heart stil more 〈◊〉 it from Hypocrisie and makes it 〈◊〉 refined causeth the heart to come forth from each new Cast and moulding with a deeper and fairer Impression 〈◊〉 his Image and Glory If then the Holy Ghost the Writer of his Law in the Heart set that high value upon that Work 〈◊〉 his that he vouchsafeth to take 〈◊〉 pains to write it over and over again in the same Tablet Let it be no Diminution to this great Author but let us bless God rather for the Providence that the same Divine Hand and Spirit should set him this Task to take the Doctrine of 〈◊〉 VVork into a second yea a third Review and thereby make it as it were the 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 the VVork of his Life Only thus it is That the other Great Points as Union with Christ Justification Adoption Sanctification and Glory which Subjects as he was able for so his heart was most in them he hath left unfinished And so thereby as is most likely multitndes of precious yea glorious thoughts which he might have reserved as often fals out to Preachers and Writers for those higher Subjects as the Close and Centre and Crown of what forewent as preparative thereto are now perished and laid in the dust with him None but Christ was ever yet able to finish all that Work which was in his Heart to do Farewel Thomas Goodwin Philip Nye Eleven Books made in New-England by Mr. Thomas Hooker and printed from his Papers written with 〈◊〉 own Hand are now published in 〈◊〉 volnms two in Quartò one in Octa. vo VIZ. The Application of Redemption by the Effectual Work of the Word and Spirit of Christ for the 〈◊〉 home of lost 〈◊〉 unto God The First Book on 1 Pet. 1. 18 19. The Second on 〈◊〉 1. 21. The Third on Luk. 1. 17. The Fourth on 2 Cor. 6. 2. The Fift on ' 〈◊〉 20. 〈◊〉 6 7 The Sixt on Revel 3. 17. The Seventh 〈◊〉 Rom. 8. 7. The Eight on John 6. 44. The 〈◊〉 on 〈◊〉 57. 15. The Tenth on Acts 2. 37. The Last viz. Christ's Prayer for 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 John 17. There are Six more Books of Mr. Hookers now printing in two Volums The Contents BOOK I. On 1 Pet. 1. 18. Ye were redeemed by the Blood of Christ. Oct. Christ hath purchased all spiritual good for His. 5 For Explication three things  What this Spiritual good is  All that we lost in Adam all that we need and 〈◊〉 desire to make us happy  How Christ hath purchased this by laying down 〈◊〉 sufficient price for it viz. His Death and Obedience  〈◊〉 two hence 8 1 Instruction See how difficult it is to obtain the least spiritual good Nothing to be had without this Purchase  2 Reproof to two sorts  1 To those that have interest in this Purchase 〈◊〉 improve it not  2 To those that catch at it having no right 〈◊〉 unto  3 FOR HIS here consider 〈◊〉 1 The special respect in which they come to have 〈◊〉 in Christs merits 〈◊〉 on Sinners 〈◊〉 Elect. 〈◊〉 But as the Seed of the Covenant such as shall 〈◊〉 leeve  2 Christ hath purchased FOR THEM  1 In their room  2 For their good  Reasons why Christ hath purchased only for His 〈◊〉 the Faithful not for all 〈◊〉 〈◊〉  1 The 〈◊〉 of God is satisfied only for them  2 Christ prayed only for them  3 They only shall be saved  4 They 〈◊〉 have the means of Salvation made 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 to them Many have not so much as 〈◊〉 means  〈◊〉 sour hence 〈◊〉 1 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 three things  1 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 challenge any spiritual good to 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 before he beleeve 〈◊〉 For  1 No man hath Christ but by Faith  2 Beleevers 〈◊〉 are in the Covenant of 〈◊〉  3 〈◊〉 are in the state of 〈◊〉  2 The Spirit of God deth not witness to any 〈◊〉 interest in this spiritual good before and 〈◊〉 Faith Because  1 It 's a falshood cross to the Covenant of 〈◊〉  2 An 〈◊〉 is uncapable of knowing receiving such a witness  Inferences hence 29 1 It 's a delusion to say you may have Christ before Faith this is the ground of Prophaneness and 〈◊〉  2 There are no absolute Promises in the Covenant of Grace but such as do either express or imply the condition of Faith And yet it 's a Covenant of free Grace  3 The 〈◊〉 of Christ never gives evidence to any man of his good Estate without respect to a qualification viz. Faith and Grace Because 41 1 This work of Evidencing is a work of Applicacion  2 The Spirit never Evidenceth without tha Word  3 The Spirit alwaies 〈◊〉 by applying of a general Promise wherein particular persons are included  4 This would be to charge the Spirit with witnessing a falshood  5 The Spirit ever witnesseth as the Covenant of Grace doth  6 The Spirit witnesseth in the same respect as the Father intended and Christ purchased  7 The Evidence of spiritual Knowledge and Assurance of Faith arise upon the same ground  Hence see the excellency and blessed condition of Beleevers 54 Confutation it dasheth the dream of universal Redemption 57 Objections Answered  Exhortation to provoke our hearts 66 1 To get Faith  2 To have all at Christs Command and lay out all for his praise  BOOK II On Matth. 1. 21. He shall save his People from 〈◊〉 sins DOCT. Christ puts all his into possession of all 〈◊〉 Good that he hath purchased  Two Branches  Branch 1. Redemption and Application are of 〈◊〉 extent For 〈◊〉 1 The Spirit applies Redemption to all and 〈◊〉 such as the Father intended and Christ 〈◊〉 sed it 〈◊〉 2 Application was the end of purchasing  3 If the Application were narrower than the 〈◊〉 chase then Christ should have died for many 〈◊〉 should have no benefit by his death  Uses three hence  1 Consutation of these false Opinions  1 Christ died for all  2 Christ died for all in point of Impetration 〈◊〉 not of Application  3 That the Application of mercy depends upon liberty of mans will  2 Instruction See the Reason why the work of 〈◊〉 cation prevails so powerfully though sinners 〈◊〉 it  Christ having redeemed them will and doth 〈◊〉 that Redemption to them  Direction to distressed sinners Look to the purchase and blood of Christ.  〈◊〉 2. The Manner bow this Application is wrought  Three things implied in that 81 No man can make Application of any spiritual good in Christ to himself  1 Nor by power wrest it  2 Nor by Justice claim it  3 Nor able to receive it  4 Nor willing to be made able  Uses four hence  It dasheth the 〈◊〉 of such as conceive they have power to take Christ and Grace when they
and 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 to him without destraction 2. As we should lay up all for him so we should lay out all for his praise when ever 〈◊〉 occasion 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 any 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 it that we may 〈◊〉 2 Cor. 5. 15. So the 〈◊〉 we live no more 〈◊〉 selves labour 〈◊〉 for 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 but live only to 〈◊〉 who hath 〈◊〉 all Spirituall good for Us. BOOK II. Matt. 1. 21. He shall save His People from their Sins APPlication was the Second Part of Mans Recovery whereby all that Good which Christ hath purchased for His is made Theirs The Sum of this Description we resolved into Two Divine Truths which take up the Nature of it 1 First Christ hath purchased all Spiritual Good for His. That we have finished 2 The Second now follows for which we have 〈◊〉 these words in which we shall attend only so 〈◊〉 as serves our purpose in hand Christ puts all His into the Possession of all that Good He hath Purchased for Them So much the 〈◊〉 letter of the Text sounds Salvation we know 〈◊〉 the substance and marrow of all that Good which we have or hope for here or in another world it 〈◊〉 the removal and absence of all evil that might 〈◊〉 the presence and confluence of all such 〈◊〉 which either we want or desire or can receive to make us happy they are all comprised in this word Salvation And this our Savior 〈◊〉 purchased not to lay it up and to keep it by him but to lay it out in the behalf of his not alone to provide it but to bestow it actually upon them It is his Name it was his Office and he doth the work he doth 〈◊〉 actually save his People from their sins 1 Cor. 1. 30. 〈◊〉 is said to be made of God to us not only so in 〈◊〉 and the sight of God but he is made to us wisdome Righteousnes Sanctisication and Redemption and therfore the Apostle gives thanks to God who 〈◊〉 blessed us with al Spirituall blessings in heavenly places in Christ Eph. 1. 3. So that all the treasuries of all kinds of blessings withall advantages are by Christ Communicated to his Hence the Prophet sets out the Particular inventory of those speciall favours which the Lord doles out unto all 〈◊〉 servants and followers to suit them in their occasions and necessities Isay. 61. 1. 2. the Lord hath 〈◊〉 me to preach good tidings to bind up the broken hearted to proclayme libertie to the 〈◊〉 the opening of the prison to those that are in bonds to give them the oyl of joy and Gladness for the spirit of 〈◊〉 that they may be clothed with the garments of praise He not only hath made a 〈◊〉 of gladness but he puts it on and cloathes all his servants with it In a word hence it is Christ is said to be a perfect Redeemer to save to the utermost not only to offer Salvation and redemption to present it before them but to make it good to their hearts and consciences to their everlasting comforts There are two branches of the Doctrine the explication of them severally will shew the breadth of this truth 1. The extent of this Application or the parties who do partake of ir Theirs Or Ours namly all such for whom these good things were purchased 2. The manner how they come to be made partakers herof the Description told us it was made theirs the Doctrine they are put into the possession of them First Touching the Largness and breadth of this Application it s here to be attended according to the purchase by way of paritie and proportion Redemption and Application are of equall extent Christ purchaseth for his and Christ applyeth unto his and to his only al they have this but only they have this 〈◊〉 of those that ever Christ purchased grace and life 〈◊〉 shall 〈◊〉 of it and none but those shall be made possessors of it both these goe hand in hand Those 〈◊〉 those and those only for whom Christ 〈◊〉 this to them and to all them and only to them Christ applyes this This is the paritie and proportion and equall extent of these two Redemption and Application See this made good by some few Arguments Look we at the manner of the three persons working that will give in Evidence unto this truth this worke of application is attributed in a speciall manner to the spirit because his manner of working doth therin Specially appear he works from the father and the Son and this is the last work The Father as the Will Determines it the Son as the wisdom of the Father he disposeth of this work the holy Ghost as the power of the Almighty Consummates the action For whom the Father appointed this redemption for them Christ purchased it to them the Spirit applies it If the Spirit should not apply it to all for whom Christ purchased it that might argue want of power if to any other but such that might argue want of tuth Application of the purchase is the end of purchasing for therefore redemption was purchased for those for whom Christ had undertaken it that as they needed it he intended it for their good so they might partake of it for their everlasting good and benefit thus the current of the Scripture runnes as a mightie stream 1 Pet. 3. 18. for Christ also once suffered for sin the just for the unjust that he might bring us to God Titus 2 14. He gaue himselfe for us that he 〈◊〉 redeeme us from all iniquity and purifie unto himselfe a peculiar people zealous of good workes 〈◊〉 1. 4. who gaue himself for our Sinnes that he might redeem us from this present evill world I add 〈◊〉 more but that John 17. 19. for their sakes I 〈◊〉 my selfe that is he prepared himselfe on 〈◊〉 for his death and 〈◊〉 that by virtue therof they also might have their corruptions subdued and their hearts purified by the truth and hence it is the 〈◊〉 of the 〈◊〉 of Grace containes not only the manifestation of Gods mind and counsell touching what is done for us but what he will worke in us and 〈◊〉 to us by the power of his grace Ezek. 36. 26. 〈◊〉 will Power clean water upon you and clense 〈◊〉 from all your filthines a new spirit I will give you and a new heart will I work in you and Jer. 31. 33. I will write my lawes in their hearts and 〈◊〉 my spirit in their inward parts and therfore 〈◊〉 lives forever to Save Perfectly all that come unto 〈◊〉 by him Heb. 7. 25. Iftherfore this be the end of 〈◊〉 Purchase that it might be made good upon the souls 〈◊〉 his children either Christ must misse of his 〈◊〉 and not have his end or els they must of 〈◊〉 have all this good which the Father intended to 〈◊〉 and Christ purchased in their behalf aud for 〈◊〉 Speciall benefit 〈◊〉 the 〈◊〉 of Salvation by the death and 〈◊〉
of Zion who are those to them that turn from transgression If the Lord turn thy soul he will Redeem thy soul and if ever he Redeem thee he will turn thy soul from thy transgressions he will make a divorce between thy soul and sin Hast thou found the strong man bound those temptations which formerly were so sweet thou couldest not 〈◊〉 them those corruptions which were so natural that thou couldest not but yeild obedience yea willingly religne up thy self to the authority and right of 〈◊〉 they challenged over thee and thou wentest as an 〈◊〉 to the slaughter and as a fool to the stocks But now thy heart is revolted from that right and power these corruptions and temptations had over thee and thou waitest only for a way of escape now thou art for a Christ and he wil be for thee for such as thou art alone And therefore this gives in heavie Evidence against sundry sorts of men as such who as yet never came into the suburbs of Salvation never made entrance or preparation towards the enjoyment of Christ and therefore are far from ever coming to the participation or 〈◊〉 of him The first are those which slight this work as a matter meerly superfluous they look at it as an invention of some discouraged and drooping melancholly persons a course which out of dark and misguided 〈◊〉 have contrived but was never required by the Almighty These are of two sorts 1 Such as they who are in a dead sleep of senseless 〈◊〉 conclude their condition good because they never knew what a good condition meant and therefore conceive they need not be troubled they should not be altered from it They observe no Mountains discern no crooked paths nor see their own sins nor the danger of their own condition and therefore fondly conceive they need be no better they should be no other and if men could be as wel contented with them as they are with themselves they see no reason but that they might sit down in quiet without trouble and distraction and yet I will to Heaven also It 's a needless and rigid curiosity of some singular humorous men that require more than needs that they might be counted more than ordinary they cry out as they Yee take too much upon you yee sons of Aaron are not all the Congregation of the Lord holy they wonder why men should be so troubled for their sins distressed in the apprehension of their own condition they count it a blessing they never yet knew what it meant and hope they never shal Thou that never sawest thy 〈◊〉 for a Christ art not yet in a way to be 〈◊〉 thou who never faults the waies which might stop the passage of Christ thou art never like to mend them upon these terms This was Laodiceas temper 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 16. Thou sayest thou art rich and wise and wants nothing and knowest not that thou art poor and naked and miserable and indeed hast nothing nay thou art cut out for confusion fited and prepared on purpose for an everlasting rejection Isay 6. 10. Mark how when the Lord will prepare a people for utter desolation and shut them out from sharing in mercy he sends the Prophet with Commission Go saith he make the ears of this People heavy their eyes dim and their hearts fat that seeing they may see and not understand hearing they may hear and not perceive lest they be converted and I should heal them as if he should have said if they never see if they never be made 〈◊〉 of their sins and selves they will never be converted and so never saved 2 Cor. 4. 3. If our Gospel be hid it is hid to them that perish There is not a thought that the King will come on progress when there is no Harbenger to make preparation before 2 To this rank of those who slight this way and work of God are your presumptuous Atheists when the terrors of the Law are denounced and the power of the Truth in the dispensations thereof is planted on 〈◊〉 to make battery against the strong holds of the 〈◊〉 corruptions of mens hearts and lives that they might 〈◊〉 down before 〈◊〉 Christ and 〈◊〉 up all to him These wretches defeat the power and stroke of the Truth by their 〈◊〉 conceits It 's true 〈◊〉 they the Lord requires the soul should sue out an everlasting divorce between it self and sin such emptiness and such underness It 's but a white at which we should aim not which we can hit a Copy after which we should write but though it be scribled and blurred it will serve the turn God requires so much but he will take less he threatens and it's wisdom indeed to affright sinners and in a Spiritual policy as Fathers do terrifie but he intends not Execution it 's but to awe men not to condemn men Let all 〈◊〉 presumptuous Atheists hear and fear and tremble at what the Lord hath said in Deut. 29. 19. He that beareth the words of this Curse and shall bless himself in his heart saying I shall have peace though I walk in the stubbornness of my heart to ad drunkenness to thirst Such a one is a subject prepared on purpose for the everlasting wrath of God for the Text saies in the next verse The Lord will not spare that man but the anger of the Lord will smoke against him and all the Curses that are written in the Book of God shall be upon him he shall cut him off and root him out from amongst the number of his People Another sort are such who though they are not come to this height of prophaneness 〈◊〉 as to slight this Work yet they 〈◊〉 another way of coming to a Christ which is as sure as they conceive and much more easie They catch after Christ and comfort in him before ever there be any breach of league with their lusts or sad abasement of their hearts before the Lord in the sight of their Natural condition And thus as Travellers when they meet with deep waies and soul and long lanes that are hardly passable they make bold to cut a way for 〈◊〉 and break over the Fence and Hedg to avoid the 〈◊〉 of the travel so they make a way of their own not keep the Kings Road. So here when this way of preparation is too narrow and tedious a passage they have contrived a narrower course and compass 〈◊〉 their own They will catch at a Christ and press on for mercy and to take hold of a Christ and not come by this coast of breaking the league with 〈◊〉 and renouncing the 〈◊〉 of any 〈◊〉 besides and in a misguided mistake they 〈◊〉 they have carried the cause This was the guise of the stony ground Matt. 13. 20. He 〈◊〉 received the seed into stony places the same is he that heareth the Word and immediately with joy receiveth it They should first have ploughed up the stones there should have been brokenness of heart
therefore to mind this or to be led by this is present death The minor is thus again confirmed because it submits not to the Law and that is not for a present push only and out of a surprizal of some temptation but it 's certain it will never nay it can never be other because it 's beyond its power nay cross to its Nature so to do so that it hath no ability nor will for to do it nor can it of it self attain any sufficiency thereunto To make way for the collection of the Point of which we purpose to speak there be two words in the Text to be attended for Explication sake 1 What is meant by The Wisdom of the flesh or to be Carnally minded The Original word 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 is of large compass and in truth comprehends in this place the frame of the Reasonable Faculties the Understanding and Will in the extent of their full work what he understands and plots by Reason the Will effects and this latter of necessity implies the other for so the word whence it comes is taken 1 For the work of the Understanding Acts 28. 22. We desire to know what thou thinkest they would understand his Opinion and Judgment touching the way of Christianity so the Apostle speaks when he would confine our Reason to the compass of the Wisdom of the Scripture and Gods Counsel therein revealed he adviseth We should not be wise above that which is written 1 Cor. 4. 6. 2 Again It 's used and that often to express the work of the Will and therefore it is 〈◊〉 translated by Care Phil. 4. 10. I rejoyced that your Care of me again flourisheth Somtimes by the work of Seeking If ye be risen with Christ 〈◊〉 those things which are above 3. Col. 1. Or by the act of tasting or savouring Mat. 16. 21. Get thee behind me Satan thou savorest not the things 〈◊〉 be of God And therefore Beza is constrained to Paraphrase and lay out the compass of it in a 〈◊〉 of words That which the carnal man savors is enmity that is the frame of the plotting of the minds and affecting of the hearts of carnal men is enmity against God 2 Enmity as we say in the abstract made up of nothing but malice and hatred and that in an extream manner against the Lord more than against any thing in the world And if it be enquired how that doth appear and can be proved The Evidence is added in the next words It is not subject to the Law As the heart is to the Law so it is to the Lord as it is to the Word of God so it is to God himself It wholly shakes off the Sovereignty and Authority of the Law and it is not a pang only of a temptation that carries it nor a push or 〈◊〉 of some present infirmity that overbears it but in truth it is the very Nature of a naughty and 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 That which is born of the flesh is flesh John 3. 6. and nothing else but 〈◊〉 and therefore it can do nothing but oppose the Spirit and the Law which is Spiritual every thing will do and in 〈◊〉 can do no 〈◊〉 but its Nature And this denyal 〈◊〉 only of the Act of Subjection but the very Power of Subjection shews the height of that opposition that is in the heart against the Law and so against 〈◊〉 Lord himself for subjection is one degree lower 〈◊〉 obedience it 's possible for a Servant not to 〈◊〉 the command of his Master and yet he may in 〈◊〉 and subjection submit himself to his authority to bear what he will inflict upon him with 〈◊〉 though not to do what he requires of him A Patient may be subject in silence and meekness to 〈◊〉 the launcings of the Chyrurgion to cut him and so cure him when he can in no wise help 〈◊〉 and yet a carnal heart will not do this for his 〈◊〉 of subjection implies 1 It doth not acknowledg the Authority and 〈◊〉 of the Law 2 It will not obey the Rule of it 3 It will not bear the Power of it whereby it would redress the sinfulness of our hearts and reform the disorders and miscarriages of our lives and pluck away that sin from us that would pluck away our hearts from God He hath no right to challenge 〈◊〉 sovereignty no reason to exercise it no Lawful power but usurped that doth maintain it and 〈◊〉 I do not acknowledg this right nor obey that Rule nor bear that Power saies the Will it would take away my lusts and so take away my content 〈◊〉 life and I will rather die than yield rather be 〈◊〉 than abide my pleasing distempers to be crossed by the Law Hence then the Point is plain The frame of the whol heart of a Natural man is wholly unwilling to submit to the Work of the Lord that would sever him from his sins I say the frame of the whol man to the words of the Text and interpretation of them each plotting of the Mind each affecting of the Will the 〈◊〉 current of the carriage of the inward man and 〈◊〉 is not only unable to follow the direction of the Law and of the Lord but not willing to bear the power thereof to force it to the reformation of those 〈◊〉 and sins unto which it subjects it self and sets it self resolutely to keep So the Lord professed of Nimrod and his company when they had set themselves upon the building of Babel out of their pride and self confidence Gen. 11. 6. Now nothing will 〈◊〉 restrained from them which they have imagined to do let us go down and confound their Language It 's in vain to perswade them in vain to send Messengers and shew Arguments never so sad and weighty to stop them only confound their language that they may not be able to do what they would It 's the Scope of that Parable Matth. 21. from 33. to 41. wherein the waywardness of the hearts of the sons of men and their desperate unteachableness is apparantly discovered Messenger is sent after Messenger all variety of means provided and continued they beat one evil entreat another slay a third and when the Son himself is sent that Reason would have concluded that which the Master of the Vineyard conceived they will reverence my Son they were most outragious against him because happily he was more instant and importunate to press them to Sanctification the rendring of the fruit your fruit in Holiness and the end eternal Life Rom. 6. 22. they express greater opposition against him because he most of all opposed their sins Come say they this is the Heir let us kill him and the Inheritance will be ours Nor was this the guise of some graceless forlorn persons but the disposition of all men it 's part of that Curse we inherit from the Loyns 〈◊〉 our first Parents Gen. 6. 5. The frame of the imagination of our hearts are evil and
that as Preparatory which includes indeed the beginnings of true Faith And a man may be held too long under John Baptists water To rectify those that have slipt into Profession and Leapt over all both true and deep Humiliation for sin and sence of their natural Condition yea and many over Christ himself too professing to go to God without him However this we may say without diminution to any other or detraction from the Author himself in respect of his 〈◊〉 raysed knowledg of Christ and 〈◊〉 free Grace That if any of our late Preachers and Divines came in the 〈◊〉 and power of John Baptist this man did This deeply humbled man and as 〈◊〉 raised both in Faith and 〈◊〉 with Christ the Author of 〈◊〉 Treatises He had been trained up 〈◊〉 his Youth in the Experience and 〈◊〉 of Gods Dispensations and 〈◊〉 this way and vers'd in digging 〈◊〉 the Mines and Veins of Holy 〈◊〉 to find how they agreed with his 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 His Soul had 〈◊〉 the intricate Meanders and the 〈◊〉 through temptations 〈◊〉 of this narrow passage and 〈◊〉 into Life and few there be that 〈◊〉 it And by deep reflections upon 〈◊〉 step of Gods Procedure with 〈◊〉 hath descried those false and 〈◊〉 by-waies which at every step 〈◊〉 man who errs in his heart not 〈◊〉 the knowledg of Gods waies is apt to 〈◊〉 astray when they have but inferior 〈◊〉 of the Spirit on them from 〈◊〉 way of Life which only those do 〈◊〉 that are un-erringly guided by the 〈◊〉 Spirit peculiar to the Elect into 〈◊〉 waies of Peace And whereas there hath been published long since many Parts and Pieces of this Author upon this Argument Sermon-wise preach'd by him here in England which in the preaching of them did enlighten all those Parts Yet having been taken by an unskilful hand which upon his recess into those remoter parts of the World was bold without his privity or consent to print and publish them one of the greatest injuries which can be done to any man it-came to pass his genuine meaning and this in points of so high a Nature and in some things differing from the Common Opinion was diverted in those printed Sermons from the fair and cleer draught of his own Notions and Intentions because so utterly deformed and mis-represented in multitudes of passages And in the rest but imperfectly and crudely set forth Here in these Treatises thou hast his Heart from his own Hand his own Thoughts drawn by his own Pensil This is all truly and purely his own not as preached only but as written by himself in order to the Press which may be a great satisfaction to all that honored 〈◊〉 loved him as who that was good and knew him did not especially 〈◊〉 that received benefit by those 〈◊〉 imperfect Editions And we cannot but look at it as a blessed Providence of God that the publishing of the same by others in that manner that hath been mentioned should have provoked him and that by the excitation of the Church whereof he was the Pastor in New-England to go over again the same Materials in the Course of his Ministry amongst them in order to the perfecting of it by his own hand for publick Light thereby to vindicate both himself and it from that wrong which otherwise had remained for ever irrecompensible And hereby it came to pass that so far as he hath proceeded this Subject came to have a third Concoction in the Heart and Head of him that was one of the most experienced Christians and of acutest Abilities that have been living in our Age. He Preach'd more briefly of this Subject first whilst he was 〈◊〉 and Chatechist in Emanuel Colledg in Cambridg The Notes of which were then so esteemed that many Copies thereof were by many that heard not the Sermons written out and are yet extant by them And then again a Second time many yeers after more largely 〈◊〉 Great Chelmsford in Essex the 〈◊〉 of which was those Books of 〈◊〉 that have gone under his Name And Last of all now in New-England and 〈◊〉 in and to a setled Church of Saints to which the Promise is made of being The Seat and Pillar of Truth and 〈◊〉 which all Ordinances set as the Load stone in the Steel have the greater power and energie In which the Presence of Christ breaks forth and all 〈◊〉 Springs are found therein And truly we need not wonder 〈◊〉 God set his heart and thoughts a work 〈◊〉 much and so repeatedly about this Subject VVe see that the Holy Ghost himself the Author of this Work of Conversion doth somtimes and that in an 〈◊〉 manner go over the whol of that Work again and again in the hearts of Christians whom God means to make great in his Church as in Peter when 〈◊〉 art converted c. who was yet 〈◊〉 already And to the Disciples Except ye be converted c. And the 〈◊〉 of the Holy Ghost upon them at and 〈◊〉 Pentecost was as a New Conversion 〈◊〉 them making them to differ 〈◊〉 much from themselvès in what they were afore as wel-nigh they themselves 〈◊〉 afore truly wrought on did 〈◊〉 differ from other men The 〈◊〉 of God himself goes over this work 〈◊〉 in al the parts of it As to 〈◊〉 anew to draw to Christ to change and 〈◊〉 the heart to higher strains of 〈◊〉 And when so then his Second 〈◊〉 excels the First that it comes not into mind and his Third the Second 〈◊〉 it ceaseth as it were to be remembred as the Prophet in other works of wonder speaks for thereby he every 〈◊〉 Spirituallizeth the heart stil more 〈◊〉 it from Hypocrisie and makes it 〈◊〉 refined causeth the heart to come forth from each new Cast and moulding with a deeper and fairer Impression 〈◊〉 his Image and Glory If then the Holy Ghost the Writer of his Law in the Heart set that high value upon that Work 〈◊〉 his that he vouchsafeth to take 〈◊〉 pains to write it over and over again in the same Tablet Let it be no Diminution to this great Author but let us bless God rather for the Providence that the same Divine Hand and Spirit should set him this Task to take the Doctrine of 〈◊〉 VVork into a second yea a third Review and thereby make it as it were the 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 the VVork of his Life Only thus it is That the other Great Points as Union with Christ Justification Adoption Sanctification and Glory which Subjects as he was able for so his heart was most in them he hath left unfinished And so thereby as is most likely multitndes of precious yea glorious thoughts which he might have reserved as often fals out to Preachers and Writers for those higher Subjects as the Close and Centre and Crown of what forewent as preparative thereto are now perished and laid in the dust with him None but Christ was ever yet able to finish all that Work which was in
Heaven for revenge but when our Savior laid his hand upon the sore and let the light shine in her face and points at the vileness of her practice Thou hast had five Husbands but he whom thou now hast is not thy Husband she then becomes sensible of his soveraign wisdom and her own wretchedness John 4. 18 19 20. So it was with Paul when the Lord met him going to Damascus persecuting the Saints he saw not the sinfulness of his course and therefore was senceless of it Saul Saul saies Christ why persecutest thou me Then he answers Who art thou Lord Jesus said I am Jesus whom thou persecutest it is hard for thee to kick against the pricks when he understood the evil of his way then he stood trembling and astonished saying Lord what wilt thou have me to do Acts 9. 5 6. Before the Corinthians were made conscious of their own carelesness neither pitying the soul of the incestuous Corinthian nor yet seeking to reform his sin they gloried over him and prided themselves in their own conceited excellency but when the Apostle had discovered their miscarriage and failings what sorrow and care did it work in them and what serious endeavor to reform the guilty party The Doctrine is true we shall endeavor to make it plain and therefore we shall open several particulars the right conceiving whereof will be as a key to unlock the Treasury of this Truth that each man may take what will serve his turn Enquire therefore we will By what means and after what manner God works this sight of Sin How far the sinner may be said to be active in it Wherein this true sight and apprehension properly consists and so discovers it self The Reason of this Truth and the Lords Order in this proceeding And then we shall make Application of it By what means or after what manner the Lord works this sight of Sin To which I shall Answer in four Conclusions Or the Answer unto which Inquiry will be expressed in four Particulars The Righteous Law of God as it is the Rule of our Lives so it is the Discoverer of our Sins and swervings therefrom and by the light thereof together with that little light of common Principles of Piety and Love left upon our Consciences we come to have our corruption made known to us Rom. 3. 20. By the Law is the knowledg of sin insomuch that Paul a learned Pharisee one that profited in the Jews Religion more than his equals he was yet at a loss in discerning and judging of the turnings and distempers of his heart before he takes the light and lamp of the Law So himself professeth Rom. 7. 7. I had not known that lust had been a sin those first stirrings of the Body of death and secret lingrings and inclinations to that which is cross to the wil of God though there be no consent given to them no delight taken in them but that the Law said thou shalt not lust the Sentence of the Law set down his Judgment and therefore the Apostle James compares it to a perfect and curious Looking-glass wherein each man may see the least blemishes or motes if he will present himself before it James 1. 25. But whoso looketh into the perfect Law of Liberty and continueth therein will lay his mind and heart and life level to the Law of God and hold his heart and apprehensions to the righteous Judgment and Sentence thereof it will plainly discover the smallest imperfections the least stirrings of the most hidden distempers that arise so Rom. 2. 14. the Heathens with the twi-light or Star-light of the remainders of the Law written in their heart past Sentence against themselves touching the sinfulness of their course But this is not all nor yet enough to make us to attain a right sight of our Sins unless the Lord put a new Light into our minds within as we have the Light of the Law and Counsel of God shining without unto us otherwise the Law may be and wil be a clasped Book and a dead Letter we shall see little in it or receive little from it So Paul Rom. 7. 9. I was alive without the Law once but when the Commandement came sin revived Without the Law how could that be since he was an Hebrew of the Hebrews of the Tribe of Benjamin trained up at the feet of Gamaliel a Doctor of the Law prosessed it and practised it according to the most exact Sect of the Pharisees as he speaks But the meaning is that he was without the power of it and the spiritual life and lively efficacy of the Law It was a dead and a killing Letter Look what the sence of the words or some evidence of Reason or Arguments could hold out to a Natural Understanding the bark and shell and outside of such directions he took and entertained But the Spiritualness of the Law For the Law is Spiritual saies Paul and that spiritual and lively power of Conviction and Direction it puts forth upon the souls of the Saints who are subject to it and therefore indeed receive the work of it This Paul once in the time of his unregeneracy was destitute of and then he was alive that is in his own overweening and self-deluded conceit he concluded himself to be a living Christian to have the power and truth of Grace and to live the life of it So that it 's possible nay it 's ordinary and nothing more usual than for men to be without the Law when they have the Law to be without the Life of it while they have the Letter of it to be without the Law as a Soveraign Rule to their Lives while they take upon them the profession of it to be without the Spiritualness of the Law and so to miss the end of it that is closing with God as our last end and chief good which is the sap the pith and substance of the Law though they have the appearance of the practice of it And if they miss the end of the Law at which it aims and unto which it tends they must needs fall short of the Wisdom and Counsel and Spiritual efficacy of the Law which should direct them So in 2 Chron. 19. 3. Now for a long time Israel had been without the true God that is his true Worship that would bring them to him and that is the meaning of that Phrase Ephes. 2. 12. Without God in the World that is without the true Worship of God so that they who want the true Worship of God are without God So they who have the manner of the true Worship and want both Spirit and Truth in which God will be worshiped they have the Appearance but want the Spirit and Truth of the true manner they have So of the rest Thus it is with thousands in the Church which hear and know and have the Letter of the Law and yet are indeed without the Power and Spirit and therefore
ful 〈◊〉 of his Dispensation ran in that other Channel Of whose Ministry 〈◊〉 is also said Luk. 1. 16. 17. That 〈◊〉 of the Children of Israel should he turn to 〈◊〉 Lord their God And shal go before him namely Christ in the spirit and power of 〈◊〉 to turn the hearts of the Fathers to their Children and the Disobedient to the 〈◊〉 of the just to make ready a people 〈◊〉 for the Lord. The meaning whereof is he came to restore the Doctrine of 〈◊〉 Conversion and in that point 〈◊〉 bring and reduce the Children of the 〈◊〉 back again unto the same 〈◊〉 and wayes necessary to Salvation 〈◊〉 which the Fathers and all the 〈◊〉 Saints of the old Testament 〈◊〉 been brought in unto God And 〈◊〉 by that means to become of the same Religion saving Conversion being the 〈◊〉 practick Foundation and Centre 〈◊〉 all Religion that the Godly Jews 〈◊〉 old were of So what know we but 〈◊〉 God in some lesser proportionate 〈◊〉 both in respect of persons and times may have had this in the eye of all wisely designing Providence to set out this great Authors works and writings amongst the labors of others also upon this very Argument to bring back and correct the Errors of the spirits of Professors of these times and perhaps by urging too far and insisting too much upon that as Preparatory which includes indeed the beginnings of true Faith And a man may be held too long under John Baptists water To rectify those that have slipt into Profession and Leapt over all both true and deep Humiliation for sin and sence of their natural Condition yea and many over Christ himself too professing to go to God without him However this we may say without diminution to any other or detraction from the Author himself in respect of his more raysed knowledg of Christ and Gods free Grace That if any of our late Preachers and Divines came in the Spirit and power of John Baptist this man did This deeply humbled man and as 〈◊〉 raised both in Faith and 〈◊〉 with Christ the Author of 〈◊〉 Treatises He had been trained up 〈◊〉 his Youth in the Experience and 〈◊〉 of Gods Dispensations and 〈◊〉 this way and vers'd in digging 〈◊〉 the Mines and Veins of Holy 〈◊〉 to find how they agreed with his 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 His Soul had 〈◊〉 the intricate Meanders and the 〈◊〉 through temptations 〈◊〉 of this narrow passage and 〈◊〉 into Life and few there be that 〈◊〉 it And by deep reflections upon 〈◊〉 step of Gods Procedure with 〈◊〉 hath descried those false and 〈◊〉 by-waies which at every step 〈◊〉 man who errs in his heart not 〈◊〉 the knowledg of Gods waies is apt to 〈◊〉 astray when they have but inferior 〈◊〉 of the Spirit on them from 〈◊〉 way of Life which only those do 〈◊〉 that are un-erringly guided by the 〈◊〉 Spirit peculiar to the Elect into 〈◊〉 waies of Peace And whereas there hath been published long since many Parts and Pieces of this Author upon this Argument Sermon-wise preach'd by him here in England which in the preaching of them did enlighten all those Parts Yet having been taken by an unskilful hand which upon his recess into those remoter parts of the World was bold without his privity or consent to print and publish them one of the greatest injuries which can be done to any man it-came to pass his genuine meaning and this in points of so high a Nature and in some things differing from the Common Opinion was diverted in those printed Sermons from the fair and cleer draught of his own Notions and Intentions because so utterly deformed and mis-represented in multitudes of passages And in the rest but imperfectly and crudely set forth Here in these Treatises thou hast his Heart from his own Hand his own Thoughts drawn by his own Pensil This is all truly and purely his own not as preached only but as written by himself in order to the Press which may be a great satisfaction to all that honored 〈◊〉 loved him as who that was good and knew him did not especially 〈◊〉 that received benefit by those 〈◊〉 imperfect Editions And we cannot but look at it as a blessed Providence of God that the publishing of the same by others in that manner that hath been mentioned should have provoked him and that by the excitation of the Church whereof he was the Pastor in New-England to go over again the same Materials in the Course of his Ministry amongst them in order to the perfecting of it by his own hand for publick Light thereby to vindicate both himself and it from that wrong which otherwise had remained for ever irrecompensible And hereby it came to pass that so far as he hath proceeded this Subject came to have a third Concoction in the Heart and Head of him that was one of the most experienced Christians and of acutest Abilities that have been living in our Age. He Preach'd more briefly of this Subject first whilst he was 〈◊〉 and Chatechist in Emanuel Colledg in Cambridg The Notes of which were then so esteemed that many Copies thereof were by many that heard not the Sermons written out and are yet extant by them And then again a Second time many yeers after more largely 〈◊〉 Great Chelmsford in Essex the 〈◊〉 of which was those Books of 〈◊〉 that have gone under his Name And Last of all now in New-England and 〈◊〉 in and to a setled Church of Saints to which the Promise is made of being The Seat and Pillar of Truth and 〈◊〉 which all Ordinances set as the Load stone in the Steel have the greater power and energie In which the Presence of Christ breaks forth and all 〈◊〉 Springs are found therein And truly we need not wonder 〈◊〉 God set his heart and thoughts a work 〈◊〉 much and so repeatedly about this Subject VVe see that the Holy Ghost himself the Author of this Work of Conversion doth somtimes and that in an 〈◊〉 manner go over the whol of that Work again and again in the hearts of Christians whom God means to make great in his Church as in Peter when 〈◊〉 art converted c. who was yet 〈◊〉 already And to the Disciples Except ye be converted c. And the 〈◊〉 of the Holy Ghost upon them at and 〈◊〉 Pentecost was as a New Conversion 〈◊〉 them making them to differ 〈◊〉 much from themselvès in what they were afore as wel-nigh they themselves 〈◊〉 afore truly wrought on did 〈◊〉 differ from other men The 〈◊〉 of God himself goes over this work 〈◊〉 in al the parts of it As to 〈◊〉 anew to draw to Christ to change and 〈◊〉 the heart to higher strains of 〈◊〉 And when so then his Second 〈◊〉 excels the First that it comes not into mind and his Third the Second 〈◊〉 it ceaseth as it were to be remembred as the Prophet in other works of wonder speaks for thereby he every 〈◊〉 Spirituallizeth the
the same time be 〈◊〉 or that which opposeth and distroies this good 〈◊〉 yet share 〈◊〉 First then the Lord Christ makes the Soul Capable As in all Corporations who have their Priviledges and Immunities by Charter 〈◊〉 to certaine persons under such terms and conditions as that he must be bound prentise and serve 〈◊〉 long he that comes not under such conditions he is not capable of such priviledges so here John 3. 27. No man can receiv any thing except it be given him from 〈◊〉 that is not only the thing but the receiving of it must be given unto him Math. 13. 11. To you it is given to know the Misteries of the kingdome but to others it was not so for in hearing they should bear and not Perceive seeing they should See and not understand their eyes were blinded and their hearts were hardened and so they were uncapable of any good Coloss. 1. 12. Giving thanks unto the Father who hath made 〈◊〉 meet to be partakers of the 〈◊〉 of the Saints as who should say they were not fit nor meet before they were made so As he makes them capable of this 10 he giues them a right and title therunto which they may for 〈◊〉 hould and for ever maintaine their Possession by 1. John 5. 12. he that hath the Son hath life first we must have aright unto Christ and then to all that is in him In him are hid all the treasuries of wisdome and holiness if once a man have a right in the 〈◊〉 all the mettal Gould and Silver is his that is there 〈◊〉 may digg bouldly and take freely it is his own buy once the Ground then all the springs that runne 〈◊〉 all the trees that growe there and all provision 〈◊〉 arise thence are his Christ is the mine of mercy and 〈◊〉 Oar of Grace and Salvation the well-spring of 〈◊〉 and happiness all the promises are 〈◊〉 and Amen in him in him accomplished by him performed this is Gods manner first he gives his Son and with him all things that 's his order in giving and it should be ours in receiving It 's Satans policy to make the Saints be at a loss when they look for pardon and grace and peace and comfort within themselves and then to Christ and so 〈◊〉 his labor and Lookes in vaine but wee should Looke up to Christ the author and finisher of our Faith Heb. 12. 〈◊〉 God hath blessed us with al Spiritual blessings but it is in Christ Eph. 1. 3. In him these blessings are contained by him dispensed and from him received And therfore the Apostle issues all here This is the witness of the Father touching his Son he hath given us eternall life and this life is in his Son 1. John 5. 11. this is the Tenure of the Saints which they hould in Capite The Soul then stands Seized of and actually estated in al these spiritual good things of Jesus Christ he is really admitted into all these priviledges that he may enjoy them and unto 〈◊〉 benefit of them as his due he hath not onely jus ad rem but jus in re Rom. 8. 32. If he hath given us his Son how shall he not but with him give us all things else he is the heire who hath all have him and have all when the indentures are Sealed then there is Deliverie of the Land and the Emolument therof comes to him from that Day forward So here the rents and Revenues of the Gospel come in to us when once we have Christ 1 Cor. 1. 30. He is made of God unto us Wisdom Righteousness Sanctification and Redemption if once he be made ours all in him will be made ours also 1 John 16. Of his Fulness we all receive Grace for Grace The soul hath now liberty to 〈◊〉 and improve Christ and al he is and hath and doth for our Spiritual Advancement and so to live upon our own our Revenues and comings in from Jesus Christ Gal. 2. 19. That I now live it is by the faith of Jesus Phil 4. 13. I can do all things through Christ that strengthens me he hath provisions about him to live comfortably and contentedly in all conditions I can be rich and I can be poor I can abound and I can be abased Mens Patrimonies and Possessions may help them to be rich but to learn them how to be poor they will not nay rather indispose them and God would have us not only live Christianly but comfortably Heb. 6. 17 18. He hath sworn that he will bless us in his Christ that by two immutable things we might have strong consolation nay To grow up in him in all things Eph. 4. 15 16. that we may grow rich in peace and comfort and assurance in grace and holiness and all the good things of Jesus Christ. And this is the Order of Application He first makes us capable of then gives us a right unto then estates us in and lastly gives us the use and improvement of all Spiritual Good in Christ. Thus it 's made Ours This should make us see and affect our hearts with a holy admiration at the riches of Gods mercy and freeness of the Covenant of Grace in Christ who prevents his with Blessings of goodness and that in the midst of their undeservings when out of the stubbornness and crossness of our hearts we oppose his Truth and Holiness he doth us good when we neither will nor desire our own good He not only provides a gift but a hand to take 〈◊〉 he requires the condition which is exceeding reasonable and works 〈◊〉 the condition he requires tenders us mercy which we could not have conceived and that 's not all but gives a heart to entertain it that 〈◊〉 Christian might be and breath in mercy When Adam though adorned with all 〈◊〉 that was compatible 〈◊〉 a creature in his condition having the stock left in 〈◊〉 hand he undid himself 〈◊〉 his Posterity being left to the mutability of his 〈◊〉 will though holy and righteous how suddenly 〈◊〉 irrecoverably becomes he miserable But this is 〈◊〉 incomparable excellency of the Covenant of Grace the Lord not only makes provision for lost man 〈◊〉 though it was no smal favor yet it would never 〈◊〉 done him good therefore he made it his also 〈◊〉 dam should have had all conveyed to him by a 〈◊〉 of Justice by his own improvement and obedience and hence he lost what he had and hoped for It 〈◊〉 just God should require service from Adam it 〈◊〉 just he should give him grace to do it for else 〈◊〉 should have required 〈◊〉 from his Creature which had been contrary to the wisdom and holiness 〈◊〉 the Creator It was also just that when 〈◊〉 had done what was commanded and covenanted 〈◊〉 him for 〈◊〉 was just 〈◊〉 say that then he should accept of work and reward it for to him that worketh wages is due of debt Rom. 4. 4. but it's 〈◊〉 in 〈◊〉 of the
set the greatest Price and account upon those things which were of greatest worth the Truth of God his Will and Wayes warily to observe the seasons 〈◊〉 these are Dispensed and Revealed And so with readiness to attend thereupon and to entertain those opportunities and means of Grace and Good whence follows a mutual agreement between the 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 and these their converted Posterity They long before expected a Savior 〈◊〉 now fitted 〈◊〉 Receive the Lord Christ their Saviour now 〈◊〉 In the Words there be Three divine Truths which 〈◊〉 will take notice of in which the Pith of the foregoing Description is expressed 1 All men by Nature are unfit to Receive Christ. 2 There must be a Preparation therefore made for that end 3 The Ministery of Elias is the means to do this The First of these though proper enough for this 〈◊〉 yet we shall reserve the 〈◊〉 thereof 〈◊〉 we come to discover the manner of Gods 〈◊〉 in drawing of a sinner to himself where the 〈◊〉 fastening to his Corruption and the Lords 〈◊〉 him from it being handled together will 〈◊〉 way the one for the other and give light the 〈◊〉 to the other we shall therefore defer the further 〈◊〉 of that till we come to that place Proceed we now to open the Second Point That is The Soul must be sitted for Christ before it can receive Him or Salvation by Him This is the Scope of the Place the Way and Order of the Lords approach where there is no Preparation made there is no Expectation of a Savior to come Thus it was Prophesied Mal. 3. 1. 〈◊〉 I will send my Messenger and he shall Prepare the way before me and the Lord whom yee seek will suddenly come into his Temple Thus was it accomplished by the Baptist to whom the Word of the Lord came and he came 〈◊〉 in the 〈◊〉 about Jordan saying The voyce of one crying in the Wilderness Prepare yee the way of the Lord and make his paths streight Luke 3. 4. A similitude taken from Earthly 〈◊〉 our Savior he is the King and he was now to come in his own Person and in the Ministery of the 〈◊〉 and thereby into the Souls of his People And 〈◊〉 the Baptist makes Proclamation Not for their 〈◊〉 so much as for their Hearts that the 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 thereof might be dislodged And the 〈◊〉 fit to entertain the Lord Jesus And that this was a Spiritual Preparation the nature of Christs Kingdom 〈◊〉 being 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 world Joh. 18. 36. And the 〈◊〉 of his Proceeding being professedly 〈◊〉 to the pompe of Earthly Potentates will evidence 〈◊〉 For 〈◊〉 shall hear his voyce in 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Matth. 12. 19. But the Baptists Sermon who 〈◊〉 knew the 〈◊〉 of his own 〈◊〉 puts it out of doubt For so he ads 〈◊〉 3. 1 2. Repent 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 kingdom of Heaven is at hand As the 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 sayes Prepare yee the way of the Lord 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 he had said Repenting is Preparing And 〈◊〉 3. 5. Every ' Mountain shall be made low and 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 thing streight The sense of which words that it could not be literal but Spiritual the accomplishment of them in Experience is proof most pregnantly undeniable The Sum is The Heart is the high way while the Gospel is Preaching Christ is coming the Heart must by Repentance be fitted for Christ offering himself in that and then Christ will come by that means thereunto In this Preparation for the Explication of it we are to attend Three Things 1 Wherein it Consists 2 The manner of the Work 3 The Reasons of it For the First of these What this Preparation is or wherein it 〈◊〉 Generally It is a renouncing of whatsoever might cross the coming and entertaining of our Savior Christ into the Heart And it is the fitting of the Soul 〈◊〉 Faith and for being in Christ by Faith Particularly it shewes it self in Four Things The First is the Renouncing the Authority of those bosom Corruptions which have Lorded it over the Soul and kept out the Power of the Gospel from prevailing and taking place in the Heart That accursed Union and Combination that hath been long between the Heart and its secret Lusts which for their naturalness are said to be The old man Eph. 4. 22. And for their néarness our earthly members Col. 3. 5. born and bred with us which make and 〈◊〉 the Corrupt disposition of our Hearts This Combination must be broken this League 〈◊〉 else there is no place for the Presence of a 〈◊〉 True These noysom Distempers will be as Tyrants still Usurpiug Authority over the Soul but they are not acknowledged as Lawful 〈◊〉 by the Soul rightly prepared for the Lord But the sinner rightly fitted shakes off the yoak and 〈◊〉 from under the 〈◊〉 of these Distempers 〈◊〉 though he be not able to wage War and to mortifie them by any power received 〈◊〉 he withdraws his 〈◊〉 from his Lust and stands ready to entertain a deliver This 〈◊〉 Work the 〈◊〉 here 〈◊〉 by the Evangelist implyes 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 non 〈◊〉 perfect onem sonat 〈◊〉 concinnitatem 〈◊〉 ad 〈◊〉 aptantur saith Calvin in Locum And the Original in the Prophet Isa ah 40. 3. imports no more both shewing the same thing even an utter Emptiness that ought to be in the heart Thus also is this Work 〈◊〉 and set out in the 〈◊〉 thereof Every mountain shall 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 low It is not paving but levelling not a bringing in of some 〈◊〉 ability so much which this Preparative stroak 〈◊〉 stamp looks at take it strictly in hoc signo 〈◊〉 as they say but a removing of all that out 〈◊〉 the way which might stop or stay our Saviors coming for 〈◊〉 he Professeth Matth. 10. 37. He 〈◊〉 loveth Father or Mother more than me is not 〈◊〉 of me Not 〈◊〉 that is Not fit to 〈◊〉 him or Mercy by him As we use to say A fusty Vessel is not worthy of precious Liquor A dusty Cabinet not worthy to have a Diamond put into it That is They are not fit to Receive these 〈◊〉 the Things will be spoyled not 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 them The Soul is brought to Renounce 〈◊〉 might serve to share in the Work and Glory of Free Grace and so cast some blemish 〈◊〉 or at 〈◊〉 diminish the due worth thereof which the 〈◊〉 Christ who doth all to the praise of the Glory 〈◊〉 his Grace will not suffer and therefore he will have this Coast cleared also before his coming And the Soul must be emptied not only of those things which out of the intr 〈◊〉 Evil of their nature do cross the Nature of Grace as Sins and Corruptions but also of all that confidence in any spiritual sufficiency 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 by which while we would seem to share with him in the Work of our Conversion and ease 〈◊〉 of some part of the Labor we do indeed take some part of the Honor from him concerning which 〈◊〉 hath said That he will
Cor. 11. 28. than he that had 〈◊〉 havock of them Acts 9. Who more fit to be 〈◊〉 Messenger of Peace and to breath out glad tidings 〈◊〉 Salvation to fainting souls than he who had 〈◊〉 out threatnings against them Acts 9. 1. Who more 〈◊〉 to pity the Saints than he who cut of his madness had persecuted them and that to the death before Acts 26. 11. But in the crazy and decayed estate of fainting Age when the whol frame begins to shake and go 〈◊〉 ruine how unable are we to perform the meanest service how 〈◊〉 to be imployed in works of greatest weight The members of a man converted are called Weapons of Holiness and Servants of Righteousness Rom. 6. 19. but doting heads palsie hands feeble knees faultring tongues are but broken weapons and lame Servants utterly unworthy to be used in the fighting of Gods Battels or performance of his Service how shall those hands which hang down for faintness be able to work the works of God how shall the feet that cannot stir walk in his waies or that tongue tell of his praise that cleaves unto the 〈◊〉 of the mouth and cannot talk two ready words To gripe the Sum of the Point in short If Nature be now most pliable to be prepared to receive Grace corruption not now so 〈◊〉 to 〈◊〉 it our abilities most able to improve it then is it a reasonable Truth that the God of Wisdom though he call some at any Age yet he should Convert most at this Age. Learn we hence to take out a Lesson of Sobriety not to be too rash and Censorious touching the final estate of any in this life since it is never too 〈◊〉 for the Lord to call though at the Eleventh hour It 's the Apostles Counsel Judg nothing before the time that is Judg nothing that is secret and uncertain determine not of any mans final condition because the time is not yet come this life is a time of mercy to some sooner to some later After death comes Judgment when God shall lay open the secrets and 〈◊〉 counsels of the heart then judg and spare not but 〈◊〉 then refer al unto the Lord and therfore if the question be touching the final estate of others we should answer with modesty as the Prophet did to the Lord in another case Ezek. 37. 2 3. When 〈◊〉 Lord had shewed him a field full of dead bones 〈◊〉 dry he asked him Son of man shall these dead bone live the Prophet answers Lord thou knowest it rests in thine own wil to work this so great a work and in thine own Counsel to determine it So 〈◊〉 the demand be Shall this gray headed sinner 〈◊〉 come to Grace he that hath been an old Standard-bearer in the Camp of the Devil shal he ever 〈◊〉 a faithful Soldier to the Lord Christ can this seared Conscience ever be made sensible of its sin 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 The answer of the Prophet will 〈◊〉 us Lord thou only knowest It 's not for us to judg Secret things belong unto the Lord. For 〈◊〉 to pry into the Ark of his privy and concealed Counsels we cannot do it without desperate pride and apparent danger Thus far indeed we may go without any breach of Charity and the Word will 〈◊〉 us sufficient warrant to wit Observing the lives 〈◊〉 men Of some of some I say we may conclude and that certainly that as yet they are in the state of Nature in a miserable and damnable condition Object If it be replyed Doth any man know that heart Who knows what is in man but the spirit of man 1 Cor. 2. 11. Answ. Can the spirit of a man pry into every corner of his Conscience and know his own condition After he hath told what he knows I may know it as well as himself and somtimes better Thus the Practice of a man discovers his Spirit A rotten Conversation when the constant tenure and frame of a mans course is corrupt and 〈◊〉 it 〈◊〉 to all the world who have wisdom to 〈◊〉 there is a refuse and an 〈◊〉 disposition within The fool saies the wise man Eccles. 10. 3. 〈◊〉 to every one as he 〈◊〉 by the way that he is a fool After the 〈◊〉 hath felt the Pulse and heard 〈◊〉 complaint of the Patient what 's the pain and 〈◊〉 the part affected how the fits and returns of 〈◊〉 distemper takes him he knows the disease far 〈◊〉 than the man that feels it it may be it's 〈◊〉 stone in the Reins the inflamation of the Liver Consumption of the Lungs the parts are within and 〈◊〉 cause of the Disease also but it discovers it self 〈◊〉 that undoubtedly many times by Symptomes 〈◊〉 thus it is with the sickness of the Body it is so 〈◊〉 the distempers of the soul the Practice of a 〈◊〉 is as the Pulse if that be commonly uneven 〈◊〉 and irreligious it argues it 's not the fit of a 〈◊〉 but even the very frame and constitution 〈◊〉 a corrupt and irreligious heart When a mans 〈◊〉 carriage and communication leaves a noysom 〈◊〉 and scent and 〈◊〉 of prophaness behind 〈◊〉 it evidently proclaims to any who have but 〈◊〉 Wisdom and Grace that these dead works 〈◊〉 from a rotten carkass of a Body of death 〈◊〉 it's our Saviors direction and conclusion he 〈◊〉 as never failing Matth. 7. 16. 20. By their 〈◊〉 you shall know them An evil tree cannot 〈◊〉 forth good fruits and a good tree cannot 〈◊〉 forth evil fruits and therefore he doubles the 〈◊〉 as that which is undeniable by their 〈◊〉 you shall know them The holy Apostle is 〈◊〉 peremptory 1 John 3. 10. In this are the children of God known and the children of the Devil 〈◊〉 doth not righteousness is not of God and 〈◊〉 that loveth not his Brother Where there be Three Particulars suit the Point in hand 1 There are but two sorts of men in the World 〈◊〉 Children of God and the children of the Devil 2 These may be known 3 He that is a hater of the Saints and a worker of iniquity hath the Brand-mark of a child of the Devil by which he may be discerned It is not then a breach of Charity to judg the tree by the fruits the 〈◊〉 by the Symptomes yea it was folly and little less than madness to do other As the Word 〈◊〉 I may judg and so should But to 〈◊〉 the Lord out of the Throne of Judgment to sit upon the life and death of mens souls to set down mens peremptory doom further than the Word warrants as though we had been admitted into Gods secrets and seen the Books of Reprobation and Election drawn this is hellish impiety and presumption we may boldly say the tree is not a Vine that brings forth Thorns nor that a Fig-tree that beareth Thistles he who hath a naughty life cannot have a good heart He who serves ' Mammon cannot serve God Mat. 6. 24. He who walks after the lusts of the flesh
remorse for thy sinful condition truly know The strong man keeps house there unto this day Nay Let me tell you this That all may hear and fear and be awakened if Christ never awaken thee he will never give thee light and if ever he give thee light he will awaken thee first Nay the truth is So long as thou livest so senseless and careless know it Christ never came into the world to do thee any good Luke 19. 10. The Son of man came to seek and to save that which is lost They that are sensible of their lost and undone condition by reason of their sins against the Lord they see Hell gaping God plaguing and Conscience accusing being every day ready to drop into Hell Christ came to save such But thou that never yet in any measure wast troubled about thy condition and humbled for thy sins Christ will never seek thee nor save thee nay he was not sent to seek or save that miserable soul of thine God will make thee sensible of thy evils before ever thou canst have any hope that he intends good to thee I will not now Dispute how far God may awaken a man and yet not communicate saving grace that belongs to another place That I Urge now is this That its certain He that never yet was awakened or brought out of his carnal Security never was nor can be made partaker of Jesus Christ. Exhortation To all you secure dead hearted sinners that have been carried on in a Calm all your days Oh! know it and consider of it a man becalmed is drowned 〈◊〉 stir up thy self and think of the time of awakening it will come and as Marriners becalmed seek for winds so should you for the Gales and Breathings of the Spirit of Christ. Many of you have been 〈◊〉 up in good Families and many of you are civil honest quiet people all things remain with you as they were from the first until now you know not what Sin means nor what Faith and Repentance means in the power and practice of them you have a quiet life but a miserable life It s easie for a Marriner to be in a Calm at Sea he hath quiet there but he dies there Women in Child-birth longs for Throws if their Throws leaves them their life leaves them and all but if they have many and strong Throws then they hope well so go your wayes and call 〈◊〉 the Throws of Conversation For a Child to be born into the world and the Mother asleep it s against Nature and Reason and Sense and Experience and all so before ever you be born again before ever Christ be formed in you it will cost you many Prayers and Tears and much Sorrow but if 〈◊〉 Throws come thick then there is hope Oh! therefore call for the sight of sin and sorrow for sin for conviction and humiliation as you love your Lives and Souls call for these You know what they said to 〈◊〉 Chap. 1. 6. when the Sea was fierce and the Winds high and the Storm great every man fell to his Prayers and they came to Jonab 〈◊〉 thou sluggard arise and call upon thy God So if God raise a storm in your Consciences be sure you call upon Jonab those sluggish hearts of yours Awake and call upon your God I would advise those men that could never yet say they have any grace in their hearts they cannot say they have any thing more than they brought with them into the world they come to sit and hear but for Humiliation Conversion for the saving work of God upon their souls they know no such thing Let me advise you thus much Be suspicious of your estates certainly all is not well all is not right unless I be born again and repent and be another man and have another heart and life I cannot enter into Heaven thus suspect your self And when you have done so do not leave it there but betake your self to some faithful Minister or Christian and debate your condition with them and be sure you quiet not your self till you come to see what you are it may be they may help you and shew you the state of things with you If it shall appear upon good ground by sound Reasons from the Word that your estate is naught then go away convictedly 〈◊〉 it is so Attend not those carnal Reasons that may take off the edg of that conviction and hinder the working of it but sit down without any cavil against it but say the truth is I never saw my estate before but now I do I hope I shall never deny it Excuses and carnal Reasons have taken me aside but now I 'le hear nothing against it the truth is I am a miserable sinful damned Creature Arise with this in the morning 〈◊〉 lie down with this at night and walk with these thoughts all the day long I am a Christless graceless man and if the Devil say hereafter time enough hereafter loon enough Ay but say I may die suddenly and 〈◊〉 I am damn'd eternally and if your own heart say Am not I as good as such an one and shall not I hope to do as well as such an one Away with that too I am a miserable damned man give your self for gone and hold it here 〈◊〉 hear nothing the Devil saies that my heart saies that the world or my friends say I am in a miserable damned condition think so and sleep so and 〈◊〉 so if you can And when it 's come to this you may happily be prepared for the glad Tidings of the Gospel of Jesus Christ. BOOK VII ROM 8. 7. The Wisdom of the flesh is Enmity against God it is not subject to the Law neither indeed can be WE heard there were three Particulars wherin the Dispensation and Gods Manner of working upon the soul when he will prepare it for himself was discovered 1 The Soul Naturally is setled in the security of a sinful estate And of that before 2 That being thus lodged in his lust and brought 〈◊〉 bed in his sinful distempers it 's wholly unwilling to be severed from them 3 By a holy kind of Violence as it were the soul is driven out of this condition and drawn 〈◊〉 the Lord Christ by God the Father We are now to attend the discovery of this second Divine Truth the Explication whereof makes way for the mysterious manner of Gods dealing with the sinner when he would bring him from under the power 〈◊〉 of his lusts And for this purpose we have chosen this Text as that which will afford us foothold for our following discourse The Aim and Scope of the Words is by force of Argument to fortifie the conclusion formerly expressed in the foregoing verse i. e. To mind the things of the flesh is death which is thus proved That which is Enmity against God will undoubtedly bring death as opposing the God of Life and Comfort but the wisdom of the flesh is enmity against God
get it if he can by doubling he is not willing to yield therefore is resolved to quarrel and wind away from under the force of the Argument and to make an escape Acts 17. 18. They encountred Paul they came into the field with Cavils against his Doctrine observe how careful an unwilling heart is to invent a shift and how content to take it and if yet he fail of his hopes and is not able to make his party good with the 〈◊〉 he unlocks all the Devils Chests and 〈◊〉 his Skul for devices and though the Reasons be of no weight nor worth nor strength yet he is well 〈◊〉 to be cozened with them though there be scant any appearance of a pretence when the yong man had professed all readiness to follow the Command of the Lord and saw nothing would serve turn unless he sold all overpowered with the Authority of the Truth he left it in the plain field and went away sorrowful If yet the 〈◊〉 that 's rivetted in his resolution to hold his own cannot 〈◊〉 the Truth then he falls to flat opposing of it Jer. 44. 16. As for the word which 〈◊〉 hast spoken to us in the Name of the Lord we will not hearken to it that is the short and the long they then begun to be plain and peremptory Jer. 18. 12. They said there is no 〈◊〉 but we will do after our devices and we will walk every man after the imagination of his own heart If they cannot undo the Bonds they will break the Bonds of Gods Commands Come say they 〈◊〉 2. 2. let us break 〈◊〉 Bonds and 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 their cords from us Thus the Jews when they saw the Word of the Lord to prosper in the 〈◊〉 of Paul and 〈◊〉 they were filled 〈◊〉 envy and 〈◊〉 against those things that were spoken by Paul contradicting and 〈◊〉 in so much that Paul professed they put away the 〈◊〉 that would have plucked away their sins 〈◊〉 them Acts 13. 46. John must 〈◊〉 his 〈◊〉 rather than Herod will part with his Harlot When 〈◊〉 cannot get leave of God to do what he desired he goes without leave Numb 24. 1. he 〈◊〉 his 〈◊〉 to the 〈◊〉 as if he would prevent Gods 〈◊〉 and curse 〈◊〉 before God 〈◊〉 be aware of it To have their 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 tormented and kept upon the 〈◊〉 and themselves crossed in their corrupt courses so that either they dare not keep their lusts or else have no quiet if they do they fly in the face of the Truth it 's a hard saying who can hear it who can 〈◊〉 it Acts 19. 28. see what an uproar and what a dust Demetrius raiseth against Pauls Doctrine Masters you know that by this craft we get our living therefore what they wanted in Argument they would carry it in clamors There was an 〈◊〉 for the space of two hours Great is Diana of the Ephesians So they dealt with the two 〈◊〉 Revel 11. 10. they were never content before they were removed they could not have their 〈◊〉 in quiet as long as they had their lives for they tormented them with their witness the Truth is dreadful and torments carnal men that cannot bear the light and power of it If yet the Conscience be not seared with a hot Iron but there remain any sence of common Principles in it they will be dayly quickened and awakened by the Power of the Word and that will be daily vexing provoking and pressing the heart you know saies Conscience this is the Command your Duty and will be your Comfort to yield obedience thereunto you may oppose but you will perish for it you may do what you please but it will be your destruction God wil require it at your hands when you will not be able to answer for what you have done nor bear what God will inflict The 〈◊〉 then endeavors to still the clamors and to stop the mouth of Conscience and to weary it out 〈◊〉 impudency in wickedness and stifling the 〈◊〉 of it and not suffer it to take place and so by custom in sinning he takes away the sence of sin and so it befals them as those the Apostle speaks of they become past feeling Eph. 4. 19. This is to hold 〈◊〉 the Truth in unrighteousness Rom. 1. 18. Truth is pressing this ought this should this must be done or else you die for it you see the Word pregnant the way plain the Duty undeniable say nothing saies unrighteousness in the heart I do love it I must follow it therefore speak not a word more I cannot hear it nor bear it as they said Judg. 18. 25. when 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 after them for his gods Let not thy voyce be heard amongst us left angry fellows fall upon thee Thus you see how this unwillingness to be subject to the Truth shews it self They seek it not receive it not stop the passage of it defeat the Power and Evidence of it they professedly oppose it and privily stifle the 〈◊〉 of the Truth which may trouble them in sinning until their 〈◊〉 be without sence and they without care or purpose to reform their evil waies But are not the wicked many times willing to part with their corruptions see how far they speak how freely they profess Deut. 5. 27. All that thou hast spoken we will do Jer. 42. 5. The Lord be Judg 〈◊〉 thee and us enquire at the mouth of the Lord for us and whatever it be whether good or evil we will do it what more can be desired what more could be expressed I Answer in Three Things The Text denies not nor doth the Doctrine that Natural men are willing to profess subjection to the Law of God but that they neither do nor can nor will do what they say therefore it is added in Deut. 5. 28 29. This People have said well but O that there were such a heart in them there was good words but they wanted good hearts they said wel but their wils and endeavors were not answerable they professed fair with their lips but dissembled with their hearts so the Prophet Jeremiah told them to their faces Ye dissembled in your hearts when ye said enquire of the Lord for us Jer. 42. 20. It 's possible nay ordinary for a corrupt heart when it doth most reform sin outwardly then most of all to love and to give himself to the practice of some sin secretly because then all the streams are turned into one Channel he neglects all other that he may wholly bestow and lay out his heart upon that one and when he professeth against sin he conceives he may sin without suspition and distraction without suspition from others and without distraction in himself when by confessions and reformations he will put in Bail upon his Conscience and agree with it as Bankrupts use to do with their Creditors When it co nes to a streight and a justle that the Word meets him as the Angel met Balaam he cannot pass unless
he part with his beloved lust his Isaac his 〈◊〉 his 〈◊〉 he will then shew and discover his falsness But are not the Servants of the Lord many times unwilling to bid adieu to their special and ancient 〈◊〉 that have been bred and born with them brought up and lived with them a long time together There is two men in a regenerate man a heart and a heart a will and a will Rom. 7. last Paul delighted in the Law of God after the inward man but in his lust after the corrupt man With my mind I serve the Law of God saies he but with my 〈◊〉 the Law of Sin or as our Savior The Spirit 〈◊〉 willing but the Flesh is weak Matth. 26. 41. the spiritual part is ever prest and ready and wholly willing for good for he that is born of God so sins not and Paul professeth it 's not I but sin in me but saies he The good that I would I do not and the evil that I would not that I do Rom. 7. 18. still the heart and will of a regenerate man stands God-ward against every sin and for every good that he is convinced of The Reasons of the Point are Four and they are of great weight The First is taken from the Nature of the Will of man which since the Fall is wholly tainted and totally infected with corruption which universally overspreads the whol man As he in another case the whol head is sick the whol heart is faint the whol man wholly possessed with sin no sound part As Jobs contagion wherewith the Devil infected his Body and Natural man he was all one botch from the crown of the head to the sole of the foot So in regard of thr Spiritual man the whol man is as it were a man of sin called therefore the old man Eph. 4. 22. As though a corrupt heart were made up of nothing else but Apostacies backslidings and departings from God and swervings from his righteous Law Whatsoever is born of the flesh is flesh that is sinful and sensual and we are all of us altogether so born and have nothing of the Spirit of Grace in us so the Apostle Jude verse 19. These are sensual having not the spirit The Sons of Adam are all of us partakers of his Image and hence also called the Seed of the Serpent Gen. 3. 15. that as each Creature and Plant answers the Seed whereof it is made hath no more in it but that so mens hearts are only framed and constituted out of that corrupt 〈◊〉 whereby Satan carried aside our first Parents Paul so professeth of himself In me 〈◊〉 is in my flesh dwelleth no good thing Rom. 7. 11. nothing that is spiritually savingly and 〈◊〉 good and therefore in the old Law our corrupt Nature is signified by the Leprosie which overspread the whol man The sin of Adam had in it this peculiar to it self more than any nay I may 〈◊〉 say more than all the sins that ever was committed in that it was the Deordination of the whol Nature of man and that against the whol Law of God For Adam did not sin as a particular man so as all the Sons of Adam do sin but as a common stock as one who was in the room of all and had the Humane Nature as the common stock of all Man-kind so that the Nature of Man as one would say Humanity in Adam as it was under the Covenant of the Law so it went wholly against the holy and righteous Law of God and therefore the whol Nature of man broke when it made a breach upon the Law As he that justles his finger against a rock breaks that only he that runs his hand unjoynts that but if all the whol body fall from a steep place upon it it breaks all the whol frame of Nature in pieces So it is comparatively between the sin of Adam and the sin of any of the sons of Adam They sin personally one is unjust and he makes a breach against Justice and so far that disposition of heart is perverted and so unfitted for the work of Justice but in Adam the whol Nature of Mind and Will and Affections which was the subject of all Grace it comes against the Law and so brings a ruine upon the whol Frame of Grace Ad hereunto to make up the Evidence that this was indeed against the whol Law as that wherein he neither loved God nor himself nor 〈◊〉 neighbor But take it here he made a breach upon the seal of the Covenant and trampled that under foot and so consequently made voyd and 〈◊〉 upon the Covenant wholly and cast it behind his back as not worth caring for Now Reason 〈◊〉 that as the Seal confirms and ratifies the 〈◊〉 and all the Conditions of it joyntly so the 〈◊〉 of that nullifies and makes void the whol Covenant So that this transgression of Adam let 〈◊〉 a Deluge of Sin that as in Noahs Flood when the Windows of Heaven were opened and the great depths were broken up the waters covered the face of the whol Earth that no dry Land appeared So 〈◊〉 is here when the deeps are broken up as it were the whol Law opposed by the whol Nature of man the Deluge of corruption spreads it self over the whol face and frame of Nature Therefore the Apostle first Summarily gives in his Judgment in the 3. to the Romans the 9. verse That all are under sin And then Particularly They are all become abominable there is none that doth good no not one their throat is an open Sepulchre vents nothing but venemous steams of deadly distempers the poyson of Asps is under their tongues their feet swift to shed blood 12 13 14 15. vers And if all the Parts be such what is the heart within that acts all vents all fills all these That as it befel the Temple of Jerusalem after the destruction of it there was not a stone left upon a stone so with the soul in regard of that glorious frame of Grace which was in it in the first Creation there is not a stone left upon a stone nothing but pollution and corruption remains in the whol Nature of every man But you will say Are there no Reliques left of that glorious Image of God in the Will and Understanding There is somthing left of the Law but nothing left whereby a man can be enabled to do any thing as an act of Spiritual Life that may be acceptable to God In a word there are these Two things to be attended and may be observed in every man naturally at the lowest and the worst as I look at these poor Indians amongst whom we live as the very ruines and rubbish of mankind the forlorn Posterity of Adam 1 They are made for another and for a better 2 They ought to yeild obedience to that other and better But to know the Will of God and do it to be
lust got the will of thy soul and holds it to this day thou art certainly a corrupt and carnal wretched Creature All thy 〈◊〉 carriage and 〈◊〉 entertainment or good language 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 the Lord Jesus it 's nothing thy lusts have thy heart and Satan hath thy heart by means of them and this is thy condition to this very day It 's 〈◊〉 as experience proves it that he that is the Owner of a Country may be forced by the power of an Enemy 〈◊〉 in upon him to forsake the Skirts and Borders of it but if yet the strong Places 〈◊〉 and Citadels be in his possession which command the Country each man concludes he is Lord and 〈◊〉 of the Country still hecause he hath these 〈◊〉 and strong Forts whereby he can command it at his pleasure As in the Country so in the Rule of a mans Carriage and Conscience possible it is nay ordinary that there may come some 〈◊〉 Power and Evidence of Truth and the Lord may so mightily assault the soul with the Battery of his Word and levy such Forces of Arguments against the prevailing power of sin in our practice as that 〈◊〉 may cause our corruptions to retire and forsake the Frontiers and out-works the tongue and hand and behavior but if yet the will which is the main Castle and hath command of all if that I say be still at league with our Lusts and the power of corruption is there entertained and acknowledged thou art yet under the power of Satan and possession of thy sin The unclean Spirit may now and then go on walking and be cast out from exercising that Sovereignty and extent of Jurisdiction as to act the hand and eye and tongue to the practice of evil but as long as his house is swept and garnished the soul willing to give way and welcom to any bosom distemper he returns again and prevails as much nay more than ever Matth. 12. 43 44 45. Whatever thou hast received if thou hast not a heart against thy sin thou hast nothing will do thee good Whatever thou givest to God or doest for him unless thou givest thy heart unto him and bestow that upon his Service thou doest nothing that will stand thee in any stead The want of this was that which Moses so heavily complained of Deut. 29. 3 4. You have seen all that the Lord hath done for you the signs and wonders that he hath wrought for you yet the Lord hath not given you an heart unto this day As who should say all these will but aggravate your sins and encrease your plagues your naughty hearts will abuse all and bring a Curse upon all the Blessings you enjoy All thy Services without a heart severed from thy sins is but as a dead Sacrisice which the Lord loaths As she to Sampson though he pretended all love yet this she looked at as an evidence of want of love because his heart was not with her How canst thou say thou lovest me when thy heart is not with me So the Lord to all the fair pretences of fals-hearted Professors How can you say you love me when your hearts are not with me you wil not part with your Lusts. But you will reply This is a hard saying who can hear it who can bear it this is all we have to bear up and support our hearts and hopes with True it is our Natures are naught and corrupt our distempers strong infirmities many and failings great we cannot deny that which our actions discover we are too frequently and shamefully snatched aside and surprized by our corruptions and our distempers overbear us yet the Lord knows and we would have you to know we would be other we want power against our distempers yet we want not will to be severed from them So said and so done well and good You profess so prove what you profess and it 〈◊〉 I wish it were so and that 's the worst I wish you but try it then and be sure you do not fail for you are brought to the lowest and the last cast it 's as the Book to the Malefactor This is the very Door of Grace and the Gate of Heaven to be willing to be severed from sin God never wrought upon you for good unless this be wrought in you The Evidences are Four He that is willing to part with his sin is speedy and unweariable in seeking and improving of those means whereby he may get rid of it and which may remove it from him The Will is the great Wheel which sets all and keeps all a going and will cause a man to break through all discouragements and 〈◊〉 that can be cast in the way neither difficulties nor oppositions be they what they will be can either daunt it wholly or put it upon delaies the hands may be bound the feet fetter'd either want of liberties or opportunities may prejudice a 〈◊〉 practice or the opposition may be so 〈◊〉 and fell that may force a man for the while to cease the performance of his work but if the will be setled and resolved that cannot be removed So the Apostle Rom. 7. 18. To will is present with me though he cannot do what he is enjoyned God requires and Duty 〈◊〉 yet he can will what he cannot do so the Prophet David Psal. 119. 4 5. Thou hast commanded us to keep thy Precepts Oh that my heart were so upright and my waies so directed that I might keep them I do not I cannot do as my Duty is but Oh that I could do so I cannot do as I should yet I cannot but wish it This you shal find when the faithful are at the greatest under when some spiritual damps and qualms come over their hearts yet these privy yernings of their hearts towards God and the waies of his Grace will appear As in a swound when al the acts of the Sences are bound up and the Pulse is not to be perceived yet hold a glass to the mouth of a fainting man and you shal perceive some 〈◊〉 breathing ever So it is when al abilities enlargements seem to fail when temptations desertions and violent surprizal of some venemous distempers take away sence and feeling power and performance yet you shall perceive his breathing if you bring the soul to a Command or a Promise Oh that my heart were so upright Psal. 119. 20. My soul breaketh for the longing it hath to thy Commandements at all times 〈◊〉 David and 〈◊〉 Paul Rom. 7. 19. The good I would I do not the evil I would not that I do I do evil but I would not do it I do not the good but I would do 〈◊〉 And therefore as blind Bartimaeus when his heart was set to seek the recovery of his sight as soon as he heard that Christ passed by he cryed out Jesus thou son of David have mercy upon me they rebuked him and he cried yet more earnestly thou son of David have mercy
on me and our Savior asked him what ailest thou what was his will set upon Oh Lord that I may receive my sight So it is with a sinner whose wil is set to seek relief against his sins if there be any opportunity offred means afforded any occasion that may lend relief against his sin how speedily upon the least inkling will he listen to it If Christ pass by in Conference in Communion in publick or private in set seasons or such as could not be expected whereby the healing vertue of the blood of Christ may be dispensed they greedily repair thither and if the question be what wouldest thou the Answer of the soul is Oh Lord that I may receive power against my sin and if he get it not he will be unweariable to pursue the Lord until he hath attained it So the lamenting Church they took unto themselves words the sum and substance of all their requests Hos. 14. 3. Take away all iniquity and receive us graciously not take away the punishments that pinch us not the Judgments and terrors that may justly perplex us in the times of our necessities but take away our iniquities A wicked man may have a velleity some sleepy wish for a turn against his sin for the attainment of his end but it 's but for a fit and not for the removal of his sin but some evil that it brings Nay the heart of an ungodly man holds counsels against the holy Commandements of the Lord and plots how he may sitly put by the authority of the Truth that would take away his evil Job 22. 18. The Counsel of the wicked is far from me There is a 〈◊〉 purpose of Spirit to maintain some distemper which cannot be in a godly man He that is willing to part with his sin he takes greatest delight in those means which either discover his sin more fully and work most kindly upon the heart that godly sorrow which causeth Repentance never to be repented of and are the most piercing and powerful to remove it from him For it 's the greatest delight that can befal a man to have his will and desires answered that which the Will desires most to have when it wants it delights most in when it hath it It is so in the diseases of the Body when the blood is foul and so feaverish and fit to cause a Pleuresie the Humors gross and 〈◊〉 and molest the stomach so that Nature desires to be unburdened he that hits the right vein and that Physick which works kindly and strongly upon the right humor the Patient receives marvelous ease and Nature special relief and refreshing that which takes away most of the burden bring most ease So it is with a soul truly willing to be severed from his sin being burdened and infested with the venemous pollution thereof it finds most delight in that Ordinance that works most kindly and effectually upon it the saddest counsel the sharpest reproof the most searching tryal that ransacks every corner of a corrupt conscience now a man hath his Will and is marvelously pleased with it So David when Abigail met him and reproved him and counselled him against his sin 1 Sam. 25. 32 33. saies he Blessed be thou and blessed be thy counsel and blessed be the Lord which hath kept me this day from shedding blood that hast kept me this day from venting this distemper and hast met me so 〈◊〉 and spake so effectually unto my soul. 〈◊〉 heart that finds his special corruption his greatest 〈◊〉 wherewith he is most pestered is therefore 〈◊〉 willing to be rid of that which is most 〈◊〉 to him and therefore the word that meets 〈◊〉 directly and works most powerfully his will 〈◊〉 Gods will meet there fully and therefore he is 〈◊〉 pleased When a reproof stabs him to the 〈◊〉 Oh more of that Lord and that comfort 〈◊〉 would remove his main discouragement he 〈◊〉 the continuance of that That exhortation 〈◊〉 would awaken his sluggish spirit and put life 〈◊〉 vertue into his soul he saies speak home there Lord Prov. 2. 10. When wisdom entreth into thy 〈◊〉 and knowledg is pleasant unto thy soul Oh 〈◊〉 hath wished this longed for looked for this and 〈◊〉 now he hath his will and his hearts desire 〈◊〉 is pleased at the heart when the Lord brings off his spirit kindly that was awk and wearish in duty 〈◊〉 the best day that he hath seen a long time Oh 〈◊〉 he that I had such a heart still ever to be in this 〈◊〉 for God and against my sins and still he 〈◊〉 in that frame Psal. 85. 8. I will hear what God will speak to my soul whereas a corrupt heart when the Word meets with his beloved lusts 〈◊〉 the heart is in league and indeed would not only pinch but pluck it away by main force it 's death to him and so distastful as that he cannot endure it though he can hear many Counsels receive some general Reproofs and listen to many 〈◊〉 yet this he bears not It is as though a man should rent a member from his Body or pluck one part from another the sinner riseth up with fell opposition here As she said when she had lost her Darling and conceived that the Man of God had a hand in it What have I to do with thee thou man of God So what have 〈◊〉 to do with that Reproof that 〈◊〉 that Admonition that Examination thus 〈◊〉 Acts 22. 22. They heard Paul till he came to 〈◊〉 word that was most cross to them and then they cried out away wich him they could bear him 〈◊〉 longer then When Demetrius his Trade was 〈◊〉 to fall he could not want his gain and 〈◊〉 not renounce his Idol all is in an uproar Acts 〈◊〉 there was an outcry by the space of two hours 〈◊〉 is Diana of the Ephefians they would not 〈◊〉 with their Gain nor with their 〈◊〉 So 〈◊〉 dealt with Stephen when he came close to them 〈◊〉 discovered the rebellion of their hearts and lives Acts 7. They were not able to bear it but stop 〈◊〉 Ears and run upon him and he must lose his 〈◊〉 rather than they be disturbed in their lusts this 〈◊〉 the guise of the heart of every Natural man who 〈◊〉 not willing to part with his sin If the sinner be seriously willing to part with 〈◊〉 sin he is restless and unsatisfied until it be 〈◊〉 and taken away from him he finds nothing that 〈◊〉 can have any sweet contentment in as long as he 〈◊〉 that distemper which is cross to his will and Gods will also As Haman when he had all the caps in the Country uncovered to him and al knees 〈◊〉 before him yet al this was nothing to him 〈◊〉 avails all this saies he so long as I see Mordecai 〈◊〉 in the Kings Gate Esther 5. 13. So had he all abilities did God vouchsafe unto him al enlargements had he the hearts and approbation of all 〈◊〉 in
〈◊〉 and Earth shal never hold it As he must needs go whom the Devil drives so 〈◊〉 must 〈◊〉 come whom God wil draw Though 〈◊〉 Means prevail not thy Prayers speed not thou 〈◊〉 not able by al thy Endeavors to bear up against 〈◊〉 stream yet God is able and it s his work here stay they heart God can do it and who knows but 〈◊〉 may Briefly the DISCOURAGEMENTS are Three First The Assaults of Satan he comes in amain and makes batteries against the Heart he Musters up al his Forces and presents to the view of the sinner al the darkness of the kingdom of Darkness and 〈◊〉 the venom of sin in the twinckling of an eye 〈◊〉 presents al his Sins that ever he hath committed with al the aggravating Circumstances against Mercies Covenants Checks of Conscience Lo saith Satan do you not see al these and they come in 〈◊〉 troops there is no end of them not only in New-England but upon the Sea in the Land of our nativity and he brings him to his Cradle and 〈◊〉 him how he came a Child of wrath into the world Withal Satan lets in the guilt of al these sins upon the soul Sayes Satan if one sin deserve everlasting Condemnation as you know it doth what then is deserved by so many sins Committed continued in repeated against Means and Mercies why Hell is too little for such a Rebel God must make a new Hell for such a wretch And withal Satan tells him the date of Mercy is past your best dayes are done you have had Means and Mercies and Friends to Counsel you very good now Mercy is gone and past you shal hear no more of the Mercy of God or of Jesus Christ. Now Satan hurries the 〈◊〉 when he hath got him hither the multitude of his sins the guilt of his sins and Mercy past why now had you not better go out of the world than to live without Hope and multiply your sins and so your plagues forever Here he hurries the soul up and down and gives him no leave to think of Mercy Oh! sayes the soul Is there no hope in Jesus Christ the Means of Grace and the Spirit of God Why sayes Satan Do not you deceive your self you have had Means and Mercies and you are just in the place where you were therefore you had best put an end to your sins and self and life and all Now mark 〈◊〉 In this Case you should have recourse to the former Doctrine Satan wil not cannot be entreated that 's true Aye but God is stronger than Satan and he can cast him out of thy Soul It is not Arguments that can do it but God can do it Say therefore Though my Prayers my Endeavors my Heart my Hopes fails me yet God 〈◊〉 do it though my Soul cannot leave my sin 〈◊〉 my 〈◊〉 wil not cannot leave my soul yet God can force away my sin from my soul and command my soul to return from iniquity God can do this Rom. 16. 20. The God of peace shall beat down Satan under your feet shortly What ever become of your Sense and Feeling listen not attend not to his temptations be sure to Retire hither as to your Castle God can do it it is the Almighty work of God there stand there live and there die Christ told his Disciples He saw Satan fall from Heaven like lightening Luke 10. 18. That is Suddenly and strangely And Joh. 16. 11. Now shall the Prince 〈◊〉 this world be judged God wil judge Satan for al those Temptations and Delusions of his do not you own them and God wil Condemn him for them Nay as it is Isa. 43. 6. I will say to the North Give up to the South Keep not back bring my Sons from far and my Daughters from the ends of the earth Though thou shouldst be in the mouth of Hell or in the bottom of the Sea yet God is able to call thee from thence He that saith to the Sea Give up thy dead he can say to Hell Give up thy damned Therefore bear up thy Heart and Hopes and Expectation that God may do that for thee which thou art not able to conceive of But yet there is another ground of Discouragement Satan he 's Malicious but Oh! the world and the snares thereof are so many so mighty that the soul is still in a maze taken in a net as it were and knows not which way to turn him And there are some kind of sins which snare a man exceedingly by the world As when loose Companions have 〈◊〉 within a man and licentious Courses have taken away the heart of a man Oh! the heart comes 〈◊〉 hardly there The sinner shakes at the sight of 〈◊〉 Companions he is convinced and resolved 〈◊〉 them and yet he goes away to them and is led by them and when the Adulterer is taken with his Adulterous Mate they scarce ever return again 〈◊〉 lamentable what those that are acquainted with Cases of Conscience this way do know still 〈◊〉 mates tempt and these Companions over-bear though they resolve and promise and vow 〈◊〉 pray yet they are in again just in the place 〈◊〉 they were so that the soul sayes I am not able 〈◊〉 resist these temptations I am never able to get 〈◊〉 of these snares therefore sin I shal and sin I must and perish I must temptations are desperate here a man lies prostrate under them not able to recover out of them Now Brethren when you are in such a Case as this you see your sins you confess them pray against them and yet are taken aside by them your heart is strongly engaged and ensnared you are not able to get from under these sins Here 's all the hope I can give you It is in Gods hand yet to pluck off thy soul and to take away thy heart for al that You know how Solomon the wisest and Sampson the strongest they were Deluded and snared and taken by their own Corruptions and snares of the world Sampsons head upon Dalilahs lap he would sit and lie though he died for it Brethren it is here only God may do good unto you If I 〈◊〉 tel you It is in the power of Means and Mercies and any Congruity of Means or Liberty of your own Wills your souls might be deceived but would never be Comforted But look up to the Lord there is Hope in him there is Mercy with him Joh. 16. last Be of good Comfort sayes our Savior Christ I have overcome the world Yea the Lord professeth it Ezek. 〈◊〉 32. They shall loath themselves in the sight of all their doings that have not been good Say then God is able to make me loath my self and my snares and al the sinful entanglments that my heart is so taken aside withal this is that only that wil sustain thee and support thee Joh. 16. 10. I have other sheep and they shall hear my voyce and them I must bring I must bring the 〈◊〉
give entertainment to him but unless the heart be broken and humbled we cannot receive Faith that we may receive Christ. And while the soul is thus breaking and humbling Faith also is coming in a right sense rightly understood whereof we shal speak somwhat largely if the Lord give us leave to come to that place The Words thus opened the Point is the very letter of the Text which looks full upon every Hearer or Reader that will look upon the Text. The Heart must be broken and humbled before the Lord will own it as His take up his abode with it and rule in it There must be Contrition and Humiliation before the Lord comes to take possession the House must be aired and fitted before it comes to be inhabited swept by brokenness and emptiness of Spirit before the Lord will come to set up his abode in it This was typified in the passage of the Children of Israel towards the promised Land they must come into and go through a vast and a roaring Wilderness where they must be bruised with many pressures humbled under many over-bearing difficulties they were to meet withal before they could possess that good Land which abounded with all prosperity flowed with Milk and Honey The Truth of this Type the Prophet Hosea explains and expresseth at large in the Lords dealing with his People in regard of their Spiritual Condition Hos. 2. 14 15. I will lead 〈◊〉 into the wilderness and break her heart with many bruising Miseries and then I will speak kindly to her heart and will give her the Valley of Achor for a door of hope the story you may recal out of Jos. 7. 28. when Achan had offended in the execrable thing and the hearts of the Israelites were discomfited and failed like water spilt upon the ground because they had caused the Lord to depart away from them the Text saies they having found out the offender by lot they stoned him and they said thou hast troubled Israel we will trouble thee and they called it the Valley of Achor and after that God supported their hearts with hope and encouraged them with success both in prevailing over their Enemies and in possessing the Land So it shall be Spiritually the Valley of Consternation perplexity of Spirit and brokenness of heart is the very gale and entrance of any sound hope and assured expectation of good This I take to be the true meaning and intendment of the place and part of the description of a good Hearer Luke 8. 15. Who with an honest and good heart receives the Word and keeps it by strong hand and brings forth fruit with patience the fruit is Obedience Patience is part of Sanctification and the holy disposition of heart that must be in the heart that brings and bears such fruit that which makes the heart good is Faith in Vocation which enables the soul to lay hold upon Christ in the Word and from him to receive that lively vertue of Patience and readiness to every holy word and work And an honest heart is a contrite and humble heart so rightly prepared that Faith is infused and the soul thereby carried unto Christ and quickened with patience to persevere in good Duties As we say of Grounds before we cast in Seed there is two things to be attended there It must be a fit ground and a fat ground the ground is fit when the weeds and green sword are plowed up and the soyl there and made mould And this is done in 〈◊〉 and Humiliation then it must be a fat ground the soyl must have heart we say the ground is plowed well and lies well but it 's worn out it 's out of heart Now Faith fats the soyl furnisheth the soul with ability to fasten upon Christ and so to receive the Seed of the Word and the Graces of Sanctification and thence it produceth good 〈◊〉 in Obedience Upon this condition Gods favor is promised Psal. 34. 18. The Lord is nigh to them that be of a contrite spirit and saveth them that be of a broken heart Isay 61. 3. He gives the Garment of praise to those that have had the spirit of heaviness it will suit none fit none it 's prepared for none but such it 's their Livery only Upon this condition it is obtained Mat. 18. 3. Unless ye be converted and become as little Children ye can in no wise enter into the Kingdom of Heaven 2 Chron. 33. 12. It 's said of Mannasseh he humbled himself greatly and made supplication and the Lord was intreated of him such persons and services are highly accepted Psal. 51. 17. A broken and contrite heart O God thou wilt not despise nay he wil undoubtedly accept of it The Reasons of the Point are taken partly in regard of the heart which without these will neither be fitted nor enabled to act upon God in Christ for any good partly in regard of God all his Ordinances and Dispensations will be unprofitable and unable to do that good which he intends and we need To the first in regard of our Hearts those Lets and impediments which put a kind of incapability yea and impossibility upon the soul whereby the coming of Faith into the Heart and so the entrance and residence of the Spirit are hindred are by this disposition wrought and removed These Impediments are two The 〈◊〉 which stops the way and work of Faith is a setled kind of contentedness in our corrupt condition and the blind yet bold and presumptuous confidence that a natural man hath and would maintain of his good condition Each man sits down willingly well apaid with his own estate and portion sees no need of any change and therefore not willing to hear of it Each man is so full of self-love that he is loth to pass a sentence against his own soul to become a judg and self-condemner and consequently an executioner of all his hopes and comforts at once and so put his happiness and help out of his own hand Besides we are Naturally afraid out of the privy yet direful guilt of our own Consciences to profess the wretchedness of our own miserable and damnable Condition as to put it upon a peremptory conclusion and that beyond question I am undone I am a damned man in the Gall of bitterness in the bonds of iniquity lest they should stir such horrors which they are neither able to quiet nor yet able to bear And therefore out of the presumption of their own hearts they would easily perswade and delude themselves they have no cause to alter their condition and therfore they should not endeavor it Hence the carnal heart is said to bear up himself against all the assaults of the Word Deut. 29. 19. When all the Curses of the Law were denounced with never so much evidence yet the presumptuous sinner blesseth himself promiseth all good to himself and secretly feeds himself with vain hopes that he shal attain it therfore he wil
detestation and sequestration appears in the last words Men and Brethren what shall we do we will do any thing suffer any thing command what you wil enjoyn what you please be it never so hard we will endeavor it never so cross to our hearts or comforts we will bear it better be any thing than be thus 〈◊〉 let 's be in any condition that once we might be freed from this sinful and accursed condition in which we be We have taken liberty to lay out our Work with as much plainness and openness of order as we may because we shall have occasion to mind you of the particulars in our future proceeding and how the several 〈◊〉 serve each others turn in their place and order Before we come to the Particulars one Point 〈◊〉 in the very entrance which will be very serviceable to make way for all the Truths following and therefore we shall take in that at this time that it may be as an Harbenger to make room for all the rest And it ariseth from a right consideration of the parties to whom 〈◊〉 here speaks and with whom his word so prevailed and took place 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 36. verse he tels them that same 〈◊〉 whom ye have crucisied They were therefore such as had rejected blasphemed 〈◊〉 the Lord of Glory those who in a bloody manner 〈◊〉 away the life of 〈◊〉 who came to take away their sins Is it possible is it credible that ever mercy should be extended unto such that ever good should be wrought in such Yes Lo here When they heard this they were pricked in their hearts They whose hands were imbrewed in the blood of Jesus their hearts are now 〈◊〉 with Godly sorrow and so made fit to receive Grace and Mercy Hence the Doctrine is Stubborn and bloody sinners may be made broken-hearted sinners Bloody hellish abominable 〈◊〉 may yet obtain broken hearts worse than these could hardly be conceived or imagined and yet God makes work of these knotty way ward Spirits It was said of him that betrayed Christ it had been good for him that be had never been born What shall we say of them that murdered our Savior they are in the highest rank of the most wicked men that ever were born yet even such as 〈◊〉 who also opposed the Word and Gospel of Grace the Disciples and Apostles the Preachers and Publishers of Grace the Author and God of Grace yet such as these have now their hearts broken and in some measure prepared to be partakers thereof The Apostle speaks of the Gentiles Rom. 1. 29. That they were full of all unrighteousness there can hardly be added any thing to the largeness of the expression No sin worse for the kind more for the number greater for the measure for they had all unrighteousness all the kinds of evil and all degrees in the largest extent they were full and yet of such the Apostle professeth 1 Cor. 6. 9. when he had mentioned a heap of most loathsom and hideous abominations Know ye not that no unrighteous person shall enter into the Kingdom of Heaven Be not deceived neither Fornicators nor Idolaters nor Adulterers nor Effeminate self-Polluters Extortioners Covetous persons shall ever enter into the Kingdom of God then verse 11. And such were some of you but ye are washed but ye are sanctified but ye are justified in the name of the Lord Jesus and by the Spirit of our God Some such as these were savingly brought home to God Yea when corruption becomes like an old cankered sore of long continuance and the sinner incorrigible under all the choycest means that have been used yet then the Lord works the Cure Isay 57. 18. I was angry with him for his evil lustings and he went on in the frowardness of his own heart ther is no help if the Disease grow worse for the dressing the Prophet adds I have seen his waies I will heal him and lead him and restore comforts to him and to those that mourn with him as if he should say Ah poor Creature he cannot see himself nor me yet I see him and his way he wounds himself but I will heal him he deludes himself but I wil heal him sink he must in his own sorrow but I will succor him and supply to him Isay 48. 4. I know thou art obstinate and thy neck is an Iron sinew and thy brow is Brass and yet Verse 17. I am the Lord thy Redeemer that teach thee to profit and leadest thee by the way thou shouldest go The Lord bows an Iron sinew and makes it bendable unto his will The Lord makes snowy Saints of scarlet sinners scarlet we know is twice dyed in the Wool and in the Web and Cloth and therefore it is beyond all the skil and art of man to alter it Yet though our Sins be such bred in our Natures committed in our Lives and therefore beyond our reach 〈◊〉 and the power of all means and performances we can take up to remove them yet the Lord hath undertaken it and he will do it Isa. 1. 18. There is a Threefold Argument to settle this Truth Taken from the largeness of his Mercy which is as himself Infinite and therefore infinitely exceeds all our wants and can supply them all our weaknesses and infirmities and therefore can forgive them and remove them as he will as though they had never been Isa. 55. 7. Let the wicked forsake his way and the unrighteous man his thoughts and return unto the Lord for he will abundantly pardon and to our God for he will have mercy But the discouraged sinner might happily reply It is Mercy that I have abused and his pardons he hath tendered yet I in the time of my folly have trampled under my feet and therefore with what face could I beg mercy or upon what ground could I think ever to receive it He answers For my thoughts are not your thoughts nor your waies my waies for as the Heavens are higher than the Earth so are my thoughts than your thoughts there is no proportion no comparison the Earth is not of a valuable consideration to the Heavens but like a Centre in the Circumference it is as though it was not So here the thoughts of Gods Mercy to pardon thee is so far beyond the evil of thy waies and thoughts to condemn that they are as though they were not nay though thou couldest not beleeve it or think it yet the Lord could and would do it This is one of his names He keeps mercy for thousands Exod. 34. 7. he hath it in store for thousands and FORGIVES Iniquity Transgression and Sin that is all kinds and degrees of sin and he must be thus or else he were not God For did our sins exceed his mercies our weakness his strength were Satan more malicious to tempt 〈◊〉 and powerful to overcome 〈◊〉 than he was gracious to defend and Almighty to deliver then were he not God if any thing were
thing a wicked man had or any action he did might be good or bring good to him in reason it was the Services and Sacrifices wherein he did approach unto God and perform Service to him and yet the Sacrifice of the wicked is an abomination to the Lord Prov. 28. 9. and Tit. 1. 15. To the pure all things are pure but to the unbeleeving there is nothing pure but their very Consciences are 〈◊〉 It is a desperate Malignity in the temper of the Stomach that should turn our Meat and diet into Diseases the best Cordials and Preservatives into Poysons so that what in reason is 〈◊〉 to nourish a man should kill him Such is the venom and malignity of sin makes the use of the best things become evil nay the greatest evil to us many times Psal. 10. 9. 7. Let his prayer be turned into sin That which is appointed by God to be the choycest 〈◊〉 to prevent sin is turned into sin out of the corrupt distemper of these carnal hearts of ours Hence then it follows That sin is the greatest evil in the world or indeed that can be For That which separates the soul from God that which brings all evils of punishment and makes all evils truly evil and spoils all good things to us that must needs be the greatest evil but this is the nature of sin as hath already appeared But that which I will mainly press is Sin is only opposite to God and cross as much as can be to that infinite goodness and 〈◊〉 which is in his blessed Majesty it 's not the 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 distresses that men undergo that the Lord distasts them for or estrangeth himself from them he is with Joseph in the Prison with the three Children in the 〈◊〉 with Lazarus when he lies among the Dogs and gathers the 〈◊〉 from the rich Mans Table yea with Joh upon the dung-hil but he is not able to bear the presence of sin yea of this temper are his dearest servants the more of God is in them the more opposite they are to sin where ever they find it It was that he commended in the Church of Ephesus That she could not bear those that were wicked Rev. 2. 3. As when the Stomach is of a pure temper and 〈◊〉 strength the least surfet or distemper that befals it presently distasts and disburdens it self with speed So David noted to be a man after Gods own heart He professeth 101. Psal. 3. 7. I hate the work of them that turn aside he that worketh deceit shall not dwell in my house he that telleth lyes shall not tarry in my sight But when the heart becomes like the Stomach 〈◊〉 weak it cannot help it self nor be helped by Physick desperate diseases and dissolution of the whol follows and in reason must be expected Hence see how God looks at the least connivance or a faint and seeble kind of opposition against sin as that in which he is most highly dishonored and he follows it with most hideous plagues as that indulgent carriage of Ely towards the vile behavior of his Sons for their grosser evils 1 Sam. 2. 23. Why do you such things It 's not well my Sons that I hear such things It is not well and is that all why had they either out of ignorance not known their duty or out of some sudden surprisal of a temptation neglected it it had not been well but for them so purposedly to proceed on in the practice of such gross evils and for him so faintly to reprove The Lord looks at it as a great sin thus feebly to oppose sin and therefore verse 29. he tells him That he honored his Sons above God and therefore he professeth Far be it from me to maintain thy house and comfort for he that honors me I wil honor and he that despiseth me shall be lightly esteemed verse 30. Hence it is the Lord himself is called the holy one of Israel 1. Hab. 12. Who is of 〈◊〉 eyes than to behold evil and cannot look upon iniquity no not in such as profess themselves Saints though most deer unto 〈◊〉 no nor in his Son the Lord Jesus not in his Saints Amos 8. 7. The Lord hath sworn by himself I abhor the excellency of Jacob what ever their excellencies their priviledges are if they do not abhor sin God will abhor them Jer. 22. 24. Though Coniah was as the Signet of my right hand thence would I pluck him Nay he could not endure the appearance of it in the Lord Christ for when but the reflection of sin as I may so say fell upon our Savior even the imputation of our transgressions to him though none iniquity was ever committed by him the Father withdrew his comforting presence from him and let loose his infinite displeasure against him forcing him to cry out My God my God why hast thou forsaken 〈◊〉 Yea Sin is so evil that though it be in Nature which is the good Creature of God that there is no good in it nothing that God will own but in the evil of punishment it is otherwise for the torments of the Devils and punishments of the damned in Hell and all the plagues inflicted upon the wicked upon Earth issue from the righteous and revenging Justice of the Lord and he doth own such execution as his proper work Isa. 45. 7. Is there any evil in the City viz. of punishment and the Lord hath not 〈◊〉 it I make peace I create evil I the Lord do all these things It issues from the Justice of God that he cannot but reward every one according to his own waies and works those are a mans own the holy one of Israel hath no hand in them but he is the just Executioner of the plagues that are inflicted and suffered for these and hence our blessed Savior becoming our Surety and standing in our room he endured the pains of the Second death even the fiercenes of the fury of an offended God and yet it was impossible he could commit the least sin or be tainted with the least corrupt distemper And it 's certain it 's better to 〈◊〉 all 〈◊〉 without any one sin than to commit the least sin and to be freed from all plagues Suppose that all miseries and sorrows that ever befel all the wicked in Earth and Hell should meet together in one soul as all waters gathered together in one Sea Suppose thou heardest the Devils roaring and sawest Hell gaping and the flames of everlasting burnings 〈◊〉 before thine eyes it 's certain it were better for thee to be cast into those inconceivable 〈◊〉 than to commit the least sin against the Lord Thou dost not think so now but thou wilt find it so one day But if sin be thus vile in its own nature why do not men so discern it so judg it That I may give a full Answer to this Question I shall first shew the Causes of mistake and secondly the Cure For the first There
in his dayly course there is nothing but his dayly rebellions and his confusion dayly before his face and the truth is the more terrible because he hath withstood 〈◊〉 so long That as it fares with the prisoner that had the freedom of the prison while he carried himself fairly but because he hath been taken in some false pranks and plotting an escape he is now laid in the 〈◊〉 and 〈◊〉 with 〈◊〉 now never like to 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 day or look for any breathing So here my estate is more miserable because I have opposed the means that might have procured my help the checks of Conscience I have smothered or slighted many warnings I have had but willingly forgot them many sad reproofs that laid hold 〈◊〉 me but I studied how to wrest away my thoughts it 's just with God to load me with Curses which would never look for comfort from God in a right way 〈◊〉 ever there was a 〈◊〉 I am he 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 ever God 〈◊〉 a Rebel he wil 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Lastly This Conviction is victorious and invincible It doth not only stop the mouth of carnal Reason and the cavils thereof but also displaceth it It not only stills the 〈◊〉 and pretences of the sinner but makes the mind and heart give attendance to the Truth to be subject thereunto and to take the impression thereof For otherwise the sinner thus tyred and dauled by the dayly laying at of the Truth may either happily lie still though not cavil with it yet not give attendance to it But in a stupid kind of fortish sencelesness wear out the blow and so wast away to nothing as many out of sorrow have become like senceless blocks Though their practice hath not been evil yet they have had no heart to good or else they fall to desperate prophaneness or professed opposition when they cannot escape the prison they 'l break the prison and lay violent hands upon the Keeper Rom. 1. 18. They hold down the Truth in unrighteouness they imprison the Truth while the Truth should imprison them therefore when the Lord will settle an over-powring Conviction he makes it victorious Therefore he is said Job 36. 9 10. When he shews them their transgressions he commands that they return from iniquity 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 break out and over bear and force the mind and heart to give attendance and take the impression of it as when the Conqueror and he that 〈◊〉 got the Victory comes in place all give attendance unto his 〈◊〉 The want of the maintaining this 〈◊〉 power of a Conviction I take to be the cause why many even of Gods own are so 〈◊〉 taken aside after althe helps they do enjoy and the resolutions they take up I have often wondred when a man hath be 〈◊〉 with much bitterness in daies of humiliation such and such evils begged for grace and help and resolved against them they know and 〈◊〉 it 's in 〈◊〉 to cavil or think to make an escape 〈◊〉 they reject such a 〈◊〉 and 〈◊〉 they 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 aside and that strangely and 〈◊〉 they fall 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 with their old corruptions They do not put this Conviction into commission they do not make it victorious or maintain it so or the Authority thereof so as to force attendance When the 〈◊〉 is good and 〈◊〉 Mill tight why goes it not There is not so much Water kept as to drive it because they have let out the stream and strength another way therefore there is not so much power in a conviction as to force attendance and to drive the heart to obedience Therefore as Paul said to Timothy 1. Tim. 4. 15 16. Meditate upon these things and continue in them or be in these things So you must be in a Conviction and continue under it if you would find it victorious and then it wil be so first or last and wil eat out al opposition though with much ado As it is with Aqua fortis if laid upon Iron though it do not at once and suddenly yet secretly and insensibly it wil eat the Iron in pieces So it is with a Truth which God wil make victorious it will lie upon the Spirit of a man and eat there and work there and break out effectually it may be many yeers after Job 33. 16. this is called the sealing of 〈◊〉 Instruction which is to add Authority and Soveraignty to it as when the Edict was sealed by the intreaty of Haman there was no opposing no gainsaying of it The Reasons of the Point which was the fourth Particular attended in the Explication come now to be considered And these are two The first is taken from 〈◊〉 order which the Lord in the way of his providence and work of nature hath placed betwixt the mind and the 〈◊〉 the understanding and wil of man these two faculties have a near kind of correspondencie the one to help forward the work of the other Knowledg and understanding is the inlet into the soul nothing comes to the heart nor 〈◊〉 work upon it but so far as knowledg makes way c ushers it in as it were into the presence of the wil and leaves an impression thereof upon it 〈◊〉 use to say that which the eye sees not 〈◊〉 heart rues not that which the understanding conceives not the wil is not nay cannot be affected with if Good to embrace it if evil to be 〈◊〉 and troubled therewith It s the method 〈◊〉 observed in Gods dispensation towards him when his heart was brought to a hatred against the evil of his waies Psal. 119. 107. By thy Commandements have I got understanding therefore I hate every false way Unless a right understanding go before a through hatred wil not follow after As it is in the body unless the stomach receive and hold and convey also the purgation either to the spleen or lower parts of the body be the receit never so strong yet wil it never stir the humor or trouble nature though the distemper were abundant dangerous Because in an ordinary course of providence there is no way 〈◊〉 come to the humor but by this means It s so in the soul be the truths delivered attended with never so much terror and power able to sink the heart of a sinful Creature as not able to endure the dread of it if yet the understanding conceives not the nature of such truths nor convey and settle them sadly and Convictingly upon the heart it s not at all stirred in the least measure therewith much less troubled with the danger discovered therein because they cannot reach the heart therefore can never work upon it As through ignorance we commit sin because we see not the evil in it so after commission we sorrow not because we apprehend not the 〈◊〉 and danger Acts. 3. 17. I know that through ignorance you did it as did also your Fathers 1. Cor. 2. 8. For had they known it they would never have crucified the Lord of life It fares
that made thee a little to look about but hath the Lord ever lifted up the latch as though he were resolved to come in hath he layd hold upon and begun to grapple with that Graceless heart of thine and held this 〈◊〉 of discovery of sin to thy mind as to constrayn thee to look wishly upon it indeed to see it clearly and convictingly according to that which hath formerly been spoken Know and conclude thou maiest thou art in the right way and the Lord begins to deal with thee as he doth with those that he intends good unto But art thou a stranger to these dispensations of the Lord and tradings with thy mind and heart Thou mayest indeed have notice and hear a rumor of Christ passing by and the excellency of his Grace but of any purpose of making his abode with thee thou never couldst have the least 〈◊〉 thereof unto this day How then shall we know whether we fall short of this true sight of sin or no We will take both Particulars mentioned into Consideration that so we may take a true scantling of our own estate and track the Footsteps and Impressions of the work of the Spirit upon our souls I will touch the first in a word and entreat more largely upon the Second to wit Touching the convicting sight of sin because there lies the life and stress of this Doctrine If then we see sin cleerly naked and in it's own Nature namely this resistance and opposition against God as the greatest evil of al other It wil thus be discerned This sight will keep the heart in cold blood from careless adventuring upon the commission of sin You must stil remember my purpose is not to dispute of sanctifying knowledg or to give in evidence of that for we are in this place to look at that light that is let in in this preparative work and this first Branch of it which how far it may go or whether it can agree to an Hypocrite I will not now dispute that only I wil infer from it is beyond exception That in cold blood i. e. Take such a man out of the hurry of a Temptation when he is himself not drunk with some overbearing distemper for then he knows not where he is or what he doth and therefore may adventure to do any thing but when a sinner is come to himself and the sight of his sin as before disputed it wil suffer him carelesly to adventure upon the Commission of that which appears such in his own apprehension even the greatest evil of all The dreadfulness then of this duty apprehended wil drive the soul to a stand and stop the sinner in his proceeding that he dare as well eat his flesh and take a Lyon by the claw and a Bear by the tooth as to have his hand in that which is the heaviest plague of all in his own Judgment There is no man living but as he hath somthing which he prizeth as the chief good in which his soul takes content so the loss of that or that which is contrary to that he looks at as the most unsupportable evil that can betide him That the Soldier should take the lye or challenge and have the contempt of cowardice put upon him and sit stil and not seek to revenge the wrong as he conceives it he cannot bear it That the 〈◊〉 yong man should sel his possessions and part with all to the poor it is such an unsufferable loss he will rather part with Heaven the very hearing of it makes his heart heavy and himself to go away sorrowful Mat. 19. 22. Yea that which Nature hath made dear to all to see death before a man and danger such as wil undoubtedly hazard the loss of life how do we fear the thought of it fly the sight avoid the occasion of it didst thou see thy sins and the hellish resistance of thy heart against God to be a greater evil than al these didst thou really judg them such beleeve them as the men of Niniveh did Jonahs threatning Jonah 3. 5. to be such It 's certain it would amaze thy heart that thou wouldest be as loth to rush into evil as thou wouldest be to run upon a Spears point or cast thy self into the mouth of the Lyon to be torn in pieces Take a rebellious sinner beset with the horror of his Conscience so that he sees Hell gaping for him and the Devils ready to seize upon that hellish heart of his how loaths he then the least appearance of those corruptions the evil of which he sees in the punishment only how tender is he to avoid the occasion of them When the evil of thy punishment is now over and out of mind didst thou but know that resistance and rebellion of thy heart against God his Grace his Spirit his Truth aright as greater than all those evils and is now present with thee thou wouldst be so far fearful not heedlesly to adventure upon the practice of it When Judas saw whether his Covetousness had brought him be flung away his thirty pieces Matth. 27. 3. And it 's certain all the Scribes and Pharisees in the Synagogue and all the money in the Country of Judea could not have prevailed with him had they been then tendred to him much more had he seen the 〈◊〉 had been a greater evil than the vengeance that did 〈◊〉 Acts 19. 16. 19. When the evil spirits prevailed against the seven Sons of Sceva fear fell on them 〈◊〉 and many of them had used curious Arts brought their books together and burnt them before them all When the hearts of these Converts were pricked and they craved Counsel what they should do Peter amidst many other Counsels which he suggested ads this verse 40. Save your selves from this crooked generation You that are in Parthia Mesopotamia Phrigia Galatia you 〈◊〉 amongst many professed Enemies to the Lord Christ his Truth therefore save your selves from their Society and verse 44. They came and abode together and sold their goods and parted them as every one had need 〈◊〉 to this you disobedient Children and rebellious Servants who have the Commands of Parents and Masters Counsels of Servants and Neighbors dayly suggested and pressed upon you listen to this you heedless Professors who have the Word and Precepts of God dayly published in your Ears and proclaimed in your hearing and you go away informed convinced and the heart cannot gainsay but it ought to stoop your carriages should not be wayward your words sharpish your behaviors uncomely and yet you dare you do 〈◊〉 carelesly adventure at the next time and 〈◊〉 upon the same sins you may talk what others say by 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 profess in words that sin is the greatest evil of al but in truth you never saw sin to this day much 〈◊〉 saw it to be the greatest evil of al. A little evil were is but the 〈◊〉 of so much of thy blood by stripes or the loss of
Servants may be surprized with a pang of pride overborn with a sudden hurry of passion and frowardness and the Lord pities and pardons and passeth it by and wil not lay it to their charge because it was their Disease not their disposition their temptation and surprizal not their purpose the Lord looks at it so You have heard of the Patience of Job James 6. But when such noysom lusts become Natural and that we live in them as in our Element when we have and keep and own an accursed poysonful Nature it 's that which the Lord detests The froward in spirit is an abomination to the Lord Prov. 3. 32. In the old Law it was observed that when the Leprosie tainted the Skin but did not spread the Leaper was pronounced clean but if it did fret into the flesh it was unclean to teach us that though we had leprous distempers that tainted and defiled our performances yet if they did not fret into the flesh our affections taken aside with them the Lord looks at us as clean in his Christ because it was not we that in our hearts purposed the evil but sin that prevailed against our purpose but if we hugged them in our bosom laid them nigh unto our hearts and took them as our Natures we were loathsom in the sight of God The third Shift whereby a carnal heart comes to lighten the hainousness of his evil and therefore looks not at it as so loathsom as he should and it deserves Because he can put off the blame from himself as he conceives upon his Companions who either by their 〈◊〉 and perswasions have deluded him and led him into sinful courses beyond his intendment and sometimes contrary to his desire and therefore he concludes he may justly free himself from blame and lay the blame upon them wholly It was the fault of such such I am free Had not they counselled it I had never committed the sin had not they perswaded me I had never purposed it it was not in my thoughts but they allured deluded and drew me to it Let them be charged with the guilt and bear the punishment I hope I may be excused This manner of sinful shifting of our faults unto another is that which all of us have 〈◊〉 from our first Parents It was their practice immediately after the fal We their Posterity have made it a president to our Posterity unto this day when the Lord challenged Adam for his offence and breach of covenant why hast thou done this he puts it 〈◊〉 to the woman the woman to the Serpent Gen. 3. 12. 13. 14. The woman which thou gavest me Saies Adam she gave unto me and I did eat the woman she takes the rebound and puts the ball behind her The Serpent beguiled me but al in vain this could not free any of them from the punishmeut or excuse them from the fault To shew the feeblness of this fond pretence I shal answer several things The Aggravation of the evil of this sin in yielding to the corrupt Counsel of loose and bad companions and the suffering of a mans self to be 〈◊〉 by their delusionsappears in this that they who are here in guilty they do in this their practice prefer the folly of man before the wisdom of God their falshood above his truth serve their turn and base ends maintain their honor that in an ungodly way rather than the honor of the eternal God from whom they have received al they do possess to whom they owe themselves and should improve al they have and are to his praise and yet they do not only set up base men but even the lusts of men before the honor of the Almighty and profess so much by their practice it s not the command of God but the corrupt 〈◊〉 of vile men shal carry us not his promises though great and precious but their perswasions shal prevayl with us 〈◊〉 suffer the name and honor of the Lord to lye in the dust nay trample it under their feet that they may promote their persons and 〈◊〉 credit of their proceedings though wretchedly wicked And what greater indignity can be offered to the great God of heaven and earth who wil require it at your hands when your companions wil not open their mouths to excuse you nor can defend you from his vengeance the 〈◊〉 of this conspiracie against the Lord he himself acknowledgeth in Eli's indulgence yielding out of the easiness of his spirit to his sons in their prophane carriage in that he did not proceed with that rigour and severity as the 〈◊〉 of their carriage did justly 〈◊〉 for The Lord doth plainly and peremptorily charge him with a double evil 1 Sam. 2. 29. 30. 31. that they kicked at his Sacrifice that is cast contempt upon his holy things and honored his Sons and that in their lewdness above him when out of a feeble childishness he would suffer his sons to abuse Gods ordinances and not administer a sharp reproof or execute a just and severe censure suitable to the nature of the fact upon them he gave so far allowance to the contempt of Gods ordinances and was more willing to please them than God therefore the Lord denounceth his direful displeasure against him he repented him of all the good he had intended and would pursue him and all his Posterety to the utter confusion of their faces because thou hast kicked against my 〈◊〉 and hast honored thy sons above me therefore the 〈◊〉 shal come I wil cut off thy arme c. For those that honor me shal be honored and those that despise me shal be despised Thus the Lord dealt with 〈◊〉 when he inconsiderately joyned sides with Ahab 2. Cron. 18. 2. 〈◊〉 thou love those that hate the Lord therefore is wrath upon thee from before the Lord. Sodering with the society of the wicked is to 〈◊〉 it against the God of all the world the Lord cannot bear it but his anger breaks out immediately against such By your yielding to the counsel of the ungodly you do 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 in their wickedness and appear as a 〈◊〉 in the 〈◊〉 with them strengthen their hands and encourage their hearts steel their faces and make them resolutely bold and impenitently impudent in their ungodly 〈◊〉 they dare adventure to say and do what ever evil may serve their turnes and maintain what they do without either fear or care to hear or reform because they have others to maintain them in what they do As the scripture speaks of Absolons rebellion 2 Sam. 15. 12. The conspiracy grew strong for the people 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 with Absolon the company and encrease of his numbers added encouragment to his rebellious course Whereas had the people forsaken him his project and proceeding must needs have fallen to the ground and he been forced to have forsaken his rebellious course and hence it was 〈◊〉 policy that accursed counsel he gave to Absolon to enter
into his Fathers Concubines in the view of the people that he might settle the hearts of the people more sure to him in that there was no hope of reconciliation and agreement betwixt him and his Father and so establish his own safety Common Soldiers if their numbers encrease though they be but weak and unskilful yet give encouragement to the trayned band and the Commanders themselves yea their very appearance in the field though they strike not a stroke helps much in the Fight So the Prophet in the former place chargeth this evil upon 〈◊〉 in siding with Ahab in his design 2 Chron. 29. 2. Shouldest thou help the ungodly he that yields to the Counsel of the ungodly and joyns hands with them in their way and work he helps the ungodly and is guilty of their sin and blood Thou that art resolved to soldier with the Society of the ungodly and so suit them in their way to maintain what they say and do let them say and do what they wil thou helpest a false tongue to lye a malicious heart to reproach and 〈◊〉 an unjust hand to oppress for thou wilt defend what they do let them do what they wil that is naught Thou that art thus deluded and taken aside with the invegleings of others though the Lord looks at them as Leaders into evil and so will reward them Yet know thou must that thy condition is far worse in some 〈◊〉 more dangerous than theirs and thy plagues will prove more heavy so 〈◊〉 art thou from hoping for any 〈◊〉 or pity to thy self because thou art 〈◊〉 that thy sin and judgment wil hereby be encreased It 's the sad doom of our Savior and worthy of most serious consideration Matth. 23. 15. Wo be unto you Scribes and Pharisees Hypocrites for ye compass Sea and Land to make a Proselite that is to make one of their Sect and humor one of their hang-by's that must be pinned to their sleeves melt into their Opinions and imbrace their practice when they have made him their own their sworn Vassal al of a string that they can stir him and turn him as they wil mark the issue They make him twice more the Child of the Devil than themselves That Perdition comes to be their Portion and Hell for their Inheritance they are the heirs of it and they have a double portion there their plagues twice more heavy and therfore their sins must carry the same proportion twice more vile than those that were their Leaders into that leudness Brethren what a dreadful thing is it for one to think of it The Scribes Pharisees who were cruel oppressors 〈◊〉 exactors who devoured widdows Houses false Hypocrites blind guides painted Tombs Serpents and a generation of Vipers who cannot escape the damnation of Hell and one would think Hell it self had scarce any worse Yet when they had miss-led some poor Sneaks and deluded some ignorant silly people by their importunities and painted appearances of Holiness brought them to the bent of their bow captivated them wholly to their Opinions and Practices what a dreadful thing is it to think that these poor 〈◊〉 Creatures should be twice more the Children of Hel than such who to common apprehensions might seem to be the scum of Hell Hear and fear and let your hearts sink and shake within you you poor 〈◊〉 Creatures take a scantling of your condition by the former example Imagine you saw a proud Pharisee a man of a 〈◊〉 tongue ful of turnings and windings he cannot live without lying he is froward in spirit and 〈◊〉 not to 〈◊〉 the straight wales of the Lord that he may please his own wil suit his own humor bend the Rule to his mind not his heart to the Rule one of an uncontroulable Spirit that wil contend with God and men if they 〈◊〉 him in a sinful course Suppose thou sawest this man receive his Sentence at the day of Judgment and sent down to the pit For without shall be lyars c. 〈◊〉 22. 15. They who pervert the straight 〈◊〉 of the Lord are the Children of the Devil Acts 13. 10. And such as sow contentions amongst brethren and are contentious and obey not the Truth tribulation and wrath and anguish shall be upon the soul of every one such Rom. 2. 8. He hath learned thee his Trade of Lying miss-led thee into the like perverse contentious courses How shalt thou escape the damnation of Hell Oh thou wilt reply Lord it was his counsel that cozened me his 〈◊〉 and insinuations that drew me to those evils I had never done them else I hope therefore I may be pitied though he be plagued I may be excused though the Curte fall upon him who was the cause and Author of all No no poor misguided creature thou art utterly mistaken He is the Child of the Devil and hath received now his 〈◊〉 thou hearest him yelling in the bottomless pit he hath his load more than he can bear but thou art twice more the child of Hell this is able to sink thy heart with the very thought of it Thy slavery is far greater thy obstinacy more and therefore thy recovery harder than his he is a slave to his sins thou art a slave to the man and sin and all he wil hear reason if it be propounded thou knowest nothing and therefore receivest nothing unless thou be allowed by thy Leader the less hope that ever thou shouldst be convinced or reformed The Lord is forced 〈◊〉 let in the flashes of the fiercest of his fury into the faces of such misguided creatures to bring them to the consideration of him and themselves and to deal punctually for their conviction Psal 50. 18. When thou sawest a Thief thou consentedst and thou wast partaker with Adulterers q. d. they perswaded 〈◊〉 and thou didst imbrace their perswasion Thou sittest and speakest against thy brother he points out the time the place the company the crew amongst whom they sate These things thou hast done and I kept silence and thou thoughtest that I was altogether like thee but I will reprove thee and set thy sins in order before thee Oh consider this ye that forget God You forget you misguided sinners that God was present and saw what you plotted that God is Omniscient and knows what you intended that he is the righteous Judg of all the World and will bring the secret things of darkness to light and make known the hid Counsels of the heart Therefore let me end with the Advice and Counsel of Moses do not think to excuse your selves because deluded by your company but leave counsel and company share not in their sins and Societies if you wil not share in their plagues Numb 14. 26. Depart I pray you from the Tents of these wicked men touch nothing of theirs their counsels and perswasions and they 〈◊〉 his Counsel good and 〈◊〉 own experience gave proof They fled and cried whenthe Earth opened lest the Earth
it was said to him in the story when the Prophet in his own person would discover the Kings carelesness to him he disguised himself as the King passed by and so passed by him and said 1 Kings 20. 39. Thy 〈◊〉 went out into the midst of the 〈◊〉 and 〈◊〉 a man brought a man to me saying Keep this man if by any means he be missing then shal thy life be for his life and as thy servant was 〈◊〉 here and there he was gone and the 〈◊〉 of Israel said so shal thy judgment thy self hath decided it Let me speak to thee in a like manner The Lord hath given thee his holy commands in charge the Grace of God the Gospel of Grace which hath appeared and which bringeth Salvation teacheth men to deny ungodly unworldly lusts to live Godly soberly in this present evil world to be Zealous of good works 2 Titus 13. 14. that we 〈◊〉 mortisy the deeds of the flesh that we might live Rom. 8. 13. but if we walk after the flesh we shal dy these Evangelical commands thou art bound to observe if by any means they be awanting thou loosest thy lise if thou loosest them forget these and God wil forget thee Now thou returnest thy excuse that while thou wert busie here and there busie in planting and building busie in plotting and contriving thine own carnal contents thy heart busie and eager in the pursuit of earthly occasions and imployments thy thoughts busie in devising and acting meanes in observing and improving opportunities thy hand busie in endeavouring to the utmost of thy power and skil to accomplish these either sinful or at the best earthly conveniences thou mindest these so much the other was wholly out of thy mind out of thy own mouth shalt thou be condemned so shal thy judgment be thou heedless sinful creature thou hast decided the matter they that forget God shal be turned to Hell Psal. 9. 17 They who mind earthly things their end is damnation Phil. 3. 21. God in mercy wil not mind thee he wil not mind the prayers thou makest he wil not mind thy complaints thy necessities thou presentest before him Thus generally For a particular answer I shal do two things 1. Shew who those be that make this shift 2. How this aggravates their sin Who those be that make this excuse that each man may take his portion that those may not be burdened by mistakes who desire to burden themselves that we may not bruise the broken in spirit There be two sorts of forgetful persons First such who in the sence of their own feebleness and brickleness of memory are not able to keep the wholsom truths those heavenly treasures which many times are commended to their care observance but those precious promises precious comforts directions they slip away out of their weak memories like pure liquor out of a leaking vessel which makes them sit down in silence and their hearts sink in discouragement loaded with the loathsomness and greatness of the evil that they cannot tel how to bear it nor yet to bear up their hearts under the weight of it they conceive it so hainous so dangerous a sin that which we cannot retain say they how shal we have the use of it how shal we answer the loss of such glorious truths and the very weight of the evil shakes their very hopes many times And you shal ever observe the favour the Lord shews to such weak ones and the work of his grace in them that though through the scantness and narrowness of their memories they are not able to keep things in their order to make report of them yet so much as they have present use for they wil have that at hand and such truths which they shal have need of for after times they are never generally call'd to the practice of them but they are call'd to their minds Gods spirit brings them to remembrance their hearts by faith received them and hold them Mat. 13. 23. but the narrowness of their memory was like a house that had but scant roomes kept them in a lumber together but there they were and therefore the 〈◊〉 brings them forth John 14. 26. The comforter 〈◊〉 bring all things to your remembrance These are not the persons we now speak unto for they lighten a d lessen their evil by this means these find it heavie and load 〈◊〉 heurts with Godly sorrow for it 2. There is therefore another sort whose wound of 〈◊〉 lyes not in the weakness of their memories or scantness of 〈◊〉 that they cannot retain the truths commended to them and come within their charge but such who stuff their minds and memories so ful of earthly occasions or attendance to some distemper that either they keep out or croud out the rememberance of their duty and think because it was not in their minds therefore they have plea sufficient if it be not in their practice and thus their disposition and spirit is worse than their carriage and behavior and this their excuse it encreaseth their sin in three things or ads a three fold aggravation to it They give in undeniable evidence that they do not only neglect the service but that they have no love to it not only their endeavours are wanting but their hearts and faithfulness are wanting also to the Lord and his work love and faithfulness wil cause attendance and remembrance where ever it is The man whose heart is endeared to the woman he loves he dreams of her in the night hath her in his eye apprehension when he awakes museth on her as he sits at table walks with her when he travels and 〈◊〉 with her in each place where he comes So it would be with thee If thou 〈◊〉 little and makest that thy excuse its certain thou lovest little if thou mindest not thou 〈◊〉 not the Lord and his waies Psal. 119. 97. Oh 〈◊〉 I do love thy law it is my meditation day and night so the Saints Isa. 26. 8. The 〈◊〉 of our hearts are towards thee and the remembrance of thy name And therefore the Psalmist again 〈◊〉 thy Commandements are ever with me The heart of the lover keeps company with the thing beloved If thou mindest not to practice the duty its certain thou may est conclude thou 〈◊〉 yet hadst love to the Lord Jesus and his service This forgetfulness not minding that which is thy charge shewes thou never hadst a high esteem never yet sett'st a price upon the 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 of the ways and wil of God thou undervaluest thy duties and lookest at them as things of little worth and therefore are out of sight and out of mind refuse things that are of mean account with us we lay them by cast them into any blind corner we judg them not worth the remembrance and therefore we bestow not our memories upon them but if there be a pearl of price some special and rare jewel each
alas what can Nature do in such a case if God wil not help Is it equal that men be put upon impossibilities or that they should be punished for that which cannot be avoided It 's not in man to direct his own waies to subdue his own sins we are nothing else but a lump of corruption the Lord knows we do what we can and we hope we shal not be condemned for what we cannot do I Answer The Lord knows and thy Conscience knows and the world knows thou speakest a horrible fal ehood or to use the Phrase of Scripture Thou lyest and speakest not the Truth More particularly I answer Four things Thou doest not what thou mayest and canst do 〈◊〉 Lord hath left in thee the remainder of many natural abilities hath lent thee the help of many common 〈◊〉 and Graces which by Art and Education have grown to some ripeness and thou hast found the strokes of his Spirit partly restraining of thee from evil and constraining of thee to good and thou neither hast nor dost put forth actions and endeavors answerable in any measure It was said of them it 's as true of thee Rom. 1. 21. When they knew God they 〈◊〉 him not as God The unprofitable Servant was not condemned so much because he had no Talent but that when he had received a Talent he idled away his time and Talent hid it in a napkin he traded not gained not consequently Matth. 25. 25. This is thy condition thou art in his rank thy sin the same and thy sentence wil be the same thou hast 〈◊〉 one but many Talents hath not the Lord given thee a mind to conceive and a memory to retain things why canst not thou lay out these for the Lord and his Truth as wel as to lavish out both in the pursuit of the world and thine own lusts and lying vanities thou mayest read the Bible as wel as other vain Books seek the communion of Saints and thy legs would carry 〈◊〉 to them as wel as to riotous company Nay thou art not only faulty in not doing what thou canst but even neglecting 〈◊〉 opposing the practice of those Duties unto which thy judgment would carry thee and 〈◊〉 constrain thee Rom. 1. 18. thou holdest down the Truth in unrighteousness when thy reason props it thy Conscience provokes and calls this thou shouldest this thou oughtest to do and yet thou neglectest it Yea let thine own Experience give in evidence in this behalf thou laziest away thy time in the waies of thy Calling and the work of the Lord reads not 〈◊〉 not prayest not in private recallest not the things heard 〈◊〉 not in thy place with meekness but crooked carriages peevish and froward speeches rugged behaviors attend thee in thy dayly course Answer me out of thine own heart Would not so much money hire such reward promised and performed perswade thee to do such duties or reform such sins Would not the fear of some displeasure at least the sharpness of some punishment compel thee to reform outwardly to find thy heart and tongue and mind and force thee to pray and read and recal make thee bite thy lip and compose thy carriage not to speak a cross word or vent a passionate speech Thou wretch doth twenty pound or a whipping post give thee any Grace thou hadst therefore ability which thou never didst improve as thou mightest Secondly Be thy weakness whatit wil be or inability that is not the worst but that which ads to the heap of the 〈◊〉 of thy evil and the height of it Thou art not yet WILLING to be made ABLE to receive the grace which the Lord in the Gospel hath prepared and now tenders and would give thee 〈◊〉 thou but willing he should Rev. 22. 17. Oh every one that wil let him come to the waters for the Gospel doth not require that a man should beleeve by his own power nor yet condemn him because he doth not but that he wil not encline his Ear and suffer the power of the Truth to take place with him and prevail with him for good Christ comes to his own and he comes with Grace and Life but they receive him not John 1. 10 11. yea our Savior professed it to them Ye will not come to me that you might have life John 〈◊〉 40. And light is come into the world but men love darkness rather than light John 3. 19. men love their distempers hug and 〈◊〉 their lusts they are weary of the Word that would reveal and remove their corruptions Rom. 8. 7. The wisdom of the flesh is enmity against God it is not subject to the Law nor can be It hath not any Spiritual good it wil not bear the power of the Truth that would pluck away our corruptions and take place in us Do not plead so much therefore thou art not able but go to the bottom thou wouldest not be made able thou would'st have thy proud heart and not be made humble thou wouldst have thy loose heart and not be purged when thou art in Hell and art tormented with these and for these know thou hast thy will and therefore why dost thou complain Nay it is thy disposition to withdraw thy self from those means and not to give attendance and leave thy self under the stroke of the Word that would take away thy unwillingness John 3. 20. He that doth evil hates the Light and comes not to the Light he went away sorrowful Matth. 19. 22. And after that time many of his Disciples went away from him and walked no more with him because his words were spiritual and piercing which they could neither hear nor bear Not attending for redress and help against the frowardness and perversness of thy heart it 's a just and righteous thing with God to stake thee down under all thosedistempers that thou mayest be deluded with them hardened in them and damned for ever for them and thou hast no more than thou hast righteously deserved 2 Thess. 2. 10 11. Because they did not entertain the Truth in the love of it therefore he gave them up to the activity of Error that they might beleeve lyes and it 's the best Reason that ever yet appeared to my apprehension why the Woman who in Reason could not but know the Serpent could not speak yet would and did talk with it But she had begun before not to love the Truth being set to till the Garden and to keep it Gen. 2. that is to keep the wild beasts out of it she did not so therefore God gave her up to be deluded by the Serpent the like may be said of Balaams conference with his Ass in reason he should have fled from his Ass not have fallen in conference with him but when men delight not to have God in knowledg no marvel that he delivers them up to a reprobate sence Rom. 1. What ever difficulty and impossibility attends thy weakness thou art the cause of it
Diet that provokes to 〈◊〉 by the tast the harsh and unkind language that provokes to wrath and impatience by the Ear But the Mind and Understanding toucheth the Lord directly meets with his Rule and with God acting in the way of his Government there and when it goes off from the Rule as before and attends its own vanity and folly it justles with the Almighty stands in open defyance and resistance against him This also appeared in Adams sin our of the folly of his own deluded thoughts he would have unthroned the Almighty and hoped by Satans Counsels to set himself in the room of God Ye shall be as gods knowing good and evil Gen. 3. and he saw it to be good to get knowledg and so purchase a Deity to himself and so put it to tryal thus the wicked openly profess They say to the Almighty depart from us we desire not the knowledg of thy waies Job 21. when they desire not to have the wisdom of God rule in their minds but set up their own foolish imaginations they say then to God depart from us they shake off the Authority of the Truth and with that the Soveraignty of the Lord himself and his Government Hence the Apostle Collos. 1. 21. They were Enemies and where lay that enmity in their minds in their 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 in their Discourse in the exercise of the largest act of their Understandings wherein the use of the whol faculty appears and this enmity appears in the fruit of it which wil undoubtedly follow namely evil works Hence Rom. 8. 7. the wisdom of the flesh is said to be enmity against God not an enemy to him that would somtimes cross and oppose him but Enmity the whol being and working of it is carried in constant opposition against the Law And upon 〈◊〉 ground it is when the Apostle Peter would shew Simon Magus the hainousness of his sin he staies not in the outward expression but cals him directly to consider the thoughts of his heart where that 〈◊〉 language was minted and from whence it proceeded When 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 that by laying on of the hands of the Apostles the holy Ghost was 〈◊〉 he perceived how he might get a booty and therefore he fel to bargain tries the Market what shal I give c. The Apostle carried with a zealous indignation against so vile a demand which cast so much contempt and contumely upon the holy Spirit and the gift thereof answers with a holy disdain and denounceth a Curse Thy money perish with thee q. d. thou art in a perishing condition and this money of thine which thou conceivest wil further thy proceedings wil perish also yet he ads a caution for his recovery Oh pray if it be possible that the thought of thy heart may be forgiven Acts 8. 22 23. q. d. Thy sin is so hainous so execrable so detestable it 's almost past al possibility of pardon it 's not in the tongue which uttered the word nor in the hand which offered the money nor yet so much in thine eye that saw the work done for all these met not so directly so immediately with the Lord. The words were propounded to the Apostles the money should have been payed to them but Oh it was the hellish villany of his mind and apprehension which did so basely esteem of the gifts of Gods Spirit as if they might be valued or purchased with money He did so conceive as if the holy Spirit of Grace should Lackey after his lusts and be at the beck and command of such a proud rebellious wretch as that it should be disposed and dispensed according to his will and humor This was in his mind and thought and this made it so hainous an evil that the Apostle put it to a may be if it be possible so that the hellish evil of our imaginations and cursed contrivements of our thoughts may put a man almost beyond possibility of pardon So in the sin against the holy Ghost it 's said our Savior saw their thoughts Mat. 12. ver 25. those gave in evidence of the direfulness and inconceivable hainousness of those contumelious speeches against our Savior when they said He casteth out Devils by Belzebub the Prince of Devils It is not said he heard their words though blasphemous but he saw their thoughts they issued out of their apprehensions their thoughts being calm and quiet it was not some base pang or passion but when they had no provocation their own thoughts carried them against the evidence of all Truth meerly out of the venom of their own hearts This was unpardonable blasphemy and in truth there is no Creature but a reasonable Creature that can close not with the Creature only but with God in his Rule that can sin nor is there any sin properly but where the mind and heart is an Ingredient in it So the ravished Maid though her body was abused yet her person was not charged as guilty of sin nor she polluted therewith because her judgment was not there assenting nor her heart yielding thereunto Look at thoughts in regard of al the other evils of our lives which are acted and appear in our dayly course we may thence come to take a guess at the greatness of the evil of our thoughts for it will appear they are the causes of all other evils and therefore it cannot but be concluded there is more and worse evil in them than in all the rest A mans imaginations are the forge of villany where it 's al framed the Ware-house of wickedness the Magazine of al mischief and iniquity whence the sinner is furnished to the commission of al evil in his ordinary course the Sea of abominations which overflows into al the Sences and they are polluted into all the parts of the body and they are defiled and carried aside with many noysom corruptions Matth. 15. 19. Out of the heart comes murders adulteries thefts there is the nest where al these noysom vermine are bred Matth. 12. 34. Out of the abundance of the heart the tongue speaks and the hand works If there be pride and snappishness in a mans speech stubbornness in a course 〈◊〉 in a mans Conversation there is abundance of al these and more than these within The Imagination of our mind is the great Wheel that carries al with it That loathsom and execrable wickedness worse than which the Sun never saw the Earth never bore that unpardonable siu excepted the killing of the Lord Jesus the Lord of Life the seed of it was a thought cast by 〈◊〉 into the heart of Judas John 13. 3. it was warmed with a covetous disposition and so brought forth that hideous treachery the 〈◊〉 of the Lord Jesus If 〈◊〉 be evil in the tongue that 〈◊〉 it is it not worse in the heart that indites it Wickedness in our actions and speeches are but the brats and brood of our minds and hearts there they were conceived and fashioned in al
〈◊〉 that would not be enlightened leave them to the hardness of their hearts that would not be converted He wil not alwaies strive who hath stood so long and knocked so often thou shalt see him no more quickening awing affecting of thee Or if thou hast a heart to seek in thy manner who knows whether God will accept it or no Thou wouldest not regard his 〈◊〉 and 〈◊〉 and he wil not respect thy prayers and 〈◊〉 Prov. 1. 28. Then shall they call but I will not answer they shall seek me early but they shall not find me Hebr. 12. 17. Esau found no place of repentance though he sought it carefully with tears nay he may send thee as he did the Israelits to the Idols of thy heart Jer. 2. 28. But where are thy gods that thou hast made let them arise and save 〈◊〉 But Lastly if I cannot satisfy for my evills yet out of his bounty and mercy he may abate me of the Plagues the mercies of God are great and his compassions large and thus the mercies of God who were provided to bring men from their corruptions to 〈◊〉 through the abuse of carnal hearts become means to make them secure in their dregs Deuter. 29. 19. when al the plagues were threatned yet they bless themselves and say I shal have peace though I walk in the imaginations of my evil heart So they in Isaiah made a Covenant with death and Hell The sin against mercy is one of the greatest sins that ever thou committest Thou turnest the grace of God into 〈◊〉 Jude 4. and such are ordained of ould unto condemnation thou despisest mercy and abusest it thou shalt therefore be condemned by mercy not saved by it God must not be just and so not God if he save thee without satisfaction to his justice The Lord cannot wrong himself to relieve thee dishonor himself to deliver thee Exod. 34. 7. He will by no means Celar the guilty It s one of his names and himself and he cannot deny himself and if his justice be not satisfyed thy plagues cannot be abated If a carnal man sees he cannot prevent the danger of sin then he sayes I will bear it if I be damned I will suffer it as I may if it come to the 〈◊〉 Let me have my sins though the Devil have my soul let me have the sweet of the pleasures of sin in this world though I never see the face of God in Glory this is a most forlorn and divellish resolution But dost thou know what thou sayest true thou shalt bear thy damnation but thou art never able to bear it without breaking under it being helpless and hopeless forever O woe to thee that ever thou wert born O poor creature If I should cease speaking and al of us joyn together in weeping and lamenting thy condition it were the best course It is impossible thou shouldest ever bear Gods wrath Let these three things be considered Judg the Lion by the Paw judg the torments of Hel by some little beginnings of it and the dregs of Gods vengeance by some little sips of it and judg how unable thou art to bear the whol by thy inability to bear a little of it in this life In terror of Conscience as the wise man saies A wounded spirit who can bear When God layes the flashes of hell fire upon thy soul thou canst not endure it Whatsoever a man can inflict upon a poor wretch may be born but when the Almighty comes in battel array against a poor soul how can he undergo it Wittness the Saints that felt it as also the wicked themselves who have had some beginnings of hell in their 〈◊〉 when the Lord hath let in horror into the soul of a poor sinner how is he transported with an insupportable burthen When it is day he wisheth it were night and when it is night he wisheth it were day all the freinds in the world cannot comfort him nay many have sought to hang themselves to do any thing rather than to suffer a little of the vengeance of the Almighty and one man is roaring and yelling as if he were now in Hell already and admits of no comfort if the drops be so heavy what wil the whol Sea of Gods Vengeance be If he cannot bear the one how can he bear the other Consider thine own strength and compare it with all the strength of the Creatures and so if all the Creatures be not able to bear the wrath of the Almighty as Job saies Job 6. 12. Is my strength the strength of stones or is my flesh as brass that must bear thy wrath as if he had said it must be a stone or brass that must bear thy wrath Though thou wert as strong as brass or stones thou could'st not bear it when the mountains tremble at the wrath of the Lord shal a poor worm or bubble and shadow endure it Conceive thus much If al the Diseases in the world did seize upon one man and if all the torments that all the Tyrants in the world could devise were cast upon him and if all the Creatures in Heaven and Earth did conspire the destruction of this man and if all the Devils in Hell did labor to inflict punishment upon him you would think this man to be in a miserable case and yet al this is but a beam of Gods Indignation If the beams of his wrath be so hot what is the full Sun of his Wrath when it shal seize upon the soul of a sinful creature in ful measure Nay If yet thou thinkest to lift up thy self above all Creatures and to bear more than they all Then set before thine eyes the sufferings of our Lord Jesus Christ he that creates the Heavens and upholds the whol frame thereof when the wrath of God came upon him only as a Surety he cries out with his Eyes ful of tears and his heart ful of sorrow and the Heavens ful of lamentation My God my God why hast thou forsaken me Matth. 27. 46. Oh thou poor creature if thou hast the heart of a man gird up the loyns of thy mind and see what thou canst do Dost thou think to bear that which the Lord Jesus could not bear without so much sorrow yet he did endure it without any sin or weakness He had three sips of the Cup and every one of them did sink his soul and art thou a poor sinful wretch able to bear the wrath of God for ever Yield unto the Evidence of the Truth thus 〈◊〉 beyond all opposition and gainsaying and sit down in silence under the Authority of it and let it settle upon thy soul neither question it any more nor hear any thing against it when it hath been heard formerly so fully scanned and determined upon such undeniable grounds Shut the door against the appearance of any sinful shifts admit no conference with carnal reason any further Say that coast is cleer that case is
concluded my corrupt heart hath had a ful hearing All the Cavils and devices that ever the policy of Hel could coyn or the falsness and deceitfulness of my own heart could 〈◊〉 or frame have been alleadged followed and pressed to the utmost they have been answered and confuted and the definitive sentence is past against mine own soul by the ful consent of my own apprehension I yield the day I confess the case I hold up my hand and plead guilty These are my sins they are so hainous so dangerous I could never have conceived I could never beleeve it before but now I yield and confess it freely these are the abominations that I have committed it 's Hel that I have deserved I am an undone man a poor forlorn damned creature this is my 〈◊〉 I cannot prevent it nor can I bear it I do not now question it Awake with this in the morning sit down with this at the Table walk with this al the day long and let this Truth rest with thee when thou betakest thy self to rest and it wil over-power and affect thy heart So Job when his heart came off kindly in a godly remorse for his transgressions he suffers the 〈◊〉 of his condition to lodg and stay with him he lies under it and looks at nothing else Job 7. 20. What shall I do unto thee O thou preserver of men I have sinned q. d. I have no Arguments to alleadge no excuses to make I can say nothing nor do nothing in mine own defence only I must say I have sinned thou art the preserver of men and unless thou succor me I must perish I cannot preserve my self If the Corrosive be never so keen the Salve never so searching and operative yea though it were applied to the rawness of the Sore the very proper place for it's work if ye stirr it continually now take it off then lay it on it wil never work effectually 〈◊〉 throughly or kindly heal the wound but you must bind it on let it stay upon the place by the space of so many hours then you shal find the proper and powerful operation thereof So it is with the Soveraign and convicting Truths of Christ when all Cavils have been answered and all the pleas which a mans self-deceiving heart hath put in have been removed so that the Truth finds passage to the Conscience and is applied aright unto the soul unless it settle there by a silent subjection unto the strength of it and admit no further questioning nor debating when the cause is determined by undeniable evidence it never works kindly nor prevails 〈◊〉 effectually as otherwise it would It 's 〈◊〉 policy and practice he dayly attends When Scriptures are so pregnant and Arguments come in with such strength that no carnal pretences can stand before them though he retires for the present and seems to leave the cause yet upon the next occasion when any advantage is presented he brings about the business again and follows the temptation afresh and puts in some pretence while he questions the Truth he hinders the operation of it for the while while we are parlying and disputing what we should do we omit so long to do what we ought and unfit our selves to do what we intend and are resolved of formerly Therefore when al cavils have been silenced let not these brablers appear again nor suffer them to renew their suits and 〈◊〉 any more but cast them out of consideration as we do use to cast bils and barreters out of the Court when the causes have been heard settle the heart under the sentence of the Truth and let it sit down there Hear nothing against the determination of the Word but out of the Word and then it 's certain that determination wil never alter before thy condition alter Give thy soul for gone really according to the righteous Judgment of the Truth and stop al passages that no carnal reason may come to the speech of thy soul or pretend any way of rescue and you wil presently perceive it wil break kindly under the blow or else look out for relief elswhere Go aside then and parley with thy Spirit and say The Word upon serious search and examination hath determined it my Conscience confesseth it and I now see the loathsomness of my sin and wretchedness of my self and condition I go up and down the world as a condemned creature whose doom is past and look dayly for the day and hour of execution that death consume my daies my body drop down to the dust and my sinful proud polluted soul be dragged down into Hel amongst the Devils to avoid it is impossible to bear it is intollerable wo to my soul that thus I have sinned and who shal who can deliver from this sin and this death Talk not trouble not me with dispute what my sin and my condition is but Oh help me out of it if it may be And it 's certain if thy soul abide here it wil sink under unsupportable sorrow and soak it self in it for this wil take away the sight and sweetness of any thing that may refresh and support the wounded soul because he wil see his sins in the bitterness and venom of them where ever he is and what ever he doth and as that which poysons al the best of the comforts of this life He sees his sin in his prosperity which is but the fatting of him for the slaughter He sees his sin in his honor he is advanced the higher that his downfall may be the more miserable God fils his belly with his hid Treasures of this world that he may treasure up wrath against the day of wrath As it is with 〈◊〉 if it pass through the fire only it hardly warms it but if it lie under the blowing of the sire it wil melt it When we take away carnal shifts and bring the soul to the sight of sin we put it into the fire but that only warms it a little but when it sits down under the Sentence it 's then under the Furnace and that wil melt it Thus our iniquities are said to lay hold of a man Psal. 40. 12. When we are under the Sentence which the Word passeth upon our sin we are then under the reach of our sins and they then lay hold of us and that wil cau e that we shal not be able to lookup All those Truths that we shal hear publickly dispensed out of the word or we shal privately read in it which concerns our corruption of which we stand guilty or that condition into which we are brought by reason of our sin We must take them home to our selves as the special portion the Lord hath appointed unto us in particular and we must make particular application of them in a peculiar manner unto our selves for by this means there is more light without whereby our sins and estates are more fully discovered more Eye-salve and Spiritual sight conveyed to
him thence and behold him putting the 〈◊〉 about his neck sighing out the blood of Jesus the innocent blood the blood of Jesus let me not be rather than be thus miserable and with that he 〈◊〉 himself head-long and his bowels gush out and his soul departs out of his body and the Devils they lay hold upon it Send thy thoughts post to Hell after him hear him there cursing the day that ever he was born the head that plotted it the heart that desired it the Scribes and 〈◊〉 that consented and gave it and the tongue that said Hail Master Behold what desperate evils 〈◊〉 wil drive a man unto and what unfferable desolation it draws with it As thou seest the execution of the evil upon others So act upon thy self by present consideration danger and death when they are at hand and in present expectation they put men upon real expressions when they see 〈◊〉 must dy and they must come to answer sins wil appear as they are and they must suffer what they do deserve there is no shift then their hearts and hopes shake and sink act therefore thine own death and thine own judgment and bring in a real account of thy Condition by daily and real consideration dye daily and drag thy heart to the tryal of Gods tribunal see what thou canst make of it now that thou mayest know what to expect then Go apart and keep Assises or at least Sessions with thy self I see my sins and my condition let me see how I can give an account for them and how I can answer to the Lord and his Law or how I can bear that which follows First or last I must come to trial let me 〈◊〉 up my self before-hand to it Suppose 〈◊〉 I heard the last 〈◊〉 blow Arise ye dead and come to judgment 〈◊〉 I saw Christ coming in the clouds with thousands suppose I beheld the thrones set and the Lord Jesus summoning al flesh when the bookes shal be opened and al hidden things brought to light when the wicked shal not be able to lift up their 〈◊〉 but cal to the Mountains to cover them they are not able to abide the tryal and therefore cannot endure the terror of the lamb thou canst not but say those are thy sins of which thou never yet repentedst that thy curse and condemnation is such as thou art not able to avoid thou canst not answer for the one nor bear the other Therefore bring it up to this conclusion let me not rest in this condition now that the word and my Conscience tells me I shal never find comfort therein at that day Let me now draw towards a conclusion by setting on the exhortation with two or three Motives And first consider the danger of the mistake herein to misse here is to miscarry forever in the great work of our conversion without any possibility of recovery or redress If God never let a man see his evil its certain he never recovers him out of it When he will prepare a people for destruction and cut out a people on purpose for confusion and make them ripe for plagues he takes this course Isa. 6. go thy waies and make the eyes of this people dim and their ears heavie that in seeing they may see and not perceive hearing they may hear and not understand least they should be converted and I should heal 〈◊〉 keep them there and they be safe enough from ever receiving any saving good So our Saviour Math. 6. 21. 22. The light of the Body is the eye if the light within thee be darkness how great is that 〈◊〉 the whol 〈◊〉 is so a wound here is never 〈◊〉 there is no hope of any good coming to a soul 〈◊〉 up in 〈◊〉 It 's made a character a brand that 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 upon such as be reprobates Math. 13. 13. to you 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 the mysteries of the kingdom but to 〈◊〉 in 〈◊〉 that seeing they might see and not understand If there be but one gate to come into the way miss that you miss the way so here therefore when men are but one step betewen them and destruction they are thus discovered Math. 24. 37. they eat they drank they married and knew nothing untill the flood 〈◊〉 and destroyed them al As in a town where there is but one entrance or passage block up that there 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 coming in no going out and 〈◊〉 no 〈◊〉 of relief They go not out to seek any none come in to bring any 〈◊〉 so here when the mind is blinded there is no 〈◊〉 of the coming in of any good or for 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 receive 〈◊〉 the passage of Grace and of mercy is wholy blocked up therfore our Saviour is said to come to 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 one 〈◊〉 ou by turning of you from your 〈◊〉 therefore you must see them before you turn from them no seeing no turning no blessing Acts. 3. 26. It is the easiest way of al other It easeth a man of that last reckoning and arrerages to come a seasenable and timely discovery of sin makes a man 〈◊〉 occasions of evil and prevent them it sets up a fear in the heart and stops a man that he dare not adventure to commit them He that walks in darkness knowes not whither he goes and therefore must needs go to ruin he lyes open to al evil that comes he discerns it not he wil do any evil be it never so loathsom he perceives no such evil he takes sour for sweet poyson for 〈◊〉 and preservatiues swallowes down any thing though death be in it John 16. 2. they shal think they do God good service when they 〈◊〉 you and sayes Paul I was a persecuter blasphemous and injurious and through ignorance I did all this 1. Tim. 1. 13. The kingdom of Satan is the kingdom of darkness while he keeps men in ignorance hoodwinked he can carry them whither he wil when the light of the Gospel is once 〈◊〉 up his juridiction fals to the ground nor can he prevail as before It was a good womans speech 〈◊〉 desireing that her children might be instructed 〈◊〉 catechised that their reckoning might be less and their account more easy than hers having lived in ignorance children under Parents and Servants trayned up under good masters that shew them the evils of their wayes and keeps them affrights from them they come on so easily to Christ are carryed so gently that they know not what terror means timely conviction keeps them from the pollutions of the world Lastly it is the safest and surest way See our sins we must first or last either here to our humiliation or herafter to our confusion and we had better see them by the light of the Gospel while we are within sight of 〈◊〉 that we may be relieved than to see them by the 〈◊〉 of Hell when there is no remedy If the eye be 〈◊〉 the whol body is ful of light Math. 6. 22. If we
these are your sins these will be your ruin And I summon thee here to answer it before God in the sight of men and Angels at the great day When the heart cannot shuffle nor shift nor shake off the strength and cleerness of the Truth it 's compelled to own its sin and misery though happily not willing to leave the one nor knows not how to avoid the other True indeed then Meditation hath attained its proper and powerful work and is effectually blessed of God when our hearts are so affected with the evil of our sins as in our judgments rightly informed we did conceive them and in our most serious 〈◊〉 concluded them and indeed we should shine to our utmost to attain this and never give the Lord rest nor our own souls any rest until our hearts feel the bitterness of sin as by meditation we have found it made known in the word This is beyond our power and reach only its good to run after it and though we cannot go as far as we should yet thus far we may go We may put the heart to silence for the while stop and stisle such gainsayings for a time and turn and get the last word of the wil as it were notwithstanding the waywardness thereof This hath its mervailous use and leaves a great restraint upon the soul that it dare not vent it felf in ungodly practices but with a kind of awe and fear It deals with our souls as the Angel with Sarah when she laughed in herself as conceiving it impossible she should have a son in her old age though the Angel had said it Gen 18. 12. the Lord asked why did Sarah laugh and she denied it because she was afraid and sayed I did not laugh but the Lord followed her and held her to it and would not let her go away so nay but thou didst laugh So when the heart would fly off from the evil that is evidenced and charged either excusing or lessening the hainousness of the evil or slighting the danger of it either it was not my fault or it s not so great or the punishment is not so grieous and fearsul as men would bear us in hand Hold the heart to it and do not suffer it to go away Yes it was you that did it you must own it you shal find it upon your score one day you know and God knows and I know it the time when they were committed the manner how and how aggravated with many heightning circumstances It is so know it and thy damnation sleepeth not do not slight it you wil never be able to endure it Yes but I can God wil abate it or I can bear it nay you cannot God cannot abate it if you live in your sins and you cannot bear it Take the leave of your heart thus when you go to bed this is your condition this wil be your misery The sum of this first Rule returns to these three particulars 1 Summon the heart to answer the charge 2 Force the heart to own it 3 Silence the heart for the while under it When thus Meditation hath come into the heart let it lay hold upon the heart That 's the Second thing in this fastening when it hath arrested the soul the undeniable Evidence of the Truth then keep it under the arrest as Officers do such as they have attached not suffered them to go out of the room nor to be out of their sight or presence When thou hast with strong hand as it were forced thy heart by the power of the Truth raised by Meditation from every Coast as it were from all particular circumstances and occasions that it yield the Charge which it cannot gainsay owns the guilt under which it lies and the punishment which it hath deserved sits down silent under the Soveraignty of the Truth which it cannot controul keeps the heart under this awful disposition for ever Do not suffer thy mind to go off from the Duty of Meditation or thy wil and affections from under the impressions which were left upon it thereby For if thou thus givest way out of sloth or wearish negligence thou art in hazard not only to lose thy labor but to leave thy soul much worse by the abuse of an Ordinance than it was before thou did'st enjoy the liberty and practice of it As Iron or any Mettal once melted if it cool it grows more hard than before and more unsit to be fashioned to any use It 's so with the heart awed and melted as it were and made coming under the power of Meditation if once thou growest careless and it grows cold it becomes more unteachable hard and unfit to receive any impression of the Truth with what ever power it be dispensed Therefore by dayly consideration keep the power of the Truth and discovery of thy sins within ken stil before the eyes and sight of thy soul that so thou mayest keep the same heat and temper of Spirit that awful under and silent subjection to the Authority of the Truth the terror and dreadfulness of thine own sins and here our greatest watch is to be improved to follow this direction because the policy of Satan the proneness of our own hearts and professed opposition that the Spirits of the sons of men have against this Dispensation on Gods part and this disposition on ours we are loth to bear it Satan and the wicked are loth to suffer it in us to have the rod dayly shaked over us the silth and guilt and plagues due unto our sins continually presented and pressed upon our consciences it 's exceeding tedious and irksom unto our natures Flesh and blood is very loth to bear it Satan and the world are unwilling we should continue in such a course because they know it 's the next way to make us weary of our lives and of our sins therefore our corrupt hearts are willing to shake off such considerations and they are as restless to pluck our hearts from under the power of such an Ordinance It wil be our comfort let it be our care to have dayly meditation keep us company in our dayly course it wil keep the heart in an awful and under temper Therefore the Apostle joyns both together 1 Tim. 4. 15. Meditate on these things and be in them under the power and prevailing vertue of them As it 's sure of al so of this Truth also John 8. 31 32. Continue in the Truth and it shall make you free It 's not enough for an old cankered sore to make it open but we must keep it open not only lance it but tent 〈◊〉 to force a Truth by Meditation lanceth the sore attention to the same Truth in Meditation is the tenting of the sore and that brings though a slow yet a persect Cure Dog the heart with the dayly consideration of the discovery of sin formerly set on it wil tire a man out of his distemper force the soul either to leave
they were and therefore may cal and choos thee also They are not only dry but dead bones which the Lord makes to live Ezek. 37. 2. can these dead bones live they are not onely miscarrying but barren wombs which the Lord makes to bear and be fruitful Not only when things are under hope but when there is nothing in present appearance or expectation then God can do it Rom. 4. 24. when it is not onely beyond thy power and ability God can support thee and strengthen thee teach and quicken thee when it is beyond not thy apprehension but thy very thought and hope he hath done so 〈◊〉 do so he lives stil and can do so to thee also True my weaknesses are many but that 's not al nor yet the worst the way wardness and perversness of mine own heart ads the greatest weight unto my misery and wretchedness not onely destitute of any spiritual good but not willing to be made better my brow as brass and my neck like an iron and sinew as the Lord complaynes Isa. 48. 4. My heart harder than the nether milstone Job 41. 28. If life and Salvation were laid before me and that I might have heaven and grace for taking or entertainment of it yet I would neither have word nor Christ nor heaven it self unless I might have my wil in heaven such is the invincible stiffness and desperate perversness of my spirit unless I may have what I wil when it comes upon the narrow God must not have his glory nor service nor subjection nor alleagiance nor duty in the least 〈◊〉 discharged I must burn for I can neither break nor yield nor mercies perswade me nor judgments awe me I can receive no good nay I can see no reason why God should do any good to me that would not have it Here is the dead lift and the wonder of al wonders the overpowring of the soveraignty of a stubborn self-willy heart 〈◊〉 the throne where Satan dwells which 〈◊〉 the doctrine of free-wil to be a doctrine of Devils and that which drives the soul to everlasting discouragement pretend what such deceivers can to the contrary But the former doctrine affords support and that which wil bear up thy heart even in this particular also thy Salvation depends not upon thine owne wil for then neither thou nor any flesh should be saved But God shewes mercy to whom he will shew mercy Rom. 9. 19. As nothing can deserve his mercy so nothing can resist his good pleasure when he wil shew it he wil make thee find it and others see it James 1. 18. of his own good wil begot he us by the word of truth It 's not according to the wil of Satan for then no man should be saved it s not according to the wil of man fallen for then no man could be saved But he dispenseth the work of his grace according to his own wil And his counsel shal stand and he will do what he wil. Isai. 46. 11. let the wil of men and Devills oppose it to the utmost of their power Quiet thou thy heart I cannot do any thing that might purchas not yet in truth would I have grace if God would give it only it is with God to do good to this miserable soul of mine as he wil who doth what he wil in heaven and in earth his wil be done and blessed be his holy name for ever and ever and there stay thy self It was the expression of a man in heavy perplexity of Conscience finding the crosness of his wil to snarl at the Lords dispensation his heart sunk within him with unsupportable horror that he had 〈◊〉 the sin against the Holy Ghost and with many prayers and tears he sought to heaven to bring his heart to an under subjection to the good pleasure of the Lord but the Lord left him to his own perversness nothing he could do could prevail with his own spirit and proffessed against that cursed cavil of the Arminians that reproach of the doctrine of Gods free grace which leads to despayr and discouragement openly acknowledging that if his own salvation depended upon his own wil he should perish irrecoverably but that only held his heart in some hope that his happiness was in Gods hand and that it meerly depended upon the wil of the Lord to give him a heart to fear and serve him or else his heart would fayl And it was a savory speech of a gracious woman that had a great deal of Do with her own heart when she could not find her heart to come off so willingly to give way as she ought to what her judgment allowed she besought the Lord to give her such a disposition of heart whether she would or no. Thou yet replyest that which ads to the hainousness of my evil is this these loathsom distempers have not been harboured in mine own breast onely confined in mine own bosom which yet had been too much but they have broken out into the most sierce and professed rebellion and that in the highest degree I have been a professed opposer of the gospel and the power thereof an open Rabshekah a Ringleader and Encourager to such that would revile and reproach the righteous and good wayes of Gods grace a jearing Ishmaelite of such as with 〈◊〉 of Conscience had care to walk therein and have resolved and attempted also even with an impudent face and a brazen forehead to outbrave the authority of the truth and made it matter of scorn to drop and give in to the most dreadful threatnings that could be denounced out of the word I have trampled al the entreaties of the Lord and tender offers of mercy under feet that when I have called over my course and viewed my carriage in cold blood I have wondred that the Lord hath not made me a spectacle of his displeasure before I departed out of the place that the very earth did not open and swallow me quick as Corah 〈◊〉 and Abiram So that God cannot be God unless he do avenge himself and pluck the praise of his justice 〈◊〉 the heart blood of such a wretch nay he should be accessory to the dishonor of his own name if he should shew mercy to such who openly impudently in a hellish haughtiness of heart have trampled his mercy under their feet True flesh and blood could not do it nay the heart 〈◊〉 man cannot think it how this should be did wee measure Gods compassions according to our narrowscantling but Gods thoughts are not ours nor his wayes ours so far as the heavens are above the earth so great is his mercy unto them that fear him Isai. 55. Psal. 103. 11. infinitely above and beyond our own desires and thoughts our imaginations and expectations They are I confess amazing expressions of miraculous compassions of the Lord yet such they are as he is pleased to manifest to sinful dust and ashes He can tel how to have the
honor of his justice and to save thy soul thou sinful rebel Nay he can tel how best to provide most for his own glory when he pardons most sins I beseech thee pardon my sins for they are many Psal. 25. 11. He lets the power of darkness proceed to its ful strength that the power of his exceeding mercy might shew it self in delivering from the nethermost hell He gives sin advantage that it might do its worst and raign unto death that so his grace might raign over sin death unto eternal life According to the soveraignty of his wil whereby he subdues al things to himself Eph. 3. last and here thou mayest yet feel firm bottom to bear up thy fainting heart from sinking down into everlasting discouragement Thus you see the compass of this encouragement which issues from Gods free grace But least some proud flesh should arise by this healing preservative if it should heal too fast to keep thee under this encouragement and yet to keep thee from presumption take these Cautions It 's possible God may do thee good notwithstanding all indispositions and oppositions But know 〈◊〉 for certain he never will do it but in his own way If he save thee he wil humble thee if he pardon that guilty soul and Conscience of thine he wil pierce both to the quick there is not a possibility he should save thy soul 〈◊〉 thy sin also set it down for an undenyable conclusion I cannot have my stubborn and rebellious heart and have any hope that ever I shal have either Grace or Mercy If thou wilt sin that mercy may abound as the Apostle brings in the sons of Belial speaking Rom. 6. 1. thou mayest have thy sin but upon these terms thou shalt never have mercy Either expect that God should take away thy sin or else never expect he should prevent thy ruin When the Lord lets in some light to discover the loathsomness of thy corrupt Nature and begins to grapple with thy Conscience so that thou stand'st convinced of the vileness of thine own waies the worth and excellency of his Grace when God hath thee upon the Anvil and under the Hammer to break thee in the fire to melt thee 〈◊〉 fear fear lest thou should'st make an escape from under the hand of the Lord and fall back again to the old base course it 's a dreadful suspicion of Gods direful displeasure lest either the Lord wil cease to do thee any further good or give thee up to those hellish departures that thou shouldest make thy self everlastingly uncapable of mercy 1. It 's a sore suspicion that the Lord purposeth to leave striving and to meddle with thee no more when the Lord suffers thee to wind away from under the power of the means which formerly thou wert subject to It 's Gods usual manner to make such unexcusable and never make them good that they might go self-condemned and so go to Hell It 's that of the Prophet 〈◊〉 which he makes a Symptom of the out-cast condition of the Jews that they were dross Jer. 〈◊〉 30. Reprobate Silver shall men call them because the Lord hath rejected them How proves he that Verse 29. The Bellows are burnt the Lead is consumed in the fire the Founder melteth in vain for the wicked are not plucked away To this purpose is that of our Savior when he had long striven with the rebellious Jews clocked to them as a Hen to her Chickens and would have gathered them under the wing of his saving Providence by the preaching of the Gospel and ye nothing would prevayl they would drive Christ out of their sight and he smites them with a plague answerable Math 23. 2 last ver ye shal see me no more until ye shal say blessed is he that comes in the name of the Lord. And this his word hath taken hold upon them unto 〈◊〉 day the poor forlorn Jewes have not had a sight of Christ this sixteen hundred yeers scriptures they have prophecyes promises yea they have the Gospel while they 〈◊〉 the Gospel for so the Apostle Gal. 3. The Gospel was preached to Abriaham saying in thy seed shal al the Nations of the earth be blessed they see al this but the vayl is over their eyes they see no Christ in promises ordinances and therefore no salvation leaving secret things to God So it befals many falshearted Apostates when God hath had them in the fire and they come out too hastily from horror and humiliations before half melted It s a great adventure they never come to Christ but wanse away in a powerless kinde of formality and content 〈◊〉 with the enjoyment of some outward priviledges and ordinances and names of profession they have the scriptures and ordinances but never see a Christ in any of them nor wil the Lord look upon them nor once speak to them when he passeth by but let them live and perish as heartless Christless men Thus our savior dealt with his people in former times when he had sent the spyes into the Land of Canaan Heb. 3. 18. Numb 14. 23. and they returned convinced by their own experience of the goodness of the land as flowing with milk and honey and out of a slothful cowardice because there were iron Charrets and walled cities and mighty Giants they withdrew the duty and Gods charge and disheartened also the people the text sayes the Lord sware in his wrath they should not enter into his rest When God swears it shewes his purpose is unchangable and his execution wil not be altered Canaan is a type of the Kingdom of grace and so of Glory when the Lord let in some evidence of the excellency thereof and the heart cannot but acknowledg it 〈◊〉 leaves off rather than it wil take the paynes to grapple with those Giant-like corruptions that iron and 〈◊〉 hardness of heart why shouldest not thou fear least God should swear thou shalt never enter into his rest thou shouldest never find the power of the death of Jesus in killing the body of death so that thou shouldest cease from thine own works and from the sinful distempers of thy corrupt heart Fear again lest the Lord give thee up to thy old distempers that thou should'st make thy self everlastingly uncapable of any good and sin that unpardonable sin against the holy Ghost When thou goest against those Convictions of thy Conscience those tasts of approbation which somtimes thy heart took in the good Word and waies of God for by this back-sliding thou art in the ready way to run upon that rock This was that which helped Paul the possibility of mercy 1 Tim. 1. 14. But I obtained mercy because I did it ignorantly it was his zeal that he persecuted the Church i. e. his blind zeal but should he have done so against the Dictates of his Conscience and the evidence of Truth in his own heart he could hardly have seen a way for mercy So the Apostle to the
ever find 〈◊〉 in the 〈◊〉 and most keen threatnings and their hearts tremble at them because the 〈◊〉 of God is there 〈◊〉 submit to them close with God in them they take them as 〈◊〉 to cure the 〈◊〉 in them not 〈◊〉 kil them and therefore take 〈◊〉 in them and they wil stil say the word of the Lord is Good and hence are desirous to hear al to know the worst and the whol mind of God so Ely 1 Sam. 3. 17. hide nothing from me that which wounds most deep and works most kindly he welcomes it with a glad heart because he knowes his welfare is there Whereas a fals 〈◊〉 flyes from the terror of the truth Math. 19. 22. He went a way sorrowful they say to the seers see not and to the prophets prophecy not right things but smooth things Isai. 30. 10. He is loath to hear what his heart doth not like and willing to put by the power and darken the evidence of the truth that appears dreadful to him by reason of his sins Cme we now to the main Observation wherein the pith of this spiritual truth consists and that 's in two things 1. Gross and scandalous sinners God usually exerciseth with heavy breakings of heart before he bring them effectually to himself 2. Sorrow for sin when it 's rightly set on pierceth the heart of the sinner through that is rightly affected therewith To the First Gross and scandalous sinners God usually exerciseth with heavy breakings of heart before he bring them effectually to himself These desperate wretches who had embrewed their hands in the blood of the Lord Jesus and now in an impudent manner set themselves to out-brave the servants of Christ and his Word and Ordinances also the Lord he handles them roughly suitable to their rebellious carriages towards him they had pierced the Body of our Savior and exercised his soul with unsupportable sorrows he pierced their hearts they openly and impudently professed their cruel and accursed rage not him but 〈◊〉 Cruc fie him crucifie him He forceth them to proclaim the loathsomness of this their way in the view of the world they before the multitude scorned the Apostles he forceth them now in the face of the people to reverence and ackn̄owledg them as the dear Servants of God The Lord knows how to deal with men answerable to their sinful dealings with him and the 〈◊〉 of their hearts and doth thus with scandalous ones and not only those whose lewdness and wickedness lies open to the view of the world but with such also who are many times more retired and carry it more cunningly and closely from the eyes of men if yet their evils be gross in which they live and lie as such which oppose the light of Reason the Dictates of Conscience the remainder of those common Principles which are left in the corrupt Nature of men as murder theft forgeries adulteries though molewarplike they carry it never so secretly dig deep to hide their counsel and contrivement from God and man yet commonly God breaks open their Conscience breaks in with dreadful terror upon such plucks those sweet morsels out of their maws and constrains them to vomit out those bosom abominations by open confession after one manner or other to some one or many I say it 's Gods usual manner so to deal with such which implies he may deal so with others but usually so with these Not that he may not nay somtimes deals not so with others whom by the strokes of his restraining Grace he hath preserved and kept untainted from such loathsom abominations and refined by a civil and comely fashion and carriage If either he purpose to use them as choyce Instruments in his 〈◊〉 and improve them in some special Service to set 〈◊〉 and promote his own praise as men use to season their Timber more than ordinary if they intend to use it in some more than ordinary Service and when they mind to raise the building marvelous high they commonly according to a course of prudence lay the Foundation exceeding low Or if the Lord intends to manifest himself to the soul of a sinner with some ravishing sweetness with enlarged and amazed communications of the assurance of his Love Joyes unspeakable and glorious It 's ordinary with the Lord to abase the heart exceedingly under the dreadful apprehensions of it's own vileness that it may be the more fitted to receive such special comforts not to surfet with them by security and pride Great Revelalations have great Humiliations go before them the Eb is very low before the Tyde come with greatest strength and height otherwise the soul would never be able to bear such over-bearing expressions of Gods Love and communications of himself but would certainly abuse them If the Keel of the Boat were little and narrow a large Sail would over-turn it not convey it to the Haven Great Assurances and glorious Joyes are too great a Sail for a heart that is not widened with enlarged contritions and humiliations God would make Job a pattern of Patience to all posterities therefore he exerciseth him with all extremities in all kind of sharp and piercing sorrows and heavy desertions The Lord shakes the heart of Isaiah in the sence of his own unworthiness Wo is me saies he I am undone I am a man of polluted lips before he would reveal unto him those hid Prophesies concerning the Dispensation of his displeasure amongst the Nations and those mysterious depths of the glad tidings of the Gospel which were kept secret from the beginning of the world Paul is buffeted with fierce assaults by the splinter in the flesh that he might not be too much lifted up by Revelations that he might know he was not yet in the third Heavens but in the mid'st of a burry of distempers and a Hell of Devils These are but some exempt cases and that in some persons for some special ends But with gross and scandalous persons it's Gods usual way so to deal not that he is tyed or hath tied himself to this manner of dealing upon necessity but that he hath expressed it to be his good pleasure so to dispense himself to such notorious rebels as that way which best suits the Counsel of his own wil and the attaining his own end his glory and their best good and if ever he make an exemption for causes best known to his own blessed Majesty in bringing such unto himself that he deals tenderly with them at the first it wil hardly ever be found but they tast most 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 afterwards when happily they least 〈◊〉 them and yet are made better able to bear them When the Delivery hath been speedy the after-throws have been many and hazardful many times If such men get somwhat an easie bargain at first there be hard penny-worths heavy after-claps they meet withal beyond their expectation and it commonly never fails The Rule is general the Prophet
not in your power to bring them in yet bring them as neer to the Kingdom of God as you can c. They were pricked in their hearts The last Doctrine which is considered touching the Work it self Sorrow for sin 〈◊〉 set on pierceth the heart of the sinner through that is truly affected therewith They were pricked not in their eyes to weep for their sins so Esau could not in their tongues only to confess their sin so Judas did I have sinned in betraying innocent blood nor in their hands alone to reform it outwardly so those Apostats did 2 Pet. 2. 20. They escaped the pollutions of the world through the acknowledgment of our Lord and Savior Jesus Christ but it reached their hearts their souls bled inwardly their souls were most guilty and had the greatest hand in the commission of those bloody and execrable cruelties the fountain of their sorrow did rise as high as the beginning of their sin soul sins and soul sorrows Nor was the stroke slight not the ripling of the skin a lighter touch a sudden pang a sigh and away nay not only lanced and gashed the rotten imposthumes of the corruptions of their hearts in a great measure but ransacked the very root of the corruption pierced the heart quite through through and through again as it were let out the core of the most inward and most retired corruptions that were lodged in their bosom and bottom of their hearts And this work proceeded not from any power of their own nor from the liberty and freedom of their wils as that which they made choyce of and out of their own ability did readily put forth but it was set on by the hand of the Almighty in the entrance whereof they were Patients went against the heart and hair and wholly beyond their purposes and expectations So the words are in the passive form they were pricked they did not prick themselves Nay certainly could they have told how to prevent it how to remove it or to procure any ease and relief unto themselves they would never have cryed out as men in a maze and astonishing straights of Spirit What shall we do Thus God proceeds when he purposeth to make a through work When God was purposed to set upon the revolting people of the Jews and to bring them savingly home to himself Hos. 13. 4. so 〈◊〉 carry it according to the foregoing and following words I am the Lord thy God from the Land of Egypt and there is no Savior besides me ver 4. and blames also the frowardness and folly of their Spirits not yielding so readily and taking the advantage of Gods dealing for their good ver 13. The sorrows of a travelling woman shall come upon him he is an unwise son for he should not stay long in the place of the breaking forth of Children q. d. The Lord in mercy offers himself to the Israelites under their terrors as a Midwife that would make way for them out of their sins and sorrows Now in this 〈◊〉 of his towards the people to be converted he professeth that he will meet with them 〈◊〉 a Bear bereaved of her whelps he wil rend the caul of their hearts ver 8. the words are the closure and shutting up of their hearts sinners are shut up under the power of their distempers as the Apostle saith all men by Nature are shut up under unbelief Rom. 11. 32. especially there be some closets and secret corners and conveyances of soul wherein the most sweet and delightful abominations are hugged and harbored the Lord leaves not a poor wretch if indeed he intend his good before he breaks open those great depths rests not before he come home to the root and let out the heart-blood of thy lusts and then their death wil undoubtedly follow And hence it is this sorrow is compared to such as enter into the very inwards of Nature and sinks the soul with unsupportable pressures when that great conversion and return of the Jews to the entertainment of the Gospel shal be brought about by the Lord. The Prophet sets forth the greatness of that sorrow of theirs under a double similitude First Zach. 12. 10. They shall mourn for him as the mother mourns for her only son and for her first born the mourning of a tender hearted mother for her son her first born and for her only son he adds al degrees of grief if she had possessed many she might more easily have wanted one or at least parted with it or had it been any but her first born which had the first of her strength and the first of her love yet she might have born it with more quietness but when al these meet together her life and comfort is wrapped up in the life of the Child the mourning becomes unmeasurable fils the heart as it were Secondly It shall be like the mourning of Hadadrimmon in the Valley of Megiddon when al Israel lamented the death of their good Josiah the light of their eyes the breath of their Nostrils the comfort of their souls 2 Chron. 35. 25. Therfore the original words which lay open this work are of marvelous weight and discover the overpowring vertue thereof Isai. 57. 18. The Lord dwels with him that is of a contrite spirit Isai. 61. 6. The Lord binds up the broken heart The first whereof signifies to pun to pouder and to bring to smal dust it is so used Psal. 90. 3. Thou bringest man to the dust of death again thou sayest return ye children of men That as the hardest stone when it 's broken al to smal mammocks and pouder as it were it 's easie and yielding under the touch of the hand what ever ruggedness and resistance was in it before So it is with the soul that is punned to pouder so that there is not any unbroken or any whol part to be found there no sodering in any secret manner with any retired distemper but the weight of godly sorrow hath shatter'd all asunder distress of Conscience hath brought it to dust parted all the privy closures with any particular of any distemper all that knotty stiffness and perversness of spirit in siding with any corruption is now taken off The soul comes easily to give way to the Authority of the Truth that would take any sinful lust away To the like purpose is that of Job Job 23. 16. when the Armies of Gods indignation had encamped against him and the terrors of the Lord had drunk up his spirit saies he God makes my heart soft or hath melted my soul the word signifies a severing and separation of one thing from another and is opposite to setling and fastening making firm stiff and hard as that of Pharaoh Exod. 9. last Pharaoh hardened his heart his soul fastened by an invincible resolution to the sinful purpose of his malicious detaining and oppression of the Jews When the fierceness of Gods dupleasure brought home by the breathings of the Spirit
that are daily before his eye the Lord wil force him to look further to see and feel something more and worse than ever yet he found before he have done with him therefore he makes the wound deeper rests not before he be at the root of the heart quite through comes to the very quick and sees the bottom Hence the Lord leads the soul from the terror and sting of sin to view the stayn and filth of it which was more deer to the soul than its own 〈◊〉 and yet worse to the soul than al the misery and vexation that could befal it Open here a little There is something in the wil above the natural or physical being of it look at its being meerly as it ariseth from the power of those natural principles whereof it s made there is something above these and so better then these unto which theseare subject and subordinate namely those divine principles of grace which were at the first imprinted upon it and by which those natural abilities should be carried beyond their physical being to close with God and so attayn an eternal and in that 〈◊〉 a supernatural happiness I say in that sence supernatural though it was Naturae debitum because Adam should not nay could not please God put forth such a divine act out of the faculties of understanding and wil for then the 〈◊〉 in Hel now might please him for their natural faculties stil remain but it was as they were acted and carryed by the image of God wisdom holiness and righteousness that were bestowed upon them So that these principles of grace in the wil were above the wil and better than the natural being of it Since the fal of Adam original corruption is come into the place and room of that original righteousness and by a Soveraignty of power takes possession of the heart and wil so and so the whol man rules it carryes it captivates it in subjection and subordination to it self So that to a son of Adam now in the state of sin corruption exerciseth a soveraign power and command over the wil and is better to the sinner than his natural being corrupt self is of more power and more neer and intimate to the soul then natural self Hence the souldier wil rather loose his life than take the lye he wil fight for it and dye for it his honor is nearer to his heart than his being thus the Ambitious among the heathen the desire of vain glory amongst the Jesuites that they may be-canonized for Saints makes them put their necks into the halter And a corrupt heart wil loose Christ and ordinances and safety and life and al rather than not satisfy his own humer So Saul kill me that it may not be sayd the uncircumcised Slew me after he had been dead he would never have felt the disgrace but his ambitious humor was more dear than his blood When the blow reacheth hither then ye are come to the root of the heart and the heart is pierced quite through when the heart and the power of corruption are parted Therefore when the Lord intends to make through work with a poor wretch whom he hath upon the rack in his horror and perplexities there he holds him he shal not go or get from hence before he go further and forceth the sinner to further consideration If it be so why am I thus thou lookest upon hel and the torments thereof as loathsom and fearsul what are thy sins then that deserve these thou viewest thy plagues which are diresul and unsufferable what are thy sins then that procure these Sayes the Lord. Psal. 107. 17. Foolish men are plagued because of their transgressions Psal. 38. 8. there is no quietness in my bones by reason of my sin Jer. 4. 18. thy sins and iniquities have brought these therefore thy wickedness is bitter because it reacheth unto the heart Hither the Lord brings and here keeps the soul my sins are before me Psal. 51. 3. he leaves the thoughts of his punishment and turns his eye to the power of his distemper and the distance that they work between God and his soul. Here Satan bestirs him that he may darken the way of the distressed sinner and deceive him by some wily fetch And therefore he deviseth how he may shift shoulder and change his habitation and not be thrust wholly out And therefore he is wel content to gratify the sinner here that he should look upon some sin that is attended with shame and loathsom to the light of nature to the dictates of the common principles of natural conscience and there he wil suffer him to lay on load and to follow it with great fierceness and indignation that so when the heart is come to a calm and the storm is over he may take aside with some lesser evils that he may but color them over with the pretence of religion thus many men have changed their special corruptions not truly parted with them and for the while have fallen short of this through sorrow The Devil doth with sin as great men with their houses they have their winter houses and their summer houses and they remain there where they have most conveniency and suitableness so when a mans speicial sin of his constitution hath fallen and the parties have conceived the day is theirs their hearts have been truly broken when the Devil onely alters his habitation they grow to be disobedient servants and sharp wives and that under pretence of Religion the servant must go pray when he should go to work his Master is a carnal man the wise froward and perverse her husband wants the power of Religion why should she look at him and this upon mine own knowledg hath discovered the 〈◊〉 and hath been a means to many to begin again and to make through work therefore the Lord follows the soul afresh that it must feel sin as sin and therefore every sin and else none truly Cursed is every one that continues not in al things written in the law Gal. 3. 10. there must not be great breaches but no breaches not gross sins but no sin that God wil bear or we should keep knowest thou not sayes Saul to Jonathan that as long as the son of Jsha remaines alive thou wilt never be established 1 Sam. 20. 31. So Conscience to the soul that as long as the league life of any of these distempers concontinu doest thou not know thou wilt never thou canst never be established in the kingdom of grace Nay the sinner beginns now to reason with himself why was I born why came I into the world wherein consists my good or what is my hapiness is it not to please God to be one with him and happy in so being should I carry this proud stubborn rebellious heart to heaven with me heaven would be a hell to me and I a devil in it Now however this work be thus punctually in the several parts of
it discovered and however it is even in special distances many times thus also enstamped upon that soul. Yet the Lord doth bind himself to leave such plain tracks and footsteps of proceedings with a poor 〈◊〉 at al times and therefore we must not limit the holy one of Israel to be at our allowance and liking or confine him to the compass of our conceits and desires Therefore it pleaseth the Lord to dispense himself in a divers manner in dealing with divers sinners and those we shal ad in a word Somtimes then in the second place the Lord suddenly sets on the blow and leaves mighty and prevailing impressions at the very present speedily and unexpectedly goes through stich with the work pierceth the soul through at one thrust Sometimes at one sermon may be in the handling of one point nay some one sentence or some special truth the Lord is pleased to arme it and discharge it with mighty power and uncontroulable evidence that it astonisheth and shivereth the heart of the sinner al in pieces As it is in the 〈◊〉 of a piece it may be one scattred shot or splinter hitts and kils when al the rest miss so with the splinter of a truth when directed aright God lets in so much of the amazing beauty of his own holiness and purity the dreadfulness of his displeasure and the infinite crossness in himself to the least corruption and consequently that abhorred 〈◊〉 in the nature of sin even the smallest that look as it is with terrible thunder and lightning it melts al before it and that most where there is opposition against it even the league that is between the heart and the lust soakes into the very root of the soul and hence under such a sudden thunderclap such mauling blowes now and then the sinner dyes and faints away under it in the very place where he sits sometimes roars out as one that hath received his deaths wound in his bosom and that he hath heard his doom and was delivered up into the hands of the Devil ready to drop into the dungeon and to be carried post to the bottomless pit and such soul sinking and confounding terrors which takes off a serious and iudicious consideration of the 〈◊〉 assaulting they vanish away for the most part and come to little or nothing when the tartness of the horrot is once allayed But sometimes lastly the sinner takes in the truth kindly and contains himself hath his load as much as his heart can bear for the while as much as 〈◊〉 and soul can hold together goes away droops and buckles under his burden steps into a solitary place and hangs the wing as a foul that is shot the saving truth thus set on lyes gnawing and eating at the heart blood of a sinner as aqua-fortis doth in iron leaves it not until it eat asunder the league betwixt the lust and the heart Thus this lively truth in the soul like strong physick in the bowels walks up and down the world with a man is working night and day he cannot avoyd the evidence and light of it he cannot lessen nor hinder the operation of it Now he questions with this or that Christian then resolves to speak to such a Minister and to reveal his whol condition and to crave his counsel he is often going and turns back again almost at the dore and yet goes away again sometimes enters into speech and his heart misgives him he pretends another 〈◊〉 and departs again Al this while the soul bleeds inwardly the truth is stirring and the physick working til at last it over-bids the darling distemper then the coast is clear the heart growes to more liberty and his speech more free Thus Paul expresseth Gods manner of proceeding with the Corinthian Convert 1 Cor. 14. 29. when the word is dispensed in plainness there comes in one unlearned and unbeleeving he is convinced of al and judged of al i. e. the evidence of the word convinceth him and judgeth him his 〈◊〉 and it followes the secrets of his heart are made manifest those retired and privy haunts of sin in the soul are discovered so he wil fal down and say God is in you of a truth He saw more of God and his Majesty and purity more of his own sin and the filthy puddle of his own distempers it was the Wisdom of God to discover those hid things of darkness and brought the loathsomness of them to light it was the Holiness 〈◊〉 God that shews the hainous and hellish Poyson thereof it was the power of God that did conquer the prevailing Dominion of these distempers unto which the heart was subject And this was the Lords dealing with Paul he assaults the main hold and strength of his rebellion and drives him at the first dash as it were to look where the loathsomness of his evil lay Saul Saul why persecutest thou me I am Jesus thou persecutest that Jesus that came to redeem thee opposest that Grace that would sanctifie and bring thee to Glory tramplest upon that blood that would free thee from the guilt and curse which thou hast brought upon thy self thus lastly it was with Job in that new Conversion as I may say that the Lord wrought in him Job 42. 4 5. I have oft heard of thee by the hearing of the ear but now mine eyes see thee I abhor my self in dust and ashes when God lets in a sight of himself and a sight of 〈◊〉 from thence the soul begins not to abhor his plagues and punishments which the other feels or fears he abhors not Hell and the torments thereof but abhors himself the pollutions and impurity of his own soul which are worse than al the everlasting burnings of the bottomless pit and hence is that Phrase Ezek. 36. 32. They shall loath themselves not their miseries though they were more than they could bear not their Judgments though heavier than they could endure but they loath their own souls the hellish exorbitations swervings and departings of heart from God that they had held any connivence or correspondence with their lusts Lastly Gods manner of 〈◊〉 is sweet and secret and works insensibly 〈◊〉 spirits of such who do receive it when and 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 to 〈◊〉 infinite Wisdom whose 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Rom. 11. 33. He can and doth somtimes 〈◊〉 the soul in the 〈◊〉 as it 's commonly conceived he did John Baptist Luke 1. 44. Many times he begins to tamper and trade with the spirits of his when they are yong and tender and their yeers few drops in some grain of the immortal Seed of the Word which takes root by the powerful operation of the Spirit and grows up with them as they grow in yeers 2 Chron. 34. 3. While Josiah was yet yong 〈◊〉 eight yeers old he began to seek after the God of his Fathers and declined not to the right hand or to the left So the Lord seemed to deal with Joseph and to reveal
affect it with the greatest grief and burden for sorrow in al the proportions of it issues from these two grounds A crossness of an evil truly apprehended by the judgment the venome acting really upon us where these are in a greater or lesser measure there sorrow is greater or less upon this ground the Apostle evidenceth the grief and burden of the creature Rom. 8. 22. For we know that the whol creation groaneth and travaileth in pain together until now and that because it was made subject to vanity and this is their vanity because their end is crossed and so their good is hindred for wheras it is their desire to serve such as may serve God when they serve the humors and corruptions of carnal men they become vain and miss their end and so their good and this is as it were a grief to them Were the venome of sin but discovered and acted upon the nature of the soul it could not but groan under the evil and vanity thereof as that which wholy deprives it of its end and good While the soul stands fully under the power of corruptions possessed with it and acted by it it 's not possible it should apprebend the evil of sin nor the nature of the soul tast the venome thereof Sin carryes no crossness of opposition of evil to it self and therefore 〈◊〉 disquiet to it self 〈◊〉 so no separation from it self But sin wholly possessing and wholly acting the soul it makes the mind and heart apprehend not according to the nature of the soul and impression left upon it when created but according to the distemper by which it is possessed and carried So did they to Samuel 1 Sam. 8. 19. they said nay but we wil have a King Jer. 18. 12. So they to Jeremiah we wil walk every one in the imagination of his own heart Give the sick man the most pleasant potion though the Physitian profess it and give reasons and others by experience find it so he no sooner tasts it but he puts it away as that which is exceeding bitter because his tast is corrupted and tongue furred with the foulness of his stomack he rellisheth the drink not according to what they say and what it is or what the natural constitution of the palate would perswade but what his distemper which now possesseth and disordreth his tast tel him So it was with Judas though he was told before that it were better he had never been born that would not do the deed his covetous heart found another rellish nay when he flung away his money out of vexation yet he rellished hismurther stil and therefore hanged himself And this is the reason why they who sin against the holy Ghost even against the evidence of reason the corruption of their heart rellisheth other than reason tells Hence the Lord Christ by the irresistible power of his spirit doth countermand the authority of sin makes it appear that its commission is come to an end the date of it is expired Namely sin after Adam withdrawing himself received a commission from divine justice that 〈◊〉 the soul would not be ruled by him and his law It should be possessed and acted by corruption the date of the commission lasts until the Lord Jesus the second Adam who 〈◊〉 for the sinner comes by covenant to take the soul to himself and then he appearing in this behalf sin is forced back and not to exercise her power and then the evil of sin is brought home to the soul and set on with the ful venome of it and the nature of the soul is made sensible of it I say made sensible and deeply affected therewith This me thinks is the binding of the strong man Math. 12. 29. Wherby the Devills armour that is his comission by vertue of which 〈◊〉 holds the soul is taken away from him stopp the sluice and stream that drives the mil and then you turn the wheel another way which otherwise while under the sourse of the stream cannot be stirred Thus God commands the soul to return from iniquity Job 36. 10. And if he do but stop the commission for a sudden turn then there may follow a tast which such as sin against the holy Ghost may have of whom the Apostle speaks Hebr. 6. 4 5 6. The Lord Jesus by the virtu of his death puts an end to the commission that divine justice gave disanuls the right and power that sin challenged and by which it acted the soul of a sinner wherby it kept the soul under its command that no means could work upon it or be made effectual to it 1. Pet. 3. 18. Christ dyed for us that he might bring us to God For when Adam and so we in him wilfully departed from God would not be guided by his rightous law and just wil divine justice gave a commission to sin to take vengeance of the soul and keep it under that no good may come to it or it receive any now Christ by his death having satisfyed justice the commission is cancelled there is nothing on Gods part which hinders And there is nothing on our parts can hinder the authority of sin is disannulled his claym made voyd that soul is mine saies Christ hands off 〈◊〉 hands off sin the claym answered authority disannulled power stopped now there is way for light to come to the mind and for the nature of sin as discovered to be set on upon the soul and it made to seel the venom thereof as upon those termes it may utsupra So our Saviour 〈◊〉 1. 18. I was dead but am alive and I have the keyes of hell and death i. e. hath supream authority to shoot back al boults to open al dores As the first Adam by natural generation 〈◊〉 power and commission from divine justice to turn the souls of his children from God to sin so the second Adam having satisfyed and answered divine justice hath power to turn the soul from satan and sin to God satan and sin are at his devotion the soul at his command The third particular to be opened How far the soul is or may be truly said to be active in this work of Contrition or this spiritual sorrow when it comes to receive the right impression of it for sin as such The Answer may be conceived in the following particulars There is no power in man to remove that resistance that is in his heart against God the work of his grace that which out of its own corrupt principles doth wholly resist and cannot but resist the operation and dispensation of al spiritual means that would prevayl with it for good that cannot take away the resistance for resistance cannot take away resistance it implyes a palpable contradiction as that which is professedly cross to common sence but the corrupt heart of a natural man while he is in the state of nature and corruption doth and cannot but wholly resist the work of
grievous yet the plague-sore of their sins was heaviest upon their hearts and most in their thoughts so it is with a contrite sinner his complaints and thoughts return hither as to their center publish the comforts promises and priviledges of the Gospel the sinner acknowledgeth the promises are precious the comforts are sweet the priviledges great and happy they that ever they were born that have a title thereunto But alas what have I to do with these my heart is yet hard and my sins yet unsubdued Those keep good things from me Lay open al the threatnings of the word the plagues the Lord hath prepared the curses iudgments and punishments that are recorded in the scripture and ever were inflicted by the justice of the Lord the contrite sinner looks presently beyond these plagues to his sins which is the cause of al these and worse than al these and that gives the sting and evil unto al these evils what shal I do I have sinned deliver me from blood guiltiness O God not from the sword though that was threatned but from his sin The sinner that hath his heart thus truly affected and pierced through with his sins is marvelous tender easily to be convinced of a yielding disposition i. e. freely and readily enlarged in the open acknowledgment of an evil that is discovered he stands guilty of As it is with the body when it is pierced or pricked with a stiletto He bleeds inwardly it may be but so as the blood hath no vent nor the party relief hence the life is in hazard but when it s thrust quite through though the wound be greater and wider yet the danger is less because the party bleeds kindly and naturally the wound is more 〈◊〉 to be cleansed and healed there is no fear of festering and rankling inwardly but the Chirurgeon may readily come at it for the cure So it is when the soul is wounded aright with Godly sorrow for its sin it bleeds kindly and naturally ready to see the evil the core the root of that corruption from whence it comes and willing and open hearted that the saving word of the truth either of instruction reproof comfort or exhortation may be applyed for cure and recovery A broken hearted sinner fals immediately before the power of the word takes the sin presently home to himself when ever or what ever is presented with evidence to him without cavilling or gainsaying shifting or winding away from under the authority thereof That resistance and gainsaying opposition is now removed which formerly took possession and the irresistible power of the spirit hath flung down those strong holds of Satan and sin hath conquered and captivated the high thoughts of the mind and sturdy rebellions of the heart unto the obedience of the Lord Jesus and therefore there is an entrance and easy passage made for the truth to take place and the heart to take the impression thereof with some pleasing content parts of the body which are wounded broken and sore and very sensible of the least stir or touch of any thing that comes nigh them they feel presently and are affected with some trouble Oh say we it s my broken Arm my sore Hand the least touch it goes to my heart It 's so with broken spirits they are presently sensible of the least touch of any truth the least intimation or discovery of any sin that comes by the by if from a work that fals occasionally it feels it forthwith yields it and owns it without any more ado That 's the deceit of my heart which I never saw before that 's my distemper unto which I have been addicted the law is holy and good but my heart naught and sold under sin Rom. 7. this was the temper of good 〈◊〉 at the reading of the law which the Lord observes and so much 〈◊〉 2 Chron. 34. 27. because thy heart was tender melted when thou heardest the words of this law he took the impression of the truth at the first without the least appearance of any opposition in any particular or rising of spirit against them though the severity and sharpness of the threatnings were marvailous cross not onely to a corrupt heart but to the outward comforts eminent priviledges of his place pomp and prosperity of his Crown and Kingdom the heart is melted and broken is conquered by the truth and therefore can do nothing against it But can do any thing against its own lusts and the pleasing corruption of his own nature this is part of that preparation which the Baptist the Harbenger of our Savior made to make this plain for his coming into the hearts of his as into his temple Luk 3. The rough things shal be made plain and crooked things straight the rugged and sturdy gainsayings of a rebellious heart are taken away and it 's made easy and readily yielding to the evidence of any part of Gods wil it finds a plain passage into the soul no rub in the way no rising against the righteous and good wil of God If any thing be doubtful he is easy to be informed amiss to be reproved and amended thereby Those crooked aymes and by ends also whereby falshearted hypocrites serve their turn of the Lord Jesus seek for grace and mercy either to quiet the horror of their 〈◊〉 promote their own credit or under a profession against sin to get more liberty to commit sin to sin without suspicion or distraction these rugged distempers must be levelled and the spirit of a man made plyable simple and sincere and then all flesh shall see the salvation of the Lord. And unless this de done set thy heart at rest thou canst never see Gods Salvation True indeed I confess the truth many times may be secret and such as at the present exceeds the reach and apprehension of weaker judgments And here wil be and in some 〈◊〉 may a long inquisition and painful and tedious search for the right discovery where the narrow way lyes But there is great ods betwixt an inquisition and serious enquiry that we may see the truth And a quarrelling against the evidence thereof that we may not see it Inquisition is one thing contention against the truth is another that al the Saints should endeavour this none but the ungodly wil practise for it 's given as a never failing note of a graceless person who is appointed to destruction to them who are contentious and obey not the truth but obey unrighteousness Rom. 2. 8. for where the one is not the other wil be contentious persons joyn sides with their sinful distempers against the truth authority of the righteous law of God openly to maintain a professed opposition against the truth is so loathsom to common sence and 〈◊〉 even to the remainders of light left in the 〈◊〉 of a natural man that hardly any man is come to the height of wickedness that he dare openly own a course so hellish and
course with it if he wil but take away his corruption with which he is plagued most of al and of which he desires most of al to be freed and delivered if it were the good pleasure of the Almighty Zach. 14. 6. These are the wounds wherewith I was wounded in the house of my friends In case of resolution of it come to the highest summ and to the hazard of a mans whol estate even to his open beggery if God appoints it he wil bear it if that be a means to remove his distemper he wil not baulk it he can part with his estate if he may part with his covetous disposition by that means If the heart be loosened from the world it s not hard to leave the things of the world But if the stroak be but overly that hath taken off and abated onely the edge of inordinate desire after these things but there lyes a root of bitterness and base covetousness within though a man may take the receipt in some degrees of it to restore to some shillings and crowns and pounds but when it comes to hundreds the heart is not loosened from al and therefore leaves God and his ordinance rather than his own lusts So the covetous young man when it came so that he must sel al and give to the poor He went away sorrowful Math. 19. 20. c. He would rather go away from Christ than suffer him to take away his covetous disposition Again In Confession there is also a stress which a proud and perverse heart is wholly unable to undergo unless the Spirit be deeply affected with unfeigned sorrow and so fitted for to apply and bear so keen a Corrosive to eat away his corruption especially if it be the confession of some secret and some shameful distemper as in case al other means be improved the Lord refuseth to give pardon or power or peace he then calls for attendance upon this Ordinance And the contrite sinner when he understands Gods mind herein he freely fully powrs out his acknowledgment into the bosom of such whose help he craves in that case and as his heart is loosened from his corruption so his confession issues Naturally from him improving of it as a means appointed by the Almighty that he may ashame his sinful course and himself for it and be for ever separated from both therefore confessing and forsaking are ioyned together Prov. 18. 13. and 1 Joh. 7. he that indeed confesseth God is faithful to forgive this is to judg our selves 1 Cor. 11. Whereas the sinner that is yet riveted in the wretched distempers of his own soul the Lord when he hath him upon the rack of Conscience may happily wrest a consession from him but it 's by a constraining hand and against the hair wholly he would be eased of his plagues not of his sin So God sound out Achan pursued Judas and laid hold on both and pulled the acknowledgment by force out of their mouths which they did to ease them of their sorrows not as a means to help against their sin Lastly it easily fals under the evidence of an Admonition administred so far as it reacheth the evil of his sin though happily unseasonably or disorderly administred neither out of that love it should nor in that prudent manner it ought to be If yet he perceives that it helps him to remove his corruption he is glad of it and takes advantage thereby to get the heart more convinced and estranged from its distemper When Joab so rudely reproved the unseasonable and excessive sorrow of David for the death of Absalon 2 Sam. 19. 6 7. expressions not beseeming a Subject 〈◊〉 to a Prince when Shimei cast 〈◊〉 and 〈◊〉 reproaches upon him 2 Sam. 16. 7. 10. Come out thou bloody man thou man of Belial the Lord hath returned all the blood of Saul upon thee he retired into his own bosom takes notice of the guilt of his own sin in the death of Uriah he puts up all these provocations because he perceived ' Gods displeasure in them let him alone God hath commanded him to curse 〈◊〉 he wil do good unto me Though the Physick was il mingled and given in a worse manner yet he takes both and hoping to receive help against his corruption by both whereas the painted Hypocrite who never had his heart touched with any true remorse for his many rebellions observe how perversly 〈◊〉 he wil be under a stinging reproof quarrel with the man the manner of the delivery of it c. A broken-hearted sinner feels his covetousness worse than beggery and therefore restores al readily his sin worse than shame and therefore freely confesseth it than scorn or contempt and therefore bears the sharpest reproofs after the most unsavory and disorderly manner dispensed he is weary of his distemper and therefore willing to bear the sharpest means that shall be tried upon him by 〈◊〉 to remove it use any even the most difficult and tedious that may subdue those distempers in his 〈◊〉 He is restlesly importunate in seeking relief from God against his sin and not satisfied in having any thing but deliverance from sin by Jesus Christ. He is RESTLESS and SEEKING So that should the Lord reprieve him srom his presentplagues abate him of the 〈◊〉 he hath found and those pressures and 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 hath felt should the Lord 〈◊〉 him of all his horrors 〈◊〉 him and take present 〈◊〉 from the troubles and occasions of his Conscience his sorrows would seize upon him afresh and his fears pursue him without intermission and the reason is because the same cause continues and therefore there must be the same effect as long as his sin continues unsubdued he wil continue to sigh out his sorrows his prayers for they were not the crosses of the world poverty in his Estate disparagements which were cast upon his person pressures persecutions from the rage of unreasonable men nor yet the torments of Hell prepared or suffered that did sink the soul of a contrite sinner No it was the crossness of his corrupt heart to the holiness of the Almighty his opposition against him and separation from him that was the burden unsufferable and unsupportable and as long as this remains unsubdued there is no end of his sorrows nor end of his prayers in suing to the Almighty for succor and relief So David Psal. 38. 3. There is no soundness in my flesh because of thine anger nor is there any rest in my bones because of my sin for mine iniquities are gone over mine head as a heavy burden they are too heavy for me and he goes mourning al the day long Remove therefore al miseries troubles 〈◊〉 punishments let the man free As long as the bitterness of sin rightly set on by the hand of God remains he wil 〈◊〉 no rest in himself and it 's certain he wil give God no rest Lam. 3. 49. Mine eye trickleth down and ceaseth not without any
the power of it while he was under the terror of it So that there is nothing in the world that wil sever betwixt the heart and its lust Prov. 27. 22. Bray a fool in a morter yet wil not his folly depart from him By this the great bar and hinderance of the coming of our Savior is removed even the hellish resistance whereby the soul was carried against him For it 's a peremptory Truth Gal. 4. 17. The flesh lusts against the Spirit and the conclusion is express Joh. 3. 9. That which is born of the flesh is flesh but every Son of Adam being wholly born of the flesh doth wholly resist the Spirit They who are wholly flesh do wholly resist they who do wholly resist cannot receive for receiving and wholly resisting cannot stand together therefore this resistance of a fleshly heart must be removed and that is done by this 〈◊〉 That Sorrow whereby the bar and hindrance which stops the coming of our Savior is removed that sorrow is of necessity required but by this sorrow that hindrance is removed In regard of our selves Either the heart must thus be pierced or else a man without this in his Natural condition is capable and disposed to receive Faith and Christ either necessary thus to be disposed or Nature without this is fit to entertain him but that is professedly contrary to the Truth 2 Cor. 2. 14. The natural man cannot receive the things of the Spirit of God Rom. 8. 7. The carnal mind is not subject to the Law neither can it be It 's not possible there should be two Suns in the Firmament two Kings in one Throne two Gods in one heart to be in Heaven and Hell at once to serve God and Mammon So that as God must give Grace before we have it so he must give us power to receive it or else we are not capable of it A Subject cannot be capable of contrary habits at the same time John 5. 45. How can yee believe who seek honour from man Hence therefore its plain that the substance and truth of this preparative work it must be and is enstamped upon all that belong to God though it is in a diverse manner wrought in the most If this sorrow be onely true and of the right stamp If by this sin is severed from the soul the hinderance of our Saviors coming removed and the soul made capable of faith and Christ then this of necessity is required of al and it 's certainly wrought in al whom the Lord brings effectually home unto himself Here is matter of complaint we may justly take up against this secure age in which we live and it shewes how little very little saving sorrow there is in the world and therefore how little saving grace If no preparation no Implantation certainly never fitted for a Christ never made partakers of him never hewed or squared to the building and therfore never put as spiritual stones into the building Had we but Jeremiahs fountain of tears we might mourn day and night that there is no true mourning and if the Lord should send an 〈◊〉 to see and mark such as mourn in secret how few should he find the former doctrin is a bil of inditement and fals very heavy upon five sorts of people Your heedless and fearless professors who notwithstanding lift up their head ful high and would bear the world in hand that they desire unfeinedly to fear the Lord nay pretend a Conscientious care to Gods Command and conceive they have been affected with their sin and that not in a smal measure but have had both sight of and sorrow for their failings and they hope to good purpose and would be loath prejudice being laid aside it should appear to be other You say wel and if you prove what you say happy it is for you which I 〈◊〉 desire But are you willing to put your case to the tryal let us a little parly about the buisiness and because we wil deal plainly your own practices and your own consciences shal bring in evidence and those I hope are beyond exception you careless servants in the family you careless hearers in the Assemblies and you careless professors in the plantations you are here indited that the practice of this heart-breaking sorrow for sin is a stranger to you and you a stranger to it in your daily course we shal then agree upon the grounds on which we shal proceed You wil not you cannot deny but you have wholsom and savory counsel daily suggested the commands of God are line after line precept after precept here a little and there a little and your duties daily layd before you in publick in private your failings bewailed grace and help begged from the Lord for you the truth your judgments do not gainsay and your hearts cannot but approve as lawful and suitable to your places and according to Gods mind yet no sooner out of the assembly where you hear out of the presence of your master who commads from your knees where you have prayed and confessed but the commands are layd by that is not attended this not discharged that is neglected you return again to the old distempers and you say you did not remember it you have 〈◊〉 it you did not think of it What need we more evidence 〈◊〉 own words shal be thine own 〈◊〉 and appeal to thine own Conscience let that be 〈◊〉 own judg didst thou ever hear any man that 〈◊〉 under the load that was two heavy for him wearied with the burden that is beyond his strength as not able to bear nor to ease himself say he did not remember the burden that 〈◊〉 him he did not think of the weight of the load that clogges and tires him would you not 〈◊〉 such expressions as cross to common sence or would you not conclude either the man had no burden or else his words had no truth Ah but thou saiest If they had been gross evills it had been somthing but they are petty things and therefore need no great care what need we any more evidence thine own words wil be thine own wittness therefore thou carest onely for great sins fearest onely gross and scandalous evils then thy care and fear is naught and thy course so and thy Conscience so and thy condition also he that feels al sin as such he fears al sin yea the least sin more than the greatest evil if thou fearest only loathsom and scandalous practices thy fear is fals and thy heart fals thy sorrow was never found nor yet thy condition that I must confess when I 〈◊〉 mens infinite heedlesness if they did know what God were or what sin was what Conscience what a command what the reckoning to come were did not most men live without God in the world they could not live so The second sort who are hence shut out from having any share in this Godly sorrow or the through impression of the
work of the spirit is the treacherous formalist Formalist I tearm him because he carryes the face of religion the garbe and guise of Godliness in outward appearance and would be counted a friend to the truth so far as he may serve his own turn of it and he is content to be at league with the Gospel provided he may make his own terms and attain his own ends namely that he may have allowance in some lusts and yet 〈◊〉 honored also among the people with the title of an honest Godly and good man But when his carnal ends are not answered and the word requires more than he hath and commands more than he would do and would pluck away his beloved lust that he is loath to part withal he then begins to set up secret conspiracies in his heart against the evidence of the doctrine and therefore I cal him a treacherous hypocrite because he may happily bite the lip and go away for the while and sayes little but he bears a privy grudg against the strictness of such truths that are beyond his pitch and strain and when time comes he wil be revenged of them in the mean time his heart is inwardly tyred with them and goes off from them this the 〈◊〉 cals the counsel of the wicked when wicked hearts cal a counsel and sit in counsel against the commands of God and Job prayes earnestly that God would keep him and free him from it Job 21. 16. Let the counsel of the wicked be far from me namely a reserved resolution to have his distemper rather than to have and welcome that word that would remove it Whereas we have heard a broken-hearted sinner is willing to attend al means but those especially that would help him most and free him from his corruptions this treacherous wretch notwithstanding his pretended love to the word yet when it comes to he is willing to be rid of the word not rid of his corruption so far from being weary of his sin that he is weary of the Minister or Christian brother that would remove it of the word that would subdue it This was the temper of those formalists that followed our savior for the loaves that is the Gospel for their own ends when our savior pressed a spiritual and convicting truth upon them which might carry them beyond their own fals aymes or els would condemn them utterly as such as had no life of Grace in them unless 〈◊〉 eat the flesh and drink the blood of the son of man ye have no life in you John 6. 53. nor were it possible they should attain the life of Glory they answer This is a hard saying who can bear it it pinched them to the quick and searched the very core of their corruption and they were resolved to bear their sin but could not bear the saying of our Savior the presence of their sins was pleasant they could welcom them but the power of the Truth was hard they could not indure that nay they speak as though it were a matter impossible who hath power to submit to it truly none but a heart truly pierced with Godly sorrow and therefore it 's added verse 66. From that time many of his Disciples went back and walked no more with him because they would walk in their own waies and wicked practices therefore they chose rather to forsake the company and Ministry of a Savior than to forsake their own distempers Thus it hath been often seen in the Country whence we came many a formal wretch hath been at great cost and charges laid out himself and estate to bring a faithful preacher to a place and when the soul-saving dispensation of the Word hath either discovered his falsness and laid open the cursed haunts of a carnal heart shook his hopes and beat all the holds he had of the goodness of his estate and batterred them before his eyes He that had the greatest hand to bring the means and Ministry unto the place ifhe cannot cunningly undermine the man he would rather leave the place than live under the Ministry that would take away his lusts This was the wound of the yong man because he wanted this brokenness of heart not being rightly burdened with his corruption nor loosened from it Matth. 19. he went away from that Counsel of our Savior that would have plucked away his Earthly covetous humor which did take place in him He went away sorrowful al the while our Saviors conditions suited his crooked ends and carnal reason he gave way and welcom to what he was advised All these 〈◊〉 I done from my youth up this is so as I would have it but when our Savior went further Go sell all that was beyond his pace and expectation and he went away he could not bear the Counsel and therefore would not hear it Thus it befals many a man that the Lord hath brought hither confined him to the narrow compass of the Covenant of the Gospel Al the while he lived at large as it were and 〈◊〉 constantly or occasionally attended upon the preaching of the Word and carried an approved kind of conformity thereunto in the Judgment and Opinion of such as only attended the general strain of his profession and so walked aloof off in way of Christian 〈◊〉 and loving entertainment of the Truth al went wel but when he comes to be foulded in the fellowship of the Faith and that men follow him home to his doors and watch him in his retired carriage and have occasion to grapple with his spirit in the specials which concern his particular 〈◊〉 as when he had failed and offended and therefore follows him with Physick answerable and appointed for the purpose a seasonable admonition poor sinful Creature he is not able to 〈◊〉 the Discipline and Government of Christ to 〈◊〉 under it he begins secretly to 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 undermine the strictness of those 〈◊〉 that formerly he did como into these Parts for that he might seek them find and enjoy them as 〈◊〉 often professed It 's said of Herodias when John Baptist would give no 〈◊〉 to her lust but professed openly against it so that she must be forced to reform it or to have Gall and Wormwood with it either not have it or not have any 〈◊〉 the Text saies Mark 6. 19. she way-laid him and left not the plotting of her purposes until she procured his ruin she watched him a turn and was revenged of him So it is with a carnal heart he is so far from being troubled for sin that he is troubled he cannot commit it so far from being plagued with the corruption as Solomon speaks he that sees the plague of his own heart the plague of pride the plague of a perverse sluggish heedless heart that he is plagued and tormented with those Spiritual Truths and power of those Ordinances that wil not suffer those lusts to lodg in his bosom nor suffer him to lie and live in
them with any quiet or content Thus when sin should be grievous as the Psalmist speaks the waies and Commands of God are ever grievous to such it 's a grief to him to be counselled checked crossed in a sinful course was 〈◊〉 any man truly sensible of a burden that would not be 〈◊〉 any man oppressed with a load that would not be content to have it removed and taken away from him Of this temper were those the Lord delivered up to a reprobate sence Rom. 1. who did not delight to have God in their knowledg they bear a secret spleen against such saving Truths as would search the core of those noysom corruptions of their hearts It 's certain such never knew what Godly sorrow for sin meant since we have heard that such are willing to attend all means but take most content in those that work most powerfully for the removal of their special distempers A third sort who fall short of this saving Work is your self-conceited Pharisee who hath such an overweening apprehension of his own worth and excellency that 〈◊〉 is not able to take shame for 〈◊〉 sin therfore cannot endure to be convinced of it what he wil not do he wil not know loth to confess his course shameful and vile because then he concludes there is no color of common sence to continue in it but he must be forced to reform it unless he would openly proclaim to al the world that he is resolved to go against Knowledg and Conscience which is too loathsom and gross even to ordinary prophaneness therefore he pretends nothing but the search of the Truth 〈◊〉 further information of the mind of the Lord and if that once could appear how glad would he be to receive it and more glad to follow it because this plea is beyond exception 〈◊〉 carries an appearance of consciencious and judicious watchfulness in a mans course which cannot 〈◊〉 a Cavil but is secretly resolved of the Conclusion the reasons shal never be plain to him that would press and perswade to the practice of that which doth not please his 〈◊〉 heart which he purposeth to satisfie let men say what they can if he may have approbation and allowance from others to follow his own heart it wil be more credit for him and he shal find more ease if not he determines to do what he list without leave and allowance holds out this in his ordinary and dayly profession it 's the way of Truth he desires to find the Rule he would see the mind of God he endeavors to know and follow that he pretends but intends indeed to walk in his own way and follow his own mind and therefore if things answer not his intents suit not his expectation but Arguments seem strong that perswade to the contrary and the evidences of Reason look and lead another way he then keep afoot his old course confesseth he is yet in the dark those reasons do not carry him those arguments do not convince him he desires further light and shal be willing to submit and follow i. e. if men would be willing to submit to his conceit and follow his humor thus he holds his sin and holds his enquiry keeps off al conviction that he may keep his corruption and his course in it As we know it in the Country from whence we came some wily headed persons get possession of a living keep the Owner in suit and restless wrangling many yeers together against the evidence of their own Conscience and Reason because so long they can keep the Living and reap the Commodity of it So while men keep an enquiry and dispute what they should do all that while they do what they list but only waiting for better light Numb 23. 34. when Balaam had gone against the express Counsel and Command of God to listen to Balack to gratifie his malicious desires the Angel of the Lord met him and withstood him in the perversness of his way he crooked his way and perverted his path against Gods express charge observe how pliably he comes in to the Angels reproof I knew it not that thou stoodest in the way now therefore if it displease thee I will get me back he knew it displeased God and though he said so yet he kept his disposition and resolution to curse Israel and so to displease God still and therefore he contrives all waies to compass his 〈◊〉 and therefore here he builds seven Altars and there he builds seven Altars that he might ask leave of the Almighty and when that would not do it he went without leave Numb 24. 1. This is one part of that of the Prophet to lay hold of deceit and so of sin whereas a broken-hearted sinner as we have heard because the holds of sin are cast down and the crossness and resistrance of the 〈◊〉 removed and his soul loosened from his sin he is easily willing to be convinced sensible of the least inkling and intimation of any evil that is or shal be discovered and sits down under the Evidence of it 〈◊〉 but when Reasons are so pregnant that he cannot gainsay and Answers so undeniable that they cannot be shaken yet to stand off from the Truth with a pretence of waiting for a further discovery argues a person strengthened in the stiffness of his Spirit which holds out Truth at the staves end and was never yet subdued to the Soveraignty and Authority thereof he keeps the blow off and therefore breaks not under it shuts the Truth out of their Souls and therefore it stirs not works not at all upon the soul such are afar off from God The fourth sort is your complaning Hypocrite whose Conscience hath been awakened with horrors and fears and the heart startled with the terrors of the Almighty and affected with the sight and sence of his sins and the venom and dread of those Curses that the Truth hath revealed and fastened upon the soul he sees he is now in Gods hand and that he hath him at an infinite advantage to bear it is beyond his power to avoid it is beyond his Skil to resist is bootless and against Reáson and Sence that were to hasten his own ruin his heart is filled with grief and his eyes with tears and his mouth with heavy complaints to God to man and he is free and full this way and that usually and this he hopes may move the Lord to pity and to spare him and abate him of those plagues which he hath denounced in his holy Word and he cannot but confess he hath deserved by reason of his sin and he presumes this wil go for good pay with the Lord considering those many human infirmities that do attend us since the Fall and that it is beyond our power to help our selves and free our selves from our corruptions thus he keeps his complaints and keeps his sins he mourns over his distempers and maintains them while he doth so thus they bath
it vexed al the veyns of their hearts that 's the way to weary them and there they solace themselves ah it's roast meat to them and thus it is a pastime to a fool to do wickedly but know thou art a hard-hearted fool a graceless wretch in the wise mans account do not our plantations groan under such sons of Belial such senceless 〈◊〉 do they not swarm in our streets are not our families pestered with such Esau-like when he sold his 〈◊〉 eat and drank and rose up and went his way not affected with what he had lost not ashamed of what he had done but 〈◊〉 of al or like the man in the Gospel possessed with the Devil sometime he cast him into the fire and sometime into the water so these rush headily into sin and impudently continue in such 〈◊〉 courses they commit sin and continue in sin hasten Gods wrath and their own ruin and go away senceless of al so that it 's now seasonable to take Jeremiahs complaint I 〈◊〉 and heard and no man sayd what have I done 〈◊〉 Jer. 8. 6. He might and did hear of hideous vile evils without any diligent hearkning see and meet loathsom distempers without any searching but when he followed men home wondring in what quiet do these men live what comfort do these men find how do they bear up their hearts under such hellish carriages I wil go see how they lye down in their beds and whether they dare sleep or no under such trangression and such guilt and when he came he hearkned surely I shal now hear them mourn bitterly afflict their hearts with unfained grief there is no such thing no man said what have I done not a word of that it was the least part of their care the furthest off their thoughts And this is the temper the condition and disposition of scores hundreds of you that hear this word at this instant Is not the day yet to dawn the hour yet to come that ever you shed a tear sent up a sigh to heaven in the sence of thy evils or set thy self in secret to bewail thy distempers before the Lord God knows and your hearts know the Chambers where you lodge the Beds where you lie can bring in witness against you you are strangers to this blessed brokenness of heart yea enemies to it you were pricked no not so much as in your eyes nor in your tongues God and his word and al means that have been tried could never wrest a tear from thine eye not a confession out of thy mouth thou wilt commit thy follies and die in the defence or excuse of them but to have thy heart affected in serious manner with the filth of thy sinful distempers it is to thee a riddle to this day Nay there be thousands in the bottomless pit of hell that never had the like means as thou never committed the like sins and yet never had such a senceless sottish heart under such rebellions as thy self Wo be to you that laugh now you shal mourn those flinty spirits of yours wil not break now they shal certainly burn you draw a light harrow now you find no burden of your pride and stubbornness rebellions idleness and noysom lusts they are no burdens ye can go boult upright with them and Sampson like carry the very gates of hell upon your backs and never buckle under them wel the time wil com you wil cal to the mountains to fal upon you and the hills to cover you from the infinite weight of Gods everlasting displeasure Tast a little the sting of this sin and see the compass of this accursed condition of thine and go no further than the point in hand Thou art far without the walk of the Almighty there is no dealing and entercourse between thee and the holy one of Israel the Almighty passeth by and wil not so much as change a word with thee or cast a look 〈◊〉 thee to leave any remembrance of himself upon thy soul thou livest as though thou hadst nothing to do with him nor he with thee nothing to do with grace or heaven the holy spirit a wes some humbles others some it quickens that were sluggish establisheth others who were weak onely thou art senceless of any operation of the Lord thou hast a heart that puts away the presence of the Lord out of thy mind if it were possible thy fleece is dry when there is dew upon al the earth this is that which the Apostle discovers to be the cause of that heavy curse of the heathen Eph. 4. 18. strangers from the life of God by reason of the hardness of their hearts Oh thou hast a 〈◊〉 heart and leadest a strang life even as opposite to God as darkness to light hell to heaven differs onely but in degree from that 〈◊〉 which appears most eminently amongst the Devills and damned even to be an adversary to God and his grace to stand it out in defiance with the divine goodness of God his power and faithfulness Pharaoh he 〈◊〉 it but thou dost it 〈◊〉 it out with the Almighty and impudently darest the great God who is Jehovah I know not Jehovah neither wil I let my heart go to yield subjection and service to him I know no authority of a command that shal rule me nor admonition that shal awe or reforme me Thus thou art a stranger to the wisdom of God the folly of thine own self-deceiveing mind and heart leads thee and deludes thee thou art a stranger to the grace and holiness of the Lord the perversness and rebellion of thine own wretched heart takes place onely with thee yea a stranger to mercy and to the compassions and consolations of the Lord Jesus and his blessed spirit who choosest thine own ruin lovest thine own death following lying vanities and forsakest the mercies purchased and tendred to thee Upon these tearms in which thou now standest God hath appoynted no good for thee while thou continuest in this temper as he said write this man childless so write upon it write thy soul graceless that shal never prosper Isa. 61. 1. 2. The spirit of the Lord is upon me because the Lord hath annointed me to preach good 〈◊〉 to the meek to bind up the broken hearted liberty to the captives opening of the prison to those that are bound to appoint to them that mourn in Zion beauty for ashes the garment of gladness for the spirit of heaviness thou hearest the glad tidings of mercy pardon and peace grace of life that passeth understanding joy unspeakable rich and plentiful redemption from al sins and miseryes which God hath layd up in his everlasting decree and laid out in the great work of redemption by the Lord Jesus but thou mayest set thy heart at rest as long as thou seest that hard heart of thine thou shalt never see good day joy and comfort and liberty they are not thy allowance they are childrens bread it
is sufficient to support thee to live in hope nay it is a portion provided on purpose and came for this very end Isa. 61. 3. to appoint unto them that mourn in Sion beauty for ashes the Oyl of gladness for the spirit of heaviness yea God himself wil come for this end to bring consolation uto thy soul. That 's a likely matter indeed when the vileness of my corrption makes me loathsom to my self and weary of mine own soul how justly may God loath me and estrange himself who is so great and holy a God That which thou conceivest a cause why God should withdraw his presence it 's that why he delights in thee thy sins are loathsom that 's true but to loath thy sin and thy self for them its that which makes way and room for the Lords both Love to thee and presence with thee Isa. 57. 17. Thus saith the high and lofty one that inhabits eternity I dwel with him also that is of an humble contrite spirit to revive the heart of contrite ones The greatness of God and holiness of God takes most content in a broken heart burdened with sin and loosened from it And herein the doubts of a distressed soul may be answered and discouragments also cured and removed wil so great a God vouch ase to cal upon so base a creature so holy a God so sinful so filthy and polluted a sinner yea behold God reveals him 〈◊〉 in the height of al his greatness and holiness and professeth he hath but two habitations where he takes 〈◊〉 i. e. the highest heavens and a broken heart that sees his own weakness and therefore the greatness and power of God is most 〈◊〉 it ackonwledeth its own vileness 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 own filthyness and there the holiness of a God is most honored feared and advanced therefore the 〈◊〉 for God to dwel in where his honor may most of al be advanced and he comes with his cost and for this intent and purpose that he may revive and quicken therefore he wil not therefore he cannot miss of his end and the attaining of that he intends nor thou of thy comfort It 's matter of comfort to such 〈◊〉 are frinds and wel-wishers to those burdened and distressed creatures Mourn for them you should but yet be comforted with them you ought For if you desire their good in truth and in earnest its certain they are now and never were before in the road of mercy in ready way yea the onely way to attain favour and everlasting compassions from the hand of the Lord. It 's now the day of Gods visitation the Lord seemed to pass by as a stranger before as though he cared neither for them nor the welfare and comfort of their souls but suffred them to live and dye in their sins not so much as looking after them behould now is the day of their visitation wherein the Lord comes to visite the sinner and to enquire touching the eternal prosperity of the soul to loosen him from the power of his lusts and to free him from the prevailing power of those corruptions that would certainly ruinate his happiness Yea now the spirit seems to travel upon the soul until the Lord Jesus be formed in him when as formerly he bore the image of sin and Satan so the Father of the Prodigal when his heart had been pinched under the pressures and miseries of his baseness brought upon him and constrained him to take thoughts of forsaking his former course see what solace it was to his Father For this my son was dead but is alive again he was secure he is now affected with the sight and sence of his sin he was hard-hearted and perverse in his way now he is plyable and yeilding to any impression I speak it the rather because carnal persons conceive that this broken heartedness is a kind of curse and that which makes men unsuitable to their Places and unserviceable wholly for any imployment the prophane Husband the unjust Master the loose Companion curse the day that ever the Minister came amongst them the wife was vain and froathy to suit 〈◊〉 folly but now the former 〈◊〉 is turned into mourning she grows mopish and melancholly there is no content in her The Apprentice that was as the Glove to the Hand fitted his turn at all times at al assaies would lye for his humor cozen for his profit but now forsooth is grown so tender and conscientious he dare do nothing there is no service in him his companion that would ruffle it out in mirth jollity is becom so pensive under the pressure of his Conscience that there is no society in him they look at them as lost and undone persons the Preacher hath spoiled them they are fit for nothing And so also some poor ignorant people whose waies were civil and moral and never acquainted with Gods manner of dealing in such cases when they see their friends and children and kindred sinking under the sence of their sin and Gods displeasure their hearts taken up wholly with attendance to their own Spiritual necessities and taken off from all other occasions they look at it as a kind of madness and distraction and they fear they will not come to themselves again when in Truth they never came to themselves before now nor in truth considered where they were or what they did whereas this broken-heartedness doth not impair any mans abilities but turns them the right way and improves them for the Lords advantage it makes men unhandy to sin but fit for the Service of the Almighty only it is a spiritual sickness and you must in reason wait til the extreamity be over before the party can be free for any work but this because he finds this most needful He that takes Physick retires into his Chamber but it is not to hinder his imployment but further it for future time the Child when he sees the Grapes a pressing he fals a crying and fondly conceives his Father spoils them to bring 〈◊〉 out of them The unexperienced stander by imagines that the pieces of Gold that are put into the refining pot and that into the fire will utterly be spoiled until he sees a Vessel of Gold framed out of them glorious for shew and Service he then changeth his mind So here when thou 〈◊〉 the Lord putting men into the furnace of his fierce wrath scorching their Consciences know the Lord hath them now in the 〈◊〉 and intends to make them Vessels of Grace and Mercy who before were Vessels of Dishonor fit for nothing but to serve sin and Satan help thou 〈◊〉 the work and 〈◊〉 in it and as Paul in a like case wish'd That not only they but all thy friends and children and kindred 〈◊〉 not almost but altogether such as they are broken-hearted sinners DIRECTION How to carry ourselves towards distressed sinners in this condition who are thus pierced unto the heart whose perplexities
of spirit are such they cannot express and their pressures beyond strength more than they are able to undergo We should yern towards them in mercy and put on the bowels of tenderness and compassions towards them in lending what possible relief may be to the utmost of our abilities not only Religion will enjoyn this and reason perswade but even Nature and Humanity might compel and constrain us hereunto It was that which the Law enjoyned Deut. 22. 4. Thou shalt not see thy Brothers Ox or his Ass fall down by the way and hide thy self from him but thou shalt surely Surely help him q. d. Let all alone use no pleas make no excuses this must and ought to be done Doth God take care of Oxen No it is for our sakes it was spoken Shal the Ox be burdened not the heart under pressures be relieved Shal the Ass fallen be raised again and the Conscience bowed and crushed under the weight of everlasting vengeance not be comforted There Life natural is only endangered here Eternal Salvation is hazarded therefore their greater need calls for the greater pity As Job complained Job 19. 21. Have pity upon me O my friends have pity upon me for the hand of God hath touched me The spirit of a man will 〈◊〉 his infirmity but a wounded spirit who can bear Lend a hand therefore at such a dead lift and help him to bear that that no creature of himself is able to undergo have such in your minds dayly carry them in your prayers keep them dayly in your hearts when a party is in a fainting fit dying away how readily doth Humanity lead men to lend present help one man holds another rubs and chafes a third applies warm cloaths each man strives to come first and to do most I pray you take of my Water take of my Bottle c. that 's but a sudden 〈◊〉 over the heart that wil suddenly pass away but this is a wound that hath pierced through the soul bleeding and sinking with Hellish horrors breathing out his sighs Oh when Oh when wil it once be He that hath not put off Humanity and the very Nature of a man he cannot but put on tenderness and commiseration towards such and therefore what shal we think of those who instead of tenderness and pity which they should express towards such their hearts rise in bitterness and indignation against them yonder be your broken-hearted persons c. It 's no great matter you may see what they have got by Sermon gadding what may we think of such We may say and think as Job speaks he that is in misery should be comforted by his Brethren but men have forsaken the fear of the Lord Job 6. 14. It 's an Evidence of an Egyptian when an Israelite is going out of Egypt he stinks in his Nostrils nay a sad argument of a soul devoted to destruction Deut. 25. 17 18 19. EXHORTATION As to proceed the right way so never to rest until 〈◊〉 come to the right pitch of this saving sorrow otherwise we shall lose our labor all the pains and 〈◊〉 and trouble we take wil prove indeed unprofitable we shal lose our labor and our souls and all we should not content our selves therefore with a slighty touch to have the skin happily a little rippled or the heart stabbed now and then with an overly stroak but stay not until we come to the bottom to be pierced through and through again until we see our 〈◊〉 bleeding out their heart blood and the core of our corruptions coming out true it may be it wil cost hot water time and toyl before that day come be it so but it wil quit cost when ever it comes the longer the seed time the larger the Harvest They 〈◊〉 sow in Tears shall reap in joy let us not lose all for a little The Patient wil tel you why should I be cut for the stone in the Reins if the stone never be taken away and I cured Hath then the punishments which have been threatened the stroaks and terrors of Conscience which thou hast felt the dreadful displeasure of the Almighty which hath been denounced and seized upon thy soul have they happily wrested tears 〈◊〉 of thine eyes bitter confessions out of thy mouth and forced thee to pensiveness in thy carriage and perplexity in thy Spirit c. All this is good so far but it wil do thee no good if thou goest no further Say with thy self what sorrow have I more than Judas had what do I do more than Cain did what difference betwixt my complaints and Esau's tears Do I out of horror of heart vomit out my sins by confession So did Judas Do I make Restitution So did Judas Do I wander up and down racked in a restless condition So did Cain like a Vagabond upon the face of the Earth Do I sue to God for a blessing So did Esau and that with tears and that with importunity Take not up thy stand here but say Oh Lord that I may have somthing more than Hypocrites do somthing more than Reprobates can do have I suffered all these terrors wept al these tears in vain If so be it be in vain Oh let me not have sorrow only but that true sorrow that may cause repentance never to be repented of Go then beyond al horrors and fears and stay not before thou findest and feelest thy sin worse than al thy plagues or else thou never feltest them aright Look not to punishments that are cross to thy comfort and 〈◊〉 but look to the stubbornness and resistance of 〈◊〉 heart which 〈◊〉 cross to God and his Holiness and holy Laws 〈◊〉 that be heaviest of all other evils which indeed is the greatest evil of all This too much hast 〈◊〉 the new 〈◊〉 makes many 〈◊〉 Christians still born not begotten again to a 〈◊〉 hope 1 〈◊〉 They heal themselves before God heal them make 〈◊〉 before sound 〈◊〉 not that they can apply too soon if they apply truly but they think they do apply 〈◊〉 they neither do 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Keep thy heart in foak by godly Sorrow until thou 〈◊〉 thy corruptions like noysom weeds come up kindly by the roots 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 feelest sin as sin in the bitterness thereof that thou fearest al sin in the least appearance thereof that whatever shal be conceived or be discovered to be such the 〈◊〉 notice inclination disposition or suspicion thereof thy heart may 〈◊〉 to come 〈◊〉 any provocation leading that way and may readily listen to what ever may 〈◊〉 help or direction to avoid it or subdue it Bear thy burden till the Lord ease thee be in prison and let the Iron 〈◊〉 into thy soul until the Lord 〈◊〉 and deliver thee and bring thee out of the house of Bondage then shal thy mouth be filled with laughter and thy heart with joy and that joy shall no man take away from thee travel the appointed months of
weare away the 〈◊〉 that stuck in his heart and therefore fondly conceited he could make a 〈◊〉 to beare the weight that should befal that he might possess and injoy the pleasures and content his 〈◊〉 courses did promise to his carnall heart But he finds it otherwise his heart say les him under pressure of one sin Psal. 130 3. If thou shouldest mark what is done amis Lord who should 〈◊〉 it An ignorant soul settled in his secure condition out of self deluding pride of his own spirit would 〈◊〉 that he could abide the misery and so the danger that might accrew to him by his distemper and so is fearless to maintain it But now he findes he is not able to abide that which his sin doth bring let him put the best of al his abilities together to emprovement 〈◊〉 14. can thy heart endure c. the time was they thought their hearts could endure the frollick Epicure and flinty hearted sinner he wonders at he feebleness of the distressed and broken-hearted that they should be such children persons of such feeble and milksop dispositions to sink at a Sermon and be troubled at the words of a Preacher tush his Conscience is cannon proof he can heare and bear al and yet pleal 〈◊〉 and bless himself in the pursuit of his lusts as before times Oh thou 〈◊〉 do so while men deal with thee thou mayest avoyd their blow or make an escape out of their hands but when God shal deal with thee in that day when thou fallest into the hands of the living God Hebr. 10. who lives to torment the to eternity what wilt thoudo The shadow and appearance of the hand-writing shook Belshazzars heart when he was quaffing in his cups in the ruff of his riot what would the stroke of that hand have done and this hand now the 〈◊〉 finds and finds himself absolutely unable to 〈◊〉 the evil of 〈◊〉 sin and therefore concludes it absolutely 〈◊〉 to be 〈◊〉 of it whatever it cost him He knowes now by proof this evil to be such as that no other can equal it the evil such as no contrary good in this world can countervail it And therefore he sees reason and chooseth never to have any good in this world rather than to have his sin to part withal rather than not part with this or be plagued with it Rather undergo al evils and suffer the utmost extremity 〈◊〉 suffer his sin to remain with him Math 16. 26. What wil it profit a man to gain the whol world and to Ioose his soul or what shal a man give in exchange for his soul. The broken in heart he sees now by proof also the cursed combination that is amongst corruptions a league 〈◊〉 lusts if any corruption rule in the heart it makes a man a slave to what ever distemper presents it self unto the soul In a word He that wil keep 〈◊〉 sin he keeps himself under the power of al corruptions he keeps off the power of al the means of grace and good for working upon or prevailing with the soul for its 〈◊〉 wolfare The keeping of one sin keeps possession for Satan and his right unto the soul and under the Allegiance of all the accursed lusts that either can come from without or arise from within one 〈◊〉 the Soveraignty but he is a slave to al as special occasion may be offered he wil serve any 〈◊〉 that he may suit the beloved distemper of his heart 〈◊〉 Tim. 2. last the 〈◊〉 rakes them captive according to his wil. and therefore its 〈◊〉 of the thorny 〈◊〉 in that the nick of 〈◊〉 they fel away 〈◊〉 8. 15. Whither sel it Nathely it gave 〈◊〉 to whatover either error in opinion or 〈◊〉 in practice 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 or satisfyed the 〈◊〉 desire of the soul. He that misseth the right way be is for any by way that comes next in view a City that is under the command of the chief Captain they must be subject to the out rage of any or al of his 〈◊〉 or underlings that wil but execute his wil and attend his tyrannous commands so it is in the soul if one lust rule it it s a salve unto what ever distemper may be serviceable and seem to give content to that they went as they were led 1 Cor. 12. 1. 2. The heart pierced with this through sorrow perceives also by woful experience that the keeping of one corruption keeps off the power of any ordinance that it cannot work kindly or 〈◊〉 effectually for any spiritual good it way 〈◊〉 the work of an ordinance The heady and 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 would have a King and they would hear no counsel nor yet take the savorest argument into Consideration that did concern their peace and prosperous proceeding in their way 1 Sam. 8. 18. the 〈◊〉 Idolaters run madding after their Idols they cast off al the advice of the Prophet with scorn contempt Jer. 44. 16. As for the word which thou hast spoken to us in the name of the Lord we wil not hearken to thee Nay when they are set upon is they profess plainly there is no hope but we wil walk every one after the vanity of his own imaginations Jer. 18. 12. so that the sinner now 〈◊〉 and resolves either he must part withal or els for ever be deprived of al good and be a slave to al sin TRYAL We may hence gain undoubted evidence whether ever our hearts were soundly soaked in this Godly sorrow for sin 〈◊〉 or no. Contrition if it be of the right stamp it hath a constraining power with it to force the heart against corruption It silenceth al shifts puts by and puts off al false pleas scatters al sluggish pretences that are made in behalf of our distempers 〈◊〉 a word it casts the ballance against al carnal reasons that are 〈◊〉 and stirring and usually cast in by Satan and our sensual disposition to keep us in our former estate and to procure some if not toleration yet mitigation in our 〈◊〉 against our 〈◊〉 It layes and leaves a pressing 〈◊〉 upon the soul that overbears what ever may come on the contrary part to plead for any connivence for any sin in any kind As we say in the Proverb there is no reasoning against sence a man hath no patience to hear words 〈◊〉 or appearances which are against a mans feeling experience If any stander by should perswade a man the potion is pleasant when a man 〈◊〉 it 〈◊〉 and his stomach 〈◊〉 it or that the fire is cold when he finds it 〈◊〉 and burn he can hardly give him the hearing but disdains him an answer say what you wil I regard not what you say shal not I trust mine eyes or so far befool my self as to go against mine own feeling I pass not that you speak in that behalf So it is with a broken hearted sinner what ever Satan shal suggest his carnal friends and companions counsel his deceitful
this ground it was Naamans Servants perswaded their Master 2 Kings 5. 15. to give way to the means prescribed by the Prophet for his cure If he should prescribe some great matter thou would surely do it how much more when he saith wash and be clean if washing be a 〈◊〉 of clensing the very possibility of clensing should easily make him give way to prove what washing might do When men bore holes they drive pinns mervailous readily with much ease hope sets open the heart to any ordinance that it may easily find attendance and acceptance as the Criple to Peter Acts 3. 3. he gave car expecting something c. expectation draws attention he looked upon them as desirous to receive good look what the spring is to the watch the poyse or weight to the minute no stirring without it so is hope to our indeavors the Plough man plowes in hope sows and reaps in hope 1 〈◊〉 9. 10. hope is the great wheel which carries the life of our endeavor the runners would not run in the race the marriner sayl in the Sea were there not possibility for the one to attayn the goal the other the haven and the wise man when he would set al on going he 〈◊〉 hope on work keeps that in their eyes as that which would keep them constant in their course Eccles. 11. 6. Sow thy seed in the morning and in the evening let thy hand rest and what is the prevailing reason to provoak to such unweariable diligence its hope of good thou knowest not whether this or that wil prosper 〈◊〉 whether both alike do both if either of both may do that for us that is useful and may answer our need and expectation INSTRUCTION We here see the reason why Satan draws out all his forces useth the depth of his delusions on the one side sets all the policy and power of Hell a work on the other side and tryes all conclusions to the utmost of his skill if by any means he might hamstring a mans hopes put the distressed sinner beyond all possibility and expectation of Good and then he hath him close prisoner past recovery not once looks our for deliveance he is his own the 〈◊〉 off the hinges nor opens nor shuts to give way to them that pass in or out but rather is a trouble and stops their way It s so here 〈◊〉 Satan can but unhinge the heart of the hope and expectation of relief and help he makes the contrite soul wholly uncapable of al comfort or support there is no 〈◊〉 between heaven and him but is an out-lawed wretch an out-cast beyond the compass of Gods compassion and kindness and sits down confounded in his own accursed condition and 〈◊〉 further It is a stratagem usual and common amongst commanders in the taking of towns and walled cityes when provisions as they understand are low and short within they block up al passages there is none can come out none can go in as the scriptures speak in that kind none go out to 〈◊〉 or procure provision none come in to bring any and then they certainly conclude the 〈◊〉 is theirs they must either yield or famish in such a time the like is the policy of the enemy and its a direful 〈◊〉 and undoubtedly procures the speedy destruction of the soul that cuts off a mans hopes and blocks up the soul from the possible expectation of any good it deads the 〈◊〉 deads the ordinance deads a mans diligence no going out by endeavor to procure any spiritual release no coming in by the power of any 〈◊〉 to work any good in the soul and hence it is that the enemy darts in such temptations and by his wiles and subtilties casts a man into such a condition at least to his perswasion that its utterly beyond al consultation and consideration either of our souls or others and therefore there is no further seeking out but sinking irrecoverably in a mans distress And therefore 〈◊〉 hastens the soul in a 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 of 〈◊〉 to pass such determinations upon a mans estate that makes him past appearance of recovery or 〈◊〉 and so 〈◊〉 the reach of reason or relief As either a mans 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 past and his 〈◊〉 determined in heaven He was before 〈◊〉 worlds 〈◊〉 the 〈◊〉 is 〈◊〉 and the 〈◊〉 never to be reversed or else the date of mercy is 〈◊〉 and the day of grace is past here on Earth God hath set a period to his patience and long sufferance and those are expired he wil not alwayes strive with man and it s not fit nor reasonable he should Jesabel had her time to repant allowed by the Lord and she repented not and then God cast her into a bed of 〈◊〉 and slew her and her children Jerusalem had a day of peace Oh that thou 〈◊〉 the things that belong to thy peace in this thy day but now they are hid from thine eyes after the day was over the darkness grew 〈◊〉 gross that she did not nor could not see things before her eyes and this is thy condition just saies Satan So many motions of the spirit so many checks of Conscience so many 〈◊〉 and strokes under the ordinances and yet out stood al and so the time of mercy also now it is too late Or else surpriseth the thoughts of the distressed with the hideous apprehensions and remembrance of some hellish distemper of spirit unto which the sinner is privy that its other and worse than ever he yet conceived 〈◊〉 al circumstances considered it amounts to no less than the sin against the holy Ghost for if we sin wilfully after we have received the knowledg of the truth there remains no more 〈◊〉 for sin Hebr. 10. 26. and this is your case says Satan beyond al question when after many motions of the spirit and perswasions cast in many secret entreaties many misgivings of heart do not do so do not do it and yet you have dispised the very spirit of Grace you have been enlightened and had many pleasant rellishes of joy and peace under the good word of God and yet fallen back again and so fallen away therefore its impossible you should be restored or renewed by repentance Then should you pursue that which is impossible to be attained this dams up al passages he cannot endure to hear of any or attain the use of any means when its impossible to receive any benefit by al that can be used Thus Satan deals with the discouraged sinner as the thief with the weary traveller who is unacquainted with the way and lost in which he is he leads him out of the road far into the forrest without the ken and cal of any passenger or expectation of any means of relief and then he hath oppertunity to spoile him of his substance of his life also So Satan deals with distressed unacquainted with his own estate under this trouble stroak of contrition carryes him aside with such misconceivings of his
a reserved device how to contrive some colorable 〈◊〉 by some Caution and Interpretation to entertain it it is Hellish Hypocrisie As the 〈◊〉 brabbles with her Mate before her Husband 〈◊〉 so she may meet with him without the suspicion of her Husband So the 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 he wil readily without any hunching acknowledg his sin and error in one sence that so as occasions serves he may plead for it and only pretend another sence The Confession in then serious when 〈◊〉 is leaves the soul base and makes the sinner put his mouth in the dust looks at himself as vile loaths his sin and himself for it and is desirous that the evil and he for it may be loathed of al that have heard and known it willing that 〈◊〉 himself and sin should by al for ever be dishonored who have dishonored God Dan. 9. 8. Vnto us belongs shame and 〈◊〉 of face for ever to be opposed and rejected who have rejected his Truth that 〈◊〉 hearts of all should be estranged from it and from that frame of Spirit which acted him because they have estranged him and others from God he would shame himself and therefore is content others should cast shame upon him Ezek. 36. 31 32. Then they shal 〈◊〉 themselves for all their abominations which they have committed Lam. 3. 29 30. He 〈◊〉 alone and 〈◊〉 silence because he hath born it upon him be puts his mouth in the dust if so be there may be hope The Soul by this serious Confession intends to take an ADVANTAGE against his sin and so much more engages his heart by the Witness of God and Men and Angels to keep himself for 〈◊〉 from al 〈◊〉 and provocations thereunto and holds his heart in a holy bent of 〈◊〉 for ever not once to admit any consideration or pretence of any carnal Reason that may seem to leave the least inticement that way when temptations come and corruptions stir as formerly this stops him I have 〈◊〉 these 〈◊〉 before al and they are condemned by al therefore I wil not I dare not give way 〈◊〉 16. last That thou mayest remember and be confounded and 〈◊〉 open 〈◊〉 mouth any more because of thy 〈◊〉 3. How doth Contrition bring in this Confession and enlarge the Heart this way I Answer upon Three Grounds all which are so many Arguments of the Point propounded Taken from that bitterness which the soul in this contrite disposition 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 and that undeniably to be in those distempers in which it hath taken so much content in former time the poysoned loathsomness which now it hath 〈◊〉 experimentally to be in such pleasing lusts and which formerly have 〈◊〉 the delight and diet of the soul And therefore it is the heart 〈◊〉 the sinner is not able to brook or 〈◊〉 them 〈◊〉 vomits them out with vehement distast and unsufferable disdain abandons them by open confession In the Body we see it the Stomach when it was clogged with abundance of gross and foul Humors as in the disease called Pica it wil 〈◊〉 upon 〈◊〉 and ashes and loom wall will down as desirable diet because such noysom diet suits best with 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Humors which 〈◊〉 in the Stomach but when it 's recovered and brought to any wholsom constitution if 〈◊〉 with any such provision which is 〈◊〉 loathsom and 〈◊〉 upto it it 's 〈◊〉 sick and 〈◊〉 be eased before 〈◊〉 cast it out It 's so with the 〈◊〉 when once he hath attained this wholfom constitution and disposition of a contrite spirit Those noysom abominations which seemed so sweet and savory to his sensual and base heart that it could digest them as its only diet and delight corrupt lusts were most suitable to corrupt nature and no marvel that the Toad and Spiders lick up poyson which is so agreeable to their poysonful Nature but when the Lord hath wrought this through contrition as a wholsom disposition and constitution of soul so that not only the punishment of it which is tedious but the poyson and filth becomes more detestable and grievous to the sinner the heart is not able to suffer the loathsom bitterness thereof but forthwith endeavors to cashier it utterly by acknowledgment and confession that the very scent and savor yea the least remembrance of it may be for ever removed Pain wil make the dog vomit out his meat sence of punishment constrain'd Judas to cast out his morsel fling away his money the bribe of the bloody Treachery and Treason of his but had they been both poysoned the one with his meat the other with the venom of his sin it would have wrought more freely and fully in both That Godly Sorrow which was wrought in the hearts of the Corinthians who bore with the 〈◊〉 person a long while and the 〈◊〉 person 〈◊〉 who committed the evil 2 〈◊〉 7. 10. It wrought a cleering in the one as the Text expresseth 〈◊〉 and no question in the other upon the same ground i. e. a naked full and free-hearted acknowledgment Godly Sorrow like a strong Potion cleers the Stomach casts out the core suffers no remainders behind of any secret reservation of a wretched distemper in any degree or circumstance makes a cleer Conscience quit of any combination with any lust in the least correspondence When the corruption which is gathered in the 〈◊〉 ered sore grows ripe and rotten it wil break presently though no man lance or touch it and 〈◊〉 plentifully and abundantly So with this through contrition it works a separation and therefore an evacuation loosens the affection from the sin inwardly and 〈◊〉 it wholly by acknowledgment It 's true In Nature and Grace and Reason each thing 〈◊〉 it self and therefore expels its contraty to the utmost distance it may that it may neither find nor fear any annoyance or hazard therefrom and therefore we find in diseases Agues and Feavers when Nature by the help of Physick hath gained some strength forceth the malignant humor as far from the heart as it can it breaks forth into the lips and then it 's conceived and 〈◊〉 the fits wil end the danger is over So it is with the soul when it 's helped by the Spirit in piercing the soul with Godly Sorrow he causeth the disease and distemper to break forth into the lips by open confession and forceth it as far as may be from ever annoying the heart any more The sweetness of sin is in this taken off contrition severs it from the heart confession vomits out and removes it that it may never annoy the soul or disturb the peace of a mans Conscience any more The distressed sinner now comes 〈◊〉 to feel and so to know the danger of sin as undoubtedly hazarding a mans everlasting happiness and welfare and to find also by woful proof his own weakness and inability either to prevent it or bear it or remove it and help himself against that eternal ruin and confusion which God hath threatened and he must expect
As the Magicians in Egipt professed touching the liee that wonder which the Lord then expressed though it were in a thing very little and despicable to the eye yet they confessed this the 〈◊〉 finger of God they were not able to turn their hand to that work So dost thou upon through search find this disposition of spirit that thou dost see that infinite loathsomness in thy corruptions and in thy heart being taynted therewith so noysom the plague sore of sin and thy soul and self so defiled with running provocations thereof that in truth thou art loath to see thy heart to own it or to have it which hath nothing but loathsomness in it and conceivest thou art worthy indeed others should judg so of thee as thou judgest of thy self how ever this frame of spirit may seem mervailous mean and despicable in the eye of the world know thou mayest and conclude thou shouldst this is the very finger of God flesh and blood hath not revealed this hath not wrought this in thee but the spirit which is from God That which is at ods with al the excellency that is flesh and blood that which is opposite to it and tramples upon the glory and pride of it that must needs be more than flesh and blood Ezek. 16. 2. last I wil establish my covenant and thou shal know I am the Lord thou shalt know me and own me and beleeve in me as thy God and thy Lord then thou shalt remember and be confounded and never open thy mouth any more because of thy shame When God sets open the fountain of his free grace in the soul these streams wil follow Hence then this doctrine brings in a heavy inditement against sundry sorts of men and gives undeniable evidence that as yet they never knew what it was to be broken-hearted for sin or turned savingly from sin the stupid sencelessness of whose spirits is wholly uncapable of this holy blush and confusion of face and heart First of those who through the hardness of their hearts by their constant custome and continuance in their sin are beyond the sence of it or shame for it whose faces are settled and their consciences seared with a hot iron so that there is no sting at al or check that 〈◊〉 them but 〈◊〉 a seared part is without sence or feeling they practice their wret chedness and profess it are convinced of it and go away not touched nor troubled with it shrink not retire not with any sence of fear or shame for what they have done such are never like to see the filth of their sins before they see them by the flames of the fierceness of Gods wrath in the fire of hell of this helish temper were those forlorn creatures Jer. 8. 6. I hearkend and heard but no man repented him saying what have I done they take not their sins into consideration nor attend the danger but every man turned to his own course as the horse rusheth into the battle nothing stops them or affrights them v. 12. were they ashamed when they committed abomination nay they were not at al ashamed neither could they be ashamed their minds were wholly 〈◊〉 they did not see the vileness of their sins and their hearts hardened they could not be sensible of them so the Prophet Isa. compluins chap. 3. 9. they declare 〈◊〉 sin as Sodom they commit evil openly and they are bold and brazen-faced to persist in what they do commit they sear not who know it and they shame not to own it I knew saith the Lord thy brow was brass and thy neck like an iron sinnew the heart buckles not it s an iron sinnew the face blusheth 〈◊〉 its brass harlot-like Another sort who are so far from bearing the shame they do deserve that out of their impudency they do rather cast shame upon the truth itself that would discover their sin and so the messenger that brings it Thus out of this devilish wretchedness and 〈◊〉 they dare to flout God to his face and cast scorn and contempt upon the truth rather than they wil lye under contempt themselves and therefore it is the prophet looks at it as desperate beyond hope or help Hos. 4. 4. let no man strive with another or reprove him for this people are as they that strive with the priest they contemn him and his repro of so far are they srom being content to take it or the due shame which it discovers of this stamp were those impudent scorners who jeared the Prophet to his face and made a jeast of the threatnings he delivered Isa. 22. 12. In the day the Lord called to weeping and mourning and baldness and to girding with sackcloath and behold joy and gladness slaying of oxen and killing of sheep let us eat and drink for to morow we shal dye q. d. do you not hear the dreadful threatning that Isaiah hath denounced do ye not expect to dye masters do not your hearts shake within you to hear such tidings let us not dye fasting we wil take our meat sure before our enemies take away our lives if we must dy as the prophet saith let us be merry before our death It were revealed to me saies the Prophet from the Lord of hosts surely this iniquity shal not be purged from you til you dye that is never so tel the rebellious servant of his or her rugged carriage unruly language that they have tongues set on fire of hel 〈◊〉 in wording of it slighting and gainsaying Titus 2. 9. Exhort servants to be obedient to their own masters to please them wel in al things not answering again because they are stopped from answering frampfully therefore they wil not modestly and in meekness of wisdom ask counsel and direction from a Governor wish them ask your Mistres enquire of your Master no no I must not speak I promise you would I were Governor they cannot sin they must be pleased in al things whether they please God or no. Thus because their devillish heart cannot bear the truth they flout the truth and cast it away in a scorn as though they should say you may see what sweet rules the scripture gives for the Government of servants nay how unequal and unreasonable they be which is such hideous and hellish blasphemy that the heart of Belzebub in his cold blood would blush to vent it These two sorts out of a stupid impudency are not capable of 〈◊〉 there be two other sorts that out of subtilty of pride are unwilling to bear it such are those who in the third ranck seek up 〈◊〉 shameful hidings that may be imagined strugle as for life to the utmost of their power and policie that they may shift off the shame and make an escape from under that righteous reproach and contempt 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 vileness of their carriages have justly brought upon themselves sometimes in silence burying and hiding of it As Judah his incest Gen. 38. 23. When he sent the kid
wil pass the sentence of shame upon it as the just fruit of our evil doings and as a means so sanctified to work a hatred against it in our selves and to remove the scandal of it from others and therefore strives not by restless cavils and evasions to make an escape from the evidence of the Word in the work of Conviction when a mans errors should be discovered nor yet doth repine at nor bear a privy grudg after the conviction lies not under the Truth as the 〈◊〉 upon the rack which he therefore bears not because indeed he cannot help himself against it with all the troublesom 〈◊〉 he can use but his soul inwardly approves of that word which judgeth his person and practice vile as himself doth Thus the word in the Original which sign sies confession properly 〈◊〉 to speak as God speaks to judg as God judgeth of his sin this hath been the constant guize of the Saints touched sincerely with remorse for their sin A word snibs David Thou art the man presently I have sinned saith he A wink or a look of the Lord Jesus makes Peter lie at his foot Go out and weep bitterly who had immediately before in a faithless cowardice basely denied him As it is with a Steed of a tender mouth feels his Bit 〈◊〉 the 〈◊〉 check of the Rider staies him turns him which way he wil So it is with a tender Conscience fals under the greatest shame that the least evidence of Argument wil check him withal So Ezekiah though i. were a sharp word and the threatening 〈◊〉 Isai. 39. last yet saies he The Word of the Lord is a good Wond my heart is naught my carriage naught my apprehensions naught and erroneous but the Word of the Lord is good and the holy Apostle in that inward combate speaks in the Name of all the Saints in the like case Rom. 7. 14. For we know that the Law is spiritual holy and good WE i. e. all that know God the work of his Grace the purity of the Truth they and I and al confess the Law is Spiritual that is for ever to be honored loved obeyed but I am carnal a good and holy Law but an evil and unholy heart true it is that carnal and hollow-hearted Hypocrites may somtimes have their Consciences so far awed with the Soveraign power of the Truth that they may yield 〈◊〉 thereunto and in outward appearance readily profess their approbation thereof with the condemnation of themselves and their own courses because they have no other way to gain ease and quiet to their own Consciences now clamoring against them or their acceptance with men their carriages being gross and inexcusable and therefore must so far bear the shame because he sees he cannot excuse his folly or sin being so open but he shal be accounted impudent in denying and sinning but al this while his heart is carried with an inward distast against it and by a privy spleen imbittered so as to conspire secretly the disparagement of it As it fared with those treacherous Jews when they saw no way and therefore had no hope to take away the life of Paul by open violence then they did cunningly plot it by a color of fair pretence and carried it thus Acts 23. 14. They would have him brought down out of the Castle as though they would enquire somthing more perfectly of him and we ere ever he come neer will be ready to kill him So these fals-hearted Creatures make it by their 〈◊〉 pretences that they would enquire more perfectly concerning the Truth the Servant craves Counsel how he should subdue the ruggedness of his Spirit the froward wife how she should overcome her way ward peevish 〈◊〉 they wil enquire more perfectly as though they would obey perfectly submit perfectly be perfect Servants wives c. But alas there is a conspiracy in their hearts against the strict waies of God So it was with Balaam he hath never done sacrificing to enquire the wil of God and yet his heart inwardly opposeth and resists his wil and this shewed it self in open violence and contempt of the Command and Charge Numb 24. 1. A heart content to take the shame is not offended with the party friend or enemy that wil lay the shame upon him he knows it is the burden which he ought to 〈◊〉 and if therefore any man wil give him a lift and help him to take it up he wil take it kindly at his hands It 's against common sence to conceive that one should be offended with another or take it grievously that he doth any thing which he knows would and he conceives wil give him content No man can be offended in Reason with the party for such a carriage or doing such a thing wherein he is contented and with which he is pleased True it is shame in it self is exceeding distastful to flesh and blood and in truth nothing more cross and contrary to an ingenious spirit Praise is the priviledg and prerogative of a reasonable Agent who acts by Counsel and therefore other Creatures are not so capable of it nor do we give it as their due we commend not the fire for burning heavy things for falling donward they cannot but do their work and therefore no praise no thanks to them for their deed but Agents as Men and Angels who work by Counsel who have wit and wisdom to contrive several waies conceive the best and wil and care to follow that when they might have done other out of their liberty Shame therefore crossing a man in his special priviledg his proper free hold it must in it self be very grievous and a tedious burden but as he sees his duty in it and the good that comes by it and withal his just desert by reason of his vileness he is not offended with the presence of the Chirurgeon but he is glad to see him and his 〈◊〉 though sharp and 〈◊〉 which may lance his imposthume and so save his 〈◊〉 whenas a naughty heart who would not have another take away his 〈◊〉 he is vexed inwardly at the least that he laies the shame and disparagement upon him for it See this odds in those two Kings Ahab and 〈◊〉 the one a self-seeking deluded 〈◊〉 when he was under the whip and terror of Gods stroak and wrath he then humbles his soul fasts and praies and that in print as it were acts his part in that extraordinary duty with outward 〈◊〉 and therefore in reason it cannot but be conceived he bewailed his sin confessed his failings and yet he that hated Elijah 1 Kings 21. 20. he hates also Micaiah 1 Kings 22. 8. There is yet one Micaiah q. d. We are rid of the most of them but yet One is our vexation and I hate him because he hates my sin and wil never speak good that is speak that which pleaseth my corruption and therefore displeaseth me But good Jehosaphat he was not willing to hear his words
and wil have no nay before they obtain their 〈◊〉 so the Adulterous woman Prov. 7. 21. with much fair speech she caused him to yield with the flattering of her lips she forced him so Judg. 16. 16. Dalilah layd siege and made battery at the heart of Sampson at last wearied him out and wrought him to her own wil and his ruine an evil example is like the presenting of an army before a place and summoning of it but spech is like a constant beleaguring of a City which wil force it to surrender and therefore I have ever judged it more dangerous to live with a person of an il language than of an evil life because a mans practice wil be but seldom and occasional and mainly an enticement to some one kind of evil but speech pursues a man with variety of enticements words are arrowes and he that shoots a whol quiver wil hardly miss but wound with some or other at the last The evil of the tongue is a kind of restless unweariable untameable wickedness the practice of sin 〈◊〉 such that somtimes a mans years permit not the pursuit ofit or the time suits not or the place fits not or a mans ability and strength makes unapt and wholly unable to take it up so nature desires 〈◊〉 and rest and the commission of sin is at an end the Thief must leave his trade of robbing the Drunkard his company the Adulterer his lusts when age and sickness comes in upon him and their able strength is now spent But the evil of the tongue begins with a man in his tender years when the child knowes not the mistery of sin nor yet hath ability to practice it yet he can prate and talk of it this grows up with him to his riper years and when his strength and nature decayes and a man grows towards his grave yet the evil of his tongue grows lively and active and when a wretch is able to do nothing yet then is he able to read lectures of villany and wickedness which he hath learned in his life and practiced in the leudness of his carriage from his youth As it is with old Huntsmen when their legs fail that they cannot follow the game yet they wil sit and hear the cry and lewr after the hounds when they can do little else So here This I take to be the meaning of that of James which exerciseth the apprehensions of interpreters and its mervailous hard to find the sul mind of God therin James 3. 6. It sets on fire the whol course of nature and it self is set on fire of Hel. i. e. by the hellish delusions and temptations of Satan Two things I suppose are ospecially implied in the text 1. The violence and untameableness of this evil cannot be stopped it carries al before it not onely propounds a temptation unto evil but counsels yea commands if not that entreats if that take not place pursues al these perseveres to importune til the importunity kindles in the heart like a mighty flame which cannot be quenched So when Demetrius had pressed his companions with such prevailing arguments of profit 〈◊〉 you know that by this trade we have our liveing presently they were al upon a flame and the voyce prevayled by the space of two hours Great is Diana of the Ephesians Acts. 19. 28. when they heard those sayings so they were kindled and carried away with Herods speech the voyce of God and not of man Acts. 12. 22. 2. This untameable evil of the tongue hath not his dates and periods his spring and fal as it were but sets on fire the whol course of nature i. e. grows up with us from our beginnings and goes along with us in our daily course until we ly down in our graves When children can know nothing nor learn to do nothing yet they wil easily take in naughty words and tattle them when they know not what they talk In a word this is the ful meaning so near as I can guess whereas the feebleness of our childhood unfits us for the knowing and practicing of some evil our 〈◊〉 years frees us from some as childish sports and vanities decrepit age utterly 〈◊〉 us to most the 〈◊〉 evil of our tongues sends in a veyn and currant of wickedness through our whol course the folly and 〈◊〉 of our child-hood unfits us not for this or our riper years frees us not but such count it as suitable to their condition our decrepit age hinders us not but the vanity of the tongue casts a venom through al nor is a man wearied with such 〈◊〉 as that he craves end or ease but is as fresh at night as he was in the morning in his youth as he was in his childhood in his decaying age as he was in his riper yeers This hellish fire 〈◊〉 few el and matter to nourish it in a mans whol course therefore it 's sayd it 's set on fire of Hell Because our natures are easily tainted with this poyson and takes it in almost unawares you cannot keep children from learning the language especially that 's nought which they hear nor can you force them to leave it or forget it they grow up to ripenes and readiness in it without either care or pains Joseph swears the Court oath and the children speak half Ashdod and half Hebrew That thou mayest see how far thou art deceived in slighting the evil of thy words know if there be any evil in the world it is in-manner and measure in them James 3. 6. the tongue is a world of evil an University an Universality of al wickedness in it and its an Ornament of al evil besides the word wil carry both and I would include both what ever evil is on earth amongst men in Hell amongst Devils and the damned what ever wickedness the manners of al Countries have invented the Condition of al men have practised or the hearts and 〈◊〉 of men contrived the tongue shares in al these It 's the chief secretary to al estates of sin and sinners the Interpreter of mens minds Translator of these evils betwixt man and man In a word what ever evil is in the heart or mind of a mans self the tongue hath vented it whatsoever hath been done by others seen or observed the tongue hath related reported it It 's that which wil cover al the foulness excuse or lessen the loathsomness of the most vile evils hath varnished and decked over the most detestable practices with some pretences of liberty or indifferency hath been the Lawyer which hath undertook to plead the cases of the vilest waies of evil that ever were Having seen the vileness of sinful words Now let us proceed to consider of our THOUGHTS the first stirrings of the distempers of our hearts that suddenly and presently vanish away men imagine there cannot be such evil in them nor are they to charge themselves so deeply for them as Ministers would bear them in hand No
man say they can see or know the thoughts of our hearts therfore they cannot be offensive or scandalous to any and therefore it s not possible they should be discouraged from doing any good they desire or intend or provoked to the practice of any evil that may be dangerous to themselves or dishonourable to the Lord. besides they appear not só soon to our apprehensions but they pass away in an instant and are as though they had never been and what great evil is in the and why should the soul be so deeply 〈◊〉 with them and the sinner be forced to feel so great sorrow for them this is to make them worse than they are and our selves more miserable than we should be The evil of thy thoughts and stirrings of the distempers of thy heart are hidden and spiritual and they pass away before thou canst perceive them much less judg of them aright but didst thou but see them as they are and upon thorough search couldst truly find out the bottom of that baseness and filth that is there they would appear exceeding loathsom and hainous to thine own apprehension as he said the sin of the soul is the soul of sin The sin of the body is the body and carkass of corruption that is in the sinful motions of the soul of the mind and heart there is the life poyson and power of corruption putting forth it self in the utmost activity of the venom and malignity of it The Actions of the Body are tainted with the pollution of sin by consent as the distempers of the mind and heart appear in them and are acted by them the body is as it were an accessary in the evil and wickedness the mind is the principal that contrives all useth only the body as an Instrument to vent its own venom and wickedness by More especially see the hainousness of the evil of thy Thoughts and Heart in the Particulars following First In regard of God The sinful poyson of thy thoughts doth estrange thee from God carry thee in professed opposition against him so that the sinner comes by this means to resist the Almighty as it were to his very face Let me open both these in a few words Thy inordinate thoughts takes thee off from yielding attendance to the Lord that thou fallest off from him and the guidance of his wisdom in the Rule before thou fallest into any sin Here came in the first breach between God and the soul and by this the breach is continued and encreased dayly in our departings from him This I know saith the wise man that God made man right but he sought out many inventions or findings Eccles. 7. last He was made for God and should have eyed him directly and kept himself under the operative dispensation of his spiritual Government in which he would not have been awanting to him but he would have carried him to his end and kept him so in happiness that is carried him to himself and kept him with himself for ever But he found out findings so the words When he should have looked to the wil of God as the Compass only appointed to stere his course by he should have looked to the Law which the Lord had found out as the line and level of his life which would not have failed to have led him to his Duty and quickened him in it He was not content with the Rule and way that God had found out but he finds out an Invention out of the vanity of his mutable mind looks to that and is wholly led aside by that from the Lord. So that when he should go from Rule to Rule for the guidance of 〈◊〉 dayly course he goes from one vanity to another from one vain thought to another from one device to another as they said let us devise Devices As in a wel ordered Army break the Rank in one place and ye bring ruin and confusion upon the whol Here was the right order in which we were made and we should have kept Rank and File the mind and judgment should only have attended God the Will attend our Judgment the Affections wait on the Will the Actions issue as the execution of al. Here Satan routed Adam brake this Rank upon the first 〈◊〉 takes off the Mind from attending the Covenant Command and Direction of the Lord The day thou eatest thereof thou shalt surely die and listens to the 〈◊〉 and forgery of Satan Ye shall not die at all and so fals into the commission of the sin which brought condemnation upon him and his whol posterity and 〈◊〉 the 〈◊〉 came in thus between God and the soul so it 's dayly made greater by this means As a man once having missed his way the further he 〈◊〉 the further he goes from the right way Such is the ravelling of our own imaginations we 〈◊〉 our selves the longer we continue in them After we are overborn with the hurry of our thoughts we are 〈◊〉 a 〈◊〉 with our 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 God his Promises out Directions and Comforts cannot tel where to find our hearts This the Apostle gives as the fountain and first cause of those overflowing evils and fearful back-slidings from God Ephes. 4. 17. The Gentiles 〈◊〉 the vanity of their minds and so become strangers from the life of God Thus David by the sinful devices of his own mind departs so far from God that he cannot find any evidence of his Love or sence and feeling of his favor he plots the commission of the sin then the covering of it therefore sends for Uriah would have sent him to his house when that took not but resolves the contrary then he plots his drunkenness that he might forget his resolution when that succeeds not he sends him back to the Army and delivered him up to the hand of the Enemy in the issue So by inordinate attendance to unruly thoughts the sinner is taken aside so strangely from the Lord and so overwhelmed with the guilt and pollution of sin that partly he dare not and many times is so bewildred and 〈◊〉 that he knows not how to recover himself and come home to God The evil of our thoughts carries the soul in professed opposition against God for it is by the Spiritual Operations and Actions of our minds that we meet with the Lord and have a kind of intercourse with the Almighty who is a Spirit For al outward things are for the body the body for the soul the soul is nextly for God and therefore meets as really with him in the Actions of Understanding as the Eye meets with the Light in Seeing which no other Creature can do nor no action of a bodily Creature doth Our Sences in their sinful and inordinate sweryings when they become means and in-lets of evil from their objects they meet with the Creature firstly and there make the jar It 's the beauty of the Object that 〈◊〉 up to lust by the Eye the daintiness of the
of discovery appear therefore our Savior leads them inward saies he You know not what spirits you are of The voyce is the voyce of Jacob your pretence is fair as Elias his zeal was good but you have not the spirit of Elias not the love of God but the love of your selves even the spirit of self-love and pride c. there is little exception that can be taken from any thing that appears outwardly their Imposthumed matter lay within The spirit of sin is in the spirit of a mans practice may be it 's but a short and snappish speech a wayward carriage in a silent manner and 〈◊〉 thou goest away and sayest nothing But from what spirit came this From thy heart in hideous disdain and contempt with 〈◊〉 of hatred as though it had been a fiend of Hell look to thy spirit When thou hast known the womb of wickedness where the active power of a corruption lay and whence it came Look secondly to the 〈◊〉 and breeding of sin how the frame and constitution of a corruption comes to be fashioned inwardly before it be brought forth into practice James 1. 15. Lust when it hath conceived bringeth forth sin Somtimes a man conceives and travels of a monstrous Birth of an abominable and hideous villany and yet no man can so judg it before it appear in the ful birth and so the compleat constitution thereof This conception of a lust appears in the concurrence and combination of a corrupt heart and carnal reason 1. The affections pursue eagerly the evil and the wil resolves peremptorily this lust I must satisfie this 〈◊〉 way I wil walk in 2. Carnal reasonings are like the formative force or like the Spirit in the seed it casts about by al cunning contrivements subtil devices to compass and bring it about and to cover and color it over with the fairest pretence they may But when the parts and proportions of a perverse carriage the framing of our loathsom lusts come to view they then appear direful and dreadful That David should send for Uriah entertain him kindly tender him and his comfort so as to send him to enjoy his own comfort at his own house that he should advance him to that respect and put that honor and trust upon him as to put him into the Fore-front of the Battel who can blame any thing But to do al this to cover his Adultery and at last to suck the blood of the innocent that he may enjoy his lust here is a hellish brood a monstrous birth So it was with Absolons fair language c. To this place appertain al those rebellious oppositions which make head against al Rule and Reason when the light of knowledg would gainsay motions of the Spirit perswade and forewarn do it not checks of Conscience controul yet against knowledg and conscience and the motions of the Spirit they break through and pursue their lusts the light of knowledg carnal reason darkens the motions of the Spirit they quench the checks of conscience they 〈◊〉 So it is in the perverse carriage of rebellious Servants c. Follow sin by the fruits of it as by the bloody footsteps and see what havock it makes in every place where ever it comes go to the prisons and see 〈◊〉 many Malefactors in Irons so many Witches in the Dungeon these are the fruits of 〈◊〉 look aside and there you shal see one drawn out of the pit where he was drowned cast your eye but hard by and behold another lying weltring in his blood the knife in his Throat and his hand at the knife and his own hands become his Executioner thence go to the place of Execution and there you shal hear many prodigal and rebellious children and servants upon the Ladder leaving the last remembrance of their untimely death which their distempers have brought about I was born in a good place where the Gospel was preached with plainness and power lived under Godly Masters 〈◊〉 Religious Parents a holy and tender-hearted Mother I had many prayers she made tears she wept for me and those have met me often in the dark in my dissolute courses but I never had a heart to hear and receive All you stubborn and rebellious hear and fear and learn by my harms hasten from thence into the Wilderness and see Corah 〈◊〉 and Abiram going down quick to Hell and al the people flying and crying lest we perish also Lo this rebellion hath brought Turn aside but to the red Sea and behold al the Egyptians dead upon the shore and ask who 〈◊〉 them and the story wil tel you a 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 was the cause of that direful confusion From clience send your thoughts to the Cross where our Savior was 〈◊〉 he who bears up Heaven and Earth with his Power and behold those bitter and brinish 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 hideous cries My God my God why 〈◊〉 thou 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 And make but a peep-hole into Hel 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 your ear and listen to those 〈◊〉 of the Devils and damned cursing the day that ever they were born the 〈◊〉 that ever they enjoyed the mercies that 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 did 〈◊〉 the worm there 〈◊〉 and 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 the 〈◊〉 there burning and 〈◊〉 goes out and 〈◊〉 this 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 done and it wil do so to al that 〈◊〉 it 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 it Say thou therefore and why not I amongst the Witches upon the place of Execution with Malefactors why not I in Hel with the Devils Since my sins are as theirs my plagues might have been and in the issue wil be as theirs unless I repent Direful are those plagues that sin brings upon the sinner but these are not the worst nay in truth the least part of that evil that sin procures and puls upon the souls of those who give themselves thereunto Here is the venom of the vengeance and the dregs and malignity of that mischief that accompanies it in those spiritual desolations and ruines it leaves upon the soul those not to be conceived much less uttered by the tongues of Men and Angels Let us look inward and dig decper Commission of sin makes a man senceless and remorseless in it puts a man beyond the consideration and thought of amendment either capability of good or to look after it it takes off endeavor nay desire and thought of recovery out of our wretchedness such were they of whom the Apostle speaks 1 Tim. 4. 2. Having their consciences seared with a hot Iron as it is with seared parts what ever gashes or stabs come they have no sence or feeling of them what ever judgments are denounced threatnings proclaimed in a mans ears executed before a mans eyes the seared conscience is stupid and fearless it feels nothing is affected with nothing So it was said of the Heathen Eph. 4. 19. They were past feeling God frowns from Heaven the Word threatens Devils accuse their own Judgments condemn the loathsomness of their practice and men bear witness and cry shame of the sottishness
of their course their distempers are such that they stink above ground and yet they poor creatures feel nothing but bless themselves in their present condition Rom. 2. 5. They have hearts that cannot repent heaping up 〈◊〉 against the day of wrath The daily and ordinary commission of any one sin delivers up the sinner to become a prey to the power of al corruptions even the most detestable sin lays wast the soul that it becomes a through-fair and lyes open to the most hellish provocations or distempers that can be presented before it and nothing comes amiss that 's the inference when the heathen had no delight to have God in their knowledg had notliking to such and such righteous and good wayes of God he delivered them up to a reprobate sence Rom. 1. 28. they had no delight to be ruled by the truth and the wisdom and holiness thereof no delight 〈◊〉 know or rellish any good God takes them at their word and leaves them in the hands of their sins they should have minds that should never know the truth hearts that should never approve of it See presently when the soul is thus layed wast what a drove and inroad of hideous abominations come in and take possession and make a prey and spoyl of the poor wretched creature as they wil then ver 29. 30. they are ful of all Unrighteousness Covetousness Fornication Envy proud Boasters beady high minded 〈◊〉 breakers False Unfaithful Disobedient Unnatural nothing is a miss what ever the heart of Belzebub or the bottom of Hel can harbour It 's the ground of the cohaerence of that place also Eph. 4. 19. Who being past feeling they have given up themselves to work al uncleanness with greediness the poor creature is at the 〈◊〉 and beck of any base abomination no temptation presseth in but prevayles no allurement is presented but it surpriseth and taketh aside no corruption 〈◊〉 but it carryes and acts him without gainsaying the Devil and his distempers take him alive and take him at their pleasures lead him as they 〈◊〉 and he knows not where he is before he be in the bottomless pit This is the quintessence of vengeance an unseen evil 〈◊〉 in truth unconceavable the terrors of death and the torments 〈◊〉 hell are nothing in comparison of this When the glorious and blessed God through the just desert of sin leaves the creature at the lust of Satan and his diftemper Loe he is in your 〈◊〉 do what you wil with him I wil have nothing to do with him more this is the sentence passed upon the backslider Prov. 14. 14. the backslider in heart shal be 〈◊〉 with his own wayes he shal have his belly 〈◊〉 Thus as the saints are sealed up in the day of Redemption the wicked are 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 up under the soverainty of their sins 〈◊〉 the day of destruction thou 〈◊〉 have thy pride and stubbornness 〈◊〉 be thou for ever proud and for ever 〈◊〉 and for ever 〈◊〉 hearted continu so and perish 〈◊〉 There is no judgment like to this and this is the 〈◊〉 of sin and that which the Lord reserves as the choycest of al his plagues the last and worst 1 Prov. 26. 28. 31. Yee shall call but I wil not hear yee shall seek me and shall not 〈◊〉 me one would think this is heavy and harder measure could hardly be found yes the Lord hath worse because ye despised my counsel and set at naught al my reproof 〈◊〉 they shall eat the fruit of their own wayes and be ful of their own devices they who srame and devise devises to contrive Contentments to their own carnal and corrupt 〈◊〉 carry a forge of falshood and 〈◊〉 about them to succeed in these one would have thought is the 〈◊〉 content such a person could take true it is so and that is the greatest and most dreadful plague that could befal them When the Lord Christ takes away 〈◊〉 of himself and his spirit from the 〈◊〉 and leaves him wholly to himself and the power of Satan his own 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 distempers nothing of Gods wisdom 〈◊〉 their own folly shal mislead them nothing of Gods 〈◊〉 but the perverse rebellion of their own hearts shal rule them and so destroy them this is to be in hell before he come there and so be a Devil before he come among them They come to be helpless in regard of all means that the Lord hath provided or the mercies that the Lord hath offered unto them and doth yet strive with them in Its sin that stops the entercourse between God and the soul his ordinances and our Consciences takes and 〈◊〉 the passage that the power of the means never work upon us the sweetness of his mercies never affect us the virtue of his ordinances find no place leave no impression upon the soul This is the fruit which the prophet layes forth of the rebellions and 〈◊〉 of the Jewes which made them ripe for everlasting ruine Isa. 6. 9. 10. Make the heart of this people 〈◊〉 and their ears heavy and by that time they are sure enough for ever seeing the face of God or receiving 〈◊〉 by any means seeing they may see and not perceive hearing they may hear and 〈◊〉 understand least they be converted They are far enough from conversion and so from salvation It s that also which is of necessity implyed in the former expression they shal be filled with their own devises so there is no entrance no acceptance of any direction from the wil and word of God As it is in vessels that are brim ful of liquor ready to run over there is no room for a spoonful of the most precious liquor to be put into them So through the just desert of their sin they are so fully possessed with the power of their corruptions which have had commission to rule them that as our saviour said John 8. 37. There is no place for the word Their minds so ful of pride of their own carnal reason that therē is no room for instruction to direct or inform them their hearts so ful of stifness and perveriness that there is no place for reproof that may prevail with them and reform them the spirit so ful of falsness and ready to take hold upon 〈◊〉 that there is no place for the 〈◊〉 of the truth to frame them to the 〈◊〉 and singleness of carriage as suits with Gods mind so that all means of grace and ordinances take their leave of the sinner work no more upon that heart that hath 〈◊〉 long and so often opposed the work thereof 〈◊〉 51. 9. We would have healed Babilon 〈◊〉 she would not be healed leave her then leave instructions and leave exhorting c. so it is with the ordinances the Lord passeth by and wil not so much as speak a word to a rebellious heart the threatnings that troubled before now stir not the instructions that convinced before now awe not at al the reproofs