and put on the bowels of tenderness and compassions towards them in lending what possible relief may be to the utmost of our abilities not only Religion will enjoyn this and reason perswade but even Nature and Humanity might compel and constrain us hereunto It was that which the Law enjoyned Deut. 22. 4. Thou shalt not see thy Brothers Ox or his Ass fall down by the way and hide thy self from him but thou shalt surely Surely help him q. d. Let all alone use no pleas make no excuses this must and ought to be done Doth God take care of Oxen No it is for our sakes it was spoken Shal the Ox be burdened not the heart under pressures be relieved Shal the Ass fallen be raised again and the Conscience bowed and crushed under the weight of everlasting vengeance not be comforted There Life natural is only endangered here Eternal Salvation is hazarded therefore their greater need calls for the greater pity As Job complained Job 19. 21. Have pity upon me O my friends have pity upon me for the hand of God hath touched me The spirit of a man will 〈◊〉 his infirmity but a wounded spirit who can bear Lend a hand therefore at such a dead lift and help him to bear that that no creature of himself is able to undergo have such in your minds dayly carry them in your prayers keep them dayly in your hearts when a party is in a fainting fit dying away how readily doth Humanity lead men to lend present help one man holds another rubs and chafes a third applies warm cloaths each man strives to come first and to do most I pray you take of my Water take of my Bottle c. that 's but a sudden 〈◊〉 over the heart that wil suddenly pass away but this is a wound that hath pierced through the soul bleeding and sinking with Hellish horrors breathing out his sighs Oh when Oh when wil it once be He that hath not put off Humanity and the very Nature of a man he cannot but put on tenderness and commiseration towards such and therefore what shal we think of those who instead of tenderness and pity which they should express towards such their hearts rise in bitterness and indignation against them yonder be your broken-hearted persons c. It 's no great matter you may see what they have got by Sermon gadding what may we think of such We may say and think as Job speaks he that is in misery should be comforted by his Brethren but men have forsaken the fear of the Lord Job 6. 14. It 's an Evidence of an Egyptian when an Israelite is going out of Egypt he stinks in his Nostrils nay a sad argument of a soul devoted to destruction Deut. 25. 17 18 19. EXHORTATION As to proceed the right way so never to rest until 〈◊〉 come to the right pitch of this saving sorrow otherwise we shall lose our labor all the pains and 〈◊〉 and trouble we take wil prove indeed unprofitable we shal lose our labor and our souls and all we should not content our selves therefore with a slighty touch to have the skin happily a little rippled or the heart stabbed now and then with an overly stroak but stay not until we come to the bottom to be pierced through and through again until we see our 〈◊〉 bleeding out their heart blood and the core of our corruptions coming out true it may be it wil cost hot water time and toyl before that day come be it so but it wil quit cost when ever it comes the longer the seed time the larger the Harvest They 〈◊〉 sow in Tears shall reap in joy let us not lose all for a little The Patient wil tel you why should I be cut for the stone in the Reins if the stone never be taken away and I cured Hath then the punishments which have been threatened the stroaks and terrors of Conscience which thou hast felt the dreadful displeasure of the Almighty which hath been denounced and seized upon thy soul have they happily wrested tears 〈◊〉 of thine eyes bitter confessions out of thy mouth and forced thee to pensiveness in thy carriage and perplexity in thy Spirit c. All this is good so far but it wil do thee no good if thou goest no further Say with thy self what sorrow have I more than Judas had what do I do more than Cain did what difference betwixt my complaints and Esau's tears Do I out of horror of heart vomit out my sins by confession So did Judas Do I make Restitution So did Judas Do I wander up and down racked in a restless condition So did Cain like a Vagabond upon the face of the Earth Do I sue to God for a blessing So did Esau and that with tears and that with importunity Take not up thy stand here but say Oh Lord that I may have somthing more than Hypocrites do somthing more than Reprobates can do have I suffered all these terrors wept al these tears in vain If so be it be in vain Oh let me not have sorrow only but that true sorrow that may cause repentance never to be repented of Go then beyond al horrors and fears and stay not before thou findest and feelest thy sin worse than al thy plagues or else thou never feltest them aright Look not to punishments that are cross to thy comfort and 〈◊〉 but look to the stubbornness and resistance of 〈◊〉 heart which 〈◊〉 cross to God and his Holiness and holy Laws 〈◊〉 that be heaviest of all other evils which indeed is the greatest evil of all This too much hast 〈◊〉 the new 〈◊〉 makes many 〈◊〉 Christians still born not begotten again to a 〈◊〉 hope 1 〈◊〉 They heal themselves before God heal them make 〈◊〉 before sound 〈◊〉 not that they can apply too soon if they apply truly but they think they do apply 〈◊〉 they neither do 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Keep thy heart in foak by godly Sorrow until thou 〈◊〉 thy corruptions like noysom weeds come up kindly by the roots 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 feelest sin as sin in the bitterness thereof that thou fearest al sin in the least appearance thereof that whatever shal be conceived or be discovered to be such the 〈◊〉 notice inclination disposition or suspicion thereof thy heart may 〈◊〉 to come 〈◊〉 any provocation leading that way and may readily listen to what ever may 〈◊〉 help or direction to avoid it or subdue it Bear thy burden till the Lord ease thee be in prison and let the Iron 〈◊〉 into thy soul until the Lord 〈◊〉 and deliver thee and bring thee out of the house of Bondage then shal thy mouth be filled with laughter and thy heart with joy and that joy shall no man take away from thee travel the appointed months of
to maintain the practice or 〈◊〉 that 〈◊〉 scandalous and wicked but layes open 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 the bitter root of those base distempers out of which those evils were brooded and brought 〈◊〉 they are the cause of al and worse 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 together with those by ends and base 〈◊〉 and those 〈◊〉 a 〈◊〉 that 〈◊〉 ed the 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 from the 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Lord what ever aggravating circumstances hath any weight in the apprehension of the soul it sets 〈◊〉 al the scandal wil apparently argue these and a wise 〈◊〉 christian wil 〈◊〉 al these in their working and a sincere heart desires to take most shame 〈◊〉 these and therefore is ful in the confession so David goes to the root of those 〈◊〉 miscarriages even 〈◊〉 sin and his accursed contrivements to give content to his lusts and therefore he complaines of that Psal. 51. 3. 4. thou lovest truth in the inward parts and the truth I have despised and opposed This is to be attended as another thing in the comparison to pour out the heart like water in acknowledgments there is nothing that remains behind as there is in oyl and those kind of things that be of a more tenacious disposition This was eminent in the acknowledgment of the holy Apostle 1 Tim. 1. 13. I was a blasphemer a persecuter and injurious but I did it ignorantly through unbelief not to lessen his evil but that he might look to the bottom of it A true contrite 〈◊〉 deals with these hid treasures of evil as 〈◊〉 did with the treasures of his house to the Babylonish 〈◊〉 Isa. 39. 4. then said Isaiah what 〈◊〉 they 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 answered al that 〈◊〉 in my house there is nothing in 〈◊〉 treasures that I have not shewed them so it 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 a simple hearted convert he wil turn the inside of his heart outward there wil be nothing amongst the hid treasures of iniquity when he is called to confession that he wil not nakedly present 〈◊〉 God and the world and that without stickage without demurs and 〈◊〉 he wil not cut off his 〈◊〉 by 〈◊〉 as though his heart 〈◊〉 for what he had 〈◊〉 but 〈◊〉 open the floodgate to the ful that he may leave nothing behind that he may fully and plainly see the bottom he is ready to 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 frame of 〈◊〉 as 〈◊〉 were wrought 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 heart that so he 〈◊〉 dissolve 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 and undo the web and work of 〈◊〉 and therefore he wil tel you my 〈◊〉 you 〈◊〉 and the world knowes it hath been scandalous my carriage loathsom Oh but my heart in that sin was worse than my carriage the pride and malice perversness and 〈◊〉 of mine own heart carried me by main force against many checks of my Conscience and in ward misguidings to that practice to serve mine own distempered lusts and when it was done and discerned to be scandalous the invincible 〈◊〉 of mine own heart would not suffer me to stoop to the evidence of the truth but I set carnal reason on work that since I could not deny it were done yet I might put color construction some meaning and interpretation upon it that it might appear to be done lawfully at the utmost that it was onely a mistake and out of ignorance which the most able and exact is incident unto And al this was with reluctance and against mine own 〈◊〉 therefore if I found any that were easy and favorable and were ready to be carryed away with some 〈◊〉 appearances to those I often repayred to them I complained and professed my simplicity and yet willingness to see that so I might screw my self into their affections to pity me and so to be unwilling to hear any thing against my person or cause and 〈◊〉 the man speaks honestly and means plainly I wish there may be no prejudice and then sat I in counsel with my own corrupt heart and mind how to carry the frame of the buisiness in the fayrest pretence I plotted how I might make an escape and wind away from such evidences and expressions which pinched most narrowly and there I would put in some word or else 〈◊〉 they were spoken to some other end or start up some new occasson to 〈◊〉 the discourse another way and to another thing and made them loose the pursuit of that which indeed pinched and thus I committed many evils in the defending of one and broke many rules under prtence of making up one breach but from these wretched grounds to these wicked ends in this disorderly manner by a plotted kind of studied villany I have wronged God the truth my profession my 〈◊〉 mine own soul this is my wretched disposition I would see and say the worst of it c. this is as I said to 〈◊〉 the clew of a wretched course that he may see the end and utmost of it So to lance the sore that the core may come out from the bottom and then the cure wil undoubtedly follow which cannot be so attayned as long as it continues Sometimes persons that want bouldness and ability cannot so fully open themselves in publick alwayes yet the frame of their spirits and expressions wil ever aym at such a thing to the apprehension of such as have any spiritual eye salve about them because their confessions 〈◊〉 ever minted out of their own hearts and the loathsomness of such evils wherewith they are and have been loaded But for a man that comes to confess his evil to forget the main evil he came to confess is such a heavy hand of God to discover a counterfeit confession that it would make a moral man that had but understanding about him sit down confounded under the 〈◊〉 curse of Gods displeasure and the right consideration of the 〈◊〉 of his heart And this is the second ingredient into a serious confession it must be ful the whol compas is contained 〈◊〉 these two particulars that I may sum up that shortly which hath been largely spoken 1. Ful in regard of relation of the things My sonsayes Joshua give Glory to God and tel me what thou hast done bide nothing from me Jos. 7. 19. 2. Ful in regard of opposition of the heart the 〈◊〉 fully relates al the heart fully opposeth al sets it self wholly to drag al to the place of judgment and see execution done upon al As it were said in the law and enjoyned to him that should discover a brother or a friend that inticed to Idolatry his eye should not pity nor his hand spare but he should fling the first stone at him so here in 〈◊〉 we should bring out al our distempers yet they may receive the sentence of Condemnation neither should I pity nor your hearts spare but see execution upon them that I may take away evil to confess is to speak as God doth to speak together with him to see sin to sentence sin as the Lord doth To make a ful relation of a sin and yet the heart to maintain
wil pass the sentence of shame upon it as the just fruit of our evil doings and as a means so sanctified to work a hatred against it in our selves and to remove the scandal of it from others and therefore strives not by restless cavils and evasions to make an escape from the evidence of the Word in the work of Conviction when a mans errors should be discovered nor yet doth repine at nor bear a privy grudg after the conviction lies not under the Truth as the 〈◊〉 upon the rack which he therefore bears not because indeed he cannot help himself against it with all the troublesom 〈◊〉 he can use but his soul inwardly approves of that word which judgeth his person and practice vile as himself doth Thus the word in the Original which sign sies confession properly 〈◊〉 to speak as God speaks to judg as God judgeth of his sin this hath been the constant guize of the Saints touched sincerely with remorse for their sin A word snibs David Thou art the man presently I have sinned saith he A wink or a look of the Lord Jesus makes Peter lie at his foot Go out and weep bitterly who had immediately before in a faithless cowardice basely denied him As it is with a Steed of a tender mouth feels his Bit 〈◊〉 the 〈◊〉 check of the Rider staies him turns him which way he wil So it is with a tender Conscience fals under the greatest shame that the least evidence of Argument wil check him withal So Ezekiah though i. were a sharp word and the threatening 〈◊〉 Isai. 39. last yet saies he The Word of the Lord is a good Wond my heart is naught my carriage naught my apprehensions naught and erroneous but the Word of the Lord is good and the holy Apostle in that inward combate speaks in the Name of all the Saints in the like case Rom. 7. 14. For we know that the Law is spiritual holy and good WE i. e. all that know God the work of his Grace the purity of the Truth they and I and al confess the Law is Spiritual that is for ever to be honored loved obeyed but I am carnal a good and holy Law but an evil and unholy heart true it is that carnal and hollow-hearted Hypocrites may somtimes have their Consciences so far awed with the Soveraign power of the Truth that they may yield 〈◊〉 thereunto and in outward appearance readily profess their approbation thereof with the condemnation of themselves and their own courses because they have no other way to gain ease and quiet to their own Consciences now clamoring against them or their acceptance with men their carriages being gross and inexcusable and therefore must so far bear the shame because he sees he cannot excuse his folly or sin being so open but he shal be accounted impudent in denying and sinning but al this while his heart is carried with an inward distast against it and by a privy spleen imbittered so as to conspire secretly the disparagement of it As it fared with those treacherous Jews when they saw no way and therefore had no hope to take away the life of Paul by open violence then they did cunningly plot it by a color of fair pretence and carried it thus Acts 23. 14. They would have him brought down out of the Castle as though they would enquire somthing more perfectly of him and we ere ever he come neer will be ready to kill him So these fals-hearted Creatures make it by their 〈◊〉 pretences that they would enquire more perfectly concerning the Truth the Servant craves Counsel how he should subdue the ruggedness of his Spirit the froward wife how she should overcome her way ward peevish 〈◊〉 they wil enquire more perfectly as though they would obey perfectly submit perfectly be perfect Servants wives c. But alas there is a conspiracy in their hearts against the strict waies of God So it was with Balaam he hath never done sacrificing to enquire the wil of God and yet his heart inwardly opposeth and resists his wil and this shewed it self in open violence and contempt of the Command and Charge Numb 24. 1. A heart content to take the shame is not offended with the party friend or enemy that wil lay the shame upon him he knows it is the burden which he ought to 〈◊〉 and if therefore any man wil give him a lift and help him to take it up he wil take it kindly at his hands It 's against common sence to conceive that one should be offended with another or take it grievously that he doth any thing which he knows would and he conceives wil give him content No man can be offended in Reason with the party for such a carriage or doing such a thing wherein he is contented and with which he is pleased True it is shame in it self is exceeding distastful to flesh and blood and in truth nothing more cross and contrary to an ingenious spirit Praise is the priviledg and prerogative of a reasonable Agent who acts by Counsel and therefore other Creatures are not so capable of it nor do we give it as their due we commend not the fire for burning heavy things for falling donward they cannot but do their work and therefore no praise no thanks to them for their deed but Agents as Men and Angels who work by Counsel who have wit and wisdom to contrive several waies conceive the best and wil and care to follow that when they might have done other out of their liberty Shame therefore crossing a man in his special priviledg his proper free hold it must in it self be very grievous and a tedious burden but as he sees his duty in it and the good that comes by it and withal his just desert by reason of his vileness he is not offended with the presence of the Chirurgeon but he is glad to see him and his 〈◊〉 though sharp and 〈◊〉 which may lance his imposthume and so save his 〈◊〉 whenas a naughty heart who would not have another take away his 〈◊〉 he is vexed inwardly at the least that he laies the shame and disparagement upon him for it See this odds in those two Kings Ahab and 〈◊〉 the one a self-seeking deluded 〈◊〉 when he was under the whip and terror of Gods stroak and wrath he then humbles his soul fasts and praies and that in print as it were acts his part in that extraordinary duty with outward 〈◊〉 and therefore in reason it cannot but be conceived he bewailed his sin confessed his failings and yet he that hated Elijah 1 Kings 21. 20. he hates also Micaiah 1 Kings 22. 8. There is yet one Micaiah q. d. We are rid of the most of them but yet One is our vexation and I hate him because he hates my sin and wil never speak good that is speak that which pleaseth my corruption and therefore displeaseth me But good Jehosaphat he was not willing to hear his words
concerning these armyes of lusts that are come out against thee notice given in private thy fellow servants counsel the master he commands nay confessions are made of thy evils 〈◊〉 thou resists petitions put up for Grace before thou 〈◊〉 abroad and yet no sooner off thy knees out of the presence of the Lord but thou art as though thou hadst never known any such thing thou stumblest at the same stone taken aside with the same temptations and distempers as though thou hadst never heard thy sin discovered as though thou hadst never been counselled never been commanded as though thou hadst never bewayled it to this day Idle and stubborn and perverse and way-ward and self-willie so farr from fearing these evils that thou didst not remember them or think of them or if thou didst thou fearest rather thou shouldest be forced to reform them rather than thou shouldst commit them As sure as the Lord lives thou art a party and in league with these distempers thou art not an enemy if 〈◊〉 thou hadst found the venom and poyson of these 〈◊〉 and hadst been perswaded of the destroying nature of these spiritual 〈◊〉 which make hayock of thy soul the very appearance and apprehension of these would have been dreadful if there were but a roving thought in a mans mind any smal stirring of a distemper in a mans heart any temptation any the 〈◊〉 enticement to the committing of the evil how would thy heart shake at the sight of it fear fly cry for help against it if thou hadst known it and hated it as thy deadly enemy so Paul cries out as fearful men do when he perceived the stirrings of those noysom distempers of his heart the law of the flesh how to avoyd or prevent or overbear he could not tel he cryes out Oh ' Miserable man that I am who shal deliver me from this body of death Rom. 7. last The want of this is the cause of al that heedlesness and adventurousness in 〈◊〉 carriages that they are so commonly taken aside with their distempers before they scant tel where they 〈◊〉 For I appeal to any 〈◊〉 Conscience nay to common senco whether it is possible or no and let any man make work of it that a city who hath the enemy 〈◊〉 should 〈◊〉 remember it is besiedged that cannons should now be playing and battering and the people within not think that they are assaulted unless either they know not what war means or else they joyn with the enemies in it So it is here when a 〈◊〉 mind is plotting how to act his heart stirrs and 〈◊〉 corruption boyling and bubling in his bosom that the allarum is given the Phylistins are upon thee sins and devils are upon thee and yet a man forgets the condition he is in 〈◊〉 what he is commanded counselled admonished this in Prov. 13. 13. is given as a note of destruction he that despiseth the command shal dye and tha't 's contrary to fearing a command mentioned before A second sort are NEUTERS in religion who care not much which end goes forward provided they 〈◊〉 go on quietly in their way they would be of no side if they could be safe so Much they would not do against sin onely that which is grossly vile they could wish might be reformed They wil no great matter for religion onely they could wish that this rigor and strictness might not be pressed because in both these extreams they conceive there is trouble Oh peace is a precious thing this wretched politician would have peace with sin peace with Christ and peace with ordinances peace with drunkards and prophane wretches and peace with such as walk exactly before God His motto that writ upon his dore and that his measure every mans good word love of al men so in 〈◊〉 he loves neither God nor 〈◊〉 nor his own soul in the conclusion but our saviors determination is definitive and peremtory he that is not with me is against me and 〈◊〉 that gathers not 〈◊〉 nay James 4. 4. he that wil be a friend to the world is an enemy to God Moderation and descretion is the compas by which this man stears it is not men and bretheren what shal we do but rather what shal we do of little medling comes much ease if he may have that he hath his end to be at war with his enemies is a 〈◊〉 life the temper of his zeal is like the warmth of his bed not as hot as fire that would scorch him nor yet so cold as fire as would chil him but just so warm as he may sleep in it As neutral Cities in time of war they pay to both sides because they would have war with neither with the sincere and upright he wil seem as they are and with the ungodly he wil be and do as they Gallio-like he cares for none of those matters if he may have his own matters if any thing appertaining to sin or godliness he wil not trouble himself further than his own 〈◊〉 and profit are interested in it he wil do nothing against his sin and he is like to have nothing at the hand of the Lord for he loaths and hates him that never loathed nor hated his corruption he wil vomit with indignation such luk-warm varlets out of his mouth Rev. 3. The third sort is your LAZY HYPOCRITE Who wil be abundant in his purposes and professions against his sin smoaks out his daies in powerless 〈◊〉 resolutions wishings wouldings but doth nothing to purpose 〈◊〉 not himself in a restless pursuit against his evil Hatred where it s settled and through it carryes al a mans endeavors with it calls a man into the field when Hanum saw he was hated of David he gathers al his forces for offence and defence and byres besides War amongst 〈◊〉 requires the whol man with his time and strength he that goes to war doth not entangle himself but leaves al his occasions that might attend the enemy he spies privily where his haunts are what 〈◊〉 he may take where his hold are to demolish them where his provision comes to intercept 〈◊〉 and to cut of his convoy levies what forces he may and sends far off for succor and supply When the Lazy hypocrite makes his complaints against his distempers and rests in his complaints bewayles his wretchedness and corruptions but to a resolved war he wil 〈◊〉 go You wil do nothing upon poynt against those lusts that have done so much evil against Christ and your own soul Is not the day yet to dawn the time yet to come that ever you set your selves in earnest in battle array against your evils Luk. 13. 24. a sleepy kind of seeking that many do which shal never enter into grace many shal seek to enter and shal not be able but to strive to rise up against your corruptions and to maintain professed war against your sin that you do not that you wil not do how many
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
delivers up such a one to Satan ibid 3 He will deal no more with him ibid 4 Such a one is every day ripening for ruine 98 3 See the reason why men of deepest understanding are hardliest brought to brokenness of heart because so hardly brought to see their sins ibid 4 Tryal 101 1 Whether we have been brought to see sin cleerly Such a one will not dare not carelesly adventure upon sin ibid 2 Whether we have seen sin convictingly 105 Four Evidences of persons not convinced of sin ibid 1 When a man is unwilling to attend that Truth that would discover 〈◊〉 sins 105 2 When he 〈◊〉 to gain-saying when he cannot avoid the light 107 3 When he is restless to raise quarrels against the determination of the Truth 109 4 When he sets himself against the Truth 110 5 Exhortation to get this true 〈◊〉 of sin 111 The Means are six  1 Labor to see the excellency of the holiness of the Lord and his Word 114 2 When the Lordlets in any light by his Word 〈◊〉 Conscience attend both 117 3 Take off and cast away all cavils and shifts which 〈◊〉 the work of 〈◊〉 ibid Shifts and Excuses for sin referred to three Heads 1 To lighten the evil of sin ibid 1 By the commonness of it ibid Answ. This shews  1 The sin is the more 〈◊〉 120 2 Thy Curse more dreadful ibid 3 Thy self destitute of Grace 121 2 By the Naturalness of it 122 Answ. Hence it appears  1 Thou hast no Grace 122 2 Thy Disease is incurable 223 3 Thy person is abborred of the Lord 124 3 By Example and Companionship in sin 125 Answ. Hereby thou dost  1 Prefer men before God 126 2 Encourage the wicked 128 3 Thou shalt be damned as well as they 129 4 By strength of provocations 131 Answ. Whereas  1 Though Nature cannot hold out yet Grace oan 132 2 This is unreasonable in thee 133 3 It's dishonorable to God ibid 5 By forgetfulness 134 Answ. This argues thou hast  1 No love to Gods 〈◊〉 137 2 A slight esteem of them 138 3 An Atheistical heart 139 6 By their straights ibid Answ. These cannot excuse 〈◊〉 For the Scriptures require Obedience notwithstanding these  7 By the Holiness of the Law 141 Answ. This will not excuse 〈◊〉  1 Thou dost not what thou canst 142 2 Thou art 〈◊〉 to be made able 143 3 Thou art the Cause of thine inability 145 8 By the littleness of sins as but 145 1 Either sinful words 146 Answ. Thy words  1 Will condemn thee ibid. 2 In some regard are worse than evil in thy heart because they 150 1 Bring 〈◊〉 the evil of the heart 148 2 Sometimes hold forth more than is in the heart 149 3 Are more hurtful to others 151 3 In some regard worse than evil in thy practice because they taint more 151 1 Universally ibid. 2 〈◊〉 ibid. 3 The Tongue is untamable 152 4 It is a world of evil 154 2 Or sinful thoughts 155 Answ. See the 〈◊〉 of them ibid. 1 In regard of God they 156 1 Estrange them from God 156 2 Carry thy heart to oppose him 158 2 They are the Causes of all thy other sins 161 3 In the large extent of them 164 4 They do nourish all other evils 165 5 They keep off the power of the Word 166 3 Or a smal matter in practice 167 Answ. The less the thing is  1 The more hainous thy sin 168 2 The less care and conscience hast thou 170 3 The greater the wickedness of thy heart 171 2 The second sort of Shifts and Excuses whereby a man thinks the danger of sin may some waies be prevented 174 Conceiving that  1 Either God takes no notice of their sins 175 2 Or he will not call them to account 176 3 Or they can satisfie for them 177 4 Or the Lord will not be so rigorous but will abate 179 All these confuted ibid. 3 The third sort of Shifts whereby if a man can neither lessen the danger nor prevent it he saies he will and thinks he can bear it 179 This also confuted and the impossibility of bearing Gods wrath is shewed ibid. 1 The dreadfulness of Gods wrath 180 2 The weakness of man 181 3 The sufferings of Christ ibid. 4 Means Yield to the Evidence of the truth when it 's cleer and cónvincing 182 5 Means All those truths we hear or read in the Word which concerns our corruption we must take home and apply to our selves as the special portion the Lord hath appointed to us 185 6 Means Make and keep the evil of sin ever really present with us 186 1 See it in the execution of it upon others 187 2 Act that upon thy self by present consideration 189 Motives to perswade to this endeavor to see our sins  1 The danger of the mistake here 190 2 It 's the easiest way to see sin now 191 3 It 's a safe and sure way 192 DOCT. 3. Application of special sins by the Ministry is a means to bring men to sight of and sorrow for them 193 Reasons three taken from  1 The Office of Ministers 195 2 The necessity of sinners 196 3 The Nature of the Word 197 Uses four hence  1 See the Reason why so little good is done by the Ministry viz. Want of Application 198 2 See the Reason why the best kind of Preaching finds the worst acceptance 200 3 It 's the Duty of Ministers as the Text suits and the condition of the Hearers requires to use Particular  Application of special sins 202 〈◊〉  1 To the Ministers what they should do 204 2 To the People what they should desire 206 DOCT. 4. Meditation of sin a special means to break the heart 208 What Meditation is viz. 210 A serious 〈◊〉 of the mind whereby we search out the Truth and settle it effectually upon the heart ibid. Reasons three Because Meditation  1 Causes the sting of sin to pierce more deeply 217 2 Holds the heart under the pressures of it 219 3 Encreaseth and presseth down the weight of it upon the Conscience 221 Uses three hence  1 Humiliation that there is so little Meditation 223 This in special concerns  1 Such as studiously avoid it 224 Terror to such they take the way to encrease their misery when they would avoid it 225 Advice to such Be afraid to commit sin but never be afraid to see it 226 2 Such 〈◊〉 approve the Practice but plead Excuses why they may neglect it ibid. 1 Meditation is but a matter of indifferency not of Duty 227 2 The want of time 229 3 Unsteadiness of their thoughts ibid. 4 〈◊〉 in the Service 238 All these confuted and Remedies prescribed 239 2 Caution Loose Company an Enemy to the Conversion of a sinner because a hindrance of Meditation 240 3 Exhortation to attend this duty of Meditation 241 Motives four Â