attend upon him at all 〈◊〉 Say not then out of the shortness of thy spirit I have come often begged much and 〈◊〉 long at the gate of grace I find not the work yet done my heart not yet throughly humbled for my 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 refreshed with the assurance of Gods Favor Shall I wait any longer Oh fearful Pride Is it come to this If you be in such haste you may go to Hell time enough What not wait See who will have the worst of it God can better keep his Compassions than thou canst want them And as its fit he should so its certain he will make thee to know thou must wait nay bless his Name that you may wait for his mercy The 〈◊〉 of all men that 〈◊〉 breathed have done it So David Min eyes fail with looking for thy Salvation saying O when wilt thou comfort 〈◊〉 Psal. 119. 82. 123 It s enough we may beg the Grace of God as a 〈◊〉 not command it as a Debt Labor we then to 〈◊〉 and 〈◊〉 those proud and impatient distemper whereby we repine and quarrel at the 〈◊〉 on of Gods dealings with us if he answers 〈◊〉 Expectation to the full Others seek and the 〈◊〉 hath bestowed and they have received a great 〈◊〉 sure of Grace with little labor and in a short 〈◊〉 When we have labored long and 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 and yet the Lord answers not our 〈◊〉 nor 〈◊〉 us that Spiritual Good we need Learn we now 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 and controul those boystrous 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Spirits with that of the Apostle Who art 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 that reasonest against God What if 〈◊〉 will not Rom. 9. 20 21 22. What if he will 〈◊〉 ver 〈◊〉 our hearts never pacifie our Conscience pardon our sins save our Souls It is 〈◊〉 his 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 he may do what he will and therefore he doth us no wrong what ever he does Fit then it is we should stay his times who hath all times especially of Grace and Life in his own hands While this life lasts and the Gospel is continued that is the particular Season and Period wherein the Lord expresseth his good pleasure to work graciously upon the 〈◊〉 of His. The time of Grace and day of Salvation is here discovered in the Two Periods of it which make up the parts of the Doctrine 1 Grace is only to be gained in this life 2 While the means of Salvation are continued that 's the Season which the Lord usually takes to work upon the Souls of those 〈◊〉 belong to him we shall severally open and prove both 〈◊〉 and after make joynt Application of them Preparation and Conversion of the Soul must be made in this life Seek ye the Lord while he may be found Isaiah 55. 6. The time of our living is one of Gods whiles the time of finding Grace and Mercy if ever we come to share therein The 〈◊〉 of Jacobs Ladder is here on Earth though the top of 〈◊〉 unto Heaven The Lord must dwell with 〈◊〉 here in an humble and contrite heart Isaiah 57. 15. 〈◊〉 else we shall never dwell with him in that high and holy place whither Christ is gone to prepare a mansion for us Now is the time of 〈◊〉 and gaining Grace in the other world we shall enjoy the fruit and sweet of it here we must get the conquest if we think to wear the Crown in another world Reasons are Two Because after the parting of the Soul from the body and the dissolution of the whole Gods peremptory Sentence is passed and the final doom of the Soul is determined a Sentence never to be revoked a judgement never to be repealed and therefore the sinner becomes irrevokably either miserable or happy Heb. 9. 27. It is appointed for all men once to die and after death comes judgement Death and Judgement are coupled immediately one to another the end of the one is the entrance of the other as Death leaves us so Judgement will find us Though the full and compleate execution of the Sentence is deferred until the great day of accounts yet condemnation seizeth upon each part as soon as they be severed the one from the other if they do deserve The body is imprisoned in the dungeon of the grave and the Soul of him 〈◊〉 is wicked is taken instantly and dragged by the Devils into torment Luke 12. 20. This night shall they fetch away 〈◊〉 Soul With the Saints contrariwise Their bodies are laid in the Grave as in a bed of Down perfumed with the precious Death and Burial of the Body of Christ the ashes thereof carefully preserved yea loved by the Lord So the Apostle Rom. 8. last I am perswaded that neither life nor death is able to separate us from the love of God in Christ Jesus So that the Lord loves the very dust of the bodies of his Saints in the Grave and receives their Souls to himself in glory as soon as Body and Soul are parted one from another Luke 16. 22. The Soul of Lazarus was by the Angels carried into Abrahams bosome For at the great day of accounts we must all appear before the judgement seat of Christ that every one may receive the things done in his body according to that he hath done whether good or 〈◊〉 2 Cor. 5. 10. The Sentence we see shall not 〈◊〉 according to that men do in Purgatoty as the Papists dream but according to that only which they did while they had Being and Breathing in this Natural life The Condition of a man after this life is 〈◊〉 For as the Godly after this life ended receive perfect Sanctification and so become wholly 〈◊〉 of the Spirit of God and thereby fully and unchangeably confirmed in the state of Glory never more to be pestered or annoyed with the presence of Sin or Misery Rom. 8. 23. Here in this world we 〈◊〉 but the first fruits of the Spirit but there 〈◊〉 then the full Harvest So contrarily the Wicked after Death are 〈◊〉 delivered up to the tyranny and authority os 〈◊〉 Corruptions and there settled and that 〈◊〉 in a state of rebellion and become utterly 〈◊〉 of receiving any spiritual Grace or 〈◊〉 any spiritual Good but sink down in 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 without hope of either For those 〈◊〉 Graces whereby the Lord in the time of life 〈◊〉 their distempers and those outward 〈◊〉 Word and Sacraments wholsome Laws and 〈◊〉 Counsels and Examples which formerly 〈◊〉 them from many notorious outrages are now 〈◊〉 away Now the Lord plucks up the Hedge 〈◊〉 pulls down the VVall takes away all the 〈◊〉 Gifts of his Grace vouchsafes not one 〈◊〉 of his Spirit to strive with the Sinner any more 〈◊〉 one check of Conscience to aw him not the least 〈◊〉 of any Good to affect him any more 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 the reins in the neck of the Rebel and 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 loose upon him to execute the fulness of the fierceness of his malice to the uttermost 〈◊〉 his rage was consined before he could
approbation of Satan but by Compulsion For do but weigh a little what manner of Construction in a common apprehension can be made of a Morral Perswasion in this Case Namely The Lord Christ casts in so many Convicting Arguments into the mind of Satan and stirs up that malice and envie that is within him that he doth perswade Satan to destroy his own malice and envie yea perswades him to lay down his power and to make choice and desire that the Spirit of Christ should exercise power in the Soul He Conquers him only by perswading of him to yeild willing subjection to the power of Christ which is indeed to make Satan a Saint and the Devil not to be the Prince of darkness The Power and Rule of Satan cannot be Destroyed without violence but in this work Satan his power is destroyed and himself bound and Conquered therefore it s done by Violence Fifthly Now we are to enquire How the plucking of the Soul from Sin and Drawing unto Christ is accomplished by this holy Violence To which I Answer 1 Generally 2 Particularly 1 Generally thus All that hold that Sin Satan had of the Soul and al that authority they exercised in it is now removed and the bent and set of the heart is now under the hand of the Spirit of God The Lord comes now to manifest his claim and to make good and challenge the right he hath unto the soul through his Christ whom he hath appointed to bring his unto himself This is his good pleasure for the execution whereof he hath sent the Lord Jesus Isa. 49. 45. Therefore he is said to be formed from the womb to be a servant unto God the Father to restore the preserved of Israel and to be the salvation of God to the ends of the earth Hence that of our Savior Christ Joh. 10. 16. Other sheep I have there 's the ground those I must bring and they shall hear my voice they are mine I have died for them sin and Satan shal not keep them shal not hold them hands off sin hands off Satan I must Humble them and Call them and Justifie them and 〈◊〉 them and Save them for ever And therefore the Lord was typed out in the Parable of the Owner that left Ninty and nine to seek the lost sheep Luke 15. 4 5. And when it could not seek its own good or Christ or find either the Lord sought it up and found it and brought it home upon his shoulder 2 ' More Particularly The accomplishment of this Work Discovers it self in Four Particulars The Lord calls in that Commission which formerly he put into the hands of Satan to lay hold of the heart of a sinner as a Malefactor attached of high Treason committed against God and Heaven and therefore it was he sent him with his Mittimus as the Justice doth the Fellon into the Custody and keeping of Satan that since he would not be ruled by the Law of Liberty and Life he should be made a slave unto sin and subject to death and that for ever to be kept in the Chains of darkness until the day of 〈◊〉 great Goal Delivery and the Declaration of the fierce wrath of God and this Durante bene placito during the pleasure of the Lord or until ye shal understand his Majesties pleasure to the 〈◊〉 For still you must remember That as in Courts and Course of Justice amongst men upon earth it is so in the Court of Heaven and the Proceedings of the Almighty the Malefactor is the Kngs prisoner The Jaylor is but the Keeper or under Officer betrusted with the Execution of Justice the Lord is the sole Commander of mens souls and of life and death unto which they are liable by reason of their sins This being the Commission the Lord put into the hands of Satan and sin for the present unless any Express appear to the contrary He is now pleased to signifie to the Prince of Darkness and to the Power of Hell and to those Damned Spirits by the Ministery of the Word in the mouths of his Servants and by the Hand and Almighty Operation of his Spirit Be it known 〈◊〉 you you Principalities of 〈◊〉 and spiritual wickednesses that take possession of and rule in the hearts of the Children of disobedience that upon the first hearing of this holy Word and Message dispensed by my faithful Servant as a warrant under my hand that it is my Royal Wil and Command That you forthwith let loose that poor 〈◊〉 who hath been long prisoner in the chains of Darkness For my Justice is fully answered and satisfaction fully accepted Fail not at your 〈◊〉 under 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 displeasure of the Almighty Dated at the Court of Mercy before all worlds published this present day and instant according to the counsel of mine own Will This puts the powers of Darkness the Devils and his Angels to deep Consultation what to do they see they have no warrant now to hold the sinner any longer and yet they have no wil to let him go They are 〈◊〉 loth to part with him and yet their power is gone whereby they have hitherto kept him For the strength of 〈◊〉 is the law 1 Cor. 15. 56. And this is to take away the Devils Armour Luke 11. 22. When Justice will deliver the sinner Satan hath no power to hold him As our Savior said to Pilate when 〈◊〉 said I have power to bind thee or to loose thee our Savior 〈◊〉 Thou hadst no power 〈◊〉 was given thee from above John 19. 11. So Satan hath no power but what is given from above according to the Edict of Gods revenging Justice and their just deservings Therefore now God the Father through the perfect Death and satisfaction 〈◊〉 the Lord Jesus hath yeilded the Edict of 〈◊〉 is 〈◊〉 and therefore the Devils cannot 〈◊〉 As it was said touching our Savior when he was in 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 was impossible he should be 〈◊〉 2 Acts 24. 〈◊〉 Gods Justice was answered to here When the Devils power is now gone and that Justice hath signified her pleasure That the Prisoner must be set loose they then begin to pretend the right they have and the claim they can make yet unto the Sinner Therefore Sin and 〈◊〉 seem 〈◊〉 plead their own Cause in way of Justice and that which cannot be gain-said as that the souls of such 〈◊〉 Creatures do appertain to them for besides saies Satan the Statute Law The soul that sins that soul must die The Evidence is cleer from their practice and experience Whether these be the seed of the Serpent because they express the nature of the serpent in their actions Is it not written John 8 44. You are of your Father the Devil for the lusts of your Father you will do These are they whose hearts if they were discerned whose carriages if they were traced and taken notice of would give in Evidence that the 〈◊〉 of the Serpent was in the one
his Heart to do Farewel Thomas Goodwin Philip Nye COLE 1216. The Application of Redemption by the effectual work of the Word and Spirit of Christ for the bringing home of lost Sinners to God The Ninth Book ISAIAH 57. 15. Thus saith He that is the High and the Lofty One that inhabiteth Eternity whose Name is Holy I dwell in the High and the Holy place with him also that is of a contrite and humble Spirit THe Work of Preparation having Two Parts First The Lords manner of Dispensation as he is pleased to deal with the Soul for the setting up the praise of his Rich and Glorious Grace and therefore with a holy kind of Violence he plucks the 〈◊〉 from his sins unto himself and his Christ. This hath been dispatched already in the former Discourse The Second now follows And that is the Frame and Disposition which is wrought in the Hearts of such as the Lord hath purposed to save and to whom he hath dispensed himself in that gracious Work of his Contrition Humiliation This Disposition consists especially in Two Things That so I may follow the Phrase of Scripture and retain the Lords own Words in the Text where the Lord saith that he dwels with him that is of an humble and contrite Heart To omit al manner of Coherence and other Circumstances we will pass all the other Specials in the Verse and point at that Particular which will suit our proceeding and may afford ground to the following Discourse that we may go no further than we see the Pillar of Fire the Lord in his Truth to go before us We shal fasten then upon the last words only as those that fit our Intendment To make way for our selves in short there is one word alone to be opened that so the Point may be better fitted for our Application we must know what it is to dwel or how God is said 〈◊〉 dwell in a contrite and humble heart I Answer To Dwell implies Three Things First That the Lord owns such as those in whom he hath an especial interest and claims a special propriety as though he left all the rest of man-kind to lie wast as a Common that the World and the Devil and Sin may 〈◊〉 and use at their pleasure reserving the Honor of his Justice which by a strong hand he will exact as a Tribute due to himself out of all things in Heaven and Earth and Hell and all but persons whom he thus fits he reserves for his own special Improvement As Princes and Persons of place and quality do lease out and let some Forrests and Commons to the Inhabitants bordering thereabout reserving some acknowledgment of Fealty and Royalty to themselves but the choyce and best Pallaces or Granges of greatest worth and profit they reserve for their own peculiar to inhabit in So here the Lord leaseth out the World and the wicked in it to the Devil and his Angels and Instruments reserving a Royalty and Prerogative to himself as that he will have his Homage and Acknowledgment of dependance upon himself but his broken-hearted ones are his own for his own Improvement Deut. 32. 8 9. When the most High divided to the Nations their Inheritance and separated the sons of Adam he set the bounds of his People according to the number of the Children of Israel for the Lords Portion is his People Israel the Lot of his Inheritance Ye are the Temple of the Living God 2 Cor. 6. 16. Yea to them the Lord himself saies Ye are my People and they shall say thou art my God Zach. 13. last Therefore he professeth that though in the course of his Providence he goes on progress over all the world yet he takes up his dwelling and abode amongst his own People For Secondly Where a man dwels as he owns the house so he takes up his abode there it is the place of his residence we say any may know where to seek men or where to find them at home at their own house That 's the difference between Inning and Dwelling we Inn at a place in our passing by when we take repast only and bait but depart presently intending not to stay but where we dwel we settle our abode we take up our stand there and stir no further So the Lord is said then to dwel in the Soul when he vouchsafes the constant expression of his peculiar presence and assistance to the soul. True it is that the Lord fills Heaven and Earth with his presence yea the Heaven of Heavens is not able to contain him Jer. 23. 24. His infinite Being is every where and one and the same every where in regard of himself because his being is most simple and not subject to any shadow of change being all one with himself Yet he is said to take up his abode in a special manner when he doth put forth the peculiar expression of his Work as in Heaven he dwels because he puts forth the constant expression of his Glory and that in the full brightness of it without any alteration and change Here in this Spiritual Temple the Souls of his Saints he puts forth the peculiar expression of the constant assistance of his blessed Spirit I will pray the Father and he shall send you another Comforter who shall abide with you for ever John 14. 16. 1 Joh. 2. 23. Ye have received an anointing which abideth in you Dwelling if it be attributed to the chiefest Inhabitant and Owner of the House it implies also the ruling and ordering of the occasions that come under hand there the exercising of the Government of the house and family where the Owner is and dwels He that lodgeth at a House as a stranger comes to an Inn as a Passenger he takes what he finds hath what he can receive of kindness and courtesie but the Owner is the Commander of the House where he dwels and the orderer of all the Affairs that appertain thereunto So doth the Lord with a broken Heart Thus we are said to live in the Spirit and to walk in the Spirit Gal. 5. 25. And it 's that which follows by Inference upon this ground John 15. 4. 5. If I abide in you and you abide in me you shal bring forth much fruit and therefore it s added also in this place that the Lord dwels in the contrite and humble heart to receive the Spirit of the contrite ones they yeeld themselves to be acted by him and they shall be acted and quickened by him to Eternal Life So that the full meaning is The contrite and humble heart is such to whom the Lord vouchsafes acceptance special presence and abode and peculiar guidance he owns him abides with him and rules in him for ever True it is said Christ dwels in our Hearts by Faith Eph. 3. 17. and as many as beleeve in him they receive him John 1. 12. That is done as by the next and immediate hand by which we say hold on Christ and
for help and recovery and to expect to receive it from the hand of the Lord. That Disease is not past Remedy which hath been cured nor the Condition past hope that hath been recovered As bad and vile as thou have been humbled and broken-hearted and why not thou saved Turn but thy thoughts aside and attend the Text and trust thine own eyes behold look here upon the most loathsom Hell-hounds that 〈◊〉 the Sun saw or the Earth bore listen and hear these hideous blasphemies they belch out against the Son of God they cried away with him away with him not him but Barrabas they chuse a Murderer rather than a Savior behold their butcherly hands imbrued in the blood of Jesus some goaring his side others nailing his feet piercing his pure and holy hands and that they might be bloody Creatures indeed they do not only shed his blood but they keep his blood upon Record for their Condemnation say they His Blood be upon us and upon our Seed That which they have done and desired for their own ruine is it not just but they should have it dost not thou wonder that the Earth did not open and swallow them that the Lord did not thunder from Heaven and immediately destroy them or that he sent not Legions of Devils to drag those wretches souls out of their Bodies to send them packing to the pit And yet stay but a little and see what God hath done in the midst of all this hellish wickedness look a little further they who took away the life of Christ he is now taking away their 〈◊〉 and guilt from them they crucified him and he is now crucifying their cursed corruptions they pierced his tender body to put an end to his daies he is now piercing their souls with Godly sorrow to put an end to their sins and 〈◊〉 Come hither therefore all you poor desolate undone Creatures You whose sins are written with a pen of Iron and graven with the point of a Diamond they stand upon record in every coast and corner you stout-hearted rebellious sinners the Seats of the Place where you sit the Stones in the Street where you walk the Walls of the Houses where you dwel the Decks of the Ships where you have sailed and the Shoars where you have Landed and the Wildernesses where you have travelled they can bear witness against you of the contempt of Gods Truth the neglect of his Ordinances unprofitableness under all you slight all Counsels and Admonitions you are amongst the number of them that are laden with lusts ever learning but never coming to the knowledg of the Truth So that the floods of iniquity seem to compass and overwhelm and might force you to sink down in irrevocable discouragement I confess your condition is extreamly desolate and dangerous yet it 's possible it may be there is a peep-hole of hope it may be otherwise and happy it is for you that there is yet a may be left that God hath not sealed you up to condemnation and turned the Tomb-stone upon you Look up a little thou art yet alive Oh therefore lay about thee while yet opportunity and possibility lasteth Say Lord these sinful wretches that opposed thy Grace so long resisted thy Ordinances thy Servants yea crucified the Lord of Life and yet their hearts are now wounded for their sins Oh break my heart also humble my soul also Yea but I cannot think it truly I dare not I cannot I am ashamed to beg mercy who have so long abused it Why mark what the Apostle saies Ephes. 3. 20. God is able to do exceeding abundantly above all thou canst think or ask All this while the presumptuous secure sinner he stands by and hears all this and he blesseth himself in his lazy course contents himself with this possibility and here takes up his stand but neglects to do any thing that may attain it Oh is it not pitty to cast such Dainties before Dogs and Pearls before Swine Did I say it was possible True I said so indeed but it 's pity thou 〈◊〉 in the hearing of it it 's pity to speak such precious encouragements to such poysonful and malignant spirits that will pervert all to their own ruine The word is past and cannot be recalled but take these Preservatives or Corrosives rather to eat out that impudent corruption Know though it be possible yet it is not possible to thee nor any power thou hast nor any means thou canst use Matth. 19. 36. With man this is impossible Nay know That so long as thou continuest in that careless presumptuous self-confidence it is not possible that God should save thee Heb. 3. 18. He hath said it and sworn it that they who rest in their carnal confidence they shall never enter into his rest and God will not nay cannot deny himself and his Oath As it 's possible God may so it 's possible he may not break thy heart and it 's a great suspicion he will not if thou so impudently abuse his Mercy Patience and long suffering wherby he calls thee to repentance and would melt thy rebellious heart Rom. 2. 4. Thou after the hardness of thy heart which cannot repent treasurest up to thy self wrath against the day of wrath It 's a shrewd suspicion if thou strivest long against his Spirit and slightest the season he will cease to strive with thee and take away the season Luke 19. 42. If thou hadst known at least in this thy day the things belonging to thy peace but now they are hid from thine eyes It will cost much labor and long time before it be done in an ordinary way and therefore if thou art wise for thy soul omit no time be faithful to do what thou canst and yet fearful because it 's in Gods hand to do what He will Therefore seek seasonably tremblingly and uncessantly unto the Lord to do this work for thee It 's not the dipping but rubbing and soaking an old stayn that will fetch it out thou must soak and steep thy soul with godly sorrow It 's not Salving but long tenting an old sore that will do the Cure It may be it will make you go crying to your grave and well if you get to heaven so at last This shews the 〈◊〉 nature and the inconceivable haynousness of the sin of dispaire which rusheth the sinner upon irrecoverable ruine and would seem to overcome the mercy of God wherein he overcomes himself laies a mans present comforts and future hopes wast at once beyond the reach of any relief or recovery puts the soul beyond the sight and expectation of any succour and supply that might support it in the least measure That look as when the Ship runs a ground or splits upon a Rock neer shore or within the sight of land there is yet a possibility that some help may come from the Coast to them or they at least may be wafted to land and so swim out
Covenant of the Gospel All 〈◊〉 meerly and only out 〈◊〉 the Covenant of Gods free favor when we lost and forfeited all we had and 〈◊〉 ourselves for what we needed and were unwilling out of the wretched and hellish distemp̄ers of our 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 either to have any thing or to be made capabl of 〈◊〉 thing that grace might appear to be grace indeed 〈◊〉 doth 〈◊〉 for our good not only beyond our desert 〈◊〉 what we have besides Hell is mercy but beyond 〈◊〉 desire That thou mayest forever each day that passeth 〈◊〉 thy head remember it to the Lord and leave 〈◊〉 upon record in thy own Conscience say Hadst 〈◊〉 blessed Lord given me the desire of my 〈◊〉 and left me to my own will its certain I had 〈◊〉 in Hell long before this day when in the days 〈◊〉 my folly and times of my ignorance when out 〈◊〉 the desperat wretchedness of my rebellious 〈◊〉 I was running riot in the wayes of 〈◊〉 When I said to the Seers See not and to the Prophets Prophesie not to Christians to 〈◊〉 to Governors Admonish not Counsel not 〈◊〉 not Stop me not in the pursuit of sin The 〈◊〉 was I took hold of deceit and refused to return 〈◊〉 resolved in the secret purpose of my own soul would none of thee I would not have that Word 〈◊〉 thine reveal or remove my corruptions I would 〈◊〉 of thy Grace that might humble me and purge 〈◊〉 none of that Mercy of thine that might pardon 〈◊〉 none of that Redemption of thine that might 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 thou then 〈◊〉 me at my word and 〈◊〉 me what I wished and sealed up my 〈◊〉 saying 〈◊〉 thou for ever filthy forever 〈◊〉 and for ever miserable thou wouldest neither 〈◊〉 holy nor happy thou shalt have thy will sin 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 and take thy Portion with Devils 〈◊〉 it had been just with thee and I justly 〈◊〉 But to bear with all my baseness to put up all 〈◊〉 wrongs and provocations to strive with me 〈◊〉 good when I took up Arms against thee 〈◊〉 strove against my own good nay when I 〈◊〉 Mercy and then to take away that resistance and to cause me to take Mercy and make it mine when 〈◊〉 us dall the skil I could to hinder my own salvation Oh! the height the depth the length the 〈◊〉 of this Mercy It was Gods expression of his own kindness towards the 〈◊〉 Ezek. 16. 4. 6. In the day of 〈◊〉 Nativity I saw thee in thy blood and then I said 〈◊〉 Consider but thy self and thine own ways and thou wilt sind it thy Condition and therefore take up thy stand again here in admiration when there was no means to help me no man to pitty me and I had not a heart to pity my self when I lay w. ltring in my blood wallowing in my sin when I said 〈◊〉 would die then thou beheldest me and said Live 〈◊〉 poor Creature Live Oh that Mercy for ever to be adored Come down yee 〈◊〉 Angels from Heaven and magnifie that Mercy through eternity 〈◊〉 would 〈◊〉 perished in despight of Mercy and the Lord made me take Mercy in despight of my heart Train up thy self thus and dyet thy soul with 〈◊〉 daily admiration of this rich Mercy of the Lord 〈◊〉 with 〈◊〉 daily bread its Mercy that gives Mercy that conti ues Mercy that perfects al spiritual good for thee 〈◊〉 in thee and will do so to all 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 As they in the rearing of the frame of the 〈◊〉 Temple All the people cryed Grace grace grace Zach. 4. 7. when it was not power nor policy for the whole Nation was poor and despicable wholly 〈◊〉 and unable to begin or to carry on such a 〈◊〉 Grace then laid the foundation and Grace never left until it added the topstone so here It was meer Grace that provided salvation that 〈◊〉 it offered it made thee able to receive it therefore thou shouldest walk in the wonderment of this Grace and Mercy all thy life long Hence also is matter of Humiliation and daily Self-denyal while we live in this World which may help to pull down our proud hearts and Peacock-feathers and lay us low in our thoughts in the apprehension of our own vileness and baseness 〈◊〉 own weakness and unworthiness When we feel our hearts to be puffed up with the vain apprehension of our own worth parts or performances what we are and what we do look we back to our first beginnings 〈◊〉 aright of our own wretchedness and nothingness yea worse than nothing in that we not only wanted all good but we had it within us to oppose all good and that will cause us to sit down in silence abased for ever when empty Bladders are grown unto too great bulk and bigness to prick them is the readiest way to lessen them when our empty and vain minds swel with big thoughts and high overweening conceit of our own worth learn we to stab and pierce our hearts with the righteous judgment of our own natural vileness which will or at least may let out that frothy haughtiness that lifts us up beyond our measure tell thy heart and commune with thy conscience and say It is not my good Nature that I am not roaring amongst the wretches of the world in the road and broad way of ruine and destruction that I am not wallowing n all manner of sin with the worst of men it 's not my good nature no thank to any thing that I have that I am not upon the chain with Malefactors or in the dungeon with Witches for what ever Hell hath it is in this heart of mine naturally a Cain here a Judas here nay a Devil here The time was O that with an abased heart I may ever think of that time I never looked after the spiritual good of my soul whether I had a soul or no what would become of me and it was the least of my care the farthest end of my thoughts nay loth I was to hear of or know these things when they were 〈◊〉 unwilling to receive them or give way to them when they were offered how did I stop mine Ears shut mine Eyes harden my heart what waies means and devices did I use and invent to shut 〈◊〉 the light of the truth and to stop the passage and power of the Word that it might not convince me that it might not reform me might not recal me 〈◊〉 my 〈◊〉 how often have I secretly wished that either the Word were taken out of the place or 〈◊〉 from 〈◊〉 that it might not trouble me in my sinful distempers and when 〈◊〉 had least good I had most ease and took greatest content Oh that such a vile wretch should thus live and yet live to be thus sinful Oh that I might for ever be abased for it As in sores when the proud 〈◊〉 encreaseth there is no way but a Corrosive to eat 〈◊〉 down This consideration of our own 〈◊〉 may
we are Justified 〈◊〉 Resurrection Answers not the Law nor yet 〈◊〉 thing of divine Justice for that which the Law never required by that it never can be Answered But 〈◊〉 Law requires a man either to do that he may live 〈◊〉 to die if he sin but it never requires him to rise 〈◊〉 that 's no part of the Command or the Curse or 〈◊〉 Therefore the Resurrection of Christ 〈◊〉 no part of Payment which is imputed or for which 〈◊〉 are Justified We owed Two things Doing 〈◊〉 Dying these answer the whole Debt the Law 〈◊〉 Justice of God Though the Resurrection of Christ be no part os 〈◊〉 yet it serves for more than a naked 〈◊〉 of our Justification All Interpreters agree in 〈◊〉 that it serves to declare our Justification but I 〈◊〉 there is somthing more in it So the Apostle 〈◊〉 1 Cor. 15. 17. and he makes it one of those 〈◊〉 wherby he urgeth them that deny the 〈◊〉 If Christ be not risen your faith is vain 〈◊〉 are yet in your sins Whereas if this 〈◊〉 may stand That the Resurrection is barely a 〈◊〉 of Justification a man might shew Pauls 〈◊〉 to be a weak one For it doth not follow 〈◊〉 a mans Faith might find success without it 〈◊〉 the Resurrection of Christ doth not give a being 〈◊〉 Justification but only declare it as they say 〈◊〉 the Text says If Christ be not Risen you are yet 〈◊〉 your Sins yet in the gall of bitterness and bonds 〈◊〉 iniquity your sins are not pardoned not subdued Therefore if it be no part of the Payment 〈◊〉 which we are justified and yet more than a bare declaration of it then there can be no other given 〈◊〉 must apply that for which we are Justified it is an 〈◊〉 powerful cause to make Application of 〈◊〉 Merits of Christ to us for which and through which 〈◊〉 stand Justified in the sight of God Not only the text is clear 〈◊〉 it but the nature 〈◊〉 Application cals for it in a special manner For by the 〈◊〉 of man we are lyable to a double evil 1 〈◊〉 the revenging Justice of God 2 To the 〈◊〉 and Power 〈◊〉 Satan and Death For when a 〈◊〉 had 〈◊〉 himself into the hands of divine Justice it was 〈◊〉 righteous with the Lord to 〈◊〉 up the Soul to the Authority and Vassallage of 〈◊〉 and Satan Now therefore when our Savior Christ by his Death and Obedience answered divine Justice and so took away the first evil it was then 〈◊〉 with the Lord to free lost-man through Christ from the Second evil the Authority and Tyranny 〈◊〉 Sin Mark that place Act. 2. 24. Whom God 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 up having 〈◊〉 the sorrows of death 〈◊〉 it was 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 he should be 〈◊〉 of it 〈◊〉 cannot be meant of being holden by the bonds 〈◊〉 death as if 〈◊〉 were bound to 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 of God when he was in the 〈◊〉 for he that 〈◊〉 satisfied the 〈◊〉 of God could not stand bound to it any 〈◊〉 but when 〈◊〉 had suffered for 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 in the Garden and on the 〈◊〉 he had then fully satisfied for the Law of God required no more 〈◊〉 Doing and Dying so that Christ might have 〈◊〉 again as soon as 〈◊〉 he was laid in the Grave but 〈◊〉 he lay so long was for another reason But the 〈◊〉 here is How he can be said to be 〈◊〉 from the pains and sorrows of Death when 〈◊〉 Body was in the Earth and his Soul in Heaven 〈◊〉 say from a sorrowful and painful Death I 〈◊〉 that is true Yet under favor I would say thus 〈◊〉 more It was a kind of pain and grief to the man Christ Jesus as to any 〈◊〉 that his Body was in 〈◊〉 Grave when his Soul was in Heaven which did 〈◊〉 to be united together the keeping of these two 〈◊〉 is a 〈◊〉 to them they are 〈◊〉 friends made to be together the Souls of the Saints now 〈◊〉 in Heaven 〈◊〉 to have their bodies 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Now then when Christ had fully satissied 〈◊〉 Justice and removed the displeasure of God it 〈◊〉 not possible he could be held by the sorrows of 〈◊〉 it was not 〈◊〉 that his Body and Soul 〈◊〉 be held asunder then To clear it yet more 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 may be considered in a double regard As it is a punishment the 〈◊〉 whereos may 〈◊〉 Justice 2 As it is a part of that Tyranny 〈◊〉 Satan by sin doth exercise upon a man It is 〈◊〉 Death and Obedience of 〈◊〉 takes away the 〈◊〉 of Death in the 〈◊〉 sense but it is he 〈◊〉 of Christ that takes away the power and 〈◊〉 of Death in the Second sense Again 〈◊〉 that Sin also hath a double 〈◊〉 1 As an Aberration or Transgression of the Law 〈◊〉 with the guilt and punishment that follows 〈◊〉 it 2 As part of the Tyranny that Satan exerciseth over the Soul there 〈◊〉 a hellish authority that 〈◊〉 exerciseth over the Soul by reason of Sin Sin 〈◊〉 the first sense our Savior Christ had imputed to 〈◊〉 the guilt of our Sins was charged upon him and the punishments of Sin was suffered by him by which means he answered Gods Justice and so came to justifie us 〈◊〉 the tyranny and authority which Sin and Satan doth exercise over the Soul that 〈◊〉 away by the Resurrection of Christ. This being laid for a ground it is alwaies required at the Sureties hand not only to pay the Debt for the Debtor but to bring the Debtor out of Prison in despight of the malice of 〈◊〉 Jaylor and strength of the Prison When therefore Christ who is our Surety had laid and paid a ful price for our Surety to God the Father and had fully answered that Debt which we stand bound unto by reason of our offence so that now Justice was wel pleased with us and the Anger of the Lord appeased towards us yet now the soul is in Prison under the power of Sin and dominion of Satan therefore it is requisite that God the Father having taken a payment must let the prisoner go free and the Lord Jesus must undertake also to Redeem the soul from the power of Sin and dominion of Satan though they be never so strong therefore God the Father raised up his Son Jesus Christ and together with him he raised us also The soul by reason of sin comes to be forfeited to the divine Justice of God to be a Prisoner to revenging Justice for the Malefactor is the Kings Prisoner not the Jaylors now Christ by his death satisfying Justice he frees the soul from the authority of revenging Justice but when the soul comes to be fetched out of Prison though Gods Justice be satisfied yet Sin and Satan keeps the soul in Prison and wil not let it go unless by strong hand therefore Jesus Christ by an Almighty power raiseth up himself from the dead and by the power of his Resurrection he rescues the soul from the power of
raising up himself with himself he raised up us 〈◊〉 for as he suffered as our 〈◊〉 so he rose again as our Surety and so we were raised with him Therefore when Christ will come and make Application of all Spiritual Good to any soul he doth it by the Vertue and Power of his Resurrection When the hard heart resists the Power of the Word and saies all Threatnings all Promises all Commandements shal not prevail with me and when Sin and Satan 〈◊〉 themselves to the uttermost to keep the soul still in the Gall of bitterness in the bonds of iniquity the Lord Christ comes from Heaven and shews 〈◊〉 Power 〈◊〉 his Resurrection give way Sin give 〈◊〉 Satan that soul is mine and they all give way 〈◊〉 thence comes the prevailing vertue of the Word 〈◊〉 the soul for its effectual 〈◊〉 home to God 〈◊〉 you 〈◊〉 the Frame of this Truth The Lord Jesus by the Power of his God-head did 〈◊〉 up himself from under the Power of Sin and 〈◊〉 and Death 〈◊〉 he had a Sovereign 〈◊〉 Power over Sin and Satan therefore he is able 〈◊〉 conquer and to 〈◊〉 Sin and Satan where ever 〈◊〉 meets them The Spirit of God also hath a hand in this great Work of Application and indeed it is in a special 〈◊〉 attributed to him not because all the three 〈◊〉 do not joyntly work throughout in all the works of Application for according to the received 〈◊〉 of Divines all the Works of God upon the Creature are common to all the three Persons of the Trinity but because the manner of the Spirits work 〈◊〉 principally appear here There are but three 〈◊〉 Works in the World Creation Redemption and Application which are given to the three Persons of the srinity according to the special manner of their working Creation is given to the Father that 's the first Work and therefore given to the first Person Redemption is given to the Son that 's the second Work and therefore given to the second Person Application of that Redemption is the third and last Work and therefore is in a peculiar manner attributed to the third Person the Holy Ghost Conceive it thus A Malefactor that hath committed high Treason against his Prince and being taken he is imprisoned in the strongest Hold the deepest Dungeon without hope of release imagine a man comes and satisfies the wrath of the King and answers the Law so that the King saies upon satisfaction given the Law is fully answered no wrong is done If he shall so do the King is bound not only to be 〈◊〉 in 〈◊〉 of himself and the wrong done to 〈◊〉 and his Law but he is also bound to give his 〈◊〉 Hand Authority and Commission to him that paid for the Prisoner that he may go and fetch the Prisoner from the Dungeon and 〈◊〉 him away with him Imagine that the Jaylor grows sturdy and stiff he 〈◊〉 the Prisoner is prositable to him therfore he 〈◊〉 and saies the Prisoner shall not depart now he that hath Authority from the King must be able to break the Prison doors and then to slay the Jaylor and by force to deliver the Prisoner from the bondage he was in Thus it is here every sinner is a Prisoner to Divine Justice Sin is the Prison and the Devil is the Jaylor that holds him in bondage by reason of the power of Sin and by vertue of Commission from Divine Justice Christ Jesus hath come and payed our debts satisfied Divine Justice and answered the Law that God the Father hath professed This is my beloved Son in whom I am well pleased the Law is performed my anger fully appeased and my mercy procured therefore all those sinners for whom thou hast died and obeyed shall be redeemed from the power of Sin and authority of Satan and now God the Father gives him a full Commission to 〈◊〉 those sinners from the hands of sin and Satan But now when Christ comes for the soul Satan and sin refuse they will not let the sinner go therfore Christ by the vertue of his Resurrection and by the power of his Spirit he doth rescue the soul whether sin and Satan and a mans heart will or no he will have the soul and humble him and call him and justisie him and 〈◊〉 him and glorifie him and then deliver him up to his Father at the great day Direction How to help the souls of poor Sinners that are under the work of Application either 〈◊〉 in it or in Preparation to it here is Direction to you al in the greatest streights whatsoever When the Lord gives intimation to sinners that they are not in the right way and he begins to be 〈◊〉 with them and our Savior Christ comes as the High Sheriff when he would put a man into Possession of his Land that is Possessed by those that have no right to it The High Sheriff comes with his Company and knocks at the door now al that are within come and make resistance and labor to keep him out as much as they can So when our Savior Christ comes and saies to a desperate rebellious sinner that soul of thine was never made for Sin or Satan but thou must come and shouldest come out of thy sins and come to me saies Christ when the Word is thus 〈◊〉 with Life and power now the soul is in an uproar now the soul resists this Work he makes al the doors and bolts fast and he that comes in he dies upon it But the Lord presses in stil upon the soul he must he wil conquer and subdue it to himself now the sinner sees nothing but Hel and Death and Damnation before it die he must and that for ever if he stand out and now he sees he should yeild and submit he sees now the body of death that hangs upon him the power of his lusts that prevails with him and he finds his heart shut up under unbeleef under the chaines of pride and vainglory and earthlimindedness and the Devil presents impossibilities to his view canst thou think that ever those sins of thine should be pardoned or that ever that soul of thine should be delivered from under the power of them Now Brethren here the soul 's at a stand above al the stifness and stubborness of a mans own wil no Threatnings no Mercies no Afflictions no offers of Grace can prevail but a man wil have his sins though the Devil have his soul he finds his heart so 〈◊〉 he must have his sin and his wil though he 〈◊〉 for it Ay now what wil you do The Cause 〈◊〉 this work of Application is 〈◊〉 of your self in Christ Therefore send your thoughts and keep your 〈◊〉 upon the Resurrection of Christ set your eye keep your eye there for ever see a passage or two from Scripture here Rev. 1. 18. I was dead but 〈◊〉 am alive and I live for evermore and I have the Keyes Hell 〈◊〉 Death saies Christ Thou
reason Where there is nothing but opposition and resistance between two there can be no union for all union implies 〈◊〉 and agreement there must be a mutual accord 〈◊〉 things on both hands before they can be made one Amos 3. 3. Can two walk together except they be agreed love tends to unity and 〈◊〉 the cause of it and that ever presupposeth some I keneis But 〈◊〉 man remaining in the state of Unbeleef and Corruption is wholly opposite to Christ and the work of his Spirit he is wholly Flesh John 3. 6. And the flesh lusts against the spirit and these are 〈◊〉 Gal. 4. 17. the wisdom of the flesh is 〈◊〉 against God it is not subject nor can be subject to the Law so far from closing with the work of the Spirit as it is not able to bear it The Scribes and 〈◊〉 rejected the counsel against themselues i. e. to their own 〈◊〉 Acts 7. 51. Ye stifnecked and 〈◊〉 hearted ye have ever resisted the Spirit of the Lord. Paul did no more than every Natural man would do Being mad saies he I persecuted that way The way of Christ and so Christ himself In a word It 's said of all and it 's true of all the best of the Saints take them in their Naturals ye were darkness Eph. 5. 10. darkness cannot but oppose light He that is acted wholly by the power of Infidelity he must resist the work of Faith and so the receiving of Christ by it There are but Two Covenants that ever God made with man touching his everlasting Estate The Covenant of Works or of the Law the Covenan of the Gospel and so of Grace and these two Covenants are so opposite that the one 〈◊〉 the other If it be of Works it is no more of Grace else Works were not Works If it be of Grace it is no more of 〈◊〉 else Grace were no more Grace Rom. 11. 6. Hence they are severed as far as blessing and cursing Gal. 3. 9 10. So then they which be of Faith are blessed with faithful Abraham For as many as are of the Works of the Law are under the Curse Now all men by Nature are Members and Heirs of the first Adam and therefore under his Covenant and under his Curse Rom. 7. 5. 8. Whilst we were in the 〈◊〉 the motions of sins which were by the Law did work in our Members to bring forth fruit unto death Those who are in Christ are under the Covenant of Grace and Life for he that hath the Son hath Life Hence I 〈◊〉 To be under two contrary Covenants of Law and Grace is impossible because so a man should be accursed and blessed at once But he that is in his corrupt Condition and state of Infidelity he is under the Covenant of Works he that is in Christ under the Covenant of Grace Hence followeth a Fifth Reason Who ever is under Grace over them sin shall not have Dominion Rom. 6. 14. Sin shall not have dominion over you for you are not under the Law but under Grace 〈◊〉 they who are in their natural condition and in the state of Unbeleef they are under the power and dominion of 〈◊〉 therefore they are not under Grace nor yet in Christ. This discovers the folly and dasheth the fond conceit of many carnal men who have framed a speedy way to Heaven in their own fancies through which yet never any had passage thither to wit they fondly imagine they have Christ and Mercy at command and that they can make a step to Heaven in the turning of a hand they 〈◊〉 not make such large provision or preparation before to tire out themselves with tedious and heart breaking sorrows and dayly remorse 〈◊〉 their dayly failings smal warning will serve 〈◊〉 mens turns Be it they love their lusts and practise them they harbor continually their noysom distempers in their souls express 〈◊〉 also in their lives they crave but the 〈◊〉 of 〈◊〉 few hours before their 〈◊〉 to fit themselves for their departure and happiness a few forced sighs faigned and formal confessions of their evils and howling for pardon out of the horror of their spirits now and then customarily adding a Lord have mercy on me they suppose they have made all even with God but if they can but get the Sacrament they conclude all is sure they must needs go post hast to Heaven if they can but say they beleeve Christ must comfort them cannot but save them No no Brethren the Word reveals none our Savior accepts of no such agreement he comes upon no such terms to bring any comfort with him unless any man should be so far forsaken of reason and sense as to imagine the Lord Jesus would carry the Drunkard and his Cups the Adulterer and his Harlots also the riotous Gamester his Cards and Dice Hawks and Hounds and all to Heaven together which is 〈◊〉 and incredible Oh! these men will one day find and that to their wo they cozened their own souls by their own folly whereas sound 〈◊〉 cost more the way must be prepared thy heart loosened rent and plucked away from thy corruptions before the Lord Jesus will vouchsafe once to look in upon thee No Harbenger before no King follows after where the heart is not 〈◊〉 for a Savior there is no hope to 〈◊〉 the presence of a Savior It 's the condition upon which his coming is promised and can be expected upon any sure ground It 's the order and connexion of things 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 hath set in the work of Grace Luke 3. 8. And all flesh shall see the 〈◊〉 of the Lord. The Copulative Particle And tells us the sight of Salvation depends upon that which went before when we see the mountains of Pride high and lofty imaginations levelled crooked perversness of our own spirits taken off and we made meek and tractable then there is some hope that Salvation will appear unto us but if any man will yet rear up mighty Bulwarks and strong holds of rebellion and hardness of heart and maintain those high imaginations sturdy distempers of pride security and carnal confidence he must know whoever he be that as yet he is not within the ken of mercy and though he look until his eyes 〈◊〉 in his head and his heart 〈◊〉 in his body he 〈◊〉 never come within a true sight of Salvation much less may he think ever to be made partaker of it why confer with thy own conscience Dost thou think it fit the King should lie in the Truckle-bed under a company of Traitors Is it reasonable the Lord 〈◊〉 should be an 〈◊〉 to thy lusts No certainly the gods that thou hast obeyed by those thou must be saved thou would have thy lusts but reject Christ thou shalt perish with them but the presence of the Lord Jesus thou canst not enjoy Let the 〈◊〉 man forsake his way and the unrighteous man 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 and return unto the Lord for he will
no power receive no profit nor benefit to my own soul and there is a secret conceit that God doth them wrong As she said If it be so Why am I thus Gen. 25. 22. 2. We may know it by a sinking discouragement of heart When the soul wearied with delayes and differings and expectation sits down in a 〈◊〉 condition because he cannot have what he will he will cast away what he hath and conceaves he may be careless of what he might attain As David said I shall one day perish by the hand of Saul 1 Samuel 27. 1. All men are lyars Psal. 116. 11. Alas Iam not fit to Pray or to Hear I find my heart worse after it none was ever in such a case as I better never to use the means than never to have benefit by them better never to enjoy the Ordinances and Priviledges of God than to get no good by them How now Better never use the means It would be better and best of all if you were deeply humbled and abased in the sight of your own vileness As the Apostle saies What if God will not What 〈◊〉 he will never pardon your sins or shew mercy to your soul If he give you nothing doth he 〈◊〉 you any thing You think your worthiness is not attended you secretly think the Lord hath forgot himself your parts and performances your 〈◊〉 and prayers diligence and endeavors ought upon due to be remembered and recompenced No Thank your proud heart you are not prepared for the presence the peace the comfort the coming of a Savior and therefore you want him Do you think your self worthy to be condemned when you think it much to be denyed deserted punished nay but desayed in the dispensation of Gods goodness He must please your pallat and suit your mind and humor at a beck No no mend your self if you be in so hasty a moode the Lord will make you know that you are unworthy of mercy He will not bribe you nor be beholding to you to wait upon him for his mercy yea be thankful to him that you may wait and wonder that you are not past praying hearing and waiting and all A ground of Encouragement to a poor distressed sinner when Devils assault 〈◊〉 grow strong Conscience accuse and the venome of the vengeance of the Almighty drinks up a mans spirits so that the sinner knows not how to bear his condition nor yet how to help himself out of it so that he is at his wits end His Friends pitty him and the Parents conceave their Child is undone they never thought to have seen this day Why so It is the best day that ever his eyes saw he is now in Gods way the Lord now seems to lay hold upon him and to intend good to him be not afraid of the work but be afraid he should miss and spoil in the working As in Child-bed when throws come thick and strong there is most hope of a speedy and happy delivery but when her throws leave her her life leaves her so it is in the new Birth Stormy gales at Sea toss a man most but soonest land him Therefore do not so much fear the blow as be thankful and be willing to follow the blow nor so much desire to be eased as not to be deceived not so much to have the work over as to have it made good upon thy soul labor to get into and keep in that frame prophesied of in all 〈◊〉 Converts Jer. 50. 4. Going and 〈◊〉 with their faces towards Zion they shall 〈◊〉 the Lord their God Exhortation Suffer then the Exhortation of the Baptist the voyce of him that cries in the Wilderness to sound in your ears and to sink into 〈◊〉 hearts Prepare ye the way of the Lord make his paths streight As ever we 〈◊〉 to share in the Merits of our Savior to enjoy him and his presence and everlasting happiness by him address we our selves bestir our souls in the use of all means to 〈◊〉 a Savior and then we may 〈◊〉 expect him and we shall not miss of our expectation There is no lack on his part he is willing and ready He that stands and knocks at the door that he may come in Rev. 3. 20. If the door was open he would come in without question If the way was prepated he hath promised to come speedily and certainly he would not delay his coming I know this manner of entertainment seems hard to flesh and blood loath we are to dislodge so many gainful guests so many special friends darling pleasures and sweet contentments which we have contrived to our selves out of the earthly comforts of this life Hence many are content the King would go another way and secretly wish they had nothing to do with the Lord Jesus there is so much privy search to be made so much examination to be used such a sight of our sins and unworthiness yea that which is worst of all to the corrupt hearted they must vomit up all their sweet morsels shake hands and break league with their beloved darling delights which they tender as their lives they must thrust world and ease prosperity and pompe credit and applause by the head and shoulders out of the doors and turn them going 〈◊〉 therefore I am afraid many 〈◊〉 that in secret in their own hearts which the Devils openly professed What have we to do with thee Jesus thou Son of God art thou come to 〈◊〉 us before the time to deprive us of our profits to pluck away our pleasures and to dislodge those sweet lusts that we harbored so long in our bosoms and bowels learn we then to press some sound Arguments upon our own hearts that we may perswade and prevaile with them if it be possible to set about this work which is so necessary Consider then First Who we be that must 〈◊〉 And Secondly For whom First Let us consider our selves a company of poor miserable sinful and damned Creatures sinful dust and ashes dead dogs Consider of this and think with thy self Will the Lord of Heaven come down will Christ dwell in my heart will he vouchsafe to look in yea to call in as he goes by upon such a sinful Creature And let this move thee to prepare for his coming We are not worthy as the Centurion said that the Lord should come under our 〈◊〉 1 King 8. 27. There Solomon saith Will the Lord indeed dwell on earth Will he dwel in a house made with hands As if he should say Is it possible Can it be imagined that thou Lord being the great God of heaven whom the heaven of heavens cannot contain shouldest once 〈◊〉 to dwell in a house made with hands in the Temple which I have builded And what may we say Is it so Can it be Shall it be that God will come and dwell under our roof that he will come and dwell under our rotten and sinful hearts that he will dwell
his fury was at the height when breathing out threatnings against the Church he came armed with authority and hellish resolution to carry all to Prison Acts 9. In a word while Paul proceeds furiously with a 〈◊〉 intention to oppose Christ to persecute his Members and in the issue to procure and hasten his own everlasting ruine then our Savior prevents him and pitties him and doth him most good while he strives to do most harm and to make havock of the Church the truth and his soul also yea then works his conversion when he most seriously endeavors to work his own Confusion of himself and such as professed the Faith in sincerity the aim of God in all the Apostle directed by the Spirit expresseth to be this 1 Tim. 1. 16. I was a Persecutor but I obtained Mercy to the end that the Lord in me might shew all long-suffering to the example of those that should beleeve on his Name Such a forlorn Sinner at that time was the fittest subject to receive the full print of Gods love and compassion in great Letters as it were that he might be a pattern to all 〈◊〉 of the boundless compassions of the Lord. That as Seamen after a dangerous wrack and miraculous deliverance set up a Monument of their Preservation to all that pass that way to work fear in them to prevent shipwrack and yet hope of Recovery if they do To the like purpose is the Conversion of the Apostle in this heat of his Rebellion set upon Record in publick view As though the Lord should say Look here you forlorn sinners see a desparate Rebel running post-haste to his everlasting ruine and behold withal the hand of Mercy then stopping of him in his way Paul persecuting Christ in his Members Christ then pittying and preserving Paul the one most kind when the other is most vile and 〈◊〉 Oh the madness of a deluded Soul 〈◊〉 reason But Oh the Compassions of a Savior beyond all compare Be afraid you never proceed to such hellish folly and yet bless God That there is such a Savior if you do These be the Seasons of Gods acceptation the first here principally intended the rest not excluded and in these opportunities thus appointed by God in his Wisdom according to his good will he doth put forth the work of his Grace to bring home the Souls of his unto himself Hence we learn That a long life is a great blessing in it self a great temporal blessing as it comes from the Lord. Why Because all that while a man is in the way Mercy may meet with him and he may meet with it While there is life there is hope unless a man have sinned against the holy Ghost Physitians observe all the while there is strength in Nature there is hope the Physick may prove profitable It is much more for the comfort of the Soul while there is life there is yet a possibility Thy heart is stubborn and rebellious and proud but thou yet livest and the Lord lives and his Mercy lives therefore it may be he may shew mercy to thee But when a man is dropped down into the grave and the pit hath shut its mouth upon him then all his thoughts perish then with a sad heart he may remember all the helps he had the opportunities he had but never had a heart to get any good by them Then he reads over all the Sermons he heard by the flames of Hell and remembers all the kindnesses of the Lord and then there is no hope You therefore that know your bosom abominations you have your back doors and your base haunts you know your sins are not pardoned you have not repented of them when you are gone home go your waies and bless God that you live For let me tell you This is all the hope in the world that yet you are alive and therefore the Lord may shew Mercy to you if your dayes were ended and you gone down to Hell then not all the world nay not Christ nor the Mercy of God it self could not save you then therefore look as it was with a Child which was followed by a Bear into a pond the Child cryed out to the people that were running and came to the ponds sides Oh help help and still as the Bear 〈◊〉 him first his Arms than his Legs and still he cryed out Oh help help yet I am alive yet I am alive this is your condition beleeve it Not Bears but Sins and Devils are upon you they have you in their clutches tearing and devouring your Souls Oh look to Heaven and cry out unto the Lord and say Lord a proud stubborn Creature but yet I am alive the Devil is Devouring my soul but Lord help me and deliver me yet I am alive bless God you are so and know its all you have to shew for your everlasting welfare For while there is Life there is Hope Matter of Caution and Advice to fence our souls and fortifie our selves against that hellish distemper of self-Murther that our hearts may be carried with hatred of it and our souls preserved from the commission of it when partly from discontentments and partly from terrors of Conscience men are not able to bear with themselves but they will run to a Halter or a Knife they will put an end to their lives that they may put an end to their sorrows they wil not live that they may not live thus and thus Why Consider Art thou sure of a better life They will Answer No that 's my misery I see all my sins before me and Hell gaping for me and the Devils attending to seize upon my Soul and it makes me weary of my life Weary of your life Take heed of that bless God for your life and pray for life and seek to preserve your life what you may for while your life lasts you are in the way to Mercy Dives had so much experience of the torments of Hell that he sends to those that were alive Oh take heed of coming hither you are in a better condition than I what ever your case be Learn therefore for ever to fear and flie from temptations to self Murther as that which would put an end to your life and to put an end to all hopes and possibilities of Mercy from the Lord. But the main Fruit of the Point which properly belongs to this Place is a Use of Instruction which ought to be observed and settled upon the Consciences of us all Doth the Lord then usually accept of the Soul and do good to it while he provides and continues the means of Grace What then remains but we should give all dilligence to attend upon his times take his means and improve all to the 〈◊〉 for our Spiritual good Suffer me here to stay a while and urge the Collection with an Argument or Two and yet go no further than the Words nor take other Reasons than the Text will
is going to Heaven every man gives him a lift when he is sick the Prayers go all the Town over for him Lord comfort him saies one he hath often done it to me Lord strengthen him saies another he hath often strengthened me I had almost said that a man shall encrease in Glory for the Prayers of Gods Servants here but that they do not pray for the dead But this is certain A man hath counselled and prayed for such an one he dies and goes to Heaven it doth not work till afterward then the Servant or the Child remembers and they pray and bless God for him and his Glory is augmented by it even as the torments of the damned are encreased by the fruits of their ill examples after they are dead So 〈◊〉 as ever you desire to do good to your selves and others to provide for your own Comfort at Death and for your Eternal Glory in Heaven to begin betimes for the carrying on of the Work of the Lord in your own Souls BOOK VI. REVEL 3. 17. Because thou sayest I am rich and encreased with goods and have need of nothing and knowest not that thou art wretched miserable poor blind and naked THE General Nature of Preparation hath been opened 〈◊〉 and those common Circumstances that were of special consideration have been 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 the freeness of the Work and the fitness of the Time that the Lord is pleased to take to bring the 〈◊〉 of his 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 in that Spiritual good that was provided and stored up for them in the Lord Jesus We are now to enquire about the Main and Substantial Parts of this so great a Work And these are Two 1 The Dispensation of this Work as it comes from God 2 The Frame and Disposition which is wrought in the Soul thereby For this Work of Preparation being a Transient Work as it proceeds from God i. e. a work which so passeth from God unto the Creature as the proper subject about which it is exercised as that it leaves some real impression some alteration and change in the Creature and therefore it implies necessarily as the 〈◊〉 who 〈◊〉 prepare and who are prepared so also the manner of the working of the one who doth it and the disposition of the other who doth 〈◊〉 the impression thereof And hence in these Two the whol Nature of Preparation is taken up as the Nature of the whol is fully comprehended in the Parts The manner of Gods Dispensation in this may thus be conceived and described It 's that whereby the soul setled in the security of its sinful condition and wholly unwilling to be severed from it is by 〈◊〉 holy kind of violence driven there 〈◊〉 and drawn unto Christ by God the 〈◊〉 Where we may attend these Particulars 1 The Soul Naturally is setled in a sinful security or is dead asleep in the security of a sinful condition 2 It 's unwilling to be severed therefrom it 's death to part with its distemper it 's against the 〈◊〉 and the heart to have its corruption plucked away from it to be awakened out of this sleep 3 That with a holy kind of violence it 's driven out of this condition and drawn unto Christ by the hand of the Father We shall pursue these Particulars in the order propounded and briefly handle the two first only to make way to a cleer discovery and right understanding of the last Point For the two first being apprehended in the full breadth of them the necessity and mysterious depth of Gods Dispensation in the last will appear with greater Evidence and be more easily conceived and assented unto with greater readiness For the ground of the first Point we have chosen the words of this Text Rev. 3. 17. where we have the divers nay the contrary judgment of the Lord and the Church of Laodicea touching their spiritual estate and condition They fate down well apayed in the apprehension nay the admiration of their own happiness and professed they had as much as they needed and were as good as they desired to be When as the Lord who knew better and could judg better of their condition passeth a peremptory sentence to the contrary that they were wretched poor and blind and naked they wanted not either wretchedness or misery but wanted sence of either and that was the reason they were secure under both Here then we see the guise of a graceless heart of one 〈◊〉 his Natural estate before the Lord set upon the soul They need nothing in their own apprehension though indeed they have nothing they see no evil nor danger towards them though they be compassed and beset on every side with sins and plagues Men naturally are most secure in their sins when they are most under the power and plague of them see how well apaid they sit down in the present frame of their hearts for it 's spiritually meant as appears by the opposition in the counsel which is administred in the following verse I counsel thee to buy of 〈◊〉 Eye-salve that thou mayest see white Rayment and be zealous and repent but I say see how they please themselves in this present condition if all men were as well contented with them as they are with themselves they would be no better and they conceive they should be no other they neither need 〈◊〉 should alter their condition nor yet be disquieted with what it is it 's as good as they would have it This is the meaning of the Parable When the strong man keeps the house all is in peace Luke 11. 〈◊〉 As long as Satan hath the world at will doth all and disposeth of all according to his own mind there is no opposition and so no distraction nor trouble wicked men go as they are led so the Apostles speaking of the Corinths in 〈◊〉 Natural condition 1 Cor. 12. 2. all go one way and all is at 〈◊〉 they conceit their estates as safe as any other 〈◊〉 therfore it 's needless 〈◊〉 disquiet themselves so they who lifted themselves against Moses and Aaron and concluded their penny as good silver as theirs 〈◊〉 16. 3. Are not all the 〈◊〉 of the Lord 〈◊〉 you take too much upon you They imagine it 's the pride and singularity of some men who require more strictness and a higher strain of Holiness 〈◊〉 is needful that they may be 〈◊〉 more than ordinary and so draw the eyes of men toward them 〈◊〉 so raise a greater account of them than they do 〈◊〉 or else it is the simplicity and feebleness of 〈◊〉 who having some mens persons in admiration 〈◊〉 easie to beleeve more than they should or 〈◊〉 a greater excellency than there is As for their 〈◊〉 parts they question it not but their estates are good and themselves happy Thus Paul professed of himself and speaks it in the stead of all men Naturally as that which is incident to all Rom. 7. 9. was alive without the Law When he
but is acted by another As it was in the raising of Lazarus when he stank in the Grave not only those noysom distempers were removed and the unnatural 〈◊〉 which attended his body chased away but the 〈◊〉 also was returned and brought again to Union 〈◊〉 his Body So here The Nature of this Drawing and special 〈◊〉 of it It s the motion and powerful Impression of the Spirit of God upon the Soul not any habit of Grace in it nor any act of the Soul which concurs with the work of God in this first stroak of Preparation For The soul that is wholly possessed by the Habits of Sin is not yet capable of the Habit of Grace 〈◊〉 my flesh dwels no good thing Rom. 7. 18. The Vessel cannot be ful of filthy and puddle water and at the same time receive that which is pure It is the aim of this work to make way and room for the Habit of Grace to be received and therefore it is not a habit nor any act of a habit in the soul as yet Therefore it s said God first turns from darkness and then to light Acts 26. 18. Takes away the heart of stone before he gives a new heart Ezek. 11. 19. This is the influence of Light and Vertue into the Mind and Will by the receiving whereof they may be elevated and lifted up above their own ability to supernatural Works in future times and therfore this cannot be the act of the Will and 〈◊〉 since they cannot of themselves let in any 〈◊〉 into themselves Therefore the Lord takes 〈◊〉 to himself as his own Work Hither belongs 〈◊〉 Question Whether Nature or Grace be the first subject of 〈◊〉 Nature cannot For 1 Cor. 2. 14. The 〈◊〉 man receives not the things of God nor can 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 yet Grace cannot do it for 〈◊〉 there should be Grace before the FIRST 〈◊〉 Grace is attended in a double Respect 1 As it 〈◊〉 a habit or gracious quality received into the Soul As it is a gracious impression upon the soul The 〈◊〉 must be prepared before any habit of Grace 〈◊〉 be received but there needs no disposition in 〈◊〉 soul to receive the work of the Spirit that must 〈◊〉 there needs no preparation to make way 〈◊〉 the work of Preparation but there needs 〈◊〉 to make way for the habit That which 〈◊〉 the first disposition needs no former not yet 〈◊〉 any former It s not Nature but the Soul prepared that is the 〈◊〉 of the First Habit. The Soul unprepared 〈◊〉 the Subject of the Spirit that prepares it The Means how God works the Cords by which 〈◊〉 Draws The Spirit of the Lord lets in some powerful light 〈◊〉 the Truth into the Soul when he is passing on in 〈◊〉 wayes of destruction and tels him This is not 〈◊〉 right way to Life and Salvation you must go 〈◊〉 way if ever you go to heaven The poor deluded blinded Creature never dreaming of 〈◊〉 such matter so that he drives the sóul to 〈◊〉 thoughts If this be the streight way to happiness 〈◊〉 have been out of the way al my life time If this 〈◊〉 true my Condition is miserable Isa. 65. 1. I 〈◊〉 sought of them that asked not for me I am found 〈◊〉 those that sought me not Thus the shepheard pursues the wildring sheep If he had not found it it 〈◊〉 never found home How many give in Evidence 〈◊〉 of their own Experience in this kind I never doubted of my estate nor ever 〈◊〉 of any necessity to be other or do other I went as others did it may be for fashion sake either company carried me or custome prevailed with me or may be the novelty of the thing inticed me to go I as little thought of my death as ever to have my sin and shame discovered Job 36. 9. When the Lord gets man into fetters then he shews them their transgressions and how they have exceeded Thus the Lord is said To stand and knock at the door of the soul when the sinner is fast asleep Rev. 3. 20. He dazles the apprehension by some mighty flash of truth like lightning darted in which makes the soul at a maze by reason of the suddenness and unexpectedness and strangness of it This knock makes the sinner so far to hear and to take notice of it that some body is at the door and causes him happily to make enquiry Who is there So Acts 9. 4 5 6. There shines a suddain Light about Paul and a voyce heard from heaven Saul Saul Why persecutest thou me As who should say Thou art utterly mistaken thou knowest not where thou art what thou doest thou mistakest a Friend in stead of an Enemy And therefore he amazed and astonished Answers and 〈◊〉 Who art thou Lord Thus the sinner is made to look about him where am I this is not the way to Heaven And though the soul would shut its eyes against the Evidence and Power of the Truth which carries a kind of amazing vertue with it and therefore invents shifts to defeat the work of it yet the Lord wil follow it and fasten it upon the soul so as that it shal not avoid it he that stands knocking at the door wil lift up the latch and make the Truth break in as the Sun rising wil break through the least crevis This is the first means whereby the Lord comes to lay hold upon the mind and soul of a sinner he hath the sinner in chase as it were that he cannot get out of his sight or make an escape Thus by the hook of Instruction he laies hold upon him He encloseth him with the Cords of Mercy whereby he 〈◊〉 the soul and compasseth the heart on every side with the tender of his compassions Hosea 11. 4. I drew them with the Cords of a man the bonds of love this the Lord doth to take off those desperat discouragements which otherwise would dead the heart and split the hopes of a forlorn sinner and so pluck up his endeavors by the roots under the appearance of impossibilities It can never be attained why therefore should it be expected or endeavored after To abate therefore of these overbearing 〈◊〉 which otherwise would sink the heart and swallow it up the Lord casts in some discovery of the largeness of his compassions and intimates there is no danger to be feared in coming to the Lord because there is none intended When Christ stands at the door and knocks men are afraid to let in Enemies that intended our ruine so it 's 〈◊〉 the sinner he is afraid of Gods Justice because of his 〈◊〉 deservings What is Christ at the door Is it not that Christ whose Grace I have refused whose Spirit I have grieved whose Words I have cast 〈◊〉 my back he certainly comes to destroy me who have destroyed his Truth and trampled his honor 〈◊〉 my feet And therefore the Lord lets in that Evidence to the
they were from the beginning of the creation 〈◊〉 yee not see how men provoke God and prosper and hath it not been so in all ages 〈◊〉 wicked ungodly continue in sinful courses yet succeed according to their own content It was so in the former ages it went best with the worst men it is so in this and wil be so to the end the Lord lookes not after the mean occasions of men upon earth finds himself employment in the affayres of Heaven it matters not what the desert of our sins be we shal never feel what they do deserve so those rulers Amos 7. they put away the evil day far from them and then they cause the seat of violence to come near 〈◊〉 73. 10. 11. those blasphemers who set their mouths against Heaven and their tongue walks through the midst of the Earth they say how doth God know this and is there knowledg in the most high Upon this ground it is that they let loose themselves in the fearless pursuit of 〈◊〉 loathsom abominations then said he unto me the Angel of the Lord of Hosts the iniquity of the house of Israel and Judah is exceeding great the land is ful of blood and the city ful of perversness For they say the Lord hath forsaken the earth the Lord seeth not Ezek. 9. 9. For since here we must learn to chase out and keep out such imaginations by setting up the light of the truth in our minds and listening wholly thereunto So the psalmist shewes the cause and applyes the cure Psal. 94. 8. Understand ye brutish among the people and ye fools when wil ye be wise He that plantd the ear shal not he hear he that formed the eye shal not he see Yea the Lord professeth to take notice of these mens wayes in an especial manner to make privie search after them Zeph. 1. 12. he wil search Jerusalem with candles and visit such as sit upon their lees and say who sees us you shal find he knows both good and evil and he wil work both as a reward to such as deserve This Job felt by experience Job 14 16. For now thou numbrest my steps dost thou not watch our my sins my transgression 〈◊〉 sealed up in a bag and thou shalt find it so the Lord wil follow thee step by step and track and trace thee in all thy wandrings and keeps an account of al thy sins sealed up as it were in bags But if the Lord doth see and observe al our evils yet he is patient and wil pass them by and put up those many 〈◊〉 being pitiful and compassionate to poor creatures knowing they be but dust True it is the Lord out of his long sufferance wil bear long with the base dealings of the sons of men yet out of the purity and holiness of his nature he cannot but bring them to account and trial for al the swervings of their lives Psal 50. 18. Thus the secure sinner counted the Lords patience a kind of connivence and allowance of him in ungodly wayes I held my tongue and thou thoughtest wickedly that I was such a one as thy self that God could wink at wickedness look aside at the slips and swervings of the ungodly and suffer them to go away with it but al in vain For I wil reprove thee and set thy sins in order before thee consider this yee that forget God so likewise in Eccles. 11. 9. rejoyce O yong man in thy youth and let thy heart chear thee in the wayes of thy youth walk in the sight of thine eyes but know thou that for all these 〈◊〉 thou shalt come to judgment the Lord wil arrest thee for the wrong done to his holiness and follow the suit against thy soul for al thy injurious dealings and he himself wil come in against thee as a swift witness If thy Conscience condemn thee God himself is greater than thy Conscience and he knowes al things and wil bring to light the hidden things of darkness will make manifest the counsels of the heart When al those dunghil stains of Adulterous lusts and malicious envious and covetous desires shal be layd open to the view of the sun al those swarmes of foolish and wicked imaginations shal be then discovered it s better therefore that thou shouldst see them now in the day of Grace better thou shouldst have them now discovered to thy Conscience for thy humiliation then at the day of judgment for thy confusion But if the Lord will require all then I hope I may use means to satisfy for al when my day beginns to decline and my Sun to set and my glass is run when I am dropping down to the grave and groaning upon my sick bed I wil then betake my self to my prayers tears and repentance for my sins I wil sorrow for my sins seek unto God for mercy I wil repent and reform the evil of my wayes and the Lord wil remove the Plague of them In thy declining daies wilt thou do this Oh deluded creature who knows but this day or before thou hast read over this book the Lord may take away thy soul who knows whether thou shalt have time to seek or a heart to seek or God wil accept of thee when thou seekest Whether a time or no. Whether the date of Gods bounty the day of Grace and period of Gods patience be come to an end When thou hast abused 〈◊〉 many opportunities whether ever he wil give thee leave or time once to look out for 〈◊〉 when thy tongue shal be faultring in thy mouth thy eyes fallen in thy head 〈◊〉 heart sink and dy within thy bosom not able to sigh out one desire and the Lord snatch thee out of the land of the living before thou canst see or consider whithere thou art going Luke 19. 41. 42. If thou hadst known at least in this thy day the things that belong to thy peace but now they are hidden from thine eyes the things of their peace were before their eyes and yet were hid from their eyes Rev. 2. 21. 23. I gave her day to repent but shee repented not therefore I wil cast her in to a bed and 〈◊〉 her children with death shee had no more dayes of repentance but of ruine shee was cast into a bed of sorrow and had not time to pour out her prayers If thou hast time who knows that God will give thee a heart to seek for mercy or sue for Grace It 's true God may help thee but it 's as true God may harden thee he may humble thee and he may 〈◊〉 thee and it 's most likely he wil thou which hast refused to hear he wil refuse to help Ezek. 24. 13. I would have purged 〈◊〉 and thou wouldest not be purged thou shalt never be purged more Jer. 51. 9. we would have cured Babilon but she would not be cured leave her then leave them to the blindness of their
they were and therefore may cal and choos thee also They are not only dry but dead bones which the Lord makes to live Ezek. 37. 2. can these dead bones live they are not onely miscarrying but barren wombs which the Lord makes to bear and be fruitful Not only when things are under hope but when there is nothing in present appearance or expectation then God can do it Rom. 4. 24. when it is not onely beyond thy power and ability God can support thee and strengthen thee teach and quicken thee when it is beyond not thy apprehension but thy very thought and hope he hath done so 〈◊〉 do so he lives stil and can do so to thee also True my weaknesses are many but that 's not al nor yet the worst the way wardness and perversness of mine own heart ads the greatest weight unto my misery and wretchedness not onely destitute of any spiritual good but not willing to be made better my brow as brass and my neck like an iron and sinew as the Lord complaynes Isa. 48. 4. My heart harder than the nether milstone Job 41. 28. If life and Salvation were laid before me and that I might have heaven and grace for taking or entertainment of it yet I would neither have word nor Christ nor heaven it self unless I might have my wil in heaven such is the invincible stiffness and desperate perversness of my spirit unless I may have what I wil when it comes upon the narrow God must not have his glory nor service nor subjection nor alleagiance nor duty in the least 〈◊〉 discharged I must burn for I can neither break nor yield nor mercies perswade me nor judgments awe me I can receive no good nay I can see no reason why God should do any good to me that would not have it Here is the dead lift and the wonder of al wonders the overpowring of the soveraignty of a stubborn self-willy heart 〈◊〉 the throne where Satan dwells which 〈◊〉 the doctrine of free-wil to be a doctrine of Devils and that which drives the soul to everlasting discouragement pretend what such deceivers can to the contrary But the former doctrine affords support and that which wil bear up thy heart even in this particular also thy Salvation depends not upon thine owne wil for then neither thou nor any flesh should be saved But God shewes mercy to whom he will shew mercy Rom. 9. 19. As nothing can deserve his mercy so nothing can resist his good pleasure when he wil shew it he wil make thee find it and others see it James 1. 18. of his own good wil begot he us by the word of truth It 's not according to the wil of Satan for then no man should be saved it s not according to the wil of man fallen for then no man could be saved But he dispenseth the work of his grace according to his own wil And his counsel shal stand and he will do what he wil. Isai. 46. 11. let the wil of men and Devills oppose it to the utmost of their power Quiet thou thy heart I cannot do any thing that might purchas not yet in truth would I have grace if God would give it only it is with God to do good to this miserable soul of mine as he wil who doth what he wil in heaven and in earth his wil be done and blessed be his holy name for ever and ever and there stay thy self It was the expression of a man in heavy perplexity of Conscience finding the crosness of his wil to snarl at the Lords dispensation his heart sunk within him with unsupportable horror that he had 〈◊〉 the sin against the Holy Ghost and with many prayers and tears he sought to heaven to bring his heart to an under subjection to the good pleasure of the Lord but the Lord left him to his own perversness nothing he could do could prevail with his own spirit and proffessed against that cursed cavil of the Arminians that reproach of the doctrine of Gods free grace which leads to despayr and discouragement openly acknowledging that if his own salvation depended upon his own wil he should perish irrecoverably but that only held his heart in some hope that his happiness was in Gods hand and that it meerly depended upon the wil of the Lord to give him a heart to fear and serve him or else his heart would fayl And it was a savory speech of a gracious woman that had a great deal of Do with her own heart when she could not find her heart to come off so willingly to give way as she ought to what her judgment allowed she besought the Lord to give her such a disposition of heart whether she would or no. Thou yet replyest that which ads to the hainousness of my evil is this these loathsom distempers have not been harboured in mine own breast onely confined in mine own bosom which yet had been too much but they have broken out into the most sierce and professed rebellion and that in the highest degree I have been a professed opposer of the gospel and the power thereof an open Rabshekah a Ringleader and Encourager to such that would revile and reproach the righteous and good wayes of Gods grace a jearing Ishmaelite of such as with 〈◊〉 of Conscience had care to walk therein and have resolved and attempted also even with an impudent face and a brazen forehead to outbrave the authority of the truth and made it matter of scorn to drop and give in to the most dreadful threatnings that could be denounced out of the word I have trampled al the entreaties of the Lord and tender offers of mercy under feet that when I have called over my course and viewed my carriage in cold blood I have wondred that the Lord hath not made me a spectacle of his displeasure before I departed out of the place that the very earth did not open and swallow me quick as Corah 〈◊〉 and Abiram So that God cannot be God unless he do avenge himself and pluck the praise of his justice 〈◊〉 the heart blood of such a wretch nay he should be accessory to the dishonor of his own name if he should shew mercy to such who openly impudently in a hellish haughtiness of heart have trampled his mercy under their feet True flesh and blood could not do it nay the heart 〈◊〉 man cannot think it how this should be did wee measure Gods compassions according to our narrowscantling but Gods thoughts are not ours nor his wayes ours so far as the heavens are above the earth so great is his mercy unto them that fear him Isai. 55. Psal. 103. 11. infinitely above and beyond our own desires and thoughts our imaginations and expectations They are I confess amazing expressions of miraculous compassions of the Lord yet such they are as he is pleased to manifest to sinful dust and ashes He can tel how to have the
Hebrews 6. 8. The Earth that often drinketh in the rain and yet brings forth thorns and 〈◊〉 is nigh is nigh unto cursing whose end is to be burned The rain is the Word heard understood embraced acknowledged and yet have their malicious venemous conspiracies against the Gospel of God and Saints of Christ and that in 〈◊〉 like thorns under the leaves like bryars under pretence of moderation and humility can scratch bitterly it 's a heavy suspicion their end wil be burning Take heed thou content not thy self in thy rebellious condition for upon this supposition that thou wilt have this thou puttest thy self out of any possibility of good goest against Gods Order Course and Covenant and the whol Work of Redemption Christ comes to bless his by turning them away from their sins Acts 3. last and therefore when the Lord comes to hale thee out of thy sins take heed thou dost not go from under Gods strivings lest he strive with thee no more EXHORTATION We have hence special motives to quicken the desires and provoke the endeavors of the most carnal minded men in the world to attend with all the care and diligence they may upon the means of Grace But you wil tel us It is not in our Preparations Performances and Improvements that our Spiritual good depends there is nothing we can do can procure it it depends wholly upon the good pleasure of the Lord Why then should we trouble our selves to endeavor any thing I Answer The Inference is the quite contrary way All is in God and his good pleasure attend therefore upon him in his own means that thou mayest receive al from him If a man should reason thus I can do nothing for my self therefore I wil take a course that no man shall do any thing for me it were not a weakness but a kind of madness but rather in common sence a man would be provoked to press his own heart thus I can do nothing of my self therefore I must attend upon God in those means which he useth to do for all those he useth to do good unto So the Disciples to our Savior when he would arm them against his departure Will ye also go away John 6. 68. They answer Lord whither should we go thou only hast the words of eternal life Christ only can humble and convert Christ only hath peace and pardon therefore only go to him We are so wise for our bodies where one is most like to speed every man is most willing to go especially considering as nothing can purchase his favor 〈◊〉 nothing can 〈◊〉 the expression of his good pleasure when he wil go therefore what ever thy condition is When thou art at the weakest here is supply As he said Why stand you gazing fainting and famishing get ye into Egypt for Corn that we may live and not die though thou livest in the height of the perversness of thy heart in the out-rage of thy rebellion though thou carriest a scornful contemptuous spirit with thee yet go who knows when is Gods time what he may do bring your own souls your rebellious Servants and disobedient Children fall down at the foot of Christ in his Ordinances and say Here are a company of Hellish Traitrous hearts which bring proud stubborn scornful rebellious distempers like so many bloody weapons even to wound thy good Majesty withal Oh pluck these weapons out of our hands these treasons out of our hearts that would pluck us to thee and so to destruction As we cannot deserve any thing so our wretchedness cannot hinder thy Work And because thou knowest not the season of mercy take al seasons thou knowest not what time God may or wil work because it is in his own pleasure therefore attend upon him at al times 2. Tim. 2. 25. Proving if at any time God will give thee Repentance Attend upon him in all Ordinances because it is in his pleasure to breath in which he wil and to bless which he wil for thy Spiritual Comfort Sow thy Seed in the morning and in the evening because thou knowest not which may prosper this or that Eccles. 11. 6. Thou knowest not whether Prayer or Meditation or Reading wil prosper and which of these or any other Ordinance God wil bless for the saving good of thy soul. When thou findest the Lord stirring moving enabling and working in thee move thou and work thou also As the Marriner when he finds the gale coming any way he tacks about 〈◊〉 way to take the advantage God was tampering with the heart of Agrippa it was at a ha now a ha Thou hast almost perswaded me to become a Christian saies he to Paul Acts 26. 28. Ah what a pity was it he should fal back again It 's matter os wonderment able to swallow up the heart of a sinner with the everlasting admiration of this 〈◊〉 unmatchable kindness of the Lord. Micah 7. 18. Who is a God like unto thee that pardonest iniquity and passest by the transgression of the remnant of his Heritage He retaineth not his anger for ever because he 〈◊〉 in mercy he will turn again he will have compassion upon us he will subdue our iniquities and thou wilt cast all their sins into the depths of the Sea You that have tasted how good the Lord is and found this Truth made good in your own hearts by your own experience as Paul was wont to recount his course I was a persecuter blasphemous and injurious but I obtained mercy I doubt not but many of you may say if ever there was a Fiend in Hell or a Rebel upon Earth I was one an opposer of the Gospel a despiser of the means of Grace a hater of the holy waies of the Lord and his servants that walk therein yet then God did me good when I desired and 〈◊〉 my own hurt Get ye homeye blessed Saints and in the secret of your Closets cal Heaven and Earth together and leave these compassions upon Record Say the time was this carnal mind of mine plotted my wretched 〈◊〉 and mine own ruin but then the Lord prevented both I opposed 〈◊〉 entreaties and he yet pursued me and would take no 〈◊〉 he called after me wept over me Turn ye turn ye why will you die I provoked him he pitied me I resisted him he imbraced me I said I would have none of him nor his Grace he said he would have no denial I resolved to walk on in the frowardness of mine own 〈◊〉 and to perish in the despight of al means and he would and did shew me mercy in the despight of the pride and rebellion of this heart or else I had never seen this day nor never had hope to see his face in glory Be astonished and confounded at this O ye Devils and come down ye blessed Angels from Heaven and magnifie this mercy Leave this in your last will and testament to your little ones O ye Fathers leave
procure it  3 There is no Promise made to a Natural man  Uses three hence Matter of  1 Thanksgiving 〈◊〉 the 〈◊〉 of Grace  2 〈◊〉 to 〈◊〉 sinners in the sight of their sins and 〈◊〉  3 Exhortation to such as want and are seeking mercy to stay Gods time and wait his pleasure  DOCT. 2. VVhile this life lasts and the Gospel is continued that 's the day of Salvation  1. The time of this Life the time of getting Grace 241 Reason Because after this Life  1 The Sentence past is irrevocable  2 The condition of a man is unchangable  2 While the 〈◊〉 is 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Reason 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Gods 〈◊〉  In regard  1 Of the Causes and means which are then afforded  2 Of the effect and work it self which is then wrought  3 Of the subject the persons wrought upon  Uses three hence  1 Learn That long life is a great blessing  2 Caution To fortifie our selves against self-murder  3 Exhortation to improve the time of Salvation  1 It is a Season 251 2 It is a short one but a day  3 A Season not of our but of Gods acceptation  4 It is a day of Salvation  BOOK V. On Matth. 20. 5 6 7. He went out about the sixth ninth and eleventh hour and hired Laborers  DOCT. God calls his Elect at any Age but the most before old Age. 〈◊〉 1 God calls his at any Age some in yonger some in elder yeers  〈◊〉  1 To shew the freeness of his Grace  2 To shew 〈◊〉 Power  〈◊〉 God calls the most before old Age viz. In their yonger or middle 〈◊〉  Reasons Because that 's the fittest Age in regard of  1 The Subject For  1 The Faculties are then most capable of being wrought upon  2 Corruptions are not so strongly rooted  2 The End why Grace is given viz. the Glory of God  Uses three hence 271 1 Instruction Be not rash in censuring the 〈◊〉 Estate of any  Though we may judg of their present state by their fruits  2 Consolation to support aged sinners though it 's not ordinary yet possible they may be converted then 276 3 Exhortation to yonger men take 〈◊〉 present time defer not till old Age if you do  1 Either you will never attain it  2 Or it will be uncomfortable if you do  Motives to provoke such Consider  1 What good you may do while you live  2 What Comfort you will have at your death  3 What your Glory will be in Heaven  BOOK VI. On Revel 3. 17. Thou sayest thou art rich when thou art poor and miserable c.  DOCT. The soul is naturally setled in a sinful security 285 1 The sinner 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 in his Condition  2 He 〈◊〉 no 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 present  3 He 〈◊〉 none 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 future  4 Hence 〈◊〉 puts his condition beyond question  5 And therefore 〈◊〉 scorns  6 And openly 〈◊〉 an alteration of his estate  Reasons three taken from 292 1 The 〈◊〉 of sin  2 The 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 the soul  3 〈◊〉 and Self-ease  Uses four 〈◊〉 295 1 See the reason why sharp and soul-saving preaching 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 little acceptance Because it awakens men out of security  2 It 's the 〈◊〉 plague for a man to be let alone in his sins  3 〈◊〉 as never were 〈◊〉 and awakened to 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 of their 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 yet in it  4 〈◊〉 to 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Such should  1 Suspect their 〈◊〉  2 〈◊〉 about it  3 Yield that 〈◊〉 the present their condition 〈◊〉 〈◊〉  BOOK VII 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 the slesh is enmity against the Lord and is not subject to his Law  DOCT. The frame of the whol heart of a Natural man is wholly unwilling to submit to the VVord that would sever him from his sins 305 1 He seeks not after truth  2 He is loth to meet with it  3 He stops the passage of it  4 He doth what he can to defeat the power and evidence of it  5 He will professedly oppose it  6 He will privily 〈◊〉 the stirrings of the Truth in his Conscience  Reasons four taken from 315 1 The Corruption of the will  2 The Revenging Justice of God  3 The power of Satan  4 The 〈◊〉 and neer alliance between the heart and sin  Uses sive hence  1 It 's the heaviest plague for a Natural man to have his own corrupt will  2 The will of a Natural man is the worst part 〈◊〉 him  3 The 〈◊〉 of a carnal man 〈◊〉 cross to sence and reason  4 Tryal of our estates by our 〈◊〉 or unwillingness to part with sin  He that is willing 331 1 He is speedy and 〈◊〉 in improving 〈◊〉 〈◊〉  2 He takes delight in those means that 〈◊〉 and work most  3 He is not content till his sin be removed  4 He takes not up his stand till he come at God  5 Exhortation Labor for willingness to part with sin 343 1 The greatest and hardest work lies with the wil.  2 Beleaguer the heart with the evidence of Truth  3 Look up to God that he would work upon the heart  BOOK VIII On John 6. 44. None can come to me but whom the Father draws  DOCT. God the Father by a holy kind of 〈◊〉 plucks his out of their corruptions and draws them to beleeve in Christ. 349 This work of Attraction is a transient work 〈◊〉 both these  1 Plucking from sin  2 And drawing to Christ are handled together  For Explication six Particulars  The sorts of drawing two  1 By moral Suasion  2 By Physical or internal operation  This latter is meant here 353 The proper Nature of this drawing it 's the motion or impression of the Spirit upon the Soul not any habit in it or act put forth by it to 〈◊〉 with the Spirit 355 The means how God works and by wich he draws  These are four 355 1 By a hook of Instruction shewing a man that he is out of the way to Heaven  2 By the Cords of Love shewing that Christ and Mercy are  1 Able to 〈◊〉 him  2 Willing to save him  3 Are freely offered for that end  4 The Lord waits to see when the sinner will come  3 By the Iron Chains of Conscience  1 Warning  2 Accusing  3 Condemning  4 By the hand of the Spirit himself  How the holy violence in drawing the Soul from sin to Christ may be discerned in four Conclusions 373 1 The will of man as such is a subject capable of sin and Grace successively  2 The faculty of the will cannot actually
any saving Work If there were no Doubt moved no Question Controverted by way of any seeming Collection from the place the very Mysterious depths of the 〈◊〉 herein delivered drives all Interpreters to a stand and puts the most Judicious beyond their thoughts so that there is more 〈◊〉 to 〈◊〉 the mind of God in the words then to make Answer to the Objection hence collected We will 〈◊〉 Shortly open the meaning of the Words 2 Then 〈◊〉 what may be truly Collected from them and 〈◊〉 it will appear that the Objection fetched from 〈◊〉 will find no footing in this place The scope of the Apostle in vers 4 5. is That 〈◊〉 Christ is the Son of God and that Faith which 〈◊〉 the world must look to him and rest 〈◊〉 him This he 〈◊〉 to me to prove and explicate in both the parts of it in vers 6. And secondly amplyfieth it in the following 7. and 8. verses His proof is taken from 〈◊〉 type of his Priestly-Office the truth whereof he accomplished in the great Work of Redemption He that comes by water and blood he is the son of God But Jesus Christ came by water and blood His comming implys 1 His Fathers Sending 2 〈◊〉 Own Undertaking that great Work of our Recovery not only by Water as the Levites who were washed Numb 8. 6. 7. but by Blood also as the Priests Levit. 8. 6. 22 23 24. By Water I conceive is meant The Holiness of his Nature in which he was Conceived and for which end he was overshad owed by the Spirit By Blood is meant that Expiation and Satisfaction he made to the Law of God by shedding his Blood So that He that had all that and 〈◊〉 all that which was shadowed by the Priests He is that Jesus the son of God for 〈◊〉 And the Spirit bears witness because the Spirit is Truth This seems to me to be the fairest sense and to be preferred before all that I can see brought By Spirit in the First place is meant Gods 〈◊〉 the Holy Ghost By Spirit in the Second place I do think 〈◊〉 is meant For so you shall find the word used 2 Cor. 4. 13. Having the same Spirit of Faith So that the Spirit of God comming from the Father and the Son would testifie by the aspertion of this Water and Blood that my Faith is true when it assures my heart that this Jesus is the Son of God 2 He amplifies this proof by bringing in the number of witnesses and the manner of their witnessing For their number they are Six The Father sending The Son coming The Spirit certifying in this 〈◊〉 manner of working they are distinct and herein appear to be distinct witnesses and this their witness is from Heaven signifying where they are and from whence they express their witness The Father speaks from Heaven This is my beloved Son in whom I am well pleased Mat. 3. last The Son professeth so often of himself That he came out of the bosom of the Father John 1. 18. John 3. 13. No man can ascend to Heaven but the Son of man who came down from Heaven John 6. 38. I came down from Heaven not to do my own will but the will of him that sent 〈◊〉 Lastly in Mat. 3. last The Spirit of God descended down upon him in the likeness of a Dove these speak from Heaven and their expressions are 〈◊〉 in the word without us whether we beleeve or no. Three again speak and witness from Earth for Christ dwels in us here on Earth the Spirit Water and Blood There is no doubt but by Water is meant Sanctification by Blood Justification all the Question lies upon the third What is meant by Spirit Under correction I take it It 's meant of Faith for besides that 2 Tim. 1. 7. all graces are called the Spirit we have received the Spirit of Power of Love and of a sound mind this is expresly so named 2 Cor. 4. 13. we having the same Spirit of Faith this is most safe and most sutable to the analogy of Faith and the intendment of the Text. There are but Three great Works unto which all the rest may be referred Vocation Justification Sanctification all these in us give in witness and evîdence That Jesus the Savior of the World must be the Son of God sent of him who sends also his Spirit into our hearts to work thus in us and by these works to evidence to us Himself and his Office The Truths then which according to the right meaning of the words may hence be collected are these There be six Witnesses Three of these witness from Heaven and their Testimony is left in the word without us The other three from Earth from the operation of the work of Grace and these are within us Al these agree in this as the thing winessed 〈◊〉 Jesus the Saviour of his People is the Son of God The witness of those from Heaven is greater than that which is on Earth But touching the witnessing of my good 〈◊〉 without respect to a gracius disposition or qualification there is not a syllable in the Text that sounds that way or carries any appearance to that purpose If every Work of Grace or the truth of a gracious qualification be witnessed by the Spirit and is lastly resolved therinto So that I Beleeve the work of Grace in me to be true because the Spirit witnesseth it then I must have an absolute ground to Beleeve the Spirit I wil open this Phrase the witness of the Spirit on an absolute ground Either it s meant 〈◊〉 the witness of the Spirit is attended without any respect to a work that is witnessed then its false and absurd that I should discern the witness of the Spirit without any respect to the thing witnessed 〈◊〉 made known to me by it for as hath been 〈◊〉 before witness and the thing witnessed go both together Or it s meant thus That when I have received the witness of the Spirit to my self then I 〈◊〉 prove it upon an absolute ground Hath Christ purchased al spiritual good for His for Beleevers Hence then we may see the 〈◊〉 of the faithful and the priviledg of those that 〈◊〉 above all people upon earth To you the Father intended al the treasuries of grace and glory in your stead Christ suffered performed all that the Law required and Justice exacted for you it is he hath purchased al that good that you need doth not that please you al you can desire doth not that quiet you nay all that you can receive through al eternitie doth not that satisfie There is none like unto you never the like was done for any as for you It was Moses Collection and caused his wonderment in the Consideration thereof Deut. 33. 29. When he had recounted the wonderful Preservations the Lord had wrought Priviledges he honoured them with and bestowed upon them he breaks forth into these expressions Blessed art thou
O Israel who is like unto the O People Saved by the Lord. That was in the Type Resemblance only but here is the Truth and Substance of Shadowes those Shadowes Accomplished in the Purchase of Christ or his faithful ones who are Saved not from the Oppression of a Pharaoh but from the Power of Darkness and Dominion of the Divel not delivered from the house of Bondage but from the bottome of Hell Blessed are ye O ye beleeving Souls your Excellencie is incomparble your Privilidges are inconceivable Who is like unto you O People thus blessed and saved by the Lord. The Wicked are not the World is not it is not so with them they have the Gleanings you have the Harvest they may have Rivers of Oyl but you the Rivers of Pleasures at the right hand of the Lord Nay now while you are in this World Al is yours All that the Obedience of Christ could procure Al that the Blood the precious Blood of Christ could Purchase precious Grace and Peace precious Comfort and Assurance precious Holiness and Glory Excellent things are not only spoken of you but done for you you blessed Beleeving Soules Hence it is when Moses would plead the Priviledges of the Saints he stands upon terms of comparison 〈◊〉 challengeth al the World to shew the like Eminency of Gods love upon Earth again Deut. 4 33 34 35 36 37. Did ever People partake of such Good as 〈◊〉 Purchased for you hath God essayed to go and take 〈◊〉 himself a Nation from among the Nations shal I say by Tempations Signs and Wonders to bring 〈◊〉 out of Egipt No no it was not from the house of Bondage from the tyranny of Pharaoh nor from Death and Miseries outward but from the bottom of Hel the tyranny of Sin the power of the Devil from everlasting Death and Condemnation 〈◊〉 this not by making Water become Blood but by making Happiness to become Misery God to become Man and Life it self Christ Jesus the 〈◊〉 of Life to die that he might restore thee to Life and Glory Go therefore ye blessed Beleeving Servants of the Lord go on comfortably and the blessing of Heaven go with you know your Priviledges and be for ever quieted and contented 〈◊〉 Fret not you at the prosperity of the Wicked be 〈◊〉 troubled at their Pomp since your portion is far 〈◊〉 and of incomparable Excellencie When the Father had entertained his prodigal Son after 〈◊〉 return with a Gold Ring change of 〈◊〉 and 〈◊〉 fatted Calfe the elder Son began to mutter 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 shew his 〈◊〉 the answer was reasonable 〈◊〉 exceeding satisfactory Son thou art ever with 〈◊〉 and all that I have is thine Luke 15. 31. So here Suffer the Dogs to gnaw the bones and 〈◊〉 to have their scraps let 〈◊〉 have the Gold Ring to adorne them and the fatted Calfe to feed and 〈◊〉 upon but know al you Beleevers al that is 〈◊〉 Earth al that is in Heaven al that the Father 〈◊〉 that 〈◊〉 hath al the Mercy of a Father the edemption of a Jesus the Consolations of the 〈◊〉 al these are yours you cannot have more you 〈◊〉 be better me thinks you should not be I 〈◊〉 almost said you cannot but be for ever 〈◊〉 and Contented And now al you that sit by and here of al this 〈◊〉 thinks your hearts should sink within you 〈◊〉 that never knew what it was to be Humbled 〈◊〉 to be Called and to Beleeve in Christ 〈◊〉 al is gone before you Beleevers have al 〈◊〉 therefore and arise to follow hard after 〈◊〉 Lord that you also may be Humbled that you 〈◊〉 may be Called and Comforted and for ever 〈◊〉 by Jesus Christ. This wil be the plague of 〈◊〉 damned in Hell They shal see Abraham and 〈◊〉 and Jacob and all the Saints of God in Heaven 〈◊〉 themselves cast out You shal see al those poor 〈◊〉 whom you have known in the Townes and 〈◊〉 where you have lived you wil see them go to Heaven and your selves cast out O therefore 〈◊〉 you would give God no rest nor your owne 〈◊〉 no quiet til you have got a beleeving heart Why have Beleevers al this have they Christ and 〈◊〉 and Pardon and Peace and Glory and 〈◊〉 and all say Lord why not I a Beleever too 〈◊〉 I see no reason but you may God affords you 〈◊〉 and you may be wrought upon by the Means 〈◊〉 ought I know therefore seek earnestly to the 〈◊〉 that you also may be brought in amongst the 〈◊〉 of Beleevers for whom al this good is Purchased by Jesus Christ. The Doctrine delivered dasheth that dream and 〈◊〉 that false opinion wherewith many carnal hearted men are easily and willingly taken 〈◊〉 who fondly perswade themselves that Christ died for al and Purchased both Grace and Glory mankind indifferently for Cain as wel as Abell Esau as wel as Jacob for Judas as wel as Peter that al that spiritual good that any of the Saints ver share in it was al intended to them al 〈◊〉 sed for them al provided for their good but the out of the perversness of their own wills 〈◊〉 that Physick that would have cured them 〈◊〉 upon the blood of the Covenant that was shed 〈◊〉 their Redemption A conceit cross to the 〈◊〉 formerly delivered and thereby confuted and 〈◊〉 demned but an opinion it is which 〈◊〉 derogates from the Justice of God the 〈◊〉 of the Lord Jesus the glory of his Free 〈◊〉 which is Childrens bread and appoynted ouly 〈◊〉 peculiar kindness for his own People yet by 〈◊〉 erroneous imagination is prostituted under the 〈◊〉 of a company of prophane beasts This universalitie of Redemption makes way 〈◊〉 universalitie of Corruption and these sensual 〈◊〉 deceiving men make the gate of Mercy and 〈◊〉 so wide that so they find room not only 〈◊〉 themselves but to carry their sins to Heaven 〈◊〉 them also But such shal one day find by 〈◊〉 experience they befooled themselves and fel 〈◊〉 of their hopes and expectations when they 〈◊〉 know to their terrour that the Lord Jesus was 〈◊〉 so lavish of his blood as to spil it in vain 〈◊〉 he should miss of his end or they of their good 〈◊〉 whom it was shed though they ery never so 〈◊〉 knock never so hard Lord Lord open 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 they 〈◊〉 have no other answer but that 〈◊〉 from 〈◊〉 know you not 〈◊〉 workers of iniquitie Math. 7. 23. I never prayed for you I never dyed for you 〈◊〉 is that which will sink the hearts and dash the 〈◊〉 of al unbeleeving self deceiving Creatures Is there 〈◊〉 rich Grace plentiful Redemption abundant 〈◊〉 Merits unvaluable in the Lord Jesus True 〈◊〉 that 's thy misery thou shalt see it but never be 〈◊〉 partaker thereof Thou shalt not tast of those 〈◊〉 dainties the Lord hath provided for his 〈◊〉 as long as thou remainest in that unbeleeving 〈◊〉 thy doom is set thy sentence is
the same time be 〈◊〉 or that which opposeth and distroies this good 〈◊〉 yet share 〈◊〉 First then the Lord Christ makes the Soul Capable As in all Corporations who have their Priviledges and Immunities by Charter 〈◊〉 to certaine persons under such terms and conditions as that he must be bound prentise and serve 〈◊〉 long he that comes not under such conditions he is not capable of such priviledges so here John 3. 27. No man can receiv any thing except it be given him from 〈◊〉 that is not only the thing but the receiving of it must be given unto him Math. 13. 11. To you it is given to know the Misteries of the kingdome but to others it was not so for in hearing they should bear and not Perceive seeing they should See and not understand their eyes were blinded and their hearts were hardened and so they were uncapable of any good Coloss. 1. 12. Giving thanks unto the Father who hath made 〈◊〉 meet to be partakers of the 〈◊〉 of the Saints as who should say they were not fit nor meet before they were made so As he makes them capable of this 10 he giues them a right and title therunto which they may for 〈◊〉 hould and for ever maintaine their Possession by 1. John 5. 12. he that hath the Son hath life first we must have aright unto Christ and then to all that is in him In him are hid all the treasuries of wisdome and holiness if once a man have a right in the 〈◊〉 all the mettal Gould and Silver is his that is there 〈◊〉 may digg bouldly and take freely it is his own buy once the Ground then all the springs that runne 〈◊〉 all the trees that growe there and all provision 〈◊〉 arise thence are his Christ is the mine of mercy and 〈◊〉 Oar of Grace and Salvation the well-spring of 〈◊〉 and happiness all the promises are 〈◊〉 and Amen in him in him accomplished by him performed this is Gods manner first he gives his Son and with him all things that 's his order in giving and it should be ours in receiving It 's Satans policy to make the Saints be at a loss when they look for pardon and grace and peace and comfort within themselves and then to Christ and so 〈◊〉 his labor and Lookes in vaine but wee should Looke up to Christ the author and finisher of our Faith Heb. 12. 〈◊〉 God hath blessed us with al Spiritual blessings but it is in Christ Eph. 1. 3. In him these blessings are contained by him dispensed and from him received And therfore the Apostle issues all here This is the witness of the Father touching his Son he hath given us eternall life and this life is in his Son 1. John 5. 11. this is the Tenure of the Saints which they hould in Capite The Soul then stands Seized of and actually estated in al these spiritual good things of Jesus Christ he is really admitted into all these priviledges that he may enjoy them and unto 〈◊〉 benefit of them as his due he hath not onely jus ad rem but jus in re Rom. 8. 32. If he hath given us his Son how shall he not but with him give us all things else he is the heire who hath all have him and have all when the indentures are Sealed then there is Deliverie of the Land and the Emolument therof comes to him from that Day forward So here the rents and Revenues of the Gospel come in to us when once we have Christ 1 Cor. 1. 30. He is made of God unto us Wisdom Righteousness Sanctification and Redemption if once he be made ours all in him will be made ours also 1 John 16. Of his Fulness we all receive Grace for Grace The soul hath now liberty to 〈◊〉 and improve Christ and al he is and hath and doth for our Spiritual Advancement and so to live upon our own our Revenues and comings in from Jesus Christ Gal. 2. 19. That I now live it is by the faith of Jesus Phil 4. 13. I can do all things through Christ that strengthens me he hath provisions about him to live comfortably and contentedly in all conditions I can be rich and I can be poor I can abound and I can be abased Mens Patrimonies and Possessions may help them to be rich but to learn them how to be poor they will not nay rather indispose them and God would have us not only live Christianly but comfortably Heb. 6. 17 18. He hath sworn that he will bless us in his Christ that by two immutable things we might have strong consolation nay To grow up in him in all things Eph. 4. 15 16. that we may grow rich in peace and comfort and assurance in grace and holiness and all the good things of Jesus Christ. And this is the Order of Application He first makes us capable of then gives us a right unto then estates us in and lastly gives us the use and improvement of all Spiritual Good in Christ. Thus it 's made Ours This should make us see and affect our hearts with a holy admiration at the riches of Gods mercy and freeness of the Covenant of Grace in Christ who prevents his with Blessings of goodness and that in the midst of their undeservings when out of the stubbornness and crossness of our hearts we oppose his Truth and Holiness he doth us good when we neither will nor desire our own good He not only provides a gift but a hand to take 〈◊〉 he requires the condition which is exceeding reasonable and works 〈◊〉 the condition he requires tenders us mercy which we could not have conceived and that 's not all but gives a heart to entertain it that 〈◊〉 Christian might be and breath in mercy When Adam though adorned with all 〈◊〉 that was compatible 〈◊〉 a creature in his condition having the stock left in 〈◊〉 hand he undid himself 〈◊〉 his Posterity being left to the mutability of his 〈◊〉 will though holy and righteous how suddenly 〈◊〉 irrecoverably becomes he miserable But this is 〈◊〉 incomparable excellency of the Covenant of Grace the Lord not only makes provision for lost man 〈◊〉 though it was no smal favor yet it would never 〈◊〉 done him good therefore he made it his also 〈◊〉 dam should have had all conveyed to him by a 〈◊〉 of Justice by his own improvement and obedience and hence he lost what he had and hoped for It 〈◊〉 just God should require service from Adam it 〈◊〉 just he should give him grace to do it for else 〈◊〉 should have required 〈◊〉 from his Creature which had been contrary to the wisdom and holiness 〈◊〉 the Creator It was also just that when 〈◊〉 had done what was commanded and covenanted 〈◊〉 him for 〈◊〉 was just 〈◊〉 say that then he should accept of work and reward it for to him that worketh wages is due of debt Rom. 4. 4. but it's 〈◊〉 in 〈◊〉 of the
which the Lord 〈◊〉 appointed for the revelation and communication 〈◊〉 all Spiritual Good Again remember this The Word is but an Instrument or means and therefore it 〈◊〉 no further than the Lord Christ works with it 〈◊〉 the operation of his Spirit hence it 's called the 〈◊〉 of the Spirit Eph. 6. 17. and Rom. 1. 16. The Gospel is the Power of God unto Salvation as 〈◊〉 Lord puts forth his Power in and by the Gospel Secondly It is the Word in the ' Ministry of it the 〈◊〉 published and preached the Word rightly 〈◊〉 as the Apostle speaks 2 Tim. 2. 15. that is 〈◊〉 the Word is rightly opened and rightly applied works then more powerfully because 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 to the Will of the Principal Agent and according to the weakness of them to whom it is delivered as the chewing of meat fits it for the Stomach and therfore it nourisheth more the pounding of 〈◊〉 makes it smel more so it is with the Word when opened and applied according to the mind of God it 〈◊〉 the savor of Life unto Life 2 Cor. 2. 16. so 〈◊〉 Rom. 10. 17. Faith cometh by hearing of the Word of God it is not meant that faith comes by hearing of the Word read for that kind of preaching is 〈◊〉 meant for which a man is sent 〈◊〉 15. How can they preach except they be sent but for bare reading no man had need to be sent 2 Cor. 5. 17 18. God 〈◊〉 in Christ reconciling the world to himself and hath committed to us the Word of Reconciliation that is the Lord hath delegated the dispensation of his Word in a way of Explication and Application of it to 〈◊〉 faithful Ministers Only here observe Gods Order 1 The Power resideth first in Christ and his Spirit 2 From Christ and his Spirit it comes to the Word 3 From the Word to the Administration thereof by the Dispensers where you find most of the Word and most evidence of the Spirit there you shall find the work to go on powerfully and successfully for the bringing home of souls to God It is not all Eloquence 〈◊〉 humane Excellency in the world but where a man walketh with God in the use of his Ordinances as when Paul was preaching God opened the heart of Lydia Acts 16. 14. The Word is like a Burning-Glass that which burns and heats is not the Glass but the beams of the Sun that pierceth through the Glass so it is the Power of Christ in a Promise in a Command that makes it pierce to the heart Gal. 2. 8. He that wrought effectually in Peter to the Ministry of the Circumcision was mighty in me towards the Gentils alas what is Paul or Peter or Apollo as the Apostle speaks 1 Cor. 2. 5. but Ministers by whom you beleeve as the Lord gives to every man 〈◊〉 are 〈◊〉 Instruments which stir no further than the 〈◊〉 will move by them nor can do no more than the 〈◊〉 will work by them Word Prayer Preaching Sacraments these are 〈◊〉 weak in themselves yet are they mighty through God to bring in the souls of men in obedience to the Lord. Thus I have done with the Explication of this general Conclusion together with the particular Propositions contained in it that God himself the Father through Christ by his Spirit by an Almighty Power is the Principal Cause and the Ministry of the Word the Instrumental Cause of the Application of all saving good Let me ad some Uses that flow from 〈◊〉 Information in Two things First Hence we learn That the 〈◊〉 of the work of Gods Grace upon the souls of his Servants is not done by moral perswasion that 's Pelagianism and Arminianism they require no more to the conversion of a sinner but meer perswasion the Promises of Grace must be pressed the excellency and glory of Christ discovered and that say they is all that is needful lay but these before a man and he hath power to embrace and receive them if he will It is a false conceit If that Power that raised up Christ from the dead must be put forth for the bringing home of a soul to God then there must be more than moral perswasion which only stirs up and draws out that ability that is within us Men may come dead and sit so and return so and be never the better for all the Ordinances and means of Grace if they have no more than them Isa. 57. 19. I create the fruit of the Lips peace peace to him that is neer and to him that is far off it is a creating Power that must be put forth Ministers do speak in vain else Hence again it 's certain the work of God in Application is irresistible This is the main 〈◊〉 from whence that Error is confuted That Power 〈◊〉 raised Christ from the dead was irresistible notwithstanding all sins and all Devils notwithstanding 〈◊〉 hour and power of darkness yet he 〈◊〉 up himself from the dead and by the same Almighty 〈◊〉 Power he works faith in our hearts and quickens 〈◊〉 with Spiritual Life when we were dead in sins and trespasses Eph. 2. 1 2. It 's true there is nothing but Nature and corruption in a man and by vertue of that a man opposeth and resisteth the work of Grace yet so to resist as to frustrate the work of God it is impossible God were not Almighty if sin and Satan could hinder his Work Tryal of our Conversion Observe whether the work of Application come from Heaven or no if so it leaves the 〈◊〉 of an Almighty Power upon the soul as Christ said The Baptism of John 〈◊〉 it from Heaven or from man So I say of Application Is it from Heaven or from your self 〈◊〉 is certain if it be not from the Almighty Power of God it will never bring thee to God neither in this world nor the world to come If the soul can say it was not the power of Men or Means or Ordinances I had all these I understood all these and yet was the same man still I had the old pride and lusts still they lodged in my bosom and came out as occasion served as a dog returning to his vomit till the Lord came from Heaven and broke in mightily upon my heart and there was no resisting of him If you say Must every one see the working of this Almighty Power in his own soul This Work may be really and savingly wrought though the Saints do not generally see and 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 and how there is an impression made upon the 〈◊〉 the Almighty Power of God even as 〈◊〉 are grown though it be not observed how We see the Power of God in other things They are Natural and outward this inward and Spiritual Take the influences of the Heavens and 〈◊〉 Minerals and wonderful things that are wrought 〈◊〉 yet there is not one of a thousand that are 〈◊〉 to discern and discover these But this Influence of the
they should have received the Word with sorrow first and then afterwards with joy and therefore this sudden and disorderly coming brings as sudden and shameful departing away therefore it follows in the 21. verse Yet hath be not root in himself but dureth only for awhile and in the time of temptation falls away As it is with the corn upon the House top it flourisheth and fades speedily but no man fills his hand with it But would you not have a man to beleeve is it not a duty which God reveals and commands upon no less hazard than the loss of eternal life He that beleeves not is condemned already John 3. 18. This is the sin of all sins which the spirit convinceth the world of that they do not beleeve John 16. 8. Can a man do so necessary a duty too soon or hath he allowance to neglect it and not beleeve at any time why would you not have a man to beleeve at some times when God commands him to beleeve at all times No God forbid There is no allowance for unbeleef at any time It 's his duty for ever to 〈◊〉 it the Ministers duty to exhort unto it and require it Beleeve 〈◊〉 he can but that he will never be able to do it to be married to Christ and sin also to be under the 〈◊〉 of corruption and 〈◊〉 command of the Lord Jesus to grow upon two stocks at one and the same time t is not possible And when the Lord in his word so strictly enjoyns it and his 〈◊〉 call upon men to beleeve the aim and intendment of both is to 〈◊〉 them to use 〈◊〉 means and take that 〈◊〉 whereby they may come and beleeve First to make room for Faith before they can receive Faith first go out of themselves and 〈◊〉 before they can go unto a Savior and therefore this is not to hinder the work of Beleeving but to further it and that unto the utmost according to the mind of God A Third sort who miss the way to the Lord Jesus are such who indeed attend 〈◊〉 work in the right place but spoyl it in the doing make an entrance but never come to any perfection yea pervert it 〈◊〉 by their rash and unskilful proceeding There be some quarrels and babbles raised between the soul and a mans sinful distempers they begin to be at ods and contention and therefore upon a push they purpose to part dwellings because of some hard measure that they find unexpectedly from their beloved lusts the venom thereof vexeth his spirit and the sting of those terrors and the righteous plagues which are now deserved and so presented before the veiw of the soul makes him sal out with his corruptions as having expected other and more pleasing dealing at theirhands and that upon their 〈◊〉 and pretences made but 〈◊〉 he feels the bitterness thereof and therefore can 〈◊〉 judg of them by his owne sense and experience and thus the terror and trouble and hart-smart which his sin hath wrought in him setts him busily and resolutely to the reformation and amendment of it and in this turn there may be no Sinne he Sees or knowes but in his own apprehension he would renounce all no Service or duty but he doth approue and practise all selfe-terror setts him a worke for 〈◊〉 owne honor or quiet and pitch him at what narrownes you will he will Come to it And as the dint of the blow is and the power and strength of the ordinances under which he lives and the Constant houlding himselfe to the use and excercise of holy duties continue this may continue long and cause both Confidence and comfort with it And this is a dangerous and desperate mistake being a preparatiue for a Child of the law i. e. to a legall reformation not for the implantation of the soul into Christ and here millions perish When by self terror occasioned by the sting of Sin the Sinner is set upon reformation and that with much violence with a kind of thorownes stricktnes to procure his owne safetie selfe loue meeting with terror setts a man upon amendment of himselfe for selfe ends as his owne salvation and honor That preparation which sets a soul upon reformation so that he attayns his end and ease there so that there is deep silence about a Christ nor yet sight and sence of the need of him its certaine it s naught for it issues only from this principle and when that failes both his duties and comforts come to an end This was the guise of that young man Matth. 19. 20. who could say to our Saviour I have kept all the commandements from my youth what lack I yet he lived in a reformed way and rested there when yet his heart was not loosened from his 〈◊〉 Corruptions and therfore when he came to the triall he would rather part with 〈◊〉 and heaven and happiness then part with his 〈◊〉 I his was also the frame of those hipocrites Isay. 50 36. who fasted and afflicted their soules and yet did not loose the bonds of wickedness A saving preparation though it be not a principle of life yet it makes way and roome for the comming of a Christ that will 〈◊〉 a principle of life into the soul this is the end of it and if it cease before it come 〈◊〉 it misseth its end A fourth sort are such who have weltered long in their owne sorrowes and their owne performances and Services and 〈◊〉 find and therfore are forced to 〈◊〉 there is neither power nor pardon nor peace there to be had for their guilt and 〈◊〉 and distempers remaine as before and therfore they see all in 〈◊〉 Christ know they must have it from him and are 〈◊〉 to expect it therfore they ply him with 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 prayers yea are contented that he should doe all for them Only they would 〈◊〉 with him 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 in this proviso that he must doe it for them 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 spoke of the Centurion Luke 7. 4. he is 〈◊〉 for whom thou shouldst doe this So they thinke of themselves since they sorrow and seek and attend upon him according to his will they cannot 〈◊〉 with patience to think they should misse These men have not renounced their owne worthyness and would inded 〈◊〉 in upon the prviledge of the Lord and not make it free and so not grace How shall the soul know it 〈◊〉 thus look to much to its owne worthiness I answer in two things 1. If it 〈◊〉 snarle at Gods dealings and quarrell with his 〈◊〉 and privily 〈◊〉 and repine when they see others have more and better then they I see others have been humbled and pardoned and comforted but I go on still in a disconsolate way the Saints of God have sought the Lord and found him gracious to their souls they have used the means and found a blessing upon them but I pray and fast and use all the means of Grace and yet I feel
the Lord such need of Services that he must entertain in the worst hath he such need of Sacrifices that the 〈◊〉 and 〈◊〉 must serve his turn Let men judg Go offer now the 〈◊〉 and the 〈◊〉 unto thy 〈◊〉 will be accept it Mat. 1. 8. will he not loath thy Person and thy 〈◊〉 and can the great and glorious God take pleasure 〈◊〉 either Yea 〈◊〉 others were silent let thy own Conscience 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 in this case when these evil daies these dog 〈◊〉 come thou thy self shalt say I have no pleasure in them Caust thou for 〈◊〉 present that to the Lord which thou thy self 〈◊〉 Nay not only thy self but thy 〈◊〉 may seem to be weary of thy service thy pleasures have taken their leave the world and the delights thereof 〈◊〉 gone from thee thy unclean lusts have forsaken thy 〈◊〉 and languishing members blasphemy is departed from thy speechless tongue and shall the Lord have the Devils leavings When thus thou art become a burden to thy self a trouble to others and fit for nothing but to be fuel for the fire of Hell how 〈◊〉 is it to desire it how hard to conceive it that the holy wise and blessed God will make choyce of thee and therefore it is to be feared thou 〈◊〉 never 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 But Secondly I 〈◊〉 thou dost attain it it will he very uncomfortable when thou wilt be like 〈◊〉 that could not tast his meat for age so you will not be able to tast the sweetness of the Promises of Grace and Christ little or nothing A poor old man comes in and gets as near the Pulpit as he 〈◊〉 and listens but he saies he cannot hear he asks 〈◊〉 what was said they tell him Oh the great and precious Promises of Grace and Mercy and Christ saies he I did not hear them where are they and takes his Book and then takes his 〈◊〉 and looks 〈◊〉 child saies he I cannot see tell him of them presently after I cannot remember them And so you will be unfit for any Service to God as an old Journey-man that is but a 〈◊〉 so you will bungle at Prayer and Conference and in all the duties of Obedience and when God hath shewed mercy to you you will wonder and think if I had a thousand lives what could I do again for God but alas he can do little but sit down as a senceless spectacle of Gods everlasting compassions a wonder to himself and a warning to others not to defer 〈◊〉 till old Age it being then so uncomfortable and he so unfit for it And therfore 〈◊〉 little ones that are growing up to years of understanding you have the day before you if you do not take and improve the first of your time to repent and turn to God in God will require it of you beleeve it he will you may read in 2 Kings 2. 23 24. of a company of wicked children who mock'd the Prophet and the Lord sent two Bears amongst 〈◊〉 that devoured two and forty of them they might have said my Father caught me or I did not know what I did or I was but yong but none of all this would serve their turn they had their time to repent in but they spent that time in sin and wickedness and the Lord sent Bears among them to devour them and so he will deal with you that are careless impenitent wicked children beleeve it he will God hath thousands of Devils to torment you for ever if you go on and continue in your Natural condition without Jesus Christ. And you yong men your glass is now running and as yet you have the day before you My heart in with you al you that offer your selves willingly Oh remember your Creator in the daies of your youth before the evil daies of sickness and sorrow and age come upon you 〈◊〉 only say Three Things to you Consider what good you may do now A yong 〈◊〉 and a glorious Christian Your example may be leading to many that may know you and 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 you all the daies of their lives and 〈◊〉 you shall be going to Heaven in your old age 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 be able to say Lord here am I and the 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Children that thou hast given me you may 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 means to convert others and they will bless 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 in the day of their visitation 1 Pet. 2. 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 smell of your gracious speeches and holy 〈◊〉 will be as Lebanon that no man 〈◊〉 meets you but will be the better for you and 〈◊〉 you are going to Heaven every man wil mourn 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 loss of you He was a Father to me 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 and he was a great help to me saies another 〈◊〉 was a means under God to bring my soul to Christ. Thus you will not only do good to your 〈◊〉 but you will do good to others also 〈◊〉 your death you will have more than this 〈◊〉 to your Peace and Joy will be unspeakable 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 then you will go to Heaven 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Death and Hell and Devils and all you 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 be Fathers serving God in uprightness you 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 your children I go to my God and to 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 and I leave you to a better Father that 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 well for you and so he shakes hands 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 saies he we shall meet in Heaven again so Paul 2 Tim. 4. 7 8. I have fought a good fight I have finished my course I have kept the Faith henceforth there is laid up for me a Crown of Righteousness which the Lord shall give unto me he saw it before him and was able to tell others of it So David 2 Chron. 28. 9. And thou Solomon my Son know thou the God of thy Father and serve him with a perfect heart and a willing mind c. Thus you will be able to give a change and a blessing to your Children and to speak somthing suitable to the condition of all that come about you as a man that hath been a good husband from his youth he hath been a gatherer he is able to give to every one about him somwhat another that hath been a spend thrift can scarce pay his debts and well if he do so So here a man that has been long a gathering of Promises Commands Directions Consolations when his friends come about him on his death bed he knows the frame of every man he knows one man is worldly another hath good Parts and gifts but he is proud another under discouragements and he will speak somthing suitable to every mans condition and his dying words stick by them while they live And this is but the beginning but what will the Crown of Glory be He that begins betimes shall have a 〈◊〉 weighty Excessive Exceeding Crown of Glory he shall go loaded as it were to the Kingdom of Heaven the Sufferings Obedience Commands Promises Counsels of so many years all shal be rewarded other men shall be honored and crowned but he especially and when he
it not as a part of weakness but a madness in truth if a Malefactor wil lie in the Dungeon when means of deliverances is afforded for a man to chuse his fetters and to keep on his chains and bolts when he may be freed yet this is the case and condition yea the disposition of men who are not willing to be severed from their sins nor to be set free from those chains of darkness wherewith they are fettered and go up and down imprisoned in the world Sin is compared to a deadly poyson the poyson of Asps is under their tongue Rom. 3. 13. that is Such 〈◊〉 which is deadly and venomous which admits no remedy no cure no recovery Now shouldest 〈◊〉 see a Patient that should be offended with the Medicine that would Cure him or with the Physitian that would counsel him and recover him out of 〈◊〉 Disease Or take it heinously and grievously that any should keep him from drinking the Poyson that would destroy him Each man would conclude that his brain were more distempered than 〈◊〉 body as doing that which is directly cross even to nature which desires the preservation of it self even in unreasonable Creatures Turn but the tables as we say consider aright thine own carriage 〈◊〉 thou wilt confess it is thy case thou art the man Thou art poysoned with the loathsom and 〈◊〉 lusts of thine own Heart which threaten thy everlasting ruine and that beyond recovery in 〈◊〉 course of ordinary means Thou art not able 〈◊〉 hear the Counsel that would direct thee for 〈◊〉 Cure nor bear a savory and seasonable 〈◊〉 which would take away the poyson of those 〈◊〉 distempers Thou canst not endure to be severe from that which wil sever thy soul from God 〈◊〉 canst not abide the Word or the Messengers 〈◊〉 would take away that from thee which wil take 〈◊〉 way thy peace thy comfort thy happiness and a Thus Herodias waited for the Baptists life 〈◊〉 he endeavored to cross her in her Incestuous 〈◊〉 and loathsom abominations Mark 6. 19. Therefore Herodias had a quarrel a secret grudg again him and would have killed him She lay at 〈◊〉 she was watchful and covetous to observe and 〈◊〉 any hint of opportunity offered to do him harm because he desired and endeavored to do her the greatest good that he could A type of this we may 〈◊〉 in the Israelites when their own hearts could tel them and their own experience could testifie and that unto their own sense it was the greatest pressure that ever they found the 〈◊〉 of the wrath of Pharoah and that they sighed under it and their groans went up to heaven And yet they would return to their own ruine and to the house of bondage And Would God said they we had died in Aegypt Aegipt typifyed the kingdom of darkness the state of sin and death and Pharoah was a type of Satan who exerciseth the fierceness of his fury upon the souls of those that are under his power somtimes men wil cry unto the Lord by reason of the hard usage they find from Sin and Satan yet when God comes by his Word and the Counsels of his Servants to pluck them out of their sins and out of their bondage they cannot endure that they wil rather return again unto and lie down under the bondage of sin and Satan than be delivered from it John 5. 40. Our Savior Christ tels the Jews there You will not come to me that you might have life Christ hath Purchased it and Promised it and Offred it yet saies he You wil not come to me you wil not though you may have life and happiness for the coming for Here 's also a ground of Tryal We may hence discern and that undeniably and easily what our condition is Whether we be yet in our Natural estate so far from the interest and possession of Christ or any saving work of his Spirit as that indeed we have not attained any through preparation hereunto We need not send up to Heaven to look into the Cabinet Counsels of Gods everlasting Decrees what is 〈◊〉 concerning us Descend thou into thy own soul thou hast that in thy bosom wil be the best discovery of thy condition Ask but honestly plainly and in earnest thy own heart and that wil cast the ballance and that beyond al question Such as thy will is such is thy condition look what thou wouldest be that thou art in truth and in the account of the Almighty The Lord cares 〈◊〉 for al the Court Complements thou canst express in the wayes of Christianity he 〈◊〉 not for 〈◊〉 thy fair 〈◊〉 and the quaint appearances of 〈◊〉 was thy carriage gilt over with the most glorious shews of Godliness and thy tongue tipped with the language of heaven this wil not do the deed This would not answer the Lords expectation nor thine own hopes and comforts in the issue It was said concerning Eliab Davids elder brother when it was conceived that he should be the man appointed for the Kingdom and indeed holy Samuel was deceived in his goodly stature Surely this is the Lords Annointed The Lord himself checks his judgment Man looketh on the outward appearance but the Lord looketh upon the heart 1 Sam. 16. 7. Look we then as God looks and judge we as he judgeth if we would have comfort and truth in our judgment that we may not fail in that and so our hopes and happiness and al fail in the issue Thou saiest Thy 〈◊〉 is savory and free thy understanding large thou art able to search the Mysteries of Grace thou knowest in a great 〈◊〉 the things of Grace and art able fully to express what thou knowest and thou pretendest readmess and zeal for the service of the Lord. Thou 〈◊〉 al these are thus And I say What is thy heart thou lookest to these I say Look to thy heart and then to these that is Gods way The people in Deut. 5. 28. made as full and free a profession as all the world could desire but the Lord desired somwhat more 〈◊〉 went further They have well said but Oh that 〈◊〉 were such a heart in them v. 29. It is the heart then that gives the casting Evidence of a mans condition and wil not deceive The Woman that hath two Suiters that make love and express their 〈◊〉 to her if she ask her own Spirit that will easily speak which is the man that must be her Husband the Answer which will 〈◊〉 it is this Such a one hath her heart he hath got her good will and therefore hath gained the woman 〈◊〉 is his to give one all good language and 〈◊〉 entertainment that is nothing if another hath the heart So if the Question be which is indeed a Question of the greatest consequence in the world Whether art thou to be matched to thy Sin or to thy Savior to thy Lusts or to the Lord Jesus This will put it beyond peradventure hath some bosom
is 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 send the Lord Jesus I shal shortly open both 1 Why it is ascribed to the Father And 2 Why to the Father as sending the Lord Jesus Unless the Father which hath sent me draw him First then Why the Father is said to Draw This Drawing as we have Disputed formerly implyes Two Things in it of necessity 1 〈◊〉 from whence the soul is drawn and that is sin upon which the soul was 〈◊〉 2 Somthing unto which the soul is drawn and that is 〈◊〉 Now both the Expressions serve both these Intendments in a most pregnant manner Because the Fathers manifesting himself in his displeasure unto the soul doth 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 and most 〈◊〉 the work of that holy violence 〈◊〉 is 〈◊〉 unto the soul 〈◊〉 the 〈◊〉 of the 〈◊〉 from it and 〈◊〉 which this drawing we know is 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 which may 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 be conceived The sin of Adam falling from his Creation in which the 〈◊〉 of the Fathers working is especially discovered in that he is the original in the Deity first in Order and Working from himself and Creation is the Original of things there they have their beginnings Hence in Scripture it is said to be 〈◊〉 directly against him and indirectly against the Son and the Holy Ghost because that work wherein though they al wrought yet the manner of the Fathers dispensation did principally appear 1 Joh. 2. 1. Little Children sin not at al but if any man do sin we have an Advocate with the Father He sayes not We have an Advocate with an Advocate Christ is not properly and firstly and directly an Advocate to himself but an Advocate is to plead with the party offended in behalf of him who stands guilty and hath offended and therefore he is said to be an Advocate with the Father because he was the offended party properly and directly Christ an Advocate to plead the Cause of his people the Spirit the Witness to Certifie of the Success what the Advocate hath done for them and what acceptance he hath found with the Father in their behalf Hence the Fathers Displeasure in the fierceness of it comes as most cross and directly contrary unto sin and so the sinner because directly wronged and therefore hath most reason and is most ready to offer violence to the sin for the destruction of that and the Confusion and Condemnation of the sinner because of that And hence therefore the resistance of sin comes to be destroyed and the soul of the sinner most affrighted for it and wearied with it and so compelled to part And therefore our Savior who was in our stead and became our surety and bore our sorrows the chastisement of our peace being upon him He sayes Shall I not drink of 〈◊〉 Cup which the Father will give me Joh. 18. 11. By Cup is meant those sufferings in our behalf 〈◊〉 the Father had appointed and did also lay upon him and so Consequently upon us in him If the fierceness of the wrath of the Father as the Partie directly offended is most cross to the sin of 〈◊〉 sinner and most dreadsul to his soul as guilty 〈◊〉 the Expression thereof even in that regard is most fit by a kind of violence to remove sin from the soul and to force the soul from it Again The Father as he sends Christ 〈◊〉 unto him Because when he so makes himself manifest unto the sinner he shews the soul whither 〈◊〉 should go and what certain success it may expect yea easie and ready acceptance with the Father and deliverance from his wrath and the vengeance deserved if it'do go For when the sinner comes indeed to look upon the ghastly visage of sin to see the heinousness and the unsufferable bitterness of that Evil that doth undoubtedly attend upon it He now Concludes he must either part from sin or else he must needs perish in it it cannot be avoided Go he must from his sin but whither to go he cannot tel that the filth and guilt of sin may be removed from him and he delivered from the wrath of the Father which he hath deserved by it When he hath sought far and neer for succour and shelter that Heaven and Earth professeth there is no salvation to be had in us Holy Ordinances and Duties say We have heard of the Name thereof but we neither have it nor can give it only we have heard tel there is Salvation in Christ and in no other Name under Heaven The 〈◊〉 therefore intends to make out to a Christ but 〈◊〉 the Question and Doubt meets him Though Christ can Discharge my Debt lay down and present sufficient pay It s yet doubtful whether the 〈◊〉 being the Creditor wil accept of it and rest 〈◊〉 with it or no Yea sayes the text The Father hath sent him for this purpose to be his salvation unto the ends of the earth and therefore he wil not refuse him briefly therebe Three things 〈◊〉 in this sending which may draw the 〈◊〉 of the sinner towards Christ. 1 That God hath appointed him in his 〈◊〉 purpose and Counsel to accomplish this work 〈◊〉 49. The Lord hath called me vers 1. And he 〈◊〉 unto me Thou art my Servant in thee will I 〈◊〉 glorified vers 3. Thou shalt be my salvation to 〈◊〉 ends of the earth vers 6. Joh. 6. 27. For him 〈◊〉 the Father sealed A Comparison taken from Princes when they would send any with certain Evidence of their Appointment and Approbation they 〈◊〉 him a Commission and signifie their mind under 〈◊〉 Hand and Seal So the Commission and 〈◊〉 of the Father is as it were the Evidence and 〈◊〉 undeniable that he was Designed to this 〈◊〉 2 That he hath fitted and furnished him with all 〈◊〉 abilities and sufficiency to discharge the 〈◊〉 of Redemption committed to him Psal. 89. 19. He hath laid salvation upon one that is mighty 〈◊〉 save Yea Isa. 61. 1. 2. The spirit of God was 〈◊〉 him and he hath anointed him i. e. 〈◊〉 him with Grace that he might suit al the 〈◊〉 and desires of his people yea with the spirit above measure Joh. 3. 34. 3 That he accepts of him and his Service and Mediation in the behalf of al those whose 〈◊〉 and places he sustains Matt. 3. last This is my 〈◊〉 in whom I am well pleased Not with whom only but in whom with al those whose place he sustains and whose surety he was If God the Father who was offended and that deeply with my sin and therefore is now come out against me either to destroy my sin or to ruinate and condemn my soul he hath appointed the Lord Jesus his Son to deliver poor Creatures from their sins and from his wrath and he hath fitted him for this so great a work and he wil accept him only and al that sue for acceptance in him He only appointed fitted and accepted for sinners let us therefore look towards him and go to him The Father that hath
detestation and sequestration appears in the last words Men and Brethren what shall we do we will do any thing suffer any thing command what you wil enjoyn what you please be it never so hard we will endeavor it never so cross to our hearts or comforts we will bear it better be any thing than be thus 〈◊〉 let 's be in any condition that once we might be freed from this sinful and accursed condition in which we be We have taken liberty to lay out our Work with as much plainness and openness of order as we may because we shall have occasion to mind you of the particulars in our future proceeding and how the several 〈◊〉 serve each others turn in their place and order Before we come to the Particulars one Point 〈◊〉 in the very entrance which will be very serviceable to make way for all the Truths following and therefore we shall take in that at this time that it may be as an Harbenger to make room for all the rest And it ariseth from a right consideration of the parties to whom 〈◊〉 here speaks and with whom his word so prevailed and took place 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 36. verse he tels them that same 〈◊〉 whom ye have crucisied They were therefore such as had rejected blasphemed 〈◊〉 the Lord of Glory those who in a bloody manner 〈◊〉 away the life of 〈◊〉 who came to take away their sins Is it possible is it credible that ever mercy should be extended unto such that ever good should be wrought in such Yes Lo here When they heard this they were pricked in their hearts They whose hands were imbrewed in the blood of Jesus their hearts are now 〈◊〉 with Godly sorrow and so made fit to receive Grace and Mercy Hence the Doctrine is Stubborn and bloody sinners may be made broken-hearted sinners Bloody hellish abominable 〈◊〉 may yet obtain broken hearts worse than these could hardly be conceived or imagined and yet God makes work of these knotty way ward Spirits It was said of him that betrayed Christ it had been good for him that be had never been born What shall we say of them that murdered our Savior they are in the highest rank of the most wicked men that ever were born yet even such as 〈◊〉 who also opposed the Word and Gospel of Grace the Disciples and Apostles the Preachers and Publishers of Grace the Author and God of Grace yet such as these have now their hearts broken and in some measure prepared to be partakers thereof The Apostle speaks of the Gentiles Rom. 1. 29. That they were full of all unrighteousness there can hardly be added any thing to the largeness of the expression No sin worse for the kind more for the number greater for the measure for they had all unrighteousness all the kinds of evil and all degrees in the largest extent they were full and yet of such the Apostle professeth 1 Cor. 6. 9. when he had mentioned a heap of most loathsom and hideous abominations Know ye not that no unrighteous person shall enter into the Kingdom of Heaven Be not deceived neither Fornicators nor Idolaters nor Adulterers nor Effeminate self-Polluters Extortioners Covetous persons shall ever enter into the Kingdom of God then verse 11. And such were some of you but ye are washed but ye are sanctified but ye are justified in the name of the Lord Jesus and by the Spirit of our God Some such as these were savingly brought home to God Yea when corruption becomes like an old cankered sore of long continuance and the sinner incorrigible under all the choycest means that have been used yet then the Lord works the Cure Isay 57. 18. I was angry with him for his evil lustings and he went on in the frowardness of his own heart ther is no help if the Disease grow worse for the dressing the Prophet adds I have seen his waies I will heal him and lead him and restore comforts to him and to those that mourn with him as if he should say Ah poor Creature he cannot see himself nor me yet I see him and his way he wounds himself but I will heal him he deludes himself but I wil heal him sink he must in his own sorrow but I will succor him and supply to him Isay 48. 4. I know thou art obstinate and thy neck is an Iron sinew and thy brow is Brass and yet Verse 17. I am the Lord thy Redeemer that teach thee to profit and leadest thee by the way thou shouldest go The Lord bows an Iron sinew and makes it bendable unto his will The Lord makes snowy Saints of scarlet sinners scarlet we know is twice dyed in the Wool and in the Web and Cloth and therefore it is beyond all the skil and art of man to alter it Yet though our Sins be such bred in our Natures committed in our Lives and therefore beyond our reach 〈◊〉 and the power of all means and performances we can take up to remove them yet the Lord hath undertaken it and he will do it Isa. 1. 18. There is a Threefold Argument to settle this Truth Taken from the largeness of his Mercy which is as himself Infinite and therefore infinitely exceeds all our wants and can supply them all our weaknesses and infirmities and therefore can forgive them and remove them as he will as though they had never been Isa. 55. 7. Let the wicked forsake his way and the unrighteous man his thoughts and return unto the Lord for he will abundantly pardon and to our God for he will have mercy But the discouraged sinner might happily reply It is Mercy that I have abused and his pardons he hath tendered yet I in the time of my folly have trampled under my feet and therefore with what face could I beg mercy or upon what ground could I think ever to receive it He answers For my thoughts are not your thoughts nor your waies my waies for as the Heavens are higher than the Earth so are my thoughts than your thoughts there is no proportion no comparison the Earth is not of a valuable consideration to the Heavens but like a Centre in the Circumference it is as though it was not So here the thoughts of Gods Mercy to pardon thee is so far beyond the evil of thy waies and thoughts to condemn that they are as though they were not nay though thou couldest not beleeve it or think it yet the Lord could and would do it This is one of his names He keeps mercy for thousands Exod. 34. 7. he hath it in store for thousands and FORGIVES Iniquity Transgression and Sin that is all kinds and degrees of sin and he must be thus or else he were not God For did our sins exceed his mercies our weakness his strength were Satan more malicious to tempt 〈◊〉 and powerful to overcome 〈◊〉 than he was gracious to defend and Almighty to deliver then were he not God if any thing were
Psal. 19. 7. the law of God makes wise the simple 2. Tim. 3. 15. it's able to make us wise unto Salvation 3 There 's a Sufficiency of God to content and satisfy us Blessed are they who walk in his wayes and blessed are they that keep his Testimonies Psal. 119. 1. 2. Great prosperity have they that love the law and nothing shal offend them ver 16. and in truth there can be no greater reward for doing wel than to be enabled to do well he that hath attayned his last end he cannot go further he cannot be better Now by sin we justle the law out of its place and the Lord out of his Glorious Soveraignty pluck the Crown from his head and the Seepter out of his hand and we say and profess by our practice there is not authority and power there to govern nor wisdom to guide nor good to content me but I wil be swayed by mine own wil and led by mine own deluded reason and satisfied with my own lusts This is the guise of every graceless heart in the commission of sin so Pharaoh who is the Lord I know not the Lord nor will I lett Israel go Exod. 5. 2. in the time of their prosperity see how the Jews turn their backs and shake off the authority of the Lord we are Lords say 〈◊〉 we will come no more at thee Jer. 2. 31. and our tongues are our own who shal be Lords 〈◊〉 us Psal. 12. 4. So for the wisdom of the world see how they set light by it as not worth the looking after it Jer. 18. 12. we wil walk after our own devices we wil every one do the imagination of his own evil heart yea they sett up their own traditions their own Idols and delusions and Lord it over the law making the command of God of none effect Math. 15. 8. 9. So for the goodness of the word Job 22. 17. Mal. 3. 14. It is in vayn to serve God and what profit is there that we have kept his ordinances yea his Commandemnts are ever grievous It s a grievous thing to the loose person he cannot have his pleasures but he must have his guilt and gall with them It s grievous to the worlding that he cannot lay hold on the world by unjust means but Conscience layes hold upon him as breaking the law Thou that knowest and keepest thy pride and stubbornness and thy distempers know assuredly thou dost justle God out of the Throne of his glorious Soveraignty and thou dost profess Not Gods wil but thine own which is above his shall rule thee thy 〈◊〉 reason and the folly of thy mind is above the wisdome of the Lord and that shal guide thee to please thine own stubborn crooked pervers spirit is a greater good than to please God and enjoy happines for this more Contents thee That when thou considerest but thy Course dost thou not wonder that the great and Terrible God doth not pash such a poor insolent worm to pouder and send thee packing to the pitt every moment 2 It smites at the Essence of the Almighty and the desire of the sinner is not only that God should not be supream but that indeed he should not be at all and therefore it would destroy the being of Jehovah Psal. 81. 15. sinners are called the haters of the Lord. John 15. 24. they hated both me and my Father Now he that hates endeavours if it be possible the annihilation of the thing hated and its most certain were it in their power they would pluck God out of Heaven the light of his truth out of their Consciences and the law out of the Societies and Assemblies where they live that they might have elbow room to live as they list Nay what ever they hate most and intend and plott more evil against in al the world they hate God most of all and intend more evil against him than against all their 〈◊〉 besides because they hate all for his sake therefore wicked men are said to destroy the law Psal. 126. 119. the Adulterer loaths that law that condemns uncleaness the Earthworm would destrow that law that forbids Covetousness they are sayd to hate the light John 3. 21. to hate the Saints and Servants of the Lord John 15. 18. the world hates you he that hates the Lanthorn for the lights sake he hates the light much more he that hates the faithful because of the Image of God and the Grace that appears there he hates the God of all Grace and Holiness most of all so God to Zenacharib Isa. 37. 28. I know thy going out and thy Comming in and thy rage against me Oh it would be their content if there was no God in the world to govern them no law to curbe them no justice to punish no truth to trouble them Learn therfore to see how far your rebellions reach It is not arguments you gainsay not 〈◊〉 Counsel of a Minister you reject the command of a 〈◊〉 ye oppose evidence of rule or reason ye 〈◊〉 but be it known to you you fly in the very face of the Almighty and it is not the Gospel of Grace ye would have destroyed but the spirit of Grace the author of Grace the Lord Jesus the God of all Grace that ye hate It crosseth the whol course of Providence perverts the work of the Creature and defaceth the beautiful frame and that sweet correspondence and orderly usefulness the Lord first implanted in the order of things The Heavens deny their influence the Earth her strength the Corn her nourishment thank sin for that Weeds come instead of herbs Cockle and Darnel instead of Wheat thank sin for that Rom. 8. 22. The whol Creature or Creation grones under vanity either cannot do what it would or else misseth of that good and end it intended breeds nothing but vanity brings forth nothing but vexation It crooks all things so as that none can straiten them makes so many wants that none can supply them Eccles. 1. 15. This makes crooked Servants in a family no 〈◊〉 can rule them 〈◊〉 inhabitants in towns crooked members in Congregations ther 's no ordering nor joynting of them in that comly accord and mutual subjection know they said the adversary sin hath done all this Man was the mean betwixt God and the Creature to convey all good with all the constancy of it and therefore when Man breaks Heaven and Earth breaks all asunder the Conduit being cracked and displaced there can be no conveyance from the Fountain In regard of our selves see we and consider nakedly the nature of sin in Four particulars It s that which makes a separation between God and the soul breaks that Union and Communion with God for 〈◊〉 we were made and in the enjoyment of which we should be blessed and happie Isai. 59. 1. 2. Gods ear is not heavy that it cannot hear nor his hand that it cannot help but your iniquities have separated betwixt God and
sight of their fellow drunkards shall encrease their torments and they shall curse themselves and the day that ever they saw one another Upon this Consideration it was that 〈◊〉 gave the awaking 〈◊〉 2. Pet. 3. 10. The time will come when the Heavens shall melt with fire and the Earth and all the works thereof shall be burnt up All the ryot of the Epicure the rage of the Oppressor the greedy pursuit of the Worldling all the works on Earth shall be consumed no more matchings and quaffings with Drunkards only that that touched the Lord as an eternal God that shall continue and that is the Holiness of that Obedience that was sincere that was performed to God and the guilt of the sin that was committed against him all the carnal contents that accompany a sinful course they are but works of the Earth they will be consumed But that which was against Heaven and against God that will never be consumed neither wild-fire nor Hel-fire will consume that but it will live there to work thine everlasting ruine Labor therefore to make these things present with thy heart and real to thy own apprehension be not deluded by Gods long 〈◊〉 the longer the blow is coming the heavier it will be the greater 〈◊〉 the greater vengeance and thou that 〈◊〉 had the Treasury of Gods Bounty and Goodness 〈◊〉 out unto thee Thou treasurest up wrath against the day of wrath and revelation of Gods 〈◊〉 Judgments Strive mightily to 〈◊〉 a 〈◊〉 sight of God himself as he is pleased to dispense himself in his Holiness and Goodness to the soul to be enjoyed as 〈◊〉 all-sufficient good beyond all created Excellencies in the Creature It was the advice of our Savior Rev. 3. 18. I counsel thee to buy of me eye-Salve that thou mayest annoint thine Eyes that so thou mayest see For darkness is not seen but only by the help of light Crookedness by the Rule of Straightness He that knows not the Rule of true Latin will never be able to know what is false and and so it is in any Art he that knows not the Rule of building planting he will never discover an error in either The like we may say and conceive touching the discovery of sin because it is a swerving from the righteous and holy wil of God in his government communication of himself to the Creature it is a professed jusling with that and his wisdom and goodness therein unless 〈◊〉 Eyes be anointed with Eye Salve to see him and the purity and spiritualness of his pleasure as that which only should rule us and only can satisfie us We shall never see 〈◊〉 in its own nakedness and Nature And hence it is when the wicked in the trouble and terror of their Consciences feel the fierceness of the fury of the Almighty 〈◊〉 upon their Souls they know now the smart of sin and God also as a 〈◊〉 Judg whose anger they can neither avoid nor bear This is only a Consequent and a fruit of sin and comes after it But to see a right the Soveraign 〈◊〉 of his Wisdom to guide them and the all-sufficiency of his Goodness far exceeding all created excellencies and their 〈◊〉 as a going from both these if they be misguided in the one they cannot but mistake the other Job 42. 4. I have heard of thee by the hearing of the ear but now mine eye sees thee therefore I 〈◊〉 my self when 〈◊〉 saw God cleerly he saw his 〈◊〉 So the Convert in 1 Cor. 14. 24. When he had the thoughts of his heart 〈◊〉 ed and made manifest 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 God is in you of a truth because he neither saw God 〈◊〉 himself before and when he sees the one he sees 〈◊〉 1. John 3. 7. He that 〈◊〉 sin hath neither seen him nor known him and these be the terms of true conversion so set by the Apostle turned from the power of Satan unto God Acts 26. 18. q. d. they fell short of the Soveraign Power and Holiness of God before We have 〈◊〉 with the First What it is to see Sin 〈◊〉 We are now to enquire of the Second Wherein this true sight of Sin 〈◊〉 that is we must see it also convictingly what it is to us in the work of it as wel as what it is in it self in the Nature of it This appears in a double act or in two Things 1 We must apply sin particularly to our selves 2 It must be setled with an over-powring strength upon a mans own soul. We shall open both these in the order propounded He that sees his Sins convictingly must 〈◊〉 content himself with the 〈◊〉 and speculation of Sin to speak freely of it to 〈◊〉 out the 〈◊〉 of his corruption or to lay 〈◊〉 the 〈◊〉 thereof in a judicious and pregnant 〈◊〉 This a wicked man may learn this a right godly man may somtimes do and yet do himself 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 by it Therefore it is required he must see it with a particular application of it to himself and his ownestate 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 same sentence upon those he 〈◊〉 in his own 〈◊〉 which he did upon any when they 〈◊〉 presented to his own 〈◊〉 in the 〈◊〉 without 〈◊〉 There are two things 〈◊〉 we shall open both He must 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 eye inward follow his own 〈◊〉 home 〈◊〉 his own 〈◊〉 and cause his own judgment 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 upon his own 〈◊〉 and corruptions This is called in 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 into a mans 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 1 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 If the people of Israel 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 and 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 them and deliver them to the enemy so that they 〈◊〉 them 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 if they shall bethink themselves the Original thus if they shall bring it back to their own heart They had common apprehensions of sins as they saw them committed by others or as the word revealed them in the evil of their own nature but they did not look inward to the loathsom vileness of 〈◊〉 evils which lay in their own bosoms until they came into Captivity Thus the Prodigal is said to come to himself Luk. 15. 17. he had lived without any search and consideration of his own waies lost himself in letting loose his thoughts in the eager pursuit of his own lusts now he began to take an account of his own course to see how the case stands with him in regard of his own corruption and condition in particular The want of this the Prophet Jeremy makes to be the principal 〈◊〉 why men rush into the commission of sin and continue therein without any 〈◊〉 Jer. 8. 56. Why is this People of Jerusalem slidden back with a perpetual back-sliding they hold fast deceit and refuse to return they 〈◊〉 themselves with some false imaginations quiet themselves by some self-deceiving mistakes and so think they need not and therefore do not return the reason is rendred in the next words I hearkned and heard and no man repented and why that No man said what have I done
they bring not their own carriages to the scanning each man will be ready to be Eagle-eyed into other mens occasions and can easily enquire and question and determine and say others have done thus and so here such have fallen therein such and such have failed but no man saies What have I done and therefore become fearless of what they have done and careless of what they do but each man rusheth into his own wretched course as the horse into the battel because he carries not the light of the Truth into each 〈◊〉 and 〈◊〉 of his conscience to pry into the secret 〈◊〉 of his own spirit and judg aright of that else be his knowledg never so large he will get little good by it The 〈◊〉 that hath his full charge if it carry but level give fire to it it hits and kils the live mark at which it is shot but 〈◊〉 hurts the shooter unless it recoyl in the full power then the man that dischargeth it hardly escapes with life It is so with the understanding that stands charged that is fully informed with a cleer discovery of the nature of sin it 's able to dart in that light into the minds of others that may dazle their eyes daunt and wound their consciences with the dreadful apprehensions of the 〈◊〉 of their evils and work their hearts through the blessing of the Lord to a godly remorse for it but unless their own thoughts recoyl back again upon their own miscarriages and the falseness of their own hearts they will never be awed or humbled or helped against their own sins thereby Here is then the rule we must arrest our own souls in 〈◊〉 Achan was never troubled all the while he heard there was an 〈◊〉 thing in the Camp in general but when the lot had found him and all Israel had charged the evil upon him then his heart failed So we should not content our selves to know and confess that sin is an execrable thing in general which causes Gods gracious presence to be estranged from 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 leave not before we see the lot fall upon Achan 〈◊〉 thou 〈◊〉 attach thine own heart take it in the very fact and as men deal with mutinous Traitors drag thy wretched and rebellious heart before the Tribunal of the Lord and deal faithfully and give in 〈◊〉 against it say Lord there be many Traitors and Rebels abroad in the world which dishonor thy Name grieve thy 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 thy Kingdom 〈◊〉 thy Law loe 〈◊〉 they be 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 heart that hath been stubborn and proud it is my mind that is vain my affections loose my life barren and unprofitable here are those 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 unclean 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 desires no 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 here they be Lord 〈◊〉 they 〈◊〉 We must also pass sentence impartially without any respect to any private end or ease or quiet which our own carnal hearts would happily 〈◊〉 into the consideration These and these sinns are as bad and as base and as dangerous in this vile heart of mine as in any heart I know under the cope of Heaven if not worse nay what ever abomination is in the bottom of Hell and in the heart of Beelzebub the spawn of the like sins and of the same hellish nature are in my soul they are the seed of the Serpent and that they break not out into the like hideous practises its no thank to my corrupt nature that hinders me but thy Grace and providence restraynes me from such evils It s our desperate weakness and a great part of our misery that we are apt to be favourable to our own follies that sin should be of annother appearance apprehension when we see it in our selves then when we pass sentence upon it as it is presented in the word and in its own nature Impannel a jury of the most wicked nay the worst of men that have been trained up under the Preaching of the word and confess the Scriptures to be the word of God which cannot deceive and let the text be propounded and their opinions be asked in that case 2. 〈◊〉 1. 9. The Lord wil come in Flaming Fire rendring Vengeance to them that know him not and obey not the Gospell they wil all give in their verdict as one man with one mind such as be guilty of such disobedience must certainly have this 〈◊〉 Vengeance from the hand of the Almighty but infer therfore this is 〈◊〉 lot and allowance from the Lord because they have not they do not obey the Gospel 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 their 〈◊〉 do testify so much Now the case is altered when it s once come to their 〈◊〉 It s another kind of ignorance and 〈◊〉 and 〈◊〉 another 〈◊〉 acted then 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 they This 〈◊〉 of our 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 self 〈◊〉 hearts the Philosopher in the practise of men even by the twilight of the common Principles of reason remaining in the decayes of nature observed For taking it for granted that no man doth wil evil under the name of evil but as it comes under the appearance of som good and that all men easily grant and freely confess that Drunkenness Injustice Intemperance are evil the question then growes how these men judging these carriages to be evil are daily taken aside with the Commission of them Ask the Drunkard whether 〈◊〉 be unlawful he consesseth it Loathsom and yet commits it Ask the Blasphemer whether 〈◊〉 be a sin He wil profess it detestable at one breath and practice it at the next Theeves themselves count it unjust that any by cunning should deceive them cry out of falshood and yet by force 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 others the ground is here When the question is put and propounded in the general they wil grant it when it comes to their particular for such a man at this time upon this occasion in this company for such an end to be loose or tipple in this manner this is not unlawful For in these the Devil casts in 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 or 〈◊〉 Credit Friendship Familiarity as the Lawyers alter the Case by circumstances and by these he would put another 〈◊〉 upon 〈◊〉 carriages and 〈◊〉 make them 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 hearts they give in evidence of 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 our 〈◊〉 and 〈◊〉 would have the sentence 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 them that in case they may be 〈◊〉 and not utterly 〈◊〉 So David saw sin in the 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 own 〈◊〉 So 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 her 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 when he himself 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 of the 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Gen. 〈◊〉 24. Therfore thou 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 thy 〈◊〉 with 〈◊〉 Application that they are in thee as in others and 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 in thee 〈◊〉 thou 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 in 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 The 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 them apply 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 upon our Consciences otherwise such a particular apprehension may and will suddenly pass away and the steams of our distempers wil easily alter and corrupt our understandings and bring the cause quite
have been wrought what benefit thou mightest have received hadst thou but suffered and received the helps provided for that end which when thou diddest oppose and not suffer thy self to be convinced thou didst oppose thine own everlasting welfare and therefore art guilty of thine own blood Luke 7. 30. The Publicans and sinners justified God and were baptized but the Scribes and Pharisees rejected the Counsel of God against themselves i. e. against their own good and happiness Yea so the Apostle to the gainsaying Corinthians when he had disputed long and manifested the Truth in the cleer evidence of it Acts 18. 14. and they gainsayed still and blasphemed he shook his rayment in sign of distast and indignation and said your blood be upon your own heads I am clean he was innocent And so one day thou wilt be forced to confess and to cleer the innocency and faithfulness of Gods Servants I was the cause of my confusion my own wayward gainsaying Spirit else I might have been recovered they did their duty with much painfulness but my perverse spirit would not receive that counsel which would have directed and comforted me but now condemns me So Paul to the contradicting Jews Acts 13. 46. Because ye put away the Word and judg your self unworthy of eternal life thou wilt then be forced to yield it I am unworthy that ever the Promises of the Gospel should establish my heart who would not be convinced of the goodness of them unworthy that ever the Gospel should be the savor of life to me who have cast it behind my back as unsavory Salt He sins against the Ordinances the Faithfulness Truth and free Grace of God therein revealed and dispensed for his everlasting good he casts all these behind his back and out of a slight neglect wil not give the least entertainment thereunto This quarrelling disposition like a squeazy stomach spils the Physick when he cannot endure to take it flings away the dainties provided when he is not willing nor hath not a heart or appetite to feed on them and how hainous this contempt is the Apostle intimates Hebrews 2. 3. How shall we escape if we neglect so great salvation It sins against Gods Spirit in a more than ordinary manner he would seem in his gainsaying frame to try masteries with the Lord and in the highest strain of rebellion to contest with the Almighty Spirit of Christ in the utmost defyance as refusing to yield in the least appearance I call it the highest strain of 〈◊〉 to try Masteries with the Almighty and that may be thus observed When our Savior was to leave the world and to go to Heaven to possess the glory he had with the Father before all worlds he comforts the hearts of his Disciples touching his departure with the Consideration of the incomparable benefit that would accrew therefrom John 16. 7. It is expedient for you that I go away so if I go not away the comsorter will not come but if I depart I will send him that is the Spirit of the Lord Jesus would not dispense the powerful work of his Grace in such an abundant measure unless he ascended unto the Throne of his Grace for the largeness of the dispensation thereof and that in reason until that time The Spirit was not yet given because Christ was not yet glorified John 7. 39. When he ascended up on high he then gave gifts unto men even for the Rebellious Eph. 4. 8. And herein appears the powerful dispensation of his Grace and operation of his Spirit then when the Comforter is come he shal convince the world of sin he shal set down the Consciences of the Sons of men in the sight of their vileness and guilt This is as it were 〈◊〉 Master-piece of the work of the Spirit when he is sent from Heaven from the Father and the Son with full Commission and Power from our Savior advanced to the highest pitch of supreamest excellency of his Kingly Prophetical and Priestly Offices and that for this end in the first place as the prime and hardest work to convince the world of sin Now to gainsay and contradict this Spirit in this Work for which he hath received this Commission is to contest for Masteries with the Almighty Heb. 12. 25. If they escaped not who refused Moses who spake on Earth how shall we escape if we refuse him that speaks from Heaven And this is the highest strayn of rebellion when a 〈◊〉 wil not give way nor yield in the least but 〈◊〉 out this authority of the spirit from having any entertainment even in the suburbs 〈◊〉 our apprehensions and understandings while we continue in this gainsaying frame there wants nothing but light and malice to make it 〈◊〉 sin against the Holy Ghost Here is the hainousness of the sin See the Curse of it that is dreadful Thou makest way for Satan in the means which are appointed by God to oppose him John 13. 27. The Devilentred into Judas with a sopp so he enters with an admonition and counsel while thou doest oppose that truth which should help thee against his power and subtilty but yieldest thy self fully to be possessed by both Thou wilt not be guided by the counsel of God therfore thou shalt be cousened by the delusions of the Devil Christ in his righteous dealings and according to thy just deservings delivers thee up to the power of Satan whenas thou wast willing to yeild up thy self to his possession So Paul 1. Tim. 3. 20. delivers Hymenoeus and Philetus unto Satan and in Church discipline obstinacy in the least evil is answerable to the greatest offence because by that means the soul shakes off the authority of the Lord Jesus and so is to be cast out Because thou hast gainsayed his dispensations he wil have no more dealing with thee Math. 23. last you shal see me no more He wil pass by and not speak with thee He wil instruct 〈◊〉 admonish others but he wil 〈◊〉 thee no more reprove thee no more He wil not change a word with thee in the 〈◊〉 ' My 〈◊〉 shal not alwayes 〈◊〉 Gen. 6. 3. That spirit which thou hast resisted and opposed shal stir in thee and strive with thee no more thou wouldest 〈◊〉 see thou shalt not see therefore thou wouldest not have thy conscience stirred it shal be seared therefore Thou art every day ripening for 〈◊〉 and reserved in the chayns of darkness til the judgment of the great 〈◊〉 and therefore thy condition is like that of the Devil himself thou hast only the liberty of thy chain that is liberty to encrease thy sins and thy plagues when the Lord would prepare a people for destruction he saves 〈◊〉 a. 6. 10. he seals them up under the curse of a 〈◊〉 mind and a hard heart Hear ye indeed but understand not and see yee indeed but perceiv not 〈◊〉 the heart of this people fat and shut their eyes lest they see with their eyes
is the way that God hath appointed and he wil bless the order which he hath set in his infinite wisdom and which he wil prosper If you would find his blessing walk in his way if you expect success attend his order and direction which he hath left to bring us to his Christ and so to life and happiness If you see not your sins you are in hazard never to see good day while you live nor when you dye Christ is said to stand at the dore and knock and if any man wil open unto him he wil come in and supp with him Rev. 3. 20. Saving Contrition is a shooting back the boults of our base lusts a severing and unlocking the heart from the Soveraignty of ones noysom Corruptions that stop the passage and hinder the coming of our Saviour this clear and convicting sight of our sins is as it were the lifting up of the latch or letting in of the Key the powerful dispensation of the truth and operation of his spirit whereby the knot and combination between sin and the soul is broken and severed and the way made that the authority of the truth may come at the heart and work kindly upon it for good An error here in the entrance is hardly ever recovered to miss here is mervailous dangerous it spoyles our whol proceeding in the great work of our calling and everlasting comfort as the naturallist and Physitian observe an error in the first concoction is never recovered in the second for the Lord in his wisdom and the course of nature hath so ordayned that each part doth that which is its proper and peculiar work but doth not rectify or redress that which was done amiss by another and so the goodness of the nourishment is never recovered or the body strengthened or health so comfortably preserved herby as were to be desired So it is in the entrance of 〈◊〉 great work of preparation for Christ and our effectual bringing home unto him never see sin aright the soul cannot be affected with it in a right manner never truly see the need of a Savior never seek after him or come to him this through sight of sin is as it were the setting open of the window whereby the light and good of the truth and the loath 〈◊〉 of sin is laid open unto the soul and comes in a main upon the Conscience to prevayl with it whereas shut this window and stop this passage the soul is cooped up in the dungeon of darkness and delusion be the ordinances never so powerful the means never so effectual there 〈◊〉 no coming into the heart no hope to work upon it or to prevail with it for good the evil of sin is not acknowledged and therefore not prevented that which his reason cannot see a man cannot shun the excellency and necessity of a Christ is not discerned and therefore not endeavoured after as were meet It befalls the soul smote with this spiritual blindness as with the Assyrian Host when they came to surprize Elisha 2 Kings 18. 19. 20. He prayed Lord smite this people with blindness he did so and they saw nothing before they were in the midst of their enemyes so here when the sinner is misguided by the dimness of his deluded mind he goes on in an evil way and knowes not whither he goes or where he is before he be in the botintoless pit Oh be wise and wary therefore that we err not here least we rush into ruine and that past alrecovery Expect then Gods blessing upon our endeavour but in Gods order attend his work in his own way It is the aym of our Saviour in sending and the office of the Holy Ghost in coming into the world when he intends to work effectually the saving good of his people to intitle them to the pardon of their sins and to establish their hearts under the government of his spirit John 16. 7. 8. If I depart I wil send the Comforter and when he is come he wil reprove he wil convince and set down the world by 〈◊〉 conviction of sin of righteousness of judgment of righteousness that the law is satisfied justice answered and that fully because he that was in prison is now released and therefore the debt payd and he gone to heaven to his Father Of judgment the power of his Kingdom government erected and set up in the soules of his servants and children in that by death he overcame him that had the power of death that is the Devill and therefore he is judged and falls in his cause as having no right nor in reason can challenge no rule in the hearts of those for whom Christ hath satisfied divine justice and therefore are free from that authority that sin and Satan had of them thereby But before we can share either in the righteousness of Christ for our justification or the rule of his spirit in our Sanctification the Holy Ghost must and doth convince us of sin that we have rejected and not entertained this Saviour If we do not convictingly see our sin in settling upon the root of our Corrupt rebellions and casting away the riches of Christs mercy the rule of his Grace it s not possible that those spiritual benefits should ever be made ours As ever therefore you desire to see and find the mercies of Christ sealed up unto your Consciences in pardoning of sins and acceptation of your persons As ever you would find the Kingdom of Satan cast down in your hearts and the government of his Grace and spirit there set up labor for this clear and convicting sight of sin begin you where the Holy spirit begins that you may find his presence with you his effectual power and blessing to accompany your endeavours in that way Catch not disorderly at pardon look not for peace of Conscience or hope to see the government of Christs Grace set up in your souls before you come to 〈◊〉 your sins by convicting evidence of the Holy Ghost The holy spirit of Grace wil not cross his course to gratify our Corruption That I may further set on the exhortation I shal endeavour to do these two things First To propound some means to help in 〈◊〉 work Secondly Some motives to quicken you therein The means are these that follow First Labor we to see that unconceivable excellency of holiness that is in the Lord and search we into the 〈◊〉 and the righteous laws there recorded for the direction of our daily course and that wil make us see the loathsomness of our own hearts and the vileness of 〈◊〉 As it s said of darkness it cannot be seen by it self but its light that discovers it self and darkness It s as true of sin it is not by it self to be discerned for it is spiritual darkness the light of Gods Holiness and wisdom which by sin are wronged and the law which is transgressed these are both lights God is light and in
man cares 〈◊〉 he laies it and can easily find it and that in the dark So it is when thou lookest at the Commands the Lord gives and the duties he requires as matters of no great consequence and therefore bestowest not thy thoughts or remembrance about them see how the prophet argues from this ground Jer. 2. 32. Can a maid forget her ornaments or a bride her attire yet my 〈◊〉 have forgotten me daies 〈◊〉 number so where their esteem is their memories are also It 's certain it 's a base 〈◊〉 heart of the duties which are in daily practice and the discharge of his place which ought to be his daily wear A man should put on Christ his holiness meekness c. and 〈◊〉 themselves with a quiet and modest and peacable spirit yet these are not in his way nor his thoughts It 's certain thou carest not so much for Gods command as a frothy headed maid doth for a clout Weigh then but in serious consideration the wretchedness of thy pretence shouldest thou hear a servant or a child excuse their idleness or disobedience to Master or Father on this manner I hope you wil excuse my neglect and pardon 〈◊〉 disobedience because I do not love your person 〈◊〉 or esteem your place or command were not 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 aggravate the evil no way to excuse it Such is the silliness of this shift of thine when thou wouldest make thy forgetfulness to lessen thy fault Because thou doest not love the Lord nor reverence his holy law this encreaseth the evil exceedingly It argues a sensual sottish Atheistcal disposition of heart tolive without God and 〈◊〉 in our course 〈◊〉 to put off the apprehensions of Christians and men these are joyned together Ezek. 23. 35. Thou hast forgotten me and cast me behind thy back to live an outlaw upon earth when we attend not mind not a law by which wee live Thy duty is plain which is required the sin evident that is forbidden thou neglectest the one and committest the other and this is the balsom that heals and helps al I did not once think of it It was wholly out of thy mind I did quite forget it why then forget thou art a Christian nay a man forget there is a God that there is a Heaven to reward 〈◊〉 a Hell to Torment thee forget thou hast a soul to be saved or sins to be pardoned or avoyded until thou feelest the plagues of them which thou 〈◊〉 never be able to forget nor yet to bear Another Shift which keeps off the edg and power of a Conviction Is the deadly and destroying hazards they expect and great extremities which they fear will 〈◊〉 befal if they should not dispense with some sins in such cases Hence it is their Arguments come on armed with such unanswerable Interrogations in their apprehensions Why what would you have us do You little know the desperate streights unto which we are driven were you but in our places we are perswaded you would not only pity us in what we have done but would do the same things Alas would you have us begger our selves undo our families destroy our Liberties and Comforts yea hazard nay lose our lives herein we hope the Lord wil allow us some dispensation or connivance Thus they with one 〈◊〉 consent not only desired but took it for granted they should also obtain their desire which to them appeared so reasonable Luke 14. 18. 〈◊〉 Guests began to excuse themselves One hath hired a Farm and he must go and see it Another a yoke of Oxen and he must try them and therefore I pray you have me excused Another hath married a Wife and he cannot come and 〈◊〉 desires he may be excused q. d. We conceive the case so equal and reasonable we suppose we need not speak our selves you wil plead our excuse which indeed pleads for it self should not a man preserve his state and therefore in a way of providence go visit his Farm should he not attend his Calling if he be called to follow the Plow why should he not follow it For Answer I shal shortly leave two or three Scriptures with thee Is it not one Command of the Gospel That they that will 〈◊〉 godly in Christ must suffer persecution and through many Tribulations we must enter into the Kingdom of Heaven 2 Tim. 3. 12. He that will save his 〈◊〉 shall lose it Matth. 16. 25. He that loves 〈◊〉 or Mother more than me is not worthy of me Matth. 10. 37. If thou art so far from yielding obedience to the Gospel as to refuse the terms of it canst thou be excused To fear man more than God to preser thine own ease more than his Honor canst thou be excusable To attend the Comforts of this world with the loss of the peace of thy Conscience to look after the preservation of thy life and neglect the Salvation of thy soul nor God nor man nor Angels nor Devils nor 〈◊〉 own Conscience will excuse thee The Seventh Shift and forgery whereby our Carnal Reason would 〈◊〉 and defeat the power of the Truth and lessen the loathsomness of sin is that which seems to them so reasonable even to common sence as that it admits no denial and it 's taken from THE HOLINESS AND SPIRITUALNESS OF THE LAW unto which they are bound and that overbearing strength of the body of sin and original corruption 〈◊〉 they are wholly disenabled to the performance thereof so that there is not only a difficulty but even an impossibility to corrupt Nature and to men in their Natural condition to answer the exactness thereof doth not the Text say 〈◊〉 such cannot cease from sin 2. Pet. 2. 14. That which is 〈◊〉 of the flesh and comes from it is flesh John 3. 8 9. Are not the words plain That the Prince of the Air rules in the hearts of the children of disobedience and that he takes them captive at his will 2 Tim. 2. last Nay if the holy Apostle who had the Spirit of Grace yet found his distempers bear up so hard and make head against him that they soiled him and put him to the worse and forced him to cry out as under captivity and thraldom I see another Law in my members carrying me captive Oh wretched man who shall deliver me Rom. 7. If he that had received the power of Grace against his sin was yet so overborn what can they be able to do that are yet in their natural condition and have nothing but sin as al the Sons of Adam are since the Fall That as 〈◊〉 in a storm are forced by the rage of winds and weather to go whither they wil carry them not whither they should men pity them for what they suffer do not 〈◊〉 them for what they cannot do So it is with the strength of distempers which like a mighty stream carry us uncontroulably to the commission of evil and it 's impossible for us to prevail against
The following of 〈◊〉 in a ful search and 〈◊〉 after it and that hath been dispatched in al the severals of it when we have viewed al the particulars of sin and brought in the whol and ful Sum together The Second part of Meditation is in the fastening of Meditation thus discovered upon the heart All this while the sinner hath been gathering and bringing in the several circumstances as it were so many single sticks scattered here and there and bundled all together as it were by a joynt consideration that they may be attended in their ful weight and lastly the sinner hath lifted at them by meditation and found them heavy but it hath not as yet laid them and prest them upon his soul that he might feel them piercing and pinching as a burden unsupportable The Second thing now to be attended as the last part of this Heavenly Art and holy Duty is to fasten these sins upon our souls in the full weight thereof This is done in two things 1 By grapling with the Heart 2 By getting above or getting the better of the Heart In the first of these we act Meditation as far as our endeavor wil go In the second the Lord arms it with power to do that it should and we cannot by the best of al our diligence and ability In the former the soul is put in suit the sum of the several bils being charged upon it In the latter we have sentence past and execution done upon the soul that it is forced to seek out for payment and satisfaction and that is awarded from under the hand of the Spirit in the High Court of Heaven To begin with the first of these How Meditation grapples with the heart I shal in short set forth unto you in three Directions or Rules The first comes within the Soul The second laies hold upon it The third drags it to the Throne of Justice and drives it to seek out for payment and satisfaction It 's the skil of meditation to come within the soul and surprize it with the pursuit of the evil of sin which hath now been laid open in so large and apparant manner It 's the cunning of Wrastlers before they fasten upon the adversary whom they intend to foyl and bring under they gather in upon them with the greatest wiliness and dexterity they may and then they lay hold with such advantages that they are not able to escape their hands It 's so in this Spiritual Service it 's the chiefest dexterity in Meditation to gather in upon the heart i. e. the wil and affections where the sink of sin lies and who are wedded to their distempers that it shall be forced to come under the Evidence of the Truth and the 〈◊〉 of the evil of sin so discovered It 's one thing to sum up debts and shew them to the Bankerupt another thing to serve a Writ of them to summon him to the Court that he may answer and give satisfaction it 's one thing to relate a mans bils as a Servant an Accomptant may another thing to charge them upon him So here Meditation shewed the corruption now summons and serves a Sub-paena upon the soul before it played the part of an Accomptant brought in al Bils now takes the place of a Serjeant laies them to the charge and attacheth the sinner Meditation you must know includes the highest strain of the strength of Reason in the utmost extent of it it 's not the whol nay indeed it 's the least part of the work of Meditation to search and take a survey of the compass of corruption in al the circumstances thereof apprehended to the full but it puts home an apprehension to the full follows it and 〈◊〉 it upon the heart and causeth it to attend for the while Herein lies the Excellency and Efficacy of Meditation That it forceth the Truth and discovery of sin with that 〈◊〉 Evidence upon the Heart that it cannot but own it as his debt acknowledg what is his due and the danger unto which he is justly subject by reason thereof and is now compelled to find and confess it self to be under the soveraign authority of the truth to be in the guilt of sin which it hath committed and the punishment of sin that it hath deserved thereby the case is now so clear it sees it cannot but own the guilt and it cannot avoyd the punishment This is the reason rendred by the prophet of the sottishness of the deluded Idolater that he cannot see his own folly and madness in worshipping an Image of wood he stifles the strength of reason and setts not 〈◊〉 that overbearing evidence of truth which his own experience would give in to his heart Isa. 44. 16. He burneth part thereof in the fire with part thereof he rosteth flesh yea he warmeth himself and saith Aha I am warm with the residue thereof he maketh a God even a graven Image he falleth down and worshippeth it what 's the ground that any living man should so far go against common sence he answereth ver 19. None considereth in his heart to say I have burnt part I have roasted and warmed my self and shal I make a God of the rest The strength of reason in a right way would easily have forced such a conclusion upon the heart but the corruption of the heart stifled and intercepted the power of reason and damped the evidence thereof because it was not followed and fastened by the power of Meditation no man considereth in his heart the want of consideration made the heart not find nor own the evidence of that inference and truth For we find this in our corrupt hearts naturally when sin and guilt comes to be charged upon us and the dreadfullness of both are presented to our view we willingly would hide our selves from the evidence and power of the truth as Adam from the presence of the Lord. If we cannot deny it yet excuse it that the fault was in such and such they are to be blamed they were the cause and they 〈◊〉 me to the commission I therefore am to be excused Or if not excuse it wholly yet mince and lessen it if not slight it and cast it aside as that which neither needs nor deserves consideration As the bankerupt the debts he is not willing to pay he is willing not to think off here now is the fruit and vertue 〈◊〉 power and profit of Meditation it dasheth and scatters al these delusions and deceits stops the passage as it were that none of al these carnal and false pretences can keep off the stroke of the truth and the sting of sin from the heart No no replyes Meditation these and these are your corruptions you must own them the evidence of them are such and so playn ye cannot excuse them the aggravations so many so great you cannot lessen them the plagues heavy and unavoydable you cannot prevent them Thus it is know it for your selves
s prepared intended and appointed of purpose for others thou hast no share and portion in al these precious things of life hands off thou hard 〈◊〉 wretch There is good 〈◊〉 from 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 poor shall be enriched the mourners comforted but no good to thee no look the second 〈◊〉 there is other provision the Lord makes for stiffnecked Creatures he proclaims a yeer of Jubile a day of acceptance from God to the distressed but there is a day of Vengeance of our God to those that are of a contrary disposition there is Vengeance and it 's from God he wil be revenged upon thee for all the contempt of his Truth grief done to his Spirit resistance of his Grace he will rain fire and brimstone storm and tempest upon thee this shall be the portion of thy cup for the conclusion is peremptory Job 9. 4. Who ever 〈◊〉 his heart against the Lord and prospered Can there any example be alledged that wil evidence it any reason given or conceived that might prove it possible Search the Stories of so many Generations and enquire since the day that God created 〈◊〉 upon Earth if there were ever such a thing heard When there were Gyants upon earth the whol earth was filled with violence al the world 〈◊〉 themselves in open rebellion against God God opens the windows of Heaven and the fountains of the great 〈◊〉 and sends in a Deluge of his displeasure and wrath and destroies those hard-hearted Rebels from off the face of the Earth me thinks I hear those flinty stiffnecked wretches 〈◊〉 and crying drowning and dying and roaring out their wretchedness those loose Libertines eating and drinking marrying and giving in marriage and knew nothing i. e. and would know nothing their Cups in their hands and Queans in their Arms and despair in their mouths Oh we shut our Ears and hardened our hearts against the striving of Gods Spirit the call of Gods Messengers the warning and entreaties of Gods patience We would not receive Counsel and terms of Peace and Mercy and therefore we now perish without Mercy cursing one another and breathing out their last Cursed be the day that ever I knew thee by thy carnal deceits I was strengthened Cursed be thou and thy company by thy example I was deluded and hardened Thus they are accursed and go cursing down to the depth of the Sea and so to the depth of the bottomless Pit It is beyond the Scope of our Saviors coming into the world and the Commission he hath received for the great Work of Redemption to communicate Grace and Life to thee in the condition in which now thou art Luke 19. 10 The Son of man is come to 〈◊〉 and save that which is lost not such as was miserable for so all was but such as were sensible of that undone condition in which they lay Yea his expression is peremptory I came not to call the righteous but sinners to repentance Marth 9. 13. Those who conceited themselves whol in a safe and secure estate he had no Commission to call or comfort such they 〈◊〉 be broken before he bind them weary and laden before he ease them wounded before he will pour in the Oyl of Mercy to heal and relieve them Hence it was that when our Savior had prepared his Feast killed his Fatlings and drawn forth his refined Wines and sent and invited his guests all pleaded their excuses and refused to come not being hunger-bit and sensibly affected with their own miserable estate and the need they had of supply from those rich Provisions of a Savior their-careless and secure hearts could rellish other sensual care and swinish contentments which they had at home when men set no price see no need of those Dainties and Rarities of the riches of Grace and Salvation purchased by Christ and offered in the Gospel he peremptorily concludes Such shall never tast of them Luke 14. 24. The second sort of hard-hearted sinners or of a further and higer degree in this hardness are such as have been exercised under the displeasure of the Almighty 〈◊〉 had many stabs by the Truth and threatnings of the Word and have had many bruises and blows from the Dispensations of God in his Ordinances deeply affected and almost 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 with the danger of their own Estates and the dreadfulness of those everlasting burnings which now they felt in their souls and were not able to bear but at last they have SHOOK OFF THEIR TERROR 〈◊〉 away the vexation and trouble that lay upon their spirits and now they grow more fierce and hard-hearted than ever before and dare out-face and out-brare the severest threatnings the most dreadful Judgments that can be denounced and which they find confess themselves liable unto having their conscience seared with a hot Iron 1 Tim. 4. 2 themselvs becoming fearlessly impudent to adventure upon sin without the least touch of any remorse or trouble for it The time was they confess they sate with trembling hearts under the Dispensation of the Word and so silly and feeble spirited they were that their hearts failed with fear and 〈◊〉 away in the apprehension of the hainousness of their sin and the unsufferable plagues that were due thereunto But now that dale is 〈◊〉 those daies are past they have got more wit and skil than to be scared with such Bug-bears they can tell how to fence themselves against such fears and disquiets they can sit and hear and attend all that can be said let them speak while they will and wear their 〈◊〉 to the stumps they can hear all and slight all nay rather than fail deride and make a mock of what they have heard but to be troubled at what they hear they are 〈◊〉 such Babies they are not so much as stirred with any thing Oh wo to thee that ever thou sawest thy heart at this pass the greater will thy trouble be one day The Devils beleeve and tremble and doest not thou stir Art thou in Hell here on Earth before thou comest thither and dost thou come short of the Devils themselves in sensibleness of heart and canst thou content thy self yea bless thy self in this condition Hear what God hath determined against thee and wil certainly bring upon thee Deut. 29. 19. He that shal 〈◊〉 the words of this Curse and shall bless himself in his heart saying I shal have peace though I walk in the Imagination of my heart 〈◊〉 drunkenness to thirst the wrath of the Lord will smoak against that man to cut him off from the Land of the Living c. But before I part with thee suffer me to spread the dreadfulness of thy condition before thy face and leave it upon Record in thy Conscience that thou mayest say thou 〈◊〉 forewarned Know therefore thy case is almost desperate and beyond Cure thy doom draws on and hastens which thou canst 〈◊〉 escape thy plagues are beyond the utmost of all extremity which thou canst not
conceive much less endure First Thy Case to common Reason leaving secret things to God seems past cure it 's a great suspicion the day of Grace is over the date of mercy past the period of Gods Patience come to an end all means have been used and conclusions tryed with thee the invincible stiffness of thy Spirit hath won the day thou hast tried Masteries with all means Law and Gospel Promises 〈◊〉 and 〈◊〉 the unconquerable hardness of thy heart hath out-bid all Dispensations thou art Cannon proof Law proof Gospel proof Threatning proof there is no other means of good in Heaven or Earth and thou art worse by them all which are provided to better others and have so done without means thou hast no reason to think that God wil work and thou hast had the try al of al and thou art beyond 〈◊〉 in thy stifness and therefore beyond all helps in an ordinary way Prov. 29. 1. He that being often reproved 〈◊〉 his heart shall be destroyed and that without remedy he that casts away the salve that should cure him spils the Physick that should recover him casts away the meat that should nourish him how should he be either cured or supported There are no Commands that awe no Promises perswade no Terrors awaken then there is no Remedy He must be deluded that opposeth the Wisdom that only can guide him he must be cursed that resists the mercy that only can save him he must be damned that 〈◊〉 upon the blood of Jesus that only would redeem him there is no other Remedy no other Name but the Name of Jesus wherby men must be saved Acts 4. 12. Nay not only means fail him but God himself seems to forsake Gen. 6. 3. My Spirit shall not alwaies strive with man He hath striven by his Terrors by his Mercies striven and laid hold upon thee by heart-breaking 〈◊〉 Turn ye why will ye die turn ye and cause others to return and so iniquity shall not be your ruin Ezek. 33. 11. Oh that there were such a heart in them to fear me alwaies that it might be well with them Deut. 5. 29. but thou hast wound away from Gods hand and forsaken him and he hath forsaken thee there is Word and Promises but no God in them Terrors and 〈◊〉 but no God in them Thou art without God and art thou not then without hope When the throws of a travelling Woman leave her her life leaves her So here It 's said of a company of Despisers of Christ That they 〈◊〉 him again unto themselves Heb. 6. 6. When they resist one Christ and resist that Salvation that hath been offered either they must have another Christ or he anew crucified if ever they be saved So there must be a new Christ and new Scriptures before such miserable wretches can be relieved the Blood of Jesus the Spirit and Promises of Jesus Grace and Salvation hath been tendered to these stubborn-hearted and they have opposed and cast all away either there must be another Christ or he must die again All the Commands and Comforts in the Word all the Rules and Directions 〈◊〉 and Counsels have been used and tryed without any profit and prevailing power therefore there must be another Covenant 〈◊〉 and Scriptures if thou beest saved that 's incredible therefore the other impossible 〈◊〉 can ye escape that neglect so great Salvation Heb. 2. 2. I appeal to your selves You will go from the Law to the Gospel from justice to mercy but whither wil you go when you have departed away from mercy and mercy is departed away from you Thy judgment hastens thou canst not not escape it nor prevent it and truly it's coming more speedily and suddenly then thou art awar of Thou bringest upon thy self swift destruction though thou sleepest yet thy damnation sleeps not Hebr. 6. 8. the earth that often receives rain from heaven and yet brings forth thorns is near unto cursing look every day that God should curse al thy comforts thy out-goings and thy in-comings Prov. 28. 14. He that bardens his heart fals into mischief fals into it and is overwhelmed with it al of a sudden he may fal into any tempration he opposeth that counsel that should preserve him falls into sins he casts away that grace and resists that spirit that should strengthen him nay being past feeling such a one wil run to commit al wickedness with greediness Eph. 4. 19. Hell and Divills and 〈◊〉 are let loose upon such the light of nature evidence of reason dictates of of Conscence authority of the law terrors of judgments intreaties of mercies the hard heart hath cast away al these and therefore rusheth into what evil comes next against Conscience command reason sence nature men put of the principles not of humanity but of sence and become more base than the beasts themselves do that which beasts wil not do and morality is ashamed to speak As the ship when the anchors are broke and cable cut and a mighty tempest arises she is wholly left to the rage of wind and weather When men harden their hearts God swears they shal never enter into his rest Hebr. 3. last Ground of COMFORT to support the sincking spirits of broken hearted sinners when they seem to faint under the fierce displeasure of the Almighty and to be 〈◊〉 with the unsupportable weight of the wickedness of their own souls which they are neither able to avoid nor 〈◊〉 to undergo Here hence is matter of sound refreshing both to the parties that are the patients and bear 〈◊〉 bitterness and burden of their sorrow to their friends who as spectators do mourn with them and are affected with a fellow feeling of the evil of that which they find experimentally let me speak a word severally to them both Know therefore to thy comfort thou distressed soul this sorrow and anguish which now oppresseth thee it s not unto death nay it s the onely way and means to deliver from death from the death of sin and that security in which thou lyeft without either sence of thy misery or the least appearance and possibility of deliverance from the death everlasting of thy soul unto which thou wast hastening amain As it is with a dead body when with rubbing chafing and pouring in of hot waters there is some kind of warmth coming and overspreading the parts there is good hope the soul is again returning the man reviving again It s so in this spiritual quickening of a soul dead in sin stone dead stiff insensible of the distempers that lodge within him take possession of the whol frame of the inward man as stif coldness takes possession of a dead body when the Lord begins to affect the sinner und makes throughly sensible with Godly sorrow by rubbing and chafing in of sharp reproofs and passionate exhortations there is a kind of spiritual warmth coming into the soul and certain evidence like a harbenger or immediate
forerunner of life and 〈◊〉 which wil undoubtedly take up their 〈◊〉 in the soul he that goes in the vally of tears he 〈◊〉 on comfortably because he goes in the right way to Zion they shal go weeping and mourning with their faces toward Zion 〈◊〉 50. 4. this is the guise and the way of such who are travailing towards the holy land Immanuels Land the land of Promise they may be content to bear the hardness of the way when they are sure to attain the end of their journey the salvation of their souls that wil pay the charges and recompence the labor and quit cost in the issue it 's the travellers conclusion that carries them through the harshest way they meet withal he hath never an il day that hath a good night and when he finds the marks of the way that are given him the directions that are suggested to discover his approach to his own home that makes him 〈◊〉 al the rest as happily they may be to this purpose 〈◊〉 you are passed so many dayes journey you shal come 〈◊〉 last to a most tedious and heavy way and deep waters such as you must be forced to swim can feel and find no bottom yet if you keep the right causey there is no danger at al It 's a sad way but sate and then know you may you are nearer home 〈◊〉 danger is past and the worst is over ye are within sight of your own house when the traveller who hath taken these directions and retaynes his marks in his mind when he finds that by experience which hath formerly been spoken the way mervailous heavy tedious he sticks fast in the mire and clay anon the waters are so deep that he feels no bottom he remembers and concludes now I know where I am I am sure I am in the right way and certainly near home this makes him devour al the difficulties wet and weary he feels he fears nothing he thinks of nothing but his wife wil welcome him his children rejoyce in him his friends refresh and accompany him there he shal take up his lodging and refresh his weary nature so here in thy spiritual travel when the weight 〈◊〉 thy sins which of al other is the heaviest the loss of a God and his favor and presence which are depths and floods of distress which come even to the soul there thou findest no bottom they are unsufferable unsupportable then lift up thy head know this is the right way to Christ and thou near home even within the ken of the Promise of eternal life Thou wilt come immediately to Jesus the Mediator of the new Covenant thy head and husband who wil wipe awayal tears from thine eyes who wil embrace and welcome thee in the armes of his mercy thee into the bosom and bowels of his love rejoyce over thee with everlasting joy come thou mourning weary and weatherbeaten sinner I have wept for thee and died for thee and prayed for thee and looked many a long look for that distressed soul Oh be humbled be estranged and divorced from thy lusts when wil it once be Oh welcome though come weary and tired no sooner there arrived but the spirit of comfort shal poure peace into thy Conscience which passeth al understanding joy unspeakable and glorious al the first born of God they wil come about thee and be glad to enjoy thy fellowship and the innumerable company of Angels wil sing Hallelujahs in heaven peace on earth and good wil towards men God and Christ Heaven and Earth Men and Angels rejoyce in thee and thy condition and why may est not thou be refreshed in it There is no other way whereby God can according to covenant convey spiritual good to thee no other way whereby thou eanst receive it Be therefore forever comforted in thy condition God must cut if he cure thee of a stony heart God must wound that secure and careless soul of thine if ever he heale it so himself professeth it is the method he takes in relieving the misery and distressed and sinful condition of a son of Adam Isa. 19. 22. The Lord shal smite Egipt and shal heal it and they shal return to the Lord and be wil be entrated of them and he wil heal them Oh but my terrors have been many formerly but never as now passing strength my burdens were 〈◊〉 before but never such as now beyond al extremity above al the ability I have beyond al possibility I can conceive to endure and not to dy under them in everlasting discouragement never to look for any good Therefore thy comfort never so near as now As in child-birth so in this new birth the stronger and sharper the throwes the more speedy and successeful the deliverance As it is in the cure of an old festered sore al the while it breaks and runs there is some ease but there is yet no cure while the core remains when that is pressed out though it be with much pain and extremity yet then the healing comes on with most speed When thy sorrowes have seized upon thee and thou hast breathed out thy sighs and complaints to God there hath happly been some ease Oh but there was a core of some bosom lust or corruption that lay within and yet not loosened and dislodged and there is no perfect cure or healing wil befal so long as that remaines and there must be much pressing much struggling by word and paryer before that wil part and when thy heart parts from that know undoubtedly health and Salvation and comfort is near Comfort Alas what do ye speak to me of comfort who am unfit and unworthy nor have any right unto it Light is sowen for the righteous and joy for them that are upright in heart yea but they have it hardly for whom it was prepared even planted and sown of purpose it 's their harvest let them reap it and receive it But what have I to do with it to put my sickle into anothers corn who am a sinful unrighteous wretched creature Not onely the righteous who by the power of grace can subdue sin but even the mourners in Sion who by the spirit are burthened with their sins these I say have allowance and that from God to share in this comfort Blessed are they that mourn they shal be comforted Math. 5. 3. thou Sayest thou art not thou findest none for the present be it so that is not in the promise but it's sure enough thou shalt be that is sufficient God wil make thee stay for it and beg for it and prize it before it come that thou mayest be thankful for it when it comes it shal be in Gods time and in due time and if thou wouldst have it before know thou art not sit to receive nor God willing to bestow thou hast it not in hand but its 〈◊〉 in hope it wil be and wil not fail and the reversion of it
men out of that senceless security in which they were buried makes them look about them puts them upon the serious consideration of their own spiritual condition not long before they scant thought whether they had louls to be saved or sins to be pardoned or mercy and grace to be looked after they never put it to the question what they could say or shew for heaven but now they begin to think with themselves what they are this is set forth to be the guise and behavior of converting sinners when God begins to tamper with the hearts for the alteration of their states Jer. 50. 4. In those dayes and at that time when God hath stirred their hearts to recover themselves out of the Babilonish Captivity Deliver thy self O Sion 〈◊〉 who dwellest with 〈◊〉 Daughter of Babilon See how they bestir themselves Going and weeping shall they go and 〈◊〉 the Lord their God weep stil and go stil sorrow stil and seek stil they who stirred not a foot before nor looked after the Lord nor their own happiness and comfort So it was with Ephraim when the Lord began to work his heart to a right apprehension of himself Jer. 31. 18. while he was in his Natural Condition he was like an untamed Bullock unacoustomed to the Yoke but when the Lord had taken him to task then he begins to 〈◊〉 with himself and betake himself to new thoughts verse 19. When I was turned I repented when I was instructed I smote upon my thigh Thus John Baptists Hearers when once the Word wrought kindly upon them it made them al busie and inquisitive even as one man Luke 3. 10. to 15. The People they came and asked the Publicans they enquired the rude Soldiers they also began to demand Master what shal we do This disposition of spirit set men a going who sat stil before as in a dream The covetous Publicans whose thoughts were after their gain how to compass their Commodities from every Quarter the rude and unruly Soldiers who cared for nothing nor thought of nothing but how to satisfie their own lusts and sult their own corrupt desires al was fish that came to net and the sottish multitude who meerly followed the sight of their eyes after a bruitish manner minded that which concerned the out ward man What shal we eat what shal we drink what shal we put on In likely hood had never a thought of God nor of themselves whether there were a Heaven to be expected or a Hel to be avoided but followed their present pleasures see now how serious and inquisitive they be they now conclude somthing must be done and they would willingly know what course they ought to take when God sets upon mens souls then they set upon their Service The Reasons are Two Because they now feel the evil they never feared before now they see the danger and misery hanging over their heads able to overwhelm them and sink their hearts which they never suspected formerly And therefore now not only Reason 〈◊〉 them but their own safety Nature and 〈◊〉 love wil force them to bestir themselves to the utmost of their strength and improve al their abilities to the utmost of their power to prevent such over-bearing evils and provide for 〈◊〉 own relief and welfare and so the more to use al diligence here because they are unknown and yet spiritual which concern their eternal estate and therefore cause most fear and threaten most hazard and therefore constrains them to seek 〈◊〉 and neer for succor and relief So it was with the Prodigal when he came to 〈◊〉 before he had not the right 〈◊〉 of his Reason nor conceived of things as they were but as frantick men fal into fire and water and fear nothing 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 nothing but now being come to the 〈◊〉 of his understanding he considers How many Servants are in my Fathers Family that have bread enough and I 〈◊〉 with hunger Luke 15. 17. then he 〈◊〉 himself I will arise and go to my Father and say c. So it is with many prodigal 〈◊〉 deluded Creatures they spend time and strength and lay out themselves 〈◊〉 nothing and therefore fear no after-claps until the time of Famine and day of 〈◊〉 and horror come in upon them they never saw need of reading hearing prayer seeking and enquiry but now when they find themselves besieged with sins and plagues and dayly expect the execution to be done Heaven frowning Hell gaping their Consciences 〈◊〉 and themselves dropping down to the Grave and their souls to Hell they think it high time and more than time to bestir themselves to do what they can and to cry for help and direction in so desperate distresses and danger I wil arise and go confer I wil arise and go enquire I wil arise and go pray The whol need not the Physitian therefore they do not send nor yet are they willing to receive nor care to enquire or take any Physick but when the Difease grows fierce and life is in danger then post out Messengers 〈◊〉 far and neer for a Physitian search every bush enquire of every man what might be good what have you 〈◊〉 what would you advise So here Thus God dealt with his People when he would awaken them Hos. 5. last In their affliction they will seek me early then Hos. 6. 1. Come let us return to the Lord he hath wounded and he will heal The full soul loaths the Honey Comb but never looks out for provision but the 〈◊〉 soul that is now starving runs if he can if he cannot run he wil go if he 〈◊〉 go he wil creep enquires where he may have food uses all means to get he wil buy or beg or borrow So here c. They begin now to see the folly of their own conceits and that confidence which in former times they had how easily they could procure their own comfort and how certainly without fail they could provide for the 〈◊〉 of their own souls and everlasting happiness they said it and thought what they said that there needs not so much 〈◊〉 to get to Heaven at the time of 〈◊〉 and before their departure draw on it 's but bewading 〈◊〉 sins and seeking to God for mercy Oh but when it comes too they 〈◊〉 another 〈◊〉 matter of it than ever formerly they did 〈◊〉 they 〈◊〉 at an utter loss with themselves they know not what 〈◊〉 to take which 〈◊〉 to turn they know not poor Creatures how to come at a Christ nay how to 〈◊〉 him how to attain 〈◊〉 pardon or peace And therefore now though 〈◊〉 late it may be they see they know not what to do or how to turn their hand to any spiritual work which in pride of heart said and concluded they could 〈◊〉 any thing They are made of nothing but doubts and questions If thou 〈◊〉 est the gift of God thou would'st ask of him and he would give thee
Isa. 66. 3. I wil look saith the Lord i. e. with a gracious look of mercy upon this man that trembles at my word that trembles at a counsel least he should despise it at commands promises least he should not receive them The Lord is terrible out of his holy places When the terror of the truth of God is fallen upon the soul then what ever exhortations directions come from the word he dares not resist or gainsay but submit and fal under the wil of God made known there then a man wil fear to go from under a command as to go to hell it self EXAMINATION we may hence know whether ever the word hath wrought kindly and left this impression of broken heartedness this is a never fayling evidence As thy subjection is to the word so thy contrition is If the word hath pierced thee the word wil awe thee 1 Thes. 1. 6. Our Gospel came not in word but in power and ye became followers of us and of the Lord. Did the word over-power thy heart then thou art a follower of the faithful Ministers of God who left those impressions upon thy soul the word is mighty through God and brings every thought into the obedience of Christ hence 2 Cor. 8. 5. they gave up themselves to the Lord and then to us by the wil of God so far as they set forth the Goverment of Christ. This fals heavy upon two sorts Those that are open rebells sons of Belial that acknowledg no Lord no Law what to tremble at every word that is delivered No they are not such Babies c. Conspirators and traitors that pretend and profess subjection and yet maintain rebellion in their hearts they yield fainedly but when it comes to reallity to stoop to the authority of the truth they wil not these are traitors to the truth 〈◊〉 the Swissers wil be enemies when they cannot serve their own turns and friends when they do 〈◊〉 the Papists in England they are content to take the benefit of the Law but when it comes to take the oath of Allegiance they wil by no means do it because they are sworn Vassels to the Pope or Pensioners to the King of Spain though they equivocate to serve their own turns so these when they come to take the oath of Allegiance to set up Christ as supream in their hearts and minds to submit to the power of the truth then they take up armes against Christ and his word and wil not submit This is the evidence of a servant of sin Rom. 6. 17. when men receive the power of the Gospel they are not servants of sin else they are Psal. 45. 5. a man that wil not fal before the truth the arrows of Christ never stuck fast in his heart What shal we do We have done with the parties to whom the complaint was made men and brethren c. The complaint it self is ful of bitterness some things are implyed in it some things expressed That which is implyed in this complaint may be attended in four particulars Their ignorance and inability how to help themselves An absolute necessity to come 〈◊〉 of this condition which now they find themselves in A secret hope to receive advice and relief from the Apostles The price and excellency they now put upon the 〈◊〉 from their sins for this is the end of their request that which is supposed and implyed as the end of their complaint namely to bedelivered from that which was the plague sore of their souls and did so extremely pierce and pinch them That which the jalour in the like case did openly mention and these also did intend Sirs what shal I do to be saved Acts. 16. 30. namely from those sins which now overwhelm his soul. Sinners in distress of Conscience are ignorant and unable to help themselves The manner of the speech proclaimes so much to each mans experience at the very first inckling and hearing of it They speak as men at their wits end what shal we do we know not what to do it 's beyond our skil and above our reach either to bear or avoyd to make an escape from his sins and the plagues due therunto As Ruben said when he went down into the pit found not his Brother Joseph there being sold before he returned to his bretheren the child is not I whither shal I go Gen. 37. 30. So it is with the soul in distress of Conscience seeing it self forsaken of God Because he hath forsaken him by his backslidings and departures God is gone my God is not to this poor soul and I 〈◊〉 shal I go whither shal I look if to heaven there justice wil reject and condemn me if to hell there the Devils are ready to torment should I take the wings of the morning fly to the utmost parts of the earth there the wrath of the Almighty shal pursue and if I look into my own soul there is a Conscience to accuse 〈◊〉 a hell of horror to confound me for ever We know 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 way to take 〈◊〉 we are 〈◊〉 of our 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 makes it more 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 know 〈◊〉 how to get either relief or release We are at a loss 〈◊〉 our 〈◊〉 we are at a loss in our thoughts how we may find succor and deliverance you 〈◊〉 are the seers of Israel shew us the way of help Paul acknowledgeth as much at his first Conversion Acts 9. 6. when the Lord had met him and discovered the evil and 〈◊〉 of his way he then conceived he did not wel and yet could not conceive what to do Lord what wilt thou have me to do I do not know and therefore I cannot tel how to do thy wil nor yet how to procure mine own peace When the Israelites were driven to perplexities by the expression of Gods 〈◊〉 against their 〈◊〉 carriage in chusing themselves a King and 〈◊〉 cryed out 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 us for we have sinned 1 Sam. 12. 〈◊〉 they durst not go to the Throne of Grace themselves but forced out of guilt and horror they were ready to go the wrong way and therefore Samuel by seasonable prevention stops their passage Ye have sinned yet turn not aside from following the Lord q. d. the distressed sinner as a Traveller in amazement when they have once missed their way the further they go the further they go aside Reasons are Two The 〈◊〉 of Grace and Life unto which men are to turn at the times of their Conversion they are hidden and secret and men in their Natural Condition when the Lord is pleased first to stop their passage and build a wall before them they are wholly unacquainted with the narrow path that 〈◊〉 to Christ and life by reason of that inbred blindness of their minds and the dayly 〈◊〉 of their lives and that from their 〈◊〉 For 〈◊〉 is 〈◊〉 part of the description of the Grace 〈◊〉 to enter in at the straight gate for straight 〈◊〉
the 〈◊〉 and 〈◊〉 is the way that leads unto Life and 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 find it Matth. 7. 13. It 's but one 〈◊〉 and a narrow one 〈◊〉 be thousands of thousands of 〈◊〉 paths and 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 miss it and there is but one way to hit 〈◊〉 and 〈◊〉 hard 〈◊〉 find it self and to 〈◊〉 that is 〈◊〉 in 〈◊〉 impossible Therefore men are said to be strangers from the life of God through the ignorance that is in them Eph. 4. 18. As men that never went a strange way they cannot tel whether they go right or wrong they know not where they are and as Travellers speak when they are in remote places I am out of my knowledg I was never in these Coasts before So it is with all men Naturally they are but strangers when they fal unexpectedly upon the Coasts of Conversion and Contrition they are at a loss and wholly unacquainted with the Coast of such a Condition know not where they are or what to make of it or themselves Rom. 〈◊〉 17. The Apostle speaking of mens conceivings of the waies and works of Christ yet in their Natural blindness Destruction and Calamity are in their waies the way of peace they have not known they think they are in the road to Heaven when they are posting down to Hell yea even such who have lived long under the means and have heard much of the Lord Jesus nay it may be have preached much of him and that with no smal approbation yet when they are come to these straights and brought to these amazing horrors of Spirit they plainly shew nay are sorced nakedly to profess they never had any sound discerning either of the work of Grace or the way to Christ but are very Children Novices No-bodies in these Spiritual Mysteries So it was with these in this place in such a multitude now brought home to the faith no question but many of them had enjoyed many means and been long trained up in the Truth of the Scriptures and the Doctrine of Moses and the Prophets yea Paul professeth of himself before his Conversion That he profited in the Jews Religion above many of his equals and that he was exceeding zealous in his way yet when the Lord met him in his way and speaks to him from Heaven he knew not what way to take but Ananias is sent on purpose to teach him Acts 9. The ground is here when the Spirit comes to convince to reveal sin to the soul and a mans self to himself things now begin to be real and seem other than ever formerly they did sin is another thing Grace and Godliness Faith and Christ and Salvation are other things than formerly they did appear unto the soul. So that the sinner is as it were in another world wonders where he hath been and what he hath done stands amazed at his own folly and madness that he should so wonderfully mistake that he should ever take contentment in those sinful carriages which are the only cause of his ruin and confusion sees he is gone so far out of the way that how to get in again he is wholly ignorant It 's true men speak much of sin and can talk much of Christ may have heard and read much of faith yet know nothing but empty words not know the thing when they should use it He that spels by rote may be wil not spel a Letter of the Book when he is put to read So your formal Professors Carnal Hearers may be out of Custom and constant attendance upon the means can make a shift to speak out their Lecture and speak somwhat freely of Faith and Christ and Conversion and yet come to distress and feel the stroak of the Truth and terror in their hearts if they be put to read to the use and improvement of any thing heard they know not the thing nor their own hearts nor yet the Nature of their distempers So it was with 〈◊〉 our Savior was constrained to point with that fescue and put his finger upon the Word and tel him that which is born of the Spirit is Spirit yet he is in a mist understands not what Christ meant nor what his own condition was How can these things be John 3. 9. As through their in-bred blindness and unacquaintance with the Waies and Works of Christ they cannot discern the means of relief So by reason of their distraction under the pressures of their present extremity they are wearish to attend and unwilling to listen and conceive aright any means that might procure their succor and comfort As we see in present fears and affrights or extream or sudden sorrows we are not our selves and so become indisposed and 〈◊〉 to conceive of that which is offered plainly to consideration and which otherwise we were able to judg aright of and improve it to our present advantage Heb. 12. 5. A person fainting under afflictions and troubles is wholly unable to 〈◊〉 any means to support him So here when mens thoughts are hurried with apprehension of evil which in the most dreadful manner are presented to their view and their hearts possessed with the feeling of them they have no leisure to lay out their thoughts and minds to provide for means of help themselves nor yet to receive them when they are offered by others Exod. 6. 9. The bitterness of the oppression was so great that they listened to the voyce of their misery but would not hearken to Moses his Counsel INSTRUCTION 〈◊〉 men in distress of spirit when and while the Lord is pleased to exercise them under his Almighty hand in this Work of Contrition they are soon mis-led by the delusions of the subtil and carried aside by the corrupt 〈◊〉 and cunning devices of such as be false Teachers They who are feeble are soon foiled even by the assaults of such as have either policy to undermine or power in any measure to 〈◊〉 They who are dim 〈◊〉 much more if blind are easily and presently misguided and led out of the way and he not able to prevent it nor yet in any way of probability like to get in and recover himself Now this is the under and weak condition of broken-hearted sinners they are out of their ken and compass the waies of God in that so sad and spiritual a Work and Trade with the soul they do not know and therefore are unfit to seek and so in reason unable to find it out and therefore it 's easie for them to be led into Samaria instead of Dothan and the Devil by his Factors to lead them into false waies for which they are commonly hardly recovered if they grow false at this 〈◊〉 of their life he may there be lodged to his dying day for this is like the fal in a mans Cradle may be never get fully recovered again And upon this ground it is that false Teachers when they make a trade to wind into mens affections and win them to the
go 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Heaven than having both eyes and feet to go to Hell So the 〈◊〉 would be content to be maimed in credit quiet comfort 〈◊〉 no reservation of any sin of any kind if one if little if sweet if profitable No the soul would not touch an unclean thing 2 Cor. 6. 17. He doth not say no gross unclean thing but nothing no not to touch it So 〈◊〉 Savior to the yong man There is one thing wanting Go and sell all that thou hast Mark 10. 21. Admits no case of exception what ever difficultie or danger may be presented or can be conceived in the compass of a mans apprehension nay there cannot befal any 〈◊〉 or pretence which carries any reality with it why the soul should continu any entertainment with any corruption and therefore it casts out al 〈◊〉 pleas pretences 〈◊〉 that carnal reason might cast in 〈◊〉 one should loose his friends and favor and fellowship of such asare or have been never so near or dear to him why that should not stick Deut 33. 9. nay not onely to leave them but to do execution upon them for so the case may be and it 's supposed by interpreters when it is said the Levites knew not their brethren that hath reference to that story Exod. 32. where the Levites were enjoyned to slay each man his brother So Peters advice here following the text save your selves from this Crooked generation Yea were 〈◊〉 the loss of mans life 〈◊〉 also comes within this necessity there is no necessity to hinder to part with this life there is a necessity he should part with his sin Dan. 3. 17. 18. we care not to answer thee in this thing O King our God can deliver us but 〈◊〉 he wil not we wil fal down and worship thy golden Image The Reasons are three The sinners thus affected they feel experimentally the 〈◊〉 of Gods justice which 〈◊〉 proceeds 〈◊〉 the sinner for whatever 〈◊〉 it meets withall and what ever the sinner be That 〈◊〉 men 〈◊〉 in the 〈◊〉 of a sinful course they 〈◊〉 and promise to 〈◊〉 freedom and escape from the 〈◊〉 of Gods 〈◊〉 or at least such a mitigacion 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 as may allay the extremity of the fear of the evil they did expect or take off the pleasure or pursuit of sin in which they did delight yet now under the stroke or 〈◊〉 they 〈◊〉 by proof they were misguided in their thoughts and 〈◊〉 in 〈◊〉 hopes For that such is the 〈◊〉 of Gods righteous 〈◊〉 that he doth and wil undoubtedly 〈◊〉 and find out al and is absolutely resolved to execute punishment upon al and therefore there is an absolute necessity they should renounce and abandon al even the most beloved and least suspected distempers which formerly like Atheists they foolishly thought God did not attend or at least would not trouble himself withal but wink at them or pass them by which now they find far otherwise Gods justice is peremptory in punishing and therefore they must be as peremptory in abandoning their lusts they cannot avoyd the justice of the Lord and therefore they must avoyd their sins whatever deluded hope they had formerly of Gods connivence but now they see themselves deceived be the corruption never so secret he wil search it who professeth Zeph. 2. 11. that he wil search Jerusalem with candles and punish them that are setled upon their lees who say in their hearts the Lord wil not do good neither wil he do evil the lees ly at the bottom such as no eye sees when the Vessel is set on broach they carry the matter so covertly as if it were beyond either apprehension or suspicion but God wil search it It was spoken of the times of Josiah when reformation was general and with great applause and approbation of al hands religion seemed to be enterained yet men settle upon their lees had their retireing corners for their corrupt lusts while they carryed al before them and seemed to be most exact Isa. 29. 10. 16. there was a generation that digged deep to hide their counsels from the Lord but their turning of things up side down shal be esteemed as potters clay q. d. even those privy conveyances are as the clay in the hand of the Potter God sees them and wil act and order as he sees fit thus Achan saw and took and 〈◊〉 and carryed and hid it secretly in his rent but God found him and his falsness and forgeries and forced him to acknowledge so much As the secretest so the smallest transgressions divine justice stabs the heart of a sinner withal Not onely Achan who committed but Israel who did but neglect their watch and care to keep him from or recover him 〈◊〉 of it they also smart Jos. 7. 1. an evil which the best of them neither saw nor considered therefore the Lord was constrayned to mind 〈◊〉 of it in the day of 〈◊〉 what means this Israel hath sinned vers 11. as who should say the hand is in a wrong box thou missest that which is of the most weight Moses his hasty expression in siniting the rock or Lots wife looking back a man would have thought not to be evils of 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 a nature and so heavily to be punished It fares with the contrite and broken-hearted sinner as it did with the woman sick of the bloody issue who strove to touch our Savior that she might be healed our Savior openly discovers her evil carriage who was it that touched me when she saw that she could not be kept secret she came trembling and acknowledged what she had done So when the soul under the horror of Gods revenging hand 〈◊〉 that indeed he cannot be kept secret but now God sees his evils and wil pursue them he fals down flat before the Lord and concludes the absolute necessity of it that God should punish every evil and therefore it 's absolutly necessary he should part with it this the wise man intimates Ecles 11. last rejoyce O young man in thy youth and let thy heart chear thee in the wayes of thy youth but know thou for all these things thou shalt come to judgment q. d. diddst thou indeed know that thou wouldest not thou durst not go on in the sins of youth Now the sinner I say now in this state and under this stroke 〈◊〉 an inability in himself nay utter 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 the weight of the 〈◊〉 sin which is 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 soul by the Almighty and therfore is now put 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 and 〈◊〉 conditions and 〈◊〉 that his 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 him before withal 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 But 〈◊〉 definitively no more ado no further talk I see I cannot beare the sting of the least sin and therefore I must not keep it Heretofore he could make a shift to shake off the fear of the threatnings of the word which were denounced to stop the mouth of his Conscience which whispered bitter things in his bosom and to
own condition that he leads him into by paths beyond the ken compass of reason any 〈◊〉 consideration so that he wil neither seek nor receive any helps Be wise therfore watchful both for the discovery perceiving these policies and delusions of the enemy which draw on irrecoverable destruction with them be sure therfore you keep the rule of Gods revealed wil direction for your own wayes while you keep under the guidance of the word you are under Gods wing therefore in a word or two to wipe away this false and wily pretence of the enemy When the enemy would have thee to pry into the ark would carry thee to heaven to 〈◊〉 the rolls records of Gods eternal counsel thou must not repel 〈◊〉 temptations and repress such pride presumptuous attempts of thine own vain mind with that charge of the Almighty tel him and thy own soul That secret things belong to God but things revealed unto thee Deut. 29. 29 It s Gods advice to search and try our own hearts and turn unto the Lord. Lam. 3. and not to search his decrees Look what is done in 〈◊〉 own heart which thou mayest do and shouldest by warrant from the word and direction thereof But to look into the decrees of heaven what hath been determined there is beyond thy line and last also It s sinful curiosity and presumption which God doth condemn and thou must conscienciously avoyd know Satan leads thee out of the way and therefore be fearful to listen to him Touching the date of grace and day of mercy its true which the Lord hath taught that God wil not a waies strive 〈◊〉 it s as true and evident also that while the Lord is pleased to 〈◊〉 means to work with them and to awaken the heart by them by convictions of conscience and 〈◊〉 of a mans condition and his corruption and drives the sinner to sad thoughts and searchings of heart it 's certain where these thoughts and stirrings are there God is striving by his spirit in his ordinance And it s Satans policy and purpose by such vain cavils to withdraw the from under the power of the means to take 〈◊〉 th ne attendance thereupon and so endevor to 〈◊〉 thereby when the strong man cannot be at peace in his house 〈◊〉 certain that is the time when there is a stronger than he is now breaking in upon him For the counterfeit appearance and the ugly 〈◊〉 of the sin against the holy Ghost which Satan would put upon thy 〈◊〉 that by that means he might dead thy heart and damp and 〈◊〉 thine endeavors and prejudice the work of grace and repentance that now the Lord cals thee unto and thou also begins to look after I answer Not now to be long here the sear of the sin and complaint against 〈◊〉 that the heart is burdened with the apprehension and thoughts of it and sighs secretly to be 〈◊〉 from it its argument enough that thou art free from this evil but God would make thee feel what sin can do i. e. put thee beyond help and thine own emptiness who canst do nothing for thy self when it comes to a dead lift In a word if thou wouldest out-shoot the Devil and out-work his temptations to promote thine own welfare and peace Be ever watchful and conscionably resolute to oppose that evil most unto which he tempts thee be most sedu'ous in the improvement of means in the use whereof he would most discourage thee and the most of the delusions wil come to nothing Resist the Devil and he wil flee from thee James 4. 7. Hence we may observe how easy it is with the Lord to confound a poor creature to make his own hands his executioner his own reason his 〈◊〉 nay his very conceit and imagination of his mind to hasten his confusion and that irrecoverably unto himself If he shal but stop a little crevis of hope and lead aside a mans deluded reason into the appearance of impossibilities as into a by path the soul wil sink immediately and be the greatest enemy in Earth or Hell to its own everlasting happiness he wil seek no good if wanting wil receive none if offered and pressed nay expect none what ever can be presented or layd forth either in the works of providence or in the infinite power of the Almighty God and one Conceit wil do this if God see it on as wel nay more than al the Devills in hell could do if they should set al the power of darkness on work So it was with 〈◊〉 Dan. 4. 30. God dashed al his power and pomp with one deluded and misguided thought a conceit of a beast made him unfit for crown or Kingdome or Counsel or Communication of men So that he that would have al for his honor and majesty he neither knew what honor or majesty was nor could receive any nor yet his kingdom would give either to him EXHORTATION To provoke our souls by al good means to nourish this hope in our hearts for ever It s said of hope that it comes from faith and is the Anchor of the soul Heb. 6. But it s true of this also in its measure for where there is some hope of getting good it wil enable a man to endeavor Look what the spring is to the weights of the clock 〈◊〉 is no stirring of the one without the other as it is in nature so grace in Physick al the vitals must be especially 〈◊〉 because a wound in the vitalls is deadly it is so in a mans spiritual course if a man would have his endeavor kept then keep his hope alive and say though I do not know it shal be yet I do not know but it may be 〈◊〉 I wil hope and wait Two rules here Maintain in thine own heart an apprehension of thine own ignorance for thine own relief Men are apt to measure Gods dealings by their own apprehensions thou sayest thou canst not see it yet maintain this in thine heart I wil wait upon God for there is more than I can see Isai. 42. 16. I will lead the blind by a way that they do not know and I will not forsake them saith the Lord. God hath unknown passages of Providence for thy good Maintain in thy heart a real constant perswasion of the Al-sufficiency that is in God for thy supply above all that which thou canst conceive and that wil hold up thy heart for the 〈◊〉 of Hope is a possible good Matth. 9. 33. There was never such a thing seen in Israel therefore though thy heart tel thee there was never sinner as I am yet God is able to do that which never was done in Israel therefore expect stil what may be again though thou canst not conceive it yet know there is a sufficiency in God able to do it Job 5. 8 9. I would seek unto God and unto God would I commit my cause which doth great things and
unsearchable and marvelous things without number This may support thy heart and carry thee on with some Hope in a waiting way They who are truly pierced for their sins do in an especial manner prize and covet deliverance from them For this is the scope of their complaint and the end and aim of their request that they might be freed from that which they found so bitter and indeed unsupportable to their souls and it 's of 〈◊〉 implied in their speech that which in the like case was openly expressed by the Jaylor Acts 16. 30. He came trembling and astonished saying what must I do to be saved not what shal I do to be eased of my destraction cured of my fears freed from my shame but what shal I do to be saved from my sin he was plagued most with the remembrance of that prizeth most freedom from it the venom of his transgression is that which lies heaviest upon his heart and thence it is to be safe-guarded from that is of highest esteem in his account Saved from the guilt of sin as that which sets the Almighty at a distance from him and raiseth the controversie between God and the soul and forceth him to withdraw his favor and loving kindness which is better than life which David felt by woful experience and therefore sues with such importunity Psal. 51. 14. Deliver me from blood guiltiness O God thou God of my Salvation and my tongue shall sing aloud of thy righteousness After the Commission of these evils by David the Lord threatened the sending of the Sword that might hazard the safety of his person and the prosperity of such as should succeed him So Nathan 2 Sam. 12. 10. The Sword shal never depart from thine House he threatens to raise up cruel and subtil conspirators out of his own bosom and bowels as Absalon out of his own Counsel and Kingdom as Achitophel and Jeroboam whose plottings and conspiracies should shake the Pillars of the Kingdom and the peace of his Government all which were marvelous bitter potions and heavy expressions of Gods displeasure but the sting of all those troubles the venom of al that vengeance issued from his sin that is the evil in all evils and therefore he overlooks al the rest and seeks most earnestly to be rescued from this Deliver me from blood-guiltiness it 's not the cruelty of the Sword that wil destroy nor the conspiracy of Enemies that desire to undermine my Crown and Kingdom and Safety which I so much fear nonso much labor to be freed from but deliver me from blood-guiltiness O God of my Salvation q. d. that is the deliverance I look for and long for and here in the Salvation of a God wil appear and shew it 〈◊〉 and wherein the soul of thy servant shal most rejoyce Saved also they would be from the 〈◊〉 of corruption which carries the soul from God and keeps the 〈◊〉 estranged from him and hence it is the 〈◊〉 Church makes 〈◊〉 the matter of their most bitter complaint Isai. 63. 17. Why hast thou hardened our hearts from thy fear and caused us to err from thy waies When they withdraw their hearts from God he 〈◊〉 his gracious presence and 〈◊〉 from them when they would not deliver up themselves to the Authority of his Truth and holy Will to be ruled thereby he delivered them up to the power of their own perverse Spirits they that would not be guided in his 〈◊〉 by his holy Spirit they should be hardened from his fear by the perversness of their own Spirits this is the most dreadful plague of al plagues the deliverance from which they so highly prize and seek it with such importunity Look down from Heaven thy holy Habitation where is the sounding of thy bowels are they restrained Oh why hast thou hardened our hearts from thy fear The price the contrite sinner puts upon this deliverance from his sin discovers it self in four Particulars In the lack of this the soul is not cannot be quieted though it doth enjoy all other things the World can afford and his heart could desire The want of this takes off the sweetness of al the comforts contentments the sap and 〈◊〉 of al priviledges and the consluence of all Earthly Excellencies that can be enjoyed in this Pilgrimage when the soul is under the pressures of Gods displeasure and the tyranny of his own distempers which carries him from God and keeps him under the dreadful indignation of the Almighty present him then with the beauty of al the choycest blessings that ever any man had on Earth yea what ever others hoped for but in vain Put them into his hand conceive him possessed of the fulness of al worldly perfections Crowns Kingdoms Honors and preferments the broken heart 〈◊〉 al under 〈◊〉 with neglect what is that co me saies the soul had I al the Wealth to enrich me al Honors to advance me Pleasures and Delights to content me and my sins stil to damn me miserable man that ever I was born in the 〈◊〉 of al these falsly conceived comforts This sowr Sawce spoils al the Sweet-meat this dram of poyson makes deadly al the delights and pleasures that 〈◊〉 can be attained or expected As 〈◊〉 when he was recalled from his Banishment and had the liberty and use of his House and all the conveniencies and helps that were at his Command but was charged not to see the Kings face upon a two yeers tryal he found a straightness of all his Comforts in these enlargements 〈◊〉 he thus expresseth his resolution to 〈◊〉 2 Sam. 14. 32. What avails me to be at Jerusalem and in my House to come from Geshur if I may not see the Kings face let me see his face and let him 〈◊〉 me It is so with the broken-hearted sinner What avails it me to be compassed about with al conven ences my heart can desire and be compassed about with my corruptions to see all Earthly happiness heaped up together but never to see the face of God in another world the belly filled and back cloathed and house stored and the soul damned and east out from Gods presence in whose Presence there is fulness of joy and pleasures for ever more These are but dead things sapless shadows and are to a man of a contrite Spirit as though they were not nay the 〈◊〉 he hath 〈◊〉 more trouble he hath because there is more sin and more guilt more curse and condemnation he sees in all and expects by all from God and so remains restless in all He is content with this though he want all the rest because he prizeth this more than all Skin for Skin and al that a man hath wil he give for his life c life and al for the Salvation of his soul. For sin now he 〈◊〉 it now he hath found it to be more bitter than death and therefore to be saved from it he judgeth and that truly to be better than
confession be of the right make not counterfeit but currant he shal not only have mercy 〈◊〉 for him in the Deck but he shal have the use of it find the sweet of it he shal find mercy pardoning pitying pacifying comforting and saving mercy As when we have sought the thing that we have in our house we say we have found it when we have it in our hand and for our use Yea God is marvelous ready to meet the sinner half way in his mercy and compassions when he perceives that with a serious purpose of heart he sets himself 〈◊〉 this work Psal. 32. 5. I said saith the Prophet I wil confess my sin and thou forgavest 〈◊〉 iniquity The unfeigned purpose of Spirit this way God takes in good part and is so marvelously pleased therewith that he gives him pardon and forgives his sins before he can mention by his words what he purposed in his mind 1 Kings 8. 38. 〈◊〉 prayer shall be made by any man that shall know the plague of his heart he will hear in Heaven and forgive c. And in this Case we need not nay we should not make confession of our secret sins for we have no Command to carry us unto this no Example to warrant such a practice nor yet have we the Institution of any Ordinance which may challenge our attendance to it And this you must carefully heed and maintain against that cunning forgery of the Popish consession which they have imposed upon al their followers and drudges Their 〈◊〉 and Opinion is this That every man is bound once at the least before the Sacrament to confess in particular all and every one of his mortal sins whereof he stands guilty into the Ear of the Priests the memory whereof by due and diligent premeditation may be had even such as are hidden and are against the two last Commands of the Decalogue together with the Circumstances which may alter the kind of the sin If not say they let him be accursed This Canonical Institution is the erecting of an Engine of Cruelty to rack mens Consciences and pick mens Purses to satisfie their own greedy covetous desires and to set up their Lawless Soveraignty in the hearts of such who have captivated themselves to their Directions and Counsels for thus they have a noose upon mens Consciences and hold men between hopes and fears leaving them between Heaven and Hell as they suit their minds If they please their Humors then they pardon them and pull them out of Hell If they satisfie not their expectations in giving so much for good use or paying so much yeerly to further the Catholick Cause then their sins are such to Hell they must go they cannot be acquitted This made their Drudges even weary of their lives as never seeing an end of their misery nor knowing what would become of their souls And it 's that which is called by John in the 〈◊〉 The torment of a Scorpion when he stings a man Rev. 9 6. That men shall seek death and 〈◊〉 not find it and shal desire to die and death shal fly from them And holy and judicious Brightman expounds it of this sting That the Jesuites keep men upon the rack of this Confession never knowing what wil be come of their souls nor an end of their misery further than it suits their conceits And the Popish School who were more ingenuous have delivered in their Judgments from these unnecessary burdens which the Jesuits as hard Task-Misters have laid upon other mens 〈◊〉 and which they wil neither 〈◊〉 nor move the least finger to 〈◊〉 any ease That which the soul hath obtained from Heaven at the hands of God that is needless we should desire from the hands of men whose only help is to evidence Gods mind But by humble confession in secret to God the soul hath received pardon srom Heaven sealed up in his bosom by Gods Spirit and the testimony of his own 〈◊〉 therefore it 's needless to desire it from the hands of men when we have what we desire and that in a better manner than they can give it Again To be wise above that which is written is unlawful and to do more than we have warrant for is ever unacceptable to God but the Lord in his Word requires no more before the Sacrament but that a man should 〈◊〉 himself and by the exercise of Faith and Repentance gain assurance of the pardon of his sin not go to confess his secret sin to another therefore to do that is more than Christ and the Gospel 〈◊〉 or God wil accept When the soul lies under the guilt of secret sins if the Lord in the use of all other means denies either POWER or PEACE Power to oppose and master the Corruption so that stil the soul is overborn by the violence and malignity of it Or denies Peace so that the old guilt returns afresh after all prayers and confessions we make cries and 〈◊〉 we put up in fervency and importunity unto the Lord After the improvement of al means of Reformation and Repentance yet the Lord for Reasons best known to himself denies to seal up the assurance of Love and the forgiveness of sin unto the Conscience then the Lord cals to this Duty of Confession to such who are fitted and enabled to lend help and relief under God in such a case That which the Lord hath promised to bestow and we are bound to obtain we are bound consequently to use al 〈◊〉 means appointed by God for this purpose that we may be made 〈◊〉 thereof But the pardon of our 〈◊〉 the acceptation of our 〈◊〉 and the peace of our 〈◊〉 God hath promised to bestow and we 〈◊〉 bound to obtain therefore we must improve al means to this end If then we find by experience that God is not pleased to dispense power or peace by our own 〈◊〉 on improvements of al means by our selves he then cals us to use the help of the prayers and counsels of others who are called the 〈◊〉 of our Faith and Joy who are appointed to build us up in our holy Faith whose duty it is to comfort the feeble minded and to instruct the ignorant and whose prayers are effectual means to obtain the removal of sicknesses and the forgiveness of sins James 5. 15. And some sins there be as secret Adultery and murder which God never usually pardoneth to the heart of the Offender but he compels him to lay open those Hellish corruptions by open confession unto some other Nay as he never usually pardons them to his commonly he never suffers them to go away 〈◊〉 even in the wicked but when men are not willing to take shame by private confession he forceth them by horror of Conscience to vomit out their 〈◊〉 in the face of the world and to bear their 〈◊〉 and leave 〈◊〉 names an everlasting reproach when they 〈◊〉 out their 〈◊〉 upon the 〈◊〉 or upon the 〈◊〉 of their sicknesses
ken of Salvation That crooked things must be made straight before any flesh can see the salvation of the Lord. There be crookings of carnal reason in the heart of every man naturally it was the great Ingredient into the first sin of Adam and hath been his Curse ever since to find out findings Eccles. 7. last to invent inventions to make an escape from the Truth and so to walk in the vanity of their own mind and unless the Lord heat a man in the fire of his fury hold him upon the Anvil beat him and break him by the hammer of the Law in this work of Contrition this crookedness wil never be removed nor he come within the sight of Salvation and it 's made one part of the description of a man that is out of the path of peace Isay 59. 8. They have made their 〈◊〉 crooked By way of REPROOF It dasheth that dream of the wicked and cursed imagination of carnal men who conceit that to fal under the foot of contempt according to the desert of our evil doings they conceive it a point of greatest dispar agement and wickedness that can be imagined and to take up 〈◊〉 abode in that abased condition either by some reach of policy not to prevent such an evil or when it doth befal to be shistless as to sink under it and not to be able to struggle out they look at such and leave it upon Record in their Observation as very simplicians such as are destitute either of wit or courage to swallow down such indignities and never be sick of them these persons they note as feeble and the 〈◊〉 base A hellish delusion directly contrary to the truth here delivered and the practice of these Converts now truly broken-hearted with Godly sorrow for their sins That which issues from the power and work of Gods Spirit upon the soul it argues neither feebleness nor 〈◊〉 and such is this practice and therefore it argues neither 1. Not feebleness because it is of a conquering of a commanding power and that against the greatest forces of sin and Satan which they bring into the field our own carnal ends and high conceited excellency of our worth the seeking our selves and setting up our own persons and names and praises are the very stumps of Dagon which stand longest the very heart blood of the body of death the high and overweening thoughts of the Soveraignty of our wils and worth they are the holds of Satan to batter down the strong holds and to make us lie down in the dust and to be abased in the sight of God and man in quiet subjection is indeed to subdue the power of darkness a work unto which we must be enabled by the power of the Almighty far beyond the might of al Creatures much less shal feebleness be able ever to compass it if thou conceitest it is so easie go thy waies and do thou likewise Alas poor deluded Creature it 's such a task that thy heart misgives thee at the very on-set and thou art never able to turn thy hand to it thou must have allowance from thy lusts and stubbornness of thy own heart and ask leave of thy pride and vain glory and when al is done thou canst not so much as fain a confession such a slave and underling thou art to thy sinful distempers even slavery it self that they wil not suffer thee to speak a word to cross thine own way ward spirit and condemn the wretchedness of thy carnal carriage which by the power of the spirit of contrition these poor Servants of the Lord can do not verbally but really and seriously as in the sight of God Which shews there is more than the strength of a mans self that must 〈◊〉 yea destroy a mans self that is his self pride and praise 2. As there is no feebleness in this so neither is there the least baseness in so blessed a service and work of such excellency as this is a behavior truly honorable and such as indeed beseems persons of the greatest account with God and man 〈◊〉 were the diamond in Solomons Crown Eccles. 1. 1. The words of a soul gathered to his people the son of David King in Jerusalem they were titles of honor but this was the top of al. It was a higher soveraignty to bewail his sin and seek unfeyned reconciliation to the Church and by serious and thorough satisfaction to 〈◊〉 acceptance than to sit in the throne of Israel by that he was above his subjects by this he was above himself by that he had power over his people by 〈◊〉 he prevayled over the power of darkness hel devils distempers by that he was above the Kingdom ruled it according to his own wil by this he is above his wil which was above the King yea above his corruption and lusts who lorded over wil and King and Kingdom and al. Yea this is so eminent a service however it seems other to the deluded minds of men it makes way for the 〈◊〉 pitch of al that happiness we ever hope to obtayn here on earth or hereafter in heaven 1 Cor. 15. 28. the pinacle of al perfection unto which we can be advanced 〈◊〉 that God may be al 〈◊〉 all 〈◊〉 when a sinner lyes under the foot of loathsomness hath nothing doth nothing receives nothing 〈◊〉 himself unworthy to be looked at worthy to be loathed of heaven earth Now God is al in al not onely 〈◊〉 al for him such is his nothingness in himself but here is the glory of al power wisdom and mercy to overcom his unworthyness and to make him fit to receive any thing besides look at 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 work it self 〈◊〉 is 〈◊〉 greatest victory and those must be the greatest conquerors of al who have conquered and made spoyl of al the Glory of the world The heathen King wished there were more worlds to conquer he that is willing to bewail his sins and take shame for them he hath conquered al those worlds and the conqueror himself and those high thoughts that conquered him it s a degree above glory willingly to be content to want it than indeed to enjoy it Ground of EXAMINATION and TRIAL If we would ever gain assurance or bring in evidence and proof to oure own souls and others that indeed our hearts have been broken for our sins and so turned from our sins in a saving manner unto God here in the kingdom of Grace that we may undoubtedly assure our selves that we shal see his face in glory in another world try thy heart and condition by the former truth lay thy soul level to the doctrine formerly delivered if thou findest this work of God thou mayest undoubtedly conclude there is the spirit of God And however it seems so mean in the eyes of men yet the greater the power of the Almighty is seen in it to lay mountains low and level the hand of the Lord must do this
our part shal be to deliver him into the Kings hand And Saul said blessed be the Lord for ye have had compassion upon me go and prepare see his place where his haunt is and take knowledg of his lurking places where he hides himself so the contrite sinner that seeks the death and 〈◊〉 of his sins it gladly welcomes what ever means are most searching sharpest reproofes clearest discoveries convicting arguments that wil discover the haunts and lurking places of a mans lusts and secret shiftings of devices Oh these hit the desire of his heart he counts them blessed counsels blessed reproofes blessed be ye of the Lord that have compassion on my soul to take those distempers from me that would take away my soul from God and life and happiness from my soul nay the soul wil say I see something but O search more narrowly examin yet more throughly al the sinful windings and turnings of my heart and I wil ioyn with you in al such convictions and 〈◊〉 and if there be any way of wickedness any crevis and corner of falshood to be found in the whol frame of my heart I hope God wil reveal and remove and I wil deal nakedly Such smitings are as precious balms that do not break the head but bring a healing virtue comfort a mans heart content his head and apprehensions also Thus he proceeds against his own sin but there this hatred 〈◊〉 not but he labors also the removal of sin in whomsoever he finds it wheresoever he is and with whomsoever he converseth If there be any corruption stirring his enemies appearing his hatred stirs presently his heart riseth against it attacheth the Traitor if any be under pressures he pities them tenderly if in distress of Spirit he comforts in much compassion and fortifies against the common enemy If he sees any go out of the way led aside with their own distempers Satans delusion he cannot keep off from counselling reproving perswading The Servant that could side it with fellow Servants in stubborn idle and 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 with 〈◊〉 and consent with them suit with them give them counsel keep their counsel before they were brethren in iniquity but when his heart comes to be pierced and the soul transported with hatred you shal 〈◊〉 the wind in another door if he see them lazy and idle he wil quicken them if stubborn and perverse he wil seasonably advise and pursue them with reproofs and if his 〈◊〉 cannot take place he wil make his complaints to the Governor for redress he cannot endure to see sin thrive and the Traitor live But if the Lord put any Authority into his hand he wil express it to the utmost of al his power and that with the utmost indignation that the nature of the thing wil bear As good Josiah 2 Chron. 34. 4 5 6. He commanded to break down the Altars cut down the Groves carved and molten Images made dust of them and burnt the bones of the Priests upon the Altar in the detestation of their Sacrifices nay he took away all the abominations of all the Countries that appertained to Israel and made all that were present to serve the Lord This Indignation expresseth it self against sin and all that appertains to it and have been Instruments to the commission of it As an Adulterous woman in 〈◊〉 of conscience tore the hair that she had crisped and disfigured the face that she had painted and prided her self Ioathed to look upon the tyres and garments which she had worn to make her beauty a bait and a 〈◊〉 to others So Mary Magdalen c. But if yet the Nation of those noysom corruptions cannot be utterly destroyed but sins live and are mighty abroad and remain in the heart this hatred is beyond all hope and possibility of reconciliation admits no terms of peace no condition of agreement that can be devised or offered will be entertained holds out the quarrel and opposition unto death nay is willing to die and put an end to his daies that he may see an end of his abominations As God with Amaleck Exod. 17. last he commanded it to be writ 〈◊〉 a memorial in a book for God hath sworn he will have war with 〈◊〉 for ever and put out his name from under Heaven this hatred as in deadly feuds gives no quarter the soul wil not tribute his Corruptions and serve his own turn of them but wages War with them until they be utterly destroyed from off the face of the Earth The Counsel that God gave to the Israelites 〈◊〉 carefully and exactly keeps Be sure you make no Covenant with them but smite them and utterly destroy them Deut. 7. 23. c. Reasons of the Point are Three Without this there 〈◊〉 no way to come to Christ for there is no coming of Faith into the soul No man can serve two Masters for if he love the one he will hate the other if he cleave to the one he will despise the other ye cannot serve God and Mammon Matth. 6. 24. If saies Samuel you wil prepare your hearts to seek the Lord put away your Idols 1 Sam. 7. 3. Those must first be removed if God be received there is no halting bet wixt two no man can be in the first and second Adam together the soul cannot be married to two husbands at once The conclusion of our Savior is 〈◊〉 and 〈◊〉 Luk 14. 26. If any man come 〈◊〉 me and hate not his father and mother wife and children and friends and therefore much more his sins in comparison of Christ he cannot be my disciple he is not worthy i. e. not fit to be Christs disciple Without this there is no salvation can be expected from Christ for this is the method of mercy the order of God in the dispensation of life to lost man and so 〈◊〉 was intended and appointed God sent 〈◊〉 son from heaven to bless you by turning every one of you from his iniquity Acts 3. 26. He wil turn you from your evil way if ever he bless you and it was the way the prophet prescribed of old 〈◊〉 18. 30. turn you from al your transgressions so iniquity shal not be your ruin and Christ came to save his people from their 〈◊〉 Math. 1. 21. that is the first 〈◊〉 to Salvation you cannot be safe if your sins be safe Christ wil not 〈◊〉 you and your sins too if you wil save them he wil not save you this is the great condemnation that light is come into the world and men love darkness more than light he that loves his sins loves his death Sin is the onely enemy of the soul that which is hateful to God and man and makes us hateful also And therefore is the fittest 〈◊〉 indeed the onely proper object of our hatred They are lusts that 〈◊〉 against the soul 1 Pet. 2. 11. there is nothing in the world that could prejudice the peace comfort of the soul were it not
so catcheth at it meerly out of their own 〈◊〉 This 〈◊〉 false Application and this I take to be the cause of the blind presumption of the unwelcome guest Mat. 22. 12. Friend how camest thou in hither not 〈◊〉 thy Wedding Garment He heard of the 〈◊〉 provided and that the Lord kept open doors and therefore he adventured to croud in amongst the company therefore our Savior challengeth him How camest thou in If Coming here was 〈◊〉 why should he be blamed whether was not the wound therefore in a disorderly manner of beleeving and coming He came in his own strength and did not look to Christ to give him a heart to beleeve it answers not the guise and wear at this Wedding which is that the Lord must as well guide us in our coming and order that as well as order the dainties he prepares and 〈◊〉 us unto The Second Ground of mistake in our Application When out of common illumination set up in the mind terror and astonishment let in upon the 〈◊〉 together with notice and conviction it 's only in Christ that must and can do us good Out of these common insightnings and legal terrors the soul is stirred out of a natural 〈◊〉 to procure it's own safety to catch at that comfort and supply whereby it may succor and releeve it self out of these pressures which are too heavy for it Now as long as those fears and the noyse of those direful threatnings of the Lord continue in the view of the soul and as long as it doth not discern its own falsness in this imagined and self-deceiving application out of self love to self ends all that while in a blind kind of boldness it may pretend to hang upon Christ and free mercy But when either the legal stroke ceaseth that he feels not a need of the balsom or that he fails of his end and this groundles application which is nothing els but a presumption fails then al this work falls to the ground and his hopes and heart fails him and all he will then say I applyed mercy to my 〈◊〉 but God never did I catcht at a promise and Christ but God never gave him to me And this is the cause why thousands 〈◊〉 short when it comes to a dead lift their conversion the promises and mercy they have laid hold upon come to nothing the truth is they took a Christ but God never applyed him to them O Application is a wonderful work Thus Esau who despised the birthright and blessing indeed yet out of self love for self ends he seeks the blessing with tears but not with a faith of Application a faith of Gods operation For the root of faith is in the Lord Christ issuing from the work of his spirit and therefore he must apply himself to us before we can apply him to our own hearts As the beams of the Sun must come down to the waters before it can draw up the water in clouds and vapors So here The Root of this Application being in Christ when we cannot keep our selves yet he keeps us by the power of God through Faith unto Salvation he keeps us and keeps our faith I have prayed said Christ to Peter that thy faith fail not he keeps us to a Kingdom and keeps a Kingdom for us he puts us into possession and none can put us out Hence we may observe the madness of the 〈◊〉 hearts of men which transports them beyond all the bounds of reason carries them against the Principles of Nature and common Sense which makes them not only miserable but unwilling to be made happy Was there ever any sick man that was not content to be healed and any in prison and pressures that was not willing to be delivered any helpless that was not desirous to be eased and succored by another yet this is the hellish and unreasonable venom of a distempered and sinful heart that loves its poyson delights in its bolts and prison destitute of all Spiritual good hath neither hope nor help in its self to get or receive any can do no good for it self and yet is unwilling that God should do any good fot it or make it capable of receiving any famish they do and would not have meat provided that might sustein them perish they do and yet would not have the power of the Word work kindly and effectually upon them for their safety and deliverance it 's not a sickness only but a Spiritual madness if men carry themselves so when they are sick we say it is a Frenzy thus Isay 30. 10 11. They say to the Seers see not to the Prophets prophesie not 〈◊〉 not counsel not but cause the holy one of Israel to cease from us This is the temper of every Natural man in this world This serves to justifie the equal and righteous proceedings of the Lord in the utter 〈◊〉 and destruction of the ungodly and the Enemies of his Grace at the great day of Judgment when they shall be full of their 〈◊〉 and full of their plagues cast out of the presence of the Lord or the least expression of any gracious 〈◊〉 attribute of God nor bounty to pity them nor patience to bear with them but they lie under the power of their sins and the infinite displeasure of the Almighty This is that will stop all mouths and answer all cavils they have no more but what they would have they want nothing but what they were weary of You would be proud and stubborn and rebellious and you shall be so you shall have your belly full of your abominations and now you have your wills you were weary of the Word that would reveal your sins convince your consciences subdue your corruptions the truth was your only trouble you were troubled with Counsels Reproofs 〈◊〉 Ministers that you could not have your full swing in your sins God will ease you of that trouble you shall never see the face of a Saint that may counsel you never hear the voyce of a Minister to reprove you never have the Word to work upon you you have said to the Almighty 〈◊〉 away from us we desire not the knowledg of thy 〈◊〉 now you have your desires They that 〈◊〉 me love death Prov. 8. last you have what you loved you could not help your selves you say but you would not have the Lord make you capable of any help Thus every mouth is stopped and the Lord justified out of the Consciences and Confessions of the wicked themselves 2 How this good is made ours For the manner and order of putting us into 〈◊〉 of all this good it will appear in Four Particulars The Soul is made capable of all that Spiritual good and those Precious blessings which 〈◊〉 to 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 is and must be first room made for the 〈◊〉 of these or els there is no Possibilitie to 〈◊〉 of these a man cannot be in heaven and hell at 〈◊〉 happy and miserable at
in our 〈◊〉 and sinful souls Why he will he hath said it he hath 〈◊〉 it he wil perform it and therefore let us consider our own unworthiness to receive Christ as a motive to stir us up to make preparation for Christ for the baser the place is that should entertain him the greater the preparation should be We ought to wonder that the Lord will vouchsafe to come into our sinful souls and therefore we had need prepare the more for his comming The Lord hath promised to come into our souls if we humble them and make them fitting to entertain his Majesty therefore sweep your hearts and clense those rooms clense every sink and brush down every cobweb and make room for Christ for if thy heart be prepared and divorced from all Corruptions then Christ will come and take possession of it A Second Motive that may stir us up to prepare for the Lord Jesus is To consider who it is that we are to prepare for Here we have Three Things 1 Consider the worthiness of the Person in regard of whom all preparation may seem too little you are not to entertain an ordinary person it is not a man it is not a King it is not an earthly Monarch but it is the King of Kings that will come into your souls to comfort them yea his holy and blessed Spirit will remain with you for ever Therefore do all that possible may be done to prepare for his comming and for the entertainment and welcoming of him when he comes In Psal. 24. 7. David calls 〈◊〉 his own soul for so the words are to be expounded Lift up your heads O ye gates and be ye lifted up you everlasting doors and the King of Glory shall come in As who should say Be enlarged Love Joy Hope Desire and All that is within me set open give way for the Lord is coming But who is the Lord It is the Lord of Hosts the Lord strong and mighty the Lord mighty in battel vers 8. And with that he knocks again Lift up your heads O ye gates and be ye 〈◊〉 ye everlasting doors for the King of 〈◊〉 shall come 〈◊〉 vers 9. As if he should say What! Shall the Lord knock Shall the King of Glory stand Open 〈◊〉 and make all preparation Did David do thus Why do you do 〈◊〉 then Christ knocks by Promises he knocks by Judgements he knocks by Threats yea he speaks this day unto your souls and labors this day to make way for himself Make therefore all preparation let nothing be wanting that when he comes he may take 〈◊〉 of your souls and be a God unto you for ever 2 Consider all that good that Jesus Christ brings with him and that should move you for all the good that we need or can desire to make us happy he will bring with him when he comes to take 〈◊〉 of the Soul The Lord comes into our Souls not to trouble us and charge us no he comes to bring everlasting Salvation and happiness to our Souls Look what Christ said to 〈◊〉 Luke 19. 5. 8 9. when he went up into a Sycamore-tree to see him Make haste and come down Zacheus saith he for I must abide with thee in thy house Zacheus makes no cavilling nor no tarrying but made haste and came down and received him joyfully And mark what Christ said unto him This day Salvation is come to thy house So likewise it shall be with you when Christ comes everlasting Happiness and Salvation comes with him and therefore if you do not make preparation for him you refuse Salvation and Happiness that is offered to your Souls by him Amos 4. 12. when the Lord had sent many Plagues and Judgments upon Jerusalem he saith Thus will I do unto thee Oh Israel and because I will do thus unto thee therefore prepare to meet thy God O Israel I will do thus unto thee that is I will send Mildews and Pestilence and War and Famine amongst you I will draw you out with Hooks and your Posterity with Fish-hooks And what followeth Prepare to meet thy God Oh Israel If God come against us to plague us we must prepare to meet him Reason then with your own Souls Should the Lord come in Judgement to punish us if we ought to prepare to meet him then what preparation ought we to make for his coming when he shall not come thus in Judgement to condemne us but in mercy to save us in his goodness to enrich us in his compassion to comfort us Then now if ever prepare to meet thy God O Israel Let every heart perswade it self in this particular Is Christ so gracious and so merciful doth he send from Heaven unto us and say he will come in Behold saies he I stand at the door and knock and if any man will hear my voyce and open unto me my Father and I will come in and sup with him He will come in himself and bring all the good things of Grace and Glory with him for the everlasting refreshing of our Souls Why Where are your hearts in the mean time Therfore if ever now prepare to meet the Lord Jesus bringing Salvation with him 3 Consider again How the Lord Jesus entreats you and beseeches you to receive him he that might command you and condemne you for refusing beseeches you to entertain him 2 Cor. 5. 20. We as Ambassadors in Christs stead beseech you that you would be reconciled to God that is That you would prepare to meet God willing to be reconciled to you in Christ and that you would come to his terms Consider our Savior Christ hath taken a great journey from Heaven to Earth to save us miserable wretched sinners conceive you saw those 〈◊〉 of blood trickling down his cheeks conceive you saw him upon the Cross with his hands thrust through with Nayls and his side pierced with a Spear enduring the wrath of God for our sins and behold now he standeth at the door and saith with the Church Lam. 1. 22. Is it nothing to you have you no regard O you that pass by behold and see if there be any sorrow like unto my sorrow c. Imagine you heard Christ say I have suffered these and these things for you these hands of mine were nayled this side of mine was pierced this heart of mine was melted with anguish of Spirit Imagine you saw Christ standing and knocking at the door of your hearts as indeed he doth and say Hoe all you within there all you proud hearts all you covetous and malicious hearts Have you no regard to a Savior a Crucified Savior He that died for you and now laboreth to do good to your Souls Will not this move you to prepare your hearts for him and let him in Will you suffer the Lord Jesus to stand knocking and calling and weeping and saying as he said to Jerusalem Luke 19. 42. Oh that thou hadst known even thou at least in this thy