In the expression of it and this is when so much Grace appears as to enter into a new path and do new works 3. In the progression of it And this is when a greater Victory is obtained over our sins and appears in our course of new obedience Now the Initials of true Repentance I conjecture to consists partly in the Conversion of the heart when the mind and will and affections are healed and turned and partly in the reformation of the life when the person out of an hatred of sin and love of God sets upon another course of obedience and service It is just like a Ship that is going out or like a Shop that is newly set up things are very raw there is much dross with the little Silver a little health and much lameness a great journey and but a few steps the work is rather in desire and much in complaints and though perhaps little be done yet all is heartily endeavoured to be done this I call the Initials of Repentance There are six things shew that Repentance is begun in truth Six things shew Repentance is begun in truth Condemnation 1. One is Condemnation When the judgement looks upon all sin after another manner then formerly sentencing it as the most vile and accursed of all evils and no sin knowingly finds favour 2. Another is Aversation When the will flies Aversation and shuns it as that which is most contrary to all goodness and happiness 3. A third is Weariness When the Soul is as Weariness weary of Sin as any Porter can be of his Burthen or as a sick-man is of his Bed Psal 51. 17. The sacrifices of God are a broken spirit a broken and a contrite heart O God thou wilt not despise 4. A fourth is Lamentation That the Soul cannot yet be rid of Lamentation the unruly motions and insolencies of sin It is grieved that Life and Death Hell and Heaven Grace and Sin should thus be together 5. A fifth is Resistance or conflict The Soul doth Resistance use the best means it can to separate more from sin and all sinfull wayes and to walk only in all holy pathes in the pathes of righteousness And the sixth is an active Inctination to obey God in all things a thirsting and striving an aiming a writing after the Copy An active Inclination And there are four things which do shew that Repentance is Four things shew that Repentance is but begun Impotency but begun it is only initial 1. One is Impotency or weakness of operation When the penitential parts do move and stir yet like a child who begins to go very feebly There is as much appears in the course as declares another spring or principle and rule by which the Soul strives to walk but the performance is very tender and feeble like a young Tree that hath but tender branches and small fruit The person doth mourn and confess and pray and live and obey but with weakness 2. A second is efficacy of Temptation When Temptations do easily Efficacy of Temptation beset and discourage the Soul as when the Tree is but a young plant the Winds to toss it and make it reel so when Temptations do as it were drive the Soul and are apt to raise quick fears and discouragements Oh! I shall be overcome again I shall hardly hold on I cannot well see how I shall be able to perform and preserve in these wayes which I have chosen A third is the Validity of present Corruption which though it be truly hated and bewailed yet it is very apt upon occasions to assault and Validity of present Corruption prevail when every little stone is apt to make one stumble it argues that the strength is weak 4. Necessary presence of many helps When a Man cannot go but with two Crutches and a Child must lean upon many props and a penitent upon many sensible encouragements Now that these Initials of Repentance are graciously accepted The Doctrine proved God respects the truth as well as the degrees of Grace of God may be thus manifested 1. The Lord doth respect the truth of Grace as well as the degrees of it every quality as well as the quantity Are not thine eyes upon the truth The Goldsmith hath his eye on the very thin raies of Godl as well as on the great knobs and pieces Grace is excellent and amiable at the lowest though then admirable when at highest 2. The main thing that God looks upon is to the heart My Son give me thy God looks most at the Heart heart All that is done if the heart be not in it it is of little or no estimation with God but if the heart be right this the Lord prizeth exceedingly and so much that for its sake he passeth by many infirmities The good Lord pardon every one that prepareth his heart c. 2 Chro. 30. 19. Now in the Initials of Repentance the heart is set right it is set on God and towards God in truth 3. Even the Initials of Repentance are his own Gifts special gifts of his blessed Spirit it is he that worketh The Initials of Repentance are his Cist in us to will and to do Phil. 2. 13. The spirituall will and the spiritual deed though both be imperfect yet are they the genuine effect of Gods own spirit sparks out of his fire works of his own hands Now as in the Creation God looked upon all that he made and saw that it was good he liked it well So is it in our Renovation all that good which God works in us he doth accept and approve he doth not despise his own image which though it shine more fairly in progressive Repentance yet is it truly stampt in our initial Conversion 4. Tâ—at which comes This Springs â—â—om faith not only from a person having faith but from faith it self that the Lord will graciously accept For as our actions do not please him without faith it is impossible without faith to please God So on the contrary when the actions do come from faith they do please the Lord. Abels Sacrifice presented in Faith did please him when Cains presented without faith was not regarded faith puts a value and acceptance on our actions But even initial Repentance comes from faith the person is by faith united to Jesus Christ from whom he hath received strength and grace to forsake his sins and to become a servant of righteousness 5. The Lord hath said that he will not despise the day of small things nor quench the smoaking flax nor break the God will not deâ—pâ—se â—he Day 〈◊〉 â—mall things bruised reed What Husbandman doth despise the little plant which he hath set Or what father doth despise the little child he hath begoten Why that God who hath appointed all the meanes and ordinances to cherish and prop and comfort and nourish and perfect the initials of Repentance doth not he
is Knowledge of Christ as revealed in the Word which a man may have and utter too and yet not have Faith there is Profession of Faith for the truth against errours and yet the Grace of Faith is another thing A man may have so much faith as to believe that there is a Christ and to confess his excellencies and in some sort to see his own necessities of Christ yea he may begin to article and capitulate as the Young-man and yet break off and be far enough from a Faith which doth indeed espouse and marry his soul unto Christ 4. Lastly The misery and danger Suppose The misery and danger you do deceive your selves and in the event it appears that you are not espoused to Jesus Christ by Faith that you never gave your hearts unto him that there never was any conjugal Union and Bond twixt you if thou indeed shouldst live Christless and die Christless what helpless hopeless happyless person art thou But you will reply We trust that we are truly penitent persons and that God hath given unto us such a Faith whereby we are really married unto Christ Sol. Well if that be so you have great cause to bless the Lord And that you may not be deceived therein I will deliver unto you some proper effects which that Faith produceth in every soul that is indeed married unto Qualities produced by an espousing faith Christ There are four Qualities produced by an espousing Faith 1. Estimation Let the Wife see that she reverence her Husband saith the Apostle Ephes 5. She must both acknowledg Estimation him as a Head and honour him as a Lord juâ—â—e and esteem of him in a relative consideration above all other The like effect doth Faith produce if it espouseth us to Christ it sets up Christ above all accounts of him as most excellent judgeth of all other things but as dross and dung in comparison of him will part with all for to get Christ The beauties of Christ are glorious in the eyes of every believer Christ doth not seem a mean thing an ordinary or common thing but he is the Pearl the Sun of Righteousness My Lord and my God saith Thomas In a word Faith if right exalts the Excellency of Christ and the Authority of Christ the Excellencies of his Person and the Authority of his Will and Laws 2. Election Election We make choice of Christ before all other Though sins though the pleasures and profits of the world proffer themselves yet as the Martyr at the stake None but Christ Or as Paul I desire to know nothing but Christ crucisied So the true believer Give me Christ I have enough I have that which is best of all he is the the Optimum and the Vnicum to Faith 3. Affection Conjugal Affection Faith ever produceth conjugal Love It were a monstrous evil for a woman to marry a man and noâ— love him and it were an adulterous thing for her to love any more then her own Husband Marriage doth by way of Duty infer and draw with it two qualities of Love one is exclusive and it is an unity of Love the other is intensive and it is a redundancy of Love Thus is it with us if Faith hath espoused us unto Christ it doâ—h kindle in us a love unto Christ not a divided love a love to Christ and a love to sin a love to Christ and a love to the world but an united love none is by us esteemed and loved as our Lord but Christ Nor doth it satisfie it self with a remiss and diminutive love which may serve any inferiour object but as Christ is in himself the most excellent object so Faith produceth such a degree of love which bears some proportion with that object viz. a superlative love a love of Christ above all and more then all more set on Christ than on any other object which yet may lawfully be loved more than our father or mother or wife or children Do we find this love in our hearts to Christ against all and above all Nay again True conjugal love infers with it a Love 1. of Complacency to delight in the thing loved 2. of Society to be with the person loved Is it so with us what delght have we in Christ in his person in his excellencies in his works in his ordâ—â—ances Is it our best joy to hear him to see him to speak with him 4. Subjection I confess that marriage doth not make the Subjection woman a slave yet by vertue thereof she is bound to submission or subjection she doth in a sort give away her self unto the disposal of another in the Lord Thy desire saith God Gen. 3. 16. shall be to thy husband and he shall rule over thee If thou hast a Faith which doth espouse thee unto Christ that Faith brings thy heart into the obedience and subjection of Christ It subjects thy will to Christs will and thy judgment to his truths and thy desire to his rule and thy works to his laws If Christ would have thee be and do one thing and thou wilt be and do another that thy will is still contradicting of Christs will and thy way is still contrary to his way Though a man may be married to such a stubborn and perverse piece yet Christ is not for all that are married unto him by Faith have in some measure wrought in them an obediential spirit desirous to know the mind of the Lord and willing to live godly in Christ Jesus Now this subjection which is the effect of an espousing Faith hath these properties in it viz. 1. Vniversality the wife is subject in all things 2. Diligence we must take care to please him 3. Delightfulneâ—â— it must be no burthen 4. Constancy as long as we live we must be subject to the will of our Lord. The last Use shall be for Exhortatiou That in case you find Vse 2. Exhortation this Ring of Faith by which you are espoused unto Christ given unto you then be very carefull to wear it and to bring it along with you to this next Sacrament We usually put on our Robes and our Rings when we come to any solemn Feasts The Sacrament of the Lords Supper is a Feast of good things there is Christ and mercy and redemption and sanctification and what not for the soul but bring your Ring with you Christ looks that you should come with it and you can do no good at the Sacrament if you have not the Ring on your hand Though you put forth your hand yet if the Ring be not on it the hand may take the bread but the Ring is it which onely can take Christ therefore bring Faith with you to the Sacrament Josephs Brethren must bring Benjamin with them or else they must not see his face nor should get food And let your faith work upon Christ all along on the love of Christ on the sufferings of Christ of the
a narrow path and under the straitest rules even such as condemn and cut off a world of pleasures and delights can that condition be very joyful which denies us the fruition of many joyes and delights 3. Conversion breeds the deepest sense of sin and the greatest mourning for sins Nothing makes the heart more mournful then converting grace See Zach. 12. 10. Can that condition be so very joyful which makes the heart so exceeding mournful 4. We see no persons walk more uncomfortably then at least some converted persons Yet the estate is joyful though the man is not alwayes so God is a God of comfort and they can pray for comfort comfort O Lord thy servants soul But more fully Object 1. No persons are so exposed to afflictions and persecutions as converted persons and these do deprive us of joy and How can this condition be joyful that is so exposed to afflâ—ctions Answered comfort To thâ—s I answer 1. It is a truth that Conversion doth expose a person to most afflictions and persecutions Many are the afflictions of the righteous saith David Psal 34. 19. All that will live godly in Christ Jesus must suffer persecution saith Paul 2 Tim. 3. 12. Filii lucis are Filii crucis and Christianus is Crucianus said Luther In the World you shall have troubles said Christ to his Disciples and the Disciple is not above his Master if the Master dyed upon the Cross is it much that the Disciple take up the Cross Nevertheless in the second place as it was emblem'd in Reverend Hoopers Motto There was a Lamb in a flaming Bush with the Sun shining upon it or as it was with the three Children though they were in a fiery Furnace yet the Son of God walked with them and preserved them So though converted persons meet with many afflictions there is yet a spring of joy a Sun of comfort open unto them therefore heed me 1. Afflictions and persecutions do only take away the Christians outward comforts The Shell not the Kernel the Case not the Afflictions only take away their outward comforts Jewel which neither make nor marr the joy and comfort of a converted person they do not take away the true principles of comfort There are three sorts of comforts Sensual which are drawn out of our sinful lusts Conversion is an enemy to these Sensitive which are drawn out of the creatures affliction is an enemy to these Spiritual which are drawn out of the favour of God the blood of Christ the Testimony of a good conscience afflictions cannot hinder these and only a sinful unconversion is an enemy to these The Winter freezeth up the Ponds but not the Ocean the winds blow out the Candle but not the Sun An Unconverted man may have an exemption from all outward Afflictions and yet have no inward Joy for although he hath peace with men yet he hath no peace with God and although he hath no trouble upon his Estate yet he may have terror upon his Conscience But a Converted man although he be compassed with outward Sorrows nevertheless he hath inward Joy though all the Candles be blown out yet I am Comforted as long as the Sun doth shine There are two sorts of evils there are mala tristia mala turpia afflictions are only Sorrowful evils as to ouâ— sense they are not Sinful evils as to our conscience Now no evil is able to take away spiritual comfort unless it be a sinfull evil I confess that did a godly man look upon creature comforts as his bonum ultimum as that which made him happy then afflictions would be inconsistent with his joy he might well cry out as Micah once Ye have taken away my gods and what have I more But he doth not so It is not the Creature but the Creator which is the foundation of his Happiness and joy A man may be Bad who hath them and Good who wants them If we had hope only in this life saith the Apostle 1 Cor. 15. we were of all men the most miserable I wish that you would or could give credit unto two things one is That that only makes the estate comfortable which denominates it to be good for nothing can be truly delightful but what is truly good The other is That there is a greater power in the presence of the chiefest good to make the Soul joyful then there can be in the recess or absence of the least kind of good to make it uncomfortable Were Afflictions the greatest evils and were Creatures the best good then joy could not consist with afflictions but God is the chiefest good and the Christian enjoyes him under all afflictions as his inseparable good Ergo. 2. As Afflictions do not take off the Times of afflictions are his most proper seasons for joy Christians true joy so the times of afflictions are oft times the most proper seasons for joy and comfort to his soul There are three seasons of special comforts which God is pleased to reserve for his servants one is after great temptations or to prepare against them as that Voice This is my well beloved Son came to Christ immediately before his temptation The second is after great Humiliations God who comforts them that are cast down saith Paul 2 Cor. 7. 6. The Angel comforted Christ after his Agony the Cordial comes after the Physick The third is before and under great afflictions and tryals Paul was to appear before Nero but first God appeared to him saying Be of good cheer Paul He is come he is come said the Martyr when he saw the stake and Stephen saw heaven opened before he dyed The comforts of heaven came into his heart just before the stones were thrown at him to dash out his brains 2 Cor. 1. 3. Blessed be God even the Father of our Lord Jesus Christ the Father of mercies and God of all comforts who comforteth us in all our tribulations for as our sufferings abound so our Consolation aboundeth through Christ Is not the night a season to light a Candle and is not weakness the season to give a Cordial and is not the winter a season to make a Fire When doth or can the Christian more need the comforts of God then when all comforts on earth do fail him 3. As afflictions deprive not the Christian of the true principles of Joy so neither Afflictions cannot hinder his principles of Joy from acting in a way of comfort can they hinder those principles in himself from acting in a way of comfort There are two principles especially in the Christian which enable him to joy and comfort One is Faith It is still Day and never Night with Faith the Star shines best in the night Believing ye rejoyced with joy unspeakable and full of Glory 1 Pet. 1. 8. Now Faith can act very comfortably in uncomfortable times it can see the same God with the same Love and in the same Covenant and in the same Relation
a lost sinner p. 238. Why God doth thus find a lost sinner p. 241. Motives to a serious Trial whether our lost souls be found p. 242. An impenitent unconverted man is a dead man p. 254. Reasons of it p. 256. Trial whether we be spiritually dead p. 261. Every converted man is a living man p. 265. How this may be evidenced p. 268. Trial of our selves about our spiritual life p. 269. Objections answered p. 276. A very great and notorious sinner may be converted p. 279. Who may be called so p. 280. How it may appear great sinners may be converted p. 281. Directions to such converted sinners p. 288. Great afflictions are sometimes an occasion of great sinners conversion p. 289. How it may appear p. 290. There is an Almighty Ppower required to convert a sinner p. 294. proved 295. True Conversion is avery great inward and universal change p. 303. and demonstrated to p. 312. How may a man know that God hath indeed changed his heart p. 316. Comfort to those who are changed p. 323. How may we know this change is from converting Grace and not from the power of a troubling Conscinece p. 329. Conversion brings the soul into a very joyfull condition demonstrated p. 333. What kind of joy Conversion brings p. 336. Why Conversion makes the souls condition so joyfull p. 339. How can this condition be so joyfull that is so exposed to afflictions p. 344. and denies and abridges many delights p. 347. Trial whether converted or no p. 359. How converted persons should do to walk joyfully p. 363. The Parable of the PRODIGAL LUKE 15. 11 c. 11. A certain man had two Sons 12. And the younger of them said to his Father Father give me the portion of goods that falleth to me And he divided unto them his Living 13. And not many days after the younger Son gathered all together and took his journy into a far Country and there wasted his substance with riotous living 14. And when he had spent all there arose a mighty famine in that Land and he began to be in want 15. And he went and joined himself to a Citizen of that Countrey and he sent him into his fields to feed swine c. THis Chapter consists of three Parables all of them tending to one scope and issue though distinct in their special matter and object The first Parable is of a Sheep from vers 4. to vers 8. The second of a piece of Silver from vers 8. to vers 11. The third of a Child from vers 11. to the end All of these agree in two conditions One of Loss the Sheep was lost the Groat was lost and the Child was lost Secondly of Recovery the Sheep that wandred is brought home the Groat which was lost is found out and the Son who departed is returned and accepted There be who undertake the Cyril Reasons of these Parables or dark similitudes under which Christ doth couch some special Lesson as why man is compared to a Sheep viz. because of our Creation wherein God made us and not we our selves we are the sheep of his pasture Psal 100. And why man is then compared to a Groat because of that singular image of God which was stamped in man at his creation as the royal image of a King is stamped upon such a piece of Coin And then why man is compared to a Son because of that near relation which he had to God being once able to call him Father And then why in every one of these to a lost Sheep a lost Groat a lost Son because of his revolt and departure from God by sin Nay and if it were lawfull to put and use free conceits on Parables as I am sure some of the Ancients do as St. Austin Gregory c. what if in this threefold Parable you might espie a threefold cause of mans fall In the sheep wandring Satans suggestion In the Groat lost by the woman the womans yielding In the Sons departing Adams voluntary revolting and spending of his happy estate and condition But these and such like observations though to some they seem more acute and pleasant yet to me they are frothy and unprofitable Touching the Parable therefore concerning which I am to The Scope of the Parable with a division of the chief Heads thereof Who are meant by the two Sons treat there are several conjectures about the sense and intention of it Concerning the Father of the two Sons they all agree but about the two Sons they differ Some by the two Sons understand Angels and Men The Angels they were the elder Son Man the younger being created after them The Angels abode at home with their Father Man had the stock put into his own hands and in a quick time lost himself and it This opinion you see hath some kind of Vicinity or correspondency sensus pius as Aquinas speaks of it but not proprius And there is one pregnant Reason against it in the Text for that the elder Son in this place is described to be grieved and sad at the acclamations and welcome testimonies of the younger Brothers return but the Angels rejoice and are glad at the conversion or return of a sinner 2. Others by the two Sons understand the Jews and the Gentiles the Jews were the elder the Gentiles the younger the Jews kept home as it were of all the Nations of the Earth they seemed to be the inclosure for God and his service and the Gentiles were as it were excluded rejected wandring sheep a lost people yet at length God through Christ looks after these lost sheep the other sheep of his fold as Christ speaks Joh. 19. and returns and accepts of the Gentiles which did much provoke the Jew as the elder Son was here provoked at the repentance and acceptance of the younger and kept out they were provoked to jealousie by those who once were not a people This interpretation pleaseth S. Austin and Cyril and some others and indeed it bears a fair congruity with the Parable in most respects 3. But the third and general opinion is that by the elder Son is meant the Scribes and Pharisees and under them any Justitiaries persons too conceited and confident of their own works service righteousness as this elder Son who had been as he said thus long in his Fathers house and never transgrassed any of his Commandments but served him carefully which indeed was the opinion of the Scribes and Pharisees who trusted to and boasted of their own righteousness And that by the younger Son is meant the Publicans and Sinners persons more notoriously riotous and infamous in sinning utterly forsaking of God as it were and living without him And the end of this Parable was to convince the proud and envious Scribes and Pharisees who in vers 1. and 2. of this Chapter murmured against Christ for receiving Publicans and Sinners Now Christ tells them that though these notorious sinners were despised by
will not become obedient he can quickly destroy us for our disobedience There is a day wherein God offers himself to be ours in grace and peace how long or how short that day is I cannot justly determine onely of this we may bee sure that God may in justice refuse us for ever if we refuse him once Note these Scriptures and they may perhaps awaken and recall us Ezek. 24. 12. She hath wearied her self with lies and her great sâ—um went not forth out of her her scum shall be in the fire v. 13. In thy filthiness is lewdness because I have purged thee by afflictions and thou wast not purged by repentance thou shalt not be purged from thy filthiness any more till I have caused my fury to rest upon thee Ver. 14. I the Lord have spoken it it shall come to pass and I will do it I will not go back neither will I spare neither will I repent aocording to thy waies and according to thy doings shall they judge thee saith the Lord God Luke 19. ver 42. Oh! if thou hadst known even thou at the least in this thy day the things which belong unto thy peace but now they are hid from thine eies Hebr. 3. ver 10. I was grieved with that generation and said they do alwaies err in their hears and they have not known my waies Vers 11. So I sware in my wrath they shall not enter into my rest Psal 81. ver 11. But my people would not hearken to my voice and Israel would none of me v. 12. So I gave them up to their own hearts lusts and they walked in their own counsels These four places do afford us four sad things which may befal persons refusing to return from their sins and deluding that work 1. That the Lord will not still be usiâ—g of means 2. That he will draw off the means 3. He will leave such sinners and give them up to themselves 4. They shall never enter into his rest and this the Lord binds with an Oath Every one of these is a Judgment sufficiently fearfull for what shall become of the sinner when the Lord shall judicially draw off the means of his Conversion or if the means be continued in common to others yet he will not work any more upon that person through them but he shall despise the counsels of the Word and slight the message of all Afflictions and that a person should run so far and so high in a way of wickedness that the Lord gives him over as a desperate hopeless and forlorn wretch to walk in his own counsels and after the lusts of his own heart and when the Lord seals him up by his Oath that this is a person who shall never see my face though many a sinner shall be pardoned and saved yet this sinfull Transgressor shall never enter into my rest Now what doth the sinner know who seeks new ways to secure his sinning and opposeth thereby all the ways which God useth for his converting I say how doth he know but that the Lord will deal thus with him God hath dealt so with some for dealing thus with him he closed up the day upon Jerusalem and left the Israelites to their own hearts lusts and never answered Saul any more neither by Prophets nor by Dreams and threatens to remove the Candlestick Revel 2. 3. Consider That if the Lord should shew almost the Miracle of his Goodness towards such a shuffling sinner his Conversion The conversion of such a one will be will be 1. the Harder 2. the more Bitter It will be the Harder for as much as all further degrees and steps The Harder in sinning do engage the heart more to the love of sin and naturally infers more hardness of heart and resistance against the motions of Grace When a Skaine of Thread is more and more clotted and entangled it will be the harder to clear it and a Cord may be so knotted that you cannot undo it but by cutting it asunder Though the work of Conversion be not difficult to God yet the far running sinner shall find it for his part a more intricate and hitching thing to wind his heart from those acts and paths of iniquity into which it hath been so long accustomed However it will be the Harsher the child which sticks so often in the birth causeth the birth to be Or the harsher more sharp and dolorous Usually the more sinfull a man hath been and the longer he hath held off God his soul is more cut partly with Fears for now he hath many doors to unlock ere he can fasten on grounds of comfort not onely that he hath held on a course of sin so long but also that he hath so subtilly and frequently withstood the tenders of grace and Gods manifold dealings with him already Though the person may have grace truly wrought in him to make him see all this vileness yet it may be long ere his faith shall be able comfortably to apprehend Gods mercy to forgive it He may have doubts not onely of mercy but of the truth of his conversion as if it seemed rather to be compulsive God may long withhold from him the testimony of his love who hath a long time perversly withheld the consent of his heart from returning unto him Partly with Shame It will be an exceeding reproach and confusion of face unto this person when ever the Lord converts him that he should deal with the Lord thus resist his Spirit so much and withstand that great kindness of God intended to him by the many means which he hath used Surely after that I was turned I repented saith Ephraim and after that I was instructed I smote upon my thigh I was ashamed yea even confounded because I did bear the reproach of my youth Jer. 31. 19. Then shall ye remember your own evil ways and your doings that were not good and shall loath your selves in your own sight for your iniquities and for your abominations Ezek. 36. 31. Ah! how it will rent and press the soul Such a fool such a beast was I to pursue my own ruine to reject my own mercies to slight so great salvation to vex so good a God and to be so infinitely unthankfully base that if I could have found any means of support I would never have submitted unto him and left my sinfull course Ah! how doth the Lord take this at my hands how unacceptable may my returning now be which may seem rather to be forced through extremity than to spring out of any ingenuity So that you see by our sinfull shiftings either God may deny us converting grace or else we shall make our Conversion much less easie and comfortable Object But some may say What can we help it can we turn our own hearts it must be the Lord who must do that and he We cannot convert our selves might do it at the first as well at at the last if he would Sol.
2. 7. Then shall she say I will go and return to my first husband for then was it better with me then now The condition in which the Church then was was a condition of much misery and affliction her way of sin was hedged up with thorns vers 6. and the way of obedience she considered of to be a path of mercy and much prosperity and comparing the one condition with the other hereupon resolves to return to her first husband i. to turn unto God by true Repentance 3. It may be cleared by Argument and Reason that these two viz. Solid Consideration and Right Comparison are steps unto By Argument Repentance 1. For Solid Consideration thus If inconsideration be the cause of impenitency or of going on in a sinful course then Consideration For solid Consideration is a proper means and way for Repentance for as much as these two are contraries and contrary causes produce contrary effects but inconsideration is a cause of impenitency so the Prophet If inconsideration be the cause of impenitency then consideration is a proper means for Repentance Jer. 8. 6. No man repented him of his Wickedness saying What have I done every one turned to his course as the horse rusheth into the battel They minded not what they did whether lawful or unlawful or what would be the issue of these things but like the horse which without fear or wit rusheth into the battel among swords and pikes 2. Consideration of sin removes many qualities which keep the Consideration of sin removes many qualities of sin which keep the heaâ—t â—n impenitency as heart in impenitency therefore it is a good step and way unto Repentance There are three qualities which hold fast the soul from returning 1. Ignorance therefore darkned understandings and hearts alienated from the life of God are conjoined Eph. 4. 18. a blind mind and a wicked life are inseparable yea greediness to sin and ignorance are there also coupled vers 18 19. no man so forward Ignorance to sin as he who knows it not Now solid Consideration removes ignorance it opens the eies of our understanding and makes us to see and behold that evil in sin which we never saw before in a right consideration there is 1. Lumen scientiae 2. Conscientiae 3. Experientiae 2. Security for presumptuous men will never leave sin if they may be safe He who fears not miserable evil will not be Security perswaded to forsake his sinful evil He who thinks that he may be wicked and safe will be wicked still nay he adds drunkenness to thirst who presumes of peace No evill shall befall us said they who despised all warnings to Repentance but solid consideration removes this security and presumption it makes the soul to see that as sin is an evil thing so it will prove a bitter thing and that the way which is sinful of all wayes is the most fearful it makes the sinner to behold the Angel with the sword drawn in the way of sin my meaning is to behold God exceedingly displeased the Wrath of God revealed against all Unrighteousness severely threatning and one who will assuredly execute his wrath to the utmost if sinners will not hearken and return by no means acquitâ—ing the guilty Except ye repent ye shall perish 3. Hardness of heart That brawny Rockiness which is ever accompanyed with Hardness of Heart an impudent resolution casting off and slighting all means and which is gainsaying or frustrating all the Lessons of Mercies Afflictions Ordinances c. they made their hearts as an Adamant stone least they should hear the Law c. Zach. 7. 12. But solid consideration helps much against this unsensible temper it is of great force towards the melting of the heart working strongly upon the affections as Peter thought thereon and wept bitterly Then shall ye remember your wayes and shall loath your selves For now a man sees indeed that he is in a very evil condition and lost for ever if the Lord be not the more merciful to him and this will startle him somewhat pierce him make him with them in Acts 2. cry out Men and brethren what shall I do 3. Solid Consideration of sin makes sin appear to the soul in Solid Consideration makes Sin appear in in its own proper Nature its own proper nature colours and effects As we are drawn to â—ommit sin so likewise to continue in it through falshood and error we are deceived and err in our hearts and therefore we continue in sinful wayes but as Truth doth rise in the mind so Reformation will appear in our hearts and wayes know therefore that sin appears unto us two wayes either Erroneously as invested and clothed with pleasures profits much serviceableness to our ends and as satisfactions of our desires as Judas lookt on his sin in the money and went on and thus they tend to impenitency they keep us fast in an evil way because of sensible sweetness Or Properly and nakedly as sin as the Violation of a most holy Will dishonour of a great God and separation from a good God and as exposing us to the wrath of God curse of the Law and pains of Hell and all outward Calamities And thus apprehended new Arguments and Reasons of hatred and Detestation arise within the Soul Should I love that or live in that which is Gods dishonour and will prove mine own damnation My troubles losses fears come all from my sins these are my sins and my doings they are the cause of all this trouble inward and outward But solid consideration makes sin to appear as sin in its own nature and true effects therefore it occasioneth hatred of sin and consequently Repentance 2. For Comparison of the misery of a sinful with the happiness Comparison of the misery of a sinful with the happiness of a penitent condition a step to Repentance For This breeds sound Judgment of things that differ of a penitent and converted condition that this likewise is a stept and way to Repentance may be thus proved 1. This Comparison breeds sound Judgment in us of things that differ All corrupt works are rooted in a corrupted mind like ill rhumes in the Head which come from ill qualities in the Stomack or rather like some ill diseases and irregularities in the Lambs Arms and Feet which come from unsound humours in the Brain So it is in this case men go on confidently in sin and are taken excessively with those poor baits of sensual pleasure and profit as if there were no other pleasure delight gain acquirable or to be found but in the wayes and service of sin as they in hell think there is no other heaven Or as foolish children who conceive no other sport or delight like a rattle or dirting their hands c. But now when by a comparison and true survey of either estate it shall appear unto the soul that all these sinful pleasures and profits
or Instrument of the Divine spirit for much good unto believing souls Among the rest it hath a singular virtue to breed assurance of Gods love and therefore it is called a Seal in Ro. 4. 11. In it Christ Jesus in whom God is reconciled is most distinctly represented in his Passion as making peace by his blood for our souls In it the same Christ Jesus is particularly offered and applyed unto us with all the benefits and efficacies of his person Take eat this is my body which was given for you 1 Cor. 11. 24. As if God should say As surely as I give thee this bread and wine so I give thee my Son and the purchase of his death even reconciliation and pardon and mercy A believing celebration of the Sacrament is a most admirable means to remove our doubts and to establish our hearts with an Fervent and patient Prayer assurance that God is reconciled unto us 3. Fervent and patient Prayer prizing the favour of God as David did Psal 63. 3. Hungring and thirsting after it as he hid Psal 106. 4 5. And thus continuing to seek with diligence being withall tenderly careful in our hearts and wayes to please the Lord we shall have the desires of our Souls crowned with the testimonies of his love here and with the full glory of his face and favour hereafter Luke 15. 21 22 23. 21. And the Son said unto him Father I have sinned against heaven and in thy sight and am no more worthy to be called thy Son 22. But the Father said to his servants Bring forth the best Robe and put it on him and put a Ring on his hand and Shoes on his feet 23. And bring hither the fatted calf and kill it and let us eat and be merry These words contain in them 1. The real acting of a penitential intention The matter whereof in his humble and sad confession I have insisted on already when I touched on v. 18 19. Now I shall observe a little more from the circumstance and manner of it 2. The strange alteration of his condition The heart of man never alters from sin to its prejudice the best courses ever draw after them the best comforts While he was a prodigal he had neither bread to eat nor Rags to cloath him nor house to lodg him much less Jewels to adorn him and feasts to entertain him But now he becomes a penitent here is a Father to admit him into a house to put the best Robe on his back and the Ring on his finger and Shoes on his feet and likewise to provide meat even the choicest for his belly Before I touch on these distinctly and particularly there are some Propositions which I will briefly touch on v. g. Doct. That no not the kindest expressions of mercy do silence a The kindest expressions of mercy do not hinder an humble confession of sin truly penitential heart from an humble confession of sin Kindest mercies draw out humblest confessions The Father pities meets embraces kisseth this penitential Prodigal What doth he rise up and slight all that hath been evil Oh no! mercy melts him down and he confesseth with tears Father I have sinned c. q. d. What is this that thou shouldst so easily so freely so mâ—rcifully behold so sinful so unworthy a wretch as I have been As David when God declared unto him the intentions of his further mercies for him and his posterity He sate before the Lord and said Who am I O Lord God and what is my house that thou hast brought me hitherto So is it with the true penitent upon the Declaration of pardoning and accepting mercy Now O Lord God who am I I who have done so wickedly yet to be remembred so graciously The same you find in Paul who though he received a testimony of his pardon and acceptance by a messenger graciously dispatched from Jesus Christ himself Acts 9. 17. Yet he doth most frequently and humbly acknowledg and confess the kinds and greatness of his former transgressions There is for the time a twofold Confession 1. Antecedent There is a twofold Confession Antecedent Consequent which is that humbling way which God designs for the assecution of mercy See Prov. 28. 13. 1 Jo. 1. 9. To make us indite and condemn our selves that he may acquit and pardon us 2. Consequent which is that judging and self-condemning way after mercy is obtained The sight of mercy breeds four notable effects in a true penitent 1. Much Admiration Oh that God should look on me 2. Much Detestation Oh that God should ever pardon me 3. More contrition Oh that I should sin against such a God 4. More Confession I have sinned and done very foolishly to sin against a God much in mercy 2. This consequent confession which followes the expressions or Consequent confession hath these qualities It is an ac-â— knowledgment of sin with more compunction testimonies of pardoning mercy hath these qualities 1. It is an acknowledging of sin with more compunction of spirit Sight of pardon doth not only open our lips but our eyes and fetcheth forth not only words but tears the heart doth break out when mercy breaks forth The heart never confesseth sin with more filial grief then when it apprehends sin much sin discharged with a paternal love the wind breaks the clouds but the Sun melts them most into showers so c. 2. It is an acknowledging of sin with more indignation The greaâ—er mercy makes a penitent With more indignation to be the sharper Judg the more God is now pleased with him the more is he displeased with himself for sinning against him When God remembred his Covenant Ezek. 16. 60. then did the penitential Israelites remember their wayes with shame v. 61. And when he made it known to them that he was pacifyed towards them then were they confounded and never opened their mouths more v. 63. 3. It is an acknowledging of sin with more With more aggravation aggravation Servile confessions are usually more deceitful and partial as Adam did acknowledg his sin but puts it on Eve no coâ—fessions are so free and full as such which arise from the apprehension of mercies David got his pardon for a great transgression but then hoâ— exact is he in the distinct accusation of himself and humble acknowledgment of his sin in all the articles and circumstances of it Psal 51. 4. It is an acknowledgment of sin with more detestation Evidence of pardon produceth two With more detestation effects One is more ardent affection of love to God Another is which necessarily followes a deeper hatred of sin which opposed so gracious a goodness All that good which God mentions in the Covenant Ezek. 36. 25. to the end of v. 30. produced a better remembrance of former evils and also a deeper loathing of themselves for their iniquities v. 31. As Job upon Gods appearing to him and conferring with him now abhors
Repentance formal cold negative way of repentance deeming themselves no less then Penitentiaries who have this only to plead They never in all their lives did wrong or harm c. But remember O self-deceiver if ever God gives to thee repentance indeed thou wilt find other sinful courses to be left besides those of Commission thou wilt find thine Omissions to be a highly guilty course of sin that thou frequently omits calling upon God hearing of his Word reading of his Word examining of thy heart humbling of thy soul walking in an holy and heavenly and exact manner c. Thou often criest out What bad course am I in I demand of thee what holy course art thou in what other course of life leadest thou then ever c. Well I will say no more but this but if other and better lives be the arguments of true Repentance the Lord be merciful to us there are then but very few penitents the same oaths the same cursings the same worldliness the same pride the same drunkenness the same uncleanness the same neglects of God and spiritual duties we are Vse 2. Let us shew our Repentance by our Conversation not others then we were we live not otherwise then we have done But secondly If any of you take your selves to be penitents I beseech you then let us carefully shew it by our lives and conversations Consider to this purpose 1. If there be truth of If there be true Repentance there will be newness of conversation Repentance there will be newness of Conversation A monstrous taing to see a man start up and walk with his Coffin and Grave-cloaths If it be light it will shine and if it be fire it will heat and if it be salt it will season if thy heart be purged indeed thy life will also be reformed indeed If ye have been taught as the Ephes 4. 21. truth is in Jesus put off concerning the former conversation the old man 2. The Lord â—esus hath purchased thy Life as well as thy Soul and redeemed thy Conversation as well as thy Nature Christ hath purchased thy life as well as thy soul He did dye not only to recover thy inward Man but also to cure thy outward Man that as thy Heart should not be profane so thy Conversation should not be vain Christ hath suffered for us in the flesh that we should no longer live the rest of our time in the flesh 1 Pet. 4. 1 2. Christ hath dyed for thee that now thou shouldst live unto him 3. The honour of Religion lyes upon thy The honour of Religion lies upon thy life Life Thy heart may be a secret a closet of much good or evil we leave it to the Searcher of hearts but thy life is a publick Letter an audible Voice a common Object The profession of truth and holiness is an honourable thing in it self but a good and answerable Conversation adds and reflects a greater honour to it As the Heaven is a beautiful Creature but it is the more beautified by the shining of the Stars So is it with Religion it is an Excellency in it self and is made the more excellent by an excellent Conversation But a lewd rude foolish boystrous incongruous fowl uneven evil life makes Religion to look like Gold in the dirt or like a Jewel in a Swines snout or like Beauty in a Whore It is the very scandal of Religion and as a death verse upon an holy profession What is it that thou now and then fillest the eyes of men with a little gravity and the ears of men with a little piety when still thou by thy wicked life armes the hearts of men to scorn and the tongues of men to blaspheâ— the Name of God and Professors The more pretence thou hast to repentance the more odious art thou by thy impenitent life to the profession thereof The strictest eyes are upon the strictest professors and no miscarriages take so soon with men or damp Religion more 4. The souls of men lie much upon their life What Greg. Nazianz The souls of men lie much upon their life said of the Painter That he teacheth not by his language but by his hand and Chrysostom of the Minister That his first part is to Live well and then to Teach well that is true of every penitent Christian for his inward affections come not so into our scales as his outword actions We judge of him and imitate him not by what lies hid in his heart but by what appears in his life and of all men we are most confident to imitate the actions of those who pretend most against sin Now then if thou who pretendest to repent of all sin by thy sinful life shouldâ—t multiply sinners amongst men or strengthen the hearts of sinners from returning O how bitter O how dismal how fearful how an amazing account that thou even under a forme of Repentance shouldst keep men in an estate of impenitency to damn their souls by thy continual sinnings Sins in conversation are alwayes of more publick danger then those of disposition as a Feavor or a Plague 5. The comfort and peace of thy Conscience lies much in it The comfort and peace of thy Conscience lies much in it A good Life is the best Commentary of an upright heart and uprightness is a comfort A good Life is the best Star to clear up Gods glory and to bring him glory is to bring our selves comfort Conscience will judge thee more for evil in life as more perfected more hurtful than for that within A good life is the only Plaister by which we heal others the only Pilot by which we direct others the only Hand by which we hold up others We may think good but this circumscribes it self with our selves we may desire good but this also conâ—ines it self with our selves The good life is the life only which doth good to others and the more good we do the more comfort still we have 6. The reward will be great to the life that is good It s true The Reward will be great to the good life that God in his future retribution hath respect to the inward graces and dispositions but he takes publick notice of the operations of them in our lives as for acting themselves and therefore pronounceth the reward to the doer and the kingdom unto him that cloaths and feeds and visits c. What! an eternal life for a good life 7. But lastly Look on all who are truly penitent or have All that are truly penitent have been very circumspect of their lives been so how tender and circumspect they have been of their lives and walkings How extremely circumspect was David of his tongue Psa 39. and as exceedingly pensive for any unbeseeming word or fact much more for any scandalous evoâ— such a fool such a beast was I Psa 51. So the Apostles both in their wayes and in their directions unto all the
deep which no Potion can remove and sin doth not sit close and strong to the heart which no not extreme miseries can occasionally and effectually discharge and quit There are no penalties so grievously and unspeakably afflicting and miserable as those in Hell which cause weeping and gnashing of teeth and yet these though highest for intention and endless for duration never are able to turn the sinning soul so madly and excessively is the person enthralled that the greatest Calamities effectually avail not to bring him off from the least course of Iniquities 3. Not to wonder if some men make ordinary Revolts after ordinary miseries Some persons may like some stones which Wonder not if â—ome men Revolt after miseries yield a sweat in change of weather somewhat reflect on themselves and relent and confess and profess what they will be and do if God will take off his heavy hand And may I not appeal to many of you this day whose hearts have been visited with the plague that thus then it was with you c. Yet when the plague is off and the smart and fear gone the bitterness of death is past that health succeeds the sickness and plenty succeeds the want and strength succeeds the weakness good Lord what are they how live they what do they what mind they what affect they what work they Do they leave their sins ah as the Pharisees made their proselites twice as much more the children of the Devil then before so these men become more vile more profane more careless more rebellious against the truth of God more earthly sensual then ever Brethren if as Solomon spake in another case When thou seest a violent perverting of judgment and justice in a Province marvel not at the matter So Eccl. 5. 8. if thou seest a man to pervert the judgments of the Lord to pervert his afflicting hand to go on in his sins after he is punished for his sins I say in this case do not much marvel at the matter for miseries alone cannot make any saving impression or sanctified alterations If men may hold fast their sins even under their miseries as a Thief may steal under the Gallows what marvel then if they go on in their sins after their miseries And what cause have we to think that any pious semblances and pretences should hold long which did owe themselves to such temporary causes as were never able to alter the sinners heart though they were in some degree able to stop the sinning person But I proceed to a second Use which shall be a little to reflect on our own hearts and wayes and to enquire how it is with us Use 2. Reflect upon our own hearts notwithstanding the miseries and straits that are upon us as Solomon spake concerning sin Who can say My heart is clean that I may speak this day concerning punishment of sin Who can say I have been free As it was in Egypt upon the departure of the Israelites so it hath been of late with most of us there is scarce an house of us where at least one hath not been dead I may confidently affirm That either death in opposition to Life or death in opposition to Livelihood to some one kind or degree of outward comfort hath within this year befallen most of us that are now here this day Nevertheless I pray you tell me Can you shew your repentance yet as you can relate your straits and miseries still Have not we the Ministers of God faithfully and plainly told you of your sins have not your miseries and straits been clear Glasses to represent your sins have not your Consciences delivered up your sins and said as Jonah I know that for my sake so they for our sake this great Tempest is upon you Jon. 1. 12. Were you not in great fears in great griefs and troubles of mind need I say in great Protestations and Purposes But now I demand of you Have your great straits brought you off from your great sins did they not find thee in a sinful way and do they not now leave thee walking in that path Ah! and must the Lord say of you They refuse to receive instruction they turn not to him that smites yet have they not returned to me they will know no shame they are reprobate silver they are not refined nor purged their scum is not departed If we continue in sin after miseries wherefore should they be smitten any more they revolt more and more Well if it be thus with thee yet remember 1. That this continuance in sin notwithstanding our miseries may give us just suspicion to sear that our Corrections come not We may suspect our corrections comâ— not from mercy from mercy because they go off with impenitency You need not ascend into heaven to pry whether your chastisements come out of the land of Indulgence or of Vengeance when they come from a merciful hand they are assisted â—â—th some recovering and curing blessing The Prophet saith That the Lord did not smite his people as he smote others and in two respects he Isa 27. 7. manifests the difference one of Proportion He did debate with them in measure ver 8. Another of Operation v. 9. By this shall the iniquities of Jacob be purged and this is all the fruit to take awy his sins God never strikes in mercy but he in some measure betters the sinner Look as every outward good if it comes in mercy it proves a step unto more holiness so every outward misery if it come in mercy it proves a stop nay an abatement of more sinfulness 2. We may justly fear that our hearts are hardned for the soft We may fear our hearts are hardned heart will tremble with Josiah at a correction in a threatning and much more will it melt and amend when it is in execution as he in Job 34. 31. I have born chastisement I will not offend any more But when the heart can feel wrath as well as hear of it and receive the stroaks with stoutness and strike God by sinning when God strikes it by punishing is it not hardned unsensible I had almost said desperace And is an hardned condition a good or safe condition 3. Do we not treble our accounts unto God by not We treble our accounts to God coming off from sins which have brought on our miseries Now we must answer 1. For the sins which brought down our corrections 2. For the continuing in those sins still 3. For doing this being corrected thus for our sins not onely thy sins but Gods punishments being thus abused come into the account the Vineyard was reckoned with for the pruning as well as the withering 4. And lastly What can we look for from God when former miseries bring us not off from former sins Christ said Sin no What can we look for from God when miseries do not bring us off from our sins more least a worse thing befall
or last they shall know that it shall not be well with the wicked and that between a former punishment and a greater there may step in many mercies as twixt the fits of a Fever some real slumbers and pauses Now I proceed to the Application of this Point which shall be for Conviction 1. Of the vanity and deluding presumption Vse Conviction of The vanity and deluding presumption of the sinner in the heart of sinners who imagine that worse they cannot be and as much misery is befallen them as can be and therefore they will on to their sins again Let us not deceive our selves that God with whom we are to deal is of infinite power and wrath and the conscience of a guilty sinner is capable of infinitely many miserable impressions The Bee may leave her sting in the flesh and so be disabled c. Therefore let no man say as Agag Surely the bitterness of death is past you know Samuel presently hewed him in pieces before the Lord in Giâ—gal Alas thou knowest not the wrath which is yet behind God doth never fully manifest his wrath upon any sinner in this life nor doth he punish him so in any kind but that a greater judgement a worse thing as Christ spake to him in the Gospel may yet befal him Consider that as greater judgments are yet behind all the punishments which we have felt so it is Gods method to begin low but to end his work of Judgement heavily he doth by some lighter afflictions skirmish with a person or a Nation and if they yield not then he will bring the great Army of his Plagues and Judgements And again know that multiplication of sins is a just cause for the addition of Judgements Renewed sinnings are alwayes the more hainous and strong in deserts but renewed sinnings after punishment for sin are yet of a deeper dye because They relish much of Presumption though God hath already testified his displeasure yet the sinner will adventure on his wrath and provoke him again They receive universal condemnation the sinner now sins against all the waies of recovery the Word of God which called upon him to be wise and to receive instruction and to return unto him that smote The punishment or rod which did tender him the sins which brought this upon his back The mercy of God which drew off the wrath and though it might have been a destroying sword at once that destruction should not have risen up the second time yet it so wrought with the master that he would try the sinner yet a little longer thou mightst have been among the dead yea among the damned for thy former sinnings yet mercy hath so tempered justice that time is left thee to repent and this space thou abusest to sin again yea though justice met with thee for them already yea though mercy released thee yet a little longer yea though thou didst confess these sins yea though thou wert greatly troubled for these sins yea though thou didst resolve against these sins and if thou thus sinnest more will not thy punishment be greater Doth not God hate sins now as well as then Or if thou be greater in transgressions will he be less in justice Canst thou expect mercy should come more easily when sin is raised more deeply He that being often reproved hardneth his neck saith Solomon Prov. 29. 1. shall suddenly be destroied and that without remedy The same may be affirmed of being punished usually perseverance in sin after punishment brings a sudden and a sore destruction God hath many arrows which flie over the heads and after that hee hath arrows to wound the hearts of his enemies You know that there be not onely warning-pieces but murdering-pieces in the roial artillery The punishment which a man hath already felt for his sins are but so many warning-pieces to repent to return from sin but if men will harden their hearts there are murdering-pieces God can so deeply strike that destruction shall not rise up the second time 2. The second conviction shall be of Duty If the further Conviction of duty men go on in sin the worse rhey shall speed then let us learn a double duty 1. To avoid such things as will occasion a further progress in sin after punishment 2. To apply our selves to such Avoid waies as may take us off from sinning being punished 1. Vitanda The things which we must avoid as occasioning a further progress in sin are these 1. Ignorant Misconstruction as if Gods Ignorant misconstruction arrows did flye out as his who shot at an adventure and lighted on Ahab so that our punishments are but meer casual things naked acts but no lessons Nay brethren if we had but an ear to hear every affliction and punishment hath a voice to speak this may be said of every punishment what Ehud said to â—glon I have a message unto thee from God 2. Atheistical pride as Pharaoh who is the Lord that I should let Israel go When a Atheistical pride person will exalt himself in the times of wrath and will not tremble nor fear before the Lord but slights the operation of his hands and for all this will not lay to heart the hand of God alas this makes way for sinning 3. Froward Impatience when persons are sensible of punishment but vex against God who strikes so close yea and like that Froward impatience King in the strait This evil is of the Lord why should I wait on the Lord any longer When men will forsake God because hee doth punish them this is a further sin and makes way for more sinning The soul which is most apt through a murmuring impatience to question God will be apt through a presumptuous confidence to sin against God in the dead sea there is least sailing and in the raging sea there is most ship-wracking 4. Empty confessions when persons satisfie themselvs with words and a meer form of Repentance putting on for the time a grave Empty confessions countenance and fetching a sigh and dropping a tear and acknowledging that all is not well but all this while they search not to the root they do not strive to examine their hearts to humble them to cleanse and reform them and what then can be expected but upon some convenient occasion the old heart should return to its old waies and courses Pharaoh confessed that he and his people had sinned but still he hardned his heart and would not let Israel go Hypocritical humiliation or repentance because rising from mutable causes lasts not long nor changes the disposition of the soul The sore which is but covered and not cured will break out again 5. Negligent remissions An heart which likes not to change its course may ye for the obtaining some special good give out Negligent remissions unto the doing of much good and for the removal of some evil make a stop of much sin You may observe that
sometimes in the heat of a punishment how our hearts perhaps fall down before the Lord and we are very urgent on him and very diligent spend much time in his service and a kind of watchful tenderness is come upon us against sin but then we let fall our hands and our candle quickly burns more dimly our task abates our affections grow slack our purposes our services wear away and we begin to grow as forward to our sins as before the liking of God and of his waies and services cool and sinful occasions grow as pleasing and acceptable Remember it that man will be quickly bad who grows negligently good and the soul which is weary of Gods service is ready for sins work 6. Partial reservations when men in or after punishment will Partial Reservations profess against the great bulks of sin and as Pharaoh at length was willing to let the people go but to stay the little children so we wil bid defiance and seem to take resolution against our former great iniquities in the greatness of them but yet we will keep back and not part with such and such things which perhaps formally are not sinful but occasionally they may to our corrupt affections prove so Why how can it be but such a soul should make yet a progress in sin who reservs still an incendiary motive a quick and captivating incentive unto sin The river will quickly over-spread and fill the channel if you give it way spare but your self in occasions and they will bring on first the lesser trials of sin and the lesser trials will quickly ingage you to greater adventurings and some adventurings will easily bring you to your old courses In the second place let us apply our selvs to such waies as may Directions take us off from sinning yet more after punishment which you have heard doth make the condition yet worse The directions which I would commend unto you are these 1. In all punishment for sinning follow the writ open it and see In all punishment for sin search out thâ— Cause whose name is in it my meaning is enquire into thy self search diligently for whose sake this evil befals thee as the Mariners in Jonah concerning the tempest they did cast lots that they might know for whose cause that evil was upon them so should we in the presence of our punishment when Gods hand is in any kind upon us search and lift up our hands unto God to shew us the special reasons of his wrath and indignation for though earthly parents do many times inconsiderately in passion chastize their children after their own pleasure yet God doth it wisely and never without cause we may say of all our punishment what the Prophet saith to the Israelites Jer. 4. 18. Thy way and thy doings have procured these things unto thee this is thy wickedness c. Punishments never prove reformations until first they be informations they never cure the heart unless first they clear the eye We must first spell the Lesson before we can take it forth therefore this do if thou canst not find the specialty of thy provocations 1. Look thy afflictions and punishments well in the face perhaps thou mayest in them see the very feature of thy sin which hath caused God to punish thee very usually that punishment which is a Rod is also a Glass it shews us the fault for which we are lashed 2. Observe thy self in the estate when thy punishment doth come do but recal thy bent of heart course ways imagination devices sometimes a man is taken by the punishment when he is dealing in a way which doth more especially provoke God 3. Peruse the Word and well consider what sins have brought down such kind of punishment Pares culpae Pares poenae God doth many times keep his course of the same punishments with the same sins else the Apostles dehortation of the Corinthians from Idolatry and Uncleanness which was the Israelites sins for fear of the like punishments were somwhat vain 4. Lastly Regard the first and more frequent verdicts of thy own conscience There are two times when Conscience deals more home and faithfully with us One is when we are to die Another is when we are to suffer in a time of judgment and affliction we find as Josephs brethren did the remembrance of former evils Surely this is befallen us because of our brother c. said they So our hearts tell us Well assuredly this comes upon me for my Swearing for my Drunkenness for my Uncleanness for my Covetousness c. 2. When your sins are brought to light that you can say Here is my punishment and there are my sins then go to God When the sin is discovered go to God in an humbâ—e confession of iâ— with them to him that smote thee By most humble and broken Confession that thou hast done wickedly but the Lord hath dealt most righteously acquit him but condemn thy self Accuse and indite thy sinning soul O Lord thus and thus have I sinned and provoked thee c. Deal ingenuously with the Lord and freely confess unto him and never leave until thy soul be afflicted for sinning as well as thy body until thou canst grieve a thousand times more for thy sins than for thy punishment for the dishonour which God hath felt by thy sinnings than for the smart which thou feelest under thy punishments By most vehement and constant Petition and that for two things especially Go to God by earnest petition for viz. 1. Reconciliation with that God whom thou hast so much provoked by thy sinnings As Moses said to Aaron Take a Censer Reconciliation Numb 16. 46. and put fire therein from off the Altar and go quickly to the Congregation and make an attonement So let us speedily strive to reconcile our selves unto the Lord beseeching him to love us freely to receive us graciously to pardon us for his own sake to remember our sins no more not to contend with us for ever but to cast our sins into the depths of the Sea and mercifully to be our God And in this business of reconciling our selves with God take notice 1. Of the meritorious cause of it which is the bloud of Christ called therefore our attonement Rom. 5. and our Propitiation 1 Joh. 2. 1. Now beseech the Lord to look on thee in Christ and to remember the bloud of the everlasting Covenant which was shed for the remission of sins and to make peace Beseech him to be reconciled unto thee in and through Christ and do thou stedfastly trust unto him by faith for it 2. Of the means of it To the Word to Prayer O be earnest for such dispositions upon which the Lord will â—eal mercy and forgiveness He will be gracious to the cry of the mournfull soul Isa 30. 19. and to the penitent 2 Chron. 7. 14. 2. Sanctification Alas if the Lord should lay upon thee Sanctification as many and
as great plagues as he did on Pharaoh and should they come as thick on thee as on him or any that ever thou didst read of yet if the Lord did not give thee a sanctified heart or if the Lord did not co-operate with the afflictions in a sanctifying way thou wilt be so far from desisting that thy heart after a while will grow as wicked as before It is not absolutely the punished soul nor is it absolutely the troubled conscience nor is it absolutely all that we can see or say which will divert our future course of sinning but it is the sanctified heart the new heart which will make us to leave old sins and live new lives Therefore to the Lord must we go under our afflictions and beseech him to open our ear to discipline and to purge away our iniquities and to make us partakers of his holiness and so to cause us to bring forth the more peaceable fruits of righteousness and note this That all this must be done not in a fit for a little time but habitually we must not cease confessing until we can heartilâ— mourn we must not cease confessing mourning praying until we find the Lord reconciled unto us and our hearts changed and renewed Now those sanctified Qualities which more specially a punished sinner should beg to divert him from progress in sin and to turn him Sanctified Qualities to be begged Hearty Contrition for sins past off from sin I conjecture are these 1. Hearty contrition for sins past He who is a merry Penitent proves an easie Delinquent if former sinnings be no Grief future sinnings will be no Fear he will never with stedfastness learn a good Course who can without mournfulness come off from a bad Way Beg of God for ever to make thee sensible and mournful 2. Real Conversion That the very frame of the Mind Will and Affections be Real Conversion changed the Frame more then the Form that thou become a new Creature get a new heart and Spirit 3. A sincere love of A sincere Love to God God If thy heart knows not yet how to love God it never forgat how to go on in Sin there is nothing which heals the Soul of Sin so as the Love of God this sets the heart on him and makes it to cleave unto him and tender to please him 4. Solid fear of God A reverent awe both of his goodness Solid Fear of God and of his greatness this will strike off security and hardness and presumption and set us in Gods presence and keep the conscience tender and increase humbleness c. 5. Watchfulness over our special corruptions which if any will make us to Watchfulness over our speciall Corruptions halt soonest Do not forget how much they did provoke God already and how assuredly bitter they will prove if thou dost resume them And he fain would have filled his belly with the busks that the Swine did eat and no man gave unto him Vers 16. These words comprehend in them two things First The utmost design of the sinful Prodigal He would fain have filled his belly with the husks that the Swine did eat Secondly The utmost disappointment of that utmost design And no man gave unto him According to either of these there are two Propositions observable by us viz. That a sinner will go through and try the utmost extremities and wayes ere he will return from his sins 2. That nothing shall avail the shuffling and trying sinner untill he doth return from his sins When the Lord forsakes a man nothing avails to help a man That a sinner will try all wayes and go through the utmost extremities ere he will return from his sins The Prodigal here Doct. 1. A sinner will try all wayâ—s to the utmâ—st extremities ere he will return from his sins spends all yet he returns not he is pinched with famine yet he returns not he joyns himself with a Citizen and he sends him to feed Swine yet doth he not return if he could have got but the husks which the Swine did eat husks are but poor empty light things miserable nourishment but if he could have made any shift any way to have supported himself he would not have returned unto his Father Thus you read of Pharaoh that though there were a Climax of plagues upon him and wonders of ruine upon his Land and Cattel and Servants rising like a Tide and Flood yet till it came to his first-born and the next stroke was to reach his own life he would not obey the Voice of the Lord in letting of Israel go like obstinate defendants in a City which will lose one Outwork after another and suffer the Undermining of their Walls ere they will come to terms of Capitulation So we read of the Israelites before the Captivity how extremely they did endure a very succession of Judgments and variety of strange punishments before they would return Amos 4. 6. Cleanness of teeth and want of bread yet have they not returned to me saith the Lord. Ver. 7. Rain was withheld and great scarcity was there of water yet Ver. 8. Have ye not returned to me Ver. 9. Smiting with blasting and mildew and the Palmer worm yet c. Ver. 10. Pestilence after the manner of Egypt and the Sword yet have ye not returned Ver. 11. Overthrowing some of them as God overthrew Sodom and Gomorrha and pulling some of them as a firebrand out of the burning yet have ye not returned unto me saith the Lord. And thus was it with them after the Captivity all the famine and miseries which they suffered in the Siege where the mothers were forced to eat their children of a span long Lam. 2. And all the merciless devourings of the sword and all the kinds of destroying sicknesses did not turn them to the Lord against whom they had sinned but after all they spend the utmost of their pollicies for safety running into Egypt flying unto Ashur they tryed all sorts of fruitless confidences before they would return unto the Lord therefore doth the Lord threaten to hedge their ways with thorns and to make a wall that they shall not find their paths Hos 2. 6. i. he would cast them upon such a condition that they should not go any further or if they did they should have little ease they should walk as upon thorns upon continual prickings and woundings and all this must be done before they will return to their first husband vers 7. Now for the clearer opening of this Assertion consider of these particulars 1. That it is to be understood of the natural temper of the sinner The sinner may be considered two wayes under extremities As This is to be understood of the natural temper of the sinner effectually assisted by the preventing grace of God which is of surpassing vertue to renew the soul and to conquer its stubbornness and aversness and effectually to perswade and draw in the
moved to endure much in his body for the preservation and defence of it for sin is an evil thing and therefore worthless Or 2. Because any sin is less evil then misery and therefore this shall be endured rather Noâ— because any sin is less evil then misery But because The sinner doth exceedingly love his sin then that shall be forsaken But 1. The sinner doth exceedingly love his sin The heart of a sinner is set on his sin he hath made a Covenant with death and an agreement with hell He loves darkness and is held fast with the bonds and cords of his sinful affections A person doth many times suffer pains sharper then death because he doth exceedingly love life Why a sinner loves his sin as he loves his life nay more then his life the which he doth often hazard for ever to preserve his sin 2. The sinner is a Fool Put a fool never so oft in the Stocks it doth The sinner is a Fool. him no good he understands not the cause nor end of it Evil men are chastized and punished by God but they know not nor understand they know not that their sins are the cause thereof and that Conversion from sin is the end thereof 3. There is a marvellous stout Spirit of pride in the sinner who is therefore said to There is a stout spirit of pride in a sinner fight against God and to resist him and though he be smitten yet to refuse to return and wilfully to transgress and that they will not hearken Stifnecked are they called and foreheads have they which cannot be ashamed and faces that cannot blush 4. A vain presumption From a vaine presumption that yet their sinful wayes shall be well at last From the Contrariety betwixt the wayes of God and the Sinners heart that yet their sinful wayes shall be well at last It is but bearing a while and at length their calamities will off He who goes on in a sinful way is never without some sinful project and chimeraes silly fancies of some good and some support and wearing out of his troubles c. 5. There is a bitter contrariety twixt the wayes of God and the sinners heart Light and darkness are not more opposite hence is it that in Job they say unto God Depart from us we desire not the knowledg of the Almighty And in Psal 2. They break the cords in sunder And Heb. 10. They are said to offer despight unto the Spirit of Grace Holiness and holy walking ah it is that which their hearts hate more then hell they will adventure their damnation before they will affect and practice holiness no greater burden and torment to them then it 6. And sometimes Unbelief may be a special cause why a sinner doth thus shift and From unbeliefe try The guilt of his sins under his afflictions may lie heavy upon his conscience and he may be so wholly taken up with the apprehension of wrath and judgment and an implacability in God towards him that God will never shew him mercy who hath been so much and so long provoked that it is in vain to return now there is no hope 7. The Vanity of a corrupt Judgment which deludes From the Vanity of a Corrupt Judgment the sinner as if he could be sinful and safe or that he could subsist well enough without returning to God Now I proceed to the Application of this point the Uses are many 1. For Conviction of Error in Judgment Use 1. Conviction It is no easie work to Repent 1. That it is an easie work to Repent and to leave sin When I am sick or come to dy then I will think of that work No brethren if the heart of man be of so subtil a temper and so perverse a frame can afflictions do it of themselves if the love of sin be so strongly in grain that many waters of afflictions cannot wash it out nor many beams of mercy melt and turn it you must then imagine it not to be an easie work to turn the heart from sin if it will adventure the loss of heaven and the endurance of hell and the actual presence of many sore calamities confess then That the descents into sin are easie but the returns from it are not ordinary or facile Faciles aditus Dificiles oxitus saith St. Austin More is required to Convert then External and Congruous Grace Where all the means tending to the Conversion of a sinner are opposed and as it were wholly defeated and frustrated there the heart is not so easily wrought upon to retâ—rn 2. That no more is required to Convert a sinner but External and Congruous Grace as if the heart were like a Fish upon the hook which might be drawn at pleasure to the shore or like Wax prepared and it were no more but to put on the Seal or as if to Convert a sinne were no more then to report a History or to offer a man a Purchase Nay but there must be likewise Impressions as well as Invitations not only Means but Grace it self not only the Rod and Word but likewise the Spirit of God and his mighty Operation not only a Voice saying This is the way but also the Spirit of God which must cause us to walk in that way there must be healing Medicines put within the Soul by the hand of God himself or else all the means in the world the Word the Sacraments the afflictions and miseries and examples may say and complain with the Prophet Isa 49. 4. I have laboured in vain I have spent my strength for nought 2. For Information 1. Of that excessive stubbornness and madness in the hearts of us sinners Good Lord what an hand hath sin Information Of the excessive stubbornness of the hearts of sinners over us That terrors should arise like an horrible tempest within the conscience for sinning and drive a man to his feet yea to the dust yea almost as low as hell That his sinning should pull down one calamity after another take away the dayes of peace of plenty of safety of health and darken them with war and tumults with scarcity and indigence with danger and trouble with losses and diseases cloath a mans body with rags fill a mans body with rottenness obscure a mans name with infamy and yet yet after all and under all that a person should hold fast his wickedness which is the cause of all and will not let it go he will not be weaned from it nor charmed No Mercy nor Justice nothing can dissolve the Covenant twixt his heart and sin but llke that Athenian Commander if I forget not the story who when he was threatned to let go the Ship held it when one hand was cut off he held it with the other when both were cut off he held it with his teeth The Lord be merciful to us thus is it with us though God threatens yet we sin though he
And is this excuse to pass for currant hath not God dealt Answered with thee often didst not thou more often harden thine own heart willingly withdraw thy self and all out of a love to sin 2. Though thou couldst not convert thine own heart yet this thou mightest have done in the times of afflictions c. considered what might move the Lord thus to deal with thee all or some of the causes which thy own conscience did freely suggest and the ends which God pointed thee to to reform them And then to have gone to him by vehement prayer to convert thy heart from thy sins to teach it righteousness to submit to his instructions Thou mightst thus have gone to him who can convert and have waited on him in the means of conversion but thou didst nor desire after him nor delightedst to seek him c. 2. But What may we do to prevent this shuffling and assaying of means to support us in sinning when the Lord deals with us and Means to prevent this shuffling calls upon us for the leaving of sin Sol. I would commend these five Directions 1. Strive to be convinced of this That as long as the Course is a sinfull Course it Be convinced of this That a sinfull course cannot be a 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 safe course can never be a safe Course We may weary our selves in the multitude of our imaginations and ways but run what course you please and pursue your own devices yet this ye shall reap of the Lord you shall lie down in your shame and sorrow you may run to new experiments but misery will follow your sins the next time as well as this and in every way as well as one way Your sins will find you out and as long as you carry your sins with you you cannot keep off calamities from you 2. Of necessity you must return or perish Your sinfull course is You must return or perish a by-path and leads to death It is sinfull and you know it and being sinfull it must be miserable To what end doth the Patient excuse the taking of the Receipt the wholsome Balm he must die if he doth not receive it So consider To what end do I thus vary my paths and shuffle and seek supports there is nothing strong enough to secure a sinner and let me sadly consider that I must one time or other leave these sinnings or else farewel my Soul and Salvation 3. It cannot but be best the sooner it is I must return or perish too soon I cannot return and the sooner the better A Our Return is best the sooner it is Best For Safety Souldier of a middle age a Counsellor of a grave age and a Penitent of a young age are still the best The work which must be done is best done when soonest Best for Safety for thy life is very uncertain and if thou doest not leave thy sins to day thou mayest be in Hell for ought thou knowest for thy sins to morrow For Acceptance the Lord likes it best when For Acceptance one word of Mercy can cause us to trust and one shaking of the Rod can cause us to tremble and when one command sufficeth to turn us when upon the first Arrest we give up our Weapons it pleaseth Soveraignty best For Quietness for we do hereby deliver not onely our Souls but Bodies also from many troubles For Quietness the sooner we do repent and plainly yield why Conscience speaks peace the sooner and God commands mercies the faster strong Sins breed long afflictions but give up the Sins and God gives up the Quarrel throw over Bichri's head to Joab and he will presently remove the siege If a man had health he might take sleep the better but as long as the body is diseased it is unquiet 4. Strive against those diverting Principles which do draw thee from the right and onely way and put thee on by-thoughts and Strive against diverting Principles as Presumption of Mercy Or of thy own Power by-paths and a vain assayment of means to support us As 1. Presumption either of Mercy though thou doest add drunkenness to thirst and still findest out thine own inventions or thine own Power Thou mayest be hindred of the time which thou doest project and mayest want strength to execute thy purposes For sinfull practises do altogether weaken our power whilest they delude us with a conceit of strength hereafter 2. Stoutness and pride of spirit Do not in a bravery of villany dispute with the Almighty Stoutness and pride of spirir God it may prove a sad Victory to thee that thou art able to reject good counsel and to quench all good motions 3. Delight Delight in sin in sin which drowns the errand of all afflictions c. 5. Beseech the Lord at the very first to circumcise the stubbornness Beseech the Lord to câ—rcumcise the stubbornness of your hearts of your hearts and to give you the understanding ear and the obedient spirit that when in the Word he calls upon you to turn from your sins your hearts may fall down and cry out O Lord turn me and when by afflictions he calls upon you to turn you may presently humble your hearts and cry out O Lord pardon me O Lord heal me O Lord turn and save me Let us all think of this You know that the Lord is displeased with us and we have hitherto hardened our hearts against the Lord God hath dealt with us once twice often in publick in private ways and still we seek our own ways delude the work of Repentance set nothing to heart nor repent of our evil doings I I. Now I proceed to the Second thing which is The final The final disappointment of all the Prodigals designs Doct. 2. Nothing shall avail the shuffling sinner till he return but God will disappoint all his pâ—ojects Some things premised This is meantâ— of a sinner whom God intends to convert disappointment of the Prodigals assays and designs in these words And no man gave unto him Whence I observe That nothing shall avail the shuffling sinner until he doth turn from his sins but God will disappoint all his projects batter down all his confidences frustrate all his expectations drive him out of all his harbours and overthrow all the means and ways which he flies unto Before I confirm this Assertion let me premise a few particulars that so you may rightly conceive the scope of it Thus then 1. I intend the Assertion of a sinner whom God doth intend to convert others he may leave to prosper in their imaginations For you see it raised from the disappointment of a Prodigal one whose conversion at length attended his manifold afflictions and as manifold contrivances to keep up his sinfull conversation though such a person knows not it nor thinks on it yet God is secretly against him and thrusts him off from all the Cities of Refuge
received unless the apprehension of their kindness and goodness descends to the affections they never stir up thankfulness and as it is with the promises unless their excellency and sutableness come down from the mind to the will they never excite faith so is it with sin unless besides the consideration of it there be not an operation and influence upon the heart to grieve and mourn it will never prove right and penitential Thou sayest thou knowest thy sins as well as any man can tell thee Be it so but if thy heart remain hard not humbled abased broken grieved for these sins alas as their unworking faith Jam. 2. so thy unaffected speculation of sin is vain but findest thou this that upon the serious consideration of thy sins thy heart is humbled and abased in thee that thou art cast down in the sense of thy exceeding vileness O wretched man that I am O Lord to me belongs nothing but shame and confusion and that thy heart is grieved within thee and afflicted that bitter mournings arise because of bitter sinnings my soul hath them in remembrance and is humbled within me Lam. 3. Thy heart melts before the Lord I assure thee this is a right and blessed consideration of sin 3. If it work in him Detestation of sin Griefe seemes to be more If it work Detestation of sin passionate but hatred is a more fixed quality as I may so phrase it Ezek. 36. 31. Ye shall remember your own evil wayes and your doings that were not good here is the consideration we speak of and ye shall loath your selves in your own sight for your Iniquities and your abominations here is detestation the proper effect of true consideration for in a right consideration the singular causes or reasons of hatred do arise v. g. Excess of evil absolute repugnancy to our best good effectual prejudice and greatest injury Repugnans Offendens the Schoolmen make the two chief grounds of hatred Vide Summistas in 1. 2dae q. 29. But I will not prosecute that Now then peruse thy self Hast thou considered of thy sinnes aright if thou doest not hate them thou hast not Seest thou sinne and art thou brought to hate it Let me but propound a few things unto thee that thou mayest see whether thou loathest and hatest sin or no. Is it peace or is it war If sin lies quietly in the soul it is peace it is not hatred hatred breeds variance enmity opposition conflict Paul hated sin Rom. 7. 15. and wars with it v. 23. Is it a deadly war is it for life will this suffice thee that sin doth not terrifie thy conscience or wilt thou not be satisfied till sin be mortified and crucified in the lusts and affections thereof Is it like Davids war wherein he left not one Amalekite to escape and carry tidings and not like Sauls to kill some and spare the rest Canst thou say Lord I hate the thing that is evil Psal 97. 10. and I hate every false way Oh if there be raised in thee upon the consideration of sin a deadly enmity and defiance with it an implacable general dislike abomination resistance and desire to root it out happy art thou thy consideration of sin is rightly and effectually penitential 4. If it work in him Reformation of sin Do you not read in If it work in thee Reformation Psal 119. 59. that David considered and thought on his wayes I thought on my ways saith David so do many many indeed do so but not as David did for after he had said I thought on my ways he addeth and turned my feet unto thy testimonies He so thought of his ill ways that he left them and betook himself unto good ways If thinking on sin doth not produce leaving of sin it is nothing if thinking of sin doth not breed leaving of sin then going on in sin will make you leave thinking of sin And though we think of an ill way yet if we do not enter into and walk in a good way it is nothing There is a two-fold leaving of sin one which is proper to the condition of Glory another which is proper to the condition of Grace I speak not of the former which is the absolute dissolution of sin but of the latter which is an imperfect though true separation from sin consisting in Affection wherein the Will is alienated from sin the evil which I would not do saith the Apostle In Mourning O wretched man who shall deliver me from this body of death In Endeavour willing or endeavouring to live honestly Heb. 13. 18. There is a purpose to walk in new obedience and an hearty desire so to do and not to serve sin any longer and also an active endeavour to put off the former conversation and to crucifie the flesh with the affections and lusts thereof To consider of sin and yet still to love it and still to live in it to study to fulfil the lusts of it to give up our selves to the service of it to walk in darkness to be the same in our affections to it and in our obedience unto it this is not onely a vain but a fearfull consideration But if when we have throughly considered of sin in the vileness of it we are effectually wrought upon to arise from our sinfull course O Lord I have sinned exceedingly and done very foolishly I am resolved to leave this sinfull way Lord help thou me give me thy grace turn thou me and I shall be turned turn away my heart and eyes cause me to put off my old conversation enable me to walk and live in newness of life This is an happy Fruit especially if it hath two other Effects accompanying it viz. 1. Fervent Supplication if it carries the soul to God in Christ for mercy for grace for strength The resolution to reform if it goes no further than the strength of the soul it will easily cool and quickly fail us if ever it prove right it must carry us to Christ for as much as it is by his strength and by his grace that we get our hearts turned from sin or that we are able to forsake our sins Hast thou considered of thy sins why and doest thou not discern such infinite guilt in them as makes thee for ever accursed if thou hast not mercy in Christ and doest thou hereupon apply thy self in all humbleness of heart to the Throne of mercy O Lord be mercifull to me a sinner according the multitude of thy tender mercies blot out my transgressions Behold me through the bloud of Christ yea O Lord heal my sinfull soul O Lord change my heart O Lord dissolve the powers of sin in me by thy mighty power subdue my iniquities turn me from all sin make me a servant of righteousness 2. Diligent application of our selves to the Means private and publick ordinary and extraordinary through the right use of which we may expect sufficient grace from God to work
Repentance never to be repented of Hast thou rightly considered of sin why what art thou now doing where mayest thou now be found what course doest thou take to leave sin what helps doest thou apply thy self unto what occasions of sin doest thou decline what furtherances of a new life dost thou regard and use If there be no watchfulness over thy spirit no restraint to thy flesh no stoutness of resolution no separation from the occasions of sin no humble study and respect to the Word no fruitfull converse with holy society how is it that thou sayest thou hast considered thy sins Whether the consideration of sin may be right and available to Repentance when yet there are some sins which a man thinks not II. Case Whether Consideration of sin may be right when there are some sins that a man thinks not of Particular inconsideration if it be voluntary doth prejudice Repentance on To this I conjecture it may be thus answered 1. That actual or particular inconsideration if it be voluntary and affected doth prejudice Repentance For it is to be supposed that he who will not take the pains to think of his sins hath 〈◊〉 yet found an heart or a will to leave his sins Therefore consider that actual inconsideration may arise either From want of light or evidence the eyes of the mind are not yet so fully opened they are not so perfectly acquainted with the Law which discovers sin much sin they see but not all not that they would not but because they cannot so a weak eye hath not such clear and full sight Or From hypocrisie of will when means of evidence are present and commands of consideration are urged but either from a secret love of sin or from a laziness of spirit the person will not take pains to consider throughly of his manifold sins this kind of inconsideration being wilfull and affected will be interpreted for Impenitency because the person will not endeavour faithfully the wayes of Repentance 2. That the latitude of the Object considered doth not so immediately discover and decide as the efficacy and influence flowing from consideration it self Though I am not able to find out every particular wherein I do offend yet if by the consideration of those sins which I do consider of my heart doth melt and mourn and strives to loath and forsake them because they are sinfull If these drive me out of my self unto Christ if these occasion me earnestly to acquaint my self with God to beg for Reconciliation for Grace for Mercy for Strength c. though there be many sins which I have not actually thought on yet this may be a right and penitential consideration III. Case Whether a single Consideration of sin be sufficient to repentance Another Case may be this Whether the Consideration of sin tending to Repentance must be frequent or Whether a single Consideration may be sufficient For the resolution of this Case thus 1. Divines distinguish of Repentance that Distinctions premised Repentance is either Initial or Gradual it is either Initial or Gradual The Initial Repentance is the first turning from sin nay the very first will and desire so to do with a purpose and endeavour to effect it The Gradual Repentance is the ripening and perfecting of Repentance in the degrees of all the parts of it 2. Again There is a two-fold consideration of sin One is solemn wherein the There is a twofold consideration of sin Solemn soul sequesters it self earnestly searcheth into the Law of God and into its own spirit and into the ways of Life perusing and reviewing the sinfull condition all over in the parts and kinds in the hainous circumstances and agravations and hereupon solemnly indites it self before the Lord by confessing judging c. Another is ordinary which is a daily looking Ordinary over the Book and perusing of the sinfull Accounts from time to time 3. You must distinguish twixt the Distinguish twixt the Grace of Repentance and the Act of it Grace or quality of Repentance and twixt the Act or exercise of Repentance the Grace is wrought onely by Gods Spirit the Exercise or operation is wrought and occasioned by consideration These things being premised I conjecture thus much 1. That solemn Consideration is necessary to initial Repentance Solemn consideration necessary to Initial Repentance The Heart is not effectually excited to the actual leaving of sin until it doth first seriously examine and try it self find out and ponder the vileness of its sinning and transgression slight thoughts work no more then slight confessions That we are all sinners and there 's an end but the heart must look on sin in the kinds circumstances hellish vileness of its thoughts if ever it will repent indeed 2. That ordinary consideration is necessary to gradual Repentance If ever you would perfect your Ordinary consideration necessary to Gradual Repentance Repentance you must ever think of your sins those that are past those that are present By ordinary consideration I do not mean a slight and perfunctory view of them but a daily view though not in length of time yet having the same disposition of heart to condemn and abhor them and quickning us more fervently to seek God for strength and to decline the occasions of sin and to grow more watchfull and tender c. If you do not ordinarily consider of the vileness of sin you will be ordinarily insnared by the deceitfulness of sin if you would enjoy constant victory and deliverance you must admit of frequent consideration As for the solemn Consideration that I conjecture is not necessary at all times but upon special occasions Either 1. Before we Solemn consideration not necessary at all times The times when it is necessary enter into some weighty business 2. When we lie under some weighty afflictions 3. When we are to die and make straight our weighty accounts 4. When we are more solemnly to meet the Lord and renew our Covenanâ—s with him as in the day of Humiliation or when we are to come unto the Sacrament Now are we more solemnly and seriously to consider of our sins partly 1. Because now the Lord Reasons of it considers them who come into his special presence how you come 2. Because you are seriously to renew your Repentance which you cannot seriously do without serious consideration 3. Because you are to renew your Covenants with God to keep a more serious watch c. Therefore now let us search our hearts try and consider of our ways renew our Repentance turn with all our strength unto the Lord put away iniquity far from us humble our selves low before the Lord confess our sins judge our selves thus if we do we shall find more strength in our Repentance more peace in our Consciences more sweetness in the Sacrament more confidence towards Christ and may comfortably expect the pardon of our sins and salvation by his bloud The third
and last Use shall be for Exhortation to set upon Vse 3. Exhortation to consideration and comparison What is required to enable us thereto Knowledge these two works of Consideration and Comparison Here let me propound two things unto you respecting the practical exercise of them Qu. 1. What is required to enable a person rightly to consider and to compare c. I conceive thus 1. There must be knowledge Right Consideration and Comparison are works of an illightened mind to understand the proper nature and distinction of things necessarily requires knwoledge For Ignorance can neither consider nor distinguish therefore study the Word and other Books to understand what objects are of which you are to consider 2. There must be some Wisdome For every Understanding cannot find out things Wisdome nor is able to make their differences of vileness or excellency as David said of the Works of God that a brutish man understands them not c. Psal 92. 5 6. that we say of persons onely enlightened That if they have not spiritual Wisdome to compare things or to consider of them they will never by the evidence of the vileness of Sin or excellency of Grace be drawn to Repentance 3. There must be Retiredness or Sequestration You must separate your selves as Solomon Retiredness speaks Tumults of business or violence of noise distract the thoughts and alienate them utterly disabling to consider 4. You must gather your selves together You must strive against division in mind be carefull to unite and to center your thoughts Gathering our thoughts together not suffering your selves to be scattered or blown away from your self 5. You must pray unto God to open your eyes Prayer to see and to give a judgment to discern and to unite your hearts and enable them to go through the work for verily you shall find much reluctancy and opposition of spirit to such a work Quest 2. In what manner we are to consider and to compare c. I Answer 1. The Rules for a right consideration so In what manner we must consider and compare The Rules for right consideration Do it in a free time Do it with a full time as to occasion Repentance are these 1. Do it in a free time there are times wherein a man is most unapt for such a work as this as when very sick in body or under some passion of grief or fear or loss Now the soul is in a Tumult it cannot see things aright nor judge aright Take a calm time for all works of moment either to know or to judge thy Estate 2. Do it with a full time The matter is weighty not the work of a day as they spake concerning the separation in Ezra it was not a work to be done in one day Nor is this of sound Consideration a business which can be hastily done and well done you must do it deliberately and seriously for there are many sins and many circumstances to be considered of and to be weighed and judged c. 3. Do it throughly Do not begin a little and then give over leave not till you come to the bottome see the worst Do it throughly of it and the utmost of it if ever you will see the good of it You are never a jot the worse by seeing how bad you are but you may be the better all the dayes of your life for it You must be faithfull to your own soul not to pass over any sin that you can well conceive your self guilty of 4. You must do it orderly Consider not of all sins in a Lump but break your Do it orderly thoughts And as they in Judgment consider of one Cause and then of another so do you of your sins what are your chief sins in affection or practice or inclination and so go to other c. in their order time place c. 5. You must do it so long Do it till your heart begin to Relent until your heart begin to relent and grows tender and soft Ah! how vile and abominable and wretched c. and then strike in with God by Prayer and Confession c. And this is a way to bring you to Repentance Secondly the Rules for Comparison If you would so compare Rules for comparison of the sinful and converted state Compare them in their proper nature and effects the miserableness of the sinfull with the happiness of a converted condition so as to be brought to Repentance then 1. You must compare them in their proper natures and effects not by that which is accidental but by that which is natural there may be some trouble to a converted estate and some delight upon an unconverted estate these then are preternatural they arise not from the things themselves but are contingent accidents But compare the real natures and fruits of the one with the other and then you shall see reason to leave the one and to choose the other 2. You must compare them by a proper Compare them by a proper Rule Rule not standing in point of definitive sentence what your own heart or what the World approves but onely what God in his Word doth sentence to be most vile and miserable and what he pronounceth to be most good and comfortable The Rule of Comparison must ever be pure impartial and perfect 3. You must have so much faith also as to believe what God saith Believe what God saith of either state of either estate For though you should refer the decision unto him yet if upon his resolving you are resolved to quarrel against it and dispute the truth and validity and say yet It is otherwise we will not believe that our sinfull course is so bad and so dangerous alas you will never repent while you live But you must resolve of this that the Word shall captivate your thoughts and shall discover and set the differences of estates and so you may be occasioned to repent 4. You must take an humble and firm resolution to take and follow that way which God discovers Resolve to follow that way Gâ—d discovers to be best unto you for the best and to decline that way which God discovers to be bad and damnable i. You will betake your selves industriously and stedfastly unto all the ways and means by which you may be strengthened to leave your sins and to walk with God in newness of obedience LUKE 15. 18. I will arise and go to my Father These words contain in them the other fundamental part of Repentance appearing in the Prodigal viz. The Resolution of his Will To apprehend evil is somthing but to leave it is the The Resolution of the Prodigal safest thing to see a better condition shews that the eye is opened but to go to our Father this shews that the heart is changed This Resolution of the Prodigal is set forth partly by the 1. Matter of it which is very compleat it contains
of hypocrisie or a sink of impiety he loves sin or would not yet leâ—ve it the greatest part of our integâ—ity lies in the hearts frame and purpose that man who is resoled to part with all sin hath an heart who loves all good it is only sound grace which breeds sound resolution 2. It will be a It will be an Apology in case of falling great apology in case of falling that yet it is not presumptuous but of Inâ—irmity The evil that I would not do that do I c. Rom. 7. and rather an affect of a strong temptation then of any secret affection of the heart to sin for where the purpose and resolution of the heart is set against a sin and makes its resistence though the sinning may be great yet it is not presumptuous Four effects this firm Resolution worketh about sin either it doth 1. Cease the motions of it or 2. Abates and lessens them or 3. Disappoints and frustrates them as Joseph about his mistress or else 4. It mitigates and corrects them in the degree of guilt either it keeps me sound or else causeth that the wound is less 3. Such a man may confidently go to God for help and Such a one may confidently go to God for help assistance If I regard iniquity in my heart the Lord will not hear my prayer said David but verily God hath heard me he hath attended to the voice of my Prayer Psal 69. 18 19. Thou shalt not struggle with sin in vain nor cry unto God in vain if once thou couldst be firmly resolved against sin thou shouldst more confidently repair to Christ and shouldst assuredly find more Victory over it as Paul Rom. 7. 24 25. What have I to do any more with idols I have heard him and observed him I am like a green Fir-Tree from me is thy fruit found Hos 14. 8. 4. And more confidently expect the remission of sins past with what face can a mâ—n embolden himself before the And Confidently expect Remission of sins past Lord O Lord I beseech thee to pardon such or such a sin and I trust thou wilt do it but I am not yet resolved to leave it And when a person can come before the Lord and say Search and tell me O Lord if there be any way of wickedness which I know and allow against which I am not resolved and strive Now O Lord thou art a gracious God I beseech thee for thy mercies sake forgive my sins blot them out I hate them with an unfeigned hatred do thou for thine own sake pardon and subdue them 5. You shall much free your selves from the ancient suggestions of Satan about particular Sins It will free us from the Suggestions of Satan about particular sins Resist the Divel and he will flee from you Jam. 4. 7. Where there is no hope of Victory there will be little encouragement to fight firm resolutions are like rocks against which the waves may beat and strike but cannot move nor alter Satan may indeed somewhat molest but the heart is in a sort impregnable which is stedfastly resolved Christiana sum said she I am a Christian who was much assaulted to deny the Faith and Luther in Gen. so silenced all threats and allurements for the abnegation of Christ When they saw Paul's resolution fixed for Jerusalem they gave off their importunity so Temptations will slack when our Resolutions are settled It is in vain I will not hearken thou mayest molest me Satan but I will never yield unto thee 6. You will be less interrupted in your holy services Whilest the heart is any thing indifferent and flexible sinfull motions We shall be less interrupted in our holy services like the Birds will return and flock about the Corn if the Watchman be now there and anon removed When the Minister is speaking to your ear Sin will be speaking to your heart and when your tongues are speaking to God your thoughts will be busied in giving Sin an answer or the World But if the heart were more resolved against sin it would be more united in duty the thoughts and mind and affections would be more collected and center'd upon the 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 the work in hand it would not scatter so much it would not follow that which it cares not for but peremptorily abhors The next Use shall be for Direction and that in two particulars Vse 2. Direction 1. How to raise a solid Resolution 2. How to keep and maintain it First The Means to raise it There are some things of How to raise a solid Resolution which you must take heed and strive against as being vigorous impediments to the rearing of this frame and twisting of this firm cord Take heed of 1. A secret favouring of sin As long as your hearts cunningly connive at and harbour your lusts those evil Inmates A secret faâ—ouring of sin you will never throughly come to a Resolution to cast them off For love will untwist many arguments and prevail against strong Motives it will let down your mind as fast as reasons do raise it up It is the best Friend and strongest Advocate that sin hath You see a Parent perhaps David against Absalom resolved to exile his Child from his presence but natural affection turned him and wrought so after a while that David longs for Absalom again As a Spring will work out that which is cast in so will a secret affection to sin work off the impression of all Arguments and any such preposterous Resolves against sin 2. A tenderness or delicacy of spirit I mean an inordinate Delicacy of spirit self-love Love of sin and so also the love of our selves both of them are adversaries to a penitential Resolution If a man will go to Heaven asleep have his ease and his friends and his liberty and his safeties and his quiet and his pleasures and great matters he will never come to a through Resolution God likes no such bargain no condition as I am willing to serve thee but I am resolved never to suffer for thee I will be good if I may be safe I will go to sea but on condition I shall meet with no storms I will enter into the war but on condition that I will have no blows We must be at a point for all things except what is good if we be resolved to be good indeed no not Life it self must be dearer to us than that which is far better than Life 3. A perversness of spirit on self-wilfulness if you do resolve A perversness of spirit to be your own Master you can never resolve to be Gods Servant if your hearts be not disposable to his will they will never be flexible and fixed on his work You must in many things be contented to deny your own thoughts and to captivate your own judgments and reasonings and to submit both your judgment and will to a Divine Rule and
flying Fowl but this they cannot do without air to spread and bear up those wings I can do all things through Christ that strengthens me Philip. 4. There must be some strength in us to advance a Resolution but then there must be another Strength upon wâ—ich both that Resolution and that Strength must depend And therefore as a Warrant is of no force if it goes not out in the Kings name so a Resolution is too recoiling which begins not in Christs power As David encountred Goliah not with his own Sword but in Gods Name so we must resolve against our sins with Gods strength assisting of us otherwise our sins may rerly to us as the Devils to the sons of Sceva â—esus I know and Paul I know but who are ye A ship though well built must have wind to drive it and set it forward and a Christian needs more strength than his own to forsake a bad or to follow a good course It is a wise course in lendiâ—g of Money to joyn another party in the Bond who is more able and sure than the borrower Doest thou resolve against such a sinfull way or for a holy life tâ—ke not single Bond thy own heart though to thy thinking well furnisht and stockâ— with resolution is yet but a creature and may deceive thee and mâ—ke thee to break but take double Bond beseech the Lord to be bound for thee to give thee his strength which is indeed sufficient to preserve and to perpetuate thy resolutions 2. You must be sure that you get a mournfull heart for what Get a mournfull heart for what is past is past or else you will never get a resolute heart for the future if the heart be not broken for sin sin will quickly break the resolution of the heart He who will without any more adoe be joyously good I fear least after a while you see him earnestly bad We seldome observe that an unbroken heart is stedfast that his foot stands sure whose eyes remains dry i. who can leap into a good way yet never was truly grieved for a bad Peter's Resolution to confess his Master held out better after his tears than after his confidence The mournfull remembrance of a bad life wherein God hath been so much dishonoured and his spirit so often grieved it excites and quickens and doubles our hatred and fears and cares and resolves Should I any longer continue thus should I thus offend again Paul doth frequently remember his sinfull persecutions of Christ and then is inflamed with a more zealous resolution and industry to preach and advance him Nothing daunts him in the righting of that good Lord and Christ whom before he had so much wronged 3. Be active against sin and that is the way to keep up your Be active against sin Resolutions against it My meaning is this you must endeavour to mortifie an evil heart if you would hold up your resolutions against an evil course The heart is all in all for Life or Death for a good or for a bad way kill the root and the branches will soon wither diminish the Spring and the Streams will fail weaken the Spirits and the Limbs will be useless It is a foolish thing to say I will not have the fit of the Ague again unless you receive something to alter the evil humour which causeth it I will never sin thus again thus how often do we resolve and yet break out again why because we would restrain effects without surprizing their causes Be more earnest with God for a sober heart and for a chast heart and for an humble heart and a heavenly heart and a meek and quiet heart Thou shouldest not onely resolve but prevail against evil acts if thou didst vehemently strive with God to season the Springs to alter the nature to better and strengthen the heart that fountain whence these arise and flow for all things are strongest in their causes and the strength of the cause is the strength of the effect An occasion may be vigorous to produce a resolve but alteration is required to make it firm and effectual it is health which breeds strength 4. Let it be watchfull and not careless They are not the many Souldiers which keep the City but the watchfull Souldiers Be watchfull and not careless the City which is got by strength may be lost by carelesness To be active and inquisitive how to make resolutions against sin and afâ—erwards to be negligent of our hearts this is to make a strong door but not to mind whether it be lockt or no. Our hearts take them at the best are very untrusty and deceitfull at least in part and are quickly weary of spiritual bonds and as an untoward Servant after all warnings and threatnings is hankering to whisk out after his old companions so our hearts after all resolutions are yet inclining to evil Therefore let us not onely enjoyn our spirit to take heed of sinfull courses but guard them set a guard upon them as David Psal 39. 1. A man may quickly stumble who hath an able foot if yet he hath a careless eye the eye and the foot must go together to keep us upright 5. If you would still keep up your Resolutions then often review and renew them Our resolutions come to be strengthened Often review and renew resolutions by frequent enquiry how they are performed Daily accountings with the servant may be the means to keep him faithfull If we did daily sequester our selves and commune with our spirits and take an account of them O my soul thou hast seen the vileness of such sinfull courses and hast felt the bitterness of them and hast solemnly protested against them before the Lord and resolved to prosecute them no more thou hast given thy Word and Bond for this unto the great God Well! how hast thou performed this purpose art thou still willing hast thou been faithfull to thy self and to thy God wa st thou no way surprized this day though thou didst not break yet didst not thou bow to day though thou didst not fall didst not thou trip did nothing come from thee to undo or else to weaken thy resolution Such evil motions sprang from thy heart to sin again didst thou abhor them and cry unto God against them such temptations presented themselves unto thee didst thou reject and stoutly resist them or hast thou not found an heart somewhat hearkning somewhat yielding somewhat venturing If so then humble thy self and as David to Joab 2 Sam. 11. 25. Make thy battel more strong against the City so do thou bewail thy failings and renew thy resolution again more strongly and carefully 6. If your Resolutions be any thing impaired let them be presently repaired It is possible notwithstanding our Resolutions When resolutions are impaired let them be presently repaired against evil courses to be surprized with evil acts and now we are apt to give up the Resolutions themselves but
do not so Though the winds drive back the Mariner yet he holds fast his resolution still for such a Cape and if a man falls in his journey yet he will rise and be going again So let us do if we have not answered our Resolutions let us not end them but mend them Above all search the causes of impairing thy Resolutions and then thou mayest see thy reparations Say seriously 1. Didst not thou relie too much upon thy Resolution as if therefore thou wert safe because resolved 2. Didst not thou grow weaker in Prayer when thou grewest strong in Resolution or 3. Hast thou not been more venturous upon occasions hast thou not been tampering with sinfull occasions such acts ways objects as thou knowest have powder to irritate and inflame Lust Consider seriously how thou camest to violate thy purpose and intention and penitently confess it before the Lord and take up thy Resolution again upon right grounds 7. Let your Resolutions be accompanied with the use of all holy means which will strengthen and perfect them Doth not the Let resolutions be accompanied with the use of holy means strong man grow weak by fasting as well as by sickness How is it possible but that thy Bow should slack i. thy Resolution should start aside when thou art a negligent Hearer and an inconstant Petitioner why where lies thy strength to perform why doest thou put off thy helps what art thou alone He who hath not strength to fight how shall he have power to conquer wouldst thou stand wouldst thou resolve wouldst thou resolve so as to reform Be much in Prayer Keep thy servant O Lord uphold me by thy Word preserve me by thy Spirit work in me the will and the deed work thine own works in me finish what thou hast wrought shew thy power in my weakness let thy Grace be sufficient for me leave me not nor forsake me incline my heart to thy testimonies turn away mine eyes from vanity And so for the Ordinances attend them they are the Strength of God for thee they work holy qualities holy motions holy convictions holy excitations holy affections desires a fear lest we depart and fall from our stedfastness and they kindle more and more our purposes to walk with God and to shun iniquity Oh how admirably the heart under them is caused to burn with ardent love of God! with desires and resolutions to keep closer to him how is it stirr'd up with more detestation of sin how often do they melt the heart recover the heart restore the heart and send it away with this resolution Well! by the grace of God I will never go on in such a sinful course c. The last Use shall be for Exhortation unto us though we have taken ill courses formerly yet now to resolve against them to 3. Vse For Exâ—ortation to resolve against sin arise and go home to our Father What shall I say to move and persuade us here to consider 1. Either you must resolve to leave your sins or be damned for them why wilâ— thou lose thy pretious soul for ever 2. Whether is better to come back and find God a Motives Father or to depart still from him and feel him a Judge If mercy be better then wrath if heaven be better then hell resolve to arise and leave thy sinful waies and return unto a God and Father 3. Hast thou not found thy sinful courses to be evil and bitter unto thee already why wilt thou serve an evil master for evil wages the which also will still be more fearful and heavie by how much the longer thou continues sinful and wicked thy terrours will not shorten while thou dost lengthen thy sins nor maiest thou expect that thy latter daies will be peace when all thy daies have been wickedness if thou livest in sin thou must lie down in sorrow 4. Sin is an hateful object and a conquerable enemy therefore resolve against it It onely hath the most absolute reasons of the strongest hatred as being completely evil and vile it is the basest of all objects and is thine highest enemy there is nothing which can undo thee but sin and yet i is a conquerable enemy it is very possible that a sinner may be changed 5. If thou once couldst but get an heart to resolve against sin thou shouldst find the work more easie Saint Austin professeth that though the thoughts of leaving his sins were once a great burthen to him yet at length being peremptorily resolved he found it a most easie and delightful thing to live without them 6. A new course of obedience O this is lise indeed Now arâ— thou alive from the dead if thy heart be truly resolved I may say 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 as Christ to Zacheus This day is salvation come to thine house 〈◊〉 holy life and course is the most excellent is the most easie is the most peaceable is the most gainful it is the best it is the sweetest it is the happiest life it begins in Grace it will end in Glory LUKE 15. v. 18 19. And will say unto him Father I have sinned against Heaven and before thee and am no more worthy to be called thy Son make me as one of thy hired servants You have heard of the Prodigals penitential consideration of his sinful estate and of his penitential resolution to forsake that condition and course I will arise and go to my father now you are to hear his penitential confession And will say unto him Father I have sinned against Heaven c. In which words you have considerable 1. Who doth confess I. 2. What he doth confess I have sinned 3. To whom he doth confess Father I have sinned 4. How he doth confess Against Heaven and before thee In to coramte There is no difficulty in the word and therefore I will proceed to the intent of it which is this That true Repentance for sin against God will bring forth true Confession of Sin unto God This is evident almost in all persons whether single True Repentance for sin will bring forth true confession of sin to God or conjoyned who are set out for penitents in Scripture David his heart bleeds and his tongue acknowledgeth I have sinned 2 Sam. 12. upon Nathans conviction The Publican Lord be merciful to me a sinner he stood afar off smiting his brest and inditing himself for his sins A whole Church in Ezra in Nehemiah in Daniel all at once confessing We have sinned we have done wickedly our sins are gone over our heads For the better explication of the assertion know That there is a threefold confession of sin 1. Auricular or Sacramental which the Church of Rome A threefold confession of sin Auricular doth injoyn but not the Scripture Confiteriâ—ora singula peccata mortalia to confess all and every mortal Sin quorum memoria cum debita diligenti premeditatione habeatur which a diligent and industrious memory can recal etiam
thus have I sinned and whatsoever punishment thou hast inflicted or mayest inflict I must quit thy Justice in all thy proceedings thou canst not but be Righteous for I confess my self to be sinful Nay his Justice only is not glorified but his Wisdom that he knows all our sins and wayes and his Power that he is able to Judge and condemn us yea and his Mercy too that we hope yet he will pardon and forgive the sins which we confess unto him If true Repentance brings forth true Confession then by this it will appear That there are very few true penitents because Use 1. Then there are very few true Penitents very few who do truly and aright confess their sins 1. Some may say of sin what Pilate did of truth What 's Truth So they What 's Sin They are so ignorant that they know not what is evil or when they do evil Now how can any confess or acknowledg that sin to God which is not known at all to himself 2. Others are so far from confessing themselves to be sinful that they like the proud Pharisee justifie themselves to be righteous talk of their good meanings purposes â—ust dealings c. Sana membra ostendebat saith S. Austin of that Pharisee vulnera tegebat I am no Extortioner no Adulterer c. Ask some persons Do you acknowledg One only God who is most Merciful Just Holy Omnipotent Faithful Long-suffering 〈◊〉 of Goodness and Truth c. Yes that do they God forbid else c. Ask them again Are you Idolaters make you no Idols or did you ever worship them Who they nay they defie them and all such trumpery But do you not use to swear and take the Name of God in vain Nay for swearing of all sins they cannot away with that a man gets no good by swearing But do you remember to keep holy the Sabbath Yea all their neighbours can bear witness that they keep to the Church constantly Ask them again Did you never injure your Parents O they were always dutifull Children But did you never play the whore or the adulterer or the thief Nay now they will talk no longer with you if you be so uncharitable as to imagine such guilt Why O thou ignorant sinner why doest thou deceive thy soul if thou art thus righteous thou needest not to repent and if thou art free from all sin how canst thou confess thy sins as a true penitent ought to do to God 3. But some others there are who do both know and acknowledge their sin but how onely in a formal cold indifferent manner True we are all sinners God help us and there is no man but he sins yea the best of them all Never considering That great Justice of God which is provoked by their sins nor that vile and abominable nature in their sins nor that infinite wrath unto which their guilt doth oblige them nor the excellency and necessity of pardoning mercy which we should earnestly sue out when we confess our sins 4. There is another sort who do more distinctly and perhaps somewhat feelingly and freely confess their sins but then they keep Benjamin back And as Rachel hid the images under her so they reserve some one special lust they do not bring all the Prisoners forth unto the Bar There is a sin which they hide close because it is sweet as Zophar speaks Job 20. 12. Now this argues 1. Hypocrisie and guile of heart a secret love to sin it is made in Job 20. 12. the guise of an Hypocrite to hide his sin 2. Extreme folly and vanity of spirit for canst thou conceal any sin from that God who is acquainted with all thy paths and knows thy thoughts afar off and to whose eyes all things are naked will not the Lord discover the sin which thou doest cover before Men and Angels to thy eternal infamy and condemnation assuredly though thou wilt not set thy sins in order before him yet he will set thy sins in order before thee and will reprove thee for them Psal 50. i. he will publish them and he will everlastingly punish thee for them 5. Others do confess all their sins but this onely in times of wrath and judgment and death not like Penitents but as Malefactors as men make their Wills upon a death-bed not out of an hatred of sin but out of meer sense or fear of punishment it is not filial ingenuous free but onely extorted involuntary and servile and therefore not truly penitential They do not go and confess their sins as they to John the Baptist but cry out and confess their sins it is that not which they would do but which they cannot avoid Conscience like an over-charged stomack doth so over-press and pain them that they cannot hold but out it comes what oppression injustice usurious injurious beastly filthy swinish sins they have lived in 6. Others seem to be more ingenuous and voluntary or ready to confess their sins but then this is with such pretences colours shiftings shuffling as if they were like Lawyers to mitigate and colour a bad cause S. Austin complains of some who would impute their sins to Fate to Fortune to the Devil nay to God himself The complaint may well suit with us generally we have some device or other either to deny or to extenuate our sinfull facts rather to plead for our selves than to plead against our iniquities It was company and we are but flesh and bloud and it is not usual or which is contrary it is my nature and the Devil was strong with me others do worse c. 7. But of all men they are most contrary to penitential Confession who â—all evil good and darkness light and that make a a mock and a sport of sin whereas they should with grief of heart and shame of face mournfully penitently humble themselves before the Lord and acknowledge their iniquities instead thereof They boast themselves of their iniquites and make but a jest of that which cost the bloud of Christ It is but a trick of Youth and good Fellowship and Handsomness and Complement and discreet Thrift thus do they phrase their Uncleanness their Drunkenness their Pride their Lying their Covetousness 8. Lastly to mention no more They are defective too about the true penitential confession who are assiduous to confess but desiduous to forsake frequent to acknowledge and declare their sins but negligent in forsaking and leaving of them Discovery sufficeth but Recovery they mind not This is most ordinary with us that we make our confession of sins to God rather an act of our Memory than a work of our Conscience it sufficeth us to deliver in the tale to number our transgressions but then we wrestle not with the Lord in prayer for his Spirit of Grace to heal our hearts and to turn us from the sinfull ways unto which we find our hearts so apt and forward But I will no longer insist upon the Convicting part I proceed
to another Use Which shall be Not to hide our sins but to declare and acknowledge them in a right penitential manner before the Lord that Vse 2. Exhortation To confess our sins in a penttential manner Not to cover our sins so we may declare our selves true Penitents This exhortation you see consists of two parts Not to Cover To Discover I. Not to hide and cover our sins There is a two-fold Covering of our sin One is natural which is that Vail of Ignorance and blindness drawn over the soul by Original sin keeping the mind in spiritual darkness not able to see it self nor acts nor wayes aright This is such a Cover wherein we our selves are hid from our selves There is another Covering which is voluntary and artificial wherein we dig deep to hide our counsels intentions delights actions from the Lord cunningly contriving and feigning a secrecy as if we could put a curtain or a cloud twixt Gods eyes and our actions doing evil and saying None shall see it And when it is done never bringing that forth by a penitential confession which we did bring out by a sinfull commission Oh take heed of this though we be forward to sin beware lest we be artificial to conceal it If we cannot have eyes to foresee and strength to prevent evil yet let us have hearts to bewail and tongues to confess it Consider seriously 1. This hiding quality is a very ill quality it is an embleme This is a very ill quality of an heart that will not yet be rid of sin As Beggars that will not be cured of their sores for if thou wouldst be cleansed why concealest thou thy disease 2. It adds much to your sin To commit a sin may be an act of It adds much to your sin infirmity but to hide and conceal it argues either strong Atheism that the sinner thinks God regards it not though it be vile or else perverse wilfulness he will not humble he will not turn unto the Lord. 3. It adds nothing to our safety Adam hid himself in the thicket what got he by it what if you keep the fire close in the thatch It adds nothing to our safety You may put gold in a secret place and perhaps it may be under a safer custody but he who will hide his sin doth but put a fair cloth upon a dangerous wound which now rankles gangrenes kills Of all sins those do most endanger the soul for which we are not truly humbled or do not seriously confess them unto God Why should God shew thee mercy who wilt not acknowledge thy self guilty and how can sin but be fiercely reigning where it is most willingly harboured and concealed 4. Nor doth it add to our secrecy For all things are naked and Nor doth it add to our secrecy bare before God c. God can easily discover thy sin 1. He sees it he has an all-seeing eye 2. He can make thy conscience the rack of torment at confession 3. And will at the last day Nothing is hid that shall not be made manifest In two things doth the inconfitent sinner much prejudice himself by hiding of his sins One that he contrives himself for a sore punishment another that he reprieves himself for an open shame It is Gods disposition this that when we discover our sin and condemn our selves then will he cover those sins and not judge our persons 1 Cor. 11. 31. If we would judge our selves we should not be judged But when we with wile and guile contrive to keep them close God then will publish and manifest them for there is nothing in this kind secret which shall not be made manifest Nay simply manifestation is not all judiciary is it he will so discover them as to question as to arraign as to convict as to sentence as to condemn your sins Object But sinners are ready to object Who is able to confess his sins Doth not David say Who knoweth how oft he offendeth Psal 19. Sol. It is true every particular numerical thought and act of sin is not possible to be cited and confessed but who urgeth that This belongs to thee 1. To study thy heart and life 2. To observe what the Lord forbids and commands 3. To hear what thy Conscience will speak for kinds and acts 4. To give diligence to find out as many of thy sins as thou canst and by no means to omit thy special sins and so to spread all of them with humble hearty and mournfull acknowledgment before the Lord. Object This is the way to breed despair to see an Army of sins on a sudden raised up in the soul Sol. 1. See them you must first or last either now to your humiliation or hereafter to your confusion better see them now when you have time to get God to pardon them then after life when it is Gods time onely to condemn you for them And 2. He who bids thee to see thy sins bids thee to confess them and he who bids thee to confess them hath promised also to pardon them Object But I shall be ashamed to confess them so many so foul transgressions Sol. 1. If it were to Man then thou mightst blush and fear he might wonder at thee and perhaps incompassionately censure and blab 2. But it is to a God onely One who is very mercifull and will keep counsel he is very ready to pity and to spare thee 3. The commission of sin should be a shame but the confession of it is an honour it is an honourable thing that a sinner will glorifie God and confess and forsake his sins Let the disease be what it will thou wilt discover it to the Physitian why then this sinfull modesty to reveal thy sins to God And 4. especially if thou considerest thus much that thy confession is not to give him knowledge of any fact with which he is not acquainted but to yield a testimony of thy obedience and repentance and grief and to get thy acquittance and discharge II. But discover and confess them and to move you to this consider 1. Though it be a shame to commit sin yet it is an honour But discover and confess them Motives to confess it My son give glory to the God of Israel and confess unto him said Joshua cap. 7. 19. to Achan 2. Though the commission of sin brings heavy guilt yet the confession of it brings peace and ease It is the letting out of corrupt ulcerous matter which rages and swelleth and boils in the conscience 3. Is it so great a matter being greatly guilty freely and humbly to confess If the Prophet had bid thee to have done some Is it so great a matter for the guilty person freely to confess great thing c. so if the Lord had required of thee some great matter proper and high satisfaction for the wrongs thou hast done unto him thousands of rams or ten thousand rivers of oyl c.
great unworthiness v. g. 1. Study our selves more And use the means to become humble Study our selves more Alas what are we but dust and ashes nay but sin and corruption We cannot say of our sins as the Prophet spake of the fore-running calamities Gray hairs are here and there upon him No no but as David Who can tell how oft he offends if we knew our selves we would abhor our selves 2. Study the Law more the perfection and excellency of it and bring thy many blots to that purity thy many crookednesses to that plainness Study the Law more Paul was alive before the Law came but when the Commandement came sin revived and he died 3. Study your own performances better 'T is true something is done but there is more undone Study your own performances better then done thy best services have more in them to humble then to puff thee thou canst not do at all unless God aids thee but art like a Mill without water or a Dial without the Sun and when thou dost go it is like Mephibosheth lame on both feet When thou hast made the best praier thou maiest well bow the knee and pray again that God would forgive thee the much dullness the many distractions the infinire unbelief in thy prayer 4. Study the creatures better which are the bellowes to blow up your self-conceits and high thoughts What is thy beauty but a Study the creatures better fading dye a changeable tincture which one blow or one disease may dash if it escape both yet time will unvarnish the house newly painted What are riches but a labour an heap of vanity and a vexation of spirit they are a Tree long in growing and quick in fading Solomon compares them to a Bird ready to flye Paul reputes them uncertain and David wonders who shall enjoy them What are cloathes but a few Garments of Trees of Beasts somewhat trimmed up And our Honours buâ— the breath of the People a vain aire and wind at the best quickly stirred easily turned about and allayed And our bodies but a piece of clay a wall of earth Our heads are but earthly Globes and our eyes but wasting Candles and our feet but decaying Pillars c. 5. Study God more in his excellencies of holiness Study God more of justice of mercy and then you will abhor your selves in dust and ashes Now I proceed to the second Proposition viz. That personal unworthiness is not prejudicial to spiritual supplication Doct. 2. Personal unworthiness is not prejudicial to spiritual supplication I am not worthy yet make me as Of this Proposition I will give you 1. The sense 2. Arguments to confirm it 3. Some useful Applications Touching the sense or Explication of it premise these particulars 1. There is a twofold unworthiness Privative when there is no quality or act which the person can shew to God as a There is a twofold unworthiness meritorious cause why he should accept of him or his services Negative when there is no meetness or fitness of capacity in the subject enabling of him to receive any thing from God for as there is a double dignity or worthiness One of Causality to deserve good another of Receptivity to obtain good so answerably there is a double unworthiness one which consists in the defect of merit another which consists in the defect of meetness I speak only of the former not of the latter for a person may not be unworthy .i. unfit or uncapable to receive good who yet is unworthy .i. unable to deserve and merit it 2. There is an absolute and plenary unworthiness wherein as there is no cause of good so there is effectual cause to hinder Thâ—re is an absoâ—ute and plenary uâ—worthiness it this may be called a moral unworthiness And this a natural a restrictive and partial unworthiness when there are qualities in or actions by a person against which strict justice might make exceptions yet through a gracious indulgence they avail not to the preâ—udice of the person David saith in Psal 66. 18. If I regard iniquity in my heart the Lord will not hear me and the blind man cured said well Joh. 9. 31. We know that God heareth not sinners When people have not onely sin living in them but themselvs living in sin when they know and affect their sins have means to leave them but will not have hearts to forsake them this now imprints an absolute unworthiness i such an unworthiness as doth effectually prejudice their access and confidence to God in praier Nevertheless there may be the presence of many corruptions for quality and fact which the sinner knows and bewails and judges and though in strict justice they are a sufficient prejudice yet through a divine graciousness they prove not effectual hinderances to the presenting 〈◊〉 accepting of Praier 3. The privative and natural or restrictive unworthiness may be The privative unworthiness may be considered two wayes In respect of the matter of it Or of the sence of it considered again two waies Either in respect of the matter of it which is some kind or kinds of sinfulness either in nature 〈◊〉 fact for nothing makes us unworthy but sin this abaseth us and keeps us at a distance Or of the sense and apprehension of it when the sinfulness which doth make us so unworthy is discerned by us and so discerned that by reason thereof we do judge out selves not worthy of the least of mercies In neither respect is it prejudicial to spiritual supplication i though there be sinfulness in us and upon us and we know it and that by reason of it wee are neither worthy to speak with God nor to prevail with God yet we may present our supplications unto him 4 Praier may be considered in a threefold respect Either As a Prayer may be considered in a threefold respect Duty to be acted As a Duty acting As a Duty acted The sense of our unworthiness should not be any prejudice to praier in any of those respects 1. Not to take us off from performing the duty of praier We may offer up our sacrifice though we cannot offer Unworthiness sâ—ould not take us â—ff from Prayer up our worthiness we may bring our gift though we cannot bring our merit though vve cannot buy heaven yet vve may beg it Poverty doth not hinder but a man may be a fit beggar and sin doth not hinder but a person may be a fit petitioner to God David was sensible of his sins Psal 40. 12. Innumerable evils have compassed me about mine iniquities have taken hold upon me so that I am not able to look up they are more then the hairs of my head therefore my heart saileth me Yet he makes his Supplication presently in the next verse v. 13. Be pleased O Lord to deliver me O Lord make haste to help me So did Ezra c. 9. 6. and Daniel c. 9. 2. Nor take off Considence
much good thou needest not what thou canst deserve but it looks on what God will bestow Is it the many sins thou hast committed which present an utter unworthiness to thy conscience why Faith will teach thee to confess the debt and yet to crave for pardon Is it the hardness or vileness of thy heart which makes thee afraid Oh! the Lord is of purer eyes than to look on such a dead dog so vile a wretch as I Why Faith will teach thee that though the Lord be lofty and high are his habitations yet of all people he looks after the humble and contrite and hath respect unto them and looks on such through the bloud of the Covenant and that he will give Grace as readily as he will give Mercy and as freely bestow on thee a new heart as a gracious pardon 5. God onely must have the glory to be the Giver of Good and God only must have the glory to be the giver of good therefore be not thou discouraged if thou be admitted onely to be the receiver of good To be King no way befits the Subject the King honours the Subject highly if he make him the Kings Receiver O Christian let it suffice thee let God alone find gifts to bestow do thou study more for hands to receive them if ever thou wouldst have mercy get such an humble and believing heart as to be willing to receive any mercy upon any of Gods terms LUKE 15. 20. And he arose and came to his Father But when he was yet a great way off his Father saw him and had compassion and ran and fell on his neck and kissed him These words contain in them two parts 1. The very Life of true Repentance Which consists not in a bare Resolution but in an active and real Execution I will arise said the Prodigal and here he did arise I will go to my Father and here did come unto his Father He arose and came unto his Father 2. The gracious Acceptance of a real Penitent The Graciousness of it appears 1. In the present observation of him when he was yet a great way off his Father saw him the very intentions much more the present actings of repentance are quickly eyed and observed by a mercifull God 2. In a present affection to him and had compassion the bowels of mercy will stir when the heart of a sinner is penitentially touched 3. In a present Application His Father saw him and his Father pitied him but this is not all His Father also ran and fell on his neck and kissed him Mercy runs and Mercy embraceth and Mercy cheareth the penitent sinner The first part affordeth us this Proposition viz. That penitent intentions and resolutions should be accompanied with present executions and performances The Text properly Doct. 5. Penitent Resolutions should be accompanied with present Executions yields this for the words of it are but the lively and written copy of the Prodigals private and conceived purpose to leave his sinfull courses and to come back to the obedience and service of his Father It is observed of Hezekiah 2 Chron. 29. 3. That he opened the doors of the house of the Lord in the first year and in the first moneth of his reign and repaired them The publick Reformation was the principal work and it was the prime work too So must it be with a true Penitent as soon as God sets up a Throne of Grace in him presently to act that Grace in purging out of sin and walking in the paths of righteousness We read this in Josiah as soon as ever he heard the threatnings of God out of the Law his heart melted and humbled it self 2 Chron. 34. 19 27. and instantly he gathered all the Elders of Judah and Jerusalem v. 29. and made a Covenant v. 31. and they took away all the abominations out of all the Countreys and turned back to serve the Lord their God v. 33. This you see in Practise you may see the same likewise in Precept Joel 2. 12. Therefore now turn unto me with all your heart and with fasting and with weeping and with mourning The Duty is charged upon them for fuâ—ness in all the parts of Repentance and for quickness Now turn c. For the better opening of this Assertion premise with me a few particulars 1. That the execution of a penitential resolution is nothing This is meant of the very practise of Repentance else but an acting course or the very practise of Repentance When not onely the Judgement approves of the parts and rules of Repentance and the Will embraceth them with consent and desire but the Endeavour also doth as it were copy them forth in the Conversation I exercise my self to have a good conscience said the Apostle So when the sinner doth exercise Repentance when he doth hate sin indeed and flies from it and forsakes it indeed and when he doth indeed walk in the ways of new obedience becomes a very servant of righteousness and works the work of God this is the execution or the performance of a penitential purpose and resolution As walking is to a journey or as writing is to a copy or as fighting is to a war that is penitential execution to penitential resolution It is but the Theory as it were drawn down and put forth It is as the tree shooting out into blossoms and fruits It is repentance in life which is the life of repentance 2. That presentness of Execution is an undelayed acting Our actions fall vvithin three spaces of time either of the vvhich is And of an undelayed acting past as vvhat vve have done or of that vvhich is future as that vvhich shall be done or of that vvhich is present as that vvhich is doing Look as true Marriage it is not a future but a present acceptation So true Repentance is not a delayed but a present reformation Or as in Writing the motion of the Pen and the forming of the Letter are simultaneous Or as in a Clock the vvheel doth move and the finger doth move So in the business of Repentance the purpose of amendment should at the same time drop out into the change of heart and vvays To have repentance onely in our purposes is onely to have water in a cloud or physick in a glass it is not yet to do it Resolutions may be for the future but Executions are for the present act an hearing while it is to day and not hardning of the heart As St. Paul being called vvent immediately up to Jerusalem so present execution of repentance is vvhen we do not defer the penitential work a not allowing of our selves in giving vvay to our sins no not an hour as the Apostle spake in another case 3. That there is a two-fold present execution of penitential purposes One is immediate or vvhen the purpose and the acting And of a present execution either for immediateness or seasonableness vvithout distance of time
demand what are become of the many sick-bed resolutions of those that you made when the hand of God was upon you you vowed much unto God as he did in a storm c. but as the King said of Mordecai What hath been done to Mordecai for this so what have you done to make good your resolutions I believe your hearts are speechless your consciences do condemn you that health hath been the time of more sinning though sickness was the time of more resolving The same may be said for others whose consciences have been more actively and fiercely stirring Oh! if the Lord would abate that wrath and cool that inflamed spirit c. yet what are the fruits of many such resolutions As the Divel said of Job But now stretch forth thy hand and he will curse thee of thy face so here on the contrary as soon as the Lord takes off his hand these are as ready to continue and proceed on in their sins as the Israelites were when they were delivered out of the Land of Egypt from the fiery furnace Yea and of others is it not manifest that they are fare enough from present executions when they voluntarily defer the acting part of Repentance to old age Hereafter is time enough c. 2. Others perhaps do act and execute presently yet they are exceedingly out For 1. Though it be presently yet it is partially they act resolutions as Saul did his Sword upon the meanest and poorest not upon the greatest they do not answer their resolutions to the full Deal kindly with the young man for my sake said David So when many persons come to execute their Resolutions against sin they fail they falter they do not execute Agag some pleasant corruption which will mar all finds favour 2. Though it be presently yet it is but presently the present execution of the purpose is but a present a transient execution an hanging down the head for a day or for a week a busie and earnest reformation for a while but this Assize like ours here is but for a few dayes it breathes away the heart turns again to sin and the next convenient occasion is too prevalent it carries away the Soul 2. But to draw nearer to our selves however we have been defective Vse 2. Let us set upon a present execution to answer our manifold resolutions by present executions and practices yet now let us for the time to come as he said of words so I of purposes vertere proposita in Opera Not be like Clouds seeming to be full of Water but to pour down Let us act the parts of Penitents as the Prophet said to the hovering Israelites if God be God serve him so here if Repentance be a necessary duty to be performed let us then act it act it presently For this I will only propound two things 1. The Motives 2. The Means for a present Execution 1. The Motives 1. A present Execution is the truest part of Repentance At the Motives A present execution is the truest part of Repentance best you are but in a preparation in a meer disposition towards Repentance until you act it it is not so much what you would be as what you are what you intend as what you practise that will give the most real testimony of your Repentance 2. A present execution it is the safest part of repentance Of the two he is in the more sure condition who resolves to leave a wicked And the safest part of Repentance life and doth indeed forsake it and resolves to lead a holy life and doth indeed enterprize it than he who resolves on both but practiseth neither The doer of good is a thousand times more sure then the resolver something in some cases may be said to stay a person from his resolutions yet if nothing comes of the resolutions I assure you the scales will hang trembling but action doth more fully determine the estate and the Scripture is more clear for the spiritual estate as it lies in practise then as it lies in purpose 3. A present execution it is the comfortablest part While repentance lies only in resolution it is but as a Tree in And the comfortablest part of Repentance the Winter perhaps well rooted but it lives dry but when repentance breaks out into action it is as a Tree in the Spring well rooted well flowered and well smelling too There is more comfort to do then to intend to do indeed to cease a sinful course and indeed to walk an holy life this opens all the comforts of of the promises draws down the favour of God assures us more of interest in Christ excuseth more in the conscience reviveth more in all occurrences 4. A present execution it is the wisest part we cannot say what we shall do to morrow when we cannot assure And the wisest part our selves what and where we shall be to morrow He is wisest for Divine Glory and for his own happiness who acts an immediate duty of salvation upon present terms There are four things which declare wisdome One to sow in season Another to sail in season A third to accept and receive the Word of Grace in season A fourth to act repentance in season even now while it is called to day 2. The means If we would execute our penâ—tential resolutions then we must 1. Take heed of the impediments of this Meanes present Execution 2. Make use of the helps and furtherances of it 1. The impediments of a present execution are many Take heed of the Impediments Imbâ—cillity of Resolution 1. Imbecility of resolution Debile fundamentum fallit opus if the foundation be weak how can the building be strong the house which was built on a Rock did stand but that which was erected on the Sands fell down Where resolutions are either weakly raised on strong grounds or suddenly raised on weak and mutable occasions there is either no execution or uncertain for no effect doth exceed the virtue of his cause Thou hast almost perswaded me to be a Christian this left King Agrippa still in Heathenisme You will never go through with the work if you attain not to a thorow resolution when you have an heart that goes and comes you will have only fits of repentance which will come and go Of two things be sure if ever you would penitentially act to purpose One that you see strong and prevalent reasons to change your course of life such as may not be over topped by any arguments that sin may suggest hereafter they are the spirits in the brain which confer to motion in the Hands and Legs Another that you resolve not on deceitful and fallible grounds If your resolutions be upon Motives either mutable or conditional you may be troubled with much temptation but you will never advance in much penitential actions 2. Servile fear When we so exalt the opinions of men and their Tongues and their Power what will they
think of me Servile fear how will they nick-name and disgrace me what may befall me who can tell what mischief they may do unto me These are the Frosts which nip the buds and the Winds which bind the Ship and the Remora's which hold the Children still in the birth We love the opinions of men to be well thought on and the Tongues of men to be well spoken of and the respects of men to be countenanced and encouraged A cross way makes us start Zedekiah would not obey the Lord least the Princes should laugh at him and many of the Jews durst not confess Christ for fear of the Scribes and Phaâ—isees For a man who enjoyes friends and ease and estate and abundance in all sorts to thrust out into a Sea to enter into a holy and strict course of Life wherein he shall be sure to be scorned as the off-scouring of the world be trampled upon as the more in the streets be torne in his name by the teeth of wild beasts suffer ship-wrack in his liberty in his plenty in his body Why these apprehensions are eâ—ough to quell and to keep in all forwardness all action as Spira confesseth That they wrought on him when he denyed the profession of the Truth of Christ Therefore if you would descend into the present execution of penitential purposes you must not be slavishly affected unto man you must not fear the power of man nor be aâ—hamed of the Cross of Christ you must put your shoulder under the Cross and the contempts of men under your feet I am ready saith Paul Acts 21. 13 not to be bound only but also to dye at Jerusalem for the Name of the Lord Jesus If ye be reproached for the Name of Christ happy are ye for the Spirit of glory and of God resteth upon you saith S. Peter 1 Pet. 4. 14. I will not fear what man can do unto me said David Who art thou that thou shouldst be afraid of a man that shall die and of the son of man who shall be made as grass and forgettest the Lord thy Maker and hast feared continually because of the fury of the oppressor as if he were ready to destroy and where is the fury of the oppressor Isa 51. 12 13. 3. Despair of performance Why say we as good never a Dispair of performance whit as never the better It is not possible that ever we should get hands to conquer all these sins or feet to walk in all these wayes which are so holy so many so strict so difficult We cannot find words to pray nay God knows sometimes not hearts the motions of sin are thick and strong and ableevery moment to lead us captive we have made some assay but alas the work proves so harsh so uncomfortable so unprosperous we are without all strength we shall never break all these bonds of sin nor tread through all these pathes of holy duties Thus as death closeth up our eyes so doth despair shut up all our actions where there is no hope to finish there will be no heart to begin But let us reject such despairing delusions what hath been done may be done what God commands to do he can enable to do and what he promiseth that we shall do that he will make and cause us do But God hath commanded us to leave all our sinful courses and to lead a life of holiness God hath promised grace sufficient to forsake an evill way and to walk in a good way I will put my Spirit within you and cause you to walk in my statutes and you shall keep my judgments and do them Ezek. 36. 27. If God gives strength to work why should we with-hold hearts to work Da Domine quod jubes jube quod vis said S. Austin Lord give what thou commandest and then command what thou wilt Seriously consider any one penitential work for which God hath not promised grace and strength to perform Many have travelled in this penitential Work and have found it very feisable and passable How many are this day in heaven and how many are walking towards heaven all of them prove that it is not impossible to execute penitential resolutions 4. Hypocrisie and guile of heart Where the heart is false Hypocrisie there the performance is faint if the work be not done in the heart it will never be done in the life the work is best done in the life which is first done in the heart They in Jeremiah had rotten hearts they did not cordially intend to leave their own wayes and therefore when they were put to it indeed they would not yield to walk in the wayes which God prescribed Where an holy way is not throughly approved and where an evil way is not throughly hated there may be many flashes but there will never be solid performances or courses Yet a little sleep yet a little slumber yet a little folding of the hands said the Sluggard who loved sleep and idleness Prov. 6. 10. So where our affections are hankâ—ing about a sin there is ever at the least a slowness to leave that sin Modo modo said S. Austin when motions came into him to forsake his â—nclean Lusts they answered Shortly shortly Hereafter hereafter and this modo modo vvas sine modo this putting off from day to day would have continued so all the dayes of his life Therefore if you vvould execute your penitential resolutions take heed of corrupt affections if they again prevail upon you they vvill assuredly intangle and hinder you they mar the judgment and close vvith temptations and hinder actions Oh how suddenly vvill they quench your spirits alter your judgments put aside your duties extenuate your purposes bring you into further bondage confirm your unwillingness excite your fears raise up discouragements and all to frustrate the present executions of your former resolutions Corrupt affections are the very gates of sin the Bane of holiness the Quenchers of resolutions and the Impediments of all good performances 5. Worldly cares Our Saviout saith That the seed which fell among thornes was chaoked Luke 8. 7. And what was it which Worldly cares did choaâ— it see vers 14. The cares and riches and pleasures of this Life There are two things which worldly cares do choak viz. Heavenly directions of the word and Heavenly resolutions of the heart so that neither the one nor the other do come unto perfection Holy performance or action it is the end or perfection of all knowledg and resolution and worldly cares stifle both You have many a man who comes to the word and hears the terrours of God and his wrath revealed against his unrighteounsness insomuch that his soul with Felix trembles under the strokes of divine justice Or he hears how happy and blessed the condition and life of holiness is what heavens of mercies what rivers of comforts what excusations and peace of Conscience what blessings in life what supports in
death what rewards after death it shall procure to persons upon the one and the other he is stirred up to the sense of his sins to the admiration of Holiness to a condemnation of his evil course to a resolution for a better But then it is with him as with some ship sometimes as soon as it is putting out of the Harbor it strikes upon a rock or falls into the sands and loseth all the precious lading Or as with Corn sown and let fall in an open and solid place where the Birds come down and instantly pick it up so is it here with this man the world meets him again at the Church door or at his own door and all these impressions and resolutions are spilt and gone Worldly engagements take present possession of his thoughts and all the service of his affections so that he hath no time to consider what God did speak or work in him no time secretly to beg of God to write those truths in his heart to keep all this in the purpose of his heart to give him the Spirit of Grace and strength to walk in the wayes of God revealed now unto him When you turn the course of the water another way the Mill cannot stir so when men turn the course of their thoughts and affections to secular and vain imployments all resolutions stand still they have nothing now to elicit or draw them on and out into any holy or careful diligence of obedience and performance The Oxen and the Farm c. took them quite off and they made excuses .i. for the present they had other engagements therefore take heed of worldly cares It is impossible that you should be much in the actings of any Grace if you be very much in the service of worldly cares 6. Lastly Presumptuous Confidence is also an Impediment to the Presumptuous confidence present executions of good resolutions whether it be of future time hereafter shall serve the turn it is not wisdom to be so forward soft and fair will go far we have day enough yet before us a year two or ten hence after such a business is effected or which is worse after the pleasures of such a sin is a little more tasted Or of Future ability This is a work which we will do at pleasure and at leisure when we see the scouts the forerunners of the army then we will buckle on our armor when we espy the harbingers of death approaching old age sickness weakness diseases then we will think of heaven and forsake hell what need we be troubling our selves to be doing of that a long time which we can dispatch at any time if we have but time to say Lord have mercy upon me what would ye more Or of Future Mercy Wherefore hath God Mercy but for sinners and he hath said That if at any time a sinner convert he will have mercy We have found him kind unto us all our dayes and doubt not of his fatherly compassion at the last Thus do men post of all penitential executions and for ever endanger their souls Alas for future time whose is it Seneca the Heathen could see more truth then this Solum tempus presens nostrum No time is ours but the present Thou carriest thy life in thy hands thy breath in thy nostrils and seest more Graves made for the young then for the aged And as for thy future ability why dost thou so grosly befool thy self knowest thou not that present Neglects cause stronger Indispositions Qui non est hodie cras minus aptus erit the School-boy will teach thee Every man by more sinning grows more sinful and therefore most unapt and averse to good And then Future Mercy it is of all things the most uncertain to pardon sin where present mercy leaves us not to repentance from sin it is all one as if thou shouldst thus argue God will hereafter pardon me and therefore for the present I will sin against him disobey dishonour vex and grieve and abuse him These are the principal impediments to a present expectation of penitential resolutions and are to be declined by us I now proceed to the helps and furtherances to a present Helps execution of penitentialâ— resolutions which are these amongst many 1. Solid Conviction of a sinful estate This will put us upon a present Execution When the Soul is brought to an experimental Solid conviction of a sinful state sense of the vileness and bitterness of sin it will not then lye hovering Were I best to give up this course or shall I go on in it still No but when the Soul is indeed wounded the wayes shall without delay be reformed take a person in some judicial and close conviction of sin upon a sick and dying bed how forward is a person then to change and better his courses much more do solid and evangelical convictions sweetly dispose and incline the heart to the forsaking of an evil and walking in a good way They in Acts 2. 37. were pricked in their hearts and what did this work in them they cry out presently Men and brethren what shall we do So Saul was struck to the ground and was astonished and trembled and then presently cries out Lord what wilt thou have me to do Act. 9. 4 6. Outward afflictions you see many times do put on men to alter and reform their wayes of much greater force are inward afflictions of spirit Go on yet in sin God forbid shall I continue in sin any longer who if I make not haste may lose all mercy and drop into Hell it self what I feel is much what I deserve I cannot bear 2. Holy Wisdome To know times and seasons is an high Holy wisdome part of Wisdome Walk not as fools but as wise redeeming the time saith the Apostle Eph. 5. 15 16. There are four things which solid Wisdome teacheth a man One is to look to the best part Another to make choice of the best good A third to walk in the best wayes A fourth is to do all this in the first place and surest time Have I any thing more near to me then my soul more concerning my soul then God more concerning God then walking before him Where am I if I lose my Soul what am I if I enjoy not God whether run I if I continue in sin if my soul be nearest and God choicest and his wayes safest why do I demur what should I take time or put off the doing of that which is ever best done when it is done If I will live yet in sin for ought I know I may then dye in sin and if I dye in sin I must for ever perish for sin Why should I not Do I not admit the present loss of that which else may be the eternal loss of my Soul But if I set into an holy life this is the very path of God the image of Glory the Ark of safety and the pledg of an happy eternity
should never be damned for sin and sin is his daily grief as it is his daily temptation 2. He hates sin though he cannot be rid of it His soul loaths not onely the actions but nature also of sin 3. He conflicts with sin though he cannot conquer it is an Enemy to it though not a Conquerour over it though much assaulted by it fears Sin more than Hell 4. He will not be a Servant though sometimes he is forced to be a Captive His Will and Love are unconquerable 5. He cries out for help though he be not yet delivered O Lord help Laments his condition because so pestered with sinfull motions 6. He must have God reconciled though he much questions it He must have Christ and Mercy c. 7. He would obey God in all things though he falls very short of it 8. He prizes more Grace and strives after it though he enjoyes very little of it 9. He holds up his purpose to walk with God though he be not able in every thing and at all times to make it good 10. What he wants in the heights of Repentance is made up in the depths of Humbleness and Mournfulness A fourth Use of this Point shall be for Comfort and Support to such as have though but the initials of Repentance in them The fountain of Godly sorrow drops though but a little and the journey of an holy life is but begun they have newly within these few dayes set the first foot in the paths of God What shall I say to such persons Surely 1. Let them not be discouraged at all Though it be but a little A little Grace if true grace Repentance newly planted and begun yet if it be true Grace 1. It is worth a whoâ—e world One mans Soul is worth Is worth a whole world the World much more is Grace Grace even in the least degree of it is of an invaluable allay The Lord hath shewn thee mercy indeed if he has bestowed any grace on thee it is more worth than if he had given thee all the Kingdomes of the World more in respect of Excellency and in respect of Consequence 2. As little as it is it is as much as ever any Penitent It is as much as any Penitent had at first had at the first 'T is true our improvements of Grace are very different in the course of our lives but the habitual implantations of grace are alike and equal Thou hast as much now as ever any had at first who are now gone to heaven 3. As little as it is it shall pull down and work out the strongest sin that ever did cleave unto thee though not at once yet by degrees a This little will be victorious beam of Light which appears in the morning seems no great matter to deal with all the darkness in the ayr yet depending upon such a strong principle and fountain as the Sun it doth by degrees chase away c. 4. As little and as weak as it is it It shall not cease till it bring thee to heaven shall never cease till it hath brought thee to heaven The Ark and many tossings and thy weak Grace shall have many assaults but thy weak Grace is in the sure hands of a strong God who by it will make thee more than Conquerour through him that loved thee 5. As weak as it is now it shall be stronger and It shall grow stronger and stronger stronger God hath but begun his work in thee the which he will finish the Foundation is laid but the Covering is to come The seed is but sown which will arise and spread the fire kindled which will be blown and flaming God doth not leave any gracious work until he hath made it glorious and having given truth will also enlarge it to a just measure sufficient for thy soul and place and salvation 2. Nay let them be encouraged and rejoice Even a little They have matter of rejoycing Grace may be just cause of great joy The Mother rejoyceth much if the Child be born Though your Repentance wants much in respect of gradual perfection yet being real and true 1. All the sins that you have committed are pardoned The promise of pardon or remission of sins presently and assuredly opens Their sins are pardoned to every true Penitent as soon as the wicked forsakes his ways and the unrighteous man his thoughts and turns to the Lord he will have mercy and abundantly pardon He who doth more perfect and polish his repentance it is confessed that he hath the more assurance and comfort of his pardon but the right unto and grant of pardon immediately appertains to a person upon the very entrance of his repentance Now pardon of sins is a testimony of Gods highest Love and therefore a cause of most exceeding joy 2. If you should now die you should If he should now die he should be saved be saved The first fruits you know were a pledge of the full harvest though you have but as it were the first fruits of Repentance yet these are sure pawns of fullest glory Godly sorrow worketh repentance of salvation Christ saith Blessed are the poor in spirit for theirs is the Kingdome of Heaven Matth. 5. 3. Though you have but some lower weaker stock of Graces so that you are in your own opinion poor scarce worth any thing or enjoying of any thing yet the weakest Christian shall have an Heavenly Kingdome 3. Your persons are dear unto God Jer. 31. 18. I have surely heard Ephraim bemoaning himself Is Their persons are dear to God Ephraim my dear son is he my pleasant child c. So Isa 66. To this man will I look even to him that is poor and of a contrite spirit 4. Your weak services are accepted God hears your Their weak services are accepted God will pass by many infirmities groans considers your sighs puts your tears into his bottel 5. By reason of that reality in your repentance the Lord will pass by many infirmities and imperfections Infirmities shall not hinder where a reality of Grace and Repentance is begun They in the time of Hezekiah did truly repent and prepare before the Passover and though they were very defective yet the defects did not prevail to hinder the effects and acceptance of their service I will spare them as a man spareth his own son that serveth him Mal. 3. 17. How indulgent is the tender father to the obedient child though he can do but very little and very weakly Where the Lord seeth that the heart is rightly set O Lord I would not offend thee O Lord I would obey thee then he is very mercifull to pass by our failings and to accept of our weak beginnings and very weak endeavours Now I come to a second Proposition which is That God is Doct. 5. God is very ready to shew all kinds of mercy to the truly penitent very ready and quick
one thing that was necessary and David he hath one thing to desire of the Lord and the penitent person he hath one needful request too O that God would be merciful to me a sinner so the Publicane 2. If God were not ready to shew mercy Else he might be swallowed up with Despaire to the penitent he might be swallowed up with despaire Isa 57. 16. I will not contend for ever neither will I be alwaies wroth lest the spirit should fail before me Do your know what belongs to a wounded Conscience to the sence of sin and the wrath of God how great how sharp how bitter Is it a small thing think you to dwell with everlasting burnings to see nothing but sin and Hell No No the Lord knows what the severity of his wrath is and he knows what the Impotency of the soul is and he knows what the terrour of a troubled conscience is how it sinks and cracks if no hope of mercy appears and therefore he is very ready to shew mercy to the penitent lest despair should overwhelm them despair is ready to rise in two cases One is when there is exceeding tenderness and sensibleness of sin Another is when there is a long absence and improbability of mercy for what hath the soul now to rest on and to support it Now off all persons living there are none so sensible of sin as true penitents we may say of other people as the Apostle did the rest are hardned and of all penitent people they are most tender in conscience and apprehensive of sin and fearfull about mercy who are newly converted from a sinful way O how hard is it to keep them above water to perswade them that any mercy belongs to them and therefore the Lord is ready to shew them mercy that their spirits might not fail before him nor be overwhelmed with despair Is the Lord so ready to shew all kind of mercy to the penitent Vse 1. Instruction Thence may we be instructed unto two things 1. To the approbation 2. To the application of our selves to a penitentiall Course 1. To the Approbation of a penitential Course Why are ye so To approve of a penitential course averse and accuse and condemn it They have a saying that Finis dat amabilitatem Mediis the end doth make the means lovely it doth give spirit and encouragement to the use of means Repentance is in it self a most excellent and peculiar grace a singular gift of God and therefore desirable But besides that Behold thy son liveth c. it brings the soul to partake of mercy of the choicest mercy in God pardoning mercy which is of most immediate concernment and influence to the everlasting salvation of man nay it brings mercy and salvation presently This day is salvation come unto thy house 'T is granted many persons do accuse a penitential course of much vexation and sadness and grief as if it were the grave of all delight whereas indeed it is only the sepulchre of our Lusts and of lustful pleasures And others cry out upon the difficulty of it as if it were an heavy yoke and an intolerable burden But judge not of duties by the opinion of ignorant and graceless men nor by the folly and error of your own sinful and inexperienced hearts No but judge of them by what the Word pronounceth of them in themselves and by their ends Is Salvation a desireable thing is mercy an excellent thing Why then Repentance must be an excellent thing which brings us unto mercy and unto Salvation Object But there must be brokenness of heart for sin and there must be a diligent endeavour to leave all sin and there must be strict care to walk with God Sol. And what of all this It is as if thou shouldest say O but I must not be wicked I must become a new man I must leave that which will damn me I must hink well of such a course as will bring me to find saving mercy with God there cannot be a worse estate and more fearful end then Impenitency and there cannot be a better and more soul-saving estate then Repentance 2. To the quick application of our selves to a Penitential course Apply your selves to a nitential course I beseech you at length if there be any understanding in you any sense in you any credence of a hell and heaven any belief of a God or happiness seriously consider with me that 1. You must perish for ever if you have not mercy If Mercy does not save you Justice must damn thee what shall become of thy soul if thy sins be not pardoned they cannot but be condemnation unto thee without gracious and merciful Remission Therefore new saith the Lord turn unto me c. Joel 3. 12. Heb. 3. 15. Whiles it is said to day harden not your hearts Repentance is a present duty Now God commands every one to repent Act. 17. 30. 2. Are you sinners or are you not if you be not sinners then I confess you need no pardoning mercy but if you be sinners then mercy must be your plea and anchor Save me for thy mercies sake and blot out my transgressions according to the multitude of thy mercies saith David Psal 6. 51. Ah wretches that we are we are sinners by Nature and sinners by Life who can say My heart is câ—eâ—n We lie down in our sins every moment so that we need mercy much mercy all mercy 3. Vnless you do practically repent .i. indeed for sake your sinful wayes and walk in newness of obedience you shall never have mercy Except you repent ye shall all likewise perish said Jesus Christ It is the unchangeable Decree of God and the revealed pleasure of God that no man shall have his mercy but the Penitent It were an unreasonable thing that he should have mercy to pardon sin who will not have an heart to leave sin I know very well that the Lord is very rich in measure and delights in mercy and is ready to shew mercy and is able to pardon abundantly God forbid that any should straighten the Mercy Seat at all But O thou vainly presumptious soul look over all the Bible read it often and tell me where doest thou find that God will be thus merciful to any one sinner but him who is truly penitent It is not to him who is civil but penitent it is not to him that saith he is a sinner but who doth forsake his sins this is he that shall find mercy 4. Yea and consider one thing more how utterly inexcusable you Thou art Inexcusable if thou do not Repent and before God and men if you doe not repent ah what a sad and shameful appearance wilt thou make before the Lord when he shall at the last day judg thee for all thy sinfulness when thou shalt be set in the presence of Christ and Angels and men and devils And the Lord shall say This is the person to
whom I have offered the saving blood of my son and all my pardoning mercies if that he would but have left his sinful wayes Thy own conscience will condemn thee for ever that ever thou shouldst exalt the lust of thy sin before the mercy of God yea the very Devils will cry shame of thee they may say If we had had such mercy offered we could not have been worse then have refused it thou hadst mercy offered to pardon thee and yet thou wouldest go on in thy sins Know O man thouart inexcusable before God thou canst make no apology at all Two things let them be for every ingraven in your brests One is that if mercy will not bring in your souls to repentance nothing will do it I affirm it that if you were in hell it self the toâ—ments of it woâ—ld not incline you to repent if the mercies of God now upon earth will not prevail with you Another if mercy do not lead you to repentance there remains nothing but a fearfull expectation of the fiery indignation of God thou art as sure to be damâ—ed as thou now livest if thou doest not repent thee of thy sins A second Use shall be of Caution Since the Lord is so ready to Vse 2 Cauâ—â—â— Kâ—â—p not 〈◊〉 from Repentance by despairing oâ— Mercy shew all mercy to the penitent therefore take heed that you keep not off from repentance by despairing of mercy There are three sorts of sinners Some whose hearts are hardâ—ed as the Adamant through an habitual itera ion by sin and 〈◊〉 inflâ—med affection unto sin who like that unjust Judg fearing neither God nor man so they are sensâ—ble neither of the vileness of sion nor of the goodness of mercy Some whose hearts are mollifyed graciously altered have seen the evil of their wayes and forsaken them and are turned unto the Lord seeking him with mourning and with supplication to whom the Scepter of Mercy hath been graciously stretched forth and they have effectually touched that Scepter with believing hearts and are returned with much peace and joy unspeakable Others there are twixt both these they are not so low as the first for their consciences are awaked and troubled nor yet so high as the last for they cannot believe any mercy will reach unto them their souls cannot discern any intention of mercy towards them and all the promises of mercy seem to them as restrictive nay as exclusive proclamations denying unto them though grantting unto others the priviledg of their Books and the Pâ—alm of mercy and so are apt to despair mercy seems to them a far off and slow and long a coming Therefore now to such persons who are awakned in their consciences to see the vileness of their sinful ways and their lost condition my advice is by no means to despair of mercy Reasons against despair Despair is a very heinous Sin Reasons why I thus advise are these 1. Despair is a very heinous sin It is one of the highest impeachments of Gods greatest glory and delight there is nothing wherein God doth more magnifie himself in the eyes of the world or more glory in then to sit upon his mercy-seat Now despair is not every diminution and eclipse of mercy but it is in its kind a very extinction of all the love and kindness and mercifulness in God it gives 1. The lye to the promises 2. Reproach to Gods nature and particularly to the attribute of mercy that it is not 1. Kind enough 2. Willing enough 3. Full enough 4. Free enough 2. It is a sore enemy to Repentance of no hope of mercy then no care to repent I can but be damned 2. And The most uncomfortable sin then it is the most uncomfortable sin Other sins afford some though ungrounded and poor contentment either in profit or pleasure But despair being the grave of mercy it is also the very night and funeral of all comfort and as S. Austin spake of an evil conscience that is true of despair It is its own torment for taking the soul off from all remedy it must necessarily afflict it with the most exquisite sense of fear and horrour 3. Satan is very apt to fall in with an awakened conscience and there to aggravate Satan is very apt to draw us to despair sin above all measure thereby to incline it to despair of mercy if he cannot make us dye in a senseless Caâ—m his next aim is to make us perish in an unquiet and despairing storm either to undervalue our sins and so to slay us with security or else to undervalue mercy and so sink us with distrust 4. Yea and no A newly awakned conscience is apt to it conscience is more propense to suspect divine â—avour and to credit false suggestions then a newly awakened conscience Indeed while our hearts are totally seared and past feeling much sin being not at all felt here is an easie ground to delude our selves that mercy will quickly bend unto us who do take our selves to be good enough and not much to need it but when many sins shall be laid to our charge and great ones too with that wrath which a just and holy God hath threatned and we feel the burnings of the wrath begun with us I assure you it will be most difficult to withhold that Soul from despairing of mercy which at once sees much guilt and feels much wrath 5. There is infinite There is infinite mercy in God mercy is God It is his nature and he can forgive iniquity transgression and sin Est in misericordia divina divina Omnipotentia Therefore this I say unto you any of you whose consciences God has awakned to the sight and sense of your sins whether by the Ministry of his Word or of his rod as you desire not utterly to cast dishonour extreemest dishonour to God and to draw the saddest and yet most fruitless anguish on your own spirits and yet again as you tender the welfare of your Souls your everlasting safety by repentance and faith do not despair of finding mercy with God but come in unto him by solid repentance and you shall find him even unto you a God ready to forgive iniquity transgression and sin Ob. Yea but though the Lord be merciful yet is he just he I but God will not clear the guilty will by no means clear the guilty Exod. 34. 7. I have refused mercy I cannot pray I cannot be heard or answered How then can I I who have sinned so much now expect any mercy Sol. To this I answer briefly There are two kinds of sinners whom God will not clear One is Who do not see their sins yet love them Another Who do not see their sins and yet go on in them Answered Psal 11. 5. The wicked and him that loveth violence his soul doth hate And Psal 68. 21. He will wound the head of such as still go on in their wickedness If you be such
sinners who do see your sins and will love them and not forsake them be confident that remaining thus there remains nothing for you but an expectation of wrath and just judgment from the righteous God But if you see your sins and desire to repent to bewail them to forsake them with all your heart to turn from your evil wayes why the Lord hath mercy for you he is very ready to pardon and accept of you If we confess our sins 1 Joh. 1. 9. he is faithful to forgive us our sins Obj. But do ye not read the threatnings of God as Jonah 1. 3. Yet fourty dayes and Ninive shall be destroyed Sol. Remember one thing as a Preservative that all Gods threatnings against our sins are to be understood in sensu composito as the schools speak viz. thus if we continue imâ—enitent and not otherwise not in sensu diviso if we return from them like a Kings proclamation of death if the Traitors do not lay down their Weapons but if they do he offers and assures them of his pardon Obj. I this is it I had mercy offered in the Kings Proclamation I did not yield when mercy wâ—s tendered if I would lay down my Weapons but I did not yield when mercy was tendered If I had repented when God formerly offered me mercy there had been hope but I continued in sin where grace abounded and since mercy was offered therefore now too late in vain Sol. To this also let me give answer 1. Indeed it Answered was thy duty to have repented upon the very first proposal of grace and mercy and it was thy sin at all to stand out yea and thy sinnings contract a deep guilt by commission after the tender of divine mercy sin is more sinful where the offer of mercy is more plentiful But secondly Though the precedent refusals of mercy make the course of sin more guilty yet they do not make the condition of the sinner to be hopeless and utterly uncapable of mercy For 1. Mercy is able to pardon even sins against mercy as it is the antidote for sins against the Law so likewise the salve for sins against the Gospel There is so much mercy in God as can rejoice against judgment yea and that can rejoice over sins against mercy too my meaning is that Gods goodness is so natural to him and great that it can pass by the evils against his goodness and kindness 2. And that God is willing and ready so to do it may appear by this that he continues his invitations and offers of mercy though formerly neglected How often would I have gathered thee saith Christ of Jerusalem and let it yet alone one year of the Tree And then know that this is certain as long as God continues a suit of mercy unto thee neither is the date of thy mercy expired nor doth thy former refusal justly prejudice thy present right to or acceptance of mercy If the King renews his Proclama ion of favour to those who have formerly despised it it is now lawfull and safe for them to come in and accept of it But since thy former refusal God hath as it were renewed the Embassage He hath sent other servants unto thee to proclaim unto thee Mercy if thou wilt return yea and hath assured thee that he will pardon all former rebellions in all kinds if now thou wilt hear his voice thou shalt live and not die Therefore now turn unto the Lord this day doth Mercy beseech thee to leave thy sins and saith If thou wilt forsake them I am thine Object But surely the Lord hates me and hath no delight towards God hates me and will destroy me Answered I have been a vassal of sin and now must be a vessel of destruction Sol. Ah foolish and sensless sinner who pleasest thy self with the arguings of an unbelieving spirit Doth God hate thee or doth he delight in thy destruction Had this been so what wants there that hou hadst not been irrecoverably sent to the place of the damned long ere this How easily could he if he had delighted in thy confusion and destruction struck thee at once Doest thou not see that when thou wast mad in renewing thy sins then did his repentings kindle within him When he had just and many and strong occasions and provocations yet he hath spared thee to this day would he have done so had he desired to have destroyed thee 2. And what is the end of all this patience and forbearance Doest thou so ill interpret it an intention of revenge which is altogether a fruit of his great mercy No no it is not thy destruction but thy repentance and conversion which he delights in See Ezek. 33. 11. Not the ruine of thy person but corruptions He delight not in the death of a sinner but rather that he should turn from his wickedness and live Object But I cannot repent and I cannot turn mine own I cannot repent Answered I cannot pray Answered heart Sol. Pray unto him Turn me and I shall be turned Object But I cannot pray Sol. Sigh then and grieve pray that you may pray and mourn because you cannot mourn And therefore leave these false surmizes of God and sinfull foolish unworthy reasonings set upon the work of repentance indeed and thou shalt quickly find that God is so far from hating thee that he will meet thee with loving kindness and great mercies Object O no never such a sinner as I have been a sinner above measure sinfull so wholly sinfull so onely sinfull so continually Never such a sinner as I have been sinfull To this also a word 1. Greatness of sinning it not an absolute impediment to Gods readiness in pardoning for as much as great sinners are called upon to repent as well as lesser Answered sinners and if the duty of Repentance concerns them then there is a capacity of mercy for them 2. God doth upon repentance promise to pardon great sinners Cease to do evil learn to do well Isa 1. 16. Come now and let us reason together saith the Lord. V. 18. Though your sins be as scarlet they shall be as white as snow though they be red like crimson they shall be as wooll Istiduo colores sunt valde tenaces mansivi quibus intelligitur peccata quantumque sint gravia ex genere habituata ex consuetudine divina gratia purgabuntur saith Lyra well upon that place Yea though they have been peccata sanguinea so S. Jerome upon the same place 3. Great sinnings upon repentance have found greater mercies Adam's sin very great whether you consider it formally or causally yet upon repentance mercy pardoned it David's sin of murther it was a crying sin and of adultery it was a wounding sin yet upon his repentance both pardoned by mercy What should I speak of Manasses in the Old Testament or of Paul in the New 4. The greater sinnings should ever prove the quicker reasons of
repentance and not be made the causes of despair or more sinning If thy sinnings had not been so high it had been better but being so thy remedy is not an addition of a worse sin or a continuance in the same sins but to pray unto the Lord to turn thee and to forgive thee Object Why I have prayed and yet I can get no mercy not I have prayed and yet can get no mercy see any hopes or appearance of mercy therefore surely God will not be so ready to shew me mercy Sol. This is a sore Objection and usually troubled Consciences are enthralled with it Answered and many times receive great discouragement because of the silence of mercy to their tears and prayers But let us see how we may instruct and support persons in this case 1. God is ready God is ready to hear prayer to hear prayer Psal 65. 2. O thou that hearest prayer Before they call I will answer and while they are speaking I will hear Isa 65. 2. Of all mens prayers he is most ready to hear the prayer of afflicted Most ready to hear the prayer of the afflâ—cted persons Psal 18. 27. Thou wilt save the afflicted Psal 22. 24. He hath not despised nor abhorred the afflictions of the afflicted neither hath he hid his face from them but when he cried unto him he heard him Of all the Prayers which he is ready to hear there are none which he doth more feelingly and compassionately tender than the Prayers of afflicted people especially such as are inwardly afflicted in their souls and consciences for their sins No people are more apt to fear that the Lord doth not hear their Prayers and yet no Prayers doth God sooner hear than theirs for as much as the Lord doth exceedingly delight in the sacrifices of a broken spirit and he is full of pitifulness and bowels towards them I have surely heard Ephraim bemoaning himself Jer. 31. 18. When Ephraim smote upon the thigh and was confounded and ashamed why you know the Lord could not contain his affections Is Ephraim my dear son is he a pleasant child for since I spake against him I do earnestly remember him still therefore my bowels are troubled for him I will surely have mercy upon him saith the Lord. David you find him much afflicted and distressed in his soul Psal 32. 3 4. he did no sooner acknowledge his sin but God did express his mercy v. 5. The like you may see of him in Psal 6. 1 2. compared with v. 8 9. The Lord hath heard the voice of my weeping the Lord hath heard my suplication the Lord hath received my Prayer So true is that of the Prophet Isa 30. 19. He will be very graâ—ious unto thee at the voice of thy cry when he shall hear it he will answer thee But then know we that there may be sometimes God doth not presently make known his Mercy Reasons of it on our parts some special Reasons why the Lord doth not presently make known his mercy to the troubled and seeking soul The Reasons may be either on their part or on Gods part 1. Quick mercy must first see quickned fervency Though God be ready to hear their Prayers yet there may be some reasons Quickned fervency may be wanting why he doth not presently give them sensible tokens that they are heard If you pray for pardoning mercy as Austin did for repentance if you pray with a careless dull flat formal neglecting sprit not esteeming of Gods mercy and favour as your lives nay above your lives if you seek not the Lord in this with all your hearts Pardoning mercy is the greatest mercy for the soul and must be desired with the greatest affections of the soul with cries with importunities If you do not mightily wrestle with him as David in Psal 6. and as Daniel in c. 9. No marvel that cold Suits have slow Answers though you be afflicted in your consciences yet if those inward afflictions cannot raise the price of mercy and set a stronger edge upon your affections if the burnings of your consciences do not kindle flames of affections for mercy you may wait for your answer 2. As it must be a quickned affection which must find quick mercy so it must be a pure affection I will that men pray every Or a pure affecction where lifting up pure hands 1 Tim. 2. 8. Art thou sure that no iniquity cleaves unto thee and is an impedit to thy suit for mercy Thou art troubled with the grossness of some one of thy sins but doest not thou connive at the shreds of the same sin the limbs of it afflict thee but do not the leaves and the twigs hang on still If we do not purely and entirely put off our sins why should we complain that God doth not let down his mercy If I regard iniquity in my heart the Lord will not hear me Psal 66. 18. If you favour your known sin in any part or the least degree of it where now hath God promised to shew thee favour or mercy Or suppose thou shakest off one crying sin and yet retain some other sin put off one servant and take another be troubled for one transgression and yet live in another is this repentance Thou doest not change thy course but thy sin and how then canst thou expect mercy But if thou prepare thine heart and stretch out thine hands towards God and â—utst iniquity far from thee then shalt thou lift up thy face without spot said Zophar Job 11. 13 14. If thou thus return to the Almighty and putst away iniquity Job 22. 23. thou shalt make thy prayer unto him and he shall hear thee v. 27. As your prayers must be servent so they must be the fervent prayers of a righteous man which do prevail much Not that he who prays must have no sin but that he must love and connive at none 3. Thy heart is troubled with the guilt of sin but doth it morn Doest thou mourn for the vileness and fithiness of thy sin for the viteness and filth of thy sin Thou seekest for a Cordial but doest thou pray for Salve too Vehement thou art for Mercy but what for Grace Where guilt onely troubles it may make me earnest for mercy to ease me that is involuntary would not be troubled but is troubled because he is troubled But where the filthiness of sin troubles me now I do not onely importune in prayer but mourn also and amas desirous of healing as I am of pardoning this is voluntary he would mourn and mourns because he can mourn no more If thou seekest the Lord with a mourning heart as well as with a troubled heart the fountain is set upon for transgressions and sins Zach. 13. 1. and if the fountain be opened for thee it cannot be long ere mercies will swim unto thee 4. And with what faith hast thou prayed Thy troubled Conscience With what faith
hast thou prayed would trouble thee if thou didst not pray and therefore hast thou prayed to give it a little quiet as we do a crying child the brest to still it What things soever ye desire when ye pray believe that you receive them and ye shall have them Hast thou and doest thou consider and ponder the promises of Gods mercy made over the penitent persons Hast thou considered of his mercifull nature tender love in and through Christ of his commands to broken and afflicted souls to come unto him for Balm and Oyl Hast thou found how proper his mercifull promises are to thy condition every way good and convenient and doest confess this word of promise a gracious and a good word and judgest him to be faithfull who hath promised and thy self unworthy of mercy and thereupon in the Name of the Lord Jesus hast bended thy heart and knees to the God of mercy trusting through him to find grace and mercy to help in time of need and those his promises to be Yea and Amen to thy soul through Christ Joh. 14. 13. Whatsoever ye ask in my Name that will Ido According to your faith said Christ to the blind men Matt. 9. 29. so be it unto you Alas thy prayers have not found the way to Gods Mercy-seat all this while because they have not had faith for their Guide if our Messenger lose their way no marvel if we stay long for an answer Lastly Why hast thou called home the Embassadors those prayers Hast thou not called home thy prayers of thine which were Leigers at Heaven In a fit of proud impatience and fruitless vexation and bold presumption thou hast limited the holy One of Israel to a day And if at such another prayer God did not sensibly answer thee thou wouldest and hast restrained seeking of him What doest thou mean to beg and yet to prescribe Alas that there should be so much pride yet in an heart which we would think humbled as low as Hell That it should profess it self to deserve a thousand damnations and yet quarrel with God for not being quick in a present expedition of mercy Thou art too quick with God Judge how these answer one the other O Lord I do not deserve the least mercy I deserve never to find mercy and yet if the Lord doth not presently shew me mercy I will not seek unto him any more As you must get humbled hearts so you must get humble hearts He hears the desires of the humble Your Prayers must be patient as well as â—ervent Mercy pardoning mercy is worth the waiting for It is the most excellent of mercies and most sure to the patient Petitioner Psal 40. 1. I waited patiently for the Lord and he inclined unto me and heard my cry Blessed are all that wait for it Isa 30. 18. Or there may be Reasons on Gods part why he doth a while Reasons on Gods part God suspends mercy To give us some taste what it is to provoke him suspend or hold up the demonstration of his mercy to a troubled soul and seeking 1. To give us some taste what it is to provoke him and sin against him Jer. 2. 19. Thine own wickedness shall correct thee and thy back-slidings shall reprove thee know therefore and see that it is an evil and a bitter thing that thou hast forsaken the Lord thy God As we have had years to bath our selves in the delights of sin so we must have some minutes to taste the proper fruits the bitterness of sin Thou wouldst not believe the Gall and the Wormwood c. Lam. 3. 2. To alienate or work off our affections wholly from sin which now is so To alienate our affections from sin deadly a sting so smart a wound so noisome a prison which fills us with such horrible terrours and costs us almost our lives to obtain pardon and mercy Thou wouldst not easily part with sin Who would love sin any more which 1. raiseth so great terrours 2. utterly depriveth of mercy 3. or hinders it and makes it slow to answer 3. To abase us more in our own eyes To abase us the more in our own eyes that we may exalt his mercy that so his mercy may exalt us and we may exalt his mercy to value the excellency of mercy to confess our unworthiness of mercy to enlarge our desires of mercy 4. Nay not onely to exalt his mercy but retain his mercy not easily forfeit the excellency and sweetness of mercy by any future sinning The That we may retain his mercy Church which had much adoe to find Christ she then caught him and would not let him go The pardoning mercies of God ordinarily yield us most sweetness and abide in their strength To make us an Instance of mercy and Instrument of comfort with us after deepest humiliations and difficultest fruitions of them 5. Perhaps the Lord will make thee a great Instance of mercy and a great Instrument to comfort others and therefore suffereth thee to lie a long time in darkness and silence and at length will relieve thee Object Yea but how shall a troubled soul be supported in the How shall not be supported in the interim the interims until mercy pardoning mercy doth come and prayers therein be answered fully Sol. I answer to this also 1. If thou canst not have comfort to feed on yet thou hast duty to work on If thou hast not comfort look to duty Every Christian may either find it an Autumn to gather fruit or else a Spring to set it It is a great mercy that thou art at the gates of Mercy it is a great mercy 1. to enjoy 2. to beg 3. to wait for mercy a comfort to have such an heart to come so near to mercy thou hast a time to search thy heart more and to review thy estate and to peruse thy prayers to mend and continue all All which are but thy improvements in grace and will eventually prove the enlargements of thy mercy and peace No man can make a better progress in his repentance but he doth thereby prepare for the greater for the sweeter for the longer mercies 2. Though you have not experience to support you yet you have faith Though thou hast not experience yet thou hast faith It is written and sealed though not delivered as yet Whosoever doth truly repent mourn for sin forsake it endeavour to walk with God c. though he have not the joy of his pardon in his conscience yet he hath the assurance of his pardon in the promise Now Gods Word should support us as much as Gods Testimony his Word should be as good to our faith as his Testimony is sweet to our sense and feeling 3. The dawnings of pardoning mercy The dawnings of pardoning mercy may support which are rising upon you may also support you Though you cannot read your Pardon under the Broad Seal yet you may find it passing
the Privy Seal For 1. Upon your humble praying for pardoning mercy you do feel your consciences more quieted and setled and revived with better confidence and expectation of mercy 2. You find your hearts more enflamingly resolved that you will never give over you will now follow on to know the Lord and his mercies It was a sign anciently that God regarded prayers when â—ire came down upon the sacrifice as 1 Kin. 18. 24. 2 Chro. 7. 1. so is it a singular argument that God accepts of your prayers for mercy or grace when upon your prayers he doth enlarge and enliven you more earnestly to seek him in those kinds If God doth himself hold up thy suit he will not long hold off his answer when we will have no Nay then Be it unto thee as thou wilt If he prepare thine heart he will at length incline his â—ar And fell on his neck and kissed him You have seen already the Eyes of Mercy to espie a returning Penitent and the Feet of Mercy its speedy pace to meet a returning Penitent the Father ran and of the Bowels of Mercy He had compassion on him In all which we have discovered that singular readiness which is in God to shew mercy to a true Penitent Now there yet remain 1. The Arms of Mercy Amplexus misericordiarum And he fell on his neck 2. The Sealings of all this mercy though not verbally yet most significantly expressed towards the returning Prodigal and kissed him What they say of Scire that though we do know yet this satisfies us not unless another doth know Nisi tâ— scire hoâ— sciat alter that we do know the same is true of Love and Mercy though we have loving affections and mercifull intentions towards any yet this is not enough to the party unless he be made to know the same Therefore here are singular expressions as well as admirable intentions the Box of Ointment is opened Joseph cannot contain himself but cries out I am Joseph The Father of the Prodigal doth forgive and accept of him and testifies all this by falling on his neck and kissing of him There be divers Kisses Not to speak of the Kiss of Subjection and Reverence which David calls for Psal 2. 12. Nor of the Kiss of Incivility and Filthiness the whorish kiss of which Salomon speaks Prov. 17. 13. Nor of the Kiss of Falshood and Treachery Judas-kiss Matth. 26. 49. Nor of the Kiss of Courtesie common to all friends the Heathens used it as Xenophon and Herodotus relate Nor of the Kiss of Charity used among the primitive Christians especially before the Lords Supper The Kiss in the Text is a Kiss of Merciful Affection and it is given unto the Prodigal by his Father in signum Reconciliationis that He and his Father were now friends and in a state of love and kindneâ—s In signum Pacis to take off all fears and doubts all was exceeding well and in signum Laetitiae to intimate unto him what a welcome child he now was His Father was not more grieved at his sinfull departure but he is now much more gladded at his penitential return Doct. God is not onely reconciled but manifests himself so to be unto the Pâ—nitent The proper Observation from this I conjecture is That God is pleased not onely to be reconciled but also to manifest and declare himself as one reconciled to penitent people Joh. 14. 21. I will love him and manifest my self unto him Rev. 3. 20. If any man hear my voice and open the door I will come in to him and will sup with him and he with me Rev. 2. 17. To him that overcometh will I give to â—at of the hidden Manna and I will give him a white Stone and in the Stone a new name written which no man knoweth saving he that receiveth it Rom. 5. 5. The love of God is shed abroad in our hearts by the holy Ghost which is given unto us This is a Proposition of deep consequence and also of some difficulty and therefore must be the more warily opened and attended Some things premised Gods Râ—câ—nciled favour is demonstrable to a â—itted soul For the sense and meaning of it premise these particulars 1. That Gods reconciled favour is a thing demonsirable to a fitted soul .i. it is not besides the nature of Divine favour to open it self so that it may be apprehended no more then it is against the nature of Light to reveal it self Nor is it beyond the capacity and proportion of a penitential soul tobe cognoscitive i. to be able to look on and know Divine favour In Universali the Papists and others do grant as That God was in Christ reconciling the world to himself but more then this I affirm in particulars There is not only a Notional knowledge in the general but there may be an Experimental knowledg in particular of Divine favour By this saith David I know thou favourest me And S. Paul of Christ Who loved me God hath actually manifested his love and favour to his people of old Son be of good comfort thy sins are for given thee Mat. 9. And Rom. 8. Paul had it and all the Saints had it And he doth manifest it and will manifest it to all true penitents But then 2. There is a double manifestation of his favour One is Natural A double Manifestation of his favour Naturall and this is when God doth imprint such qualities on the soul which are the sole fruits of a reconciled Love as when he bestowes on it the sanctifying graces of his Spirit Another is Formal wherein he doth evidently make over the goodness of Formall his Love i. make us directly to know that he doth love us and is reconciled unto us which is done two wayes either 1. By the Testimony of the Word apprehended by faith 2. By the Testimony of his Spirit causing in us an express evidence and sense of Gods love as a witness and as a seal Now one of these wayes God is pleased to manifest his reconciled favour or to evidence it unto the penitential soul and sometimes both 3. The time which God taketh to declare or make known in a The time of this manifestation is aâ—bâ—trary more formal way of evidence his reconciled love unto the penitential soul is not necessary and determinate but arbitrary and free It is not restrained to the very birth or hour of our Conversion nor limitted to any one part of time after it more then an other But God is pleased differently to make himself known and his loving favour known Lydia partaked of Joy as soon s the partaked of Grace but with other Christians it may be perhaps as with Simeon that their eyes do not see their Salvation till near their death in the latter end 4. The measure of Gods dispensation in this particular is also The measure of Gods Dispensation of it is very different very different and various â—very
by which we come to be filled with all the fulness of God Eph. 3. 19. See but Luke 7. 38. You shall find that much was there forgiven the woman though a great sinner was graciously reconciled what followes on this she loved much she wept much she humbled her self much her affections to Christ her tears for her sins her humility of spirit all of them are set down as exemplary copies this is it which will make the light of our Moon to be as the light of the Sun and our light of the Sun as the light of seven dayes You may perhaps reply unto me this evidence that God is reconciled to us which is so excellent in it self and produces such effects were a very heaven upon earth if we could attain unto it But what means should we use that we may at length enjoy it Means to attain it I conâ—ecture thus that the means of obtaining it are twofold Internal External The Internal means are three viz. Conscience the Spirit of God and Faith for all these have in them a reflexive and an evidencing virtue or power 1. Then you must get your consciences renewed Conscience Get your Consciences renewed absolutely considered hath a reflexing power it can look on our natural acts and conditions but it must be conscience renewed which must testifie of the spiritual estate and that God is reconciled to you The testimony or evidence of conscience renewed is you know syllogistical and nothing else but the eccho of the word v. g. whosoever truly repents of sin the Lord is reconciled to him this is the proposition of the word as you may read in Hos 14. 1 2 3. They are described as acting the parts of true penitents and then v. 4. I will love them freely So Jer. 31. 19. Ephraim is turned and repents and then v. 20. Ephraim is a dear child and a pleasant Son he is earnestly remembred and sure mercy is his .i. Ephraim is reconciled and dearly loved of God Here renewed conscience assumes But I do unfainedly repent I do truly mourn and forsake sin and now with assurance it concludes by way of evidence and testimony Therefore the Lord is reconciled unto me he doth freely and surely love me Obj. But it is objected Conscience may be deceived it may assume without ground and so deludingly conclude the matter Sol. I grant that conscience may be erronious in its grounds but conscience as renewed and concluding as a renewed conscience will not delude you nor err for conscience renewed concludes not upon an empty imagination but upon a solid examination of the heart and life It finds that integrity in the heart and that uprightness in ordering the life which doth answer the word of God And reading that the Lord loves the upright and that he will shew his salvation to him that orders his conversation aright Now upon search finding this habitual and actual uprightness it concludes Surely I am the person whom the Lord loves and to whom he is reconciled 2. You must get the spirit of God The Apostle in Rom. 5. 5. Get the spirit of God saith that the love of God is shed abroad in our hearts by the holy Ghost so that if ever you would know the love of God unto you you must have the spirit of God the spirit of God hath many operations given unto him as that he inlightens the mind humbles the heart sanctifies it and then that he sealeth and comforteth it and as these effects so the order of them is observable he doth not first of all seal or assure and then inlighten and then sanctifie and then humble but he first inlightens humbles sanctifies and converts the soul and then assures and comforts it Peruse Rom. 8. you shall find that the witness of the spirit that we are the children of God v. 16. followes the spirit of bondage and of adoption and of supplication v. 15. and the quickning of the spirit v. 11. and a leading of the spirit v. 14. So that if ever you would be assured that the Lord is reconciled to you you must get his spirit convincing humbling renewing and leading you so much evidence as you have of holiness so much assurance you may build on of Gods reconciled favour unto you Obj. But here also it is objected we may thus be cozened with Enthusiasms taking a fond dream and delusion for a witnessing or testimony of Gods spirit Sol. I answer this is a fond and ridiculous exception for the spirit of God as S. Ambrose speaks can neither deceive nor be deceived The sealing or assuring testimony of Gods Spirit is never Nudum nor Nudatum testimonium but as it is a seal to a deed drawn I mean an heart first written over with renewing graces so in the sealing it alwayes produceth more tender and lively operations of holiness in all good works 3. Lastly If you would get assurance of Gods love reconciled unto your souls you must get Faith Faith is the eye by which we Get Faith look on God and it is that light by which we see God looking on us How did Simeon see Christ to be his Saviour Or Paul know that Christ loved him but by Faith There are two wayes by which Faith can and will bring the soul to see or know God reconciled unto it One is by and in Christ there is no seeing of a reconciled God but in a Mediator and therefore Christ is called so often our Peace our Atonement our Reconciler The other is by and through the Promises which is therefore called the Covenant of Grace q. d. sets forth and presents God unto us as graciously reconciled If you have so much faith as will bring you to Christ to know him to embrace and accept of him to rely on him you may with safest confidence conclude and be perswaded that God is your reconciled God For God was in Christ reconciling the world to himself 2. The external means of obtaining assurance are 1. Conscionable External means Diligent Application of our selves to the Word and diligent application of our selves to the Word The word of God is both the instrument of our Regeneration and of our Consolation and is not only productive of faith as it is an adherence but able also to produce it as it is an evidence and therefore as you read that faith in acceptance depends on the word Rom. 10. 17. so we read that faith in assurance flowes likewise from it 1 Joh. 5. 13. These things have I written unto you that believe on the Name of the Son of God that ye may know that ye have eternal life And as the Word is oftentimes called a Word of Faith so it is sometimes called a Lip of Peace Isa 57. 19. q. it produceth an assurance from which that peace doth flow 2. And to the Sacrament The Sacrament hath I confess many To the Sacrament ends and it is as the Word of God is an Organ
himself in dust and ashes So the penitent upon the manifestation of divine favour doth more acknowledg his vileness judg his follies and abhor his iniquities it is ever true that the greatest mercies set the heart at greatest distance with sin But now it is demanded Why should the expressions of mercy elicite confession of sin if it be pardoned why any more confession Reasons though hereof be many 1. Piety in man is Reasons of it Piety in man is not opposite but subordinâ—te to pity in God not opposite but only subordinate to Pity in God Divine love doth not destroy but increase duty Assurance followes the habits and alwayes advances the acts of grace As it is our duty to seek our pardon by confession so also to carry away the same with continued confessions confession of sin is not a transient but a constant duty As the Mathematicians speak of a Line That it is not punctum but fluxus punctorum so I say of any duty It is not one indivisible act only but an act repeated to believe is a duty in which one act only is not enough for I must still keep my eye upon Christ So to confess sin is a duty not done altogether because once done but still to be done because a duty to be done though God be pleased to forget yet it is our duty to remember But secondly By confession of sin after remission and testimony Mercy is now acknowledged to be mercy mercy is now acknowledged to be mercy What a man may speak in straights is one thing what in free circumstances when extra aleam is another Many a man cryes out for mercy who perhaps scarce will give mercy all the glory afterward But when we are pardoned and yet confess sin we do really profess That it was not Worthiness in us but only Goodness in God that pardoned No man can more fully give the glory of his pardon to sole mercy then he who doth confess his sins after mercy What is this confession of sin but as if the person should say O Lord to me indeed nothing did belong but shame and confusion for I for my part have thus and thus sinned against thee and deserved thy wrath but it was meer mercy that saved and pardoned me 3. The more pardoning mercy God shews The more humility is thereby wrought in the heart The more pardoning mercy the more Humility for who can behold much pardon but withal must know it was much sin that hath that much pardon He hath greater cause of shame because all this while a God of such mercy hath been offended So that here is more cause for the heart to abase it self and to confess its own vileness 4. Upon New and more grounds of confession do arise gracious remission more and new grounds of Confession do arise Before I am pardoned I confess my sins because God requires confession and also because he doth upon a right confession promise Remission When I am pardoned more reasons of Confession are upon mercy namely mercy granted and mercy sealed O then have I not more cause to confess my sinful vileness having tasted of most unspeakable goodness in the pardon of it Doth the penitent person humbly confess his sins after the Vse Upon sense of pardon let us do so pardon of them Why let us if any of us think that we are pardoned do so too T is a truth that of all things we are most willing to forget our sins we have much adoe to keep our thoughts on them in a penitential way its death almost to some men to think on their sins thus and in case if by a little duty we have got the least hope of pardon we ordinarily put those sins off from any future solemn Confessions This I conceive ariseth from two causes the one is the sensible influence which sin often to be thought on imprints on the conscience After considerations of sin we have usually most bitterness and trouble which we willingly would not feel Another is an ignorance of the power and use of pardoning mercy which as it brings Rest Peace so most hearty grief and confession I will say to Such as faâ—l in after confession It is suspicious whether ever they had any Pardon at all Or whether they ever truly repanted or no. men presuming on pardon and yet failing in an after confession of their sins 1. It is suspicious whether ever they had any pardon at all or real assurance thereof forasmuch as they fail in this after effect of confession which is alwayes the more increased by the greater evidence of divine mercy 2. It is suspicious whether they ever truly repented or no for as much as true repentance doth incline us to go over and perfect all the acts and branches of Repentance whereof confession in a right manner performed is not the least But for our parts if any of us upon a penitential course have been so far blessed as to see the face of God with peace and have found any testimony of his pardoning mercy let us never cease to bless that mercy and with mournful and self-judging hearts to iterate and continue our confession of the sins for which we have found mercy Motives hereunto are these 1. We shall hereby the better prolong Moâ—ives to it We shall hereby the better increase our assurance of mercy and increase our assurance of divine mercy I conjecture that you shall in your experience find this truth viz. That assurance lives longest in a believing Eye an humble Spirit and in a Soul accustomed to the strict exercise of Repentance the way to get assurance of pardon is ever the best way to preserve and inlarge Our Conscience will hereby acquit us for the sincerity of our Confession it 2. Hereby our Consciences shall most acquit us for the sincerity of our confession Antecedent acts do not alwayes yield unto us that solid ground as subsequent acts As about our outward mercies after prayers do more denominate the celestial frame then former prayers because those may be depending on self-love and necessity but the other springs out of spiritual love and piety and respects to divine glory So is it in the business of confession of sin to confess under the beams of mercy is a better temper then to confess under the strokes of Justice it argues a more holy Ingenuity to acknowledg and bewail our vileness being discharged of wrath and punishment then only to exclaim either upon the Rack or upon hopes to be taken off 3. Hereby the frame of the heart is kept more tender against sin The frame of the heart is hereby kept more tender against sin as Ezra 9. 14. Should we again break thy Commandments Continued sense of sin produceth four singular effects and with much addition too Most cordial Thankfulness Most tender Fearfulness Most diligent Fruitfulness Most careful Tenderness The daily judger of his former sins by a penitential
that finds a lost sinner Sol. The Answer Who finds the lost sinner God onely is easie It is God onely I will seek that which was lost Ezek. 34. 16. It was he who found Abraham in Caldea amongst the Idolaters and David among the sheep-folds and Manasses among the thorns and bushes and Paul in the way to Damascus and Matthew at the receit of Custome and the Israelites in their bloud and Mary Magdalene in her uncleanness The sinner cannot find himself he can lose himself but he cannot find himself he can wander but he cannot return of himself Avertere a Deâ— man can do that but convertere ad Deum man cannot do this Man loves to wander but to come back man hath neither will nor power No man can â—ind a lost sinner He may find a lost sinner by way of discovery but he cannot find him by way of recovery I may discover but not recover 2. Bewail but not prevail 3. give Counsel but not give Grace I may see one running from God but I cannot bring him back to God I may see him wandring to Hell but I cannot set his heart to turn back to Heaven and I may bewail a lost sinner yet I cannot prevail upon a lost sinner and I can give him counsel to come home but I cannot give him grace to come home It is God God onely who can find a lost sinner Quis ovem perdicam requirere debeat nonne qui perdidit quis perdidit nonne qui habuit Quis habuit nonne qui â—ecit So Tertullian appositely He onely that made man he onely it is who can find the sinner Quest 2. How God finds a lost sinner Sol. There are How God â—inds a lost sinner seven Acts of God which are conversant about the finding of a lost sinner 1. He is moved with compassion towards him the He is moved with compassion towards him Lord pities such a sinner Alas saith God this poor ignorant foolish man is gone from me the fountain of his life lo how his lusts deceive him how Satan rules him how he wanders up and down in vanity he is quite out of the way of his happiness he is running towards hell but perceives it not he is undoing and destroying his immortal soul but observes it not he knows not whether he goes he is undone for ever if I stay him not if I turn him not 2. He intends good to this particular lost sinner I will surely have mercy on him I have seen his ways He intends good to this lost sinner and will heal him I know the thoughts that I think towards him thoughts of good and not of evil I will glorifie all my mercy and goodness in this very sinner I will not suffer him to run on thus I will look after him I will bring him home to my self and save him 3. He sends out after him one servant and another He sends out after him servant one Minister and another Minister Go saith God to such a Parish and to such a Family and preach and make enquiry Is there not such a miserable sinner here is there not such a lost man there one that is gone from his Fathers house one that hath spent all in riotous living Is there never a man here who hath departed from God lived without God run all his life in sinfull loose base courses of disobedience and would now be glad of mercy This is the general seeking of a lost sinner 4. He makes a privy search after him for perhaps He makes a privy search after him the general Hue and Cry will not find the sinner and therefore the Lord makes a privy search As to find out Achan there was Tribe searched by Tribe and Family by Family and Person by Person and thus doth the Lord in finding of a lost sinner He comes more distinctly and his Word or Afflictions draw after this sinner more personally they light at his door upon his person and knock and enquire Art not thou the man doth not the lost sinner abide here Art not thou he who hast lived ignorantly or proâ—anely and gone astray from thy God 5. He He lights on hâ—m at length lights on him at length And then the Lord lights on a lost sinner when he actuates and quickens Conscience in him which now can be silent no longer but cries out Lord here he is Here is the Swearer Drunkard Whoremonger Sabbath-breaker c. And now out comes the lost sinner with a trembling heart and a guilt-smiting spirit Lord who is it that you look for do you look after a sinner a lost sinner I am the man you look for Oh I have sinned I have wandred I have been lost all my Oh I have sinned I have wandred I have been lost all my days What shall I say unto thee O thou preserver of men or what shall I do Oh! if thou takest not pity on me if thou shewest not mercy unto me I perish I die I am lost for ever 6. He deals with this sinner to return and come back unto him Hos 14. 1. O Israel return unto the Lord thy God for thou He deals with him to return hast fallen by thine iniquity And there are four ways which the Lord useth to prevail upon a lost sinner to turn back unto him Four ways 1. By Expostulation What have I been unto thee or what have I done unto thee or what iniquity hast thou found in me By Expostulation that thou hast all this while departed from me Was not I the God that formed thee the Father that brought thee forth the Master that fed thee and took care of thee Was there not goodness and kindness and fulness enough in me why hast thou dealt thus unkindly with me 2. By Conviction of his By Conviction wandring condition with the baseness and miserableness thereof These are thy ways and these have been thy doings and what profit hast thou by those things whereof thou art or mayest be now ashamed Why what hast thou got by all thy sinfull wandrings See how naked thou art of all spiritual good how shamefull thy course hath been Is the Wilderness a place for a Child How poor and undone thou art Thou hast spent all and if thou continuest in thy sinfull ways thou wilt certainly perish with hunger Sin hath been thy loss and if thou return not it wâ—ll certainly be thy ruine Return O lost Sinner return return why wilt thou die and perish for ever 3. By By Propositions of Mercy Propositions of Mercy As S. John ran after that young lost man of Jerusalem crying unto him Return my son return Christ will yet accept of thee Christ will yet shew thee mercy So doth the Lord God when he would bring back a lost sinner Return saith he and live return and live Ezek. 18. 32. Though thou hast forgot the Duty of a Child yet I have not put off the Affection
of a Father I am that Father in whose house there is bread enough and to spare Do but come back unto me and all shall be well Canst thou live without Bread canst thou live without my Mercy Mercy shall be thine if thou wilt return from thy lost and sinfull courses 4. By directing him into the way of coming back As 1. With mournfull confession of his sins By directing him into the way of Returning Hos 14. 2. Take with you words and return unto the Lord say unto him Take away iniquity and receive us graciously 2. With penitential reformation Isa 55. 7. Let the wicked forsake his way and the unrighteous man his thoughts and let him return unto the Lord and he will have mercy on him and to our God for he will abundantly pardon 3. With believing application Thou must go saith God to my Son for he is the way and the life and he came to seek and to save that which was lost Seventhly By laying hold upon him by his Almighty Grace and putting into him a returning heart Now notwithstanding all this the lost sinner is not perfectly found and therefore the Lord doth one thing more he doth with this lost sinner as the shepherd did with the lost sheep who took him on his shoulders and brought him home So the Lord lays hold on this poor lost soul by his Almighty Spirit of Grace and puts into him a returning heart an other heart and makes him willing and glad to leave his sinfull wayes and to return to himself and to implore his reconciled favour and acceptance in Jesus Christ Which being done now is the lost sinner found indeed for then and then onely is a lost sinner found when he in truth turns back to God and enjoys him as his reconciled God in Christ Jer. 3. 22. Return ye back-sliding children Behold we come unto thee for thou art the Lord our God Quest 3. Why doth God thus look after and find a lost sinner Why God doth thus find a lost sinner Sol. The Reasons may be these 1. Although the sinner be not worth the looking after yet the soul of a sinner is worth the looking after The sinner is the Devils creature but the soul is Tâ—e soul is worth the looking after Gods creature The soul that I have made saith God Isa 57. 16. The lost sheep was worth the looking after and so was the lost groat surely then a lost soul is worth the looking after which is at least of as much value as a lost Groat Christ saith Theophylact on Matth. 18. was the man who left the Ninety nine sheep and lookt after one lost sheep he left the the society of Angels in Heaven to find one lost Soul on Earth O the Soul of Man is a precious a valuable Substance made only by God and fit only to match and converse with God 2. As God knows God knows the loss of a soul the worth of a soul so God knows the loss of a Soul O Sirs we make little account of losing souls but verily no loss like the loss of a soul As Christ spake of the fall of that house The fall thereof was great that 's true of the loss of a soul the loss thereof is very great A man in the event loseth nothing though he loseth all the world if his soul be not lost But if the soul be lost all is lost all is lost to an eternity and therefore the Lord out of unspeakable pity looks after a lost sinner Christ hath â—aid down a price for souls 3. Jesus Christ hath laid down a price for some souls and Jesus Christ shall see of the travel of his soul he shall have his purchase to the full value 4. God will have some to magnifie the God will have some to magnifie the riches of his Grace riches of his glorious Grace and Love and Kindness and Mercy yea and to enjoy eternal Glory with himself therefore he will find some lost sinners For no sinner but a found sinner can either glorifie God or be glorified with him The first Use shall be for Examination of our selves Whether Vse 1. Examination Whether our lost souls be found our lost souls be found thus of God or no I will propound unto you 1. Some Arguments or Motives to put you upon this Trial. 2. Then the Trials or Characters of a person whom God in mercy hath found The Arguments which may move us to a serious Trial whether Motives to a serious Trial. we be found persons or no are these 1. Every man is lost but every man is not found All are lost but few are found Every man is lost but every man is not found the way of sin is general but the way of mercy is special Mat. 7. 13. Wide is the gate and broad is the way that leadeth to destruction and many there be that go in thereat v. 14. But strait is the gate and narrow is the way that leadeth unto life and â—ew there be that â—ind it You read of a general complaint They are all gone out of the way but you read not of a general acclamation They are all returned into the way Take the way of finding a lost sinner and bringing him home to God either 1. by Repentance Why the number of sinners is exceeding large but the number of repenting sinners is very scant As he said once of an Army Here are many Men but few Souldiers so may it be said in this case Sinners are like the Sands in the sea very numerous but Penitent Sinners are like Pearâ—s in thesea very rare and precious 2. By Faith All are sinners but few very few are â—rue believers Historical Faith though it be a common faith yet it is not very common Who hath believed our report They are the â—ewest part of the world who do credere Christum believe that there is a Christ but how few even of these do credere in Christum believe in Christ And Men are never found till Faith be found in them 2. It is a very bad and a very sad condition not to be found It is a very sad condition not to be found out of but to be found still in a lost condition If it were no more but this That such a person cannot find himself under the clasp or compass of any saving mercy this were heavy To be in a Dâ—sert and not to know that ever he shall come alive out of it to be in the Ocean and not to know that ever he shall come safe to Land to be in a sinfull condition and not to know wheâ—her ever Divine Mercy will pull him out of this condition Yet this is the case of a lost sinner he cannot tell whether ever Divine Mercy will look after him or no perhaps it will perhaps it will not But besides this let 's consider what may find that lost sinner whom Divine Mercy hath not
power to come forth to come back to God Rom. 5. Without strength It knows not by its own light one foot of the way and when it is made known alas it finds no power to stir nay if I might have mercy and heaven upon the freest terms but for coming home I am not able to do it O how a found lost soul complains It complains as much of an impotent heart as of a wandring heart I cannot come I cannot turn this wandring heart into the right way come back to my God I should but come I cannot go to Christ I should but go I cannot if Christ doth not come to me I shall never be able to come to him if he doth not seek me I shall never seek him iâ— he finds not me with strength I shall never find him with comfort and safety 3. If God hath indeed found thee Thou wilt above all He will above all thiâ—gs desire to be found in Christ things desire to be found in Christ The found soul presently finds a need of Christ Paul as soon as mercy found him would by no means be found in himself but by all means be found in Christ That I may be found in him saith Paul Phil. 3. 9. There was a Nobleman one Elyearius who was supposed to be lost and his Lady sent up and down to find him One at length meets with him and tels him how sollicitous his Wife was to find him out O answered he commend me to my Wife and tell her That if she desires to find me she must look for me in the heart of Jesus Christ for there onely am I to be found And verily there is no poor soul whom God is finding and bringing home to himself on whom he hath imprinted a true sense of his lostness but presently the soul cries out What shall I do what shall I do to be saved O that I might have Christ and O that I might be found in Jesus Christ Remember two things 1. That the Lord will bring back to himself no soul but by Jesus Christ Christ is the sinners way to the Father he is the door by which you are admitted If ever the Lord casts an eye on thee or take thee by the hand it is for his Christ's sake 2. A lost soul which is found finds an absolute need of Jesus Christ Nothing out of Christ can make peace can justifie can reconcile can set us straight can make us accepted Had I all other things and had not Christ I were still a lost person Had I the righteousness of Angels yet if I had not Christ I were lost could I mourn could I repent could I pray could I live holily could I walk exactly yet I am lost I am still lost until I get into Christ I count all things but loss for the excellency of the knowledge of Jesus Christ my Lord. God will look on me as my Judge he will look on me as his enemy he will not own me as a Father as a reconciled Father but in Christ 4. If thy lost soul be truly found then Jesus Christ may be Jesus Christ may be found in that lost soul found in that lost soul of thine They report of Ignatius that the Letters of Jesus were found written in his heart This I dare affirm That the Picture of Christ the Graces of Christ the Life of Christ is to be found in every found man Paul Lydia the Jailor Christ was sought by them and found in them It cannot be that a sinner should be found if Christ be not to be found in him Why if thou be a Christless man who doubts it but that thou art a lost man Now do not deceive thy soul thou canst say that Christ once was to be found in the Temple and Christ once was to be found on the Cross and Christ is still to be found at the right hand of his Father but is there not one place more where thou canst find him hast thou not a heart Is Christ to be found there I say there in thy heart I find him in thy Ear when thou hearest and I find him in thy mouth when thou speakest and thou findest him in thy mind when thou thinkest but still I ask Dost thou find him in thy heart which loves which fears which joys which delights which embraceth O is Christ in thy heart what a found man and nothing of Christ to be found in thee I know not perhaps wilt thou reply Why this is strange that Christ should be in thee and thou never know it Christ dwels in the broken heart in the believing heart Christ lives in him who onely lives upon Christ Christ was a crucified Christ doth he cruâ—ifie thy heart He was a holy Christ doth he purifie thy heart He was an humble Christ doth he abase thy heart He was a tender Christ doth he mollifie thy heart He was a satisfying Christ doth he pacifie thy heart He was an obedient Christ doth he command doth he lead doth he rule thy heart He did for thee canst thou do for him He died for thee canst thou suffer for him He loved thee canst thou delight in him 5. If the Lord hath graciously found thy lost soul and indeed Then thou wilt find sufficiency in thy Fathers house brought it home unto himself Then thou wilt â—ind sufficiency an enough at least in thy Fathers house There is enough in God to allure and draw a sinner home to keep a sinner at home that he needs not wander abroad mercy and pleasures for evermore This the Prodigal discover'd afar off even in the birth of his finding There is bread enough and to spare God seems a poor thing a mean thing an insufficient thing to a lost man and therefore he wanders up and down and serves his lusts and begs from the Creatures to make him out some delight some pleasure some profit some subsistence some contentment But God is a rich thing a Fulness He alone is enough One God is enough for my one soul if my soul indeed be found of him O he hath Mercy enough for me to save me Love enough for me to delight me Pleasure enough for me to comfort me Dignity enough for me to advance me Help enough for me to preserve me Happiness enough for me to save me If I want Grace he is the God of Grace if I want Peace he is the God of Peace if I want Mercies he is the Father of Mercies if I want for Earth the Earth is the Lords if I would have Heaven he is the God of my Salvation Now friend what say you hath God found your lost soul and what hath your soul found in your God What canst thou say of this God of his Mercy Love Entertainment Communion With thee the fatherless findeth mercy Thy favour is better than life It is good for me to draw near unto God canst thou say thus is there bread enough for thee in thy Fathers
house If so why doest thou yet run away run abroad to Sin for delight to the Creature for satisfaction 6. If God hath graciously found thee and brought thee out of Thou wilt be afraid to lose thy self again thy lost and wandring condition Thou wilt be afraid to lose thy self again to wander again to go astray again from thy God who hath found thee There are six things which the found and recovered person doth apprehend 1. The great iniquity in his formerly lost and wandring course of life 2. His great vanity all that while to forsake his own mercies to sow the wind and reap the whirlwind What profit had ye in those things whereof ye are now ashamed Rom. 6. 3. The great kindness and love which God hath manifested towards his lost soul in bringing him back to himself and now to own him as a Father doth a Son 4. The great ingratitude to displease that mercy which was pleased to find him 5. The madness of folly to return to an experimental misery and to forfeit sweet mercy which he hath liberally tasted since he was found 6. The great hazard whether mercy will ever look after him any more who hath so presumptuously abused mercy received O no the found sinner hath found such freeness fulness sweetness of entertainment such rich mercy such free love such wonderfull kindness that as Peter in another case it is good for us to be here or as the returning Church it is best being with my first Husband or as Paul about his being with Christ so he about continuing and complying with his God It is best of all And therefore he cries out against all temptations Shall I return to folly when God hath spoken peace shall I sin again since Gad hath given me such a deliverance as this O no O no Canaan is better then Egypt Paradise is better then a wilderness a Fathers House is better then to serve Swine plenty is better then famine Now God smiles on me and shall I raise his frowns Now conscience speaks peace shall I turn this oyle into a Sword O let me never unjoynt the Bones which mercy at length hath set O let me never darken the Sun which shines so comfortably O let me never feed on husks who may still feed on bread O let me never run from a Pallace to a Prison It was Gods mercy and my happiness to be rescued out of a lost condition let it never be my sin and curse to throw my self out of Heaven to cast my self out of Paradise again for a sins sake which formerly lost me to depart from mercy which hath graciously found me 7. If a found person doth stray he cannot be quiet until he be If he do stray he is not quiet till he come back again found and come back again to his God I sal 119. 176. I have gone astray like a lost sheep seek thy servant There is this difference twixt the strayings of the Godly and of the wicked when a wicked man strayes he is then at home sin is his home and sinful paths are the paths in which he loves to wander the mire and dirt are the delightful home of the Swine and therefore he delights to be abroad and cares not to come back again But a Godly man if he strayes if he sins he is now from home he seeth some steps of lostness in every step of sinfulness his heart is apt presently to smite him for it Alas what have I done whether am I going shall I go again from my Fathers House what ayled me thus to step aside I cannot rest thus I will home again what ever comes of it And back he comes with an ashamed heart as Ephraim did and with a mourning heart as Peter did and with a self-judging heart as David did O my God O my Father I even I have sinned sinned again yet for Christs sake accept of me again Me thinks it is with him just as it is with a poor Child whom evil company hath seduced from home his heart akes and he slips from them and under a Bush he sits and there bethinks himself and sighs and weeps as if his heart would break after which he riseth and home he comes and steals to the door and listens and knocks softly and the Servants comes forth and say they where have you been all this while O your Father wonders at you and hath been much troubled that you have dealt thus with him Now the child takes on and is cut to the heart and will not my Father be pacifyed I know that I have oftended him and dealt unkindly with him Never had a Child so good a Father I pray you speak for me and tell him I am without Let him come in saith his Father In he comes and falls down and with floods of tears acknowledges his strayings and humbly intreats his Father to pass by this wandring and to own him again and to look on him as he was wont to do O Sir saith he I cannot live without your favour nor will I live out of your house Even thus is it with a found Child of God if he happens to stray and sin his heart smites him and his heart akes O saith he what have I done to deal thus with my good God and Father I am ashamed and grieved To one Minister he goes and perhaps to another Do you think that the Lord will be merciful to me again Yea to God he goes and confesseth all and beseecheth him to deal with him like a Father Lord saith he it hath been a woful and bitter time to me I cannot stand it out I come in unto thee sin is my burthen and thy displeasure is my burthen I beseech thee to pardon the trespass of thy servant and be reconciled unto me and own me with thy favour and mercy once again 8. He who is truly found by Gods Grace and Mercy doth desire He endeavours so find others and endeavour to find others or that others may also be found Jâ— 1. 43 45. Christ finds Philip and Philip finds Nathaniel There is no good man who would pertake of Grace and Heaven alone and there is no wicked man who would enjoy sin and hell alone Wicked men are like those that are drowning who catch hold on others and every good man is like a Candle which being lighted holds out light to others or like a stick of fire which being kindled would kindle more sticks Good Lord the same Mercy the same Grace the same Christ the same reconciled God and Father for my poor Child too and for my poor Husband too and for my poor Parents too O Lord pity them too they are lost and they know not the misery of a lost condition nay the happiness of a found condition Good Lord open their eyes and bring them home to thy self in Christ And to his friends he goes O continue not in this condition you are lost I was so
Return to God you know not the sweetness of his mercy of his love 9. If God hath found thee indeed Then thou mayst be found in Gods wayes The wayes or course of life which a man leads He will be found in Gods wayes plainly discovers whether he be found or lost a man that is still lost he continues in wayes which are loose and lost which will bring him to everlasting perdition and loss A man that is found by Grace is now in such wayes as brings Glory to him which finds and also brings him to Glory who is found What! talk of being found by Gods mercy and yet wallowing in thy lusts still running on in thy sinful base wayes what brought back to God and still running away from God! Assuredly the found man is to be found in new wayes in the paths of righteousness and holiness he is a shamed of his old wayes and forsakes them Paul is not persecuting now but humbling himself for it and praying and preaching and living to Christ The next Use shall be of Exhortation unto a twofold Duty Vse 2. Exhortation 1. To find out your lost condition 2. To get out of a lost condition 1. Labour to find out your lost condition Be convinced To â—ind out our lost condition Consider The extream pride and selfconceltedness of every siâ—ner We shall never seâ—k to God till we find our selves lost that naturally you are lost men There are two Reasons which may move you to this 1. The extream pride and self-conceitedness the self-conceit and self-deceit in every sinner there is no sinner thinks himself so safe and well as the lost sinner I have need of nothing said Laodicea I was alive once said Paul We were never in bondage said the Jews 2. You will never seek unto the Lord to bring you out of a lost condition until you â—ind your selves lost Who seeks his bread but the hungry or asks the way who thinks himself in the way or comes home who is not gone abroad Obj. But you will say how may a man be convinced that his condition is lost Sol. I answer there are seven special convictions of it 1. The fall of mankind in Adam Our nature â—even Convictions of our lost condition was like a stock deposited in his hand what he had we had what he kept we kept when he fell we fell and what he lost we also lost his condition was not personal but natural not particular but Universal Oh that Ship is split that Tree is fallen that Stock is spent 2. The Observation of our wayes and pathes do but eye them and judg of them As when God opened the eyes of the Syrians they saw themselves to be in the midst of Samaria so if God ever open thine eyes thou wilt see and confess that all thy wayes are but wandrings and all the time of thy life hath been lost in iniquity and vanity 3. The study of the Law Ah! When wilt thou read thy self in it thou wilt find thy self many a thousand mile from home and to have been a long very long wanderer a lost and undone person Rom. 7. 9. When the Commandment came sin revived and I dyed 4. A conscience inlightned and quickned There is no one faculty in man which can discover his present condition to him so certainly and so clearly as Conscience Men speak fancy speaks corrupted judgment and reason speak yea but what doth conscience speak in private on a sick bed in an immâ—ent judgment 5. The judgment of Godly and experienced Christians who have known experimentally a lost condition and a found condition 6. The un-inclination of his spirit to all Communion with God Nay the very aversness of it thereto 7. The absolute inexperience of his soul in the family of God never yet knowing what such a fathers house doth meâ—n Secondly When you have found out your lost condition then Sâ—â—â—ve to get out of this lost Condition strive to get out of it O do not continue in it either through presumption that you can quickly come home or through despair that God now will never look after you nor regard you But pray the Lord in mercy to turn thy heart to give thee an heart to come back unto him Obj. But I have wandered so long that I shall never be accepted nor welcomed although I should come back Sol. Say not so But consider well of these ensuing particulars 1. The Lord saith That he hath been found of them that sought him not and will he not then be found of them that return and seek him Si peccanti quid penitenti si erranti quid quâ—renti If he looks after thee then will he not look on thee now 2. There was never awandering lost Soul that ever returned back to his Fathers House but the door hath been opened to him and he hath found mercy the Prodigal here Manasses Paul c. 3. If thou hast a heart to turn home it is a certain sign that God intends thee mercy he hath put returning thoughts in thee because he hath already contrived thoughts of mercy towards thee We love him because he loved us first we turn to him because he first turned to us 4. The Lord God hath sent Jesus Christ from Heaven to look after and to find and to save that which was lost Now though thou canst not expect to find the door opened for thine own sake yet thou shalt see the door open and the Armes of Mercy open to thee for Christs sake 5. How many messengers and servants hath God and doth God still send after which cry earnestly unto thee Come back return and live Thus the Gospel cries thus Conscience cries thus all thy mercies cry thus all thy afflictions cry If God be yet seeking after thee thou mayst yet be found and if thou wilt seek and wait a while thy poor lost soul shall also be found 6. God hath chalked out the wayes and steps of returning home to him 7. God hath found men in their blood and hath said unto them Live Ezek. 6. For this my Son was dead and is alive again These words do hold forth a pithy description of a sinners conversion that is a passage from death to life or a mutation from a dead condition into a living condition the estate of sin is a dead estate yea a deadly estate and the state of Grace is a living estate yea a lively estate There any many Doctrinal Propositions which are couched in these words As 1. That an impenitent or unconverted man is a dead man This my Son was dead 2. That when a sinner is converted he is then made a live And is alive 3. That God doth sometimes convert a very great and notorious sinner This this my Son 4. That great afflictions are sometimes the means of a great sinners Conversion This my Son was 5. That there is an almighty power required to convert or change a sinner As much as
proud heart an unbelieving heart an heart in which there is no good in which is all evil Ah poor man thou art a dead man no feeling no complaining no crying out of thy heart against all those many many vile and notorious sins 2. An universal and constant coldness If life be gone heat is gone the Feet are cold and the Hands are cold and the whole An universal and constant coldness Body is cold and the very Heart is cold too A living man may have cold hands and feet but he never hath a cold heart for life is there and heat is there Why there is no one converted man under heaven but he hath some heat in him though not much in some of his actions yet certainly some in his heart O saith he I approve of what is good and I would do good and I delight in the Law of God after the inward man I believe Lord help my unbelief But now an unconverted man hath 1. A cold heart unto any spiritual good Suppose he be at Prayer and at Sermon why but he hath no heart to or in these duties he hath no mind to these works no delight in them or in the Sabbath or in a Fast and though his body be present yet his heart is afar off it goes after his covetousness 2. And this Coldness is universal There is not any one spiritual Duty unto which his heart is not dead or cold He will tell you when he hears Catechizing I should like Preaching and so when he hears Preaching I could like Praying and so when Praying comes I could like Reading and when Reading comes I could like Meditating and when that comes I could like Practising and when Practising comes I could like Understanding But he dissembles he loves not one Duty at all his heart to these is like a sick stomack that seems to like any thing but what it hath but indeed likes no meat 3. And it is also constant I confess even a good and converted heart may find sometimes more actual indispositions to good than at other times and sometimes a greater measure of dulness and deadness but an heart constantly cold from one end of the year to another all the life long still to loath spiritual services never to attain unto a delightfull and affectionate communion with God This is a Token of a dead soul 3. Where the Word preached is but a dead Letter unto the hearer Where the Word preachâ—d is but a dead Letter certainly that man is in a dead condition If our Gospel be hid 't is hid to them that are lost saith the Apostle So may I say If our Gospel be dead it is so onely to them that are dead The Gospel is the great Trumpet of Christ the Silver Trumpet by which he raiseth the dead as at the last he shall raise the dead by the Voice of the Trumpet this is that by which Jesus Christ quickens and pulls a soul out of its sinfull condition 1. It lets in light to see that condition 2. It affects Conscience to feel it 3. It puts in Faith to go to Christ to fetch life Yet many men are not wrought on at all by the Gospel preached Unmoveableness is the token of a dead man 4. A delight in dead things and in dead works plainly declare A delight in dead works a dead condition Paul in Ephes 2. 1. tels the Ephesians that they were once dead but how did that appear See vers 2. In time past ye walked according to the course of this world And vers 3. Ye had your conversation in the lusts of the flesh fulfilling the desires of the flesh and of the mind 1. In dead things Dead men are heavy and descend to the earth worldly things are the Optima and the Vltima of an unconverted heart Who will shew us any good Psal 4. If that of Paul Col. 3. 1 2. If ye be risen with Christ then seek those things that are above and set your affections on things that are above be a true sign of a living raised man then è contra to seek to settle affections on things below is a true sign of a dead man 2. In dead works These opera mortua mortifera And truly nothing doth more discover a spiritual death than a delight and a service of sin certainly such a man is yet an unconverted man The last Use shall be for Instruction unto several Duties I will but glance a them 1. Have as little society with wicked men Vse 3. Instruction Have as little society with unconverted men as may be as may be for they are dead men Would any man living have a dead man to be his companion There is a two-fold Society with men 1. One is necessary in respect of our Relations or of our Commerce and Trade which cannot well be avoided 2. Another is arbitrary in respect of our Election avoid this do not make choice of wicked society There are two Reasons to hearken to this advice One is You shall never get any spiritual good by their society a wicked man is an unprofitable man Can any one gather Figs of Thorns or Grapes of Thistles Who is the better for a dead man Another is You shall receive much hurt by such society The Jews were unclean if they did but touch a dead body It was the practice of a Tyrant once to tie a dead man to a living man that the filthy savour of the dead man might infect and destroy the life of the living man O you who are to marry your children take heed of marrying them to the dead and you who are Free-men take heed of embracing society with the dead There are three notorious mischiefs will ensue hereupon 1. Dead society will by degrees bring you into a deadness of heart wicked company will certainly abate your zeal and holy affections as waters do the flaming fire 2. Dead society will quench your Life in spiritual Duties they will not onely interrupt but mitigate your sweet and wonted society with God and good men 3. Dead society will in time corrupt you to dead works Remember Solomon 2. Lament and bewail thy unconverted Friends and Kindred Lament thy unconverted friends You read that David wept for Absalom O Absalom my son my son c. and you read that Christ wept for Lazarus being dead and you read of both of these weeping also for those that were spiritually dead David Psal 119. Rivers of tears run down mine eyes because men keep not thy Law Christ came near to Jerusalem and wept over it saying Oh if thou hadst known even thou at the least in c. Wouldst not thou weep to see thy Fathers or Mothers or Sisters or Brothers dead body carrying out to the grave and say Alas my Father alas my Brother alas my Child How then canst thou refrain tears for their dead souls Why doest not thou pity the dead and unconverted soul of thy Father
a quickning and regenerating Word it carries Christ in it the Author of Life and the Apostle calls it the Ministration of Life And perhaps it hath been so to some poor man and woman and to some of thy children But O how long hast thou heard it how often hast thou come to this Bread of Life to these Waters of Life What! and yet dead in thy sins not yet quickned and made alive Why thou art a reproach to the Gospel and thy sins have not only given death to thy soul but death to the Gospel of Christ the Gospel is made by them a dead Letter it is not so in it self but thou hast made it so And how wilt thou answer God for killing thy soul and killing his Christ and killing his Gospel 2. Many have a name that they live but like the Angel of Many have a name to live and yet are dead the Church of Sardis they are dead Revel 3. 1. Oh Sirs Spiritual life the life of grace is a rare thing and a difficult thing Every man loves his life but few love this life No man hates his own life almost but most men hate this life of grace because it is destructive to this life of sin And many think they have it and others think so too and yet they have it not You know it is one thing to put Flowers upon a dead body and another thing to put life into a dead man It is one thing for the Sun to convey light another thing for the Sun to convey life I might shew you that mâ—n mistake spiritual life exceedingly Education in a person may lead him far and so may an enlightned and generous Conscience and so may restraining Grace and so may Art and so may the common gifts of the Spirit they may enable a man to strange conceptions and strange affections and strange actions and yet the man may be spiritually dead Not any of these flow from a gracious principle of spiritual life Why common Gifts may lead up the soul far and Education may lead to Duties much and Conscience may awe sin exceedingly and Art or Hypocrisie may counterfeit the very life of Grace as a Stage-player doth a King wonderfully O therefore look to it that you have more than a name of life that you live indeed 3. If you should deceive your selves and when you come to It would be very sad to be deceived in this die you find that you have been dead all your lives and never were spiritually made alive Oh! in what a condition will thy poor trembling soul be To die and see nothing but death I thought there was life in my heart and life in my strong faith and life in my troubles of spirit and life in my obedience but alas I never lived I never enjoyed Christ never enjoyed grace c. 4. If the Lord hath made thee alive from the dead I do not To be alive is cause of great joy know any man living on the earth that hath such cause of joy unspeakable and glorious I will mention but three particulars unto thee 1. Hereby thou mayest be assured of thy interest in the richest mercy and greatest love of God to thy poor soul Read but the Apostle in Ephes 2. 4. But God who is rich in mercy for his great love wherewith he loved us v. 5. even when we were dead in sins hath quickned us 2. Thou mayest palpably discover the tokens and vertues of Jesus Christ upon thy soul the very Effigies of the saving works of Christ that which Paul so longed to know even the power of the death and of the resurrection of Christ Philip. 3. 10. In thy death to Sin and in thy life of Grace doth the power of Christs death and of Christs resurrection appear 3. Thou mayest certainly know that Heaven shall be the place of thy rest hereafter Spiritual life comes from Heaven and bends to Heaven and shall bring to Heaven It prepares for Heaven and it is a part of Heaven and it shall be perfected and filled up in Heaven O what things are these who would miss of these For Christs sake search throughly whether you be made alive Now me thinks I hear some soul secretly longing to know how it may be cleared unâ—o it That God hath quickned it from the Signs of spiritual life dead That as it was once dead yet it is now alive Sol. There are many things which may clearly declare it for indeed life is such an active thing especially spiritual life that it may easily appear sometimes or other to him who hath it 1. If sin be alive then thou art still dead and if sin be dead thou art certainly alive I will open both these parâ—s 1. If sin be alive then the man is dead for it is impossible that the If sin be alive the man is dead same man should be alive and dead under the same consideration Spiritual Life and spiritual Death are incompatible at the same time in the same subject And therefore if sin be alive questionless you are spiritually dead Now there are four things which manifest sin to be alive in any mans soul 1. The flaming bents and inâ—atiable desires of the heart after things forbidden in the Word Ephes 4. 19. we read of sin with greediness 2. The universal and easie authority law or command that it hath over the soul and body that it can use them in the service of lusts when and as it pleaseth Ephes 2. 2 3. 3. The joyfull contentation and satisfaction which the heart takes in evil things as we do in meat and drink 4. The customary trade and course of our life in sinfull ways a walking in them a living in them O if these be yet found in thee sin is alive still and thou art dead still 2. But if sin be dead thou art certainly alive If sin be dead thou art alive I confess sin may be restrained and a man not alive and sin may be troublesome in some respects and a man not yet alive But if it be dead the man is spiritually alive for sin in thee can never come to be dead but by spiritual life Now sin is dead in thee if thou canst find two things 1. If it hath lost thy affections If love to sin be gone and hatred of sin be come if delight in sin be quenched and sorrow for sin be implanted Oh Sirs the love of sin is the life of sin and if the hatred of sin doth live then the love of sin is dead 2. If it hath lost its Authority its free and uncontrolled power although it molests still and tempts still yet it rules not thou art not a slave to it and subject to it thou wilt not serve it obey it any longer If thou hast Christ for thy Lord the Law of Christ for thy Rule and Sin for thy Enemy thou art alive 2. A second sign of spiritual life is a spiritual sense
Nature say the Philosophers God say we allots unto them Therefore living Christians are compared to a sucking and thriving child which sucks and growes by sucking And to living branches that grow into more strength and in Scripture True Grace which is the same with spiritual life it is of an increasing and growing nature Christ compares it to a grain of Mustard-seed which is little at first but in time growes and spreads exceedingly and Solomon compares it to the Sun which riseth more and more to the perfect day Paul commends the Corinthians that they did abound in all Grace and praies for the Philippians that their love might a bound yet more and more in knowledg and in all Judgment And he himself forgat what was behind and pressed forward and counted himself not to have apprehended O you who take your selves to be alive do you grow in grace Many men grow worse and worse under the means of Grace many grow in notions but they do not grow in Grace many grow into new opinions but they do not grow in holy affections But do you grow in Grace and do you grow in all Grace and do you grow according to the means of Growth Alas many men decay apace and many men like pictures retain the same dimensions sin is no more weakned after forty years living then at the first their old sins retain their old strength and their faith receives no augmentation they are no more able to trust on God for their bodies nor to rely on Christ for their souls then heretofore The barrenness and unfruitfulness of Christians is an unspeakable dishonour to the Gospel and an evident testimony that they have but a form of Godliness without the power of it I might now have shewn you that true spiritual Growth is 1. Especially an inward Growth 2. And a general Growth 3. And the Growth comes in by the Growth of Faith 4. And appears best in the Growth of humiliâ—y 5. A spiritual cry or breath is another sign of spiritual life There is a spiritual breath If a man can but groan and breath that man is a living man When Paul was converted Ananias was sent unto him as to a chosen Vessel Behold said God unto him he prayeth in Zach. 12. 10. The Spirit of Grace and of Supplication are joyned for the one never goes without the other But will some reply This cannot be a sure sign of spiritual life for a wicked man may pray and cry to God we read of their Prayers and cries in Scripture often I grant it But 1. There is a difference twixt a spiritual cry and a natural cry their cries arise from natural principles but not from a spiritual principle 2. It is the cry of a distressed man but not of a renewed man 3. It is a cry for natural and outward good but not for spiritual and everlasting good 4. And when they cry for mercy and heaven it is not that mercy may bring them into an holy communion with God but only that mercy may keep them from wrath and Hell 6. Lastly A spiritual manner of working is an infallible evidence There is a spiritual manner of working of a spiritual quickningâ— When the Lord converts a man and makes him spiritually alive he now works spiritual work 1. By Spiritual Rules 2. From Spiritual Principles in the strength of Christ by Faith and from love 3. With Spiritual Affections willingly cheerfully and delightfully 4. For Spiritual ends 1. By Spiritual Rules To as many as walk according By spiritual rules to this Rule peace be on them Gal. 6. 16. A dead and unconverted man lives by the Rules of his sensual Lusts or the customes of the World or the wisdome of carnal policy sin rules him and men rule him and his profits and pleasures rule him But when the man is converted now God rules him he stands in awe of Gods Word and lives as 1 Pet. 4. 2. To the Will of God His actions intentions desires steps are measured by the word t is not An libet but An licet The word lets him out and brings him in Whether the living Creature went thither the Wheeles went so c. 2. From spiritual Principles O Sirs From spiritual principles a man may do much work which we call spiritual from a Carnal and low principle self-Love vain-Glory Education a quick Conscience may set out much But the living Christians work arises from union with Christ all is done in the strength of Christ and Faith fetcheth strength from Christ to pray and to preach and to mourn and to repent c. 3. With spiritual affections With spiritual affections There is a connaturalness twixt a spiritual heart and a spiritual work Thy word was the rejoycing of my heart I was glad said David when they said unto me let us go to the House of the Lord. I delight saith Paul in the Law of God after the inward man It is good for â—e to draw near to God There are affections in the works of a living man his works drop out of his heart another mans fall out of his parts 4. For spiritual ends So that Christ may be glorifyed we live For spiritual ends unto the Lord unto him that dyed for us Whatsoever ye do do it to the Glory of God that God in all things may be glorifyed through Jesus Christ 1 Pet. 4. 11. Obj. But will some say if these be signs of the life of Complaints of the want of all these Grace of one being made spiritually alive then I am in a sad condition For 1. I find much sin still living in me 2. And I find very dull if not dead affections and I find 3. Exceeding impotency to what is good 4. And I cannot find that old appetite and those old â—ervent crieâ— of Prayer which here 〈◊〉 I found 5. And as for grow hunder spiritual means O my heart sinks to behold the rich seasons of Grace and my barrenness and unfruitfulness under them Sol. I should Answered be â—â—â—th that any truly living Soul should go away with a sad heart therefore give me leave to answer thy fears 1. Generally 2. Then distinctly 1. Generally thus 1. Such complaints as these ordinarily Generally are the language not of the dead but of the living When shall you hear such inditâ—ments from a base lewd sin-loving and serving person O no these are the complaints of an heart that is spiritually sensible and spiritually tender and spiritually jealous and which would not be deceived in its spiritual condition 2. If such complaints as these be attended with inward humblings and abasings of the heart and with desires and endeavours of help assuredly they are the Testimonies of a living man Who shall deliver me O wretched man was the complaint of living Paul 3. If thou canst not at all times find every one of the forenamed Symptomes of life yet if at any time thou canst find
any one of them it is a sign that thou livest if the child doth not go yet if it sucks this shews life if it doth not speak yet if it cry it is alive if it doth not cry yet if it breath it is a sign of life If there be groanings under the burden of sin and â—ighings for help for grace for Christ c. they are a sign of life O Christian the spiritual life is sometimes more open and full and lively and quick in actions and sometimes it is reduced to desires to a will to a complaint to a tear to a sigh to a groan O that I could pray O that I could believe 2. Dictinctly to the particular Cases Obj. 1. Thou fearest that thou art not alive because much Distinctly to the particular cases I am not alive because much sin is living in me Answered sin is yet living in thee To which I answer 1. It is with the Christian made alive by Grace as it was with Lazarus made alive by Christ who had for a while his grave cloathes on him and he was bound hand and foot and yet he was made alive so there may be many sinful corruptions yet cleaving to that soul which is indeed quickned with spiritual life Nay if thou didst feel no sinful corruptions I should question whether yet thou werâ— made alive for spiritual life or grace doth give unto the soul 1. The clearest sense of sin 2. And the greatest grief for sin 3. And the strongest combate and conflict with sin 2. There is a difference twixt a feeling of sin still stirring in us and of the life of sin still ruling in us Thou feelest sin living in temptation but dost thou feel sin living in thy affection Thou feelest sin molesting of thee as a Tyrant but dost thou acknowledg sin ruling over thee as a King 3. And what doest thou when thou findest sin thus working Dost thou dye daily If thou feelest sin as if it were alive doth not this humble thee and doth not this hasten thee by Faith unto Christ for more crucifying virtue Obj. 2. Thou fearest that yet thou art not alive because thou There is much duâ—ness and deadness in my affections and operations Answeâ—ed discernest mâ—ch spiritual dulness and deadness in thy affections and operations Sol. I answer 1. Even the living have soâ—nd too much spiritual deadness in their hearts Davids soul was heavy and cast down and indisposed and a deadness possessed him and he prayes of enâ— O Lord quicken me 2. But is there not a difference twixt deadness and death death is the total privation of life where there is spiritual death there is not so much as the habit of grace but deadness is some diminution or some damp upon the habit of grace that it steps not out to its acts with that liberty and that alacrity as it was wont and such a deadness may be in a living soul And thirdly Thou feelest this deadness and thou dislikest it and thou bewailest it and thou prayest how often how earnestly Lord quicken this dead heart of mine Is it thus where death prevails do dead men do thus 4. The actions of life are various Let the action for the quantity be what it will greater or lesser quick or dull free or checked and interrupted yet if what thou dost be done in the strength of Christ if it be wrought with an humble and an upright heart assuredly thou art not a dead sinner but a living though perhaps troubled Christian Obj. 3. But I have no power to do any good I cannot believe I cannot pray I cannot mourn Sol. 1. What no Power at all I have no power to do any good Answered never any power no power from thy self nor any power from Christ no power perhaps to this work but what no power to any spiritual work no power perhaps at this time to an eminent act but then is there not a power to pray for power Though power appears not in the work doth not power yet appear in the will and desire Rom. 7. 18. I know that in me that is in my flesh dwelleth no good thing For to will is present with me but to perform that which is good I find not I cannot do it but I would do it 2. If there be a power living in the will it is the best sign of life A wicked man doth often the good which his will is against and the good man often doth not the good cannot do the good which his will is yet for Now God looks upon the will more then upon the work If gracious acts be couchant in the will life is in thee 3. However although thou hast not power sometimes let down for spiritual work yet thou hast so much power still remaining as to lifâ— up weak hands for more power Though thou canst not believe nor repent nor mourn as thou thinkest yet there is an heart to seek unto God in Christ for this power to believe c. Obj. 4. But my old lively affections are gone my old estimations My old lively â—ffâ—ctions are gone Answered my old hungrings and thirstings my old delightful communion with God in prayer and in his ordinances Sol. To this I would only say thus much 1. There is a difference twixt the intensive swiftness or flash of affections and the intensive strength and weight of the affections A young Christian is most in the former an old Christian who acts more upon Judgment and Faith is most in the latter 2. The case seems rather to be of a living man like to dye then dead Of a man decaying in Grace rather then totally deprived of grace of a sick Christian rather then of a dead Christian 3. And therefore seriously search the causes of the remission of thy first love of thy ancient favour in holy communion O look whether a dead flye be not fallen into the ointment whether some insnaring lust fleshly or worldly hath not robbed thee of thy strength 4. If so Be humbled greatly and repent and do thy first work Obj. 5. But where there is life there is growth but I find it not I finde no growth Answered Sol. A word to this The denial of growth may be either 1. Negative Never any at all this is impossible if life be wrought 2. Comparative Not so much as another not so much as I have found under such or such means not so much as I desire and this may be where there is life I have finished two Proposition from this Text One respecting the death and the other respecting the life of a sinner I now proceed to a third which is That a very great and notorious Doct. 3. A very great sinner may be converted sinner may be at length converted and changed This my Son was dead and is alive again This Son and who was he or what was he in the precedent Verses you may see his picture you may read
pleaseth and when he pleaseth He hath the command of the heart and grace Take the heart as usually we do for any or all the faculties of the soul yea as corrupted by nature and custome yet God hath a dominion over it and he can make new impressions and divine alterations and inclinations upon it The Understanding naturally is blind and dark unable to unfold and apprehend the morality of conditions actions objects but God can turn it from darkness to light he can imprint on it the clearest light whereby it shall be able to behold what is good and what is evil The Judgment naturally is erroneous it mistakes good for evil and evil for good judgeth sinfull evil as the best and sweetest way condemneth good as most contrary to us to our delights courses ends But God is able to imprint on mans Judgment a discerning and righteously sentencing ability that a man shall not only see his sinfull nature and life but condemn it I was mad saith Paul such a fool a beast was I. They shall remember their evil wayes and loath themselves Hos 2. 7. as his greatest evil and misery and conclude that a new holy penitent life is the best of all lives and that for himself The Conscience is either sleepy or seared naturally But God can awaken it and imprint on it a power to feel sin to complain accuse indite wound and slay the sinner that he shall have no rest as long as he lies in his sinfull condition Sin revived and I died Rom. 7. The Will is naturally averse and perverse it is set against all spiritual good and set upon evil But cannot God alter this Will He can easily turn it about let him but drop in the least degree of Grace and the Will presently wheels about and is as ready and desirous and cleaving to good as ever it was to evil Lord what wilt thou have me to do Act. 9. So for the Affections the Lord hath the dominion over them He can make them to love him as much and more than ever they loved sin and to grieve and to hate and to fear sin c. Get thee hence what have I any more to do with Idols 4. The Lord doth sometimes convert a great sinner to glorifie his God doth this to glorifie his own grace own Grace 1. The power of it that it is able to cure great and strong diseases If ordinary sinners onely were converted men would imagine but a common and vulgar power lay in converting Grace where there is a lesser opposition there a weaker strength may suffice to do the work But if sin be strong now the power of Grace appears in rescuing the soul even from the Gates of Hell and from the Powers of Darkness 2. The riches of it When all the world knows and the man himself knows That there was nothing in him but a vilest heart and lewdest course and yet Divine Grace hath converted him O saith he this was rich Mercy and Grace indeed The Apostle saith That God quickned the dead Ephesians that he might shew the exceeding riches of his grace chap. 2. vers 7. O saith the great sinner now converted never was there such a gracious and such a mercifull God such a kind and loving God I was dead and he hath made me alive I was the greatest of sinners and I have yet obtained the sweetest of mercies I was the greatest Enemy and yet God would be my kindest Friend overcome by Sin and now overcome by Grace falling down into Hell and now lifted up to Heaven so bad that Justice might have had much Glory to damn me yet God hath been so good that Mercy shall have the Glory to save me Vsâ— â—o relieve the troubled Conscience and distressed Conscience You shall find by experience these two Truths 1. That whiles men are in a dead lost vile and unsensible condition they then imagine that their sins are little and mercies great and they have power to turn to God when they please 2. That when they come to be truly sensible of their hearts and ways then their sins appear exceeding great and the mercy and grace of God seem little O! they have withstood the offers of grace and all self-power is gone and the greatness of their sinning is an absolute bar to their conversion And there are eight Reasons why a man made sensible of Reasons why a man sensible of his great sin thinks God will not convert him his great sinnings inclines to think that God will never convert him 1. Because he hath been one who hath exceedingly provoked God to wrath against him He sees great wrath in God and that he hath by his continual sinnings incensed the Lord. O saith he it is mercy that must convert but I have turned a mercifull God into a just God and a kind God into an angry God my great sins have put me into the hands of his great wrath 2. Because such a person sees his condition lying under the threatnings of God and out of the reach of the promises of God God threatning him Warrants issued out to take and arrest him an Arrow levell'd at him God hath said That he will wound the hairy scalp of him that goes still on in his iniquities and that he who hardens his heart being often râ—proved shall be destroyed without remedy Now I have been that sinner 3. Because such a person feels the impressions of Gods displeasure on his Conscience He is in the very hands of wrath Conscience tells him Thou art the man and these have been thy sinnings these have been thy ways and thy doings and Conscience condemns him for one who hath delighted himself in evil and secretly goes and smites him with unavoidable fears and terrours Now when a man feels wrath 't is an hard thing to perswade him that God hath any thoughts and intentions of mercy and grace for him 4. Such a person ordinarily looks more upon the examples of destruction than upon the instances of conversion rather what God hath done against them than for any of them O saith he God in Scripture hath often left such and such great sinners to their As the Israelites Psal 81. 12. 2 Thes 2. Jâ—r 13. 14. own hearts lusts and he hath given them up to Satans delusions and to a reprobate mind and sense and would not have mercy on them he would deal with them no more 5. The distance twixt his greatly sinning soul and converting grace seems to him wondrously large If I had been but sick and weak but can a dead man live should a Rebel be embraced can a Blackmore be made white It is great grace to convert a little sinner but what grace is sufficient to convert so great a sinner 6. He measures the disposition of Divine Grace by the indisposition of his own heart O saith he I have been how long how stubbornly unwilling to receive grace how violent to oppose grace If I
and having thus abased him he wrought upon him to acknowledg and praise the true God Dan. 4. 33 34. Quest How may it appear that c. Sol. There are four How this may appear Afflictions sanctifyed are the souls Looking Glasses things attending upon sanctifyed afflictions and all of them contribute to Conversion 1. Afflictions sanctifyed are the souls Looking-Glass wherein a man may see his sins which are the causes of afflictions there are divers Glasses in which we may see the face of our sins 1. The Glass of the Word 2. The Glass of Reproof 3. The Glass of Conscience 4. The Glass of Afflictions Affliction is a Glass wherein a person first sees his own sins Ocules quam culpa claudit pena aperit We were verily guilty of the blood of our brother said Joseph's Brethren and as I have served others so the Lord hath served me said Adonibezeck 2. Sees them as sinners In prosperity we see the pleasures of sin but in adversity the bitterness of sin in the one we see them as our friends in the other as our enemies An evil and bitter thing that we have forsaken the Lord so Jeremiah speaketh 3. Sees them with a serious look sees them and thinks of them sees them and layes them to heart Thy wickedness hath procured these things unto thee Now when a person is brought to a right sight of sin to see his own sins and as sins and seriously considers of them this is a way tending to his Conversion I considered my wayes said David and turned my feet unto thy testimonies 2. Afflictions sanctifyed work much upon the Conscience they are the rods of God upon the Soul they are the Waters of They work much upon the conscience Marah bitter Waters and they stir up conscience to speak bitter words unto us These were thy wayes and these were thy doings thou wouldst not be warned thou wouldst not hearken and now see whither thy sins do tend now see into what straits they have brought thee now thou wilt believe that God is displeased with thee When conscience is stirred when the burden of afflictions turn into the burden of conscience two things ordinarily ensue thereupon 1. A mans carnal security is broken The man thought himself safe and secure before but now he sees his condition to be very sad unsound unsafe and miserable not only my goods are gone but my God also is gone 2. The heart comes to be humbled O A working conscience a smiting conscience is the Hammer of God by which he breaks and bows the soul Afflictions now stir up the Gall and the Wormwood and the soul is humbled by them and when the soul is brought to see sin and to consider of sin and to be humbled for sin it is now in a fair way of Conversion 3. Afflictions if sanctifyed are gales to Prayer Lord in trouble have they visited thee they powred out a Prayer when They are gales to Prayer thy chastening was upon them Isai 26. 10. In their afflictions they will seek me early Hosea 5. It is almost natural for an afflicted man to pray and afflictions put an edge of zeal on Prayer we are seldome more frequent and more fervent in that duty then in the times of our distress But then observe that as afflictions are apt to quicken prayer so if they have occasioned a sense and trouble in the heart for sin Then 1. Vsually they stir up Prayer for pardon of sin and for conversion from sin Blot out my transgressions praies afflicted David Turn thou me and I shall be turned praies distressed Ephraim Jer. 31. 18 These are the two great desires of a distressed soul 2. Usually God hears these Prayers The sacrifices of God are a broken spirit a broken and a contrite heart O God thou wilt not despise Ps 51. 17. A poor sinner cannot put up a more acceptable request unto God then this Lord I beseech thee change and turn my heart subdue mine iniquities let not sin have dominion over me I beseech thee suffer me not to dishonour thee any more So that now you see that afflictions have brought the Soul and God together the afflicted Person sees a need of Mercy and Grace and unto God he applies himself who is the only Author of a sinners Conversion the only Physician of a sinful soul 4. Afflictions if sanctifyed incline us unto converting Ordinances They incline us to conveâ—ting ordinances You shall observe that men under their afflictions are 1. More willing to hear 2. More attentive in hearing 3. More tractable and pliable .i. more easie to be wrought upon in hearing When a man is chastned with pain and his flesh consumed away and his soul draws near to the Grave then he will make use of a Messenger of an Interpreter of one among a thousand to shew unto him his uprightness Job 33. 19. to 23. Oh what a Divine influence and authority hath the Word over such a man he can be content to have his sins ript open and he can hear and weep Oh a sinner and he longs to hear of some word of hope and when he hears it Oh how good is God! and he catcheth greedily at the word of direction and when he hears it Oh when shall I be this when shall I do this Lord give grace give strength unto thy poor servant the man in his prosperity would not know the Lord nor hearken to him he was above counsel and instruction but now his ear is opened to discipline and instruction is sealed unto him Job 33. 16. Now it is Lord that which I see not teach thou me and if I have done iniquity I will do no more Job 34. 32. The first Use shall be for Trial of our selves what the fruit of Vse Trial what the fruit of our affliction is all our afflictions is I think there is no man almost in all the Kingdome but God hath of late some way or other afflicted him Many have lost all their estates not an House is left to them nor Land nor a Rag to their backs many have lost their Husbands or their Children in the War many have lost some of their Family with the Plague lately who hath not been some way or other afflicted Now consider 1. It is the saddest affliction It is the saddest afflâ—ction not to be bittered by affliction to be no way bettered by afflictions No misery like that to love the sins and continue still in the sins which brought our misery Oh to be as far from our friends as before and as far from our God as before to be thrust out of an earthly possession and not yet to get an heavenly inheritance to lose our Lands and not yet to get Christ to have no home to go to here nor any home to go unto hereafter to lose our estates and keep our sins to lose the world and to lose the soul too to lose all our comforts and yet
sufficient to break the Cable thou canst not pluck up the plant and shalt thou be able to pull up the Oak thou art not able to extinguish the rising of a sinful thought and wilt thou ever be able to convert a sinful nature And tel me seriously doth thy sinful power decrease by sinful actings In civil trading the stock is sometimes diminished but in sinful tradings sin increaseth the more in strength by how much the more is it laid out in sinning and the more that sinful power increaseth the more need is there of a greater power to convert the heart If the weakest sinner doth need an almighty power to convert him O what an almighty almighty power doth the strong sinner doth the long sinner need for his Conversion 3. If an almighty power be required to the Conversion of a If you would be converted look after aâ— almighty Power sinner then if ever you would be converted look to that which is more then a finite power If thou wouldst have thy self converted or any who belong to thee converted do not expect it from men or means Friends may desire conversion and Ministers may preach the doctrine of Conversion but it is God only who can effect the work of Conversion I spake unto thy Disciples said that troubled man about his possessed child to cast him out and they could not Mar. 9. 18. I confess we must use spiritual means we must hear we must pray we must confer but if you think that any of these nuda virtute by their own natural power can convert you are deceived It is not the word but God by the word the power of God to salvation it is not prayer but God to whom ye pray it is not the minister but God who sends the minister who is able to enlighten thy mind to quicken thy conscience to convert thy heart Turn thou me and I shall be turned said Ephraim Jer. 31. 18. So say thou O Lord thou art the living God thou only art the Lord of life I come to thee to convert mee unto thee I hear I read I confer I meditate on arguments I purpose and yet I am not converted Ministers deal with me and Friends deal with me and Mercies deal with me and Afflictions deal with me and Ordinances deal with me and yet I am not converted O Lord I am without strength and they are without strength but thou art not without strength No power less then thine will be sufficient for my Conversion Now O Lord reveal thine arm stretch out thine hand O pity speak quicken turn save one sinner more nothing is too hard for thee thou didst make a world by thy mouth and thou wilt raise the dead by thy word O speak but one word and my dead soul shall live 4. Doth the coâ— version of a sinner depend upon an almighty power then let us not despair of a mighty sinner nor yet let a mighty sinner despair Despair not of a mighty sinner of a possibility of Conversion God hath an almighty Power to condemn a sinner therefore let him not presume God hath an almighty Power to convert a sinner therefore let no sinner despair 5. Then if any of you be converted Bless God for it we Bless God for our conversion could never do it it is God and God alone who hath done it there are reasons why God reserves the power of a sinners Conversion to himself alone 1. That men should seek to him alone for it If God alone had not all the power of giving he should lose of all the duty in praying and asking 2. That he alone may have all the glory and praise Comfort to us that God converts by an almighty Power 6. This is of exceeding Comfort to us That it belongs to the almighty power of God to convert a sinner For 1. That power is power sufficient 2. It ever abides in God 3. It is accompanied with an exceeding willingness if thou seekest to him thou shalt find his will to be as great as his power he is as willing as he is able to convert thee thou canst not come with a more exceptable petition This my son was dead and is alive again Luke 15. 24. These words comprehend in them if I mistake not a most exact discription of a sinners conversion both 1. In the general nature of it that it is a perfective change Was and Is was dead and is alive 2. And in the differential or proper ingredients of it which are couched in these words is alive again In which three distinguishing ingredients of conversion are espiable namely That it is a Change 1. Very great and notable The inlivening of a dead man is so 2. Very secret and internal the puting of life into a dead man is so 3. Very spreading and universal when a dead man is made alive it is so I confess that every one of these particulars doth merit a full and large discourse but because I desire to open unto you the true nature of conversion at the first in as narrow a compass as I can I shall therefore endeavour to draw all these goodly truths into one little Map that so you may be the better able to â—nderstand and remember them With your favour I will grasp them into this one Proposition That true Conversion is a change a very great and inward Doct. 6. True conversion is a change a great inward and Universal Change It is a Change and universal change You plainly see four things in this Assertion which offer themselves to our consideration 1. True Conversion is a change was dead and is alive certainly here is a change Ego sum ego said the Harlot here was no Conversion Ego non sum ego answered the young man here was conversion for here was a change There may be a was and an is without a change Christ was God and is God Revel 1. 8. And in many men the was and the is are without a change They were ignorant and are ignorant still they were filthy and are filthy still Rev. 22. 11. But if a man be converted the was and the is are different they are changed I was a Persecutor said Paul but being converted he is not so such were some of you said Paul of the Corinthians but ye are washed but ye are sanctified Now when I say that Conversion is a change you must know that there is a two-fold Change One is Substantial which alters the substance of man as in Generation and in Corruption of which the Philosophers speak Conversion is no such change the soul and body of a man remaines the selfe same substance before and after Conversion It was the same Paul who Was a Persecutor and Is a Preacher of Christ As in the Sacrament it is the same Bread for substance after Consecration which it was before Consecration So is it the same man for the Philosophical substance before and after conversion
becomes malleable nevertheless it is not changed in its Intrinsecal disposition 4. When a man is Formal in duties but not Spiritual in duties he holds a customary course but not a conscientious course this mans heart is not changed Judas was as busie about Christ as the other Disciples yet he was not changed Some unconverted man may be as frequent in religious duties as converted persons are yet their hearts unchanged There are four things which prove a formal Christian to have an unchanged Four things prove a formal Christian to have an unchanged Heart Heart for though he doth good duties yet he doth them 1. From carnal Principles of Custome Education Example not from Faith Love and Spiritual Principles 2. For Carnal Ends with a respect to his Estimation with men not with God or he doth some good to blind and cover more evil 3. As a Carnal or Natural work not as a Communion with God or Christ if he doth them it is sufficient but whether he meets with God in them or God with him in them whether he pleaseth God and God accepts of him and them or what heavenly revenues come into his soul upon them he regards not 4. Without any Delight A good mâ—n hates the sin which he doth an evil man hates the good which he doth he delights not in the Law of God after the Inward man he is glad when the work is done but not to do the work It is his Task it is not his Pleasure It is a Heaviness but not an Heaven to him his Spirit is weary as much as his Body he cannot take hold of God be importunate in prayer for any Grace he doth not put out a Might a Power a Zeal in holy Services but acts them with a sleepy faint wearisome undelightful Spirit 5. When a man hath been and still is a stranger to Inward Conflicts certainly that mans heart was never changed there may be two conditions wherein all may be quiet One is in anothere life where grace stands alone in heaven there is no sin but holiness is grown unto its utmost perfection and therefore it is above contrariety and conflict Another is in this life where sin stands alone it hath the dominion and blinds the mind sears the conscience and hardens the heart there is neither a contrary light nor a contrary grace to raise any stirs and conflicts But then there is a third condition which hath medium participationis in it in which the soul is partly flesh and partly spirit sin is there and grace is there there are two contrary Natures two contrary Lawes two contrary Inclinations and workings two Adamants as it were one drawing the soul to evil the other drawing the soul to good one willing the other unwilling one yielding the other resisting one putting on to â—aith to love to mourning to praying to repenting the other putting off the soul from all these when I would do good evil is present with me saith Paul And verily it is thus with every converted and changed man The flesh lusteth against the Spirit and the Spirit lusteth against the flesh and these two are contrary one to another so that they cannot do the good that they would Gal. 5. 17. And if no such thing be in thee thy heart was never changed That man who never finds an unbelieving nature opposing and conflicting with a believing nature hardness conflicting with softness c. his heart was never changed for converting grace is in us but in part and if but in part then some sinfulness still remains and believe it there are not two more active more contrary more conflicting principles then grace and sin in the same subject 6. When a man is constantly formal in the same rode and posture all his dayes like a Pioâ—ture never better nor worse Such who seem to be changed without and within but it is not total Two things manifest a partial change When they do not come up fully to the commanding Will of God 3. There are many men who seem to be changed without and within yet the change is not a total or universal change and there are two things which do manifest a partial change only to be in many men 1. When they do not come up fully to God in respect of his commanding will they cannot come up to the Will of God when his Will is most spiritual when his will is most strict as self-denial when his will is most difficult Oh to sacrifice Isaâ—c that beloved Child to part with Benâ—amin this is against them to pluck out the right eye and cut off the right hand this is an hard saying when his will is most suffering For the young man to forsake all his riches this is a sorrowful Injuction to renounce all our honours with Moses and to suffer reproaches with the people of God to leave Friends and Father and Mother and Brethren and Sisters and Children and Lands and Life too as the Apostles did When a man is converted he is now so changed that his will and Gods Will are not sutable but also coextensive It is pliable and it is parallel Gods Will is my will and what he wills I will the Law of God is written in his heart every command of God is ingraven upon it there may you read the Masters Copy and the Scholar writing after it This is to be done saith God this I desire to do saith the Godly heart this I would have thee to believe Lord I believe help my unbelief Thus much I would have thee to suffer Lord strengthen me and give me not only to believe but to suffer for thy sake But in a partial change it is otherwise 2. When they do not fully come up to God in respect of his forbidding Nor to the forbidding Will of God will You know that God forbids all sin he forbids spiritual sins pride ambition c. as well as fleshly sins 2 Cor. 7. 1. little sins faith and troth vain thoughts as well as great sins secret sins alone as well as open sins heart sins heart-adultery revenge malice as well as life sins Gospel sins unbelief and grieving of the Spirit of God as well as Law sins sins of Omission as well as sins of Commission breeding or original sin as well as actual Quest But some may say unto me If the case be so How How a man may know that God hath indeed changed his heart Some things premised There are many aboâ—â—ive changes may one know that God hath indeed converted and changed his very heart so that he may confidently say that although I was once dead yet I am now alive This Question deserves a serious Resolution For 1. There are many abortive changes deluding changes rising from false and insufficient Principles from a terrifyed conscience or from politick parts or from the power of restraint or from denial of occasions or from prevalent passions or from the contrariety of one sin
thus and thus and thus have I dishonoured my God Another while he hears and reads and weeps I am that man O Lord I am he of whom thou speakest I am that sinner Iam he who hath out-faced thy Law out-stood thy offers of grace and resisted Oh how often thy good Spirit 5. He is now for the life of God to be wrought in him This he now prizeth as the most excellent life and for this he praies Lord another heart a new spirit 2. The second contrariety respects the time present And As to the time present there are four things for the time present in a truely changed and converted person which never were in him before 1. A present hatred of sin 2. A present flying unto Christ 3. A present love of God 4. A present course of new obedience 1. When the Lord hath converted and changed the heart of a sinner there is wrought in him a present hatred of sin the man loved his sins before and took pleasure in unrighteousness held it fast and defended it sin is now seen as the greatest evil and the more he sees it the more he hates it As soon as ever the heart is changed immediately it is a sin-hating heart I do not say there is no sin but I say the heart hates sin The evil that I hate said Paul Rom. 7. 15. and in Ezek. 36. where God promiseth to give them a new heart he saith Then shall ye remember your own evil wayes and shall loath your selves in your own sight for your iniquities and for your abominations Quest But here now is a great Scruple how a person may know that he hates sin Many think they do so and are deceived How a man may know that he hates sin it proves only a passion Sol. In true hatred there are six things 1. An extream detestation Every dislike is not hatred but true hatred is an extream loathing Thou shalt cast them away as a menstruous cloath thou shalt say unto it Get thee hence Isai 30. 22. 2. An earnest separation He that hated his wife did sue out a Bill of divorce from her in the Law 3. An irreconcileable alienation Two angry men may be made friends but if two men hate each other friendship is everlastingly broken betwixt them 4. A constant and perpetual colluctation If they cannot be severed one from the other they still oppose and conflict one with the other 5. A deadly intention and destruction for nothing satisfies hatred but death and ruine Saul hated David and sought his life Absalom hated Amnon and killed him 6. An impartial aversation hatred is of the whole kind I hate every false way Wilt thou now know whether God hath changed thy heart then ask thy heart What is it that thou abhorrest as the superlative evil what is that which thou wouldst have separated as far from thee as heaven is from hell what is that thy heart will never renew league or friendship with any more what is that against which thy soul doth rise and with which as Israel with Amalek thou hast war for ever what is that which thou wilt be avenged of and daily dost endeavour the mortifying and crucifying of what is that which thou sets thy heart against in the comprehensive latitude thereof whether great or little open or secret If it be sin if it be thy sins assuredly here is true hatred of sin and assuredly here is a most distinguishing Character of a sound Conversion and change It was not wont to be thus with thee nor is this findeable in any unconverted person whosoever Sin was once to thee as Dalilah to Samson and now is it to thee as Tamar to Amnon It was a sweet morsel once which thou heldst fast but now it is the menstruous cloath which thou dost cast away and say get thee hence what have I to do any more with Idols If it be thus with thee bless thy God who hath shewed grace to thy soul 2. When the Lord hath changed and converted the heart of a sinner the sinner presently flies unto Jesus Christ The first stroke of Grace is on the heart and the first breathing of Grace is for Christ as the new born babe flies unto the brests or as any creature doth to its center and place of rest For when the heart is changed by converting grace 1. It breeds the most exquisite discovery and sense of sin and consequently of the souls need of Christ 2. It is most impatient of distance or difference with God and prizeth his reconciled favour superlatively cannot live without it 3. It seeth nothing more valuable in it self or more sutable to its condition then Christ Christus amor meus pondus meum And therefore if you take notice of it you may experimentally find upon the first impressions of Grace that the soul is mostly taken up with Christ and with Faith Oh that I might be found in him Oh that I could believe on him It sees excellency in Christ and Peace in Christ and Redemption in Christ and Righteousness in Christ and Grace in Christ and Kindness in Christ and Help and Life and Heaven and all in Christ In Conversion Christ secretly draws the Soul to himself and being converted the soul strives to draw Christ to it self It would have Christ it must have Christ it is never well it is never satisfied until it hath Christ 3. When the Lord hath converted and changed the heart of a sinner there is wrought in him a present love of God It is wonderful to see how the Tide turns upon Conversion There was once one found weeping very bitterly and being demanded why O said he all other things are loved but Amorum amatur Love it self is not loved So before Conversion a man could find love for his Parents and love for his Relations and love for his Recreations and love for his Profits and love for his Sins but no love for God But after Conversion the man can scarce find any love for any unless it be for his God and in his God A graciously changed Heart is enabled to see 1. The glories in God those most Pure and Amiable Excellencies in God 2. The Transcendent Love of God to it in the Eternity of it in the Freeness of it in the Sweetness and Goodness of it 3. The Unspeakable Communications and Bounties of God towards it in Jesus Christ for the present and for the future It is Grace which makes us to see what a gracious God he is It is Grace which makes us to see what a Royal gift Jesus Christ is It is Grace which makes us apprehensive of all the Love in God and from God and therefore no marvel that the changed heart fals presently in love with God O Love the Lord all ye his Saints into a Love of Friendship and into a Love of Complacence as they speake that it admires God and prizeth Communion with him and takes its full and highest
upon the spirit of a man which There may be many changes not inconsistent with the saving change yet are not inconsistent with the saving change of his Spirit Sometimes he may be lively and quick sometimes he may be flat and dull sometimes he may be confident and cheerful and at some other times he may be afraid and mournful sometimes he may be full and enlarged and at some other time he may be aukard and streightned sometimes he may have more sense of Gods Love and sometimes more sense of his own sins None of these things are essential to the converted estate a mans heart may be truly changed by converting grace notwithstanding many crosses and afflictions on his outward estate many eclipses in his comforts many varieties in his spiritual actings many contrarieties twixt his sence and his faith many temptations upon his spirit to many doubts and fears in his heart 4. Sinful corruptions never work with a more sensible strength Sinful corruptions work with more sensible strength when the heart is truely changed then when the heart is truly converted and changed Before Conversion our sins do work more mightily but we do not then perceive the workings because your delight was then in sinning and nothing is burthensome to delight and nothing was in us contrary to our sinnings the strong man kept all the house and every faculty was a friend and servant to sin the river ran all one way But when the heart is converted there is now laid into it 1. The quickest principle of feeling 2. The contrariest principle of resisting 3. The properest principle of destruction to sin and therefore no marvel that we feel our sinful natures more than formerly for all qualities are most active and most felt in cases of resistance and destruction nevertheless none of these must conclude against our Conversion but rather for it because 1. The greatest work of grace is inward 2. The sense of sinful workings joyned with an hatred of them and humbling of the heart under them and with addresses to God for subduing power is certainly a sign of converting grace Therefore hearken unto me thou distressed soul 1. Though the Glory of Grace consists in Victory yet the Truth of Grace appears in Combats the fighting Souldier is as right to the cause as the conquering Souldier there is fire in the smoking flax as well as in the flaming furnace 2. That great corruptions still remaining in temptation are the burdens of a weak Christian but are not the Characters of a false Christian 3. Jesus Christ can by a little grace weaken strongest corruptions The least true grace will help thy soul to Christ through whose strength thou who art now in conflict shalt ere long be made more than a Conqueror 4. True grace begins in weakness goes on with combat but ends in victory There is but little light at the first and more darkness for quantity but the light of the Sun is rising and dissipating and at length remains alone Conquering grace hath comfort conflicting grace hath strength and even mourning grace hath truth Peter's tears shewed truth of Grace as well as Paul's Triumph But how may I descern my change to arise from the power of converting How it may be discerned that this change is from converting grace and â—ot from the power of a troubling coâ—science Answered grace and not from the power only of a troubling conscience Sol. I conceive thus in four particulars 1. When the change is made only from the sting of conscience that change goes off and vanisheth when the trouble of conscience goes off and continues only while that doth continue whiles the trouble of conscience is on the man the man will hear and the man will pray and the man will consult and profess and resolve yea and now too to become a new man yea and he will cry out against his sins and will not come near his sins But when that trouble is off all is off again the Water which was heated grows cold again Saul is pursuing David again and Foelix is covetous again But if the change be from grace though trouble be off yet the heart is against sin and is for good for grace sets us against sin as it makes us unholy and evil and not only or principally as it makes us uncomfortable and miserable 2. When the change ariseth only from a troubling conscience not from a contrariety to God but to us It doth not arise from a hatred of sin and a love of good but only from a hatred of torment a self-love and a love of ease the man loves that sin that he dares not now commit and hates the good which now he doth he doth the good only as a means to take off his trouble he doth it not as a work in which he delights nor doth he flie sin as an evil which he hates he flies sin as it is malum sensibile not as it is malum spirituale But in a gracious change trouble doth not cause hatred but hatred causeth trouble of sin 3. When the change is only from a troubling conscience then when the trouble is gone the mans heart is more hardned and he growes more wicked then ever before and in after sinnings less sensible and less troubled as Iron growes more hardned after it hath been in the fire or water that is stopped more violent If they be again intangled and overcome the latter end is worse with them then the beginning 2 Pet. 2. 20. But where the heart is changed by grace the more grace still the more sense of sin and still the more fear to sin and still the more love of God 4. When the change comes only from the trouble of conscience the change extends no further then to that or those particular sins for which the conscience doth trouble the man if the other sins trouble not they are not left But when the change is wrought by grace this change extends to all sins I hate every evil way saith David they do no iniquity Psal 119. Let us â—leanse our selves from all filthiness of flesh and spirit 2 Cor. 7. 1. Quest How may a man know that his change is not the fruit of Hypocrisie but of Converting grace Sol. This may be discerned How it appears this change is not the fruit of Hypocrisie thus 1 The change by Hypocrisie 1. Is not Cordial no Hypocrites heart is changed In heart ye work wickedness The Hypocrite dares to give way to heart sins Judah turned Answered not with her heart but feignedly 2. Is not Vniversal The Prophet tells the hypocritical Israelites that they were as a Cake half baked and not turned an hypocrite though he forsake many sins yet he loves some sin Jehu cannot part with the golden Calves though he did destroy Baal 3. Is not lasting but changeable sutable occasions are too strong for an heart felsely changed 4. Is not able to abide three Trials of
the Word of Conscience of Death The third Use shall be to exhort and entreat us to stir up all our hearts to beg of God to work in them this admirable change by Vse 3. Exhortation to beg of God to work this change Conversion I read in Scripture that the blind man cryed out Jesuâ— thou Son of David have mercy on me and again Thou Son of David c. and all this was for a change in his eyes and I read that Naoman took a great journey into the Land of Israel and all was to be cleansed of the Leprosie of his body And why will we not take a little pains to have our hearts and souls changed by grace Consider seriously 1. That a man is not excluded No other want excludes from heaven This want certainly excludes us from heaven for any other want not for want of wisdome or parts or riches or dignities 2. Thou art certainly excluded from heaven the door is shut up against thee if thou be not converted and changed the holy God will never look upon thee and thou shalt never look upon that holy God in his holy place The unclean person was shut out of the Camp and no unclean thing shall ever enter into heaven 3. It is thy duty thou art It is thy duty to be changed bound to be a converted and changed person every man is bound to hate and forsake his sins and to come back and love and serve his God did God make thee to serve thy lusts hath he preserved thee all this while to sin against him Is this the fruit of thy dreadful Covenant which thou hast made with him 4. What wilt thou get by keeping thy sins or any one of them What wilt thou get by keeping thy sins Be perswaded To beseech the Lord to change thy heart Be perswaded therefore at least unto two things 1. To beseech the Lord to change and convert thy heart even thine also remember well 1. None can change a sinner but God The Musician must tune the Instrument 2. It is no sin to beg of God a Conversion from sin No no thou canst not put up a more acceptable request Lord I am weary of my sins I would dishonour thee no more I would be good I would serve thee thou only canst change me and enable me for thy Mercies sake do so and heal and turn me so shall I be healed and turned 3. God hath changed and converted great sinners was not Manasses so M. Magdalen so Paul so the Corinthians so Why venture toward his mercy seat who can tell but he may do so to thee 4. He hath changed sinners who have not sought him and will he refuse it for them who do seek it of him if he many times be found of them that seek him not will he deny to them who seek 5. You have his promise to do this very converting work for you He will give his holy Spirit to them that ask him Luk. 11. 13. I will give a new heart and a new spirit Ezek. 36. 26. Behold he calls thee he tells thee that he is willing to convert thee why then art thou not willing to receive it to have it done do not say thou art a sinner God never did convert any but a sinner nor does he promise to convert any who is not a sinner 6. Did ever any beg this and failed of it Lord said one to Christ If thou wilt thou canst make me clean what saith Christ to him doth he not answer him at all Doth he say I cannot Or doth he say I will not O no his answer is and it is a present answer I will be thou clean 2. To come to the Word and come for this end that God may convert and change many came Come to the word for this end to the Pool of Bethesda to look on it and an impotent man came thither to be cured in it and there he was cured many come to hear the Word to mock at it and many come to get some notions from it and many come to catch the Minister at it but he who comes for this very end to be converted and changed by it I believe he shall first or last attain his end the word shall convert and change him The word is sometimes compared to a Glass which discovers Jam. 1. 29. and sometimes to a Laver which washeth and cleanseth Psal 119. 9. even the young man who of all other is most unruly and wild is converted by it The Power of God goes with the Word of God and the Grace of God comes by the Word of God it is Vehiculum Spiritus canalis Gratiae Thousands have been converted by it and so maist thou Hath God converted and changed thy heart hearken then to Vse 4. Counsels to the converted a few counsels 1. Take heed of sinning after Conversion Do not sin against grace received if thou dost thou wilt weaken and lame thy strength wilt darken thy heaven wilt perplex thy conscience wilt shew thy self more ungrateful then any man no wicked man can have such an aggravation of sin upon him as thou hast 2. Honour God with that Grace which thou hast received Conversion fits and enables a man for Gods Service and Glory And they began to be merry Luke 15. 24. These words are as the Banquet after the Feast they are the close and the reckoning that is brought in upon the lost Son being brought home The case is wonderfully altered with him all is altered when the sinner is altered when he was wandring from his Father he ran up and down the Country and wasted all his estate among Harlots he shifted himself to his very skin and out he is turned amongst the Swine and no man regarded him the poor wretch wanted Father and House and Cloaths and all Comforts and was upon his last Leggs at the very point of starving and famishing But now being found and returned home all mercies come in unto him there 's a Father to embrace him and an House to entertain him and Raiment to cloath him and Friends to welcome him and a feast to rejoyce him And they began to be merry As formerly you have had the nature of Conversion so in these you have the fruit of Conversion When Jesus Christ was born there was great joy and when a sinner is born again hereupon also ariseth great joy The Proposition on which I intend to insist is this That Conversion brings the Soul into a joyful a very joyful condition They began to be merry Mirth is the accent of joy Doct. 7. Conversion brings the soul into a very joiful condition it is an emphatical joy but when did they begin to be merry why as soon as it was said This my Son is alive and this my Son is found now they begin to be merry Conversion may be considered three wayes 1. Antecedenter For the precious qualities and works which
immediately go before and ordinarily usher in Conversion so it is sad and bitter and sharp for there the law imprints a sense of sin and of wrath and a spirit of bondage to fear the Needle pricks and the Sword cuts and wounds and the Hammer bruiseth and the Plough rents and tears 2. Formaliter as it is a perfective change and alteration even from hell to heaven from basest lusts to sweetest holiness and thus it is at the least a fundamental radical and virtual joy 3. Consequenter For the Crop and present harvest which results out of Conversion thus it is the Musick after the tuning of the strings the fruit of righteousness is peace so the fruit of conversion is joy and delight There are three things unto which I desire to speak about this point 1. That upon Conversion the condition becomes very joyful and pleasant quod sit 2. What kind of joy and pleasure Conversion doth bring quale sit 3. Reasons why so cur sit and then the useful Application Quest 1. For the first of these that Conversion doth bring the soul into a very joyful condition Sol. There are four things which demonstrate the quod sit of The quod sit demonstrated this 1. Many pregnant places of Scripture Psal 52. 11. Shout for joy all ye that arâ— upright in heart Psal 132. 9. By Scripture Let thy Saints shout for joy Isai 35. 10. The ransomed of the Lord shall return and come to Zion with songs and everlasting joy upon their heads they shall obtain joy and gladness and sorrow and sighing shall flee away Isai 65. 13. Behold my servants shall rejoyce but ye shall be ashamed v. 14. Behold my servants shall sing for joy of heart but ye shall cry for sorrow of heart Isai 61. 10. I will greatly rejoyce in the Lord my soul shall be joyful in my God Rom. 14. 17. The Kingdome of God consists in righteousness and peace and joy in the Holy Ghost Prov. 3. 17. Her wayes are wayes of pleasantness and all her paths are peace 2. Many pregnant testimonies and instances By Instances When Zacheus was converted he came down joyfully and received Christ Luke 19. 6 9. When the three thousand were converted there ensued singular gladness and joy Acts 2. 41. When the Eunuch was converted he went home rejoycing Act. 8. 39. When those in Samaria were converted the Text saith There was great joy in that City Acts 8. 5 6. When the Jailor was converted He rejoyced believing in God with all his house Acts 16. 34. When they to whom Peter wrote were converted they did rejoyce with joy unspeakable and full of Glory 1 Pet. 1. 8. 3. The many Comparisons by which converting grace is expressed By Comparisons doth confirm it that it makes the souls condition very joyful and delightful The estate of grace is set forth by all the things which are esteemed pleasant and delightful and joyful Men take Delight and Joy in Honour Beauty Strength Youth Riches Pearls and Jewels in Birth in Wisdome and Knowledg in Springs Orchards Spices Perfumes Buildings Victories Life Duration Friends Why when converting grace is conveyed into the heart the man now is honourable and of high dignity now the beauties of Christ are on his soul all his graces are more precious then Pearls and Gold and Silver he is rich in spiritual treasures he is one born of the Spirit of God never truly knowing and wise till now c. Nay grace is phrased by such things which yield a general and universal contentment and delight to the whole man It is sometimes called Light which is pleasant to the eye Oyntment which is pleasant to the smell Wine which is pleasant to the tast Musick or the joyful sound which is pleasant to the ear Nay yet again it is sometimes called Truth and that is pleasant to the understanding Goodness and that is pleasant to the will a Kingdome and that is pleasant to desire an Inheritance and that is pleasant to hope Communion and that is pleasant to love a Possession and and that is pleasant to joy a Victory and that is pleasant to hatred a Security and that is pleasant to fear Heaven the Kingdome of Heaven and that is pleasantness itself and all this even under fears and combates when at the first and weakest and lowest Nay yet once more it is set out by all the occasions and by all the times of joy to the birth of a man-child for joy that a man-child is born said Christ A converted man is a new-born To the day of Marriage which some call the only day of joy a converted man is marryed to Christ To a Feast Isai 25. 6. Every dish is filled with mercy To a Coronation day which was a day of gladness of heart to Solomon Cant. 3. 11. There is a crown of life for every converted soul To the time of Harvest when the Husbandman reaps with joy Isai 9. 3. To the returns of Merchants upon the increase of Wine and Oyle Psal 4. To a ransome and release from bondage and captivity a converted man is set at liberty he is a freeman in Christ 4. Consider Conversion in the Causes of it or in the very By the Causes of it Nature of it or in the Acts flowing from it certainly by all of them you may be induced to believe that it makes the Condition joyful and pleasant 1. The Causes of it which are four 1. The Radical cause Why Conversion drops out of the Eternal Love of God to a mans soul Behold what manner of Love 1 Jo. 3. 1. as many as were ordained to eternal life believed Acts. 13. 2. The Meritorious cause Who loved us and gave himself for us Gal. 2. It is one part of Christs purchase he merited Grace and Glory for his 3. The Efficient cause immediately efficient it is the first breath of Gods sanctifying Spirit the Spirit of true Comfort and Joy 4. The Instrumental cause the word which is called sweet and sweeter then the Hony and the breasts of Consolation is the instrument of Conversion Jam. 1. 2. It s owne Nature Converting Grace hath three things intrinsecal unto it 1. Goodness it is By the Nature of it good and it only makes us good Now Goodness is the foundation of Delight Nothing is truly pleasant but what is truly good 2. Suteableness There is nothing so suteable either to the nature of the soul or end of the soul as true Grace 3. Perfection it is the Glory of the Soul 3. The acts flowing from it If the acts flowing from Conversion be such as God himself takes delight in He takes delight By the acts flowâ—ng from it in the prayer of his servants in the broken hearts of his servants in the Faith and in the Fear and in the Hope of his servants all their services are a sweet savour unto him as Noahs sacrifice was Surely then Conversion is able to make the converted
joy and comfort It doth onely two things 1. It absolutely condemns and abridgeth the soul of man of all sinfull joys of joys and delights which arise from his sinfull lusts and ways and is it not the great goodness of God to deny us leave to drink cups of poison and glasses of hell Or is it possible that any Christian should to thee that sin should be thy delight which is a departing of the poor soul from God which is an incensing of the wrath of God which was such a dreadfull burthen to Jesus Christ which puts the soul under the wrath and curse of God one act whereof must cost more then all the world is worth to pardon it 2. It doth onely order our outward lawfull joys and delights for the seasons for the measures for other circumstances so that they may be our sauce not our food our helps to Godliness not damps thereto It is but the Bridle on the Horse the Pale for the Garden the Finger on the Dial. Conversion abridgeth us of no delight but of that which to want is a true delight and so orders the rest that you may not lose delight Conversion makes us mournful for sin and how can it be so joyfull Answered True grace makes the heart more mournfâ—ll Object 3. Conversion breeds the quickest sense of sin and the deepest mourning for sin yea a continual mourning for sin makes the clouds to drop never mournfull till converted and can that condition be so joyfull which makes the heart so mournfull To this I answer 1. It is certain that true grace 1. doth make the clearest discovery of sin 2. It yields the tenderest sense of sin for it takes away the heart of stone and gives an heart of flesh and nothing makes the heart more mournfull then true grace 2. But then know that mourning for sin and joy in the heart are no way inconsistent Isai 12. 3. With joy shall ye draw water But this is not inconsistent with joy out of the wells of salvation Three things I would grant 1. That love of sin and true joy are inconsistent 2. Worldly sorrow and spiritual joy are inconsistent 3. That terrour for sin and joy of heart are inconsistent Legal terrour and Evangelical joy are so but Evangelical sorrow and Evangelical joy are not so for as one grace is consistent with another grace so one heavenly affection is consistent with another heavenly affection And there are three things which to me fully convince That Evangelical mourning is consistent with Spiritual joy One is That such a mourning is but a drop out of the eye of faith They shall look upon him whom they have pierced and mourn Zach. 12. 10. and certainly nothing comes from faith but what is comfortable all is Gospel that Faith trades in Another is That the mourning heart is a renewed heart and verily the gracious heart is a joyous heart The third is That the mourning sinner is a pardoned sinner Cum intueor flentem sentis ignoscibilem if the fountain of sorrow be set open in the heart the fountain of mercy is set open in heaven Zach. 12. 10. compared with chap. 13. 1. Yea let me add to this also three experiences 1. One is this That the Christian is never more sad and mournfull then when he feels his heart least mournfull He is then cast down O saith he into what a condition am I brought I was wont to find a tender sensible mourning spirit but me thinks now my heart is grown hard again O Lord why am I now hardened from thy fear And the man never gives over with God and himself until tenderness be renewed in his heart again 2. That the Christian is never more joyfull then when he is most mournfull Blessed are they that sow besides all Waters saith the Prophet Blessed are they that mourn for they shall be comforted saith Christ They that sow in tears shall reap in joy saith David Godly sorrow is the Water that is turned into Wine One drop of a guilty Conscience is able to turn all our Joyes into Bitterness and one drop of godly sorrow is able to turn all our bitterness into joy I rejoyce saith Paul that I made you sorry what cause then had they to rejoyce who were sorry sorry after a godly sort sorry with a sorrow that bred repentance unto salvation never to be repented of 3. That the Christian is never more mournful then when he is most joyful The time of a Christians highest joy is the time of his greatest assurance Sealing and assuring times are the soul-raising and reviving times And the times of greatest assurance are the times of our greatest mournings The more manifestation of Gods Love and the more assurance of Gods Mercy do ever cause in the heart more Humility and more sorrow here is now the greatest joy for mercy and here is now the greatest mourning for sinning against mercy Object 4. We see no persons to walk more sadly and more uncomfortably I but no persons walk more sadly then converted persons Answered It is a False Charge then at least many do who are converted persons Ergo. To this give me favour to answer more fully 1. This is a False Charge and a very unjust Calâ—mny take the divisions of the sons of men according to the diversity of their spiritual conditions compare men with men according unto them and I dare confidently affirm That no condition is more dreadfully sad then the condition of men Unconverted and no condition is more comfortably cheerful then the condition of men truly Converted let 's a while peruse the phrases and instances of such Me thinks the terrible passages in Scripture may abundantly convince us of the dreadfulness of an Unconverted and wicked person Isa 57. 20. The wicked are like the raging sea that cannot rest whose waters cast up mire and dirt ver 21. There is no peace saith my God to the wicked Job 20. 16 17 23 24 25. there Zophar sets him out He shall suck the gall of Asps and the Vipers tongue shall slay him He shall not see the Rivers nor the floods and streams of Honey and Butter When he is about to fill his belly God shall send upon him the fierceness of his wrath and shall cause it to rain upon him The bow of Steel shall strike him through the glistring sword cometh out of his gall terrors are upon him Psal 11. 6. Vpon the wicked he shall rain snares fire and brimstone and an horrible tempest this shalt be the portion of their cup. Again did you ever read of any one godly and converted person who fell into that horrible despair as Cain or Judas did But take the hardest agonies incident to true converts they are 1. rather fears then horrours 2. rather doubts then despairs 3. effects of a mistaking Conscience then a rightly condemning Conscience 4. They can look towards the Promises as Jonah did in the deeps towards God 5.
say of these men Write them comfortless Will the Lord lye for you Or will he misplace his hands for you Peace is the effect of righteousness and Joy is the fruit of Conversion And shalt thou have pleasure who takest pleasure in unrighteousness Shalt thou know the wayes of Peace who wilt not know the path of Holiness Did ever God smile on him who hated God Or clasp him with joy who despised his grace with hatred Go enquire and search all the Springs of joy and knock at all the Gates of pleasure diligâ—ntly ask What of delight they contain for thee Knock at the mercy-seat which is the Gate of God and ask Lord hast thou not joy for one who will go on in his sins and will not return unto thee No saith God not any but he who â—orsakes his sins shall have mercy and he who hardens his heart shall fall into mischief Prov. 28. 13 14. Knock at the Gospel which is the gate of Christ and ask Blessed Jesu hast thou no word of comfort for him who resists thy spirit and will not come in unto thee No not I saith Christ not any thou despisest the goodness of God and by thy impenitency and hardness treasurest unto thy self wrath against the day of wrath Knock at conscience which is the gate of thine own soul and ask O conscience hâ—st thou not a word of peace to speak to one who loves his sins and is an enemy to God and godliness Who I saith conscience not I thou art an enemy of righteousness and in the gall of bitterness and except thou repent thou shalt certainly perish Knock at the Scriptures which are the Gate of truth and ask May not the wicked and unconverted person suck at the brests of your consolation are not thâ—se wells of salvation open for me to draw joy and comfort out of Oh no say the promises we are childrens bread and legacies for sons if thou be a believer we are a Fountain opened for thee if thou be an unbeliever we are a Fountain sealed against thee Knock at the Creatures which are the Gate of Providence and ask Have ye no Commission of Comfort for one who cares not to remember his Creator O no say all the Creatures Sin long ago hath cast thee out of Paradise and turned the earth into a curse and thy blessings are cursed and thy sinnings do poison all the flowers in our Garden unto thee Nay Knock at thy very Sins which are the Gate of Hell and ask them Ye of all other are my dearest friends and choicest masters and have ye no Joyes and Comforts for me O yes say they we have but they are forbidden fruit but they are pleasures of sin for a season but they will end in everlasting torments and sorrow Thus is every wicked and unconverted man in Cains condition who cryed out Behold thou hast driven me out this day from the face of the earth and from thy face shall I be hid and I shall be a fugitive and a vagabond in the earth Gen. 4. 14. 2. That they are enemies and slanderers of the goodness and They are slanderers of the sweetness of Gods ways who thus reproach the state of Conversion sweetness of the wayes of God who load the estate of Conversion with all the ignominious reproaches of sadness and heaviness and mopishness and melancholy and bitterness and grave of all joy and pleasure As the Spies of old traduced the good and pleasant land of Caâ—aan which abounded with milk and hony O it was a land that did eat up the Inhabitants thereof But as God spake once to Aaron and Miriam How were ye not afraid to speak against my servant Moses so I to these How are ye not afraid to reproach the wayes of the living God Is not God the God of comfort Is not Christ the consolation of Israel Is not the Holy Ghost the comforter are not the Scriptures written for our consolation are not the Promises the breasts of Consolation are not all the pathes of Wisdome pathes of pleasantness are not the Graces of God the very beds of Spices Is not the peace of Conscience a peace that passeth all understanding Doth David find the Word sweeter then the hony comb Doth Job find it better then his appointed food Doth Jeremiah find it the Rejoycing of his heart Doest thou read of so many Converted persons in Scripture full of joy and gladness rejoycing in Christ rejoycing in the hope of the Glory of God reâ—oycing in Troubles in Persecutions yea in Death it self and yet darest thou to revile and scandalize the converted mans condition as the only sea of Bitterness and darkest night eclipsing all joy and comfort I pray thee to consider 1. This doth arise from the gall of thy wicked and imbittered Spirit hating and despising the goodly excellencies of holiness and holy persons 2. It doth shew a cursed heart to call good evil as it doth to call evil good and as he that justifies the Wicked so he that condemns the just is an abomination to the Lord How much more then he who condemns Righteousnes it self 3. This doth shew an Universal rage against Gods glory and mans happiness So heavily dost thou load the pathes of Conversion that so much as in thee lies thou disswadest and discouragest all the men on earth from leaving off their sins so that God shall have no Glory from them nor they any true happiness from God 4. And lastly Take heed least God deal with thee as once he did with the lying spies shut them out of Canaan and destroyed them with a remarkable Judgment 3. That they have hitherto deluded and deceived themselves with false joy in stead of true joy who as yet never saw a converted They who never were converted delude themselves with false joy condition All thy mirth and joy hath been but false fire a madness not a joyfulness sparkles of thy own kindling thou hast fed on the husks all this while on a fancy on a Dream thou hast never in all thy life took in one draught of true â—oy nor ever shalt thou till God convert thy soul Take heed of setling your souls or resting your souls on any works or any affections which are antecedent to conversion even the sorrows and troubles before conversion are no matter of joy and comfort if any joy depends on them it is rather because conversion hath followed them and the joys which many men take before their conversion certainly they are false joys poor joys they are not pleasures of Gods right hand There are three properties of true Joy 1. It is not the Vsher which goes before but the Handmaid that follows after Grace 2. It is not a Surfet to dead but a Cordial to strengthen and it is not a Feast to satisfie but a Sawce to quicken communion with God 3. It is not a temptation to sin but upholds against the new temptations of sin True Joy never goes
the Peny as well as the Shilling bears the Superscription 4. That the least degree of true Grace denominates the condition to be converted I would believe is Faith I would love thee is Love I desire to do thy will is Obedience Not Strength but Truth denominates 5. True Grace and many Conflicts go together Let the motions of sin be never so vile but I hate them never so many but I resist them here Grace is the Lord which rules me though sin be the Enemy which molests me Why am I thus Alas there are contraries in thee Light and Darkness Flesh and Spirit 6. True Grace and some Failings may lodge together I may at the same time be a Captive to Sin and yet a Servant to Grace sin may sometimes be too strong even for him who hates sin 7. All services to God are interpreted and accepted by God according to the will of a converted person Although thou canst not pray so freely so fully so uniformly yet if God see a will in thee desirous so to do it shall pass for currant groans and sighs and chatterings and desires and tears c. 8. Thou never doest any Duty but Jesus Christ gives acceptance unto it by his Intercession his sweet Incense takes off the ill savour The greatest work done by thee if it comes in thy own name is rejected the weakest if presented in his Name a sigh or groan is graciously accepted as the Sacrifices by the Priest 9. God never expects thou shouldest buy out thy own pardon or bring from thy self any satisfaction for any of thy sins he hath designed that work onely to Jesus Christ in whom he hath accepted thee and for whose sake alone he doth and will discharge thee You trade in Heaven upon gracious terms when you come for any grace and help thy Reasons and Motives are in God who gives and freely gives 10. As soon as ever converting Grace prevails upon thy heart Salvation is come to thy soul Thou art now a Believet and if a Believer a Son and if a Son an Heir of all the comfortable Promises now and a Co-heir with Christ hereafter 11. The Lord will bless thy buds and increase thy stock of Grace He will water as well as plant it 12. That little Grace shall never fail thee never leave thee till it brings thee to Heaven The greatest Grace is imperfect and the least Grace is invincible the greatest Grace is weak and the weakest Grace is immortal Now if Christians did believe all these Truths and would consider of them would not their condition be more joyfull Here 's a Weakness I but it is Grace that Grace is little I but it comes from Graciousness and makes me gracious O how many conflicts I but 't is 'twixt Grace and Sin yea and many sinnings I but not love of sin no voluntary service But how poor in Duties I but God regards the Will But what will become of me for my former sins Why Christ hath satisfied and God hath pardoned But if I had strength of Grace I might take comfort Why the weakest Convert is a Believer and the weakest Believer hath Christ Ergò Secondly to Persons long since converted What should they To persons long since converted Often examine and review your Speritual condition Be upright do to walk with joyful hearts I answer 1. Often examine and review your Spiritual condition this will keep you and God friends often look upon the evidences of Gods favour to your Souls and maintaine and cleare them if blotted Such experiences are bathes of Comfort Remember the days of old 2. Be upright maintain the Oyl and you maintain the light The work of Righteousness shall be peace and the effect of Righteousness quietness and assurance for ever Isai 32. 17 A stable Spirit will further a stable Joy one â—â—y step puts the bone out of joynt That man loseth his Spiritual pleasure who steps out for sinful pleasure remember Davids swarving and Peters and Jacobs 3. Live by faith We never meet wiâ—h more troubles Live by faith then when we shift for our selves That man who can trust God most him doth God trust with most Grace and peace see Habak 3. 17 18. 4. Hold up close communion with God Hold up close communion with God and his people he who rrades most at heaven gets the greatest stock of Grace and comfort even the neglect of one prayer may lose a man much comfort be satisfied with God alone and let not out your minds to earthly things And that one sermon which thou didst overslip brought in exceeding Joy to thy fellow Christian 5. Walk in the fear of God all the day long Walk in the fear of God all the day long Self-confidence makes the person to lye down in tears but he who feares to sin fortifies his Graces and comforts expose not your selves to Temptations 6. Renew a solemn and speedy Peace Renew peace upon every fall upon every fall Light may quickly be restored to a candle newly blown out and the bone displaced may presently be set again Let not a disease settle 7. Engage not thy mind to vain and new Engage not to new opinions Opinions Mind the maine things of Life and Salvation and not profitable strifes He who hath not more Grace to get hath assuredly much comfort to lose an Unsetled Judgment will quickly raise an uncomfortable heart 8. Preserve an humble and contented Spirit Pride is the father of discontentment Preserve an humble and contentâ—d Spirit and Discontentment is a prison to our Graces and a Sea to our comforts Thy Graces will not be pleasant to thee if thy outward condition please thee not 9. Be active and thriving That Be active and thriving man who doth most for God doth also most for his own comfort Barrenness is no good sign of Life and therefore no good way for comfort the travelling Bee is laden with hony Thriving Grace is a clear evidence of truth and adds to our excellency and our joy FINIS
Hos 14. 4. and that he forgives them for his own sake Esa 43. 2. There is Abundant mercy God is Abundant mercy said to be rich in mercy to be plentifull in compassion to have manifold mercies even multitudes of mercy and to pardon abundantly Though the penitent hath many sins to be pardoned and many necessities to be supplied yet the Lord is very ready to multiply pardons unto him not to forgive some sins onely but all the sins committed It is not the quantity of sins for number nor the quality of sins for kind nor the aggravations of sins by circumstances which hinders mercy if a a man be penitent but though the sins were as red as Scarlet they shall be as white as Snow and though they have been like Crimson they shall be as Wool Esa 1. 18. 3. There is Tender Tender mercy mercy Tenderness consists in an easiness of Compassion and forward willingness to help The tender Mother easily draws out the brests Such a tenderness of mercy is there in God to the Penitent he is most willing to forgive he rejoyceth to shew mercy and doth it with his whole heart Nor doth he upbraid and grieve the sinner when he sheweth mercy but in the shewing of mercy onely shews mercy he will forgive sins and never mention them any more to the forgiven Penitent 4. There is Sure mercy A penitent person may be Sure mercy unsure of many things of his earthly comforts of his worldly friends of his own life but of two things he may be sure of Heaven hereafter and of Mercy presently as soon as ever his heart is taken off from sin his faith may look on mercy Though he hath reason to be grieved for sins yet he hath no reason to doubt the pardon of his sins for that God who hath promised to pardon abundantly hath also said I will surely have mercy on him Jer. 31. 20. 5. There is Loving and Reviving mercy reviving mercy such as takes off the turbulency of the Conscience settles and composeth and speaks peace unto it and admirably refresheth it by the impression of Divine consolations even such mercy is God ready also to give to the penitent even to bind up their bruised spirits and to give them beauty for ashes the oyle of joy for mourning and the garment of praise for the spirit of heaviness Isa 61. 1 2. He will create lips of peace and words of comfort Speak comfortable to Jerusalem say unto her that her sins are pardoned Isa 40. 〈◊〉 But why is God so ready to shew mercy to the penitent person Sol. There are reasons partly respecting God and the penitent Reasons of it 1. In respect of God 1. It is his nature to be the Lord the Lord God gracious merciful abundant in goodness and truth forgiving iniquity In respect of God It is his nature transgression and sin therefore called a Father and the Father of mercies a Husband Friend Physician Every nature is apt to produce or send out such acts as lye within it and are suitable unto it The Fire is apt to heat and the Sun to shine and the Water to moisten The liberal man it is his nature to be apt to give and the courteous man to speak kindly the nature of the Lord is merciful and therefore no wonder that he is ready to shew mercy 2. It It is his Promise is his promise to shew mercy to the penitent his nature is ready to pity any man in misery and to offer him mercy and help but besides this he is ready to make good his promises he hath passed his holy word of truth that he will have mercy on the penitent the promises are so many that I cannot mention them See Isai 55. Ezek. 18. c. 3. It is his delight to shew them It is his Delight mercy he delighteth in mercy Mic. 7. 18. What any delights in that he is ready to do there is nothing more facile to action or more abundant in action or more unweariable in action then delight delight is no burden when God shews mercy he is doing that wherein he delights Two things God delights in One is a penitent soul there is joy in heaven for his conversion and another is to shew mercy to that Soul Jer. 33. 8. I will pardon all their iniquities whereby they have sinned against me v. 9. And it shall be to me a name of joy 4. It is his glory is it the glory It is his glory of a man to pass by an offence and is it not the glory of a God mercifully to pass over transgressions you get by it and God gets by it Isai 30. 18. Therefore will he be exalted that he may have mercy upon you there be many things which do exalt God set his glory on high our humility doth it our faith doth it and his own mercies do it Jer. 33. 9. This shall be to me a name of joy and praise and an honour before all the nations of the earth who shall hear all the good that I do unto you When he pardons a sinner and shews him mercy why now he gets him a Name Who is a God like unto thee forgiving iniquity transgression and sin God gets him a name three wayes sometimes by Omnipotent acts as when he works wonders never was the like seen in Israel Sometimes by Vindictive acts as when he over rules and confounds the great enemies of his people so he got him a name upon Pharaoh Sometimes by his Gracious acts as when he pardons a sinner Paul sets it down for all posterity to look on that mercy which was shewed unto him The Lord gives the Penitent mercy and hereby he gets unto himself much Glory 5. His love is great to Penitents and therefore his mercy is ready His love is great to Penitents for penitents his general Love his Philanthropie inclines him thus far as to reveale mercy and to offer mercy and to beseech by mercy even the unkindest Impenitents Why will ye dy turn and live When shall it once be O then what must his special love produce if he be ready to shew mercy to enemies is he not ready to shew it to sons If to Rebels surely then to friends if to them that disobey him how much to them who do humble themselves at his footstool who repent for whose souls he gave the blood of his Son Secondly in respect of the penitent themselves God is very ready In respect of the Penitent to shew them mercy 1. There is nothing in the World that they need like mercy It is the only Plaister for their wound and They need nothing like mercy Anchor for their Ship if they have not mercy they are undone Usually there is in every condition some one thing which the heart of man doth most need if he be sick then health if poor then sufficiency if dejected then comfort Christ tells Martha of