to smart whereby the Lord awakeneth Conscience indeed and striketh terror into the Hearts of his Chosen casting them down very low to Self-denial he breaks their stony Hearts in pieces convincing Men as Transgressors telling them that they are the Men even Men of Death this they have done and that they deserve discovering millions of Sins more than they ever dreamed of quickning Sin in the Conscience and putting a Weapon into its hand to kill the Sinner under his Guilt For this is properly the Office of the Law to detect and convince Men of such and such Sins to pass sentence against them for those Sins and to follow them so convicted with a thundring noise from place to place hedging and hemming them in on every side that they can neither get out nor be quiet any where till they humble themselves and fall down before the Lord's Mercy-Seat Fourthly We may not exclude from this Preparative Work a branch of the Gospel which the Lord makes use of for the completing this Preparation by it as by beams and heat from a Fire far off to soften and melt those broken pieces that so the Heart being ready to fall asunder and grieving more kindly than it can do under mere Legal Terrors may readily and delightfully admit of Spiritual Infusions and be the more speedily brought into a new Mould And this the Gospel doth First By unvailing unto such distressed Minds the holy and pure Nature of God himself which the Law discovereth only as he is a Creature the Gospel further as he is a Father his patience and loving kindness in Christ his rich Mercy great Love Free-Grace those Spiritual Beams by which the Divine Nature shines forth upon us Saul Saul why persecutest thou me One that is so holy and harmless one that hath done so much for thee one that doth so entirely love thee and desire thy good Hast thou none to sin against but thy Saviour None to abuse but thy Friend None to kick against but the Bowels of Love Did not I suffer enough upon the Cross Must I needs suffer more This struck the Nail on the Head this made his Eyes to water his Heart to melt with this kind salutation Saul's hard Heart was softned and made pliable to a further work Secondly By discovering the sinfulness of Sin that it is not only fearful as the Law saith but filthy also not only evil but the greatest evil whence once disrobed of that pleasing and deceitful shining Skin patcht up of the shreds of Pleasure Profit and Carnal Content it is apprehended as opposit to the greatest Good and consequently more to be hated and avoided than Hell There is no Hell without Sin nor any Heaven with Sin Hell is Penal but Sin is a Criminal evil The evil of pain is contrary to the good of a finite being only while the evil of fault is opposite to an infinite purity Both these namely the Law and the Gospel being thus amplified prest and applied to the sinners Soul so that he can find no starting hole to evade no corner to run into no gap open to get out of this Wilderness by this time it comes to pass that he finds a combustion in his Brest a fire kindled in his Bones such new trouble as he never felt now Hope appears anon Despair at one time Fear another time Love cometh into the Soul like flashes of Lightning both followed with Tears and Complaints he may be often heard to sigh and sometime to beat the Brest and say O Lord that I could repent O that I could believe O that I had a soft tender Heart That my Head were Waters and mine Eyes a fountain of Tears that I might weep Day and Night Help me O my Friends for the terrours of the Almighty oppress me he makes me inherit the sins of my youth so that I am ready to sink Help me O my God to do what thou commandest command what thou wilt and thou shalt not command in vain Make me a Man after thy own Heart give me O give if not a Fountain yet a Stream if not a Stream yet some few drops of penitent Tears to ease a burdned Heart and to prepare a loathsom Soul for the more precious streams of Christ's Blood And yet as if all this were not enough behold and see there steppeth up another Witness more against this terrified Creature And that is a reflecting power of the Soul called Conscience which joyneth with the Law and Gospel in their Sentence and meeting him alone as flying from both the former and hoping somewhere to escape assaults the poor Soul and concludes to this effect Nay whither now Think not to shift off all hope not to carry all away as Sampson did the Gates go not about to hide it do not deny or extenuate it for all this is true which thou hast heard from the Law and Gospel O wretched Creature thus and thus hath God walked towards thee in Justice in Mercy in Power in Patience and Bounty he sent Christ with healing in his Wings to heal and do thee good and yet thus and thus rebelliously and ungratefully hast thou walked towards him thou hast put away Salvation bolted out thy Physician What wilt thou say Whither wilt thou go Nay nay think not of pleading dream not of flying much less of any hiding except thou wilt contract farther guilt and a greater burden on thy self which is heavy enough already Down proud Heart down with it lower than thy Knees cloath thy self in Sack-cloth and Ashes put a Rope about thy Neck as Benhadads Servants did confess thy faults humbly aggravate thy folly ingenuously and then thou mayst hope to hear the voice of Mercy there is no way to flie from him but by falling down before him Blood-letting is a cure of Bleeding To close and get in is the only way to avoid the blow Thirdly Why the Lord thus brings his Children into the Wilderness Answ All God's Actions are ordered by infinite Wisdom therefore some reason may always be rendred of his Will In case we apprehend it not we must acknowledg the weakness of our own Capacities and subscribe it without enquiring after any Reason because we know it is his Will Yet in this business something may be said as probable and with due reverence He doth it First To divorce the Heart from Sin and to break that Love-knot between the Heart and Sin in every Natural Man which ordinarily is not done without some throws of this Spiritual Trouble While Men run up and down in the seeming pleasant fields of Liberty sin is sweet and fair unto them so far from fear that they are in love with it Who ever saw a covetous Vsurer troubled in mind when he is telling his Money and reckoning up his Bonds and Bills An Adulterer mourning with his Mistress in his Arms Belshazzar indeed was taken and troubled among his Cups and so are some Drunkards but that was an extraordinary
or less it continueth during Life and rather increaseth than decayeth as Love doth It is not sufficient to see Sin once a Year and yet it would be better for some then it is did they go so far as our Adversaries require Confession nor once in our Life only at Death to cast an eye upon it and bid it adieu with an O Lord Lord be merciful and open unto me which good words and seasonable too are not blamed but the delaying of so main a Duty till then Heaven is not to be had usually at so cheap a rate Satan ordinarily is not so soon vanquished nor Sin so easily put off Whosoever thinks it so easie a matter to repent and believe as that he hath seen and sorrowed enough for Sin now he may desist from both did never see nor sorrow for it at all What David here said of himself is true of every renewed Heart more or less during Life My Sin is ever before me Vse 1. The use hereof may be 1. To discover to you a two-fold Error to be carefully avoided because common and dangerous First Of the Romanists who in their Doctrine and Practice do place Sin rather before the Ear of the Confessor than before the Eye of the Committer That the one must hear it is absolutely necessary without which there is no Salvation that the other should see it is not so at least not so much prest by them Auricular Confession is more insisted on than inward Contrition And Penance is too far sever'd by them from Repentance We hear much and often of the one but of the other there is too deep a silence Confession and Satisfaction are strictly lookt unto by such as profess their Religion in earnest to give them their due that nothing may be blamed in them but what is blame-worthy But Contrition and Sanctification this personal sight of Sin and Evangelical sorrow for it are not so much urged neither in their Writings nor Practice for ought I can learn However I dislike not Confession it is a Duty very comfortable and useful the abuse set aside I could wish it more frequent among us but never used in publick or private without Contrition Let the Heart accompany the Tongue else it is the most unsavoury piece of Formality that can be Secondly Of our common People who deem the worst of such as are thus troubled condemning rash judgment in others do yet pass the bounds of Charity towards them As if poor Souls they only were curst of God and hated of others because they are thus pursued by Sin and baited by Satan especially if it be on their Sick-bed Strange it is to hear them cry out upon profession of Religion as if Religion were the worse for it because her followers are thus affrighted for their good They will not profess Religion no not they nor be tied to frequent the Church to perform Duties in private because such and such are distracted by it Sure they are out of their Wits this Book-learning hath made them Mad else they would never complain and cry out so that their Sins are ever before them Why say they are not we all Sinners as well as they and yet our Sins never trouble us More is the pity and greater is their Misery Poor Souls you cannot distinguish between trouble for Sin and senslessness under Sin between the desperate pangs of Despair and the genuine thâ—ows of a troubled Mind Miâ—ht you not as truly have said the same of David St. Paul and all the rest of God's Saints in every Age who have passed through this Wilderness to Canaan But in so doing know you dishonour God lay a blemish on his Work and often condemn the Generation of the Righteous This trouble of Mind being one of the most infallible marks of true Penitency the Road-way to Heaven for adult Persons and one of the best signs of this Nature that any one can see in himself or desire in his Friend Let my Sins good Lord be always before me as David 's were Let all thine be so disquieted here that so all our Sins may never come in sight at that Day but be buried in everlasting forgetfulness True it is some Men may superstitiously endeavour to make the Way to Heave narrower than indeed it is but far more there are who voluptuously endeavour to enlarge it and make it more broad and easie than God hath made it without any such sight of Sin or trouble about it crying out To what end serveth this waste What needeth all this ado Cannot Men be saved without this sight of Sin and sorrow for it Whether they can or no I will not stand to determine sure I am ordinarily they will not Till they be brought into the Wilderness they are intractable indocible therefore the Lord troubleth them that they may be willing to be saved To all such as think otherwise I should commend these following passages of holy Scripture to be considered in their most retired Thoughts Numb 32.23 Gen. 4.7 Psal 50.21 22. Mat. 7.13 14. Phil. 3.11 1 Pet. 4.18 The Righteous shall scarcely be saved ad praesentis Vitae difficultates debet referri c. saith a judicious Interpreter on that place Our Race or Warfare here in this World is like a Voyage by Sea beset and encountred with many Difficulties Rocks Tempests Pirats open Enemies and false Brethren Ardua prima via est which made St. Paul say If by any means I may attain unto the Resurrection of the Dead A phrase importing difficulty without doubtting he was perswaded he should attain it but not without the use of such means and after much strugling What else is meant by the Wrestling of Jacob the Praying and Fasting of David the Running of Paul the Scruples and Cases of Conscience proposed by the Saints of God frequently and in great variety when once they begin to benefit by the Word Men and Brethren what shall we do Sirs What must I do to be saved And the like Complaints are very frequent where the Word hath awakened them The Pains and bitter Sufferings of all our renowned Martyrs both of the Primitive Times and in the late Marian-Days do preach unto us the Straight-way The difficulty of obtaining and keeping a grounded persuasion of God's Favour in the free pardon of all our Sins through the Satisfaction and Intercession of Christ The Church Militant is a Lilly among Thorns having Enemies ever about her and her Sins always before her Non est ad astra mollis è terris via We may not expect to be carried to Heaven on Beds of Down but through many Tribulations not to go to Paradise through Paradise a Way â—â—rowed with Roses The Kingdom of Heaven suffereth Violence few arrive in this Harbour without danger and difficulty It is not so easie a thing to work out Salvation as most deem and yet through Christ it is easie to all them that receive him Thirdly Hereunto may be added another
judgment While Men are Drunk with Pleasures and besotted with delightful Objects commonly they are not sensible of any danger but being once brought into the Wilderness of fear and solitary Silence they have leasure to consider and ability to discern that Sin is treacherous as a Jesuit bitter as Gall Ugly more ugly than the Devil And then they loath and fly it then they cry out Lord what wouldst thou have us to do When before they would not be ruled nor persuaded by any reason The Jews will not part with their Idols till they bring them into Captivity nor Sampson with Dalilah till she betray him into the hands of the Philistines then away Idols and let Dalilah be burned alone Sampson repenteth The Viper beaten casteth up her Poyson The Traytor on the Rack will confess and forsake all The burnt Child dreads the fire and the Wormwood upon the Brest weans the Child from it Secondly It is to humble the Soul and cause her to set a right Estimate upon Christ hitherto undervalued Christ would not be so sweet if Sin were not so bitter The Man upon whom the Law hath not passed Sentence will not say Gramercy for a Pardon Besides it is necessity that endears any thing to us Extremity of pain makes us to prize a little ease and extremity of want to admire a little plenty Darius being vanquished by Alexander and in flight being in extremity of Thirst drank Water out of a Puddle mingled with much Blood of slain Souldiers and said It was the sweetest Drink that ever he tasted in his Life The Prodigal that disregarded all the Dainties of his Father's House did highly value the Servants Bread there when he was reduced to feed upon Husks in the Wilderness As it is with a weary Swimmer floating in the restless Sea ready to sink every moment how welcome is a bough to him when as if he had been upon the shoar he would not have regarded it So it is with such a wearied Man brought into the Wilderness of great distress and danger he is so humble and gentle that a Child may lead him He cried out and looked about him but few hear none can help him O how welcome then is the Thought the Sight the Presence of Christ that Tree of Life He will part with all Sins Goods Liberty Life or any thing if he may but touch the hem of his Garment Only then and to all such he is a Jesus indeed Thirdly It is that they may be the better ever after More zealous and serviceable to God who hath some great Work commonly for such to do and therefore their preparation is answerable A high Building must have a low Foundation Luther observed of himself that when God was about to set him upon any special Service he either laid some fit of Sickness upon him before-hand or turned Satan loose upon him For he was much exercised and beaten from his tender years with Spiritual Conflicts as Melancthon testifieth in his Life And this was in all likelihood to fit him for the great Work the Lord had cut out unto him There is no whole Heart to the broken None so sound to hold Grace as that and the more it is broken the more it contains A Paradox in Nature but not in Grace Besides they are hereby made more compassionate and helpful unto others Hence it was that God gave Luther such a Grace that in his Sermons all that heard him thought every one his own Temptations had been toucht and noted by him and when signification thereof was made to him by his Friends and being demanded how it could be answered Mine own Temptation and Experience are the cause thereof As a Physician that trieth the virtue of some sovereign composition upon his own Body he is the better able to Cure another with that Receipt It is a great invitation to Mercy to see one in the same condition that we our selves have been in As he said Haud ignara mali miseris succurrere disco As a Woman that hath had a Child can more pity such as are in Travel because she hath suffered the like pain When Christians by their own experience know the Way like old Travellers they can lead others and bring them into and guide them through this Spiritual Trouble saying Thus and thus were I brought in and so came I off this course I took and this success I found c. Experienced Learners are the best Teachers These are some of many Reasons which might be given of the Lord 's proceeding in this manner towards his People The Sum of all is for their good He casteth them down very low that he might lift them up the higher he leads them through a Wilderness to convey them into Canaan As hereafter will appear So much by way of Doctrine The Application follows which is a principal part of this Discourse And Vse 1. It condemneth such first as are frequently in the Wilderness of Sin and wanton Prodigality but never in the Wilderness of sorrow and saving Fear much under Worldly but never under Spiritual Trouble How far are such from Grace who have not past this Preparation How far from Christ from Comfort from true Happiness As far as the East is from the West Darkness from Light Belial from Christ in point of Communion Such have cause to fear that Sin sits like a Queen in her Regency that the strong Man keeps Possession and that they are slaves to Satan subjects of the Kingdom of Darkness A Man may have some Trouble and yet not be Converted but he cannot be Converted without some Trouble The Heart cannot be broken for Sin without the sight of Sin The Sun looketh upon the Earth thence draweth up Vapours and distilleth them down again so doth the Sun of the Understanding which till it be Convicted the Heart cannot be Compuncted Sight of Sin must necessarily precede sorrow for Sin An Infant in the Womb cries not because it seeth not but as soon as it comes into the Light sets up its note The blind Eye and the hard Heart go together as unseparable Companions Men will never loath themselves till there be a remembring of their ways and doings that have not been good Ezek. 36.31 Quest It may be demanded who are they and how they are kept out Answ Who they are that were never yet in this Wilderness may easily be known by what hath been spoken already in the description of this preparative Work let any one bring himself and compare his present estate with it and the truth will readily be discovered especially if he consider and impartially answer to such like demands 1. Whether he doth not retain in his Heart the love of some Sin which either he knoweth or might know to be a Sin Though he do many things yet hath he not an Herodias that he will not part with Though with the Vintner he pull down the Bush yet hath he not as much Heart to his Sin
be kindled though but a little 3. Meditate upon sinful Nature there is both Guilt and Filth such a Nature which Sighs and Tears may better express than Words We were in Adam as in a common Root and he sinning we became guilty Rom. 5.12 In whom all have sinned By his Treason our Blood is tainted and this Guilt brings Shame with it as its Twin Rom. 6.21 And not only is the Guilt of Adam's Sin imputed but the Poison of his Nature is disseminated to us our Virgin-Nature is defiled the Heart is spotted 1 Kin. 8.38 How then can the Actions be pure If the Water be foul in the Well it cannot be clean in the Bucket We are all as an unclean thing Hell it self which is the sole Receptacle of Sin and Sinners is not in some respect more filthy than Mans Nature Poor Man is like a Patient under the Physician 's hands that hath no sound part his Head bruised his Liver swelled his Lungs perished his Blood enflamed his Feet gangren'd Thus it is before Grace comes Isa 1.6 Yea though your Nature be changed there are Remainders of this Corruption The best Saint alive who is taken out of the Grave of Sin yet smells of the Grave-clothes still upon him As Basil said of the Rose that it was a fair Flower but it wanted not its Prickles that might put him in mind of the Curse the Earth was subject unto so in the best there are those Remainders and Relicks of Sin which might cause them to mourn and weep before the Lord. 4. Meditate on the Lord Jesus Christ his Suffering Agony how sharp and bitter it was if your Heart be as hard as an Adamant the Blood of this Scape-goat will soften it It affected his Head for upon the fore-sight he began to be amazed Mark 14.33 It affected his Heart for he began to droop to faint Math. 26.37 See how he was affected in his Soul the innocent for the nocent it was overcast with an heaviness to death yea in his Body he sweat drops of Blood Luke 22.44 Meditate on his Sufferings see if they will not move you to sorrow The sight of Caesar's bloody Robes greatly affected the People of Rome and edged them to revenge When St. Augustin read the Story of Dido he could not but weep And when Julius Caesar saw Pompey's Head tho his Enemy he wept and refused at his return to Rome to ride in Triumph for his Victory The like did Charles the 5th upon his great Victory over the French King at the Siege of Paris How much more may the Meditation of Christ's Sufferings who was our Friend suffering for our Sins melt our Hearts See him in the Wilderness of Suffering it may bring you into the Wilderness of Sorrow 5. Meditate upon the dangerous Consequence if you have not Sin charged upon you here in this Life If you follow not God into this Wilderness of Trouble for Sin now but still cleave to Aegypt preferring the momentany Pleasures of Sin to this Manna be assured one of these two Evils will follow either the Lord will break this League and Union between Sin and your Hearts or else he will permit and order that Disorder till you attain the fulness of Hardness and Blindness When Conscience shall be awakened and Sin charged upon the Soul suddenly and fully both for number and weight your jovial Meetings excessive Drinkings and Heathenish Quaffings will have weeping and howling here or hereafter when it will not be the whole World on Fire nor the terrible presence of the Judg coming with shrill-sounding Trumpets and Troops of Angels only nor Hell and all the Devils there shall be so fearfully heavy and unsupportable but Sin so deceitfully pleasing now appearing then more ugly than Hell or the foulest Fiend there committed now by degrees one after another some this Day more next now an Oath than a Lye but presented and pressed and imputed altogether even to the sinking of a Soul O think of this often all you in whom the custom of Sinning hath taken away the sence of Sinning if any thing this will help to awaken and bring you into this Wilderness 3. You may help the Work forward by special application of what you hear when the Law is personally applied the legal work upon the matter is ended and when the Gospel is believed the whole is perfected As it was in the Creation of the World and in the Conception of Christ so soon as ever his blessed Virgin-Mother did close by her understanding and will with the Word and Message of the Angel the Hypostatical Union was begun in her Womb as Zanchy following Gregory and Damascene is of opinion so it is in the Regeneration and Sacramental nutrition of the new Man he said it was done no sooner is the Word applied but the Work is wrought Put it not off therefore to others but say Certainly this is my case I am the Man that have done so and so that have such an Heart so hard so unclean and deceitful c. Then hear what threatnings are denounced against such Offâ—nces then see what judgments have been inflicted upon the like Offenders this will pluck the Plumes and allay the Jollity of any Person This is the way to draw proud Minions and roaring Gallants out of their Fools Paradise into a World of saving trouble to see and bewail their monstrous Vanities and youthful Folly And here let all such be advised to stay till the Lord be pleased to speak unto them and to bring them as by a Hand of Comfort into Canaan O pluck not off the Plaster because it smarts refuse not the Potion because it is bitter confine your selves to his Rules of Physick break not those Bonds and cast not off these Cords from you haste not out of this Wilderness too soon because it is Solitary the end and issue will support Patience he that believes will not make haste to apply unseasonable Comforts The Lord will be seen in the Mount and heard in the cool of the Day The Corrosive must eat out Corruption to the bottom before any healing Salve can well be applied that so there may be a perfect Cure The Law is that Corrosive promises that healing Oyl both must have their time and place for Working O let not let not preposterous haste prevent good speed be more desirous to be ready for Comfort than to have it and then doubt not but it will be enjoyed time enough Vse 3. Thirdly The use may serve for Consolation This Doctrine like the Carcass of the Lion which Sampson found and therein a swarm of Bees with sweet Hony-combs yieldeth sweet Consolation to such as have been or at present are exercised in this uncomfortable condition No Affliction is for the present joyous but rather greivous Especially a wounded Conscience who can bear To be alone in a vast Wilderness encompassed with Sins with divers and horrid Fears and which is heaviest of all to have the
perdit liberum arbitrium as St. Augustin hath it Man can move no more of or by himself in Spiritual things especially without preventing and assisting Grace than a dead Man can in Naturals naturally * According to the Church of England as she teacheth Art 10. no more than a Worm can fly And therefore Luthâ—r with St. Augustin before him in opposition of the other side thought it was better to style it servum arbitrium a servile rather than a free Will Though some kind of Freedom cannot be denied to be essential and unseparable from the Will If we consider this power of Man as in the lower Region he is not naturally but morally dead and as a dead Man is not able to produce any Vital Actions so neither can any natural Man produce any Spiritual Action Quid boni operari potest perditus nisi quantum fuit à perditione liberatus Victore peccato amissum est liberum arbitrium non nisi ad peccatum valet ut malè agendo fit damnabilis ancilla O humana Natura O Adam Quando sanus eris non stetisti tuis viribus surrexisti Ecce dico ego quod qui superbè sapiunt ut suae voluntatis viribus tantum existiment esse tribuendum hi non posse credere in Christum c. August Thirdly That no Creature nor created Instrument can reach to work upon the Will the frame thereof is too high and the temper divine God only can change and order it Which indeed he doth working upon Man as upon an intelligent Creature â—uaviter flectendo non violenter torquendo in a way agreeable to hâ—s Frame and Constitution without committing a Rape upon any faculty first enlightning the Mind then effectually and sweetly persuading the Will to yield by surrender and accept of Grace whereby the whole Man is enabled to coâ—perate in the use and exercise thereof as will appear in the sequel only first observe the contents of this Promise as it may be drawn out into two Theological Conclusions viz. First That it is the Heart which is chiefly wrought upon in the work of Conversion Call it the Heart the Will or the inner Man or what else it is that within us which no Instrument nor finite Power can reach unto And herein this differeth from the former Work the Vnderstanding was chiefly touched in that the Will in this which is attended as a King with all the rest of the inferiour Faculties and Senses A good Will is the good Tree that maketh the Fruit good and a bad Will is the bad Tree that maketh the Fruit bad As all the evil or good of a Tree cometh from the Root so doth all the evil or good of a Man come from his Will and till this be sanctified till this be renewed nothing can be good in him The Eyes may look the Tongue may talk and the Feet may in Men's apprehensions be moving towards Heaven and yet the Heart all the while may be bent Hell-ward As Men rowing in a Boat look one way but drive a contrary Course and intend another way The outward Man may be seemingly Converted without any saving change in the inward but the inner Man cannot be long without the other as the Candle in the Lanthorn will appear by its own Light and as the Diamond or rich Jewel will cast a sparkling Lustre sooner or later before the Eyes of others Therefore our Gracious Lord and Wise Physician takes the surest and soundest way to work a perfect Cure Give him the Heart and the rest will quickly follow It is the Heart that is hard by speaking to it he softens it it is the Heart that is unclean by speaking to it he sanctifieth it it is the Heart that is poor by speaking he doth inrich it it is the Heart that is distressed with fears and doubts by speaking unto he comforteth and confirmeth it it is the Heart that is most out of order by speaking to he brings it into a spiritual frame Ezek. 36.25 26. Then will I sprinkle clean Water upon you and you shall be clean A new Heart will I give you and a new Spirit will I put within you c. Thus the truth of this Point shineth with its own Lustre We will pass from it with the resolution of a Case here to be propounded viz. All this I believe may some Person say but how may I discern when my Heart is thus wrought upon Answ 1. When it is tender not in the present act or exercise of Hearing only but after while you meditate on your Sins as David did Psal 51. Against thee thee only have I sinned He doth even drown himself in Tears Or upon God's Mercies in Christ upon any relation of the Churches distress at Home or Abroad not only as they are Men but as they are Members of Christ both being melting Considerations and nothing can bring the Heart to this temper but the fulfilling of this promise 2. When it closeth with God's Precepts and Promises together desirous to do the one as delighted to believe the other Where true Conversion is wrought the Will is master'd of unwilling is made willing and ready to chuse what it once abhorred Lord what wilt thou have me to do Now the Heart makes a stand at nothing objecteth nothing it is as willing to a word of Command as to a word of Promise to the Work as to the Reward It is all over yielding and submitting Which is all that shall be said here to the Case propounded because occasion will be offer'd to speak more fully to it shortly in the amplification of this Point Doct. 2. A second Conclusion from this Promise is this viz. That it is one and the same Hand which woundeth and healeth which casteth down and raiseth up Which brings into the Wilderness and after speaks unto the Heart I will allure and I will speak As the rust of Achilles his Sword only cured the Wounds which it made Psal 34.18 The Lord is nigh to them that are of a broken Heart and saveth such as are of a contrite Spirit He breaks the Vessel and then pours out the Oyl of Salvation into it Hos 6.1 He hath torn and he will heal us he hath smitten and he will bind us up The Hand of God even when it strikes drops Balsam his very Rods are bound up in Silk and softness and beforehand dipt in Balm He wounds that he may heal and in wounding healeth What the Poet's Fable concerning Telephus his Spear is here truly verified Vna eademque manus vulnus opemque tulit The same holy Hand that wounded us must cure us Rom. 9.16 So then it is not of him that willeth or of him that runneth but of God that sheweth Mercy 2 Cor. 1.4 The Lord of all Comfort who comforteth us in all our Tribulation Jesus Christ brings the Soul into saving Trouble and then sheds abroad into the Heart the comforts of Sanctifying Grace He is alway
earnest longing after them as the only good to be desired with which they may be happy and without them they must be everlastingly miserable The wise Spiritual Merchant having once found this Treasure hideth it and makes haste for joy that there is some possibility of enjoying it he selleth all that he hath and resolveth to purchase it whatever he pay whatever the conditions be As the hunted Hart longs after the running Stream so these Men do now cry out Give us Christ or else we die They Hear Reade Fast and Confer O they will part with all they will do any thing for Christ A Sight a Touch a Taste of him is more worth than the World 3. After many Conflicts Doubts and Fears the Heart is wrought upon not only willing to receive Christ for so it was before but actually to cast it self upon Christ to rest on him and to resign it self wholly to his dispose O the sweet Repose which a fainting Soul finds in a Promise rightly applied after a storm of Spiritual Trouble The Heart is ever with him the Eye is alway upon him and the Tongue is delighted often to mention him Sweet Jesus hast thou done and suffered so much for me Was thy Heart pierced was thy Head bowed was thy Body nailed to the Cross for my Redemption How unworthy am I such a wretched Creature such a rebellious Prodigal such an impure lump of Sin to hear of such Mercy much more to taste thereof But seeing it was thy great Love to do it and thy Bounty to prevent me by offering it 't is my duty to receive it with all readiness of Mind and thankfulness of Heart Tho thou should'st kill me yet will I trust in thee tho thou should'st after cast me into Hell by me merited yet would I come unto thee Lo Lord Jesus lo a dumb deaf and lame Leper before thee if thou wilt thou canst make me clean and whole and if thou wilt not none else can do it I resolve to sink at thy Feet and if it were possible to perish in thine Arms. Thirdly The Lord speaks again to this same Heart thus far wrought upon three times he spake unto Samuel before he knew what and to whom to answer and the end and effect of it is three-fold 1. By the power of his Word he turneth out the old Inhabitant for intus existens probibet alienum Satan who did reign there by Sin and brings another into possession even Christ by his Spirit and Graces 2. He changeth the natural Disposition of the Heart truly for Parts though not perfectly for Degrees There is no part but is bespangled with Grace As Air in respect of Light so is the Heart in respect of Grace of a double he makes one single a hard and stony Heart he softeneth Understand not this of any Natural Moral or Legal yielding all which are presupposed but of an Evangelical softness a tenderness following upon serious deliberation and consideration of God's infinite Love Christ's bitter Sufferings and the odious nature of Sin And lastly Of an impure deceitful hypocritical Heart he makes an honest clean sincere Heart Ego non sum ego It is not what it was Such power and healing Vertue there is in the Word of God 3. By his Divine Breath and Power this Marriage between Christ and the Soul is consummate the Spiritual Bond apprehended and the Mystical Union manifested as it followeth in this very Chapter I will betroth thee unto me for ever yea I will betroth thee unto me in Righteousness Judgment Loving-kindness and in Mercies i. e. In him in whom Mercy and Justice meet and are reconciled I will do it truly and firmly so that all his Benefits shall be made over by way of Joynture or Dower thy Poverty and Deformity shall be accounted his his Riches and Beauty thine This is that the Lord speaks to the Heart finally for this he allured her into the Wilderness that he might win her to himself and thus is this Work finished The manner of Conversion as for the present we apprehend it to be ordinary thus far concluded and briefly in the Heads only unfolded we may for further satisfaction light and benefit require Quest First When is the Lord said to speak unto the Heart Answ I answer 1. When he overcomes the natural hardness of the Heart and begins to let out that Spiritual Impostume or mass of Impurity which lieth hid in every one by Nature This is a Work to which neither Men or Angels are able to set their Hands The Heart-maker is the only Heart-breaker and he alone that knows the Heart can purifie or purge it When Rocks are turn'd into streams of Water and the Mountains melt like Wax and clods of Earth are made like Stars of Heaven surely then God putteth forth his Power then he speaketh to the Heart 2. When he raiseth any comfort in distressed Minds by closing with them in some promises of Pardon or power over Sin This is the Voice of God for he only can prepare a Door of Hope in every Valley of Trouble provide Manna in the Wilderness Water in every dry Rock and Light in every Dungeon There is no precious Electuary for sick Souls but by his Prescription and Administration 3. When he answereth the desire of the Heart against such and such a Sin or in a timely supply of such a Grace either in truth where it is not or for degrees where it was in a little measure before All Grace is originally from Heaven it comes from above James 3.17 i. e. from God the first and second preventing and assisting God bids the Soul to mortifie such a Lust and the Soul complains as Jehoshaphat 2 Chron. 20.12 I have no might against this great Army then the Lord comes in with Auxiliary Forces and his Grace hath been sufficient God bids him to pray for such a Mercy and he finds himself very unfit his Heart at first was dead and flat but on a sudden he is carried above his own strength his Tears drop his Love flames God hath then spoken then he came in with assisting Grace If the Heart burn in Prayer God hath struck the Fire the Spirit hath been tuning the Heart therefore it maketh sweet melody 4. When there is a close concurrence and an orderly subordination between God's Word and the Heart When the Word is not only delivered to the Heart but the Heart also is deliver'd up unto the Word By the closing of these two our Wills are wholly taken up in God's Will So that the Heart ever saith after as Christ did not my Will in any thing but thy Will be done in all O Lord This is one reason alledged by St. Augustin why he would have all sorts to reade the Scriptures and frequently to hear them Quia in illis loquitur Deus ad Cor indoctorum atque doctorum Because therein God speaks unto the Heart of the Learned and Unlearned Aug. Epist 3.
that are meanest in their own apprehensions Such shall understand this secret and partake in it to sit on Thrones as crowned Kings and Queens for evermore Vse 3. Lastly What transcending Comfort doth this Truth and Text afford to all troubled Minds Such I mean as have been stayed by Divine Power when they were running towards Hell in all sorts of Vanity and Prodigality and had been there ere this had not God in Christ been more merciful to them than they were careful about their own safety If the King should vouchsafe to speak to a mean Person before many what an honour would it be what ravishing thoughts would arise and what applause would it procure How much more should it be so here when the King of Kings speaks and that unto the Heart of a forlorn Creature comfortably I have heard thy Prayer I have seen thy Tears behold I will heal thee c. so the Lord spake unto the Heart of Hezekiah 2 Kings 20.5 Thy Prayers and thine Alms are come up for a memorial before God c. so the Lord spake unto the Heart of Cornelius Acts 10.4 And how often did our blessed Lord and compassionate Saviour Jesus Christ raise up disconsolate Souls with such words as these Son be of good chear thy Sins be forgiven thee Daughter great is thy Faith go in peace thy Faith hath made thee whole Yea all the precious Promises are such Cordials See Prov. 28.13 Who so confesseth and forsaketh his Sins shall find Mercy Job 33.27 28. He looketh upon Man and if any say I have sinned and perverted that which is right and it profiteth me not he will deliver his Soul from going into the Pit c. Isa 1.18 Come now let us reason together saith the Lord though your Sins be as Scarlet they shall be as white as Snow c. Chap. 55. ver 7. Let the Wicked forsake his way and the Righteous Man his thoughts and let him return unto the Lord and he will have Mercy upon him and to our God for he will abundantly pardon Mich. 7.19 He will turn again he will have compassion upon us he will subdue our Iniquities and cast all their Sins into the bottom of the Sea Hos 14.4 5. I will heal their Back-slidings I will love them freely Mal. 4.2 To them that fear my Name shall the Son of Righteousness arise with healing in his Wings Mat. 11.28 Come unto me all ye that are weary and heavy laden and I will give you rest Rom. 8.1 Now therefore there is no Condemnation to them that are in Christ c. 1 John 1.9 Rev. 21.6 So almost in every Book of that holy Volume may be found such Stars of Light such pieces of Treasure such Bezar-stones to keep sick Souls from fainting under their Sins and Sorrows Promises wherein the Lord speaks something to the Hearts of believing Penitents to this effect The Seed of the Woman shall bruise the Serpent's Head Whatsoever Christ did or suffered was for you by his satisfaction God is reconciled to you all your Sins are pardoned and your Souls shall be saved This is to speak to the Heart of a poor Sinner Now as some Artificers after long poring upon a piece of Black Work and finding a dimness in their Eyes are wont to refresh themselves with the beholding the Verdure of Meadows or lustre of Emeralds so let poor Penitents wearied and heavy laden with the consideration of their Sins for their refreshment make use of those Gospel-Cordials the Promises they will be chearing to the Eye of Faith But 't is sufficiently known that those to whom this Comfort belongs are most ready to put it from them as none of their Portion The troubled Spirit makes Darts of every thing it can to fight against Reason and kill it self not suspecting its own Poyson The conclusion therefore of this subject shall endeavour to prevent that mischief by proposing and answering some Cases which may contain the complaints of such troubled Spirits Object 1. My Sins have been so many and great that I fear to apply any Promise Answ Nay therefore you should be the more ready and willing to apply this Lord come unto me for I am a sinful Man and have most need of help Save me Lord or I perish Greater Sins should hasten all to the Mercy Seat the greater Wounds to the Physician No Man flies his Counsel because his Cause is great and intricate but plies him the more Especially while you consider the extent of his Power and Love who speaketh His Power passeth the nature and number of your Sins whatever they be Christ is a great Saviour He is called a Mighty Saviour and the Salvation in him is called Great Salvation and the Redemption in him Great Redemption 1 John 2.1 If any Man sin we have an Advocate with the Father Jesus Christ the Righteous And for his Love that extends to all sorts of Penitents to Manasses Mary Magdalen to the Romans and Corinthians to foul Sinners griping Oppressors sharp Persecutors Sinners in the highest form 1 John 2.2 And he is the Propitiation for our Sins c. In the Levitical Law there were Sacrifices for all sorts of Sins and what did they prefigure but the ample efficacy in Christ's Death which was an Atonement for Sins of all kinds and was as the daily Sacrifice for the Expiation of the continued and augmented number of Transgressions Even where Sin hath abounded there Grace hath after much more abounded So if you consider the nature of those Promises made unto distressed Souls both for Constitution and Condition For Constitution they are absolutely free no Foreign Power to enforce them from him that made them nor any Natural Abilities in Man to reserve them And for Condition they are Evangelical bringing with them what they require of you Be of good comfort when he calleth you fear not refuse not to receive what he offereth Say rather Speak Lord and speak home for thy Servant desireth to hear Object 2. But alas it is pleaded my Corâ—â—ptions have been and are strong and abominaâ—â—â—â— that I know not what to do Answ The sense of Sin 's strength is no â— hopeful symptom nor prejudice to Faith â—f all tempers the hardned is most dangeâ—â—us and Sin hath the greatest strength â—here there is the least sense When a Patiâ—â—t is deadly sick he saith and thinks he is â—ell and feels no pain but when he is reâ—â—vering he is full of sense and complains â—s Head is weak his Stomach sick his Bones â—me all is amiss every thing is too hard â—â— him There is more hope of one sensible â—â—nner than of a thousand presumptuous â—â—rdned Wretches Sense of Sin doth ever â—â— before sense of Christ Besides the powâ—â— of God's Voice will weaken them and â—â—e Efficacy of his Spirit mortifie and subâ—â—e them Here it may be said as it was of â—â—thage a little before it was taken Moriâ—â—ium bestiarum violentiores esse morsus dying â—asts
bite most cruelly dying Sins trouble â—â—d oppose the Soul most stoutly Sanctifiâ—â—tion follows Faith and presupposeth our â—â—ion to Christ You may not stand safely â—â— this pretence that you will labour to get â—â—me power over your Corruptions and then â—â—u will hearken to what God will speak â—â—to your Hearts but first hearken and â—â—ctory will follow by degrees and that neâ—â—ssarily upon this ground viz. The Principle whence Grace cometh the Stock out oâ— which this fair Flower groweth is strongeâ— than the Principle and Root whence Corruption that stinking Weed floweth beinâ— joyned the weaker must yield in the end Only do you resist it and complain often about it in private prayer to Christ and bâ— assur'd that he who hath broken the Serpentâ— Head for you will also bruise it in you Object 3. Oh but Satan and my own Hearâ— do condemn and tell me I am a Cast-away Answ In this case hearken not what Meâ— or Angels say much less what Satan anâ— your own deceitful Hearts suggest but whaâ— the Lord saith It is his Prerogative to speaâ— unto the Heart and your duty to hear him only before your selves much more beforâ— Satan Suppose the Devil should tell you thaâ— all were well your Sins pardoned and thaâ— you should be saved would you believe him for himself I trow not And for your selves you are no competent Judges in this perplexed condition as the distemper'd Palaâ— is not fit to judg of Meats or the vitiated eye of an Object Consult with experienced Christians and still keep an Ear open foâ— this Voice of God speaking at all hours oâ— the Day I will hearken what the Lord will say for he speaketh peace to his People But withal let not his Saints return to folly Object 4. Me-thinks I behold God not as speaking to my Heart but as still frowning upon 〈◊〉 and speaking against me as a Judg for the â—ach of his Laws and after the use of much â—ans in private and publick I can feel no â—â—mfort Answ This is a sore scruple which veheâ—ently beats upon most sensible Sinners â—ore need therefore to assoil it The anâ—wer is this You must learn to live and walk â—â— Faith and not so much by Sense to beâ—â—eve more than you feel Your comfort is â—et more in Promises than in Possession Alâ—â—ough the Fig-tree should not blossom neither â—ruit be on the Vine though the labour of the â—live should fail and the Fields should yield no â—â—eat c. Yet saith the Prophet by Faith â—ould I rejoyce in the Lord and joy in the God â—f my salvation who is my strength and â—ill make my feet like Hinds feet and make â—e to walk upon my high places Even â—ith Abraham beyond hope to believe under â—ope so shall you bring much Glory to God Now to help forward this Spiritual Appreâ—ension and Resolution 1. Labour to have your Judgments rightly â—nform'd in the manner of Divine Dispensaâ—ion of Grace what Method and Degrees â—he Holy Spirit observeth in Converting and Sanctifying the Heart Ignorance of this is â—ollowed with great heaviness and much â—auseless discomfort of long continuance 2. Look off your selves and beyond all means which are as Guides and Conduits Guides to lead you to Christ and Conduits to convey Virtue from him unto your Hearts Dwell not on the well-doing of Duties rest not on the exercise of Grace there is no satisfying Merit no purifying Blood in all or any of these that so you may look upon the Mediator only all our Riches and Safety is from without from this blessed Object conveyed and received by Faith and through him upon the Father It is horrible to think on God and terrible to hear him much more to see him without Christ Guilt dare not look on Majesty and Majesty is most terrible in an Enemy and a Judg. I have read of a politick Practice of a Macedonian Courtier who being banisht King Philip's presence adventured once again to come into the Court and further into the King's presence with young Alexander in his Arms as if he said Let him plead for me and accordingly for his Wit he was pardon'd and accepted into Favour Change the Persons and you may make it a President True it is you are deservedly banisht Heaven and God frowneth upon you but come with Christ in your Arms make him your Friend and then no doubt of acceptance He hath made us accepted in the Beloved In Christ he is a reconciled God a tender Father in Jesus Christ in Christ God's Nature is lovely to us and our Persons lovely to God 3. Meditate often what it is you have in and with Christ viz. Perfect Righteousness imputed to Justification and imparted to Sanâ—â—ification All your Sins remitted freely your Persons accepted to Eternal Life So â—hat Men nor Devils the Gates of Hell shall not finally prevail against you either actively to hurt or hinder or passively to withstand you Object 5. But I find my Heart hard and impure therefore I fear God hath not spoken 〈◊〉 it Answ To find this and in truth to bewail it is one sign of God's speaking to it God in the still Voice hath discovered that â—nto you which undiscover'd might have proved your Bane The Scum appears not â—ill forced by the heat of the Fire the impurity of the Heart would lie undiscern'd were â—â— not for the Fire of God's Word Live â—ot under the reign of any one Sin pray for more Sanctity and Softness remembring those two precious Promises viz. Deut. 30.6 And the Lord thy God will circumcise thine Heart to love the Lord Ezek. 36.25 26. Then will I sprinkle clean Water upon you and you shall be clean c. Wherein God speaks again to perfect what he hath begun and for more Spiritual enlargement to be more thankful for this that the Lord hath vouchsafed to single you out above many others to allure you into this Wilderness and to speak unto you be sure God's Words and Works shall not be left imperfect Upon the falling of your Eyes towards the Earth in token of Humility let your Hearts be raised towards Heaven to testifie your Spiritual Joy by saying with Mephibosheth What is thy Servant that thou should'st look upon such a dead Dog as I am With Abigail Behold let thy Hand-maid be a Servant to wash the feet of the Servants of my Lord. With Ruth Why have I found Grace in thine Eyes that thou shouldest take notice of me seeing I am a Stranger And with Jesus Christ I thank thee O Father Lord of Heaven and Earth that thou hast hid these things from the Wise and Prudent and hast revealed them unto Babes even so O Father because it was thy good pleasure Quest After all this how may a Man know the truth and soundness of his Conversion Answ To this the following Discourse will offer some resolution for which purpose it is designedly adjoyned Reade and reap Profit Give Glory to God by Jesus Christ In
language of a melting Heart breathing out a compassionate Lamentation after Pardon desired obtained and sealed The cause of fear was past Nathan had declaratively removed it upon his acknowledgment The Lord hath put away thy Sin thou shalt not die God had put away his Sin from before him because he loved David but David could not forget his Sin because he loved the Lord. Love maketh God forget it and the Sinner to remember it David's love to God so freely forgiving such hainous Sins did increase daily and with this love his sorrow grew that he should so ill requite the Lord the thought of it carried him more and more into God's Presence whose Purity and Brightness meeting with the light of David s Conscience represented his Sin more clearly as ever before him When he considered what God had done for him and what he had now done against the Lord moving common Enemies to blaspheme he was even ashamed and confounded so Planet-struck he was that he could not durst not lift up his Face Tacita sudant praecordia culpâ Juven he is at the Meridian Zenith Vertical Point of Shame he could not mount higher The End why it was penn'd and published was partly in respect of himself to get further assurance of God's re-promised Favour in his own apprehension and partly with reference to others to leave a ground of encouragement for poor Souls that fall after Baptism against that Spirit-quenching Doctrine of the Novatians who leave no room for pardon of Sin after Baptism or Repentance to assure them it is possible they may be forgiven and received into Favour as also to leave a pattern of Penitency to all Posterity After grievous falls even into â—resumptuous Sins it is possible Men may â—e raised return'd and entertain'd but it â—ust be done thus after the pattern shewed â—s in this Mount such Sins will be ever beâ—ore them in Memory and Detestation and â—he burden will be intollerable so that they â—ill often cry out with David My Sins are â—er before me The meaning may be thus unfolded as â—f David had said and enlarged himself after â—his manner First I am mindful of my Fault as if it â—ere written upon every Wall God hath â—orgiven the Guilt that it should not redound â—o Condemnation but my Conscience cannot â—et go the Memory of that I have done in â—he Day-time I think of it and in the Night 〈◊〉 dream of it as my Book it is when I reade â—nd as an Image when I pray ever before â—e while I am alone it doth accompany me and when I am in Company the thought â—f it doth not forsake me Whither-soever 〈◊〉 go that woful Story is still presented with all the aggravating Circumstances Bathsheba defiled Vriah slain a harmless Sacrifice and both by David a Man called from the Sheepâ—ook to the Scepter raised to highest Digâ—ity out of deep Obscurity and honoured with such a Style as never any Man had Oh Ingratitude Shall not all Men in all Ages cry out upon David that he should so far forget God as to leave his own many of his own and to take his poor Neighbour's Lamb to dress for his Stranger Oh fearful These or the like are my thoughts by Day and no other are my conceits by Night in Company I am alone and while I am alone I have these Companions My Sins are ever before me Secondly I am wonderfully troubled about it For me-thinks mine Eyes and Ears have no other Object I see my Sins in that order as they were acted Idleness first but followed with Adultery first of the Eye next of the Mind and lastly of the Body Adultery is attended by Drunkenness-active he made Uriah drunk and that Drunkenness by Murther See the Bead-roll viz. Idleness Adultery Drunkenness and Murther and hearken to the cry of them one answering another but all are against David one was occasioned by another and the former still punished in the latter Many and fearful they are more hideous than Hell pursuing me like so many Furies into every place as of the whole Army accusing me of Negligence and Security of Bathsheba bewailing the stain of her own Body and her Husband's Bed of Vriah's Blood calling from the Ground for vengeance of all my Subjects brought in danger by their Prince's Folly yea of all the Birds in the Air whistling David's Crime on every Tree of Heaven and Earth groaning under the burden of such a Report That David a Man after God's own Heart so beloved and advanced should be thus fouly overtaken and lastly of Jesus Christ shewing his Wounds rub'd up afresh by these Abominations of mine What Ear â—an endure or Heart hold to see and hear his â—ins thus set in order before him Thirdly I am horribly afraid not so much â—f Damnation God hath graciously put away my Sin I know I shall not die as of the ugly face of Sin at first it was not apprehended by me I little thought of what I how feel but now it is presented to me in true Colours black as Hell bitter as Gall and more heavy than Mountains the pleasure was small and past but the bitterness â—s present and doth far exceed it was momentany that delighted me but lasting that â—exeth me I am ashamed of every passage that I knowing so much and professing the contrary should be so foolish and forgetful â—irst to perpetrate the Act then to cover it with Fig leaves as if any Person Thing or Act could be hid by any means from this bright Eye of the Word Well may God be hid from me but I can never be hid from God All things are naked and open to him Sin deceiveth most when it promiseth most and bringeth a Curse with its sweetest Morsels being like that Gold which ever brought destruction to the Owners of it Aurum Tholosanum Or like that Horse which had all perfections that could be named belonging to an Horse Of Cn. Cejus for stature feature colour strength limbs comliness but withal the Owner of him was sure to die an unhappy death This is the misery of Sin how pleasant profitable or advantagious soever it may seem to be unto Flesh and Blood it hath always Calamity in the end it ever expires in Trouble Fourthly I acknowledg all not confusedly as before through the light of Conscience but distinctly and feelingly by the Light of God's Word closing with the light of Conscience All this while I went about to please my self but now I find by woful experience that the things which I have done displease the Lord and therefore now I desire my Repentance may be answerable to my Sin i. e. multiplied and ever before me that others may hear and learn by my example how deceitful Sin is taking away from Men what it promiseth to bring viz. Pleasure and Contentment and for one pleasing sight or touch it presents it presents an ugly face for ever after O that Men were Wise
Ahab Saul and Judas Yea they may go further to leave some Sins at least for a time as it is probable Herod did at St. John's Preaching and yet for all this they may not repent Evangelically so as to be grieved and throughly changed But this is it we say No Man in a state of Nature can see Sin and be troubled about it as David here was Vebridius * Aug. refert Epist 23. ad Bonificium non proculà fine exceedingly hated de quaestione magna responsionem brevem a short Answer to a weighty Question A little more therefore to clear this in hand see the difference of the sight of Sin that is in Natural Men and Unregenerate from that of true Converts viz. First David's sorrow proceeded from Love When he considered that God who had done so great things for him was dishonoured by him and displeased with him that his own Heart was made unfit for God's Service and that the common Enemies were occasioned to rejoyce and blaspheme then he burst out into this supplicatory Confession This was the Fountain whence his penitential Tears did flow But thus it is not with any meer graceless Person his sorrow for Sin is at the best from Fear not from Love Judas had an hellish sorrow a desperate grief for Sin David was Evangelical Against thee thee only have I sinned Lo there lay the pinch of his grief in that he had offended so good a God that had maintained him loved delivered crowned and redeemed him Oh against thee thee only Such matchless Love melting Bowels such precious Blood of such a Saviour He is pricked with the Thorns of Christ's Crown he bled over his bleeding Wounds with the truly sorrowful Soul even tares himself in pieces for taring Christ's Side open Secondly It was free like Water out of a Spring Fained forced Grief is nothing worth * Virtus nolentium nulla est it is like that of Judas which was fired out of him as sweet Water is out of Roses and squeezed out of him as Verjuice is out of Crabs But gracious Persons are Volunteers in their sorrow which we see practised by David after he had numbred the People 2 Sam. 24.10 His Heart smote him and David said to the Lord Take away the iniquity of thy Servant for I have done very foolishly And a shadow hereby we find in the example of Epaminondas the Theban General who the next day after Victory and Triumph went drooping and hanging down his Head and being asked why he did so Answered Yesterday I found my self too much elated with Vain glory therefore I correct my self to day But a better example we have of David whose Heart smote him as before He was not smitten by God's Hand or the Prophet's Reproof as afterwards yet his sanctified Conscience did its Office that of a faithful Monitor his Heart misgave him Bee-masters tell us those are the best Hives that make the greatest noise Sure it is that Heart is best that suffers a Man not to sleep in Sin As for Unregenerate Men it is not so with them Thirdly David saw Sin and was troubled about it as it was Sin ugly as Hell opposite to the holy and pure Nature of God a defacer of his Image and pleasing only to the Devil God's greatest Enemy But Natural Men see and grieve for Sin only as it is attended with pain of loss and sense Take away this Plague said Pharaoh the outward Scourge not take away this hard Heart the greatest Plague of all All trouble like Mercury's Influence is good only if joyned with a good but bad if joyned with a bad Planet The Object of sorrow must be observed and that will shew the nature of it Fourthly David saw Sin with more hatred indignation and abomination than ever It swell'd like a Toad in his Eyes he spat it out of his Mouth with utmost abhorrency resolving to watch for ever after more carefully all his ways I considered my ways that they were not good and turned my Feet unto thy Testimony I have now hid thy Word in my Heart that I may not sin against thee Turn away mine Eyes from beholding Vanity and set a watch before the door of my Lips Thus David saw it and these effects followed So then that sight of Sin which I account an infallible consequent of renewing Grace that none may be mistaken is and must be timely kindly fully and constantly Timely while the Day of Grace lasteth as Judas saw Sin when it was too late Kindly and willingly being led and kept in view thereof by an inward light and power of Grace fighting against Corruption and thereby keeping it still in Memory else Reprobates may and do often see their Sins here by force driven to it by Judgments casting out their Sins as Mariners do their Goods in a Storm wishing for them again in a Calm Fully it must be both for Intention and Extension for the nature of it it must be hearty and for the Object it must be universal Greater and lesser Sins open and secret Evils the sins of Youth and riper Age all must be bewailed where one is seen though all are not alike burdensome some wound and terrifie more than others according as there was more or less delight in commission Adultery and Murther did flash most in David's Face bringing along with them into his mind and sight even his Birth-sin St. Austin was much troubled for that he brake into an Orchard when he was a Boy and for that he had staied another time delightfully to behold two Cocks fighting and that but once So much he testifies in his Confessions And if so how will they be troubled another day who spend many Days the most of their Time in Hunting Cock-fighting Bull or Bear-baiting turning Recreation into Vocation How will they be disquieted with the sight of Sin who rob not only Orchards in their School-way but Houses not of Men but of God as our Appriators and Simonists do of whom the Prophet Malachy complains The trouble of others should raise some trouble in their Minds who are guilty in any kind Sin will have Trouble I have read of one who was a Steward to some Gentleman or a Factor to some Merchant that was much afflicted as for other Sins so for one dash with his Pen which was done to wrong another The redounding guilt of a small Act is heavy Sin receiveth weight from the purity and justice of God who forbids it indefinitely not only great Sins but all Sins For if he arm but one Sin against us which Men may deem little if not Venial that little one is enough to hunt and sink a Man as far as it is possible for a Creature to fall from God And as it must be fully so it must be constantly This sight of Sin which is nothing but Evangelical Sorrow for Sin following upon the Spiritual Combat and renewed light of Conscience is not bounded but by Death More
noted by the way is this Viz. Doct. 2. That the Lord often useth variety of means to attain one end Many Messengers to call home his straying Servants unto him Sickness of Body with variety of Afflictions sometimes depriving them of good things sometimes laying heavy Rods upon them He useth Fire and Steel to cure those Mad-men rather than comply with their Malady to render it incurable His own Word he sends both in Threaâ—nings to terrify and Promises to allure and the Spirit followeth upon both to make them effectual Some of these means prepare the Subject others work the Cure the second beginning where the first leaveth all so knit and ordered that they make up but one integral mean to produce such an end It is the Lord's Patience and Wisdom so to deal with froward Man no want of power he could do it by few and weak means as great Ships are turned by a small Helm and as some say stopped by a very little Remora yea without any but it is Man's frowardness that requires this variety of means To bring home and keep the Jews his first beloved People in Order and Safety he planted a Vineyard fenced it and gathered out the Stones Isa 5.2 He hewed them by his Prophets sending them early and late Hosea 6.4 He laid his Hand upon them so that the Head was sick and the whole Heart faint Isa 1.6 Concluding when none of these prevailed O Ephraim what shall I do unto thee O Judah how shall I persuade thee Hos 6.4 Which is as if God should say I have done mine utmost and more than you can challenge from me And the like expostulary Expressions of complaint are to be found in many other places And this the Lord doth Reas 1. To set forth the Riches of his Mercy and Greatness of his Love not willing that Men should perish but rather return and live Ezek. 33.11 2 Pet. 3.9 God might have dealt with us as with the Angels who were the eldest Off-spring of his Love the purest production of that Supreme Light no Mercy interposed to avert or suspend their Judgment but they were immediatly expell'd the Divine Presence and left without remedy Heb. 8.16 To which of them hath he appointed a Word of Reconciliation And again He took not upon him the Nature of Angels But O Goodness Divine he made sudden way for our recovery high Mountains were levell'd and great Depths fill'd up that we might arrive at Happiness He had Bowels only melting over lost Man As it is with a tender-hearted Father towards his weak and sick Child he desires the continuance of his Life and if it were in his power with some of his own Blood to give him health he looks and sighs he weeps and complains O my Son what shall I do for thee To the opinion of one he adds the Consultation of many Physicians he makes use of this Receipt and applies that Remedy and all to try what may do him good Thus but in a more transcendent manner removing Passion and Imperfection Ignorance and Weakness found in Man conceive of God Is Ephraim my dear Son Is he a pleasant Child Jer. 31.20 Since I spake against him I do earnestly remember him my Bowels are troubled for him I will surely have mercy upon him And Why will ye die ye House of Israel And again O Jerusalem Jerusalem how often would I have gathered thee c. Reas 2. It is to leave all without excuse Men shall have nothing to say but justify God when he speaketh Judg I pray you between me and my Vineyard Isa 5.3 4. What could I have done more to my Vineyard than I have done Where the Lord clears himself from all Objections and Repinings whatsoever And it is as if the Lord had said What fault can be found in me after so much care and waiting Or as some render it better What is now more to be done in so desperate a case but what he answers in ver 5. but to take away the Hedg c. Nothing can be alledged as an Error in him unless that he hath done so much as he had done as good Authors paraphrase that Text. Reas 3. To instruct his Ambassadours how they should carry themselves towards a proud ignorant gainsaying People to try all means to use all lawful ways and to become all things to all Men if it may be possible to save some that they may gain them 1 Cor. 9.21 A Metaphor taken from Merchants who are never weary of taking Money It is their Duty if the Lord be so patient and diligent be instant in season and out of season i. e. tho it be to their Loss in other things as Calvin and Estius have it and tho the People on the worser side should think it unseasonable like Snow in Harvest yet be doing as often as there is any opportunity or hope of doing good Ministers must be frequent and resolute now to thunder in the Threatnings of the Law and then to shine upon troubled Minds in the Promises of the Gospel It is their Duty to be resident and diligent among their People so that they may feed them with Alms good Example and wholsome Doctrine Yea and last of all to add Patience to their Pains Learn of the Husbandman after ploughing sowing harrowing guttering weeding c. he waits for Heaven's Dew and Sun so must Ministers meekly instructing those which oppose themselves if God peradventure will give them Repentance by any means at any time to the acknowledging of the Truth Caution Yet first Let none hereupon presume to live in Sin and to mis-spend younger years vainly upon this Ground See what will follow if you so do Either you may be cut off even for that Sin of Presumption perish before you come to be converted As Milâ— Crotoniates who was tearing asunder the Stock of an Oak his Strength failed him and the Stock closing was held so fast by the hands that he became a Prey to the Beasts of the Field So may all the Abusers of Mercy become a Prey to the Justice of God that will rend and tear them in pieces ere they are aware of it If God's to day be too soon for thy Repentance thy to morrow may be too late for his Acceptance It is said by some and justly feared by others that many are now in Hell who had such confused purposes and hopes that they would and should be converted but the time was not yet come their Fancies were fill'd with fair Promises while they suffered their Hearts to be carried away with the current of their unmortified Concupiscence Or if not so yet the longer you go on in Sin by so much the heavier painful and difficult will your turning be Old Sins like an old Oak are hardly to be removed Can a Man be born again when he is old Where Satan pleads Antiquity he usually pleads Propriety And 't is well known the longer the Poison stayeth in the Stomach
this freedom and particularity of Choice in electing to the End and predestinating to the Means most of the Fathers downwards from Augustine and among the founder sort of School Divines Lumbard Aquinas and many of the Dominicans do strike in with the Divines of our Reformed Church 3dly Here is the Means whereby 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 I will allure or whereinto 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 the Wilderness Because I have known her I will allure her into the Wilderness Whosoever is ordained to the End is also pre-ordained to the Means The Lord can do it without Means but commonly he doth it by such as suit best with that Nature whereupon he is about to work Mans will is naturally free from Co-action therefore the Lord compelleth none but gently allureth all by degrees of unwilling making them willing 1. By illumination of the Vnderstanding Things unknown have no motive Faculty As no Good wrapp'd up in Darkness excite desire so no Evil swathed up in Ignorance strikes trouble or sorrow 2. By an effectual persuasion of the Will and then by an Infusion of renewing Grace Faith is his Work and Gift both for preparation of the Subject the beginning of Grace and for the increase and consummation of the exercise thereof Phil. 1.29 Heb. 12.2 God worketh all in Man to will what he should do and then to do what he willeth according to his own good pleasure but not as upon Stocks or Stones these are moved without knowledg as uncapable of Consent reasonable Creatures not so they consent and approve they know they will they love wha◠God worketh in them I will make ther◠is God's first work that they shall walk in my Statutes there is Mans after Co-operation Without me ye can do nothing And Wha◠hast thou O Man that thou hast not received A place which St. Cyprian usually urged to exclude all boasting on Mans behalf and whereby St. Augustine was brought to retract what he had wrote before of Faith in us and from us Means must be used but the Work is ascribed to an higher Power More distinctly know that Means are of two sorts either principal or instrumental The principal are either more principal as Christ in and by whom the Church hath all and without whom nothing or less principal as the Benefits which flow from Christ such are Adoption by the communication of his Filiation Justification by his Grace and Sanctification by his Spirit The instrumental Means are either preparative in and by the Law or effective in and by the Gospel of which more hereafter 4thly Here is to be considered the End whereunto all this is directed and that is twofold either last or next The last End is the Glory of his rich Grace in the glorification of his Spouse the Church the next End is the present Good of the Persons to be converted being thus under preparation for Regeneration As it is with a Goldsmith that would make a Cup for use or a Ring for Ornament his Oar is hard and full of dross therefore he casteth it into the Fire to soften and refine it this done he formeth and fashioneth it according to his Will Gregory applieth this Similitude thus We are the Gold hard and full of filth this World is the Shop Troubles are the Fire God the Workman let us learn how to suffer he knoweth best how to prepare and fit us for his Service As skilful Physicians hunt away the Lethargy by casting the Body into some degrees of a Fever to dry up that adventitious Moisture which else would quench natural Heat and bring in Death so the Lord brings his Children into Spiritual Distress to prevent Eternal Death and everlasting Torture in the burning Lake Or as it is with a tender Mother who clothes her Breast with Gall or Wormwood to wean the Child in its Affections and gain it to eat stronger Meat so and no otherwise is it with the Lord in this Work he weaneth them from the Dugs of the World and leadeth them into the Wilderness that he might bring them into the possession of Canaan Now no trouble for the present seemeth joyous but grievous nevertheless afterward it yeeldeth the peaceable Fruit of Righteousness to them that are exercised therein enabling them to say it was good for us that we were afflicted and broken that we might rejoice in more strength This the Lord only can do God shall persuade Japhet No finite power can work so upon the Spirit much less upon a weak fearful Man and yet sustain him under hope The Spirit of a Man may help against Man and against his own Infirmities but when he cometh to grapple with the Almighty when he is brought into the Wilderness to answer God charging him with his Debt a terrified burthened and wounded Conscience who else can support Prov. 18.14 For the further opening of the Point and consequently of this preparative Work to the capacity of the meaner sort three things shall be here insisted on viz. That it hath been so bow it is effected and wherefore In which we shall find what Sampson did in the Lions Belly many Honey combs of Spiritual Honey 1. This hath been and is the Method observed ordinarily in the Dispensation of Grace though a diversity may be granted as to the measure of it Look as in Music all the Strings of the Instrument are touched with the same hand yet not with a like stroke so here And the Lord is the Agent for Man being once turned from Life and dead in Sin cannot bring himself into any of this wholsom Pain much less out of it no no it is the Lord that in great Love doth both these for him Our first Parents had a legal Sermon made to them before they had any Promise applied Gen. 3.16 Hagar was brought into a Wilderness real to her typical to others before she was fully wrought upon in Faith to say I have seen him that seeth me Gen. 16.13 God begins the Work and seeth his before they see or seek him Manasses was sent into Captivity he was put in Prison and fettered in Irons the best Ornaments he ever wore before his Mountain could be brought low In such a proud Heart the Devil keeps his hold a long time such rusty Locks will not easily open Now he is as weary of his Sins as he is of his Chains As a Physician deals with Persons distracted and out of their wits he commands that they be kept in the dark to be bound in fetters to have miserable and hard Fare that by all they may be brought to their Understanding Thus God dealeth with some Sinners that are turned mad and grown out of their right Reason by their Wickedness that he may recover them he binds them in Chains brings them low that at length they may consider of their Condition and be healed Paul had both a Voice and Light to guide him into this Wilderness before the Lord would speak unto his Heart and
come without his Wedding Garment it is said he was speechless having no excuse to pretend he was Self-condemned Thirdly They may be brought to a conditional Application so as to conclude a possibility of safety that they might be freed from Sin and Sentence of the Law if they should believe and lay hold on Christ So far is conceived that Herod went by hearing of the Baptist Yea more they may also have a fiducial Application and Appropriation of God unto themselves in particular and herein may have a great resemblance of Justifying Faith As Paul said Who loved me and gave himself for me So these may apply Christ to their particular I thank my Christ my Redeemer my Saviour though in presumption notwithstanding Fourthly They may go one step further even to some apprehension of the Beauty of Grace and that happiness following a Spiritual Union with Christ Especially if they live where the Law and Gospel are distinctly handled skilfully intermixed fully applied so as not only to wish well but to resolve and promise a better course As appears from that known and famous Instance Mat. 13.20 where the third kind of hearers are said to receive the Word with joy As good News affecteth the hearers about the State and Kingdom wherein they are much concern'd so may Men be affected in hearing the glad tidings the gracious Counsels of God to save Sinners discovered and yet not regenerated To which may be added that difficult place in the Epistle to the Hebrews Chap. 6. ver 4 5. Many Apostates have had great meltings and much sudden and strong joy But the Issue of all is they ever dash on one of these two Rocks Either they Presume and so are careless to go on actually to receive and give themselves to Christ Or else they Despair and so are hopeless of ever having what they see and admire In all these flashings the Truths of God pass by them as Water through a Conduit and leave a Dew but soak not as Water into the Earth Quest Secondly It is demanded Wherein those which are called according to purpose go beyond all others in this Wilderness of Trouble Answ That it should be simply and in all things a common work to those which are outwardly called only with those which are inwardly called also that good and bad are brought alike into this Wilderness that those which attain Grace and those which attain none should be brought to lie under one degree of Legal Preparation is strange to assert seeing it is the same Spirit under divers names that first prepareth by bringing into the Wilderness as the Spirit of Bondage and then infuseth Grace by speaking unto the Heart as the Spirit of Adoption As also considering it is a promise made here in favour of the Church and to her appropriated Yet it will be granted here to be difficult to satisfie any or to shew demonstratively wherein they differ Only for the present take what may be offered that way till some other by searching the Matter shall give more and clearer Light for plainer discovery Those then that are specially beloved of God and whose safety the Lord doth absolutely aim at and intend go beyond all others in this Work in these following particulars First In the intent and purpose of God which is not to Civilize or only to Formalize them as he deals with many bringing them into trouble to tame and keep them in order for the good of humane Society but indeed to go through with them for their sound Humiliation and through Sanctification Secondly In the success and event for some are only terrified and restrained for a time when others are heartily grieved even drencht in Sorrow to be savingly renewed after So that the Spirit of Sanctification doth immediately after manifest both Presence and Power Victory and Sovereignty But who doubteth of this Is there no other way wherein they differ Yes and it may be thus viz. 1. Modo operationis in the manner of Working Some are brought in by outward means only the Law Sickness Crosses as the Marble is said to sweat in foul Weather but still remains Marble assisted and followed with the common light and power of Natural Conscience others are brought in not without the Holy Ghost ordering the outward means and their inward sight to continue closed till this Supernatural Work be perfected As the Father by his Love in Electing before they had a Being except in the Divine Understanding so the blessed Spirit taketh hold upon them by his Power so soon as they have any Being which hold of his is diversly manifested both in respect of time means and manner of Working Towards some at one time by one means and after this manner towards others at another time by some other Ordinance and after another manner By degrees drawing them into this Wilderness where he discovereth their natural Bondage stirreth them to desire and directeth them how to attain true Liberty 2. In duratione disparitate dispositionis In their continuance and dissimilitude of Disposition while they are there Those that are ordained to Life do continue there commonly longer Not for intermitted Hours to be now in and then out but for Days Weeks Months Years never wholly off till they pass Jordan and arrive to their heavenly Canaan Some have been sensibly kept there the most time of their Life and yet come off well in the end Besides they are more kindled and deeply affected with an hatred and loathing of all Sin their affection is more lively and feelingly bent upon Purity hungring and thirsting after Righteousness and their hope is stronger that it may be that it will be better with them For this is that secret Staff which supporteth such Travellers They desire pardon and they hope they shall have it they hunger and thirst after Righteousness which others in this case never do and have some hope to be satisfied They long to hear the Voice and see the loving Countenance of Christ and are inwardly upheld with hope of both Who can tell say they in their Hearts but that the Lord may be intreated to turn away his fierce Anger that we perish not here according to our desert It is our self-harming league with Sin that the Lord goeth about to break were that done he would not contend nor be angry for ever When we submit unto him he will speak unto us as he did unto Hagar however we must trust in him although he should kill us with Hunger and Thirst in this vast and desolate Wilderness of legal Terror and Conviction where no refreshing Streams do flow Use 2. Secondly The Vse may be Instructive both to Ministers and People First To Ministers that they wisely endeavour it to bring their People into and through this Wilderness by presenting and pressing the Law which is God's Instrument to charge Sin upon the Soul in the true Nature Root and Fruit thereof God having imparted some of his own Brightness
and Power unto it for this end To know how the Law doth this may give some Light to Ministers in the use thereof And that may be 1. By way of Illumination of the Understanding to see Sin as it is sin which no word nor means in the World can do beside because God hath imparted to it the brightness of his own Purity so much as he pleased and thought to be needful for this end with a searching faculty undeniably to charge Conscience with all and every Sin this supernatural splendor closing with the innate light of Conscience proceeding in this manner viz. First to discover Actual Sins beginning often with some of the most hainous and going on by degrees to the rest for number and nature how many how foul and to that end the Law presenteth to the Soul First With her Soveraignty for Constitution and Commission being made and ordained by him who is infinite in every Attribute and hath an absolute dominion over our Bodies and Spirits and sent abroad with a large Commission to show all Sins unto all sorts impartially whether they be high or low rich or poor prophane or holy the Law hath a soveraign power and exerciseth it after a regal manner sparing none Secondly With her Integrity and Extent In this Wilderness the Law sheweth Conscience her Spiritual Authority her Aggravating Faculties her exact Purity and that mutual Dependency one Law and one Member of the Law hath upon another Her Spiritual Authority to go into the inward Rooms yea into every corner of those Rooms and every crevice of those Corners where Sin lieth hid and to search and bring out all Sins great and small of Omission and Commission Like a two-edged Sword it pierceth to the very Marrow to the very intents of the Hearts Her Aggravating Faculty to set forth particular Sins to the Eye as the Glass doth the spots of the Face in the most odious Colours that so Sin may appear exceeding sinful Her Exact Purity to discover such practices of our Life to be sinful which we never dreamt of nor before took notice of so much as to suspect I had not known Sin i. e. some Sins to be Sins but by the Law this discovers that to be a Mountain which before the Sinner judged to be a Mote and that to be Sin which before he esteemed Righteousness and like a Light exposed to view those Corruptions which lay hid and unseen in their due proportion Her Mutual Dependency one Branch doth so hang upon another that whosoever breaketh one is guilty of all James 2.10 The whole Law is but one Copulative and this dependance of one Precept with another and all upon the Law-Maker whose Authority is violated and contemned in the breach of one as well as of all occasioneth even one Sin to be so infinitly weighty Secondly The Law proceeds to discover Original Sin in the Root and Branches how we participate in the first sinful Act of Adam how that Guilt is imputed and how Habitual Corruption is propagated from immediate Parents to all their Posterity proceeding from them by an ordinary way of Generation as Poyson is carried from the Fountain to the Cistern all herent in the Nature or redounding on the Person by virtue of the Covenant and this the Law doth either by way of Comparison or else by way of positive Description comparing and preferring it for the evil thereof to Actual Sin as the Root or Cause thereof Et quod efficit tale est magis tale is said in Philosophy and is true in Divinity Then describing it either by Names or Properties By Names first calling it the Old Man the Body of Death as if Death were nothing without this Sin a Weight that presseth down c. By Properties next and they are especially four viz. Eminency Predominancy Insensibility and Perpetuity For Eminency the Law saith it is a Transcendent Evil and the worst of all Evils Predominancy strangely to rule and oversway like a second Nature which Men often confess while they say It is their Nature to do this or that is to be furious to swear and curse a little now and then they cannot help it 't is their Nature when indeed it is the corruption of Nature reigning Insensibility to keep all the parts in a sleepy peace that Men are not aware of their danger till they be awakened and brought into this Wilderness Perpetuity to cleave fast unto our Nature even to the end of our Life While Blood is in our Veins Sin is in our Nature like the Jebusites this remains as a Thorn in the side in the Flesh even when Victory is obtained by Grace over all Actual Sin in a competent measure that is still living and stirring gathering new Forces and breaking into Rebellion ever and anon Thus the Law bringeth Men into the Wilderness by the work of Illumination 2. By the work of Conviction whereby the Conscience is brought to this Spiritual assent that the former Testimony of the Law is true both for Crime Object and Curse denounced and the Person to a particular application both of the Sins to be personal and of the sentence against such Sins and Sinners to be Legal The sum of which Work may be comprised in this practical Syllogism viz. Whosoever is thus Sinful and Cursed according to the Law is fully miserable but I saith the assuming Conscience am thus sinful and cursed therefore I am fully miserable What shall I do miserable Man that I am who shall deliver me in this vast Wilderness O help help me for the Lord's sake I am ready to faint to sink to die with fear and grief The Spirit by the Ministry of the Law worketh this distinct and sound Conviction divers ways 1. By removing all Impediments which are usually observed to hinder this Conviction One is natural Deadness and penal Hardness caused by Love and Custom in some one or many Sins which while it is interposed between the Law and Conscience will not suffer them to close and so nothing is done till that be in part removed Another is Spiritual Sloth which is a prevailing Backwardness and a precipitating Carelesness to consider what the Law discovereth and concludeth against Sin Men naturally love their ease and quiet they would not be disturbed A third is carnal Craft to pretend Religion and to perform all outward Duties and yet all the while to keep Sin in the Heart untouch'd to remain as habitually and delightfully unclean as ever This Soul-destroying Subtilty appears 1. In a readiness to shift off Sin and Reproofs from our selves to others The Minister met with such an one to day there was a Lesson for him indeed c. 2. In loathing a sound plain-searching Ministry as sore Eyes do the Sun which goes about to answer all the Objections of a natural Heart against the Goodness of Divine Truth Thus the Law removes Impediments 2. It worketh Conviction by applying unto the Soul and Conscience 1.
Gentle Expostulations frequently and movingly here and there as unto Adam and Gehazi Gen. 3.9 2 Kin. 5.26 Tell me poor Soul was it not â—ven so hast not thou done thus and thus went not my Spirit with thee and was not mine Eye over thee Confess thy Sin ease thy self and give glory to God O how loving is the Lord even in his Terrors and Enditements In the midst of Judgment he remembreth Mercy Tho his Robes be red they are not without some streamings of white and if he be compelled to pronounce Judgment as it was said of Augustus he doth it even with Tears in his Eyes 2. Instances very pertinent and those either direct as Psal 50.18 c. or Parabolical As Nathan dealt with David so the Lord deals with those whom he intends to restrain and renew You are the Men saith he that have been so much addicted to and delighted with Idleness Wantonness Luxury Pride Covetousness Slandring Drunkenness Swearing Lying and the like 3. Threatnings are added where the former avail not Cursed is every one that doth not all which is written in the Law He shall be pursued with Judgments of divers Natures to one end sometimes with prosperity on the right and anon with adversity on the left hand and last of all which is the worst of all dying impenitently he must needs be damned Thus the Lord thundereth in his Law against some whom nevertheless he intends to sanctify and save as a Father may threaten and terrify that Child whom he intends to make his Heir But withal you must know that he doth inwardly and secretly support them that they dash not upon Presumption nor sink under final Despair So that at length being driven from all their hiding Places they are brought into this Wilderness and forced freely to take upon themselves all those Sins discovered by the Law to fall down before God and to acknowledg their Guilt and Desert before the Throne of his Majesty resolving there to lie prostrate till he raise them in Mercy Now say they we see we feel we know how true the Word of God is how faithfully such Ministers dealt with us while we slighted and laughed them to scorn and how deceitful Sin is that appears at first small sweet and clean when as it is weighty bitter and filthy They cry who will take this Dagger out of my Heart this Mill-stone off my Back this Fire out of my Loins this Sting out of my Conscience Now the seeming sweetnesâ— of Sin is turned to Gall. O Sin how grievous is thy remembrance Away ye wicked we will henceforth endeavour to keep thâ— Commandments of our God No morâ— Swearing much less Perjury no Drunkenness no more Uncleanness When thesâ— knock at the door the answer is O thesâ— are they that cost us dear at such a time wâ— yet feel the sad Impressions of our former Afflictions for them we find a Pardon no easy Enterprize nor Repentance so pleasing a Potion we would not for all the World bâ— under that Anger of God nor feel one drop of his scalding Indignation which we have perceived for those Offences Thus the biâ—â—â—â— Child dreads the Fire And this with submission is the Course that Ministers musâ— take in opening and pressing the Law firsâ— which is God's Instrument effectually to charge the Conscience with Sin and to bring a Person into this Wilderness 2dly The People may learn to join with the Lord in his Ambassadors so to furtheâ— this Work of the Law when and where iâ— is once begun and to follow the Lord undeâ— his Cloud and after this Fire into this Wiâ—derness And that 1. By a serious Meditation of these many Impediments which keep Men out of it oâ— hinder them much in the way towards it when the Lord is about to bring them into it Eye them that you may avoid them For instance to esteem of the Law as a strange thing as not appertaining to them or wherein they are little or nothing concerned to interpose some beloved Sin between these two Lights of the Law and Conscience that they cannot join This alone hindered Herod's Conversion under John's piercing Ministry the interposition of his Herodias caused a fearful and final Eclipse So likewise to go away unthankfully and carelesly from a good Discourse doth hinder the Work and quench the Sparks which might have bred a Flame 2. By frequent Meditation on divers good Subjects moving this way as 1. Upon the Mercies of God bestowed upon you in particular from time to time This Course the Lord took to humble David 2 Sam. 12.7 8 9. And whosoever hath tried will say It is a very piercing way to bring the Heart into a through and kindly grief I have read of one who reading a Pardon sent him from the King fell a weeping and burst out into these Words A Pardon hath done that which Death could not do it hath made my Heart to relent As the Sugar-Loaf is dissolved and weeps it self away when it is dipp'd in Wine so will Penitents dissolve and melt themselves away in the sweet sence of Divine Love and their neglect or abuse of it Without doubt the very Behaviour of the Prodigal's Father brake his Heart with more thawings and kindly mourning than ever his former Hardship and Misery did O this that ever he should run to meet him that he should fall upon his Neck and kiss him This kindness of his Lips wounded his Heart with the deeper sence and judging of his own unkindness When the Surface of the Water is glazed with Ice the Sun-beams dissolve it such operation hath the Grace of Christ upon frozen Hearts which are never truly melted into Contrition but by Evangelical Beams Surely when a Sinner shall consider the great Love the sweetest Kindness the freest Pardons offered the choicest Mercies bestowed his Heart cannot but melt into a River What all these to and for me Lord yea for thee What after such deep Rebellions and Refusals yea after all and that most freely and willingly Good Lord how can the Soul but weep and mourn now 2. Meditate for that purpose upon the Justice and Power of God able to revenge the Quarrel of his Covenant and to bruise all his proud and stout Enemies with a Rod of Iron He is not only a Rock of Refuge to the Godly but also a Rock of Destruction to dash the Impenitent in pieces The strength of the Rock is seen as in upholding the House that is built upon it so in breaking the Ships that dash against it The force of Fire is manifested as in refining the Gold so in consuming the Dross There is none like unto thee O Lord thou art great and thy Name is great who would not fear thee thou King of Nations Jer. 10.6 And It is a fearful thing to fall into the Hands of the Living God Heb. 10.31 As a Lion he tears in pieces the Adversaries Psal 50.22 There is no standing before him if his Wrath
short like a Land-flood occasioned by a Storm which when it is over the Flood is gone too But if it be a preparative to Renovation then it is deep and lasting more or less during Life it is a Spring which continually runs Neither would God have the Wounds of Godly Sorrow to be so closed up as not to bleed afresh upon every good occasion And this Godly Sorrow may be discerned from all counterfeit dashes of Hypocritical and Vain-glorious Mourning Thus 1. By the disposition and desire of the Party in whom it is to keep it secret Although he can rest no where nor answer himself being in little ease yet is often ashamed any â—hould know it Hypocrisie loves a Stage to â—ct her Part upon to get Credit from Men â—ather than to glorifie God Mat. 6.16 But â—lle verè dolet qui sine teste dolet He grieves truly that grieves privately So much is contained in that Prophecy Zach. 12.12 The Land shall mourn every Family apart To shew the soundness of their Sorrow their sincerity by their Secresie They were severed to shew that they wept not for company Sed spontè proprio affectu as Calvin hath it but of their own accord and out of pure affection 2. By the quality of the Confessors which at length after much a-do he chuseth to make known his case unto even the most Orthodox and Impartial Divines that excel in Sanctity Experience and soundness of Judgment who he thinks will not flatter him and dare not deceive him for a World Judas being troubled went to the Scribes and Pharisees and they cared for none of these things but turn him off with a What is that to us see thou to it This is all the help and comfort they can afford him Miserable Comforters Physicians of no value The Devil and his Imps love to bring Men into the Briars and there leave them As familiar Devils forsake their Witches when they have once brought them into Fetters If you confess your selves to a Priest and not to God said that Martyr you shall have the reward that Judas had who confessed to a Priest and afterward went and hanged himself But they that are kindly toucht with those in the Acts of the Apostles Chap. 2. ver 37. Haste to those which wounded them even to the Disciples saying Men and Brethren what shall we do to be saved 3. By a restless hatred of Sin wheresoever seen It is as fearful and odious now as the Devil was heretofore His Eye and Hand are toward it his desire and endeavour is to have it discover'd and kill'd resolving to do and suffer any thing rather than to sin give him any Plague except the plague of an hard unclean Heart He hateth Sin not only in the publick acts which might shame him but also in secret thoughts which might stain and defile him The vengeance of Sin is not only frightful but the venom of Sin is distastful he fears Corruption not only as it is a Fire burning but as it is a Coal that is blacking Further This Work may be known by Fruits and Effects of it For First If it be right it is followed with a full and free confession of Sin The Person that is in a Wilderness-condition confesseth more than all the World know or can accuse him of As the sensible Sick-man relateth all his Distempers to the Physician he resteth not in generals but descendeth to particulars How frequent and full is David in confessing his Murther and Adultery What an History doth Nehemiah make of Israel's Sins in his Prayer to God How exact doth Paul describe his Madness against the Church his Blasphemy against Christ And all to this end that themselves may be the more ashamed and God the more glorified Quest But may not Wicked Graceless Men make confession of Sin Answ Yes for Judas did and others may also But see the difference He confessed to Men but not to God and by his confession sought only to ease his Heart As Drunkards by Vomiting rid their Stomachs Thus as Melancthon relates it Chronico p. 5. Latomus of Lovain confessed Inter horrendos mugitus se contra Conscientiam adversatum esse veritati Roaring and crying out That against his Conscience he had persecuted the Truth of God In trouble of Mind all will out Conscience like Sampson's Wife will not conceal the Riddle Like Fulvia a whorish Woman who declared all the secrets of her foolish Lover Cneius a noble Roman But these Confessions of Graceless Men are not from the concurrence of a judicious active Will but rather as the sparkles forced by the Collision of Flints elicited by the impressions of appearing and urging Evils Like Pharaoh's obedience forced from Judgments and nothing else as that of some Mariners in a Storm who in the Calm turn as wicked as before and court the return of those Goods they cast out in a Tempestuous season when the Winds are silenced Here is no true brokeness of Heart no love of Holiness Secondly It is accompanied with Self-condemnation for Sin The true penitent hath a County Palatinate within his Bosom and arraigns and judges himself Abraham crys out I am but dust and ashes Dust minds us of Mortality Ashes of Fire as if he had deserved both Jacob saith I am less than the least of all thy Mercies Gen. 32.10 The Centurion I am unworthy thou shouldst come under my Roof St. Peter Depart from me O Lord for I am a sinful Man Bishop Hooper in our Martyrologie Lord I am Hell thou art Heaven I a sink of Sin thou a Fount of Grace This is one chief part of Self-condemnation to acknowledg that the utmost Wrath and Severity of God is justly due to such Sins as we have committed For tho gracious Persons by their Sins do not actually become subject to the Wrath of God and his Vengeance yet they meritoriously make such Persons liable to Death so that a true Penitent under the apprehensions of his Sins may say truly as the Prodigal did I am no more worthy to be called thy Son Thirdly The practice and course of Sin is stayed no more Swearing no more wanton Dalliance no more drunken Meetings Tho he cannot but sin yet he doth not will Sin It is not his Trade yea all the ways and mâ—ans are cut off which did or might provoke or succour Corruption As Generals do in besieging a Town or Castle they deprive them of all such ways and means whereby they might provide for themselves Or as the Men of Abel dealt with Sheba the Son of Bichri they cut off his Head and cast it over to Joab that he might depart 2 Sam. 20.22 So did Zacheus Luke 19.8 in restitution and contribution he pulled down the tents of Sin And as Mary Magdalen dealt with her wanton Eyes and whorish Locks she wept Rivers of Tears with the one and wiped our Saviour's Feet with the other Loth to have done so before It is usual
with Men that would destroy the brood of some Beasts and Birds they pull down their Nests and destroy their Dens So it is with the true Penitent in respect of Sin down with all now that they would uphold before Fourthly There followeth a great Love to a sound-searching Ministry that will fully search and try the deceitful Heart and batter the deceitful holds of Sin Threatnings are welcome that shake the proud stony Heart and dash Babels Brats against the Wall I mean the crawling Vermin of noisome Lusts O strike thou Man of God strike in Christ's Name and spare not burn and cut here O here is an impure hard Heart as ever was harboured in any Breast And then goeth most chearfully most thankfully and best contented when he is struck to the quick What a blessed opportunity was this happy that I lived to see this day to hear such a Sermon If we hate an Enemy nothing will satisfie but his death Fifthly There remains still many fears and an holy jealousie that every Sin he reades or hears of is his Master is it I As it is reported of Socrates that when he walked in the Streets and saw any Person disorder'd would say to himself Am I such a one And as Master Bradford did when he looked into the lewd Lives of others And so do all humble Christians Nay commonly in this case he takes all to himself I have been this and I am thus and deserve that He needs neither Accuser nor Judg but is ready to cast the first stone at himself Thus the intented Convert is brought into the Wilderness of Spiritual Trouble where he yet remains a miserable Spectacle in Chains under Bondage tossing to and fro sighing and looking about now upon himself where he seeth his Chains but no power to loose them then abroad to see if there be any near but there is none to hear or help Finally he raiseth up his Eyes towards Heaven in such an earnest humble fixed manner as if he would never leave till he heard some word of comfort for which here is a Promise which comes in the next place to be handled III. I will speak unto her Heart Containing the third General of the Text viz. The first infusion for Apprehension or actual excitation of Sanctifying Grace In which Promise is presented to your view 1. The subject of this Evangelical Work and that is the Heart Instruments work directly upon the outward Man only he hath his seat in Heaven that works upon the Heart This is as Fire among the Elements that doth assimulate every thing to it self or as the Primum Mobile to the inferiour World which carries all the inferiour Orbs with it the first Mover or great Wheel in a Clock once moved moves with it all the rest the Tongue Eyes Hands Feet all move to the motion of the Heart and when God hath once fram'd the Soul to his Discipline by the ministry of the Law then he takes the Heart to be a fit hearer and speaks unto it 2. The manner of Exccution I will speak unto or above Two things may be conceived as promised herein First To speak comfortably to a solitary disconsolate Soul So much doth the Hebraism every-where import Comfort ye my People speak comfortably to Jerusalem Isa 40.1 The words are originally as here 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Speak to the Heart of Jerusalem i. e. speak things grateful to her comfort raise up chear as both the Syriack and Chaldee Paraphrase do take it As it was with the Jews when God gave the Law to Israel by Moses they heard the Thunder and saw the Lightning but neither heard nor saw God so it is in this preparative work of Faith Men see the bright purity of the Law they hear many Woes and Curses denounced but God in Christ they neither hear nor see till he further enlighten them and raise them up by speaking to their Hearts Secondly To speak Victoriously above all the strength of that natural resistability which is in every untamed and unsanctified Heart In few words it is thus much I will chear and change her Whence Ministers are fitly called Comforters 1 Thess 2.11 and the Gospel a Peace-offering a word of Comfort and Reconciliation How the Lord works this whether as a Moral Persuader only by proposing Objects or as a Physical Agent determining the Intellect changing the Will and ordering the whole Business both for efficacy and event How the Will of Man hath it self towards the Grace of God in the act of Conversion hath been and is the great question of the Christian World Divines of all sorts are beating about it some to defend others to bolt out the Truth Pelagians with the Jesuits on one hand are for the strength of Nature and liberty of the Will to accept or refuse the Voice of God The Primitive Fathers from Augustine downwards with most Protestants and the Dominican Friars on the other hand are more for the Glory of God's Free-grace Who worketh both to will and to do of his own good Pleasure Here will be nothing interposed in order to any determination of this Controversie only the studious whom it may concern are referr'd to what is extant * Chamier Tom. 3. operum lib. 3. Cameron respons ad Epist docti viri alibi Zanch lib. 5. de Nat. Dei D. Rivet comment in Hos in disput 13. D. Twiss in defens Perk. Vind. gra and may yield better satisfaction For others who are willing to rest in plain Truths and fear to offend by curious enquiries they may take what follows for answer viz. First God speaketh and worketh after a secret if not an unexpressible manner Divine Graces curiously and mysteriously insinuate themselves and the impressions of the Will are extremely nice Therefore Men should not be rash in determining nor over-bold in presenting to the Eye what God hath vailed endeavouring to make Windows in God's Closet and to unclasp his secret Books St. Augustine's Rule is surely safe Praestat dubitare de occultis quam de incertis litigare And his Counsel is very prudent viz. Compescenda est humana temeritas id quod non est non quaerat nè quod est inveniat Contra. Manich. l. 8. c. 1. i. e. We must bridle our Temerity and check our Curiosity lest we pursue what is not revealed and find that which is Let all take heed of soaring too high lest they be scorched and wading too deep lest they be drowned There are some things we may nescire sine crimine not know without blame but cannot know them sine discrimine without danger And in respect of these a learned Ignorance is to be preferr'd to an ignorant Learning Stobaeus reports of Thales that he gazing on the Stars fell into a Pit so may all pryers into God's Secrets be suffered to fall into the Pit of Error Secondly Man hath certainly lost his freedom to Good by his first choice of Evil. Seipsum
ready at hand always good and kind to Man but then especially when Man stands in most need of him as all the Saints have found and testified Manasses in Prison Hagar in the Wilderness Daniel in the Lions Den and they in the fiery Furnace Job David Hezekiah in great distress and anguish of Spirit When the Bottle is dipped under Water he saveth it from drowning The more grievous their Oppression the more gracious hath been his Redemption And the reason hereof is good First Because none else can do it Not Men or Angels much less the Gilded Toys of the World or all that exteriour Lustre which charmeth the Eyes of so many esteemed by a troubled Mind but as a Cloud in painting a petty vapour of Water or as Chaff driven of the Wind. The Jews have a saying common among them viz. It is he that openeth our Heart in his Law i. e. By his Spirit he enableth the Heart to understand and effect Spiritual things it is a branch of his Prerogative Luke 24.45 He opened their Vnderstandings by removing Impediments by breathing into them the Holy Ghost and bestowing further Functional Graces As S. Ambrose expounds and explains that Text by some passages of S. Paul 1 Cor. 12.8 9. God toucheth the Heart as the Musician doth the strings of his Instrument and it soundeth what he pleaseth Secondly He hath Undertaken and Promised it by Himself to our First Parents and by his Prophets unto the Church in every Age successively It is the sum and end of the New Covenant to accept those who deny themselves to raise up them that are cast down to inrich those that are poor in Spirit and to speak comfortably to those who will not be comforted any other way He brings them into this Wilderness for this end that he may speak and not speak in vain unto them Till then commonly Man is like an untamed Heifer or wild Asses Colt that runs and revels here and there that breaks all Bonds and will hear no Advice When Sin is discovered and Conscience awakened one syllable of the Gospel one word of Comfort is as good News out of a far Country In every natural Man there is a three-fold Bar hindering the entrance of Spiritual Light and Life Ignorance in the understanding it is covered with Ignorance as the Deep was at first with Darkness there is a very Chaos Hardness in the Heart like that of Nabal's which became like a Stone and a malitious pravity in the Will which is like a noisom Sepulchre so that as such he can neither understand receive nor affect this Supernatural Work till the Lord hath removed them by his Spirit Cooperating with the Law and Gospel It is said of Lydia that the Lord opened her Heart i. e. effectually called her as Calvin saith He gave her Divine Light and Grace without which special Concurrence of his Paul's labour had been fruitless In effect it is all one with this I will speak unto her Heart i. e. I will speak Friendly Plainly and Effectually Conceive this Evangelical Work to go on in this Order First The Lord revealeth himself to such a Heart so dejected and troubled as a Wise and Loving Father not willing nor suffering any such to perish As St. Ambrose told Monica Filius tantaram lachrimarum c. A Son of so many Tears as she shed for her Augustine cannot perish Now these brought by a Voice into the Wilderness are all Sons of Sorrow many Tears are shed by them as a living Fountain sends forth plentiful Streams and often many Tears are shed for them therefore they cannot Perish And this the Lord doth in three degrees 1. He makes it evident that there is a possibility of Ease Purity and Peace And to that end he brings many presidents to their Mind of old hard rusty Hearts renewed softned and opened For they are recorded in Scriptures for that purpose Paul saith he obtained Mercy for this cause 1 Tim. 1.16 For a pattern to them which should hereafter believe The Lord speaks to some as bad as might be compared to Sodom and Gomorrah Isa 1.9 Yet in the 18. ver there is Come let us reason together though your sins be as Scarlet c. Others are bespatter'd with Idolatrous filthiness yet I will cleanse you from all your filthiness is God's Promise Ezek. 36.25 Besides many others with the Apostles black Roll 1 Cor. 6.10 11. Such were some of you but ye are washed and sanctified These and the like Instances are here brought to mind as evidences of Divine Favour and incouragements to Faith 2. He discovereth Christ and acquaints them with the New-Covenant as the only Remedy to make up the breach of the First-conditions Behold saith the Lord my Son a Lamb slain from the beginning to take away the Sins of the World Behold him in Union with your Nature and in Unction to the Office of Mediatorship Behold him in his Obedience Active and Passive assuming the Crime and Curse of your Nature undergoing the penalty and fulfilling the Precept of the Law in his own Person but in your stead and room Behold him in his Meritorious Viatory Office by way of Purchase and Conquest as also in his Applicatory-Intercession for all burdened Souls who seeing you are truly weary of Sin behold the Mediator by a real tender of his own Merits prevailing for you among the rest 3. He offereth Christ unto all such upon condition of Faith and Repentance to the performance of which Condition he enableth in his Offer So that they will to do what they are required saying often with grief and fear O that we could Repent and Believe O that we could take the Lord's offer c. Although Actual Faith be not yet in the Heart as some are of Opinion tho Mr. Perkins judgeth the contrary yet it is very near and shall infallibly follow Hagar had her Eyes opened to see the Well before she went to it and stooped down to take and taste it Faith comes in by exercise to manifest it self by certain steps and degrees And let all those who find themselves past any of them thankfully acknowledg God's Work and be humbly constant in the use of Means for the Lord will speak again Phil. 1.6 He which hath begun a good Work in you will perform it c. And pray as Luther wonted to do Confirm O Lord in us what thou hast wrought and perfect the Work that thou hast begun in us to thy Glory As Queen Elizabeth prayed Look upon the Wounds of thine Hands and dispise not the Work of thine Hands thou hast written me down in the Book of Preservation with thine own Hand O read thine own Hand-writing and save me Secondly He openeth the Heart towards himself and that in three Degrees 1. He persuadeth it of the truth of those Passages formerly revealed and discovered and that the Lord doth seriously intend them to all in this condition 2. He raiseth up in it an
things Or at least they will quench all a killing pity too common by daubing with untempered Mortar So that one day you will say out of woful experience Miserable Comforters are ye all Physicians of no value good for nothing Seek not to them rest not on them it is God only in and through Christ who speaks peace unto his Saints in this case hear only what he saith Thirdly A third sort to be blamed are such as are converted outwardly in Profession only the Lord make them sound Pictures without Life Clouds without Water Sodoms Apples fair only to see to The outward Man is spoken unto and convinced so far as to perform Duties the Ear is spoken unto so far as to hear often the Tongue is spoken unto so far as to discourse well but the Heart is not spoken unto all the devotion of these Men is in Hearing and Censuring they come to arraign the Minister at the Bar of their own Judgment and to judge that Word by which they must be judged at the last Day they come to debate the Man not the Doctrine to censure the Preacher not to practise the Sermon Like Merchant's Coopers they taste much Wine but deal for none their Hearts are not changed the same Lusts lodg there as before restrained only they are hard and impure as ever the virtue of Christ's Death and Life is not yet applied to such they are yet destitute of Grace whatever their profession be Nay you and your Profession are but like the cursed Fig-tree that bare Leaves and no Fruit. God hath not spoken to your Hearts neither did you ever speak in your Hearts to God Many Prayers you may haply say over and yet never pray for Prayer is an offering up of the Heart or Will to God by Christ Vse 2. The second Vse will direct to Duty which concerneth either Minister or People Ministers must learn to speak unto the Heart as near as possible they can because God doth so whose Ambassadors they are Like Marks-men though they cannot shoot so as to strike yet they must aim at this Mark their Arrows must be sharpened for this purpose though like the Arrows of Jonathan some fall short of others go besides the Mark yet some or other being guided by a Supreme Power may pierce the Hearts of the King's Enemies whereby the People shall fall under him Those Ministers speak best who strive to profit more than to please and so must all they that desire to do good in that relation they must preach to the Conscience to the Quick As King James of famous Memory said of a Reverend Bishop of this Land This Man Preaches as if Death were at my Back So should every Minister do Preach as if Death Judgment and Hell were even at Mens Backs Bring the point as near as may be home to the hearers Door that is plainly particularly earnestly otherwise they preach as a Man that shoots his Arrows at randon and hits not the Mark it is as if the Minister should lay his Sermon on his Cushion and never dart it into the Peoples Bosoms If People do not feel your Points at their Backs Spears in their Sides and Swords in their Bellies they will feel nothing it will be lost labour You that are People and Hearers may learn 1. To bring your Hearts with you to God's Ordinances How many heartless Sermons have some heard and made Else you bring nothing for God to speak unto and it is no more than if you sent your Clothes stuft with Straw Yea upon the matter you deny his Presence and Office Men that are his Messengers speak unto the Ears and present things from their Lord unto the Eyes of the Body and those parts you leave not at Home for what should we do at Church you will say without our Ears and Eyes But I say What make you there without your Hearts God is there who speaks unto the Heart as Men unto the Ear If that be away it is all one as if you were absent Nay you aggravate your Sin and provoke him more by your heartless presence in preferring Men whom you vouchsafe to hear unto God whom you will not hear but highly dishonour him by offering a dead Carkass in his Temple an unreasonable service in such cold Devotion All such are Abominable they put a Cheat upon God and mock the most High They come full Mouth'd but empty Hearted offer a Case without the Jewel a Gilded Cup and no Wine in it To such God will say Who required these things at your hands thus to tread my Courts My Sons give me your Hearts or you give me nothing As Joseph said to his Brethren concerning Benjamin Gen. 43.3 so God saith of the Heart Ye shall not see my Face without it Bring your Family and Bibles to Church but especially your Hearts which are most out of order and there the Lord will begin his Work Joyn with the Congregation Hand and Heart offer them both to God in earnest Prayer and attentive Hearing wait and say When Lord how long Holy and True Accept what thou callest for and speak one word to my poor Heart among the rest before I go that the Bones which thou hast broken may rejoyce 2. To labour most about the Heart the Heart in the Body and the heart of Religion yea and to prize good Men who by their good Fruits testifie to others the goodness of their Hearts as the good Fruit doth the good Tree because the Lord hath spoken to them No Relick comparable no image can be a more lively remembrancer If David did so admire Man as Man how then ought we to admire and reverence Man as united to Christ shining with his Image adorn'd with his Beams clothed with his Righteousness and entitled to an everlasting Kingdom Many as Beautiful some as rich in Apparel are very powerful to draw and dazzle the Eyes of weak Beholders but for Beauty and Honour none are comparable to gracious Hearts they now partake of Angelical Splendor and hereafter shall exceed the Sun in brightness Acts 6. ult Mat. 13.43 Phil. 3. ult But Who is sufficient for these things sufficiently qualified to set forth to the Life the Beauty and Brightness of Christ mystical He had need of a refined Nature of sublimated Thoughts of a Quill taken from the Wing of a Seraphin and to soar aloft free from the pressure of terrene mixtures in heavenly Contemplation Who can reade or seriously think of this mystery of Mercy without a readier expression of joy mixt with tears than their conceits in words What a Man a sinful Man weltering in Blood full of Sores and Ulcers fitter to be loathed than loved for such a one Poor Blind Miserable and Naked to be married to a Prince such a Prince the Heir of Heaven and Earth Who can believe our report or believing it not love such an one To whom will the Arm of the Lord reveal this but to humbled Souls
the Mount will the Lord be seen FINIS A CANAAN OF COMFORT DISCOVERING That a true sight of Sin is an infallible sign of Grace â—rom that Expression of Holy and Penitent David Psal 51.3 My Sin is ever before me By W. C. London Printed in the Year 1679. A Consolatory Preface to poor Christians dejected under the sense of their Sins GOd's Ministers are commanded by the Voice of that Evangelical Prophet Isaiah to comfort to speak to the Lord's People to comfort Jerusalem and cry unto her that her Warfare is accomplished and that her Iniquity is pardoned In obedience to this Command I have presumed to publish this Word in season for your Benefit in the following plain Discourse and the plainer because such a dress doth best become Divinity Affected terms may please the Fancy but will never feed the Vnderstanding they Court but not Comfort In these Points Experience is more than Reading Both ways all praise be to the Author of Grace you have learn'd how the Lord by degrees allureth and draws Men and Women out of the pleasing Fields of Prodigality into the Wilderness of Spiritual Trouble that he might there speak unto their Hearts and work them to a gracicious Temper wherein afterwards he keeps them partly by presenting Sin to the Eye and Conscience as he did to David Which you must know is not to sink nor drive them to Dispair but to nourish and increase in them an hatred of Sin and a longing love after Christ seeing the one daily to loath it and feeling the want of the other more to desire him It was an excellent Speech of that eminent Martyr Mr. Lambert who lifting up his Hands flaming with Fire as his Heart did with Love and Zeal cried aloud to the People out of the Fire Christ and none but Christ Which I designedly put you in mind of and commend to you whereby to encourage you in your dejected Condition and to propound as a pattern for your Practice For an adequate object of Faith to accept and rest upon as the only Mediator of Justification and Salvation Christ and none but Christ In the exercise of Repentance for a term to which we must trust and by whom we have access to the Father Christ and none but Christ In the duty of Prayer for an Intercessor to give weight and worth unto them Christ and none but Christ For a compleat Saviour both to redeem by Purchase â—nd Conquest in regard of Man's twoâ—old Bondage and to adorn the Soul with Righteousness Christ and none but Christ As Sin is so let Christ be ever â—efore you in his Incarnation Death Resurrection Ascension and Intercessiâ—n In his Natures and Offices in the excellency of his Merit and Efficacy of â—is Spirit in his Beauty and Innocenâ—y in his Power and Pity in his hidden Treasure and Riches unsearchâ—ble believe it there is no such Image â—o look upon no such Picture to pray â—efore as the Promises present in him â—o every believing Eye in your Chamber â—nd at Church Alone and in Company â—n Health and Sickness in Life and Death look upon him love him and say Christ and none but Christ Then may you be assured that God hath brought you the best way out of Egypt into Canaan that he hath spoken unto your Heart indeed and that Christ's Blood is and shall be effectually applied to put Sin both out of Affection and Memory and in due time to cleanse your Nature from the power and being of Sin In a word be of good Courage keep on in your way your Labour will not be in vain in the Lord. Heaven or rather Christ will pay for all If then you would have Sin pardon'd Hardness and Dulness removed Grace bestowed in the Habit Acts or Degrees Doubts answered Weakness strengthened Prayers and Tears with Christ will do it Children of many Tears cannot perish Farewel A Canaan of Comfort DISCOVERING That a true sight of Sin is an infallible sign of Grace Psal 51.3 My Sin is ever before me OF Books the Scripture of Scripture the Psalms of Psalms the Penitentials of Penitentials this hath worthily obtained the place of Eminency Basil Hom. 12 in Psal and for Use and Comfort were it meet to compare things which are in their own nature Superlative of Super-excellency in the Church of God And that justly whether we regard the Author the Occasion the Subject or the End of it The Author was David a King a Prophet a Penitent Sinner every way great great in his Gifts great in his Person and Place and greatly Beloved great in his Fall and great in his Recovery and all to draw transgressing Greatness unto imitation either by Watchfulness to prevent or by Penitency to recover themselves out of Satan's snares The Occasion was his too too-long departure from God in that great and presumptuous Sin against the Lord in the matter of Vriah being at the Leaguer of Rabbah David violated the Chastity of Bathsheba his Wife whosoever dareth the Devil by Idleness shall surely be tempted by him to some forbidden Employment Ocium est principium malè faciendi Basil Hex She conceived he labours to hide it as fast as she by growth did discover it by sending for Vriah home that so he might be deem'd the Father of that Adulterous Issue This not succeeding altho he had added the strength of Wine to his command to make him at once forgetful and inordinate he gives way to another bloody Project For commonly Sin goeth not without company being like the Sea the end of one Wave is the beginning of another or like the Circles in a Pond one begets another And as in a case of Stairs one is a step to another so every Sin is a Stair to help up to higher and worse Sins And that was to send him back with Letters drawn by David s Pen to the General Joab that he might under some Warlike Adventure place him in the way of Death so to free David as he deceitfully thought both from Vriah's presence and his Blood while he was taken out of the way by the Sword of the Children of Ammon Not I but they have done it Which being done David married Bathsheba thinking that way to cloak his Sin and so all was husht and quiet on David's side But the Thunder-clap is yet behind The thing that David had done displeased the Lord. God loved David and therefore hated his Sin and would not suffer it by concealment like a dangerous Sore to fester but sends Nathan to take away the evil that blinded him and to allure him by a borrowed speech into the Wilderness that there he might speak unto his Heart to open what Sin had shut to cleanse what Sin had defiled to soften what Sin had hardened and to bring him to some satisfaction and that by way of publick Confession and as it were to do open Penance in a white Sheet The Subject is an expression of Evangelical Sorrow or the
their Joy and Happiness encreased thereby were this remembred it would prove a comfort to those whose Religious Friends do often end their Days in such distress For by coming so immediately from the sight of such an ugly Objâ—ct to the Intuition and Fruition of such Beauty as is in Christ the Vision is more beatifical To pass from the presence of Sin into the presence of God doth more ravish the Soul with Coelestial Joy God in Christ will excel in Beauty and Glory to that Man's Eye and Apprehension who hath lately seen the sinfulness of Sin As the Sin is never more glorious than when it breaks out of a black Cloud so the Glory of Heaven will certainly be more admirable and lovely to those unto whom Sin hath appeared exceeding sinful Now if it pass unseen these two Days and if it be not presented to be seen and loathed in one of those Hours then it will be presented at the Great-Day which is emphatically called the Day of Discovery 1 Cor. 3.13 in fulness of Horror and inevitable Fury When the Curtain shall be drawn aside and all the secrets of the World discovered and every Man see the actions of his Life as upon a piece of Tapestry spread before his Eyes appearing as so many Thorns and Venemous Beasts and no Mercy to be shewed no Grace to be offer'd when no Petitions will be received nor any Voice heard but Go ye Cursed into everlasting Fire As may be gather'd from divers passages of sacred Scripture viz. Psal 50.21 Matth. 7.22 23 25 41. Hodie hodie poenitentiae locus saith St. Augustin To day there is room for Repentance you must repent now or perish then If the Tap be not now thaw'd it may be frozen for ever Hell vomiteth up our highest desires and will afford no felicities Happy is he whose Sins are ever before him here in a grieved memory they shall never be set before him there if they vex thee now as a loathed burden they shall not torment thee then The Sins which ye have seen to Day ye shall see them again no more for ever Secondly The Grounds whereupon this truth resteth are such as follow viz. 1. That inviolable dependency which all effects and conclusions have upon their own Causes and Principles whence they flow Acts Powers and Habits are unseparable from the Person as they are one from another Every Agent is and shall be attended with its own Works the Dead in the Lord are blessed and their Works follow them The Ox knoweth his Owner and the Ass his Master's Crib Sin lieth at the Sinner's door and will acknowledg no other Master What is once done cannot be undone No Power can recal it from being Only a penitent sight of Sin may hide it from the sight of Justice and Mercy can recal it from being imputed An act contracting Guilt may pass from a Person and yet not redound upon the Person by a supernatural interposition of satisfying Merit Christ must come between and stay his Course or else Sin would not only be set before us but even upon us in full Guilt and Weight and that for ever 2. The nature of the Soul in her retaining Faculties is another Ground whereby she is necessarily enabled by reflexion to recal to see and judg all her own past Actions This is essential and therefore it is that such Power and Impressions do remain inseparated either to punish or chear them by the remembrance of things past To which you may adjoyn the office of Conscience which is to bear witness and accuse or excuse according to Demerit A guilty Conscience we use to say and more say than some are aware of what they say is as a thousand Witnesses It will tell us all that we have done for many Years ago and present us with all the Follies of our Youth This is the Book wherein Men may read their own History and Doom both what they have done and what they have deserved There are two Rules the one is God's Word which pointeth out both Estates and the other is every Man's Conscience which is privy to the frame and standing of his Heart and which of these Estates is his As long then as there is such a Soul with us endowed with such admirable Faculties viz. Understanding Memory and Conscience so long will Sin be before us if we once do evil we shall hear of it ever after till Sanctification be perfect and Grace be crowned with Glory 3. The Order of Divine Justice requiring some proportion between the pleasure taken in Sin and the vexation for it after Beautiful it appeared in coming but ugly and deformed in going sweet it was in the offer and act but bitter in the close like Hony which is very sweet but begets most bitter Choller Or as Claudius his Mushrom which was pleasant but poysonful How much she hath glorified her self and lived deliciously so much torment and sorrow give her Rev. 18.7 As it shall appear hereafter with the Impenitents in Hell suffering by way of Satisfaction so it is here on Earth with Penitents suffering by way of Correction Intention of delight in the act of sinning is justly recompensed with extension of continued Grief It will vex you long because it did affect you much Sin was before you when it should not and now it must be before you when you would not Justice being refused in the first will be heard in the latter Thirdly The Ends of all this wherefore a single Commission is followed with frequent Presentations we may conceive to be such as these 1. To keep the Heart of God's People in a spiritual frame of Self-denial and Humility and that the habitual grace of Repentance may be upheld and more lively in exercise Hereupon I am apt to think that Mr. Fox that industrious preserver of the Honour of many of God's Servants was observed to say That nothing did him more hurt than his Graces nothing more good than his Sins being ever before him His Graces through the prevailing power of Corruption remaining were ready to puff him up and to set him in God's room by self-seeking whilst his Sins kept him down and kept him humble and meek Few know the benefit of this Combat It is one of the best remedies against spiritual Pride and Security to keep the Mind upon Sin and Sin in the Mind Hence that confident speech of renowned Austin I dare be bold to say that it is good for proud Persons to fall into some Sin Vnde sibi displiceant qui jam sibi placendo ceciderunt Salubrius enim Petrus displicuit quando flevit quà m sibi placuit quando presumpsit Aug. de Civit. Dei lib. 14. That they may be humbled as Peter was and so saved 2. To terrifie his Adversaries and so to leave them inexcusable when the full weight of Sin falls upon them If the memory of Sin do so follow them which have repented and are pardoned how will it be
with the Impenitent And what shall be the end of those who obey not the Gospel Cain had his Sin presented in the Morning and Judas in the evening of his Day to assure all Men that they are sure to hear of Sin again either sooner or later 3. It is to admonish all sorts to be Wise and Watchful lest Sin deceive them It cometh masked and goeth away smoothly as if it would never return and say it were so minded indeed yet Justice will recal it and cause it to be unvail'd at such a time when you shall have best leisure to attend it and look upon it As it is with a Serjeant who hath a Warrant to Arrest a Debtor but seeing him in the company of many of his Friends who are to stand up for him passeth by as if he saw him not or meant no such matter against him till after winding about he meets him alone and carrieth him away So it is here Sin hath authority the strength of Sin is the Law to attach every Son of Adam but seeing them in the height of Carnal Content and Jollity Eating Drinking Playing and fearing nothing while they are in such delightful and Sin-pleasing Company nothing is done Sin is not seen Conscience is not discharged all is at rest and quiet till after some time they are found alone withdrawn from their wild Companions into a Sick-bed or before the Judgment-seat of Christ then Sin comes suddenly and irresistably like the Philistines upon Sampson then account must be given of old Scores and every one must bear his own burden there is no way to escape no Bail to be taken 4. We may conceive it is to perfect Mortification and to prevent the dangerous violence of Enemies from without Satan tempteth the World allureth Company entice and bad examples would draw us powerfully after them did not this Image past terrifie and withhold us by continual Alarms Take heed and yield not for your lives remember my Wormwood and my Gall and like the burnt Child dread the fire c. This Sin doth not directly and by it self but accidentally and as it is over-ruled and ordered by an higher Hand occasionally to humble and drive us out of our selves that we may fetch daily more mortifying Virtue from Christ Thus Light is brought out of Darkness and Good extracted out of Evil. The Vse of this Point may be three-fold First To inform the Judgment of two things 1. About the deceitfulness of Sin It cometh at first pleasantly as Judeth to Holophernes dazling his Eyes with the splendor of Visage and charming his Ear with the sweetness of Discourse clad with smiling circumstances of Pleasure Profit and much Content and after it seems to go away presently as if it would never return And may be resembled not unfitly to a certain Serpent that hath a shining Skin and a pleasant smell but is a Serpent still and makes use of both only to ensnare and kill Or to the Indian Beast which hath the Face of a Man and the body of a Lion who counterfeits the sound of Flutes to charm Passengers and then entraps and kills them with a tail of the Scorpion Thus under the smiling brows of Sin may be discovered an hundred snares who strangle while they seem to embrace The cup of Hony will end in Gall even the gall of Asps Job 20.12 13. Of which Pliny writeth that it is their Poison and to this Poison is Sin there compared for when an Asp stingeth a Man it hath a provoking faculty first to make him laugh but then casteth him into a sleep till the Poison by little and little gets to the Heart after which it paineth him more than ever it delighted him so doth Sin It is a bitter sweet Bernard compareth it to the Itch which first yieldeth pleasure and afterwards smart And St. Austin saith Many devour that on Earrh which they must digest in Hell where they shall have Punishment without Pity Misery without Mercy Sorrow without Succour Torments without End Thus as the Ancients that have delighted to make Medals caused the Faces of them to be quite different and contrary on the one side they graved an Achilles on the other they figured a Thersites if on one side an Absolon on the other an Aesop if on one side a Rose on the other an Onion The same may be observed in the Medal of Sin if you look on the one side you shall see a Figure infinitly charming on the other an hideous Fury When therefore thou art making a covenant with Sin say O Man to thy Soul as Boaz said to his Kinsman Ruth 4.4 What time thou buyest it thou must have Ruth with it So if thou wilt have the sweet of Sin thou must have the Curse with it and let thy Soul answer as he doth No I may not do it I shall spoil a better Inheritance Follow Aristotle's advice to look upon Pleasure going and not coming Principium dulce est sed finis amoris amarus Laeta venire Venus tristis abire solet They leave Horror and Terror behind them As the Head of the Polypus which is sweet to the Palat but after causeth troublesome Sleep and frightful Dreams as Plutarch reporteth At present you only see the pleasure not the torment of Sin Look upon Cain and Judas and they will tell thee what a Scorpion it will be in thy side one time or other That with Orphean Ayrs and dextrous Warbles it will lead thee to the flames of Hell 2. About the folly of Man to think otherwise of Sin either that God will forget it or that they shall never see it again Hence it is that there are so many flie and hypocritical Persons in the World that labour to carry all things in the Clouds and dark Contrivances that think to dance in a Net as we say and not be seen and are still very desperate Wretches close Drunkards Cheaters despisers of that which is Good Well let them look to it and remember the words of Moses to the Tribes of Israel Reuben and Gad Numb 32.23 Be sure your Sin will find you out God is Justice and Memory it self he cannot forget nor things as they now stand forgive without satisfaction made and applied Man is the unhappy Parent of Sin and must acknowledg his own issue As sure then as there is an ever-living God above and an everlasting Light within a Man a Soul with retaining Faculties and reflecting Power enobled with that branch of Eternity Immortality so sure will Sin return and the Soul shall see and acknowledg her own Actions either here to begin and continue Evangelical sorrow or hereafter to beget and increase Infernal Horrors and Terrors inexpressible It is great weakness to think otherwise Believe those that have had and given experience of this Truth who have felt the burden of Sin and have been hunted with it from place to place and could find no peace nor rest a long time and all because
it hasteneth when you shall see them all presented at once and shall no way avoid that sight when you will think you see nothing but Fire that you hear nothing but a sudden noise passing the greatest clap of horrid Thunder and shall choose Death rather if it were possible to annihilation than Life with such an object before you As it fell out to that usurping Richard after the horrible Murther committed upon his innocent Nephews he could rest no where he could be no where free a tumultuous army of Thoughts struck an Alarm to his Repose at Bed and Board Day and Night alone and in company he thought he saw and heard them when as in truth it was his Sin that was ever legally before him and his own guilty Conscience that did pursue him And to that Judg Morgan who gave Sentence upon that vertuous and innocent Lady Jane in so much that he grew Mad shortly after and still cried out Take away the Lady Jane from me and in that Horror ended his Days and wretched Life As Mr. Speed relates in the Life of Q. Mary and Mr. Clark in his Life of the Lady Jane And so it will be with you here or hereafter Tell me then is it not better to see them apart now when you may repent and be freed than to put them off unto another Day when you must see them altogether and sink under them without any hope of recovery O consider this all ye that forget God lest he tear you iâ— pieces and there be none to deliver Thirdly The use of this Point may be to instruct the Person in matter of Duty and so like a well drawn Picture looks upon all that look upon it If this be so that Sin once committed will be often presented it prompts all 1. To think thus of Sin When you are tempted remember this Text set before you here or else you will think of it after to your pain It is momentany and frothy that delighteth you in Sin but it is eternal that will vex and torment you To repent is to take a bitter though wholesome Potion and Impenitency is followed with Damnation Say you purpose and do repent yet your Sin will ever be before you either to grieve and terrifie you as it did David or to allure you to the same again as it did Augustin often Especially the sins of Blood corporal Vncleanness Apostacy after knowledg and profession of the Truth These sink Men either under sensless Sottishness or unsupportable Horror Witness Cain for the first David for the second and Francis Spira for the third because they are not only Sins but Scandals David thought he might have cover'd one Sin with another Adultery with Murther but hereby they were both augmented and seen further Not only he himself but all Posterity must know it David did that which was right in the Eyes of the Lord save only in the matter of Uriah That stuck in Memory and shall in History Not because he had never committed other Sins but because none of the rest were so scandalous none so accented none so burdensome to the Conscience as these being against so much Light of Nature of Scripture and of Humane Laws few Repenting none without difficulty and many falling into presumption or despair by them Under the guilt of any of these for the most part Men feel either too much or too little either they keep themselves out of sight always when the Conscience is seared the Heart hardened and Men are past feeling or else they are still present and staring in the face of Conscience as it were with the eyes of many Devils Think of this aforehand and beware 1. Of Apostacy in whole or in part because it is better never to know the way of Righteousness than to sin against Knowledg 2. Of Murther because Men are made after God's Image and such Blood crieth from the Earth till it have hearing So many drops of Blood so many Tongues and every drop a Voice to cry for Vengeance Give them Blood to drink for they are worthy Rev. 16.6 And it is threatned He that sheddeth Man's Blood by Man his Blood shall be shed Gen. 9.6 3. Of Adultery because it brings with it much guilt and great stain upon the Soul Hoc grande flagitium est saith Job 31.11 This is an hainous Crime a Wickedness with a witness a Fire that consumeth to destruction God will judg it who ever be slack to punish it Hear what the Scripture saith of this Sin the hainousness and danger thereof as a motive to avoid it Prov. 22.14 A Whore is a deep Ditch and he that is abhorred of the Lord shall fall therein David moiled himself in this deep Pit and there might have stuck in the Mire had not God drawn him out by a merciful Violence and purged him with Hysop from that abhorred filth Prov. 6.32 33. Who so committeth Adultery with a Woman lacketh understanding he that doth it destroyeth his own Soul A Wound and Dishonour shall he get and his Reproach shall not be wiped away It is not therefore leve peccatum a small Sin as the Pope's Canonists call it Divine Justice doth not use to kill Flies with Beetles Briefly it is a Sin that hurts both Body and Soul it hurts Men in Goods in Name Posterity and will be ever before them to make them mourn and say How have we hated Instruction and our Hearts despised Reproof And have not obeyed the Voice of our Teachers O what length and depth of Comfort doth a Man lose for a little Folly not worth the name of Pleasure because it is brutish and brings many and heavy burdens indeed a stain upon the Soul rottenness into the Bones and a blemish indelible on the Name Who would purchase that at so dear a rate which he may have for nothing Or use Violence where he may have leave and a blessing too Run the way of Hell for that Pleasure which they may enjoy more fully in the right Path and Way of Heaven This Men consider not Had David thought of the end he would never have adventured on the beginning had he thought of ever seeing Sin he would have wished he had never seen Bathsheba or that his Eyes had gone alone and left his Heart at home then they could never have brought their Lord into such a straight Remember David and all his troubles His sweet never countervailed his bitter Sawce Bathsheba was a pleasing Object for a time but Sin is fearful and grievous for ever Lust wrestleth till it bring forth Sin but Sin groweth and laboureth till it bring forth Death And although the Combat be healed and the Wound healed yet some Scars remain A great deal of preventing Sorrow and wholsome Suffering must be undergone reade it in David The Child that was born unto him must die Thamar was defiled Ammon murdred and he himself turned out of House and Kingdom by his own Son It is a bitter
Error though not so common and that is when upon these and the like Grounds Men and Women enough opprest with the thought and burden of their former Sins will â—et be alway poring upon them till at length â—hey are either intangled with delight in them â—r almost overwhelm'd with horror for them There is an excess in this Men may look â—pon their Sins too much as upon Christ too â—ittle See and consider the Consequence â—ereby it cometh to pass that Men's Hearts â—re straightned and bound up from the due praise of God that they walk heavily and bring an evil report upon the Truth as if 〈◊〉 were indeed as desolate and uncomfortable 〈◊〉 way as the Devil and his Servants commonly esteem and declare performing Chriâ—tian Duties constantly with great unchearfulness when as we know the Lord delights in a chearful Servant and threatneth the contrary Because thou servedst not the Lord thy God with joyfulness and gladness of Heart for the abundance of all things therefore shalt thou serve thine Enemies in Hunger Thirst and Nakedness and in want of all things Deut. 28.47 48. Let your Sins be set before you that they may humble and drive you not from God nor from the sight of God's Grace and free Mercy in Christ but more out of your selves toward Christ Endeavour to see your Sins that you may behold also at the same time your safety from them in Christ and let the frequent sight of your Sins be more and more often accompanied with Love than Fear Vse 2. The second Use may be to shew in what case they are whose Sins are never before them The Harp and the Viol the Tabret and Pipe and Wine are in their Feasts they lie upon the Beds of Ivory and stretch themselves on their Couches they eat the Lambs out of the Flock and Calves out of the Stall they chant to the sound of the Viol and drink their Wine in Bowls they anoint themselves with chief Oyntments and cast away Care Riches Pleasure and Honour with all the Gay-branches of Worldly-glory are the pleasing objects of their Eyes They eat drink and are merry driving all Objects from their Minds which may bring the least disgust and afford the Body all Pleasures which may preserve it in a flourishing Health accompanied with Grace vigour and vivacity of Senses but for their Sins they are ever behind them out of sight out of mind but what follows which one day they must hear Thou Fool this night thy Soul shall be taken from thee and then whose shall all these things be Suddenly they are cut down as the Philistines and Belshazzar were and sink into the Infernal Pit in a moment Such I mean to reprove in this Use 1. As continue in any known Sin after discovery or that sufficient means for Detection and Conviction have been afforded 2. As are busied in setting other Men's Sins before them but not their own Only Swine delight to be muzling in Dung and Dogs we know are pleased in licking Sores Flies pass over the sound parts and if there be any raw they light on them Beetles fly over sweet Flowers but creep into Dung Such for condition are those People who are always rubbing on their Neighbour's Sores and searching the Wounds of others whilst their own do bleed to Death Were it not for other Men's sins Sin would seldom be seen or spoken of by such this setteth before him the Sins of that and that the Sins of this Man The Covetous Man setteth before him as odious the Sin of the Drunkard and the Drunkard the Sin of the Covetous Man and both the Sins of a third but neither sets before him his own Sins One thing more which is worse Too many as may be feared esteem a chief part of Religion to find faults abroad and reproving others especially Superiours who are further out of their power to redress than from their Sight and Hearing whereby it cometh to pass that much precious Time is lost and mispent good Conference hindred and Christian Meetings frustrated of their main end I speak not this to shield common Corruptions and National Abominations from just Censure nor to debar Men from manifesting their dislike of that whereby God is dishonoured and Religion hindred provided Men have a Calling thereunto and power with opportunity to do Good 3. Such as cannot endure a sound plain-searching Ministry no more than Ahab could endure Micah Herodias a John Baptist or Festus a Paul Like gaul'd Horses they cannot endure the rubbing of their Sores Such blunt Fellows say they preach all of Righteousness of Temperance and of Judgment to come we cannot have a Dalilah nor an Herodias for them they will set our Sins in order before us as plainly and boldly as ever Nathan did David's or Chrysostom Eudoxia's Luxury and wanton Dancing But this know that if these kind of Men Sound Sober Godly Divines I mean be an Eye-sore to you Sin was never before you as a Burden to you nay it was not so much as once in your sight except as an object obscured from the Sense either by disproportion of Distance or distemperature of the Medium and then upon such a confused glimmering your study and endeavour hath been and is either with Gehazi to deny it or with Achan to hide it from the sight of others or with Adam and Saul to extenuate it or else to be angry with if not to plot Revenge against such as did present it like the Serpent which they say the more he is stirr'd the more he gathers up his Poison to spit at those that move him and so by degrees you labour to forget it And how soon may a Man forget that which he hath neither will nor delight to remember But in the Name of Christ let me entreat all suâ—h to know and consider First How grosly the Devil deludes them whilst for a time he hideth the ugly face of Sin from them either with variety of Presidents or some probability of deluding Promises as of Pleasure Content and Secrecy when as indeed there ever followeth abundance of bitter Discontent and an impossibility of Concealment As he did of old so he doth still he shews the Honey but hides the Gall offers the Rose but covers the Pin in it The Devil deals with Sinners as deceitful Tradesmen who shew their Chapmen the better part of the Cloth and conceal the worst as the Panther deals with Beasts who hides his deformed Head till his sweet scent hath drawn them into his danger Till Men have sinned Satan is a Parasite when they have sinned he is found a Tyrant Like a treacherous Host though he welcome us into the Inn with a smiling Countenance yet he 'l cut our Throats in the Bed Secondly How far they are yet from the truth of Grace that were never troubled with any sight of Sin or sense of it Sorrow through fear is a preparative for Grace St. Austin compares it to the Needle that
draweth in the Thred it is sometimes introductory by the blessing of God of a more excellent Way Sorrow for Sin through Love is a consequent of Grace Strangers to both are strangers to Grace They are yet in their Sins Thirdly What an heavy Judgment this dead and benummed Conscience is it never seeth Sin never grieves for Sin never prizeth Christ but goeth on in Sin day after day without feeling weight or fearing smart A wild Beast while asleep seems very tame and gentle but when awaked it begins to shew it self by flying at the Face Your Consciences are now asleep but God will one day awake them when they will never again afford you one day or hour of rest Though for a while you live in Mirth swim in the sweet waters of Pleasures and having despised the Immortal Manna lay out all your care to stuff your Intrails with corruptible Meats and Conscience letteth you alone Though you Feast to day like Nabal and make your selves glad yet there is an Abigail a Conscience which to Morrow will tell you of it and then your Hearts will die within you and be like Stones as cold and as heavy as a Stone within you This O Sinner like a Snake shall hiss in thy Bosom and bray thee like a Fool in a Morter as it were with a Pestel and beat and distress thee for ever This is the Moth that getteth into the Cloth and eateth it When thou with rebukes do'st correct Man for Iniquity thou makest his Beauty to consume away like as when a Moth fretteth a Garment Psal 39.11 This will make thy Face gather blackness and thy Spirit be overwhelm'd for evermore This is unavoidable to all that live and continue in Sin without a sight and trouble for it Fourthly That the Lord will one day set all their Sins in order before them in their proper Colours both for number and nature Sins of Infancy Youth and riper Years Sins of commission and careless omission especially presumptuous Sins and those of positive Infidelity Impenitency unthankfulness for Christ and unfruitfulness under the Means all these will come upon them all together crying out that all the World shall hear and know we are yours and you must own us when there will be neither way to escape nor time to plead Whoso is wise will consider these things and he shall understand to conclude it far better to see Sin now than hereafter now while it may be pardoned rather than hereafter when it must be punished Vse 3. Thirdly What Comfort and Encouragement may this Discourse afford to all in David's Case They have sinned grievously and their Sins are ever before them now not so much out of Fear as out of Love not by constraint but willingly They may be assured and ought to be perswaded of their being in a state of Grace although many of them cannot quiet their Hearts to believe it Their manner is to frequent solitary Places to be alone to meditate of the Lord's Holiness and Goodness ever and anon reflecting with detestation upon their own actual Sins and habitual Uncleanness then they complain sigh and cry as if there were no hope of safety for them What say they can such as we be pardoned and saved We that have committed such Sins abused such Mercies and trampled under feet such great Salvation We that have such hard Hearts impure Natures Eyes full of Adultery every object yielding fewel to this Fire and are daily followed with the memory of so many Sins Whose thoughts by Day and dreams by Night are sufficient evidences of a cursed disposition That can do nothing but Sin Day nor Night O heavy Case O wretched Condition Who shall deliver Or who can persuade us that it is possible c. When indeed this sight of Sin and trouble for it is one ground of Hope a mark of Grace and a fruit of God's Love Come therefore let us reason together say the worst against your selves for so I know you will let all out say you see your Sins for Number innumerable for Nature heinous and crying and for Weight insupportable even to corporal Weakness to Paleness and Fainting accompanied with strange Fears and Consumptions of the Body this is possible say you feel the burden of unclean Hearts and Eyes usually they go together daily and hourly that you cannot think without Sinning nor look without Lusting in sudden motions arising from every Creature any way capable of such a Passion no nor sleep without filthy Dreams symptomes of an impure Heart Say you are ready to sink every moment under fear of Despair or Apostacy by reason of the multitude and pressing constancy of all the former Was not David a Man after God's own Heart was not penitent David thus affected pursued and troubled after his Pardon was obtained and assured to him His Sin was ever before him and yet he was then in a state of Grace Be not discouraged only be careful to tread in his Steps and you shall find his Success Quest How may we know whether we see our Sins savingly as David did or no Answ By divers Marks it may be discerned as First If you see Sin in it self as it is Sin and as abstracted from Concomitants viz. Shame and Pain If you loath it and your selves for it because it is so opposite to the holy and pure Nature of God and if the bent of your affection be against it as the greatest evil that you desire freedom from Sin above all other Boons if you be weary of it to fear and hate it more than the Devil desiring it may be apprehended and killed at every Sermon you hear resolving howsoever to leave all whatever come If it be thus with you in some good measure it is a good sign you see Sin aright Secondly If you see Sin so as that for it you cannot see to remember any of your weak performances of holy Duties since your Conversion This one thing I do forgetting those things which are behind and reaching forth to those things which are before I press to the Mark saith blessed Paul David fasted and prayed sacrificed and sung Psalms stood up for the Church and relieved the Poor c. But none of these are now thought on to be mentioned his Sin only is ever before him Our best Works in a state of Grace are so far from meriting that sometimes they will not come in to yield a Man any comfort in this Case they are full of failings impure and imperfect There are more threds of Copper than of Gold in the best Web we weave Our very Righteousness is as a silthy Garment While Sin comes in full and perfect and so weighs down the Scale that our good Deeds are not in memory when Sin is before us If it be so with you it is another good sign Thirdly If Sin be heavy to you all other Crosses and Troubles are light in comparison and more easily born David was grievously afflicted by
the rebellion of Absolon and the death of Ammon with the occasion thereof yet it is not said that these were before him he was comforted concerning them but his Sin was ever before him All the Sufferings and Evils in the World could not so much affect him St. Paul went through many Tribulations endured great Sufferings as may be read 2 Cor. 11.23 24. at large yet all these Scourges Prisons and Persecutions went not so near his Heart as Sin even the presence though not the power of Sin Though he suffered much yet we reade not that ever he cried Oh! for all and yet he doth for Sin O wretched Man that I am who shall deliver me from this body of Sin And we reade of Chrysostom when he was threatned Banishment by Eudoxia said Go tell her Nil nisi peccatum timeo I fear nothing but Sin To such a one there is more evil in a drop of Corruption than in a sea of Affliction Say then are all your Burdens nothing to the burden of Sin It is a good sign Fourthly If you can think somewhat comfortably of Death and be content and desirous to Die chiefly for this end to be freed from Sin with those combats and destractions in Duty following it That this ever may be turned into never that Christ might be as Sin is now ever before you It is a very good sign and blessed are they which are in this condition They may be assured in the Name of Christ Jesus and by the Authority committed to his Ministers to absolve and heal Sin-sick-souls that all their Sins are done away by Faith in the Blood of Christ they shall not die He that caused your Sins to be set before your Face hath cast them behind his own Back When Israel see their own Sins the Lord seeth no Sin in Israel When the Church complains that she is Black the Lord proclaimeth her the fairest among Women Thus would I comfort all those who are in this Condition that I my self might partake with them in their Consolation It is my judgment all the Promises belong to them and they ought to apply them So that they may say with the Apostle It is good to be here and build Tabernacles to shield us from the roaring Lion and our own Fears pursuing us Vse 3. To close up all in the last place by way of Instruction From what hath been said you may learn some Duties most needful to be practised by you viz. First To draw back Sin which else will keep out of sight and memory till the day of Death or Judgment as Joab did Abner to kill him even all your Sins for the kinds of them spare none from the first that was imputed to the last that was committed by you and set them in order before you either by your Memory or the help of a Note-book so far forth as God shall enable you particularly to recall and give them their Deaths-wound by the application of Christ's Death It is conceived Job did so when he said He could not answer for one of a thousand It is manifest in David and reported of that holy Martyr Mr. Bradford that he kept a Diarie or a Debt-book of Receipts and Expences between God and his own Soul It is a course full of Comfort and Profit Hereby it will come to pass that when a Man draweth nigh to his Journeys-end he shall have nothing to do but to give good Counsel to pray and die Now that you may so do know this to be one main difference between Nature and Grace the one seeth Sin ever the other seeth it never or to no purpose Nature is ever boasting of Innocency of good Deeds and of good assurance of Salvation without any doubting O God I thank thee I am not as other Men are Extortioners Vnjust Adulterers or as this Publican I fast twice a Week c. Luke 18.11 Non vulnera sed munera ostendit He shews not his Want but his Worth While Grace most complains of Sin of defects and imperfections in the best Duties Even the Righteousness of gracious Souls appears in their sight like the Moon full of spots A penitent Publican dares not lift up his Eyes towards Heaven but beats his Breast and crys O God be merciful to me a Sinner even the chief of Sinners Though he is high in his Priviledges yet how low is he in his Affections Lord I am Hell thou art Heaven said that holy Man Secondly Be thankful for this sight of Sin and testifie this your thankfulness by a timely use of the Means to finish what is begun Means I say of Inspection Meditation and Prayer Of Inspection into the Glass of the Law This is that Light which discovers those Corruptions which lie unknown in the darkness of Ignorance and makes them appear in their due shape and proportion That which seemed but as a Mote will now be judged as a Mountain and that to be Sin which before look'd as Righteousness Hereby you will see much to bemoan to confess and be ashamed of nothing to boast and glory in Of Meditation after every Exercise and therein be frequent and constant Reading and Hearing without Meditation is like weak Physick which will not work It is not taking in of Food but the Stomach concocting it which makes it turn into Blood and Spirits so it is not the taking in of any Truth at the Ear but the meditating it which is the concoction thereof in the Mind makes it nourish Be frequent in Meditation Press your Conscience with Particulars saying with deep Sorrow These are my Oaths my Carnal Sports and unlawful Pastimes which now terrifie more than ever they delighted me This is my Luxury my Pride and Impurity This is my Blindness and Hardness Hypocrisy and Sacrilegious Vain-glory which is so much struck at from Press and Pulpit I am the Man and my sins are ever before me Unto this effect let your Meditation be raised and continued And lastly Use the exercise of frequent and fervent Prayer in private to your offended God that he would not only put away your Sins but also wash you throughly and restore you the joy of his Salvation Be instant and the Lord will not deny You shall reap if you faint not Thirdly Your duty is to set the Mediator always before you at the same time To see Sin without Christ will drive you to despair and to see Christ without Sin may cast you upon Presumption or at least occasion you to undervalue Christ and not prize him so highly as he deserves Labour to see both together Set Sin on one hand and Christ on the other as a King a Priest and a Prophet as a King to rule you as a Prophet to teach and as a Priest to sacrifice and satisfie for you and all yours under Covenant Then by an appropriating Act of Faith receive and apply all his Doctrine to inform you his Government to subdue and bring you unto Self
tell him what he should do And those of whom mention is made Acts 2.37.16.30 with many other such of our own observation were brought into great distress through fear and desire fear of Sin desire of God's Love and Favour not able to resist any where Men and Brethren what shall we do Comforts they refuse Threatnings they apply with hand and heart witty and ready they are to hurt themselves as if their vital and animal Spirits were stopp'd in their Passage by some Disease they are often near sinking such affinity and agreement there is between the Mind and the Body Observe such troubled Spirits you may to look heavily sigh deeply as if the Heart would break and at last to cry out Wo and alas if this and that be so as I fear it is and do believe how can I be saved If the spots of a Leopard can be wiped out if the hue of an Indian can be changed if a Camel can go through the eye of a Needle then may I be cleansed renewed and saved But Lord how can that be is there any Balm any Blood any Mercy for such an one as I Tell me O my Friends speak thou Man of God was there ever such an one read or heard of a presumptuous Sinner a beastly Wretch a close Lover of Wickedness an Hater of Holiness To look upon I am afraid of my self what shall I do whither shall I fly say do not you loath me and blush to behold and hear me was there ever such an one as I accepted This is that narrow Way that leads many to Life that great Strait whereinto the right dearly beloved of the Lord are often brought to learn how that is possible to God which is impossible with Men. As the Woman by God's appointment is to bring forth in pangs and travail so must the Heart of Man ordinarily labour till Christ be formed in it 2. How and after what manner doth the Lord effect this It is either by removing Impediments or by presenting to the Eye of the Conscience 1. The many deceitful Grounds there are whereon Men naturally rest and boast of as if their Estate at worst were well enough And till these deceitful Props be removed they will not in earnest seek after Christ much less accept him to rest upon him These the Lord removes by shewing unto Men their weakness and insufficiency to yeeld them any comfort And they are either inward or outward Inward as Knowledg without Love Invention without Judgment and a Memory without any practical delight in the Notions retained all which a Man may have and yet be no better than a Devil the sufficiency of Baptismal Regeneration without any care or thought to perform Conditions These being without the power of Godliness are only as a dead Corps strewed and adorned with Flowers as a gouty Foot covered with a Crimson Shoo or a Statue of Earth and Dirt with some glorious colouring and old Sepulchers with new painting over them The Lord convinceth them that this Ark is not sure enough to keep them in the deluge of many Waters yea that all things without Grace will prove an Aggravation of their Condemnation As in some Countries when their Malefactorâ— were to be burn'd in the Fire they poured Oil and Pitch to encrease their Torments so will every Privilege make Hell the hotter for such as these In the day when the fiery Trial shall be all their painting will melt away Outward as Riches Honour Health Learning meer Civility and Formality all commendable in their kind but not sufficient These Men may have and yet come short of Grace and Life in Glory Few rich Men shall be saved 1 Cor. 1.26 Corpulent Birds seldom fly high These many things cumber them And If your Righteousness exceed not the Righteousness of the Scribes and Pharisees you cannot enter into the Kingdom of God The best of these are but Weeds in God's Garden Tares in his Wheat Chaff in his Floor Therefore the Lord doth wisely and timely remove these Impediments 2. He presenteth Sin and the Consequents thereof in their true Colours pulleth off the Skin of that Viper washes off the paint and shews its Face in full deformity And this he doth ordinarily four ways viz. 1. By corporal Calamities and temporal Rods occasionally opening that Eye which Prosperity and Security had fast closed As in Joseph's Brethren and the Prodigal Son we have an Instance The former Gen. 42.21 declare the force of Conscience and fruit of Affliction Old Sins are brought to a new reckoning We are very guilty concerning our Brother in that we saw the Anguish of his Soul when he besought us and we would not hear therefore is this Evil come upon us The latter came to himself when he was under want his Affliction like Eye-bright Water had a strange and great Influence on his bedulled Sight now he resolves to go to his Father Yea many now living can say I doubt not It is good for them that they have been afflicted They had been undone had they not been undone that they might go weeping towards Heaven while others go laughing towards Hell Poverty may be so ordered as to prove a Preparative to Spiritual Riches Imprisonment antecedent to Evangelical Liberty Sickness and weakness of Body often tendeth to the strength and health of the Inner Man This brings to mind that Story in Bromiardus concerning an Apprentice that had served an hard Master by whom he had been sore beaten These Blows the Lord had made a means of the Man's Conversion Whereupon lying on his Death-bed and his Master standing by he catched hold fast on his hands and kissed them saying Hae manus perduxerunt me ad Paradisum These hands have helped to bring me to Paradise And Beza tells us of himself that God was pleased to lay the Foundation of his Spiritual Health in a violent Sickness which befell him at Paris Morbus iste verae Sanitatis principium Ep. praefix Confess What is it that God cannot make the Channel to bring in the Ship the Cistern-pipes to convey the Water whose Spring is in Heaven Ezekiel's Wheels shall move if the Spirit drive them and the Pool of Bethesda communicate Health if the Angel descend and stir the Waters Blessed is the Man whom thou correctest and teachest 2. By Spiritual Combats raised by the Spirit of Bondage between Fear and Desire Hope and Distrust continued and encreased by the unregenerate Will going one way and the Light of natural Conscience going another way so that their very Constitution is in discord there is no more agreement than between Fire and Water by reason of which the Soul is brought into great Anguish much Fear because of Sin and the great Danger it apprehends as the Consequents of both these Conflicts being like the Opposition of Planets in the Superiour Orb fore-runners of great Evils 3. Usually it is by the Ministry of the Law that School-master whose Lash makes Sinners Backs