as the Judge to condemn thee unto the pit of destruction for thy damned impudency in coming so unworthily unto this holy Sacrament For that man cannot eat the body of Christ that is not a member of Christ therefore thou must be a limb of Christ if ever thou wilt receive worthily 2. If a man come unto the Sacrament and come in his sins he cometh to his own destruction for though it be a sweet banquet to refresh an humble and weary soul and to make it walk more cheerfully in the wayes of God all the dayes of his life yet he that cometh unto it in his sins and receiveth it in his uncleannesse speedeth thereby his own damnation and receiveth it as his vâ—aticum to hell The Apostle compares Baptisme to the Red Sea 1. Cor. 10. from which place Crysostome saith that as the Red Sea was a way for the Israelites to passe through to Canaan so it was as a grave to swallow up the Egypptians to their destruction So the Lords Supper is as a grave an open pit whereby many plunge themselves into eternall destruction but as a chariot to the godly to carry them to heaven Thirdly by coming in thy sinnes thou makest thy selfe lyable to Gods temporary plagues and judgements as appears in my Text For this cause many are sick and weak among you and many are fallen asleep For this cause which is not only a note of conclusion but of the cause For this cause namely because they examine not themselves but come in their sins and receive it unworthily One man hath a disease in his body that he liveth not out halfe his dayes another is sick and weak neer unto death a third is fallen asleep Wherefore why saith the Apostle for this cause of receiving unworthily the Sacrament of the Lords Supper Fourthly for instruction that because the people of God as well as wicked men are guilty of unworthy coming to the Lords Table therefore he exhorts them that if they would not have the Lord judge them that they would judge themselves as in the 31. verse For if we would judge our selves we should not be judged of the Lord. If we would sit down and search our own hearts and try our own spirits and pry into our owne bosomes and out with our old corruptions and unclean lusts and enter into a new covenant with God of holy walking before him for after-time if we would thus judge and condemn our selves and mortifie our sinnes comming with grace unto this holy banquet that we might come with comfort unto this blessed Sacrament assuring our selves that we shall escape the judgement of the Lord. For those of the Corinthians whom God struck with sicknesse weaknesse and death it was to instruct others that are well and in health that they venture not to enter upon these holy mysteryes with unholy hearts and unclean hands Fifthly he concludeth with an use of exhortation in the 33 and 34. verses Wherefore brethren when ye come together to partake of the holy Communion tarry one for another As if he should have said Away with all your disorders and come not with a temporall but with a spirituall appetite provide not thy teeth but thy heart for these dainties for this is not a feast for the body but for the soul therefore away with all your disorders and unseemly coming unto this blessed Sacrament take heed and repent of this sin among you and of all other sins which you know your own conscience to be guilty of and so come unto this holy communion Now the verse that I have read to you is a part of that use of terror which the Apostle makes against the unworthy receivers of the Sacrament and it contains Gods severe hand and punishment against those that come unworthily wherein note three things First the cause of their punishment which is the unworthy eating of the Communion For this cause many are sick and weak among you and many are fallen asleep Secondly the punishment inflicted for this sin weaknesse sicknesse and mortality For it seems saith Peter Martyr that the Lord sent a sore plague and pestilence among them to revenge himself of them for their abuse of the Sacrament for this cause Thirdly there is the Delinquents which are you Corinthians Many are sick and weak among you and in them all others that come unpreparedly to the Sacrament Chrysostom notes here that our Apostle doth not fetch here an Argument or example of judgement from others as he had done in the former chapter but he brings it from themselves who sensibly felt the wrath of God upon them for this very sin As if the Apostle should have said How is it O Corinthians that you dare venture to come unto the Communion so unpreparedly and that you have no more regard of so weighty a businesse as is the receiving of the body and blood of the Lord Jesus Christ See you not the wrath of God upon your dwellings and the curse of heaven to take hold of your town you see it this very time that some are weak and very sick amongst you near unto death and others have been struck with death before your eyes and the wrath of God is not removed but lies yet upon you What will you alwayes goe on and never cease to provoke the Lord to indignation and wrath against you for your sins until his jealousie hath utterly consumed you and clean cut you off and howsoever many of you may think that this sicknesse weaknesse and mortality comes upon you by chance as from the infection of the ayr or other secundary causes I tell you nay but it is for this cause onely even your unworthy coming to the Supper of the Lord. Whence we may observe this point of instruction That God doth most severely punish the unworthy receivers of the Sacrament of the Lords Supper He punished the Corinthians here with sicknesse weaknesse feavers pestilence death temporall and God knows how many with death eternall Theodoret observes that the Apostle told them of a thing that was acted amongst them for if he had told them of such judgements as had been hid from them and not manifest before their eyes as if they had not felt the sicknesse in their bodies and heard the bels tolling dayly in their ears they might have thought that the Apostle had but lyed unto them So the people of Israel as we may read in 1 Cor. 10. 2 3. verses they were baptized in the Cloud and in the Sea and they did all eat the same spirituall meat and drink the same spirituall drink yet as it is in the fifth verse with many of them God was not well pleased Nay God was so wroth with them that within the space of forty years many thousands of them were destroyed by death here and God knoweth how many thousands of them in hell For God speaketh of hell as well as of death and their sin was so great that it made God
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
Canaan she sought the Lord God of Heaven and earth she was of the cursed stock of Cham whom the Lord commanded to destroy yet she repented and became of the faith of Abraham to see if the Lord would own her but the Lord seemed to reject her and suffered the devil to possess her daughter Now what might not this poor woman think she had made a sorry change of religion seeing that God the author of it would not own her but suffered the devil to possesse her daughter But see the importunity of this woman she would not be quiet untill she had found Christ Mark 7. 24 25. Christ could not be hid No What could he not hide himself in some corner No. no thinks she there is a Christ and if he be to be had under the cope of heaven I wil have him Even so it is with the soul that is importunate in prayer it is restlesse What if Christ do hide himself in the Word c. and will not own a poor soul yet the poor soul knowes there is a Christ and if he be to be found in the whole world he wil have him I wil saith he turn over all duties I will go to all the Ministers that are neer I will use all the means Now Christ cannot be hid from such a soul that is thus importunate Now as it is a prayer that will take no nay so first it will take no privative nay of silence Secondly no possitive nay of denial First no privative nay of silence A man that is importunate in prayer must and will have some answer he is not like Baals Priests that could get no answer 1 King 18. 26. nor like wicked men that pray in their pewes they know not what nor whether God hears them or no but an importunate prayer will have an answer like the woman of Canaan Have mercy on me O Lord saith she but Christ answered her not a word Hath she done then No she cries so much the more Have mercy on me O Lord yea she was so importunate that his Disciples were ashamed to hear her yet she cried Have mercy on my daughter the devil hath my daughter and misery will have me unlesse thou wilt have mercy on us Christ answered her never a word It was much trouble to her to have her daughter vext with a devil but this troubled her much more that Christ in whom all her hope was would not hear her nor lend her one look What might she think Is this the merciful Saviour that is so ful of pitty compassion Is this he that hath made proclamation to all the world saying Come unto me all ye that are weary c and I am tyred and wearied by reason of the devil that possesses my daughter c. yet he regards me not Thus she might have said yet these discouragements could not put her off but she cried so much the more yea so that the Apostles were ashamed that Christ should let her stand on that fashion yet she stood it out and prevailed Secondly it will take no positive nay of deniall For when she had an answer and that flat against her it was like bellowes to the fire she was so much the more inflamed she doubles her forces Have mercy on me O Lord c. Chist put her off with a deniall I am not sent but to the lost sheep of the house of Israel I come for sheep not for goats you are of the Canaanites on whom I have set a brand of damnation a servant of servants a slave of hell and darknesse These are all of your blood but I come to save them of the house of Israel But the deniall of an importunate soul is like the stop in a passage of water the more it is stopt the more violent it is so this poor woman is so much the more eager with Christ she did but cry before now she worships him verse 24. 25. as if she should have said Lord help me now I am one of thy lost sheep I confesse I am a Canaanite I am of that damned blood yet Lord help me I am perswaded that thou canst take a course whereby to help me Thou canst cast some mercy on a Canaanite Thus you see an importunate soul will take no deniall but will renew its forces at the Throne of grace Thirdly an importunate Prayer will take no contumelious repulse suppose God should answer never a syllable of thy prayer yet thou wilt pray suppose he do answer and that against thee yet still thou wilt pray Nay suppose he call thee all to naught making thy conscience tell thee of all thy sins and abominations making thee think that heaven is shut up against thee and God hath shut his ears calling thee Dog hell-hound and wretch c. yet nothing can break thee off if thou be importunate indeed So this woman was not beaten off with Christs sending the Devill into her Daughter nor with Christs hiding himselfe when she sought him nor with Christs answering never a word nor with the Apostles frumps nor with his deniall nor contumelious repulse for he called her dog vers 26 Hence dog I had as lieve â—ling my mercy on a dog as on thâ—e What creature but an importunate one could have gone so far But see here the nature of importunity it gets within Christ and takes advantage she confest the cause saying Truth Lord thou hast hit me right I am a dog or a wicked woman let me then have the priviledges that dogs have though dogs may not be equal with children at the cable yet they may wait under the table I acknowledge that thy children are so plentifully fed that some crummes fall from the table therefore let me have the priviledge of a dog Naaman the Syrian was a dog as well as I Rahab the harlot was a dog as well as I Ruth a dog as well as I yet these got câ—ums truth Lord I am a dog yet thy mercy can metamorphose a dog Of these stones thou canst raise children to Abraham Thus it is with an importunate soul though God call it all to naught and cast all ignominious terms upon it as I had as lieve thou shouldest offer me swines blood as to speak in my hearing yet if thou be importunate thou wilt bear any contumelious repulse Fourthly an importunate prayer is impudent in an holy manner And as an impudent begger that is needy counts it no manners to hold his peace from begging although he be bidden Or as a poor petitioner to the King the King bids him hold his peace yet he will not but still he goes on The officers say Thou filthy fellow wilt thou never have done dost thou not see that the King is angry Yet he still cries Help me Lord ô King So the Canaanitish woman or an Importunate prayer is an impudent prayer yet in a holy manner I remember a story of a poor woman in Essex condemned to die she falls to
Isaiah 27. 11. He that made them will not have mercy on them and he that formed them will not pitty them It is commonly beleeved if men come to Church heare the Word and call upon God that then presently they are good Christians Beloved it is not so Mat. 7. 21. Not every one that saith Lord Lord shall enter into the Kingdome of Heaven Men are ready when they can but call Lord have mercy on me O sweet Saviour pitty me most mercifull Lord Jesus have compassion on me if they can pray in their families and pray at Church c. to think now all is well with them and Christ cannot but save them and give them the Kingdome of Heaven but our Saviour puts a not upon it and saith not every one that saith Lord Lord it is noâ— a Lord a Lording of Christ with the tongue onely it is not a taking up of an outward profession of Christ only that is sufficient for a man that shall inherit the Kingdome of Heaven no saith Christ but he that doth the will of my Father which is in Heaven But of this by the by Secondly there are needlesse discouragements which doe much hurt in prayer Nee lesse discouragements do much hurt to many a poor soule that hath forcible wouldings and wracked desires after grace and holinesse and yet is held by discouragements yea many a Christian heart lieth a long time under it wrestling and striving under its wants and yet kept out from grace and from growing in grace because of discouragements yea the best and strongest of God Saints have been kept off and have hung much on discouragements Fear not saith God to Abraham Gen. 15. 1. So fear not Joshua saith God to Joshua Josh 1. 9. Intimating that both Abraham and Joshua were afraid of discouragements they were afraid that many evils would befall them that they should meet with many rubs and difficulties that would be too hard for them therefore the Lord calls to them fear not be not djsmayed nor discouraged I â—ou saidst fear not Hence observe That God would not have any Christian soul to be discouraged in prayer Thou saidst fear not For our clearer prooceeding herein first let me shew you what discouragement is and secondly how it comes to be dangerous and hurtfull in prayer What is discouragement It is a base dismayment of spirit below or beneath the strength that is in a man under the apprehension of some evill as if it were too hard for him to grapple with it There be foure things in this diffinition First I say it is a base dismayment of spirit and so I call it to distinguish it for there is an humble dismayment which a Christian is commanded A man is bound to be dismayed for his sinnes I say 32. 11. Tremble ye carelesse women that are at ease be troubled ye carelesse ones these carelesse ones went on in their sinnes and feared not God calls to them and bids them to be dismayed But the dismayment and the discouragement I speak of it is a base dismayment of spirit which is either when he is dismayed that ought not or he is dismayed at that whereat he ought not to fear where no cause of fear is As he that riding along upon the high way spying a mans shape thought it was some Spirit and thereupon he sickened and died So many a poor soul looking in the perfect Law of God and seeing his own uglinesse and filthinesse he is discouraged and thinks himself undone his heart waxeth cold within him and he begins to fear that he is but a dead and damned man Secondly it is down beneath the strength that is in a man that man is properly said to be discouraged not that he hath no strength at all in him nor no courage at all for such a one is an infeebled man not a man discouraged but a discouraged man is a man put besides the courage that is in him when a man hath strength enough to grapple with the evill before him but through dismayment of spirit he cannot put it forth Have not I commanded thee saith God to Joshua Be strong and of a good courage be not afraid neither be thou dismaied Iosh 1 9. God had given Joshua strength enough whereby he was inabled to observe and do according to all that Law which Moses the servant of the Lord commanded him God had now doubled his Spirit upon him yet he commands him be not afraid neither dismayed as if he had said Joshua if thou beest dismayed and discouraged though thou hast strength and power to go through the businesse that I have called thee unto yet thou wilt not be able to use it nor to put it forth if thou beest discouraged Thirdly it is at the apprehension of some evill I say not at the sight of some evill for a man may be dismayed at the apparition of good as Mary when she saw nothing but a good Angell Luke 1. 29. she saw nothing but a glorious Angel neverthelesse she was afraid and discouraged Why because she had a secret apprehension of some evill either of some evill proceeded in the salutation or some unworthinesse in her selfe to receive such a gracious salutation it cannot be the apprehension of any good that discourageth a man but the apprehension of some evill Fourthly not of every evill neither for if the evill be but small courage will stand it out but it is of such an evill as he fears he is not able to grapple withall If the evill before him be inferiour to him he scornes it as the barking of a toothlesse Dog If it be but an evill equall to his strength then he makes a tush at it because he knowes or thinkes himselfe able to encounter with it But if it be an evill above his strength then his spirit melts and droops before him See this in Saul 1 Sam. 17. 11. and his people When they saw the Champion of the Philistims coming against them when they saw him so hugely and marvelously armed and heard him speake such bigge words they thought they were not able to stand and to encounter with him and therefore saith the Text when Saul and all Israel heard these words of the Philistim they were dismayed and greatly afraid Thus you see what discouragement is Now we come to the second question to shew how discouragements come to be hurtfull in prayer such discouragements the Lord would not have our hearts to be in when we pray unto him For first God cannot give ear to that man that is out of heart in his prayers Thou canst never pray if thou beest dismaied in prayer When the soul begins to feare and reason O I am so unworthy that God will not looke at me I am so sinfull so blockish so dead and dull to all good that God will never regard me Thou canst never pray Rom. 10. 14. How shall they call on him in whom they have not beleeved If
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
know them you would not doe it for had they knowne the Lord of life they would not have crucified him 1 Cor. 2. 8. so if such as doe persecute Gods children did but know their worth and that they were his children they would not do it Let us esteem godly men and women as persons of great worth The Saints of God have alwaies done so Saint Lawrence being demanded by his persecutors wherein the worth of the Church lay the story saith he gathered a companie of poor people together and pointed at them and said there lies the worth of the Church so I have read of an ancient King who made a great feast and invited a company of poor people which were Christians and he bade his Nobles also now when the Christians came he had them up into the Presence Chamber but when the Nobles came he set them in his hall Being of the Nobles demanded the reason he answered I doe not this as I am their Kyng here for I respect you more then them but as I am a King of another world I must needs honour these because God doth most honour them and then they shall be Kings and Princes with me soe doe you esteeme of them according to their worth and shew it If they be persons of such great worth here you may be directed how to get a name of worth in the world to be honoured of God This is the way labour to be beleevers serve God and close with the godly be of one minde and of one heart with them Honour is the thing that all desire according to that of Saul to Samuel Honour me before the Elders of my people so we are all ready to say oh that I could be honoured in the heart of those that I converse withall I say then thou must labour to serve and honour God in thy heart let that be thine honour It is a meere folly for men to think to get honour by swearing by lying by cutting and slashing and drunkennesse c. The sweet ointment of a good name is not compounded of stinking ingredients That should serve to comfort the godly that seeing they are of so great worth what though they be disgraced here let this suffice thee God that knows the true worth of every thing he accounts thee worthy what though dogs bark and crie out against thee for thy holinesse let them alone and know thou this that the time will come when never a curre of them all but will wish oh that mine end might be like his and that they might goe as thy dogge to heaven with thee when they shall see thee sitte at his right hand where are pleasures for evermore Lastly you that approve your selves to be of the number of the godly labour to walke worthy of the Lord. Colos 1. 10. Doth God thus advance you then strive you to honour him with inward and outward worship God hath not done these things for you that you may live as you list no you are a chosen generation c. 1 Pet. 2. 19. Ergo you must shew forth the vertue of him that hath called you You that are parents of children the more you doe for them the more you look they should honour you the more God hath done for you the more you ought to feare him God hath drawn you out of darkenesse into a marvellous light and will you yet walke as vassals of Satan This was that kept Josoph from committing adultery even the favour of advancement and how then can I doe this great wickednesse saith he so thou art advanced to honour from a childe of the devill to be the son of God how then canst thou commit wickednesse Consider I say how God hath advanced thee from being a slave of Satan to be his adopted son and shall I now become a covetous person shall I be a companion of Gods enemies when you are enticed by the divell or wicked men to any sin say what shall such a man as I consent shall I flie from my colours what a Kings son and flie Consider this THE TIME OF GODS GRACE Is limited 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 TIME OF GODS GRACE Is limited GEN. 6. 3. The Lord said My Spirit shall not alway strive with man because he is but flesh and his dayes shall be a hundred and twenty yeares IN this Chapter is continued the History of the decay of the World wherein is described Gods purpose of destroying mankind in which are these two parts First the meritorious deserving Cause wherein God gives an account what he doth how inexcusable the world is and how just God is unto the. 14 verse Secondly a direction unto Noah to make an Arke where we may see that God in his judgement remembers mercy The meritorious deserving cause is described first from the quantity of those persons in those evill dayes a great many verse the first men began to multiply in places populous where there are some good there are many bad Secondly by the quality of those persons the Sons of God when they saw the daughters of men the sonnes of God viz. the posterity of them that maintained Religion they began to be carelesse and carnally confident they did looke after the profits and pleasures of this life and then it was high time for God to enter into Judgement Thirdly by the kind of sinne They lusted after unlawfull Marriages c. and the root of this was originall corruption the Imaginations of mans heart were onely evill and that continually verse 5. These words are a Proclamation of Gods purpose to bring it to an end in which are four things First the Lords complaint in these words The Lord said Secondly the proclamation it selfe in these words my Spirit shall not alwayes strive with man Thirdly the reason because he is but flesh Fourthly the limitation of the time a hundred and twenty years in which time if they repent I will repent but if they will not my Spirit shall not alway strive As if the Lord had said I have tried all conclusions and used all means partly by Mercies to allure them partly by Judgements to terrifie them partly by my word to recall them and by all meanes possible to bring them to my selfe yet they remaine incorrigible I now am resolved to strive with them no more From the words thus opened there will naturally arise these two points First that the Lord of Heaven and earth doth strive mightily with a company of poore Rebells and all to bring them unto himselfe but on this I intend not to insist The seond is this viz. that there is a time when God will strive with men â—o more and that in this life The scope of this aimes at the whole world but what is said in generall may also be said
scales he puts the word of his Gospel in the one and thy goings and obedience in the other Thou art weighed and art found too light thy kingdom is departed from thee saith God to Belshazzer Dan. 5. 27. So if thou be light thou shalt be weighed and so found thou shalt lose the Kingdom of heaven for ever Secondly strip sin and look upon it stark naked sin covers and disguiseth it self with pleasure profit ease and many a whorish garment and so inticeth the heart Even a toad if she were covered over with gold those that saw only the gold would pocket it up if it were naked they would fling it in the kennel Why doe men love covetousnesse Why its hooded with profit Why carding dicing hunting hawking tabring piping and more than the word alloweth Why they are cloathed with pleasure and delight It s the duty of Ministers to unmask and uncase sin and pluck off he vail that covers it from appearing unto men The not doing of this is the cause that men do not meditate on the vilenesse of their sin never are humbled never escape Gods wrath even because they 〈◊〉 discover 〈◊〉 iniquities Lam. 2. 14. Alas the profit of thy sins shall cease the pleasure cease the ease cease and all these goodly suits shall vanish away when the soul comes to dye or to stand before the judgement seat of Christ sin will remain but thy silver and thy gold where will that be then thy laughter and thy merâ—iment what will become of that then thy delight will be gone Meditate therefore with thy self my sin is now gainful and easie and pleasant but what will my sin become when I come to lye on my deathbod what good will it do me when I have most need of succour I will never acknowledge him my friend that will turn against me when I have most need of him Alas I must dye I must come to judgement I I must go either to heaven or to hell the profit that I get now by my sins will it bestead me then the pleasure the ease that I now find in sin will it help me there Alas no it will then be my break neck it will be a Devil unto me the more I have been delighted with it the more it will gall â—e the more I have gotten by it the more it will damne me the sin which I most of all loved will most of all torment me Eccles 11. 9. look thus upon sin The third means Dive into thy own soul and heart There is a tough brain over thy heart that it feels not its sins Now Meditation must look through and come to the heart at the quick and cause the truth to dive into the deep places of the soul When the timber is hard the workman cannot thrust in the nail with the weight of his hand no he must hammer it in Meditation is the hammering of the heart It 's a pertinent phrase Jer. 23 24. Is not my word like a fire saith the Lord and like a hammer that breaketh the rocks in pieces There be two similitudes first of a hammer the Word of God is the hammer meditation is the hand that taketh this hammer and knocks the nail into the rocky heart and makes it enter Wilt thou not feel I 'le make thee feel saith Meditation wilt thou not take notice of thy wretched estate Meditation comes with blow after blow and makes us take notice Secondly of fire the word is like fire Meditation kindles it about the heart A man benummed with cold is senselesse the water frozen with cold though the least pebble would have sunk in it before now a great milstone is able to lye upon it and not sink the water is able to bear it so is the heart be it's sins never so heavy as the hill of Basan yet it bears it and feels no weight but Meditation thawes the heart and then every sin pincheth and oppresseth Is not my word like fire as if he should say think of it and muse of it and meditate of it and thou shall feel it as a fire Meditation is the often smiting of the heart with this hammer so did Ephraim smite upon his thigh Jer. 31. 19. like a man in a miserable agony he thumps his own breast and in a vexation strikes his hand on his thigh Oh miserable wretch that I am So did Ephraim Oh what an unruly Oxe am I how unwilling am I to bear the yoke of the Lord Oh and oh the hardness of my heart oh that I could tell how to beat thee black and blue Many men smite their hearts but they smite them not often enough When Elishah bad Joash smite upon the ground he smote thrice and stayed The man of God said to him in anger Thou shouldest have smitten five or six times for then thou hadst smitten Syria till thou hadst consumed them whereas now thou shalt smite Syria but thrice 2. King 13. 19. So men smite their hearts twice or thrice or so but they will not smite their sins dead it may be they break the head of their sins but they recover again and grow strong upon them as at first Thou must smite five or six times yea fifty times five times till thou hast quite broken the impostume of thy heart Meditate on the mercies of God and with them smite it often and often Meditate on the justice of God and with it smite it again and again Meditate on the wrath of God which is as a consuming fire and with it smite it soundly Meditate on the truth of the Lord this threatning and that threatning this commandement and that commandment this promise and that promise and with all these smite it to powder The fourth means Anticipate and pâ—â—ventthine own heart meditate what thy heart will one day wish if it be not humbled and tell thy Soul as much thou wilt one day wish Oh that I had been humbled under the reproofs of the Lord Oh that I had been wise to have understood my own mercy Cursed be the day that ever I neglected the means of grace so the Lord brings in a foolish obstinate sinner cursing and banning his own soul sobbing and howling at the last O how have I hated instruction and my heart despised reproof and have not observed the voyce of my Teachers nor inclined mine care to them that instruct me Prov. 5. 12 13. I had Ministers to preach to me but I would not come at them or if I did I cared not for their doctrine I had friends that advised me well but woe is me damned wretch I heeded them not Thus thou wilt cast the fool into thine own teeth and fling a thousand curses into thine own face because of thy madness I might have learned but I would not I might have been humbled but I would not I was almost in an evill in the midst of the assembly of the congregation verse 14. I lived where the Saints of God were
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
glad of it c. and it is said there that Jesus rejoyced c. I rather rejoyce that thou hast sent me to poor souls such as are the off-scouring of the world c. but he that is selfe-conceited is wiser forsooth then so Christ tels thee that thou must take up his crosse but thou thinkest that thou hast more wit thou canst go a wiser way to work thou hast an easier way to heaven thou wilt none of the Crosse and I tell thee then that Christ wil none of thee but he will be glad to see thee damned Fourthly and lastly he is in the broad way to hell that is selfe-conceited there be many wayes to hell the covetous goes one way the Drunkard goes another there are a thousand wayes to hell though there be sundry wayes to hell yet they all meet in selfe-conceit there is the broad high way where all meet selfe-conceit is not only the way to hell but it is the brood way where all wayes meet There is a way saith the wise man that seems right c. Prov. 14. 12. but the end of it is death there is the wages there all the wayes meet Oh then examine your selves I should give you signes and tokens to make it appeare unto you but the time will not give me leave I will only name one or two That man that selfe-swears is conceited of himself that is one sign As I am an honest man As God shal help me by my faith and troth As I look that the Lord should save my soul c. these men are highly conceited of themselvs they think that their salvation is sure yea so sure that they may swear by it but these are devillish and damnable self conceits it is Gods prerogative only to sweare by himself Heb. 6. 13. 14. I speak this because I know it is a common practise among men and a hellish brand of a cursed self-conceited man THE EFFICACIE Of Importunate PRAYER In tvvo SERMONS By that laborious and faithful Messenger of CHRIST WILLIAM FENNER Sometimes Fellow of Pembroke Hall in Cambridge and late Minister of Rochford in Essex London Printed by E. T. for John Stafford THE EFFICACY OF Importunate Prayer LUKE 11. 9. Ask and it shall be given unto you Seeke and you shall finde Knock and it shall be opened unto you OUr Saviour CHRIST being demanded by one of his Disciples how they should pray He here teaches them these two things First a Platform of prayer in the 2 3 4. verses Say Our Father c. Secondly he teaches them the Importunity of Prayer which he sets forth by the similitude of a man who having a guest come to him at midnight and had nothing to set before him he went to his friend to intreat him to lend him three loaves and at the first he nakedly intreats Lend me three loaves The door is shut sayes his friend and I cannot open it now Secondly he falls to intreat and to beseech him to do him this favour He had a guest come to him and he knew not what to do Why 't is midnight saies he is there no other time to come but now Thirdly he begins to knock he must needs have them though it be at an unreasonable hour Why I tell you I am in bed Then he intreats him as a friend Friend me no friends sayes he again Yet the man would not leave knocking at last with much adoe the man rises saying Will you never be answered and he lends him three loaves because of his importunity Now saith our Saviour I say unto you though he would not give him as a friend yet because of his importunity he will The similitude is this Thou art that man oh Christian soul this guest is thy self Now then come home to thy self with the Prodigall who when he was come to himself goes to his father and friend This friend is Christ that thou art to pray unto these three loaves are grace mercy and peace These thou art to pray for it may be Christ answereth thee in thy conscience It is midnight thou commest too late there is no mercy for thee The soul prayes still Oh Lord awaken and help me it may be the Lord will answer thee by terror in thy soul The door of mercy is shut thou shouldest have come rather Yet Lord open unto me sayes the soul Nay saith the Lord all my children have mercy already now mercy is asleep I have converted them already they came in due season thou commest at midnight there is no mercy for such a hell-hound as thou art Up Lord have mercy on me sayes the poor soul and look on me c. Look me no looks saith the Lord I came to save the lost sheep of the house of Israel there was a time when I would have converted thee when I called unto thee early and late But now I am asleep and my mercy is asleep it hath been awake as long as it could well hold open its eyes and comest thou now Oh the soul cries still and will never give over if mercy be to be had at the throne of grace he will have it Even as a begger being at a gentlemans door they bidding him be gone there is nothing to be had nay sayes the begger I will not be gone here is something to be had and I will have something or else I will die at the door The gentleman hearing him say so thinks it would be a shame for him if he should die at his door and gives him somewhat So when the soul is thus importunate because of importunity it shall be granted Verily I say unto you if you thus ask it shall be given unto you These words contain in them the main duty of importunate prayer Ask if asking wil not serve turn seek if seeking will not serve turn then knock try all meanes Another parable our Saviour put forth Luke 18. 1 2. that men ought alwayes to pray and not to faint There was a poor woman wronged by her adversary and there was no Judge to right her but a wicked one so that she had but poor hopes yet she resolves to go or else she shall be undone therefore if she perish she will perish at his feet He cals her all to naught Oh for Gods sake help me sayes she I care not for God nor man sayes the Judge Nay good my Lord saith the woman The Judge seeing her thus importunate said I shall be troubled with her if I do her not justice How much more saith the text shall not God avenge his elect that cry day and night Obj. But some man may demand what is importunate prayer Ans I answer it is a relstess praier which will take no nay nor contumelious repulse but is in a holy manner impudent until it speed and there are in it four things First it is restlesse he that is importunate cannot rest till he speed in his suit before God as the poor woman of
his providence from them why stayest thou but for a night verse the 8. as if they should have said it is marveilous strange that thou behavest thy self so like a stranger thou seest our sorrowes and dost not help us thou perceivest our troubles and thou regardest us not It is strange it is strange that the God of Israel stands as a man astonished that thou that hast heretofore received us should'st now stand as a man amazed and astonished as if thou wert weary of this thy work and couldst do no more as if thou should'st say Jerusalem cannot be saved and Judah cannot be succoured Secondly they desire that God would not take away his presence from them leave us not to our selves say they let us see thy face though we die yet let it be in thy presence yea though thou help us not yet it doth us good to look upon our Saviour and thou canst help us and thus you see the arguments where with they presse the Lord how sweet they are viz. First thou art the hope of Israel Alas if thou forsake us we are all lost our hope is not in the meanes only but our hope is in thee leave us not for thou art the hope of Israel it is the task that thou hast taken upon thee leave us not therefore Secondly thou hast made thy self a Saviour and now is the time of trouble therefore now performe what thou hast undertaken Thirdly thou art in the midst of us that is thou art a great Commander amongst us always ready to succour us and wilt thou now see us perish thou art more neer to us than the Ark in the midst of the Campe 1 Sam. 4. 6. As if they should say he lives in the midst of us and will he not save us Fourthly we are called by thy name and therefore we have interest in thee to whom should wives go but to their husbands to whom should children go but to their fathers to whom should servants go but to their Masters to whom then should we go but to thee our God and Saviour leave us not therefore and we will meddle with none but thee Secondly though God might leave them yet they beg that he would not that is the Amen to their praiers though thou stand and wilt not help us yet let us die in thy presence and this is the great request of the Saints they desire not to be left of God although God might leave them whence learn that God might cast off a people Israel did fear it and it is that which they prayed against God might leave them I doe not say that God will cast off his elect ones eternally but those in outward covenant see Isaiah 1. verse 2. c. Heare O Heavens Hearken O Earth I have nourished and brought up children but they have rebelled against mee The Oxe knoweth his owner and the Asse his Masters Crib but Israel hath not known my People have not understood c. and verse the seventh see the judgement your cities are burnt with fire strangers devour your land in your presence and it is desolate like the overthrow of strangers There is an out ward Calling as well as an effectuall Calling God may reject for many are called but few chosen saith our Saviour My brethren cast your thoughts afar off and see what is become of those famous Churches of Pergamus and Thyatira and the rest mentioned Rev. 1. verse 11. And who would have thought that Jerusalem should have been made an heap of stones and a vagabond people and yet we see God hath forsaken them shewing us thereby that although God wil never forsake his own electones yet he may forsake such as are in outward covenant with him The Lord is said to dis-church or discharge a people Hosea 1. 9 there God saith call his name Loammi for ye are not my people and therefore I will not be your God And as I may so say he sues out a bill of divorcement as it was in the old Law they that had any thing against their wives they sued out a bill of divorcement against them and so doth God see Hosea 2. 2. Plead with thy Mother tel her she is not my Spouse nor my beloved but let her cast away her fornications out of her sight and her adulteries from between her beasts lest I make her as at the first that is as she was in Egypt poore and miserable As if God should now say to England plead plead with England all ye that are my Ministers in the way of my truth and say unto her let her cast away her rebellions least I leave her as I found her in the day of Captivity and bondage under the blindnesse of popery and superstition Ob. But how doth God cast off a people Sol. I answer first when he takes away his love and respect from a people and as his love so the token of his love which in his word and Sacraments the means of salvation Secondly when he takes away his providence I mean when he takes down his walls that is his Magistracy and Ministery Thirdly when in stead of Councelling there comes in Bribing and in stead of true teaching there comes in daubing with untempered mortar when God takes away the hedge thereof Isaiah 5. 5. or the stakes grow rotten and are not renewed then is God going away Fourthly when God takes away the benefit of both these helps they are signes of Gods departure Use May God un chu ch or discharge a People and cast a Nation off Oh then let this teach us to cast off all security for miseries are night at hand in all probability when we observe what God hath done for us all things are ripe to destruction and yet we feare it not but we promise to our selves safety and consider not that England is ready to be harrowed and yet we cannot entertaine a thought of Englands desolation when there are so many prophesies in it of its destruction yet we cannot be perswaded of it but in our Judgements it must not be it must not be as yet as if it were unpossible that God should leave England as if God were a cockering Father over lewd children God may leave a Nation and his elect may suffer and why may not England Englands sins are very great and the greater because the meanes are great and our warnings are and have been great but yet our mercies are farre greater England hath been a mirrour of mercies yet now God may leave 〈…〉 make it the mirrour of his justice Look how God spake to the people that did brag of their temple Jer. 7. 4. saith God Trust not in 〈…〉 words saying the Temple of the Lord this is the Temple of the Lord but 〈…〉 saith the Lord by the Prophet in the twelfth and fourteenth verse 〈…〉 now to my place which was in Shiloh where I set my name at the beginnâ—â—â— and behold what I did unto it for the wickednesse of my
all that he would speak it is a signe that the King means to grant that man his petition because otherwise the King would never have endured to have heard him so long but would have commanded him to be gone So it is with the soule at the Throne of grace if it come with a petition and prayer to God if God dispatch the soul out of his presence so that the soul hath no heart to pray nor to continue its suit but prayes deadly and dully and is glad when he hath said his prayers and hath done it is a fearful sign that God never means to heare that mans prayers but if thou prayest and prayest and haâ—t not done in thy prayers but God by casting in a spirit of praier and zeal and fervency in prayer imboldens thy heart in its petition it is a sign that God will hear thee and grant thee thy prayers Blessed be God saith the Prophet that hath not turned away my prayer nor his mercy from me Psal 66. 20. How could the Prophet say that the Lord did not turne away his mercy from him How because he turned not away his prayer from him Many Expositors expound it of not turning away his prayer from his heart as if he should say Lord thou continuest my heart to pray thou hast not taken away my prayer from my heart therefore I know that thou continuest thy mercy unto me Secondly the preparednesse of the heart to pray is a sign that God means to hear When the Merchant stretcheth his bagge wider and wider it is a signe that he means to put something in it so when God opens the heart of a poor soul it is a signe that he means to fill it when God prepares the soule with more hunger and thirst after grace with more longings and breathings it is a sign that God hath already prepared his eare to hear that prayer it is a signe that heart shall speed with God in prayer Psal 10. 17. Lord thou hast heard the desire of the humble thou wilt prepare their heart thou wilt cause thine eare to heare First God prepares the heart to pray and then he bows his eare to hear Examine thy soul then art thou more and more prepared to pray hath God spoken with a powerfull voice to thy soul to open it selfe wide it is a signe that God meanes to fill thy soul with his graces But if thou canst rush into Gods presence and leave thy preparednesse behind thee leavest thy soul and thy thoughts and thy affections behind thee and comest with a straightned heart in thy deadnesse and luke warmnesse this is a fearefull signe that God will not heare thee Thirdly Gods gracious looke is a signe that he will hear thee for sometimes beloved God answers his people by a cast of his countenance with a gratious smile of his face Psal 22. 24. He hath not despised nor abhorred the affliction of the afflicted neither hath he hid his face from him but when he cryed unto him he heard Hereby was the Prophet able to know that God did hear his prayer because he did not hide his face from him when his poor soule saw God smile on him and set a favourable eye upon him this made him say that God heard his cry This is a riddle to the world If you should ask the men of the world what the meaning of Gods gratious countenance is or what they see of it alas they can say nothing of it they know not what it means onely the godly man understandeth Psal 34. 15. The eyes of the Lord are upon the righteous and his eares are open unto their cry These two go together their prayers enter in Gods eares and they know it why because they see it in his countenance upon them as a Petitioner may read his speeding with the King by his countenance towards him so a poor soul may see how prayers prevaile by Gods countenance and look upon him If thou then art a stranger to Gods countenance if God never admitted thee into his presence to see his face and countenance it is a signe that God little regards thy prayers and hath no mind to hear thee A wicked man is like a varlet that stands without dores and begges an almes but is not suffered to go into the Gentlemans presence and therefore knowes not how he speeds whether the Gentleman will give him an almes or whether he be providing a cudgell to beat him away so a wicked man prayes and puts up his petitions to God but he is not able to come before God he cannot see whether God look as if he meant to hear his prayers yea or no he knows not but that God may be providing a curse and plague for him in stead of a blessing But a child of God comes within the list of Gods countenance he can tell when God smiles on him and when he takes another looke he is able to come into Gods presence Job 13. 16. He also saith Job shall be my salvation for an hypocrite shall not come before him A strange verse Job saith God is his salvation and he gives this reason why he was able to say so for an hypocrite shall not come before him One would think that this were no reason but yet it is an undeniable reason as if Job had said I come into his presence and he lookes like a Saviour a Redeemer upon me but an hypocrite shall not come before him he stands like a rogue and begs without the gate Indeed a wicked man comes into Gods presence in regard of Gods Omnipresence but this is not enough thy Oxe and thine Asse stands in Gods presence yea so the very Devils themselves are in Gods presence But if thou come not into Gods presence of grace if God do not admit thy soule into the list of his Throne it is a sign that God hears thee not Men should therefore examine their consciences what face or presence of God they come into or see when they pray in their prayers whether they come before God yea or no. Beloved no wicked man under heaven can come before God this is made the marke of a godly man onely Psal 140. 13. The upright shall dwell in thy presence mark here dwelling in Gods presence is onely determined to the righteous the upright shall dwell in thy presence And here I appeale againe to the hearts and consciences of wicked men what presence of God doe they find in their prayers they see their Pews and the walls or hangings c. before them they see the heavens and the clouds above them they know nothing within dores Do they see Gods presence and countenance no it is the upright man onely that dwells in Gods presence He sees how God lookes on him how his face smiles on him and therefore it is not a wicked mans coming to Church and falling on his knees and uttering the words of prayer that is a coming into Gods presence then this
the wildernesse for here is neither bread nor water and our soule loatheth this light bread So beloved if we suffer our soules to be discouraged we shall soone come to murmure against God wherefore hath he brought me up to this strictnesse and precisenesse when I was a drunkard a worldling when I followed the lust of my flesh and liberty then I enjoyed onions garlick and the flesh-pots of Egypt pleasures and delights for my soule then I had a good hope in God and a good perswasion that my soul should goe to heaven and then Preachers told me that if I would give over such and such sinnes and look after Heaven a little more and doe such and such things O then I should come to a Land flowing with milke and honey then I should not misse of glory and salvation But alas I see nothing but Gyants and Anakims I am in a wildernesse now now I see a man may have a great deal of repentance and yet be a cast away A man may have a great deal of faith and yet be but a reprobate A man may give over a great many sins and yet perish in hell now I see a man may live civilly and well and have and do a great many good things and yet be damned when he hath done all A man may even go to Heaven Gates and yet the gates be shut against him and he turned into hell Alas my poor soul is in a wildernesse now I know not which way to goe I am ready to lose my selfe I see nothing here now but huge Gyants the sons of Anack strong corruptions inclining and forcing me to evill most fearefull and violent suggestions and temptations of the Devill ready to thrust me into the gulfe of wickednesse and despaire And now the soule begins to thinke that it is good for it to returne again into Egypt to fall to its old courses again for certainly God looks for no such matter he requires no such strictnesse and precisenesse And so it falls a whining and repining at the Word and Ministers of God that have call'd men to it and laid it upon them and hath no heart now to do thus and thus any longer And thus it falls into discouragements because of the way and into a thousand quandaries whether it may not go back again or no. And all these murmurings and repinings are because men suffer themselves to be discouraged Thirdly discouragements will cause thee to think that God hates thee When the soul like Baals Priests 1. Kings 18. 26. hath been crying from morning to noon ten twenty thirty yeeres it may be and yet hath no answer now it will begin to think if God did love me then he would grant me my petitions Then hereupon comes into a mans secret thoughts and feare that God hardly loves his soule So was it with Israel when they were discouraged they said because the Lord hated us therefore he brought us out of the Land of Egypt Deut. 1. 27. Because that they were discouraged and because that their Brethren that went for spies had disheartned them therefore they were apt to say the Lord hated them Beloved it is a miserable thing when the soule calls the love of God into question Consider that as thou canst not have a friend if thou beest suspitious and jealous of his love to thee So thou canst never have the love of God settled on thy heart so long as thou art jealous of his love to thee Fourthly If thou root them not out it is to be feared that they will bring thee to despair Melancholy thoughts and feares and discouragements drive the soul to despaire For when the soul sees it selfe still disappointed of its hopes at the last it growes hopelesse If it have waited one day and the next day too if it have prayed this weeke this moneth this year and yet still it seeth it selfe held off and disappointed it will at last grow hopelesse Take heed therefore I beseech you of all needlesse discouragements to fear because that thou findest not that that thou wishedst or prayedst for to day or to morrow in thine own time that therefore thou shalt never get it that now thou shouldest for ever despaire of the grace and love of God and think that now God will never hear thee that thou shalt never get grace and power over thy corruptions Men think that the preaching of the Word of God brings men to despaire the preaching of such strict points and the urging such precise doctrines makes men despaire men are loth to be at the paines to root out their discouragements It is rather a cold or dead preaching of the Word that is the cause of this for when the soule is instructed by holinesse humbled by holinesse converted by holinesse at the last when it comes to be thorowly awakened when it sees that this and this is required in a true conversion of the soule to God that herein true repentance must declare and demonstrate it selfe by these and these fruits or else it is but false and rotten Why now the soul must needs be brought to despaire because it seeth that though it have been thus and thus humbled though it have praied fasted and mourned in this and this manner yet it sees it hath not a soundesse of grace There is such a grace in it such a worke and such a fruit of Gods Spirit in it that yet he could never finde in himselfe this makes the soule to despaire Indeed Preachers may be to blame if they speake and preach onely the terrours and condemnations of the Law without the promises of the Gospel for these should be so tempered that every poore broken soule may see mercy and redemption for him upon his sound and unfeigned repentance and humiliation But if men doe despaire they may thanke themselves for it their owne sinnes for it their owne discouragements for it because they suffer these to continue in them Cain his heart grew sad his conntenance fell he was wroth and disquiered in his minde and heavily discouraged why Gen. 4. Sin lay at the dore what dore the dore of his conscience rapping and beating upon his heart Beloved when the soule lets sin lie at the dore drunkennesse pride and worldlinesse security hardnesse and deadnesse of heart lie at the dore when a man lets his negligent and fruitlesse hearing of the word lie at the dore when a man lets his vaine and dead praying his temporizing and fashionary serving of God lie at the dore of conscience to tell him that all his hearing of the word of God profits him nothing that his praiers are dead and vain that his mourning fasting and all his humiliation is counterfeit and rotten and that he hath no soundnesse of grace in him but that for all this he may fall into hell when sin lâ—eth thus at the dore thus rapping at the conscience it is no wonder if the soule fall into desperation as it was here Cain let
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
in the congregation but he will find it out if he preach in particular he will discover every mans corruption fling wilde fire in every wicked mans face and throw balme of comfort into every godly troubled spirit As King James said well of a reverend Prelate of this Land Me thinks this man preacheth of death as if death were at my back so should Ministers preach as if Heaven were at mens backes or as if hell were at mens backes When he preacheth of mens sinnes and corruptions he must preach so that their consciences may see that the word of God looks into the very thoughts and hearts when he preacheth of the wrath of God and of condemnation c. he must preach so that the conscience may feele even the fire of hell flaming in it this is the way to teach the people the good knowledge of the Lord as it is called 2 Chron. 30. 22. every Minister may teach the knowledge of the Lord but not the good knowledge of the Lord. There is great difference between teaching of the knowledge and of the good knowledge of the Lord. Men may know God and his word and their sinnes but if they go on in their sins it is not good knowledge then indeed a Minister teacheth good knowledge when he makes his people so to know sin as to loath it and to come out of it so to know repentance as to repent indeed Secondly Discrimination As if he should say there are some that are in him and some that are not in him if any man say he abideth in him he ought himselfe to walk even as he walked so that here the Apostle would put a difference between the sound and the rotten-hearted in his congregation Hence observe this point That every Minister is bound to preach so as to make a difference between the precious and the vile Saint John preached so as that his hearers might say the Spirit of Christ is in me or the Spirit of Christ is not in me that themselves might know whether indeed they were true members of Christ or but hypocrites This is the duty of Ministers Ezek 44. 23. They shall teach my people the difference between the holy and prophane and cause men to discerne between the cleane and unclean Here is two things First they shall teach them the difference between the holy and prophane Secondly they shall not onely shew it before them but if they will not see it they shall cause them to see it that is they must beat it into them and rubbe it into their consciences it may be when men may see they will not then he must make them to see If there be any prophane person any luke warme or dead-hearted professor or close hypocrite in the congregation the Minister must make him see his prophanesse his deadnesse and hypocrisie in Gods worship or if there be any godly soule or broken heart the Minister must make them to see that they have a broken heart First reason because else a man defiles the pulpit and prophanes the holy things of God Ezek. 22. 26. Her Priests have violated my law and prophaned my holy things they have put no difference between the holy and prophane neither have they shewed difference between the cleane and unclean Those Ministers prophane the holy place of God when they make not mens consciences know which is holy and prophane when prophane persons may come and go from Church and have not their prophanenesse discovered to them a drunkard a swearer c. and hath not his sinnes laid open to him Is there any prophane person here that hath not an arrow shot into his heart but he can goe away and not take any comfort from the Sermon these men prophane the holy things of God When God gave Benhadad into the hands of Ahab and Ahab spared him and let him goe 1 King 20. the Prophet tells Ahab ver 42. Thus saith the Lord because thou hast let goe a man whom I appointed to utter destruction therefore thy life shall go for his life c so if there be any Minister over any congregation in which there is any drunkard any swearer or whoremaster or wordling or lukewarmling or any other that lives in such sinnes which God hath apointed and decreed to eternal destruction in hell if we tell them not their sinnes and make their consciences feele them then our life shall goe for their life our soule for their soule for we might have given them such a wound as might have been a means to have cured their soule Secondly We are not the Ministers of Christ if we preach not so as that men may know that they are not converted if they are not c. God saith to to the Prophet Jeremiah if thou take forth the precious from the vile thou shalt be as my mouth Jer. 15. 19. Jeremiah could not be Gods mouth to the people unlesse he would divide between the precious and the vile Unlesse Ministers preach so as to make the consciences of their hearers feele in what state they live in they may be Ministers of Satan Idoll-shepheards but they are not the Ministers of Christ Thirdly because otherwise they can doe no good Ezek. 34. 17. and as for you O my flock thus saith the Lord God behold I will judge between cattell and cattell c. As if he should say woe unto the shepheards will they not preach so as to make a difference between cattell and cattell woe unto the Priests will they not preach so as to feede my flocke I will require my flocke at their hands and now saith God will not the shepheards of my people doe it I will now doe it my selfe I will convert those that are to be converted c. I will feed and provide for my flock my selfe Austin notes that after that Peter had smote off Malchus his eare Peter came to be a shepheard and an Apostle of Christ after Paul had persecuted the Church he came to be a Preacher and an Apostle of Christ so after Moses had killed the Egyptian God made him the Captain and deliverer of his people Austin observes from this that God appoints none for his Ministers but Smiters such as be men of blows men that will smite men home to the heart men that wil wound the consciences of their hearers This I speak that you may not be offended at the ministers of Christ when they apply the word of God to your severall consciences and whensoever you have the truth of Christ preached to your soules let your hearts make use of it for if thou apply not the word of God to thy soule as it is preached thou art guilty of thine own bloud If you apply not the word you put off the word of God and then what saith the Apostle Acts 13. 46. It was necessary that the word of God should first have been spoken to you but seeing you put it farre from you and judge
in particular Well then there is a time in this life and not when we are dead and gone for then it is certain there is no more comming unto God but in this life there is a time when God will strive with men no more neither for their good here nor for their everlasting happinesse hereafter For unto every thing there is an appointed time Eccles 3. 1. Now the Lord calls lovingly to allure us but there will come a time of Goe ye cursed the good Spirit of mine which thou hast abused shall never come to thee more this is a marvailous troublesome truth yet most true for men now will have their wills and God must be at their leisure and come forfooth when they please They will live as they list doe as they list and God must shew mercy on them as they list and when they list c. So there is a time when God will strive but when that time is gone God will strive no more To make this plaiue I will lay downe these six things First I will let you see that it hath been so by Testimonies of Scripture Secondly I will shew in or after what manner God deals with a soul in giving it over these fashions leave off cards and dice c. saies the Spirit of God and whatsoever is of evill report yea but I will not for what will Sir John and my Lady say then Turne you unto me saith the Spirit of God no I will not saith the stubborn walker Put him on in a good course yet he will not walk therein speake the truth saith the Spirit of God for all lyars shall be turned out yea but not yet I have got thus much wealth by lying and I will not yet leave it Fourthly Such as have a common base vile and contemptible esteem of the Gospell and Ministers thereof They mocked the Ministers till the wrath of God broke out against them and there was no remedy 2 Chron. 36. 16. A Minister cannot be plaine but wicked men will abuse him in their hearts I called and cried saith Wisedome but you set at nought all my counsell Prov. 1. 24 25. and going away they make a tush at it I saith one Master Minister you mette with mens hearts to day but I beleeve yours is as bad as anothers else how could you have hitte them so right see what the Spirit of God saith of such Isa 22. 21. In that day did the Lord call to weeping c. the text told them of a judgement and nothing to be expected but misery but they make a tush of it and say Come we shall all die ergo let us eate and drink and be merrie while we may the Minister tells us we shall all to hell then let us have the other pot and the other pipe if it must needs be so Oh my beloved can the God of heaven indure to be thus disgraced in his Gospell and Ministers Another sayes care I what the Minister saith I will goe and drinke at every Ale-house and see whether these judgements will come or no. Now I come to the fourth thing which is the grounds of it viz. Why the Lord in this life doth give men over and strive with them no more This truth is troublesome and cursed hearts cannot abide it The grounds of this point arise from these two Attributes of God his Justice and his Wisedome First from the Justice of God God is a just God and is it not just that those who have rejected him that he should reject them I have called but you answered not Jer. 7. 13. c. Now as it is just with God to fulfill every word that he hath spoken and to fulfill all his promises to the faithfull so is it just with God to bring judgement on them that have sleighted him and to fulfill all his threatnings Secondly From the Wisedome of God and his long-suffering and this is because his compassious faile not else the first day of our sinning had been the first day of our rejection yea it is his goodnesse that we have any favour but Oh our God is a wise God A man that knocks at the dore if he be wise will not alwaies lie knocking if none answer he gives over and goes away so the Lord knocks at our hearts by mercies to allure us by judgments to terrify us yet he can find no entrance Is it not wisdom then to be gone Why should I smite you any more saith God Isa 1. 5. As if he should say t is to no purpose I know not what to do with you with you it is wisedome to give over when there is no good to be done on you What could I have done more for my Vinyard c Isa 5. There is no wise man that will alwayes water a dâ—y stake And do you think that God wil alwayes be sending Paul to plant and Apollos to water No our God is a wise God and our mercifull God is a just God you that will have your wayes and wills take them and get you to hell and perish everlastingly Now in the fiâ—t place we come to the Objections Some say If we shall be damned then we must be damned if we shall be saved then we shall be saved why then neede we pray and keepe such a quoile as the Minister speaks of Secret things belong to the Lord but revealed things to us and to our children Deut. 29. 29. ergo doe thou use the meanes and be thou humbled according to the word of God and thou shalt be exalted according to the word of God see what God hath said to thee in his word for neither I nor thou nor the Angels of heaven can tell what the will of the Lord is concerning thee if not revealed in the word Another saith Why do you limit God you take too much upon you you sons of Levi. The Lord saith At what timy soever a sinner doth repent c. yet will you limit God T is true at what time soever a sinner doth repent but thy heart may be given over as Rom. 2. 4 5. c. and what if thou then livest twenty years or more and have not a heart to repent Another saith But I hope my time is not past for the Lord hath given me a tender heart Hath he so it is well and wilt thou then harden it thou mayest repent when it is too late and ergo I tell thee that good and holy desires are joyned with honest endeavours neede makes the old wiâ—e trot as we say so a soft heart will make thee use all good and honest means Seeing that God strives with many and at last gives over goe thou home and blesse God that he hath not dealt so with thee it is enough that the Lord hath brought thee home to himselfe many may say with Paul I was a persecutor I was injurious c. 1 Tim. 1. 14. but I received mercy so thou