were but now you cannot help it these things and times are gone and cannot be recalled such a one hath been a drunkard a swearer a worldling c. but he cannot help it now True he might have helped it and because he did not his heart shall bleed for it if he belong to God but doe not stand poaring too much upon it but consider now what you have to doe now you are to humble your selves now you are to strive with God in all manner of prayer for more grace and more power of obedience and assurance and be not discouraged Fourthly If the soule be discouraged it will breed nothing but sorrow What is the reason that many Christians are alwayes weeping and mourning and sighing and sobbing from day to day all their life time and will not be comforted because of these discouragements 1 Thes 4. 13. Sorrow not saith the Apostle as those that have no hope as if he had said sorrow if you will but do not sorrow as they that have â—o hope How is that it is a sorrow with nothing but sorrow from which they have no hope of inlargement or freedome O then my brethren suppose you have dead hearts suppose you want zeale you want assurance suppose it be so yet labour to attain these grace sorrow and spare not weepe and mourne and powre out whole buckets of teares for your sinnes if you can but sorrow not with nothing but sorrow be not discouraged suppose that thou hast a dead heart that thou art an hypocrite that thou hast a rotten heart it is a heavy thing and a fearful case indeed for which thou hast great cause of humiliation and sorrow but yet sorrow not desperately as men without hope be not wholly discouraged but as you sorrow for your sinnes so also labour with incouragement to get cut and be rid of your sinnes Fifthly Discouragements breed and procure a totall perplexity They leave the soul in a maze that it knows not whither to turne it self When men come to be discouraged O what shall I do saith one I am utterly undone saith another I know not what will become of me saith a third Oh I am utterly lost I shall perish one day one day God will discover me and be avenged on me for this and that sin I were as good go to he lat the first as at the last for that will be the end of me I have gone to prayer but that doth not helpe me I have gone to Sacraments but I find no help still my soule lies under the power of sinne still my sinnes are as strong in me as ever Thus the soule is discouraged and cries out Oh what shall I doe I know not what to doe What shall I doe sayest thou Alas thou hast things enough to doe if thou wert not discouraged Utterly undone No man thou mightest see that thou art not utterly undone but that thou art discouraged Dost thou not know what will be come of thee yea poore soule there is mercy grace and peace for thee if thou wilt not be discouraged Sixthly Discouragements whisper within a man a sentence of death and an impossibility of escaping As far as the discouragement of life goeth so far goeth the sentence of death We despaired of life and had the sentence of death in our selves saith the Apostle 2 Cor. 1. 8. 9. he despaired of life in himselfe and therfore had the sentence of death in himself this was good but he did not despaire of life in God for then he should have had likewise the sentence of death from God in his conscience If you despaire in the Lord you have the sentence of death and damnation from God in your conscience take heed of this my beloved be not discouraged in God do not despaire in the Lord that will work a miserable effect in your souls it will secretly whisper a sentence of damnation in your soules It is strange to consider how many poore soules rub on with these whispering sentences in their bosomes suffering their consciences day by day to tell them that they are rotten to tell them that they were never yet converted to tell them that they are yet in the state of damnation and yet they will not root out these discouragements O goe to the Throne of grace begge for grace and for mercie and for power against sinne and bee not discouraged What wilt thou carry thine owne sentence of death in thy breast if thou wilt not rouze up thy soule and pray with more affection and confidence and shake off discouragements take heed least thou carry the sentence of thine owne death and damnation in thy bowels Oh therefore once more let mee beseech you to take heede of these discouragements and now hearken unto the voice of God which calleth upon you Feare not Thou drewest nigh in the day that I called upon thee Thou saidest Feare not THE MISERY OF THE CREATURES BY The Sinne of Man In a SERMON By WILLIAM FENNER Minister of the Gospel sometimes Fellow of Pembroke Hall in Cambridge and late Lecturer of Rochford in Essex London Printed by E. T. for John Stafford They are accusing groanes They are judging and condemning groanes First they are upbraiding groanes Give ears Oh ye heavens and I will speak and hear Oh earth the words of my lips Deut. 32. 1. as if God had said mark O ye heavens and let all the whole world hear what I testify against this people as if the heavens and the earth did upbraid them of their unthankfulnesse God commands the Sun to shine and it shineth the earth to fructify and it obeyeth But this wicked people he commands to repent and forsake their sins and they will not Chrysostome saith wicked men although they have naturall reason in them are more senceless than sencelesse creatures the rocks and the flints the flye and the gnats may upbraid them the rocks rent in sunder but this people will not rent their hearts swarmes of flies were hiss'd for to come and they yielded obedience and the livelesse creatures groan under the slavery of sin but they will not obey they will not be brought to groan for their sins How do all the creatures upbraid man Do ye thus requite the Lord O ye foolish people and unwise Beloved how do the heavens and the earth upbraide thee for unthankfulnesse wert thou ever in sickness and God did not deliver thee wert thou ever in misery and God did not comfort thee wert thou ever in any straight and God did not direct thee in sickness who was life unto thee in poverty who supplyed thee in danger who delivered thee was it noâ— God that hath done all for thee And shall the Lord command thee obedience and wilt thou not grant it him doth he command thee to part with thy lust and crucify all thy corruptions and wilt thou not obey him doth the Lord command thee to be meek humble patient and dost thou refuse then hear O heavens
maist say The Lord knowes what a deale adoe he hath had with me this heart was as hard as the neaher mil-stone but the Lord in some measure hath mollified it this heart was as proud as the devill but blessed be Gods name he would let me see it at the last goe home and say Who am I and what is my fathers house that the Lord hath brought me hither Oh that God should thus stoope to man the Lord hath stood and knockt thus many yeares and he might have given over but blessed be his name I have received mercie I lived under the means but that prevailed not with me the Lord sent such and such sicknesse but that wrought not on me at the last I went to hear a Minister and methought that Minister spake nothing but what he spake to me and then the Lord set conscience on worke and that affrighted mee Looke to it the Lord will either breake thy necke or thy heart doe not thinke to goe to heaven by good meanings no it will cost thee somewhat more before thou come there Another time the Lord set on me and then I set on good duties I would have Christ to justifie and sanctifie me and blessed be his name he was not wanting unto me in any meanes the Lord make me thankfull c. I tell thee thou wilt be in deede and God shall have all let the voluptuous man have his pleasures c. what is that to thee so thou have Christ For the just reproofe of all such as are yet in the gall of bitternesse and in the bonds of iniquity there will come a time when God will strive with thee no more the old man thinks he hath time enough to repent in and the young man thinks he needs not so much as enter into a Parley with godlinesse Esau went away when he had eat and drunk he esteemed not his birth-right I have heard some goe away with this resolution when they are married then they will live thus and thus c. Suffer me first to go bury my Father c. Master Minister you speak well I like your counsell but I have a rich Uncle and he hath no childe and I am likely to be his heire but he cannot abide a Puritan of all the men in the world and if I do not humour him I shall never have a Foot of his Land let me bury him first when Father and Friends are dead then the children must provide for themselves and then they will seek after God and repent and by this time they grow old and though they cannot make so good a shew as others yet their hearts are as good as the best But stay a while all is not gold that glisters alas poor souls they were given over many years ago this is also the sin of young men and women for the most part and this is the great sin of England the sin of many Gentlemen and Gentlewomen God must pardon when they call and that must not be till they be old and then in all post-haste send they to and for master Priest and he must bring God to them or them to God but the God of Heaven and earth cannot endure this mockerie For terrour to all wicked and ungodly men woe woe woe that ever they were borne that are thus given over and of these there are two sorts Some are insensible and some sensible The insensible are they who die like stones as did Nabal We have many King Harry Protestants Others are sensible God hath opened the eye of their soules and hath let them read the red letters of the Gospell It is a heavie thing for old friends to part so Acts 20. 38. They grieved most in that he said you shall see my face no more so when soule and body part it is heavie but when the soul and God part it is lamentable when God takes his leave never to be seen more then whether thou look upward or downward there is nothing but amazement and astonishment If thou look upward there is the anger of God if downward there is the bottomlesse pit if on the right hand thou shalt see all his mercies which could not allure thee if on the left hand all his Judgements which could not terrifie thee if before thee the black day if behind thee the Devils this will be fearfull I remember a Story of an adulterate woman her Conscience pricking her she determined to repent but God in the mean time did visit her so sore that she lay crying out oh my time my time Another time a covetous woman her House being on fire she to save her goods left her child in the Cradle but a neighbour of hers hearing it crie tooke it away she afterwards remembring her child ran about crying Oh my childe my childe and would not be comforted So when the fire and indignation of the Lord breaks out if not now yet at the last day it will then the parties against whom it breakes will crie Oh my soul my soul what will become of thee my soul It had been better I had never been born for neither Mercies Judgements nor the Word could allure me oh woe is me Now the condition of such is miseracle in three respects First because if God forsake thee all forsakes thee when thou liest a dying thou sendest for the Minister and thou wouldest faine have a word of comfort from him but alas if thou dost not receive comfort from Heaven how can the Minister comfort thee If thy outward Estate faile Friends may help but if they faile there is a God in Heaven and he will help but if he go away then all help is gone Secondly when God goes restraining grace goes this was Sauls case and you may observe that such as have been enlightened and fall away fall into one of these three sinnes either into the hands of the world and that is their Master or else into the sinnes of uncleannesse or into the spirit of malice to persecute them that are holy Thirdly if God leave us then common protection leaves us we are left to the clutches of all things both in Heaven and earth your houses are left unto you desolate Matth. 23. 38. All the creatures are up in armes against us the stiles we goe over look up to Heaven and say Master shall we break his neck the Horse we ride on says Master shall I throw him down to destruction thou knowest that he hates thee and thine So the aire we breath in and all Creatures are readie when the Lord gives the watchword to lay us in the goal Conscience will witness against us oh what will become of such men I will tell you either the world heales them up or else some carnall companion saith you have been a good neighbour you have kept a good house amongst us c. tush tush man it may prove a lye for all this I but the Minister tells me so pish pish as
bridle to restrain a man from vain thoughts than this consideration that he is to goe to God I speak not this to the men of this world Carnal men who can rush into Gods presence hand over head without any fear or reverence they can set upon any duty without any preparation but I speak it to the godly man whose heart dreads and stands in awe of God Wilt thou let thy mind rove and run all the day on worldly things how then wilt thou call upon God Dost thou not know that this is the cause of thy dulnesse thy deadnesse and wandrings of thy heart when thou art about any good duty namely because thou sufferest thy heart to be lashing out and roving abroad on the world all day no marvell if it keep his haunt at night and therefore thy heart being vain God will never hear thy prayer Job 35. 13. God will never hear vanity Comest thou to God with a vain prayer God wil never hear it Comest thou with a vain ear to the hearing of the Word God will never hear it or with a vain heart to the Sacrament God will not regard it Lay this seriously to thy heart if ever thou wouldesst have thy heart to the duty thou art about busie thy mind upon good things for if thy heart be accustomed to vain and worldly things all the day it is no marvell if it return to its hau nt again at night Thirdly consider that you have not so learned Christ It is the Apostles argument Ephes 3. consider then what you have learned of Christ hath Christ taught you so hath Christ taught you such a love and given you such a liberty that you should love the world more than him and imploy and bestow all your thoughts wholy in seeking after vain things Hath Christ taught you such a faith as this Hath Christ taught you such a repentance as this to have your thoughts more upon the world than upon Christ to repent of sin and yet never forsake sin Have ye so learned Christ Hath he not taught you such a faith as purifieth the heart such a sanctification as cleanseth the soul and the mind such an obedience as bringeth every thought into subjection unto himself Therefore if now thou shouldest still retain thy vain dead earthly and carnall thoughts it is not to learn Christ Christ teacheth thee no such doctrine nor giveth thee any such licencious liberty but thou learnest of the Devil and of thine own heart for all evil and vain thoughts arise from these three heads First from the variety and abundance of the thoughts of the world which our Saviour calls the cares of the world Secondly from the fountain of corruption in mans heart the heart of man being alwayes like a sink naturally running with filthinesse or like a living quickset always bearing so it is with the heart of man always imagining vain thoughts Thirdly from the damned malice of the Devil and his fearful suggestions and temptations both within and without the Devil is fitly called a tempter and tryer for by his suggestions and temptations he feels and tryes mens hearts and thereby knowing to what they are most inclined and which way they are soonest overcome accordingly he fits his temptations to intrap them Now these thoughts are infinitely variable according to the constitutions place quality passions affections and conditions of men as of the poor man in his beggary of the rich man in his abundance of the Minister in his calling of the Majestrate in his and so of all other men Now the whole world is not able to fill the heart how then shall we number the thoughts of it But for the better understanding we will rank them into these four heads to shew how thoughts become vain 1. Materially mens thoughts are vain when the matter of them is vain 2. Formally when though for the matter they are never so good yet the manner of thinking them is evil 3. Essentially when the man that thinks them is vain 4. When it is a thought that might become the best Saint upon the earth or a glorified Angel in heaven yet the drift of the soul being carnall and vain the soul thereby becomes vain also First then material vain thoughs are all thoughts of the world of the works of thy calling of thy recreations eating drinking sleeping thoughts of thy wife and children and the like they are vain thoughts not sinful necessarily yet they may come to be sinfull five manner of ways First when we think of them primarily that is in the first place when we think of them before we think of God Tell me then what are thy first thoughts in the morning Hereby a man may know his thoughts whether they be good or evill Consider I say what is that first presents it selfe unto thy thoughts certainly that which the heart is most haunted withall and most taken up with is most naturall unto it If the heart be carnall and earthly it will have carnall and earthly thoughts if it be a godly and gracious heart it will labour to make God the first in his thoughts I know the godly man fails in many things and many unruly thoughts in him may rebell but it is the very grief of his soul and he will never rest nor be at quiet till he hath got Balme from Gilead strength from Christ for the subduing and crucifying of them even of those vain and sinfull thoughts that stick closest unto their hearts and are most prone unto them naturally so that it is the practice of a godly man first in the morning to lift up his heart with his hand unto God and when he is up his thoughts are wholly upon God See this in David who considering that the Lord was present every where made this use of it When I awake I am present with thee Psal 139. 18. His heart was lifted up to God he did endeavovr to shake hands with God as it were in his holy meditations worshipping and adoring God with his first thoughts he would be sure to give God the flower and Maiden-head of his first service and thoughts as soon as ever he was awake his heart was in heaven This shews that the thoughts of men that live in their sins are damnable thoughts Thou that art a drunkard a swearer a prophane person a carnall worlding that never hast repented I tell thee that the very thinking of thy meat and drink is damnable the very thoughts of thy recreations and of thy sleep are damnable thoughts to think of the works of thy calling yea of setting thy foot upon the ground or of any thing that God hath commanded thee to doe are all damnable thoughts Why Because thou givest not God thy first thoughts Wilt thou think of thy belly and back before thou thinkest of God and how to be converted unto him Wilt thou think of thy Markets and Faires before thou thinkest of thy reconciliation with God The first
will never do so any more I have been wicked and sinfull disobeying and rebelling against all thy holy commandements and respected not thy judgements and thy promises and have been carelesse of thy glory But now Lord as I eat this bread and drink this wine so I covenant unto thee and promise to thee that I wil amend all my sinfull ways and become a reformed Christian And as I ever look that the body and the bloud of the Lord Jesus Christ represented in the elements should nourish my soul unto eternall life so I promise to be disobedient unto the Devill but faithfull and obedient unto thee I will stop my ears against the alluring inchantments of the world and wicked suggestions of the Devil but I wil open them wide to hearken to thy voice that I may obey thy commands But now as thou hast made it so if thou hast broken this thy covenant with God returning to thy former courses of sin and disobedience against him know thou that this covenant of thine which thou hast broken shal stand in full force against thee for God will assuredly require it at thy hands and all the Sacraments which thou hast received thou hast received them but as so many seals and pledges of thy just deserved condemnation But some man may object and say Do all that come unworthily unto the Sacrament eat and drink their own damnation Then many hundreds yea thousands are damned Are all damned that have eat and drunk unworthily Ans No but a man may eat and drink his own damnation three ways First in regard of guilt and liablenesse unto Gods wrath and so he that eateth and drinketh his naturall food his dinner supper or breakfast in his sinnes eateth and drinketh his own damnation yea whosoever thou art that comest unto this holy banquet in thy sins in thy pride choler malice wrath or revenge covetousuesse hypocrisie and deadnesse in Gods service thou never eatest a bit of bread but thou eatest and drinkest thine own damnation that is thou eatest and drinkest that which will witnesse against thee another day Deut. 28. 16 17 18 19. ver c. If thou â—ilt not hearken to the voice of the Lord thy God to observe and do all his commandements then all these curses come upon thee and shall overtake thee Cursed shalt thou be in the City and cursed in the field cursed shall be thy basket and store Now if thy bread be cursed then thou art cursed also that eatest it Secondly in regard of the seal and obligation in the conscience so he that eateth and drinketh the Sacrament in his sins eateth and drinketh his own damnation that is he eats and drinks that which seals up his damnation against the great day of account And thus many amongst us and I fear the most part of this congregation have eat and drunk their own damnation But this seal may be broken off and God grant it may Thirdly in regard of sigillation in heaven and so he that eats and drinks unworthily and will not be reformed he that receives the Sacrament time after time yet still retains his sins and will not be humbled for them nor forsake them he setteth a seal in heaven upon his own damnation that all the whole world can never break off but such an one most certainly is a damned creature And now my brethren God forbid there should be any such here but that this seal may be broken off And O that God would put some strength into this word that it may be broken off by your godly sorrow for your sin and forsaking of them all for if this seal be set on your damnation why do I yet speak unto you and intreat and beseech you in the name of Christ to come home and be reconciled to him and I desire to stand here as Jehoiadah set Porters at the gates of the City and of the house of the Lord to keep off all those that come in their uncleannesse 2 Chron. 23. 19. So I stand this day as the Porter of the Lord to keep the Lords watch that no prophane wretch no proud hearted sinner that means not to enter into a new course of life that no such one come unto this holy communion I charge you as you will answer the guilt of Christs bloud before Gods Throne that you meddle not with it But now if there be any that would absent himself because he will the more freely go on in his sins let him know that such an one excludes himself from the benefits and merits of Christs death and shall never have the benefit of a Redeemer at the day of judgement but shall perish in his sins for his carelesse neglect and fearful contempt of so effectual and powerful means of salvation and purging as is the bloud of Christ truly and really offered in the Sacrament Wherefore if thou comest or comest not woe is thee if so be thou livest and continuest in thy sins and goest on in thy unholy courses And now to conclude as the Cherubin stood before Paradise with a naked sword to keep Adam out that he might not enter and so eat of the tree of life so I bring with me the sword of God to run it up to the hilt in the heart and bowels of every ungodly man every rebellious and impenitent sinner this day that dares presume to rush upon this holy Ordinance of God with a polluted and an unclean heart Therefore let me exhort thee that as thou tendrest the eternall good of thy soul so thou be careful not to eat the body of Christ nor drink his blood in thy sins lest thou eat thine own bane and drink thine own curse Nay so doing thy misery wil be so great as a good man wel weighing and considering of it said I professe I had rather have all my veins cut open and my bloud spilt on the ground than deliver the body and blood of Christ unto a prophane sinner for why should I deliver his own bane and destruction unto him But now my brethren and beloved come out of your sins come and welcome if you part with your lusts and so come you shall be sure to have his bloud to wash your heart and cleanse you his righteousnesse to clear you and cloath you his graces to strengthen you his spirit to heal and to sanctifie your hearts and natures the Lord Jesus Christ to supply all good that is wanting in you But if yet notwithstanding all this that hath been said you will go on in your sins and live as you did in your swearing whoring lying and drinking and all manner of filthinesse and as you came to it unclean so you depart away from it more unclean and never make any conscience of any reformation I pronounce this day before God and his elect Angels that thou shalt surely perish and thy soul and body be damned and tormented in the scorching flames of hell for evermore Therefore
now can a man stabbe his owne arme through with ease can he cut off his Legg or any other member without feeling any geeat paine no more can a man kill his sinnes and mortifie his lusts with ease It is called mortification to shew that there is a great deal of misery and pain in it The Apostle saith that those that are Christians have crncified the flesh c. Gal. 5. 24. and therfore Repentance is set out unto us by crucifiing which is the hardest of all kinds of mortifying Can a man set his flesh upon the Tenter pierce his hands and feet with nailes laying his whole weight upon the Tenter and yet feele no paine Cicero a wise Heathen saith that crucifiing was a torment that cruelty it selfe had invented to put a man to death it being the soarest kind of death that could be devised And the Apostle to set forth Repentance what it is shews it by crucifying It is an easie matter to cut off the outward act of sinne as of swearing or drunkennesse c. this is an easie matter but to crucifie a mans lusts and to mortify daily the body of death which be beareth about him this is a hard thing indeed A Father saith it it is the hardest Text in all the Bible and the hardest dutie in all Christianity that we can goe about they that can do it can doe all things and therefore let a man resolve with himselfe that unlesse he attain unto this there is no Christ for him How shall we saith the Apostle that are dead to sinne live any longer therein Romans 6. 2. The Apostle makes it a Paradox and wonders that men should be so unreasonable as to thinke that they are crucified with Christ and yet live in their sinnes Is it possible that you can be dead with Christ and yet live in your sinne No no it cannot be But some may object and say what doth the Apostle meane to exhort the Colossians unto Mortification were they not already mortified did he not say a little before that they were crucified and buried together with Christ Yes it is true but they that have mortified their earthly Members must go on and persevere in this Mortification and that for three Reasons First because the very same sinne that hath been killed will live again unlesse it be continually mortified for sinne is strong-hearted it is not every blow that will kill sinne stone-dead no no we may say of sin as some I say of Cats they have nine lives kill sin once and it wil revive again kil it the second time and it will yet live kill it the third time it will yet have life unlesse it be continually mortified it will never be starke dead and therefore the worke must be continued as Christ said of his disciples If you continue in my Word then are you my Disciples indeed So if we goe on in mortification then verily are we Christs Disciples Secondly suppose the sinne mortified doe not rise againe yet if wee goe not on in the way of Mortification there will arise another sinne in the roome of it Sinne is like the Monster Hydra cut off one head and many will rise up in its roome Even so it is in the body of sinne therefore thou must dayly mortifie it or else it will grow again There is a History that speakes of a Fig-tree that grew in a stone wall and all means was used to kill it they cut off the branches and it grew again they cut down the body and it grew again they cut it up by the roote and still it lived and grew untill they pulled downe the stone wall Even so it is with sinne lopp off the branches it lives cut downe the body it will not die digg up the rootes and it will still revive and will never leave growing untill God pull downe the stone wall of this our earthly Tabernacle and lay it in the dust and therefore we must still be mortifying of it Thirdly because as we mortifie so we mortifie but in part as saith the Apostle in another case we know but in part c. so may we say of this duty we mortifie but in part as we may say of a man breathing out his last breath he is a dying but not quite deade so we may say of sinne though it lie sprawling upon the ground yet it is not dead the last gaspe is not past Nay it may be sinne is more striving in the heart of a child of God converted then it was before conversion As an Oxe or an Asse when they have their deaths blow will lash and struggle more then then they did in all their life time before but this is nothing but the pangs of death being giving up their last breath Hence it is that the Apostle saith that the flesh lustâ—th against the Spirit and the Spirit against the flesh Gal. 5. So that they could not doe what they would verse 17. as if he should say sinne is so mortified that it hath his deaths wound in thee else thou canst not be the childe of God yea such a deaths wound as it cannot possible recover again If a man that hath received his deaths wound should send for all the Physitians in the world and take all the Physicke hee could and use all the meanes under Heaven yet they can never recover him So when a man is converted unto God as soone as ever the worke is wrought in him sinne hath his deaths blow and although the Devill come as Physitian with all the Cordialls Juleps and Balmes under Heaven and use all the shifts and devises in the world yet he shall never be able to recover it again all will not doe why because it hath received its deaths blow it may be with his industrie and cost hee may make the face of sinne loke fresh and faire for a time but it hath it deaths wound and it will down at the last The last Use may be of triall and examination whether sin be living or dead Now that we may know whether we have mortified our sins or no let us observe these markes following First they that have mortified their sinnes live in the contrary Graces Hence it is that the Psalmist saith that They worke no iniquitie but walke in thy pathes Psalme 119. 3. First they crucifie all their sinnes they doe no iniquity Secondly as they doe no iniquity so they take up all the wayes of God contrary to that iniquity as they give up all the wayes of sinne so they take up all the wayes of Grace they walke in all Gods wayes So that here is the question if a man giving over his sinnes doe take up all the Graces contary to those sinnes This is a rule in Divinity that Grace takes not away nature that is Grace comes not to take away a mans affections but to take them up Suppose a man be subject unto anger when he is a little moved grace comes
not to take away his anger but to take it up from a worldly thing and to set it against sinne which is truly evill that so he may be angry and not sin Grace comes to qualify his anger and to take it from the waies of sin and to set it upon Gods wayes Again a man is subject to be merry Grace comes to temper him not to take away his mirth but to set it upon a right object as to delight in God to be merry in Christ to rejoyce in his Word and Ordinances in his children and in all the waies of Grace Another is given to impatiency Grace comes not to take away his impatiency but to set his impatience against his sins so that when he sees his sins he shall not be able to endure them but his soule will groan for them and his heart will rise against them Another is given to revenge now Grace comes and takes him away from being revenged on his neighbour to be revenged on his sinnes so that with the Apostle we may call revenge a piece of Repentance therefore this is a true triall whether our sins be mortified if our affections be taken away from the wayes of sinne and fast set upon the wayes of Grace and godlinesse Secondly if a man be mortified indeed and in truth then he is dead unto every sin if a man be killed he is dead in every member so if a man be dead to sinne no sinne can ever raigne in him not one lust nor bosome sinne no not the sinne of his trade no corruption though never so deare though it be the sinne of his right hand or right eye yet it can never have dominion over him if he be dead to sinne therefore if a man live in any one sin or sweet lust whatsoever he is a dead man and hath not one jot of Grace if there be but one knowne iniquity in a man that he lives and dies in without repentance that one iniquity shall kill him to the put of hel Ezek. 28. The Schoolemen say that if a Sow doe but wallow in one mirie or dirty hole she is filthy so if a soule wallow but in one sinne it is abominable If a man stab himselfe but with one knife so that he die he is as truly killed as was Julius Caesar who was stabbed with three and twenty knives So if a man should be free from an hundred diseases and should die of one what would it benefit him to be free from the rest in respect of his life surely nothing at all That man that hath his pride his Covetousnesse his usury hatred malice deriding of Gods people all these being dead in him yet if selfe-love and security c. be not dead in him these argue his case to be naught he is not yet qualified for Christ for there is no mortification at all in him There be many sweet meanes to allure us unto mortification but time will not permit us to speake of them but this let every man take notice of that so long as he liveth in sin he is altogether uncapable of Christ The Apostle saith we know that the Law is not given unto a righteous man but for the lawless and disobedient for the ungodly and for sinners for the unholy and prophane and whatsoever is contrary to wholsome doctrine the Law is for such men But the first Doctrine of the of Christ is Repent of thy sins deny thine own wayes take up Christs crosse and follow the Lamb wheresoever he goes Here the Kingdom of Heaven is laid open to all the world Let mens miseries be what they can be and although their sinnes be never so great Christ cometh to redeem them yea though they have a whole Hell of sinne in them yet if they have a heart to entertaine Christ his Grace is so rich and all-sufficient that it will save every man that enterteineth him There is a Proclomation openly made in the Market place Hoe every one that thirsteth come unto the waters Isa 55. 2. As if he should say Hoe every one that hath a mind to Christ come and have him every one that hungers and thirsteth after Christ let his sinnes be never so great and the number never so many here is hue and crie after him Come unto the waters He saith not come unto the water but waters not a little low brook or stream which is not able to wash away all his sins but there is an Ocean of waters ndefinitely waters in the plural number declaring the fulnesse and sufficiency to cleanse the most leprous soule be he never so much stained with corruption It is said by the Prophet Obadiah that the Lord will send unto his People Saviours verse 21. not in the singular number but Saviours in the plurall number not that there were moe Christs then one but to manifest the fulnesse of Christ he is a rich Christ full of salvation for all them that come unto him Therefore if there be any man that mourns and laments for his sinnes let him come unto Christ and welcome for there is a Fountain laid open for Judah and Jerusalem to wash in but let him know upon what terms he must come if ever he meane to have Salvation by Christ observe the strict Conditions and walke by the strait rule of Christ he must resolve with himselfe come what will come to stand or to fall with Christ delivering up all his lusts and corruptions at his command whensoever he calls for them he must not part stakes with Christ to delude him but he must be true and faithfull unto him he must wholly deny himselfe and lie down before Christ to let Christ doe what he wil with him and these onely are the termes he must expect Heaven upon and thus doing he may have Salvation according to the desire of his soule THE SINFULNESSE And Danger OF HYPOCRISIE As it was delivered in a SERMON upon an extraordinary day of Fasting and Humiliation By WILLIAM FENNER Minister of the Gospel sometimes Fellow of Pembroke Hall in Cambridge and late Lecturer of Rochford in Essex London Printed by E. T. for John Stafford THE SINFULNESSE And Danger OF HYPOCRISIE ISA. 58. 4. later part Ye shall not fast as ye doe to day to make the voyce to be heard above YE shall find that there are two maine things in this Chapter First A commission the Prophet hath to doe his duty it is from the Lord. Secondly the Execution of his duty The Commission is in the first verse Cry aloud spare not lift up thy voice like a trumpet and shew my people their transgressions and to the house of Jacob their sins this is his Commission to tell them roundly of their sinnes spare not saith the Lord and it is no other commission than all the Ministers of God have especially upon such fasting dayes as this is to be faithfull to the people to make known unto them all their sins Now in the execution of
see a pill but his stomack riseth against it Behold I wil hedge up thy way with thorns Hos 2. 6. I wil not be so precise saith the heart I wil go on as I have done I wil go after these and these courses I will hedge up thy way with thorns saith God meditation is Gods instrument and sets a thorn in the way to every sin to bring the heart back again Would the heart lash out into luke-warmnesse Meditation sets a thorn in the way God will spue thee out of his mouth Would the heart sally forth into any sin Meditation sets a thorn in the way Cursed art thou if thou dost err from Gods Commandements The heart cannot step forth into any lust but meditation meets it with a thorn this curse and that curse this plague and that plague Would the heart reach at mercy in its sin Meditation pricks it mercie is vengeance unto thee so long as thou hankrest after sin Would the heart reach after Christ in his sin Meditation pushes it back with a thorn no Christ for thee but a severejudge so long as thou itchest after thy vanities What shal we think of them then which are loth to practice this duty Most men are loth though they be willing enough to meditate on their worldly affairs The Mariner meditates and considers his course by his Compasse or else he might soon runne on the quick-sands a Pilgrim is full of thoughts what am I in my right way He never comes to a doubtfull turning but he stands in a study and muses O which is my right way The Merchant meditates and his mind runs on his Count-book or else he is soon bankrupt The voluptuous man his thoughts run on his pleasure the drunkard on his cups the proud man on his credit But it is one thing to look to that which is thine and another thing to look to thy self Take heed to your selves saith the Lord Deut. 11. 16. Deut. 12. 30. Deut. 4. 9. Exod. 34. 12. as if he should say think on thy self of thy poor soul let thy Meditation run on thy poor soul The heart is untoward unto this duty and as unwilling as a Bear to be brought to the stake the Bear would rather be rambling abroad then be baited so men had rather let their hearts ramble about any thing then bait them for their sins yea men scoff at it saying shall we alwayes be poring on our sins shall we run mad shall we drive our selves to despair cannot men keep themselves well while they are well The poor man he hath no time for this tedious duty the rich man he needs it not the wicked they dare not so no man will No man repented him of his wickednesse saying What have I done Jer. 8. 6. no man would meditate and think with himself what is my case how stands my condition before God what evil have I done in the Ark and in the old Law if there were any beast that chewed not the cud it was a sign of an unclean beast the word implies the bringing up of their meat into their mouths again and sitting down to chew it again But now men like unclean beasts swallow down the food of their souls unchewed and will not meditate thereof that it may turn to good nutriment but like Cormorants they take it down by whole-sale and are never the better So the Word is to them as the Quails to the Israelites while the flesh was yet between their teeth ere it was chewed the wrath of the Lord was kindled against them and smote them them with a very great plague Num. 11 33. So the Word of God sticks in their teeth ere they chew it or meditate upon it the wrath of God falls upon them and strikes them with a very great plague of hardnesse of heart and leanness of soul But the truth is you that will not now see your sins nor meditate on them you shall see them and meditate on nothing but on fear Lord when thy hand is lifted up they will not see but they shall see and be ashamed Isaiah 26. 11. Now the Lets of serious meditation are First vain company When Peter saw the people touched Acts 2. 37. he said unto them Save your selves from this untoward generation verse 40. as if he should say If you love your selves God hath touched your hearts suffer not Satan and these wicked instruments to steal away these impressions of terrour from your Souls If ever you love your souls sort not your selvs with this untoward generation See as it humbles you so let meditation follow upon it so that it may still humble you Ill company brings a man to the gallows as the proverb is and ill company will bring a man to hell say I and meditation cannot be admitted to it David would not have a wicked man to abide in his sight when he was to meditate he wisht that there were never a wicked man in the world much less would he keep company with them My meditation of him shall be sweet let the sinners be consumed out of the earth and let the wicked be no more Bless thou the Lord O my soul ps 104. 35. The second Let is multitude of worldly businesses A dream saith Solomon comes through multitude of businesses Eccles 5. Multitude of businesses causeth the mind so to run on them that they do even dream of them in their sleep as Lucretius Seneca Claudian and many others of the hearthens haue observed He that over-imploys himself his meditations of heaven are dreaming meditations his thoughts dreaming thoughts he can never seriously meditate on the good of his soul Many ingrosse businesses into their hands never thinking they have enough they are so greedy after the world and so carelesse of heaven So they make their hearts like high-way-ground the word sown in their hearts is like seed sown in the high-way where is such a throughfare and a broad Carriers road of earthly affairs that all the word and meditation thereof is trodden down as the grasse in the high-way which cannot grow so neither meditation in a busie-bodied heart For a good meditating mind Nemo ad illam pervenit occupatus saith Seneca no man ever came to it surfeited with imployments David although he had abundance of State-affairs both his hands ful yet he would not to be over-charged but that he might meditate in Gods word My hands also not all down to businesse only in the world but also up to thy Law will I lift up to thy commandements which I have loved and I wil meditate on thy statutes Psal 119. 48. Take not too much upon thee like those grasping worldlings that wil have a finger in a hundred things Martha Martha thou art cumbred about many things but one thing is needfull and Mary hath chosen the better part Luke 10. 41. and what was that one thing Mary was sitting and meditating in and pondring Christs words not
heart Stay till Samuel comes to direct thee yet Saul forced himselfe to disobey and to do Sacrifice 1. Sam. 13. 12. he was bold as Vatable turns it he confirmed himselfe as Pagnin translates it he thrust himselfe upon the doing of it God forbad him he would do it God urged him in his conscience not to doe it yet he would do it God again whispered to him not to do it yet he forced himselfe to do it as if he should say I hope I may do it I have stayed seven days wanting an hour or a piece of an houre and a little piece breaks no square No God rejected Saul for that venture God would have forced him by meditation O no doe it not by no means he made him think Oh it is against Gods commandements I may not do it No but neverthelesse he forced himself to do it Thus God deals with thousands and millions in the world Be not a drunkard God flings the meditation into the conscience yet a drunkard thou wilt be Be not a drunkard again a drunkard notwithstanding thou wilt be Be not again they force themselves they will go to the Ale-house And so of all other sins If men will cast off this work of meditation darted into their souls they cast off their own mercy God tels them pray not hear not offer not without directions from me they dread not the commandment they will I trust prayers are good I will say them Thus they will not meditate or if they do they break it off before it comes to any strength or perfection yea Gods own servants that desire to look towards Sion is not this your complaint oft I cannot finde sinne heavy I confesse the word discovers it to me but I cannot be troubled for it Look as it is with men in the world if five hundred pound weight be laid upon the ground if a man never pluck at it he shall never feel the weight of it Your sinnes are not many hundreds but many thousands yea many ten thousands selfe-love security hardnesse of heart base fears c. it is impossible to reckon them The least vain thought that ever you imagined the least vaine word that ever you uttered were weight enough to presse your souls down to hell Therefore what are so many sins and so great and so often committed What are they they are as heauy as rocks and mountains yet ye feel them not so heavy Why Ye weigh them not if ye did yee should finde them heavier than the sand as David did when his sinne was ever before him Psal 51. 3. that is his sinne was ever in his thoughts and in his meditation his sin was ever like a huge Milstone before him and he was ever tugging and pulling to remove it out of his way I but you will say How shall I come to feel my burden I answer three things are here to be discovered First the ground upon which our meditation must be raised Secondly the manner how to follow it home to the heart Thirdly how to put life and power into it The ground I referre to these foure heads First meditate on the goodnesse patience and mercy of God that hath been abused by any of your sins the greater they have been to you the greater is every sinne this maketh them out of measure sinfull because God is out of measure mercifull There are many sinnes in one when a man sinnes against many mercies See Judg. 2. 2 3. Why have ye done thus I have done thus and thus mercifully unto you why have yee done thus unthankfully to me Why was my mercy abused Why was my goodnesse sleighted Why was my patience despised as if the Lord should say I speak to your owne conscience think of it meditate of it why have ye done this Doe ye thus requite the Lord O foolish people and unwise Is not he thy Father Meditate of it first and tell me then For it is a question put to thy meditation to answer Do ye thus requite the Lord ye foolish people Wert thou ever in want but God supplyed thee Wert thou ever in weaknesse but God strengthened thee Wert thou ever in straits but God delivered thee When thou wert in sicknesse who cured thee when thou wert in poverty who relieved thee when thou wert in misery who succoured thee Hath not God been a gracious God to thee Every soul can tell never poor sinner hath had a more gracious God than I poor sinner have found to my soul All my bones can say Lord who hath been like unto thee This heart hath been heavy and thou hast cheered it this soul hath been distressed and thou hast eased it many troubles have befallen me and thou hast given me a gracious issue This poor man saith David pointing to himselfe this poor man cryed and the Lord heard him Psal 34. 9. And shall I thus reward the Lord shall I sinne against his goodnesse Then what shall I say Hear O heavens and hearken O earth Sunne stand thou still and thou Moon be amazed at this and be avenged on such a heart as this The Oxe knows his owner and the Asse his Masters Crib but here is a heart that will not remember to know the Lord. Hear O heavens this villany cryeth so loud that your ears may hear it Hear all ye Angels add be astonished here is villany to make your ears glow yea hear hell hear Devils if ever there were worse committed by you When men are but ingenuous if they haue received any kindenesse from a friend they were never in want but he relieved them never harbourlesse but he housed them never to seek but he found them Let a man deal thus kindly with a man if this man should deny him any ordinary favour he will be ashamed of himselfe ashamed to come into his presence What will he think his house was mine his cupboard was mine and his purse was mine and his friends were mine and that I should deal thus unkindly with him even nature rebukes me This serious meditation will help to break thy heart The second ground of meditation is to mediate on the justice of God God is a just God as well as mercifull Speak all ye Devils in Hell Doe ye not feel that he is a just God Speak Sodome Speak Gomorrah your fire and brimstone can testifie that he is a just God Speak Adah Zillah and all ye that were drowned in the old world your deluge can testify he is a just God His judgements are all in the world 1. Chro. 16. 14. What is become of drunken Nabal and swearing Saul and covetous Ahab and proud Jesabel and mocking Jehu and envious Shimei What is become of all blind Jebusites and parting cavilling Diotrepheses Justice hath taken hold on them What is povertie What is nakednesse What is famine sicknesse the gout the stone Feaver plague These are the little arrows of Gods justice What is shame disgrace crosses afflictions
then they shall be glad to be converted then they shall be glad to come out of their sins then they shall be glad to get grace and seek reconciliation with God but alas they saw not this then but God foresaw it well enough then shall they call but I will not answer they shall seek me early but they shall not find me Lastly here is the frustration of their hope which hath two things in it First in regard of themselves in regard of the flaw in their seeking it being not aright Secondly in regard of the Justice of God who rewards every man according to their works But I will not hear them Whence observe this point of Doctrine Those that will not hear when he calleth them God will not hear them when they call unto him Those that will not hear the Lord when he calleth upon them by the ministery of his Word and voyce of his Spirit the Lord will not hear them when in their misery they call upon him Thus the Lord dealt with the people in Ezekiels dayes the Lord called them to repentance and obedience but when they stood out and neglected the opportunity of grace and seasons of conversion see how God deals with them though they cry in mine ears with a loud voice yet I will not hear them saith the Lord. When men have gone beyond the time of Gods mercy and out rowed the tyde of Gods forbearance and will not returne the Lord sets it down with himselfe that his wrath shall return upon them he will no longer forbear they had a time wherein the Lord did pity them and offered grace and mercy unto them but they neglecting this season and withstanding this proffer of grace God resolves with himselfe they shall never have it again There was a time wherein God did pity them but now he will not pity them any more twenty five years he called unto them and sought to bring them home but because they stood out and refused the Lord saith I will love Ephraim no more Beloved there is a double day a white day and a black day there is a day of salvation Isa 49. 9. this is the day in the which the Lord said to the prisoners Come forth and to those that lye in their sins repent and beleeve Now if any man will come forth and humble his soul before the Lord let him come and welcome for it is a day of salvation But there is another day of damnation which is a dark day a black and a duskie day wherein the Lord will visit the sinnes of the world and revenge the quarrell of his Covenant Hos 9. 7. The day of visitation is come yea the day of recompence the people shall know it the Prophet is a fool and the spirituall man is mad Beloved we are fools and all the spirituall men under heaven are mad that lay not this day to heart For the day of the Lord is a day of visitation and all the world shall rue it though now men sleep in securitie If once mercie be rejected and God turn away his ear from a man then grace shall be no more the door of life shall for ever be shut up against him and when once this day comes he hath lost his own place and deprived himselfe of eternall happinesse Now there are three reasons of this point the first is the law of retaliation of rendring like for like which is the justest law that can be made with man for to give unto every man according to his works to make him take such as he brings as the Heathen calls it to give a man quid for quâ— Now if God call upon thee and thou wilt not hear it is righteousnesse with God yea equity with God that is more that when thou callest on him he should not hear thee For thus runs the tenor of Gods Word Prov. 28. 9. He that turns away his ear from hearing the Law euen his prayers shall be abominable He that turns away his ear from Gods Law God will turn away his eare from his prayer He that turns it is spoken in the present tense that is he that now turns away his ear his prayer shall be abominable in the future tense that is the Lord marks what master or servant what father or mother what husband or wife what man or woman it is that turns away the ear of his head or the ear of his heart from hearing his will and obeying of his Commandements the Lord takes speciall notice of it and sets it down in his Calendar and records it in his Memoriall keeping a strict account thereof as if God should say Well is it so I now call and will not this man or that woman answer Do I now stretch out my hands and will not they take care to obey me Well let them alone saith God there is a day coming that I shall be a hearing of them times of sorrow and misery will take hold of them and then they in their affliction will cry unto me but I will not hear they will beg for mercy but I will not regard they will seek me early but they shall not finde me It was one of the Articles of high Treason brought in against Cardinall Woolsey that he had the pox and a stinking breath and yet durst come into the Kings presence So it shall be an Article against thee of high treason before the King of heaven if thou come into his presence with the stinking breath of thy sins living in thy lusts and wallowing in thy filthinesse all thy prayers are but as so many stinking breaths in the nostrils of the Lord and every dutie that thou performest unto the Lord shall be as so many Articles of high treason against thee to condemne thee because thou livest in rebellion and a Traitor against God His prayer shall be abominable he doth not say I will turn away mine ear from hearing his prayer which turns away his ear from hearing my law that is the true exposition of the words no but like for like is sometimes injustice for if a man should strike a Magistrate a box on the ear it were not justice for him to give him another for it is a greater sin to strike a Magistrate than any other common person and therefore a greater punishment the Law requireth So God doth not say he will turn away his ear from hearing his prayer but will serve him in a worse kind he will count it abominable yea abomination in the abstract it shall be loathsome yea lothsomnesse it selfe in the worst manner Galat. As a man soweth so shall he reap if thou sow sparingly thou shalt sparingly if thou sow a dull ear to Gods Word thou shalt reapaâ—dull ear from God to thy praier for God will reward every man according to his works Secondly because of the time of Gods Attributes both mercy and justice VAIN THOUGHTS ARRAIGNED At the Barre of Gods JUSTICE SET FORTH In a
and am overtaken with my infirmities yet I thank God he hath sanctified my heart For I think of God and of Christ and I oft call upon his name and let my thoughts runne on good things God and heaven are many times in my mind and I am sorry when I do amisse and the Lord hath blest me with a large portion of outward things Besides I see these and these signs of grace in me and therefore I think my case to be haphy And thus securely they live and so they go on and so they dye and so go to hell and perish for ever and ever Here is the misery of it many think of God and of Christ of death and of their last account of heaven of hell of faith and repentance of leaving sinne of crucifying their lusts and practising of holiness Now men think that their thinking of these things is a part of their discharge when indeed they are Additions to and pieces of their talents which increase their judgements God casts in a though of repentance holinesse of the remembrance of death and last account Dost thou find thy heart never the better and holier by them Then know it is only Gods haunting of thy heart and Gods calling upon thee and Gods inviting thee unto repentance to leave thy sinnes to come out of thy deadnesse and formality to prepare for thy death and judgement and therefore I say if thy heart now think not so if thy heart do not repent beleeve and grow more zealous and thou art not drawn the neerer to God I say then that the more of these good thoughts that thou hast had the greater thy doom will be if thou hast had ten thousands of them if they have been only Gods haunting of thy heart think thou then now of grace of God of thy poor soul which is not bettered by them nor made holy then know they are pieces of thy talent and it doth make thy torments in hell the greater Secondly thou hast good thoughts but the question is whether they be fleeting or abiding thoughts Many think of God of grace of heaven of the word of God and when they hear a Sermon they will think of God but these thoughts though they come into their minds yet they go away presently they are in and out at an instant in a trice they passe away and are gone Beloved there are two kinds of vain thoughts 1. vain because the substance and matter of them is vain and so all worldly thoughts are vain 2. or else for their want of durance and lasting and so are all thoughts of heaven of God and grace and of Christ if they vanish away they are all vain thoughts though they seem otherwise Hear what God saith Gen. 6. 5 God saw that the wickednesse of man was great upon the earth and all the imaginations of the thoughts of his heart were only evill continually all the imaginations great is the emphasis of this word all all the thoughts yea all universally are only evill continually But you will say unto me Doth not a wicked man think that there is a God why that is a good thought doth not he think that this God is to be observed and worshipped why this is a good thought doth he not think that sin is to be forsaken that is a good thought doth he not think of heaven and of Christ how then are their thoughts only evil and that continually I answer Because all the thoughts of a wicked mans heart are vain that is vanishing thoughts not vain for the matter which sometimes may be good and Holy but vain because they soon vanish away thoughts that come and carry â—ot that leave no impression in their hearts behind them these are all vain thoughts according to that of the Apostle The Lord knoweth the thoughts of the wise that they are vain 1 Cor. 3. 20. Beloved in a godly mans heart when a good thought comes it abides and dwells a good while in him and when it goes away it leaves a good impression behind it it leaves a sweet smell and favour in the heart after it is gone it s made more holy and sanctified by it When a good thought comes into a godly mans heart it leaves the print of it behind when a wicked man hath a good thought he â—osseth it up and down and suffers it not to stay but presently puts it away let a thought of the world come in and he can give it entertainment for seven days yea for seven years yea all his life he sets his heart as a wide gate open to receive them and to entertain them but if a thought of God or of repentance of holinesse and salvation come into his mind he is tyred out with it and it soon vanisheth away therefore so long as thy thoughts are thus vain though for the matter good if thou hast never so many of them yet if they abide not but thou thinkest and unthinkest them again if they come and give thy Soul a jog and so away the more I say thou hast of them though thou hast many millions the greater will be thy doom at the last day Thirdly Thou thinkest of God but the question is whether thy good thoughts be studied or accidental thoughts A wicked man that runs gadding in his thoughts here and there over the whole world upon this and that and I know not what in the midst of a lottery of thoughts he cannot chuse but stumble upon some good he thinks on God he thinks on Christ he thinks on Heaven but it is by the by-gone these thoughts of his are not naturall but if he think of the world of his pleasures of his outward delights and contentments these thoughts arise naturally out of his heart they are his own Now it may be a thought of God comes by the way But a godly man not only thinks of God but he stadies how to think of God it is his continuall endeavour to bring his mind to be fixed upon God it is his whole care to have good thoughts to dwell habitually in him There is an excellent phrase used to set it forth Malac. 3. 16. They that feared the Lord spake one unto another and the Lord hearkned and heard it and a book of remembrance was written before him of all them that feared the Lord and thought upon his Name Where I pray you to mark that thinking upon Gods Name and the fear of God are joyned together for thinking on God comes from the fear of God a godly man thinks upon God and fears him he thinks that God is alwayes with him in every place and he trembles before him he thinks God beholds all his thoughts and affections and trembles at him he thinks as he walks up and down in his way as he he is imployed in his calling as he is performing of any duty of Religion that Gods eye is upon him and beholds him and therefore he fears to offend
thing that every soul is bound to doe is to get in with God First seek the kingdom of God saith our Saviour and the righteousnesse thereof Matth. 6. 35. Where our Saviour doth not forbid our taking of thought for the things of this life but that they should not be sought after in the first place so that our first thoughts and endeavours should be after the Kingdom of heaven Therefore all thoughts whatsoever which are conceived before a man be converted and so thinks of God are all damnable thoughts Secondly all worldly thoughts are sinfull when we think of them too usually as Chrysostome speaks because we think of the universality of them Beloved it is lawfull to think of the world and to think of our trade and imployments to think of our corn of our cattell fields barnes wives children For if God have commanded or commended these things unto us then surely he gives us leave to think on them that so we may accomplish our businesse the better but let us take heed they be not too usuall with us for we have souls as well as bodies and there is a heavenly as well as an earthly businesse to think upon thou art not to live here alwayes therefore take heed that thy thoughts be not too usuall and common upon the things of the world let not earth and earthly thinhs have too much of thy thoughts As the Prophet David seeing the thoughts of wicked men wholly to runne after the things of the world he tells them all their thoughts perish and so I tell you if that your thoughts on the world run together with heap and croud and then you bundle them in bundles as it were they all prove damnable and shall perish Thirdly worldly thoughts are sinfull and damnable if thou thinkest of them too savourily a carnall-minded man thinks savourily of the things of the world the thoughts of earthly things are savoury unto him a wicked man wil think of God and of the world but which is the savouryest thought to him He wil think of Christ of Heaven and of the Word of God and of such a Sermon he heard but alas he finds no savour tast nor rellish in them he finds no sweetnesse joy or delight in them but when he thinks of the world of his gold and silver of his lands and livings Oh these are merry thoughts unto him these are sweet unto him and pleasant to him and his heart is now at home in his own nest He can think of these seven dayes nay seven moneths nay seven years together and yet never be weary but his thoughts as full and as fresh as at the first But bring him to a Sermon or to a Prayer and he is jaded presently his heart is empty and his thoughts are at an end For saith the Apostle they that are after the flesh savour the things of the flesh Rom. 8. 5. It is a true note of an earthly carnal fleshly heart to be thinking on earthly and vain things savourily Thou maist think on the world but it must be only with a cast of thy thoughts as one that looks upon a thing with a squint eye but when thou art to think on God or on the things of God then thou must gather all thy thoughts and affections thou must lay all the powers of thy soul together and thou must imploy them only to this work Fourthly worldly thoughts become sinfull when we think of them without counsel then faith Solomon they come to nought when a man considers not afore-hand what thoughts are necessary and needfull and so restreines and keeps off all impertinent thoughts then his thoughts will prove distrustfull carking thoughts caring for the morrow contrary to the rule of Christ Matth. 6. 33. Take no care for to morrow let to morrow care for it selfe He doth not forbid here Christian provident thoughts for godly honest and sober thoughts are fitting and necessary but he seems hereby to cut off all distrusting carking thoughts Fiftly worldly thoughts come to be sinfull when they are thought needlesly And here I will shew how far a man may think of the world namely so far as his necessary businesse requires Suppose a mans businesse be upon merchandise it is lawfull to think of it and of his shop and wares but if thou wouldest know how far why so far as it is for thy businesse But if thou hast so many of them that thy heart is taken up with them and thy mind still on them then they are sinfull thoughts There is many a man that in following of his businesse bestowes more thoughts upon it than his businesse requires he hath ten thousands of superfluous thoughts but let such remember the exhortation of the Wise man establish thy thoughts by counsell counsel wil tell a man when he hath thought enough and what thoughts are fit for his imployment Not that any man can carry himselfe alwayes in that golden mediocrity or mean but a Christians care must be dayly more and more to pare off all superfluous thoughts of earthly things Now we come to the second thing 2. Thoughts are vain formally when though the matter of them be never so good yet the manner of thinking them is evill It is possible that a wicked man goe to hell though he performs the same things for the matter of them that a godly man doth a godly man comes to Church so doth a wicked man a godly man prayes in his family so doth a wicked man a godly man reads the Scriptures so doth a wicked man a godly man repeats Sermons and conferres of good things so doth a wicked man There is no work that comes to the outward act that a godly man doth but a wicked man may doe the same here only is the difference in the manner of working I will set it out to you by a place of Scripture In a great house saith the Apostle there are not onely vessels of gold and of silver but also of wood and of stone some to honour and some to dishonour 2 Tim. 2. 20. Mark how the Apostle here sets out the reprobate and the elect comparing them to vessels of honour and dishonour the vessels of dishonour are of the same matter that the vessels of honour are of suppose it be pewter or silver cast it into an honourable form and it wil be a vessel of honour but cast it into a dishonourable form and it wil be a vessel of dishonour for base and mean service even so it is between a true Christian and a meer formall professor the matter of their service is one and the same suppose it be hearing the Word or receiving of the Sacraments prayer or the like the substance and action is the same but take the same prayer and let a godly man cast it in his form and it is holy and prevails with God let a wicked man take the same prayer and cast it into his dishonourable form
Behold I and the children that thou hast given me are for signs and wonders in Israel The wicked count them for wonders and monsters in the world judging them hypocrites and lyers which have nothing in them but rottennesse and dissimulation Now the rule of like for like shall take place here and as they were judged by the world so they shall be Judges of the world Thirdly for great terror to all wicked men at the day of judgement for as it is with a thief not onely when the Judge shall command to hang him but all the Justices and all the Country shall cry out Hang him hang him he is judged the more terribly so God will not only say of all wicked and ungodly sinners Damn them damn them but he will have all the Saints in heaven and all the Saints on earth to cry out Away with them away with them let them be damned Psalm 50 4 5. This will make their judgement so much the more terrible Fourthly The Saints shall judge the world because God shall so convince them that their mouth shall be stopped they shall have never a syllable to to excuse themselves withall when they shall see men flesh and bloud as themselves are when they shall see men and women that have lived in the same town enjoyed the same Ordinances of God lived in the same family that did partake of the same blessings and of the same crosses and afflictions with themselves subject also to the same corruptions and sins as themselves when they shall see these at Christs right hand they shall have never a word to excuse themselves withall as when the Apostles had healed the creeple Acts 3. if the people had judged them for wicked and pestilent men the creeple would have convinced them and shewed that they were of God if they should have cryed Root them up the creeple would have condemned them and told them that they did good And when the wicked shall see the Saints at Gods right hand would they call them hypocrites and dissemblers they themselves shall see that they are sincere will they call them Puritans why they shall then see that their purity stands them in good stead then the ungodly shall not stand in judgement nor the sinners in the congregation of the righteous Psal 1. 6. Thus the point is clear The first Use then is for instruction whereby we may learn that the Saints by their now being Saints doe now judge the world if by the lives of Saints then God doth judge the world then there is never a Saint in a Town or Citie or Parish in all the Countrey but he judgeth all the wicked that are about him How By living godly by hating the sinnes of the times by keeping his or their garments clean from the pollution of the world For by doing this he judgeth the world See it in Noah Heb. 11. 7. By faith Noah being warned of God as yet moved with fear prepared an Ark for the saving of his house by which he condemned the world But some men will say Could Noah be said to condemne the world by making the Ark all the world did not see him when he did it Beloved Noah was making the Ark an hundred and twenty years though it was not seen of all yet all the world must needs hear of it it being such a strange thing Now he condemned the world in that the whole world did not come unto Noah to inquire of him in sober sadnesse but rather mockt him for building the Ark they thought him to be a peevish melancholy man and not well in his wits and so scoft at him saying Will he make an Ark to swim upon dry land whereas they should have ask'd him soberly the cause why he did it and if they had done so Noah no question would have told them that the wrath of heaven was upon the World and that the floods of God's vengeance were shortly to be powred down upon us and because my heart hath been naught and I have sinned and provoked the Lords wrath I fear if I get not into this Arke which the Lord hath commanded me for to make I shall perish Now because they would not come unto Noah to ask him this reason therefore the world was condemned by him even so the Saints by making an Ark for their poor souls even by getting into Christ as the Ark was a type of Christ without whom none can be saved the Saints I say by getting into Christ doe judge the whole world when they hear there be men that be no swearers and no drunkards and that there be men that will pray read hear the word confer of God and of Christ and that weep and mourn for their sins that spend their times in mortification of their lusts and endeavour after holinesse and sanctification the whole world I say is judged by them How why they should say Sirs what is the matter that you do so run after Sermons that you keep such a stirr about getting faith and repentance more than other men that you pray weep fast and mourn and are so strict in your works If thus men would but come unto Gods Saints and ask them the reason of all these things the Saints of God would tell them that the wrath of God would come upon them if they did not thus they would never be saved if they did not thus beleeve and thus repent and thus pray and walk thus holily and precisely they should be all damned But the world it falls a mocking and a scoffing at them and never seeks to prevent the wrath of God but it suddenly seiseth on them to their destruction Secondly this teacheth us that when there is one sinner converted from the wickednesse of his wayes and is become a Saint then all the world may know that there is a new judge come to sit upon them Seest thou a drunkard a swearer a prophane person converted from his sinnes and now walks soberly holily and purely seest thou a man or a woman struck at a Sermon Then know that unlesse thou comest out of thy sinnes unless thou doest repent and walk holily there is a new judge added to the rest that shall judge thee As our Saviour told the Pharisees If I through Beelzebub cast out Devils by whom doe your children cast them out Therefore they shall be your judges Matthew 12. 27. where Christ tels them that their children who were his Disciples for some of the Pharisees children did beleeve in Christ and follow him and had power from Christ to do the same works that Christ did Now they liked it well enough in their owne children but they could not endure it in Christ and therefore he tells them that their children whom God had converted and to whom he had given power to do the same works that he did even they shall be their Judges to condemn them and even so may it be with thee thou art a
the reason of it wich is threefold First Christs own example verse 22. the son of man must suffer must be rejected Christ himself denies himself he might have commanded himself he might have demanded credit honour or riches c. he might have done thus yet though he had no wicked self but good self yet he denyed himself and therefore if we will goe after Christ we must do so too Secondly here is Christs merit he hath merited this duty Christ did not humble himself for himself but he did it for us and therefore we may well deny our selves for him This is included in this word And. And if I have done this for you I would have you do the like for me Thirdly here is Christs command too Let him deny himself Christ enjoynes this to all that will come after him Let him deny himself Now follows the occasion and that is threefold First Peters offence when Christ had told Peter and the rest of his Apostles how that he must suffer Peter was offended saying Master favour thy self even like a servant that out of love to himself would be loth his Master should be troubled because then he thinks himself shall be troubled also oh saith Christ art thou offended at this I tell thee neither thou nor any other can come after me unlesse you deny your selves If any man will come after me c. Secondly as Peter was offended so also were the rest of the Apostles They were very sorrie Matth. 17. 22. they thought to have gotten credit in the world and riches and worldly preferment and it grieved them to hear that they must have a suffering kind of trade of it ergo Christ said not only to Peter but to them all If any man c. Thirdly like as his Apostles so likewise he did foresee that all the world will be offended at this for manâ— would faine have Christ and their selfwill too but Christ gives a watch-word before-hand If any manwill c. Fourthly The parts of it The whole duty is this Let him deny himself Chrysostome on the text saith not onely deny himself but in the original deny away himself nor onely deny credit c. but abhorre it if it cannot be had but with the losse of Christ we must not only barely deny self-respects but abhorre them and trample them under our feet The parts of this duty are two First let him take up his crosse Secondly let him deny himself and follow me The first is opposed to self-favouring the second to self-doing First let him take up his crosse let him not favour himself he must be content to part with selfe-means and maintenance and selfe-ends too he must be content to part with all these he that will come after me must lose many good friends and many a good bit and sweet morsell to the flesh he that will come after me must not stand upon these termes suppose a crosse of disgrace come take it up and wear it as thy crowne nay thou must be willing to take a crosse before it is offered and when thou hast it thou must be willing to bear it Secondly he must follow me too ones selfe will do as ones selfe would have him that is true but you must follow me not your selfe look to me and frame your selves to walk in my steps take up my crosse c. Lastly here is the necessity of it It is absolute true a man may go to hell if he be so minded he may follow himself to hell but if a man tender his salvation then here is an hypotheticall necessity a necessity with an if First if he mean to come after me he must take up his crosse and deny himselfe Secondly if a man would save his life he must lose it if he will lose it he shall save it If a man will keep his old relation he may but if he will find credit and life in heaven he must deny all selfe-respects Thirdly if a man will gain himselfe let him deny himselfe But what say some how shall we live then how then shall I hold up my head These men would faine have the gaine of the world but what is a man profited if he win the world and lose his soule c. verse 25. If you stand upon these termes if you can baulke a commandement for selfe-respects you may lose your soules but if you will save your souls thus you must doe Again the text saith if a man be ashamed of me and of my word of him shall the Son of man be ashamed ergo if ever you look that the Son of man should not be ashamed of you deny your selves Now for the Exposition Deny himselfe there is the difficulty A man cannot deny himselfe 2. Tim. 2. 13. so affirmare negare are contradictions ergo somewhat must be meant by ones selfe yet by ones self is not meant the Devill as Macarius would have it for since man hath sinued saith he the Devill is got into him and is as neer unto him as himself he is another selfe within his own self another heart within his own heart ergo if he will come after Christ he must forsake the Devil though this be true yet this is not the meaning of the text But first a mans corrupt will wit reason and all a mans corrupt selfe must be put off Put off concerning the former conversation the old man c. Ephes 4. 22. which is a mans self Viz. thou must lay aside the man that thou art thou must not be the same man if thou wilt follow Christ thou must be a new selfe in Christ 2. Here is not onely meant a mans corrupt will wit reason and affections but also all mens lusts and corruptions all sinnes that cleave so close as if they were himselfe as fornication uncleannesse evill concupiscence c. mortify therefore your earthly members Colos 3. â—â— The Apostle accounts a mans lusts as close to him as his members for untill a man be brought home to Christ he and his sins are all one he must deny himself viz all his lusts Thirdly By selfe is not onely meant a mans corrupt selfe as sinne and iniquity but also a mans good selfe in some respects not only sinâ— but also Father Mother Children Friends c. yea life it selfe all if they be hinderances to him from Christ so farre he must deny all these nay grace it self for a man may make a God of grace or of prayer c. a man I say must deny all these so farre as they are stumblings and offences in his way to hinder him from Christ But oh sayes one my father will disinherit me I must humour him he cannot endure a Puritan If I must live as you would have me I shall never have foot of his land so the servant sayes I have a prophane master and he will turne me out of doors if I be so precise yea but what sayes Christ If you will come
of their learning A handsome man and I warrant you he knowes it diligent at Church and he knowes it is so c. and he thinks his case the better nay you shall have men so conceited of their parts as that they will be conceited of their wicked parts as Simon Magus was of his Sorcerie Acts 8. 9. Thirdly when a man is self-conceited of his actions he doth as Sisera's mothers Ladies did when they had given their verdict of Sisera's staying they were presently conceited oh what a wittie answer they made her see Judges 5. 29. 30. as if they should say we have answered very wisely so a man cannot make a Sermon but presently he is conceited oh what a learned Sermon it was he cannot break a jest but straight he is conceited oh what a wittie one it was nay of wicked actions you shall hear many an old man tell what prettie pranks as he calls them he played in his youth and he tells it laughingly which is a sign that he is self-conceited or else surely he would speak it with shame and grief of heart Fourthly and lastly self-conceit is when a man is self-conceited of the estate he is in Many a man though he be the child of hell yet he is conceited that he is the child of God who with the wretch in the Gospel have conceits that they love God and Christ and therefore with him they will come to the Sacraments but Christ will say to such as he did to him friends how came you in hither can you conceit your selves to be friends get you gon into utter darknesse i. e into hell saith our Saviour Now if you would know what self-conceit is you must remember that it containes four things First where there is self conceit there is no real worth at all he that is self-conceited is a base man take that for a rule A self-conceited fellow is a base fellow as we use to say there is no real worth at all in a conceited man all the worth that he hath is either reall as he thinks or conceitable now what reall worth can self have You know what Scripture saith t is only in imaginations of their hearts Luke 1. 43. They it may be do imagine that they are Gentlemen or that they have faith and yet God scatters these men in their imaginations Secondly as he hath no reall worth in himself so he will not stand to the judgement of those that can judge him God can tell the worth of every thing but they will not be judged by him Gods Ministers out of Gods word can tell him that he hath no reason to think his case good but he will not stand to the judgement of Gods Ministers If a Minister should come to a man and say unto him Sir you are conceited that you are a good Christian I pray what signes have you for it you pray so do Reprobates you hear the word and receive the Sacraments so do Reprobates hast thou no better signes than these no better arguments than these Why I tell thee that a Reprobate hath these and more than these too A self-conceited man will be judged by none but by himself A sluggard is wiser in his own conceit then seven men who can give a reason Prov. 26. 19. The sluggard is loth to take more pains why he thinks he takes pains enough and so he is conceited and more he will not do let seven men come and tell him that he must take more pains yet he will not and that because he is conceited that he doth enough Even so it is with the sluggish Christian he is wise in his own conceit for let seven Ministers come and tell him that he must take more paines for heaven or else he will never come there yet he will not beleeve them he is wiser then so they are fooles as he thinks though he have no reason so to think he indeed is not as he should be and Gods Ministers can bring reasons out of the Scriptures to prove it for wisdom is profitable to direct Eccles 10. 10. But every conceited man is a blinde man Thirdly A self-conceited man as he will not stand to the judgment of those that can judge him so he hath too high a conceit of himself be he never so little godly he is presently conceited he is a child of God so if a man have never so little humility or patience if he come to Church pray or doe but a few good duties in religion he thinks presently it is as a high wall unto him and he shall go to heaven cock-sure and let other men be never so holy strict religious and pious in their wayes yet they are apt to think them Reprobates If he see never so little slips among them he is presently ready to say they are all naught if any be false among them he is ready to say they are all hell-hounds but if himself be conceited that he have never so little faith oh presently he thinks that is a high wall Fourthly and lastly he resteth in the judgement of himself and this is the case of thousands in the world they think well of their own cases when they dye they shall go to heaven there is no question but Christ will save them and from this conceit they will never be put let all the Ministers in the world come one after another and discover unto a wicked man his estate yet he wil not come from his own censure for though you bray a foole in a morter among wheat with a pestle yet will not his foolishnesse depart from him Prov. 27. 22. So if you should bray these men with the threatnings of the law with the plagues contained in the Bible making their consciences black and blew as we use to speak yet they will not leave off their conceitednesse Now the Reasons hereof are four 1. Because all sinners are fooles and the foolish shall not stand in Gods sight Psal 5. 5. All that work iniquity are fooles a self-conceited fool is a proverb and our Saviour who knew the combination of all sinnes joynes pride and foolishnesse together Mark 7. 22. a proud conceited man and a fool are put together by our Saviour And this is the cause why so many thousands in the world are conceited of themselves that their case is good when t is nothing so even because they are fools none but fools will look more after pelf than jewels and preferr transitory things before heavenly yet such are the wise men of this world That man is a fool that cannot eat his meat and such is every sinner his soul hath no food but Christ the word and his promises yet he knows not how to feed on them he hath no cover to hide his nakednesse but Christ c. yet he knows not how to put on Christ therefore he is a fool Secondly men are born fools of all fools none so self-conceited as the born-fool one that hath
will never set themselves to work So many there be that if they can get pardon of sin for begging then they wil have it but let such know that the Lord will not give it for such lazie kind of praying but if thou wilt have pardon of sin thou must labour for it thou must get it with thy fingers ends God gives not men Repentance Faith c. by miracles but by means Thou must then use the means and keep watch and ward over thine own soul that so thou maist get the grace thou praiest for Secondly a praier that is not a full praier never speeds with God but an importunate prayer is a full praier it is a pouring out of the heart yea of the whole heart Psal 62. 8. the Psalmist saith poure out your hearts before him trust in him at all times poure out your hearts the addition is made in the Lamentations of Jeremy like water It may be thou powrest out thy praier like tar out of a tar-box halfe sticking by the sides but when thou praiest thou must out with all before God When thou givest thanks dost thou labour to remember all the blessings of God when thou dost petition to God dost thou poure out all thy heart before him dost thou cast all thy care on God Thirdly Snatch-prayer is no importunate prayer when men pray by snatches or peecemeals by breaking off a limme of their prayer because of sluggishnesse or because their hearts are eager about other businesse it is not good to trust fits of devotion 't is a base kind of praying when men gallop over their prayers that so they may come to an end quickly Should I accept this at your hands saith God by his Prophet when they brought a sheep it wanted a lim they were loth to give God a whole offering Mal. 1. 13. Many pray a peece of a prayer in the mornig and then they go after the world he down's on his knees and gives God a rag of a prayer a companie of ragged ends And God counts it an indignitie shall I accept this saith he What a lame prayer No no the Lord looks for a prayer that hath its full grouth it is a shame to speak in the congregation what men do in secret before God which many have confessed after they have been converted how they have gone into Gods presence and have shuffled over their prayers thinking every hour seven untill they had done Fourthly Silent prayers are never importunate I mean by silent prayer when a man is silent in that which God looks he should most insist upon David made a prayer Psal 32. and the Lord looked that he should stand much upon his adultery and murther which he had committed to see what shame he took on him for it but he shuffled it over and what saith the Text When I kept silence what did the Prophet roare and yet keep silence these are contradictions Yea the Prophet roared and kept silence as if he should say the Lord counted his prayer but roaring so long as he laid not open that sinne which the Lord lookt he should have stood on the Lord let him roare and roare he might long enough but saith he I brake my silence I said I will confesse my transgressions and then thou forgavest the wickednesse of my sin So many go to God and tell God they must needs have mercy and fain they would have mercy and yet they are silent in confessing the sinne they should I say the Lord will never hear that man he may pray to God all his life and yet go to hell in the end Hast thou been a drunkard and dost thou think that the Lord will forgive thee for crying Lord forgive me c No no thou must insist on it and say Against thy word I have been a drunkard my conscience told me so but I would not hear I have felt the motions of thy holy spirit stirring against me and I regarded not Now if thou shouldest turn me into hell I were well requited so many Sermons have I neglected I have wronged others in this kind and I have been the cause why many are now in hell if they repented not I have prayed for mercie yet with the dog to his vomit have I returned and therefore for all my prayers thou mayest cast me into hell for ever and now I have prayed yet it is a hundred to one but I shal run into my old sin again yet as I expect forgivenesse so I desire to make a covenant to give over all my sinful courses and I am justly damned if I go to them again Such a kind of prayer the Lord loves Fifthly Seldome-prayer is no importunate prayer when the soul contents it self with seldome coming before the throne of grace an importunate soul is ever frequenting the way of mercie and the gate of Christ he is often at the threshold before God in all prayer and humiliation The reeling'st Drunkard in the world sometimes can do so too the basest Adulterer in the world sometimes can be chast the Devil is quiet so long he is pleased and the wicked may sometime have a fit in prayer But this is the condition of an importunate heart he is frequent at the throne of grace The Prophet David prayed seven times in a day and Hannah continued in prayer night and day Sixthly Lukewarm prayer is not an importunate prayer when a man prais but is not fervent when a man labours not to wind up his soul to God in prayer That man that prayes outwardly only that man teaches God how to denie his prayer Though you make many prayers saith God yet I will not hear you why Your hands are full of blood Qui frigidè or at docet negare They are like luke warme water that never boils out the blood So they have been guilty of murder and abundance of other sins and they did indeed pray against them but they were never but luke-warme they have never boiled away the blood of their sins Thou must pray fervently with a seething hot heart if thou meanest to get pardon for all thy sins as securitie and deadnesse of heart c. And as it is in Jonah 3. let every man crie mightily unto the Lord. Seventhly and lastly Bie-thoughts in prayer keep prayer from being importunate as when a man prayes and lets his heart go a wool-gathering I remember a storie of an unworthy O ratour who being to make an acclamation O earth O heaven when he said O heaven he looked down to the earth and when he said O earth he looked up to heaven So many when they pray to God in heaven their thoughts are on the earth these prayers can never be importunate When a man praies the Lord looks that his heart should be fixed on his prayer for our hearts will leake and the best child of God do what he can shall have bie-thoughts in prayer And that First from corrupt nature Secondly from nature curbed
his sinne lie at the dore there it lay rapping and beating and told him that his carelessenesse and negligent sacrificing to God was not accepted and therefore no marvell if Cain be so cast down in his countenance and that he fall to despaire O beloved when sinne lieth bouncing and beating at the doore of thy heart when thy sinne whatsoever it is search thy heart and finde it out lies knocking and rapping at the dore of thy conscience day by day and moneth by moneth and thou art content to let it lie and art unwilling to use meanes to remove it and art loth to take the paines to get the bloud of Christ to wash thy soule from it or the Spirit of Christ to cleanse thee from it then thy soule wil despaire either in this world or in the world to come But let us take heede then that our conscience condemne us not in any thing or course that we allow in our selves for if that doe then much more will God who is greater than our consciences and knows all things The Apostle hath an excellent Phrase Rom. 8. 1. There is no condemnation to them that are in Christ Jesus c. As if he should say there is not one condemnation there is none in Heaven God doth not condemne them there is none in earth their own heart and conscience doth not condemne them to him that is in Christ Jesus that walks not after the flesh but after the Spirit there is none no not one condemnation to him none neither in Heaven nor in earth no word no commandement no threatning condemns him But if thy conscience condemn thee and tell thee thou lettest sinne lie at the doore rapping at thy conscience day after day and moneth after moneth telling thee that yet thou art without Christ that yet thou never hadst any true faith in the Lord Jesus that yet thou hast not truly repented and turned from thy sins this will at last drive thy soul into heavy discouragements if not into final despaire O beloved religion and piety and the power of Godlinesse goe down the wind every where What is the reason of it but because of these discouragements that men live and go on in Men pray and pray and their prayers profit them not men run up and down and come to the Church and heare the Word and receive the Sacraments and use the meanes of grace but to no end they are unprofitable to them they remaine in their sinnes still the ordinances of God bring them not out of their lusts and corruptions hereby they disgrace and discredit the ordinances of God in the eyes and account of the men of the world making them think as if there were no more power nor force in the Ordinances of God than these men manifest There is no life in many Christians mens spirits are discouraged these secret discouragements in their hearts take away their spirits in the use of the meanes that though they use the meanes yet it drives them to despaire of reaping good or profit by them Beloved I could here tell you enough to make your hearts ake to hear it First All your complaints they are but winde Job 6. 26. Doe you imagine to reprove words and the speeches of one that is desperate which are as winde Jobs friends taking Job to be a man of despaire they accounted all his words but as wind Doe thou nestle any discouragement in thy heart thou maist complaine of sinne as much as thou canst yet all thy complainings are but as winde thou mayest cry out against thy corruptions with weeping and teares and pray and fight against them and yet all thy weeping mourning and praying is but as the winde thou maiest beg grace thou maiest seek after God thou maist heare the Word receive the Sacraments and yet all will be to thee as wind all will vanish be unprofitable not regarded Secondly discouragements drive us from the use of the meanes If ever we meane to come out of our sinnes if ever we meane to get grace and faith and assurance and zeale we must constantly use the meanes 1 Sam. 27. 1. David saith There is nothing better for me than that I should speedily escape into the Land of the Philistins and Saul shall despaire of me to seek me any more David thought in himself if I can make him out of hope of finding me certainly he will give over seeking of me So when the soule hath any secret despaire of finding the Lord that soul will quickly be drawn from seeking of the Lord in the use of the meanes What ever you doe then O be not discouraged lest you be driven from the use of the meanes if you be driven from the use of the meanes woe is to you you will never finde God then Be not driven from prayer nor driven from holy conference nor driven for the Word nor driven from the Sacrament nor from meditation nor from the diligent and strict examination of thy selfe of thy heart and of all thy wayes for these are the wayes of finding the Lord. If you nourish any thoughts and fears of despaire in you if you be discouraged you will be driven from the use of the meanes which is a lamentable thing therefore be not discouraged Thirdly discouragements will make you stand poaring on your former courses This I should have done and that I should have done woe is me that I did it not it will make a man stand poaring on his sinnes but never able to get out of them So it was like to be with them in the Ship with Paul Acts 27. 20. In the tempest at Sea they were utterly discouraged from any hope of safety now indeed Paul told them what they should have done if they had been wise Sirs you should have hearkned to me and not have loosed verse 21. as if he had said you should have done thus and thus but now doe not stand poaring too much on that you should have hearkned to me and not have launched forth c but that cannot be holpen now therefore I exhort you to be of good chear c. So beloved when the soul is discouraged upon these thoughts I should have prayed better I should have heard the Word of God better and with more profit I should have repented better I should have performed this and that religious and good dutie better but ah wretch that I am I have sinned thus and thus it is alwayes looking on this sinne and that sinne this imperfection and that failing when now I say the soule is discouraged it will be alwayes poaring upon sinne but it will never come out of its sinne alwayes poaring upon its deadnesse and unprofitablenesse but never able to come out of it O beloved be of good cheare and be not discouraged it is true you should have prayed better you should have heard the word of God better heretofore you should have been more carefull and circumspect of your wayes than you
and hearken O earth Secondly the groans of the creatures are witnessing groanes I call heaven and earth to record against you know that you shall shortly perish said Moses to the Israelites Deut. 4. 26. So beloved let me say to you I call heaven and earth to record against you that woe and damnation shall be to that man that obeys not the commandments of God Cursed be that man that goeth on still in his wickednesse The heavens write his curse and the whole earth do witness his vengeance that will not give over his lust at the commandment of the Gospel of the Lord Jesus Christ As Joshuah said unto all the people Josh 24. 27. Behold this stone shall be a witnesse unto us for it hath heard all the words of the Lord which he spake unto us it shall be a witnesse c. so may I say unto you the walls of this house shall cry the timber of the Church shall answer this Sermon that you have heard this doctrine that hath been preached unto you if you will not repent if you will not humble your selves and obey the voyce of your God all these shall witnesse against you another day that you had a time that you had a day to repent in you had the word of God calling you to it but you would not Dost thou commit a sinne and none by but the stones in the streets even they see thee like Joshuah's stone with seven eyes and they shall witnesse against thee Dost thou pray thy lazie prayers unto God thoughtlesse of God and none by but the walls of thy Closet or thy bed or thy hangings they shall witnesse against thee Dost thou swear and blaspheme the King of Heaven though none were present but the fowles of the aire they shall carry thy voyce and declare the matter Eccles 10. 20. If the creatures groan against thee then they are sensible in some sort to witnesse against thee Beloved mens hearts are so stubborne that we the Ministers of God may do as the Prophet did 1 King 13. 2. who cried O Altar Altar thus saith the Lord. What was the Prophet sent unto the Altar had the Altar eares No he was sent unto Jeroboam his message was to him but he knew that he would not hear nor believe nor obey therefore he turned from the King and spake to the sencelesse Altar So may we say for all the hearing some will afford us O walls walls thus saith the Lord cursed is the man that obeyeth not O House of the Lord witnesse against this rebellious generation So Jeremy he cried out O earth earth earth hear the Word of the Lord this saith the Lord write this man a cast-away that shall never prosper Jer. 22. 29. he meant wicked Jeconiah the King but because he was a deaf Adder he preacheth to the dead earth as being more likely to listen than he O fearfull doom When Jeconiah will not hear God he roars so loud that he makes the dead and sencelesse earth to hear Beloved in the fear of God take heed if there be any dead worldly-hearted Professor here if there be any loose prophane sinner here any impenitent wretch that hath not repented if after the Lord hath sent his Ministers to thee his Word and Gospell to thee and thou wilt not hear take heed lest the Lord direct his speech to the dead earth and say O earth earth earth hear the Word of the Lord write these men men that shall never prosper they will still covet and lie they will still fret and chafe they will still content themselves with forms of godlinesse they will still be lukewarm or key-cold they do still pray as they did rub on as they did seven years ago no more holy no more zealous no more heavenly they will not be bettered O earth earth earth hear the Word of the Lord write them a people that shall never prosper a people that shall never be converted write them men damned for ever let them come and hear Sermon after Sermon but write them men that shall never prosper let them pray and let their prayers never prosper let them go on in their dead-hearted profession but write them men that shall never prosper Beloved God forbid that it should so be written against you but woe be to you if ever it be for if once the earth hath wrote this eternall decree of God upon thy soule it can never be altered I will warrant thee thy damnation sure Thirdly they are accusing groanes they shall accuse thee for casting thine eye upon a creature without taking notice of God They shall accuse thee for thy touching tasting handling using any of the creatures without adoration of God Dost thou think of a creature speak of a creature meddle with a creature or take possession of a creature they shall accuse thee if thou dost not live to the glory of God the Creator Fourthly these groans are judging and condemning groans He shall call the Heavens above and the earth to judge his people Psal 50. 4. The creatures groan why then dost thou not groan the creatures account themselves oppressed and fore afflicted because they are constrained to serve sinne why then dost thou injure them If the King should build him a stately Palace and one should willingly deface it or abuse it or pull it down would not the very Ravens judge him a Traytor The creatures are Gods Palace and thou demolishest their beauty by making them the instruments or abettors or matter or incentives of sinne thou shalt be adjudged of High treason against the King of Kings for we know that every creature groaneth with us and travelleth in pain together untill now Now we come to a third use Of Exhortation doth the creature groan to serve sinne take heed then you do not abuse the creatures of God There is not any one of them but if it be abused to sin or by sin but it will presently make its complaint like a little child to his Father with groans unto God Labour to be a true Convert unto God otherwise if thou beest not regenerate and a Convert every creature that thou hast is in bondage under thy hands and it groans unto God against thee till God recover it out of thy hands again I will recover my wooll and my flaxe saith God Hosea 2. 9. the creature groaned under thraldome because it was possessed by them that were carnall and therefore God sayes he would recover it Secondly labour not to sinne against God For if thou sinnest against God thou canst not meet with a creature but it groanth against thee When Jonah had sinned against God the Sea roared against Jonah and he at last knew it well enough for when the Marriners askt what he was I am an Hebrew saith he and I fear God the God of Heaven which hath made the Sea and the dry Land Ionah 1. 9. as if he should say I fear the Lord for now I see
the Heavens are black against me and the clouds mourn at me and the Sea groaneth under me seeing I am fled from the presence of the Lord. Thirdly labour never to set your hearts on any creature for then you abuse it to worldlinesse and covetousnesse What greater injury can we offer to the creatures than by making them occasions of turning from God which were given us the more to oblige us to God If you be covetous and earthly the creature must needs groan under this wrong Covetousnesse is Idolatry saith Saint Paul Colos 3. 5. thou turnest the creature into an Idoll every creature is the workmanship of God but an Idoll is a thing dedicated to Divels Fourthly labour to use all the creatures in humility and thankfulnesse There is not a creature but it hath this Motto engraven upon it it is the gift of God In every thing then give thanks 1 Thes 5. 8. A thing and a creature are convertible termes if in every thing then for every creature must we give thanks why because every thing that God doth for us or doth bestow upon us it is a gift and a gift groans under unthankfulnesse there is never a sicknesse that thou hast been delivered from but it groans against thee if thou hast not had thine iniquity purged by it never a blessing but it will groan against thee if thou serve not God the better by it never an ordinance of life and grace but it groans against thee if thou art not sanctified and made holy by it Fifthly use them all as so many Bookes and as so many Ladders or Rises to climbe up with the soule to God When thou seest how kindly and favourably the Sun shineth on thee think are Gods creatures so comfortable how comfortable is the light of Gods countenance When thou tastest the sweetnesse of any creature think then O what infinite sweetnesse is there in God himself still from the creatures winde up thy soul to the Creator use all the creatures as a rise to winde up thine heart to see and know to meditate and conceive of some thing of God Saint Anthony being found fault withall for want of Books answered My Books are Gods creatures and in them I may read as in the silent Oracles of God this is my Book and it hath three pages and as many Letters Heaven Water Earth they are the pages of this book Stars Fishes Fowles and all the Terrestriall creatures they are the letters of this book There are but three main Books in the world to be read all other books are but Commentaries upon them The Book of the Creatures The Book of the Scriptures The Book of every Mans conscience Read but these three and meditate of them and thou shalt have understanding in the wayes of God to know God in all thy wayes Beloved this is rightly to use the creatures and thus using them thou shalt prevent their groanings against thee to behold and see God present in them all It was the saying of an Ancient that that man is blind deaf senseless brutish that knows not God Thou canst not see a creature but thou mayest see God thou canst not feel a creature but thou mayest feel God thou canst not smell nor taste nor meddle with a creature but thou mayest smell and taste God in the creature thou canst not behold a creature but thou mayest behold God in the creature O saith one if I could see God as he appeared to the Fathers then I should obey him and fear him and trust in him and love him I answer God appeares now as he did then How did God appeare to Abraham Isaak c. and to all the holy Patriarches and Prophets Did God appear to them in his own essence and nature No it is impossible that any should see God and live When God appeared to them and shewed himselfe to them he did it in the creatures And I pray you doth not God appeare thus amongst us now God having made man to behold by sense by sight hearing smelling tasting handling that all the knowledge he hath he must have it by these God makes as it were a manifestation of himselfe in the Sunne Moon and starres he takes the Cattle plants and therein he shewes something of himselfe thou never seest any creature but it is a manifestation of God to thee the whole world is an apparition of God to thee God appears in the heavens in the earth and in every creature If therefore when thou lookest on any of the creatures thou makest not an holy use of them beholding God in them using them as a rise to wind up thy heart and soule to God then thou abusest the creatures and makest them to groan against thee For we know that the whole creation groaneth and travelling in paine till this present THE CHRISTIAN HIS IMITATION Of CHRIST In a SERMON By WILLIAM FENNER Minister of the Gospel sometimes Fellow of Pembroke Hall in Cambridge and late Lecturer of Rochford in Essex London Printed by E. T. for John Stafford THE CHRISTIAN HIS IMITATION Of CHRIST 1 JOHN 2. VER 6. He that saith he remaineth in him ought even so to walke as he hath walked THis our blessed Apostle in the beginning of this Chapter doth declare these four things First a generall proposition of an advocate for the sinnes of the world If any man sinne we have an advocate verse 1. 2. Secondly an actuall application of this to all true beleevers who may all know that Christ is theirs and that they are Christs ver 5. And hereby we know that we know him if we keep his commandements We know and are acquainted with this principle that Jesus Christ is the propitiation for our sinnes if we keepe his commandements Thirdly here is the fantasticall presumtion of many men that hope and think and say that they are in Christ when indeed they are not in Christ ver 4. He that saith I know him and keepeth not his commandements is a lyar and the truth is not in him Fourthly here is an universall direction to all men whereby to try and examine themselves whether they be in Christ yea or no. He that saith he abideth in him ought himselfe to walk as he walked These words branch themselvs into a Thesis and an Hypothesis The Thesis is this He that abideth in Christ must walke as he hath walked The Hypothesis is this If any man be conceited of the subject that he abideth in Christ he must be assured of the predicate that he walk himselfe even as Christ walked If he say he is in Christ he must be sure to walke as Christ walked To walke as Christ walked there is a life of a Christian if he walke not as Christ walked it is a plain demonstration that he is not in Christ He that saith he abideth in him ought himselfe also to walke as he walked He that saith as if the Apostle had said If there be any that saith he abideth in
promises for thou hast a great work to doe and happily thou mayst goe six monethes and not see the face of a good Minister nor talk with a good Minister when there shall be no more Rogers Hookers Beadles and Cottons to talk with and you shall wander about in the woods your faith will support you then it will doe you some good When all the people had lost David Eleazer one of the Worthies arose and smote the Philistines 2 Sam. 11. 23. So when all Gods Ministers shall leave thee and then to fight it out against thine own lusts and the Divell and his temptations will be hard and this Faith thou hast need of when thy books and all helps shall be taken from thee What need hast thou of strong Faith when thou must fight against half a score Papists and an Army of temptations and a world of Divils from Hell then thou hast need of a stronger Faith then ordinarie When you shall take your leave of your children and never see them more then thou hast need of Faith to invest thee into the promises Hebr. 11. 21. By Faith Jacob blessed both the sonnes of Joseph when he was a dying so when thou art to leave thy wife and children and never to see them more what Faith hast thou need of to invest them into the Promises and to say I look to see you another day in Heaven the Lord be with you my deare wife and children I shall never see you any more here but I beleeve that one day we shall meet together in a world of happinesse where we shall be together in glory for ever and ever AMEN THE GREAT DIGNITY OF THE SAINTS In a SERMON By WILLIAM FENNER Minister of the Gospel sometimes Fellow of Pembroke Hall in Cambridge and late Lecturer of Rochford in Essex London Printed by E. T. for John Stafford THE GREAT DIGNITY OF THE SAINTS HEB. 11. 28. Of whom the world was not worthy COncerning the Author or Penman of this holy Epistle I will not now stand to discusse But this is certaine who ever was the Scribe the Spirit of God was the Inditer and all Scripture is given by Divine inspiration 2 Tim. 3. 16. For the Coherence the Spirit of God having exhorted the Believers how to continue in the Faith and with patience to undergoe those trials which accompany the profession of it and having back it with Arguments he cometh in this Chapter to professe the same And you shall find in this whole Chapter he layes down Arguments to back the exhortations which are taken from the Excellency of faith The holy Ghost discovers it two wayes First by a generall description in the three first verses and after by the worthy examples of the faithful in the Church of old First the generall description of Faith in the first verse Faith is the ground of things c. Faith makes things hoped for subsist to a Beleever Secondly he describes the essentiall properties of it It makes Beleevers to be well accounted of both of God and man verse second Thirdly he shews that Faith makes beleevers to understand and beleeve things incredible to reason Secondly he describes Faith by examples and patterns of Faith in the Church of old and those are set down severally one by one from the fourth verse to the 32 where he sets down the example of Moses and Abraham and then from verse 32. to the end of the chapter he sets down the example of the Saints together and that because the number of them was infinite Ergo he dispatches them and passes by them with bare naming of them as what shall I make mention of Gideon c and so he shews what great things they did by Faith and then he brings in this verse Of whom the world was not worthy To come to the words they are brought in by the holy Ghost to answer to a secret Objection that the holy Ghost did foresee that the wicked persecutors of the Church would conceive against the godly Viz. Why did they wander up and down were beleevers cruelly dealt withal yes for alas what were they they were and are baggage people not worthy to live in the world Now the holy Ghost takes away this objection as if he should have said you are deceived in them for the world is not worthy of them they were and are too good to live in the world But before I come to the main we will note something in general Viz. That it hath been the property of wicked men and is still to think whatsoever the godly have is too good for them Ye shall be hated of all men Matth. 24. And have not the saints of God found it so what a hard conceit had the Iews of Christ He is not worthy to live So of Paul Acts 22. They were accounted the off scouring of the world 2 Cor. 4. 13. And as it was in the Apostles times so it is now and would you know the reason First because God hath chosen them out of the world John 15. 19. For when Gods people were as she world is carnal and sensual c. then the world gave them the right hand of fellowship But when a change appeared in the godly then the world changed too 2. Because the wicked know not the godly viz. they know them not to be Gods children so saith the Apostle They speak evil of the things that they know not Jude 10. They know him as he is rich or as he comes of such and such a parentage but as he is a child of God they know him not This world knows him not because it knows not God 1 Iohn 3. 1. And hence it is that Gods children are called sirangers yea and are used strangely even because they know not God and Ergo they know not the child 3. Because wicked men measure others by themselves and because they runne not into the same excesse of riot ergo they speak evill of them 1. Pet. 3. 5. 4. Because there ever was and ever will be contrariety between the seed of the woman and the Serpent Esau will deale very hardly with Iacob they that are borne of the devil will hate them that are born of God 1 Iohn 3. 12. First This should teach the godly when they are hardly dealt with in the world in any kind not to be discouraged Think it not strange it hath alwayes been so neither must you look for better dealing with wicked men Secondly seeing the world deales so hardly with you see that you doe not measure like for like but pray ye unto God for them to open their eyes Now we come to the words themselves Of whom the world was not worthy The holy Ghost in this place would discover two things First the little worth of the world of wicked men viz. how that they are not worthy to come into the presence of the Godly Secondly the great worth of the godly Viz. They are
too good for the world First the world viz. the wicked in the world are very little worth not worth one godly man or woman in it whence observe that Gods Children are worthy persons But before I handle this point I will give the sence and meaning of the words 1. This word World is diversly taken Sometims it is taken for the whole Fabrick of Heaven and earth Iohn 1. 10. He was in the world and the world was made by him and the world knew him not So Acts 17. 24. God that made the world c. 2. Sometimes it is taken for all mankind good and bad So Rom. 5. 12. As by one man sin entred into the world viz. sin entred into the men which are in the world 3. Sometimes it is taken for the elect onely so Iohn 1. 29. Behold the Lamb of God which taketh away the sinne of the world viz. the elect in the world Again God so loved the world c. Iohn 3. 1. 16. viz. his elect in the world Again we beleeve this is the Saviour of the world Iohn 4. 42. viz. of the elect in the world But why are the godly called the world I answer first because the world was made for them and it is continued yet for their sakes Secondly they may be called the world because they are scattered through the world and that not onely among the Iewes but even among the Gentiles also Thirdly they may be called the world because in themselves they are a world of people but yet compare them with the Devils drove they are few even as the shaking of the Olive tree Isaiah 17. 6. yet in themselves they are as the Starres in number Genesis 15. 5. And Balaam said who can number the dust of Iacob Numb 22. 10. Sometimes it is taken for the reprobates in the world so John 15. 19. If you were of the world the world would love its owne It is plain also in the prayer of Christ I pray not for the world John 17. 9. And they may fitly be called the world First because they are the worlds Citizens they mind the things of the world they follow nothing but the world Secondly because they are the greatest part of the world Sometimes the world is taken for the things in the world those things wherewith the Devill uses to draw men from God as the lusts of the flesh the lusts of the eyes the pride of life 1. John 2. 16. Sometimes for the happy estate and condition the godly shall enjoy after this life So Luke 20 35. They which shall be accounted worthy to obtain that world c. Now whereas the Apostle saith of whom the world was not worthy I take it he means wicked men in the world and those are they that are not worthy the company of the godly And because I intend to shew the unworthinesse of the world I will shew first that the things in this world are little worth Secondly that the men in the world are little worth First I will shew you that the things in the world are little worth as Riches Honours pleasures c. they are called deceitfull riches and Christ calls them the Mammon of iniquity Luke 16. 9. trash Luke 8. 14. Snares 1 Tim. 6. 9. They are called uncertain riches Now these base titles must needs argue that they are little worth for were they worth more God would set better Titles on them And Salomon who had best experience of them yet hee termes them vanity Eccles 1 2. and 11. Secondly they are little worth because they are very unprofitable they cannot pofit a man It is plain by the speech of Samuel 1. Sam. 12. 21. Vain things which cannot profit c. Thirdly they are little worth because they cannot further a man in the main thing at which he should aime they may further a man in some trifles but not in the maine thing There is no true good comes to a man by all the riches in the world neither can they free a man from the evill day neither can they make you better either in respect of God or your selves First in respect of God they cannot make you better esteemed with God for he regards not the rich more then the poore Job 34. 19. He doth not account of a man according to his greatnesse but according to his goodnesse Prov. 20. 7 8. Better is a poor man that walks in his integrity then a King that is perverse in his wayes Secondly they cannot better him in respect of God because they cannot assure him of the love of God Thirdly they cannot make a man more mindfull of God nay they corrupt mens hearts they make a man more forgetfull of God It is thus with the greatest part of men in the world that are worldly rich it is with them as it was with the Prodigall who while he had money in his purse never did he think on his Father Fourthly the things of this world cannot make a man more thankfull to God but rather the contrary ut supra Fifthly the things of this world cannot draw a man neerer unto God You see that the more men have the more negligent they are in Gods service Secondly in respect of our selves First all the things of this life cannot in rich a mans soule with grace they cannot make him humble nor mercifull nor constant in the profession of godlinesse and good duties nay it rather makes them the more unmeet to any goodnesse where there is gaine in the chest there is losse in the Conscience he that gets money apace may lose Faith and a good Conscience and they that most cover for abundance of the things of this life are most backward in Grace and this argues that the things of this life are little worth even in respect of a mans selfe Secondly they are not able to free a man from any spirituall evill they may promise freedome but when they come to the triall they will be like a broken staffe nay they cannot free thee so much as from an ague much lesse will they help in the day of the Lords wrath when the rich man shall be called to an account and the Lord will recompence every man according to his wayes So Prov. 11. 4. Riches profit not in the day of wrath True it is they may be as a wall of brasse to keep off the evil of this world yet when the houre of death approacheth they cannot free from that when you are affrighted with the accusation of your owne Consciences and with the apprehension of Gods wrath when the Devill shall set upon you and all your friends forsake you shall the things of this life then doe you any pleasure no no. You wil say to them then as Job to his friends miserable comforters are you all this argues their little worth For God will not examine you how rich you have been but he will consider you as you have honoured him and as
you have made good use of your riches if you have been faithfull you shall enter into your Masters joy He will not consider you as you are or have been in great Offices or places in the world but as you have been faithfull in them not as you had crouching and bowing to you but as you have faithfully and frequenly bowed your knees unto the Lord in Prayer God will not account of you a straw the better for your wealth but he will passe sentence on you as you have used or abused your talent Thirdly they can give no content He that desires Riches shall not be satisfied therewith Eccles 5. 9. Object O but I desire but a competent living Sol. It is well done A little spring running from the head runnes shallow at the first but at the last many other falling into it it is become great so you may say you desire but a competency but the world comes on you then there is craving and having till your desires are as large as hell Habbac 2. 5. riches make men sick of a dogs disease what is that why dogs are alwaies eating but never satisfied so if a man immoderately love the things of this life he shall not be satisfied Lastly the things of this world are nothing worth because we have no assurance of them they are of no continuance they either leave us or we them doe you not see that after a man hath risen earely and late eating the bread of carefulnesse and hath gotten a little pelfe is he not thereof deprived in a moment of time Prov. 12. 27. The slothfull man viz. the worldly man rosteth not that which he tooke in hunting viz. after all his travaile he is swept away and taketh not the profit of them Is not this then a worthlesse world but suppose it doe stay with you yet one day you must part with it Psalm 49. 6 7. and you must carrie nothing with you naked you came and naked you must returne even like a sumpter-Horse which carries all the day abundance of Treasure but at night it is all taken from him and he is put into a stable for his labour all the benefit he gets by the Treasure is he onely feeles the weight of it Even so many rich men are Sumpter-horses to carrie the things of the world who either for ill-useing or ill-getting them are put in a filthie stable viz. Hell and their pay is everlasting torment These things shew the little worth of this world Now you shall see that worldly men are little worth First it appears that they are little worth because of the names and titles that the Spirit of God laies on them it calls them Sonnes of Beliall 1 Sam. 2. 12. Vile persons Psal 15. 4. Children of iniquity Hosea 10. 9. 11. A reprobate stock John 8. 44. Children of wrath Ephes 2. Now if there were any great worth in them think you that the Spirit of God would not better stile them Secondly they are little worth in respect of their actions their best actions are but glittering sinnes Isaiah 66. 3. If they pray or heare c. God accounts of it no better then the sacrificing of Swines flesh they stink in Gods nostrils Isa 1. 13. If then the men of the world and the things of the world be little worth how doth this discover the madnesse and folly of men in these dayes who so much mind the world no paines nor travaile too great or too dangerous to get the world nay they will hazard life and health even to the back-bone to get the world goe to bed late rise early not caring if they lose both body and soule to get the world and when their consciences are thus set on the tenters to get it they set their hearts on it and keep it as their God Secondly let this informe our Judgements that seeing the world and the men of the world are so little worth let us judge of them no better then they deserve it is a false glasse or crooked rule that men goe by who judge themseves men of worth if they be rich and we use to say there is a man of good credit let us see our folly in thus judging I will discover it thus The things of the world are given to the worst men wicked men have many times the greatest share in them Esau hath foure hundred at his heeles when Iacob had but a few The Scribes and Pharisees sate in Moses chaire when as the Disciples of Christ were carried before Rulers so for Riches proud Dives fared deliciously every day when poor Lazarus was faine to snap at a crust so the false prophets were fed at Iesabells table when Elias was in commons with the Ravens Now if the things of this life were of such great worth think you that God would keep his children so sparingly with them no no they are but gifts of Gods left hand Prov. 3. 16. Length of dayes are in his right hand and in his left hand riches and Honour Instruction to teach us to take off our hearts and affections from pursuing things of this life You see they are little worth doe not in affection love the world nor yet in action too much seek the world but when Heaven and earth are laide in the ballance esteem earthly things as dung in respect of Christ and shew your little esteem of earthly things by your seeking them in the second place and Gods Kingdome in the first place Let wicked men account the things of this life as their summum bonum but let us be crucified to the world let us be as dead men to the world and the world as dead to us not that I would have you utterly to reject the things of this life but not to set your affections on them we must use the things of this life as Travailers doe their provision if they have too much it will hinder them so let us be content whether it be much or little it is best to lay up treasure in Heaven as Christ told his Disciples Thus of the first point the second follows OF whom the world was not worthy as if he should have said they are too good to live in the world hence observe That true Beleevers are persons of very great worth The world is not worthy of them I need not spend much time to prove this they are called excellent persons Psal 16. 3. Againe the righteous is more excellent then his neighbour Prov. 12. 26. againe they are called the glory of God Isaiah 4. 5. They are called a chosen people a Royall Priesthood 1 Pet. 2. 9. Now wherin lies the worth of a godly man not in the outward man for alas the outward man of a child of God is the same with another man Their chiefe worthinesse lies in the inward man which after God is created unto righteousnesse and true holinesse Ephesians 4. 24. The Kings daughter is all glorious within Psalm 45.
so long as the beast is not transformed and made capable of the honour that is in a man he cannot conceive of the pleasures and delights that doe belong unto man Even so let a wicked man enjoy all the glory of heaven and what will he say We may perceive a little by bringing him to the Word and Ordinances of God tie him to the constant use of them to meditate on heaven and to walk circumspectly and precisely in his whole course of life and he will say this is more then needs this he thinks is too precise too austere a life for him he cannot away with such purity and strictnesse but if he thinke this so strange which is nothing in comparison and is but a shadow or poore resemblance of the holinesse and purity that shall be what thinke you would he doe if he were in heaven where there is nothing but continuall praysing and glorifying of God for evermore where there shall not be so much as one earthly thought or word pertaining to the world or the affaires of this life but a continuall sounding forth of the praises of God there is nothing but grace and speaking of heaven all their words are heavenly their joies are heavenly and their whole delight is nothing but sounding forth uncessant Hallelujahs unto God for evermore Now if a wicked man were there what would he say surely he would say they are all Puritans and would never endure it Alas in this life there is but a little praying a little grace a little holinesse in comparison of that which shall be Here we do but as it were peepe into heaven now then if this be so tedious that wicked men cannot endure it how will they like to be in a place where there is perfection of all graces where there shall be nothing but praysing God for ever and ever Sure as I am the devill was once in heaven and he cast himselfe out from thence God did not though he did deserve it and God would have done it had he not been gone as saith the Apostle Jude verse 6. They left their first habitation the originall saith they flung it from them that is as soone as they had sinned against God and changed their natures away they went heaven was no place for them they thrust themselves out and could not endure to stay there any longer for having changed their natures they changed their delights and therefore to praise and yeeld glory unto God was death unto them they being now corrupted through sinne and of an impure nature heaven became a hell unto them Is any man weary of grace and holinesse wearie of well doing weary of praying and of hearing the word preached Is any man wearie of good duties of the worshippe and service of God Let him know then that he can never endure the Kingdome of Heaven for if he be weary of a little what will he doe when he shall come into a place where there shall be nothing but continuall praysing of God Is it so that sinne must be mortified if ever we meane to partake of Christ then this condemnes all those that goe on in their old courses in deadnesse and in security in ignorance c. taking hand over head vaine hopes for true feeding themselves with perswasions of salvation But the Apostle tells us that the foundation of God standeth sure The Lord knoweth who are his and let every one that nameth the name of Christ depart from iniquity A wicked man cannot name the name of Christ till he depart from iniquity much lesse can he look for salvation because he cannot be saved without Christ nay he cannot be saved by Christ unlesse he depart from iniquity You say you hope to be saved it is well but God knoweth who are his God goeth by his own rule the foundation of God standeth sure But who then are his onely those that name the name of Christ and depart from iniquity those onely will he save and none other he will be no baâ—d to thy sinnes or lusts and wicked courses for saith the Apostle If any man be in Christ let him be a new creature as if the Apostle in more words had saide If any man hope hee is a Christian let him see that he is a new creature for there is no expectation of being in Christ unlesse he be a new creature All old things are passed away and behold all things are become new if thou be in Christ all thy old praying is gone all thy old hearing is gone all thy old receiving of the Sacrament is passed away and all things are become new with thee thou must hear anew pray anew receive anew beleeve anew thou must live after a new sort for all old things are passed away Instruction to teach us that it is not enough for us to let our sinnes dye in us but we must kill them the Apostle doth not say let your earthly members die of themselves but mortifie them many there be that let their sinnes die in them as for example when one is an infant the sinnes of his Infancie naturally fall from him when he is a child of more capacity and when he is a youth the sinnes of his childhood naturally drop away from him so when he is a man his youthfull sinnes fall from him and when he is old and dieth all his sinnes naturally droppe from him But he must not let sinne die in him but he must kill it Austin saith if thou kill not sinne till it dyeth of it selfe sinne hath killed thee and not thou thy sinne It is with sinne as with a beast if an Oxe fall into a pitâ—e and die of it selfe it is good for nothing the hide only excepted but if it be killed it is good meate and becommeth profitable unto the owner even so if sinne die of its own accord it will doe thee no good it is worth nothing it may lessen thy condemnation somewhat but if thou kill it then it will bee profitable unto thee In the fourth Chapter of Jeremy we have a similitude taken from an Husband-man where the Lord saith plough up the fallow ground of your hearts and sow not among thornes Now will a Husbandman say there are abundance of thornes and bushes in my ground but I will let them alone till they die of themselves sure I am that they will one day die no no the Prophet gives other counsell plough up saith he the fallow grounds and sow not among thornes if thou dost not they will grow up to that height and ranknesse that they will spoile the whole harvest Even so if thou kill not thy sinnes but suffer them to die of themselves they will spoile all thy spirituall harvest and quite banish thee out of Heaven for evermore The Third use may manifest unto us that the work of our Redemption is no easy work as many men in the world think it to be The Apostle saith mortifie your members
father or a mother God having converted any of thine owne children that childe shall bee thy Judge and condemne thee if thou repent not It may be God hath converted thy brother and sister and thou art not not converted thy own brother and sister shal condemn thee ifthou do not repent and come out of thy sins Thirdly we may learn that it concerns all the world to take notice of every grace in Gods children There is never a grace of God in any of his Saints but it shall condemn the world if it be voyd of it The wayes of the Lord are all judgements because they judge them that will not walk in them Every grace yea the very thoughts of the righteous are called Judgements by Solomon Prov. 12. You may know a crooked thing by laying it to a straight line and by that it is judged to be crooked so the thoughts of the righteous which are right holy and pure shall judge the impure unholy and crooked thoughts of wicked men Is the child of God humble His humility shall judge thy pride Is the child of God meek and patient in suffering wrong and injuries His meeknesse and patience shall judge thy choler and revenge Hath the child of God faith given him to beleeve in the Lord Jesus his faith shall judge thy infidelity Hath the child of God the Spirit of prayer given him it shal condemn thee that prayest only with thine own spirit Hath he zeal His zeal shall judge thy lukewarmnesse Doth his speech and communication administer grace to the hearers It shall condemn thee that speakest of vain and idle things Yea all the actions of thegodly shall judge the wicked and hence the Saints are said to do Gods judgements Zep. 2. 3. that is they do according to Gods judgements whereby he wil judge the world Thus they that do mourn do judge them that do not mourn they that bewayl their wickednesse and the sins of the times judge them that do not they that fast weep pray and humble themselves for the miseries of the Church in these dreadful daies they judge them that make no good conscience of their duties Fourthly learn hence that all the texts of Scripture all the whole word of God that is it that begets these Saints and therefore they must needs judge the world the word of God begets mens hearts unto sanctification and holinesse whereby they become Saints and therefore if they then much more shall the word it self judge the world and hence it is that all the words of God in the Scripture are called Judgements Psal 105. 5. And our Saviour saith The word that I have spoken the same shall judge you in the last day John 12. 48 The word that I have spoken where mark he doth not say The word which you have heard No there are many swearers and drunkards and prophane ungodly wretches that will not come to Church to hear the word there are many wicked men and dead-hearted worldlings and rotten livers that will not be brought to heare Gods word it may be at this present there are many whore-mongers drunkards and wicked persons that wallow in their filthinesse in the Ale-house Game-house or Drab-house or in the fields or beds or at their sports Well this word that is now a preaching whether they will hear it or no shall judge them at the last day Now all the wicked in Ashford that hear the word of God calling upon them to repent and to come out of their sinnes but will not or out of contempt of Gods word will absent themselves from it this word shall judge and condemn them There is never a drunkard swearer or prophane person though his pew be empty but this word of God that denounceth the eternal wrath and vengeance of God upon them if they come not out of their sins this word shall rise up in judgement against them and condem them eternally Oh that they could but hear it but the word that I have spoken shall judge you whether you hear it or not Fifthly and lastly hence it followes that all the ministers of the word of God shall also judge the world Son of man saith God to the Prophet Ezekiel wilt thou judge the bloody City Yea thou shalt shew her all her abominations Ezek. 22 2. as if he should have said Sonne of man they are drunkards wilt thou not tell them of it They are whoremasters wilt thou not tell them of it They are filthy idolaters wilt thou not tell them of it They live in their sins and in their abominations and wilt thou not tell them of it Son of man tell them of all their abominations and tell them that they shall goe to hell if they repent not tell them that they are damned men if they go on and come not out of their sinnes Wilt thou judge them son of man Beloved there is never a Minister in England nor ever a Sermon that is preached by them but it judgeth every Parish and every man and woman in the congregation that do not labour to do what is commanded them and leave undone what is forbidden them I say it judgeth them or else it is a judgement unto them This then serves to condemn three sorts of men in the world First All those that despise the Saints and that see not amiablenesse in their faces All the Countrey doth reverence the face of the Judge when he rides his circuit Let the Judge come into the Countrey and all the Knights Justices and Gentlemen in the Countrey will go out to meet him and bow unto him yet these Judges are but Judges of a few rogues malefactors and peasants in the Country Alas they are far from the dignitie of the Saints for the Saints shall judge Saints and Angels All the world Kings and Queens Lords and Nobles and Captains of the Earth the poorest Saint in Christendome shall judge them The Apostle or rather our Saviour saith To him that overcometh and keepeth my words unto the end to him will I give power over the Nations Rev. 2. 26. Whatsoever he be if he do the works of Christ and walke in the ordinances of Christ he shall have power over the Nations not only to condemn their pomps and vanities their lusts and corruptions but also to convince their consciences and to condemn their souls for ever 2. Shall the Saints judge the world Then what fools are the wicked that prepare not for these Judges When the Judge comes to an Assise all men prepare for him the Constables make ready their Presentments the Juries are warned and the Clerks make ready their Bills c. lest the Judge should clap a fine upon them and shall the Saints be Judges and dost thou not prepare thy heart by grace Dost thou not get purity and holinesse against that day Surely if thou dost not the very Saints will judge thee unmeet for heaven and fit only to have thy portion in hell When Christ
said To him that overcometh will I grant to sit with me in my Throne Rev. 3. 21. He adds Let him that hath an ear hear Will God make his Saints to judge the world Then let all wicked men give ear and hear what God saith of his Church The Saints shall judge the world Therefore let all men take notice of it and prepare themselves for their judgement Lastly It condemns all those that do not see glory and majesty in the faces of Gods Saints There is majesty in the face of a Judge yea a man may discover in them a kind of soveraign majesty Even so the Saints of God have a majesty in their courses in their looks in their thoughts and in all their wayes and in all these they shall judge and condemn the wicked The wicked may give the Saints nick names and scorn flout condemn and deride them now in this life but let me tell them that how lightly soever they esteem of them they shall be their Judges They may cry out against the Saints as long since the wicked Sodomites did against good Lot Gen. 19. 9. This fellow say they will be our 〈…〉 Why what had Lot done with them Alas he did nothing but when they would have done that Sodomitish villany against the two Angels that came to him Lot went to them and said I pray you my Brethren do not so wickedly So let the godly be in the company of wicked men that abuse the good creatures of God say I pray you my brethren do not so wickedly be not drunkards be not swearers brethren I pray you do not so vainly nor so prophanely use the name of God in your mouths I pray you my brethren do not prophane Gods Sabaths do not lye do not cheat nor cozen if you do these and these things the wrath of God will plague us for it Oh then presently they cry out Who made you our judges As once the Hebrews did of Moses Acts 7. 39. Dost thou call Saints hypocrites and dissemblers men that judge before the time Thou fool wert thou not as good to suffer the Saints to judge thee now whereby thou maiest see thy wretchednesse and miserie and by faith and speedy repentance prevent that doom which otherwise they tell thee will come upon thee as hereafter when if thou hast not repented thou shalt never escape that doom and vengeance to which the Saints will judge thee What wilt thou not suffer them to call a drunkard a drunkard or an adulterer an adulterer a blasphemer a blasphemer a carnal man a carnall man or a worldly man a worldly man It is a pretty observation out of Cyprian that because Christ did reprove all sorts of religions and spared none he reproved the Scribes the Pharisees the Lawyers the Souldiers c. and yet doth not reprove the Priests because they were Judges of the people not because he durst not but he would not If thou revilest the Saints thou revilest thy Judges Take heed then how thou cast the least aspersion upon the Saints do not say they are rash Judges uncharitable censurers dissembling hypocrites for they shall be your Judges O that the people would hearken and be admonished in time to prevent this judgement Our Saviour saith that this is the condemnation that light is come into the world and men hate it Joh. 3. 19. But the children of God whom God calls the light of the world these lights are come into the world and men love darknesse more then the light How can the wicked escape damnation that have so many thousand Judges to condemn them If the malefactor that is indicted for murther or felony cannot escape condemnation that hath but one Judge to sit upon him thou that art a wicked man living in thy sins without Christ how canst thou escape that hast so many millions of Saints to judge thee yea from Adam the first till the last Saint that shall be upon the earth Surely the wicked shall never escape condemnation for 1. God the Father who judgeth by way of authority he will condemn thee all judgement cometh originally from him he that hath often commanded thee to repent and come out of thy sins he shal condemn thee because thou hast not obeyed him 2. God the Son he will judge thee who judgeth by way of dispensation Acts. 10. First Christ preacheth to thee repentance and remission of sins to which if thou yeeld not then know that there is a day appointed wherein he will judge thee That Saviour that thou sayest thou desirest if thou part not with thy lusts he himselfe will be thy Judge that will condemn thee 3. God the holy Ghost will judge thee that Spirit that now strives and wrestles with thee that suggests good motions into thy heart that puts thee in mind of repentance bidding thee leave and forsake thy sins and live holily but if thou wilt not this Spirit shall judge thee by way of conviction 4. The word of God shall judge thee and that by way of form it being the platform according unto which Christ will judge the whole world Now suppose there be forty prisoners in the Jaile together one in for murder another in for theft another for treason that man that knows the Law if there be equity and Justice in the Assise he I say that knows the Law knows who shal be hanged or quartered or burned or set free even so Beloved that man that looks through the Scriptures that reads this or that Chapter this or that sentence may know that or this man will to hell if he repent not Say I this of my selfe or saies not the Scripture as much The fearfull and unbeleeving and all that love and make lies shall be cast into that lake that burneth with fire and brimstone for ever Rev. 12. 8. By this text the Lord Jesus will come and judge the world and therefore for all such as live and dye in their sins we may all know that they shall be all damn'd in fire and brimstone for ever Hereby I know that all they that make no conscience of idle vain and earthly speeches and reproachfull words they shall give an account for them by this Text. Mat. 12. 56. Doth the Scripture say that all the wicked shall be turned into hell with all the Nations that forget God I know it shall be so by the text Psal 10. For all things shall be done according to the Scriptures Romans 2. 16. In that day saith the Apostle when God shall judge the secrets of mens hearts by Jesus Christ according to my Gospel that is just as Gods Ministers preach just as you find it written in the same Scriptures so will he judge at that day Beloved there is never a Text throughout the whole Scripture that commands you to leave and forsake your sins but it shall judge you if you do not there is not one Text of Scripture that commands performance of any holy duty but it shall