O Israel who is like unto the O People Saved by the Lord. That was in the Type Resemblance only but here is the Truth and Substance of Shadowes those Shadowes Accomplished in the Purchase of Christ or his faithful ones who are Saved not from the Oppression of a Pharaoh but from the Power of Darkness and Dominion of the Divel not delivered from the house of Bondage but from the bottome of Hell Blessed are ye O ye beleeving Souls your Excellencie is incomparble your Privilidges are inconceivable Who is like unto you O People thus blessed and saved by the Lord. The Wicked are not the World is not it is not so with them they have the Gleanings you have the Harvest they may have Rivers of Oyl but you the Rivers of Pleasures at the right hand of the Lord Nay now while you are in this World Al is yours All that the Obedience of Christ could procure Al that the Blood the precious Blood of Christ could Purchase precious Grace and Peace precious Comfort and Assurance precious Holiness and Glory Excellent things are not only spoken of you but done for you you blessed Beleeving Soules Hence it is when Moses would plead the Priviledges of the Saints he stands upon terms of comparison 〈◊〉 challengeth al the World to shew the like Eminency of Gods love upon Earth again Deut. 4 33 34 35 36 37. Did ever People partake of such Good as 〈◊〉 Purchased for you hath God essayed to go and take 〈◊〉 himself a Nation from among the Nations shal I say by Tempations Signs and Wonders to bring 〈◊〉 out of Egipt No no it was not from the house of Bondage from the tyranny of Pharaoh nor from Death and Miseries outward but from the bottom of Hel the tyranny of Sin the power of the Devil from everlasting Death and Condemnation 〈◊〉 this not by making Water become Blood but by making Happiness to become Misery God to become Man and Life it self Christ Jesus the 〈◊〉 of Life to die that he might restore thee to Life and Glory Go therefore ye blessed Beleeving Servants of the Lord go on comfortably and the blessing of Heaven go with you know your Priviledges and be for ever quieted and contented 〈◊〉 Fret not you at the prosperity of the Wicked be 〈◊〉 troubled at their Pomp since your portion is far 〈◊〉 and of incomparable Excellencie When the Father had entertained his prodigal Son after 〈◊〉 return with a Gold Ring change of 〈◊〉 and 〈◊〉 fatted Calfe the elder Son began to mutter 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 shew his 〈◊〉 the answer was reasonable 〈◊〉 exceeding satisfactory Son thou art ever with 〈◊〉 and all that I have is thine Luke 15. 31. So here Suffer the Dogs to gnaw the bones and 〈◊〉 to have their scraps let 〈◊〉 have the Gold Ring to adorne them and the fatted Calfe to feed and 〈◊〉 upon but know al you Beleevers al that is 〈◊〉 Earth al that is in Heaven al that the Father 〈◊〉 that 〈◊〉 hath al the Mercy of a Father the edemption of a Jesus the Consolations of the 〈◊〉 al these are yours you cannot have more you 〈◊〉 be better me thinks you should not be I 〈◊〉 almost said you cannot but be for ever 〈◊〉 and Contented And now al you that sit by and here of al this 〈◊〉 thinks your hearts should sink within you 〈◊〉 that never knew what it was to be Humbled 〈◊〉 to be Called and to Beleeve in Christ 〈◊〉 al is gone before you Beleevers have al 〈◊〉 therefore and arise to follow hard after 〈◊〉 Lord that you also may be Humbled that you 〈◊〉 may be Called and Comforted and for ever 〈◊〉 by Jesus Christ. This wil be the plague of 〈◊〉 damned in Hell They shal see Abraham and 〈◊〉 and Jacob and all the Saints of God in Heaven 〈◊〉 themselves cast out You shal see al those poor 〈◊〉 whom you have known in the Townes and 〈◊〉 where you have lived you wil see them go to Heaven and your selves cast out O therefore 〈◊〉 you would give God no rest nor your owne 〈◊〉 no quiet til you have got a beleeving heart Why have Beleevers al this have they Christ and 〈◊〉 and Pardon and Peace and Glory and 〈◊〉 and all say Lord why not I a Beleever too 〈◊〉 I see no reason but you may God affords you 〈◊〉 and you may be wrought upon by the Means 〈◊〉 ought I know therefore seek earnestly to the 〈◊〉 that you also may be brought in amongst the 〈◊〉 of Beleevers for whom al this good is Purchased by Jesus Christ. The Doctrine delivered dasheth that dream and 〈◊〉 that false opinion wherewith many carnal hearted men are easily and willingly taken 〈◊〉 who fondly perswade themselves that Christ died for al and Purchased both Grace and Glory mankind indifferently for Cain as wel as Abell Esau as wel as Jacob for Judas as wel as Peter that al that spiritual good that any of the Saints ver share in it was al intended to them al 〈◊〉 sed for them al provided for their good but the out of the perversness of their own wills 〈◊〉 that Physick that would have cured them 〈◊〉 upon the blood of the Covenant that was shed 〈◊〉 their Redemption A conceit cross to the 〈◊〉 formerly delivered and thereby confuted and 〈◊〉 demned but an opinion it is which 〈◊〉 derogates from the Justice of God the 〈◊〉 of the Lord Jesus the glory of his Free 〈◊〉 which is Childrens bread and appoynted ouly 〈◊〉 peculiar kindness for his own People yet by 〈◊〉 erroneous imagination is prostituted under the 〈◊〉 of a company of prophane beasts This universalitie of Redemption makes way 〈◊〉 universalitie of Corruption and these sensual 〈◊〉 deceiving men make the gate of Mercy and 〈◊〉 so wide that so they find room not only 〈◊〉 themselves but to carry their sins to Heaven 〈◊〉 them also But such shal one day find by 〈◊〉 experience they befooled themselves and fel 〈◊〉 of their hopes and expectations when they 〈◊〉 know to their terrour that the Lord Jesus was 〈◊〉 so lavish of his blood as to spil it in vain 〈◊〉 he should miss of his end or they of their good 〈◊〉 whom it was shed though they ery never so 〈◊〉 knock never so hard Lord Lord open 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 they 〈◊〉 have no other answer but that 〈◊〉 from 〈◊〉 know you not 〈◊〉 workers of iniquitie Math. 7. 23. I never prayed for you I never dyed for you 〈◊〉 is that which will sink the hearts and dash the 〈◊〉 of al unbeleeving self deceiving Creatures Is there 〈◊〉 rich Grace plentiful Redemption abundant 〈◊〉 Merits unvaluable in the Lord Jesus True 〈◊〉 that 's thy misery thou shalt see it but never be 〈◊〉 partaker thereof Thou shalt not tast of those 〈◊〉 dainties the Lord hath provided for his 〈◊〉 as long as thou remainest in that unbeleeving 〈◊〉 thy doom is set thy sentence is
in our 〈◊〉 and sinful souls Why he will he hath said it he hath 〈◊〉 it he wil perform it and therefore let us consider our own unworthiness to receive Christ as a motive to stir us up to make preparation for Christ for the baser the place is that should entertain him the greater the preparation should be We ought to wonder that the Lord will vouchsafe to come into our sinful souls and therefore we had need prepare the more for his comming The Lord hath promised to come into our souls if we humble them and make them fitting to entertain his Majesty therefore sweep your hearts and clense those rooms clense every sink and brush down every cobweb and make room for Christ for if thy heart be prepared and divorced from all Corruptions then Christ will come and take possession of it A Second Motive that may stir us up to prepare for the Lord Jesus is To consider who it is that we are to prepare for Here we have Three Things 1 Consider the worthiness of the Person in regard of whom all preparation may seem too little you are not to entertain an ordinary person it is not a man it is not a King it is not an earthly Monarch but it is the King of Kings that will come into your souls to comfort them yea his holy and blessed Spirit will remain with you for ever Therefore do all that possible may be done to prepare for his comming and for the entertainment and welcoming of him when he comes In Psal. 24. 7. David calls 〈◊〉 his own soul for so the words are to be expounded Lift up your heads O ye gates and be ye lifted up you everlasting doors and the King of Glory shall come in As who should say Be enlarged Love Joy Hope Desire and All that is within me set open give way for the Lord is coming But who is the Lord It is the Lord of Hosts the Lord strong and mighty the Lord mighty in battel vers 8. And with that he knocks again Lift up your heads O ye gates and be ye 〈◊〉 ye everlasting doors for the King of 〈◊〉 shall come 〈◊〉 vers 9. As if he should say What! Shall the Lord knock Shall the King of Glory stand Open 〈◊〉 and make all preparation Did David do thus Why do you do 〈◊〉 then Christ knocks by Promises he knocks by Judgements he knocks by Threats yea he speaks this day unto your souls and labors this day to make way for himself Make therefore all preparation let nothing be wanting that when he comes he may take 〈◊〉 of your souls and be a God unto you for ever 2 Consider all that good that Jesus Christ brings with him and that should move you for all the good that we need or can desire to make us happy he will bring with him when he comes to take 〈◊〉 of the Soul The Lord comes into our Souls not to trouble us and charge us no he comes to bring everlasting Salvation and happiness to our Souls Look what Christ said to 〈◊〉 Luke 19. 5. 8 9. when he went up into a Sycamore-tree to see him Make haste and come down Zacheus saith he for I must abide with thee in thy house Zacheus makes no cavilling nor no tarrying but made haste and came down and received him joyfully And mark what Christ said unto him This day Salvation is come to thy house So likewise it shall be with you when Christ comes everlasting Happiness and Salvation comes with him and therefore if you do not make preparation for him you refuse Salvation and Happiness that is offered to your Souls by him Amos 4. 12. when the Lord had sent many Plagues and Judgments upon Jerusalem he saith Thus will I do unto thee Oh Israel and because I will do thus unto thee therefore prepare to meet thy God O Israel I will do thus unto thee that is I will send Mildews and Pestilence and War and Famine amongst you I will draw you out with Hooks and your Posterity with Fish-hooks And what followeth Prepare to meet thy God Oh Israel If God come against us to plague us we must prepare to meet him Reason then with your own Souls Should the Lord come in Judgement to punish us if we ought to prepare to meet him then what preparation ought we to make for his coming when he shall not come thus in Judgement to condemne us but in mercy to save us in his goodness to enrich us in his compassion to comfort us Then now if ever prepare to meet thy God O Israel Let every heart perswade it self in this particular Is Christ so gracious and so merciful doth he send from Heaven unto us and say he will come in Behold saies he I stand at the door and knock and if any man will hear my voyce and open unto me my Father and I will come in and sup with him He will come in himself and bring all the good things of Grace and Glory with him for the everlasting refreshing of our Souls Why Where are your hearts in the mean time Therfore if ever now prepare to meet the Lord Jesus bringing Salvation with him 3 Consider again How the Lord Jesus entreats you and beseeches you to receive him he that might command you and condemne you for refusing beseeches you to entertain him 2 Cor. 5. 20. We as Ambassadors in Christs stead beseech you that you would be reconciled to God that is That you would prepare to meet God willing to be reconciled to you in Christ and that you would come to his terms Consider our Savior Christ hath taken a great journey from Heaven to Earth to save us miserable wretched sinners conceive you saw those 〈◊〉 of blood trickling down his cheeks conceive you saw him upon the Cross with his hands thrust through with Nayls and his side pierced with a Spear enduring the wrath of God for our sins and behold now he standeth at the door and saith with the Church Lam. 1. 22. Is it nothing to you have you no regard O you that pass by behold and see if there be any sorrow like unto my sorrow c. Imagine you heard Christ say I have suffered these and these things for you these hands of mine were nayled this side of mine was pierced this heart of mine was melted with anguish of Spirit Imagine you saw Christ standing and knocking at the door of your hearts as indeed he doth and say Hoe all you within there all you proud hearts all you covetous and malicious hearts Have you no regard to a Savior a Crucified Savior He that died for you and now laboreth to do good to your Souls Will not this move you to prepare your hearts for him and let him in Will you suffer the Lord Jesus to stand knocking and calling and weeping and saying as he said to Jerusalem Luke 19. 42. Oh that thou hadst known even thou at least in this thy
Psal. 19. 7. the law of God makes wise the simple 2. Tim. 3. 15. it's able to make us wise unto Salvation 3 There 's a Sufficiency of God to content and satisfy us Blessed are they who walk in his wayes and blessed are they that keep his Testimonies Psal. 119. 1. 2. Great prosperity have they that love the law and nothing shal offend them ver 16. and in truth there can be no greater reward for doing wel than to be enabled to do well he that hath attayned his last end he cannot go further he cannot be better Now by sin we justle the law out of its place and the Lord out of his Glorious Soveraignty pluck the Crown from his head and the Seepter out of his hand and we say and profess by our practice there is not authority and power there to govern nor wisdom to guide nor good to content me but I wil be swayed by mine own wil and led by mine own deluded reason and satisfied with my own lusts This is the guise of every graceless heart in the commission of sin so Pharaoh who is the Lord I know not the Lord nor will I lett Israel go Exod. 5. 2. in the time of their prosperity see how the Jews turn their backs and shake off the authority of the Lord we are Lords say 〈◊〉 we will come no more at thee Jer. 2. 31. and our tongues are our own who shal be Lords 〈◊〉 us Psal. 12. 4. So for the wisdom of the world see how they set light by it as not worth the looking after it Jer. 18. 12. we wil walk after our own devices we wil every one do the imagination of his own evil heart yea they sett up their own traditions their own Idols and delusions and Lord it over the law making the command of God of none effect Math. 15. 8. 9. So for the goodness of the word Job 22. 17. Mal. 3. 14. It is in vayn to serve God and what profit is there that we have kept his ordinances yea his Commandemnts are ever grievous It s a grievous thing to the loose person he cannot have his pleasures but he must have his guilt and gall with them It s grievous to the worlding that he cannot lay hold on the world by unjust means but Conscience layes hold upon him as breaking the law Thou that knowest and keepest thy pride and stubbornness and thy distempers know assuredly thou dost justle God out of the Throne of his glorious Soveraignty and thou dost profess Not Gods wil but thine own which is above his shall rule thee thy 〈◊〉 reason and the folly of thy mind is above the wisdome of the Lord and that shal guide thee to please thine own stubborn crooked pervers spirit is a greater good than to please God and enjoy happines for this more Contents thee That when thou considerest but thy Course dost thou not wonder that the great and Terrible God doth not pash such a poor insolent worm to pouder and send thee packing to the pitt every moment 2 It smites at the Essence of the Almighty and the desire of the sinner is not only that God should not be supream but that indeed he should not be at all and therefore it would destroy the being of Jehovah Psal. 81. 15. sinners are called the haters of the Lord. John 15. 24. they hated both me and my Father Now he that hates endeavours if it be possible the annihilation of the thing hated and its most certain were it in their power they would pluck God out of Heaven the light of his truth out of their Consciences and the law out of the Societies and Assemblies where they live that they might have elbow room to live as they list Nay what ever they hate most and intend and plott more evil against in al the world they hate God most of all and intend more evil against him than against all their 〈◊〉 besides because they hate all for his sake therefore wicked men are said to destroy the law Psal. 126. 119. the Adulterer loaths that law that condemns uncleaness the Earthworm would destrow that law that forbids Covetousness they are sayd to hate the light John 3. 21. to hate the Saints and Servants of the Lord John 15. 18. the world hates you he that hates the Lanthorn for the lights sake he hates the light much more he that hates the faithful because of the Image of God and the Grace that appears there he hates the God of all Grace and Holiness most of all so God to Zenacharib Isa. 37. 28. I know thy going out and thy Comming in and thy rage against me Oh it would be their content if there was no God in the world to govern them no law to curbe them no justice to punish no truth to trouble them Learn therfore to see how far your rebellions reach It is not arguments you gainsay not 〈◊〉 Counsel of a Minister you reject the command of a 〈◊〉 ye oppose evidence of rule or reason ye 〈◊〉 but be it known to you you fly in the very face of the Almighty and it is not the Gospel of Grace ye would have destroyed but the spirit of Grace the author of Grace the Lord Jesus the God of all Grace that ye hate It crosseth the whol course of Providence perverts the work of the Creature and defaceth the beautiful frame and that sweet correspondence and orderly usefulness the Lord first implanted in the order of things The Heavens deny their influence the Earth her strength the Corn her nourishment thank sin for that Weeds come instead of herbs Cockle and Darnel instead of Wheat thank sin for that Rom. 8. 22. The whol Creature or Creation grones under vanity either cannot do what it would or else misseth of that good and end it intended breeds nothing but vanity brings forth nothing but vexation It crooks all things so as that none can straiten them makes so many wants that none can supply them Eccles. 1. 15. This makes crooked Servants in a family no 〈◊〉 can rule them 〈◊〉 inhabitants in towns crooked members in Congregations ther 's no ordering nor joynting of them in that comly accord and mutual subjection know they said the adversary sin hath done all this Man was the mean betwixt God and the Creature to convey all good with all the constancy of it and therefore when Man breaks Heaven and Earth breaks all asunder the Conduit being cracked and displaced there can be no conveyance from the Fountain In regard of our selves see we and consider nakedly the nature of sin in Four particulars It s that which makes a separation between God and the soul breaks that Union and Communion with God for 〈◊〉 we were made and in the enjoyment of which we should be blessed and happie Isai. 59. 1. 2. Gods ear is not heavy that it cannot hear nor his hand that it cannot help but your iniquities have separated betwixt God and
〈◊〉 that would not be enlightened leave them to the hardness of their hearts that would not be converted He wil not alwaies strive who hath stood so long and knocked so often thou shalt see him no more quickening awing affecting of thee Or if thou hast a heart to seek in thy manner who knows whether God will accept it or no Thou wouldest not regard his 〈◊〉 and 〈◊〉 and he wil not respect thy prayers and 〈◊〉 Prov. 1. 28. Then shall they call but I will not answer they shall seek me early but they shall not find me Hebr. 12. 17. Esau found no place of repentance though he sought it carefully with tears nay he may send thee as he did the Israelits to the Idols of thy heart Jer. 2. 28. But where are thy gods that thou hast made let them arise and save 〈◊〉 But Lastly if I cannot satisfy for my evills yet out of his bounty and mercy he may abate me of the Plagues the mercies of God are great and his compassions large and thus the mercies of God who were provided to bring men from their corruptions to 〈◊〉 through the abuse of carnal hearts become means to make them secure in their dregs Deuter. 29. 19. when al the plagues were threatned yet they bless themselves and say I shal have peace though I walk in the imaginations of my evil heart So they in Isaiah made a Covenant with death and Hell The sin against mercy is one of the greatest sins that ever thou committest Thou turnest the grace of God into 〈◊〉 Jude 4. and such are ordained of ould unto condemnation thou despisest mercy and abusest it thou shalt therefore be condemned by mercy not saved by it God must not be just and so not God if he save thee without satisfaction to his justice The Lord cannot wrong himself to relieve thee dishonor himself to deliver thee Exod. 34. 7. He will by no means Celar the guilty It s one of his names and himself and he cannot deny himself and if his justice be not satisfyed thy plagues cannot be abated If a carnal man sees he cannot prevent the danger of sin then he sayes I will bear it if I be damned I will suffer it as I may if it come to the 〈◊〉 Let me have my sins though the Devil have my soul let me have the sweet of the pleasures of sin in this world though I never see the face of God in Glory this is a most forlorn and divellish resolution But dost thou know what thou sayest true thou shalt bear thy damnation but thou art never able to bear it without breaking under it being helpless and hopeless forever O woe to thee that ever thou wert born O poor creature If I should cease speaking and al of us joyn together in weeping and lamenting thy condition it were the best course It is impossible thou shouldest ever bear Gods wrath Let these three things be considered Judg the Lion by the Paw judg the torments of Hel by some little beginnings of it and the dregs of Gods vengeance by some little sips of it and judg how unable thou art to bear the whol by thy inability to bear a little of it in this life In terror of Conscience as the wise man saies A wounded spirit who can bear When God layes the flashes of hell fire upon thy soul thou canst not endure it Whatsoever a man can inflict upon a poor wretch may be born but when the Almighty comes in battel array against a poor soul how can he undergo it Wittness the Saints that felt it as also the wicked themselves who have had some beginnings of hell in their 〈◊〉 when the Lord hath let in horror into the soul of a poor sinner how is he transported with an insupportable burthen When it is day he wisheth it were night and when it is night he wisheth it were day all the freinds in the world cannot comfort him nay many have sought to hang themselves to do any thing rather than to suffer a little of the vengeance of the Almighty and one man is roaring and yelling as if he were now in Hell already and admits of no comfort if the drops be so heavy what wil the whol Sea of Gods Vengeance be If he cannot bear the one how can he bear the other Consider thine own strength and compare it with all the strength of the Creatures and so if all the Creatures be not able to bear the wrath of the Almighty as Job saies Job 6. 12. Is my strength the strength of stones or is my flesh as brass that must bear thy wrath as if he had said it must be a stone or brass that must bear thy wrath Though thou wert as strong as brass or stones thou could'st not bear it when the mountains tremble at the wrath of the Lord shal a poor worm or bubble and shadow endure it Conceive thus much If al the Diseases in the world did seize upon one man and if all the torments that all the Tyrants in the world could devise were cast upon him and if all the Creatures in Heaven and Earth did conspire the destruction of this man and if all the Devils in Hell did labor to inflict punishment upon him you would think this man to be in a miserable case and yet al this is but a beam of Gods Indignation If the beams of his wrath be so hot what is the full Sun of his Wrath when it shal seize upon the soul of a sinful creature in ful measure Nay If yet thou thinkest to lift up thy self above all Creatures and to bear more than they all Then set before thine eyes the sufferings of our Lord Jesus Christ he that creates the Heavens and upholds the whol frame thereof when the wrath of God came upon him only as a Surety he cries out with his Eyes ful of tears and his heart ful of sorrow and the Heavens ful of lamentation My God my God why hast thou forsaken me Matth. 27. 46. Oh thou poor creature if thou hast the heart of a man gird up the loyns of thy mind and see what thou canst do Dost thou think to bear that which the Lord Jesus could not bear without so much sorrow yet he did endure it without any sin or weakness He had three sips of the Cup and every one of them did sink his soul and art thou a poor sinful wretch able to bear the wrath of God for ever Yield unto the Evidence of the Truth thus 〈◊〉 beyond all opposition and gainsaying and sit down in silence under the Authority of it and let it settle upon thy soul neither question it any more nor hear any thing against it when it hath been heard formerly so fully scanned and determined upon such undeniable grounds Shut the door against the appearance of any sinful shifts admit no conference with carnal reason any further Say that coast is cleer that case is
procure it  3 There is no Promise made to a Natural man  Uses three hence Matter of  1 Thanksgiving 〈◊〉 the 〈◊〉 of Grace  2 〈◊〉 to 〈◊〉 sinners in the sight of their sins and 〈◊〉  3 Exhortation to such as want and are seeking mercy to stay Gods time and wait his pleasure  DOCT. 2. VVhile this life lasts and the Gospel is continued that 's the day of Salvation  1. The time of this Life the time of getting Grace 241 Reason Because after this Life  1 The Sentence past is irrevocable  2 The condition of a man is unchangable  2 While the 〈◊〉 is 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Reason 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Gods 〈◊〉  In regard  1 Of the Causes and means which are then afforded  2 Of the effect and work it self which is then wrought  3 Of the subject the persons wrought upon  Uses three hence  1 Learn That long life is a great blessing  2 Caution To fortifie our selves against self-murder  3 Exhortation to improve the time of Salvation  1 It is a Season 251 2 It is a short one but a day  3 A Season not of our but of Gods acceptation  4 It is a day of Salvation  BOOK V. On Matth. 20. 5 6 7. He went out about the sixth ninth and eleventh hour and hired Laborers  DOCT. God calls his Elect at any Age but the most before old Age. 〈◊〉 1 God calls his at any Age some in yonger some in elder yeers  〈◊〉  1 To shew the freeness of his Grace  2 To shew 〈◊〉 Power  〈◊〉 God calls the most before old Age viz. In their yonger or middle 〈◊〉  Reasons Because that 's the fittest Age in regard of  1 The Subject For  1 The Faculties are then most capable of being wrought upon  2 Corruptions are not so strongly rooted  2 The End why Grace is given viz. the Glory of God  Uses three hence 271 1 Instruction Be not rash in censuring the 〈◊〉 Estate of any  Though we may judg of their present state by their fruits  2 Consolation to support aged sinners though it 's not ordinary yet possible they may be converted then 276 3 Exhortation to yonger men take 〈◊〉 present time defer not till old Age if you do  1 Either you will never attain it  2 Or it will be uncomfortable if you do  Motives to provoke such Consider  1 What good you may do while you live  2 What Comfort you will have at your death  3 What your Glory will be in Heaven  BOOK VI. On Revel 3. 17. Thou sayest thou art rich when thou art poor and miserable c.  DOCT. The soul is naturally setled in a sinful security 285 1 The sinner 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 in his Condition  2 He 〈◊〉 no 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 present  3 He 〈◊〉 none 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 future  4 Hence 〈◊〉 puts his condition beyond question  5 And therefore 〈◊〉 scorns  6 And openly 〈◊〉 an alteration of his estate  Reasons three taken from 292 1 The 〈◊〉 of sin  2 The 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 the soul  3 〈◊〉 and Self-ease  Uses four 〈◊〉 295 1 See the reason why sharp and soul-saving preaching 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 little acceptance Because it awakens men out of security  2 It 's the 〈◊〉 plague for a man to be let alone in his sins  3 〈◊〉 as never were 〈◊〉 and awakened to 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 of their 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 yet in it  4 〈◊〉 to 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Such should  1 Suspect their 〈◊〉  2 〈◊〉 about it  3 Yield that 〈◊〉 the present their condition 〈◊〉 〈◊〉  BOOK VII 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 the slesh is enmity against the Lord and is not subject to his Law  DOCT. The frame of the whol heart of a Natural man is wholly unwilling to submit to the VVord that would sever him from his sins 305 1 He seeks not after truth  2 He is loth to meet with it  3 He stops the passage of it  4 He doth what he can to defeat the power and evidence of it  5 He will professedly oppose it  6 He will privily 〈◊〉 the stirrings of the Truth in his Conscience  Reasons four taken from 315 1 The Corruption of the will  2 The Revenging Justice of God  3 The power of Satan  4 The 〈◊〉 and neer alliance between the heart and sin  Uses sive hence  1 It 's the heaviest plague for a Natural man to have his own corrupt will  2 The will of a Natural man is the worst part 〈◊〉 him  3 The 〈◊〉 of a carnal man 〈◊〉 cross to sence and reason  4 Tryal of our estates by our 〈◊〉 or unwillingness to part with sin  He that is willing 331 1 He is speedy and 〈◊〉 in improving 〈◊〉 〈◊〉  2 He takes delight in those means that 〈◊〉 and work most  3 He is not content till his sin be removed  4 He takes not up his stand till he come at God  5 Exhortation Labor for willingness to part with sin 343 1 The greatest and hardest work lies with the wil.  2 Beleaguer the heart with the evidence of Truth  3 Look up to God that he would work upon the heart  BOOK VIII On John 6. 44. None can come to me but whom the Father draws  DOCT. God the Father by a holy kind of 〈◊〉 plucks his out of their corruptions and draws them to beleeve in Christ. 349 This work of Attraction is a transient work 〈◊〉 both these  1 Plucking from sin  2 And drawing to Christ are handled together  For Explication six Particulars  The sorts of drawing two  1 By moral Suasion  2 By Physical or internal operation  This latter is meant here 353 The proper Nature of this drawing it 's the motion or impression of the Spirit upon the Soul not any habit in it or act put forth by it to 〈◊〉 with the Spirit 355 The means how God works and by wich he draws  These are four 355 1 By a hook of Instruction shewing a man that he is out of the way to Heaven  2 By the Cords of Love shewing that Christ and Mercy are  1 Able to 〈◊〉 him  2 Willing to save him  3 Are freely offered for that end  4 The Lord waits to see when the sinner will come  3 By the Iron Chains of Conscience  1 Warning  2 Accusing  3 Condemning  4 By the hand of the Spirit himself  How the holy violence in drawing the Soul from sin to Christ may be discerned in four Conclusions 373 1 The will of man as such is a subject capable of sin and Grace successively  2 The faculty of the will cannot actually
the soul let the best obects be presented the most perswasive and strongest 〈◊〉 pressed to a man under the power of his sins 〈◊〉 these wil never prevail with him Let God come 〈◊〉 Heaven and preach to Cain Gen. 4. 6. 7. Let our Savior preach to and weep over Jerusalem with many tears O Jerusalem how often would I have gathered thee Mat. 23. 37. Let Judas live in the Family of Christ yet if there be no more but an ordinary power Cain wil be Cain and Judas wil be Judas and go to Hell for all this For 1 The Soveraignty of Mans 〈◊〉 Will is such that it exceedeth all created power in Heaven and Earth Amos Chap. 4. See what conclusions the Lord there tries upon the rebellious Israelites I 〈◊〉 given you cleanness of teeth and want of bread 〈◊〉 6. I have witholden the rain from you vers 7. I 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 you with blasting vers 9. I have sent among you the 〈◊〉 and overthrown you as Sodom vers 10. 11. And still this is added at the end of every instance Yet ye have not returned to me Rev. 16. 11. They blasphemed the God of Heaven because of their pains and sores and they repented not Dan. 9. 13. All this evill is come upon us yet made we not our prayer c. The Seventy years Captivity was ended but their repentance was to begin When the Jews had travailed forty years in the Wilderness and been spectators of the wonders of God yet they wanted a heart to turn unto their God Deut. 29. 4. There is nothing but God that made the Will that is above the Will and can bow it and frame it to the obedience of his own Will 2 Besides the strength of the corrupt Will look we at the power of Satan that hath possession of the soul Mat. 12. 29. The Devill is said to be as a strong man that keeps the house till a stronger than be comes and binds him he improves al his policy and power to the utmost to keep the soul under the power of it's sins and there is no created policy or power above that of Satan He is only subject to the Almighty power of God to be driven out and 〈◊〉 thereby Look to the nature of that good which the soul is to be made partaker of It 's a supernatural good That which eye hath not seen nor ear heard nor can it enter into the heart of man what the Lord hath prepared for those that love him 1 Cor. 2. 9. It 's meant not only of the things of glory but the things of grace Now a man is naturally and wholly corrupted and possessed with sin Jo. 3. 6. That which is born of 〈◊〉 is flesh that which comes by Generation is but either nature or corruption Gal. 5. 19. The flesh lusteth against the spirit Therefore it is beyond the power of the flesh to close with the spirit because contrary thereunto therefore Paul concludeth it Rom. 7. 14. The law is spiritual and I am carnal sold under sin Again that which must lift up Nature to act above its self must be something above nature for nothing can act beyond its own sphere and compass Trees grow but they have not sence Beasts have sence but not reason Devils have 〈◊〉 but they cannot close with God That that must cause the Dog not to return to his vomit again must change the nature of a Dog into a Lamb It 's beyond the power of darkness to bring light so 〈◊〉 It must be as the Apostle expresseth it 2 Cor. 4. 6. God who commanded the light to shine out of darkness that must shine into our hearts to give the light of the glory of God in the face of Christ. 〈◊〉 is the 〈◊〉 of power not only to work something out of nothing but something out of that which is contrary to it And therefore this work of the Application of Redemption to a lost sinner is harder than the work of Creation it self for as the Lord had nothing then to help him so he had nothing to hinder him in Creating the World but here the Lord must take 〈◊〉 the heart of stone he must turn the heart of flint into a heart of flesh he must cause light to shine out of darkness and work one contrary out of another Why then are commands so frequent it Scripture as make you a new heart and a new spirit Ezek. 18. 31. Turn ye turn ye why will you die Ezek. 33. 11. Beleeve in the Lord Jesus and thou shalt be saved Acts 16. 31. If a man have no power to turn himself to what purpose are these commands if there be need of an Almighty power to work these why are they required of us 1 These and the like commands of God in Scripture do shew not what we can do but what we should do not what our ability is but what our duty is and what would be acceptable to the Lord if we could perform the same 2 When the Lord gives a command together with the command he gives a power unto al his Elect to enable them to obey the command as when he commanded Lazarus to come forth Jo. 5. 20. 3 When we are commanded to return to repent and beleeve the meaning is not that we of our selves by our selves and our own power should do this but thus that we should be content that the Lord should work in us what he requires of us we should lie under the stroke of the truth and receive the powerfull impression of the spirit and be content to be made able The Third Proposition We have heard 1 That God himself is the Principal Cause of Application and 2 That the Power which he puts forth in this Work is an Almighty Power Now Thirdly Those means which the Lord is pleased to appoint and to use are the instrumental causes of Application This meets directly with that vain conceit of the Familists Doth the Lord do all the Work it seems then a man may sit still and do nothing nothing is required of us there is nothing for us to do It was a wise speech of one of the Antients He that created thee without thy self will not save thee without thy self know therefore we must God by his Almighty Power is the Principal Cause and those means that he hath appointed are the Instrumental Causes These are First The Word accompanied by the presence and operation of the Spirit Isa. 59. 21. My Word and my Spirit shall never depart away from thee The word he hath sanctified and promised to accompany for this great Work and it is the Word of the Gospel mainly which makes this Application for our good He hath left an Impression of his own 〈◊〉 upon it It is called the Ministration of the Spirit 〈◊〉 of Life 2 Cor. 3. 6 7 8. but the Law is a killing Letter it shews a man what he is and what he 〈◊〉 but the Gospel shews the means
the first step to Christianity If any man will be my 〈◊〉 let him deny him self and follow me Matt. 16. 24. Where there is no denying of a mans self there can be no following of Christ. That God should give al to me work all by me and take al from me this is to seek the glory that comes from God only this is my honor when I am willing that God should honor himself upon me and by me 2 If seeking honor from man and faith cannot stand together then the sovereignty of this sinfull distemper must be renounced as cross to Grace and Christ before we can receive Faith or Christ by Faith The like place you have John 6. 44. Uttered and expressed upon the same ground and occasion and tending to the same end When the Pharisees despised the Person and quarrelled with the Word of our Savior Christ Is not this Jesus the Son of Joseph whose Father and Mother we know how is it that he saith I came down from Heaven vers 42. That which they saw not understood not that they would not entertain our Savior shews the reason of this wretched rebellion of heart No man can come to me unless the Father which hath sent me draw him unless the Father who hath called our Savior and committed the great Work of Salvation to him and sent him to that purpose by a holy constraint draw the rebellious 〈◊〉 out of himself to Christ he will not he cannot come unto him comming is Beleeving drawing is Preparing when God the Father lets in his heavy displeasure into the soul of a sinner to force him to seek out to Christ for present relief there is else no way but perrishing this is that that causes him to go out to Christ. It is hence plain 1 Unless a man be Drawn there is 〈◊〉 Comming 2 He that is Drawn will certainly 〈◊〉 Without Preparing there is no Beleeving and he that is Prepared will undoubtedly come and Beleeve It 's the scope of that 〈◊〉 and the very aim of the parrable No man can enter into a strong mans house before he first bind the strong man and then 〈◊〉 possession of the house 12. Matt. 29. The house is the heart the strong man is Satan who takes possession thereof and rules in the soul by means of 〈◊〉 the binding of this strong man is taking away of the over ruling claim and challenge that Satan by 〈◊〉 laies to the soul and by vertue whereof he acts it and carries it to the commission of evill 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 while our Savior by a superior right of 〈◊〉 by 〈◊〉 precious blood laies claim to the soul this soul is mine he binds Satans hands brings to nought and disanulls his claims and so spoyls him of 〈◊〉 that rule and tyranny he exerciseth in the soul. It 's the meaning of that order appointed by God in the work of Conversion and 〈◊〉 the soul to himself Acts 26. 18. To 〈◊〉 them from darkness 〈◊〉 light from the power of 〈◊〉 to God first from the one then to the other Take also Two Réasons of the Point If there be not Preparation before implantation then the soul is implanted into Christ while it is in the state of Nature under the command of Sin and Power of Satan and setled in it self For upon this ground and by this grant to be implanted into Christ and to be at the same time unprepared do stand together But that is utterly impossible as apparantly contradicting the Principles of Reason for then it should be under the power of sin and Christ at once in the Kingdom of Light and Darkness together in Hell and Heaven 〈◊〉 the same time a Subject to our Savior and a Subject to his corruption and so a man might serve two contrary Masters fully 〈◊〉 to the Verdict of our Savior Christ You 〈◊〉 serve two Masters Mat. 6. 24. 〈◊〉 at the same time should be affirmed of the same thing If it be light then it 's darkness The Second Reason is taken from Rom. 11. 24. where the Apostle speaking of the Calling os the Gentiles speaks thus If thou wert cut out of the 〈◊〉 Tree which is wild by Nature and wert contrary 〈◊〉 Nature grafted into the true Olive Tree Every sinner is as a branch which grows Naturally upon Adams rebellion as upon the wild Olive the true Olive is the Lord Jesus the Second Adam and Head of the Covenant of Grace our calling is our engrafting into Christ the true Olive our preparation is as it were our cutting of us off by the knife of the Law If cutting in Nature is and in reason must be before engrafting then Preparing is before implanting but cutting is before engrafting in Nature and in Reason Ergo preparing is before implanting These Scriptures and these Reasons may suffice to give in Evidence for the settling and establishment of this Truth For Application this Doctrine serves to Instruct Reprove Examine and Exhort For our Instruction Hence we should receive it and beleeve it for an everlasting Truth That Christ cannot be united to the soul while it continues in the state of Nature and Infidelity The Doctrine formerly delivered and the Reasons alleadged for the proof thereof do force this Conclusion beyond gainsaying For if the sinner must be prepared and cut off from his Natural condition before his Implantation then while he is in his Natural and corrupt Estate there can be no union and communion with the Lord Jesus so the Apostle disputes 2 Cor. 6. 16. What communion is there between Light and Darkness Righteousness and Unrighteousness Christ and Belial wherefore he saith Come out from among them and be ye separate and touch no unclean thing and I will be your God We must come out of our distempers and corruptions before Christ will come if we touch any unclean thing Christ will not touch us that is unless we be divorced from all our 〈◊〉 so as not to touch them with the touch of a marriage affection so the Apostle 1 Cor. 7. 1. It 's not good for a man to touch a woman that is to be married to her we must thus be divorced before we can be married And we are the rather to have our hearts and judgments established in this Truth because the contrary Opinion to wit That Christ may be united to the soul remaining in the state of Corruption is a brooding Error that brings out a whol nest and company of delusions with it which will pollute and pervert the Judgment and defile our Practices in our dayly Conversations 1 This maintains the sinner in a careless and remorsless security and fondly perswades that which is so pleasing to the flesh that a man may keep his lusts and his Christ his comfort and his corruption together than which nothing is more contentfull to a carnall heart A Christ and a Lust A Christ and a proud heart A Christ and a World A Christ and a peevish Nature Oh
reason Where there is nothing but opposition and resistance between two there can be no union for all union implies 〈◊〉 and agreement there must be a mutual accord 〈◊〉 things on both hands before they can be made one Amos 3. 3. Can two walk together except they be agreed love tends to unity and 〈◊〉 the cause of it and that ever presupposeth some I keneis But 〈◊〉 man remaining in the state of Unbeleef and Corruption is wholly opposite to Christ and the work of his Spirit he is wholly Flesh John 3. 6. And the flesh lusts against the spirit and these are 〈◊〉 Gal. 4. 17. the wisdom of the flesh is 〈◊〉 against God it is not subject nor can be subject to the Law so far from closing with the work of the Spirit as it is not able to bear it The Scribes and 〈◊〉 rejected the counsel against themselues i. e. to their own 〈◊〉 Acts 7. 51. Ye stifnecked and 〈◊〉 hearted ye have ever resisted the Spirit of the Lord. Paul did no more than every Natural man would do Being mad saies he I persecuted that way The way of Christ and so Christ himself In a word It 's said of all and it 's true of all the best of the Saints take them in their Naturals ye were darkness Eph. 5. 10. darkness cannot but oppose light He that is acted wholly by the power of Infidelity he must resist the work of Faith and so the receiving of Christ by it There are but Two Covenants that ever God made with man touching his everlasting Estate The Covenant of Works or of the Law the Covenan of the Gospel and so of Grace and these two Covenants are so opposite that the one 〈◊〉 the other If it be of Works it is no more of Grace else Works were not Works If it be of Grace it is no more of 〈◊〉 else Grace were no more Grace Rom. 11. 6. Hence they are severed as far as blessing and cursing Gal. 3. 9 10. So then they which be of Faith are blessed with faithful Abraham For as many as are of the Works of the Law are under the Curse Now all men by Nature are Members and Heirs of the first Adam and therefore under his Covenant and under his Curse Rom. 7. 5. 8. Whilst we were in the 〈◊〉 the motions of sins which were by the Law did work in our Members to bring forth fruit unto death Those who are in Christ are under the Covenant of Grace and Life for he that hath the Son hath Life Hence I 〈◊〉 To be under two contrary Covenants of Law and Grace is impossible because so a man should be accursed and blessed at once But he that is in his corrupt Condition and state of Infidelity he is under the Covenant of Works he that is in Christ under the Covenant of Grace Hence followeth a Fifth Reason Who ever is under Grace over them sin shall not have Dominion Rom. 6. 14. Sin shall not have dominion over you for you are not under the Law but under Grace 〈◊〉 they who are in their natural condition and in the state of Unbeleef they are under the power and dominion of 〈◊〉 therefore they are not under Grace nor yet in Christ. This discovers the folly and dasheth the fond conceit of many carnal men who have framed a speedy way to Heaven in their own fancies through which yet never any had passage thither to wit they fondly imagine they have Christ and Mercy at command and that they can make a step to Heaven in the turning of a hand they 〈◊〉 not make such large provision or preparation before to tire out themselves with tedious and heart breaking sorrows and dayly remorse 〈◊〉 their dayly failings smal warning will serve 〈◊〉 mens turns Be it they love their lusts and practise them they harbor continually their noysom distempers in their souls express 〈◊〉 also in their lives they crave but the 〈◊〉 of 〈◊〉 few hours before their 〈◊〉 to fit themselves for their departure and happiness a few forced sighs faigned and formal confessions of their evils and howling for pardon out of the horror of their spirits now and then customarily adding a Lord have mercy on me they suppose they have made all even with God but if they can but get the Sacrament they conclude all is sure they must needs go post hast to Heaven if they can but say they beleeve Christ must comfort them cannot but save them No no Brethren the Word reveals none our Savior accepts of no such agreement he comes upon no such terms to bring any comfort with him unless any man should be so far forsaken of reason and sense as to imagine the Lord Jesus would carry the Drunkard and his Cups the Adulterer and his Harlots also the riotous Gamester his Cards and Dice Hawks and Hounds and all to Heaven together which is 〈◊〉 and incredible Oh! these men will one day find and that to their wo they cozened their own souls by their own folly whereas sound 〈◊〉 cost more the way must be prepared thy heart loosened rent and plucked away from thy corruptions before the Lord Jesus will vouchsafe once to look in upon thee No Harbenger before no King follows after where the heart is not 〈◊〉 for a Savior there is no hope to 〈◊〉 the presence of a Savior It 's the condition upon which his coming is promised and can be expected upon any sure ground It 's the order and connexion of things 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 hath set in the work of Grace Luke 3. 8. And all flesh shall see the 〈◊〉 of the Lord. The Copulative Particle And tells us the sight of Salvation depends upon that which went before when we see the mountains of Pride high and lofty imaginations levelled crooked perversness of our own spirits taken off and we made meek and tractable then there is some hope that Salvation will appear unto us but if any man will yet rear up mighty Bulwarks and strong holds of rebellion and hardness of heart and maintain those high imaginations sturdy distempers of pride security and carnal confidence he must know whoever he be that as yet he is not within the ken of mercy and though he look until his eyes 〈◊〉 in his head and his heart 〈◊〉 in his body he 〈◊〉 never come within a true sight of Salvation much less may he think ever to be made partaker of it why confer with thy own conscience Dost thou think it fit the King should lie in the Truckle-bed under a company of Traitors Is it reasonable the Lord 〈◊〉 should be an 〈◊〉 to thy lusts No certainly the gods that thou hast obeyed by those thou must be saved thou would have thy lusts but reject Christ thou shalt perish with them but the presence of the Lord Jesus thou canst not enjoy Let the 〈◊〉 man forsake his way and the unrighteous man 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 and return unto the Lord for he will
the Lord such need of Services that he must entertain in the worst hath he such need of Sacrifices that the 〈◊〉 and 〈◊〉 must serve his turn Let men judg Go offer now the 〈◊〉 and the 〈◊〉 unto thy 〈◊〉 will be accept it Mat. 1. 8. will he not loath thy Person and thy 〈◊〉 and can the great and glorious God take pleasure 〈◊〉 either Yea 〈◊〉 others were silent let thy own Conscience 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 in this case when these evil daies these dog 〈◊〉 come thou thy self shalt say I have no pleasure in them Caust thou for 〈◊〉 present that to the Lord which thou thy self 〈◊〉 Nay not only thy self but thy 〈◊〉 may seem to be weary of thy service thy pleasures have taken their leave the world and the delights thereof 〈◊〉 gone from thee thy unclean lusts have forsaken thy 〈◊〉 and languishing members blasphemy is departed from thy speechless tongue and shall the Lord have the Devils leavings When thus thou art become a burden to thy self a trouble to others and fit for nothing but to be fuel for the fire of Hell how 〈◊〉 is it to desire it how hard to conceive it that the holy wise and blessed God will make choyce of thee and therefore it is to be feared thou 〈◊〉 never 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 But Secondly I 〈◊〉 thou dost attain it it will he very uncomfortable when thou wilt be like 〈◊〉 that could not tast his meat for age so you will not be able to tast the sweetness of the Promises of Grace and Christ little or nothing A poor old man comes in and gets as near the Pulpit as he 〈◊〉 and listens but he saies he cannot hear he asks 〈◊〉 what was said they tell him Oh the great and precious Promises of Grace and Mercy and Christ saies he I did not hear them where are they and takes his Book and then takes his 〈◊〉 and looks 〈◊〉 child saies he I cannot see tell him of them presently after I cannot remember them And so you will be unfit for any Service to God as an old Journey-man that is but a 〈◊〉 so you will bungle at Prayer and Conference and in all the duties of Obedience and when God hath shewed mercy to you you will wonder and think if I had a thousand lives what could I do again for God but alas he can do little but sit down as a senceless spectacle of Gods everlasting compassions a wonder to himself and a warning to others not to defer 〈◊〉 till old Age it being then so uncomfortable and he so unfit for it And therfore 〈◊〉 little ones that are growing up to years of understanding you have the day before you if you do not take and improve the first of your time to repent and turn to God in God will require it of you beleeve it he will you may read in 2 Kings 2. 23 24. of a company of wicked children who mock'd the Prophet and the Lord sent two Bears amongst 〈◊〉 that devoured two and forty of them they might have said my Father caught me or I did not know what I did or I was but yong but none of all this would serve their turn they had their time to repent in but they spent that time in sin and wickedness and the Lord sent Bears among them to devour them and so he will deal with you that are careless impenitent wicked children beleeve it he will God hath thousands of Devils to torment you for ever if you go on and continue in your Natural condition without Jesus Christ. And you yong men your glass is now running and as yet you have the day before you My heart in with you al you that offer your selves willingly Oh remember your Creator in the daies of your youth before the evil daies of sickness and sorrow and age come upon you 〈◊〉 only say Three Things to you Consider what good you may do now A yong 〈◊〉 and a glorious Christian Your example may be leading to many that may know you and 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 you all the daies of their lives and 〈◊〉 you shall be going to Heaven in your old age 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 be able to say Lord here am I and the 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Children that thou hast given me you may 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 means to convert others and they will bless 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 in the day of their visitation 1 Pet. 2. 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 smell of your gracious speeches and holy 〈◊〉 will be as Lebanon that no man 〈◊〉 meets you but will be the better for you and 〈◊〉 you are going to Heaven every man wil mourn 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 loss of you He was a Father to me 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 and he was a great help to me saies another 〈◊〉 was a means under God to bring my soul to Christ. Thus you will not only do good to your 〈◊〉 but you will do good to others also 〈◊〉 your death you will have more than this 〈◊〉 to your Peace and Joy will be unspeakable 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 then you will go to Heaven 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Death and Hell and Devils and all you 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 be Fathers serving God in uprightness you 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 your children I go to my God and to 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 and I leave you to a better Father that 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 well for you and so he shakes hands 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 saies he we shall meet in Heaven again so Paul 2 Tim. 4. 7 8. I have fought a good fight I have finished my course I have kept the Faith henceforth there is laid up for me a Crown of Righteousness which the Lord shall give unto me he saw it before him and was able to tell others of it So David 2 Chron. 28. 9. And thou Solomon my Son know thou the God of thy Father and serve him with a perfect heart and a willing mind c. Thus you will be able to give a change and a blessing to your Children and to speak somthing suitable to the condition of all that come about you as a man that hath been a good husband from his youth he hath been a gatherer he is able to give to every one about him somwhat another that hath been a spend thrift can scarce pay his debts and well if he do so So here a man that has been long a gathering of Promises Commands Directions Consolations when his friends come about him on his death bed he knows the frame of every man he knows one man is worldly another hath good Parts and gifts but he is proud another under discouragements and he will speak somthing suitable to every mans condition and his dying words stick by them while they live And this is but the beginning but what will the Crown of Glory be He that begins betimes shall have a 〈◊〉 weighty Excessive Exceeding Crown of Glory he shall go loaded as it were to the Kingdom of Heaven the Sufferings Obedience Commands Promises Counsels of so many years all shal be rewarded other men shall be honored and crowned but he especially and when he
irresistable operation of his Spirit when the soul having that impediment removed it comes to be in the next passive power and immediately disposed to a Spiritual Work vult moveri God leaves a powerful impression upon the will acts this capability to carry it from sin in a right order to God at the entrance of which the soul is moved and takes the impression having taken the impression or motion it moves again and in vertue of that is said to act and consent so that this consent is not from our selves though not without our selves And thus we are put beyond any principle of our own or to be the beginners of our own work by any thing we have in our selves which cuts the sinews of the Covenant of Works and hither many times God wil bring us to our beginnings to the bare board even to leave our souls with him that he may carry us from sin to himself and act us upon himself and keep us with himself for ever Thus David Psal. 119. 29. Take from me the way of lying 〈◊〉 could not take it away himself Hos. 14. 2. Take away all iniquity they leave themselves in Gods hand that the Lord would cause them to turn from iniquity So that in this Condition it 's true to say a man hath not a principle of concurrence with God as by sanctified habits we have but the Spirit puts in us a power whereby we are carried to God The Fourth Particular for opening of the Point The behavior of the heart under this stroak and that appears in the Particulars following When this Sorrow is rightly set on and the soul rightly affected therewith the sinner hath the loath somness of corruption ever in his sight keeps it ever within his ken he could not be brought before to take to heart the hainousness of 〈◊〉 evil Ministers pressed him with it in publick others minded him of it in private forewarned him of the direful venom and 〈◊〉 that lay in those distempers of his that one day he was like to feel to the hazard of his everlasting happiness it would be bitterness in the latter end but he turned the deaf ear to al would not so much as take it into consideration not once look back into the danger of his rebellions nor listen to any thing that may force the same upon his soul but now the case is altered he that could not be brought to see sin before now he wil see nothing but sin cannot be brought to look off from it he feels now the plague of those provocations of his and finds by woful proof and experience the truth of al that formerly hath been told him and hath time enough now to recount the savory counsels those seasonable reproofs directions entreaties which would have kept him from the commssion of those evils the hainousness whereof he is not able to conceive the bitterness and poyson whereof he is not able to bear now he is constrayned to feel the sting thereof He hath now leisure to survey the folly and perversness of his spirit in former times and to sit down in silence and shame now he can seal to that as an eternal truth of God which before he east behind his back as slight and vain Oh I now see the Ministers were faithful watch-men which foresaw the danger and foretold me how dreadful the evils would be which did attend my distempers If I would not leave my sin mercy and blessing would leave me and my heart feels it so The Christians were loving and compassionate which laboured by earnest and affectionate entreaties to with draw me from the wayes of wickedness which with drew me from God by woful experience I sind it so Though it were a sharp yet it was a sure safe word that I have often heard but would never receive It were better to cut off my hand to pluck out mine eye and to enter lame and maimed into the Kingdom of Heaven lame and maimed in comforts and credit and carnal and sensual delights than to have 〈◊〉 these and go to hell where the worm never dyes and the fire never goes out and now my Conscience confesseth it is so Lord where was my mind that could not see this how hard and senseless my heart that could not be affected with this the sinner thus wounded his hand is ever upon the sore his eye upon his distemper as the extream danger that hangs over his head and the deadliest enemy that is in pursuit of his soul he sleeps wakes eats and drinks with this as his daily diet a standing dish carryes it up and down as his daily companion Psal. 51. 3. My sin is ever before me listen to him when he sighes out his prayers in secret ye shal observe his complaints run upon this confer with him enquire of his condition his speech ever returns to this point and al his questions lead stil to the discovery of the loathsomness of his rebellions As it is with a commander or General of the field when he sees the enemy come on furiously his numbers many his power great his souldiers skilful and couragious so that he sees al ly at stake the shock is like to be sudden fierce either conquer al or loose al A prudent commander seeing where the stress of the battle and the strength of the enemy lyes and the safety or ruin of the whol consists he leaves the thoughts of comforts conveniencies wife and family the profits and priviledges which he hath formerly enjoyed and prized bends al his thoughts exerciseth the utmost of al his 〈◊〉 now to defeat the enemy how to encounter him how to overcome him and this takes up the whol mind and the whol man its vayn to attend other things when the neglect of the enemyes approach is the loss and overthrow of al. So it is with a broken hearted Christian when the numberless company of those hellish abominations of heart and life lay siedg against and threaten his everlasting ruin either he must destroy them or they wil undoubtedly destroy his comforts he leaves the consideration of other things and looks to the main chance If my sin live I dye for it either I must be separated from them or they from me and therefore bends al his forces bestows al his thoughts how the hainousness of this may be forever discovered the heart forever freed from the power and authority thereof The Apostle Paul hath his sin ever in his eye he keeps it in fresh remembrance and consideration never hath occasion to mention any thing of himself but stil he strikes upon that string to me the least of all Saints and then the chiefest of all sinners I was a persecuter and blasphemer the main evil was there and his eye and thoughts were most upon that So the lamenting church Lam 5. 16. wo to us because we have sinned the plague famine and sword though they were beyond measure
and shal endure by reason of the same He thought indeed in the time of his folly That Preachers in point of policy presenting sin in a more dreadful visage and appearance than there was just cause or Reason would in truth conclude at least he imagined if the worst befel that either he would remove the guilt or avoid the plague or subdue the strength of such distempers that did threaten Gods displeasure and his destruction but now he finds it otherwise yea his own Conscience nay his own sence and experience doth abundantly confute his folly and mistakes that notwithstanding al the waies he can take and means he can use guilt stil continues he cannot remove it plagues he cannot avoid violence and venom of his corruption he cannot master nor help himself against the 〈◊〉 Command and Authority they yet live and are mighty And therefore he is forced to send up to Heaven dayly yea to seek out unto the faithful Servants of the Lord that they may lend a helping hand for his relief that may help him by their prayers when he sees his own prevail not guide him by their Counsel when through his own ignorance he is at a loss in his thoughts and cannot direct himself that they may tent and heal his sore when out of unskilfulness he cannot 〈◊〉 how to dress the wounds of his own diseased and distressed spirit Thus Nature doth not only teach men but necessity compels al when they find themselves helpless to call yea cry for help yea to send far and neer for succor unto such in whose power it is to support when men have used al Kitchin Physick and taken some Ancient Receipts they have by them and yet the disease grows desperate and the cure more difficult they presently speed out to those who are able and learned Physitians for Counsel and Cure He that fears an on-set he would have a Second in the field with him So here God hath given the tongue of the Learned to some to speak a word in season to a weary Conscience Isai. 50. 4. To others God hath given a dexterous hand to joynt the souls and comforts of such who by some dangerous fall and sudden surprizal of distempers have made a breach in their spirits and peace Gal. 6. 1. You that are spiritual joynt such a man with a spirit of meekness handle hin skilfully yea gently and tenderly To some again God hath given precious Receipts rare experiences of his peculiar mercies to their own souls which few have heard almost none besides themselves have had the like proof 2 Cor. 4. 1. 4. Paul was afflicted and comforted that he might 〈◊〉 and comfort others in afflictions 2 Cor. 2. 11. he professeth he was not ignorant of Satans Methods but was wel acquainted with his Stratagems having been in so many pitcht fields so many Sieges Hence it is that these poor wounded sinners in the Text press in upon the Apostles as skilful and experienced 〈◊〉 for such as were in spiritual distress Men and Brethren what shall we do q. d. You understand we are ignorant and know not what way to take you are experienced and we unacquainted wholly with Gods dealings and directions and perceive not what to do Besides were mens abilities equal yet many eyes see more and many hands can do more than one as in some wounds which we cannot reach by our own hands another though weak and unskilful wil lend ready help wil search and tent the wound we cannot touch nor reach the meanest Christian hath more Experience in some Case than those who are far more able and thou canst not reach it nor come at it he will search it with ease A Contrite sinner is willing to take shame and therefore willing to open himself and sin that he may bear shame that is due unto him for it He sees now the vileness of sin and himself vile because of it and therefore looks at shame as his due desert which he hath mericed at the hands of God and man and therefore accounts it but reasonable that he should be dishonored and rejected of others who hath 〈◊〉 the great Name of God and cast shame and contempt upon the good waies of his Grace he sits down really convinced of his own baseness and therefore doth not complement and speak words of course against himself he wil say I am so and so vile and wretched and doth not condemn himself that others might acquit him not 〈◊〉 his person and practice that others might praise and pity him But as it was said of them They should wash themselves and judg themselves worthy to be cut off and condemned and therefore worthy to be despised and trampled upon as unsavory salt and hence he is willing out of a holy indignation to shame himself and the sinfulness of 〈◊〉 heart and life which hath been a shame to his profession and cast shame upon the righteous and holy waies of the Lord. That which takes away all the hindrances of this holy duty of Confession and puts the soul upon the necessity of the performance that must needs fit the soul for the discharge of this Service But Contrition takes away the hindrances which are these three Either a man would not have his sin removed and subdued Or else he need not help to that purpose Or else he is afraid and ashamed to take help which is provided in that behalf But this Work of Contrition makes a man willing to be helped against his sin makes him see a need and seek for help makes him willing to take shame and he sees a necessity he should that he may receive help against his sins Therefore Contrition fits and enables the soul to a right Confession of sin INSTRUCTION We here see the reason of those sinful windings and turnings of Devices which generally appear in mens practices after the commissions of evil when they should be brought to a naked acknowledgment of their errors herein So many muses to escape so many sleepy senceless shifts to save their own stake their credit and respect yield nothing though they can gainsay nothing with color of Reason they spend their wits and thoughts and lay about them to the utmost skil of al the carnal reason they have to latch the blow to defeat and put by the stroak of the Truth the dint and evidence of the Argument that would discover their evil In a word here is the root and reason of those turnings aside from the Authority of the Truth They never came where this Contrition of heart grew nor yet indeed knew what it meaneth they never saw sin aright their souls were never sensibly affected with the direfulness of the scandal they give unto others and the guilt they bring upon their own Consciences for all which they must one day answer It 's said Luke 3. 6 7. that when God prepares way for the coming of the Lord Jesus or the coming of it within the sight and
any saving Work If there were no Doubt moved no Question Controverted by way of any seeming Collection from the place the very Mysterious depths of the 〈◊〉 herein delivered drives all Interpreters to a stand and puts the most Judicious beyond their thoughts so that there is more 〈◊〉 to 〈◊〉 the mind of God in the words then to make Answer to the Objection hence collected We will 〈◊〉 Shortly open the meaning of the Words 2 Then 〈◊〉 what may be truly Collected from them and 〈◊〉 it will appear that the Objection fetched from 〈◊〉 will find no footing in this place The scope of the Apostle in vers 4 5. is That 〈◊〉 Christ is the Son of God and that Faith which 〈◊〉 the world must look to him and rest 〈◊〉 him This he 〈◊〉 to me to prove and explicate in both the parts of it in vers 6. And secondly amplyfieth it in the following 7. and 8. verses His proof is taken from 〈◊〉 type of his Priestly-Office the truth whereof he accomplished in the great Work of Redemption He that comes by water and blood he is the son of God But Jesus Christ came by water and blood His comming implys 1 His Fathers Sending 2 〈◊〉 Own Undertaking that great Work of our Recovery not only by Water as the Levites who were washed Numb 8. 6. 7. but by Blood also as the Priests Levit. 8. 6. 22 23 24. By Water I conceive is meant The Holiness of his Nature in which he was Conceived and for which end he was overshad owed by the Spirit By Blood is meant that Expiation and Satisfaction he made to the Law of God by shedding his Blood So that He that had all that and 〈◊〉 all that which was shadowed by the Priests He is that Jesus the son of God for 〈◊〉 And the Spirit bears witness because the Spirit is Truth This seems to me to be the fairest sense and to be preferred before all that I can see brought By Spirit in the First place is meant Gods 〈◊〉 the Holy Ghost By Spirit in the Second place I do think 〈◊〉 is meant For so you shall find the word used 2 Cor. 4. 13. Having the same Spirit of Faith So that the Spirit of God comming from the Father and the Son would testifie by the aspertion of this Water and Blood that my Faith is true when it assures my heart that this Jesus is the Son of God 2 He amplifies this proof by bringing in the number of witnesses and the manner of their witnessing For their number they are Six The Father sending The Son coming The Spirit certifying in this 〈◊〉 manner of working they are distinct and herein appear to be distinct witnesses and this their witness is from Heaven signifying where they are and from whence they express their witness The Father speaks from Heaven This is my beloved Son in whom I am well pleased Mat. 3. last The Son professeth so often of himself That he came out of the bosom of the Father John 1. 18. John 3. 13. No man can ascend to Heaven but the Son of man who came down from Heaven John 6. 38. I came down from Heaven not to do my own will but the will of him that sent 〈◊〉 Lastly in Mat. 3. last The Spirit of God descended down upon him in the likeness of a Dove these speak from Heaven and their expressions are 〈◊〉 in the word without us whether we beleeve or no. Three again speak and witness from Earth for Christ dwels in us here on Earth the Spirit Water and Blood There is no doubt but by Water is meant Sanctification by Blood Justification all the Question lies upon the third What is meant by Spirit Under correction I take it It 's meant of Faith for besides that 2 Tim. 1. 7. all graces are called the Spirit we have received the Spirit of Power of Love and of a sound mind this is expresly so named 2 Cor. 4. 13. we having the same Spirit of Faith this is most safe and most sutable to the analogy of Faith and the intendment of the Text. There are but Three great Works unto which all the rest may be referred Vocation Justification Sanctification all these in us give in witness and evîdence That Jesus the Savior of the World must be the Son of God sent of him who sends also his Spirit into our hearts to work thus in us and by these works to evidence to us Himself and his Office The Truths then which according to the right meaning of the words may hence be collected are these There be six Witnesses Three of these witness from Heaven and their Testimony is left in the word without us The other three from Earth from the operation of the work of Grace and these are within us Al these agree in this as the thing winessed 〈◊〉 Jesus the Saviour of his People is the Son of God The witness of those from Heaven is greater than that which is on Earth But touching the witnessing of my good 〈◊〉 without respect to a gracius disposition or qualification there is not a syllable in the Text that sounds that way or carries any appearance to that purpose If every Work of Grace or the truth of a gracious qualification be witnessed by the Spirit and is lastly resolved therinto So that I Beleeve the work of Grace in me to be true because the Spirit witnesseth it then I must have an absolute ground to Beleeve the Spirit I wil open this Phrase the witness of the Spirit on an absolute ground Either it s meant 〈◊〉 the witness of the Spirit is attended without any respect to a work that is witnessed then its false and absurd that I should discern the witness of the Spirit without any respect to the thing witnessed 〈◊〉 made known to me by it for as hath been 〈◊〉 before witness and the thing witnessed go both together Or it s meant thus That when I have received the witness of the Spirit to my self then I 〈◊〉 prove it upon an absolute ground Hath Christ purchased al spiritual good for His for Beleevers Hence then we may see the 〈◊〉 of the faithful and the priviledg of those that 〈◊〉 above all people upon earth To you the Father intended al the treasuries of grace and glory in your stead Christ suffered performed all that the Law required and Justice exacted for you it is he hath purchased al that good that you need doth not that please you al you can desire doth not that quiet you nay all that you can receive through al eternitie doth not that satisfie There is none like unto you never the like was done for any as for you It was Moses Collection and caused his wonderment in the Consideration thereof Deut. 33. 29. When he had recounted the wonderful Preservations the Lord had wrought Priviledges he honoured them with and bestowed upon them he breaks forth into these expressions Blessed art thou
be like this Corrosive to eat down the pride of our hearts Thus Paul frequently in the remembrance of his former wretchedness bleeds kindly and 〈◊〉 in the abasement of his spirit he mentions not his Apostleship which might exalt him but presently he remembers his 〈◊〉 which might abase him 1 Tim. 1. 12. I thank Christ Jesus our Lord who hath enabled me for that he counted me faithful and put me to the Ministry who was before a 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 and injurious vers 13. Hence again he observes it was Gods way that he might not be exalted above measure to buffet him with the sence and assaults of his own weaknesses 2 Cor. 12. 7. and thus far he did glory in and take pleasure in his 〈◊〉 not to have them but to use the consideration of them as a wholsom Corrosive to pull down those proud swellings As a man somtimes takes pleasure 〈◊〉 the pouder of Scorpions or Mercury Water because 〈◊〉 a Medicine against some poysonful humors and 〈◊〉 he directs Eph. 2. 11 12. Remember that you were dead in sins and trespasses Gentiles in the flesh without God without Christ without hope If a man conceit that his make or mettal is better than other mens Let him look into the Pit whence he was digged the Rock out of which he was hewen he wil 〈◊〉 see cause to conclude he was as hard as stubborn 〈◊〉 proud as any other as unteachable as unframable 〈◊〉 any other And here that Question hath place What hast thou that thou hast not received yea 〈◊〉 degree lower How camest thou to be able to 〈◊〉 it stake down thy heart in this Determination 〈◊〉 answer I have received nothing further than 〈◊〉 hath enabled me and I have nothing unless he 〈◊〉 it I do nothing unless he quicken me to the 〈◊〉 of it the remembrance of 〈◊〉 plagues of 〈◊〉 heart and nature should 〈◊〉 me for ever to be 〈◊〉 I am what I am by mercy let that have the 〈◊〉 of all which is the worker of all the good I 〈◊〉 as men pul away the steps and stool from 〈◊〉 a man if he stand too high so 〈◊〉 should pul away 〈◊〉 swelling conceits which lift us up in our own 〈◊〉 It 's not I but the Grace of God in me 〈◊〉 I any power to be humbled to beleeve to be 〈◊〉 No it 's not I but Free Grace that is the 〈◊〉 and Worker of all let Grace therefore have 〈◊〉 honor and praise of all Here is matter of cordial refreshing to support the 〈◊〉 of sinners from sinking into desperate 〈◊〉 when they see the weakness of their own 〈◊〉 not able to reach this work the stifness of 〈◊〉 own wills as ready and resolute to oppose it and 〈◊〉 of both an utter impossibilitie to attain it or any 〈◊〉 good unto themselves their hearts and hopes cannot but fail so far as they look to themselves but when they look to this that as it is beyond their own po wer so it is not their own work this may be some support It is in 〈◊〉 hand must proceed from his power who can do what he wil in Heaven and Earth and in thy heart also therefore repare hither and rest thy fainting spirit here In regard of a mans weakness the well is deep and thou hast nothing to draw withal the work of applycation is spiritual and mystical the eye is dim and thy understanding shallow not able to search into such mysteries thou canst not discern neither the way nor the work how wilt thou be ever able then to attain it remember thou canst not make thy self able but thou must be made able to know it and to receive it it s in his hand and it s his work who is able to do it Jer. 24. 7. I will give them a heart to know me hither our Saviour resolves this work and rests himself here Mat. 11. 25. I thank thee Father Lord of Heaven and Earth that thou hast hid these things from the wise of the world and revealed them unto Babes even so Father for so it pleaseth thee And it 's Gods promise Isay 42. 16. The hlind shall see and the deaf shall hear It 's his ordinary proceeding He calleth the foolish and things that are not to bring to nought things that are 1 Cor. 1. 28. Therefore thou shouldest press God with his own promises mind him that this is his prerogative say Lord it is not in man to direct 〈◊〉 to humble himself to convert himself but it is with thee and it s thy promise to give me a heart to know thee thou callest things that are not I am not wise nor humble nor holy I am not able to know thee let me be known of thee that so I may come to the knowledg of thee But happily thy stifness is more and worse and more dangerous than thy weakness though thy mind be enlightned cavils removed the truth made clear thy 〈◊〉 settled what should be done but Oh! the 〈◊〉 stifness of this wayward will that hath 〈◊〉 al promises and distrusted them al threatnings 〈◊〉 slighted them so that the distressed sinner wil 〈◊〉 I have a heart that cannot repent or beleeve that 〈◊〉 receive grace that cannot give way to the power of Gods ordinances or make choise of any good 〈◊〉 that I am even weary of my heart and of my life 〈◊〉 Yet God can pluck away this unteachableness 〈◊〉 thy heart though thou canst not take away thy 〈◊〉 from it Of his own good will he hath begotten 〈◊〉 Jam. 1. 18. It s not in the wil of Satan nor in thy own will to hinder it if God wil do it it 's his work he hath challenged it to himself and hath engaged himself do it for al His I will take away the heart of stone Ezek. 36. 26. Say thou Lord I cannot do it and 〈◊〉 truth I should not do it for that were to arrogate more than I should and to press into the priviledg of the Almighty I only wait upon thee and bring my heart to thee that thou wouldest bring me to thy self 〈◊〉 the Leaper said Mat. 8. 3. If thou wilt thou canst make me clean I have neither wil nor power I can 〈◊〉 do it nor receive it but thou canst do both for me and work both in me It was the ground of 〈◊〉 which the Lord gave to his people in building the material Temple when they looked at the greatness of the work and their many oppositions Zach. 4. 7. Who art thou O great mountain thou shalt become a plain difficulties are compared to mountains when a man sees a mountain lye before him he thinks it is inaccessible and impossible for him to go over it so when a man sees the pride and stubborness and rebellion of his own spirit he thinks 〈◊〉 is impossible for him to subdue these but if the Lord wil he can say unto it who art thou O great mountain
we are Justified 〈◊〉 Resurrection Answers not the Law nor yet 〈◊〉 thing of divine Justice for that which the Law never required by that it never can be Answered But 〈◊〉 Law requires a man either to do that he may live 〈◊〉 to die if he sin but it never requires him to rise 〈◊〉 that 's no part of the Command or the Curse or 〈◊〉 Therefore the Resurrection of Christ 〈◊〉 no part of Payment which is imputed or for which 〈◊〉 are Justified We owed Two things Doing 〈◊〉 Dying these answer the whole Debt the Law 〈◊〉 Justice of God Though the Resurrection of Christ be no part os 〈◊〉 yet it serves for more than a naked 〈◊〉 of our Justification All Interpreters agree in 〈◊〉 that it serves to declare our Justification but I 〈◊〉 there is somthing more in it So the Apostle 〈◊〉 1 Cor. 15. 17. and he makes it one of those 〈◊〉 wherby he urgeth them that deny the 〈◊〉 If Christ be not risen your faith is vain 〈◊〉 are yet in your sins Whereas if this 〈◊〉 may stand That the Resurrection is barely a 〈◊〉 of Justification a man might shew Pauls 〈◊〉 to be a weak one For it doth not follow 〈◊〉 a mans Faith might find success without it 〈◊〉 the Resurrection of Christ doth not give a being 〈◊〉 Justification but only declare it as they say 〈◊〉 the Text says If Christ be not Risen you are yet 〈◊〉 your Sins yet in the gall of bitterness and bonds 〈◊〉 iniquity your sins are not pardoned not subdued Therefore if it be no part of the Payment 〈◊〉 which we are justified and yet more than a bare declaration of it then there can be no other given 〈◊〉 must apply that for which we are Justified it is an 〈◊〉 powerful cause to make Application of 〈◊〉 Merits of Christ to us for which and through which 〈◊〉 stand Justified in the sight of God Not only the text is clear 〈◊〉 it but the nature 〈◊〉 Application cals for it in a special manner For by the 〈◊〉 of man we are lyable to a double evil 1 〈◊〉 the revenging Justice of God 2 To the 〈◊〉 and Power 〈◊〉 Satan and Death For when a 〈◊〉 had 〈◊〉 himself into the hands of divine Justice it was 〈◊〉 righteous with the Lord to 〈◊〉 up the Soul to the Authority and Vassallage of 〈◊〉 and Satan Now therefore when our Savior Christ by his Death and Obedience answered divine Justice and so took away the first evil it was then 〈◊〉 with the Lord to free lost-man through Christ from the Second evil the Authority and Tyranny 〈◊〉 Sin Mark that place Act. 2. 24. Whom God 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 up having 〈◊〉 the sorrows of death 〈◊〉 it was 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 he should be 〈◊〉 of it 〈◊〉 cannot be meant of being holden by the bonds 〈◊〉 death as if 〈◊〉 were bound to 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 of God when he was in the 〈◊〉 for he that 〈◊〉 satisfied the 〈◊〉 of God could not stand bound to it any 〈◊〉 but when 〈◊〉 had suffered for 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 in the Garden and on the 〈◊〉 he had then fully satisfied for the Law of God required no more 〈◊〉 Doing and Dying so that Christ might have 〈◊〉 again as soon as 〈◊〉 he was laid in the Grave but 〈◊〉 he lay so long was for another reason But the 〈◊〉 here is How he can be said to be 〈◊〉 from the pains and sorrows of Death when 〈◊〉 Body was in the Earth and his Soul in Heaven 〈◊〉 say from a sorrowful and painful Death I 〈◊〉 that is true Yet under favor I would say thus 〈◊〉 more It was a kind of pain and grief to the man Christ Jesus as to any 〈◊〉 that his Body was in 〈◊〉 Grave when his Soul was in Heaven which did 〈◊〉 to be united together the keeping of these two 〈◊〉 is a 〈◊〉 to them they are 〈◊〉 friends made to be together the Souls of the Saints now 〈◊〉 in Heaven 〈◊〉 to have their bodies 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Now then when Christ had fully satissied 〈◊〉 Justice and removed the displeasure of God it 〈◊〉 not possible he could be held by the sorrows of 〈◊〉 it was not 〈◊〉 that his Body and Soul 〈◊〉 be held asunder then To clear it yet more 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 may be considered in a double regard As it is a punishment the 〈◊〉 whereos may 〈◊〉 Justice 2 As it is a part of that Tyranny 〈◊〉 Satan by sin doth exercise upon a man It is 〈◊〉 Death and Obedience of 〈◊〉 takes away the 〈◊〉 of Death in the 〈◊〉 sense but it is he 〈◊〉 of Christ that takes away the power and 〈◊〉 of Death in the Second sense Again 〈◊〉 that Sin also hath a double 〈◊〉 1 As an Aberration or Transgression of the Law 〈◊〉 with the guilt and punishment that follows 〈◊〉 it 2 As part of the Tyranny that Satan exerciseth over the Soul there 〈◊〉 a hellish authority that 〈◊〉 exerciseth over the Soul by reason of Sin Sin 〈◊〉 the first sense our Savior Christ had imputed to 〈◊〉 the guilt of our Sins was charged upon him and the punishments of Sin was suffered by him by which means he answered Gods Justice and so came to justifie us 〈◊〉 the tyranny and authority which Sin and Satan doth exercise over the Soul that 〈◊〉 away by the Resurrection of Christ. This being laid for a ground it is alwaies required at the Sureties hand not only to pay the Debt for the Debtor but to bring the Debtor out of Prison in despight of the malice of 〈◊〉 Jaylor and strength of the Prison When therefore Christ who is our Surety had laid and paid a ful price for our Surety to God the Father and had fully answered that Debt which we stand bound unto by reason of our offence so that now Justice was wel pleased with us and the Anger of the Lord appeased towards us yet now the soul is in Prison under the power of Sin and dominion of Satan therefore it is requisite that God the Father having taken a payment must let the prisoner go free and the Lord Jesus must undertake also to Redeem the soul from the power of Sin and dominion of Satan though they be never so strong therefore God the Father raised up his Son Jesus Christ and together with him he raised us also The soul by reason of sin comes to be forfeited to the divine Justice of God to be a Prisoner to revenging Justice for the Malefactor is the Kings Prisoner not the Jaylors now Christ by his death satisfying Justice he frees the soul from the authority of revenging Justice but when the soul comes to be fetched out of Prison though Gods Justice be satisfied yet Sin and Satan keeps the soul in Prison and wil not let it go unless by strong hand therefore Jesus Christ by an Almighty power raiseth up himself from the dead and by the power of his Resurrection he rescues the soul from the power of
which the Lord 〈◊〉 appointed for the revelation and communication 〈◊〉 all Spiritual Good Again remember this The Word is but an Instrument or means and therefore it 〈◊〉 no further than the Lord Christ works with it 〈◊〉 the operation of his Spirit hence it 's called the 〈◊〉 of the Spirit Eph. 6. 17. and Rom. 1. 16. The Gospel is the Power of God unto Salvation as 〈◊〉 Lord puts forth his Power in and by the Gospel Secondly It is the Word in the ' Ministry of it the 〈◊〉 published and preached the Word rightly 〈◊〉 as the Apostle speaks 2 Tim. 2. 15. that is 〈◊〉 the Word is rightly opened and rightly applied works then more powerfully because 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 to the Will of the Principal Agent and according to the weakness of them to whom it is delivered as the chewing of meat fits it for the Stomach and therfore it nourisheth more the pounding of 〈◊〉 makes it smel more so it is with the Word when opened and applied according to the mind of God it 〈◊〉 the savor of Life unto Life 2 Cor. 2. 16. so 〈◊〉 Rom. 10. 17. Faith cometh by hearing of the Word of God it is not meant that faith comes by hearing of the Word read for that kind of preaching is 〈◊〉 meant for which a man is sent 〈◊〉 15. How can they preach except they be sent but for bare reading no man had need to be sent 2 Cor. 5. 17 18. God 〈◊〉 in Christ reconciling the world to himself and hath committed to us the Word of Reconciliation that is the Lord hath delegated the dispensation of his Word in a way of Explication and Application of it to 〈◊〉 faithful Ministers Only here observe Gods Order 1 The Power resideth first in Christ and his Spirit 2 From Christ and his Spirit it comes to the Word 3 From the Word to the Administration thereof by the Dispensers where you find most of the Word and most evidence of the Spirit there you shall find the work to go on powerfully and successfully for the bringing home of souls to God It is not all Eloquence 〈◊〉 humane Excellency in the world but where a man walketh with God in the use of his Ordinances as when Paul was preaching God opened the heart of Lydia Acts 16. 14. The Word is like a Burning-Glass that which burns and heats is not the Glass but the beams of the Sun that pierceth through the Glass so it is the Power of Christ in a Promise in a Command that makes it pierce to the heart Gal. 2. 8. He that wrought effectually in Peter to the Ministry of the Circumcision was mighty in me towards the Gentils alas what is Paul or Peter or Apollo as the Apostle speaks 1 Cor. 2. 5. but Ministers by whom you beleeve as the Lord gives to every man 〈◊〉 are 〈◊〉 Instruments which stir no further than the 〈◊〉 will move by them nor can do no more than the 〈◊〉 will work by them Word Prayer Preaching Sacraments these are 〈◊〉 weak in themselves yet are they mighty through God to bring in the souls of men in obedience to the Lord. Thus I have done with the Explication of this general Conclusion together with the particular Propositions contained in it that God himself the Father through Christ by his Spirit by an Almighty Power is the Principal Cause and the Ministry of the Word the Instrumental Cause of the Application of all saving good Let me ad some Uses that flow from 〈◊〉 Information in Two things First Hence we learn That the 〈◊〉 of the work of Gods Grace upon the souls of his Servants is not done by moral perswasion that 's Pelagianism and Arminianism they require no more to the conversion of a sinner but meer perswasion the Promises of Grace must be pressed the excellency and glory of Christ discovered and that say they is all that is needful lay but these before a man and he hath power to embrace and receive them if he will It is a false conceit If that Power that raised up Christ from the dead must be put forth for the bringing home of a soul to God then there must be more than moral perswasion which only stirs up and draws out that ability that is within us Men may come dead and sit so and return so and be never the better for all the Ordinances and means of Grace if they have no more than them Isa. 57. 19. I create the fruit of the Lips peace peace to him that is neer and to him that is far off it is a creating Power that must be put forth Ministers do speak in vain else Hence again it 's certain the work of God in Application is irresistible This is the main 〈◊〉 from whence that Error is confuted That Power 〈◊〉 raised Christ from the dead was irresistible notwithstanding all sins and all Devils notwithstanding 〈◊〉 hour and power of darkness yet he 〈◊〉 up himself from the dead and by the same Almighty 〈◊〉 Power he works faith in our hearts and quickens 〈◊〉 with Spiritual Life when we were dead in sins and trespasses Eph. 2. 1 2. It 's true there is nothing but Nature and corruption in a man and by vertue of that a man opposeth and resisteth the work of Grace yet so to resist as to frustrate the work of God it is impossible God were not Almighty if sin and Satan could hinder his Work Tryal of our Conversion Observe whether the work of Application come from Heaven or no if so it leaves the 〈◊〉 of an Almighty Power upon the soul as Christ said The Baptism of John 〈◊〉 it from Heaven or from man So I say of Application Is it from Heaven or from your self 〈◊〉 is certain if it be not from the Almighty Power of God it will never bring thee to God neither in this world nor the world to come If the soul can say it was not the power of Men or Means or Ordinances I had all these I understood all these and yet was the same man still I had the old pride and lusts still they lodged in my bosom and came out as occasion served as a dog returning to his vomit till the Lord came from Heaven and broke in mightily upon my heart and there was no resisting of him If you say Must every one see the working of this Almighty Power in his own soul This Work may be really and savingly wrought though the Saints do not generally see and 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 and how there is an impression made upon the 〈◊〉 the Almighty Power of God even as 〈◊〉 are grown though it be not observed how We see the Power of God in other things They are Natural and outward this inward and Spiritual Take the influences of the Heavens and 〈◊〉 Minerals and wonderful things that are wrought 〈◊〉 yet there is not one of a thousand that are 〈◊〉 to discern and discover these But this Influence of the
remorse for thy sinful condition truly know The strong man keeps house there unto this day Nay Let me tell you this That all may hear and fear and be awakened if Christ never awaken thee he will never give thee light and if ever he give thee light he will awaken thee first Nay the truth is So long as thou livest so senseless and careless know it Christ never came into the world to do thee any good Luke 19. 10. The Son of man came to seek and to save that which is lost They that are sensible of their lost and undone condition by reason of their sins against the Lord they see Hell gaping God plaguing and Conscience accusing being every day ready to drop into Hell Christ came to save such But thou that never yet in any measure wast troubled about thy condition and humbled for thy sins Christ will never seek thee nor save thee nay he was not sent to seek or save that miserable soul of thine God will make thee sensible of thy evils before ever thou canst have any hope that he intends good to thee I will not now Dispute how far God may awaken a man and yet not communicate saving grace that belongs to another place That I Urge now is this That its certain He that never yet was awakened or brought out of his carnal Security never was nor can be made partaker of Jesus Christ. Exhortation To all you secure dead hearted sinners that have been carried on in a Calm all your days Oh! know it and consider of it a man becalmed is drowned 〈◊〉 stir up thy self and think of the time of awakening it will come and as Marriners becalmed seek for winds so should you for the Gales and Breathings of the Spirit of Christ. Many of you have been 〈◊〉 up in good Families and many of you are civil honest quiet people all things remain with you as they were from the first until now you know not what Sin means nor what Faith and Repentance means in the power and practice of them you have a quiet life but a miserable life It s easie for a Marriner to be in a Calm at Sea he hath quiet there but he dies there Women in Child-birth longs for Throws if their Throws leaves them their life leaves them and all but if they have many and strong Throws then they hope well so go your wayes and call 〈◊〉 the Throws of Conversation For a Child to be born into the world and the Mother asleep it s against Nature and Reason and Sense and Experience and all so before ever you be born again before ever Christ be formed in you it will cost you many Prayers and Tears and much Sorrow but if 〈◊〉 Throws come thick then there is hope Oh! therefore call for the sight of sin and sorrow for sin for conviction and humiliation as you love your Lives and Souls call for these You know what they said to 〈◊〉 Chap. 1. 6. when the Sea was fierce and the Winds high and the Storm great every man fell to his Prayers and they came to Jonab 〈◊〉 thou sluggard arise and call upon thy God So if God raise a storm in your Consciences be sure you call upon Jonab those sluggish hearts of yours Awake and call upon your God I would advise those men that could never yet say they have any grace in their hearts they cannot say they have any thing more than they brought with them into the world they come to sit and hear but for Humiliation Conversion for the saving work of God upon their souls they know no such thing Let me advise you thus much Be suspicious of your estates certainly all is not well all is not right unless I be born again and repent and be another man and have another heart and life I cannot enter into Heaven thus suspect your self And when you have done so do not leave it there but betake your self to some faithful Minister or Christian and debate your condition with them and be sure you quiet not your self till you come to see what you are it may be they may help you and shew you the state of things with you If it shall appear upon good ground by sound Reasons from the Word that your estate is naught then go away convictedly 〈◊〉 it is so Attend not those carnal Reasons that may take off the edg of that conviction and hinder the working of it but sit down without any cavil against it but say the truth is I never saw my estate before but now I do I hope I shall never deny it Excuses and carnal Reasons have taken me aside but now I 'le hear nothing against it the truth is I am a miserable sinful damned Creature Arise with this in the morning 〈◊〉 lie down with this at night and walk with these thoughts all the day long I am a Christless graceless man and if the Devil say hereafter time enough hereafter loon enough Ay but say I may die suddenly and 〈◊〉 I am damn'd eternally and if your own heart say Am not I as good as such an one and shall not I hope to do as well as such an one Away with that too I am a miserable damned man give your self for gone and hold it here 〈◊〉 hear nothing the Devil saies that my heart saies that the world or my friends say I am in a miserable damned condition think so and sleep so and 〈◊〉 so if you can And when it 's come to this you may happily be prepared for the glad Tidings of the Gospel of Jesus Christ. BOOK VII ROM 8. 7. The Wisdom of the flesh is Enmity against God it is not subject to the Law neither indeed can be WE heard there were three Particulars wherin the Dispensation and Gods Manner of working upon the soul when he will prepare it for himself was discovered 1 The Soul Naturally is setled in the security of a sinful estate And of that before 2 That being thus lodged in his lust and brought 〈◊〉 bed in his sinful distempers it 's wholly unwilling to be severed from them 3 By a holy kind of Violence as it were the soul is driven out of this condition and drawn 〈◊〉 the Lord Christ by God the Father We are now to attend the discovery of this second Divine Truth the Explication whereof makes way for the mysterious manner of Gods dealing with the sinner when he would bring him from under the power 〈◊〉 of his lusts And for this purpose we have chosen this Text as that which will afford us foothold for our following discourse The Aim and Scope of the Words is by force of Argument to fortifie the conclusion formerly expressed in the foregoing verse i. e. To mind the things of the flesh is death which is thus proved That which is Enmity against God will undoubtedly bring death as opposing the God of Life and Comfort but the wisdom of the flesh is enmity against God
from his Cups the Adulterer from the arms of his Queans and the worldly man from all the snares of the world the Lord can do it and wil do it also for those that belong to him therefore to that God look 〈◊〉 that Christ look who hath said it and can do it he can do it for thee as wel as for any other A Third ground of Discouragement which the sinner finds and that is the worst of al viz. The stiffness and stubbornness of his own heart he cannot blame the Devil for 〈◊〉 of him or the world for snaring of him he sayes and knows his heart is as bad as Hell it self he hath courted and desired temptations his heart hath been lingering and hankering after them and had not God been merciful to him he had lived and lien and perished for ever in his sins Nay though there were no 〈◊〉 to tempt nor world to allure yet I have a heart like a dunghil that steams up continually noysom abominations Nay that that 's worst of al If after al the Mercies I have abused and sins committed I had a heart that could repent there was some hope but Oh! the stiffness and knottiness of this heart of mine I have had Conscience checking of me and the Minister reproving of me and the Spirit of God striving with me but Oh! I have a hard heart that cannot repent And this is the plague of al plagues worse than the Devil and Hell it self How shal I help my self here Moral Perswasions Alas my heart spurns at them all and makes nothing of them al I have had the Minister speaking to my soul and the flashes of Hell in my face and yet alas such is the desperate frame of my heart that I wil have my sins or 〈◊〉 die for it What wil al Moral Perswasions and Congruity of Means do here Alas the Heart scorns al As in the Case of a man who fell into deep distress and horror of Conscience 〈◊〉 he had 〈◊〉 the sin against the Holy Ghost lying in that a twelve month together and the Lord let loose the 〈◊〉 of his own Spirit upon him that he often thought to lay violent hands upon himself but this was al that he had to support himself in that sad time my Salvation is not in mine own hand it is not in my Will but in Gods Will It is not in him that Wills or in him that Runs but in God that shews mercy Jam. 1. 18. Of his own Will he hath begotten us by the word of truth He that made the Will can only Convert the Will Oh! then bless God that hath taken our Salvation into his own hand for if it were in our hands if it were left to our Wills we should never have it This is that that may uphold the heart in the midst of al the heavie temptation which wil 〈◊〉 or last seize upon the hearts of men Again Secondly It is matter of Consolation to al the faithful who have found this work of God upon their souls it wil afford them ground of glorious support to fence and fortifie their souls against the dayes of difficulty and times of distress against what ever discouragements or desertions may 〈◊〉 them from within what ever assaults or temptations may press in upon them from without in the following Course of their lives in future times From hence they may promise themselves assistance and deliverance without fail and certainly expect it What ever the temptations be they shal never prevail against them what ever the power and strength of their Corruptions be they shal never be able hurtfully to overcome them If God the Father have once drawn them to his Christ when they did nothing but oppose this work al the power of Hell shal never be able to with-draw them from the Lord Jesus when they desire to cleave to him and to be His. He that plucked me away from my sin with a holy kind of violence when I loved it as my life and was loath to part with it will he deny his 〈◊〉 to me when I strive against it He that forced his Mercy upon me when I resisted it in the dayes of my folly and wretchedness when I resolved I would none of him wil he deny me Mercy when he hath given me a heart to beg and prize it He that sought me and drew me when I forsook him wil he not embrace and entertain a poor Creature when I seek and sue for acceptance from him Thus the Apostle disputes and cleers himself with much boldness and assurance of invincible success and he gains and gets the higher ground of his Fears and Discouragments Rom. 5. 6. 9. If Christ died for us when we were of no strength nay when we were ungodly How much more being Justified by his Death shall we be saved from wrath through him for if when we were enemies we were reconciled how much more shal we be saved by his life If when we had no strength he rescued us from the hand of Hell and Sin and when Enemies reconciled us when he hath given us strength and made us his Friends wil he not for ever releive and succour us yea much more sayes the Apostle he gets upon the higher ground and triumphs over al the enemies of our salvation as knowing he should certainly be Assisted against them al. Thus Samuel shored up the dismayed and sinking hearts of the Rebellious Israelites when the Lord had thundred out his displeasure against them by reason they had wretchedly and treacherously and unfaithfully rejected the Lord and his gracious Government when they would not beleive Samuels words he tels them That God would thunder out his threatnings from heaven 1 Sam. 12. 17 18. c. And when the people saw the lightning and heard the thunder and then saw the hamousness of their sins and feared what heavy punishment they might expect from so terrible a God Then they that cared not for his words and Counsels crave his Prayers Oh pray for us say they for we have sinned and to all our other sins have added this in asking for a King Samuel to prevent the deadly symptom of desperate Discouragement which would drive them from the Lord and so from their own Comfort heads You have indeed sinned yet turn ye not aside from following the Lord And again he ads Turn not aside unto vain things that cannot help And he gives this as a ground For the Lord will not forsake his People for his great Names sake because it hath pleased the Lord to make you his people He that out of Mercy made you his people when you were not he wil not forsake you when he hath called you to him As the Elders of Israel Reasoned when they were to War with Jehu in the defence of their Masters Sons 2 King 10. 4. Behold two Kings could not stand before him how shall we Let this be thy comfort and undoubted evidence of succour and deliverance
for help and recovery and to expect to receive it from the hand of the Lord. That Disease is not past Remedy which hath been cured nor the Condition past hope that hath been recovered As bad and vile as thou have been humbled and broken-hearted and why not thou saved Turn but thy thoughts aside and attend the Text and trust thine own eyes behold look here upon the most loathsom Hell-hounds that 〈◊〉 the Sun saw or the Earth bore listen and hear these hideous blasphemies they belch out against the Son of God they cried away with him away with him not him but Barrabas they chuse a Murderer rather than a Savior behold their butcherly hands imbrued in the blood of Jesus some goaring his side others nailing his feet piercing his pure and holy hands and that they might be bloody Creatures indeed they do not only shed his blood but they keep his blood upon Record for their Condemnation say they His Blood be upon us and upon our Seed That which they have done and desired for their own ruine is it not just but they should have it dost not thou wonder that the Earth did not open and swallow them that the Lord did not thunder from Heaven and immediately destroy them or that he sent not Legions of Devils to drag those wretches souls out of their Bodies to send them packing to the pit And yet stay but a little and see what God hath done in the midst of all this hellish wickedness look a little further they who took away the life of Christ he is now taking away their 〈◊〉 and guilt from them they crucified him and he is now crucifying their cursed corruptions they pierced his tender body to put an end to his daies he is now piercing their souls with Godly sorrow to put an end to their sins and 〈◊〉 Come hither therefore all you poor desolate undone Creatures You whose sins are written with a pen of Iron and graven with the point of a Diamond they stand upon record in every coast and corner you stout-hearted rebellious sinners the Seats of the Place where you sit the Stones in the Street where you walk the Walls of the Houses where you dwel the Decks of the Ships where you have sailed and the Shoars where you have Landed and the Wildernesses where you have travelled they can bear witness against you of the contempt of Gods Truth the neglect of his Ordinances unprofitableness under all you slight all Counsels and Admonitions you are amongst the number of them that are laden with lusts ever learning but never coming to the knowledg of the Truth So that the floods of iniquity seem to compass and overwhelm and might force you to sink down in irrevocable discouragement I confess your condition is extreamly desolate and dangerous yet it 's possible it may be there is a peep-hole of hope it may be otherwise and happy it is for you that there is yet a may be left that God hath not sealed you up to condemnation and turned the Tomb-stone upon you Look up a little thou art yet alive Oh therefore lay about thee while yet opportunity and possibility lasteth Say Lord these sinful wretches that opposed thy Grace so long resisted thy Ordinances thy Servants yea crucified the Lord of Life and yet their hearts are now wounded for their sins Oh break my heart also humble my soul also Yea but I cannot think it truly I dare not I cannot I am ashamed to beg mercy who have so long abused it Why mark what the Apostle saies Ephes. 3. 20. God is able to do exceeding abundantly above all thou canst think or ask All this while the presumptuous secure sinner he stands by and hears all this and he blesseth himself in his lazy course contents himself with this possibility and here takes up his stand but neglects to do any thing that may attain it Oh is it not pitty to cast such Dainties before Dogs and Pearls before Swine Did I say it was possible True I said so indeed but it 's pity thou 〈◊〉 in the hearing of it it 's pity to speak such precious encouragements to such poysonful and malignant spirits that will pervert all to their own ruine The word is past and cannot be recalled but take these Preservatives or Corrosives rather to eat out that impudent corruption Know though it be possible yet it is not possible to thee nor any power thou hast nor any means thou canst use Matth. 19. 36. With man this is impossible Nay know That so long as thou continuest in that careless presumptuous self-confidence it is not possible that God should save thee Heb. 3. 18. He hath said it and sworn it that they who rest in their carnal confidence they shall never enter into his rest and God will not nay cannot deny himself and his Oath As it 's possible God may so it 's possible he may not break thy heart and it 's a great suspicion he will not if thou so impudently abuse his Mercy Patience and long suffering wherby he calls thee to repentance and would melt thy rebellious heart Rom. 2. 4. Thou after the hardness of thy heart which cannot repent treasurest up to thy self wrath against the day of wrath It 's a shrewd suspicion if thou strivest long against his Spirit and slightest the season he will cease to strive with thee and take away the season Luke 19. 42. If thou hadst known at least in this thy day the things belonging to thy peace but now they are hid from thine eyes It will cost much labor and long time before it be done in an ordinary way and therefore if thou art wise for thy soul omit no time be faithful to do what thou canst and yet fearful because it 's in Gods hand to do what He will Therefore seek seasonably tremblingly and uncessantly unto the Lord to do this work for thee It 's not the dipping but rubbing and soaking an old stayn that will fetch it out thou must soak and steep thy soul with godly sorrow It 's not Salving but long tenting an old sore that will do the Cure It may be it will make you go crying to your grave and well if you get to heaven so at last This shews the 〈◊〉 nature and the inconceivable haynousness of the sin of dispaire which rusheth the sinner upon irrecoverable ruine and would seem to overcome the mercy of God wherein he overcomes himself laies a mans present comforts and future hopes wast at once beyond the reach of any relief or recovery puts the soul beyond the sight and expectation of any succour and supply that might support it in the least measure That look as when the Ship runs a ground or splits upon a Rock neer shore or within the sight of land there is yet a possibility that some help may come from the Coast to them or they at least may be wafted to land and so swim out
that made thee a little to look about but hath the Lord ever lifted up the latch as though he were resolved to come in hath he layd hold upon and begun to grapple with that Graceless heart of thine and held this 〈◊〉 of discovery of sin to thy mind as to constrayn thee to look wishly upon it indeed to see it clearly and convictingly according to that which hath formerly been spoken Know and conclude thou maiest thou art in the right way and the Lord begins to deal with thee as he doth with those that he intends good unto But art thou a stranger to these dispensations of the Lord and tradings with thy mind and heart Thou mayest indeed have notice and hear a rumor of Christ passing by and the excellency of his Grace but of any purpose of making his abode with thee thou never couldst have the least 〈◊〉 thereof unto this day How then shall we know whether we fall short of this true sight of sin or no We will take both Particulars mentioned into Consideration that so we may take a true scantling of our own estate and track the Footsteps and Impressions of the work of the Spirit upon our souls I will touch the first in a word and entreat more largely upon the Second to wit Touching the convicting sight of sin because there lies the life and stress of this Doctrine If then we see sin cleerly naked and in it's own Nature namely this resistance and opposition against God as the greatest evil of al other It wil thus be discerned This sight will keep the heart in cold blood from careless adventuring upon the commission of sin You must stil remember my purpose is not to dispute of sanctifying knowledg or to give in evidence of that for we are in this place to look at that light that is let in in this preparative work and this first Branch of it which how far it may go or whether it can agree to an Hypocrite I will not now dispute that only I wil infer from it is beyond exception That in cold blood i. e. Take such a man out of the hurry of a Temptation when he is himself not drunk with some overbearing distemper for then he knows not where he is or what he doth and therefore may adventure to do any thing but when a sinner is come to himself and the sight of his sin as before disputed it wil suffer him carelesly to adventure upon the Commission of that which appears such in his own apprehension even the greatest evil of all The dreadfulness then of this duty apprehended wil drive the soul to a stand and stop the sinner in his proceeding that he dare as well eat his flesh and take a Lyon by the claw and a Bear by the tooth as to have his hand in that which is the heaviest plague of all in his own Judgment There is no man living but as he hath somthing which he prizeth as the chief good in which his soul takes content so the loss of that or that which is contrary to that he looks at as the most unsupportable evil that can betide him That the Soldier should take the lye or challenge and have the contempt of cowardice put upon him and sit stil and not seek to revenge the wrong as he conceives it he cannot bear it That the 〈◊〉 yong man should sel his possessions and part with all to the poor it is such an unsufferable loss he will rather part with Heaven the very hearing of it makes his heart heavy and himself to go away sorrowful Mat. 19. 22. Yea that which Nature hath made dear to all to see death before a man and danger such as wil undoubtedly hazard the loss of life how do we fear the thought of it fly the sight avoid the occasion of it didst thou see thy sins and the hellish resistance of thy heart against God to be a greater evil than al these didst thou really judg them such beleeve them as the men of Niniveh did Jonahs threatning Jonah 3. 5. to be such It 's certain it would amaze thy heart that thou wouldest be as loth to rush into evil as thou wouldest be to run upon a Spears point or cast thy self into the mouth of the Lyon to be torn in pieces Take a rebellious sinner beset with the horror of his Conscience so that he sees Hell gaping for him and the Devils ready to seize upon that hellish heart of his how loaths he then the least appearance of those corruptions the evil of which he sees in the punishment only how tender is he to avoid the occasion of them When the evil of thy punishment is now over and out of mind didst thou but know that resistance and rebellion of thy heart against God his Grace his Spirit his Truth aright as greater than all those evils and is now present with thee thou wouldst be so far fearful not heedlesly to adventure upon the practice of it When Judas saw whether his Covetousness had brought him be flung away his thirty pieces Matth. 27. 3. And it 's certain all the Scribes and Pharisees in the Synagogue and all the money in the Country of Judea could not have prevailed with him had they been then tendred to him much more had he seen the 〈◊〉 had been a greater evil than the vengeance that did 〈◊〉 Acts 19. 16. 19. When the evil spirits prevailed against the seven Sons of Sceva fear fell on them 〈◊〉 and many of them had used curious Arts brought their books together and burnt them before them all When the hearts of these Converts were pricked and they craved Counsel what they should do Peter amidst many other Counsels which he suggested ads this verse 40. Save your selves from this crooked generation You that are in Parthia Mesopotamia Phrigia Galatia you 〈◊〉 amongst many professed Enemies to the Lord Christ his Truth therefore save your selves from their Society and verse 44. They came and abode together and sold their goods and parted them as every one had need 〈◊〉 to this you disobedient Children and rebellious Servants who have the Commands of Parents and Masters Counsels of Servants and Neighbors dayly suggested and pressed upon you listen to this you heedless Professors who have the Word and Precepts of God dayly published in your Ears and proclaimed in your hearing and you go away informed convinced and the heart cannot gainsay but it ought to stoop your carriages should not be wayward your words sharpish your behaviors uncomely and yet you dare you do 〈◊〉 carelesly adventure at the next time and 〈◊〉 upon the same sins you may talk what others say by 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 profess in words that sin is the greatest evil of al but in truth you never saw sin to this day much 〈◊〉 saw it to be the greatest evil of al. A little evil were is but the 〈◊〉 of so much of thy blood by stripes or the loss of
his Meditation or his corruption It was that which caused the venom of Gods vengeance and the poyson of his own abominations to enter into his bones Psal. 51. 4. My sin is ever before me And this is the peculiar work of Meditation to keep things in present view and fresh apprehension it keeps sin ever before mens eyes The sinner is forced to walk and talk with it to wake and sleep with it to eat and drink his sins and curses due to him for the same they are 〈◊〉 out to him in every cutting and 〈◊〉 before him in every 〈◊〉 that is set at the Table Psal. 119. 98. It was Meditation that drew out the marrow 〈◊〉 quintessence of Counsel and Wisdom out of the Command so that David came to have more understanding than the Antient Because thy Commandements are ever with me Meditation drains and draws out the dreadful venom of a mans distempers and makes it ever with him where ever he goes in every 〈◊〉 he takes the guilt of his sins is before him to accuse and Hell gaping to devour him where ever he is his sin and guilt his fears and terrors his curses and confusion is with him to astonish him to al eternity To have a wound or sore is troublesom but to be raking in it dayly though it were never so smal were in truth intollerable So it is here Meditation is the multiplication of al these stings and terrors When Meditation hath thus taken hold of the heart it then drags it to the Throne of Justice and then drives it to seek out for payment and satisfaction without which it cannot be eased nor delivered This is the Markstone within which the bounds and limits of Meditation are to be confined that it may be ordered and acted aright according to the Method of the Almighty and a right Rule When the soul is summoned to answer the Charge and is under the Arrest and not able to escape it finds now the severity of Gods Justice that exacts all even the utmost the greatness of the debt and it 's own inability to answer yet pay he must or else he must perish It drives the soul to see a need of a Christ and mercy and that it ought to seek out thither for relief and satisfaction This is the aim of the Duty and Gods end in fastening thus the filth and guilt and desert of sin upon the soul and it should be our end also And here a Three-fold extream unto which the soul is very subject in the exercise of this Service is especially to be avoided 1 Desperate Discouragements 2 Hellish Provocations 3 False Conceivings of the measure of Gods Work or the manner of his proceedings which we frame to our selves in our own thoughts All which are aberrations from the right way and Rule and prove marvelous prejudicial in our proceeding And the Enemy strives to put us upon all these by al the malice and policy he can use If he cannot keep us in security and hinder us from setting out in a Christian course his next endeavor is to wrack us upon rocks and fholes and sands and so to hazard our passage A word of all First We must beware of desperate discouragements in the consideration of our evil waies for first Satan useth al the crafts and wiles that he can that we may not see our sins if we never know the danger we wil never avoid can never escape it But if he see the sinner resolved to make a through search and to make work of it he then labors to carry him as much to the contrary extream that he shal see nothing but sin before he bore him in hand he needed no pardon now he perswades him there is no hope of pardon Before his estate was safe and good and need not be altered nor he trouble himself about it it 's now so vile and desperate there is no help and cannot be recovered Before he soothed up the sinner it was in his power to reform when he would now he perswades there is no possibility in Heaven or Earth to relieve Do you not see saies Satan the greatness of the guilt of your former sins that 's dayly before you the power of present corruptions prevailing more and more do you not see that all the means you have and endeavors you use do you no good only you encrease your sin the more by the abuse of Duties and Ordinances and God hath forsaken you rejected your person cast out your prayers blesseth not his Ordinances to you for good talk not you of Grace and Mercy you have deluded your self with those dreams too long look not out for any such relief which you know you have formerly neglected and it 's now too late to expect cease further troubling your self sit down in your sorrows and sink under the weight of your sins that is the reward you have deserved and the portion that is prepared for you of the Lord. This is Satans Logick who would have us to abuse this blessed Ordinance and to go beyond the bounds and Lawful limits of Meditation set out by the Lord himself who would have us to see and search our sins so as to see a need of Mercy and to seek out after the unsearchable riches of his Grace 〈◊〉 to keep us in our sins but that we may be carried out to him who wil recover us out of them Abraham considered not his own dead Body or Sarahs barrenness Rom. 4. 19. he considerd them so far as to put him beyond hope in himself that he might hope above hope and it 's the Lords command Isai 45. 22. Look unto me from all the ends of the Earth and be ye saved Look upon your sins miseries dangers depths of despair but look up to me out of all these The Second Extream is Hellish provocations which we are to watch against in this Work When the sinner hath set himself as he conceives 〈◊〉 Gods way and about his work and yet finds no success in what he doth our self-seeking hearts are apt to 〈◊〉 with the Lord snarl at his 〈◊〉 and so rise 〈◊〉 and fly in the face of the Almighty 〈◊〉 that wretched King said in 〈◊〉 Siege of Samaria 2 Kings 6. 33. This evil is from the Lord why should I wait any longer So the soul I have done what I can endeavored what I am able he doth not bless what I do I find no more strength but my corruptions grow strong my heart worse my hopes and comforts less I do but encrease my sin and hasten my 〈◊〉 in what I do why should I endeavor any more I Answer in three things briefly 1. Do not set too high a price upon our own performances and overween our worth and over value the services we do for that is a root of bitterness and a cause of these Hellish risings when we secretly conceit God doth not consider our care and the weight of our work and endeavor if
contrary and who can expect but he wil accomplish what he hath said the Word excepts no man what folly is it then that I should except my self 2 Thess. 2. 12. That all they might be damned that have pleasure in unrighteousness If I take the same pleasure I must look for the same plagues Luke 13. 5. Except ye repent ye shal all likewise perish If I be in that condition I must expect the same condemnation and be likewise accursed and confounded and cast out from the presence of the Lord. It 's certain it will be so and it 's uncertain how soon it may be What if God do Who knows but God will What if God should pluck me out of the Land of the Living I may truly justly suspect it may be so and fear it will When I lie down I shal never rise more when I go forth I shal never return more when I depart from the house I should take my leave and never see Sabbath more nor the Assembly of the Saints more why may not my meat be my poyson my table my ruin my bed my grave all Creatures instruments of death to me who have been an enemy to God So that their hearts begin to fail them for fear 〈◊〉 21. 26. Thus the 〈◊〉 under the 〈◊〉 of his 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Acts. 19. 27. Adam at the coming of the Lord into the garden feared and fled Gen. 3. 10. this is the fruit of the spirit of bondage Rom. 8. 15. and the distressed sinner becomes as Pashur a terror to himself Jer. 20. 3. 4. the slying of a 〈◊〉 the 〈◊〉 of a leaf the shadow of darkness and approach of the night like the shadow of death he knowes not but the devils may have received a commission this night shall they 〈◊〉 away thy soul 〈◊〉 thee and drag it down to hell While the sinner is 〈◊〉 fearing the evil that is deserved behold the feet of the officer now approaching to see present excution 〈◊〉 and therefore the Lord in the third place puts a commission into the hand of Conscience really to attach and arrest the soul of a sinner to fasten all those curses upon the soul and to force it to feel the vennome of those punishments which were formerly threatned and feared That as it was said to Belshazzar when he was quassing in his cups and bowls of the Sanctuary and the hand writing came out against him the appearance of it affrighted him with the expectation of some direful evil but the present execution of it ushered in ruin upon him and his Kingdom Dan. 5. 28. 30. So the Prophet to thee be it spoken thou art weighed in the ballance and found too light thy Kingdom is departed from thee So Conscience as Gods officer comes to see 〈◊〉 execution done and therefore comes authorised as a serjeant to arrest as a witness to accuse as a judg to condemn tells the soul thou art weighed in the scales of the Sanctuary and 〈◊〉 too light thy doom is past thy destiny is determined thy sentence set down and thy salvation is departed from thee that which thou didst fear is now befallen thee and thou must feel it to thy wo Psal. 140. 11. wickedness hunts the wicked man but it overtakes them also If Conscience condemnes God is greater than our Conscience and he condemnes much more His iniquities lay hold upon him that he is not able to look up Psal. 40. 14. thou hast feared the punishment of sin before man and hast not 〈◊〉 to commit sin before God and thus thou hast sealed up thy condemnation casting away the goodness of the Lord. If thou doest evil sin lyes at the dore Gen. 4. Hence flowes in the fearful expression of the displeasure of the Almighty the dreadful wrath of the Eternal like the mighty waves of the Sea overwhelm and sink the soul of the sinner in desperate discouragement There be 2 things in sin 1 The 〈◊〉 of it 2 the punishment that comes from it the stayn in it and the sting and tartness of it cross to me and cross to God cross to my honor and shames me cross to my quiet and peace and troubles me cross to my safety and destroyes me And this second the sinner is firstly most sensible of the plague of sin first stings and stabs the heart Because nature seeks its own preservation and self love carryes al men readily and easily to provide for their own safety And here sorrow begins usually when the Lord by the Ministry of Conscience awakened encamps about the sinner with al the curses of his righteous law broken besigeth him with the armies of his indignation and his fierce wrath followes him at every turn So that now 〈◊〉 ever he is which way so ever he turns himself his sins and plagues compass him about on every side If he look to heaven he sees a just God there ready to destroy him before him are his sins ready to accuse him within him nothing but guilt to condemn him below him hell opening her mouth prepared to receive him and the Devils at 〈◊〉 to torment his wretched 〈◊〉 as soon as it 〈◊〉 depart out of his body And 〈◊〉 behold 〈◊〉 pale 〈◊〉 those weak hands and feeble knees that the poor creature becomes not worth the ground he goes on a 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 himself and weary of his life The Lord dishes out 〈◊〉 sins and plagues to him on the table where he 〈◊〉 writes them upon the tester of the bed 〈◊〉 he lyes his pressures and miseries become unsupportable and unsufferable and were it not that God sustaines with one hand as he beats him with the other A wounded Conscience no man can bear Hence it is in such horror men betake themselves to the pit to the knife to the halter rather choose not to be then to be so miserable In these perplexities the sinner as a man under his burden would shift shoulder try al conclusions turn every stone wind every way if any way he could get ease or relief And if the counsel of carnal friends can lessen the trouble company allay it false reasonings of his own vain mind abate it time and continuance wear out the terror his confessions and reformations put in bayl upon his Conscience and quiet it or some false mistakes of pardon and mercy heal the wound he walks in a wily way how to serve sin and yet God too how to keep in with the truth upon some fayr tearms and yet attend his own ends the man is where he was returnes to his ould sinful distempers and the latter end proves worse than the beginning he dyes in the birth Thus millions of men perish go within the view of Canaan and never possess it cast away in the very haven within the sight of land and never arrive But he whom God loves he wil not leave here though his hand be upon the sore and his eye upon the sting and terror the plagues and judgments
himself to him and to Samuel very yong at about fourteen yeers Somtimes God keeps his by the strokes of his common Graces restraining from scandalous evils and constraining by means appointed and blessed to that end the holy 〈◊〉 the counsels and examples of Godly Parents the society of such who are 〈◊〉 the power of the Ordinances under which they are bred and brought up toling and tilling of their 〈◊〉 and affections by many moral perswasions to the love and liking of the excellency of a holy course which he knows how to present and by which to 〈◊〉 out the exercise of all those moral abilities they are endued withal and at the last insensibly and yet truly 〈◊〉 them off from the root of old Adam and implants into the 〈◊〉 Vine Christ Jesus Ladia and Zachaeus are Presidents of Gods proceeding in this case whence it is that many a godly man and true Convert never knew the time of his Conversion only he knows he was blind and God hath brought him to see the wonders of his way and Truth Only a Three-fold Caution is 〈◊〉 to be attended Though the manner of Gods dealing be divers and degrees of this work of Contrition differ in most 〈◊〉 the Nature and substance of the work is really and truly wrought in all that are effectually called out of the world themselves and sins to the Lord Jesus as shall after appear when we come to give in the Evidences of the Point in hand only now it shal suffice to propound these two places 〈◊〉 3. 1. Behold I will send my Messenger and he shal prepare the way 〈◊〉 me and the Lord whom ye 〈◊〉 shall suddenly come into his Temple and this preparation his Harbenger John Baptist discovers Luke 3. 5. Every mountain shal be brought low and the valleyes filled crooked things made straight and rough things plain and then all 〈◊〉 shal see the salvation of the Lord. And the evidence 〈◊〉 this appears in the question they made What shal we do c. It 's Gods way of entertainment which himself prescribes Rev. 3. 2. Behold I stand at thee door and knock if any man will open the door I and my Father will come in to him and sup with him Unless the door be opened there is no expectation of Christs coming and supping now all men are shut up under unbelief and so the power of their sins the opening of the heart is the loosening of the soul from the league of these lusts which is done by Contrition true a man may pick the lock or break the lock open the door and lift up the latch gently or else unhinge it with violence and noise that al the house and al the town may hear but it 's opened both waies Though a man truly called happily cannot tell the time of his Conversion yet every one should and if gracious he can give such proper and special evidence such never failing and infallible fruits of this work that they may undoubtedly discover to others and ascertain to his own soul that the stroke is struck indeed that he hath been called out of the world and from darkness to his marvelous light that the Lord hath broken his heart kindly or else he cannot 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 he wil ever bind him up with his saving and healing compassions It 's a safe way to view over these primitive and first impressions of the Lord upon the soul and a principle of Grace received to renew and act over dayly these first Editions and Spiritual Dispositions imprinted upon the heart they were first 〈◊〉 upon us but after Grace received they may should be 〈◊〉 by us we should act them over again This is the Advice and Direction which our Savior so seasonably and so sadly leaves upon record upon the Conscience of his Disciples When Peter was 〈◊〉 of his fall and denyal of his Master he also leaves this Receipt with him 〈◊〉 his recovery after the wound taken When thou art converted strengthen thy Brethren Luke 22 32. Peter was converted 〈◊〉 before and called effectually unto Christ and by faith made one with him and this faith he did not nay could not lose for Christ prayed his faith should not fail but in our fals there is a weakening and blemishing of this work of Conversion and an aversion in some measure left upon the soul therefore we should labor a new Conversion i. e. renew and act over the work of Conversion be broken hearted humbled drawn to Christ afresh and as necessary as the renewal of the act of faith is the repairing and renewing of these acts also for there is no going to Christ if we go not out of sin and self Hence again our Savior when he would take off and reform that ambitious humor which had vented it self among the Disciples when each man strove to be highest one at the right hand another at the left the rest they disdained this 〈◊〉 pang our Savior applies this Receipt to 〈◊〉 this corruption 〈◊〉 18. 2. 3. Jesus called a little Child and set him in the midst of them and said unto them Verily I say unto you unless ye be converted and become as little Children ye shal not enter into the Kingdom of Heaven The Disciples were called and so converted truly savingly humbled and yet they must renew and act over again these first impressions of the powerful operations of the Spirit of God be broken hearted loosened from thy lusts as at the sirst be abased and brought to nothing in thine own sence and apprehension as at the first be drawn to Christ as at the first and there is more reason and greater necessity of this than men are readily aware of For A wound here is never recovered in any following work upon the soul unless we go back and begin again miss here and we miss all spoil all our proceedings in progress of the Work of Grace He that enters not at the right gate the faster he goes the further out of his way Never loosened and divorced from the league with some darling lust thou canst not be Espoused to Christ therefore not called therefore not justified 〈◊〉 sanctified nor glorified thy reformations are false thy peace counterfeit and al thy comforts thou conceit'st thou hast they are meer forgeries and delusions thou art fast in the Devils clutches as long as thou hast thy sins he hath thee at command The Mettal that is not melted there is no making polishing perfecting any Vessel for any use with it Cleer this cleer all i. e. we make way for the Evidences that appertain to our comfort and spiritual condition in our whol course mark al the recoylings of our Consciences the misgiving of our hearts the staggering and doubting of the Truth of Gods Work or the assurance of Gods Love they turn still upon this hinge here they fortifie Oh the lusts I brought with me from my Cradle the old haunt of heart the old sin therefore I am
is sufficient to support thee to live in hope nay it is a portion provided on purpose and came for this very end Isa. 61. 3. to appoint unto them that mourn in Sion beauty for ashes the Oyl of gladness for the spirit of heaviness yea God himself wil come for this end to bring consolation uto thy soul. That 's a likely matter indeed when the vileness of my corrption makes me loathsom to my self and weary of mine own soul how justly may God loath me and estrange himself who is so great and holy a God That which thou conceivest a cause why God should withdraw his presence it 's that why he delights in thee thy sins are loathsom that 's true but to loath thy sin and thy self for them its that which makes way and room for the Lords both Love to thee and presence with thee Isa. 57. 17. Thus saith the high and lofty one that inhabits eternity I dwel with him also that is of an humble contrite spirit to revive the heart of contrite ones The greatness of God and holiness of God takes most content in a broken heart burdened with sin and loosened from it And herein the doubts of a distressed soul may be answered and discouragments also cured and removed wil so great a God vouch ase to cal upon so base a creature so holy a God so sinful so filthy and polluted a sinner yea behold God reveals him 〈◊〉 in the height of al his greatness and holiness and professeth he hath but two habitations where he takes 〈◊〉 i. e. the highest heavens and a broken heart that sees his own weakness and therefore the greatness and power of God is most 〈◊〉 it ackonwledeth its own vileness 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 own filthyness and there the holiness of a God is most honored feared and advanced therefore the 〈◊〉 for God to dwel in where his honor may most of al be advanced and he comes with his cost and for this intent and purpose that he may revive and quicken therefore he wil not therefore he cannot miss of his end and the attaining of that he intends nor thou of thy comfort It 's matter of comfort to such 〈◊〉 are frinds and wel-wishers to those burdened and distressed creatures Mourn for them you should but yet be comforted with them you ought For if you desire their good in truth and in earnest its certain they are now and never were before in the road of mercy in ready way yea the onely way to attain favour and everlasting compassions from the hand of the Lord. It 's now the day of Gods visitation the Lord seemed to pass by as a stranger before as though he cared neither for them nor the welfare and comfort of their souls but suffred them to live and dye in their sins not so much as looking after them behould now is the day of their visitation wherein the Lord comes to visite the sinner and to enquire touching the eternal prosperity of the soul to loosen him from the power of his lusts and to free him from the prevailing power of those corruptions that would certainly ruinate his happiness Yea now the spirit seems to travel upon the soul until the Lord Jesus be formed in him when as formerly he bore the image of sin and Satan so the Father of the Prodigal when his heart had been pinched under the pressures and miseries of his baseness brought upon him and constrained him to take thoughts of forsaking his former course see what solace it was to his Father For this my son was dead but is alive again he was secure he is now affected with the sight and sence of his sin he was hard-hearted and perverse in his way now he is plyable and yeilding to any impression I speak it the rather because carnal persons conceive that this broken heartedness is a kind of curse and that which makes men unsuitable to their Places and unserviceable wholly for any imployment the prophane Husband the unjust Master the loose Companion curse the day that ever the Minister came amongst them the wife was vain and froathy to suit 〈◊〉 folly but now the former 〈◊〉 is turned into mourning she grows mopish and melancholly there is no content in her The Apprentice that was as the Glove to the Hand fitted his turn at all times at al assaies would lye for his humor cozen for his profit but now forsooth is grown so tender and conscientious he dare do nothing there is no service in him his companion that would ruffle it out in mirth jollity is becom so pensive under the pressure of his Conscience that there is no society in him they look at them as lost and undone persons the Preacher hath spoiled them they are fit for nothing And so also some poor ignorant people whose waies were civil and moral and never acquainted with Gods manner of dealing in such cases when they see their friends and children and kindred sinking under the sence of their sin and Gods displeasure their hearts taken up wholly with attendance to their own Spiritual necessities and taken off from all other occasions they look at it as a kind of madness and distraction and they fear they will not come to themselves again when in Truth they never came to themselves before now nor in truth considered where they were or what they did whereas this broken-heartedness doth not impair any mans abilities but turns them the right way and improves them for the Lords advantage it makes men unhandy to sin but fit for the Service of the Almighty only it is a spiritual sickness and you must in reason wait til the extreamity be over before the party can be free for any work but this because he finds this most needful He that takes Physick retires into his Chamber but it is not to hinder his imployment but further it for future time the Child when he sees the Grapes a pressing he fals a crying and fondly conceives his Father spoils them to bring 〈◊〉 out of them The unexperienced stander by imagines that the pieces of Gold that are put into the refining pot and that into the fire will utterly be spoiled until he sees a Vessel of Gold framed out of them glorious for shew and Service he then changeth his mind So here when thou 〈◊〉 the Lord putting men into the furnace of his fierce wrath scorching their Consciences know the Lord hath them now in the 〈◊〉 and intends to make them Vessels of Grace and Mercy who before were Vessels of Dishonor fit for nothing but to serve sin and Satan help thou 〈◊〉 the work and 〈◊〉 in it and as Paul in a like case wish'd That not only they but all thy friends and children and kindred 〈◊〉 not almost but altogether such as they are broken-hearted sinners DIRECTION How to carry ourselves towards distressed sinners in this condition who are thus pierced unto the heart whose perplexities
men out of that senceless security in which they were buried makes them look about them puts them upon the serious consideration of their own spiritual condition not long before they scant thought whether they had louls to be saved or sins to be pardoned or mercy and grace to be looked after they never put it to the question what they could say or shew for heaven but now they begin to think with themselves what they are this is set forth to be the guise and behavior of converting sinners when God begins to tamper with the hearts for the alteration of their states Jer. 50. 4. In those dayes and at that time when God hath stirred their hearts to recover themselves out of the Babilonish Captivity Deliver thy self O Sion 〈◊〉 who dwellest with 〈◊〉 Daughter of Babilon See how they bestir themselves Going and weeping shall they go and 〈◊〉 the Lord their God weep stil and go stil sorrow stil and seek stil they who stirred not a foot before nor looked after the Lord nor their own happiness and comfort So it was with Ephraim when the Lord began to work his heart to a right apprehension of himself Jer. 31. 18. while he was in his Natural Condition he was like an untamed Bullock unacoustomed to the Yoke but when the Lord had taken him to task then he begins to 〈◊〉 with himself and betake himself to new thoughts verse 19. When I was turned I repented when I was instructed I smote upon my thigh Thus John Baptists Hearers when once the Word wrought kindly upon them it made them al busie and inquisitive even as one man Luke 3. 10. to 15. The People they came and asked the Publicans they enquired the rude Soldiers they also began to demand Master what shal we do This disposition of spirit set men a going who sat stil before as in a dream The covetous Publicans whose thoughts were after their gain how to compass their Commodities from every Quarter the rude and unruly Soldiers who cared for nothing nor thought of nothing but how to satisfie their own lusts and sult their own corrupt desires al was fish that came to net and the sottish multitude who meerly followed the sight of their eyes after a bruitish manner minded that which concerned the out ward man What shal we eat what shal we drink what shal we put on In likely hood had never a thought of God nor of themselves whether there were a Heaven to be expected or a Hel to be avoided but followed their present pleasures see now how serious and inquisitive they be they now conclude somthing must be done and they would willingly know what course they ought to take when God sets upon mens souls then they set upon their Service The Reasons are Two Because they now feel the evil they never feared before now they see the danger and misery hanging over their heads able to overwhelm them and sink their hearts which they never suspected formerly And therefore now not only Reason 〈◊〉 them but their own safety Nature and 〈◊〉 love wil force them to bestir themselves to the utmost of their strength and improve al their abilities to the utmost of their power to prevent such over-bearing evils and provide for 〈◊〉 own relief and welfare and so the more to use al diligence here because they are unknown and yet spiritual which concern their eternal estate and therefore cause most fear and threaten most hazard and therefore constrains them to seek 〈◊〉 and neer for succor and relief So it was with the Prodigal when he came to 〈◊〉 before he had not the right 〈◊〉 of his Reason nor conceived of things as they were but as frantick men fal into fire and water and fear nothing 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 nothing but now being come to the 〈◊〉 of his understanding he considers How many Servants are in my Fathers Family that have bread enough and I 〈◊〉 with hunger Luke 15. 17. then he 〈◊〉 himself I will arise and go to my Father and say c. So it is with many prodigal 〈◊〉 deluded Creatures they spend time and strength and lay out themselves 〈◊〉 nothing and therefore fear no after-claps until the time of Famine and day of 〈◊〉 and horror come in upon them they never saw need of reading hearing prayer seeking and enquiry but now when they find themselves besieged with sins and plagues and dayly expect the execution to be done Heaven frowning Hell gaping their Consciences 〈◊〉 and themselves dropping down to the Grave and their souls to Hell they think it high time and more than time to bestir themselves to do what they can and to cry for help and direction in so desperate distresses and danger I wil arise and go confer I wil arise and go enquire I wil arise and go pray The whol need not the Physitian therefore they do not send nor yet are they willing to receive nor care to enquire or take any Physick but when the Difease grows fierce and life is in danger then post out Messengers 〈◊〉 far and neer for a Physitian search every bush enquire of every man what might be good what have you 〈◊〉 what would you advise So here Thus God dealt with his People when he would awaken them Hos. 5. last In their affliction they will seek me early then Hos. 6. 1. Come let us return to the Lord he hath wounded and he will heal The full soul loaths the Honey Comb but never looks out for provision but the 〈◊〉 soul that is now starving runs if he can if he cannot run he wil go if he 〈◊〉 go he wil creep enquires where he may have food uses all means to get he wil buy or beg or borrow So here c. They begin now to see the folly of their own conceits and that confidence which in former times they had how easily they could procure their own comfort and how certainly without fail they could provide for the 〈◊〉 of their own souls and everlasting happiness they said it and thought what they said that there needs not so much 〈◊〉 to get to Heaven at the time of 〈◊〉 and before their departure draw on it 's but bewading 〈◊〉 sins and seeking to God for mercy Oh but when it comes too they 〈◊〉 another 〈◊〉 matter of it than ever formerly they did 〈◊〉 they 〈◊〉 at an utter loss with themselves they know not what 〈◊〉 to take which 〈◊〉 to turn they know not poor Creatures how to come at a Christ nay how to 〈◊〉 him how to attain 〈◊〉 pardon or peace And therefore now though 〈◊〉 late it may be they see they know not what to do or how to turn their hand to any spiritual work which in pride of heart said and concluded they could 〈◊〉 any thing They are made of nothing but doubts and questions If thou 〈◊〉 est the gift of God thou would'st ask of him and he would give thee
life it self willing not only these things should not be but that himself should not be that he might not be sinful Let the Lord take all away yea life and all only take away my sin and it sufficeth he counts it the best day that ever yet dawned the best news that ever came to his distressed Conscience if he can gain any assurance get any evidence but one good look from Heaven a smile of Gods face and 〈◊〉 that the sins he hath seen he shal never see them more the corruptions that have 〈◊〉 and plagued him in his dayly Conversation indisposed him to do the Duties God required and unfitted him for the 〈◊〉 Christ hath purchased God hath tendered to him in his holy Word That pride that 〈◊〉 those passions that perversness and self-willy waywardness of heart that hath been the plague-sore of his soul have interrupted the comfort of his heart peace of his Conscience communion with his God The very possibility and expectation that the Lord may save him from the guilt and power of those prevailing distempers supports his Spirit But if he can but live to see the day that the thing is done he desires to live no longer Lord let thy Servant 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 since mine eyes have seen thy 〈◊〉 2. 29 30. Since thou hast 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 lusts mighty stifness 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 al Convictions though 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 gainsay al Arguments though never so 〈◊〉 slight al Directions though never 〈◊〉 evident mighty self-considence and hellish haughtiness of Spirit whereby I could swel above man and means and God himself Let thy Servant depart in peace This Peace let it never be interrupted this saving power of thy spirit never weakened never enfeebled more Let me lose my life with the 〈◊〉 let me die that they may never live more And therefore the distressed Christian sees not the meanest Christian in the 〈◊〉 miserable condition but he prefers him above al the 〈◊〉 on Earth and wisheth himself in his place Oh if my soul were in his souls stead saved from his corruption therefore he is in a safe and a blessed condition Salvation if it be of the right stamp to deliver from sin not to ease from plagues and sorrows such a kind of saving carries ever satisfaction with it hath a 〈◊〉 fulness which answers unto al poor and imprisoned yet saved though persecuted reproached yet saved though despised and killed and yet saved delivered from his 〈◊〉 there is no evil of the first or second death that shal hurt him 〈◊〉 have any power over him And therefore the contrite sinner contents himself in this as Jacob in a like case I have enough Joseph is yet alive I have enough my soul shal yet be saved In a wrack he that saves his life is abundantly satisfied When so many thousands suffer 〈◊〉 split al their Professions Hopes and Comforts upon the Rocks and Sands of Pride and Self-love Oh what a mercy satisfying mercy that thou who wert in as much danger as they stands alive upon the shoar when they are dying and drowning and 〈◊〉 under the power of their sins The 〈◊〉 sinner 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 price he is resolved in good 〈◊〉 readily to endeavor any thing to compass that he makes so much 〈◊〉 of 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 and Brethren what shall we do Command what ye wil we shal do it give what 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 please we 〈◊〉 follow them prescribe 〈◊〉 means you see 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 shal improve them 〈◊〉 it is you shal 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 enjoyn be it never so cross to our own carnal 〈◊〉 never 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 and haza 〈◊〉 we 〈◊〉 not haggle and 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 you but we shal endeavor 〈◊〉 and 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 What 〈◊〉 we do whatever 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 we 〈◊〉 do what we 〈◊〉 and 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 to do what we cannot out of our weakness perform or out of our ignorance so readily conceive how 〈◊〉 accomplish So they Isai. 30. 22. The Converts there it 's said They 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 the 〈◊〉 of Silver and ornament of Gold and cast them away as a 〈◊〉 cloth and say get thee hence The price and worth of their Image might have enticed them if not to have kept them yet converted them to their own use but they casheir them wholly without the least consideration of any Commodity that they might have contrived for their own content therefrom So Zacheus 〈◊〉 19. 8. When once he began to be sensibly affected with his corrupt and covetous course and the danger thereof and the evil therein see how comfortably restitution which is so difficult a work comes off a hand without any grudging because that was the means appointed by God to quit his heart and hands of the guilt of that sin Behold Lord half that I have I give to the poor and if I have wronged any man by forged Cavillation I restore him four-fold So lastly the holy Apostle Paul when the Lord Jesus had discovered his sin and abased his heart in the right apprehension of it so that he is come to Gods bent What wilt thou have me to do Behold I wil send thee far hence to the Gentiles Acts 26. 17 19. He did not consent with flesh and blood nor so much as pretend either doubt or 〈◊〉 but immediately addressed himself to follow the direction That which a man prizeth indeed he wil bid fair for nor wil he scotch for a little cost but is resolved to have it what ever it 〈◊〉 and therefore 〈◊〉 not for the cost at all So it is here a 〈◊〉 sinner comes easily and resolutely to Gods terms to do any thing He that 〈◊〉 this price upon Salvation and 〈◊〉 from sin his heart is upon it and his prayer is improved for the most part for this particular his thoughts about it 〈◊〉 Listen to him in 〈◊〉 secret devotions his confessions about this his Petitions spent upon this he harps upon this 〈◊〉 stil. But for things of the world they are out of his mind his thoughts 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 them as though he 〈◊〉 nothing or cared for nothing or 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Oh deliver me 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Ask him what he would have or desire if he might obtain and have what he would he answers Oh that I might be saved as Abraham for Ishmael 〈◊〉 17. 18. 〈◊〉 that Ishmael might live before thee 〈◊〉 he for his own soul Oh that my soul may live before thee or as blind 〈◊〉 said Oh that my Eyes might be opened and that my heart might be opened and freed from my corruptions Oh that Jesus Christ would do this for me who cannot do it for my 〈◊〉 Because 〈◊〉 distressed soul finds the presence of all 〈◊〉 ther things do no whit prejudice a mans everlasting happiness either the good or comfort of his soul either the having or 〈◊〉 of his Spiritual 〈◊〉 the presence of 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 which may 〈◊〉 do not 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 of any 〈◊〉 person a 〈◊〉 is never
his sensual 〈◊〉 hath 〈◊〉 it self in the dayes of his folly which now he hath found by woful 〈◊〉 to be gal and wormwood to his Conscience the bane of his peace and would have been the ruin of him and his soul before this day but that it hath pleased the Lord to 〈◊〉 him for the present and not to execute his vengeance upon him as he hath deserved by reason of his former 〈◊〉 therefore he cannot abide the sight of the place where the sin was committed the presence of the party the companion that enticed yea fears the the falsness and treachery of his own heart least that again should betray him thus you see in Davids 〈◊〉 Psal. 101. 3. I hate the work of them that turn aside it shal not cleave to me Hatred is Eagle-eyed to observe the proceedings of the enemy and out of a watchful fear 〈◊〉 stop the passage and to keep his approach that he cannot come near unto us Happily temptations may press in with violence upon the soul and the strength of distempers may make fierce 〈◊〉 make batteries nay make a breach happily and over-bear the sinner for the push 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 is the fear watch that the heart is carried 〈◊〉 through this 〈◊〉 that it wil prevent their approach or at least never yield to their power A chast Matron that truly hates the unchast 〈◊〉 of adulterous mates they may pester her trouble her lie at her from day to day though she cannot keep her self happily from being tempted yet she wil keep her self unspotted she wil not be unchast nor unfaithful So it is with a heart that 〈◊〉 carryed with detestation against evil though distempers and temptation may pester it yet they shal not cleave to it nor it cleave to them It may do that which it hates as Paul Rom. 7. 15. what I hate that I do yet it wil hate its own doings its own self so far as overborn therby the out-works may be taken yet the soul ever entrencheth herself in this holy hatred of heart and either it wil force them to fly or it wil fly from them though it cannot be quit of these In-mates but stil they wil abide in the soul yea 〈◊〉 them and the soul for them This is the order and method that the Apostle layes forth in this work when the Corinthians came to be touched with Godly sorrow what indignation what fear what zeal what revenge c. 2 Cor. 7. 11. When the heart carries a detestation towards a corruption it stands against it as an enemy then follows fear which is a behavior suitable to provide and prevent the policies plottings and way-layings thereof upon al occasions look as it is with a City that hath been besiedged with a potent and Malicious enemy if once the siedge be raysed and the forces of the enemy put to rout and scattered how wil the besiedged party by a watchful fear stand upon their guard stand centinel night and day send out their perdues and dispatch a party in every coast to discover the carriage of the enemy takes al the passages maintains a narrow search no man goes out no man comes in but enquires learns the intent of the enemy whether he gathers forces and maks head again watcheth strictly to 〈◊〉 his approach with the first apperance its 〈◊〉 fresh in their minds into what great distress they were formerly brought what cruelty they suffered and that there was but a hairs bredth between them and death with what fear and care wil they labor to prevent the like bondage again as the Phylistians cryed one to another when the ark came into the field for the safeguarding of their lives and liberties quit your selves like 〈◊〉 Oh ye Phylistins least you become servants to the Hebrowes So it is with the sinner who hath been besiedged and held captive under the tyranny and soveraignty of sin and Satan when the Lord by the power of ordinances shal cast down the strong holds stop the act of sin in the strength and stream of it disanul and make voyd the authority of any right or claym the sin could challenge in this work of contrition and so rescues the soul and rayses the sieg that Satan layd and maintayned against its distempers as the deadliest enemy it hath in al the world No sooner is the soul revolted from under the tyranny of corruption but the fear of the former misery forceth a man to mervailous circumspection to maintayn a careful watch as suspicious of a surprisal least the old distempers should gather head again if any temptation or occasion be presented any appearance of any provocation which may lead to the entertainment of any evil be cast in how doth the heart shrink and shake as though the enemy were now afresh approaching what narrow search and inquisition doth the soul set up in its daily course weighs the words he speaks examines each thought and stirring of affection whether there be any treacheries plotted any correspondence held any preparation made for the recalling entertainment of the former lusts and corruptions Fear gives the Alarum presently sets 〈◊〉 a work to prevent the evil cryes out to heaven for succor and relief the disobedient child the stubborn and careless servant were their hearts brought to this detestation of these their distempers you would see a new world they would mind themselves of their own misearriages though you never remembred them they would check themselves for carelessness though you never reproved them they would be heart sick of the stirrings of such rebellions though you never reckoned with them in that behalf their own heart would cal to their remembrance their former extremities It was not long since you were raigned before the tribunal of the Lord cast and condemned by the witness of the word the verdict of 〈◊〉 own Consciences and by the testimony of God 〈◊〉 who is greater than your consciences and yet 〈◊〉 respited through the long sufferance of the Lord and 〈◊〉 riches of his mercy you saw cause enough for ever 〈◊〉 abhor those abominations and your selves for 〈◊〉 therefore God forbid I should rush into those evils 〈◊〉 and plunge my self into everlasting confusion 〈◊〉 of body and soul I have cause to hate them as mine 〈◊〉 mies I wil never harbor them as my friends Where this hatred is throughly wrought in the 〈◊〉 against sin it seeks the destruction of sin in ones 〈◊〉 first and in other also so far as comes within the compass of a mans place and 〈◊〉 The indignation 〈◊〉 at home and it s carryed most strongly against the 〈◊〉 of our own hearts which are our greatest enemies and have done us the greatest harm and we by them 〈◊〉 done the Lord the greatest dishonor and we know 〈◊〉 most in al the loathsomness of them and in al the 〈◊〉 nousness and heightning circumstances thereof then 〈◊〉 can be acquainted with the measure and scantling of any others miscarriages