〈◊〉 Power of God in the conversion of a 〈◊〉 is far more secret and Spiritual such as we are 〈◊〉 able to reach It is the prayer of the Apostle for the Ephesians Chap. 1. 17 18. that they might know the working of his mighty Power in working Faith it is the most mysterious of all the works of God it shakes the 〈◊〉 of the ablest Divines upon Earth Comfort to releeve the hearts of sinners against desperate discouragements when the floods of iniquity 〈◊〉 in amain upon the soul the sinner looks to his 〈◊〉 to Gods Ordinances and Providences and 〈◊〉 the Work of God that should be wrought in him and 〈◊〉 what ods and disproportion there is between his Soul and that blessed Work that should be in him why truly this is the only help to a soul in such a case with man it is impossible but not with God for with him all things are possible Matth. 19. 26. Though there be such a vast disproportion between thy own ability and this Work that thou shouldest never attain 〈◊〉 if thou wert left to thy self yet know that Christ by the Almighty Power of his Spirit is able to do it for thee But the soul will say the truth is there is not so much disproportion but there is as much opposition in my soul to the work of Grace why should God ever give me that mercy which I would not have and that Grace which my soul hath so much opposed this is another depth Why yet know thou that Gol can overwork all these and will do so for thee if thou seek unto him But know this to thy ever lasting terror That if thou do 〈◊〉 thus in the hardness and opposition of thy heart against Christ and his Grace that this Power of the Lord that would convert thee will put forth it self to confound thee to thine eternal ruine Exhortation Not to defer the time 〈◊〉 Grace but every soul of us with trembling hearts to attend upon the Lord in the use of means that he may be pleased to work his own good Work in us It 's that the Apostle exhorts unto Phil. 2. 12. Workout your 〈◊〉 with fear and trembling and he gives the reason of it For saies he it's God that worketh in you to 〈◊〉 and to do of his own good pleasure that is it is in Gods hand to help us or to forsake us either 〈◊〉 make the means effectual for our saving good or else to withdraw his presence and blessing from them while we do enjoy them 〈◊〉 Be 〈◊〉 fearful not to slight any Ordinance God hath appointed as Naamans 〈◊〉 said to him Go and try it he that now counsels you to it may bless it and work by it if it please him Secondly Tremblingly fear to fall short of Gods Power in an Ordinance for a man may fall short of God and Christ and Grace and all good even while he doth enjoy the Ordinances of God and live under them therefore say as Elisha did Where is the Lord God of Eliah Here is the Word and here is the Ordinance but where is the Lord God of this Word the God of Preaching and Praying It is not in the Minister or the means to do good to my soul but Lord speak thou the word and it shall work upon my soul as he said 2 Kings 4. 29 30. As the Lord lives 〈◊〉 will not leave thee till thou go with me do thou so when the Lord gives thee means say I will not leave the Lord until he make this Counsel this Word this Ordinance effectual for my saving good Be also tremblingly fearful when the Lord works by any Ordinance lest you should go out from or with draw your self from the power of it when you find and feel somthing more than Man and Means and Ordinances Oh let it not slip away the Lord was in that word do not suffer that stroke to go away because God is there now the Lord is working be you sure to follow the blow and give not over wrastiing 〈◊〉 striving with the Lord until he bless you with the 〈◊〉 working of his Word and Spirit and so apply unto thy soul all Spiritual Good in Jesus Christ. BOOK III. LUK. 1. 17. To make ready a People prepared for the Lord. HAving dispatched the Nature of Application in the General The Parts thereof come to be Considered in the next place These are Two 1 A Preparation of the Soul for Christ. 2 An Implantation of the Soul into Christ. That so having the Son we may be sure to have life 1 Joh. 5. 12. possessing him who is the heir of all we may be possessed of all both Temporal and Spiritual Blessings with him But before the Soul can be engrafted into the true Vine Christ Jesus it must be prepared and fitted thereunto by the powerful work of the Spirit of God upon it being not fit to receive a Christ by Nature and unable to fit its self thereunto by any liberty of Will or any sufficiency natural it hath When then these Two Works are imprinted upon the Soul the Sinner comes to take full possession of a Savior and to have all those Spiritual good things which Christ hath Purchased applyed unto him And thus these Two taking up the whole Nature of Application it 's manifest they must be the Parts of Application as reason inforceth The First is thus Described Preparation is a fitting of a sinner for his Being in Christ. The words of the Text will afford us full ground for the Handling and Discovering of this Truth To prepare a People fitted for the Lord Which words make known the main Task that was imposed upon John the Baptist and that great Work of his Ministery being the Forerunner of our Savior Christ wherewith he was betrusted and for which he was every way fitted with Gifts and Graces proportionable Therefore it s said in the beginning of the Verse He shall come in the Spirit and Power of Elias i. e. He shall have that large measure of gracious and Ministerial Gifts that special presence and assistance of the Spirit of the Lord accompanying of him as somtimes Elias had that so in the corrupt and declining state of the Church which was now exceeding great he might set things in a better frame build up the Breaches made taking off those Dissentions Errors and Divisions which had spread over the Body and eaten into the Bowels of the Church of the Jews like a Gangrene or Cancer And therefore as it was foretold of him so it was performed by him Matth. 17. 11. He did restore all things Namely such was the lively and over-ruling power of his Ministery that he wrought the Hearts of the Children otherwise 〈◊〉 and rebellious to the wisdom of the just men that laying aside all carnal wisdom of the 〈◊〉 which was enmity against God and caused 〈◊〉 and strifes among men they came to judge 〈◊〉 of things that were excellent to
ken of Salvation That crooked things must be made straight before any flesh can see the salvation of the Lord. There be crookings of carnal reason in the heart of every man naturally it was the great Ingredient into the first sin of Adam and hath been his Curse ever since to find out findings Eccles. 7. last to invent inventions to make an escape from the Truth and so to walk in the vanity of their own mind and unless the Lord heat a man in the fire of his fury hold him upon the Anvil beat him and break him by the hammer of the Law in this work of Contrition this crookedness wil never be removed nor he come within the sight of Salvation and it 's made one part of the description of a man that is out of the path of peace Isay 59. 8. They have made their 〈◊〉 crooked By way of REPROOF It dasheth that dream of the wicked and cursed imagination of carnal men who conceit that to fal under the foot of contempt according to the desert of our evil doings they conceive it a point of greatest dispar agement and wickedness that can be imagined and to take up 〈◊〉 abode in that abased condition either by some reach of policy not to prevent such an evil or when it doth befal to be shistless as to sink under it and not to be able to struggle out they look at such and leave it upon Record in their Observation as very simplicians such as are destitute either of wit or courage to swallow down such indignities and never be sick of them these persons they note as feeble and the 〈◊〉 base A hellish delusion directly contrary to the truth here delivered and the practice of these Converts now truly broken-hearted with Godly sorrow for their sins That which issues from the power and work of Gods Spirit upon the soul it argues neither feebleness nor 〈◊〉 and such is this practice and therefore it argues neither 1. Not feebleness because it is of a conquering of a commanding power and that against the greatest forces of sin and Satan which they bring into the field our own carnal ends and high conceited excellency of our worth the seeking our selves and setting up our own persons and names and praises are the very stumps of Dagon which stand longest the very heart blood of the body of death the high and overweening thoughts of the Soveraignty of our wils and worth they are the holds of Satan to batter down the strong holds and to make us lie down in the dust and to be abased in the sight of God and man in quiet subjection is indeed to subdue the power of darkness a work unto which we must be enabled by the power of the Almighty far beyond the might of al Creatures much less shal feebleness be able ever to compass it if thou conceitest it is so easie go thy waies and do thou likewise Alas poor deluded Creature it 's such a task that thy heart misgives thee at the very on-set and thou art never able to turn thy hand to it thou must have allowance from thy lusts and stubbornness of thy own heart and ask leave of thy pride and vain glory and when al is done thou canst not so much as fain a confession such a slave and underling thou art to thy sinful distempers even slavery it self that they wil not suffer thee to speak a word to cross thine own way ward spirit and condemn the wretchedness of thy carnal carriage which by the power of the spirit of contrition these poor Servants of the Lord can do not verbally but really and seriously as in the sight of God Which shews there is more than the strength of a mans self that must 〈◊〉 yea destroy a mans self that is his self pride and praise 2. As there is no feebleness in this so neither is there the least baseness in so blessed a service and work of such excellency as this is a behavior truly honorable and such as indeed beseems persons of the greatest account with God and man 〈◊〉 were the diamond in Solomons Crown Eccles. 1. 1. The words of a soul gathered to his people the son of David King in Jerusalem they were titles of honor but this was the top of al. It was a higher soveraignty to bewail his sin and seek unfeyned reconciliation to the Church and by serious and thorough satisfaction to 〈◊〉 acceptance than to sit in the throne of Israel by that he was above his subjects by this he was above himself by that he had power over his people by 〈◊〉 he prevayled over the power of darkness hel devils distempers by that he was above the Kingdom ruled it according to his own wil by this he is above his wil which was above the King yea above his corruption and lusts who lorded over wil and King and Kingdom and al. Yea this is so eminent a service however it seems other to the deluded minds of men it makes way for the 〈◊〉 pitch of al that happiness we ever hope to obtayn here on earth or hereafter in heaven 1 Cor. 15. 28. the pinacle of al perfection unto which we can be advanced 〈◊〉 that God may be al 〈◊〉 all 〈◊〉 when a sinner lyes under the foot of loathsomness hath nothing doth nothing receives nothing 〈◊〉 himself unworthy to be looked at worthy to be loathed of heaven earth Now God is al in al not onely 〈◊〉 al for him such is his nothingness in himself but here is the glory of al power wisdom and mercy to overcom his unworthyness and to make him fit to receive any thing besides look at 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 work it self 〈◊〉 is 〈◊〉 greatest victory and those must be the greatest conquerors of al who have conquered and made spoyl of al the Glory of the world The heathen King wished there were more worlds to conquer he that is willing to bewail his sins and take shame for them he hath conquered al those worlds and the conqueror himself and those high thoughts that conquered him it s a degree above glory willingly to be content to want it than indeed to enjoy it Ground of EXAMINATION and TRIAL If we would ever gain assurance or bring in evidence and proof to oure own souls and others that indeed our hearts have been broken for our sins and so turned from our sins in a saving manner unto God here in the kingdom of Grace that we may undoubtedly assure our selves that we shal see his face in glory in another world try thy heart and condition by the former truth lay thy soul level to the doctrine formerly delivered if thou findest this work of God thou mayest undoubtedly conclude there is the spirit of God And however it seems so mean in the eyes of men yet the greater the power of the Almighty is seen in it to lay mountains low and level the hand of the Lord must do this
will a Spiritual good without a spiritual power  3 The corruption of the will utterly indisposeth it to receive a spiritual power  4 Though no force is offered to the faculty of the will yet the corruption of the will must be removed by a holy violence that so it may 〈◊〉 a spiritual power and so put forth a spiritual act 377 Reasons of this are four Because  1 The corruption of the will will not go away of it self  2 The Spirit of Grace that works upon the soul drives out corruption as its contrary  3 By Converting Grace the Dominion of sin is subdued The unwilling will is made a willing will The true meaning of that 388 4 By it also Satan is cast out of the soul he will not go away by intreaty  5 How the plucking of the soul from sin and drawing it to Christ is accomplished 〈◊〉 1 Satans Commission is now called in by Christ.  2 Satans right and claim to the soul is taken from him  3 He is also put out of that possession he had in the soul.  4 The soul is now acted no longer by sin and Satan as formerly but the bent of the heart is under the hand of the Spirit  6 Why this work of Attraction is ascribed to the 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 1 This work is common to all the three Persons  2 Yet it 's chiefly attributed to the Father  Reasons two Because  1 The manifestation of his displeasure is most suitable here to drive the sinner from his sins to Christ.  2 The Father hath sent Christ that is  1 He hath appointed him to  2 Fitted him for And  3 Accepted him in the work of Redemption  Uses three hence  1 Instruction in six Particulars 408 1 Conversion proceeds from God as the alone cause of it For  1 It is not in him that wills or runs but in God that shews mercy  2 Grace gives power to act 〈◊〉 must 〈◊〉 before any concurring act  3 As in Natural Generation and Corruption of the soul from Adam it 's wholly passive so in Regeneration  2 Conversion depends not upon is not resolved into the Liberty of mans Will  For if it did then 412 1 A man made himself to differ  2 The will of man is 〈◊〉 above the Grace of God  3 God should be deprived of the praise of his mercy  3 Conversion depends not upon nor issues not from the congruity of means  For  1 Then it might lastly be resolved into a Natural cause  2 Some that have been suited with most means have continued most opposite  3 All means in themselves are unable to draw the sinner to Christ.  4 The power of Grace in Conversion is irresistable i. e. it takes away the power of 〈◊〉 so as it shall 〈◊〉 frustrate the Grace of God  5 When there is 〈◊〉 there is 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Grace Because 427  1 When there is sufficiency of Grace there are all the Causes working  2 There also the power of resistance is removed  6 All men have not sufficient help of preventing Grace 〈◊〉 1 Sense and Experience give evidence of it  2 None come to Christ but whom the 〈◊〉 draws  3 All are not given to Christ.  2 Consolation 435 1 To support the hearts of unconverted 〈◊〉 against the  1 Temptations of Satan  2 Snares of the world  3 Corruptions of their hearts  2 To the Faithful who have found this 〈◊〉 God will go on in it  3 Exhortation 〈◊〉 1 To the Converted Labor to draw others from their sins to Christ.  1 Do what you can your self  2 Bring them to Christ in the use of means  2 To the 〈◊〉 Come and lie under 〈◊〉 drawing hand  1 Present thy self before God in the use of means  2 Leave not the Ordinances till you find 〈◊〉 Power of God therein  The Names of several Books Printed by Peter Cole in 〈◊〉 London and are to be sold at his Shop at the sign of the Printing-press in Cornhil neer the Exchange Eight several Books by Nich. Culpeper Gent. 〈◊〉 in Physick and Astrologie 1 The Practice of 〈◊〉 containing seventeen several Books Wherein is plainly set forth The Nature Cause 〈◊〉 and Several Sorts of Signs Together with the Cure of all Diseases in the Body of Man Being chiefly a 〈◊〉 of The works of that Learned and Renowned Doctor Lazarus Riverius Now living 〈◊〉 and Physitian to the 〈◊〉 King of France Above sifteen 〈◊〉 of the said Books in 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 been Sold in a very 〈◊〉 Yeers 〈◊〉 been eight times printed though all 〈◊〉 former Impressions wanted the 〈◊〉 Causes Signs and Differences of 〈◊〉 Diseases and had only the 〈◊〉 for the Cure of them as plainly 〈◊〉 by the Authors Epistle 2 The Anatomy of the Body 〈◊〉 Man 〈◊〉 is 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 the several 〈◊〉 of the Body of Man 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 very many 〈◊〉 Brass Plates than 〈◊〉 was in English before 3 A 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 the 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 by the 〈◊〉 of 〈◊〉 of London Whereunto is 〈◊〉 The Key to Galen's Method of 〈◊〉 4 The English 〈◊〉 Enlarged 〈◊〉 an 〈◊〉 Discourse 〈◊〉 the 〈◊〉 Herbs of this Nation herein is 〈◊〉 how to 〈◊〉 a mans 〈◊〉 of most Diseases 〈◊〉 to Mans 〈◊〉 with such things as grow in 〈◊〉 and 〈◊〉 three 〈◊〉 charge 〈◊〉 in the 〈◊〉 Book is 〈◊〉 1 The 〈◊〉 of 〈◊〉 all Herbs 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 and 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 The 〈◊〉 of drying and 〈◊〉 them and 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 3 The way of making 〈◊〉 keeping 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 of useful 〈◊〉 made of those Herbs The way 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 the 〈◊〉 according 〈◊〉 the 〈◊〉 and Mixture of 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 and the part of the Body 〈◊〉 5 A Directory for Midwives or a Guide for 〈◊〉 Newly enlarged by 〈◊〉 Author in every sheet and 〈◊〉 with divers 〈◊〉 Plates 6 Galen's Art of Physick with a large Comment 7 A New 〈◊〉 both of studying 〈◊〉 practising Physick 8 A Treatise of the Rickets being a 〈◊〉 common to Children 〈◊〉 is 〈◊〉 1 The Essence 2 The 〈◊〉 3 The Signs 4 The 〈◊〉 of the 〈◊〉 Published in Latin by Dr. 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Bate and Dr. 〈◊〉 translated into English And 〈◊〉 by N. Culpeper A Godly and Fruitful Exposition on the first Epistle of Peter By Mr. 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Minister of the Word of God at Dedham in Essex The Wonders of the Load-stone 〈◊〉 Samuel 〈◊〉 of 〈◊〉 An Exposition on the Gospel of 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 St. 〈◊〉 By 〈◊〉 Ward Clows Chyrurgery 〈◊〉 of Salvation 〈◊〉 Engagement for the 〈◊〉 by John Goodwin Great Church Ordinance of 〈◊〉 Mr. Love's Case 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Petitions Narrative and Speech 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 or a perswasive to peace 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Saints submission and Satans Overthrow 〈◊〉 Mans Practice in 〈◊〉 Time Mr. Symsons Sermon at Westminster Mr. Feaks Sermon before the Lord Major Mr. 〈◊〉 Treatise of Hell of Christs Genealogy Eaton
set the greatest Price and account upon those things which were of greatest worth the Truth of God his Will and Wayes warily to observe the seasons 〈◊〉 these are Dispensed and Revealed And so with readiness to attend thereupon and to entertain those opportunities and means of Grace and Good whence follows a mutual agreement between the 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 and these their converted Posterity They long before expected a Savior 〈◊〉 now fitted 〈◊〉 Receive the Lord Christ their Saviour now 〈◊〉 In the Words there be Three divine Truths which 〈◊〉 will take notice of in which the Pith of the foregoing Description is expressed 1 All men by Nature are unfit to Receive Christ. 2 There must be a Preparation therefore made for that end 3 The Ministery of Elias is the means to do this The First of these though proper enough for this 〈◊〉 yet we shall reserve the 〈◊〉 thereof 〈◊〉 we come to discover the manner of Gods 〈◊〉 in drawing of a sinner to himself where the 〈◊〉 fastening to his Corruption and the Lords 〈◊〉 him from it being handled together will 〈◊〉 way the one for the other and give light the 〈◊〉 to the other we shall therefore defer the further 〈◊〉 of that till we come to that place Proceed we now to open the Second Point That is The Soul must be sitted for Christ before it can receive Him or Salvation by Him This is the Scope of the Place the Way and Order of the Lords approach where there is no Preparation made there is no Expectation of a Savior to come Thus it was Prophesied Mal. 3. 1. 〈◊〉 I will send my Messenger and he shall Prepare the way before me and the Lord whom yee seek will suddenly come into his Temple Thus was it accomplished by the Baptist to whom the Word of the Lord came and he came 〈◊〉 in the 〈◊〉 about Jordan saying The voyce of one crying in the Wilderness Prepare yee the way of the Lord and make his paths streight Luke 3. 4. A similitude taken from Earthly 〈◊〉 our Savior he is the King and he was now to come in his own Person and in the Ministery of the 〈◊〉 and thereby into the Souls of his People And 〈◊〉 the Baptist makes Proclamation Not for their 〈◊〉 so much as for their Hearts that the 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 thereof might be dislodged And the 〈◊〉 fit to entertain the Lord Jesus And that this was a Spiritual Preparation the nature of Christs Kingdom 〈◊〉 being 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 world Joh. 18. 36. And the 〈◊〉 of his Proceeding being professedly 〈◊〉 to the pompe of Earthly Potentates will evidence 〈◊〉 For 〈◊〉 shall hear his voyce in 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Matth. 12. 19. But the Baptists Sermon who 〈◊〉 knew the 〈◊〉 of his own 〈◊〉 puts it out of doubt For so he ads 〈◊〉 3. 1 2. Repent 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 kingdom of Heaven is at hand As the 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 sayes Prepare yee the way of the Lord 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 he had said Repenting is Preparing And 〈◊〉 3. 5. Every ' Mountain shall be made low and 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 thing streight The sense of which words that it could not be literal but Spiritual the accomplishment of them in Experience is proof most pregnantly undeniable The Sum is The Heart is the high way while the Gospel is Preaching Christ is coming the Heart must by Repentance be fitted for Christ offering himself in that and then Christ will come by that means thereunto In this Preparation for the Explication of it we are to attend Three Things 1 Wherein it Consists 2 The manner of the Work 3 The Reasons of it For the First of these What this Preparation is or wherein it 〈◊〉 Generally It is a renouncing of whatsoever might cross the coming and entertaining of our Savior Christ into the Heart And it is the fitting of the Soul 〈◊〉 Faith and for being in Christ by Faith Particularly it shewes it self in Four Things The First is the Renouncing the Authority of those bosom Corruptions which have Lorded it over the Soul and kept out the Power of the Gospel from prevailing and taking place in the Heart That accursed Union and Combination that hath been long between the Heart and its secret Lusts which for their naturalness are said to be The old man Eph. 4. 22. And for their néarness our earthly members Col. 3. 5. born and bred with us which make and 〈◊〉 the Corrupt disposition of our Hearts This Combination must be broken this League 〈◊〉 else there is no place for the Presence of a 〈◊〉 True These noysom Distempers will be as Tyrants still Usurpiug Authority over the Soul but they are not acknowledged as Lawful 〈◊〉 by the Soul rightly prepared for the Lord But the sinner rightly fitted shakes off the yoak and 〈◊〉 from under the 〈◊〉 of these Distempers 〈◊〉 though he be not able to wage War and to mortifie them by any power received 〈◊〉 he withdraws his 〈◊〉 from his Lust and stands ready to entertain a deliver This 〈◊〉 Work the 〈◊〉 here 〈◊〉 by the Evangelist implyes 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 non 〈◊〉 perfect onem sonat 〈◊〉 concinnitatem 〈◊〉 ad 〈◊〉 aptantur saith Calvin in Locum And the Original in the Prophet Isa ah 40. 3. imports no more both shewing the same thing even an utter Emptiness that ought to be in the heart Thus also is this Work 〈◊〉 and set out in the 〈◊〉 thereof Every mountain shall 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 low It is not paving but levelling not a bringing in of some 〈◊〉 ability so much which this Preparative stroak 〈◊〉 stamp looks at take it strictly in hoc signo 〈◊〉 as they say but a removing of all that out 〈◊〉 the way which might stop or stay our Saviors coming for 〈◊〉 he Professeth Matth. 10. 37. He 〈◊〉 loveth Father or Mother more than me is not 〈◊〉 of me Not 〈◊〉 that is Not fit to 〈◊〉 him or Mercy by him As we use to say A fusty Vessel is not worthy of precious Liquor A dusty Cabinet not worthy to have a Diamond put into it That is They are not fit to Receive these 〈◊〉 the Things will be spoyled not 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 them The Soul is brought to Renounce 〈◊〉 might serve to share in the Work and Glory of Free Grace and so cast some blemish 〈◊〉 or at 〈◊〉 diminish the due worth thereof which the 〈◊〉 Christ who doth all to the praise of the Glory 〈◊〉 his Grace will not suffer and therefore he will have this Coast cleared also before his coming And the Soul must be emptied not only of those things which out of the intr 〈◊〉 Evil of their nature do cross the Nature of Grace as Sins and Corruptions but also of all that confidence in any spiritual sufficiency 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 by which while we would seem to share with him in the Work of our Conversion and ease 〈◊〉 of some part of the Labor we do indeed take some part of the Honor from him concerning which 〈◊〉 hath said That he will
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
of their daies not long 〈◊〉 their death not long before their souls depart out of their bodies and they depart from the Land of the Living I am not ignorant that some Interpreters run another way and conceive by Laborers 〈◊〉 only to be understood whether they be good or bad and their 〈◊〉 their calling unto that 〈◊〉 in the Church He that is a Demas and seeks 〈◊〉 World his penny his praise and applause if 〈◊〉 his profit and wealth if Covetous and for that he makes his agreement with the Lord when first he makes entrance upon the work of the Ministry When he that is sincere hearted and seeks the things of Christ the penny for which he indents and the hire he would have is the hearts of poor 〈◊〉 the conversion of souls and 〈◊〉 of the body of Christ are instead of all the Tythes and 〈◊〉 Livings and Benesices he desires to look after though the sence is pleasant and spiritual yet I do not think it suits with the Scope 〈◊〉 this place nor here intended by the Spirit For of those 〈◊〉 Parable must be understood of whom that conclusion in the last verse of the 19. chapter was spoken Many that be first shall be last and many that be last shall be first This Parable being inferred for the opening and proving of that as the first words of the first 〈◊〉 of this 20. chapter do plainly evidence For the Kingdom c. But they are without question the 〈◊〉 only who are there meant such who have left all for Christs sake such who shall inherit 〈◊〉 life vers 29. alwaies with this proviso Many that are first called if they bear up themselves somwhat too much upon their own worth shall be last rewarded they who are last called if yet they do renounce all confidence in their own excellency and sufficiency and depend upon the free mercy of God they shal be amongst the chiefest that shal be recompenced Following then the sense which the Scope of the Text and the best Interpreters give the Point which fits our purpose and offers it self to consideration without any forcing from the Words is this God calls his Elect at any age but the most of his he converts before old age He comes at any hour but once only at the Eleventh hour and that somwhat unexpectedly There be two Parts in the Doctrine we wil handle them severally that they may be more easily and distinctly conceived 1 The Lord can and somtimes doth call at any Age. 2 But the most of his and that most usually he converts in their riper years God calls several of his Servants at sundry times some yong some old some in their tender some in their riper years there is no season excepted he that is the God of all times can and will do his own work at any time Timothy knew the Scriptures from a child 2 Tim. 3. 15. and drew in the sincere 〈◊〉 of the Word as Milk from the Breasts of his Mother and therefore is said to be nourished up in the wholsom words of Truth 2 Tim. 1. 5. Obadiah feared God from his youth 1 Kings 18. 12 Lydia and the Jaylor in Acts 16. Paul in Acts 9. 7. and Zacheus Luke 19. 9. it's most propable they were in their middle age as their places and imployments together with their accustomed experience and practice therein do 〈◊〉 Paul indeed is called a yong man Acts 7. 58. yet his bringing up at the feet of Gamaliel the largeness and depth of his Learning and Knowledg in Arts and Tongues 1 Cor. 14. 18. together with the Commission he was betrusted by the High-Priest for the persecuting of the Saints evince undeniably that he must be of ripe years Abraham was upon his seventy fifth year when God called him Gen. 12. 5. compared with Josh. 24. 2. Manasseth was converted near upon his death about sixty yeers of age 2 Chron. 33. 19. But in the case of old Age the matter is so difficult and so unusual that there are very few examples of old men converted recorded in Scripture as though the Lord had reserved it in his own hand as a special exception that the Sons of men should not ordinarily expect it That which is usually observed with some probability besides the pregnant testimony of the Text in hand is Amongst the many thousands who were pricked in their hearts at Peters Sermon Acts 2. 36. Amongst all those who came to hear with Cornelius Acts 10. 44. It 's said the Holy 〈◊〉 fell upon all that 〈◊〉 it 's probable some among such numbers were stricken in years As for the Thief upon the 〈◊〉 it 's most agreeable to good reason by all the leading circumstances in the Text that he was in his best strength The Lord takes these times in the dispensation of his Mercy for a double End To shew the freeness of his Grace that there is nothing that he respects either in person or place no excellency that at any time any man hath no work that at any time any man can do why he should fit and prepare any for Grace and Christ or bestow them upon the 〈◊〉 Sons of Adam and therefore takes every season that it may appear it is in his good pleasure to take what season he will If the work of Grace had been 〈◊〉 to any time of Life either Youth 〈◊〉 hood or Old Age alone it would 〈◊〉 been concluded 〈◊〉 carnal grounds that there was somthing in the Creature upon condition 〈◊〉 it had been given either the tenderness of the yong ones had moved the Lord to 〈◊〉 them or the excellency of the parts and abilities of men of riper years could have procured it or the policy and experience of the aged could alone have contrived this great work of preparation and conversion unto God but when the Lord chuseth some out of all 〈◊〉 and pass by others it 's 〈◊〉 evident it 's not any thing in the persons years or condition but meerly in the compassion of the Lord that doth all This is the 〈◊〉 which the Lord himself renders of his dealing in this kind when he would suppress the murmuring of some of the Laborers 〈◊〉 20. 14. who 〈◊〉 that they had no more than others because they had been longer in the Vinyard and had born more of the burden and heat of the day than others The Lord answers May I not do what I will with mine own Again This God doth to shew his Power even the Omnipotent and All-sufficient work of his 〈◊〉 to whom nothing is hard or impossible who hath hardness at command and therefore as he doth 〈◊〉 he will both in Heaven and Earth Psal. 1 15. 3. 〈◊〉 also in the hearts of his people when the 〈◊〉 and 〈◊〉 of the little 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 deprive them of this favor when the boisterous head-strong distempers of yong men cannot hinder 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 of the aged in their cankered corruptions cannot 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉
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
is more store of Commodities in the Ware-house yet the false light of the Shop makes them so much the worse because it makes them not appear as they are words darkens much of the Truth that is in the heart which would make against sin and covers and colers over that which is evil that it might not appear to be such that the heart purposeth and concludes certainly it wil have it because it likes it yet could a man but hear the privy Verdict which knowledg and conscience gives 1. He should see them consenting to the Truth 2. Condemning the wil of sin Reason tels the heart this is the way and the will of God and you should not reject it this is your Duty and Gods Command you perish for it if you do oppose here Truth appears as wel as distempers But when the Cause comes to be 〈◊〉 and pleaded outwardly by words the tongue hides the verdict of knowledg and conscience suffers not their testimony or the Truth once to come to light But the corruption that the heart would have it pleads for it under the color and pretence of that which is Lawful and allowable So much light and knowledg as would discover the sin that is suppressed The evil that was there suppressed that is by color of cunning and false words varnished over and pleaded for under pretence of that which is good and Lawful So that here is a double evil more in our words than in our hearts 1. A Silencing of the Truth when the testimony of Judgment and Conseience must not come to light 2. Coloring of the loathsomness of sin that it might not appear like it self by the paint and varnish of lying words Thus some translate that of James and though it be not the ful meaning yet I see not but it is part of the meaning The tongue is a world of evil James 3. 6. is an ornament of evil when lying language 〈◊〉 fair colors and pretences upon foul and unlawful practices So the paint of words hides the foul visage of sin Thus you shal observe in the Scribes and 〈◊〉 Acts 4. 16 17. It 's manifest to all and cannot be denied yet that it spread no further let us streightly 〈◊〉 them that they speak no more in this name If 〈◊〉 Consciences might have been heard to speak they would have testefied that the wonder is great and argues the Finger of God and the worth of the men and that it should be published and God honored but their tongue turnes it another way this man is but an Impostor his name must not be had in regard his person in respect so it was with them they would have forced the blind man to have spoken against our Savior John 9. 24. This man is a sinner give Glory to God and so endeavored to have him deny the truth of the miracle which in their own hearts they did undoubtedly acknowledge so it was with the false witnesses packed by Jezabel let Conscience be examined and suffered to give in evidence and you see the truth Did Nabal blaspheme God and the King no is he worthy to dy no Is it not treachery for any to plot and pretend this It is so saies Conscience there is no truth at all but treacherie but their false tongues hide the truth and put an appearance of truth upon that which is false Somtimes a man out of an ignorant custom or neglect holds forth more evil in his words than he either conceives or attends in his own apprehension this is usual amongst Children conversing with naughty and leud company they speak the evil words they hear frequently with their mates when they know not what they speak or what the words imply that they speak It may possibly be conceived that many of those children who cryed to Elisha come down thou bald pate 2 Kings 2. 23. spake what was commonly said amongst their Parents not knowing the evil of the words they spake All the while the evil is Confined and concealed in the closet of the heart it 's not dangerous nor yet infectious to any but only to the soul of the party that harbours it But when the wickedness of the heart walks abroad in our words and communication it conveyes a taint and pollution with it And herein lyes a greater evil in our words than in our hearts in point of infection the heart is like a dunghil of noysom abominations but our speech and words let out the steem of it which is able to annoy al that are in presence or pass by with the stench of it Compare the evil of our words with our practice also it wil appear that in many particulars the scales wil be cast this way and the 〈◊〉 of the evil wil ly here Our words are as it were the panders and provokers more universally to al kinds of evil than our practice can be There be many sins that come not within the compass of our practice as errours false opinions and those that do they come not within our power or possibility for the while But there is no error so gross no delusion so loathsom but our speech can vent and broach it No practice so 〈◊〉 but by our words and communication we can present it together with al the occasion to the heart to draw forth those sinful inclinations there to linger after and to seek for opportunity to commit it 1 Cor. 15. 33. Evil words corrupt good manners and the Apostle specifies none but implies a taint and pollution of al the sting of the Serpent we know spreads over the whol body taints al the blood at an instant so there is the poyson of Asps that is under the lips of the ungodly So the Apostle James 3. 6. the tongue amongst the members defiles the whol body Conference and Communication affects the whol man 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 up the heart to effect the head to plot 〈◊〉 eye to look the hand to work c. Speech drives the chollerick man into a passion the melancholick man into discontent the loose and vain person to be transported with his lusts and uncleanness Therfore the same Apostle compares it to a 〈◊〉 vers 5. Behold how great a matter a little fire kindleth a spark of fire sets a whol house a whol town on a flame before one be aware As wordstaint more universally so they 〈◊〉 of greater force and prevail more powerfully draw more effectually to the commission of evil the sin is committed and the commission leaves a scandalous example behind it and that as it were passively and in silence presents itself to the memory of him that attends it but our words do not passively present a thing to the view of another but awaken him and work upon and actively and prevailingly cal out any inclination to an evil and that with 〈◊〉 and overbearing importunity Examples only offer the bait if the heart wil nibble and take it but words perswasions take hold upon a man
and desires ready to attend them to hear and read and confer receive the Seals c. These are excellent and of special use in themselves but unless by Meditation we digest this food the head and heart may be loaded but little spiritual knowledg or power with a spiritual blessing wil be reaped therefrom Josh. 1. 8. Thou shalt meditate therein day and night then shalt thou make thy way prosperous then shalt thou have good success would'st thou have the Word that is preached and the administration of the Seals savory and seasonable admonitions prosperous when they are dispensed to thy soul to what purpose else have we them and enjoy them if not prospered they are certainly accursed that is the scope of all Ordinances the end and good of al Church Liberties and Priviledges Would'st thou be sure when thou goest to the Congregation thou shalt have good success in hearing thou shalt be quickened good success in receiving thou shalt be strengthened in assurance of eternal life When thou fallest to Meditating then then I say expect the Lord wil make al prosperous and successful to thy soul and before that time the Lord doth not promise thee either blessing or success nor canst thou expect it nor art thou like to receive any Our Profession in the Church is like the Trade we drive in Christianity and Meditation it is that brings in al the profit and gain wherein the life and comfort of al Performances and Ordinances do consist And that wherein the upshot of al our desires are brought in The reproof was sharp and seasonable met with thy corruption and touched thy heart in a special manner and thou sayest I pray God we may profit by it The Examination and Tryal was narrow and straight came indeed to the quick drave me to stagger and stand our Liberties and Priviledges are precious we enjoy in New-England I pray God we may profit by them so say I I pray God thou mayest But if thy heart be with thy prayer I would only advise thee the way to obtain what thou desirest That of Paul to Timothy 1. Tim. 4. 15 16. Meditate upon these things and be in them and thou shalt profit and thy profiting will appear to all The wicked wil be forced to see it and wonder at it the Saints wil see it and rejoyce in it it wil appear to thine own heart and thou mayest be comforted in it These be Motives to provoke thee and compel thee to pay thy debt honestly Thou art marvelous behind hand thine own ease should draw thee now to pursue it thou hast most need and necessity should force thee to attend it the blessing goes along with it and that should 〈◊〉 thee to be glad to continue in it The Second Particular propounded is how to direct you herein and here this ART of Meditation is that which hath exercised the Pens of many and the Thoughts of more and the desires of men are not herein yet satisfied who find it most hard to practice and yet more than ordinarily difficult to know what they should practice I shal suddenly lay forth the compass of it so far as concerns the occasion in hand The Meditation of our sins so far as may be serviceable to set forward the work of Contrition hath two Parts 1. Following the enquiry of the Nature of corruption The Rule to Authorize to the Work Manner how to proceed in the Work Survey the particulars severally Sum them up joyntly see the value of them 2. Fastening of it upon the Soul That we may follow the footsteps of a corruption and tracka distemper to the full we must have our COMMISSION that must Authorize us and carry us on in our Course And here the Direction is this We must go out to this Work of Meditation in the vertue of an Ordinance and so of Commission from God We must attend a Word that must guide us in it and look to Christ and 〈◊〉 Pro nise and set our Grace awork that by the power of his might and the help of his Grace we may both be enabled and preserved in the service for such is the ticklishness of our corrupt hearts and the infecting and tainting Nature of sin that it 's hard to meddle with it but some pollution wil cleave unto us by it And it is that which the Saints and those most sincere have found by experience and in much bitterness have complained of that 〈◊〉 they have set themselves about this work by Meditation of their sin their hearts have suddenly been carried aside with it and tainted with a kind of delight in it when they intended to loath and abhor themselves in the Consideration thereof Thus by the abuse of this Duty we come to be moulded and melted into the temper of sin by Meditation when we intended to be burdened with it The error and mistake is here We do not bring the Authority of the Word and Power of Christ and help of his Grace against sin which would both discover and subdue it But we bring the Temptation and occasion and our corrupt hearts together they soder and suit one with another like tinder to the spark it encreaseth the fire not quencheth it provokes a corruption not kils it This is to make a brabble with a mans lust when out of our own strength we enter into a contestation with our distemper we act under the Covenant of Works by an irritating power we add to the strength and dominion of sin Whereas did we go against it in the Covenant of Grace we should destroy the dominion of it Rom. 6. 14. Sin shall not have dominion over you because you are not under the Law but under Grace Thus if a man have Grace But if it be in the way of seeking and receiving Grace then attend the Word and in the Authority and Commission from thence received be carried on Go against thy Corruption in the vertue and power of the Word not in any power of thine own As Constables though mean yet they use the Kings Name For the Manner of our Proceeding to make a full Enquiry into the several Passages of a sinful Distemper the Directions are Three First Lood at the Root and rise of a sinful practice whence it springs inwardly otherwise we shall never come to the core of a Corruption or see where the loathsomness of a lust lies The sting of the Serpent is smal and the skin pleasing but the poyson is spreading and deadly Beware that there be not a root of bitterness Heb. 12. 15. Thus our Savior he leads his Disciples to the right discovery of their carriage when they asked whether they might not imitate the practice of Elias to call 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 down from Heaven upon the heads of the Samaritans because of their unkind dealing Luke 9. 54. Did one look but at the out-side of the expression the pattern they propound and the pretence they made there would no great matter
the other she would have made a hard shift but she would have followed and sound her lovers but the hedg was made of thorns 〈◊〉 and unsufferable sorrows and necessities unavoydable not to be indured not to be removed and those wearied her out of al pretended delights she had formerly taken This is the method that God 〈◊〉 Hos. 5. 12. 14. Hos. 6. 1. First I wil be a Moath 2 if that wil not do I wil be a Lion 3 If that wil not do I wil leave them and go to my place withdraw his comforting and protecting presence and then we hear 〈◊〉 Come let 〈◊〉 return unto the Lord for he hath torn and be wil heal us this did it This 〈◊〉 way for our spiritual comfort in a special blessing if he be pleased to follow the 〈◊〉 with his blessing For its a special means to bring in clearer evidence and 〈◊〉 assurance both of the soundness of the work and the certainty of a mans good estate al the dayes 〈◊〉 his life if the Lord be pleased to second these heavy breakings of heart with his blessing For it is the nature of 〈◊〉 when they are set in opposition to make each other appear more 〈◊〉 For a conscientious 〈◊〉 to be made of a 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 is so 〈◊〉 a 〈◊〉 especially when the dreadful expressions of Gods displeasure have been so amazing in the eyes of al that have been the spectators and in a peculiar manner astonishing to the soul of the prophane creature that hath selt the arrows of the Almighty sticking fast in him 〈◊〉 he cannot be but restless before he get relief and help so he cannot but know it when he hath gained it the change is great and open Gods dispensation so glorious This man is able to say at such a time in such a place by such a man out of such a 〈◊〉 the Lord was pleased to speak home to my heart to make known himself my self and sin to my self which caused my soul tody within me in the sence of my vileness and misery and from that time forward followed me daily with fears and horrors the venom of vengeance drinking up my spirits until in such and such a manner and by such means he was pleased to work my heart to his own tearms made me glad to seek him importunately yea restlesly and more glad to find him sealing up the truth of his free love by his own spirit in the word of truth This man can tel how he came by his grace and can tel what to say and shew for heaven and happily unless it be through his own careless neglect may carry the assurance with him to his grave Whereas such as the Lord doth sweetly but secretly draw unto himself in an insensible and undiscernable manner restrains them from common evils traynes them up under Godly Parents religious government good company and spiritual means of Instruction and so implants by little and little into the Lord Jesus without their privity or apprehension however their estate is good and their condition safe in its self yet they gaine littl evidence or maintain little assurance thereof in their own hearts but upon every turn are questioning and quarrelling doubting and staggering touching their condition whereas they that come to their grace by many and great troubles retain it commonly with great evidence Thus Paul when the Lord Christ had made a glorious conquest over his proud rebellious and malicious heart against the holy wayes of his truth and 〈◊〉 He could tel and did upon al occasions when the field was fought how the Lord Christ got the day over his hellish distempered heart Thus he relates Gods dealing Acts. 26. 10. 11. 12. 13. 14. 15. Acts. 22. 1. to the 14. And so issues having obtained help of God I continue until this day thus it was so it is thus it was wrought so maintain d. And though it be true I confess that no man should or wil break his arme that he may have it the stronger for the setting or know how it is set or therefore be careless to become scandalously vile that God may be gloriously merciful yet through the riches of mercy which makes our losses gaines The certainty of the assurance we find doth countervail and exceed the terrors and horror we felt Give me the man who can say I was blind but now I see I know I was in prison but am now delivered it s not delusion but a vision and real accomplishment of the work by the Allmighty hand of God Lastly its honourable for a poor scandalous wretch to be under such heavy breakings of heart and therefore it should be comfortable to him I rather mention this to stop the mouths of the reffuse rabble of the world and to shew the desperate mistakes unto which carnal reason carryes us out of the pride of our own spirits wee know that sin is 〈◊〉 and shame loathsom even to nature especially corrupt and proud to be forced to acknowledg the one to take the other It appears very direful to the apprehension of al the sons of Adam And therefore when the Lord is pleased to hold a scandalous wretch upon the wrack and to make him roar out his wretchedness vomit out his sin and take the shame he hath deserved His companions that have conversed with him and his freinds that have honored him they are driven to their dumps in discouragment and discontentment and cry out the man is undone and curse the day that ever the Minister came into the countrey and blames his folly and silliness that he would attend to what he saied and be troubled with any thing he heard to bring an everlasting blemish upon himself No I say ther 's no such matter This is the greatest honor that yet ever befel him in this world and wil be a means of blessing to him in another It is a shame to commit sin but not to have the heart breaking under the apprehension of it Nay it is an expression of Gods favour and as it may prove a sign of Gods special love if it be rightly emproved God thus far honors a poor wretch that he wil speak to him as he passeth by Should a Prince that was provoked by the conspiracies and rebellions of many Traitors as he passed by should he vouchsafe to send unto and cal upon some one to reclaime him from his crew and company and courses and that upon very equal terms he might find acceptance and pardon and peace when he wil not so much as look after others or change a word with them would not this be accounted matter of marvelous respect from the King and honor to the man So here As David begs favour from the Lord. 〈◊〉 119. 132. be merciful to me and lookupon me as thou usest to do upon them that desire to fear thy name he takes it to be the highest pitch of his happiness to be so dealt withal If God deal with
unsearchable and marvelous things without number This may support thy heart and carry thee on with some Hope in a waiting way They who are truly pierced for their sins do in an especial manner prize and covet deliverance from them For this is the scope of their complaint and the end and aim of their request that they might be freed from that which they found so bitter and indeed unsupportable to their souls and it 's of 〈◊〉 implied in their speech that which in the like case was openly expressed by the Jaylor Acts 16. 30. He came trembling and astonished saying what must I do to be saved not what shal I do to be eased of my destraction cured of my fears freed from my shame but what shal I do to be saved from my sin he was plagued most with the remembrance of that prizeth most freedom from it the venom of his transgression is that which lies heaviest upon his heart and thence it is to be safe-guarded from that is of highest esteem in his account Saved from the guilt of sin as that which sets the Almighty at a distance from him and raiseth the controversie between God and the soul and forceth him to withdraw his favor and loving kindness which is better than life which David felt by woful experience and therefore sues with such importunity Psal. 51. 14. Deliver me from blood guiltiness O God thou God of my Salvation and my tongue shall sing aloud of thy righteousness After the Commission of these evils by David the Lord threatened the sending of the Sword that might hazard the safety of his person and the prosperity of such as should succeed him So Nathan 2 Sam. 12. 10. The Sword shal never depart from thine House he threatens to raise up cruel and subtil conspirators out of his own bosom and bowels as Absalon out of his own Counsel and Kingdom as Achitophel and Jeroboam whose plottings and conspiracies should shake the Pillars of the Kingdom and the peace of his Government all which were marvelous bitter potions and heavy expressions of Gods displeasure but the sting of all those troubles the venom of al that vengeance issued from his sin that is the evil in all evils and therefore he overlooks al the rest and seeks most earnestly to be rescued from this Deliver me from blood-guiltiness it 's not the cruelty of the Sword that wil destroy nor the conspiracy of Enemies that desire to undermine my Crown and Kingdom and Safety which I so much fear nonso much labor to be freed from but deliver me from blood-guiltiness O God of my Salvation q. d. that is the deliverance I look for and long for and here in the Salvation of a God wil appear and shew it 〈◊〉 and wherein the soul of thy servant shal most rejoyce Saved also they would be from the 〈◊〉 of corruption which carries the soul from God and keeps the 〈◊〉 estranged from him and hence it is the 〈◊〉 Church makes 〈◊〉 the matter of their most bitter complaint Isai. 63. 17. Why hast thou hardened our hearts from thy fear and caused us to err from thy waies When they withdraw their hearts from God he 〈◊〉 his gracious presence and 〈◊〉 from them when they would not deliver up themselves to the Authority of his Truth and holy Will to be ruled thereby he delivered them up to the power of their own perverse Spirits they that would not be guided in his 〈◊〉 by his holy Spirit they should be hardened from his fear by the perversness of their own Spirits this is the most dreadful plague of al plagues the deliverance from which they so highly prize and seek it with such importunity Look down from Heaven thy holy Habitation where is the sounding of thy bowels are they restrained Oh why hast thou hardened our hearts from thy fear The price the contrite sinner puts upon this deliverance from his sin discovers it self in four Particulars In the lack of this the soul is not cannot be quieted though it doth enjoy all other things the World can afford and his heart could desire The want of this takes off the sweetness of al the comforts contentments the sap and 〈◊〉 of al priviledges and the consluence of all Earthly Excellencies that can be enjoyed in this Pilgrimage when the soul is under the pressures of Gods displeasure and the tyranny of his own distempers which carries him from God and keeps him under the dreadful indignation of the Almighty present him then with the beauty of al the choycest blessings that ever any man had on Earth yea what ever others hoped for but in vain Put them into his hand conceive him possessed of the fulness of al worldly perfections Crowns Kingdoms Honors and preferments the broken heart 〈◊〉 al under 〈◊〉 with neglect what is that co me saies the soul had I al the Wealth to enrich me al Honors to advance me Pleasures and Delights to content me and my sins stil to damn me miserable man that ever I was born in the 〈◊〉 of al these falsly conceived comforts This sowr Sawce spoils al the Sweet-meat this dram of poyson makes deadly al the delights and pleasures that 〈◊〉 can be attained or expected As 〈◊〉 when he was recalled from his Banishment and had the liberty and use of his House and all the conveniencies and helps that were at his Command but was charged not to see the Kings face upon a two yeers tryal he found a straightness of all his Comforts in these enlargements 〈◊〉 he thus expresseth his resolution to 〈◊〉 2 Sam. 14. 32. What avails me to be at Jerusalem and in my House to come from Geshur if I may not see the Kings face let me see his face and let him 〈◊〉 me It is so with the broken-hearted sinner What avails it me to be compassed about with al conven ences my heart can desire and be compassed about with my corruptions to see all Earthly happiness heaped up together but never to see the face of God in another world the belly filled and back cloathed and house stored and the soul damned and east out from Gods presence in whose Presence there is fulness of joy and pleasures for ever more These are but dead things sapless shadows and are to a man of a contrite Spirit as though they were not nay the 〈◊〉 he hath 〈◊〉 more trouble he hath because there is more sin and more guilt more curse and condemnation he sees in all and expects by all from God and so remains restless in all He is content with this though he want all the rest because he prizeth this more than all Skin for Skin and al that a man hath wil he give for his life c life and al for the Salvation of his soul. For sin now he 〈◊〉 it now he hath found it to be more bitter than death and therefore to be saved from it he judgeth and that truly to be better than
confession be of the right make not counterfeit but currant he shal not only have mercy 〈◊〉 for him in the Deck but he shal have the use of it find the sweet of it he shal find mercy pardoning pitying pacifying comforting and saving mercy As when we have sought the thing that we have in our house we say we have found it when we have it in our hand and for our use Yea God is marvelous ready to meet the sinner half way in his mercy and compassions when he perceives that with a serious purpose of heart he sets himself 〈◊〉 this work Psal. 32. 5. I said saith the Prophet I wil confess my sin and thou forgavest 〈◊〉 iniquity The unfeigned purpose of Spirit this way God takes in good part and is so marvelously pleased therewith that he gives him pardon and forgives his sins before he can mention by his words what he purposed in his mind 1 Kings 8. 38. 〈◊〉 prayer shall be made by any man that shall know the plague of his heart he will hear in Heaven and forgive c. And in this Case we need not nay we should not make confession of our secret sins for we have no Command to carry us unto this no Example to warrant such a practice nor yet have we the Institution of any Ordinance which may challenge our attendance to it And this you must carefully heed and maintain against that cunning forgery of the Popish consession which they have imposed upon al their followers and drudges Their 〈◊〉 and Opinion is this That every man is bound once at the least before the Sacrament to confess in particular all and every one of his mortal sins whereof he stands guilty into the Ear of the Priests the memory whereof by due and diligent premeditation may be had even such as are hidden and are against the two last Commands of the Decalogue together with the Circumstances which may alter the kind of the sin If not say they let him be accursed This Canonical Institution is the erecting of an Engine of Cruelty to rack mens Consciences and pick mens Purses to satisfie their own greedy covetous desires and to set up their Lawless Soveraignty in the hearts of such who have captivated themselves to their Directions and Counsels for thus they have a noose upon mens Consciences and hold men between hopes and fears leaving them between Heaven and Hell as they suit their minds If they please their Humors then they pardon them and pull them out of Hell If they satisfie not their expectations in giving so much for good use or paying so much yeerly to further the Catholick Cause then their sins are such to Hell they must go they cannot be acquitted This made their Drudges even weary of their lives as never seeing an end of their misery nor knowing what would become of their souls And it 's that which is called by John in the 〈◊〉 The torment of a Scorpion when he stings a man Rev. 9 6. That men shall seek death and 〈◊〉 not find it and shal desire to die and death shal fly from them And holy and judicious Brightman expounds it of this sting That the Jesuites keep men upon the rack of this Confession never knowing what wil be come of their souls nor an end of their misery further than it suits their conceits And the Popish School who were more ingenuous have delivered in their Judgments from these unnecessary burdens which the Jesuits as hard Task-Misters have laid upon other mens 〈◊〉 and which they wil neither 〈◊〉 nor move the least finger to 〈◊〉 any ease That which the soul hath obtained from Heaven at the hands of God that is needless we should desire from the hands of men whose only help is to evidence Gods mind But by humble confession in secret to God the soul hath received pardon srom Heaven sealed up in his bosom by Gods Spirit and the testimony of his own 〈◊〉 therefore it 's needless to desire it from the hands of men when we have what we desire and that in a better manner than they can give it Again To be wise above that which is written is unlawful and to do more than we have warrant for is ever unacceptable to God but the Lord in his Word requires no more before the Sacrament but that a man should 〈◊〉 himself and by the exercise of Faith and Repentance gain assurance of the pardon of his sin not go to confess his secret sin to another therefore to do that is more than Christ and the Gospel 〈◊〉 or God wil accept When the soul lies under the guilt of secret sins if the Lord in the use of all other means denies either POWER or PEACE Power to oppose and master the Corruption so that stil the soul is overborn by the violence and malignity of it Or denies Peace so that the old guilt returns afresh after all prayers and confessions we make cries and 〈◊〉 we put up in fervency and importunity unto the Lord After the improvement of al means of Reformation and Repentance yet the Lord for Reasons best known to himself denies to seal up the assurance of Love and the forgiveness of sin unto the Conscience then the Lord cals to this Duty of Confession to such who are fitted and enabled to lend help and relief under God in such a case That which the Lord hath promised to bestow and we are bound to obtain we are bound consequently to use al 〈◊〉 means appointed by God for this purpose that we may be made 〈◊〉 thereof But the pardon of our 〈◊〉 the acceptation of our 〈◊〉 and the peace of our 〈◊〉 God hath promised to bestow and we 〈◊〉 bound to obtain therefore we must improve al means to this end If then we find by experience that God is not pleased to dispense power or peace by our own 〈◊〉 on improvements of al means by our selves he then cals us to use the help of the prayers and counsels of others who are called the 〈◊〉 of our Faith and Joy who are appointed to build us up in our holy Faith whose duty it is to comfort the feeble minded and to instruct the ignorant and whose prayers are effectual means to obtain the removal of sicknesses and the forgiveness of sins James 5. 15. And some sins there be as secret Adultery and murder which God never usually pardoneth to the heart of the Offender but he compels him to lay open those Hellish corruptions by open confession unto some other Nay as he never usually pardons them to his commonly he never suffers them to go away 〈◊〉 even in the wicked but when men are not willing to take shame by private confession he forceth them by horror of Conscience to vomit out their 〈◊〉 in the face of the world and to bear their 〈◊〉 and leave 〈◊〉 names an everlasting reproach when they 〈◊〉 out their 〈◊〉 upon the 〈◊〉 or upon the 〈◊〉 of their sicknesses
Reasons three Because he finds that  1 The presence of other evils will not hinder him in his spiritual estate 615 2 The presence of sin alone poysons all good things to him 616 3 The removal of this would set open the flood-gates of mercy 617 Uses two hence  1 See the reason why most men prize not Salvation because never broken-hearted ibid 2 Reproof to  1 Secure sinners 618 2 〈◊〉 Professors ibid. DOCT. 17. True Contrition is accompanied with Confession of sin when God calls thereunto 619 For Explication three things  1 When a sinner is called to Confession 619 1 Publick sins must be publickly confessed 621 2 Private sins to the persons wronged 624 3 Secret sins 625 1 If a man hath confessed them to God and he hath pardoned he need not should not confess them to men 626 2 If the Lord deny pardon and power then he calls him to confess unto man 628 3 In case restitution cannot otherwise be made he must confess to man 629 2 When is Confession serious and hearty 630 1 When it is free that is when a man is  1 Easie to be convinced ibid. 2 Ready to acknowledg 633 3 And takes the evil to himself 636 2 When it is full and that in regard of ibid. 1 Relating sins as they are 638 2 The opposition of the heart against them 639 3 When it leaves the sinner base in his own eyes 640 4 When he intends to take advantage against himself and his sin by it ibid. 3 How doth Contrition bring in this Confession 641 It causeth a man  1 To see the danger of sin ibid. 2 To feel the bitterness of it 643 3 To be ashamed of himself and sin 645 Uses four hence  1 Instruction See the reason of sinful turnings and windings to hide sin 646 2 Reproof to such as think it weakness and baseness thus to confess a mans sins 647 3 Tryal whether a man hath been brought to this frame of spirit thus to confess sin when called thereunto 650 It discovers the falsness of four sorts  1 Such as out of hardness of heart and custom are without all sence of sin 651 2 Such as instead of bearing the shame of their sins cast shame upon the Truth that discovers sin 652 3 Such as seek for shameful hidings to cover sin 653 4 Such as repent of their Confessions 654 How to know we are content to take shame for sin by a right Confession of it 655 1 He opposeth not the Truth that discovers his sin and shame ibid. 2 He is not offended with the man that is the Instrument 656 3 He is not disquieted in the bearing of it 636 4 He will not chuse unlawful means to be rid of it 665 4 Exhortation to attend the duty of Confession when thou art called thereunto ibid. Be wise in chusing the Party to whom you confess He must be  1 Skilful 666 2 Merciful ibid. 3 Faithful 667 Motives to Confession  1 It 's an honorable thing ibid. 2 A matter of safety 668 3 A Means of Secrecy ibid. DOCT. 18. The soul that is pierced for sin is carried with a restless dislike against it and separation from it 670 Branch 1. Detestation or hatred of sin Concerning which for Explication two things 672 1 What is the Nature of this hatred of sin here in Contrition discovered in six Conclusions 673 1 As Adam and all his departed from God so Christ brings back all his to God in a contrary way 673 2 There is nothing in the soul can turn it from sin 674 3 This first aversion from sin is not wrought by any habit of Grace put into the soul. ibid. Reasons two Because  1 Gracious habits cannot act before they have being in the soul as the subject of them 675 2 The soul in its natural estate is uncapable of receiving the habit of Grace ibid. 4 Yet the Spirit puts forth its power upon the soul to turn it from sin to God ibid. 5 Christ as the Head of the Covenant takes away the Commission that sin and Satan had to hold the soul. 676 6 The soul in the Nature of it being forced to find sin bitter is loosened from it and so becomes subject to the power of the Spirit turning of it from sin to God 677 2 How this hatred may be discerned 680 1 It is attended with a continual fear of the deadly infection of sin ibid. 2 It seeks the destruction of sin Hence 684 1 He opposeth sin most in himself ibid. 1 He doth what he can against it 685 2 He seeks help from God in Christ. 686 2 He seeks the removal of it in others where-ever he finds it 688 3 It admits no terms of agreement 689 Reasons three Because  1 Without this there is no room for faith 690 2 Without this no expectation of Salvation from Christ. ibid. 3 Sin is the only enemy of the Soul 691 Uses two hence 1 Humiliation that there are so few in the world that know what this hatred against sin means ibid. 2 Tryal discovering such as never had this hatred against sin wrought were never contrite As ibid. 1 Careless fearless Professors 693 2 Neuters in Religion 696 3 Lazy Hypocrites 697 4 Treacherous Hypocrites 698 Branch 2. Sequestration from sin  Which discovers it self in two things  1 No allurements can entice 700 2 Nor miseries force the soul to former sins ibid. Uses two hence  1 Instruction See the reason of all revolts and backslidings want of this separation 701 2 Exhortation to seek to the Lord that he would work this in us ibid. FINIS The Names of several Books Printed by Peter Cole in Leaden-Hall London and are to be sold at his Shop at the sign of the Printing-press in Cornhil neer the Exchange Eight several Books by Nich. Culpeper Gent. Student in Physick and Astrologie 1 The Practice of Physick containing seventeen several Books Wherein is plainly set forth The Nature Cause Differences and Several Sorts of Signs Together 〈◊〉 the Cure of all Diseases in the Body of Man 〈◊〉 chiefly a Translation of The Works of that Learned and Renowned Doctor Lazarus Riverius Now living Councellor and Physitian to the present King of France Above sifteen thousand of the said Books in Latin have been Sold in a very few Yeers having been eight times printed though all the former Impressions wanted the Nature Causes Signs and Differences of the Diseases and had only the Medicines for the Cure of them as plainly appears by the Authors Epistle 2 The Anatomy of the Body of Man Wherein is exactly described the several parts of the Body of Man illustrated with very many larger Brass Plates than ever was in English before 3 A Translation of the New Dispensatory made by the Colledg of Physitians of London Whereunto is added The Key to Galen's Method of Physick 4 The English Physitian Enlarged being an Astrologo-Physical Discourse of
wil pass the sentence of shame upon it as the just fruit of our evil doings and as a means so sanctified to work a hatred against it in our selves and to remove the scandal of it from others and therefore strives not by restless cavils and evasions to make an escape from the evidence of the Word in the work of Conviction when a mans errors should be discovered nor yet doth repine at nor bear a privy grudg after the conviction lies not under the Truth as the 〈◊〉 upon the rack which he therefore bears not because indeed he cannot help himself against it with all the troublesom 〈◊〉 he can use but his soul inwardly approves of that word which judgeth his person and practice vile as himself doth Thus the word in the Original which sign sies confession properly 〈◊〉 to speak as God speaks to judg as God judgeth of his sin this hath been the constant guize of the Saints touched sincerely with remorse for their sin A word snibs David Thou art the man presently I have sinned saith he A wink or a look of the Lord Jesus makes Peter lie at his foot Go out and weep bitterly who had immediately before in a faithless cowardice basely denied him As it is with a Steed of a tender mouth feels his Bit 〈◊〉 the 〈◊〉 check of the Rider staies him turns him which way he wil So it is with a tender Conscience fals under the greatest shame that the least evidence of Argument wil check him withal So Ezekiah though i. were a sharp word and the threatening 〈◊〉 Isai. 39. last yet saies he The Word of the Lord is a good Wond my heart is naught my carriage naught my apprehensions naught and erroneous but the Word of the Lord is good and the holy Apostle in that inward combate speaks in the Name of all the Saints in the like case Rom. 7. 14. For we know that the Law is spiritual holy and good WE i. e. all that know God the work of his Grace the purity of the Truth they and I and al confess the Law is Spiritual that is for ever to be honored loved obeyed but I am carnal a good and holy Law but an evil and unholy heart true it is that carnal and hollow-hearted Hypocrites may somtimes have their Consciences so far awed with the Soveraign power of the Truth that they may yield 〈◊〉 thereunto and in outward appearance readily profess their approbation thereof with the condemnation of themselves and their own courses because they have no other way to gain ease and quiet to their own Consciences now clamoring against them or their acceptance with men their carriages being gross and inexcusable and therefore must so far bear the shame because he sees he cannot excuse his folly or sin being so open but he shal be accounted impudent in denying and sinning but al this while his heart is carried with an inward distast against it and by a privy spleen imbittered so as to conspire secretly the disparagement of it As it fared with those treacherous Jews when they saw no way and therefore had no hope to take away the life of Paul by open violence then they did cunningly plot it by a color of fair pretence and carried it thus Acts 23. 14. They would have him brought down out of the Castle as though they would enquire somthing more perfectly of him and we ere ever he come neer will be ready to kill him So these fals-hearted Creatures make it by their 〈◊〉 pretences that they would enquire more perfectly concerning the Truth the Servant craves Counsel how he should subdue the ruggedness of his Spirit the froward wife how she should overcome her way ward peevish 〈◊〉 they wil enquire more perfectly as though they would obey perfectly submit perfectly be perfect Servants wives c. But alas there is a conspiracy in their hearts against the strict waies of God So it was with Balaam he hath never done sacrificing to enquire the wil of God and yet his heart inwardly opposeth and resists his wil and this shewed it self in open violence and contempt of the Command and Charge Numb 24. 1. A heart content to take the shame is not offended with the party friend or enemy that wil lay the shame upon him he knows it is the burden which he ought to 〈◊〉 and if therefore any man wil give him a lift and help him to take it up he wil take it kindly at his hands It 's against common sence to conceive that one should be offended with another or take it grievously that he doth any thing which he knows would and he conceives wil give him content No man can be offended in Reason with the party for such a carriage or doing such a thing wherein he is contented and with which he is pleased True it is shame in it self is exceeding distastful to flesh and blood and in truth nothing more cross and contrary to an ingenious spirit Praise is the priviledg and prerogative of a reasonable Agent who acts by Counsel and therefore other Creatures are not so capable of it nor do we give it as their due we commend not the fire for burning heavy things for falling donward they cannot but do their work and therefore no praise no thanks to them for their deed but Agents as Men and Angels who work by Counsel who have wit and wisdom to contrive several waies conceive the best and wil and care to follow that when they might have done other out of their liberty Shame therefore crossing a man in his special priviledg his proper free hold it must in it self be very grievous and a tedious burden but as he sees his duty in it and the good that comes by it and withal his just desert by reason of his vileness he is not offended with the presence of the Chirurgeon but he is glad to see him and his 〈◊〉 though sharp and 〈◊〉 which may lance his imposthume and so save his 〈◊〉 whenas a naughty heart who would not have another take away his 〈◊〉 he is vexed inwardly at the least that he laies the shame and disparagement upon him for it See this odds in those two Kings Ahab and 〈◊〉 the one a self-seeking deluded 〈◊〉 when he was under the whip and terror of Gods stroak and wrath he then humbles his soul fasts and praies and that in print as it were acts his part in that extraordinary duty with outward 〈◊〉 and therefore in reason it cannot but be conceived he bewailed his sin confessed his failings and yet he that hated Elijah 1 Kings 21. 20. he hates also Micaiah 1 Kings 22. 8. There is yet one Micaiah q. d. We are rid of the most of them but yet One is our vexation and I hate him because he hates my sin and wil never speak good that is speak that which pleaseth my corruption and therefore displeaseth me But good Jehosaphat he was not willing to hear his words
much less able to bear them and therfore expresseth himself quite contrary Let not the King say so and of the same frame he was when it came home to his own particular 2 Chron. 19. 2. When Jehu the Seer met him after the Battel and his 〈◊〉 and set a heavy reproof upon him should'st thou help the ungodly and love them that hate the Lord therefore there is wrath upon thee from the Lord the Text intimates he was no whit offended with the Message or the man but yielded to the one and lovingly 〈◊〉 the other and set presently about the reformation When Abigail met David now upon his march so justly provoked armed also with power and rage and therefore if we should look at her that was to discover the 〈◊〉 of his proceedings and stop him therein or at David so wronged and provoked and now upon the sign as the chief Commander in the head of his troops to be 〈◊〉 and that by the voyce of a woman in reason it 〈◊〉 be conceived that ever she should have brought him whose heart was like the heart of a Lyon and now in his heat transported with wrath to have 〈◊〉 himself and 〈◊〉 down under the shame of his wrath yet Oh the power of a gracious Spirit he is content upon all these disadvantages to see his sin and take his shame with a thankful heart Blessed be God and blessed be thy Counsel and blessed be thou who hast discovered the sinfulness of my rage and hast kept me from shedding blood 1 Sam. 25. 32. and it 's not only his practice but his prayer Let the righteous sinite me it shall not break my head it shal be as a precious Oyl Psal. 141. But may not and do not many times even such who are truly gracious have their spirits imbittered and their boisterous passions carried against such who shall lay the shame upon them by reason of their sin See what 〈◊〉 did unto the Seer when he handled him hardly and dealt roughly with him Herein thou hast dealt foolishly the Text saies he was wroth with the Seer and put him into prison 2 Chron. 16. 10. As touching the Example the strangeness of the carriage his practice so gross he imprisoneth the Prophet and crusheth others who in likelihood stood for the Prophet encreaseth in his evil and grows further off from God goes off the Stage without any record of Repentance as ver 11 12. The strangeness of the carriage I confess makes me somtimes wonder where the Truth of Grace was and if a man 〈◊〉 to be troublesom and to quarrel with 〈◊〉 course he might darken the evidence of his uprightness That which is said of him is only two things 1. His heart was perfect all his daies 2. He did that which was right as David his Father To which I could say That this comparison and so perfection is only to be attended in regard of that particular at which it points namely in maintaining the Truth of Worship and therein he held it out from first to last which 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 but whether in his whol he were so the story evinceth not and his miscarriages expressed and in which he lives and dies without any record of reformation speaks dreadfully against him his last being the worst He sought to the Physitian and not unto God and so dies the same Phrase you may see used in a like sence 1 Kings 11. 6. Solomons heart was not perfect with God as Davids was i. e. Though he had truth of Grace yet he was not perfect and intire in maintaining the Truth of his Worship If a man may not be perfect in some case and yet sincere so he may be perfect in some other and yet not sincere For if the absence of it doth not take away sincerity the presence of it wil not argue and conclude it But we will keep the Road because the consent of the Judicious carries it that way and so I Answer Secondly It 's possible for a gracious heart in a present push of a Temptation to have his spirit rising and through the strength of pride and passion to be carried with dislike of the party who shal by evidence of Truth set on his sin and shame but this is but in a pang and surprisal he is not now himself this is not the man and therefore his state is not to be judged by this Nay Thirdly In case the party be not convinced of the equity and truth of the discovety and of his own evil in stumbling at the parties that dispensed it he may 〈◊〉 long in such a distemper and so proceed harshly upon such erroneous ground to be offended with such expressions because he conceives he justly may this happily may be the ground of Asa his former proceeding in so fierce a manner with the Propher as conceiving that he had gone beyond his commission and either reproved him not so justly as he should at the least not in that under and respective manner as became the power and Soveraignty of Asa or subjection which the Prophet should have remembred acknowledged to be due and this may seem somwhat probable becaus he claps him close prisoner puts him into little Ease as being guilty of no less than high Treason committed against his person Jun. in locum But while the soul is thus doluded and taken aside with a proud self-deceiving frame if we may look at the remarkable hand of God against such distempers as the example of Asa presents it before us such persons wil each day be more blinded and unable to see their sin so was he more acted by the power of it and taken aside by it so was he he puts others into prison not long after more liable to some direful destroying plagues so was he his disease strange and irrecoverable and in reason is like to die without comfort to his Conscience or honor to his name so did he In the fourth place Whatever becomes of the former example leaving secret things to Gods good pleasure the Rule of Truth stands as Mount Zion and wil never fail He that after conviction by any Instrument sent of God and revealing his way according to his wil despiseth such a messenger despiseth him that sent him Luk. 10. 16. He that after Conviction seeing the Truth and Authority of Christ stumbles yet at him and is offended at Christ it 's a note he shal be ruinated by the Lord he that falls upon this stone shall be broken to pieces he that is offended at the Lord Jesus shal perish he that is offended at such whom he sends as Messengers of his Mind and Truth and that after Conviction and Information is offended at the Lord Jesus therefore such a one must 〈◊〉 perish hath no part in the Lord Jesus nor yet were ever made partakers 〈◊〉 the saving work of his Grace He that 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 with a contented heart is neither restlesly 〈◊〉 nor