sins behind thy Back It 's former feares are now set in Peace it's objections silenced it's doubts answered The Lord Jesus hath kissed it with the Kisses of his mouth and so given it information of his good liking intimation of his great love that now the Soul beginneth to hold up it's Head and to walk with some Heart refreshing confidence It saith now as the Philosopher 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 I have found I have found Jesus Christ the Pardon of my sins that I have long sought desired Prayed and been careful for O welcome day and warming season now the Sun of Righteousness ariseth upon me with healing under his Wings and this is the second or reflect Act of Faith the Faith of evidence which God usually giveth in the Work of Effectual Calling and first conversion to some more to some lesse with some he wholly undraweth the Curtain and letteth in the light fully upon them and granteth them such discoveries that Acts 7. 56. with Stephen they can say They see the Heavens opened and Jesus as Intercessour standing on the Right hand of God and with David Ps 30. 6. In my Prosperity I said I shall never be moved To others the Lord sheweth but his Back parts as it were in comparison of what some have before the Soul had Wormwood and Gall mingled with it's Drink But now it hath Nectar and Ambrosia the sweet Hony-dewes of grace distilled to refresh it and some but sip others have large draughts some but kisse the Cup of consolation others are permitted to drink more freely of the River of Psa 36. 8. these pleasures and are abundantly satisfied with the fatnesse of Gods House Some have more and some have lesse of these Apples these Flagons and with some this Sun-shiny day is longer with others shorter 11. Contrition Upon this there followeth S. 12 a further melting and dissolving of the Heart which ariseth from a more clear apprehension of Gods Love to the Soul in Christ Pardoning and forgiving it's many and mighty sins whence is it saith the Soul that the Lord should come thus to such an one as I am and then it 's Heart is affected with sorrow for it's sins against that God who it seeth did intend so great good to it sence of love drawes forth the Heart in a melting way for miscarriages Oh saith the Soul It is a lovely sweet precious gracious redeeming saving Christ that I have sinned against It is sorely troubled to consider and think that all it's sins have been against that God that Christ whose rich grace it hath so sweetly experienced in inviting drawing prevailing with it and forgiving it's sins This is a sweet showre a kindly lamenting an ingenuous mourning And converted Soules can say that this is as strong as any kind of mourning whatsoever though not so desperate yet as affectionate The Lord promiseth Zech. 12. 10. That they shall look upon him whom they have pierced and shall mourn for him and be in bitternesse as for ones first Born And there shall be a great mourning as the mourning of Hadadrimmon in the Valley of Megiddo Alluding to the great mourning that was for the losse of good King Josiah so when the Soul considereth that it is Christ that it hath pierced by it's sins it 's vain thoughts it 's wretched words sinful communication and gracelesse conversation then are the Floudgates of sorrow set open and it's heart-stings are turned to doleful Lacrymae in the highest pitch we have an instance of this nature Luke 7. 38. that poor Woman shed so many Teares that she washed Christs Feet with them and it is said she was a sinner and that in no mean degree Now it is judged and supposed that this Woman Burg. of justification pag. 269. 270. had already some sence of Pardon and comes to Christ for the increase of it and out of that sence of Pardon weeps and laments thus at Christs Feet for her many sins for many they were as Christ saith Vers 47. the goodnesse of the Lord leading her to Repentance so David in Psalm 51. sweetly expresseth his sorrow and repentance and this was after the Prophet Nathan had told him that his sins were Pardoned This I conceive to be the second part of Gospel repentance accompanying the Faith of evidence of which we spake before this sorrow is of great account with the Father these Teares are precious in his eyes he put 's them in his Bottel or rather Cabinet for Jewels 12. Conversation Lastly the soul Acts for S. 13 God walketh in the way of Holinesse path of sanctity and it's Face is set for Heaven now it begins to go upon it's Legs now all that it is and hath is set on work for God Now that it's Heart is enlarged by the grace of God it runs the way of his Commandements Now Ps 119. 32. it 's love Acts towards God The Virgins love thee Cantic 1. 3. It 's desire is after him it 's memory conversant about him The desire of our Soul is to thy name and to the remembrance of thee With my Soul have I desired thee in the night Isai 26. 8 9. We will remember thy love more than wine Cantic 1. 4. It 's thoughts and Meditations are of the best things The gracious Soul delights and Meditates in the Law Ps 1. 2. of the Lord day and night It 's Tongue speaks for God The mouth of the Righteous speaketh wisedom and his Tongue talketh of Judgement Psal 37. 30. It 's eares hearken to Gods counsels Thine eares shall hear a word behind thee saying this is the way walk ye in it Isai 30. 21. It 's eyes look off from evil and look on that which is good Turn away mine eyes from beholding Vanity Psa 119. 37. It 's hands Act for Gods glory It stretcheth not out it's hands to Ps 44. 20. a strange God In a word as before It yeelded its members Servants to uncleannesse and to Iniquity unto Iniquity even so now it yeelds its members Rom. 6. 19. Servants to righteousness unto Holiness These are the Fruits of the former workings of God upon the Soul the streames of that Fountain the Branches growing upon that Root assoon as the Soul is changed it changeth it's wayes it's works it's courses assoon as the Soul is thus hatched and fledged it gets upon the wing and away it flieth towards Heaven so it was with Paul assoon as ever he was converted and effectually called he is up and doing he Prayes is Baptized Preacheth and proveth Christ Act. 9. 11 20. Act. 22. 16. A Man or Woman when these workings have passed upon them manifest a change outwardly to Man as wel as inwardly to God Now are they running in the heavenly race labouring in the Spiritual Vineyard fighting the Christians fight doing the will of God keeping the sayings of Jesus Christ working out their Salvation with fear and trembling many pretend to have a
Vox Dei hominis GOD'S CALL FROM HEAVEN ECCHOED By Mans answer from Earth Or A Survey of EFFECTUAL CALLING In the Explication of its nature Distribution of it into its parts Illustration of it by its properties Confirmation of it by reasons Application of it by Vses Being the substance of several Sermons delivered to the people of Heveningham in Suffolk By J. Votier Minister of the Gospel When thou saidst Seek yea my face my heart said unto thee thy face Lord will I seek Psal 27. 8. LONDON Printed by T. C. for Nathanael Webb and William Grantham at the Bear in Paul's Church-yard neer the little North door of Pauls 1658. To his beloved people the inhabitants of Heveningham Suff. Christian Friends THese Sermons coming abroad into the world I thought meet to command them to visit and salute you where they first drew their breath They have formerly been preached to your ears they are now presented to your eyes the Lord print them upon your hearts I take it to be my duty though I be the lowermost of the ushers in Christ's School yet according to the measure of my talent to try all conclusions for the weal of your souls and how would mine heart be enlarged with thanks to the Lord if my poor endeavours might be crowned with succes and though these things have been communicated to you formerly yet because we are slow to receive and retain divine truths to write the same things that I have spoken to me shall not be grievous and to you I hope the Lord will make it safe Nay though my service for your souls in any kind were doubled yea treble yet should I abundantly rejoyce in the labour of the hardest tasks if thereby through the assistance of the Almighty I might see Satans forts taken and forces routed and sin marching out of your hearts and lives with bag and baggage and the Lord Jesus with the blessed train of his spirit's graces enthroned and set up in the midst of you To which end Iearnestly desire that the Lord would be pleased to bless this all my other labours that you would be pleased to accept of my counsel as in the Book so in this Epistle And that 1. More generally 2. More particularly with respect to the ensuing Treatise 1. More generally 1. Take heed of error and heresie They are reckoned in Scripture amongst the works of the flesh They are the secret underminers of that which is good notwithstanding their well-complexioned face 2. Get knowledge Ignorance is the root of iniquity In times of light to live in darkness is most sad 3. Do not imprison but improve your knowledge To him that knoweth to do good and doth it not to him it is sin with a witness Jam. 4. 17. Knowledge without grace is but like a jewel in a swines snout or a pearl in a toads head 4. Keep close to the Ordinances Keep up in your hearts a love to them Come once to slight and turn your back upon them and you put the reins into the Divels hands 5. Love sound and soulsearching preaching never distaste it it is best for your souls it is wholesome though not toothsome 6. Be much in examination of your selves weigh your selves in God's scales will you know every thing and be ignorant only of the state of your souls 7. Content not your selves with a form but look afte the power of godliness the name without the nature of a Christian will little avail you forget not what I have taught you from Matth. 7. 21. 8. Take heed of the world and the cares thereof Do not so fasten your thoughts to earth as to be strangers to heaven Be not so careful of your bodies as to be careless of your souls 9. Look to your families let Christ come in there Train up your children and servants religiously let your houses be as so many Churches Neglect here is the corrupted spring that sends forth puddle-streams into Ecclesiastical and Civil societies without the service of God your houses will be but the Divels shops 10. In your places discountenance sin and profaness encourage goodness Improve your power estate age c. for Christ's glory 11. Maintain love towards each other follow peace and holiness Love is an excellent grace 12. Be very careful to sanctifie the Lord's Sabbaths publikely and privately They are God's dole days be not unwilling to wait at the posts of his gates for his alms 2. More particularly with respect to the ensuing Treatise 1. Look upon this little piece as an help to bring to remembrance what hath formerly been taught you 2. Take the counsel therein as from your Minister Friend and Lover who earnestly desires your eternal salvation 3. Read it not out of novelty but conscience 4. Pray over it and for me that I may be the better enabled to discharge my duty in watching over your souls 5. Compare it with the Scriptures and so far as it harmonizeth with them embrace it I shall here put a period and conclude not ceasing to be mindful of you at the throne of grace and to make mention of you in my prayers who am Yours in the service of your souls J. V. To his respected Friends the inhabitants of Margarets of Ilkets-hal in Suff. My first Love LOve is strong That providence which brought me amongst you makes me love you that love time and absence have not obliterated but still like the Laurel it retains its greenness I served a full apprentiship with you in the Ministry of the Gospel wherein my design and desire was the conversion of your souls These papers I send after my former pains with you to second what I then taught you The Spirit as principal bless both the one and the other to you I called you often in the name of Christ to come to Christ and I hope it was not wholly without effect on some My love constrains me to call again in this ensuing Treatise which while you are reading I hope I shall be praying that God would prosper it to you Be convinced of the danger of a natural condition I have often touched on this string if it have jarred to you I wish the Lord would so temper your spirits that now it may be melodious I pray that he that succenturiates and is come in my room may reap the harvest of my seed-time and if what was sown and came up then but thin may grow up now to full ears of corn it shall through grace be a cordial to my spirit Love and cherish that light which burns among you Take heed of the infection of error Be diligent hearers and not only so but also dutiful practicers of the Word The Lord prevail with you and effectually call you unto himself that predestination from eternity may be manifested by your timely acceptance of Christ This is and shall be the prayer of Your unfeigned Lover J. V. From my house in Heveningham Feb. 4. 1657 8. To
into thine hand if thou refuse to let it into thine heart CHAP. II. I. Vse for information IS it thus that the Lord doth effectually call his predestinated by such means and at such times and as we have hitherto shewed then from hence we may learn these things for we may gather instructions not onely from the substance but also from the circumstance of the doctrine 1. The paucity of the predestinated This S. 1 truth may plainly be read in the face of the Ad coeleste regnum pauci perducuntur doctrine The number of the predestinated and purified are alike the latter is but small therefore also the former every one is ready to think that their names are written in the Register of Heaven and that they are pricked for happinesse when they hear of Eternal glory and future greatnesse of sitting down with Abraham Isaac and Jacob at the Banquet of endlesse joy of that true Golden never aging age from self-love they conceit with Haman that there is none whom the King of Heaven Esth 6. 6. would delight to honour more than themselves Most are excluded and yet they include themselves the number of those that are appointed to life is great in it self yet but small comparatively There are but a few that are chosen Matth. 22. 14. They are like the gleaning Isai 17. 6. of Grapes or as the shaking of an Olive tree two or three Berries in the top of the uttermost bough c. as the Lord speaketh in another case one of a City and two of a Family Jer. 3. 14. The Scripture speaketh this in many places Many will seek to enter in but shall not be able Luke 13. 24. They are called a little Flock a remnant and is not this most plain Luke 12. 32. for how few are there that are truely called and the Lord calleth none but his predestinated All fancy that they shall be saved when but few can find that they are sanctified Many presume of glory when but few partake of grace How few of true converts to be found in Families and Towns yet many concluders there are of Eternal felicity when Christ said one of you shall betray me it made all to question themselves Though we hear that many perish a few predestinated as few called yet every one is secure This is self deceit and desperate folly 2. The priority of a change Then people S. 2 must have a change upon them before they can know that they are chosen Though Election be before grace in existence yet grace is before Election in evidence The former is first in the ordination of God the latter is first in manifestation to us Though Election be not for foreseen Faith yet untill Faith one cannot see Election Conclusion of Election upon the premises of truth of grace are built upon a Rock impregnable against all the assaults of the Gates of Hell Conclusions of Election meerly from fancy self-love strong perswasions of our own hearts sinfully fathered upon the Spirit of God for it's motions without real grodnesse are built upon the sand and though they may brave it for a time and hold up their heads in a calme yet there is a storm a coming that will sink them beyond possibility of recovery Those that conclude Election without grace will be as much non-plus'd at doomes day as that speechlesse man was Matt. 22. 11 12. If we can find a saving work in our hearts let us conclude and spare not Thus doth the Apostle in behalf of the Thessal your work of Faith and labour of love and patience of hope in our Lord Jesus Christ knowing Brethren beloved your Election of God 1 Thessal 1. 3 4. First their graces of Faith love and hope with their Fruits are mentioned and then Election We can never find our selves in Gods heart by Eternal appointment till we find God in our hearts by gracious actings Friends and Christian Reader you do exceedingly against your selves when you think God hath chosen you and you have never chosen him Many have had their hearts hardened and their destruction hastened by such erroneous conclusions 3. The infelicity of natural people In effectual S. 3 calling the soul is brought to Christ and made one with him Then to be in a natural estate and condition is such as the very thoughts thereof might affright and scare one For all such have nothing to do with Christ The Apostle tells the Ephesians that at that time viz. while they dwellt in the Region of nature they were without Christ Ephes 2. 12. What can be said more to the amplifying of misery Such have nothing to do with Christs merit nor with his Spirit they have none of his love none of his life none of his pardon none of his promises If without Christ who is all in Merito à Christo auspicatur tanquam omnium promissionum Scopo Bez. in loc all then without all that is good for he is the root and foundation of al the rest as the Apostle intimateth by his order without effectual calling a manor woman is none of Christs spouse nor Sister None of his Friend nor favourite whilest people are in their sins they are like branches cut off from the body of the Tree and yet those that are wholly strangers to the work of effectual calling and have not a dram of true saving grace will challenge great acquaintance with and Interest in Christ and will claime kindred of him though they have not the least of his blood running in their veines you may perswade your selves but you can never perswade God that Christ is yours and for all your presumption your end will be destruction to be without Christ is to be without communion with God without the compasse of the promises the Covenant of grace And if you be without Christ you Aut cum Christo aut cum Diabolo nos esse oportet nec locus est medii must be with the Devil Variously may the unhappinesse of a natural condition be delineated but to be without Christ is the blackest and darkest Character thereof that can be given Till you come to be made partakers of his nature you can claim no priviledge from his offices To be garmentlesse friendlesse fatherlesse mony-lesse houselesse meatlesse is nothing to being Christlesse Those may be repaired and redeemed by something that is better but this want can be compensated and made up by nothing That is a pitiful but this a peerlesse condition That is doleful but this is dismal that is a low but this a lost estate It is true Christ died for sinners the righteous Rom. 5 8. for the unrighteous but when he unites them to himself he makes them live as Saints for any to pretend they have the Royal Scarlet of imputed righteousnesse when they are not dressed with the Linnen garments of inherent righteousnesse is presumption of an high nature which will render them liars and leave them
be better than you are and yet for all this you are the same man and woman It hath convinced you of Christ's readinesse to espouse you and yet you have not been willing to give your sins a Bill of divorcement and to put them away it hath made conscience its deputy your bosome Friend that knows you well and should have great interest in you Conscientia est cordis scientia and hath set it on work to speak to and to deal with you but all will not do The spirit hath visited you every day upon this account and hath spoken to you enticing words and intreated you not to be so unruly like an Heifer unaccustomed to the yoke and hath said come soul hearken to the voice of God obey the call of Christ you do not know how much it may be for your good why will you not be gracious and holy Do you not know that to be Godly is to be Godlike The great God that can grind you to powder the good God that can save your soul calls upon you invites you and will you say nay The spirit hath opened the Lord's love Letters and read them to you and descanted upon them but you regard not To sin against such shinings of the spirit is no small matter affronts offered to the spirit will sit heavy upon the soul when time shall be Hath the Dove come and have not you Spiritus Jesus spiritus bonus Sanctus rectus c. Isai 63. 10. opened the window to let it in Hath the holy good pure spirit of Jesus Christ thus parlyed with you and do you stand out against its sweet assaults This is to vex and rebel against the spirit which is a great provocation to the Lord and aggravation of thy sin whereby thou doest incurre his displeasure procure thy destruction 5. The Longitude of your life The thred S. 14 of your life hath been spun out to a great length you have lived many a year in the world you have lived to see your glasse run and turned up again when others have died before their glasse hath been half run The day of your life hath been not a Winter's but a Summer's day You have followed many of your relations and acquaintance to the grave who have been younger than you but you live still The Lord hath made you a long lease and it is not yet expired He hath cut down some assoon as they have budded and blossomed but he letteth you stand still He hath stopped the breath of some soon after he hath given it them but thy breath is still in thy nostrils Thy radical heat is not put out thy radical moisture is not yet dried up He hath caused thy Sun to stand still in the Firmament and hath kept it from going down at noon day he hath lengthened thy time from the spring of youth to the autumne of ripe and mature years And yet thou hast brought forth no clusters of Grapes no ripe fruit It was the aggravation of Jezebel's sin that the Lord gave her space to repent of her fornication and she repented not Revel 2. 21. It is sad that thy Virtutes faciunt dies bones dayes have been great but not good that thy dayes have been many and thy grace but mean Thou hast through the Lord's clemency renewed thy youth as the Eagle but though the Lord hath been calling thy heart is not renewed The Lord hath added years to thy daies as he did to Hezekiah but thou hast 2 Kings 20. 6. not yet added sanctity to thy civility nor piety in the power to thy profession in the forme Thou art well stricken in years but thou hast never yet fully stricken a Covenant with the Lord. Thou art entred a great way into the scores but wouldest never yet enter cordially into the School of Christ The Lord hath cut off many in their sins while they have been acting unrighteousnesse as the drunkard that said he should never die yet fell down a pair of staires presently and died while you have escaped and your life hath been given you for a prey and yet all this while you have gotten no grace You have seen of the fruit of your body it may be to the third generation and yet the Lord hath seen no fruits of grace from your soul you have been fruitful according to the flesh but barren according to the spirit You have lived so long as to have an hoary head but not so long as to have an holy heart Hath the Lord lengthened out your daies to a longer date than the daies of many of your stock and Family and yet are you without grace Are you ancient in years and yet have not come in to the ancient of dayes Is invaluable time of no value with you Is it nothing think you to live thirty fourty fifty Nihil pretiosius tempore heu nil hodiè eo vilius invenitur nay sixty yea almost four-score years without a change without conversion after so many callings The Lord giveth you time to turn in and will not you turn in time The Lord deferres as doomes-day so death's-day out of long suffering because he is not willing that thou shouldest perish but that thou shouldest 2 Pet. 3. 9 come to repentance Hast thou stood all this while in the Lord's orchard and is not the time of Figs yet with thee What will Christ say when he comes finds nothing but leaves on thee at these years Age and years aggravate Mark 11. 13 14. failings of infirmity because such should have more discretion much more then the fault of impenitency because they should have had true contrition It is not because others are worse then you that while they after a little time have withered in the grave you for a long time have walked on the Earth but it is that you might be better then they It is not because you shall not die to nature but it is because he would have you live to grace and yet are you dead while living no life nor love to this day Ah poor soul is it not a very great evil that the Lord hath been laying siege to thine heart these thirty fourty fifty years or more and yet thou hast stood up and stouted it out against him that thou hast so long been called by him and yet thy deaf vile heart hath not hearkned to him nor closed with him length of time overcomes many things but thou hast been little Nihil est quod longinquitas temporis efficere non possit the better for thy long time There hath been an extension of thy daies but no intension of thy desires a lengthening of thy season but no loathing of thy sins 6. The latitude of your comforts Your S. 15 daies have had breadth as well as length Your daies have been fair not foul clear not cloudy delightful with Sun-shine not darkned with sadnesse some have had a continued but not a
and lie in the womb of effectual calling so that thou mayst hear the voice of the Lord saying to thee as Isaac to Esau concerning Jacob I have blessed thee and thou Gen 27. 33. shalt be blessed From this mount Nebo from this top of Pisgah mayst thou view all the good land round about without conversion no man or woman can be blessed for the promises which are the seeds of blessings are made to grace Knowing that ye are thereunto called that ye should inherit a blessing No inheritance 1 Pet. 3. 9. without this evidence If the forgivenesse of thy sins the favour of God to thy soul be not a blessing what is now the work of grace upon the heart is the stair the ascent to this throne of happinesse Thou canst not get up into the tree of life and shake soul-satisfying fruit into thy bosome without this ladder Thou canst not attain to saving weal without this sanctifying work Thou canst never get to the top of glory without the staff of grace viruled with the righteousnesse of Jesus Christ Thou canst not be a loved Son unlesse thou be a living Saint many fondly presume and think to commence and take the degree of glory per saltum neglecting grace but it is the path the way thereto such as meet not with God in their heart shall never meet with God in heaven Thou that hast grace hast that threed which will undoubtedly lead thee into the bowre of blisse This compasse will not fail thee but bring thee to the port where thou needest fear neither billow nor blast Thy patent is signed and past whereby heaps and numberlesse sums of felicity are freely given thee out of the Exchequer of grace This gale will bring thee to the Isle of peace upon Beatus vir qui per poenitentiam ad meliora conversus est this silver stream thou shalt with safety slide into the bosome of the quiet Key This is the way the road to all the Scripture calls beatitude The fee simple of true blessednesse is given to the godly pious truly penitent soul 6. The spring of action You are now in S. 9 such a condition that you can act and do something for God Now thou art indued with a spirit that is quick and active like the highest element that finds no rest but in travel nor contentment but in the painful labours of worthy actions To do for the Creator is as great dignity almost as the creature can attain to to be instrumental to his glory to be subservient to his praise is a great preferment To be agent for God to be factor for heaven is a choice flower in a Saints garden a chief diamond in his diademe Now thou hast a talent to trade for God with such a principle whereby thou canst act some suitable part in his service The Apostle beseecheth the Ephesians that they would walk Ephes 4. 1. worthy of the vocation wherewith they were called Those that have life can do the works of living men and women for their living God When we are sick then we think what we would do for God if we were well Thou that hast grace art spiritually well and hast ability from God to work the works of God The wicked can neither think speak nor do for God when thou canst do all these things through that grace that God hath bestowed upon thee It is true nobility and the only Summa apud Deum nobilitas est clarum esse virtutibus advancement of a man or a woman to be fruitful in good works and duties towards God Thou hast cause to account it thy glory and thy crown of rejoycing that thou hast an heart or hand to move towards or do ought for God Those that are in their sins are dead and can do nothing Thou that art a Saint art alive and canst do something Thou canst be a means to promote the glory to predicate the greatness of the Lord. To be able to pray read hear speak believe oppose sin stand up in the behalf of grace is more by far then to be endowed with talents and abilities for temporal and secular undertakings One action done for God from grace is of more worth then all the atchievements of the most eminent without grace When David and his people offered freely to the building of the Temple he was much affected and taken with it acknowledging that he and they were unworthy to be dignified with ability of doing thus for God 1 Chron. 29. 13 14. 7. A sign of affection To be delivered from the Law of sin is a demonstration of the S. 10 love of God To be made willing to good is a manifestation of God's good will The souls love to God is but an effect of God's love to the soul We love him because he first Prior Deus dilexit nos â—â—â—us tantum gratis tantillos tales loved us 1 John 4. 19. Now those that are effectually called do love God for the Apostle joyns them together Those that love God and that are the called according to his purpose Rom. 8. 28. If the Lord's heart had not been towards thee he would never have drawn thy heart towards himself Where the Lord hath been pleased to hang out this sign of grace and a change thou mayst assure thy self there is store of love in his bosome toward thee The work of spiritual life in thee is the fruit of God's working love to thee Had not the Lord loved thee he would never have done thus for thee what cause of comfort then is there to thee who hast the love of God transcribed upon thy heart gracious dispositions flow from God's gracious affections and those to whom the Lord giveth saving and sanctifying grace are his Benjamins his darlings Those that can make out that they are in a living condition may conclude God's loving inclination If the Lord have changed thy nature and renewed thy heart thou mayst look upon it as a love-token with this posey or inscription I love thee freely In these clear waters of grace thou mayst see the smiling serene face of heaven In this book thou mayst read whole Chapters of God's good will And is it not a comforting cordial to know that one is in God's books in his favour Be glad and rejoyce for the Lord loveth thee one dram of God's special love is such a pearl that the whole world is not able to weigh against The Angel in his salutation to Mary Luke 1. 28 30. saith Haile thou that art highly favoured the Lord is with thee So may it be said to thee If Christ and grace be conceived and formed in thy soul it is a sign thou hast found favour with the Lord. 8. A singular condition There is no estate S. 11 like to an estate of grace There are degrees of honour in the world but this above them all and the divine Heraldry will give it the first place The Apostle
his dear Consort and welbeloved Children Whose spititual welfare should I tender if not yours I cannot but interest you in this my publike as well as private services FOr thee Dear heart as my love here greeteth thee so thine to me to thy self I question not will put thee on seriously to view and hearken to this discourse as well as my other and former advices Here thou mayst try that grace which the Lord hath given thee to his glory and thine and my comfort and mayst be helped to make sure thy calling and election It is true I am as yet present with thee through mercy and thou with me but it is unknown unless in heaven how soon we may be snatched each out of others bosome for the cloud of death many times overcasts a fair morning and so have opportunity for information direction and counsel according to my talent But this may live when I am dead and by this means thou mayst have an admonishing husband present even when absent However it may prove subservient to thy souls advantage whether our time be less or more in this world As for you my dear Children I judge it not unmeet to commend these collections to you and as a father to command you to study them and to search your selves by them I have formerly had in my thoughts to draw up some admonitions and cautions for the good of your souls which as a father careful of your eternal weal I might leave with you as a fathers blessing as the best legacy I can bequeath to you but those being not hatched and these fledged and compleated I could not but put them into your hands not knowing though my self wtth your loving mother be in the prime of our years having but newly past the noon of Moses Psal 90. his youngest old man how short my time may be with you as also because the subject is of special concernment for you being born and brought forth in sin For what doctrine could I better lay before you than that of effectual calling shewing you what is grace and what not and what duty could I better lay upon you than that of conversion and repentance Young children like young plants had need be shored and underpropped with good admonitions I endeavour it in this Treatise as well as in my private teachings I have six of you in the land of the living Oh that the Lord would make you his So far as I know mine own heart though the heart of man and so mine is very deceitful I profess seriously that how low soever your condition should be for temporals yet if the Lord would be pleased to bestow a new heart upon you I should abundantly rejoyce yea more than to see you sit upon the highest pinacle of worldly advancement I am full of fears and desires in reference to your souls good and though now you be tender and young and so little sensible and not so fit for this or other books yet if it please God to lengthen out the thread of your lives which I pray for then take a word of advice from your father oh that God would bless it to you Study throughly the nature of original sin and that pravity that is diffused throughout your natures Remember that you are born in sin and so will live and die if not changed by grace The Lord change you for his Christ's sake Let the Scriptures be precious in your eyes they are the book of books read them often and heedfully Make great conscience of obedience to your parents and superiors Remember your creator in the days of your youth make good use of your young time flee youthful lusts take heed of the beginnings of sin beware of pride lying vain company c. Be willing to learn and be taught the things of God and your souls good I must contract or mine Epistles will swell too much Jesus Christ wash you with his blood cleanse you from the filth and guilt of sin make you the sons and daughters of the Lord Almighty The Lord make thee my dear yoke-fellow a Mother of Saints and more and more an Eunice to the fruit of thy womb So prays An affectionate husband and father tender of your souls good J. V. Heveningham Feb. 4. 1657 8. To his neer relations in the bonds of consanguinity and affinity and to all his loving friends and acquaintance in the City of London County of Suffolk and elsewhere Respected Kinsfolk and Acquaintance RElations and friendship are the pillars of human society great comforts of our lives love is the sinew of friendship and religion is the life of this love What is love without religion but a sensual affection and acquaintance without love but flattery and dissimulation so that religion is the centre to the lines of love and friendship and that wherein they live and have their being Non nobis solum nati sumus We were not born for our selves alone said the Heathen Orator And if for others for their good and if for their good then their best good or their good in the best respects thereof God made and knit us together in bonds not to further or let each other alone in sin which we are apt to do through the corruption of base flesh but to admonish and help each other on towards grace and glory Though I must confess I fail too much in the duty of every of my relations wherein I stand yet I bless God that he hath helped and encouraged me in some measure to deal with divers of you in the way of private admonition which I hope hath not been altogether fruitless It is a precious duty I wish it were more put in use and practice I have had sometimes wishes though the thing can hardly be attained that we might all meet together at some times especially we that are more neerly related to each other not only for civil society but also and principally for spiritual advantage In some measure I may have my desire meeting with you all by counsel and advice in this Book and oh that God would so bless it for which I desire to bend my knees and lift up mine heart every day that we might one day meet with each other in the presence of God in the highest heavens Come let me beg your hearts for the Lord let the words of a Brother Kinsman Friend in the name of Christ prevail with you Who knows but God allied me to and gave me acquaintance with any of you for such an end and purpose as this Some of you may be yet knee-deep and more in the clay of a natural condition standing at a great distance from the father of light The Lord pull your feet out and set them on the rock Christ Others of you may be washed and whited over with civility and common profession but remember that not every one that saith Lord Lord shall enter into the Kingdom of heaven Pardon me that I hint
you of sin and the danger of a natural condition it was mine own condition once and whether I have yet fully passed it I have much cause to fear I find my heart so carnal sold under sin Others of you may have some early glimmerings of the spirit dawning upon your souls The Lord cause the sun of righteousness to rise upon you with healing under his wings and bring your bloomings and buddings to ripeness and maturity Some others may have a through work of grace upon their hearts the Lord make such thankful for it is an inestimable mercy and keep their feet that they fall not Various are your conditions in regard of temporals and spirituals various are your relations to and acquaintance with me whatsoever the one or the other be let nothing be a bar to keep you from accepting the counsel of the holy Ghost which is sent in love let it therefore be so taken I would not these things should be a witness against you or me another day The Lord therefore for his Christ's sake so sanctifie these truths to us and us by these truths that we may all attain to grace and increase thereof to the comfort of our own souls to the praise and glory of God by Christ So prays Your dayly Orator at the throne of grace J. V. The Epistle to the READER Christian Reader THou mayst wonder to see me add to the pile and heap of books Not glory nor gain unless of God of souls though my heart be very evil and have the seeds of all sin in it are the wheels on which I move in this labour Not affectation but affection to my heavenly Father to my earthly Friends put me on to this Some years since in my publike preaching I went through the chief heads in Divinity and when I came to this of Effectual Calling I insisted the longer upon it because it was very practical and of great concernment I found it then making some impression I hope it may do so now if but one soul be thereby turned in to the Lord it is worth my pains though a thousand times more I was desirous to communicate it to my friends to whom I dedicated for their good if the Lord be pleased to bless it It had been a weary task to have transcribed many copies I was resolved therefore to take the shortest cut It is a complaint that the Press is oppressed and not without cause yet much Printing I think is no more to be indicted then much Preaching if so be the matter be sound and savoury That feminine toleration that Midwives so many spurious births into the world and that licentious liberty whereby any one and any thing may preach and be preached are well worthy of censure and sharp animadversions it is hard to say which more Much reading is a weariness to the flesh and so may much hearing yet if either be rendred under God a means of conviction and conversion to the spirit it is no matter Daniel got knowledge of things of concernment by books Dan. 9. 2. I see the Lord owneth and blesseth reading as well as hearing printing as well as preaching though of all means of grace I take preaching to be the King Mine own soul through the mercy of God for ever blessed be his name hath received some good if it be not presumption to say so that way as well as by the preaching of the word and though this be drawn up by a weak worthless creature yet God I see sometimes makes use of and blesseth a wooden as well as a golden instrument And though hereby I expose my self who am weak to the acute judgement of parted and learned men yet I weigh it not if but one soul may be gained and brought in to God by this service as I hope there shall and the Lord raiseth mine heart to some comfortable expectation thereof What a rejoycing would it be to me if my poor labours might tend to the enlargement of my soveraigns Kingdom Reader I shall no further apologize for or give an account of this undertaking though more might be said I desire thine earnest prayers that while I give these counsels and cautions to others my self may not be a cast-away as thou hast mine If thou be a sinner the Lord conform thee to his will if a Saint the Lord confirm thee in his ways The Lord be with thy spirit and his who is Thine as he hopes for thy souls good J. V. Imprimatur Edmund Calamy A SURVEY OF EFFECTUAL CALLING THE FIRST PART CHAP. I 8. Rom. 30. vers the begin Moreover whom he did Predestinate them he also called IN the first part of this Chapter Paul endeavours to comfort the Roman Saints against the Remainders of sin yet with this proviso and caution that they remain not in sin In this Second Part which begins at the seventeenth Verse he Sect. 1 prescribes an antidote to fortify their Spirits against adversity which is made up of many ingredients the last whereof though not the least is in the 28. vers viz. that God like a skilful Chymist will extract good out of evil and by his wise disposing cause advantage to grow upon the stalk of affliction which is proved in the two next Verses because nothing can break that Golden Chain wherein foreknowledge Predestination Vocation c. are Cohaerence linked together so that the words which I have pitched upon fall out to be the middle linke of this Chain which reacheth from Eternity to Eternity viz. from fore-knowledge and Predestination to Glory For the opening of the words Predestination Explication is a fore-ordaining or appointing even from Eternity in reference to the reasonable Sect. 2 Creature and is sometimes taken largely so as the twins of Election and reprobation lye in the Womb of it and sometimes strictly and synecdochically that it and Election are identified and so is it here used Them hath he called We know what it is to call to or upon another to do this or that so God calls them to Sanctity obedience conformity to his will yet so it is to be understood that he opens their ear to hear and inclines their heart to submit to this call He hath called The Preterperfect tense used for the Future Bez. in loc tense after the manner of the Hebrews and to denote a continued Act But I should rather think he so speaks in reference to those that are called already and so in them Personating all others that are the Children of Predestination or else to shew that those that are Predestinated shall as certainly be called as if they were already called for it is the manner of Scripture Sic narrare futura tanquam praeterita Haym to call the things that are not as if they were In the words are two parts Divis 1. The Subject 2. The Predicate Or 1. The Appointment to the end 2. The first step of the means to the end Viz. 1.
of Prison out of the stocks that their shackles are undone their manacles filed off the Chaines of their captivity loosed and their Souls set in a large place such may say with David in Psal 4. 1. Thou hast enlarged me when I was in distresse Thou didst visit me when I was in Prison and redeeme me when I was a Galley-Slave Galat. 5. 13. Ye have been called unto liberty What contendings what pleadings what strivings in the world for liberty till people Liber est aestimandus qui nulli turpitudini servit Cic. bring themselves into bondage again It is in truth and indeed in Christ in grace The Soul that knows what sin is cannot but exceedingly rejoyce at its redemption and keep Holy-day in remembrance of its deliverance from Egypt and the House of bondage and sing songs of praise to that God that Christ that Spirit whose hand brought it out of thrall here is Freedom yet service but the service is no diminution or lessening of the Freedom for it is such service as is not in the world It is liberty to the fall to the heigth 3. Fellowship with Christ All that are called S. 3 are called to this By whom ye are called unto 1 Cor. 1. 9. the fellowship of his Son Jesus Christ What an high dignity is this that poor Worms dust and ashes should be advanced to communion with Christ How do Men of parts and greatness who converse with the sages and honourable ones of the world think themselves to move in a higher spheare and orbe than others How much then is that Man advanced to a condition above others whose converse is with Christ who is full of wisedom and glory converted ones have Fellowship with Christ in a moral sence as one Friend converseth with another or with any delightful and suitable object they speak to Christ by supplication Christ speakes to them by Predication by Preaching inward and outward though Christ and they be as far distant from each others as Heaven is from Earth yet is their conversation Phil. 3. 20. in Heaven with him as the Queen of Sheba 1 Kings 10. had communion with Wise Solomon by questions to him and answers from him so hath the Soul of a Saint with the true Solomon Jesus Christ who is the wisedom of the Father Faith and desire are the feet of the Soul which bring it from far into the presence of Christ and when there it sits down at his feet to hear his wise sayings and with humility and modesty to propound the cases of its tender conscience and with admiration saith as she Happy is my Soul happy are all thy Servants which stand Verse 8. continually before thee and that hear thy wisedom the Soul is carried up to Heaven in the fiery chariot of zealous and fervent Meditation and with Christs gracious leave sits down by his Right hand and talkes with him of all its sins and all his loves of all its miscarriages of his peerelesse mercy of its meaneness and insufficiency of his merit and all sufficiency of its desert of Hell and his desire to save it of its perversenesse of his patience of it's frowardnesse of his forwardnesse of its standing out rebelliously against him when time was of his coming into it powerfully yet sweetly in conversion and thus goeth on till silenced with wonderment and then Christ takes the Soul and leading it by the hand sheweth it all about his banquetting house and displayeth Cant. 2. 4 5. his banner of love over it openeth his flagons giveth his Apples to it smileth upon it unbosomes himself and tells the Soul of his Fathers and his compact from Eternity for its Salvation and shewes it its name written in Golden Characters upon his never dying ever yerning heart shewes it the glory of its future mansion and walkes with it from one end to the other of the streets of the New Jerusalem upon the firme pavement of purest love opens the record and roules of Heaven and shewes it it's debts and scores crossed with red Lines of his own heart blood and tells it of his former suiting and wooing it and how he wan upon it's heart and made it pant and long for him till it was sick of love he tells it of the kindnesse of it's youth and of the love of it's espousals How it went after him in the wildernesse Jer. 2. 2 3. in a Land that was not sown and left all for his sake then it was Holinesse unto the Lord and the first Fruits of his encrease And saith well done my dearest spouse that thou keepest thy Garments clean thine Heart entire for me And as for thy backslidings under which thou labourest over which thou mournest against which thou strivest I have seen them and will heal them Thus do Christ and the Soul by the help of his Spirit maintain an Holy Dialogue between them Oh the sweet entercourse and discourse that is between them that the Soul saith let us build Tabernacles here what gracious heart doth not dance within at the thoughts of this Fellowship and may not say truely my Fellowship is with the Father and with 1 John 1. 3. his Son Jesus Christ whereas the converse of the wicked is with their sins and sinners like themselves these are the subject of their thoughts the Center of their Meditations and the object of their Souls delight the drunkard converseth and hath Fellowship with his Cups the unclean person with effeminate ones the covetous Man with the World and every sinner with his Dalilah but the Christian with his Christ Then in the next place they have communion with Christ by way of Partnership as the word signifieth that which is common 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 and this I think may be called a forensical and civil Communion with Christ by way of Analogy and proportion Christ is the Souls his Divinity his humanity his natures person are the Soules All Christ all of Christ all in Christ are a believers for by Faith are they united to him and made one with him and so must partake of the fatnesse of the true Olive when it goeth into Christs Treasury Christs Ware-house and seeth his spotlesnesse his Righteousnesse his sufferings his death his Resurrection his ascension session at his Fathers Right hand it may say these are mine and common to me with Christ Christ is the subject of them and I the object of them the vertue and benefit of them is for me And of his fulnesse do and shall I receive grace for grace John 1. 16. As Husband and Wife may challenge an Interest mutually in each others person and property so may Christ and a believing Soul Oh the happiness of a converted Soul as Ahasuerus would Est 6. 9. have Haman proclame before Mordecai so may we say in this case Thus shall it be done to the Man whom the Lord delighteth to honour with the grace of effectual calling This is
provide for the good and grace of Soules when his intention is to awake his own Servants there the execution is in part sometimes by making them the Servants of such or such a man when he purposeth to bring them into his orchard he provides sometimes by services a suitable Nursery for them Such as he will bring into the houshold of Faith he sometimes for that end placeth in the houshold of the Faithful and those that shall be brought into Gods Family are sealed first in the Family of those that are Gods and by being Servants of Gods Servants come to be Servants of God themselves by a temporal servitude the Lord making way for a Spiritual Freedome and by an Earthly subjection to an Heavenly manumission So it was with fugitive Onesimus who fled from the house of his Master Philemon and besides his Philem. 10 16. thoughts fel into the hands of his Master Christ Onesimus was Philemon's Servant Philemon was Paul's Friend and so by meanes of the Master Onesimus comes to knowledge of the Minister and as the one was his Earthly Master so the other his Heavenly Father for Paul begate him in his bonds one Prisoner loosing another and travailed of him in birth till Christ was formed in him and so the Servant became as good a man as his Master O Onesimus little didst thou think what God intended to do with thee when he brought thee Bonus etiam si servit liber est under Philemon's Government Thou mayest thou doest blesse God that ever thou camst under his roof so it hath been no doubt with many others besides Onesimus Many may have cause to admire the goodnesse of the Lord in planting them under a good Master and Mistresse or Dame whose counsels have been converting whose words have been working whose perswasions have been prevailing whose prayers have been powerful whose admonitions have been accepted whose motives have been melting whose reproofs have been reclaiming through the grace of God accompanying them The Lord seeth some young men or maids that belong to his election of grace and are Tit. 1. 16. yet in the ways of the reprobate being reprobate to every good work and the appointed time of their conversion draweth neer and beginneth to dawn well saith the Lord thou art mine yet still thine own mine by secret predestination thine own by open abomination mine according to my bosome will thine according to thy basest ways mine by choosing love thine own by sinful life thou little thinkest how I will make thee mine own every way I will incline thine and thy parents heart to put thee forth to pitch upon such a sentence I will displace another to place thee there you look at the ease profit conveniency of the service but though you purpose give me leave to dispose I will so order it that something read heard spoken done by some means or other there you shall be changed and be made restless till you find me without whom you are lost that it shall be said this Psal 81 4. man this maid was born there in the house of one of my Saints and holy ones O the sweet intendings and disposings of the Lord towards us how the Lord can turn things that seek mans way to the accomplishing his own wil. 4. By ordering their station Sometimes the S. 5 Lord pitcheth their tents in such a place where Valet interdum pro animae salute mutatio loci they shall have means God will bring the means and the end together when God fireth his beacon such as he intendeth shall have warning thereby he brings within ken of it when he soundeth the silver trumpet of the word such as he would have prepared thereby to battle with their sins he brings within hearing of it when God sets up a light in any place such as he intendeth shall thereby see the worst of their misery the way to mercy he brings within the beams and rays thereof God is the great Landlord all tenements are of his letting habitations of his appointing dwellings of his disposing he causeth some to wander from their native soil that so they come to have their natures changed the Lord removeth some from town to town that he may translate them from darknesse to light and this we may see in the 18th of the Acts 9 10. Be not afraid hut speak and hold not thy peace for I am with thee no man shal set on thee to hurt thee for I have much people in this City Observe here the ways goings of the Lord He intended to bring Paul to Corinth and to have such and such of his elected ones to be converted there by him whom he therfore first placeth in Corinth that they might be there during the time of Paul's ministring was not this a sweet providence for the Lord to bring them into Corinth for their conversion some places are like Goshen all light others like Egypt all darknesse some places have the dew of heaven and spiritual showres plentifully falling down upon them others like mount Gilboa upon which there cometh 2 Sam. 1. 21. neither rain nor dew some places are as sheep without a shepherd having either no guides or blind guides others enjoy that gracious promise I will give you pastors according to Jer. 3. 15. Plerumque dum â—utatur locus mutatur mentis affectus mine own heart now for the Lord to bring a man into such a Town and there turn him into such a Country and there by the means convert him to change ones house and thereby to change ones heart to change ones mansion and to change ones manners is a precious dispensation for the Lord as he appointed the time and hour so the means and place of conversion yet a fat soil a place of gain a good pennyworth are the things that commend habitations to many They love to sojourn in Mesech and to dwell in the tents of Kedar and have long dwelt with those that Psal 120. 5 6. are haters of goodnesse To live neer the Altar the Ark the Temple is a mercy of God and a means of good To think our selves best when we are farthest from the Sanctuary is a curse to be a door keeper in the house of God is the way to a cure 5. By prolonging their days many live to S. 6 be converted who had they died before had been condemned our times also are in the hands of the Lord he knoweth the day and hour of the conversion of his elect he will keep off dangers remove destruction defer death not terminate their time but continue their natural course lengthen their life till the hour of their holinesse the time of their turning the day of their deliverance be come for had they died before they had died in wickedness and had they died in wickedness they had been undone by wrath they had died in present sin and could not have escaped eternal sorrow as we may see
crown and glory of all without this the rest will not concoct well but produce crudities and distempers in the spirit without this Benjamin what are all the rest who could smile at the highest attainments of nature which would prove but fawning flatteries without the presence of this It was the counsel of Jesus Christ to his inceptors his young beginners Notwithstanding in this rejoyce not that the spirits are subject unto you but rather rejoyce because your names are written in Heaven Luke 10. 20. If we had the devil under our girdle and our selves were not in God's heart if we had never so much power on Earth and had no place in Heaven what would it advantage us If the world were thrown into your bosom and your name not written in God's book could you say you had enough Heraclitus said if the Sun were wanting it would be night for all the Stars If the Sun of righteousnesse hath not risen upon your heart with healing under his wings the glory of your accommodations lies buried in darknesse and yields no pleasure to the eye what satisfaction can there be in the world's goods if thy maker be not thy Husband Which he is to none but those that are effectually Gaudium solummodo verum est quod de creatore concipitur called The blaze of temporal priviledges will soon out if the knowledge of predestination do not maintain the flame If you cannot upon good grounds to wit the right application of Christ which is done in effectual calling make out a real appointment to glorie may it not is it not sufficient to marre your mirth to spoil your sport to damp your delight in things here below if seriously considered and duely thought on Can meat be savoury without this sauce Can drink be sweet without this sugar Though a Sea of temporal immunities should come flowing in yet it is this fair fresh stream that alone can glad the soul What contentment can there be in Remi and Remaliahs son if the waters of Shiloah do not bubble softlie by the door Indeed people like swine like beasts do find and take delight in these huskes and they are as dear to them as their heart and do account their having of these things to be their happinesse but it is because they know not what their state and condition is that they are lost in sin nor what it is to be without some certainty of predestination they not being able to reach in their contemplations things of so high concernment which did they know it would make their hearts to shrink for fear but that is but adverse felicity whose foundation is nothing but bruitish insensibility and that is not to be accounted the joy of a Christian of a man that hath its rise from nothing subjectively but beastlike ignorance and supinesse Haman accounted all his wealth and greatness nothing so long as he could not have his will Esth 5. 13. of Mordecai so maiest thou say and the Lord make thee to say so I have wealth and wit health and honour friends and favour profit and preferment peace and plenty goods and gold meat and mony Lands and Lordships life and liberty but what good do these do me they avail me nothing so long as sin sits in the throne so long as I am not called not converted and know not that I am elect and chosen How can I look upon them with delight when I cannot perceive they are enamelled with eternal love It is most true that Paul saith Vnto them that are defiled and unbelieving is nothing pure Tit. 1. 15. 4. The next sable consideration that maintains S. 5 this tragick scene is this that they can take no comfort in the promises propounded The Scripture is a rich mine full of golden promises one of the promises there is worth a In sacrâ Scriptura quicquid promittitur felicitas est world There are peace and pardon grace and glory love and liking salvation and sonship Heaven and happiness promised but only to those that are truly called The Scripture is a treasure of precious promises a store-house of gracious engagements They are spread thick upon the pages of holy writ The Manna of spiritual promises falls there together with the dew of Heavenlie doctrine They both descend and distil together This laden tree is forbidden fruit to thee And as Peter said to Simon Magus so I to thee in the name of the Lord who art in thy sins Thou Acts 8. 21. hast neither part nor lot in this matter for thy heart is not right in the sight of God It may justlie be said to thee touch not tast not handle not for they belong not unto thee It is for the Saints onlie to sit down at this feast you that are sinners must be excluded Procul hinc procul este profani this Paradise who do you think the Authour to the Hebrews means by heirs of promise Heb. 6. 17. but gracious souls and more plainly doth he expresse himself when he saith that they which are called might receive the promise of eternal inheritance Heb. 9. 15. May it not be just cause of sadnesse to thee to think that thou maiest not warm thy self at this fire to think that thou maiest not pluck one fair apple from the tree that there should be so many heapes of gold and sums of treasure and thou not able to say one penny is thine own There is no saving good but by the promises and yet such is thy condition that they belong not to thee How canst thou sleep without this pillow under thine head Doth it content thee to have ordinary mercies by a common providence without an interest in a special promise Promises of mercy favour love good will are not general but particular not to all but to some that is to say to the Saints the renewed the effectually called This is one thing whereby the Apostle aggravates the misery of the Ephesians former natural condition that they were strangers from the Covenants of promise Ephes 2. 12. and not without good Spem merito conconjungit promissionibus de Christo nam absque his quicquid sperant homines frustra sperant Bez. reason adds having no hope Those that hope without book hope in vain Souls do not lay claim to the covenant without you find the condition wrought in you do not challenge glorie for your right unless you can find grace in your heart do not say you are pardoned unless you find your self purified verilie it must needs be very sad if you but seriouslie consider it that there should be so much good promised but none to you because you are still bad He that carrieth a promise in his bosome hath an antidote against all disasters and he that wants it lies exposed even to eternal destruction you had better want any thing than this 5. In the fifth place Those that are not effectuallie S. 6 called and therefore cannot make
which such Quis mortem temporalem metuat cui aeterna vita promittitur cannot do as we have shewed in the former head If spirituals be absent temporals will prove but miserable comforters Though now you hold up your heads and blank at nothing and you laugh at the shaking of the spears and account darts as stubble yet in your moneth Job 41. 29. when you come to be gravid and go bigge with the sorrow of languishing sicknesses and fear of approaching death you will change your tone and sing another song if you be not as bad or worse than the Devil for he hath such a sence of his condition that it makes him to tremble Thus you see what a dreadful condition all are in that are not effectually called no comfort present or future none in life or in death none in earthly and common none in Heavenly and spiritual good things They may well have their name changed Jer. 20. 3. and be called Magor-Missabib fear round about for there is just cause they should be a terrour to themselves CHAP. IV. III. Vse For reprehension IN the next place this Doctrine reads a Juniper S. 1 Lecture to such as look not after this work of effectual calling and sharply chideth those that have opposed and stood out against the cals of God have you lived in the bosome of the Church all this while and are not yet in the bosome of Christ are there so many witnesses of Gods calling and no evidence of your answer Hath God called to you to awake and are your eyes together still hath he called to you to arise and do you still rest upon the couch of iniquitie Hath the Lord stretched out his hands and thou not regarded Hast thou turned the deaf eare to his voice Hast thou snibbed the spirit muzzelled the mouth of truth bruised the buds of grace stopped the stirrings murdered the motions to holinesse thou deservest to be lashed with reproof till thine eye weep and thy sides bleed You have heard before now that whom the Lord predestinateth them he calleth and you are never sollicitous Omnes sumus in minimis cauti in maximis negligentes about it You have had no serious thoughts about it nay you have done what in you lieth to hinder this work in your selves and others You have not praied nor endeavoured for it the desire of your soul hath not gone out with earnest longings for this work nay shut not up the Book do not go your wayes but stand still till you have gone through this use bear your chiding patiently and let your eare hearken to the reproof of life Prov. 15. 31. that you may abide among the wise If you turn your back and stop your ear there is no hope for you nay hath not grace been a grievance pietie needlesse precisenesse the new birth a burden duty a disparagement in your conceit and estimation Have you spent all your dayes in Gospel places and under Gospel means and yet are unchanged still why do you resist the Holy Ghost Do you not know that in thus doing you forsake your own mercies sin against your soul Do you think you were born a Saint and need no regeneration alas you are mistaken for with David you were shapen in iniquity and in sin did your Mother conceive you You must be born Ps 51. 5. Nullus vitam in qua natus est bene finiet nisi renatus antequam finiatur again as well as born or you will never do well Or do you think it is enough to be a Christian in the general so are the Papists or that it is enough to be a Protestant so are many that live in known and open sins or that it is enough to be civil or outwardly religious so are many who yet deny the power Truely the foulnesse of your waies declares the 2 Tim. 2. 5. folly of your thoughts and your conversations will shew that there are such cogitations within what hast passed all this time in the world and yet never passed the streights of the new birth Have so many years gone over your head and the work of grace never come upon your heart Oh that you would be heartily ashamed of this Are you not at one time or other convinced that your condition is not good towards God and that you are not in an estate of grace Though you keep your head above water and cherish some raw hopes of your good plight and that you shall be saved arising either from love to your self as if that must needs be which you could wish or from presumption that the generalitie shall be saved and are in condition good enough or from ignorance taking that to be grace which is not and thinking that repentance may be had when you list and think you have most need of it at the last when death comes Yet upon more serious thoughts you have misgivings of spirit that all is not well which makes such thoughts unwelcome guests to you and for all your bravadoes yet you never yet durst adventure upon the work of examination or view your self by Scripture light for fear the issue and result should not correspond to your present hopes and thoughts Is it nothing to be in such a condition wherein thou hast no truth of grace as thou art who never wast converted and changed Is it nothing to have the Lord bring his action against thee for standing out against him and to threaten to execute the Law of retaliation upon thee and to pay thee in thine own coyn as he doth when he saith Because I have called and ye refused I have stretched out my hand and no man regarded but ye have set at naught all my counsel and would none of my reproof I also will laugh at your calamity I will mock when your fear cometh Prov. 1. 24 25 26. This is a dreadfull hearing every word hath its weight what shall the Lord call and sinners not come shall he reprove and they refuse shall he offer and they oppose he counsel and they contemn shall the great God be thus condescending and wilt thou be no more corresponding It will be a vain plea to say thou canst not effectually call thy self such excuses and defences Causa patrocinio non bona major erit will increase and not decrease thy fault For you can oppose and with a stiff-neck resist the grace of God You have not heard nor read nor kept Godly company c. as you might besides God hath made a gracious promise of giving his spirit and this spirit hath Prov. 1. 23. come and you have given it churlish use and frowned it out of doores Is it nothing to hear the Lord thundring against thee as he did against his old people the Jews And now because ye have done all these works saith the Lord and I spake unto you rising up early and speaking but ye heard not and I called you but
ye answered not Therefore will I do unto this house which is called by my name as I have done to Shiloh and I will cast you out of my sight Jer. 7. 13 14 15. This reprehension and commination concernes thee as well as them because thou art in the same predicament and condition with them You see the hardness of your heart and the heavinesse of Gods hand go together want of conversion brings woful confusion and such as continue vassals of sin are like to prove vessels of sorrow Is it a light matter in your account not to Eccho to the voice of God from Heaven Is it nothing to have the Lord of life and glory stand and knock at the door of your cottage and you not let him in He hath promised to open to you if you knock Matt. 7. 7. and will not you open to him when he knocks Is it nothing to have God make tenders from Heaven and we be unwilling to accept of his termes Is it nothing for the Lord to complain and say All day long I have stretched forth my hands unto a disobedient and gainsaying people Rom. 10. 21. If you be not past shame you cannot but be ashamed of these things let not the Lord have cause to say Were they ashamed of what they had done nay they were not ashamed at all neither could they blush Oh that you Jer. 8. 12. should make no more account of such a work as this is That you should spend your time and never seek for this Bear with my chiding and reproof the Lord set it home upon your hearts It is out of love and desire of thy good I must not flatter thee Open rebuke is better than secret love faithful are the wounds Prov. 27. 5 6. Magis ama tobjurgator sanans quam adulator dissimulans of a friend but the kisses of an Enemy are deceitful Such as you are must be rebuked sharply You are in much fault your sin is great your condition is sad and not to deal plainly were to destroy thee and my self too That this use may not fall off from your spirit I shall fasten it with three nailes and that I may make it more full and compleat give me leave to lay before you a trinity of considerations which are these 1. Aggravating circumstances 2. Administring causes 3. Astonishing consequences or considerations 1. Aggravating circumstances In the first place S. 2 I shal aggravate the neglect want of effectual calling It is good for souls to view their sins round about and to look upon them not onely in the substantials but also in the circumstantials of them not only in their essentials but also in their accidentals That may be a mole-hill in Tanto majus peccatum esse cognoscitur quanto major qui peccat â—abetur one as it were which is a mountain in another That may be less in one which is larger in another The quantity of sin beareth proportion with the quality of the sinner Not only the absolute constitution of sin but the relative dimensions thereof also are to be taken into our consideration Now these following circumstances do exceedingly greaten and enhance your neglect and slighting of effectual calling and the work of grace 1. The multitude of your calls in regard of 1. The frequencie of the Act. 2. The variety of the agent 2. The altitude of your inexcusablenesse 3. The magnitude of God's providences 4. The lenitude of the spirit 5. The longitude of your life 6. The latitude of your comforts 1. The multitude of your calls You have had many calls many wayes 1. In regard of the frequency of the Act S. 3 You have been often called upon to turn in to the Lord you have been often invited to the marriage Feast The Lord hath repeated his calls and do you renew your resistance The Lord hath multiplied his calls and you have not magnified his grace by your acceptance The Lord hath often called from Heaven and thou hast not taken one step from Earth to meet with him may not Christ say to thee as he said to the Jews How often would I have gathered you together as an Hen doth gather her Brood under her wings and ye would not Luke 13. 34. That how often implieth often 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 the Lord Christ hath many times stretched out his wing of love and thou hast refused to come under his shelter This is very sad and shouldst thou then hear any other voice then that of Punitione gravi dignus est qui saepius Dei gratiam contempsit chiding and other language then that of reproof Thou art not able to reckon up the many times that God hath called thee In the Canticles we find Return return O Shulamite return return Cantic 6. 13. Four times but this is nothing to the times that thou hast been called The Lord called to Samuel four times before he understood his voice 1 Sam. c. 3. beginning of it but thou hast been called not four but four hundred four thousand yea innumerable times and thou knowest not his language and hast not yet made answer speak Lord for thy servant heareth Thou hast been called in thy non-age in thy middle age yea in thine old age and yet thou art in thine old condition Thou hast been called long ago and of later time Thou hast been called in thy single in thy sociated estate Thou wast called in the time that is past and art called still in the time that is present God hath and doth send many messengers spokes-men to woo thee for himself and thou hast said nay to all The Cock hath crowed not three but three hundred Matt. 26. 75. times and yet thou hast not remembred the words of the Lord nor wept bitterly for thy sins You have been called on the Lord's day and yet not one of your dayes have been spent for the Lord You have been called on lecture dayes and yet you have never truely leaned on Christ You have been called in fasting seasons and yet you have not fasted from sin You have been called on thanks-giving dayes and yet you have not given in your name to Christ You have been called publikely and privately and yet will not be prevailed withall Your callings have been frequent and yet your Zeal is not fervent Your calls have been many but your graces not any Your calls have been several but your faith not saving You have had divers invitations but no dutiful inclinations The dew hath fallen upon you every morning and yet you have not sprouted out The showers have descended upon you continually and yet you have not ascended Heavenward the Heavenly Elatum cor durum expers est pietatis ignarum compunctionis drops have fallen upon you every day and yet your heart more hard then stone hath received no impressions The Lord may complain and say I have shewed thee my wayes and taught thee my pathes
seek to be made good As ever you desire to be made a living Saint so see your selfe to be a lost sinner but the wretched world love and Joh. 3. 19. live in darkness and rather then they will have a true reflextion of their condition they either draw the curtain before the glass or put their hand before their eyes and so farre hath the God of this world infatuated them that they will draw up such conclusions to Conscientia est codex in quo quotidiana peccata conscribuntur which neither conscience if suffered to speak nor Scripture will give consent If you did but search consciences record and Scriptures testimonie sure you could not be of that perswasion whereof you are 2. Of Gods compassion people think that the S. 23 Divine being is all mercie and no justice and that by his mercy they shall be preserved from damnation though through wilfulness they persevere in their abominations This is the last refuge that they betake themselves to and the universal remedie and plaister that they think Vltimum refugium 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 to be healed by It is true the mercy of God is the sovereign salve for the sores of our souls but it must be rightly spread and applied It is the onely balm of Gilead but it must be rightly used Gods mercy is sanctifying as well as saving renewing as well as redeeming delivering from the power as well as from the penalty of sin from the way as well as from the wages of sin and those that have not the first effect thereof cannot expect the latter If it bring not to repentance for sin it will never bring to acceptance in a Saviour The Author Rom. 2. 4. to the Hebrews speaking of mercy of the highest strain even that which comes to souls in the blood of Christ which though it be the pillar and basis of Gods kingdom yet he doth not infer that therfore be we what we will we shall shall be saved but this that we must have grace Heb. 12. 24. 28 29. whereby we may serve God acceptably with reverence and godly feare or otherwise he will be a consuming fire notwithstanding this eminent demonstration of his mercy The Lord saveth none in their sins but saved from your sins you may be To fancie such mercy is but In omni opere Dei est misericordia et justitia to fall down to an Idol for mercy and justice meet together the rising of one attribute is not built upon the ruine of another God is full of pity thou thinkest that he will spare thee though thou be never so full of impietie and therefore you send not forth so much as one thought to look after grace He that made you will not damn you he that formed you will not confound you for your sinnes you think Doe but consult that startling place in Esay It is a people of no understanding therefore he that made them will not have mercy on them and he that formed them will shew them no favour Esa 27. 11. Gods mercie you see will not advance you to happinesse if you live and die without holiness By such thoughts you make mercy a means to sink you which otherwise might be a means to save you what is this but to turn the grace of God into wantonness Be not deceived God will not be mocked the Lords mercy glorifieth in heaven onely those whom he sanctifieth on earth Though God be mercifull yet you will be miserable without grace presumption of Gods favour without a change on your heart will prove the confusion of your face and if because of his compassion you disobey the call of his Spirit you are like to meet with nothing but condemnation let mercie be a motive to draw you to contrition and not a means to drown you in perdition Every one though their hearts be fraughted with nothing but sin yet they would cast anchor in the mercy of God that they might be saved from tormenting tempests and so long as they think they shall have glory let who so will look after grace if they may be saved through Gods mercy what need they care for Christs Spirit but soul know thus much that though Gods mercy have neither bottom nor bank yet it will not benefit you in reference to glory if you come into and goe out of the world a sinfull wretch Those that confide in Gods mercy against Gods method are like to have a sad come off when it comes to the upshot 3. Sinful procrastinations This is another cause of peoples being without and not looking S. 24 after effectual calling because they defer and put it off to the time to come hereafter they think will be time enough though it be Qui non est hodiè cras minus aptus erit high time at present not considering that duration in sin brings obduration of heart in temporals people are altogether upon the speed and in spirituals altogether upon the slack It is an usual thing for people at 20 to put off repentance and the serious minding of their souls to 30 and when they are come to 30 to crave yet a further day and that the businesse may lie still till 40 and so putting off from one time to another from the Spring to Autumn from the flower to the fall of our age the work is undone for gray heads can find excuses as well as green heads for when they grow old then their senses sinke their memories grow mean their understandings decay and now it is no time for such things even as Thales who when his mother asked Plutarch him in his younger years why he did not marry answered He was too young and after in his elder years she putting the same question to him answered He was too old So the Lord by his Ministers and Spirit asketh people when they will marry be espoused to Jesus Christ they say It is too soon they have good desires to Christ but they would stay yet a while the Lord in patience waits and comes to them with the same query afterwards and then they say It is too late nature is decayed their spirits are spent but they will wish well and they would have God accept of that most put of all to the last and yet then they are as unfit and unwilling as ever and God in justice rejects them who injuriously refused him People are like little children who loathe to have their play spoiled or hindred by wet weather say Rain rain go away come again another day Sinners have sometimes convictions that they begin to melt and be sorrowful and the heavenly doctrine falls upon them in such drops that it begins to wet them to damp their sport to dull their joy and they bid it go away and if it come in old age it shall be welcome and put away the messages of God the calls of the spirit and say as Felix to Paul
Angels he is like the Soveraign among his subjects the Sun among the Planets there is nothing in him but is a strong motive to love and a powerful invitation to affection 2. His affection to them They consider how S. 72 Christ hath loved them and this kindles the fire in their hearts that they cannot but love him again they have received love from him and this makes them render love to him He descended to earth out of love to the sons of Ama amorem illius qui amore tui descendit in uterum virginis 1 Sam. 14. 45. men and they cannot but ascend to heaven out of love to the Son of God The people expressed their love to Jonathan in standing between him and death because he wrought great salvation in Israel Upon the same account do Saints express love to their spiritual Saviour they say and think it is pity but love should have love he hath laid down his life for them and they think they can give no less then their heart-love to him but thou hast no love to Christ thou wilt not part with ought for his sake thou seest no such greatness in him that he should be liked no such goodness that he should be loved if thou have any love towards him it is but from the teeth and not in truth but common and complemental not cordial 7. Improving assurance The incomes of assurance such have from the Spirit make S. 73 them more dutiful to the Spirit they dare not turn the grace of God into wantonness if they hear a voice from heaven saying Thou art my dear son my pleasant child what vigour and life doth this put into them to make them lay out themselves for God It is marrow to their bones and health to their flesh the joy of the Lord is the strength of Neh. 8. 10. their souls intimations of God's love they use as invitations to a good life when the Lord speaks peace to their hearts they think they are bound to act piety with their hands if God speak peace to them they dare not Psal 85. 8. turn to folly peace of conscience with such is mother to piety in conversation if they have a sense of acceptance with God it makes them seek for more acquaintance with his ways when they have but a sip of this cordial how it fills them with activity for the Lord they desire not this Sun-shine to play in but to work in but as for thee thy confidences putrifie and breed corruption and thy security sin Thou thinkest thou art one Non sperare potest coeleste regnum cui super propria regnare membra adhuc non donatur of God's and shalt be saved and therefore takest liberty to thy self to fulfil the lusts of thine own heart thou hast then no grace yet this is the way of many wretched creatures if they can but fancy the sureness of their condition they fear not the sinfulness of their courses But this warm weather is not the prognostication of the divine Almanack it is one of the Divel's Errata's 8. Hating hypocrisie Such are sincere S. 74 not hypocritical Sincerity was part of Paul's prayer for the Philippians when he saith that Phil. 1. 10. ye may be sincere They have their inside and their outside all of one piece of all things hypocrisie goeth most against their stomacks they are what they would seem to be and they seem as they are As the Heathen said so is it here there must be nothing fained In amicitiâ nihil fictum aut simulatum Tull. and counterfeit in the friendship between God and a Saint Painters call the mixture of colours 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 corruption because whatsoever is mixed will more easily corrupt saith Plutarch If you be mixed you are naught if you be a linsey-woolsey Christian you are not of the right make God's people are not open Saints and secret sinners they are not all shew they have substance too if they were anatomized their insides would be found as white as their outsides their hearts as well as their hands are washed their spirit beareth a part in all they do the glory of God the salvation of their souls are the compasses they steer their course by glory credit reputation gain c. are not the white that they shoot the arrows of Religion at but it is far otherwise with thee as thou mayst easily perceive if thou take but a transitory view of thy self 9. Resisting custome Like living fish they S. 59 swim against the stream only the fish Elops swimmeth against wind and water so do these They are Antipodes to the world in their carriages And be not conformed to this world but be ye transformed by the renewing of your Rom. 12. 2. mind saith the Apostle What others are they are not what others are not they are they Contraria juxta se posita megis elucescunt follow not a multitude to do evil they chuse the strait way though they find no company their minds are contrary to the manners their courses to the customes their ways to the works their garb to the guise of the generality of the world Saints are singular other mens practices are no rule for their performances What Christ said of his Disciples then is true of them in all ages ye are not of this world Joh. 15. 19. the world goes west-ward these east-ward the world lies in wickedness these are up and doing the work of the Lord the world is sinfully secure these are seriously seeking the world lazy these labouring the world pursuing their gain these pleasing their God it matters not what crouds there are in the way of vanity these are content to go single in the way of vertue they go cross to the world not from passionate perverseness but from pious principles not from an humorous contrariety but from an heavenly conversion 10. Prizing communion Lastly they S. 80 make the enjoyment of God and Christ their summum bonum their chief good and prize communion with the divine being above all things The Lord is the portion of mine inheritance and of my cup thou maintainest my lot Psal 16. 5. Psal 73. 25. Whom have I in heaven but thee and there is none upon earth that I desire besides thee How did David's desires reach to heaven The participation of God and Christ is the ultimate end of a gracious souls pantings and pains its thoughts endeavours contrivances have a tendency thereunto it makes this the end of its life and liberty the end of its desires and duties the end of its prayers and performances to enjoy its God and Saviour here and hereafter other mens thoughts affections labours are about transitory things and that whereabout men lay out the choice of their intentions and indeavours they make their chief good Thus have I finished this use of examination whereon I have insisted the longer and which I have diversified the largelier because it
not like that son in Matthew that said I go Sir but went not Fight in the field against sin as those that have taken the Lord's press-money stand fast in the faith against winds and storms as those that are rooted in Christ if you profess your self to be a Saint by calling and not by carriage if you profess to be converted by the work of God and be not conformed to the word of God what is it In all carry your self as one that is born of God as one that is governed by the Spirit 2. Faithfulness to their earthly friends You that have grace and are effectually called look after your relations and friends families S. 10 and company doing what in you lieth that they may be effectually called as ye are one flesh so indeavour that ye may be one spirit There is no right love if it be not demonstrated by a spiritual care you that are alive by grace O put on bowels of compassion towards your friends and acquaintance that are dead in sin Do these three things for them 1. Pity them 2. Pray for them 3. Preach to them 1. Pity them Bemoan and bewail their S. 11 condition Say with the Church in the Canticles We have a little sister and she hath no brests Cant. 8. 8. what shall we do for our sister in the day when she shall be spoken for Say I have a father brother sister mother husband wife cousen c. that are dear to me but I cannot perceive they are dear to God my loving friends but they have no living faith It is reported Plut. Mor. of the Egyptians Lybians c. that when their friends die they go down into the caves of the earth and deprive themselves of the light of the Sun because their dead friends enjoy Nihil ad misericordiam sic inclinat atque proprii periculi cogitatio it not So do thou pity the condition of any belonging to thee that are in spiritual darkness it is a condition to be condoled a misery to be mourned over none can tell the greatness of the misery but those that have tasted the goodness of mercy 2. Pray for them Be often at the throne S. 12 of grace for your friends that have no grace their state is such that there is need for them to be spoken for to the King of heaven One Xenophon in Plutarch said He never prayed that his son Gryllus might be long lived but that he might be a good man How much more should Saints thus pray for their relations and friends of one kind or other There are many that owe much to the prayers of their pious parents and friends say Lord make all mine to be thine let winged prayers make haste to heaven gates on the errand of your dear friends souls Real petitions may Oratio pura vacua non redibit be means to bring your friends to religious profession 3. Preach to them I mean private teaching S. 13 and counsel according to the sphear wherein God hath set you Teach your children Deut. 6. 7. admonish your friends exhort your acquaintance God makes counsel sometimes a means of conversion savoury admonition a means of the souls alteration do not spare right words it may please God to enliven them with force and vertue 2. To graceless ones and such as are not S. 14 effectually called Be you perswaded to look out for effectual calling and seek after it spread all your sails and flee away as fast from a natural condition as you can there is no safety in sitting still on natures seat Ob. But thou wilt say There are so many S. 15 sides and Sects I know not what to do Sol. Many indeed wil be of one religion because there are so many I shall here give two answers 1. Answ Thou mayst be of every part in a good sense 1. Thou mayst be a royalist for the King Christ and yet a Saint Psal 24. 7 8 9 10. 2. Episcopal the word signifies to oversee thou must oversee and watch thine heart with all diligence 3. Parliamentarian Thou mayst be one of and for the assembly of the first born Heb. 12. 23. 4. Presbyterian the word signifies elder so be thou an elder in regard of grace a grown man Ephes 4. 13. 5. Independent viz. upon all sublunary things and depend only upon God Psal 73. 25. 6. Anabaptist labour for a rebaptization for thy self and thine with the holy Ghost 7. Antinomian by the works of the Law shall none be justified 8. You may be of the family of love be much in love Rom. 13. 8. 9. A Libertine Rom. 6. 18. the Lord in mercy make thee such 10. A Perfectionist 2 Cor. 7. 1. 11. A Pointer Let all thine actions aim at Christ point at thy sins let thy finger be upon the sore keep to sound points and doctrines let them be founded upon Scripture for if the points you hold be not tagged with Scripture authority they will ravel out 12. An Antitrinitarian adore not the worlds trinity of profit pleasure and preferment 13. A Separatist viz. from sin 2 Cor. 6. 17. 14. A Seeker Isa 55. 6. 15. A Shaker or Quaker Hab. 3. 16. Psal 119. 120. Tremble at the thought of God's justice and power 16. An high Attainer Phil. 3. 12 14. labour after great things 17. A Ranter hast a mind to curse and swear do it spiritually Neh. 10. 29. Psal 119. 106. or to be drunk be so spiritually Psal 36. 8. the word signifies they shall be drunk with the fatness c. Ephes 5. 18. 2. Answ The more and the greater diversity of opinions and ways there are the more cautelous and careful thou oughtest to be to look after the right establishment of thy soul with grace Therefore notwithstanding look after effectual calling and as John 7. 37. on the last day of the feast our Saviour cried more earnestly so do I the more press this upon you this being the last day of speaking to this subject One of the Chamberlains of the King of Persia used to say to him every morning as he entred into his chamber Arise my Lord and have regard to those affairs for which the great God would have you to provide So say I to you Bestir you for the work of effectual calling for this is the will of God even your sanctification Oh let me prevail with you in the name of Christ it may be the last that I shall propound and the last that you shall hear What should you look after if not spiritual life what should you seek if not sanctity care for if not calling I shall back this use and so conclude all with these three things 1. Means 2. Manner 3. Motive Means The means I propound shall be by way of 1. Counsel 2. Caution 1. Counsel Make constant and conscionable S. 16 use of the ordinances of God reading hearing prayer meditation conference Read the Scriptures and good books dayly hear
Oh that this bread of life were mine How fit were these things for me and how suitable to my condition 7. Application The next Step that the Soul S. 8 takes as led by the hand of the Spirit is to the bosome of Jesus Christ It casteth it self by relying Faith upon the Son of God Now doth the Soul conclude like the Leprous Men in 2 Kings c. 7. begin that if it stand upon it's own bottom it must needs perish it 's destruction then is without the least uncertainty If it go to Christ it is sure it cannot hinder it self it may further it's self and therefore resolutely throwes it self at his door grasps him hangs about him and will not let him go and saith with Job Job 13. 15. Though he slay me yet will I trust in him And with the Woman of Canaan will not be beaten off from him Now the Soul goeth to the Horns of the Altar and there will it hold It runs to Christ makes him it 's Asylum it 's strong Tower of safety and Christi vulnera civitates refugii takes Sanctuary in his Wounds which are it's Cities of refuge to keep it from the fury of the Law It hath been hunted and worried and now runneth to this burrow for shelter It saith to Christ as Ruth to her Mother in Law Ruth 1. 16 17. Intreat me not to leave thee for whither thou goest O Jesus I will go where thou lodgest I will lodge thy God shall be my God yea and nothing no not death it self shall part thee and me Here it leans and stayes it self even upon the merits righteousnesse perfect obedience sufferings death Resurrection of an Almighty and most gracious Saviour and Redeemer And this is the first direct Act of Faith and that which is true justifying and saving Faith And this proceeds from the Work of God upon the Soul in the Implantation of grace whereof we spake before 8. Humiliation The next degree I conceive S. 9 is a mourning frame of Spirit differing from that which we called the fourth Step to wit Lamentation for that was legal but there is a Gospel repentance and sorrow which is the Fruit and Companion of Faith which though it may eye wrath and misery yet not those alone but now mourneth from Faith from a sight of Christ and I also conceive yet with submission to better Judgements for I desire to remember the Apostles Rule 1 Corinth 14. 32. The Spirits of the Prophets are subject to the Prophets I say I conceive that this Gospel repentance hath two parts or degrees The first being the concomitant of the first and direct Act of Fath viz. Faith of adherence of which we spake in the last head and the second of the second and reflex Act of Faith viz. the Faith of evidence Ames lib. 1. Med. 26. cap. 31. Thes before it mourned and repented from sence and that did precede justifying Faith now from Faith and this follows justifying Faith Now the Soul ingenuously comes to the knee of Christ cryeth Peccavi and makes it's moan and this repentance is very pleasing to the Lord. Ps 51. 17. A broken Heart thou wilt not despise This is that Godly sorrow which the Apostle speaketh of 2 Cor. 7. 10. This sorrow divideth between the Heart and it's sin That now a Man or Woman give up themselves to God in Holy engagements which though it go along with repentance and be part of it yet for distinction sake we will look upon it by it self and it shall make the ninth Step. 9. Resolution Now it giveth up it self in S. 10 Soul and Body to the Lord The Head and Heart as Commanders being wrought upon all the rest Faculties and parts as common Souldiers will follow it saith now as David Psal 119. 106. I have sworn and I will performe it that I wil keep thy righteous Judgments Friends and dear Relations if ever the Lord bring your Hearts to this which I earnestly desire and long for you will then enter into a solemn covenant with the Lord against your sins and wickednesse you will lie low at the feet of God and say with Saul Act. 9. 6. Lord what 1 Kings 20. 7. wilt thou have me to do You will deny God nothing now as he said in another case neither Wife nor Husband nor Children nor gold nor Silver all that is dear to you shall be parted with for his sake You will now no longer make provision for the Flesh to fulfil the lusts thereof Now Holy purposes and resolutions do abound in the Soul It saith to the Lord as Justine to Tiberius Si tu vis ego volo si non vis nolo So saith the Soul Lord I am thy Clay and thy Wax I have been hitherto stiffe-necked stubborn disobedient but now do with me what thou wilt I desire purpose through thy grace to be wholy at thy Command and dispose Now through the grace of Jesus Christ it shall not be with me as it hath been but I will set my self against every known evil and way of sin I will be most careful to please and most fearful to displease for this sorrow worketh carefulnesse Now I desire to yeeld my members Servants to Righteousnesse 1 Cor. 7. 11. Rom. 6. 19. unto Holinesse Upon all the roomes I mean Powers of the Soul and upon all the parts of the Body there is written For God for 1 Cor. 6. 19 20. Christ for Grace I will not be mine own saith the Soul but God shall be mine owner O precious workings O blessed resolutions Say and hold the Lord helpe thee to hold what thou sayest 10. Manifestation In the next place God S. 11 let 's the Soul read so far in it's evidence that it can apprehend its sins are Pardoned and sheweth so much of his Face that it perceives a Fathers countenance and hath some guesse at the thoughts of his Heart The Dove-like Spirit brings an Olive Branch of Peace in it's Mouth and perswades the Soul of Gods favour Isai 40. 1 2. Comfort ye comfort ye my people saith your God speak ye comfortably to Jerusalem and cry unto her that her warfare is accomplished that her Iniquity is pardoned Now it hears a sweet warbling melodious voice from Mount Gerizim the Mount of blessing saying Blessed are the Poor in Spirit for theirs is the Kingdom of Heaven Blessed are they that mourn for Mat. 5. 3 4 6. they shall be comforted Blessed are they which hunger and thirst after Righteousnesse for they shall be filled This gentle aire sweetly fans and cooles the Soul Now Christ hath bidden the winds and waves be still there is a sweet calme Now frownes are turned into smiles a funeral day into a festival The Soul can with comfort say as Hezekiah did Isai 38. 17. For Peace I had great bitternesse but thou hast in Love to my Soul delivered it from the pit of corruption for thou hast cast all my
that have got up to the top of holinesse the most are below in the valley of folly and vanity There are many that are the people of God who yet have no part in God Those that are effectually called are but a few as a remnant left of the whole piece as a garden plot in comparison of the whole world In all ages they have been but few that have received the spirit to the renewing of their hearts The garland of grace is not set upon the head of every one It is a rare thing to be gracions and they are rare persons that are so The heavenly seed though it be sown thick yet it comes up but thin we must beat many trees to gather a bushel of such fruit and search many Towns to find a little company that truly fear the name of the Lord. Where we conceive things to be of a more common and universal nature we are easily induced to think we have or soon may have a right and propriety in them but where we think they are singular and seldome it is more difficult to raise such conclusions and renders us more diligent in the constant prosecution of them Did you know how few were called you would fear that your self were not one of that number Did you know there were but a few that did attain to grace you would hardly contain your self but would be jealous that you were not within the ring If you did but Perpauci perducuntur ad regâ—um coeleste know the paucity of the sanctified and saved it would make you more look after the purifying of yoursoul If this truth were but fastened upon your spirit it would make you more to follow after this work Did you know how few are clad in white and that none but such are cloathed with scarlet it would make you willing to put off the black weeds of nature and to put on the shining raiment of grace If you knew that but few were good it would make you more unwilling to be bad If you knew that most were sinners it would make you more desirous to be a Saint Til you know that most are excluded you will never be careful that your self be included Till you throughly weigh that most are gracelesse you will never heartily wish that your self be made gracious the Scripture speaks of but a few a remnant a tithe be you therefore suspicious of your self 2. False suppositions This is a second cause S. 21 of peoples not looking after grace and their not obeying the call of God Falsely to suppose is a sore evill it is the bond of iniquity and the bane of felicity Those that are infatuated by false suppositions must needs be intricated in fearfull confusion and this false supposition is of two things 1. Of their condition People suppose themselves S. 22 that which they are not and therefore oppose themselves to that which they should be They take themselves to be good and Multi ad sapientiam pervenissent nisi se pervenisse putassent Cic. hence it is they obey not God it is because people have so strong fancies that they have so weak faith Those that dream that all is well will never desire a remedy for all ill They that think they are sufficient schollers in Christs school will shut up their book and away to play High conceits of present attainments are great obstructers to future atchievements Those that are whole though but in their own thoughts will never care for the Physitians druggs men think it lost labour to bestow so much as a wish upon that which they think they have already This hath staved off many an one from Christ this snare hath entangled many an one that they could not goe a step further yet this is the course of the world and most are delighted to be carried with this smooth stream They love guilded shadows better then they love golden substances There are too many that make themselves rich when yet they have nothing Thus it was with the Laodiceans Prov. 13. 7. they fancied worth but feared not want they dreamt of plenty but thought not Revel 3. 17 18. Rev. 18. 7. of their poverty Many say with Babylon I sit a Queen and am no widow and shall see no sorrow Many think they are spirituall Queens espoused to Christ the Lord of Lords and King of Kings and so shall never be invaded by sorrow when as they are desolate widows and have the greatest cause of mourning that may be So the proud Pharisees could not endure to think that they were otherwise then they should be which made them say scornfully Are we blind also If people be but turned Joh. 9. 40. from prophane courses to some more civil carriages they think it is enough and are ready to christen it and give it the name of true piety With some every spark is a Starre and every Goose a Swan and if ever they mount from the bottom to the middle they presently take the middle for the top This is one of the devils master-pieces to lull soules asleep and then to work upon their sancies that they may dream of health when there is nothing but sickness of a garden of flowers when there is nothing but a wilderness of weeds and then he doth not much fear parting with his prey When the wine is in the wit is out we say and those that are conquered thereby are ready to have high conceits of themselves whence 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 wine some would have the words to be a kin so 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 ween when souls are intoxicated with the Wine of Satans delusions they are ready to magnifie themselves in their own conceptions and such as are secure are seldom carefull to provide for their safety This sweet poyson hath been swallowed down too hastily by many These are the willing easie chains whereby many are captives to sin and Satan These are the lock and key of hell gate of the dungeon door Oh! dear friends if you think your condition good when it is not you are in the high way to destruction you have wind and tide and oare to speed your voyage to the lake that burneth with fire and brimstone You get up upon the devils back and post it along through the valley of the shadow of death The Angel of the covenant come though it be with a drawn sword in his hand and stay your course stop you in your full career Doe not blind your eyes with false conceits because you would not see the worst of your Non nocet sensus ubi deest consensus selfe A sense of sin will doe you no hurt if you doe not consent though it be painfull yet it will be profitable the other though sweet for the present yet will be soure afterwards these honey conceits will leave you in the gall of bitterness whilst you think you are good you will never while the world stands