though the Soul that was sealed should for the present be under new darkness new temptations and fears yet former sealing will give establishment and relief when the thoughts run back to the sealing day and a man remembers how clear God once made his title to Christ Well then open to Christ if ever you expect to be sealed to salvation If you continue to despise and reject the tenders of Christ in the Gospel whilst others that embrace him are sealed to redemption Your unbelief and final rejection of Christ will seal you up to the day of damnation V. And lastly we read likewise in the Scriptures of the Earnest of the Spirit This is three times mentioned in the Scriptures Eph. 1. 14. Which is the earnest of our inheritance until the redemption of the purchasad possession 2 Cor. 1. 22. where it is joyned with the former priviledge of sealing Who hath also sealed us and given the earnest of the Spirit in our Hearts And again 2 Cor. 5. 5. He that hath wrought us for the self same thing is God who also hath given unto us the earnest of the Spirit The word is 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 originally a Syriak word The Greeks are supposed to get it from the Phonician Merchants with whom they traded and it notes a part paid in hand to confirm a bargain for the whole There are two things in an earnest 1 It is part of the sum or inheritance If it were a contract for a sum of mony then it was a small part of a greater parcel If for an Inheritance then the earnest is a taking a part of the Inheritance as a twig or turf part of the whole Now the Spirit of God chooses this word on purpose to signifie two great things to his People by it 1. That those comforts communicated by the Spirit to Believers are of the same kind with the Joys of Heaven though in a far inferiour degree 1 Pet. 1. 8. called there Ioy unspeakable and full of glory and Rom. 8. 23. called there The first-fruits of the Spirit The First-Fruits and the Crop or Harvest are one in kind Surely there is something of Heaven as well as Hell tasted by men in this world Hell is begun here in the terrors of some mens Consciences and Heaven also is begun here in the absolution peace and comfort of other mens Consciences 2. As an earnest is part of the sum or inheritance so the use and end of it is confirmation and security as much as to say Take this in part till the whole be paid yea take it for thy security that the whole shall be paid Believers have a double pledge or earnest for Heaven one in the person of Christ who is entred into that glory for them Iohn 14. 2 3. The other in the joys and comforts of the Spirit which they feel and taste in themselves These are two great securities and the design of God in giving us these earnests and foretasts of Heaven are not only to settle our minds but to whet our industry that we may long the more earnestly and labour the more diligently for the full possession The Lord sees how apt we are to flag in the pursuit of Heavenly Glory and therefore gives his People a taste an earnest of it to excite their diligence in the pursuits of it God deals with his People in this case as with Israel they had been forty years in the Wilderness many sore temptations they had there encountred at last they were come upon the very borders of Canaan but then their hearts began to faint there were Anakims Gyants in the Land poor Israel feared they should not stand before them but Ioshua sends Spies into the Land who returning bring the first-fruits of Canaan to them whereby they saw what a goodly Country it was and then the fear of the Anakims began to vanish and a spirit of Courage to revive in the People Thus it is even with the Borderers upon Heaven tho' we be near that blessed Land of promise yet our hearts are apt to faint upon a prospect of those great sufferings without us and those conflicts with corruptions we feel within us But one taste of the first fruits of Heaven like those grapes of Eshcol revive our Spirits rouze our Zeal and quicken our pursuits of blessedness For these reasons God will not have all of Heaven reserved till we come thither And now tell me you that have tasted these first-fruits of the Spirit 1 Is there not something in faith of that glorified Eye by which the pure in heart do see God in Heaven Matth. 5. 8. O that eye of Faith that precious eye which comes as near to the glorified eye as any thing in this imperfect state can come 1 Pet. 1. 8. Whom having not seen ye love in whom though now ye see him not yet believing ye rejoyce with joy unspeakable and full of glory 2 Is there not something of that glorified love to be felt in an inferiour degree by the Saints in this world What else can we make of that transport of the Spouse Cant. 2. 5. Stay me with flagons comfort me with apples for I am sick of love 'T is true our love to God in Heaven is much more servent pure and constant yet these high-raised acts of spiritual love have a tast and relish of it 3 Is there not something here of that heavenly delight wherewith the glorified delight in God As the visions of God are begun on earth so the heavenly delights are begun here also Some drops of that delight are let fall here Psal. 94. 19. In the multitude of the thoughts I had within me thy comforts delight my Soul. David's heart 't is like had been full of sorrow and trouble a sea of gall and wormwood had overflowed his Soul God le ts fall but a drop or two of heavenly delight and all is turned into sweetness and comfort 4 Is there not something here of that transformation of the Soul into the image of God which is compleat in Heaven and a special part of the glory thereof 'T is said in 1 Iohn 3. 2. We shall be like him for me shall see him as he is This is Heaven this is glory to have the Soul moulded into full conformity with God something thereof is experienced in this world O that we had more 2 Cor. 3. 18. But we all with open face beholding as in a glass the glory of the Lord are changed into the same image from glory to glory as by the Spirit of the Lord. 5 Is there not something felt here of the ravishing sweetness of God's presence in Ordinances and Duties which is a faint shadow at least of the joys of his glorious presence in Heaven there is certainly a felt presence of God a sensible nearness unto God at some times and in some duties of Religion wherein his name is as an oyntment poured forth Cant. 1. 3. something that is felt beyond
of sin and still continue in it How shall we that are dead to sin continue any longer therein Rom. 6. 2. Trust Providence for the supply of your wants and the wants of yours in ways of Duty and Righteousness A little that a Righteous man hath is better than the Riches of many wicked You 'l have more comfort in Bread and Water with peace of Conscience than in full Tables with Gods curse You 'l lye more at ease on a burden of Straw than on a Bed of Down with a grumbling conscience III. Instance How many lye under the condemnations of their own consciences for the lusts of Uncleanness in which they live and though they read and their consciences apply to them such Scriptures as that 1. Cor. 6. 9. Be not deceived neither Fornicators nor Idolaters nor Adulterers nor Effeminate nor Abusers of themselves with mankind c. shall inherit the Kingdom of God a dreadful Sentence and that Heb. 13. 4. Whoremongers and Adulterers God will judge Yet convictions are overborn and stifled by 1. The Impetuous Violence of carnal Lusts which permit not of calm debates but hurry them on to the sin and leave them to consider the evil and dangerous consequences afterward Thus they go as an Oxe to the slaughter or as a fool to the correction of the stocks Prov. 7. 22. Lust besots them To give counsel now is but to give Physick in a Paroxisme or counsel to him that is running a Race Lust answers conscience as Antipater did one that presented him a Book treating of Happiness 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 I have no leisure to read such Discourses 2. Others would feign solve their scruples with the sinful failings of good men as David Solomon c. not considering what brokenness of Heart it cost David Psal. 51. and the other sorrow more bitter than death Eccl. 7. 26. Laeta venire venus tristis abire solet This is a presumptuous way of sinning and how dreadful that is see Numb 15. 30. IV. Instance Truth is often held in unrighteousness by sinful Silence in not reproving other mens sins and thereby making them our own We are sometimes cast into the company of ungodly Men where we hear the name of our God blasphemed the Truth Worship or Servants of God reproached and have not so much courage to appear for God as others have to appear against him In such cases Conscience useth to instigate men to their duty and charge it home upon them in the authority of such a Scripture as that Lev. 19. 17. Thou shalt not hate thy brother in thy heart thou shalt in any wise rebuke thy neighbour and not suffer sin upon him O saith Conscience thy silence now will be thy sin This poor wretch may perish for want of a seasonable plain and faithful rebuke Thy silence will harden him in his wickedness No sooner doth such a conviction stir in the Conscience but many things are ready to lay hold on it as 1. A Spirit of Cowardice which makes us afraid to displease men and chuses rather the wrath of God should fall on them than that their wrath should fall on us We dare not take as much liberty to reprove sin as others do to commit it They glory in their shame and we are ashamed of what is both our glory and our duty 2. Dependance on or near relation to the Person sinning 'T is a Father an Husband a Superior on whose favour I depend and should I displease him I may ruine my self this is the voice of the Flesh. Hence duty is neglected and the Soul of a Friend basely betrayed Our Interest preferr'd to Gods and thereby frequently lost for there is no way to secure our own interest in any mans heart as to settle it by our Faithfulness in his Conscience and by being willing to hazzard it for Gods interest and glory The Lord blesseth Mens Faithfulness above all their sinful Carnal Policies Prov. 28. 23. He that rebuketh a man afterwards shall find more favour than he that flattereth with his lips 3. Mens own Guilt stops their Mouths and silences them They are ashamed and afraid to reprove other mens sins left they should hear of their own Fear of Retortion keeps them from the duty of Reprehension Thus we fall into a new sin for fear of reviving an old one He that reproveth a scorner getteth to himself shame and 〈◊〉 that rebuketh a wicked man getteth himself a bist Prov. 9. 7. But this is the fruit of our Pride and Ignorance What we fear might turn to our benefit The Reproof given is a Duty discharged and the Retortion in return a fresh call to Repentance for sin past and a caution against sin to come V. Instance Another Instance of Convictions of unrighteousness imprisoned in mens Souls is in not distributing to the necessities of others especially such as fear God when it is in the power of our hands to do it and Conscience as well as Scripture calls us to our Duty Men cannot be ignorant of that Text Math. 25. 40 41. where by a Synecdoche Charity to the Saints is by Christ put for the whole of Obedience and mens Eternal States are cast according to their observance of this command though I fear few very few study and believe it as they ought Thou canst saith Conscience if thou wilt relieve such or such a poor Christian and therein express thy love to Christ yea refresh the bowels of Christ do it God will repay it if thou refusest how dwelleth the love of God in thee 1 Ioh. 3. 17. This is the Voice of God and Conscience but divers Lusts are ready to lay hold on and bind this Conviction also assoon as it stirs viz. 1 The excessive love of Earthly things The World is got so deep in mens Hearts that they will rather part with their peace yea and with their Souls too than to part with it Hence come those Churlish answers like that of Nabal 1 Sam. 25. 11. Shall I take my bread and my water and my flesh and give it to men whom I know not whence they be 2. Unbelief which denies to give Honour and due Credit to Christs Bills of Exchange drawn upon them in Scripture and presented to them by the hands of his poor Saints They refuse I say to credit them though Conscience protest against them for their Non-compliance Christ saith Mark 9. 41. Whosoever shall give you a cup of cold water to drink in my name because ye belong to Christ verily I say unto you he shall not lose his reward He shall gain that which he cannot lose by parting with that which he cannot keep 3. The want of love to Jesus Christ. Did we love Christ in sincerity and were that love so fervent as it ought to be it would make thee more ready to lay down thy neck for Christ than thou now art to lay out a shilling for him 1 Ioh. 3. 16. 'T is our Duty in some cases
bear it or could Spira bear it What 's the Torment of Hell but the Worm that dies not and what is that Worm but the remorse of Conscience Mark 9. 44. O what is that fearful Expectation mentioned Heb. 10. 27. see how you like that life described Deut. 28. 65 66. the primitive Christians chose rather to be cast to the Lyons than into the Paws of an enraged Conscience ad leones potius quam ad Lenones Every little trouble will be insupportable to a sick and wounded Conscience as a quart of water would be to your Shoulder in a great leaden Vessel O if men did but fear their own Consciences if they did reverence themselves as the Moralist speaks If they did herein Exercise themselves to have alwayes a Conscience void of offence as Paul did Acts 24. 16. Then would you be clear of this great Sin of holding the Truth in Unrighteousness III. Direction If you would escape the guilt and danger of holding Gods Truths in Unrighteousness then keep your Hearts under the awful sense of the Day of Judgment when every secret thing must come into Judgment and Conscience like a Register book is to be opened and examined The Consideration of that day gives your Consciences a sevenfold defensative against Sin. 1. It provokes every man to get real solid Grace and not rest in an empty Profession Matth. 25. and this secures us from formal Hypocrisie That we be not found foolish Virgins 2. It excites us to the diligent improvement of our Talents that we be not found slothful Servants neglecting any duty God and Conscience calls us to Matth. 25. 21. 3. It confirms and establishes us in the ways of God that we wound not Conscience by Apostacy 1 Ioh. 2. 28. 4. It s a loud call to every man to Repentance and not to lye stupid and senseless under guilt Acts 17. 30 31. 5. 'T is a powerful Antidote against formality in Religion the general and dangerous disease of Professors Matth. 7. 22 23. 6. It excites holy fear and watchfulness in the whole course of Life 1 Pet. 1. 17. 7. It puts us not only to our watch but to our knees in fervent Prayer 1 Pet. 4. 7. And he that feels such effects as these from the consideration of that Day is fortified against that sin my Text warns of and dares never hold the Truth of God in Unrighteousness 'T is our regardlessness of Judgement to come and ignorance of the Nature of it which so emboldens us to neglect known Duties and commit known Sins Amos 6. 3. 2 Pet. 3. 3 4. If our Thoughts and Meditations were engaged more frequently and seriously on such an aweful Subject you would rather chuse to dye than to do violence to your Consciences IV. Direction Get right and true apprehensions of the Moral Evil that is in sin and of the Paenal Evil that follows sin then no Temptation shall prevail with you to commit a sin to escape a present trouble or neglect a known duty to accommodate any earthly interest and consequently to hold no truth of God in unrighteousness 'T is fear of Loss and Sufferings that so often overbears Conscience but if men were once made throughly sensible that the least sin is worse for them than the greatest affliction or suffering the peace of Conscience would be well secured And that this is really so appears thus 1. Afflictions do not make a man vile in the Eyes of God. A Man may be under manifold Afflictions and yet very dear and precious in Gods Account Heb. 11. 36 37 38. but S in makes a man vile in the Eyes of God Dan. 11. 2. 2. Afflictions do not put men under the Curse of God Blessings and Afflictions may go together Psal. 94. 12. but Sin brings the Soul under the Curse Gal. 3. 10. 3. Afflictions make men more like unto God Heb. 12. 10. but Sin make us more like the Devil 1 Ioh. 3. 8. Ioh. 8. 34. 4. Afflictions for Conscience sake are but the Creatures wrath inflam'd against us but Sin is the inflamer of Gods Wrath against us as in the Text. 5. Afflictions are but outward Evils upon the Body but Sin is an internal Evil upon the Soul. Prov. 8. 36. 6. Afflictions for Duties sake have many sweet Promises annexed to them Matth. 5. 10. but Sin hath none 7. The effects of Sufferings for Christ are sweet to the Soul 2 Cor. 7. 4. but the fruits of Sin are bitter it yields nothing but shame and fear 8. Afflictions for Christ are the way to Heaven but Sin is the Road-way to Hell Rom. 6. ult 9. Sufferings for Duty are but for a Moment 2 Cor. 4. 17. but Sufferings for sin will be Eternal Mark 9. 44. If such thoughts might be suffered to dwell with us how would they guard the Conscience against Temptations and secure their Peace and Purity V. Direction Be throughly perswaded of this great Truth that God takes great pleasure in uprightness and will own and honour Integrity amidst all the dangers that befall it Psal. 11. 7. Prov. 11. 20. when he would encourage Abraham to a Life of Integrity he engages his Almighty power for the protection of him in that way Gen. 17. 1. I am God Almighty walk thou before me and be perfect So Psal. 84. 11. The Lord God is a Sun and a Shield he will give grace and glory and no good thing will be with-hold from them that walk uprightly An upright man is the boast of Heaven Iob 1. 8. He is Gods darling and the reason is because he bears the Image of God Psal. 11. 7. The upright Lord loveth uprightness Yea and if Integrity bring them into trouble they may be sure the Lord will bring them out Psal. 34. 19. Many are the afflictions of the righteous but the Lord delivereth them out of all How safely then may they leave themselves in the hands of his infinite Wisdom Power and Fatherly Care Nay God is not only the Protector but he is also the Rewarder of Conscientious Integrity Psal. 18. 20. and that four ways 1. In the inward peace it yeilds them Isaiah 32. 17. The work of righteousness shall be peace and the effect of righteousness quietness and assurance for ever But the effect of sinful shifts and carnal Policies are shame and sorrow 2. In the Success and Issue of it it not only turns to Gods glory but it answers and accommodates our own designs and ends far better than our sinful projects can do Prov. 28. 23. 3. Great is the Joy and Encouragement resulting from it in the day of Death 2 King 20. 3. Psal. 37. 37. 4. In the World to come Psal. 49. 14. Were this duely considered and throughly believed men would chuse rather to part with life than the purity and peace of their own Consciences They would suffer all wrongs and injuries rather than do Conscience the least injury VI. Direction Do not idolize the World nor overvalue the Trifles of
this life 't is the love of the World that makes men warp from the Rules of their own Consciences 2 Tim. 4. 10 't is this that makes men strain hard to get loose from the ties and bonds of their own Consciences The young man was convinced but the world was too hard for his Convictions Luk. 18. 23. the degree of his Sorrow was according to the degree of his Love to the Creature 'T is not the having but the overloving of the world that ruins us 'T is a worldly Heart which makes men twist and turn shuffle and dissemble at that rate they do in time of Temptation Could you once dethrone this Idol how secure and safe would your Consciences be The Church is described Rev. 12. 1. as clothed with the Sun and the Moon under her Feet The most zealous Age of the Church was the Age of Poverty Try these few considerations upon your hearts to loose them from the inordinate love of the World. 1. What good will the World do you when you have lost your Integrity for its sake and peace is taken away from the inner man VVhat joy of the world had Iudas and what comfort had Spira If you part with your integrity for it God will blast it and it shall yield you no joy 2. Except you renounce the world you are renounced by Christ. Disclaim it or he will disclaim you Luke 14. 33. No man can be admitted into Christs Service but by fealing those Indentures with him 3. VVhat ever loss or dammage you shall sustain for Christ and Conscience sake he stands obliged to repair it to you and that with an infinite overplus Mark 10. 29. 30. 4. In a word all the Riches Pleasures Honours and Liberties in the world are not able to give you that Joy and heart-refreshing Comfort that the acquitting and chearing voice of your own Consciences can do Settle these things in your hearts as defensatives against this danger VII Direction Lastly Beg of God and labour to get more Christian Courage and Magnanimity for want of this Conscience is often overborn against its own Light and Conviction Christian magnanimity is Consciences security 'T is excellent and becoming a Christian to be able to face any thing but the frowns of God and his own Conscience All the famous Champions of Truth and VVitnesses for God that came victorious out of the Field of Temptation with safe and unwounded Consciences were men of Courage and Resolution see Dan. 3. 16. Heb. 11. 27. Acts 21. 13. and what is this Christian Courage but the fixed resolution of the Soul to Encounter all dangers all sufferings all reproaches pains and losses in the strength of assisting Grace that shall assault us in the ways of our duty and so it stands opposed in Scripture to the Spirit of Fear Heb. 11. 27. to Shame Mark 8. 38. to Apostacy Heb. 10. 39. He must neither be afraid nor ashamed nor lose one inch of ground for the sake of what dangers he meets with and that because he hath embraced Christianity upon those terms and was told of all this before Ioh. 16. 1. because there 's no retreating but to our own ruin Heb. 10. 38. because he owes all this and much more than this to Christ Phil. 1. 29. because he understands the value of his Soul above his Body and of Eternals above and beyond all temporals Matth. 10. 28 and in a word because he believes the Promises of Gods Assistance and rewards Heb 11. 25 26 27. O my Friends were our fears thus subdued and our Faith thus exalted how free and safe would Truth be in our Consciences He that owns any Truth to live upon it or accommodate a carnal Interest by it will disown that Truth when it comes to live upon him let Conscience plead and say what it will but he that hath agreed with Christ upon these Terms to be content to be miserable for ever if there be not enough in Christ to make him happy this man will be a steddy Christian and will rather lie in the worst of the Prisons than to imprison Gods known Truths in Unrighteousness The Conclusion I have now done my Message I have set before you the Lord Jesus in the glory of his Free Grace and condescending Love to Sinners Oh that I had skill and ability to have done it better I have woed and expostulated with you on Christs behalf I have laboured according to my little measure of strength to cast up and prepare the way by removing the stumbling Blocks and Discouragements out of it This hath been a time of Conviction to many of you some have not been able to hold their Convictions any longer under restraints but many I fear do so and therefore I have in the close of all handled this startling and awakening Scripture among you to shew you what an horrid evil it is to detain Gods Truths in Unrighteousness I have also in the Name and Authority of God demanded all the Lords Prisoners his suppressed and restrained Truths at your hands If you will unbind your Convictions this day cut as under the bonds of carnal fear shame c. with which you restrain them those Truths you shall so make free will make you free If not but you will still go on stifling and suppressing them in your own Bosomes remember that there are so many VVitnesses prepared to give evidence against you in the Great Day And Oh that whilst you delay this Duty the sound of this Text may never out of your ears nor suffer you to rest For the wrath â—f God is revealed from heaven against all ungodliness and unrighteousness of men who hold the truth in unrighteousness FINIS â—act lib. 70. de divina praemio p. 578 579. Secundo Lact. de justitia l. 5. p. 382 383. Bernardi Sermo 33 in â—antic Casus Consc. lib. 3 p. 116. S. Ford. Ambitio Sac. Animalis homâ— Durham in loc 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Cornu sic fit 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 per syncoâ—en 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Doct. â— â— Reason 2. Reason Mr. Anth. Burgesse on 1 Cor. 3. Object Answ. Object Sol. Isa. 48. 8 9. 1. Reas. Isa. 27. 4. 2. Reas. 3. Reas. 4. Reas. 5. Reas. Mr. Lockier in Colos. 1. Consid. 2. Consid. 3. Consid. 4. Consid. 1. Motive 2. Motive 3. Motive 4. Motive Ephes. 1. 7. 5. Motive 6. Motive 1. Obj. Answ. 2. Obj. Answ. 1. Demonst. 2. Demonst. 3. 〈◊〉 4. Demonst Isa. 44. 5. 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Qualiscunque fuerit peccator Hypocrita qui diu obstitit Evangelio 7. Doct. Object Sol. â— Iâ—fer II. Infer III. Infer IV. Infer V. Infer VI. Infer Object Answ. 8. Doct. * Clamor hic est pulsatio significant cogitata a Deo injecta ad monendam peccatoris conscientiam id Deus aliquandiu facit non semper Pools Synops in loc Quest. Answ. 1. Sign 2. Sign 3. Sign 4. Sign 5. Sign 9. Doct. I. Infer Mr. Anthony Burges in his Spiritual Refining 2. Infer 4. Infer 10. Doct. Method of Grace p. 25 1. Reas. 2. Reas. 3. Reas. 4. Reas. 1. Infer 2. Infer Object Sol. 3. Infer 4. Infer 1. Plea. 2. Plea. 3. Plea. 4. Plea. 5. Plea. Quest. Answ. Dr. Iacom in Rom. 8. p. 69 84. 1. Evid 2. Evid 3 Evid 4 Evid 5 Evid 6 Evid 7 Evid 8 Evid 9 Evid 10 Evid Text. 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉
Ah sinner how canst thou grieve and dishonour that God that thus feedeth clotheth and comforteth thee on every side Do you thus requite the Lord O foolish people and unwise Yet all will not do neither Judgments nor Mercies can affright or allure the carnal Heart to Jesus Christ. T is his Spirit his Almighty power alone that opens these everlasting Gates and makes these strong Bars give way and fly at his voice I. Inference Behold here the dismal state of nature the woful condition of all unregenerate Souls Christ the Redeemer shut out Sin and Satan shut in This is the horrid state of nature shut up in unbelief Rom. 4. 32. Ah Lord what a condition is this We should certainly account it an unspeakable misery to be shut into a House haunted by the Devil where we should be continually scared and frighted with dreadful noises and apparitions but alas what is an apparition of the Devil without us to the inhabitation of the Devil within us Nay what is the possession of a Body to Satans possession of the Soul Yet this is the very case of the unregenerate Luke 11. 21. The strong Man armed keepeth the Palace till Christ dispossess him by Sovereign victorious Grace Poor wretch canst thou start at a supposed vision of a Spirit and not tremble to think that thy Soul is the habitation of Devils There is a twofold misery lying upon all Christless unregenerated persons Satan is 1. Their Ruler in this World. 2. Their Tormenter in that to come 1. He is their Ruler in this World the Spirit that now worketh in the Children of disobedience Ephes. 2. 3. Look as the holy Spirit of God dwells and rules in sanctified Souls walks in them as in hallowed Temples guiding and comforting the Souls of the Saints so Satan dwells in unregenerate Hearts actuating their lusts inflaming them with his temptations using their faculties and members as instruments of unrighteousness And then 2ly He will be their Tormenter in the World to come He that Tempts now will Torment then Matth. 25. 41. Depart from me ye cursed into everlasting fire prepared for the Devil and his Angels Flee therefore and escape for your lives sleep not quietly another Night in so dismal and dreadful estate If the Son make you free then are you free indeed II. Inference What a glorious and admirable effect of Sovereign omnipotent grace is the effectual conversion of a sinner unto God! If every Heart by nature be secured for Satan under so many Locks and Bars then the opening of any Heart to Christ is deservedly marvellous in our Eyes You all acknowledge that the opening of the Graves at the Resurrection will be a glorious display of Almighty power and so it will it will be a wonderful thing to behold the Graves opened and the dead raised at the voice of the Arch-angel and the trump of God but yet give me leave to say That the opening of thy Heart poor sinner to receive Christ is a more glorious work than that of raising the dead It is therefore deservedly put into the first rank of the great mysteries of godliness that Christ is believed on in the World 1 Tim. 3. 16. He that well views and considers Christ may justly wonder that all the Hearts in the enlightned World do not stand wide open to embrace him and he that shall consider the frame and temper of the natural Heart and how strongly Satan hath intrenched and fortified himself in it may justly wonder to hear of a work of Conversion in an age Oh Brethren consider the marvels of Conversion the wonderful works of God upon the Soul that opens unto Christ by Faith. 1. There 's a new Eye created in the mind The Son of God is come and hath given us an understanding that we may know him that is true 1 John 5. 20. Oh that Eye That precious Eye of Faith which shews the Soul as it were a new World a World of new and ravishing objects Eph. 5. 8. All the Angels in Heaven Ministers and Libraries upon Earth cannot create such an Eye give such an Illumination t is only he that commanded the light to shine out of the darkness that thus shineth into our Hearts to give the light of the knowledge of the glory of God in the face of Iesus Christ 2 Cor. 4. 6. 2ly And what a glorious supernatural Work is the conviction of the Conscience by the powerful stroak of the saving beams of light upon it Now the Conscience that lay in a dead sleep begins to startle and look about it with fear and horror Life and sense is got into it and now it cries ah sick sick sick at the Heart for sin sick for a Saviour 3ly And no less marvelous an effect of the Almighty power is the bowing of the stuborn Will so efficaciously so congruously and so determinately and fixedly to the Lord Jesus The Will is efficaciously determined so as no power of Hell or Nature can resist or frustrate that Mighty power which worketh effectually in all them that believe 1 Thes. 2. 13. Yet it works not by way of compulsion but in a way congruous and agreeable to the nature of the Will Hosea 11. 4. I drew them with the cords of a Man with the bands of love Satan bids for the Soul Christ infinitely outbids all his offers Eternal Spiritual and unsearchable Riches instead of sensitive perishing enjoyments which determin the choice of the Will in its own natural method by the sight of the excelling glory of Spiritual things And thus the mighty supernatural power of God opens that Heart which Satan had secured so many ways against Christ. III. Inference Hence it also follows that Man hath no free will of his own to supernatural good The Will cannot by its own power open it self to receive Christ by faith When it doth open to him it is not virtute innata sed illata not by its natural power but by the power of God upon it The admirers of Nature talk much of the Sovereignty Virginity and Liberty of the Will as if it alone had escaped the fall and that no more but a moral swasion is needed to open it to Christ that is that God need do no more to save Men than the Devil doth to damn them But if ever God make you sensible what the work of â—aving Conversion is you will quickly find that your Will is lame its freedom to Spiritual things gone you will cry out of a wounded Will as well as of a dark Head and a hard Heart You will quickly find That it is God alone that worketh in you both to will and to do of his own good pleasure Phil. 2. 13. That the birth of the new Creature is not of the Will of Man but of God Iohn 1. 13. IV. Inference Learn hence the necessity of Conversion in order to Salvation Christ and Heaven are shut up against you till your hearts be savingly opened unto him
the Son of God. Had they not been precious in his Eyes he would never have shed his most precious Blood to ransom them 2. Were they not highly valuable in his Eyes he would never wait with such unwearied Patience to save them as he doth He hath born Thousands of repulses and unreasonable denials from you Sinner Christ hath knockt at thy door in many a Sermon in many a Prayer in many a sickness in all which thou hast put him off denyed him or delayed him yet still he continues knocking and waiting Thou couldst not have made the poorest Beggar in the World wait at thy door so long as thy Redeemer hath been made to wait and yet he is not gone At this day his voice sounds in thine ears Behold I stand at the door and knock Here 's clear demonstration of the preciousness of thy Soul in the Redeemer's Eyes And then Lastly When Christ ends the Treaty and gives up the Souls of Men for lost and unperswadable with what regret and sorrow doth he part with them Never did one Friend part from another with such demonstrations of sorrow as Christ parteth with the Souls of sinners The Bowels of his compassion roul together for the knows what is coming upon them and what that eternal misery is into which their wilful rejection of him will cast them In Luke 19. 22. you find the Redeemers tears wept over obstinate Ierusalend And when he came nigh to the City he wept over it and said O Jerusalem Jerusalem that thou hadst known at least in this thy day the things that belong to thy peace but now they are did from thine Eyes Like unto this is that expression Isa. 1. 24. Ah I will ease me of mine enemies c. Though it be an ease to his Justice yet he cannot give them up without an ah an interjection of sorrow so in Hosea 11. 8. How shall I give thee up Ephraim How shall I deliver thee Judah I must do it but how shall I go about it All these expressions shew the great value God hath for your Souls and did you know it also certainly you would not make Christ wait one hour longer V. Inference Hence it follows That greater is the sin and severer will be the condemnation of them that perish under the Gospel than of all other People in the World. Let me speak freely to you that hear me this day Jesus Christ hath spent more of the riches of his Patience upon you in one year yea in this very day than he hath spent upon the heathen World in all the days of their lives they never heard of Christ and the great Salvation they have had no calls to Faith and Repentance as you have had dont think God hath dealt at this rate with other Nations You have his Sabbaths Ministers Calls he hath not dealt so with other Nations and as for these things they have not known them Psal. 147. 19. God hath dealt in a peculiar way with us and these special favours will make dreadful accounts He told the Iews among whom he had preacht and wrought his Miracles It would be more tolerable for Sodom and Gomorah in the day of Iudgment than for them and in his Name I will tell you this day that Barbarous Indians and Americans will have a milder Hell than you Mitius ardent and as the Lord told Ezechiel chap. 3. 5 6. Thou art not sent to a People of a strange Speech and of an hard Language whose words thou canst not understand surely had I sent thee to them they would have harkned unto thee but the house of Israel will not harken unto thee for they will not harken unto me For all the house of Israel are impudent and hard hearted Ah Brethren 't is a sad Truth that the Ministers of Christ have found more fruit of their Labours among the Salvage Americans than in England a People born and bred up under the Gospel Had heathenish People your Sabbaths your Ministers and Bibles they would not deal by Christ as you have done But look you to it for certainly the severity of his Justice will at last recompence the expence of his Patience There are two Glasses turned up this day and both almost run down the Glass of the Gospel running down on Earth and the Glass of Christ's Patience running down in Heaven Be sure of it that for every sand of Mercy every drop of Love that runs down in vain in this World a drop of wrath runs into the vial of wrath which is fitting in Heaven VI. Inference If Christ have exercised such admirable Patience and Long-suffering towards you before he could gain entrance into your Hearts then you have all the reason in the World to exercise your Patience for Christ and account all long-suffering to be your unquestionable duty Christ was not weary in waiting upon you be not you weary in waiting upon him or for him Now there are three things wherein the People of God will have much occasion to exercise their Patience with respect to Christ 1. You will need a great deal of Patience to wait for the returns and answers of your Prayers you knock and wait at the door of Mercy and no answer comes hereupon discouragement and weariness seizeth your Spirits Possibly some of you have Prayers many years agone upon the file in Heaven some upon Spiritual accounts and some upon Temporal and because the answer is not dispatcht your Eyes are ready to fail with waiting for the Lord may bear long with his own Elect Luke 18. 7. The seed of Prayer lyes under the clods and will at last spring up for he never said to the seed of Jacob Seek me in vain none seek God in vain but those that seek him vainly Now you should not be too quick and short breathed in waithing upon God for the returns of Prayer considering how long you made Christ wait upon you 2. You will have occasion to exercise your Patience in bearing the burden of reproaches and sufferings for Christ For to you it is given in the behalf of Christ not only to believe but also to suffer for his sake Phil. 1. 29. Sufferings you see are the Gifts of Christ the Comforts of sufferings is his Gift and so are the abilities to suffer-also and that which will encrease your suffering-ability will be the confideration of Christ's long-suffering towards you and the hard things he endured for you and from you 3. You will have occasion to exercise your Patience for the day of your compleat Redemption and Salvation If you love Christ fervently the time of your separation from him will be born difficultly vehement love needs the allay of Patience 2 Thes. 3. 5. The Lord direct your Hearts into the love of God and into the patient waiting for Christ. Others need much Patience to dye but such will need as much Patience to live but whatever the exercises of your Patience shall be whether in waiting for
born and Baptized Christians and that 's enough they think to save them Matth. 3. 9. We have Abraham to our Father they thought it sufficient that Abraham's blood ran in their Veins though there were not a spark of Abraham's faith kindled in their Souls the Lord forgive the sin of those Men that lead poor Souls into such fatal mistakes O if Men were but aware of the necessity of a greater and further Work to pass upon their Souls than their Baptism common powerless profession or the Similar Works which appear upon formal Hypocrites Heaven and Earth would ring with their cries But ignorance of the nature and necessity of special regenerating Grace like a Dose of Opium casts the Consciences of many into this deep sleep 2ly Freedom from grosser sins and pollutions of the World stills and quiets the Consciences of thousands they have had a civil sober and fair Education and though there be no Grace and Regeneration yet what Saints do they seem to themselves being adorned with sobriety and civility This stilled the Conscience of the Pharisee Luke 18. 11. God I thank thee that I am not as other Men are extortioners unjust adulterers or even as this Publican Thus like delicate Agag they spruce up themselves with moral homilitical vertues wherein many thousand Heathens were more gay than themselves but Justice will hew them to pieces as Agag was for all their moral ornaments and endowments 3ly The strict performance of the external duties of Religion quiets the Consciences of many they question not but those that do so well shall fare well and that God will never damn Men and Women that keep their Church and say their Prayers as they do Thus the carnal Jews deluded themselves crying The Temple of the Lord The Temple of the Lord as malefactors in some of our Neighbouring Kingdoms fly to the Church from the Hand of Justice so do these but God will pluck them from the Horns of the Altar and convince them that the empty name of Religion is no security from damnation 4ly Many Consciences are still'd and quieted in a natural sinful state by misinterpreting the voices of Providence it may be God prospers your Earthly affairs succeeds and smiles upon your undertakings and this you conclude must be a Token of his love and favour But alas this is a great mistake the Lord give you better evidences of his love than these for who prosper more in the World than wicked Men And who are more crost than the people of God Read Iob 21. and Psal. 73. and compare both with Eccles. 9. 1. and you will quickly find the vanity of all hopes built upon such a foundation However by such things as these are the God of this World blinds the Eyes of multitudes II. Inference If every conviction be a knock of Christ. how deeply are all Souls concerned in the success and issue of them Conviction is an Embrio of the new Creature if it go out its full time and come to a perfect new Birth it brings forth Salvation to your Souls if it miscarry finally you are finally lost It is of infinite concernment therefore to every Man and Woman to be tender over those Convictions their Consciences go big with all 'T is true Conviction and Conversion are two things there may be Conviction without Conversion though there can be no Conversion without Conviction The blossoms upon the Trees in the Spring of the Year cannot properly be called Fruit they are rather the rudiments of Fruit or something in order to Fruit if they open kindly and knit or set firmly perfect Fruit follows them but if a blast or a frosty Morning kill them no Fruit is to be expected Thus it is here great care therefore ought to be taken about the preservation and success of Convictions both by 1. The Soul it self that is under them 2. And by all others that are concerned about them 1. What care should the Soul it self have upon whom Convictions are wrought Have a care Friends how you quench them divert or hinder the operations of them lest you hinder as much as in you lies the very conception of Christ in your Soul by them I remember it is said in Exod. 21. 22. If Mâ—n strive and hurt a Woman with Child and mischief follow life shall be given for life The life of your Souls is bound up in the life of your Convictions I know it is hard for Men and Women to dwell with their own Convictions guilt and wrath are sad Subjects for Men's thoughts to dwell upon but yet 't is far better to dwell with the thoughts of sin and wrath here than to lye sweltering under them in Hell for ever You may be rid of your Convictions and your Salvation together be not too eager after peace a good Trouble is better than a false Peace And upon the other side beware that your Convictions and Troubles turn not into discouragements to Faith this will cross the proper intention of them They are Christ's knocks for entrance and were never intended to be bars or stumbling blocks in your way to him not stops but steps in your way to Christ. 2ly Let all others that are concerned about convinced Souls beware what Counsels they give and what rules they prescribe lest they render them abortive and destroy all in the bud There are two errors too commonly committed one in excess perswading Souls under trouble of Conscience that there 's no coming for them to Christ unless they be so and so prepared humbled just at such a degree this is dangerous counsel it over-heats the troubles of Conscience and keeps the Soul from its proper present duty and remedy I am sure Paul and Silas took no such course with the convinced Jaylor nor Peter with the three thousand wounded Consciences Acts 2. Nor do I find where God hath stated the time and degree of Spiritual Troubles so that there must be no adresses to Christ in the way of Faith until they have suffered them so long and to such an height If they have imbittered sin to the Soul and made it see the necessity of a Saviour I think they cannot move too soon after Christ in the way of Faith. Let not Men set bounds where God sets none There is another error committed in defect when Promises and Comforts are presently applied before the nature of Faith is known or one act of recumbency put forth towards Christ These hasty comforts come to nothing they will not they cannot stand 'T is a dangerous thing to apply Gospel cordials and pour out the precious ointment of the Promises upon them that were never Heart-sick for sin When upon every sleight trouble which is but as an early dew the peculiar consolations of penitent and believing Souls are hand-over-head applied to them How many such unskilful Empericks are there in every place Such as the Prophet Ieremy complains of They have healed the hurt of the Daughter of my People
injuries thou hast done against him that 's a very considerable Scripture to this purpose in Isa. 55. 7 8 9. Let the wicked for sake his way and the unrighteous Man his thoughts and let him return unto the Lord and he will have mercy upon him and to our God for he will abundantly pardon For my thoughts are not your thoughts neither are your ways my ways saith the Lord. For as the Heavens are higher than the Earth so are my ways higher than your ways and my thoughts than your thoughts Man lies under a double misery one by reason of Affliction another by reason of Transgression concerning both these Gods thoughts are not as ours but far above what we can think either 1. with simple cogitation i. e. we cannot think such thoughts to others under misery in themselves or under transgression against us as God doth towards as Or 2. by way of reflexive comprehension i. e. we cannot conceive what those thoughts of God are towards us when we are under misery or sin just as he thinks them still his thoughts will be above ours as the Heavens are above the Earth such is the altitude of Heaven above the Earth that the vast body of the whole Earth is but a small inconsiderable point to it the highest Cedars Mountains Clouds cannot reach it Gods thoughts are infinite ours finite his thoughts are continued ours interrupted and at a stand his are immutable ours changable his are intuitive ours discursive therefore never measure his by your own the thoughts of pardoning Grace in him are rich plenteous and glorious but when our unbelieving Hearts have practised upon them they are quite another thing Thou saist how can such a Wretch as I obtain mercy Thou knowest not but the Lord knoweth O if we could take in such a proper Idea and apprehension of the mercy and goodness of God as he hath given of them himself in Exod. 34. 6 7. this would bring you to Christ with much incouragement VIII Direction Eighthly Be not discouraged in the work of Faith though no peace or comfort should come in by the first act of it Nay though there should be an increase of trouble for the present the first saving act of Faith certainly puts you into a state of peace but it may not presently produce the sense of peace you may after you have believed and really closed with Christ meet with some discouragements which may make you question whether Christ have received you or no Whether he have any love for your Souls or no Yet held on whether comfort come or come not though Christ and comfort are inseparable yet Christ and the sense of comfort are not so think not that all your troubles shall be over as soon as ever you believe because it is said Heb. 4. 3. We which have believed do enter into rest That Scripture speaks of a state of rest and not of the present or continued sense of rest the Woman of Canaan in Matth. 15. 26 27. did really believe in Christ yet met with sore tryals under the first act of her Faith yet this took her not off from the work of Faith but rather quickned and inflamed her the more she was glad of a word from Christ and she expected deeds O but the words were discourageing It is not meet to take the Childrens bread and give it to Dogs yet this beats not off her Faith the Dog belongs to the Family and crumbs to the Dog. O Woman saith Christ great is thy Faith. If you resolve for Christ you must not be discouraged a resolute Faith overcomes all difficulties You pray you believe and yet no comfort well the vision of Peace is for an appointed time at the end it will speak and not lye IX Direction Ninthly In your treating with Christ have a care of all secret reserves that will spoil the bargain betwixt Christ and you If I regard iniquity in my Heart God will not hear my prayer saith David If there be but a reserve of one lust that reserve will break off the Treaty be honest with Christ and say not of any sin the Lord be merciful to me in this and be sure there be no secret purpose or reserve in thy Heart for a retreat in time of danger but imbark thy self with Christ for Storms and Tempests Troubles and Afflictions as well as Peace and Prosperâ—ty Christ bestows himself wholly upon you and he expects the same from you give up all or you will get nothing from him X. Direction Tenthly Close up your Treaty with Christ by a solemn Covenant with him ingage your selves to be the Lords One shall say I am the Lords and another shall subscribe with his Hand to the Holy One of Israel Here you have two things to do 1. To give your selves up to Christ according to that expression 2 Cor. 8. 5. You gave your selves to the Lord Make over Soul and Body Time and Talents henceforth to be dedicated things to his Service 2. Take Christ in both his Natures and in all his Offices to be yours and to this Covenant you are to stand to the last breath whatever times or troubles shall come this consent of thy Heart to be Christs this choice of thy Will in taking him for thine is but the eccho of Christs choice of thee and I would rather have such an evidence of my interest in him than a voice from Heaven to assure me that Christ is mine SERMON VII Revel 3. 20. Behold I stand at the door and knock if any Man hear my voice and open the door I will come in to him and will sup with him and he with me If any Man. THIS expression extends the gracious offer of Christ and brings it home to every hearer 'T is a Proclamation with a Si quis If any Man as if Christ should say I will have this offer of my Grace to go round to every particular person if thou or thou or thou the greatest the vilest of sinners of what quality or condition soever old or young prophane or hypocritical wilt hear my voice and open to me I will come in to their Souls And hereby all objections are obviated as for Example I am the greatest of sinners saith one I have been a self couzening hypocrite saith another I have resisted Grace too long and doubt the time of Mercy is past saith a third the ground of all these and a thousand more objections is taken away by the gracious extent of Christs offer in the Text For who is he that can limit where Christ doth not This gives us a Seventh profitable and comfortable Observation which is this VII DOCT. That Iesus Christ will not refuse to come in to the Soul of the vilest sinner when once it is made heartily willing to open to him If any Man open I will come in to him It is not unworthiness but unwillingness that Bars any Man from Christ thousands have mist of
Psal. 51. 8. Make me to hear joy and gladness that the bones which thou hast broken may rejoyce restore unto me the joys of thy salvation vers 12. I cannot here omit to detect a great mistake here even amongst Gods own people many of them understand not what communion there should be with God under the manifestations of his displeasure for sin they know that the affectionate meltings of their Souls into love praise c. to be communion with God but that the shame grief and sorrow produced in them by the manifestations of Gods displeasure I say that even in these things there may be communion with God they understand not But let me tell thee that even such things as these are the choice fruits of the Spirit of Adoption and that in them thy Soul hath as real and beneficial communion with God as in the greatest transports of Spiritual joy and comfort O'tis a blessed frame to be before the Lord as Ezra was after conviction of thy loosness carelesness and Spiritual defilements the consequents of those sins saying with him O my God I am ashamed and even blush to lift up my face unto thee Ezra 9. 6. Shame and blushing are as excellent signs of communion with God as the sweetest smiles Lastly There are representations and special contemplations of the omniscience of God producing sincerity comfort in appeals and recourse to it in doubts of our own uprightness And this also is a choice and excellent method of communion with God. 1. When the omniscience of God strongly obliges the Soul to sincerity and uprightness as it did David Psal. 139. 11 12. compared with Psal. 18. 23. I was also upright before him The consideration that he was always before the Eye of God was his preservative from iniquity yea from his own iniquity 2. When it produceth comforts in appeals to it as it did in Hezekiah 2 Kings 20. 3. Remember now O Lord that I have walked before thee in truth and with a perfect heart So Iob 10. 7. he also appeals to this attribute Thou knowest that I am not wicked So did Ieremiah Chap. 12. 3. But thou O Lord knowest me thou hast seen me and tryed my heart towards thee 3. When we have recourse to it under doubts and fears of our own uprightness Thus did David Psal. 139. 23. Search me O God and try my heart prove me and see my reins see if there be any way of wickedness in me In all these attributes of God Christians have real and sweet communion with him which was the first thing to be opened Communion with God in the meditation of his attributes Secondly The next method of communion with God is in the exercise of our graces in the various duties of Religion In Prayer Hearing Sacraments c. in all which the Spirit of the Lord influences the graces of his people and they return the fruits thereof in some measure to him As God hath planted various graces in regenerate Souls so he hath appointed various duties to exercise and draw forth those graces and when they do so then have his people sweet actual communion with him And 1. To begin with the first grace that shews it self in the Soul of a Christian to wit repentance and sorrow for sin In the exercise of this grace of repentance the Soul pours out it self before the Lord with much bitterness and brokenness of Heart casts forth its sorrows which sorrows are as so much seed sown and in return thereto the Lord usually sends an answer of peace Psal. 32. 4 5. I said I will confess my transgression and thou forgavest the iniquity of my sin Here 's a voice of sorrow sent up and a voice of peace coming down which is real communion betwixt God and Man in the exercises of repentace 2ly As there are seasons in duty wherein the Saints exercise their repentance and the Lord returns peace so likewise the Lord helps them in their duties to act their faith in return whereunto they find from the Lord inward support rest and refreshment Psal. 27. 13. I had fainted unless I had believed And oft-times an assurance of the mercies they have acted their faith about 1 Iohn 5. I4 3ly The Lord many times draws forth eminent degrees of our love to him in the course of our duties the heart is filled with love to Christ. The strength of the Soul is drawn forth to Christ in love and this the Lord repays in kind love for love Iohn 14. 21. He that loveth me my Father will love him and we will come and make our abode with him Here is sweet communion with God in the exercises of love O what a rich trade do Christians drive this way in their duties and exercises of graces 4ly To mention no more in the duties of Passive Obedience Christians are enabled to exercise their patience meekness and long suffering for Christ in return to which the Lord gives them the singular consolations of his Spirit Double returns of joy The Spirit of glory and of God resteth upon them 1 Pet. 4. 13 14. The Lord strengthens them with passive fortitude with all might in the inner-man unto all long-suffering but the reward of that long-suffering is joyfulness Col. 1. 11. This is the trade they drive with Heaven Thirdly Beside communion with God in the contemplation of his attributes and graces exercised in the course of duties there is another method of communion with God in the way of his Providences for therein also his people walk with him To give a taste of this let us consider Providence in a fourfold aspect upon the people of God. 1. There are afflictive providences rods and rebukes wherewith the Lord chastens his children this is the discipline of his house in answer whereunto gracious Souls return meek and childlike submission a fruit of the Spirit of Adoption they are brought to accept the punishment of their iniquities And herein lies communion with God under the rod this return to the rod may not be presently made for there is much stubborness unmortified in the best hearts Heb. I2 7. but this is the fruit it shall yield and when it doth there is real communion between God and the afflicted Soul. Let not Christians mistake themselves if when God is smiting they are humbling searching and blessing God for the discoveries of sin made by their afflictions admiring his wisdom in timing moderating and chusing the rod kissing it with a childlike submission and saying it is good for me that I have been afflicted that Soul hath real communion with God though it may be for a time without joy 2ly There are times wherein providence straightens the people of God when the waters of comfort ebb and run very low wants pinch if then the Soul returns filial dependance upon fatherly care saying with David Psal. 23. 1. The Lord is my shepherd I shall not want It belongs to him to provide and to me to depend I
treasures Psal. 119. 14. I have rejoyced in the way of thy commandments as much as in all riches II. It prepares the Soul for Passive Obedience makes a man to rejoyce in his sufferings Col. 1. 24. 'T will make a Christian stand as Porters in London do at the Merchants doors to receive any burden or load they have to lay upon their shoulders and thank them to be so employed This joy of the Lord is their strength Neh. 8. 10. A Christian under the chearful influences of near communion with God can with more chearfulness lay down his neck for Christ than other men can lay out a shilling for him In all these Twenty particulars you have an account of the Excellency of this priviledge but oh How short an account have I given of it What remains is the Application of this point in a double Use 1. Of Information 2. Of Exhortation First For Information in the following Inferences I. Inference How sure and certain a thing is it that there is a God and a state of glory prepared in Heaven for sanctified Souls These things are undeniable God hath set them before our spiritual Eyes and senses beside the revelation of it in the Gospel which singly makes it infallible the Lord for our abundant satisfaction hath brought these things down to the touch and test of our Spiritual senses and experiences You that have had so many sights of God by faith so many sweet tastes of Heaven in the Duties of Religion O what a confirmation and â—eal have you of the reality of invisible things You may say of Heaven and the joys above as the Apostle did of him that purchased it 1 Iohn 1. 1. That which our Eyes have seen and our Ears have heard and our Hands have handled c. For God hath set these things in some degree before your very Eyes and put the first fruits of them into your own Hands The sweet relish of the joy of the Lord is upon the very palate of your Souls to this Spiritual sense of the blieving Hebrews the Apostle appealed Heb. 10. 34. when he said Ye took joyfully the spoiling of your goods knowing in your selves that you have in Heaven a better and an induring substance This knowing in our selves is more certain and sweet than all the traditional knowledge we get from the reports of others 1 Pet. 1. 8. Whom having not seen ye love whom though now ye see him not yet believing ye rejoyce with joy unspeakable and full of glory There is more of Heaven felt and tasted in this World than men are aware of 't is one thing to hear of such Countries as Spain Italy Smirna by the discourses and reports we heard of them in our childhood and another thing to understand those Countries by the rich commodities imported from them in the way of our Trade and Commerce O did we but know what other Christians have felt and tasted we would not have such staggering thoughts about invisible things But the secret comforts of Religion are and ought to be for the most part inclosed things Religion lays not all open the Christians life is a hidden life II. Inference If such an height of Communion with God be attainable on Earth then most Christians live below the duties and comforts of Christianity Alas the best of us are but at the foot of this pleasant Mount Pisga as we are but in the infancy of our Graces so we are but in the infancy of our Comforts what a poor House is kept by many of Gods own Children Living between hopes and fears seldom tasting the riches and pleasures the joys and comforts of assurance and will you know the reasons of it there are Five things which usually keep them poor and low as to Spiritual Joys and Comforts 1. The incumbrances of the World which divert them from or distract them in their duties of Communion with God and so keep them low in their Spiritual Comforts They have so much to do on Earth that they have little time for Heavenly employments Oh what a noise and din do the trifles of this World make in the Heads and Hearts of many Christians How dear do we pay for such trifles as these 2. A Spirit of formality creeping in to the duties of Religion impoverishes the vital Spirit thereof like the wanton embraces of the Ivy which binds and starves the Tree it clasps about Religion cannot thrive under formality and 't is difficult to keep out formality in a setled course of Duty and much more when Duties are intermitted 3. The business of temptations pestering the minds of many Christians especially such as are of melancholy constitutions how importunate and restless are these temptations with some Christians They can make little comfort or advantage out of Duty by reason of them 4. Heart-apostacy inward decays of our first love is another reason why our Duties prosper so little Rev. 2. 4. Thou hast left thy first love You were not wont to serve God with such coldness 5. In a word Spiritual pride impoverishes our Comforts The joys of the Spirit like brisk Wines are too strong for our weak heads For these causes many Christians are kept low in Spiritual comforts III. Inference How sweet and desirable is the society of the Saints it must needs be desirable to walk with them who walk with God 1 John 1. 3. No such companions as the Saints What benefit or pleasure can we find in converses with sensual worldlings All we can carry away out of such company is guilt or grief All my delights saith David is in the Saints and in the excellent of the Earth which excel in vertue Psal. 16. 3. And their society would certainly be much more sweet and desirable than it is did they live more in Communion with God than they do There was a time when the Communion of the Saints was exceeding lovely Mal. 3. 16. Acts 2. 46 47. The Lord restore it to its primitive glory and sweetness IV. Inference What an unspeakable Mercy is Conversion which lets the Soul into such a state of Spiritual pleasure Here 's the beginning of your acquaintance with God the first taste of Spiritual pleasures of which there shall never be an end All the time men have spent in the World in an unconverted state hath been a time of estrangement and alienation from God when the Lord brings a man to Chris in the way of Conversion he then begins his first acquaintance with God Iob 22. 21. Acquaint now thy self with him and â—e at peace thereby good shall come unto thee This is your first acquaintance with the Lord which will be a growing thing every visit you give him in prayer increaseth your acquaintance and begets more intimacy and humble holy familiarity betwixt him and you And oh what a paradice of pleasure doth this let the Soul into The life of Religion abounds with pleasures Psal. 16. 11. All his ways are ways of pleasantness and
you do if you still demur and delay your damnation is just inevitable and unexcusable Hear me therefore you unregenerated Souls in what rank or condition soever providence hath placed you in this World whether you be rich or poor young or old Masters or Servants whether there be any stirrings of conviction in your Consciences or not For however your conditions in this World differ from each other at present there is one common misery hanging over you all if you continue in that state of unbelief you are now fixed in And first Harken to the voice and call of Christ you that are exalted by providence above your poorer neighbours you that have your Heads Hands and Hearts full of the World men of trade and business I have a few solemn questions to ask you this day I. You have made many gainful bargains in your time but what will all profit you if the agreement be not made betwixt Christ and your Souls Christ is that treasure which only can enrich you Matth. 13. 44. Thou art a poor and miserable wretch whatever thou hast gained of this World if thou have not gained Christ thou hast heaped up guilt with thy riches which will more torment thy Conscience hereafter than thy estate can yield thee comfort here 2ly You have made many assurances to secure your floating Estates which you call Policies but what assurance have you gotten for your Souls Are not they exposed to eternal hazards O impolitick man To be so provident to secure trifles and so negligent in securing the richest treasure 3ly You have adjusted many accounts with men but who shall make up your accounts with God if you be Christless What shall it profit a man to gain the whole World and lose his own Soul Matth. 16. 26. Say not you have much business under your Hands and cannot allow time you will have space enough hereafter to reflect upon your folly Secondly You that are poor and mean in the World what say you Will you have two Hells one here and another hereafter No comfort in this World nor hope for the next Your expectations here laid in the dust and your hopes for Heaven built upon the sand O if you were once in Christ how happy were you though you knew not where to fetch your next bread Poor in the World but rich in faith and heirs of the Kingdom which God hath promised James 2. 5. O blessed state If you had Christ you had then a right to all things I Cor. 3. 22 23. You had then a Father to take care for you but to be poor and Christless no comfort from this World nor hopes from the next this is to be truly miserable indeed Your very straights and wants should prompt you to the great duty I am now pressing on you and methinks it should be matter of encouragement that the greatest number of Christs friends and followers came out of that rank and order of men to which you belong Thirdly You that are Seamen floating so often upon the great deeps you are reckoned a third sort of persons between the living and the dead you belong not to the dead because you yet breath and scarcely to the living because you are continually so near death What think you friends have you no need of a Saviour Do you live so secure from the reach and danger of death Have your lives been so pure righteous and innocent who have been in the thick of temptations in the World abroad Ponder that Scripture I Cor. 6. 9 10. Be not deceived neither Fornicators nor Idolaters nor Adulterers nor Effeminate nor Abusers of themselves with man-kind c. Ponder it I say and think whether you have not as great and pressing a necessity of Jesus Christ as any poor Souls under Heaven You have had many temporal Salvations from God great and eminent deliverances and will these satisfie you Is it enough that your bodies are delivered from the danger of the Sea though your Souls sink and perish in the Ocean of Gods wrath for ever If you will yet accept Christ upon his terms all that you have done shall be forgiven Isa. 55. 2. The Lord now calls to you in a still voice if you hear his voice well if not you may shortly hear his voice in the tempestuous storms without you and a roaring Conscience within you Poor man think what an interest in Christ will be worth wert thou now as shortly thou maist be floating upon a piece of wreck or shivering upon a cold and desolate rock crying mercy Lord mercy Well mercy is now offered thee but in vain wilt thou expect to find it if thou continue thus to despise and reject it Fourthly You that are aged and full of days hearken to the voice of Christ God hath called upon you a long time When you were young you said 't is time enough yet we will mind these things when we are old and come nearer to the borders of Eternity Well now you are old and just upon the borders of it will you indeed mind it now you have left the great concernments of your Souls to this time this short very short time And do the temptations of your Youth take hold upon your Age what delay and put off Christ still as you were wont to do Poor Creatures you are almost gone out of time you have but a short time to deliberate what you do must be done quickly or it can never be done Your night is even come upon you when no man can work Fifthly You that are young in the Bud or Flower of your time Christ is a Suiter for your first Love he desires the kindness of your youth your Spirits are vigorous your Hearts tender your Affections flowing and impressive you are not yet entred into the incumbrances and distracting cares of the World hereafter a crowd and thick succession of earthly employments and engagements will come on sin will harden you by custom and continuance now is your time you are in the convertible Age few that pass the season of youth comparatively speaking are brought over to Christ afterwards 'T is a rarity the wonder of an Age to hear of the conversion of aged Sinners besides you are the hopes of the next Generation Should you be Christ-neglecting and despising Souls how bad soever the present Age is the next will be worse Say not we have time enough before us we will not quench the sprightly vigour of our Youth in melancholy thoughts Remember there are Sculls of all sizes in Golgotha Graves of all lengths in the Church-yard You may anticipate those that stand nearer the Grave than you seem to do O you cannot be happy too soon As young as you are did you but tast the Comforts that be in Christ nothing would grieve you more than that you knew him no sooner Behold he standeth at thy Door in the morning of thy Age knocking this day for admission into thy Heart Sixthly You that
last farewel of thee when they bid this World and all its Inhabitants farewel at Death And what had become of all the Sufferers and Martyrs when shut up from Friends in Dungeons had it not been for thy chearing Cordials and Comforts thou there administredst to support them 'T is certainly the best of Friends or the worst of Enemies in the whole Creation This is Conscience these are its Powers and Offices which was the first thing Secondly Our next enquiry must be into the Light of Conscience and the various kinds of that Light. The Lord did not frame such an excellent Structure as the Soul of Man without Windows to let in light nor doth he deny the benefit of light to any Soul But there is a twofold Light which Men have to inform and guide their Consciences 1. The Light of Natural Reason which is common 2. The Light of Scripture Revelation which is special 1 There is the common light of Natural Reason which is connate called by Solomon Prov. 20. 27 The Candle of the Lord. The Spirit of Man is the Candle of the Lord. This is affirmed by him that had an extraordinary portion of intellectuals a brighter lamp of Reason and Wisdom than other Men And this is not only true of the Soul in general but of that special Power of it which is called Conscience which is Gods Spie and Mans Overseer The Heathens had this Light shining in their Minds and Consciences Some of them by the alone help of this Natural Light made wonderful discoveries of the Mysteries of Nature yea they found its Efficacy and Power great in their Consciences to raise their hopes or fears according to the good or evil they had done Conscia mens ut cuique sua est ita concipit intra Pectora pro facto spemque metumque suo Ovid. And to the shame of many that are called Christians some among them pay'd great Reverence to their own Consciences Imprimis reverere teipsum Turpe quid ausurus te sine teste time But however the generality of them did not so and are taxed for it in the Text And besides this Light can make no discoveries of Christ and of the way of Salvation by him The most Eagle-ey'd Philosophers among them were in the dark here And therefore 2. God hath afforded Men a more clear and excellent Light to shine into their Minds and Consciences even the Light of the Gospel which compared with the Light of Natural Reason is as the Light of the Sun to the dim Moonlight Psal. 147. 20. He sheweth his word to Iacob his Statutes and his Iudgments to Israel he hath not dealt so with any Nation and for his Iudgments they have not known them Praise ye the Lord. Every Creature hath the Name of God engraven on it but he hath magnified his Word above all his Name Psal. 138. 2. God who best knows the rate and value of his own Mercies accounts this a singular favour and priviledge to any Nation Without Revelation we could never have known the cause of our Misery the fall of Adam or the only way and means of our recovery by Christ By this a People are lifted up to Heaven Matth. 11. 21. in respect of means and advantages of Salvation and consequently the contempt or neglect of such Light and Love will certainly plunge the guilty into proportionable misery Iohn 3. 19. This is the condemnation that Light is come into the World and Men love Darkness rather than Light. Moreover God doth not only afford the Light of Natural Reason and External Gospel Revelation to some Men in an eminent degree but to both these he superadds the internal illumination of his Spirit which is the clearest and most glorious Light in the whole World. He shineth into their hearts to give the Light of the Knowledge of the Glory of God in the face of Iesus Christ 2 Cor. 4. 6. These are the three sorts of Light that God makes to shine into the Soules and Consciences of Men to direct and guide them the first a common and general Light the two last the most clear and transcendent in Excellency especially that of the Spirit with the Gospel For though the Sun be risen yet men may draw the Curtains about them and lie in darkness but the Spirit opens them and makes it shine in 3. How this Light shining into the Consciences of Men obligeth them to Obedience and how Mens Lusts struggle against the Obligations of an enlightned Conscience is the next thing to be spoken to 'T is manifest and beyond all Controversie that an enlightned Conscience lays strong and indispensable Obligations and Engagements on the Soul to Obedience For the Will of God is the Supream Law 1 Tim. 6. 15 't is the Will of the only Potentate the King of Kings and Lord of Lords And the promulgation and manifestation of it so binds the Conscience of the Creature to Obedience as no Authority or Power on Earth can loose those bands no Man can grant a supersedeas in this case or relieve the Soul so bound by a noli prosequi for Conscience as Gods Vicegerent in his Name requireth Obedience and the Man that heareth the Voice of God from the Mouth of his own Conscience presently thereupon becomes a Debtor Rom. 1. 14. put under a necessity 1 Cor. 9 16. Now Conscience by reason of the Light that shineth into it feeling it self under such strong bands and necessities stimulates and urgeth the Soul to Obedience warnes commands and presses the Soul to its duty against the contrary Interests and inclinations of the Flesh And hence arise those Combats and conflicts in the bosoms of Men as the struggles of the Child in the Womb at the fullness of time causes the throws and pangs of Travail Sometimes Conscience prevails and sometimes Lusts and Corruptions prevail and that with great difficulty for 't is not alike easie to all Men to shake off or burst the bands of their own Consciences though others can do it easily What an hard tugg had Saul to conquer his own Conscience I forced my self saith he 1 Sam. 13. 12. He knew it belonged not to him to offer Sacrifice his Conscience plainly told him it would be his Sin but yet the fear of the Philistins being stronger than the fear of God he adventured upon it renitente conscientiâ against the plain dictates of his own Conscience Thus Herod gives Sentence to put Iohn to death Matth. 14. 9. The King was sorry nevertheless for his Oaths sake and them which sate with him at meat he commanded it to be given her His Honour weighed up all his fears of sin his own Word weighed more with him than Gods Word Nemo ita perplexus tenetur inter duo vitia quin exitus pateat absque tertio No man is held so perplexed between two Vices but he may find an issue without falling into a third Pilates Conscience was convinced of Christ's Innocency Matth. 27.
18 19. yet the fear of Coesar hurries him on to the greatest of wickednesses even to give Sentence against Innocent Blood yea the Blood of the Son of God. Darius in like manner Dan. 6. 14. He knew that Daniel was not only an excellent Person but that he was entrapt by the Nobles merely for his Conscience and that to put him to Death was to sacrifice him to their Malice this he and his Conscience debated all the day many encounters he had with it for the Text saith He was sore displeased with himself and set his Heart on Daniel to deliver him and laboured until the going down of the Sun to deliver him but after a days sharp fight betwixt him and his Conscience Lust prevails at last against Light and returns Victor out of the Field in the Evening So it was with poor Spira he seemed to hear as it were an inward Voice Don't write Spira don't write but the love of his Estate Wife and Children drew his Hand to the Paper though Conscience struggled hard to hold it back Thus as the restless Sea strives to beat down or break over its bounds so do impetuous Lusts strive to overbear Light and Conviction video meliora proboque deteriora sequor They know this or that to be a Sin and that they hazard their Souls by it but yet they will adventure on it and rush into Sin as the Horse into the Battle 4. I promised to give you some instances of the Conflicts betwixt Mens Consciences and their Corruptions wherein Conscience is vanquisht and overborn and by what Weapons the Victory over Conscience is obtained Now the Convictions of Men are two-fold viz. I. General Respecting their State. II. Particular Respecting this or that Action I. There are general Convictions and Notices given to some Men and Women by their Consciences that their Condition or State of Soul is neither right nor safe that they want the main thing which constitutes a Christian viz. Regeneration or a gracious change of Heart and Life They hear and read the signs and effects of these things but their Conscience plainly tells them it cannot find them in them that they enjoy the External priviledges of the Saints but they belong not to them that something is still wanting and that the main thing too O my Soul thou art not right thou hast gifts thou hast a Name to live but for all that thou art dead Some further work must be done upon thee or thou art undone to Eternity thou passest for a good Christian among Men but wo to thee if thou die in the State thou art These and such as these are the whispers of some Mens Consciences in their Ears and yet they cannot yield themselves up into the hands of their Convictions so as to confess and bewail their Hypocrisie and gross mistakes and seek for a better foundation to build their hope on Foelix his Conscience gave him such a terrible rouze and monition as this and made him to tremble whilst Paul reason'd with him about Righteousness and Temperance and Judgment to come Acts 24. 25. it whispered in his Ear such Language as this O poor Soul how shall such an Oppressor such an intemperate wretch as thou art stand before God in this day of Judgment which Paul proves in thy face is certainly future for as Tacitus sayeth of him He was inexplebilis Gurges an insatiable gulph of Covetousness so it was with Agrippa Acts 26. 28. He stood at half bent dubious and unresolved what to do He saw the Heavenly Doctrine of Christianity evidently confirmed by Doctrine and Miracles his Conscience pleaded hard with him to embrance it and had almost prevailed Almost or within a little as the word is thou perswadest me to be a Christian but Agrippa had too much Wealth and Honours to deny and forsake for Christ the Love of the present World overbore both the hopes and fears of the World to come And thus that Excellent Fisher for Souls who had throughly converted so many to Christ caught but a piece of Agrippa almost is a great deal for so great a person The Gospel is a Drag-net and brings up all sorts whole Christians and half Christians The Conscience is caught and the Will begins to incline but oh the power and prevalence of Sin which like the Rudder commands all to a contrary course If we come a little nearer and enquire what are those remoraes that stop Conscience in its course bind and imprison stifle and suppress its Convictions that although a Man strongly suspect his foundation to be but Sand his hopes for Heaven a strong delusion yet he will throw up his vain hopes consfess his self deceits and begin all anew What is it which overbears Conscience in this cafe Let Men impartially examine their hearts and it will be found that these three things bind and imprison these Convictions of Conscience and hold the truth in unrighteousness viz. shame fear and pride of Heart I. Shame Men that have been Professors and of good esteem in the World are ashamed the World should know the Mistakes and Errors of all their life past and what deluded Fools and self-deceivers they have been This is a powerful restraint upon Conviction how shall they look their Acquaintance in the face What will Men think and say of them How can ye believe which receive Honour one of another Saith Christ Iohn 5. 44. q. d. What you be Christians and yet not able to endure a censure or a scoff upon your Names That stand more upon your Reputation than your Salvation How can you believe Oh what Madness and exalted Folly appears in this Case Men will chuse rather to go on though Conscience tells them the end of that way will be Death than suffer the shame of a just and necessary retraction which yet indeed is not their shame but their Duty and Glory You that are so tender of the shame of men how will you be able to endure the contempt and shame that shall be cast on you from God Angels and Men in the great Day Luk 9 26. 'T is no shame to acknowledge your mistake but persist in it after Conviction is shameful Madness I knew an excellent Minister who proved an eminent Instrument in the Church of God who in the beginning of his Ministerial Course was not upon the right Foundation of Regeneration This Man had rare Abilities excellent Natural and Acquired Gifts and could Preach of Regeneration Faith and Heavenly-mindedness though he felt nothing of these things in his own Experience His Life was very unblameable and he had no mean Interest and esteem among good men It pleased the Lord whilst this Man was studying an excellent Spiritual Point to preach to others his Conscience first preach'd it in his Study to himself and that with such a close and rousing Application as made him to tremble at it telling him that though he had Gifts above many and sobriety in his Conversation
yet one thing and that the main thing Sanctifying Grace was wanting Hereupon the pangs of the New Birth seized his Soul and the Lord made him a most inward searching experimental Minister and crown'd his Labours with unusual Success This Minister to his dying day was not ashamed in all companies to acknowledge his mistake and bless God for his recovery out of it and in most of his Sermons he would endeavour to convince Professors of the necessity of a second Conversion 2. Fear is another pull-back which with-holds men from executing the Convictions of their own Consciences and obeying its calls in this grand case and concern of the Soul. They are pretty easie and safe under the External Profession and Duties of Religion and are afraid of throwing up their vain hopes and engaging themselves heartily and thoroughly in Religion and there be two things scare them 1 The inward pains and troubles of Spirit attending the New-Birth which they have read and heard of and seen the effects of in others Oh 't is a dreadful thing to lye under the Terrors that many have felt and so 't is with them as with one that hath a bone ill set who if he have any ease will rather endure a little dayly pain and be content to halt all his Life than undergoe the pain of another fraction or dislocation in order to a perfect cure 2 They are afraid of External Sufferings The form of Godliness leaves men a latitude to take or leave according as the times favour or frown upon the wayes of Religion but the power of Godliness that will engage and put them beyond retreat They must then stand to it come what will. But Soul let me tell thee if the just fears and apprehensions of Hell and the Eternal Wrath of God were upon thee to which thy Hypocrisie and formality will expose thee all these fears of inward or outward troubles would vanish the same Hour 3. Pride of Heart suffers not this Conviction of Conscience to work out its effects but holds this Truth in unrighteousness to the hazard and ruine of many Souls Men that live upon their own Duties and Self-Righteousness are not easily brought to renounce all this and live upon the Righteousness of Christ alone for Justification Proud nature will rather venture the hazzard of Damnation than such self denial Rom. 10. 3. As you see it common among poor People to live meanly on coarse Fare of their own than upon the Almes and bounty of another O but if once the day of Gods Power be come and a man begins to feel the Commandment come home to his Conscience as Paul did Rom. 7. 9. when he comes to realize the World to come the value of his Soul and the danger it is in then all these Remora's are as easily swept away as so many straws by the rapid Course of a mighty torrent Then let men say or think what they please I must not throw away my own Soul to maintain a vain Estimation among men Let inward or outward sufferings be never so great 't is better for me to feel them than to suffer the everlasting wrath of the great and terrible God. Let my own Righteousness be what it will all is but dung and dross to the pure and perfect Righteousness of Christ. Secondly As this General Conviction with respect to Mens State and Condition is held in Unrighteousness and Men and Women go with grumbling Consciences and frequent inward Fears by reason of it so there are many particular Convictions bound and imprisoned in Mens Souls Particular Convictions I say both as to sins committed and known Duties omitted against both Tables of the Law of God called in the Text ungodliness and unrighteousness Conscience labours and strives to bring men to confess bewail and reform them but cannot prevail contrary Lusts and Interests overpower them and detain them in unrighteousness What these are and how they are with-held by those Lusts I shall give some Instances I. Instance And First for Convictions of Vngodliness There are many that call themselves Christians whose Consciences tell them God is to be daily and duely worshipped by them both in Family and Closet Prayer It sets before them Iosua's pious practice Ios. 24. 15. As for me I and my house we will serve the Lord. They know God is the Founder the Owner the Master of their Families that all Family Blessings are from him and therefore he is to be owned acknowledged and sought in daily Family Prayers and Praises It tells them the Curse of God hangs over prayerless Families Ier. 10. 25. and that they live in the inexcusable neglect of these Duties seldom worshipping of God with their Families or in their Closets and that therefore they live without God in the World. And dreadful will the account and reckoning be at the Great Day for their own Souls which they have starved for want of Closet Prayer and for the Souls committed to their charge which perish for want of Family Duties This is the case of many who yet will needs pass for Professors of Christianity Lord how sad a case is here How can men possibly live in the daily neglect of so great so necessary a Duty Certainly 't is not for want of Light or Conviction the very light of Nature if we had no Bibles discovers these Duties But three things hold this Truth of God dictated by Mens Consciences in Unrighteousness viz. 1. The Love of the World. 2. Consciousness of Inability 3. A Disinclined Heart First The Love of the World choaks this Conviction in the Souls of some and they think it enough to plead for their Excuse the want of opportunities and many encumberances they have which will not allow them time for these Duties The World is a severe Taskmaster and fills their heads and hands all the day with Cares and Toyles And must the mouth of Conscience then be stopped with such a plea as this No no God and Conscience will not be answered and put off so The greatest number of Persons in the World from whom God hath the most Spiritual and excellent Worship are of the lower and poorer rank Psal. 74. 20. Iam. 2. 5. And it s highly probable your Necessities had been less if your Prayers had been more And what sweeter outlet and vent to all these troubles can you find than Prayer This would sweeten all your Labours and Sorrows in the World. Secondly Consciousness and sense of Inability and want of Gifts restrains this Conviction in others Should they attempt such duties before others they shall but expose their own ignorance shame But this is a vain pretence of shake off Duty The neglect of Prayer is a principal Cause of that inability you complain of Gifts as well as Grace grow by Exercise To him that hath shall be given and he shall have more abundantly And besides 't is the fruit of Pride and argues your eye to be more upon your own
Honour than Gods. The Lord regards not Oratory in Prayer your broken Expressions yea your Groans and Sighs please him more than all the Eloquence in the VVorld Thirdly But the principal thing that restrains Men from obeying their Convictions as to Family and Closet Prayer is A disinclined Heart That 's the root and true cause of these sinful neglects and Omissions You favour not the sweetness of these things and what a man relishes no sweetness in or finds no necessity of is easily omitted and let pass But wo to you that go from day to day self condemned for the neglect of so known so sweet and so necessary a Duty If our Hearts condemn us God is greater than our hearts I Ioh. 3. 20. He that lives without Prayer is dead whilst he lives and let men talk what they please of secret Communion with God I am sure if Religion did thrive in the Closet it could never be banished out of the Family The time is coming also when death will disband and break up your Families separate the VVife from the Husband the Child from the Parent the Servant from the Master and then where you shall find relief and comfort who have spent your time together so sinfully and vainly I cannot tell nor what account you can give to God in the great day Think sadly on these things they are worth thinking on II. Instance A second Instance of Vngodliness continued in under the Convictions of Conscience is Formaliâ—y in all the external duties of Religion and Ordinances of God. Have not some of your Consciences often and plainly told you that though you be often ingaged in the publick duties of Hearing Prayer c. yet your hearts are not with God in those duties They do not work after communion and fellowship with him therein 'T is nothing but the force of Education Custom and care of Reputation brings you there Such a conviction as this could it work home and do its work throughly would be the salvation of thy Soul. Were power added to the form as Conscience would have it thou wert then a real Christian and out of the danger of Hell. The want of this thy Conscience sees will be thy ruin and accordingly gives thee plain warning of it O what pity is it such a conviction as this should be held in Unrighteousness but so it is in very many souls and that on several accounts First Because Hypocrisie is so odious and abominable a sin that men are loath to own and acknowledge it how guilty so ever they be of it What dissemble with God and play the Hypocrite with him 't is so black and foul a Crime that men cannot easily be brought to charge themselves with it They may have the infirmities which are common to the best of men but yet they are no hypocrites thus Pride of Heart casts a chain upon this conviction and binds it that it cannot do its work Secondly 'T is a cheap and easie way to give God the external Service and Worship of the Body but Heart-work is hard work To sit or kneel an hour or two is no great matter but to search humble and break the Heart for sin to work up the dead and earthly Affections into a spiritual heavenly frame this will cost many an hard tugg 'T is no severe task to sit before God as his people whilst the fancy and thoughts are left at liberty to wander which way they please as the thoughts of formal Hypocrites use to do Ezek. 33. 31. but to set a watch upon the heart to summon in the Thoughts to God to retract every wandering thought with a sigh this is difficult and the difficulty overpowers conviction of duty Thirdly The Atheisme of the heart quenches this conviction in mens Souls Formality is a secret invisible sin not discernable by man the outside of Religion looks fair to mans eye and so long it s well enough as if there were not a God that trieth the hearts and the reins This when a beam of light and conviction shines into the Soul a cloud of natural Atheism overshaddows and darkens it But poor self-couzening-hypocrite these things must not pass so thy Conscience as well as the Word tell thee that it is not the place of Worship but the spirituality of it that God regards Ioh. 4. 23 24. That they are Hypocrites in Scripture account who have God in their mouthes but he is far from their reins Ier. 12. 2. and that hypocrites will have the hottest place in Hell Matth. 24. 51. III. Instance A Third instance of Convictions of ungodliness held in unrighteousness is in declining or denying to consfess the known truths of God which we our selves have professed when the confession of them infers danger In times of danger conscience struggles hard with men to appear for the Truths of God and upon no account whatsoever to dissemble or deny them and enforceth its Counsels and VVarnings upon us with such awful Scriptures as these Luk. 9. 62. No man having put his hand to the plough and looking back is fit for the kingdom of God. And Matth. 10. 33. But whosoever shall deny me before men him will I also deny before my father which is in heaven In this case Conscience useth to struggle hard with men yet is many times over-born by the prevalent Temptations of the Flesh as First By Carnal Fears The fear of Suffering gets the ascendant of the fear of God. Men chuse rather to adventure their Souls upon Wrath to come than the present VVrath of incensed Enemies They vainly hope to find mercy with God but expect none from men Thus the fear of man brings a snare Prov. 29. 25. and so the voice of conscience is drowned by the louder clamours and threats of Adversaries Secondly As the fear of mans Threatenings so the distrust of Gods Promises defeats the design of Conscience If men believed the promises they would never be afraid of their duties Faith in a promise would make men as bold as Lions If such a word as that Isa. 57. 11. Of whom hast thou been afraid or feared that thou hast lyed and hast not remembred me Men would say as Zuinglius did in the like case what Death would I not rather chuse to dye what punishment would I not rather undergo yea into what vault of Hell would I not rather chuse to be cast than to witness against my own conscience Thirdly The immoderate and inordinate Love of the VVorld overpowers conscience and drowns its voice in such an hour of Temptation So Demas found it 2 Tim. 4. 10. O what a dangerous conflict is there in an hour of Temptation betwixt an enlightned head and a worldly heart Lastly The Examples of others who comply and embrace the sinful termes of Liberty to escape the danger emboldens men to follow their Examples and Satan will not be wanting to improve their Examples Don't you see such and such men beating the road before you
Learned Men and prudent men who it may be have less heat but more VVisdom than you VVhy will you be singular VVhy will you hazzard all for that others will hazzard nothing But certainly such sins as these will cost you dear 't is a dreadful thing to betray the Truths and Honour of God for base secular ends and you will find it so when you and your consciences shall debate it together in a calm hour Secondly There are also sins of Vnrighteousness against the Second Table in which many live against the plain dictates and warnings of their own Consciences though they know the wrath of God is revealed from Heaven against all unrighteousness of men who hold the Truth in unrighteousness To give some Instances of this I. Instance And first let me Instance in that sin of Defrauding and going beyond others in our civil Commerce and Dealings with them over-reaching cozening and cheating the ignorant or unwary who it may be would not be so unwary as they are did they not repose trust and confidence in your deceitful words and promises Conscience cannot but startle at such sins the very Light of Nature discovers the evil of it and the sober Heathen abhor it but we that live under the Gospel cannot but feel some terror and trembling in our Consciences when we read such a severe and awful prohibition back'd with such a dreadful threatening as that is in 1 Thes. 4. 6. That no man defraud or go beyond his brother in any matter because that the Lord is the Avenger of all such The word is 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 that no man overtop viz. by power or by craft and policy To this sin a dreadful threatening is annexed the Lord is the Avenger of all such The word is 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 but once more that I remember used in the New Testament Rom. 13. 4. and is there applied to the Civil Magistrate he must see Execution done upon Malefactors but here the Lord himself will do it he will be this mans Avenger This Rod or rather this Ax Conscience shews men and gives warning of the danger and yet its Convictions are overpowered and bound as Prisoners by 1. The Excessive Love of Gain 1 Tim. 6. 9. But they that will be rich fall into Temptation and a snare and into many foolish and hurtful Lusts which drown men in destruction and perdition When a resolution is made for the world men will be rich by right or wrong this powerfully armes the Temptation Set Gain before such a man and he will break through the Law of God and convictions of Conscience but he will have it This drowns them in perdition and destruction that is it surely throughly and fully ruins them as he is a dead man that is only drowned but to be drowned in destruction yea in destruction and perdition too this must needs make his ruin sure as sure as words can make it and so all such persons shall surely find it who persist in such a Course 2. Pinching Necessities and Straights overbear Conscience in others Necessity hath no Ears to attend the voice of the Word and Conscience Here Conscience and Poverty struggle together and if the Fear of God be not exalted in the Soul it now falls a prey to Temptation This danger wise Agur foresaw and earnestly intreated the Lord for a competency to avoid the snare of Poverty Prov. 30. 8 9. Poor Wretch how much better were it for thee to endure the pains of a griping stomach than those of a griping Conscience such gains may be sweet in thy mouth but bitter in thy Bowels 3. The Examples of others who daily venture on such sins without scruple and laugh at such squeamish Consciences as cheque at such things this emboldens others to follow them Psal. 50. 18 and thus the voice of Conscience is drowned and Convictions buried for a time but it will Thunder at last and thy buried convictions wil have a Resurrection and it shall be out of thy power to silence them again II. Instance The truth of God is held in Unrighteousness when mens Lusts will not suffer them to restore what they have sinfully and unjustly gotten into their hands This Sin lies boking in the Consciences of some men makes them very uneasie and yet they make an hard shift to rub along under these regrets of Conscience Now those things which make a forcible entry into the Conscience take the truths of God Prisoners and bind them that they cannot break forth into the duty of Restitution are 1. The shame which attends and follows the duty to which God and Conscience calls the Soul. O 't is a shame and reproach they think to get the name of a cheat Loath loath they are these works of darkness should come into the open Light men will point and hiss at them and say there goes a Thief a Cheat an Oppressor this keeps many from Restitution But dost thou not here commit a greater Cheat than the former Which is the greater shame thinkst thou to commit sin or to confess and reform it to tye the snare upon thy soul by Commission or loose it off from thy Conscience by Repentance and Restitution to be the derision of wicked men for none else will deride thee for thy duty or to be the contempt and derision of God Angels and all good Men for ever To attain inward peace at this hazzard or to lie under the continual lashes and wounds of thy own Conscience 2. Poverty and inability is sometimes pleaded to quiet the troubled Conscience and indeed this is a just and very frequent blast of God upon ill gotten goods The curse of God is upon them They melt away O what a miserable snare have you now intangled your souls in once you could but would not restore a Worldly heart would not part with unjust gains now you would but cannot Thus a worldly heart and an empty purse holds you first and last under the guilt of a known sin A lamentable case 3. Vain purposes do often suppress and silence convictions my condition may after I may be in a capacity hereafter when I can better spare it than at present Or I 'le do it in my last Will when I dye and charge my Executors with it Thus do men bribe their Consciences to get a little quiet whilst they continue under known guilt and cannot tell how soon death shall summon them to the aweful Bar of a just and terrible God. Sirs As you value your peace and which is more your Souls release the Lords Prisoner which lyes bound within you with cords and chains of Satans making do it I say as you hope to see the face of God in peace You know without Repentance there can be no Salvation and without Restitution no Repentance For how can you repent of a sin you still knowingly continue in Repentance is the Souls turning from sin as well as its sorrow for sin You cannot therefore repent