come with a sword in his hand to search for all secure sinners in city and country unlesse you awaken hee will make inquisition for blood for oaths for whoredomes which grow common for all secret sins we are frozen up in oh be willing be but willing that the Lord should search you and convince you now in this evening time of the day before the night come wherein it wil be too late to say I wish I had considered of my waies in time of all sins none can so hardly stand with uprightnesse as a secret unwillingnesse to see and be convinced of sin Iohn 3.20.21 The helps and meanes for attaining hereunto are these Bring thy soule to the light desire the Lord in prayer as Iob did What I see not oh Lord shew me Iob. 34.32 Set the glasse of Gods law before thee look up in the ministery of the word unto the Lord and say Oh Lord search me the Sunne of this holy word discovers motes on the Sabbath day attend to all that which is spoken as spoken unto thee then examine thy selfe when thou hast leisure When David saw Psal. 19. how pure the law was he cryes out Who knowes his errors Look upon every conviction of thy conscience for sin as an arrest and warning given from the Lord himselfe for sometimes the word hits and conscience startles and saith This is my sinne my condition yet how usuall is it then for a man to put a merry face upon a foule conscience how oft doe men think this is but the word of a man who hath a latitude given him of reproving sin in the Pulpit and wee must give way to them therein or else their hearts rise and swell against the man and word also and why is it thus because hee thinks it is man only that speaks whereas did he see and believe that this was a stroke a warning an arrest a check from the omnipotent God would he then grapple think you with him would it passe lightly by him then When Eli heard Samuel denounce sad things against his house It is the Lord said Eli 1 Sam. 3.18 when Paul saw Jesus speaking Why persâ—cutest thou me Acts 9. he falls downe astonished and dares not kicke against the pricks any longer An arrest in the Kings name comes with authority and awes the heart of the man in debt Doe not judge of sinne by any other rule but as God judgeth of it according to the rule of the word by which all mens wayes shall be judged at the last day what made Saul 1 Sam. 15. extenuate his sin to Samuel he judged not of it as the Lord in his word did For had hee done so hee would have seen disobedience to a command as bad as witchcraft as Samuel told him which also made his proud heart sink and say I have sinned remember for this end these Scriptures Rom. 1.18 Rom. 2.9 Rom. 6.23 Gal. 3.10 by which thou maist see either I must dye in the state I am or God himselfe must lye Remember that an angry look or word is murder in Gods account a wanton eye an unchast thought is Adultery before a holy God before whose Tribunall thou must give an account of every vaine thought and word And therefore doe not judge of sinne by the present pleasure gaine honour or ease in it for this is a false rule Moses forsook the pleasures of sin for a season Heb. 11.25 Nor yet by not feeling any punishment for it for God reserves wrath Nahum 1.2 till the day of reckoning Nor yet by the esteem that others generally have of it who make no more of wounding the Sonne of God by sin then they doe of crushing vermine under their feet Nor yet by the practise of others Every man sins and therefore I hope I shall doe as well as others Nor yet by seeing thy selfe better and thanking God thou art not as other men it may be so thou didst never steale nor whore nor murder as yet that is not the question but hast thou had any one vaine thought in prayer hast thou heard one Sermon unprofitably hast thou sinned then know God spared not the Angels that sinned and how wilt thou escape unlesse the Lord dye for thee Nor yet lastly judge of it by thy own opinion of God in thinking God is like unto thee that as thou makest light of it so hee maketh lesse Psal. 50.21 Oh take heed of judging the evill of sin by any of these rules oh remember all men are apt to thinke of themselves better then they are Are we also blind say the Pharisees take heed that by judging of sin by these false rules you deceive not your selves Let this lastly be a use of thankfulnesse to all those whose eyes the Lord hath opened to see and so convinced you of your sinnes When David was going in the heat of his Spirit to kill Nabal and Abigail met him and stopt him what said he Oh blessed bee the Lord for thy counsell so when thou wert going on in the heate and pursuit of thy sin toward eternall death that the Lord should now meet thee in thy way and convince thee of thy folly and so stop thee what a world of sin else wouldst thou have committed how vile wouldst thou have bin oh say therefore Blessed be that Minister of the Lord and blessed for ever be the name of the Lord that gave me that counsell It is said Christ will send the Comforter to convince of sinne is it a comfortable thing to see sin yes it shall one day bee matter of unspeakable comfort to you that ever you saw sin that ever he shewed thee that mystery of iniquity in thy heart and life those arcana imperii those secrets of the power and dominion of sinne over thee Thou shalt not hate but reprove thy brother If the Lord should secretly keep thy sinne glowing in his owne bosome against thee and never reprove thee for it nor convince thee of it no greater signe of Gods everlasting hatred against thee Oh it is infinite love that he hath called thee aside and dealt plainly and secretly with thee and will you not be thankfull for this The Lord might have left thee in thy brutish estate and never made known thy latter end never have told thee of thy sinne or stood before it comes It may be you will say If I felt my sinne and were deeply humbled for it I could then be thankfull that ever I saw it what is it to see sin This is a favour the Lord shewes not to all mankind many have no meanes to bring them to the knowledge of it and those that have yet are smitten with a deep sleep under those meanes that they know not when death is at their doores nor what sin meanes and this it may be is the condition of some of thy poore friends and aquaintance that think it strange that thou runnest not
their owne duties 4. Presumption or resting upon the mercy of God by a Faith of their owne forging so on the contrary there is a fourefold act of Christs power whereby he rescues and delivers all his out of their miserable estate The first act or stroake is Conviction of sin The second is Compunction for sin The third is Humiliation or self-abasement The fourth is Faith all which are distinctly put forth when he ceaseth extraordinarily to work in the day of Christs power and who ever looke for actuall salvation and redemption from Christ let them seek for mercy and deliverance in this way out of which they shal never find it let them begin at conviction and desire the Lord to let them see their sins that so being affected with them and humbled under them they may by faith be enabled to receive Jesus Christ and so be blessed in him It is true Christ is applyed to us nextly by Faith but Faith is wrought in us in that way of conviction and sorrow for sin no man can or will come by faith to Christ to take away his sins unlesse he first see be convicted of and loaden with them I confesse the manner of the Spirits work in the conversion of a sinner unto God is exceeding secret and in many things very various and therefore it is too great boldnesse to mark out all Gods footsteps herein yet so farre forth as the Lord himselfe tels us his work and the manner of it in all his wee may safely resolve our selves and so farre and no farther shall we proceed in the explication of these things It is great prophanesse not to search into the works of common providence though secret and hidden Psal. 28.5 and 92.6 much greater it is not to doe thus into Gods works of speciall favour and grace upon his chosen I shall therefore beginne with the first stroake of Christs power which is conviction of sin SECT II. First Act of Christs power which is Conviction of sinne NOw for the more distinct explication of this I shall open to you these 4 things 1. I shall prove that the Lord Christ by his Spirit begins the actuall deliverance of his elect here 2. What is that sin the Lord convinceth the soule thus first of 3. How the Lord doth it 4. What measure and degree of conviction he works thus in all his 1. For the first it is said Iohn 16.8 9. that the first thing that the Spirit doth when he comes to make the Apostles Ministery effectuall is this it shall reprove or convince the world of sinne it doth not first work faith but convinceth them that they have no faith as in verse 9. and consequently under the guilt and dominion of their sin and after this he convinceth of righteousnesse which faith apprehends verse 10. It is true that the word conviction here is of a large extent and includes compunction and humiliation for sin yet our Saviour wraps them up in this word because conviction is the first and therefore the chiefe in order here the Lord not speaking now of ineffectuall but effectuall and thorow conviction exprest in deep sorrow and humiliation Now the Text saith the Lord begins thus not with some one or two but with the world of Gods elect who are to be called home by the Ministery of the word which our Saviour speaks as any may see who consider the scope purposely to comfort the hearts of his Disciples that their Ministery shall be thus effectuall to the world of Jews and Gentiles and therefore cannot speak of such conviction as serves onely for to leave men without excuse for greater condemnation as some understand the place for that is a poore ground of consolation to their sad hearts Secondly I shall hereafter prove that there can be no faith without sense of sinne and misery and now there can be no sense of sinne without a precedent sight or conviction of sin no man can feel sin unlesse he doth first see it what the ey sees not the heart rues not Let the greatest evill befall a man suppose the burning of his house the death of his children if he doth not first know see and hear of it he will never take it to heart it will never trouble him so let a poor sinner lye under the greatest guilt the sorest wrath of God it will never trouble him untill hâ— sees it and be convinced of it Act. 2.37 When they heard this they were pricked but first they heard it and saw their sin before their hearts were wounded for it Gen. 3.7 they first saw saw their nakednesse before they were ashamed of it Thirdly the maine end of the law is to drive us to Christ Rom. 10.4 if Christ be the end of the law then the law is the means subservient to that end and that not to some but to all that beleeve now the law though it drive to Christ by condemnation yet in order it begins with accusation It first accuseth and so convinceth of sin Ro. 3.20 and then condemneth it 's folly and injustice for a Judg to condemn bring a sinner out to his execution before accusation conviction and is it wisdom or justice in the Lord or his law to doe otherwise and therefore the Spirit in making use of the law for this end first convinceth as it first accuseth and layes our sins to our charge Lastly look as Satan when he binds up a sinner in his sin he first keeps him if possible from the very sight and knowledge of it because so long as they see it not this ignorance is the cause of all their woe why they feele it not why they desire not to come out of it the Lord Jesus who came to unty the knots of â—atan 1 Iohn 3.8 begins here and first convinceth his and makes them see their sin that so they may feele it and come to him for deliverance out of it Oh consider this all you that dreame out your time in minding only things before your feet never thinking on the evills of your owne hearts you that heed not you that will not see your sins nor so much as ask this question What have I done what doe I doe how doe I live what will become of me what will be the end of these my foolish courses I tell you if ever the Lord save you he will make you see what now you cannot what now you will not he will not only make you to confesse you are sinners but he will convince you of sinne this shall be the first thing the Lord will doe with thee But you will say what is that sin which the Lord first convinceth of which is the second thing to be opened I answer in these three Conclusions 1 The Lord Jesus by his Spirit doth not only convince the soule in generall that it is a sinner and sinfull but the Lord brings in a convicting evidence of the particulars the first is learnt
now as they are indeed and not by report only A man accounts it a matter of nothing to tread upon a worme wherein there is nothing seen worthy either to bee loved or feared and hence a mans heart is not affected with it before the Spirit of conviction comes God is more vile in mans eye then any worme as Christ said in another case of himselfe Psal. 22. I am a worme and no man so may the Lord complaine I am viler in such a ones eyes then any worme and no God and hence a man makes it a matter of nothing to tread upon the glorious Majesty of God and hence is not affected with it but when God is seen by the Spirit of conviction in his great glory then as he is great sin is seene great as his glory affects and astonisheth the soule so sin affects the heart There is a constant light the soule sees sinne and death continually before it Gods arrowes stick fast in the soule and cannot be pluckt out My sinne is ever before me said David in his renewing of the work of conversion For in effectuall conviction the mind is not onely bound to see the misery lying upon it but it is held bound it is such a Sun light as never can be quenched though it may be clouded When the Spirit of Christ darts in any light to see sin the soule would turne away from looking upon it would not heare on that eare Felix-like But the Spirit of Conviction sent to make thorow work on the hearts of all the Elect followes them meets them at every turne forceth them to see and remember what they have done the least sinne now is like a moath in the eye it s ever troubling Those gastly dreadfull objects of sinne death wrath being presented by the Spirit neare unto the soule fixe the eye to fasten here they that can cast off at their pleasure the remembrance and thoughts of sinne and death never prove sound untill the Lord doth make them stay their thoughts and muse deeply on what they have done and whither they are going And hence the soule in lying downe rising up lyes downe and rises up with perplexed thoughts What will become of me The Lord somtimes keeps it waking in the night season when others are asleep and then t is haunted with those thoughts it cannot sleep it looks back upon every day and week Sabboth Sermon Prayer speeches and thinks all this day this week c. the goodnesse of the Lord and his patience to a wretch hath been continued but my sins also are continued I sin in all I doe in all my prayers in all I think the same heart remaines still not humbled not yet changed And hence you shall observe that word which discovered sin at first to it it never goes out of the mind I think saith the soule I shall never forget such a man nor such a truth Hence also if the soule grow light and carelesse at some time and casts off the thoughts of these things the Spirit returnes againe and falls a reasoning with the soule Why hast thou done this what hurt hath the Lord done thee will there never be an end hast not thou gone on long enough in thy leâ—d courses against God but that thou shouldst still adde unto the heap hast thou not wrath enough upon thee already how soone may the Lord stop thy breath and then thou knowest thou hadst better never to have beene borne was there ever any that thus resisted grace that thus adventured upon the swords point hast thou but one friend a patient long-suffering God that hath left thy conscience without excuse long agoe and therefore could have cut thee off and dost thou thus forsake him thus abuse him Thus the Spirit followes and hence the soule comes to some measure of confession of sinne Oh Lord I have done exceeding wickedly I have been worse then the horse that rusheth into the battle because it sees not death before it but I have seen death before me in these wayes and yet goe on and still â—inne and cannot but sinne Behold mee Lord for I am very vile When thus the Spirit hath let into the soule a cleare reall constant light to see sinne and death now there is a thorow conviction But you will say In what measure doth the Spirit communicate this light I shall therefore open the fourth particular viz. The measure of spirituall conviction in all the elect viz. So much conviction of sin as may bring in and work compunction for sinne so much sight of sinne as may bring in sense of sinne so much is necessary and no more Every one hath not the same measure of conviction yet all the elect have must have so much for so much conviction is necessary as may attaine the end of conviction Now the finis proximus or next end of conviction in the elect is compunction or sense of sinne for what good can it doe unto them to see sin and not to be affected with it What greater mercy doth the Lord shew to the elect herein then unto the Devils and Reprobates who stand convinced and know they are wicked and condemned but yet their hearts altogether unaffected with any true remorse for sin Mine eye saith Ieremy affecteth my heart The Lord opens the eares of his to instruction that he might humble Some think that there is no thorow conviction without some affection I dare not say so nor will I now dispute whether there is not something in the nature and essence of that conviction the elect have different from that conviction in reprobates and devils t is sufficient now and that which reacheth the end of this question to know what in asure of conviction is necessary I conceive the cleere discerning of it is by the immediate and sensible effect of it viz. So much as affects the heart truly with sin But if you aske What is that sense of sin and what measure of this is necessary that I shall answer in the doctrine of companction Let not therefore any soule be discouraged and say I was never yet convinced because I have not felt such a cleare reall constant light to see sin and death as others have done consider thou if the end of conviction be attained which is a true sense and feeling of sin thou hast then that measure which is most meet for thee more then which the Lord regards not in any of his but you that walke up and downe with convinced consciences and know your states are miserable and sinfull and that you perish if you dye in that condition and yet have no sense nor feeling no sorrow nor affliction of spirit for those evills I tell you the very devills are in some respect nearer the Kingdome of God then you be who see and feele and tremble woe woe to thousands that live under convicting Ministeries whom the word often hits and the Lord by the Spirit often meets
and they heare and know their sins are many their estates bad and that iniquity will be there ruine if thus they continue yet all Gods light is without heat and it is but the shining of it upon rocks and cold stones they are frozen in their dregs be it knowne to you you have not one drop of that conviction which begins salvation Before I passe from this to the second work of compunction let me make a word of application If the Spirit begins thus with conviction of sin then let all the Ministers of Christ co-work with Christ and begin with their people here bee faithfull witnesses unto Gods truth and give warning to this secure world that the sentence of death is past and the curse of God lyes upon every man for the least sin Lift up thy voyce like a Trumpet was the Lords words to Isaiah Isay 58.1 and tell them of their sin Those Bees wee call drones that have lost their sting When the salt of the earth the Ministers of Christ Matth. 5. have lost their acrimony and sharpnesse or saltnesse What is it good for but to be cast out your hearers will putrify and corrupt by hearing such doctrines only as never search When the Lord inflicted a grievous curse upon the people Ezek. 3.26 the Lord made Ezekiel dumbe that hee should not be a reprover to them What was the lamentation of Ieremy thy Prophets have seen vaine and foolish things for thee and have not discovered thine iniquity how would you have the Lord Jesus by his Spirit to convince men must it not bee by his word verily you keep the Spirit of Christ from falling down upon the people if you refuse to indeavour to convince the people by your word Other doctrines are sweet and necessary but this is in the first place most necessary Beware of personating beware of bitternesse and passion but oh convince with a spirit of power and compassion and hee that shall bee instrumentall unto Christ in this or any other work for Christs sake unto him the Lord will be the principall agent and by him will attaine his own ends finish his great work gather in his scattered sheep who are in great multitudes throughout the Kingdome scattered from him if once they be throughly convinced that they are utterly lost and gone out of the way May not this also be sad reproofe and terrour to them that stand it out against all means of conviction and will not see their sin nor beleeve the fearfull wrath of God due to them for sin not a man scarce can be found that will come to this conclusion I am a sinfull man and therefore I am a dead I am a condemned man but like wild beasts fly from their pursuers into their holes and thickets and dens their sinfull extenuations excuses and apologies for sin and for themselves and if they bee hunted thither and found out there then they resist and article against that truth which troubles them They flatter themselves in their owne eyes untill their iniquities be found most hatefull Many a man dislikes the text the use especially the long use wherein his sinne is toucht and his conscience tost especially if it be his darling sin his Herodias his Rimmon especially if withall he thinks that the Minister meanes him he will not see it nor confeste it especially if hee apprehends he shall lose his honour or his silver shrines and profit by it he will not see his â—in that he may not be troubled in conscience for his sin that so he may not be forced to confesse and forsake his sinne and condemne himselfe for it before God and men Oh Lord I mourne that I can scarce meet with a man that either cares to be or will be convinced but hath something alway to say for himselfe their sins are not so great they are not so bad but have some good and therefore have some hope and if God be mercifull it is no great matter though they be exceeding sinfull or some such thing their mouths are not stopped to say nothing for themselves but guilty There is lesse conviction in the world in this age then many are aware of For I believe that all the powers of hell conspire together to blind mens eyes and darken mens minds in this great work of Christ Principiis obsta it is policy to stop Christ in his entrance in this first streake upon the soule but oh little doe you think what you doe herein and what woe you work to your selves hereby dost thou stifle and resist the first breathings of Christs Spirit when he comes to save thee what hurt will it be to know the worst of thy condition now when there is hope hereby of comming out of it who must else one day see all thy sins in order before thee to thy eternall anguish and terrour Ps. 50.21 When the Lord shall say to thee as unto Dives Remember in thy life time thou hadst thy good things remember such a time such a place such a sin which then you would not see But now thou shalt see what it is to strike an infinite God Remember thou wast forewarned of wrath to come but thou wouldest not beleeve thy selfe accursed that so thou mightest have felt thy need of him that was made a curse to blesse thee and therefore feele it now oh you will wish then that you had knowne this evill in that your day What dost thou talke of grace thou thinkest thou hast grace when as thou hast not the first beginning nay not the most remote preparation for it in this work of conviction what should wee doe for such as these but with Ieremy Ier. 13.17 if you will not heare my soule shall weep in secret for your pride Oh be perswaded therefore to remember your sins past and to consider of your wayes now All the prophanenesse of thy heart and life all the vanity of thy youth Eccles. 11.9 all your secret sins all your sinnes against light and love checks and vowes all that time wherein thou didst nothing else but live in sin thus Gods people have done Ezek 6.9 thus all the elect shall doe oh consider the Lord remembers them all and that with griefe of heart against thee because thou forgettest them Hos. 2.7 Hee that numbers thy haires and tels the sparrowes that fall numbers much more thy sins that fall from thee they are written down in his black book They are not trifles for hee minds not toyes the bookes must bee opened oh reckon now you have yet time to cal them to minde which it may be shall not continue long it is the Lords complaint Ier. 8.6 of a wicked generation that hee could heare no man say What have I done Winnow your selves as the word is Eph. 2.1 Oh people not worthy to be beloved I pronounce unto you from the eternall God that ere long the Lord will search our Ierusalem with candles he will
shall smart and bleed too before God will heale Secondly It is a great mourning because it is called a spirit of mourning As a spirit of slumber is a deep slumber When the poore Jewes shall be converted their great sin shall then be presented before them of cursing and crucifying the Lord of life as it was to those Acts 2.36 And by reason of this there shall be a great mourning that they shall desire to goe alone in secret every one apart and take their fill of mourning before the Lord open the fountaine of grace It is not a summer cloud or an April showre that is soone spent but a great mourning For 1. Before this spirit of sorrow come a mans heart takes great delight in his sinne t is his God his life and sweeter then Christ and all the joyes of heaven and therefore there must be great sorrow sin must be made exceeding bitter A man that is very hungry and thirsty after his lust must finde such meat and drink exceeding bitter else he will feed on it Solomon took great content in women but what saith he when the Lord humbled him I find a woman more bitter then death Heare this you harlots and you that live in your wanton lusts the Lord will make your sweet morsels more bitter then death to you if the Lord saves you 2. Because the greatest evils are the objects of this sorrow viz. Sin and death It is true a man may mourne for smaller evils sooner but when the Spirit sets on the greatest evils then they sad much more Mine iniquities are too heavy to beare Why so Many a man can bear them without sinking True but in the Elect the Spirit sets on loads the soule herewith A wounded spirit who can beare Because the greatest evils lye upon the most tender part of a tender soule pressed down by the omnipotent hand of Christs Spirit For now the multitude of sins more then the haires on the head come now to mind as also the long continuance in them cradle sins No sooner saith the soule did I begin to live but I began to sin Obstinacy also in them lyes very heavy I have had warnings checks resolutions against them and yet have gone on The power of sinne also sads it that as it is said Prov. 21.9 When the wicked reigne the people mourne so doth the soule when it feeles sin reigne I cannot subdue it nay the Lord will not that I feare the Lord hath left me over to it The increase of sin it feeles makes it mourne also I grow worse and worse saith the soul the leake comes in faster then he can cast it out the greatnesse of sinne makes it mourn Was there ever such a sinner as I And lastly the sense of condemnation for sin lyes upon him this is the fruit of your evill wayes saith the Spirit The soule doth not let sinne passe by it now as water downe the mill but being stopt by conviction and feare of the evill of it it swells very high and fills the heart full of griefe and sorrow that many times it is overwhelmed therewith 3. Because Christ wil not be very sweet unlesse this mourning under misery be very great the healing of a cut finger is sweet but of a mortall wound is exceeding sweet a little sorrow will make Christ sweet but great sorrow under sense of deadly wounds is exceeding sweet and without this Christ hath not his honour due to him if he be not onely sweet but also exceeding sweet and precious 4. Because it is such a sorrow as nothing but that that hath wounded the soule can heale it Let men have the greatest outward troubles outward things can cure them or else they will weare away As if a man be sick or in debt physick and money can cure these but this wound neither can or over shall be healed but by the hand that wounded it And hence a man can take no comfort in meat drink sleep friends mirth nor pastime while this wound this sorrow lasts for if any thing else can heal it it is not the right wound or sorrow the Lord breeds in his elect An adulterous heart indeed may be quieted with other lovers Cain can build away his sorrow Nay I le say more this wounded soule cannot comfort it selfe by any promises till the Lord come David had a promise of pardon from Nathan yet he cryes out to the Lord to make him heare the voyce of joy and gladnesse that his broken bones might rejoyce Did not the Lord make him heare the voyce of joy by Nathan Yes outwardly but the Lord that had broke his bones must make him heare inwardly Nay when the Lord comes himselfe to comfort much adoe the Lord hath to make him heare it as the Israelites that hearkned not to Moses voice because of their hard bondage that unlesse the Lord did invincibly comfort it would lye bleeding to death and never live It must needs therefore be great sorrow which all the world men nor Angels can remove 5. You may be confirmed in this if lastly you consider the many wayes the Lord takes to beget great mourning if the soule will not be sorrowfull as sometimes great afflictions Manasseh must be taken in the bushes and cast into chaines Sometimes strange temptations hellish blasphemies Is there a God Are the Scriptures his Word Why should the Lord be so cruell as to reprobate any of his creatures to torment it so long c. Sometimes long eclipsing of the light of Gods countenance no prayers answered but daily bills of indictment And sometimes it thinks it heares and feeles a secret testimony from God that he never had thought of peace toward it and that his purpose is immutable Sometimes it questions Can God forgive sinnes so great Can it stand with his honour to put up so much wrong Sometimes it feels its heart so extreamly hard and dedolent that it thinks the Lord hath sealed it up under this plague till the judgement of the great day And sometimes the Lord makes melancholy a good servant to him to further this work of sorrow But thus the Lord rebukes many a hard hearted sinner that will not beare the yoke nor feele the load and now the Lord turnes the beauty of the proudest into ashes and withers the glory of all flesh Nay sometimes you shall observe the Lord though he comes not out as a Lyon to rend yet as a moth he frets out by secret pinings and languishings the senselesse security of man that he shall mourne to purpose before he leave him I doe not meane by this as if all men had the like measure of sorrow but a great sorrow it is in all Every child is delivered by some throwes those that stick long in the birth may feele them longer and very many Nor yet doe I presse a necessity of teares or violent and
is the greatest hinderance of salvation Iohn 3.19 Iohn 5.40 Oh Ierusalem wilt thou not be made cleane Ier. 13.27 that was their great evill they were not only polluted but they would not be made cleane the Lord Jesus therefore rolls away this stone from the Sepulchre beats down this mountaine and because it must first beleeve in Christ before it can receive Grace from Christ it must come to Christ to take away sinne before the Lord will doe it Hence so much loosening from sinne as makes the soule thus to come is necessary So much feare and sorrow as loosens from sinne and so much loosening from sinne as makes the soule willing or at least not unwilling that the Lord JESUS should take it away is necessary For who ever comes to Christ or is not unwilling Christ should come to him to take away all his sinne hath what ever he thinks some antecedent loosning and separation from sin Oh saith a poore sinner when the Lord hath struck his heart and he feeles guilt and terrour and mighty strength of corruption If the Lord Jesus would take away these evils from me though I cannot means cannot that will be exceeding rich mercy The Lord doth not wound the heart to this end that the soule should first heale it selfe before it come to the Physitian but that it might seek out or feeling its need be willing and desirous of a Physitian the Lord Jesus to come and heale it It is the great fault of many Christians either their wounds and sorrowes are so little they desire not to be healed or if they doe they labour to heal themselves first before they come to the Physitian for it they will first make themselves holy and put on their jewels and then beleeve in Christ. And hence are those many complaints What have I to do with Christ Why should he have to doe with me that have such an unholy vile hard blind and most wicked heart If I were more humbled and more holy then I would goe to him and think he would come to me Oh for the Lords sake dishonour not the grace of Christ. It is true thou canst not come to Christ till thou art loaden and humbled and separated from thy sinne Thou canst not be ingrafted into this Olive unlesse thou beest cut and cut off too from thy old root Yet remember for ever that no more sorrow for sinne no more separation from sinne is necessary to thy closing with Christ then so much as makes thee willing or rather not unwilling that the Lord should take it away And know it if thou seekest for a greater measure of humiliation antecedent to thy closing with Christ then this thou shewest the more pride therein who wilt rather goe in to thy selfe to make thy selfe holy and humble that then mightest be worthy of Christ then goe out of thy selfe unto the Lord Jesus to take thy sin away In a word who thinkest Christ cannot love thee untill thou makest thy selfe faire and when thou thinkest thy selfe so which is pride wilt then think otherwise of Christ. The Lord therefore when he teacheth his people how to returne unto him after grievous sinnes directs them to this course not to goe about the bush to remove their iniquities themselves or to stay and live securely in their sins untill the Lord did it himselfe but bids them come to him and say Take away Lord all iniquities Hos. 14.1 2 3. You shall see Ephraim bemoaning himselfe Ier. 31.18 But how Doth he say he feeles his sinnes now all removed No but he desires the Lord to turne him and then saith he I shall be turned As if he should say Lord I shall never turne from this stubborne vile heart nor so much as turne to thee to take it away unlesse thou dost turne me and then I shall be turned to purpose What saith the penitent Church Come say they let us goe unto the Lord. They might object and say Alas the Lord is our enemy and wounds us and hath broken us to pieces we are not yet healed but lye dead as well as wounded shall such dead spirits live Mark what followes True indeed He hath wounded us let us therefore goe to him that he may heale us and after two dayes he will revive us The Lord requires no more of us then thus to come to him Indeed after a Christian is in Christ labour for more and more sense of sinne that may drive you nearer and nearer unto Christ. Yet know before you come to him the Lord requires no more then this and as he requires no more then this so t is his owne Spirit not our abilities that must also work this and thus much he will work and doth require of all whom he purposeth to save If thou wilt not come to Christ to take away thy sinnes thou shalt undoubtedly perish in them If the Lord work that sorrow so as to be willing the Lord should take them away thou shalt be undoubtedly saved from them If you would know what measure of willingnesse to have Christ take away sinne is required You shall heare when we come to open the fourth particular in the doctrine of Faith If you further aske How the Spirit works this loosening from sinne in the work of compunction I answer the Spirit of Christ works this by a double act 1. Morall 2. Physicall As in the conversion of the soule by faith unto God the Spirit is not onely a morall agent pâ—â—swading but also a supernaturall agent physically working the heart to beleeve by a divine and immediate act so in the aversion of the soule from sinne the Spirit doth affect the heart with feare and sorrow morally but this can never take away sinne as we see in Iudas and Cain deeply affected and afflicted in spirit and yet in their sinne And therefore the Spirit puts forth it s owne hand physically or immediately and his owne arme brings salvation to us by a further secret immediate stroke turning the iron neck cutting the iron sinews of sin and so makes this disunion or separation You think it easie to be willing that Christ should come and take away all your sinnes I tell you the omnipotent arme of the Lord that instructed Ieremy in a smaller matter can onely instruct you here both these acts ever goe together according to the measure mentioned the latter cannot be without the first the first is in vaine without the latter But what evill in sinne doth the Spirit morally affect the heart with and so physically turne it from sinne He affects the soule with it as the greatest evill by sinne I meane not as considered without death for at this time the soule is not so spirituall as that sin without consideration of death and wrath due to it should affect it but sinne and death sinne armed with wrath sinne working death pricks the heart as the greatest evill and so lets out that core at
a subject like a white paper fitted immediately to take the impression of Gods image but since by his fall Sinne is falne like a mighty blot upon the soule whereby a man not onely wants grace as the darke ayre doth light but also resists grace Iohn 14.17 Hence this resistance must be first taken away before the Lord introduce his image againe To say that a man can of himselfe dispose himselfe unto grace was Pelagianisme in Aquinas his time yet some disposition is necessary saith Ferrius not unto actuall grace or that which is wrought upon a man per modum actus as he saith but unto the reception of habituall or sanctifying grace it being in the soule per modum formae no forme being introduced but into materiam dispositam i. matter fitted or prepared or into such a vessell which is immediately capable of it There is in man a double resistance against grace 1. Of a holy frame of grace by originall corruption which is opposite to originall and renewed holinesse or to this holy frame 2. Of the God of grace himselfe when he comes to work it Iob 21.14 Ezek. 24.13 The first is taken away in that which we call the spirit of sanctification after faith the second is taken away not onely in the act of it as by terrours it may be in reprobates Psal. 66.2 but in some measure in the inward â—oot and disposition of it onely in the elect there being as hath been said no more separation from sinne at this time required then so much as may make the soule come to the Lord to take it away or at least not unwilling nor resisting the Lord when he comes to doe it himselfe Whether doth not the work of union unto Christ goe before our communion with Christ I suppose t is undenyable that union must be before communion and that union to Christ is a work of grace as peculiar to the elect as communion with him Now justification and sanctification are two parts of our communion with him and follow our union Rom. 8.1 Our union therefore must be before these of which there are two parts or rather two things on our part necessarily required to it 1. Cutting off from the wild olive tree the old Adam 2. Implanting into the good olive tree the second Adam The first must goe before the second for where there is perfect resistance there can be no perfect union But take a man growing upon his old root of nature there is nothing but perfect resistance Rom. 8.7 and therefore that resistance must first be taken away before the Lord draw the soule to Christ and by faith implant it into Christ. In a word I see not how a man can wholly resist God and Christ and yet be united unto him at the same instant and therefore the one in order of nature at least goes before the other and therefore let any man living prove his union to Christ and to his lust also if he can You will beleeve in Christ many of you and yet you will have your whores and cups and lusts and pride and world too and oppose all the meanes that would have you from these also I tell you you shall find one day how miserably deceived you have been herein You cannot serve God and Mammon How can ye beleeve saith Christ Iohn 5.44 that seek honour one of another If you can have Christ and be ambitious too take him but how can you beleeve till the Lord hath broken you off from thence Whether vocation as peculiar to the elect as sanctification doth not goe before justification and glorification Rom. 8.30 Whether also there are not two things in effectuall vocation 1. Is not Christ that good the tearme to which the soule is firstly called 2. Is not sin and world that evill the tâ— arme from which the soule is called I suppose t is evident that the soule is effectually called and therefore actually and firstly turned from darknesse to light from the power of Satan unto God First from darknesse then unto light first from the power of Satan then unto God as is evident by the Apostles owne words Act. 26.18 where he methodically sets down the wonderfull works of Christs grace by his ministery the first is to turne them from darknes to light and from Satans power unto God which are the two parts of vocation that they may receive forgivenesse of sinnes in justification vocation being a meanes to this end that they may receive an inheritance in glorification among such as being justified are sanctified also by faith in his name The Apostle doth not say that he was to returne men to light and unto God and so turn them from darknes from the power 〈◊〉 Satan though this is true in some sense but he was first to turne from darknesse and Satan and so to returne them unto light and God in Christ. For how is it possible to be turned unto Christ and yet then also to be turned to sinne and Satan Doth it not imply a contradiction to be turned toward sinne which is ever from Christ and yet to be turned toward Christ together All Divines affirme generally that in the working of â—aith the Lord makes the soule willing to have Christ Psal. 110.2 3. but withall they affirme that of unwilling he makes willing and therefore it followes that the Lord must first remove that unwillingnesse before it can be willing it being impossible to be both willing and unwilling together Whether the cause of all that counterfeit coyne and hypocrisie in this professing age doth not arise from this root viz. not having this wound at first but onely some trouble for sinne without separation from it sore throwes without deliverance from sinne is not this the death of most if not all wicked men living how many are there that claspe about Christ and yet prove enemies to the crosse of Christ fall from Christ scandalously or secretly afterward what is the reason of it Certainly if the Lord had cut them off from their sin they had never falne to everlasting bondage in sinne againe but there the Spirit of God forsook them the Lord not owing so much love to them Consider seriously why the stony and thorny-ground-hearers Mat. 13. came to nothing in their growth of seeming faith and sanctification was the fault in the seed No verily but onely in the ground the one was broken but not deep enough the other was broken deep but not through enough the roots of thorns choked them the lusts and cares of the world were not destroyed first therefore they destroyed that ground I conclude therefore with that of Ieremy Break up your fallow grounds seek to the Lord to break them for you and sow not among thornes take heed of such brokennesse which removes not the thornes of sinfull secret stubbornnesse lest the wrath of the Lord break out against you and burne that none can quench it Doe not cut
me no more therefore in asking Whether a Christian is in a state of happinesse or misery in this condition I answer he is preparatively happy he is now passing from death to life though not as yet wholly passed Nor yet whether there is any saving work before union I answer No for what is said is one necessary ingredient to the working up of our union as cutting off the branch from the old stock is necessary to the ingrafting it into the new indeed without faith it is impossible to please God nor doe I say that this work doth please i. e. it doth not pacify God for that is proper to Christs perfect righteousnesse received by Faith yet as it is a work of his owne Spirit upon us it is pleasing to him as the after-worke of Sanctification is though it neither doth pacify him nor doe I see how this doctrine is any way opposite to the free offer of grace and Christ because it requires no more separation from sin then that which drives them unto Christ nay which is lesse that makes them by the power of the Spirit not resist but yeeld to Christ that he may come unto them and draw them you cannot repent nor convert your selves Be converted therefore saith Peter Acts 3.19 that you may receive remission of sins and in this offer the Spirit works and verily hee that can truly receive Christ without that sense of misery as separates him from his sin as explained to you let him beleeve notwithstanding all that which is said and the God of heaven speakes peace to him his Faith shall not trouble me if hee bee sure it shall not one day deceive himselfe Of lamentation for the hardnesse of mens hearts in these times as it is said the Lord Jesus mourned when he saw the hardnesse of the peoples hearts Mark 3.5 are there not some so farre from this as that they take pleasure in their sins they are sugar under their tongues as sweet as sleep nay as their lives and you come to pul away their limbs when you come to pluck away their sinnes though they have broke Sabbaths neglected prayer despised the word hated and mocked at the Saints been stubborne to their parents curst and swore which made Peter goe out and weep bitterly though lustfull and wanton which broke Davids bones though guilty of more sinnes then there bee moates in the Sunne or Starres in heaven though their sins be crimson and fill heaven with their cry and all the earth with their burthen yet they mourne not never did it one houre together nay they cannot doe it because they will not if you are weary and loaden where are your unutterable groanes if wounded and bruised where are your dolorous complaints if sick where is your enquiry for a Physitian if sad where are your teares in the day in the night morning and evening alone by your selves and in company with others Oh how great is the wrath of God hardning so many thousands at this day whence comes it that Christ is not prized but from this senselesnesse name any reason why the blessed Gospell of peace and all the sweet promises of life are undervalued but from hence and what doe you hereby poore creatures but onely aggravate your sins and make those that are little exceeding great in the eyes of God whence it is that you treasure up wrath against the day of wrath Rom. 2.2 3 4 5. This hardnesse is that which blunts the edge of all Gods ordinances whence Gods poore Ministers sit sorrowfull in their closets seeing all Gods seed lost upon bare rocks oh this is the condition of many a man and which is most fearfull the meanes which should make the heart sensible make it more proud and unsensible Tyre and Sydon and Sodom are more fit to mourne then Chorasin and Capernaum that have enjoyed humbling means long Nay how many be there that mourne out their mournings confesse out their confessions and by their owne humiliations grow more senselesse afterward did wee ever live in a more impenitent secure age wee shall seldome meet with one broken with sin but how few are broken from sinne also and hence it is many a tall Cedar that were set downe in the Table-Book for converted men once much humbled and now comforted stay but a few yeares you shall see more dangerous sins of a second growth one turnes drunkard another covetous another proud another a Sectary another a very dry leafe a very formalist another full of humerous opinions another laden with scandalous lusts woe to you that lament not now for you shall mourne Dost thou think that Christ should ever wipe off thy teares that sheddest none at all dost thou think to reap in joy that sowest not with these showers verily God will make his word good Prov. 29.1 Hee that hardens his owne heart shall perish suddenly heare this you secure sorrowlesse sinners if ever Gods hand bee stretcht out suddenly against thee in blasting thy estate snatching away thy children the wife of thy bosome the husband of thy delight in staining thy name vexing thee with debts and crosses short and sore or lingring sicknesses know that all this comes upon thee for a hard heart but oh mourne for it now you parents children servants the tokens of death are upon you desire the Lord to breake your hearts for you lye under Gods hammer be not above the word and suffer the Lord to take away that which grieves him most even thy stony heart because it grieves thee least meditate much of thy wofull condition chew that bitter pill remember death and rotting in the grave that many are now in hell for thy sins that Christ must dye or thou dye for the least sin remember how patient and long suffering the Lord hath bin to thee and how long he hath groaned under thy burthen that it may be though hee would yet hee cannot beare thy load long let these things be mused on that thy heart may bee at last sorrowfull before it bee too late But oh the sad estate of many with us that can mourne for any evill except it bee for the greatest sinne and death and wrath that lye upon them Of exhortation Labour for this sense of misery this spirit of compunction how can you beleeve in Christ that feel not your misery without him a broken Christ cannot doe thee good without a broken heart bee afflicted and mourne yee sinners turne your laughter into mourning tremble to think of that wrath which burnes downe to the bottome of hell and under which the eternall Sonne of God sweat drops of blood great sins which thou knowest thou art guilty of cause great guilt and great hardnesse of heart and therefore are seldome forgiven or subdued without great affliction of spirit they have loaded the Lord long they must load thee Little sinnes are usually slighted and extenuated and therefore the Lord accounts them great and therefore thy soule must
world But you will say Wherein should I expresse this humiliation and subjection Bee highly thankfull for any little the Lord gives Lam. 3.22 23. Be humble and judge thy selfe worthy of nothing when the Lord denies and verily you shall find the Lord Jesus ere long speaking peace unto you and giving you rest in his bosome that now art quietly contented to lye still at his feet For some helps thereunto 1. Remember whose thou art viz. the Lords clay and he thy Potter and therefore may doe with thee what he will Rom. 9.20 2. Remember what thou art viz. a polluted vessell a kind of infinite endlesse evill as I have oft said see the picture of thy own vilenesse in the damned in hell who are full and shall through all eternity powre out all manner of evill Iob 40.3 4. 3. Remember what thou hast been and how long thou hast made warre against Christ with all thy might and heart and strength why should the Lord theâ—efore choose thee before others Ier. 3.5 when as aske thy conscience was there ever such a wretch since the world began as thou hast been 4. Remember what thou wilt be fit for no use to Jesus Christ good for nothing but to pollute his holy name when thou medlest with it and why should the Lord take up such a dry leafe Isay 64.6 and breath upon such a dry bone 5. Remember how good the Lords will is even when it crosseth thine he shall have infinite glory by all his denials to thee of what thou wouldst he shall gaine that though thou losest thy peace and quietnesse that good which thy foolish sinfull will desires at his hand Iohn 12.27 28. and if so blessed be his name let God live but let man dye and perish that he may be exalted of vile man 6. Remember the sweet rest thou shalt have by this subjection to the Lord nothing is mans crosse but mans will a stubborn will like a stubborne heifer in the yoake galls and frets the soule Learn meeknesse saith our Saviour of me in taking my yoake on you and then you shall find rest Hell would not bee hell to a heart truly humbled Sometimes you find inlargements then you are glad sometime none then you sinke sometimes you have hope of mercy then you are calme sometimes you lose your hopes then the Sea workes when the Lord pleaseth you then you are well but if a little crosse befall you then your spring is muddy and a little thing troubles Oh be humble vile in thine owne eyes and verily such uncertaine fits of peace and trouble are done and the dayes of all your mourning are now ended Of thankfulnesse to all those whom the Lord hath truly humbled Time was when the Lord first convinced you that so long as you could make any shift find rest in any duties you would never lye down at Christs feet now the Lord might have left you to have stumbled at that stumbling-stone and to have stuck in those bushes but you may see that the Lord will save you even then when you would not be saved by him and especially take notice of two passages of Gods dealings with you wherein usually you find matter of discouragement rather then of acknowledgment of Gods goodnesse to you therein 1. That the Lord hath withdrawn all feeling of any good which it may be once you felt and that the Lord hath let out more of the evill of your hearts then ever you imagined was in them nay so much evill that you think there is none like unto you who hast now no heart nor power to stirre think defire will or doe any thing that is good oh blesse the Lord for this for this is Gods way to humble and empty and make thee poor the Lord saw though it may be you did not that you rested in that good you felt and was or would be lifted up by these and therefore the Lord hath broke those crazy crâ—tches famisht now brought you downe to nothing made you like dry desarts all the hurt the Lord aimeth at in this being only to humble you and though these desertions be bitter for the present yet that by these he might doe you good in your latter end Oh brethren the Apostle stands at a stay and desires the Corinthians to consider You see your calling saith he 1 Cor. 1. Not many mighty not many wise but things that are not doth he call that no flesh might glory The Lord saith Moses Deut. 8.2 3. suffered thee to want that was the first and then fed thee that he might prove thee and humble thee remember this saith he So say I to you remember this mercy that when the Lord makes you worst of all not really but in your own eyes that then the Lord is about this glorious work 2. That the Lord hath kept you it may be a long time too from sight and sense of his peculiar love one would wonder why the Lord should hide his love so much so long from those to whom he doth intend it the great reason is because there is in many a one a heart desirous of his love and this would quiet them if they were sure of it but they never came to bee quieted with Gods will in case they think they shall never partake of his love but are above that oppose and resist and quarrell with that unhumbled under that the Lord therefore intending to bestow his favour onely upon a humbled sinner he will therefore hide his face untill they lye low and acknowledge themselves worthy of nothing but extremity of misery unworthy of the least mercy The people of God Lam. 1.16 cry out that the comforter which should refresh their soule was farre from them what was Gods end in this you shall see the end of it verse 18. the Lord is righteous here the Church is humbled for I have rebelled or as Sanctius reads it I have made his mouth bitter that the Lord speaks no peace to me but bitter things The cause is in my owne selfe and therefore if he never comfort me nor speak good word unto me yet he is righteous but I am vile and you will find this certain that as the Lord therefore humbles that he may exalt so the Lord never refuseth to exalt in hiding his face but it is to humble And is this the worst the Lord aimes at and will you not be thankfull why are you then discouraged when you find it thus with you doe not say the Lord never dealt thus with any as with me suppose that the reason then is because the Lord sees never had any such a high heart as thou hast but oh be thankfull that notwithstanding this he will take the pains to take it downe Thus much for humiliation I come now to the fourth and last which is Faith SECT 5. The fourth and last act of Christs power is the worke of Faith THe Lord having wounded
by it so upon it will build the souls of all the elect who are built upon the foundation of the Apostles and Prophets Iesus Christ being the chief corner-stone Eph. 2.20 How can they beleeve without a Preacher Rom. 10.14 3. Then when wicked men and reprobates are commanded to beleeve as they are commanded Iohn 3.19 Luk. 14.17 Iohn 6.38 Heb. 4.2 they are commanded to beleeve a lye viz. that their sinnes are pardoned and they actually justified for if this testimony be the ground of faith then when they are commanded to beleeve they are commanded to be perswaded of this testimony But the sinnes of wicked men especially Reprobates are not nor never shall be forgiven and therefore this cannot be the ground of Faith 4. Then the Spirit of adoption which witnesseth that God is our Father and that we are his sonnes reconciled to him goes before faith but the Apostle expresly denyes this Ye are the children of God by faith Gal. 3.26 And because ye are sonnes he hath sent unto you the spirit of sonnes crying Abba Father Gal. 4.6 5. If such a testimony should be the first ground of faith then no man should beleeve but he that hath such a testimony antecedent to his faith but this is crosse to the Scripture Esay 50.10 He that sits in darknesse and sees no light let him stay himselfe upon his God When Ionah is cast out of Gods sight to his owne feeling yet he is bound to look againe unto the Temple 6. This absolute testimony is either the testimony of the Word or of the Spirit Not of the Word as is proved If of the Spirit then let it be considered whether that can be the testimony of the Spirit which is not according to the Word nay contâ—ary to the Word for the Word to say none are justified before faith for the Spirit to testifie some are justified before faith If it be said that the Spirit doth not witnesse these to any man before and without faith but yet it is without respect unto or shewing a man his faith for those that exclude Sanctification from being any evidence they meane Faith as well as any other renewed work of holines and so exclude that also then I say the testimony of the Spirit which of it selfe is exceeding cleare is an obscure and dark testimony because it cleares up the praedicate of this Proposition thou beleever art justified it witnesseth to a man thou art justified but cleares not up the subject of it viz. thou beleever it makes a man beleeve a testimony without understanding the full meaning of it for the Spirit testifying to any man thou art justified his meaning is thou beleever art justified and I doe beseech the God and Father of all lights that his poore people may be led into the truth in this particular for want of establishment here you little think how many delusions you may fall into about your spirituall condition I remember that when Satan came to overthrow the Faith of Christ in his second temptation Mat. 4.6 he brought a promise out of the Scriptures to him because he saw hee held close to them verse 4. and by this promise sought to lead him into temptation how so observe the text and see if it was not by hiding part of the meaning of the promise from him and in speciall that very condition required in the person to whom the promise is made for he tells him that if he cast himselfe downe headlong the Lord hath not only said it but writ it He shall give his Angells charge over him to keep him from dashing his foot against a stone whereas if you consult with the place whence it is cited viz. Psalme 91.11 The condition is set downe in all thy wayes which hee purposely hides from our Saviour as much as in him lay Oh take heed therefore of receiving any testimony from Word or Spirit without the meaning of it without knowing the person thus and thus qualified to whom it belongs otherwise Satan will hurry you headlong to a world of delusions and you shall find the word of God appointed to direct you through your mis-application of it the word of Satan to deceive and damne you doe not think that this is building faith upon works but to beleeve that they that believe in Christ are justified reconciled and saved is building faith upon Gods promise yea and his free promise too for saith the Apostle It is of faith that it might be of grace Rom. 4.16 It is believing to have the end by the meanes not the end without the mean of Faith It is true we may see Gods favour and love to us in the cause as well as in the effects of sanctification but what is that cause the meritorious cause is Christs righteousnesse and the instrumentall cause of applying this is our Faith so that as we are justified by faith so seeing this we may say assuredly with Paul Being justified by faith wee have peace with God Rom. 5.1 It is true we cannot see our justification by saith nor the work of Faith without the shining of the Spirit into our hearts but the question is not whether the Spirit helps us to see our justified estate but by what meanes by what Proposition in the word wee come to see it which we say is not by any such absolute testimony thou art justified already and therefore believe but if thou believe and come to Christ here is then pardon of sinne peace with God yea all the blessings of Christ ready for thee which God intends to give and never to take away if thou thankfully receive what God freely offers and as it were layes downe at thy feet The call of Christ therefore is the ground by which wee first believe and that you may be confirmed farther herein doe but consider the glory and excellency of this ground It is a constant ground of faith for if you come to Christ because you have assurance or because you feel such and such graces and heavenly impressions of Gods Spirit in you you may then many a day and yeare keep at a distance from Christ and live without Christ for the feeling of graces and assurance of favour are not constant but this call is alway sounding in thine yeares oh come not only because thou feelest holinesse in thee but come because poore hungry empty naked lost blind cursed forsaken full of sin there is not one moment of the day of grace but the Lord beseecheth thee to receive his grace 2 Cor. 6.1 2 3. this is an open door to Christ at all times an open harbour to put in at in all storms a heart-breaking word oh thou tossed with tempests and not comforted come unto me and thou shalt find rest to thy soule Many aske how should I come to Christ seeing that I have no promise belonging to me what have dogges to doe with childrens bread be it so yet Gods call command beseechings to come in
of Adamant that would not melt and come in at this Oh my beloved this very call is done as really by Christ in his Ministers now though not so visibly and immediately as I now describe and therefore take heed how you refuse to heare him that speakes from heaven Heb. 12.25 Consider whom the Lord calls and that is thee in particular who ever thou art to whom the Gospell of Christ is sent for if you think Christ calls some only that are so and so deeply humbled only to come and not unto you in particular you will never come in but we have proved this that the Lord calls all in generall and consequently each man in particular the consideration of this may bring you in Men fear to commit murther and steale c. but you feare not unbeleefe but the Apostle bids you feare that for the Gospell is preached sayth he unto you as well as unto those that fell by unbeliefe Heb. 4.1 2. doe not say he calls me indeed but it is no more then what he doth to reprobates true in the outward call it is so yet upon this ground you may think the Lord commands not calls not you to sanctifie a Sabbath or to honour Gods name because this is as common to reprobates as unto you doe not say I am not able to come and therefore I am not called no more are you able to attend the rules of the morall Law yet you look upon them as appertaining to you and because you cannot doe them you intreat the Lord to enable you and so because you cannot come you should looke up to the Lord to draw you and verily many times the great reason why the Lord doth not draw you is because you doe not deeply consider that he doth really and affectionately call you doe not say I am a dry tree the Lord cannot look upon me whose condition is worse then ever I heard or read of yet remember what the Lord speaks to such Isay 56.3 4 6 7. Look not thou to thy barren dead heart but give glory unto God as Abraham did Rom. 4.19 20. and receive his grace with more thankfulnesse then any else because none ever so miserable as thy selfe you young men heare this though you have spent the flower of your yeares in vanity madnesse and filthy lusts yet the Lord calls you in to him you old men grown gray-headed in wickednesse though it be the last houre in the day of your life yet behold the Lord would hire you and calls you to come in before the â—orest wrath of a long provoked God break out upon you you that have despised Gods messengers crucified the Lord Jesus afresh embrued your hands in his blood scorned and hated the Saints and the word of Gods grace hear what wisdom saith Prov. 1.22 23. Return yee scorners oh consider you that are ignorant of Christ that never sought after Christ many a yeare together that have continually provoked him to his face how the Lord calls you Isay 65.1 2 3. you even you are those the Lord calls and will you not come Consider why the Lord calls thee is it because hee hath any need of you to honour him I tell you he could have gone to others that would have given his Gospell better welcom thâ—n it hath had from you he could have gone to many Kings and Princâ—s and out of that golden mettle have made himselfe vessels of honour rather then out of such base mould as thou art made of hee could have honoured himselfe in thy ruine as in many millions of other men and lose nothing by thee neither he could have been blessed without you in the bosome of his Father or is it because thou hast done any thing for him alas thou hast not returned him thy nutshells thou hast not had so much as a forme of Religion thou hast done as much mischiefe to him as thou couldst Ier. 3.5 thou hast wearied him with thine iniquities and made him serve with thy sins and hast sadded his heart exceedingly by strange impenitency Isay 43.24 The only reason that hath moved him to call to thee hath been pity to thee seeing thee running to the fire that never can be quencht without stop or stay 2 Chron. 36.15 16. and because thou art fallen by thine iniquities Hos. 14.1 And shall not this bring you home Consider for what end the Lord calls thee is it not to come and take possession of all the grace of Christ Gal. 1.6 nay of all the glory of Christ 1 Thess. 2.12 nay to a most neare sweet and everlasting fellowship with Christ himselfe 1 Cor. 1.9 and can I say any more can you desire any more then this if the Lord should say unto any of us Come into the garden and there watch and pray with me sorrow and suffer with me who of us would not account our selves unworthy of such honour but for the Lord to say Come and enter into your rest the land the kingdome of grace and glory is before you goe up and possesse it oh where are our hearts if this call will not draw if the Lord should say at the day of judgement when the heavens and earth shall be on a light fire and the Lord Jesus set upon the throne of his glory admired of all his Saints and Angels Come you blessed and take the kingdome prepared for you would you not gladly come at that call oh beloved the Lord Jesus now in the throne of his glory in heaven behold he calls you unto a better good then that kingdome he calls you to come and take himselfe and all his precious benefits prepared for you though in thy selfe accursed and would he have you take possession of all this is it not the praise of the riches of his grace Eph. 1. If this be his end then if thou wilt not come for thy own good yet for his sake his grace sake come in How long the Lord hath called thee how oft he would have gathered thee he hath stood so long untill his locks are wet with dew of the night Cant. 5.1 2. It may bee you are afraid it hath been so long that now time is past oh no for whiles the Lord calls by his word and spirit now is the acceptable time 2 Cor. 6.2 I confesse there is a time wherein the Lord will not be found but whiles the Lord is neare unto thee by his Ministery by his Spirit convincing affecting stirring knocking at thy heart the time is not yet past the Sun is not yet set so long as those beames appeare Isay 55.6 those thoughts which discourage thee from coming to Christ whiles the voyce of his call is heard cannot be of Christ but Satan whose principall work is to lay such stumbling blocks in our way to him Consider the greatnesse of your sinne in not coming to him 1. This is the condemning sin for no sin should condemne thee if thou didst come to him Iohn 3.17
18 19. thou shouldst please him and as it were make him amends for all the wrongs thou hast done him by coming to him Heb. 11.5 6 7. 2. This aggravates all other sins If I had not spake to them saith Christ they had had no sin i. e. comparatively but now they have no cloak for their sin can the sin of devills be so great as thine that nâ—ver had a Saviour sent unto them yet thou hast one sent and come out of heaven to thee calling to thee from heaven and yet thou despisest him 3. This provokes the Lord to most unappeasable unquenchable wrath Heb. 3.11 I sware in my wrath they should not enter into my rest after sins against the Law the Lord did not sweare that man should dye for that notes an unchangeable purpose but let Christ be despised the Lord now sweares in his wrath against such a one he that drawes back my soule shall take no pleasure in him Heb. 10.38 after sin against the law the Lord took pleasure in glorifying his grace upon man fallen but if you draw back from the grace of Christ in the Gospell the Lord will take no pleasure in you 4. It provokes the sorest and most unsupportable wrath Take heed you despise not him that speaketh for if they did not escape who refused him that spake on earth much lesse shall we that despise him that speakes from heaven Heb. 12.25 Take heed therefore you despise not him that speaketh the word despise signifies in the originall to despise or refuse upon some colour of reason every man hath some seeming reason against beleeving one thinks time is past another thinks he is excluded by some antecedent dâ—cree of election another thinks he is not humbled nor holy enough another makes excuse not by pretending his Ale-house and Whore-house but his Farme and Merchandize Mat. 22. another thinks he is well enough without Christ c. Oh take heed for the wrath of God most intolerable is your portion the lowest dungeon of darknesse is tâ—y place in hell for this sin Hear ye despisers and wonder for I will worke saith the Lord a worke in your dayes which you shall not beleeve though it be told you Acts 13.41 I pray you what is this worke certainly a work of wrath and vengeance but what is it you will not beleeve though you be told of it oh you secure sinners but what is it that they will not beleeve nay truly the Lord himselfe is silent there and saith nothing as if it was so great and dreadfull that the glorious Lord himselfe is not able to expresse it and truly no more am I oh therfore be not worse then that generation of Vipers that camâ— in to Iohn because some had forwarnd them to escape the wrath to come Mat. 3. but come unto a Saviour that you may be ever blessed with him But you will say How should we come to him Come to him mourning and loathing your selves for your long continuance in refusing of him Ier. 31.9 Ezek. 6.9 come mourning for all thy sinnes but especially for this that thou hast slighted him and not sought him shed his blood rent his bowels and if thou canst not come yet come to him and make thy moane to him of thy unbeleefe and inability to come Come with confidence that they that doe come he will never cast away and that thou being come he will never cast thee away Iohn 6.37 Heb. 10.22 Come gladly and willingly glorifying his grace but abasing thy selfe With gladnesse shall they be brought and enter into the Kings presence Psal. 45.15 doe not receive Gods grace as a common thing but thankfully and with all thy heart for the end why the Lord gives Christ to any man is the glory of his grace if the Lord attaines this end he desires no more for why should he when he hath his end Doe not come and tast but come and drinke Iohn 7.37 you may famish to death and pine away in your iniquities and prove Apostates even to commit the impardonable sin if you doe but tast of him as those did Heb. 6.4 5. but drinke abundantly Oh ye beloved of the Lord Cant. 5.1 If you cannot satisfie your soules by what you feel already received from him then satiate your soules by what you may find in him Isay 45.24 take possession of all the grace glory peace promises of the Lord Jesus and leave not a hoofe behind thee and be for ever refreshed and comforted therein So come to him as that you keep your confidence and keep your savour of him and joy in him Heb. 3.14 with 6. let the word that called you be ever sweet precious as David said Psal. 119.53 I will never forget thy Precepts for by them thou hast quickned me Let the Lord Jesus be ever fresh Heb. 3.6 and as an oyntment powred out take â—eed that the blood wherewith you are sanctified doe not grow a common thing and promises withered flowers and Sermons of Christ and his grace unlesse there be some new notions about them as dead drinke for this is the great sin of this age the old truths about the grace of Christ and the simplicity of the Gospell is as water in mens shoes Ministers must preach novelties and make quintessentiall extracts out of the Scriptures and it may be presse blood out of them sometime rather then milke or else their doctrines are to many as Almanacks out of date or as newes they heard seven yeares since and they knew this before Oh the wrath of God upon this God-glutted Christ-glutted Gospell-glutted age unlesse it be among a very few poore beleevers whose soules are kept empty poore and hungry by some continuall temptations or afflictions and they are indeed glad of any thing if it be any thing of Christ Verily I am afraid such a dismal night is towards of spirituall desertions and of outward but sore afflictions of famin war blood mortality deaths of Gods precious servants especially that the Lord will fill the hearts of all Churches families Christians that shall be saved in those times with such rendings tearings shakings anguish of spirit as scarce never more in the worst dayes of our fore-fathers and that this shall continue untill the remnant that escape shall say Blessed be he that commeth in the name of the Lord bessed bee the face and feet of that Minister that shall come unto us in Christs name and tell us that there is a Saviour for sinners and that he calls us for to come And thus I have done with this Divine truth viz. That the Lord Jesus in the day of his power saves us out of our wretched and sinfull estate by so much conviction as begets compunction so much compunction as brings in humiliation so much humiliation as makes us to come to Christ by Faith CHAP. 2. That every sinner thus beleeving in Christ is at that instant translated into a most
it with abundance of glory Ioh. 4.14 and 7.38 You despise it because it is but little I tell you this little is eminently all and containes as much as shall be powred out by thee so long as God is God T is true thou sayst its weake and oft foiled and gives thee not compleat power and victory over all sinne yet know that this shall like the house of David grow stronger and stronger and it shall at last prevaile and the Lord will not breake thee though thou art bruised by sinne daily untill judgement come to victory and the Prince of this world be judged and thy soule perfected in the day of the Lord Jesus SEC 5. Fiftly Audience of all Prayers This is the fift benefit which though it be a fruit of other benefits yet I name it in speciall because I desire it might be especially observed and I place it after our sanctification because of Davids speech If I regard iniquity in my heart the Lord will not heare my prayer Psal. 66.18 and that of the Apostle 1 Joh. 3.22 Wee beleeve what ever we aske we receive because wee keep his Commandements and doe those things which are pleasing in his sight As the Lord hath respect to the prayers of his people not only in regard of their justification but in some sense in regard of their sanctification also a justified person polluted with some personall or common sins of the times may want that audience and acceptance of his prayers I am now speaking of That God will heare all the petitions of his people can there be a greater priviledge then this yet this our Saviour affirmes twice together because it is so great a promise that we can hardly beleeve it Iohn 14.13 14. Whatsoever you aske the Father in my name that will I doe mark the scope of the words our Saviour had promised that he that beleeves in me shall doe greater works then I have done now because this might seem strange and impossible the Lord in those verses tells them how for saith he Whatsoever you aske in my name I will doe for you I will doe indeed all that is to be done but yet it shall be by meanes of your prayers Christ did great works when he was upon the earth but for him to doe what ever a poore sinfull creature shall desire him to doe what greater work of wonder can there be then this This is our confidence saith the Apostle That what ever we aske according to his will he heareth us 1 Iohn 5.15 The greatest question here will be What are those prayers the Lord Jesus will heare I confesse many things are excellently spoken this way yet I conceive the meaning of this great Charter is fully exprest in those words In my name If they be prayers in Christs name they shall be heard and it containes these three things 1. To pray in Christs name is to pray with relyance upon the grace favour and worthinesse of the merits of Christ thus this phrase is used to walke in the name of their Gods is in confidence of the authority and excellency and favour of their Gods that they will beare them out in it so to pray in Christs name is to pray for Christs sake thus Eph. 2.18 through him i. through his death and satisfaction rested upon we have accesse with confidence unto the Father Eph. 3.12 In whom we have beleeved and accesse with confidence by the Faith of him There are three evills that commonly attend our prayers when we see God indeed 1. Shame and flight from God the Apostle saith therefore that by Faith in Christ we have accesse 2. If we doe accede and draw neare to him there is a secret feare and straitnesse of spirit to open all your minds therefore saith he we have boldnesse the word signifies liberty of speech to open all our minds without feare or discouragement 3. After we have thus drawne neare and opened all our desires and mones before God wee have many doubts viz. will the Lord heare such a sinner and such weak and imperfect and sinfull prayers therefore he also affirms that we have confidence and assurance of being heard but all this is by Faith in him for look as Christ hath purchased all blessing for us by his death and hence makes his intercession for those things dayly according to our need So we are much more to rest upon and make that satisfaction the ground of our intercession because Christs blood purchased this therefore oh Lord grant this 2. To pray in his name is to pray from his command and according to his will as when we send another in our name wee wish him to say thus Tell him that I desire such a thing of him and that I sent you so it is here and thus the phrase signifies Iohn 5.43 I am come in my Fathers name i. By his authority and command To pray in Christs name therefore is to pray according to the will of Christ and from the will of Christ when we take those words the Lord puts into our mouthes Hos. 14.1 2 3. and desire those things only that the Lord commands us to seek whether absolutely or conditionally according to his will revealed and with submission to his will concealed 1 Iohn 5.14 what ever we aske according to his will he heares us Psal. 27.8 Rom. 8.26 If you aske any thing not according to Gods will you come in your owne name he sent you not with any such â—â—essage to the Father 3. To pray in his name is to pray for his ends for the sake and use of Christ and glory of Christ thus the phrase is used Mat. 10.41 42. To receive a Prophet in the name of a Prophet i. for this end and reason because he is a Prophet A servant comes in his Masters name to aske something of another when he comes as from his command so also for his Masters use So when wee pray for Christs sake i. for his ends not our owne these ever prevaile Iames 4.3 You aske and have not because you aske amisse to spend it on your lusts Ioh. 12.27 28. Ps. 145.18 this is to aske in truth to act for a spirituall end to make it our utmost end ariseth from a speciall peculiar supernaturall presence of the Spirit of life and consequently a Spirit of prayer which is ever heard And hence you shall observe the least groan for Christs ends is ever heard because it is the groaning of the Spirit because it is an act of spirituall life the formality of which consists in this that it is for God Gal. 2.19 the Lord cannot deny what we pray for Christs ends because then he should crush Christs glory and therefore let a Christian observe when he would have any thing of God that concernes himselfe not be sollicitous so much for the thing as to gaine favour and nearnesse to God and a heart subject unto God in a humble contentednesse to be
those depths of grace glory immediate vision God shall be all in all The soule shall now enjoy 1. The accomplishment of all promises which wee see not here made good unto us 1 Cor. 15.24 then you shall have restitution of all these at times of refreshing wherein your sinnes shall be publikely blotted out from the presence of the Lord Act. 3.19 If Iosuah said Ios. 23.14 when the peoples warfare was ended See if the Lord hath been wanting in one word to you Much more will the Lord Jesus say unto you then 2. Then you shall receive a full answer to all your prayers all that grace holinesse power over sinne Satan fellowship with God life of Christ blessing of God which you sought for and wept for and suffered for here you shall then see all answered 3. Then you shall finde the comfort of all that you have done for God Revel 14.13 you works in this sense shall follow you you shall then infinitely rejoyce that ever you did any thing for God that ever you thought of him spake to him and spake for him that ever you gave any one blow to your pride passions lusts naturall concupiscence c. you shall then enjoy the reward of all your sufferings cares sorrowes for Gods Church fastings and dayes of mourning whether publikely or secretly for Gods people 2 Cor. 4.17 the same glory God hath given Christ the Lord shall at that time give unto you Ioh. 17.22 it shall not be with us there as it was with the wicked Israelites who when they came into the good land of rest they then forgot the Lord and all his workes past no no all that which GOD hath done for you in this world you shall then looke backe and see and wonder and love and blesse and sucke the sweet of for evermore it s a fond weak question to thinke whether we shall know one another in heaven verily you shall remember the good the Lord did you here by what meanes the Lord humbled you by what ministry the Lord called you by what friends the Lord comforted and refreshed you and there you shall see them with you doe you thinke you shall forget the Lord and his workes in heaven which it may be you tooke little notice of and the Lord had little glory for here Fourthly consider the glory of the company and fellowship you shall have here 1. Angels Heb. 12.23 24. they will love you and comfort you and rejoyce with you and speake of the great things the Lord hath done for you as they did on earth to the Shepherds Luk. 2.10 Be not afraid said the Angel Mat. 28.5 I know yee seeke Jesus So will they say then be ever comforted you blessed servants of the Lord for we know you are loved of the Lord Jesus 2. Saints you shall sit downe with Abraham Isaac and Iacob in the Kingdome of God be taken into the bosome of Abraham into the bosomes of all the children of Abraham and there we shall speake with them of the Lords wonders of his Christ and Kingdome Psal. 145.11 and every sentence and word shall be milke and hony sweeter then thy life now can be unto thee we shall know and love and honour one another exceedingly 3. The man Christ Jesus when Mary claâ—pt about him 1 Ioh. 20.17 Let me alone said hee touch mee not I am not yet ascended to my Father As if he had said saith Austin then shall bee the place and time wherein we shall embrace one another for evermore Never was husband and loving wife so familiar one with another as the Lord Jesus will bee not carnally and in an earthly manner but in a most heavenly glorious yet gracious manner with all his Saints Come yee blessed will hee then say to them wee shall then ever bee not onely in the Lord but with the Lord saith Paul 1 Thes. 4. ult 1 Thes. 5.10 Just as Moses and Elias in his transfiguration that talked with him which was a glimpse of our future glory so shall we then Luk. 12.37 and you shall then see that love of his that blessed bosome of love opened fully which the Apostle saith passeth knowledge Ephes. 3.19 I need not tel you of our fellowship with the Father also when the Son shall give up the Kingdome to him that he may be all in all Fiftly consider the glory of your worke there which is onely to glorifie this God 1. You shall then live like Christ in glory we shall speak and think all with glory 1 Iohn 3.1 2. our strings shall be then raised up to the highest straine of sweet melody and glory 2. You shall then blesse him Eph. 1.6 Eph. 4.13 and that with ravishment you shall come then to the full acknowledgement of the Sonne of God you shall see and say all this is the work and grace of Christ and then shall cry out Oh let all Angels Saints ever blesse him for this What should I speak any more You will say Is this certaine Can this be so Yes assuredly for Christ is gone to prepare this place and glory for you Ioh. 14.2 3. We have also the first fruits of this glory which we feele sometimes whereby we see and taste and drink and long for more of that joy unspeakable and peace that passeth understanding that triumph over the rage and working power of remaining corruption that darke vision of God and holy glorying and boasting in him as our everlasting portion c. which cannot be delusions and dreams which never feed but ever leave the deceived soule hungry but are realities things indeed which satiate the weary soule and fill it up with the very fulnesse of God himselfe Eph. 3.19 and therefore t is certaine that we shall have the harvest that thus taste of the first fruits and the whole summe paid us faithfully that have already the earnest penny The Lord also sits us for this as the Apostle disputes 2 Cor. 5.4 5. What means the Lord to deny our requests in many things as long as we live what is his meaning not to let us see the accomplishment of many of his promises is it because he is unfaithfull or bâ—cause he would let us know there is a day of refreshing he hath reserved for us and would have us look for wherein we shall see it hath not been a vaine thing for us to pray â— or him to promise why doth he afflict us and keep us more miserable both by outward sorrowes and inward miseries then any other people in the world doth he not hereby humble us empty us weane us from hence and make us as it were vessels big enough to hold glory which we hope for in another world But you will say Can this glory be thus great We see t is certaine it shall be so but shall it be so exceeding great and endlesse Yes verily because 1. The price is great which is paid for it Eph. 1.14 t is a purchased
with them in the same way as they doe Suppose some Reprobates doe see sin yet the Lord puts a secret vertue in that work of conviction upon thee which makes thee cry to heaven for a Spirit of brokennesse for sin which without this sight of sinne thou wouldst never so much as have desired and this they have not However conviction is a work of the Spirit though it should be but common and wilt not be thankfull for common mercy suppose it be but outward how much more for this that is spirituall though it should be common especially considering that it is the first fundamentall work of the Spirit and is seminally all Sense of sin begins here and ariseth hence as ignorance of sin is seminally all sin Remember that the discovery of Faux in the Vault was the preservation of England we use to remember the day and houre of the beginning of some great and notable deliverance oh remember this time wherein the love of Christ first brake out in convincing thee of thy sin who els hadst certainly perished in it And thus much of this first work of Conviction now the second followes Compunction SECT III. The second Act of Christs power in working Compunction or sense of sin COmpunction pricking at the heart or sense and feeling of sin is different from conviction of sin the latter is the work of the understanding and seated in that principally the other is in the affections and will and seated therein principally a man may have sight of sin without sorrow and sense of it Dan 5.22 with 20.21 Iames 1.24 Rom. 2.20 21. Yet that conviction which the Spirit workes in the Elect is ever accompanied with compunction first or last For the better unfolding of this point let me open these foure things to you 1. That compunction or sense of sin immediately follows conviction of sin in the day of Christs power 2. The necessity of this work to succeed the other 3. Wherein it consists 4. The measure of it in all the Elect. That compunction followes conviction is evident from Scripture and Reason Acts 2.37 When they heard this that is when they saw and were convinced of their sinne in crucifying the Lord of life which they did not imagine to be a sinne before what followes next it is said They were pricked at the heart Loe here is compunction Ephraim also in turning unto God Ier. 31.19 hath these words After that I was instructed I smote upon my thigh as men in great calamity befallen 〈◊〉 use to doe I was ashamed even confounded because I did beare the reproach of my youth The men of Nineveh hearing by the Prophet they were all to dye within forty daies it is said they beleeved God in the work of conviction and then fell to sack-cloth and ashes in the work of compunction which did immediately follow Iosiah 2 Chron. 34.27 in his renewed returne unto God after hee heard the words of the law his heart melted and he wept before the Lord. For what is the end of conviction is it not compunction for if the Lord should let a man see his sin and death for sinne and yet suffer the heart to remaine hard and unaffected the Lord did but leave him without excuse nay the Lord should but leave him under greater misery under a more fearfull judgement viz. for a man to see and know his sin and yet unaffected with it and hardned under it hardnesse of heart is one of the greatest judgements to see sinne and not to be affected with it argues greater hardnesse For it is no wonder if they that see not and know not sin remain senselesse of sin alas they know not what they doe but for a man to be enlightned and see his sinne and yet unaffected Lord how great is this hardnesse and how unexcusable will such a man be left before God when the Lord shall reckon with him for his hardnesse of heart â— What is the end of that light the Lord lets into the understanding in other things is it not that thereby the heart might be affected throughly with it Why doth the Lord let in the light of the knowledge of Christ and of his will Is it that this knowledge should like froth float in the understanding and be imprisoned there No verily but that the heart might be throughly and deeply affected therewith And doe you think the Lord will in the light of conviction imprison it up in the mind is there not a farther end that by this light the heart might be deeply affected with sinne if any say that the end of conviction is to drive the soule to Christ I grant that is the remote and last end of it but the next end is compunction For if the understanding be convinced of misery and the heart remain hard the mind may see indeed that righteousnesse and life only is to be had in Christ yet the heart remaining hard the wil and affections will never stir toward Christ its impossible a hard heart remaining such wholly unaffeâ—ted with sin or misery should be truly affected with Jesus Christ but of this more hereafter What necessity is there of this compunction to succeed conviction I speak now of necessity in way of ordinary dispensation not of Gods unusuall and extraordinary way of working where hee useth neither Law nor Gospell as ordinaâ—rily he doth to work by Many have been nibling lately at this doctrine and demand What need is there of sorrow and compunction of heart A man may be converted only by the Gospell and God may let in sweetnesse and joy without any sense of sinne or misery and in my experience I have found it so others godly and gracious also feele it so why therefore doe any presse such a necessity of comming in by this back-doore unto Christ This point I conceive is very weighty and much danger in denying the truth of it yet withall there needs much tendernesse in handling of it lest any stumble and therefore before I lay downe the reasons to shew the necessity of it give me leave to propound these rules both for the clearing of the point and answering sundry objections usually made about this point In this work of compunction doe not think that the Lord hath not wrought any true sense of sinne because you find it not in such a measure as you imagine you should desire to have and that others feele sense of sin admits degrees I doubt not but Iosephs brethren were humbled yet Ioseph must be more he must be cast into the ditch and into the prison and the iron must enter not onely into his legs but into his soule Psal. 105.18 He must be more afflicted in spirit because he was to doe greater work for God and was to be raised up higher then the rest and therefore did need the more ballast some are educated more civilly then others and thereby have contracted lesse guilt and stoutnesse of heart
Christ and yet opened not her heart to lament her sinne and misery in her estate without Christ suppose she were without Christ is more then can be proved from the Text for t is said Her heart was opened to attend unto the things that were spoken by Paul and can any think that Paul or any Apostle ever preached Christ without preaching the need men had of him and could any preach their need of Christ without preaching mens undone and sinfull estate without Christ and doe you think that Lydiae was not made to attend unto this doe you think that when Philip came to open the 53. of Esay to the Eunuch that Christ was bruised for our iniquities that he did not let him understand the infinite evill of sinne and misery of all sinners and of him in speciall unlesse the Lord Jesus was bruised for him In examples recorded in the Scripture of Gods converting grace doe not think they had no sorrow for sinne because it is not distinctly and expresly set downe in all places for the Scripture usually sets downe matters very briefly it oftentimes supposeth many things and refers us to judge of some by other places as Acts 6.7 it is said Many of the Priests were obedient to the faith doth it therefore follow that they did immediately beleeve without any sense of sinne Look to a fuller example Acts 2. and then we may see as the one were converted to the faith so were the other having a hand in the same sin 1 Tim. 1.13 14. Paul he was a persecuter but the Lord received him to mercy and that Gods grace was abundant in faith and love doth it hence follow that Paul had no castings down because not mentioned here If we look upon Acts 9. we shall see it otherwise Doe not judge of generall and common workings of the Spirit upon the souls of any to be the beginnings of effectuall and special conversion for a man may have some inward and yet common knowledge of the Gospel and of Christ in it before there be any sorrow for sinne yet it doth not hence follow that the Lord begins not with compunction and sorrow because common work is not speciall and effectuall work when the Spirit thus comes he first begins here as we shall prove The terrours and feares and sense of sinne and death be in themselves afflictions of soule and of themselves drive from Christ yet in the hand of Christ by the power of the Spirit they are made to lead or rather drive unto Christ which is able to turn mourning into joy as well as after mourning to give joy and therefore t is a vaine thing to think there is no need of such sorrows which drive from Christ and that Christ can work well enough therefore without them when as by the mighty power and riches of mercy in Christ the Lord by wounding nay killing his of all their carnall security and self-confidence saves all his alive and drives them to seek for life in his Son These things thus premised let us now hear of the necessity of this work to succeed conviction Else a sinner will never part with his sin a bare conviction of sin doth but light the candle to see sin compunction burnes his fingers and that onely makes him dread the fire Cleanse your hearts ye sinners and purifie your hearts ye double minded men saith the Apostle Iames Chap. 4.8 But how should this be done He answers verse 9. Be afflicted and mourne and weep turn your laughter into mourning So Ioel 2.12 the Prophet calls upon his hearers to turne from their sin unto the Lord but how Rend your hearts and not your garments Not that they were able to do this but by what sorrow he requires of all in generall he thereby effectually works in the hearts of all the elect in particular for every man naturally takes pleasure nay all his delight and pleasure is in nothing else but sinne for God he hath none but that Now so long as he takes pleasure in sinne and finds contentment by sinne he cannot but cleave inseparably to it Oh t is sweet and it onely is sweet for so long the soule is dead in sinne Pleasure in sinne is death in sinne 1 Tim. 5.6 So long as t is dead in sinne it is impossible it should part with sinne no more then a dead man can break the bonds of death And therefore it undenyably followes that the Lord must first put gall and wormwood to these dugs before the soule will cease sucking or be weaned from them the Lord must first make sinne bitter before it will part with it load it with sinne before it will sit downe and desire ease And look as the pleasure in sinne is exceeding sweet to a sinner so the sorrow for it must be exceeding bitter before the soule will part from it T is true I confesse a man sometime may part with sin without sorrow the uncleane spirit may goe out for a time before he is taken bound and slain by the power of Christ. But such a kind of parting is but the washing of the cup t is unsafe and unsound and the end of such a Christian wil be miserable for a man to heare of his sinne and then to say I le doe no more so without any sense or sorrow for it would not have been approved by Paul if he had seen no more in the carelesse Corinthians in tolerating the incestuous person but their sorrow wrought this repentance No the Lord abhors such whorish wiping the lips and therefore the same Apostle when he reproves them for not separating the sinner and so the sin from them he summes it up in one word You have not mourned that such a one might be taken from you because then sin is severed truly from the soule when sorrow or shame some sense and feeling of the evill of it begins it Not onely sinne is opposite to God but when the Lord Jesus first comes neare his elect in their sinfull estate they are then enemies themselves by sin unto God And hence it is they will never part with their weapons untill themselves be throughly wounded and therefore the Lord must wound their consciences minds and hearts before they will cast them by Now if there be no parting with no separation from sin but sin is as strong and the sinners as vile as ever before hath Christ who now comes to save his elect from sinne the end of his work what is the man the better for conviction affection to Christ name what you can that remains still in his sins When the Apostle would summe up all the misery of men he doth it in those words Ye are yet in your sinne So I say thou art convicted but art yet in thy sinne art affected with Christ and takest hold of Christ but art yet in thy sin He that confesseth and forsaketh his sin shall find mercy You
and death for sin that this end might be attained Gal. 3.22 And therefore feeling of sin and death and misery being the meanes must precede the other as the end and therefore as grace may be seen by conviction of misery so the sweetnesse of it only can be felt by feeling misery in this worke of compunction But you will say What is this compunction and wherein doth it consist This is the third particular to be opened in generall it is whereby the soule is affected with sin and made sensible of sin but more particularly compunction is nothing else but the pricking of the heart or the wounding of the soule with such feare and sorrow for sin and misery as severs the soule from sin and from going on toward its eternall misery so that it consists in three things 1. Feare 2. Sorrow 3. Separation from sin The Lord Jesus when hee comes to rescue his elect look as Satan held them in their misery First by blinding their eyes from seeing of it Secondly by hardening their hearts from feeling of it So the Lord Jesus having cut asunder the first cord of Satan by conviction breakes asunder the second by compunction and causing the soule to feele and be affâ—cted with its misery and as the whole soule is unaffected before he comes so he makes the whole soule sensible when hee comes and therefore hee sils the conscience with feare and the heart with sorrow and mourning so as now the will of sinne is broken which was hardened before these feares and sorrowes seised upon it Let me open these particularly that you may tast and try the truth of what now I deliver I sâ—y the Lord Christ in this work of compunction lets into the heart of a secure sinner a marvellous fear and terrour of the diâ—efull displeasure of God of death and hell the punishment of sin Oh beloved look upon most men at this day this is the great misery lying upon them they doe not feare the wrath to come they feare not death nor damning even then when they heare and know it is their portion but their hearts are set to sin Eccles. 8.11 The Lord Christ therefore lets in this feare that look as the Lord when hee came to conquer the Canaanites Exod. 23.27 28. He sent his hornets before him which were certaine feares which made their hearts faint in the day of battell and by this subdued them so the Lord Christ when hee comes to conquer a poore sinner that hath long resisted him and would goe on to his owne perdition le ts in these feares that the soule shrinkes in with the thoughts of its woefull estate and cryes out secretly Lord what will become of me if I dye in this condition Paul trembles astonished at his misery and wickednesse and now he begins to cry out the Jayâ—â—ur was very cruell against Paul but when the Lord Jesus comes to rescue him from this condition you shall see him trembling The Lord had let in that feare that now he is content to doe any thing to be saved from the danger he saw he was now in when a man sees danger and great danger neare and imminent now man naturally feares it before Christ come the soule may see its misery but it apprehends it farre off and hoping to escape it and hence doth not feare it but when the Lord Jesus comes hee presents a mans danger death wrath and eternity neare unto him and hence hath no hope to escape it as now he is and therefore doth feare and seeing the misery exceeding great he hath an exceeding great though oft times deep feare of it as men neare death and apprehending it so begin then to be troubled and cry out when it is too late The Lord Jesus deales more mercifully with the elect and brings death and eternity neare them before they draw neare to it whiles it is callâ—d to day the poore Jaylor began to think of killing himselfe when feares were upon him and so many under this stroke of Christ have the same thoughts because they see no hope but this measure is not in all this work is in all Put them in feare oh Lord that they may know they be but men before this feare comes men are above God and think they can stand it out against him the Lord therefore le ts in this feare to make them know they bee but men and that as proud and stout great as they are yet thaâ— they are not above God and that it is in vain to kick against the pricks and goâ— on as they have done for if they doe he will not endure it long The spirit of Bondage makes makes men feare before the spirit of Adoption comes these feares therefore are such as the regenerate after they have received the spirit of Adoption never have and therefore they are such as pursue the soule with some threatning of the word pronouncing death and perdition to him in that estate Ex. gr He that beleeves not is condemned already thus the word speakes to conscience Iohn 3.17 Thou beleevest not saith a mans owne conscience the Spirit witnessing with it therefore thou art condemned saith conscience now the spirit of Bondage is the testimony of Gods Spirit witnessing to both the premisses and conclusion now this Spirit no regenerate man indeed ever hath after this time but the feares he hath arise from another principle of corruption of conscience and malice of Satan through the present desertion of the Spirit leaving him not from any positive witnesse of the Spirit of any such untruth which yet is truth while the soule is under this strâ—ake and not regenâ—â—ate marke therefore diligently that this â—eare is the worke of the Spirit of the Lord Jesus and hence it followes 1. That these Fears are not meerly naturall as those Rom. 2.15 arising from naturall conscience only which only accuse of sinne but never affect but they are supernaturall they are arrowes shot into the conscience by the arme of the Spirit so dreadfull that no word nor meditation of death and eternity can beget such feares but creates them 2. Hence it followes that they are cleare feares for the Spirits work is ever cleare before he leaves it Eph. 5.13 they are not blind confused feares and suspitious and sad conjectures whereby many a man is afraid and much afraid and affrighted like men in a dreame that thinke they are in hell yet cannot tell what that evill is which they feare but they are cleare feares whereby they distinctly know and see that they are miserable and what that misery is 3. Hence it followes that they are strong feares because the almighty hand of the Spirit sets them on and shakes the soule they are not weak feares which a man can shake off or cure by weake hopes sleep or businesse c. like some winds that shake the tree but never blow it downe but these feares cast down
the tallest Cedar and appall the heart and coole the courage and boldnesse of the most impenitent and audacious sinner The Spirit presenting the greatest evill in eternall separation from God hence no evill in this world is so dreadfull as this I had better never been borne then to beare it saith the soule and hence casts off all other thoughts and cannot be quiet and hence it is that these feares force a man to fly and seek out for a better condition A man like Lot lingers in his sinne but these feares like the Angell drive him violently out the Lord saying to him A way for thy life lest thou perish with the world for thy sins are come up to heaven thou maist dye before one day be at an end and then what will become of thee Ah thou sinfull wretched man may not the Lord justly doe it are not thy sins grown so great and many that they are an intollerable burden for the soule of God to beare any longer and hence you shall observe if the soul after sad fears grows bold carelâ—sse againe the Spirit pursues it with more cause of feare and now the soule cries out Did the Lord ever elect thee Christ shed his blood to save his people from their sins thou livest yet in thy sins did hee ever shed his blood for thee thou hast sinned against conscience after thou hast been inlightned and fallen back againe hast not thou therefore committed the impardonable sin thou hast had many a faire season of seeking God but hast dallyed and dreamt away thy time is not the day of grace therefore now past it is true the Lord is yet patient and bountifull and lets thee live on common mercy but is not all this to aggravate thy condemnation against that great and terrible day of the Lord which is at hand are there not better men in hell then thou art that never committed the like sin thus the Spirit pursues with strong feares till proud man falls down to the dust before God The soule is now under feares not above them and therefore cannot come out of these chaines by the most comfortable doctrine it heares nor particular application of it by the most mercifull Ministers in the world untill the Lord say as Laâ— 3.57 feare not the Lord onely can asswage these strong winds and raging waters in which there is no other cry heard of this soule tossed thus with tempests but Oh I perish I only the Lord making way for the spirit of Adoption by these in his elect drives them out to seek if there be any hope and so they are not properly desperate feares yet as I say strong feares not alike extensively yet alike intensively strong in all a small evill when tidings is brought of it doth not feare but if the evill be apprehended great and neare too the very suspition of it makes the heart tremble when a house is on fire or a mighty Army entred the land and neare the city children that know not the greatnesse of the evill feare them not but men that know the danger are full of feare The wrath of the Lord that fire those armies of everlasting woes are great evils the blind world may not much feare them but all the elect whose minds are convinced to see the greatnesse of them cannot but feare and that with strong and constant feares nor is it cowardize but duty to feare these everlasting burnings And hence the soule in this case wonders at the security of the world dreads the terrours of the Lord that are neare them and usually seeks to awaken all its poore friends I once thought my self well and was quiet as you bee but the Lord hath let me see my woe which I cannot but feare oh look you to it Thus the Lord works this feare in some in a greater in others in a lesser measure Oh consider whether the Lord hath thus affected your hearts with feare oh secure times what will God doe with us many of you having heard the voyce of the lyon roaring and yet you tremble not The Lord hath foretold you of death and eternall woe for the least sin doe you beleeve it and yet feare it not how art thou then forsaken of God Many of you that like old Mariners can laugh at all foule weather and like Weather-cocks set your faces against all winds and if you be damned at last you cannot help it you must beare it as well as you can and you hope to doe it as well as others shall doe Oh! how far are such from the Kingdome of God the Lord not yet working nor pricking thy heart so much as with feare 2. Sorrow and mourning for sinne is the second thing wherein Compunction consists And look as Feare plucks the soule from security in seeing no evill to come so Sorrow takes off the present pleasure and delight in sinne in a greater measure then Fear doth The Lord therefore having smitten the soule or shot the arrowes of feare into the soule it therefore growes exceeding sad and heavy thinking within it selfe What good doe wife or children house or lands peace and friends health and rest doe me in the meane time condemned to dye and that eternally it may be reprobated never to see Gods face more the guilt and power of sin in heart and life lying still upon me And hereupon the soule mournes in the day and in the night desires to goe alone and weep and there confesseth its vilenesse before God all the dayes of vanity and sins of ignorance thinking Oh what have I done and seeks for mercy but not one smile nothing but clouds of anger appeare and then thinks if this anger the fruit of my sinne be so great oh what are my sins the causes hereof VVhen the Angel had set out the sin of the Israelites in making a league with the Canaanites and told them that they should be thornes in their sides they sate downe ver 4. and lift up their voice and wept so t is with a contrite sinner Note narrowly that eminent place of Scripture Esay 61.3 the Lord Christ is sent to appoint beauty for ashes and the oyle of joy for the spirit of heavinesse to them that mourne Out of which note these foure things for the explication of this sorrow or mourning First It is such a mourning as is precedent unto spirituall joy And hence it is not said I will give the spirit of gladnesse to beget mourning though the Lord doth so after conversion but this goes in order before that Ephraim-like who seeing what an unruly beast he had been unaccustomed to Gods yoke smites upon his thigh and bemoans himselfe It is Gods method after Gods people have sinned to sad their hearts and then to turne mourning into joy much more at first beginning of Gods work upon the soule they shall first mourne and lament and smite upon the thigh If God wounds the soule for sin it
tumultuous complaints the deepest sorrowes run with least noyse If a man can have teares for outward losses and none for sins t is very suspitious whether he was ever truly sorrowfull for sinne Otherwise as the greatest joyes are not alway exprest in laughter so the greatest sorrowes are not alway exprest in shedding of teares what the measure of this great sorrow is we shall heare hereafter Thirdly it is a constant mourning for so it is here called a spirit of heavinesse as that woman that had a spirit of infirmity and was bowed downe many yeares Hannah constantly troubled is called a woman of a sorrowfull spirit 1 Sam. 1.12.15 As the spirit of pride and whoredome Hos. 4.12 â—is a constant frame where though the acts be sometime suspended yet the spirit remains so a spirit of mourning is such sorrow as though the acts of mourning be sometime hindred yet the spirit and spring remaines Hypocrites wil mourn under sin and misery but what is it it is the hanging down the head like a bull-rush in bad weather for a day Oh how many have pangs and gripes of sorrow and can quickly ease themselves again these mourners come to nothing in the conclusion I grant the sorrow and sadnesse of spirit may be interrupted but it returnes againe and never leaves the soule untill the Lord looke downe from heaven Lam. 3.48 49 50. The cause continues guilt and strength of sinne and therefore this effect continues Fourthly it is such a sorrow as makes way for gladnesse for so it is here said the Lord gives beauty for these ashes and hence it is no desperate hellish sorrow but usually mixt with sense of some mercy at least common and some hope not that which apprehends the object of hope particulary which is done in vocation but that the Lord may find out some way of saving it Ionah 3.9 Acts 2.37 which hope with sense of mercy waiting so long preserving from hell and death so oft c. doth not harden the heart as in reprobates but serve to break the more and to load it with greater sorrow thus the Lord works this sorrow in all his elect I know it is in a greater measure and from some other grounds after the soule is in Christ but this sorrow there is for substance mentioned for the reasons given if Christ hate you you shall mourne but never till it be too late if he love you you must mourne now how great and many are many of your sinnes how neare is your doome the Lord only knows how fearful your condemnation will be you have oft heard but yet how few of your hearts are sad and very heavie for these things sin is your pleasure not your sorrow you fly from sorrow as from a temptation of Satan who comes to trouble you and to lead you to despaire Davids eyes ran down with rivers of waters because others brake Gods law and Ieremy wisht he had a cottage in the wildernesse to mourne in and yet you doe not you cannot powre out one drop nor yet wish you had hearts to lament your owne sinnes but oh know it that when the Lord Christ comes hee will sad thy soule when hee comes to search thy old sores by the spirit of conviction he will make them smart and bleed abundantly by the spirit of compunction 3. Separation from sin is the third thing wherein compunction consists such a feare and sorrow for sin under a sinfull estate as separates the soule from sin is true compunction without which the Lord Christ cannot be had the soule is cut and wounded with sin by feare and sorrow but it is cut off by this stroake of the Spirit not from the being but from the growing power of sin from the wil to sin not from al sin in the wil which is mortified by a Spirit of holines after the soule is implanted into Christ for compunction contrition brokennesse of heart for sin call it what you will is opposite to hardnesse of heart which is in every sinner whiles Christ leaves him now in hardnesse as in a stone there is First insensiblenesse Secondly a close cleaving of all the parts together whereby it comes to passe that hard things make resistance of what is cast against them So in compunction there is nor only sensiblenesse of the evill of sin and death by feare and sorrow but such as makes a separation of that close union between sin and the soule and hence it is that the Lord abhorres all fastings humiliations prayers teares unlesse they be of this stamp and are accompanied with this effect The Lord flings the dung of their fastings and sorrowes in their faces because they did not breake the bonds of wickednesse to mourno for sin and misery and yet to be in thy sinne is the work of justice on the damned in hell and all the Devills at this day that are pincht with their black chains not loosened from them and not the work of the grace of Christ in the day of his power Hee that confesseth his sins shall have mercy that is true but remember the meaning of that confession in the next words and forsaketh he shall find mercy What is the end of the mother in laying worme-wood and gall upon her brest but that the child by tasting the bitternesse of it might be weaned and have his stomack and will turned from it what is the end of fear sorrow but by this to turn away the soule from sin This point is weighty and full of difficulty of great use and worthy of deep meditation For as the first wound and stroake of the Spirit is so it is in all other after-works of it both of faith and holinesse in the soule if this be right faith is right holinesse is right if this be imperfect or naught all is according to it afterward the greatest difficulty lies hâ—re to know what measure of separation from sin the Spirit makes here for after wee are in Christ then sinne is mortified how then is there any separation of the heart from it before it doth fully beleeve or what measure is there necessary here therefore I shall answer to the fourth and last particular viz. Fourthly what is that measure of compunction the Lord workes in all the elect So much compunction or sense of sinne is necessary as attaines the end of it now what is the end of it no other but that the soule being humbled might goe to Christ by faith to take away his sin the finis proximus or next end of compunction is humiliation that the soul may be so severed from sin as to renounce it selfe for it the finis remotus or last end is that being thus humbled it might goe unto Christ to take away sinne for beloved the condemnation of the world lies not so much in being sinfull under guilt and power of sin as in being unwilling the Lord Jesus should take it away this I say
and humbled his elect and laid them downe dead at his feet they are now as unable to beleeve as they were to humble their owne soules and therefore now the Lord takes them up into his owne armes that they leane and rest on the bosome of their beloved by faith After Ioseph had spoken roughly to his brethren and thereby brought the blood of their brother to remembrance and so had humbled them then he can containe no longer but discovers himselfe to them and tells them I am Ioseph whom you wickedly sold yet feare not so doth our Saviour carry it towards his elect when he laid them low now is the very season for him to advance the glory of his grace he cannot now containe himselfe any longer but having torne and taken away that vaile of sinne and of the law from off their hearts now they see the Lord with open face even the end of that which was to be abolished 2 Cor. 3. The explication of this great work is of exceeding great difficulty nothing more stirring then faith in a true Christian because hee lives by it yet it is very little known as children in the wombe that know not that navill-string by which they principally live I shall therefore bee wary and leaving larger explications acquaint you with the nature of Faith in this brief descripâ—ion of it Faith is that gracious work of the Spirit whereby an humbled sinner receiveth Christ or whereby the whole soule cometh out of it selfe to Christ for Christ and all his benefits upon the call of Christ in his word Before I open this particularly give me leave to premise some generall considerations Faith is the complement of effectuall vocation which begins in Gods call and ends in this answer to that call the Lord prevents a poore humbled soule with his call either not knowing how or not able or not daring to come and then the soule comes and hence men called and beleeving are all one Rom. 9.24 with 33. Many a wounded sinner will be scrambling after Christ from some generall reports of him before the day and houre of Gods glorious and gracious call Now for any to receive Christ or come to Christ before he is called is presumption to refuse Christ when called is rebellion to come and receive when called is properly and formally Faith and that which the Scripture stiles the obedience of Faith Rom. 1.5 And now Christ at this instant is fully and freely given on Gods part when really and freely come unto and taken on our part This receiving of Christ or coming to Christ are for substance the same though the words be diverse the holy Ghost useth to expresse one and the same thing in variety of words that our feeblenesse might the better understand what he meaneth And hence in Scripture beleeving coming receiving Christ rolling trusting cleaving to the Lord c. set out one and the same thing and therefore it is no wonder if our Divines have different descriptions of faith in variety of words which if well considered dâ—e but set out one and the same thing and I doe conceive they doe all agree in this description I have now mentioned I know there are some who tread awry here whom I shall briefly note out and so passe on to what we intend 1. The Papists with some others of corrupt judgements at least of weak apprehensions among our selves describe Faith to be nothing else but a supernaturall assent to a divine truth because of a divine testimony Ex. gr to assent to this truth that Christ is come that he is the Sonne of God that hee was dead and is risen againe that he is the Saviour of the world c. and to confirme this they produce Mat. 16.16 1 Ioh. 4.3 It is granted that this assent is in Faith for Faith alway hath respect to some testimony for man by his fall hath lost all knowledge of divine and supernaturall truths hence God reveales them in his word hence faith sees them and assents to them because God hath spoken them to see and know things by vision is to see things in themselves intuitively and immediately but to see things by Faith is to see them by and in a testimony given of them Iohn 20.20 Blessed is he that hath not seen i. e. Christ immediately but beleeved i. e. his testimony and on him in it this assent therefore is in Faith for we must beleeve Christ before we can beleeve in him but this comprehends not the whole nature of faith I meane of that faith we are now speaking of viz. aâ— it unites us to Christ and possesseth us with Christ. For 1. This description placeth Faith onely in the understanding whereas t is also in the will as the words trusting rolling c. intimate 2. This assent is meerly generall without particular application which is ever in true faith Gal. 2.20 3. This is such a faith as the devils may have Iames 2.19 and reprobate men may have 2 Pet. 2.20 21. Heb. 10.26 There is a wilfull refusing of the known truth 4. It is the Papists ayme to vilifie faith hereby by describing it by that which is one ingredient in it but excluding that which is principall those phrases therefore of beleeving Christ to be come in the flesh 1 Iohn 4.3 and that he is the Sonne of God Mat. 16.16 as if this were the onely object of faith are not to be understood exclusively excluding other acts of faith which the Scripture in other places sets downe clearly but inclusively as supposing them to be contained herein for as we in our times describing faith by relying upon Christ for salvation do not exclude hereby our beleeving that he is the Messiah but we include it or suppose it because that is not now questioned the truth of the Gospel being so abundantly cleared so in those times they described Faith by one principall act to beleeve that he was the Sonne of God and come into the flesh because this was the maine and principall thing in question then and if the Lord had not set out faith by other acts in Scripture we should not vary from our compasse in such expressions in the Word in these dayes for their faith then is exemplary to us now but because the Word doth more fully set it out in more speciall acts hence we set it out also by them for t is evident as the Jews did beleeve in a Messiah to come so they did also beleeve and look for all good from him Iohn 4.25 He will teach us all things when he comes and therefore their faith did not confine it selfe to that historicall act that a Messiah should come or that this was the Messiah but they did expect and look for all good from him And hence the Apostle expounding this saying viz. beleeving that Christ is dead and risen againe wee shall hereby be saved If thou beleevest saith he with thine heart this truth thou shalt be
of it And is not this matter of great consolation to all those who feele themselves utterly unable to beleeve you think the Lord would give peace and pardon life and mercy if I could beleeve oh consider the Lord hath undertaken in the Covenant of Grace to worke in all his the condition of the Covenant as well as to convey the good of it Ier. 31.31 32 33 34. He hath done this for others by an irresistible power Heb. 12.1 2. Look up to Jesus the author and finisher of your faith he came out of his Fathers bosome not onely to give life by his death but to enable his to eat and close with him by Faith that they might never dye Iohn 6.50 so that the Lord may work it in thee it is true also he may not yet it is unspeakable comfort to consider that if the Lord had put it over unto thee to beleeve it is certaine thou shouldst never have beleeved but now the work is put into the hand of Christ that which is impossible to thee is possible nay easie with him hee can comprehend thee when thou canst not apprehend him this is exceeding sweet when thy body is sick and soule is deserted incredible things to be beleeved are propounded an impossible work to thy weaknesse urged upon paine of Gods sorest and most unappeasable wrath to consider it is not in me but in the Lords owne hand and it is his office his glory to work faith and as the Apostle speakes to shew mercy unto them that are shut up not onely under sinne but also unbeleefe Rom. 11.32 But why hath the Lord made thee feele thy inability to beleeve truly the end of our wants is not to make us sin and shift for our selves but to aske and seek for supply and the end of the continuance of those wants is that we should continue to aske and seek And dost thou thinke thou shalt seek to the Lord by his owne hand to create faith and fetch thee in and will not the Lord take his time to work it He that beleeves saith the Apostle Rom. 10.11 shall not bee ashamed why so because the Lord saith he who is over all is rich unto all that call upon him verse 12. If thou hast not a heart shut up from asking of it the Lord who hath power hath not a heart shut up towards thee from working it But withall be thankfull exceedingly all you whose hearts the Lord hath drawne and overcome he came to his owne people the Jewes and would oft have gathered them but they would not and therefore he forsook them and left their habitations desolate oh how oft would the Lord have gathered you and you would not yet the Lord hath not forsaken you but called you in whether you would or no the Lord hath taken many a man at his first word and left him at the first repulse shaken off the dust of his feet against him presently Mat. 10.14 without any more intreaties to accept of him yet though thou hast not only refused but even crucified the Sonne of God yet hee hath not been driven from thee but his bowels have been oft kindled together when he hath been ready to give thee up when thou hast been under the hedges and in the high-wayes that lead to death didst never think of him nor didst desire him yet hee hath compelled thee to come in hee hath made thee feel suâ—h an extream need of him and made himselfe so exceeding sweet that thou hast not been able to resist his love but to cry out Lord thou hast overcome me with mercy I am not able to resist any more nay which is more wonderfull when thou hast been gathered and gone from him and lost thy selfe and him also againe and it may be hast bin offended at him yet he hath gone before thee into Galilee and gathered thee up when thou hast been as water spilt upon the ground what should be the cause of this but only this the work of faith lies upon him both to begin and finish he must gather in all his lost sheep and therefore hee hath put forth an irresistible power of his Spirit upon thy heart which must carry thee captive after him I am afraid my faith hath been rather presumption a work of my owne power then faith wrought by the Spirits power how may I discerne that If you are wrapt up in Gods Covenant if any promise be actually yours it is no presumption to take possession by faith of what is your owne dost thou seriously will Christ and resolve never to give the Lord rest untill he give thee rest in him then see Rev. 22.17 Whosoever will let him take of the water of life Dost thou thirst after Christ then read Esay 55.1 〈…〉 Iohn 7.37 If any man thirst let him come unto me and drink When Christ saw their faith Mat. 9.1 2. what said he Sonne be of good cheere thy sinnes be forgiven the word signifies be confident It is no presumption to beleeve pardon of sinnes now thou art come unto me not onely for the healing of thy body but especially for pardon of sinne It is the great sin of many Saints when they doe thirst and beleeve and come to Christ and so are under the promise of grace yet they think it presumption now to believe and take possession of all those treasures that be in Christ but look that the Lord should first make them feele and then they will beleeve whereas faith should now receive and drinke in abundantly of the fulnesse of Christ shall it be accounted presumption for any man to eat his owne bread and drink his owne drink and put on his owne cloathes the promise makes Christ and all his benefits your owne therefore it is no presumption to apply them Suppose you cannot find your selfe within any promise and you see no reason to beleeve onely you have the Lords call and command to beleeve doe you now in conscience and obedience to this command or to Gods invitation and intreaty in the Gospell beleeve because thou â—â—rest not dishonour God by refusing his 〈◊〉 thou dost therefore accept oâ— it this is no presumption unlesse obedience be presumption nay the most acceptable obedience which is the obedience of Faith Iohn 6.38 For what was the ground on which those 3000 beleeved Acts 2.38 39. c. Peter said Repent that you may receive remission of sinnes now what followes they that gladly received the word were baptized Oh that word repent i. e. as Beza expounds it return to God and come in was a most sweet word to them and therefore they received it this was no presumption either for Peter to exhort them to repent or for them to take the Lord as that godly man said at his first word I know there is a subjection to the Gospell arising only from slavish fear and carnall hopes Psal. 66.3 Psal. 18.44 this may bee in presumptuous reprobates but
there is a subjection arising from the sense of the sweetnesse and exceeding goodnesse of Gods call and promise Psal. 110.2 3. As a woman that is overcome with the words of her loving suitor the man is precious and hence his words are very sweet and overcome her heart to think why should such a one as I be lookt upon by one of such a place it is no presumption now but duty to give her consent so it is here when the Lord is precious and his words oh accept me oh come to me are exceeding sweet and hereupon out of obedience gladly yeelds up it selfe to the Lord takes possession of the Lord this is no more presumption then to sanctifie a Sabbath or to pray or heare the word because the Lords commands are herein very sweet If Repentance accompanies Faith t is no presumption to beleeve Many know they sinne and hence beleeve in Christ trust to Christ and there is an end of their faith but what confession and sorrow for sinne what more love to Christ followes this faith truly none nay their faith is the cause why they have none for they think If I trust to Christ to forgive them he will doe it and there is an end of the businesse Verily this hedge faith this bramble â—aith that catches hold on Christ and pricks and scratches Christ by more impenitency more contempt of him is meere presumption which shall one day be burnt up and destroyed by the fire of Gods jealousie Fie upon that faith that serves onely to keep a man from being tormented before his time Your sins would be your sorrowes but that your faith quiets you But if faith be accompanyed with repentance mourning for sin more esteem of Gods grace in Christ so that nothing breaks thy heart more then the thoughts of Christs unchangeable love to one so vile and this love makes thee love much and love him the more as thy sin increaseth so thou desirest that thy love may increase and now the stream of thy thoughts runne how thou mayst live to him that dyed for thee This was Maries faith who sate at Christs feer weeping washing them with her teares and loving him much because much was forgiven who though shee was accounted a presumptuous woman by Simon and Christ himselfe suffered in his thoughts for suffering of her to come so neare unto him yet the Lord himselfe cleares her herein and justifies her before God and men many a poor beleever thinks if I should beleeve I should but presume and spin a spiders web of Faith out of my owne bowels and hence you shall observe this not beleeving stops up the work of repentance mourning and love and all chearfull obedience in them and on the contrary if they did beleeve it would be with them as themselves think many times if I knew the Lord was mine and my sins pardoned oh how should I then blesse him and love him and wonder at him how would this break my heart before him c. now I say let all the world judg if that which thou thinkest would be presumption be not rebellion because it makes thee worse and stops up the Spirit of grace in thee Whereas that Faith which lets out those blessed springs of sorrow love thankfulnesse humblenesse c. what can it bee else but such a saving faith as is wrought by the Spirit because it lets in the Spirit more abundantly into a dry and desolate heart 2. The subject or matter of Faith This is the second thing in the description of Faith the soule of an humbled sinner is the subject or matter of Faith I doe not meane the matter out of which Faith is wrought for there is nothing in man out of which the Spirit begets it but that wherein Faith is seated I meane also the habit of Faith not the principle of it for that is out of man in the Lord Jesus who is therefore called our hope as wel as our strength the soule therefore is the subject of Faith called the heart Rom. 10.9 compared with Mat. 6.21 for we cannot goe or come to Christ in this life with our bodies we are here absent from the Lord 2 Cor. 5. but the soule can goe to him the heart can bee with him as the eye can see a 1000 miles off and receive the species or image of the things it sees into it so the soule inlightned by faith can see Christ a farre off it can long for choose and rest upon the Lord of life and receive the lively image of Christs glory in it 2 Cor. 3. ult If Christ were present upon earth the soule not the body onely could truly receive him Christ comes to his elect only by his Spirit and hence our spirits only are fit to receive him and close with him thousands heare Christ outwardly that inwardly are deafe to all Gods calls their spirits see not tast not feel not it is therefore the soule that is the subject of Faith and I say it is an humbled empty soule which is the subject for a full proud nbroken spirit cannot nay will not receive Christ as wee have proved and therefore Luke 14. the servant is commanded to bid the poore halt and blind and lame to come in they would not make excuses as others did they that were stung to death with fiery Serpents were the only men that the brasen Serpent was lifted up for them to look upon and so be healed Iohn 3.14 and therefore the promise doth not run If any man have wisdome let him aske it but if any man want wisdom Iames 1.5 so if any man want light life want peace pardon want Christ and his Spirit let them aske and the Lord will give away with your mony if you come to these waters to buy and take freely If any man would be wise let him be a foole saith the blessed Apostle an empty nothing a soule in a perishing helplesse hopelesse condition is the subject of faith such only feele their need of Christ are glad at the offer of Christ and therefore such only can and will receive Christ and come unto Christ by faith and truly if we had but hearts the consideration of this might be ground of great comfort confidence unto all Gods people whose soules come unto Jesus Christ for that which was in Thomas Iohn 21. is in all men naturally if we could see Christ with our eyes and feel him with our hands and embrace him as Mary did with our arms if we could heare himselfe speake we could then beleeve as they said if he will come from the Crosse so we say if he will come downe from heaven thus unto us we will then beleeve if we want this we fear we may be at last deceived because we want sense and cannot come to close with our eyes and hands the objects of our faith but oh consider this point we are made partakers of Christs life and salvation by him only yet
of life he that commeth to me shall never hunger and he that beleeveth in me shall never thirst Where you see comming to Christ and beleeving in Christ are all one So Iohn 7.37 In the last day of the feast the Lord Christ cryrs out with much vehemencie If any man thirst let him come to me and drink Now in the next ver 38. our Saviour expounds this comming for saith he He that beleeveth on me out of his belly c. So to come to Christ as upon this to drink in of Christs fulnesse is beleeving in Christ. So Heb. 11.6 the Apostle saith Without faith it is impossible to please God and then in rendring the reason of this explaines what he meant by faith viz. to be our comming unto God upon a double testimony beleeving fâ—â—st that he is secondly that he is a rewarder of them that seek him diligently or which is all one who doe come unto him So Iohn 1.12 So many as received him which is all one with comming he adopted them as sons even to them that beleeve in his Name And hence we shall observe that the Scripture doth not attribute our righteousnesse and life to our beleeving of Christ but to our beleeving on Christ in Christ a phrase peculiar to heavenly language therefore not found in any Humane Writer because it is not the bare beleeving of a testimony that save thus unlesse we so beleeve it as to beleeve in Christ which cannot be but by comming to him and as it were in him or into him our union with Christ being made compleat hereby 2. That upon which the Lord promiseth life and salvation and mercy cannot be works but faith Gal. 3.21 Heb. 11.6 but throughout all the Old and New Testament the Lord promiseth life and salvation to commers or to them that returne Ier. 3.12 Ezek. 33 10. Ioel 2.12 13. Heb. 7.25 Iohn 5.40 3. If unbeliefe be nothing else but a departing from God faith can be nothing else but a comming unto God but that is the nature of unbeliefe Heb. 3.12 Heb. 10.38 Iohn 6.64 65 66 68 69. Iohn 12.37 38 39 40. The Lords great plot is to gather all his elect under the wings of Christ Mat. 23.37 Eph. 1.9 10. and therefore calls them to come under them by the voice of the Gospel The comming under them therefore can be nothing else but faith the proper obedience to the Gospel as works are unto the voice of the Law Thus faith is the comming of the soule to Christ. But you will say Did not many come to Christ that were never saved by him Yes many came to him with their bodily presence that were excluded from him Iohn 6.36 But you will say Doe not many mens soules come are not many mens hearts moving towards Christ and yet excluded from Christ doe not many cry Lord Lord are not many inlightned and tast of this heavenly gift and yet fall away I confesse t is very true and therefore it is set downe in this description of Faith that it is the comming of the whole soule unto Christ. Never did any yet come to Christ and receive him with their whole souls with all their hearts but they had fruition of him and blessednesse by him faith therefore is not the coming of the soul but the coming of the whole soul unto Jesus Christ and this you may be establisht in upon these grounds 1. The Scripture expresly calls for this Prov. 3.5 Trust in the Lord with all thy heart Act. 8.37 If thou believest with all thy heart thou shalt be saved Ioel 3.13 Turn unto the Lord with all your hearts Ier. 29.13 You shall finde the Lord when you seek him with your whole hearts As when we have a great gift to bestow and we ask a poor man to whom we intend to give it whether he wil accept of it or no Yes saith he with all my heart so t is here the Lord askes those he intends to bestow his Son upon and saith to them You have lived thus long without him and thus long abused him will you now have him and accept of him Yes Lord with all my heart This is all the Lord requires Doth the Lord require no more of me but to come Lord this voice is most sweet to me I come with all my heart I come 2. Because Christ is worthy of the whole heart all must be sold away to buy this field this treasure Mat. 13.44 He that loveth father or mother more then me is not worthy of me A filthy lust a base harlot hath had thy whole heart and dost thou think the Lord Christ will have it divided is not one heart too little for him are not ten thousand souls too few to embrace him or cleave to him 3. Because without this your comming to him is but faigned Ier. 3.10 They return to me not with their whole heart but faignedly To cleave to Christ and a lust to Christ and a proud heart cannot be unfaigned faith to goe to your lusts in time of peace and fly to Christ in times of extremity is damnable hypocrisie When conscience troubles you you then goe to Christ to ease you and when your unruly wills and lusts trouble you you goe to the world to ease you and so your hearts are divided and you come not wholly and onely unto Christ for rest Beleeve it it is such a faith by which you may as Samuel did on Sauls garment take hold of him but the Lord will never take hold of you Set a branch in the stock if it stayes loosely in it and is not set very neare to it it will wither in time and this is the great cause of withering Christians and of so many Apostates in these evill times Those that came to Christ Iohn 6. and followed him for a time but afterward fell away vâ—â—se 66. what was the reason of their fall viz. when they were offended at Christ they knew whither to goe from Christ but what saith Peter Lord Whither should we goe ver 68. If you lay the pipes that are to convey water from a full fountaine but one foot or one inch short of it there cannot be any water derived from thence Oh beloved what is the reason that many a mans faith doth him no good derives no life spirit blood efficacy peace power from the Lord Jesus is it because Christ is a dry Christ and unwilling to communicate No no the wound is in their faith that pipe is laid but halfe way to him they fall one foot short of him their soules come but their whole soules doe not come to him and hence they never reach Christ they lye not in Christ and therefore receive not from Christ. Christ is precious here their soule comes but not exceeding precious preciousnesse it selfe as the word is 1 Pet. 2.7 here the whole soule doth not come they cleave to Christ and rest upon Christ here their soules come but they cleave not
beleeved doe enter into rest verse 3. so say I to you of all delusions fear this lest when you come to Christ and rest upon Christ for life and salvation that you rest not in Christ I tell you saith Christ to those that came to him and were constant followers of him Iohn 6.53 except you eat the flesh and drinke the blood of the Sonne of God you have no life in you what is this eating and drinking verily sipping and tasting is not properly eating and drinking tasting your meat will not satisfie you and therefore will not nourish life in you to eat and drink Christ is so to receive him as to satiate and satisfy the soul with him to quench all your desires your hungring and thirsting in him untill thy soule saith as he said in another case it is enough that Joseph lives so Lord I have enough now I have this love this grace of Christ to be my portion now you rest in Christ. For if there be some great good a man enjoyes if there bee any good wanting in it it is not possible that his whole heart should be set upon it Ex. gr a man hath food but if hee wants clothes and his bread will not cloath him his whole heart will not be set upon his food but upon that which may cloath him also so on the contrary if there bee an eminent good wherein he finds all in one no good out of it that is wanting in it it is certain that the whole soule is carried after this good so it is here when the soule so comes to Christ as that it comes for all good to him and so finds all good in him that he now only supports the sinking soule verily the whole soule is now come because as it felt before it came all wants and evills out of him so now it finds all fulnesse in him and whither should the whole soule be carried but after such a good when the Lord calls to the soule to come and take all with nothing take all or nothing And hereupon it comes and drinkes as it is Iohn 7.37 satisfying it selfe there and professing Lord I now desire no more I have enough Oh brethren what faith there is among men at this day I cannot tell but this I am sure was Abrahams faith Gen. 17.1 and Davids faith 2 Sam. 23.5 and Peters faith Iohn 6.68 and Pauls faith Phil. 3.8 9. Gal. 6.14 When the soule thus rests upon the rock Christ the gates of hell may availe but never prevaile against such a one he that hath set the whole world at his heeles and sold himselfe out of all for this pearle and this abundantly recompenceth all his losses such a one hath Christ his owne and shall never be deprived of him againe the Lord never gives his elect any rest out of Christ that they may find rest at last in Christ. When thus the soule is entred into rest the whole soule is drawne here and this is the great reason why many men famous in their generations and times in the eyes of others for Faith yet rotten at the heart and thence turne Apostates one proves covetous another ambitious another voluptuous another growes conceipted another growes contentious another growes formall What is the reason of this verily they did rest upon Christ but did never find rest in Christ and therefore their whole soule never came to him Christ after some time of profession grew a dry and common Christ unto them though at first they wondred at him and he was very sweet unto them and hence they departed from him as from an empty dry pit in Summer time where they found nothing to refresh them but the Lord Jesus carries it towards all the faithfull as Elkanah did toward Hannah though she was in a fit much vexed and troubled for want of children yet because he loved her exceeding dearly he quiets her againe with this Am not I better unto thee then ten sonnes so though they may be unquiet for some odde fits for want of many things yet because Christ loves them hee brings them back unto their rest saying Am not I better then then all friends all creatures all abilities all spirituall created excellencies and hereby they find rest to their soules in him againe But is there any beleevers heart so knit unto Christ but that there is a heart also after other vanities doe they find such rest in him as that they find no disquietnesse is there not an unregenerate part and much unbelief remaining is any mans faith made perfect that the whole soule must come or else there is no true faith It is true there is an unregenerate and a regenerate part in a godly man but not a heart and a heart the note of a wicked man in Scripture phrase there are disquietings in the hearts of Saints after that they be in Christ even Solomon himselfe may sometime seek out of Christ for rest in his orchards and gardens knowledge and wisdome yet there is a great difference between these that are in the Saints arising from the unregenerate part and those that be in the wicked arising from a heart and a heart or a double heart and this difference is chiefly seen in two things A double minded man who hath a double heart makes not a dayly warre against that heart which carries him away from resting only in Christ for Christ quiets his conscience and the world comforts his heart Christ gives him some rest and because this is not full his heart runs out to the creature and to his lusts for more and so betweene them both hee hath rest and hee is quieted with this because he feeles what he sought for and therefore he must needs have Christ else his conscience cannot be quiet and hee must needs have his lusts his ease and this world too else his heart is most unquiet but let him have both he is now quiet Micah 3.11 The Priests teach for hire there the world quiets them yet they will leane upon the Lord too because this also comfoâ—ts them what doe they now doe they make war against this wofull frame No no but â—lesse themselves in it saying No evill shall come to us but a poore belâ—â—ver whose heart is upright it is true there are many runnings out of his heart after other vanitiâ—â— and much unquietnesse of spirit yet the regenâ—rate part makes warre against these 〈◊〉 Gods enemies and the disturbers of the peace of Christs Kingdome Psalme 42. David professeth his teares were his meat day and night verse 3. and his heart was wofully sunke and fallen yet what doth hee first hee chides himselfe Why art thou cast down oh my soule and then secondly he makes his mone to the Lord of it verse 5 6. Lord my soule is cast downe oh Lord pity me you shall see also Psal. 73.2 his eyes were dazled with the glory of the world and the wicked in it that he had almost forsaken
God yet within a little while after he gets into the Sanctuary of God and then loaths himselfe for such foolish and bruâ—ish thoughts and closeth with God againe saying Whom have I in heaven or earth but thee verse 25. All the out-runnings of the hearts of the faithfull and their disquietnesse of spirit thereby make them to returne to their rest againe and give them the more rest in the conclusion David was a Bird out of his nest for a time and therefore when he considered how the Lord had saved his eyes from teares his soule from hell returnes againe and saith Return to thy rest oh my soule Psal. 25.13 it is said his soule shall dwell at ease or as the word signifies shall lodge in goodnesse some hard work full of trouble some strong lust or sad temptation desertion affliction the Lord exerciseth the soule withall for some time and so long the soule is in heavinesse and much wearinesse of spirit as it is 1 Pet. 1.6 yet when this dayes work is done when the sin is subdued and the temptation hath humbled him then a beleevers soule shall lodge in goodnesse he shall have an easie bed and a soft pillow to rest on at night When have the faithfull sweeter naps in Christs bosome then after sorest troubles longest eclipses of Gods pleased face when doe their soules cleave closer to the Lord then when they are ready to forsake the Lord and the Lord them Certainly fire is wholly carryed upward when that which suppresseth it makes it at last break out into greater flame Peter falls from Christ yet he is Peter a stone cleaving most close unto Christ above all other the Apostles because his fall being greater his faith clave the closer to the Lord Christ for ever after it Solomons heart certainely never clave so unseparably unto the Lord as after his fall wherein he did more experimentally find and feele the emptinesse and vanity of those things wherein he did imagine before something was to be found but he that hath a double heart never enters into rest but the longer he lives the more common Christ his truth and promises grow they are but fading flowers whose beauty and sweetnesse affect him for a time but they wither before the Sun set and therefore the longer he lives the lesse savour he finds in these things and therefore takes lesse contentment therein the Lord Jesus and all his ordinances grow more flat and dry things to him and therefore though at first he might rejoyce as Iohns hearers Iohn 5 35. in these burning and shining lights yet it is but for a season at last he discovers himselfe not by a renewed returning to his rest but by a wearyish forsaking of it The Raven never returned to the Arke againe because it could live upon the floating carrion on the waters whereas the Dove finding no rest there returns againe Fourthly the end of Faith This is the fourth particular in the description of Faith The whole soule commeth to Christ For Christ and all his benefits and this is the end of Faith or of a beleevers comming unto Christ the end of faith is sometimes exprest by a generall word Life Iohn 5.40 but you must remember that hereby is meant the Lord of life first and so all the blessings of life The falsnesse and hypocrisie of Christs followers appeared in this Iohn 6.26 you seek me saith Christ for loaves that was their end as many a one in these dayes if they be in outward misery seek unto Christ for outward mercy corn in time of famine health in time of sicknesse peace upon any termes in time of warre and if they be in any inward distresse now they seek to Christ for comfort and quiet and so like many sick patients desire the Phisitian not to have him married to them but for some of his physick only to be healed by him but what saith our Saviour to these persons verse 27. Labour not for the meat that perisheth what should be the end of their labour then he tells them but for that bread that endures to everlasting life what is this bread see the 33. and 35. and 48. verses he tells them I am the bread of life seek for me therefore come for me and look as none can have life from the bread unlesse he first feed upon the bread it selfe so none can have any life or benefit from Christ that comes not first to Christ for Christ. Conceive of this thus God in Christ is the compleat object of faith under a double notion First as sufficient in being all we want unto us Secondly as efficient in communicating all to us and doing all for us In the first respect he is Elshaddai in his promisâ— in the second respect he is Iehovah Exod. 6.3 in making good his all-sufficient promise hence faith comes to him for a double end first that he would give himselfe and be all to it Secondly that he would communicate all his blessings and benefits also and so doe all for it For in the covenant of Grace the Lord doth not onely promise a new heart pardon of sinne with the rest of those spirituall benefits but also himselfe I will bee their God and they shall be my people Hâ—nce Faith comes first for that which the Lord principally promiseth viz. God himselfe and then for all the rest of those heavenly and glorious benefits and hence it is if any man come for Christ himselfe without his benefits and regard not the conveyance of them as the Familists at this day doe who abolish all inherent graces and some of them all ordinances because Christ is all to them or if any come for the benefits of Christ without Christ himselfe as many among our selves doe who never account themselves happy in him but onely by some abilities they receive from him neither of these come with a single eye nor fixe a right end in their closing with Christ you must first come for Christ himselfe and so for all his benefits For establishing your hearts in which truth consider these things 1. Consider what drives any man to Christ. Is not sense of wants one main thing now what are a christians wants when the Lord hath humbled him are they not first want of Christ and secondly of all the benefits of Christ viz. righteousnesse peace pardon grace glory Iohn 16.9 If therefore the soules of all the elect feel a want of both doth not Faith come to Christ for both Iohn 4.10 If thou knewest the gift of God i. e. the worth of him and thy want of him thou wouldest aske and hee would give thee water of life 2. What doth the Lord offer in the Gospell is it not first Christ himselfe and then all the benefits of Christ Isay 9.6 7. To us a Sonne is borne to us a Sonne is given in the receiving therefore of Christ by faith what should the soule aime at but that it may have the Sonne himselfe
It may be so yet it is said After two dayes he will revive us and the third day wee shall live in his sight and we shall know him if we follow on to know him verse 6. His goings forth are prepared as the morning it may be night for a time but the Sun of righteousnesse will arise gradually and gloriously upon thy soule Truly brethren when I see the curse of God upon many christians that are now grown full of their parts gifts peace comforts abilities duties I stand adoring the riches of the Lords mercy to a little handfull of poore beleevers not only in making them empty but in keeping of them so all their dayes and therefore come to the Lord poore empty naked nothing cursed in the sense of thy want of all things for all things and then receive with gladnesse yet boldnesse and holy confidence not only pardon of some sins but of all beleeve answer not to some prayers but all Embrace in thy bosome not some few promises but all It is a great case of conscience When may a christian take a promise without presumption as spoken to him and given to him in particular and the rule is very sweet but certaine when hee takes all the Scripture and embraceth it as spoken unto him hee may then take any particular proper promise boldly my meaning is when a Christian takes hold and wrastles with God for the accomplishment of all the promises of the New Testament when he sets all the commands before him as his rule and compasse and guide to walke after when he applyes all the threatnings to drive him nearer unto Christ the end of them this no hypocrite can doe this the Saints should doe and by this may know when the Lord speaks in any particular unto them go I say again therefore unto the Lord for all and in the sense of all your emptinesse be abundantly comforted that though you doe not find supply from Christ yet you come unto the Lord Christ for it it is a certaine rule you shall not alway want that good which you come to Christ to supply nor alway be mastered with that sinne which you come to Christ with to take away only then be sure you come for all otherwise you doe not come truly come first for Christ himselfe and then as I said for all his benefits To conclude this is the direct and compendious way of living by Faith so much urged and pressed of Gods servants for to live by faith properly is to live upon the promise in the want of the thing or to apprehend the thing in the promise Heb. 11.1 now the promises are not given to the elect immediately without Christ but first Christ is given i. e. offered in the Gospell and received by Faith and then with him all things also and therefore the Scripture runs thus Isay 55.1 2 3 4. Come unto the waters and drinke and then I will make an everlasting Covenant which containes all the promises even the sure mercies of David the Apostle expressely disputes the case and saith Where there is a Testament containing Evangelicall promises there must first bee the death of the Testator Heb. 9.15 16. to whom we must first come by Faith before we can have right to any promise Heb. 7. 22.25 and 10.16 17 18.22 Being justified by Faith now we have peace with God nay we have accesse to God nay now we are sure of standing now we hope in God and glory to come Rom. 5.1 2 3 4. all followes the first How shall a Christian therefore live by Faith truly first receive Christ and come to him for the end I mention and then thou maist be sure all other things shall be given to thee As for example dost want any temporall blessing suppose it be payment of debts thy dayly bread provision for thy family a comfortable yoake-fellow c. look now through the Scripture for promises of these things and let thy faith act thus If God hath given me Christ the greatest blessing then certainly he will give me all these smaller matters as may be good for me but the Lord hath given me Christ and therfore I shall not want Psal. 23.1 The Lord is my shepherd saith David what follows I shall not want there is the like reason in all other things suppose it be in case of protection from enemies if the Lord hath given me Christ to save me from hell then he will save me from these fleshly enemies much more you shal see Isa. 7. a promise given that Syria should not prevaile against Iudah they doubted of this how doth the Lord seek to assure them you shall see verse 14. it is by promising a Virgin shall conceive and beare a Sonne and his name shall be Emmanuell this is a strange reason yet you may see the reason of it if you consider this point so Isay 9.5 6. The oppressors rod shall be broken For unto us a Sonne is borne a Sonne is given By Faith they put to flight the Armies of Alients brake downe the walls of Jericho did wonders in the world What did they chiefly look to in this their faith you shall see Heb. 11.39 40. it was by respecting the promise to come and that better thing Christ Jesus himselfe which we now see with open face and therefore he concludes Heb. 12.1 2 3. Having such a cloud of witnesses that thus lived and dyed by faith let us look unto Iesus the Authour and finisher of ours The Prophet Habbakuk Hab. 2.5 affirmes that the just shall live by Faith What faith is that consult with the place you shall see it was in the promise of deliverance from the Chaldean tyranny yet the Apostle Paul applyes it to faith in Christs righteousnes and that truly because if their faith had not respected Christ himselfe in the first place they could never have expected any deliverance by the promise of deliverance from the Caldeans but thus they might 5. The speciall ground of Faith The last thing in the description of Faith is that the soule thus comes upon the call of Christ in his word and this is the speciall ground of Faith wherefore the soule comes to Christ take a sinner humbled and broken for sin he cannot prevent the Lord by comming of himselfe unto Christ and therefore the Lord prevents him by his gracious call and invitation to come in Whom God hath predestinated them hath he called our translation from darknesse into Gods marvellous light is by being called The soule is lost in humiliation the Lord Jesus who is come to save that which is lost seeketh it out in vocation or calling Sanctification is the restoring of us to the image of God we once had in Adam as corruption is the defacing of that image Vocation is the calling of the soule unto Christ this voyce Adam never heard of he did not need any call to come to Christ and therefore was immediately sanctified as
soone as he was made but wee need Vocation unto Christ before we can be sanctified by Christ we need this call to make us come to Christ to put us into Christ and therefore much more before we can receive any holinesse from Christ the ground of our coming by faith is Gods call 2 Thes. 2.13 14. chosen to salvation through sanctification the remote end of Vocation and beleefe of the truth the next end of it whereunto he hath called you there is the ground of it The explication of this call is a point full of many spirituall difficulties but of singular use and comfort to them that are faithfull and called I shall omit many things and explicate only those things which serve our purpose here in these three particulars 1. I shall shew you what this call is or the nature of it 2. The necessity of it 3. How it is a ground of coming and what kind of ground for Faith 1. The nature of this Call I shall open for your more distinct understanding in severall Propositions or Theses Our Vocation or Calling is ever by some word or voyce either outward or inward or both either ordinary or extraordinary by the ministery of men or by immediate visions and inspirations of God I speak not now of extraordinary call by dreames and visions and immediate inspirations as in Abraham and others before the Scriptures were penned and published nor of extraordinary call by the immediate voyce of Christ as in Paul and some other of the Apostles for these are ceased now Heb. 1.1 unlesse it be among people that want ordinary meanes and elect infants c. whose call must be more then by ordinary meanes because they want such means we speak now of ordinary call by the ministery of men 2. This voyce in ordinary calling home of the elect to Christ is not by the voyce of the Law for the proper end of that is to reveale sinne and death and to cast down a sinner but by the voyce of the Gospell bringing glad tidings written by the Apostles and preached to the world He hath called you by our Gospell These things are written that you might beleeve By the foolishnesse of preaching the Lord saves them that beleeve I meane preaching at the first or second rebound by lively voyce or printed Sermons at the time of hearing or in the time of deep meditation concerning things heard the Spirit indeed inwardly accompanies the voyce of the Gospell but no mans call is by the immediate voyce of the Spirit without the Gospell or the immediate testimony of the Spirit breathed out of free grace without the word Eph. 1.12 13. And therefore that a Christian should be immediately called without the Scripture and the Scripture only given to confirme Gods immediate promise as a Prince gives his letter to confirme his promise made to a man before as Valdesso would have it is both a false and dangerous assertion This voyce of the Gospell is the voyce of God in Christ or the voyce of Jesus Christ although dispensed by men who are but weak instruments for this mighty work sent set in Christs stead but the call the voice is Christs it s the Lords call Rom. 1.6 it is certaine some of the messengers of Christ called the Romans by the Gospell yet Paul saith they were called of Christ Iesus the dead heare his voyce and arise and live and when the time of calling comes they listen to it as his call and hence it is styled Heb. 3.1 because the Lord Christ from heaven speakes takes the written word into his owne lips as it were Cant. 1.1 2. and thereby piâ—rcâ—th through the eares to the heart through all the noyse of feares sorrowes objections against beleeving and makes it to be heard as his voyce the bowels of Christ now yerne toward an humbled lost sinner bleeding at his feet therefore can contain no longer but speaks and calls and makes the soule understand his voyce so that this call is not a mean businesse because the Lord Jesus himselfe now speaks whose voyce is glorious The substance of this call or the thing the Lord calls unto is to come unto him for there is a more common calling or as some tearme it a particular calling of men as some to be Masters or Servants 1 Cor. 7.24.20 21. or to office in Church or Common-wealth as Aaron Heb 5.4 and the voyce there is to attend unto their work to which they are called There is also a remote end of vocation which is to holinesse 1 Thes. 4.7 and unto glory also 2 Thess. 2.14 Phil. 3.14 but we now speak of more speciall calling the next end of which is to come unto Christ the soule hath lived many yeares without him the Lord Jesus will now have the lost prodigall to come home to come to him the soule is weary and heavy laden and the Lord Jesus could easily ease it without its comming to him but this is his will he must come to him for it Mat. 11.27 Ier. 3.7.22 I said after shee had done these things turne unto me come unto me ye backsliding children I le heale your back-slidings Jer. 4.1 If thou returnest returne unto me This voice Come unto me is one of the sweetest words that Christ can speak or man can heare full of Majesty mercy grace and peace a poor sinner thinks Will the Lord ever put up such wrongs I have offered him heale such a nature take such a viper into his bosome doe any thing for me if there be but one in the world to be forsaken is it not I the Lord therefore comes and calls Come unto mee and I will pardon all thy sins I will heale all thy back-slidings I will be angry no more Jer. 3.12.13 Though thou hast committed whoredome with many lovers yet returne unto me saith the Lord. Ier. 3.1 Though thou hast resisted my Spirit refused my grace wearied me with thine iniquities yet come unto me and this will make me amends I require nothing of thee else but to come for Gods call is out of free grace Gal. 1.6 and therefore calls for no more but only to come up and possesse the Lords fulnesse Luke 14.17 1 Cor. 1.9 This call to come is for substance all one with the offer of Christ which consists in three things 1. Commandement to receive Christ as present and ready to be given to it as when we offer any thing to another it is by commanding them to take it 1 Iohn 4.23 and this binds conscience to beleeve as you will answer for the contempt of this rich grace at the great day of account 2. Perswasion and intreaty to come and receive what we offer for in such an offer wherein the person is unwilling to receive and we are exceedingly desirous to give we then perswade so doth Christ with us 3. Promise to offer a thing without a promise of having it if we receive it is but a
other reason but because it is commanded and called to accept of it this puts an end unto all doubts all feares all discouragements and the soule answers as those Ier. 3.22 Behold we come for thou art the Lord our God As a man in great want of bread one comes and freely offers him bread to preserve his life the man takes it if you aske him Why doe you take it you are a poore fellow unworthy of it never did yet one houres work for it he answers T is true I am unworthy but yet because it is offered to me to preserve life I gladly take it the man doth not promise absolutely to me that this bread is mine and shall feed me but he tels me if I doe receive it it shall certainly be mine to feed me and this is the main ground of his receiving of it Just so it is in Faith Aske an humbled sinner Why doe you beleeve Why doe you take Christ as your owne Hath the Lord said absolutely that he is yours No saith the soule but the Lord freely offers himselfe unto me who am undone without him and saith if I doe receive him he shall be for ever mine to give life to me and therefore I thankfully accept of him this is the ground of Faith The Scripture sets out this in a lively similitude of a great Supper to which many were invited what was the ground of their comming to it Behold all things are ready if you come and eate they are not yours if you doe not come but if you come at my call and invitation then all things shall be yours And hence it is that they that came not were excluded they that came were received with welcome I know t is a question of some difficulty among some viz. Whether an absolute testimony of actuall favour and justification be not the first ground of Faith They that make Faith to be an absolute assurance of Gods favour must of necessity maintain this assertion and then these things will follow 1. That a Christian must be justified before he beleeve for the cause of Faith must goe before Faith This proposition Thou art justified reconciled is according to this assertion the cause of faith for no proposition can therefore be true because we are perswaded that it is true but it must be first true before I am perswaded of it the wall is not white because my eye sees it so but it must first be white and then I see it so Now to make actuall justification before faith is crosse to the whole current of Scripture We beleeve that we might be justified Gal. 2.16 we are not justified that we might beleeve We passe from death to life by faith Iohn 5.24 we are not in a state of life before faith When the Lord Iesus saw their faith Mat. 9.2 he then said Be of good comfort thy sinnes are forgiven thee The Word saith He that beleeveth not is condemned already Iohn 3.18 and therefore unlesse the Spirits witnesse be crosse to the Word it doth not say to one that beleeveth not that he is absolved already To be justified by faith and to be justified by Christs righteousnesse is all one in the Scriptures phrase and meaning Gal. 2.16 17. Add therefore we may as well say that we are justified before and without Christ as before and without faith And indeed this doctrine of being justified by faith and by this meanes to have remission of sinnes the Apostle Peter affirms to be the doctrine of all the Prophets Acts 10.43 To him give all the Prophets witnesse that whosoever beleeve in him shall receive remission of sinnes not that they had remission of sinnes before they did beleeve I know not any one Protestant Writer that maintaines our justification before and without faith except learned Chamier who not knowing how to avoid the blow of Bellarmines horned argument that if Faith be an assurance of our actuall justification then we are first justified before we beleeve he affirmes we are justified before faith and therefore that when the Scripture saith we are justified by faith the reason of that saith he is not because our faith doth efficere justificationem i. e. is a cause meaning instrumentall of our justification but because efficitur in justificato i. e. is wrought in a justified person but if that be the reason of the phrase we may affirme our justification to be as well by love and sanctification and holy obedience as by faith because these are wrought in a justified person also Then no mans ministry nor the doctrine delivered by the faithful Ministers of Christ froÌ„ out of the Scriptures can be any ground of faith for before faith no Minister of Christ can say to any man in particular or any men in generall that they are already justified and reconciled and therefore beleeve it but to deny that doctrine which is opened out of the Scriptures by the Ministers of Christ to be the ground of Faith is expresly crosse to the testimony of Scriptures and the end of the Ministery and of the messengers of Christ who have the keyes of office given to them that what they bind on earth is bound in heaven what they loose on earth is loosed in heaven whose sins they remit they are forgiven whose sins they retain they are retained Mat. 16.16 Ioh. 20.23 Most excellent for this purpose is the Apostles dispute Rom. 10. You need not go up to heaven nor down to hell to fetch Christ himselfe to tell you whether you shall be justified and saved ver 6 7. For the word is nigh them verse 8. that opens Christs heart unto thy heart But what word might some say is this Is it not the internall word of the Spirit onely The Apostle answers It is that word which we preach hereby you shall know whether you shall live or no but what is that word Paul preached is it not an absolute testimony that all your sins are already pardoned by Christ and therefore beleeve it No but If thou beleevest with thine heart that God raised up Christ from the dead thou shalt be saved vers 9.11 12. What can be more full yet consider tâ—at one place more Iohn 17.20 I pray for all them that shall beleeve on me through their word What is the ground or meanes of beleeving in Christ It is said here expresly Their word Is it not the word of Christ rather then the word of the Apostles and of their successors in the doctrine they delivered is it their word Truly that which thâ—y delivered was the word of Christ and that which is opened from their doctrine in the Scriptures is the word of Christ yet as they open it and apply it so t is their word and this Word is the ground by which all that Christ prayes for doe beleeve in Christ the bare Word I grant cannot perswade without the Spirit yet the Spirit will not give ground to Faith without the Word but as
should be ground unto thee to come as a poore begger that hath no promise absolutely given him of reliefe yet if a rich man sends to him and bids him come to his doore and wait he thinks he hath good ground and warrant to come It is a sure ground against all feares all doubts of presumption all sense of unworthinesse and of the greatnesse of the good promised c. For the Saints have many fearâ—s whereby they dare not come they feare they may presume they see themselves most vile and unworthy of the least smile the benefits are so exceeding great to which they are called that they think it is too good for them c. but beloved when the soule sees evidently the Lord invites me perswades me commands me waits for me strives with me that I would come in and because his grace is free therefore requires no more but only to come take come and drinke this forceth the soul to confesse I am sure it is no presumption to obey the call of Christ and what though I am unworthy and this good is exceeding great and precious yet if it be the Lords grace to call such a poore wretch to receive and accept of it why should I not rather thankfully receive it then out of my own head superstitiously refuse it but this I am sure and certaine of the Lord calls me thus to doe if God should speak from heaven to you to come unto his Sonne it is not so sure a ground as the call of God from out of the Oraâ—le of his word in the blessed Gospell of his deare Sonne It is a strong ground and of great power and efficacy to force the soule to come for you may object no man can believe or should believe and come of himself I say so too but how would you have the Spirit of Christ enable you to come verily it is by this call and therefore Ier. 3.22 when the Lord said Returne ye back-sliding children they presently answered Lord we come the dead shall heare this voyce of the Sonne of God and live Iohn 5.25 thou saidst Seeke ye my face my heart answered Lord thy face will I seeke Oh iron stony Adamantine heart that canst heare so sweet a voyce as this word come and yet not be overcome This call honours grace most for what more free then for the Lord to say Come and take of the water of life freely what more free then for a rich man to require of his debtor only to receive so many thousands of him to pay his debts to set him up again Verily brethren as the Lord honors his grace by commanding us to come so we honour it when through the mighty power of the same call we doe come Thus much for Explication of this call now let me put an end to it in a word of Application Let this perswade all sorts of persons young and old one and another to whom the Gospell is sent to come in to Jesus Christ for those that God calls should come but the Lord calls at least outwardly all sorts of persons nay every individuall person to come in Marke 16.15 16. Paul told the stout Jaylor If thou beleevest thou shalt be saved and look as the Law speakes particularly to every man Thou shalt have no other Gods c. so doth the Gospell also Rom. 10.9 that so every man might look upon himselfe as spoken to in particular And indeed if there were not such a particular call then men should not sin by refusing the Gospell nor should the Lord be angry for so doing but their sin and condemnation is great that so doe Iohn 3.19 And the Lord is more wroth for this sin then any other Ps. 2.12 Luk. 14.18 Heb. 3.10.11.19 In one word either the Lord would have thee who â—ver thou art to receive Christ or to reject and so despise Christ and if the Lord would have you reject him he would then have you sin and continue in it which cannot stand either with the honour of Gods holinesse or of his rich grace I shall here therefore open two things 1. Set downe means to enable you to come 2. Shew you how and in what manner you should come The meanes 1. Consider who it is that doth call you is it Man or Ministers think you you might never come then no it is Jesus Christ himselfe that calls you by them Why doe many discouraged Spirits refuse to come it is because they think deceitfull man or charitable men call them but the Lord hath no respect unto them Oh foolish conceipt I tell you their Ministery is not an act of their charity wishing well to the salvation of all but it is an act of Christs love and soveraigne authority Mat. 28.18 19 20. So that what they doe it is in Christs stead 2 Cor. 5.19 20. if Christ was present he would call thee to him with more bowels then any compassionate Minister can I assure you to receive them is to receive Christ to despise them is to despise Christ Iohn 13.20 and therefore Eph. 2.14 although the Apostles preached to the Ephesians yet it is said that Christ came and preached to them If any Minister preacheth any other doctrine of grace then what Christ hath delivered let him be accursed But if they publish his mind and his call look upon them as if the Lord himself called unto you lest the Lord accurse you and all their Ministery to you the Lord Jesus did not cast off the Jewes for crucifying of him and shedding his blood untill the Gospell of grace published by his messengers came to them and that was rejected then Paul waxed bold and said because you put away the word from you wee leave you Acts 13.46 Oh beloved if you did beleeve Christ called you poore prodigalls that have run riot and sinned against him as much as you could home unto him suppose Christ was present would it not draw you in suppose he was with thee in the chamber where thou art crying after him or in the Church where thou art waiting for him and he should appeare visibly before thine eyes opening his bosome and bowels and blood before thee and calling unto thee to this purpose I doe beseech thee and intreat thee by all these teares I have shed for thee in the dayes of my flesh by all those bitter agonies I have suffered for thee by all these tender bowels which have been rowled together toward thee come unto me embrace me lay thy wearied head in this blessed bosome of mine crucifie me no longer by thy sins treâ—d me not under foot by thy unbeleef any more and I will pardon all thy sinnes though as red as crimson I will heale thy cursed nature I will carry thee in my owne bowells up to glory with me where all siâ—s and teares and sorrowes shall be abolished c. who would not now come in to him let me see the man that hath a heart
blessed and happy estate John 5.24 Psal. 2. ult IF the Question be What is that happy condition they are made partakers of I answer this appeares in these six priviledges or benefits principally 1. Iustification all their sinnes are pardoned 2. Reconciliation peace with God 3. Adoption they are made the Sonnes of God 4. Sanctification they are restored to the Image of God 5. Audience of all their prayers to God 6. Glorification in the Kingdome of heaven in eternall Communion with God SECT I. First Iustification THis is the first benefit which immediately followes our union unto Christ by Faith that look as we are no sooner children of Adam branches of that root by naturall generation but we immediately contract the guilt of his sin and so originall pollution so we are no sooner made branches of the second Adam by vocation and so united unto Christ by Faith but immediately wee have the imputation of his righteousnesse to our justification after which we receive in order of nature not time our sanctification There is no truth more necessary to bee knowne then this it being the principall thing contained in the Gospell Rom. 1.17 the Law shewing how a man may bee just and live but it hath not the least word how a sinfull man may be just and not dye this is proper to the revelation of the Gospell let me therefore give you a tast of the nature of it Our Justification is wrought by a double act 1. on God the Fathers part he by a gracious sentence absolves and acquits a sinner accepts of him as righteous 2. on God the Sons part procuring the passing of this sentence by his satisfaction imputed and applyed the Father being the person principally wronged hath chiefe power to forgive yet in justice he cannot acquit nor in truth account a man unrighteous as righteous unlesse the Son step in and satisfie for whose sake he forgives as the Apostle expressely saith Eph. 4. ult so that our Justification is wholly out of our selves and we are meerly passive in it Justification is not to make us inwardly just as the Papists dreame but it is a Law-tearme and is opposed against condemnation Rom. 8.33 now look as condemnation is the sentence of the Judge condemning a man to dye for his offence or sin so Iustification is the sentence of God the Father absolving a man from the guilt and punishment of sin for the sake of the righteousnesse of Christ That you may more particularly understand me take this description of it Iustification is the gracious Sentence of God the Father whereby for the satisfaction of Christ apprehended by faith and imputed to the faithfull he absolves them from the guilt and condemnation of all sin and accepts them as perfectly righteous to eternall life Let me open the particulars herein briefly in severall queries What it is in generall to justifie T is to passe sentence of absolution to pronounce a sinner righteous t is Gods pardon remission of sinnes this appeares from the opposition mentioned it stands in unto condemnation as a Iudge pardons a man when he saith he shall live or as a man manifestly forgives another when he gives him a promise or a bill of discharge so that note this by the way that our Iustification is not Gods eternall purpose to forgive but it is Gods sentence published a sinner is justified intentionally in election but not actually till this sentence be past and published The difficulty only here is where this sentence is pronounced for answer where of note that there is but a double Court wherein t is passed 1. Publikely in the Court of Heaven or in the Court-rolls of the Word for there is no other Court of Heaven where God speaks but this 2. Privately in the Court of Conscience By the first we are justified indeed from personall guilt by the second we feele our selves justified by the removall of conscience guilt The first is expresly mentioned Act. 10.43 and Rom. 1.17 the second is expresly set downe also Psal. 32.4 The first is the cause and foundation of this second the second ariseth from the first otherwise peace of conscience is a meere delusion the first is sometimes long before the second Psal. 88.15 as the sentence of condemnation in the Word is sometimes long before a man feeles that sentence in his own conscience the second comes in a long time after in some Christians The first is constant and unchangeable the second very changeable he that hath peace in his conscience to day may lost it by to morrow So that you are not in seeking the testimony of your justification to look for a sentence from heaven immediately pronounced of God but look for it in the Court of his Word the Court of Heaven which though we heare not sometime yet it rings and fills heaven and earth with the sound of it viz. There is no condemnation to them that beleeve for hereby the Lord mercifully provideth for the peace of his people more abundantly As when a poore Creditor is acquited or a malefactor pardoned I beseech you saith he let me have an acquitance a discharge a pardon under your owne hand and this quiets him against all accusers so t is here the Lord gives us an Acquitance in his VVord under his owne hand and seale and so gives us peace Heb. 6.18 VVho is it that justifieth T is God the Father Rom. 8.34 Father forgive them saith Christ. And hence Christ is an Advocate with the Father 1 Iohn 2.2 All the three Persons were wronged by sin yet the wrong was chiefly against the Father because his manner of working appeared chiefly in creation from the righteousnes of which man fell by sinne The Father forgives primarily by Soveraign authority the Sonne of Man Christ Jesus forgives by immediate dispensation and commission from the Father Iohn 5.22 Mat. 9.6 the Apostles and their successors forgive ministerially Iohn 21.23 The Father forgives by granting pardon the Sonne by procuring the Ministers where the Spirit also is by publishing or applying pardon so that this is great consolation that God the Father the party chiefly incensed t is he that justifieth t is he that passeth this gracious sentence and then who can condemne Why doth the Father thus justifie T is meerly his grace and out of grace And hence I call it his gracious sentence Rom. 3.24 justified freely by his grace What is his grace The Prophet Esay expounds it to be not our grace or works of grace although wrought by grace but his owne name sake In some respect indeed it is just for God to forgive viz. in regard of Christs satisfaction 1 Ioh. 1.7 Rom. 3.20 The Mercy-seat and the Tables of the Law in the Ark may well stand together but that Christ was sent to satisfie justice and that thy sinnes were satisfied for and not anothers thus it s wholly of grace If therefore you
eternall righteousnesse that never can be lost if the Lord should make thee as perfectly righteous as once Adam was or Angells in heaven are and put on thy royall apparell againe thou wast in danger of losing this and of being stript naked againe but now the Lord hath put your righteousnesse into a safer hand which never shall be lost Heb. 9.12 Dan. 9.24 By this you please God and are more amiable before him then if you had it in your selfe doe not say this is a poore righteousnesse which is thus out of my selfe in another why doe you think righteousnesse in your selfe would be best is it not because hereby you think you shall please God Suppose thou hadst it yet thy righteousnesse should be at the best but mans righteousnes but this is called the righteousnesse of God which cannot but be more pleasing to him then that in thy selfe 2 Cor. 5.20 what is Angelicall righteousnesse to the righteous-of God t is but a glow-worm before the Sunne the smell of Esaus garments the robes of this righteousnesse of the Sonne of God are of sweeter odour then thine can be or ever shall be Eph. 5.1 2. tis said By faith Abel Enoch c. pleased God their persons were sinfull their owne duties were weak yet by faith in this they pleased God thou thinkest when thou goest to Prayer if I had no sinne but perfect holinesse in me surely God would heare me I tell you when you bring this offering of Christs righteousnesse the Lord had rather have that then all you can doe you bring that which pleaseth him more then if you brought your owne For aske thy owne conscience if it be possible for the righteousnesse which is done by thy self to be more pleasing to God then the righteousnesse of the Sonne of God the Lord of Glory himselfe done and perfected for thee 7. By this you glorifie God exceedingly as Abraham beleeved Rom. 4. and gave glory unto God In the Lord shall all the seed of Israel be justified and shall glory Esay 45.25 For 1. By this you glorifie him perfectly in an instant for you continue to doe all that the Law requires that instant you beleeve The Apostle propounds the Question Rom. 3.21 whether a Christian by faith doth make void the Law No saith the Apostle but we establish the Law How is that Paraeus shews three wayes One is this because that perfect righteousnesse which the Law requires of us we performe it in Christ by faith So that in one instant thou continuest to doe all that the Law requires and hence ariseth the impossibility of a true Beleevers apostacie as from one principall cause They that deny satisfaction by Christs doing of the Law because by our own works and doings we cannot be justified before God may as well deny satisfaction by Christs sufferings because by our owne sufferings we cannot be justified our obedience to the Law in way of suffering is as truly the works of the Law as our obedience in way of doing 2. By this you glorifie Gods justice what ever Justice requires to be done or suffered you give it unto God by faith in Christ. 3. By this you glorifie grace and mercy Ephes. 1.7 for by this meanes mercy may over-abound toward you and you may triumph in it as sure and certaine to you What a blessed mysterie is this Doth it not grieve you that you cannot glorifie God in your times and places Behold the way if thou canst not doe it by obedience thou maist by faith and thereby make restitution of all Gods glory lost and stolne from him by thy disobedience to him By this you have peace in your consciences by this Christs blood is sprinkled upon them and that cooles the burning torments of them Rom. 5.1 The commers unto the Leviticall sacrifices and washings types of this offering of Christ could not thereby be perfected and bee without the guilty conscience of sinne none of your duties can pacifie conscience but as they carry you hither to this righteousnesse but the commers to this have no more terrours of conscience for sinne I meane they have no just cause to have any this Rain-bow appearing over your heads is a certaine signe of fair weather and that there shall be no more deluge of wrath to overwhelme thee By this all miseries are removed when thy sinnes are pardoned there is something like death and shame and sicknesse but they are not it 's said Isay 33. ult There shall be none sicke among them why so because they shall be forgiven their iniquities T is no sicknessse in a manner no sorrow no affliction if the venome sting and curse be taken away by pardon of sinne thy sicknesse sorrow losses death it selfe is better now then health joy abundance life you may here see death hell grave swallowed up in victory and now tread upon the necks of them 1 Cor. 15. You may see life in death heaven in the deepest hell glory in shame when thou seest all thy sinnes done away in the blood of Christ Jesus This is the blessednesse of all you poore beleevers and commers to the Lord Jesus what should you doe but beleeve it and rejoyce in it If the wicked that apply this righteousnesse presumptuously say Let us sinne that grace may abound and make no other use of forgivenesse but to run in debt and sinne with a license Why should not you say on the other side Let me beleeve and owne my portion in this righteousnesse that as my sinnes have abounded so my love may abound as my sinnes have been exceeding great so the Lord may be exceeding sweet as my sinnes continue and increase so my thankfulnesse glory in God triumph over death grave sinne through Christ may also increase as you see righteousnesse in Christ for ever yours so you may from thence expect from him such a righteousnesse as may make you righteous also as hee is righteous Tremble thou hard-hearted impenitent wretch that didst never yet come to Christ nor feele thy need of him or prize his blood this is none of thy portion all thy sinnes are yet upon thee and shall one day meet thee in the day of the Lords fierce wrath when he shall appeare as an everlasting burning before thine eyes and thou stand guilty before him as chaffe and stubble SECT 2. Secondly Reconciliation This is the second benefit which in order of nature followes our Justification although sometime in a large sense it is taken for the whole work of Justification strictly taken it followes it Rom. 5.1 Being justified by faith we have peace with God i. e. not onely peace from God in our consciences but peace with God in our reconcilement to him and his favour toward us Being justified we shall be saved from wrath i. e. not onely the outward fruits of wrath but wrath from whence those come Christ is first King of Righteousnesse then King of Peace Heb. 7.2 for is not finne the cause of
Gods anger must not sinne therefore bee first removed in our justification before wee can have Gods anger allayed in our reconciliation so that as in our justification the Lord accounts us just so in our reconciliation himselfe being at peace with us hee accounts us friends indeed our meritorious reconciliation is by Christs death as the Kings son who procures his fathers favour toward a Malefactor who yet lyes in cold irons and knowes it not and this is before our justification or being Rom. 5.9 but actuall and efficacious reconciliation whereby we come to the fruition and possession of it is after our justification Rom. 3.24 25. Christ is a propitiation by faith and here the Malefactor hath tidings of favour if he will accept of it Ephes. 2.15 17. and of this I now speake God and man were once friends but by finne a great breach is made the Lord onely bearing the wrong is justly provoked Isa. 65.2 3. man that onely doth the wrong is notwithstanding at enmity with him and will not bee intreated to accept of favour much lesse to repent of his wrong Ier. 8.4 5 6 7 8. the Lord Jesus therefore heales this breach by being mediator between both he takes up the quarrell and first reconciles God to man and man to God in himselfe in redemption and after this reconciles God and man by himselfe in or immediately upon our justification This Reconciliation consists in two things chiefly 1. In our peace with God whereby the Lord layes by all acts of hostility against us Rom. 5.1 2. In love and favour of God I doe not meane Gods love of good will for this is in election but his love of complacencie and delight for till we are justified the Lord behaves himselfe as an enemy and stranger to us who are polluted before him but then he begins thus to lâ—ve us 1 Ioh. 4.10 16. Col. 1.21 22. A Gardiner may intend to turne a Crab-tree stock into an an Apple-tree his intention doth not alter the nature of it untill it actually be ingraffed upon so we are by nature the children of wrath Ephes. 1.3 The inâ—ention of God the Father or his love of good will doth not make us children of favour and sonnes of peace untill the Lord actually call us to and ingraffe us into Christ and then as Christ is the delight of God so we in him are loved with the same love of delight Peace with God and love of God are different degrees of our reconciliation A Prince is at peace or ceaseth warre against a rebell yet he may not bring the Rebell before him into his bosome of speciall favour delight and love but the Lord doth both towards us enemies strangers Rebels devils in our reconciliation with him Oh consider what a blessed estate this is to be at peace with God It was the title of honour the Lord put upon Abraham to bee the friend of God Isa. 41.8 I am not able to expresse what a priviledge this is t is better felt then spoken of as Moses said Psal. 90. Who knowes the greatnesse of his wrath So I may say who knowes the greatnesse of this favour and love 1. That God should be pacified with thee after anger this is exceeding glorious Isa. 12.1 2. What is man that the Lord should visit him or looke upon him though he never had sinned but to look upon thee nay to love thee after provocation by sinne after such wrath which like fire hath consumed thousand thousands and burnt downe to the bottome of hell and is now and ever shall be burning upon them Oh blessed are they that finde this favour 2. That the Lord should bee pacified wholly and thorowly that there should be no anger left â—or you to feele The poore afflicted Church might object against those sweet promises made her Isa. 27.1 2 3. that she felt no love You are mistaken saith the Lord Fury is not in me vers 4. Indeed against bryars and thornes and obstinate sinners that prick and cut me to the very heart by their impenitencie I have but none against you Out of Christ God is a consuming fire but in Christ he is nothing else but love 1 Joh. 4.16 and though there may bee fatherly frownes chastisements reproofes and rods though hee may for a time hide his face shut out thy prayers deferre to fulfill promises c. yet all thâ—se are out of pure love to thee and thou shalt see it and feele it so in thy latter end Heb. 12.8 9. Never did David love Ionathan whose love exceeded as the Lord loves thee from his very heart Now thou art in Christ by faith 3. That the Lord should be pacified eternally never to cast thee off againe for any sinnes or miseries thou fallest into this is wonderfull Those whom men love they forsake if their love be aâ—used or if their friends be in affliction they then bid them good night but the Lords love and favour is everlasting Isa. 9.7 The mountaines may depart out of their places and the hills cast downe to valleys but the Lords kindnesse never shall never can He hath hid his face a little moment whiles thou didst live in thy sinne and unbeleefe but now with everlasting mercy he will imbrace thee nay which is more the abounding of thy sinne is now the occasion of the abounding of his grace Rom. 5.20 thy very wants and miseries are the very causes of his bowels and tender mercies Heb. 4.15 16. Oh what a priviledge is this Did the Lord ever shew mercy or favour to the Angels that sinned Did not one sinne cast them out of favour utterly Oh infinite grace that so many thousand thousands every day gushing out of thy heart against kindnesse and love nay the greatest dearest love of God should not incense his sorest displeasure against thee I the Lord that powred out all his anger upon his own Son for thee and for all thy sinnes cannot now poure out nay he hath not one drop left though he would to poure out upon thee for any one sinne 4. That the Lord should be thus pacified with enemies a man may be easily pacified with one that offends him a little but with an enemy that strikes at his life as by every sinne you doe this is wonderfull yet this is the case here Rom. 5.7 8. 5. That the Lord should be pacified even with enemies by such a wonderfull way as the blood of Jesus Christ Rom. 5.7 8. this is such love as one would think the infinite wisdome of a blessed God could have devised no greater by this v. 6. he commanded and set out his love which though now it grow a stale and common thing in our dayes yet this is that which is enough to burst the heart with astonishment and amazement to thinke that the party offended who therefore had no cause to seeke peace with us againe should finde out such a way of peace as this is woe to the world
that despise this peace 6. That being thus pacified you may come into Gods presence with boldnesse at any time and aske what you will I wonder what he can deny you if he loves you Rom. 5.2 and which is yet more that now all creatures are at peace with you Iob 5.23 as when the Captaine of the Army is pacified none of his souldiers must hurt or strike that man nay that hereby all your enemies should be forced to doe good to you Oh death where is now thy sting I have oft wondred if Christ hath borne all our miseries and suffered death for us why then should we feel any miseries or see death any more and I could never satisfie my owne heart by many answers given better then by this viz. that if the Lord should abolish the very being of our miseries they should indeed then doe us no hurt but neither could they then doe us any good for if they were not at all how could they doe us good now the Lord Jesus hath made such a peace for us as that our enemies shall not only not hurt us but they shall be forced himselfe ordering of them to doe much good unto us all your wants shall but make you pray the more all you sorrowes shall but humble you the more all your temptations shall but exercise your graces the more all your spirituall desertions shall but make you long for heaven and to bee with Christ the more it is now part of your portion not only to have Paul and Apollos and world but death it selfâ— to doe you good Oh Lord what a blessed estate is this which though thousands living under the Gospel of peace heare of yet they regard not they can strain their consciences in a restlesse pursuit of the favour of men and in seeking worldly yet peace to this day though born enemies to God never spent one day it may be not one houre in mourning after the Lord for favour from him nor care not for it unlesse it be upon their owne tearmes viz. that God would be at peace with them but they may still remain quietly in their sins and war against God and thence it is that the Lord will shortly take away peace from the whole earth and plague the world with war and blood-shed and as it is in Zach. 11.6 deliver every man into the hand of his neighbour and into the hand of his King and they shall smite the Land even for this very cause for despising the peace and reconciliation with God you might and should have accepted in the Gospell of peace SECT III. Thirdly Adoption This is the third benefit which in order of nature followes our reconciliation whereby the Lord accounts us Sons and gives us the Spirit and priviledges of Sons for in order we must be first beloved before we can be loved so as to be accounted Sons 1 Iohn 3.1 2. for the Lord of unjust to account us just in our justification is much but for the Lord to account us hereby as friends this is more but to account us Sons also this is a higher degree and a farther priviledge and hence our Adoption followes our Faith Iohn 1.12 Gal. 3.26 and if Adoption then the Spirit of Adoption much lesse doth not precede Faith By Christs active obedience our Divines say we have right unto life by Adoption wee have a farther right the one destroyes not the other for a man may have right unto the same thing upon sundry grounds we know there are 2 sorts of Sons 1. Some by nature borne of our own bodies and thus wee are not Sonnes of God but children of wrath 2. Some by Adoption which are taken out of another family and accounted freely of us as our Sons and thus Moses was for a time the sonne of Pharaoâ—s daughter and of this Son-ship by Adoption I now speak the Lord taking us out of the family of hell to be his adopted Sons Christ is Gods Son by eternall generation Adam by creation all believers are Sons by Adoption Now Adoption is two-fold 1. Externall whereby the Lord takes a people by outward covenant and dispensation to be his Sons and thus all the Jewes were Gods first-borne Exod. 4.22 and unto them did belong the Adoption Rom. 9.4 5. And hence their children were accounted Sons as well as Saints and holy 1 Cor. 7.14 Ezech. 16.20 21. but many fall from this Adoption as the Jewes did 2. Internall whereby the Lord out of everlasting love to particular persons in speciall he takes them out of the family of Satan and by internall love and speciall account reckons them in the number of Sons makes them indeed Sonnes as well as calls them so Isaac by speciall promise was accounted for the seed Rom. 9.8 and of this we now speak Now this is double 1. Adoption begun 1 Iohn 3.1 2. â—OW we are the Sons of God To some of which though Sons indeed yet the Lord behaves himselfe toward them for some time and for speciall reasons as unto servants exercising them with many feares Gal. 4.1 2. some spirits will not bee the better for the love of their father but worse and therefore the Lord keeps a hard hand over them to others the Lord behaves himself with more speciall respect in making them cry with more boldnesse Abba Father Rom. 8.15 16 who will be more easily overcome and bent to his will by love 2. Adoption perfected when we shall receive all the priviledges of sons not one excepted Rom. 8.23 where we are said to wait for our Adoption the Redemption of our bodies By the first we are sons but not seen nor known such 1 Iohn 3.1 2. By the second we shall be knowne before all the world to be such we now speak principally of Adoption begun whereby we are sons in Gods account and by reall reception of the Spirit of Sons the manner of this Adoption is thus 1. God loves Jesus Christ with an unspeakable love as his only Son and as our elder brother 2. Hence when we are in Christ his Son he loves us with the same love as he doth his own Son 3. Hence the Lord accounts us sonnes Eph. 1.5 6. Gods love is not now toward us as to Adam his son by creation viz. immediately diffused upon us but in loving his owne Son immediately hence he loves us and hence adopts us and accounts us children Oh that the Lord would open our eyes to see this priviledge Behold it saith Iohn 1 Iohn 3.1 stand amazed at it that children of wrath should become the Sonnes of the most high God for a begger on the dunghill a vagabond runnagate from God a prodigall a stranger to God whom the Lord had no cause to think on to be made a Son of God Almighty If Sons then the Lord doth prize and esteem you as Sonnes if a man hath twenty sonnes he esteems the poorâ—st least sick child he hath more then all his goods and servants
a blotted evidence you may have it to day and lose it to morrow and then where is your peace and I doe beleeve the LORD deprives many of his precious SAINTS from the comfort of this evidence either because they looke onely to this and not unto Christ and their Justification by faith Rom. 5.1 or else because there is some secret lust or guile of spirit Psal. 32.1 2. which the Lord by sore and long shakings about their calling and sanctification would first winnow out or because there is a perverse frowardnesse of spirit whereby because they feele not that measure of sanctification which they would do therefore vilifie and so come to deny what indeed they have because they feele a law of sinne in their members leading them away captive will not with Paul take notice of the Law of their mindes whereby that inner man delights in the Law of God and mournes bitterly under the body of death by which they might see with Paul that there is no condemnation to such Rom. 8.1 To conclude what ever is the cause of this crookednesse of judgement I doe beleeve that the generall cause is want of attendance and standing unto the judgement of the Scriptures in this controversie for if this was stood unto men would not produce their own experience viz. that they could never finde any evidence from sanctification but they have met with it in another way by the immediate witnesse of the spirit onely nor would men cry it down because grace being mixt with so much corruption it can hardly be discerned and so will be alway lest in doubts and that the heart is deceitfull and many that have evidenced their estates hereby have been deceived I confesse thus the Popish Doctors argue against assurance of faith from the Scriptures without speciall and extraordinary revâ—lation but what is all this to the purpose if the Scriptures make it an evidence away then with thy corrupt experience shall this be judge or the Scriptures rather what though many judging of themselves by markes and signes have been deceived yet if the Scripture make it an evidence as we have proved then though men thorow their owne weaknesse or wickednesse have been deceived in misapplying promises yet the Scriptures cannot deceive you What though it be difficult to discerne Christs grace in us yet if the Scriptures will have us try our estates by that rule which in it selfe in easie but to our blindnesse and weaknesse difficult many times to see who shall who dares condemn the holy Scriptures which as they shall judge us at last day should judge us now Suppose that divers bookes and many Ministers sometimes give false signes of grace and Gods favour yet doth the Scriptures give any I shall propose one thing to conscience as the conclusion of this discourse Suppose thou wert now lying on thy death-bed comforting thy self in thy elected and justified estate suppose the Spirit of God should now grapple with thy conscience and tell thee if thou art justified then thou art called sanctified 2 Thes. 2.13 14. Is it thus with thee what wilt thou answer if thou sayst thou art not sanctified the word and spirit will beare witnesse then against thee and say then thou art not elected nor justified if thou saist thou knowest not thou lookest not to sanctification or fruits of the spirit they will then reply how then canst thou say that thou art elected or justified for it is a truth as cleare as the Sun and as immovable as heaven and earth None are elected and justified but they are also sanctified and they that are not sanctified are not justified Rom. 8.1 13. And now tell me how can you have peace unlesse you make your faces like slint before the face of Gods eternall truth or heale your consciences by such a plaister as will not stick If therefore the Lord ever made sinne bitter to thee let holinesse be sweet if continuance in sinne hath been an evidence unto thee of thy condemnation Oh let the riches of the grace of Christ in redeeming thee from the lamentable bondage and power of sinne be an evidence to thee of thy salvation Oh blesse God for any little measure of sanctification doe not scorne or secretly despise this spirit of grace as many in this degenerate age begin to doe saying You looke to graces and fruits and marks and signes and a holy frame of heart and sanctification what is your sanctification Oh let it be the more precious to thee mourning that thou hast so little and blessing the God and Father of all grace for what little thou hast wearing it as a bracelet of gold about thy necke knowing hereby that thou art borne of God and that the whole world lyeth in wickednesse and shall perish without this 1 Ioh. 5.18 19. 2. This is your glory beauty this is glorification begun what greater glory then to be like unto God to be like unto God is to be next to God and therefore this is called glory 2 Cor. 3.18 we are changed into the same image from glory to glory Every degree of grace is glory and the perfection of glory in heaven consists chiefly in the perfection of grace what is the worke of some men at this day but to cast reproach upon sanctification our glory 3. This will give you abundance of sweet peace and therefore Heb. 12.11 it is called the quiet fruit of righteousnesse for from whence comes the sore troubles and continuall doubts of Gods favour in many mens consciences Is it not some decay or guile here Psal. 32.1 2. Is it not some boldnesse to sinne that they walke not in feare and therefore not in the consolation of the Holy Ghost Is it not their secret dalliance with some known sinne continued in with secret impenitencie Is it not because they labouâ— with some strong unmortified corruption pride or passions that they are in daily pangs and throwes of conscience for Psal. 32.1 2 3 4. what was the rejoycing of Paul was it not that in all sincerity and simplicity he had his conversation among men 2 Cor. 1.12 What was Hezekiahs peace when dying as he thought was it not this Lord remember I have walked before thee uprightly Isa. 38.2 3. not that this was the ground of their peace for that onely is free grace in Christ but this is the meanes of your peace Ioh. 14.22 23. its a cursed peace which is kept by looking to Christ yet loving thy lust 4. This is that which will make you sit for Gods use 2 Tim. 2.20 21. a filthy uncleane cleane vessell is good for nothing till cleansed God will not delight to glorifie himselfe much by an unsanctified person what is thy wife children friends family the better for thee if thy heart remaine unsanctified 5. A little holinesse is eminently all springing up to eternall life this little spring shall never cease running but it shall fill Heaven it selfe and thy soule in
denyed as well as to be heard and he shall undoubtedly find the thing it selfe a lust is properly such a desire though for lawfull things wherein a man must have the thing because it pleaseth him as when Rachell asked for children she must have them else she must needs dye Give us water that wee may drinke was their brutish cry Exod. 17.1 2. not that we may live to him that giveâ— it holy prayers or desires opposed unto lusts are such desires of the soule left with God with submission to his will as may best please him now the Lord will heare the desires indeed of all that feare him but not fulfill their lusts These three are the essentiall properties of such prayer as is heard or if you will of that which is properly or spiritually prayer fâ—rvency and assurance c. are excellent ingredients but yet the Lord may heare prayer without them it is true the Lord may sometimes not heare us presently for our praying time is our sowing time we must not look presently for the harvest The Lord heares the prayer of the destitute Psal. 102.17 the originall word is of the shrub or naked place of the desert which the Prophet saith Ier. 17.6 sees no good when good comes yet such as feele themselves such the Lord doth regard them and will have a time to answer them and though the Lord may not give us the thing we pray for nor as good a thing of the same kind yet he ever gives us the end of our prayers hee that is at sea and wants stiffe winds to carry him to his port yet hath no cause to complaine if the Lord secretly carries him in by a strong current of the sea it selfe and it is certain at the end of all Gods dealing with you you shall then see how the Lord hath not failed to answer you in any one particular Ios. 23.14 Oh therefore see and be perswaded of this your priviledge that God will now heare every prayer many make a question How may we know when the Lord grants out any blessing as an answer to prayer many things are said to this purpose but the simplicity and plainnesse of the answer liâ—s in this viz. if it be a prayer God heares it if it be put up in Christs name it is then a prayer and that you may beleeve this and glory in this consider these reasons only to confirme this truth From the promise of Christ as in this place Iohn 14.13 14. which was a promise in speciall to be accomplished when hee came to his kingdome and therefore though it is true Gods grace is free and therefore you think the Lord may as well refuse to heare you as heare yet consider that by his promise he hath bound himselfe to heare From the Fatherly disposition that is in God Iohn 16.26 27. and hece he loves us and hence cannot but heare us Because all prayers put up in Christs name Christ makes intercession that they may be heard Heb. 7.25 hee hath laid downe his blood that all our prayers might be heard as we have provâ—d and indeed hence ariseth the infinite efâ—icacie of prayer because it is built upon that which is infinitely and eternally worthy Because all prayers of the faithfull arise from the Spirit of prayer Rom. 8.26 because as that which is for the flesh is of the flesh so that which is for the Spirit or for the sake of Christ for spirituall ends is ever of the Spirit Iohn 7.18 Because of the glory of Christ that the Father may be glorifyed in the Son cannot Christ be glorifyed unlesse he heare all prayers yes he could but yet his will is to reveale his glory by this meanes so that thou and thy prayers be vile and therefore deservest no acceptance nor answer yet remember that his glory is deare it is the glory of Kings to heare some requests and petitions but they cannot heare nor answer all it is the glory of Christ to heare all because he is able without the least dishonour to himselfe thus to doe Oh be perswaded of this how should your joy then be full how should you then delight to be oft with him how would you then encourage all to come unto him how would you then be constrained to doe any thing for him who is ready to doe all for you but oh woe unto our unbeleefe for that which the Apostle saith 1 Iohn 5.14 was ground of his confidence viz. that what ever wee aske according to his will hee heares us is no ground to us and wee may say and mourne to think this is our diffidence that what ever I aske according to Christs will he heares me not but oh recover from such a distrustfull frame and from all dead-heartednesse in this duty with all lest the Lord send task-masters and double our bricks and then we groan and sigh and cry and learne to pray that way that will not pray nor beleeve now If the Lord would but give us hearts assuredly you might not only rule your selves and families but by the power of prayer pull down and raise up Kingdomes dispose of the greatest affaires of the Church nay of the world you might hereby work wonders by meanes of him who ruling all things yet is overcome by prayer Hos. 12.4 5. SECT VI. Sixthly Glorification This is the sixth and last priviledge and benefit and you all know is the last thing in the execution of Gods eternall purpose toward all his beloved and chosen ones whom he hath predestinated called justified them he hath also glorified Rom. 8.30 hereby we are made perfect in holinesse no more sinne shall stirre in us perfect also in happinesse no more teares nor sorrowes nor temptations nor feares shall ever molest us Heb. 12.23 Revel 14.13 and all this shall bee in our immediate communion with God in Christ Col. 1.28 Iohn 17.23 24. wee shall be then saith Paul for ever with the Lord if the Lord would but open our eyes and give us one glimpse of this what manner of persons should we be how would we then live how willingly then should wee embrace faggots and flames prisons and penury the light afflictions here would not they work for us glory nay the Apostle useth such a phrase which I beleeve may pose the most curious oratour in the world to expresse to the life of it an exceeding weight of glory 2 Cor. 4.17 What is our life now but a continuall dying carrying dayly about us that which is more bitter then a thousand deaths what faith the Apostle to us You are dead yet when Christ shall appeare you shall appeare with him also in glory the generall security of these times foretold by Christ especially when Churches become Virgins and People are seeking after purity of Ordinances it shall not be in a want of watchfulnesse against the present corruptiions of the times so much as in a carelesse want of expectation of the comming oâ— Christ
in glory not having our loynes girt and lamps burning nor readinesse to meet the Lord in glory Mat. 25.1 2 3 4 5. c. oh that I were able therefore to give you a blush and a dark view of this glory that might raise up our hearts to this work Consider the glory of the place the Jewes did and doe dreame still of an earthly Kingdome at the comming of their Messiah the Lord dasheth those dreames and tells them His Kingdome is not of this world and that he went away to prepare a place for them that where he is they might bee John 14.2 3. and be with him to see his glory John 17.23 24. the place shall be the third heaven called our Fathers house built by his owne hand with most exquisite wisdome fit for so great a God to appeare in his glory Iohn 14.2 3. to all his deare children called also a Kingdome Mat. 25.31 Come ye blessed inherit the Kingdom prepared for you which is the top of all the worldly excellencie called also an inheritance 1 Pet. 1.4 which the holy Apostle infinitely blesseth God for as being our owne and freely given to us being our Fathers inheritance divided among his sonnes which is a greater priviledge then to bee borne an heire to all the richest inheritances on this earth or to bee Lord of all this visible world for this inheritance hee tells us is 1. incorruptible whereas all this world waxeth old as a garment 2. T is undefiled never yet polluted with any sinne no not by the Angels that fell for they fell in paradâ—â—â— when Guardians to man whereas this whole creation groaneth under the burden and bondage of corruption Rom. 8. 3. This never fadeth away t is not like flowers whose glory and beauty soone witheâ—s but this shall be most pleasant sweet and ever delightsome after we have been ten thousand yeers in it as it was the first day we entred into it for this is the meaning of the word and so it differs from incorruptible whereas in this world suppose a man should ever enjoy it yet there growes a secret satiety and fulnesse upon our hearts and it growes common and blessings of greatest price are not so sweet as the first time wee enjoy them they clog the stomach and glut the soule but here our eyes ears minds hearts shall be ever ravished with that admirable glory which shines brighter then ten thousand suns the very fabrick of it being Gods needle-work if I may so say quilted with variety of all flowers in divers colours by the exactest art of God himselfe as the Apostle intimates Heb. 11.10 Secondly consider of the glory of the bodies of the Saints in this place the Lord shall change our vile bodies which are but as dirt upon our wings and clogs at our feet as the Apostle expressâ—th it Phil. 3. ult Paul was in the third heaven and saw the glory doubtlesse of some there see what he saith of them 1 Cor. 15.42 43 44. 1. It shall be an incorruptible body it shall never dye nor â—ot againe no not in the least degree tending that way it shall never grow weary as now t is by hard labour and some time by holy duties nor faint nor grow wrinkled and withered Adams body in innocencie potuit non mori we say truly but this non potest mori it cannot dye and hence it is that there shall be no more sicknesse paines griefes fainting fits c. when it comes there 2. It shall be a glorious body it shall rise in honour saith Paul and what glory shall it have verily it shall be like unto Christs glorious body Phil. 3. ult which when Paul saw Acts 9. did shine brighter then the sun and therefore here shall be no imperfection of limbes scars or maimes naturall or accidentall deformities but as the third heaven it selfe is most lightsome Gen. 1.1 2. so their bodies that inhabit that place shall exceed the light and glory thereof these being more compacted and thence shining out in greater lustre that the eyes of all beholders shall be infinitely ravished to see such clods of earth as now we are advanced to such incomparable beauty and amiablenesse of heavenly glory 3. It shall be a powerfull strong body It is sowne in weaknesse saith Paul it shall rise in power it shall be able to help forward the divine operations of the soule which are now clogg'd by a feeble body it shall be able to beare the weight of glory the joy unspeakable and full of glory which our weake bodies cannot long endure here but we begin to burst and breake in pieces like vessels full of strong spirits with the weight and working of them and therefore the Lord in mercy keeps us short now of what else we should feele it shall be able to sing Hallelu-jahs and give honour glory power to the Lambe that fits upon the Throne for evermore without the least weariness 4. It shall be a spirituall body our bodies now are acted by animall spirits and being earthy and naturall growes feeds eates drinkes sleepes and hath naturall affections and desires after these things and â—is troubled if it wants them but then these same bodies shall live by the indwelling of the Spirit of God powred out abundantly in us and upon us and so acting our bodies and swallowing up all such natural affections and motions as those be here as Moses being with God in the Mount forty dayes and nights did not need any meat or drinke the Lord and his glory being all unto him how much more shall it bee thus then I doe not say we shall be spirits like the Angels but our bodies shall be spirituall having no naturall desires after any earthly blessing food rayment c. nor troubled with the want of them and hence also the body shall be able as well to ascend up as now it is to descend down as Austin shewes by a similitude of lead which some artists can beat so small as to make it swim we are now earthly and made to live on this earth and hence fall downe to the center but we are made then to bee above for ever with the Lord the Lord proceeding from imperfection to perfection as the Apostle here shewes not first spirituall and then naturall but first that which is naturall in this life and then that which is spirituall 3. Consider the glory of the soule now we know but in part and see but in part now we have joy at some times and then eclipses befall us on a sudden but then the Lord shall be our everlasting light Isa. 60.19 then we shall see God face to face 1 Ioh. 3.1 2. we shall then know and see those things that have been hid not onely from the wicked but from the deepest thoughts of the Saints themselves in this world 2 Cor. 12.4 Paul saw some things not fit to be uttered or that he could not utter we shall be swallowed up in
possession by the blood of Christ we enter into the holy of holies a price of infinite value must bring a kind of infinite glory 2. We are by Christ nearer to God then Angels are whose glory wee see is very great 3. Shall not our glory be to sâ—t out the glory of Christ 2 Thes. 1.10 and if so then it his glory be exceeding great ours must bear a due proportion and be very very great also 4. Doth not God pick out the poore and vile things of the world to be vessels of glory 1 Cor. 1.27 and is not that an argument that he intends exceedingly to glorifie himselfe on such to raise up a most glorious building where he layes so low a foundation 5. Are not we loved with the same love as he hath loved Christ Iohn 17. ult and shall not our glory abound then exceedingly 6. Is not the torment and shame of the Reprobates to be exceeding great and grievous doth not God raise them up to make his power known Rom. 9.23 What then shall we think on the contrary of the glory of the Saints wherein the Lord shall set forth his power in glorifying them as hee doth the glory of his power in punishing others and therefore 2 Thes. 1.9 the punishment of the wicked is exprest by separation of them from the glory of the Lords power because that in the glory of the Saints the Lord will as I may so say make them as glorious as by his power ruled by wisdom he is able to make them This is therefore the great glory of all those whom God hath called to the fellowship of his deare Sonne and which is yet more blessed be God the time is not long but that we shall feele what now we doe but heare of and see but a little of as we use to doe of things afar off We are here but strangers and have no abiding city we look for this that hath foundations and therefore let sinne presse us downe and weary us out with wrastling with it let Satan tempt and cast his daâ—ts at us let our drink be our teares day and night and our meat gall and worm wood let us be shut up in choaking prisons and cast out for dead in the streets nay upon dung-hils and none to bury us let us live alone as Pelicans in the wildernesse and be driven among wild beasts into deserts let us be scourged and disgraced stoned sawn asunder and burned let us live in sheep-skins and goat-skins destitute afflicted torâ—ented as who looks not for such dayes shortly yet oh brethren the time is not long but when we are at the worst and death ready to swallow us up we shall cry out Oh glory glory oh welcome glory If our miseries here be long they shall be light if very bitter they shall be short however long or short they cannot be to us long who look for an eternall weight of glory Who would not that considers of these things despise this world and set it at his heeles who hath all these priviledges and benefits with Christ in his eye who would not abhor a filthy lust to enjoy such a Christ who would ever look back unto his flesh-pots or fathers house that hath such welcome made him the first moment he comes to the Lord Jesus in having present fruition of some of these benefits but present right unto all fruition of some by feeling of all by faith But oh the wrath of God upon these times that either see not this glory or if they doe despise so great salvation Christ and pardon and peace adoption grace and glory is brought home to our doores but their price is falne in our market and we think it better to be without Christ with our lusts then to be in Christ with his benefits The reproach of Christ was dearer to Moses as great a Courtier and as strong a head-piece as our times can afford then all the riches and honours of Egypt but the grace and peace and life and glory of Jesus Christ is viler to us then the very onyons and leeks and flesh-pots of Egypt if you had but naked Christ our life for a prey in these evill times you had no cause to complaine but infinitely to rejoyce in your portion but when with Christ you shall find all these benefits and priviledges comming in as to your portion and yet to despise him Assuredly the Lord will not beare with this contempt alway Away to the mountaines and hasten from the townes and cities of your habitation where the grace of Christ is published but universally despised you blessed called ones of the Lord Jesus for the dayes are comming wherein for this sinne the heavens and earth shall shake the sunne shall be turned into darknesse and the moone into blood and mens hearts failing for feare of the horrible plagues which are comming upon the face of the earth Dreame not of faire weather expect not better dayes till you heare men say Blessed is he that commeth in the name of the Lord who thus blesseth his with all spirituall blessings in Christ Eph. 1.3 I now proceed to the last CHAP. III. All those that are translated into this blessed estate are bound to live the life of love in all fruitfull and thankefull obedience unto him that hath called them according to the rule of the morall Law Psal. 40.7 8. THe Lord doth no sooner call his people to himselfe but as soone as ever he hath thus crowned them with these glorious priviledges and given them any sense and feeling of them but they immediately cry out Oh Lord what shall I now doe for thee how shall I now live to thee they know now they are no more their owne but his and therefore should now live to him If you aske Moses after all the love and kindnesse the Lord had shewne Israel what Israel should doe for him you shall see his answer full Deut. 10.12 13. And now O Israel what doth the Lord require of thee but to fear the Lord thy God and to love him and serve him with all thy heart and to keepe his Commandements which I command thee this day for thy good If you aske Paul as Evangelicall a Christian as ever lived what now we are to do when we are in Christ hee answers punctually 2 Cor. 5.14 15. The love of Christ constraineth us because we thus judge that Christ dying for those that were dead they that live should not live unto themselves but unto him that dyed for them and rose againe If we aske Peter the question to what end the Lord hath called us out of darknesse into his marvelous light he expresly tells you it is to shew forth the vertues of him that hath so called 1 Pet. 2.9 If wee be doubtfull whether this be the Lords minde the Lord himselfe resolves it by Zachary Luk. 1.74 and tells us that t is his oath That we being delivered out of the hands of our enemies wee should
man-slavers of the 6. for whoremongers and defilers of mankinde of the 7. for men-stealers of the 8. for Lyars of the 9. and for those that in any thing walke contrary to sound doctrine the purity of the Law and will of God of the 10. So that this place is farre from favouring any of those that run in this channell of abolishing the Law as our rule No beloved the love of Christ will constrain you to embrace it as a most precious treasure It is the observation of some that in the Preface to the Morall Law Exod. 20.1 2. the Lord reveales himselfe to bee the Lord their God that brought them out of the Land of Egypt the very scope of which words is to perswade to a reverend receiving keeping of that good Law this Law all nations are bound to observe because he is Iehovah the Lord but to be thy God in speciall Covenant and that redeemed thee from Egypt and from that which was typified by it this belongs to none but unto them especially that are already the people of God and therefore of all other people in the world they are bound to receive it as their rule for obedience doth not make us Gods people or God our God but hee is first our God which is only by the Covenant of grace and thence it is that being ours and we his we of all others are most bound to obey To conclude they that stick in these bryers therefore cry downe the law as a Christians rule because by this means a Christian shall find no peace because he is continually sinning against this Law the Law therefore say they will be alway troubling of him I answer first a corrupt heart and putrid conscience can have no peace by the Law Isa. 57.21 there is no peace to the wicked and it is good it should be so 2. A watchfull Christian may Psal. 119.15 Great peace have they that keepe thy Law Hezekiah had it when he desired the Lord to remember how he had walked before him with a perfect heart Isa. 58.1 2 3. Paul found it the testimony of his conscience bearing him witnesse was his rejoycing herein 2 Cor. 1.12 3. If a Christian ignorant of maintaining his peace with God by faith in his justification notwithstanding all the errors in his obedience and sanctification if I say hee wants his peace shall wee therefore break the Law in pieces if a secure Christian that walkes loosely want peace by the accusations of the Law t is Gods mercy to him to give him no peace in himselfe while he is at truce with his lust 4. That peace will end in dismall sorrow which is got by kicking against the Law it is but dawbing for a man to keep his peace by shutting his eyes against the way of peace a servant may have peace in his idlenesse by thinking that his Master requires no work from him and by hiding his talent yet what will his Lord say to him when his day is ended and he comes to reckon with him at Sun-set bring the Law into thy conscience in point of justification it will trouble conscience for there only Christs righteousnesse Gods grace and the promise are to be looked on and our own obedience holines laid by in the dust but bring it before thee as a rule of thy sanctification and as thy copy to write after and to imitate and aspire after that perfection it requires it will then trouble thee no more then it doth a child who having a faire copy set him to write after and knowing that he is a sonne is not therefore troubled because he cannot write as faire as his copy hee knows if he imitates it his scribling shall be accepted howsoever though his Father may chastise him with rods if he be carelesse to imitate yet he will never cast him therefore off from being his sonne The truth is this it argues a most gracelesse carnall wretched heart for a man to cast by Gods rules because attendance to them is his trouble and torment which unto a gracious heart are life and peace and sweetnesse All the wayes of wisdome to him are wayes of pleasantnesse and her paths peace And it is Gods common curse upon them that love not the truth in these dayes that because sin is not their sorrow nor breach of rules their trouble that therefore the observance of the Law and attendance unto rules shall bee their burden and trouble they feele not the plague in their owne hearts and therefore reproofes plague them and commands are a plague and a torment to them crooked feet and crooked wills make men tread awry in such corrupt opinions All the called ones of God are therefore to live this life of obedience and that out of love which I call the life of love Gal. 5.6 for else circumcision availes nothing nor uncircumcision no nor faith it selfe unlesse it be of this nature as that it works by love there is much obedience and externall conformity to the Law in many men but the principall difference between these formalities and the obedience of the Saints is love the obedience of the one ariseth from selfe-love because it pleaseth themselves and suits with their owne ends the other from the love of Christ because it pleaseth him and suits with his ends 1 Cor. 13.4 c. 1 Iohn 5.3 Wherein doth and should this life of love appear In these five particulars In thinking and musing much on Christ and upon his love and on what you shall doe for him he that saith he loves another and yet seldome thinks on him or will seldome give him a good look when he meets him certainly deceives himselfe the least degree of love appeares in thinking on what we love because the loving kindnesse of God was better then life unto David hence hee did remember him upon his bed and meditate on him in the very night Psal. 63.3.6 they that feare the Lord i. with a sonne-like feare where love is chiefly predominant are such as think upon his name Mal. 3.16 We have thought of thy loving kindesse oh Lord in thy Temple Psal. 48.9 Thou that canst spend dayes nights weeks months yeares and hast thy head all this time swarming with vain thoughts and scarce one living thought of Christ and his love that didst never beat thy head nor trouble thy selfe in musing oh what shall I doe for him nor in condemning thy selfe because thou dost so little verily thou hast not the least degree of this life of love In speaking and commending of him is it possible that any man should love another and not commend him not speak of him if thou hast but a Hawk or a Hoâ—â—d that thou lovest thou wilt commend it and can it stand with love to Christ yet seldome or never to speak of him nor of his love never to commend him unto others that they may fall in love with him also you shall see the Spouse Cant
5.9.16 when she was asked what her beloved was above others shee sâ—ts him out in every part of him and concludes with this he is altogether lovely because thy loving kindnesse saith David is better then life my lips shall praise thee and I will blesse thee whiles I live Psal. 63.3 4. can it stand with this life of love to be alway speaking about worldly affayres or newes at the best both week-day and Sabbath day in bed and at boord in good company and in bad at home and abroad I tell you it will be one maine reason why you desire to live that you may make the Lord Jesus knowne to your children friends acquaintance that so in the ages to come his name might ring and his memoriall might be of sweet odour from generation to generation Psal. 71.18 if before thy conversion especially thou hast poysoned others by thy vaine and corrupt speeches after thy conversion thou wilt seek to season the hearts of others by a gracious sweet and wise communication of savory and blessed speeches what the Lord hath taught thee thou wilt talke of it unto others for the sake of him whom thou lovest In being oft in his company and growing up thereby into a familiar acquaintance with him can we be long absent from those we love intirely if we may come to them can we love Christ and yet be seldom with him in Word in Prayer in Sacraments in Christian Communion in Meditation and dayly Examination of our owne hearts in his providences of Mercies Crosses and Tryals for Christ is with us here but those two wayes in his Ordinances or Providences by his holy Spirit Lord saith David I have loved the habitation of thy house and the place where thine honour dwelleth Psal. 26.8 The ground of which is set down vers 3. Thy loving kindnesse is before mine eyes my soule longeth for thee as in a land where no water is that I might see thee as I have seen thee in the Sanctuary the reason of it was because thy loving kindnesse is better then life Psal. 63.1 2 3. In doing much for him and that willingly did not Jacob love Rachel how did hee expresse it his seven yeares service in frost and snow in heat and cold by day and night were nothing to him for her sake whom hee loved Shall I serve the Lord saith David of what cost me nothing And when he had prepared many millions for the building of the Temple yet he accounted it a small thing for his sake whom hee loved 1 Chron. 29.3 he gave it out of his poverty as he speakes this is love to keep his Commandements and those are not grievous 1 John 5.3 In suffering and enduring any evill for his sake I confesse it is not every degree of love that will carry a man hither yet where there is great and singular love for a good man one may be willing to dye Rom. 5.7 assuredly if there be any love to Christ it will in time increase to this measure it will think ten thousand lives too little to lay down for Christs sake that laid down his precious life for him What tell you me saith Paul of bonds and imprisonments I am ready not only to be bound but to dye for the sake of Christ at Jerusalem my life is not dear to me no more then a rush at my foot that I may finish my course with joy for thy sake we are killed all the day long Rom. 8.36 I tell you the love of Christ will make you fall down upon your knees and blesse the Lord that he will accept of such a poore sacrifice as thy body is though it be burnt to ashes and thou wilt blesse him againe and againe that whereas he might have left thee in thy sinnes to have troden him and his glory and grace under foot as he hath done thousands in the world yet that he should call thee to share in this honour not only to doe but to suffer for his sake Now the good Lord perswade all our hearts unto this fruitfull obedience and life of love Oh you young men you have a faire time before you to doe much for Christ in how pleasing will it bee to him to see such young trees hang full of fruit You aged men have now one foot in your grave and you have forgotten the Lord Jesus most of your time and your time which now remaines is very little and then your lampe is out your Sun is almost set and all your work is yet to be done for Christ oh therefore awaken now at last before you awaken when it is too late you rich men have abilities and wherewithall to set forward Christs Kingdome in the Townes and Villages where you live you poore men may doe much by ardent and instant prayers day and night for the advancement of the Lord Jesus You Husbands Wives Masters Servants remember if you are not good in your places you are not good at all what ever your profession be a good woman but a froward wife a good man but a haire-braind curst husband a good servant but a very sore tongue these cannot well stand together If you have any love to Christ the life of love will make you move best in your proper place oh therefore love much and so think much and speak much of and converse much with and doe much and suffer much for the Lord Jesus Christ content not your selves with doing small things for him that hath done and suffered much for you if you can doe but little yet set God on work by being fervent and frequent in prayer not only that Christ may be honoured in your selves but also in your families and in all Churches and Kingdomes of the world If you cannot doe much yet maintaine alive a will to doe much which is accepted as if you did 2 Cor. 8.12 If thou art a poore man and hast nothing to give yet keep a heart as liberall as a Prince if you can doe but little your selves yet encourage others that may thou art not a Preacher called to convert soules yet doe thou encourage the messengers of Christ in their worke by thy prayers counsell help and at last day the conversion of soules shall be attributed unto thee as well as unto them if thou canst not doe any good yet prevent what evill thou canst in thy place to keep oft judgments at least to delay them mourne thou for other mens sins as if they were thine owne that so the Lord may pity and pardon them and it may bee convert them who shall doe more good it may be then ever thou canst doe let the Lord Jesus be in thy thoughts the first in the morning and the last at night doe what thou canst nay goe continually to him to enable thee to doe more then thou of thy selfe canst and mourne bitterly and lament dayly what thou hast not done either through want of ability or will remembring his love to thee
evidence of favour from any Christian obedience or sanctification in holy duties or that a Christian should profanely cast off all duties because they cannot save themselves by them No no the Lord will search with candles one day for such sonnes of darknesse and exclude such foolish virgins that have neither oyle in their vessels nor light in their lamps I onely speak of that good that righteousnesse which is rested in without Christ and lifts up men above Christ which in deed in truth is not true righteousnesse but only a true shadow of it And therefore as Beza well observes from Rom. 9.32 Why did not Israel that followed after righteousnesse attain it Because they sought it not by faith but as it were by the works of the Law they were not fruits of sincere obedience to the Law but as it were the works of the Law now this saith the Apostle verse 33. is the stumbling stone in Sion Christ will have all flesh vaile and be stript naked and made nothing before him before they shall ever be built upon him now this men stumble at they must bring something to him they will not be vile emptinesse and nothingnesse that he may be all to them verily observe your selves you shall find if there be little humiliation there is little of Christ if much humiliation much of Christ if unconstant humiliation uncertain fruition of Christ if reall humiliation reall possession of Christ if false humiliation imaginary fruition of Christ. Know it you cannot perish if you fall not short here you must perish if you do Be exhorted therefore to lye down in the dust before the Lord and under the Lord nay intreat the Lord that he would put thee upon his wheele and mould thy heart to his will why will you rest in any good you have Oh remember thy father was a Syrian ready to perish and thy selfe polluted an infinite endlesse evill What ever good thou dost is it not a polluted stream of a more polluted spring Nay suppose the Spirit works any good in thee yet is it not polluted by thy unclean heart Nay suppose any actions should be perfect yet remember the Lord spared not the Angels that sinned perfection present cannot satisfie Justice for pollution past Cry out therefore and say Oh Lord now I see not onely that my sinne is vile but that my self and all my righteousnesse is vile also and now though the Lord stands at a distance speaks no peace heare 's no prayers yet because thou art very vile lye downe under him that if he will he may tread upon thee and thereby exalt himselfe as well as lift thee up and exalt thee Be not carelesse whether the Lord help or no but be humble not to quarrell in case he should not For 1. Suppose thou art not onely miserable but sinfull and the Lord thou sayst takes it not away yet remember that to quarrell with God for withdrawing his hand is a sin also Lam. 3.39 and wilt thou adde sinne to sinne 2. Why art thou quiet and still when the Lord denyes thee any common mercy Is it not because the Lord will have it so Now look as we say of him that hates sin as sin that he hates all sinne so he that is meekned with Gods good pleasure in any one thing because of his good pleasure in it upon the same ground will at least desire to stoop in every thing Suppose therefore it be the Lords good pleasure to deny thee mercy I grant you must pray for it yet with submission to the good will of the Lord saying The Lords will is good but mine is evill otherwise thou hast no meeknesse in any thing that art not meekly subject to his will in every thing 3. The greatest pride that is in man appeares here for suppose the Lord should deny thee bread or water or clothes was it your duty to murmur now nay was it not pride if the heart would not lye down and say Lord I am worthy to have my bread pluckt from my mouth and my clothes from my back Now if it be pride to murmur in case the Lord denyes you smaller matters the offals of this life dost not thou see that its far greater pride for thee to sink and quarrell with him if he denyes thee greater and the things of another life is he bound to give thee greater that doth not owe thee the least Suppose a begger murmur at thy doore if thou dost deny him bread or a cup of drink wilt thou not account him a proud stout begger but if thou givest him that and then he quarrell and murmur at thee because thou dost not give him a thousand pound or thy whole estate when he asks it will you not say I never met with the like insolencie the Lord gives you your lives blessed be his name but you aske for treasures of grace and mercy thousands of pounds Christ himself and all that he is worth and the Lord seems to deny you and now you sink and grow sullen and discontent and quarrell and murmur at God not directly but secretly and slily may not the Lord now say Was there ever such pride and insolency And therefore as Christ spake of himselfe Iohn 12.24 25. A corne of wheat cannot live unlesse it die first so know it you shall never live with Christ unlesse you die and perish in your selves unlesse you be sowne and lye under the clods of your owne wretchednesse faith will never spring up in such a soule As t is in burnings the fire must be first taken out before there can be any healing so this impatient spirit which torments the soule must first be removed before the Lord will heale thee 4. Consider the approaching times I do beleeve the Lord at this day is comming out to shake all nations all hearts all consciences all conditions and to teare and rend from you your choicest blessings peace and plenty both externall and internall also for there is need of it our age growes full and proud and wanton a mans price is falne in the market unlesse his locks and new fashions commend him to the world Oh consider when God comes to â—end all from you then you may finde a need of the exercise of this duty it may be the time is comming wherein you shall have nothing to support your hearts you shall find rest in no way but this I know assurance of Gods love may quiet you but what if the Lord shake all your foundations and deprive you of that what will you doe then and therefore as Zephany cap. 2.3 having foretold of the evill day cryes unto his hearers Seeke meeknesse yee meeke of the earth seek meeknesse so say I to you for you will find all little enough Come downe from thy throne and be the footstoole and threshold of Christ Jesus before the dayes of darknesse come upon you be content to be a cipher a stepping-stone the very offall of the